I somehow failed to unlock Yuffie during my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII, having made the fatal mistake of saving before speaking with her and getting my god damned gil stolen. About as successful as any Shin Megami Tensei recruitment attempt, frankly. At the time, I didn't even realize Yuffie and Vincent were optional characters; I was aware of them and just assumed you unlocked them as part of the story. Oh well, she stole my money, but I'm sure she'll be back around, and then we'll go on all kinds of crazy adventures together...

Naturally, I did a more complete playthrough of Final Fantasy VII sometime after my disastrous first run, and being as Yuffie is optional, I found she doesn't really have much agency over the story. Sure, there's plenty of interesting side content involving her and Vincent which helps build the world of FFVII and provide additional context for some of the game's larger narrative beats, but besides puking all over the Highwind and raining even more puke down onto unsuspecting citizens while skydiving into Midgar, she isn't given much to do.

So, at face value, Episode Intermission attempting to weave Yuffie into the core narrative of Remake is welcome, and I feel like there's far more character building and actual growth bottled up in its short 4-to-5 hour run than the entirety of the original game. There's still two more parts to the remake series, too! Yuffie fans are eating good (note: Yuffie fans are shattering their teeth on rock hard nuts, they are maniacs, and you should not trust them or accept any gifts from them)!

Intermission takes place roughly halfway through Remake, with Yuffie and her partner Sonon infiltrating Midgar to steal experimental materia from Shinra with the help of Avalanche. It's a little ironic that Avalanche's splinter cell is accused of working with Wutai operatives when the core branch of Avalanche was doing that all along, and throughout Yuffie's time in Midgar, she and Sonon both wonder if the more extreme sect ought to be who they partner up with. Also, there's a bunch of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII shit in here, and I can barely parse any of it from content exclusive to the Remake continuity. I will never play Dirge of Cerberus or read On the Way to a Smile, that is TOO MUCH FINAL FANTASY VII!

Yuffie's playstyle is a hybrid of close quarters and ranged combat and I like it quite a bit, though I never did get the hang of her parry timing or dodge ability. Not that they're necessary, but I feel like there's a skill ceiling there I never could reach. Being able to change the affinity of your basic attacks without the use of elemental materia is overly generous if it carries over into Rebirth but considering she's the only playable character in Intermission, it becomes an invaluable addition to her kit. Mug also compensates for a lackluster assortment of stealable items by applying a large amount of stagger at little cost.

It's a shame Sonon is not playable as I'm a sucker for any character that uses polearms, but hey, Cid is in Rebirth and I kinda get why they didn't want to overcomplicate the DLC. Dungeons, likewise, are pretty simplistic and don't have a whole lot going on, but good combat, great bosses, and an enjoyable story more than make up for how dry they are.

The true stand out feature of Intermission, however, is Fort Condor. Finally, the return of the persistent collectable mini-game to Final Fantasy. Much like the Fort Condor game in the original, it's a mini RTS/tower defense game, only it functions a whole hell of a lot better here and gives you a little something extra to work towards. Once you hit Shinra HQ, you're pretty much locked in until the credits roll, so most of my time with this was bottled up in the opening hour of the game, but I really hope it shows back up in Rebirth. I'm a huge slut for Tetra Master and I can see myself getting deep into this, too.

Now's a good time to jump into Intermission if you haven't already. It's worth the asking price and certainly seems like it will be required reading for Rebirth, and if you pick it up now you'll still have enough time to Google "what the hell is up with Nero?" before that game releases.

This is not a comprehensive review or even a really interesting one, just some of my thoughts after what is surprisingly my third play through (I like this game more every time I play it wtf)

—A scathing commentary on a rapidly changing capitalist America, red dead redemption 2 seems determined to push the studio’s themes of corruption, greed, hypocrisy, racism, sexism, class struggle and disparity, and much, MUCH more. this is rockstar’s best game, and honestly it isn’t even close. Well maybe it’s a little close; San Andreas hits the mark more often than not, and GTA V rarely but surely has some moments of wisdom, albeit buried under a sea of college frat boy humour. Now I don’t think red dead 2 is by any means the greatest piece of political non fiction or whatever, but it definitely is the natural progression of rockstar’s story telling, and most certainly their crowning achievement. Also the soundtrack is amaaaazing. Seriously guys you’re making everyone else look bad lol.


—There’s a mission that unlocks at the beginning of chapter 3, where going into Rhodes leads you to an old war veteran half asleep on a bench with a bottle in hand. He asks you to get some stuff from his house, a house that is no longer his, and so you do just that.
Entering the decrepit place triggers some moody soft music, music that only gets more layered the more you advance through. You can find many photographs and letters, all of which are voiced over, something that is surprisingly pretty rare. The letters tell of family disputes, homes being taken away, and you can’t help but feel bad for this guy, who’s had everything taken away from him, and in a desperate moment asks YOU to reclaim some of his treasured belongings. after encountering some crazy people who’ve claimed the house as their own and are carrying one of the items you need, a fight ensues. Progressing past this part leads you to the final area in the house.

The cellar is where the music reaches its peak, and though it never gets loud (thankfully) the synths really help accentuate the horror of this moment: the man you’ve felt empathy for, the man you’ve helped reclaim valued possessions, the man whose life story sparks nothing but empathy within you, was nothing but a slave owner. Chains upon chains litter the cellar, Arthur groans as he reads through the slave ledger, and everything you’ve learned in this mission has been immediately flipped around on you, tainted by horrific acts of pure hatred and evil. When you go back to him the man mumbles something along the lines of “they took everything from me, I was a working man”. Arthur throws his stuff in the fire, and watches as the man breaks down into tears, and the mission only ends when you leave the area, or kill him.
Killing him raises your honour.

If I had one thought after playing this mission, it was that everything was so intricately designed, from the music to the voice overs, to the environments of the house and the revelation of the cellar. It’s honestly hard to put into words what red dead 2 gets so right, but I’d say a faithfulness to capturing a specific moment in history has led to some of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. I very much appreciate rockstar’s determination to the critique of America in every game, with gta being the over the top satire, and red dead 2 being the more thoughtful and mature contemplative commentary. And the
soundtrack is fucking awesome.


—I think the portrayal of colonel Monroe as the white saviour who is part of the U.S. army (an army hell bent on driving the native Americans out of their own country, through murder, deceit, and every other crime you can think of) comes off a little misguided. It seems more like the writers wanted to portray this cataclysmic event with more nuance, with perhaps an insistance that things “weren’t so black and white”. Yes, they were, and it’s telling of how great I think this game is, that I still hesitate to criticize this part of the game too heavily, because on one hand it does tackle these issues with much more sensibility than you’d expect. Sometimes it feels less like they’re saying “well SOME cops were really nice see??” And more like they’re trying to use Mr. Monroe as a way of feeding into Rains Fall’s anti-violence agenda.

As for Rains Fall’s character, I think he’s very well written, and the father son dynamic he has with Eagle Flies is genuinely one of the game’s greatest parts. Still, this section rubs me the wrong way, perhaps only because I see so much potential that’s been wasted, seemingly for the sake of providing more depth and nuance to some of the worst shit this god awful country is responsible of. But hey, this mission with Mr. Monroe ends with him resigning his position as an officer of the law, so it’s possible I’m being a little nit picky with a game that is so strongly opposed to every single philosophy ingrained in a cesspool of corruption, greed, and hypocrisy that is the United States of America. Sometimes I have conflicting feelings about the way this game deals with very serious topics, but then Arthur talks to sister Calderon and everything is alright. Also the soundtrack is killer.

—in terms of technical details; performances, sound design, foliage, textures, lighting…the list of things red dead 2 gets right is a long one, with few blemishes here and there, mainly with regard to shadows and reflections, which while most of the time are genuinely impressive, sometimes flicker and bug out more than you’d like.

—did I mention that the soundtrack is phenomenal?

Finally played the most popular FF game and it certainly deserves all the praise.
I was hooked from start to finish with only some frictions here and there.

I was kinda disappointed with the gameplay after FFVI. While each character in VI had a unique fighting style, like the Blitz with its combo-like attacks and the Bushido techniques, the gameplay here is just more or less standard Final Fantasy.
The Materia system is certainly more flexible than the Magicite, and it allowed for ease of swapping out party members without the loss of your most used magic (although I was always spending 10 minutes trying to optimize what Materia to equip to each character)

I also liked the many minigames they added and the gameplay sections that differed from JRPG gameplay, like the motorcycle chase and the Snowboard. While some parts of those lacked polish (which is understandable for an early PS title) it added to the charm of the game.

The story was amazing and had some nice twists and turns, though I was spoiled a couple of plot points (you know which), those moments didn't lose their impact.

The dungeons were kinda disappointing, being mostly going from point A to point B, with branching paths every once in a while. There was a couple of dungeons that were pretty cool actually, like the Temple of the Ancients and the last dungeon, but other than those two, the rest are just forgettable.

The boss fights were all great and I didn't have much issue with any of them, and they all had pretty cool designs, especially nearing the end of Part 2.
The final boss has to be the most stressed I've ever been while playing a video game.

Definitely glad I've played this game and it is certainly a must-play.

An amazing first game for Yagami. You can tell how much better RGG Studios have become in their writing because not once was there some twist that felt like it was either extremely stupid or undermined the plot of the game.
The mystery was compelling to the end, and seeing it unravel as it did was very satisfying. The combat was also fun for the most part.
But the game is not without issues. A lot of these are nitpicks, like the wound system just not having a reason to be there (you'll have health packs whenever it comes up, or the attack will be easy to avoid/just kill you outright). Or how the light attacks in rush combos don't have a clear endpoint to me because most light attacks have multiple hits to them, or how the wall jumping system is janky and will sometimes just go away from all the enemies, or how boss fights towards the end of the game just boil down to spamming Tiger Drop.
I did not like the trailing missions in this game, trailing missions are just never fun in my opinion. And I'm disappointed by how much they dumbed down the chase system from how engaging it was in Yakuza 5 to how it is here, where it is essentially a long set of quick time events.
The side content was great for the most part, but the Keihin gang invasions quickly wore out their welcome, and the drone races were boring, especially with how easy they were.
Final verdict: Yagami is just like Sakata Gintoki.