Star Fox: Assault has to be one of the most criminally underrated Nintendo games. Now I’m not saying that this is some hidden masterpiece to rival the all time greats. It definitely isn’t. But let me explain

I love Star Fox but it’s an interesting case of a series while good, never really goes anywhere. The series rarely evolved with each entry, rather choosing to continuously keep things familiar to its origins. This is with the exception of Star Fox Adventures which hardly counts due to the nature of its development (Was developed as a completely different game/new IP before being reworked into a Star Fox game). This kinda led many to share the sentiment that the franchise feels stale, has no idea where to go, etc. Star Fox: Assault seems to be absent from most of these conversations. Between people singing the praises of Star Fox 64, arguing about the strange existence of Star Fox Adventures, or saying how disappointed they were by Star Fox Zero, nobody really ever leaves room to talk about Assault…and that absolutely shocks me. Star Fox: Assault feels like the biggest and last step the series made to actually take itself somewhere, taking the formula and trying to evolve it over repeating itself. This feels like the proper sequel to Star Fox 64 rather than another loose imitation. Frankly, it feels like the final Star Fox game even though it wasn’t since what little came afterwards just went right back to basics.

Star Fox: Assault still contains the same great on rails space piloting and shooting gameplay you’ll certainly be familiar with by now. These segments are as good as ever, delivering on twice the spectacle thanks to the GameCube’s visual capabilities as well as the game’s excellent orchestral soundtrack. This is not the entire game, however. Alongside missions with the classic Arwing gameplay, Assault introduces ground missions. Now…depending on how much you get along with the controls will decide whether these missions are a make or break deal for you, considering they take up half the game. There are a few control options and while it doesn’t take long to get used to them, none of them particularly change the core issues. They’re still generally a bit clunky. The sensitivity is cranked up to 100 and everything just feels very slippery. I highly recommend the dual sticks control option which will give you the smoothest possible experience. I think the ground controls alone are enough to drop my rating from a 4 out of 5 to a 3.5, but…eeeeeeeeh. I love this game too much. While this is still A review and I like to be critically honest and fair, it’s still MY review and thus I don’t like to totally downplay or dismiss my personal feelings either.

All that being said, I do still enjoy these missions quite a bit actually. I think once you get a feel for the controls as best as you can, there’s plenty of fun to be had here. It’s really cool to run around and blast your way through enemies as Fox with a small handful of weapons at your disposal. Sometimes you have access to the Landmaster to ram through enemies on the ground with a tank or even your Arwing to seamlessly take the battle back up to the skies. Some missions even have you take up arms while standing on the side of a flying ship. 3rd person shooter segments feel surprisingly appropriate in a Star Fox game, especially when it’s integrated so seamlessly with the other classic play styles. While the controls could’ve absolutely used more polish, I love the variety that these ground missions add to Star Fox’s gameplay loop and they feel perfectly in line with the kind of series Star Fox is. I love how pretty much all missions maintain the feeling of a large scale space battle. The ground is highly populated with enemies to blast away whilst your allies cover an ongoing battle in the skies, and as mentioned before sometimes you can even hop back into your Arwing to assist them as the gameplay seamlessly transitions into SF64’s All-Range Mode. Honestly, even if you don’t enjoy these segments it’s hard to say they’re offensive. They still contain shooting, vehicle action and they typically don’t last very long at all. Nor do they take up the entire game. The classic Star Fox 64-type missions are still here to balance it out and they’re as quality as ever.

The only other thing to talk about really is the presentation and other miscellaneous things which I briefly touched upon earlier. This game looks fantastic. GameCube era visuals have continued to age pretty gracefully and Star Fox: Assault is no exception. The jump from Star Fox 64’s very simplistic, sometimes empty environments to Star Fox: Assault’s colorful, highly detailed, and populated environments is absolutely gigantic. Even other visual elements like UI and character design. I love the UI aesthetic and I’ve always enjoyed the pretty unique GameCube era designs of the cast. Everything is enhanced by the game’s truly spectacular soundtrack. Like, I’m serious. This game has a full blown orchestral soundtrack and it’s incredible. Truly makes the game feel like a space epic. Also just like Star Fox 64, the game still contains fully voice acted banter between the game’s cast during its missions. While not quite as quotable as 64, this dialogue still brings out the memorable personalities of the characters. Combined with some of the cutscenes and mission briefings, it’s actually pretty great how well the Star Fox series is able to showcase so much personality in such a short run time. Yes, this game is very short as is the case for most of the series. You can finish the main story in 2-3 hours. The story itself is nothing special but I do love the character moments it provides.

Don’t know where else to put this in the review so here’s this brief note- It’s been a hot minute since I’ve actually gotten to play the game’s multiplayer but it’s quite fun and one of the most remembered aspects of the game. Star Fox multiplayer is always a blast. Didn’t want to go by without mentioning it.

In the end, I think it’s a shame Star Fox: Assault as a whole has pretty much been all but forgotten. After the release of the DS’ Star Fox Command only a year later, the series went quiet without an entirely new mainline entry for 10 years with only a 3DS remake of Star Fox 64 in between. Star Fox Zero marked an anticlimactic return in 2016 as another reboot and becoming one of if not the series’ most hated entry. At least as of the time I’m writing this, Star Fox has been absent once again for almost another decade. You know what’s frustrating though? That they literally just had it. Star Fox: Assault was the one. It paved a great direction for sequels to follow…sequels that unfortunately never came. Nintendo has been vocally reluctant on pursuing some games because they don’t want to make anything that doesn’t offer a fresh idea. As I’d explained at the beginning, Star Fox as a series was often criticized for growing stale. So it kinda baffles me that when Assault actually helped bring the series forward…that’s where they quit? And when the series came back a decade later it was just…back to basics again? Make it make sense. Star Fox has unfortunately become a dying name in the eyes of the public and what little of it is still discussed is often spent on people’s strong opinions on other entries. But…I don’t want Star Fox: Assault to be forgotten. We don’t talk about it enough. It’s one of the couple Star Fox entries that really put its foot down in finding its place in a series that struggled to find one. A proper follow up and evolution to its predecessors. Not a repeat. A game like Star Fox: Assault is the game the series needed, but Nintendo didn’t realize that and probably never will.

Sonic Forces is bare minimum the video game. It has just enough polish to be playable but absolutely nothing beyond that to be anything other than one of the most ordinary experiences you will ever have. It doesn’t actively go out of its way to do much I would consider the absolute worst of the worst, but it never once tries to be anything good which in turn just creates a special blend of bad. I hate beating games to the ground, but it’s genuinely shocking how unremarkable Sonic Forces is. It’s like taking the blueprint of something and submitting the blueprint as the finished product before any construction was done.

Honestly, I’d barely consider it a game at all. Most stages are able to be completed in barely over a minute and require little to no input from the player. This is the one game people actually have a case for when they call Sonic a hold stick and occasionally press button to win simulator. Forces plays itself for you. The level design offers no incentive for your input. It largely consists of singular, unbroken straight lines with little to no obstacles. And the occasional times it does require your input? The characters control so frustratingly bad. They jump like they have 100 pound weights tied to their shoes. It takes them ages to turn around if at all. Running feels stiff, especially for Classic Sonic who feels like he’s always running against a wind current. Nothing about the control scheme or physics feel good at all. Overall I can only describe it as feeling like an extremely watered down Sonic Generations which frankly can be said about the entire game.

The story is absolutely miserable. On paper, a Sonic story about a resistance trying to take back an already conquered world sounds really cool. Unfortunately this game is barely over two hours long if even, and has Sonic’s 2010’s writing. So what you get instead is trailer bait and plot points that are resolved in the same breath they are revealed. I’m not even kidding. Cutscenes are typically only 30 seconds to a minute long and most major plot points are resolved in just those 30 seconds with no extra room to breathe for any additional dialogue. The pacing is WILD. Characters are lacking all the substance they used to have and only speak in cliche one liners. Its level of depth is only comparable to a basic plot synopsis you’d find on the back of a game’s box.

The only positives I can say is that…visually it looks solid? Like, really. I’m actually pretty disappointed such cool and colorful locations were wasted on this nothing of a game. The soundtrack has a small handful of decent songs…? It’s actually a shockingly mediocre soundtrack for a Sonic game.

…and that’s really it. Even in some of the worst games, I at least try and give credit to clear ideas, care, and passion even if they don’t always work out. There’s plenty of not so great games that still showcase a level of effort. Unfortunately…I cannot give that credit to Sonic Forces. This is still one of the laziest, effortless, passionless games I’ve ever played. The game’s existence feels like it was only designed to meet a release quota. Its best achievement is that it’s playable…and even then, if it’s so uninteresting why should anyone want to play it? Sonic Forces is the culmination of everything that was wrong with Sonic during that time. So much so that the series has since steered into an entirely new direction. Hopefully we never see another Sonic game as unremarkable as this ever again.

I’ve been sitting on making this review for a long time. I wanted to give it enough time to not be written by recency bias. So here we go-

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth feels difficult to review because…there’s not really much else that feels like it for better or worse. A sequel to a remake that was only the first slice of the game it was remaking. As well as not just an entirely different genre from the original, but even a pretty dramatic new direction from its predecessor alone. All on top of telling an ambitious story that tries to balance a remake with a new meta narrative at the backdrop. This game is…big. Overwhelmingly so at times. It’s difficult to compose my feelings.

As the 4 and a half star rating may spoil you, I like this game. Heck, I love it. I don’t love everything about this game though. There’s some stuff I actively dislike…yet there’s so so so much I love too. If you think this is going to be a mindless glazing session, then I urge you to read the rest of what I have to say. I’m not going to pretend this is a perfect absolutely flawless game. It’s not. Just because I rate the game this high does not mean I am blind to some of its critical flaws or never developed things I disliked about it of my own. I will be very honest and critical in this review. Hear me out. But if you’re expecting some essay to fuel your own hatred for the game because you watched a video essay on YouTube designed to specifically show the game at its worst moments, you aren’t going to find that here either. I think there’s healthy discussion to be had about what the game does right and wrong and not immediately let one side dominate the other just because one moment you really loved or the other you really hated.

I’ll start with something I think people would agree on the most. Rebirth’s presentation is absolutely stunning, and I mean that in a lot of ways. The set pieces, the music, the cutscene direction, just wow. I think a lot of the reason some other AAA games feel so boring is that they just have this stiff, artificial vibe to them. There’s a lot that goes into making them look pretty but rarely as much anything that makes them feel pretty. Rebirth never feels like it has this problem. The incredibly dynamic camera and very animated movements during cutscenes make them feel so alive. Extremely creative, inspired shots are frequent. Like seriously, I think this has some of the most inspired cutscene direction of any game I’ve played in the last few years. There is never a dull looking moment. All enhanced by the very grand soundtrack. There’s many times where the music and its classic motifs are timed with moments in the cutscenes as well as new songs that remix older songs into them. I absolutely adore this. That kind of extra work really boosts the production value of the game. Also as mentioned, the set pieces are stunning. Classic locations have been recreated beautifully. It’s stunning how they’ve transitioned these places from their pre rendered backgrounds to fully explorable environments. The Remake series so far has done a really great job at having these larger than life locations finally be fully realized. The amount of detail packed into these places just makes me speechless sometimes. A lot of this just kinda goes without saying since Final Fantasy is known to deliver on the spectacle, but they still managed to outdo themselves here. It’s a constant feast to the eyes and ears.

But what about the world? Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s immediate big draw compared to Remake is that it has a fully explorable open world as opposed to the linear design of Remake’s Midgar. A modern evolution of the OG FF7 opening up to its world map at this point in the story. The open world is…a mixed bag, although I found myself enjoying it enough. Despite all the evolutions we’ve had in open world gaming, Rebirth’s world design feels a bit archaic compared to its peers. That’s not to say it’s bad by any means though it is to say that there’s an occasional clunkiness to it and a lack of super engaging side content other than your usual open world 101. It’s nothing special, but I also find it pretty inoffensive. The game’s approach to side content is a high number of quick content rather than few but high commitment content. Not that it makes any of the side content any more remarkable, but the fact they usually take no more than a couple minutes at a time still incentivizes me to do them. Sure maybe I don’t think what the open world has to offer is excellent game design, but it was enough to have me keep playing and enjoy my progression. So I still say it does its job even if never excelling in it. The sheer variety and quantity offered in this side content just helps it to feel fresh and addictive. I’m not ashamed to say I was having fun. Also a big thing is just…an open world of this scale in a Final Fantasy game just feels fun. I like running around these beautiful landscapes with these characters, getting to hear their banter, and especially getting into seamless combat encounters with the game’s combat system. It just feels grand and beautiful, and getting to see a fully realized version of FF7’s world is breathtaking. I still would’ve appreciated if they got a little more inspired with the possibilities in the world as opposed to well…frankly the bare minimum, but it’s enjoyable enough and very far from the weakest one I’ve seen. It’s probably right in the middle, but the sheer quantity of things you can do helps it to feel slightly above average. That’s from a more critical lens though because as I had just mentioned, I think even at the bare minimum getting to have this large, beautiful sandbox to run around in a Final Fantasy game is just so enjoyable to me. I think what’s extremely important to emphasize though is that you still can play the game in a largely linear fashion. If you’re dreading the idea of having an open world you don’t want to engage with eating up all your time…well, you don’t really have to engage with it at all. The story still takes up Remake’s chapter structure, meaning the story is still 99% confined to linear set pieces and will have you going from point A to point B. That may be another reason why I don’t particularly mind some of the unremarkable open world content since close to none of it actually interrupts the main game. I think it’s great that you pretty much get a choice on how you would like to play.

There’s not too much I can say about combat, given its obviously following Remake’s combat which I’ve already talked about. I was already a big fan of Remake’s approach to combat, albeit with some minor complaints. I love the blend of action and RPG elements. The fast paced and quick switching nature of the action combat while having a series of more strategic commands you can choose from whilst time slows felt like a match made in heaven for an action RPG, at least in my opinion. Rebirth doubles down on this gameplay and polishes out some of the critiques I had whilst adding additional mechanics that add an even deeper layer to the flow of combat. There’s been notable tweaks to enemy behavior as well as the speed your characters move and execute attacks. Rebirth’s combat speed is faster than Remake’s. This helps characters feel way more versatile without too much heaviness slowing them down but not feeling overly floaty either. The most notable addition to the combat is synergy attacks. These are team up abilities that can range from small defensive abilities and quick attacks, all the way to these powerful limit break-type attacks that grant a special status effect. This encourages you to interact with your party even more during battle. With that and all the smaller tweaks they made, I didn’t know how much they could improve Remake’s combat until they did. The new playable characters in this game also feature their own extremely unique and fun play styles. Combat is just…such a blast in this game. Aside from a couple bosses I didn’t really enjoy, there was rarely a time I wasn’t locked in during fights. Probably one of my personal favorite combat systems in a game. It hits all the right notes, and that’s pretty important for a game where combat will be a large chunk of the experience.

Now…the big point of contention: the story. Remake made the bold subversion of expectations to not do a traditional remake and instead do a sort of meta remake that acknowledges its own existence of having already happened. This is largely what separates those who love Remake and those who hate it. The same case can be said for Rebirth, however I feel the case is…slightly different this time. Now I would consider myself indifferent towards the plot direction of Remake. It’s not what I wanted, sure…yet I was still very intrigued. It was an ambitious choice I didn’t expect and although it’s not what I would have asked for, I firmly believed that there was potential for an interesting story to be told. If the directors, writers had faith in the story they wanted to tell I didn’t really see any reason I should immediately oppose the idea. There’s been plenty of times where things we didn’t think of or ask for turned out to be great, so I figured I should let the ideas ride out before I drew any conclusions. Remake was really but a tease for these ideas, so it was too early to tell. So how did Rebirth follow up these ideas? I’m shocked to say that…they didn’t really follow them up at all? Like, I think it would be generous to say that the new plot elements take up even 5% of the story. It made me realize that they want to tell a new story but are too afraid to stop being a remake. Which at that point…I have to start wondering who the direction of this plot is even for? Like, anyone who was super engaged in the new plot will be disappointed to find that there’s maybe a little over an hour total of new story that only raises more questions instead of answers. And those who wanted a 1:1 remake will still just be upset that the 5% of new plot even exists in the first place. Rebirth is scared to commit to both ideas and in the end, it doesn’t fully commit to either. I hope it all comes together in the third game, but the fact we don’t get any answers until the very end feels…really disappointing and concerns me that the third game may feel very rushed.

But what about the rest of the story? I mean, if 95% of it is still a remake does it still do a good job at being a remake? I’m very thrilled to say mostly yeah! Emphasis on mostly. I feel that most moments have been translated beautifully. The presentation is always firing on all cylinders. The visuals, music, voice acting, really brings this story to life in a new way. It made me on the edge of my seat in a story where I already know everything that happens. I don’t want to get too deep into specifics for the sake of keeping this spoiler free, but things like Sephiroth’s influence over Cloud is one of many things that takes center stage here and thanks to the cutscene direction and voice acting, it’s twice as chilling here in ways that simply were not possible in the OG. This can similarly be said with moments like the Nibelheim story which for the same reasons feels far more of a convincing and haunting tragedy than it already was. I think there’s a ton of positive and negative discussion to be had about changes to classic moments and new moments altogether but when this game is adapting moments exactly as they were in the original, it adapts them excellently. Emphasis on excellent when adapting moments exactly as they were because some moments do have details changed for the worse. I’m not an huge fan, even dislike some of the tweaks they made to some scenes. I don’t think some critical scenes carry the same impact and that’s a shame. Whether this is due to actual changes or poor pacing. I don’t think this happens often…but it definitely stings pretty hard when it does. That being said, there’s also a decent amount of story tweaks that I found to be quite interesting, even beneficial. Some have additions that enhance the scenes, but I guess additions are in a different boat than actual changes. I found that most additions to classic scenes worked while actual outright changes did not. I think story changes here are a gamble. Sometimes they swing and miss, but sometimes they hit and gave me a deeper perspective on some characters and moments. There’s also a decent amount of entirely new scenes that I enjoy. Notably the many new scenes that explore Cloud and Tifa’s dynamic. Even the kind of stuff that involved Roche was pretty cool. But anyway. Honestly, I’m shocked and happy to say that Rebirth keeps so much of the goofier side of FFVII in tact! I feel too many remakes are trying so hard to be melodramatic to compensate for attempts at modernization, but Rebirth is never ashamed to embrace the fun, silly nature of a lot of characters and moments. This helps to keep the world and story feel so alive. Rebirth’s biggest strength in writing is by far its characters. The party feels at their best here. Their deep personalities all shine here in ways that even the OG just couldn’t beat. Rebirth solidifies them as one of the most genuine feeling casts I’ve ever seen, and brings a deeper bond to these classic characters that I and millions of others have resonated with over the years. Rebirth also makes a gigantic effort to give party members stronger bonds with each other as opposed to just their bond with the party as a whole. I loved seeing Red XIII grow a strong bond with Barret and Aerith. I liked seeing Yuffie and Barret tease each other. It’s these smaller moments that were severely lacking in the OG that Rebirth brings in full swing. I have nitpicks with certain scenes being changed in ways that drain some of the impact, but…I think it would be a shame if I let a specific few things I didn’t like completely dominate and overshadow my view on everything else this game does well. It just has so much heart. It was always making me smile, laugh, cry…and I think it’s an achievement if a game can resonate with you like that. And that’s the biggest thing of all. Rebirth resonated with me.

The best thing about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is that through its best and even in its worst moments, its heart never leaves. There was rarely a moment where I did not feel the sheer passion of this project shining through every aspect. No matter how much you and I may not like certain things about the game, I feel it’d be a downright lie to say these people don’t care about Final Fantasy VII. Everything about it is still designed with heart and honestly that’s more than I can say about many other AAA games released as of late. When the story, characters, gameplay, music, etc etc all feel at their best which is pretty often…it brought me a joy I don’t think I felt in a while, and no complaints about the ending or this or that is going to take that away from me. The fun I was having here felt so special. Like, not just any kind of fun. I felt personally moved with how much I enjoyed this game overall. Maybe because the world of FFVII has become something comforting for me over the years…but there’s a reason why that is, and Rebirth often reminds me why I care about this game(s) so much. Some of the open world stuff wasn’t too inspired. So what? I had a blast doing it. There’s story moments I wasn’t a huge fan of, some I even hated. So what? There was so many I loved. This game is just far too big to let certain things really bring my opinion down that much. It may not be a masterclass, but it’s pretty spectacular just how much this game has to offer around every corner all packed with an endless amount of genuine heart. It’s a grand adventure worth your time, and absolutely worth the wait in my eyes. It’s such a genuine drastic leap in scale from Remake that it almost makes Remake feel like a teaser in retrospect. No matter how you or I feel about it stacked against the original…it’s still Final Fantasy VII, and it largely preserves the spirit of why it’s special to me and so many others while providing monumental ambition of its own.

The Walking Dead: Season Two is still honestly one of my favorite video game sequels of all time. The first game was so spectacular that a follow up would be no easy task and depending on who you ask they’ll say it did or didn’t deliver, but I firmly believe it always has. It may not be quite as consistent as its predecessor, but in terms of how to craft a sequel I feel it’s often nothing short of genius…when it works.

Of all the sequels in the series, Season Two feels it most closely aligns with the foundation the first game set up. The narrative very clearly piggybacks off of the lessons and themes of its predecessor and challenges them in ways that recontextualize how you have to adapt to a continuously decaying world. Its ideas mirror the first game in ways that feel thought provoking instead of cheap. It’s used to provide alternative perspectives to some similar scenarios and gets you to realize that the same logic isn’t always going to work for different people, and especially when you are a different person. It shows that there’s more than one side to a coin. Season One and Season Two always felt like two sides of the same coin and I mean that in the best way possible. While they function effectively as individual games, I find that together they become twice as strong once you realize just how intertwined their themes are even in places you might not have expected. It may not always capture the same magic, but its own magic based on why the story resonated with people makes it feel like a worthy follow up.

…that’s all my opinion of course, but I feel that in concept this is pretty much the perfect sequel and it’s execution largely does those ideas justice. The execution is where things get divisive which yeah, I 100% agree that Season Two is far less consistent than the first even if I find these low points to be few and far between. The tension always feels incredibly high. No matter how many times I’ve replayed this game, I find it’s moments to be so effective that it feels like I’m experiencing the game for the first time all over again. I will say I can definitely understand why people would find this to be underwhelming. It’s probably one of the biggest games where I totally see why people may feel negatively towards certain things with its very different approach to pacing and characters compared to the first which became so beloved for those reasons. But for me? Man, I just love it. I absolutely love it. Even if it’s not better than the first overall, the many moments that I felt were on par and even surpassed the first make it my favorite in the series.

Final Fantasy VII needs no introduction. It’s one of the most well known video games ever made. There’s barely much I can say that hasn’t been said by someone already. Still, I’m going to say why I think this game still matters all these years later.

FFVII is the definition of a classic. Sure age may have brought up some of its flaws or it was never really perfect to begin with, yet it still remains something unforgettably enjoyable and distinctly so amongst many games both new and old. There are plenty of games that do what FFVII does but better, however no other game IS Final Fantasy VII. FFVII is one of a kind game. It doesn’t really matter how many things had or will surpass it, because nothing else will feel exactly like it.

Everything, the good and even not so good just comes together here. The characters, story, settings, and music have all become worldwide icons and for good reason. Even things like the low polygon models, pre rendered backgrounds, animations, and sound effects. It feels like if even one thing was changed it would not have the same impact. There’s just a vibe here that is created through the combination of every single one of these things and could not be replicated otherwise. It all culminates into something uniquely profound. Evoking feelings of not just an amazing game, but a delicate work of art. Even in its weaker moments, you always know this was a project of pure love and passion.

Things are not only great because they are classics, however. They still need to hold up with their own merits, which Final Fantasy VII absolutely does. As I’d mentioned before, this game has incredibly strong story, world, and cast of characters just to name a few things. FFVII’s story sends a great message, strung together by a ton of mysteries that all have fantastic payoff. It can get so creative that I often find myself wondering how they were even able to think of some of this stuff. It makes replaying the game a treat every time as it recontextualizes the hints you’re been dropped throughout your journey. It’s incredible how some of these scenes are put together thanks to the cinematic direction and especially Nobuo Uematsu’s legendary soundtrack. Even with the limited technology at the time, many of these scenes were a level of tense and atmospheric above the rest. The soundtrack still speaks hundreds of words with only sound and the pre rendered backgrounds honestly still look beautiful.

No story would feel complete without its characters though, and FFVII has a truly memorable cast. This game has one of the most recognizable video game casts from their designs alone. They’re colorful and distinct from each other, and in one way or another have something immediately recognizable. Whether that be Cloud’s hair or his Buster Sword, or Barret’s gun arm. Tetsuya Nomura absolutely shines as a character designer here. The cast’s personality shines even brighter. You really grow a personal bond with them and they all feel valuable to the story. Each character gets a compelling character arc and even outside of their respective arcs, they’re always growing. FFVII does a fantastic job of having a story/character progression that feels naturally earned. This is something that is super important as a number of RPG’s suffer from casts that feel irrelevant or don’t share much of a bond, but that isn’t the case here.

All of this culminates in what feels like a fully realized vision. No matter what limitations it may have faced, it rarely feels held back by it. All these years later, a lot of these “limitations” honestly only improved the game’s overall charm and identity such as the animations or low poly models. The development team made maximum effort work out of what they had, and what they made from it was art. Because of that, it’s allowed a game that many could try and criticize for feeling outdated…actually feel pretty much timeless. No matter how many times I go back to Final Fantasy VII, I don’t see it as “oh just this old 90’s RPG”…rather, I see it as a capsule of artistry, largely unaffected by the passage of time even where it should be. A defining gaming experience while not downright flawless overall, is pretty much perfect in so many of the areas where it counts.

No matter how old Final Fantasy VII grows, it shouldn’t be difficult to see why this game still matters. Even when “better” games come and go, there’s a reason why Final Fantasy VII is the one that still gets talked about…that’s because better or worse, only one game is Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Episode INTERmission is simply put, just a really fun time. It’s not a must play by any means but it’s enough that I can say you’d be missing out on a good experience if you ignored it.

This bonus episode is an original story about the iconic Yuffie prior to meeting up with the main party. If you’ve played FFVII, you’re already familiar with Yuffie. In INTERmission, she’s a blast. Her quirky personality is in tact and her gameplay is honestly my favorite of all the playable characters in Remake. The story here is pretty disconnected from the main plot outside of a few moments that show/reference things currently happening in the main story at the same time. This allows INTERmission’s story to have a bit of fun with itself without being too concerned how it’ll wrap back up into the main narrative. (Also just have to toss in a quick mention of the great soundtrack)

This can be finished in about 3-4 hours which is pretty solid for what it is. Yuffie’s gameplay shows Remake’s combat at some of its best and the story is a lot of mostly lower stakes fun. The Fort Condor minigame is also a pretty addictive thing to sink some time into.

…and that’s really it! There’s not really much more I can say, given it’s pretty straightforward. You’re getting a nice little side story that showcases some of the best aspects of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a must play but I don’t think you should ignore it either. You might be surprised how much fun is packed in here!

Telltale’s The Walking Dead is a game I’ve gone back to multiple times now, and every single time I only appreciate it more. All it takes is just the first episode to see why this game clicked for so many people and it only gets better from there. This isn’t really a game that sets out to do anything revolutionary, but instead tries to master its craft. Simplistic, but comes together so effectively that it creates something special.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead is an episodic, choice based, point and click game. There isn’t much in the face of real gameplay. You’ll occasionally be allowed to freely move around to…well, point and click and solve simplistic puzzles to break up the pacing.

The real meat of this game is the story which plays out like an interactive movie, allowing you to choose almost every response and action of the main character. While not all of your choices can alter the course of the story as a whole, all of your choices matter in some way or another. Most notably with its characters. The characters are the real stars of this game. Pretty much everyone is immediately memorable and you become deeply invested in their motivations and struggles right off the bat. The characters are the most reactive to your choices by constantly adapting to just about every other word you say, often bringing things back up or their attitude towards you changing entirely. The story is paced almost perfectly as well. There’s a great balance between intense major plot events and slower character building moments. Every interaction no matter how big or small feels meaningful. Episodes are only about a couple hours long which totals the game’s length around something that is long enough to tell a complete, personal journey but also short enough that it never overstays its welcome.

As mentioned earlier, this game doesn’t do anything revolutionary…but it does what it does so amazingly which always made it stand out amongst other games that are arguably way more complex than itself. You don’t always need to be groundbreaking to be special. You just need to be really, really good…and this game is that good.