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#i decided to remake her when i was replaying the game this year
madelynhimegami · 7 months
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About twenty years ago (probably closer to nineteen), I finished my playthrough of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
This morning, I finished my (first?) playthrough of the A Wonderful Life remake.
Well before I finished, I decided I wanted to make a post talking about it, giving my general thoughts on it. And I'll probably just end up rambling. Who knows if it's at all interesting to people but. Here goes.
Being able to save and load anywhere at any time is such a game changer. Holy moly. Even though I didn't really have to do a whole lot of reloading (except where fishing requests were concerned). But it still felt very good to have.
On a related note, the remake is so transparent about its mechanics, it's amazing. I know that AnWL already had some tranparency added to it (especially wrt your kid), but just. Having as much info as the remake gives you, at all times, is nuts. Makes things so much easier to finagle around.
Likewise, thank god for automatically recording cooking recipes. It was already practically impossible to remember how to make anything in the GCN games. The fact that the Harvest Sprites gave you a new recipe every day also helped. As did telling you when your cooking skill levelled up, because the GCN games didn't tell you anything.
Characters actually sound distinct now! The thing about mediocre localizations is that you don't know what you're missing out on until you get a good localization. And wow, the amount of personality shown by having characters speak differently adds a shocking amount.
Even with all of the QOL updates... the main thing that makes me never wanna touch the GCN games again is that they're a lot less bugged. I once again blame the old localization.
(you think there's weird stuff going on in the remake. you have no idea.)
That being said, aside from being able to select your pronouns at the start of the game, the cast (including yourself) don't really do much of anything to gender you. AnWL gave me so much gender euphoria before I even knew what it was. (Not to mention the FoMT remake set the bar for being gay in a way that AWL is set up couldn't really replicate). So... who knows. Maybe I'll end up replaying it someday anyway.
Granted, I say that, but as I was typing that sentence I thought about how the event for giving your toddler a bath was broken so that you could not give him one. Instead of a Yes/No prompt the game just said "Several days later..." and then continued like you had said no. Maddening.
Nuts to it, someone just give me an annotated textdump.
After so much hemming and hawing about who to marry in the remake, I ended up just marrying Nami again. One part autistic lesb solidarity, one part her kid being so goshdang powerful. Either way, I joked about how nothing about me had changed in twenty years.
Once I got to chapter two, I started screencapping like crazy. Got almost 400 of them on my switch now. I just wanted to note everything I could about what my darling baby girl was doing throughout her life. Also my wife.
In my original playthrough, even though I tried to influence my son into either art or academics, he ended up becoming a farmer. But then again, I also didn't understand how to influence him optimally. Which sounds awful out of context. Oh well, at least his life was mostly organic.
I managed to get my daughter into academics before chapter two ended. Probably the most interesting thing that happened was how her dialogue changed. She started reciting her ABC's to herself, and mumbled about books, and said that gemstones were like puzzle peices. It was darling.
Since I've only played the entire game with Nami's child, though, I do wanna replay the game just so that I can see what a different kid is like.
Problem is, it just brings back the marriage problem. And the child career problem, because even if I marry Muffy, like hell will I raise an athlete (but I don't want scholar again... but also if they're an artist they run away from home after the game ends, which is kinda messed up).
A lot of people in the village make comments about how air conditioning isn't good for people's health. They did that in the original game too, if memory serves, but it's still weird. Is this a thing in Japan, or was the person that wrote those parts of the dialogue have a vendetta of some kind?
This is another thing that I know got changed in AnWL, but I'm still so glad that chapters are only one in-game year long. There's a special kind of pain to get to the end of the year, only to learn there's more you need to play before you see your kid get older.
Despite that, I still got a whole lot done, to the point that I spent most of the last two years just idling because I had nothing else to do. Same way I got to the endgame of the original, come to think of it.
I never bought the teddybear. I wasn't gonna do it when my daughter was a teen by the time I had the money. I'm not that dumb. Doesn't do anything but be spoopy anyhow.
I seem to remember the seed maker being instant in the GCN game. If it was, it got seriously debuffed in the remake-- you can only put up to twelve crops in at a time, and it takes 20 in-game hours for the seeds to be produced. Obviously meant to balance how absurdly high tree seeds could be sold for, but the prices were already slashed to pieces, so it was just overkill and made it hard to keep up with what crops I did or didn't have seeds for.
I genuinely hope I never have to make nine of each rare crop again. I mean, technically I never had to anyway, but I did and it was so much pain.
Cows are absurdly expensive in the remake. I guess it's to balance the fact that there's no limit on how long cows can be milked, but
here's the dirty secret
If you have a cow and a bull, they'll mate on their own without you needing to order for it. My cows in the GCN games were constantly getting pregnant. Anyone who complains about cows going dry was doing it wrong.
Sheep are significantly more affordable, though. So I ended up getting mostly those instead.
That being said, a star/brown/marble cow giving S Milk (and the latter two getting their milk processed into butter and cheese respectively) does give you more profit than golden wool does... until you get the Blessed Clippers and you start getting two bundles of wool per sheep (which is insane). But wowie are they expensive...
My new personal hell is having a dozen sheep following me around to scream at me. Did they do that in the original(s)? I never bothered with them....
I'm still sad Flora's not a marriage candidate.
As I mentioned, I was basically without anything to do by the end of the game. Which makes the infinite postgame chapter's existence kinda funny? I don't know what else I'd want to do with that, since as far as I've been able to tell nobody has new dialogue.
No really. I can't even 100% the game anymore because Van stops selling goats, I have over 5 million G, I've grown each one of every plant, caught every fish, dug up all the digsite items, and have all in-game achievements. What would I wanna keep playing for?
Also, why isn't Nina in said postgame chapter? If it's the afterlife anyway, then she should be there too, dangit!
I still don't understand why the dog is trainable.
The player's child is so adorable. I love my daughter so much, she's such a sweetheart.
Wish her self-esteem wasn't so low from chapter 3 onwards, though... another reason to see the game married to somebody else.
I am so grateful there's no friendship decay for the villagers.
What a great game.
And now, some of me rambling about my history with the series:
I don't know what drew me to the original AWL game. All I knew is that there was coverage of it in an issue of Nintendo Power, and I just kept reading and re-reading it. I had a couple friends that swore by the HM games (in particular, 64 and StHL), but beyond that I guess something about it intrigued me to the point that it became a game I really wanted. Had a plan of how I would run the farm and who I'd marry. And counted the days before I finally got it (must've been a birthday or Christmas present).
And I played through it, beginning to end. Despite my brother scorning it. Despite one of the friends that swore by HM64 thinking it was such a watered down derivative it made him laugh several times even as he tried playing it himself.
I also got the girl version when it came out. Don't remember how I afforded it, but I remember that I was too embarrassed by wanting it to let anyone know I did get it but myself. Never managed to finish it, but boy howdy did it have a lot of gender euphoria. I got to be a mom.
...I tried other HM games since. I got Magical Melody (which I recall using Action Replay to turn my player character into a girl that make perfect sense to me now but I don't know what I had been thinking at the time), but dropped it shortly after my wife started expecting.
I got both versions of HMDS (mermaid wife yes please), but only stuck with them for about two or three in-game years each.
I got Isle of Happiness, but honestly the fact that every item had decay to it stressed me to the point I couldn't play without Action Replay codes to keep everything top quality and freshness forever-- and even then the crap you gotta juggle is crazy. Played long enough to marry the Witch though, so that ruled.
I got Hero of Leaf Valley, and that one I actually stuck through to the end (including forgetting how many zeros were in fifty thousand and ended up raising up half a million G before the second year's end), but got too paralyzed with indecision on who to marry (it was mainly between Gwen and Aurelia, since I read that Alice couldn't be raised to red heart after the credits. Game seemed to have thought I had my sights set on Lyla, though).
I tried Rune Factory 4... but something about it just didn't vibe with me so I bounced early.
Every now and then, I thought about going back to A(n)WL, or maybe trying a different one. Never did, though. And Stardew or other inspired's didn't ever really grab me.
And yet I inhaled the chance to play the AWL remake when the time came. And now I've finished it. Go figure. I'm still not sure what it is about that game specifically that calls to me.
I think the amount of interactability with your kid is a big factor, though.
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denble · 1 day
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FFVII Remake, what are they thinking with Aerith?!
Continuing from the previous post.
First of all, Aerith has never been my favorite character. Back in the day (25 years go), I simply preferred Tifa because I liked bare-hand fighting, and because I disliked pink, mage, and physically weak character. I didn't understand a damn thing so it was never about characterization. (Not that I still later use Tifa in my party anyway, there are stronger character, her Ultimate Weapon sucks, and her Limit Break is hard to play to the max).
During my most recent OG replay, I find Aerith not as bad as I thought.
But damn, what did they do to her in the Remake (I haven't played Rebirth yet). While I do enjoy some aspect of her character (her immediate genuine friendship with Tifa), understand other aspects (her melancholic loneliness and her knowing-it-all attitude), I just couldn't see how her flirting with Cloud fits in her other character traits. I know it was there in the OG, but the way SE handles it makes her extremely annoying and downright unlikeable. I'm not even sure if the writers like her or not. The way I see it, all her interaction with Cloud being there is not for her character development or her and Cloud relationship development (heck, there was none in the OG if you ask me; after Midgar, they barely interact on a personal level) but for her fans and her fans alone. Because they are the only people who care about her being all cutesy and pushy over Cloud. Not even Cloud gives a damn about her. SE MAKE VERY SURE of it. I was baffled at how they cut off one of the very few instances that you can say Aerith breaks through Cloud's façade: the laugh he shared with her during the rooftop traverse in the OG.
They also MAKE SURE that while they give her and Cloud a fair amount of seemingly special moments, if you pay attention, everything Cloud does with her, Cloud already did with others. Her fans won't notice anything else beside her so they can always enjoy her presence, while others can clearly see that there actually nothing unique going on.
Rooftop traverse. Cloud already did it alone during Chapter 2
High Ten. If this counts, Jessie already fist bumped Cloud at the end of Chapter 4, when they are about to parachuting down to the Slum. And later, the High Ten became Aerith and Tifa's signature move. Cloud was there only as a practice target ._.
Cloud proposes to see her home. Cloud already saw Wedge home by the end of Chapter 4.
Her breaking Cloud's iciness. Not counting Tifa, the Avalanche trio already does that.
The princess carry. Cloud already, at his own will, carries Jessie princess-style in Chapter 4 when she sprains her ankle.
To be honest, I think Aerith would be much more likeable had SE toned down the pushiness. Even Jessie seems more tolerable than Aerith in this regard (poor Cloud). Aerith was playful in the OG, not borderline harassing like she is portrayed in the Remake.
But if I have to guess, because they decide to make Cloud extremely passive to her, she has to be more "active" in order to make the fans believe there's something going on... Her whole relationship with Cloud in Remake just feels like a filler to her main character in the game.
Oh well, if that makes the game sale, so be it. I want to like her but can't, so be it. Good thing that she's not as useless in combat as she was in the OG so I still enjoy that aspect. And her friendship with Tifa is very endearing to watch (I always have a soft spot for bromance and friends caring for each other).
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yanderefairyangel · 8 months
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Is Alear a coward ?
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Alright, so I gave recently my thought on what is probably the 5th attempt at someone trying to voice why they dislike Engage's story and one of the point was how Engage failed to convey that Lueur was a coward so... here let's see what elements in the game shows some character growth within Alear on that department.
1- Context : Nintendo's intervention on Alear's storyline
The IS writing team in charge of Engage intended to actually have Alear being portrayed as a coward but apparently thy pushed it too far since it leaded Nintendo to say "STOP" because Alear ended up being such a coward Nintendo feared they would have problem seeling the game and that Alear would end up not being a protagonist very appealing and therefore having problem in marketing them. And of course... this decision had an impact on Alear's character arc developpement. They still had to make them a hero and a coward since they wanted Alear to be a relatable character despite their statuts as a dragon and I will say that I stand by "even if your character is a literal cat, I can still relate to them if their story resonate with me" so... how much did it affected the game ?
Well. Fire Emblem, I repeat, as little room to apply the "show don't tell" principles in the same way as other media. Fire emblem existed ever since GBA and even before, meaning that dialogue and the way character speaks are the main way of showing. Even game like Awakening and Fates had to rely on this, especially as it's only with the Echoes Gaiden remake that Fire emblem has full voiced text. Before, it could barely rely on the VA's performance to conveys feelings except when it came to cutscene. Fire emblem as to rely heavily on the use of dialogue and to use it efficientely. So did t worked with Alear ?
2- Alear's first cutscene
I think I already explained that when replaying the game, the "Let's run cutscene" doesnt make me laugh anymore, it's unsettling in a lot of way to know the full context. In the Engage manga, we see Alear having a break down, almost passing out, sweating at the sole glance of the Corrupted, incapable of moving, breaking down to their knees. The believer of the Divine dragon tries to forcefully escorts them to safety, yet he still protect a little girl from Corrupted, get beaten severly by said Corrupted and ends up wishing for strengh as they grab Marth's ring... this scene in the manga strike much harder and I think that Nintendo trying to tame Alear's cowardice must have drastically changed those efforts the game tried to establish from the get go. Though I do wonder how having a protag being scared is not acceptable byt Dima's antics were...anyway, reading the interviews it seems that they decided to settle for making Alear seems vulnerable and weak
I honestly don't really like using the idea of "cowardice" to describe Alear's fear of the Corrupted when it's actually linked to trauma. People are often arguing that Alear was right for wanting to run however I think we are missing the point. To Framme, to Clanne, to Vander, Alear is a hero that saved the world. As Vander stated, he was told by Lumera many legends of her baby's exploits in battle. Hence the three of them believe Alear is a powerful being which is echoed in the manga
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So when us, the audience, are told by three people that Alear is this "strong hero dragon deity that saved the world 1000 years ago" how are we supposed not to be chocked when Alear ordered to run... that said... where to run ? The way to Lythos Castle is filled with Corrupted while they couldn't managed to run to the Somniel in time, which is why Framme and Clanne tried to slow down the Corrupted in the first place (not to mention this is Fire Emblem in Fire Emblem the main protagonist always want to fight, they never go "no let's run, they gave me a freaky feeling)
Alear helping Framme and Clanne doesn't mean they "got over their fear". It's just that these two people got themselves in danger because they wanted to protect Alear, so Alear wants to help them because they feel responsible for this mess happening in the first place. The main difference with the manga is that while Alear's reaction is more striking, in the game Alear seems much more of a "coward" since they are the one ordering to run away rather then being victim of a PTSD crisis, having the follower of the Divine dragon trying to drag them to a safe place and then getting over it to help a little girl.
Annyway. Again, for what is presented to us as a "powerful deity dragon" Alear is struggling to save Clanne and Framme and can only do it thanks to Marth's help. As they lament that they cannot help Framme and Clanne, Marth is calling them and once they remember about the Emblems, they suddenly get filled with more courage and rush in because "I am not alone" since Marth is with Alear. Which shows what will be seen later : the Emblems help Alear feel braver.
So the reason why Alear is helping Framme and Clanne isn't that they got over it. It's that like in the manga they are pushing throught themselves. Even though they are scared, even though they are nervous, they are still pushing their boundaries to try to help those who need it, especially when those people were in danger because of them, in their mind.
Again, I repeat. While for us, Alear's struggle are normal because they are reacting like any one would if they woke up from a 1 000 year of coma with amnesia... this contradicts the image that we could have of a dragon deity who are powerful beings.
Anyhow, Alear still needs Lumera's help to get rid of the Corrupted
Fact is that the second cutscene introducing Lumera did a good job at showing Alear scared as Lumera is approaching since they are paralyzed and would have gotten reduced into ash if Lumera had lowered the range of her dragon laser that reduced the Corrupted into ashes. The scene clearly shows Alear being abacked by Corrupted coming from the opposite direction to the one they saw arrived just now, and getting ready nervous and sweating, then to be surprised to see Lumera coming from behind thinking she was an ennemy too. The expression on their face shows that fears and nervosity. They did not even moved as Lumera, whom I repeat they thought was an ennemy at the moment, launched an attack, due to being paralyzed by fear. This scene, from the camera angle to the models does a better job at portraying Alear as a scared cat.
Now, let's see. In Chapter 2, when Alear speaks of the Corrupted, they say "Oh, I didn't like those things one bit. Just the sight of them made my blood run cold." So it might be telling the audience how Alear felt rather then showing it but let's look at this sentence closer. The interjection "Oh" is there to suggest an exclamation. Thus giving the intonation for the sentence to be understood as Alear's expressing fear at the remniscense of Corrupted and while they are speaking. The choice of words also comes into play. In the japanese version, compared to others character who called the Corrupted "kemono/beasts/creatures" Alear calls them "bakemono/monsters" and if you wonder what is the difference ... monster is much more negative then a beast or a creature and already introduces fear. In the English version, Alear express their fear of the Corrupted as being in the state of having their blood runing cold whereas in japanese version, they says they get a chill down their spine whenerver they see them. This might seems trivial, but as I said, when a character speaks about their feelings, the choice of word comes into play when it's a dialogue that can be read as showing through telling. In both version, the metaphor implies that Alear gets paralyzed at the sole gaze of the Corrupted, and the Engage manga seems to have understood that part of Alear's character (and took it t the next level). Since Engage cannot use the model properly to convey it through showing, they have to rely on using dialogue and choosing words that goes across efficiently enough to make the player get the idea, and using those metaphor to get the point across that Alear is paralyzed by fear when they see Corrupted, and while the first cutscene fails on that departement, the second cutscene and the cutscene where Alear meets Veyle does a better job at showing this. In real life, when one starts using metaphor to express the way they feel, this is already trying to show their public how they feel through marking comparision and anaglogy. Saying "I was scared" and "Seeing this made my blood run cold" is not the same. It's already a way of trying to make your audience feels through a concrete example how you personaly felt it in a way that is more affective then simply telling how you felt. It's the same strategy as when in their C support, a helpless Alear begs for Diamant's help, they have to explain why they are afraid. The begining of the support shows perfectly Alear's fear. We are shown Diamant standing there, with a dramatic music on background as we hear Alear screams that a Corrupted is after them and beging for Diamant's help. They says that just like for the Veyle introduction cutscene a Corrupted took them off guard, but instead of being paralyzed by fear, they run. And I remind you that Diamant and Alear's support can happen before chapter 10. So Alear running away like that is showing that after all, they are still a coward. And when Alear has to explain that when facing something you fear when you know that they are here is less unsettling then having a Corrupted jumpscare, they have to rely on an analogy speaking to Diamant's personal phobia (I just wished they had choosen something other then caterpillar) in order to get their point across. The words choosen are "something that makes you skin crawl". Alear's ask him for something in particular that repulse him and that would caught him off guard to make him understand how they feel seeing a Corrupted pop out of nowhere. To put it short, having a character using images to convey throught words how they feel is already a way of showing. Alear isn't content with saying they were terrified, they put their words so that people would understand the effect it has on their body through words using metaphor, in order for them to feel how they fear rather then just telling them "ohhh i was so scared". From that moment, the dialogue is trying to show. Show the intensity of Alear's fear throught the way they phrase it.
That's literaly the basic of literary language. And it's not like Engage is the first game in the franchise that have to rely on that. Sacred Stones, a GBA game couldn't show Monica's body, it had to rely on the absolute state of horror of the Renais twins upon seeing the body to get the point across, reaction that was expressed throught words. Through Ephraim and Eirika's incapacity to speak, we can imagine the horror they had to see, to the point this scene is considered the most terryfing moment in FE's history. No voice acting, no portraits changing expression, not cutscene showing Monica. Just Ephraim and Eirikia trying to articulate a proper sentence is enough to show the horror they felt upon seeing Monica.
And the fact that Engage isn't even the only Fire emblem doing that, but that it's a constant in the series and that somehow people manages to miss that out is unbelievable.
Now I might sound like Captain Obvious for saying it but in literary comment, you literaly have to analyse each sentence and even the most banal forms of expression as the way someone use language is already a part of their character and such a things as pointing out that a character tells how they feel using intensifying formulas or metaphor or expression in order to show the intensity of the feeling they are communicating to the audience as to be said. In the case of Alear's dialogue about being scared, they use the most common and talking expression to get their point across and the one time they use an original analogy is their support with Diamant. Nothing to do with how Jaworski describe his fear in Gagner la guerre, since he use images that are stronger, more striking to show the intensity of his fear and how it marked him. Nevertheless it had to be said.
We also have a piece of dialogue where Alear express their concern in fighting Sombron when Lumera mentions it. They also mistook Lumera's creation for the Corrupted and scream "The Corrupted" seeing them, indicating fear. They also express the same feeling of fear and disgust and ask Lumera if it's not possible to fight enemy less unsettling... if this is not showing Alear being scared. Sure, they justify it by saying, they are afraid, but point is that it still is a request made on the justification that Alear is a scared cat. And this is also the occasion of the first critic made by a character on Alear's behaviour, Lumera telling them that a Divine dragon must not run away. An advice that will come back later.
Again, in chapter 3, Alear, Vander and the twins are not enough to fight the invaders. Had they not received Alfred, Etie and Boucheron's help, they wouldn't have won. In I repeat, a franchise where a 15 year old can size a whole fortress with only a few men. About what is supposed to be the almighty powerful dragon deity of this continent. Alear acting like a normal person is a direct contradiction, oxymoron of their title which is central in their character and how they have to push themselves to become worthy of their title.
In chapter 3, when Lumera is dead, Alear is looking down until Alfred mentioning creatures attacking attract Alear's attention. But when Alfred ask Alear for help, their first reaction is "Me ? I am not fitting" since they are amnesiac, weaker then their mother, not a real brave divine dragon and aren't really in the right state of mind to do that, having just lost their mother... and the manga took it to next level with giving Alear literal depression over a comatose Lumera and giving them nightmare about them and their allies getting brutally killed. When Alfred insist, Alear doesn't say anything. A silence symbolized by "...". A unsaid thing. Un non dit. This silence translates an hesitation. This hesitation is contextualized by Alear's statement of them having to push throught their fear. This hesitation was due to fear of fighting the Corrupted and feeling incompetent.
When we arrive at Florra Mill town, upon seeing the Corrupted, Alear's face expression (one of the rare case of it being done right so it has to be pointed out especially as it's the model that hurts Engage's pacing so terribly) is not angry, it's scared. It is the same expression they made when they are injuried. Showing signs of reluctance upon seeing the Corrupted.
The second cutscene that does a good job at showing Alear going throught their fear is the one where they meet with Veyle. Alear, having no memories, is taken by the beauty of Florra's landscape, and suddenly attacked by a Corrupted and taken of guard. They get ready to get hitten, not moving and sweating. The camera angle making this scene more dynamic and showing how it felt like a Corrupted jumpscare. Hidden behind a tree, Veyle cast a fire spell killing the Corrupted and as she appear, Alear drops slowly their guard. What does Veyle says ? "There is no need to be afraid. It's gone"... Veyle is obviously trying to reassure Alear seeing their attitude in front of the Corrupted. Else why saying this ? Alear themselves acknowledged, as shown by the cutscene that they were too stratled to react quickly and would have likely got deeply wounded due to this recklessness had Veyle not intervened and she obviously did it because Alear was in danger and because she saw them too scared to even react.
In chapter 5, Alear shows again a sign of vulnerability. Remember that they lost Lumera in chapter 3 and they are already being pushed into saving another country. They are not over Lumera's death (for obvious reasons) and get consoled by Queen Eve. I think the actual scene is pretty ok, but it could still be improved my accentuating Alear's sadness.
And again, back to Diamant and Alear's support, what this support establish is that Alear's apparent lack of showing thei fear is only a facade that they built over mentaly preparing themselves for the battle. As the Divine dragon, they cannot show weakness and fear (obvious Past Alear parallel) but Alear still feels the need to talk about it with their allies because again, what they show is not how they feel inside. (again, obvious Past Alear call back about how Past Alear doesn't show their fear and cannot admit their weakness while current Alear constantly talk about what bothers them)
This support thus explain why Alear's victory quote is "I am not afraid anymore". They have defeated the enemy that made them so intimated that they had to mentally prepare themselves before fighting.
Chapter 15, Alear ask Timerra about the Forteress, asking if it is that frightning because they are a scared cat. Timerra takes this as an opportunity to tease Alear with local foklore, seeing their reaction admits she teased them to which they respond by "Then why did you make it sounds so real ?!" indicating fear. Timerra apologizing and seeing Alear being scared are also proof of that.
This even leaded to Marnie openly taunting them for that.
And finally, Tiki and Alear have a bound conversation where Alear admits making nightmares at night, especially when they fight the Corrupted. On one side, it's showing that they are afraid and on the other side that the presence of the Corrupted trigger their inner trauma since when knew that the dream and nightmare Alear made are actually 2 different portrayal of their own memory of fighting Sombron which is revealed in chapter 22.
Now... chapter 10. The one moment in Alear's character growth.
3- Alear's biggest mistake.
Having coming this far and overcome their fear into the battlefield while successfully collecting 6 rings, half of the required rings to save the world, Alear is getting reckless. They were ready to enter the Cathedral but Marth stop them, advicing them. When he mentions how he sense Sombron's presence and how they should retreat if it turned out that the ritual had be performed, Alear strongly opposes the idea. They don't want to abandon King Morion, and Lumera told them not to run away hence them dismmising Marth's advice. They also mentions, and I stress this, that the reason why they feel so calm and confident is due to Marth and the Emblems' presence. When they arrived and realized that King Morion is Corrupted, Marth immediately tells Alear to order a retreat but Alear refuses. So what happens ? Hyacinth traps them into the cathedral by closing the opening doors of the catheral. They cannot escape. They have no other choice but to fight if they want to get away and what happen ? What Marth feared would happen. Sombron arrives and Veyle in her evil mode as well. Alear discovering Veyle's other personality for the first time take them off guard and greatly pertubed them... they had trouble recognizing Veyle due to how different she acted thinking it was a different person. They get distracted by the Hounds leaving an occasion for Veyle to take advantage of it and stealing successfully all the rings. Once Alear realize this, the expression of their face is showing their fear and utter despair. Alear's face as Marth is getting summoned in the Fell dragon way shows their complete state of panick. And it's a tense moment. Sombron got all of the rings we spend chapters collecting. Half of them. No wonder Alear is so panicked. This scene is Alear having a break down, begging Sombron to stop, utterly terrified. Without Emblem, Alear feels weak and is afraid. Their sentence " I can't do this without you" echoes with what they told Marth before entering the cathedral about how they feel brave with the Emblem by their side. It's also an obvious reference to the fact that they are weaker with no Emblems as shown by the gameplay since our Units are more perfomant when they wear a ring vs not having any and to the fact they need it to save Elyos. This scene is the first emotional breakdown Alear has and the most notable during the entire game. They are literaly falling to their knees. That is most defintely the most obvious moment where they fail at showing themselves as being brave. Upon seeing Veyle taunting them, they get mad and scream, demanding that she gives them the ring back as Vander is telling Alear that they have to retreat. First time in the entire game where they look this angry. Even as they are trying to escape in map of chapter 11, Alear insist that they have to save Marth and the other Emblem, with Alfred telling them that they don't stand a chance. And even as they are trying to clear a path, they are facing too much ennemy that they can't endure, with endless reinforcement and without the help of Ivy, they wouldn't have made it.
This is a moment important for Alear's character development as it's the first mistake they made and it's a BIG one. They lost all their rings. 6 at that. Half of the Emblem that Sombron needed to realize his plan. They literaly thown themselves into the Cobra's den and almost offered them 6/12 rings on a silver place. This is a terrible mistake and they almost died while trying to escape. All of this because of Alear's overconfidence and being too stuborn to know when to run. They almost got all of their allies as well as themselves killed. That is a big deal. All of this because they did not wanted to run away, and Lyn and Lucina had to explain to Alear the crucial difference between running away (what they tried to do upon encountering the Corrupted for the first time) and retreating (that is to say, knowing when to give up when the situation requires it) telling Alear that insisting like this isn't bravery, but folly and stubborness, and only when Lyn and Lucina are explaining Alear the difference do they understand what Marth was trying to teach them. This at this precise moment Alear acknowledge their mistake and swear to become a better leader. What's more, it's the first time ever Alear has to face someone's death in their party. A death they think they could have prevented had they'de been faster into fighting Ivy at the border. They swore that no one would die under their commend ever again. And to get back the ring they lost. That is a big moment.
All of this happened because of Alear ignoring or rather taking too lightly Marth's advice and even if Diamant and Alcryst blames themselves for it, all of Alear's dialogue shows that they refused to retreat even when the situation literaly required them to do so. Their stuborness is shown as well we see the units arriving in the maps, we can see Alear looking back for a moment compared to the others unit who just rushed in, or in trying to get the ring back is even shown when Alear fights an Emblem bearing Corrupted, they will still try to summon the Emblem before Veyle teleports it to another corrupted.
That is the Engage equivalent of Emmeryn's death in Awakening. (and it happens around the same number of chapter) with the sole difference that Robin and Chrom couldn't guess that Aversa would summon risen to kill the Pegasus squad supposed to save Emmeryn unlike Alear whom Marth warned about Sombron's presence, meaning that they were aware of the risk and even when they realized that Morion was dead, they still refused to move. Diamant and Alcryst may blame themselves for insiting on staying, but Alear is their leader and seeing their reaction in the cutscene, it seems like Alear was already resloving to stay help their friend avenging their father, therefore ignoring Marth's advice. And while they got themselves trapped, they ended up commiting the same mistake as the Brodian siblings : succombing to hatred, which is additionally one of the biggest sin in Buddhism. Worse, while this fiasco is more their mistake as a leader then as a person, when they refused to escape, Alear shows their mistakes/flaws as a person.
The fact that this moment exist where Alear commits a very grave mistake that could have gotten them and their allies killed, leaded them to lost all the rings they collected and rings that people like King Morion died to protect because they took too much at face value Lumera's teaching of never runing away to the point of not even knowing where lies the difference between a retreat and running away and that they learn from that and that it is NEVER discussed is baffling. Especially when I hear that Alear never learns anything and has little room to grow. When I stress it, this EXISt in the game. And the game makes a big deal out of it. Chapter 11 and the Solm arc are rather painful without Emblems in case you haven't noticed. Alear's mistake is felt in the very gameplay itself. And 10 chapters later, they, Alear, are the one saying the very words they had taken lightly. WORD FOR WORD. They said the exact same thing as Marth did, showing they did learn their lessons. And they reflect back on their mistakes, wondering if they are going to repeat it again or not with Alfred reassuring them that ever since they have changed and become a better leader and how is it shown ? During the solmian arc, Alear defeats the Hounds, the same ennemy that they simply could not defeat during their escape in chapter 11. They also manages to save Queen Seforia from them when they had failed to do so with King Morion and successfully got back 6 ring, and then 4 more back. They also defeated Veyle, an ennemy that was simply undefeatable in chapter 11. The gameplay showed this evolution. Collecting the ring showed this evolution. And Alear's word being the same as Marth 10 chapter earlier showed they learned their lesson. They learned from what had almost been a deadly mistake.
Another moment where Alear says they won't repeat mistakes. When they encounter Veyle in chapter 15. Put yourself into Alear's shoes. Someone you thought saved your life and was a friend. Then you discover it was the one who killed your mother, that stole the rings and helped the bad guy killing your friend's family and attacking many innocent. And then she barges acting all innocent. Wouldn't you be angry ? That's it. Alear has never been shown more angry in the entire game then in chapter 10, and when we meet Veyle again, they can barely repress their anger, and explicitely says it for crying out loud " I won't make the same mistake again". And why ? Because Alear meet with her thrice and in chapter 15, they thought Alear was deceiving them and thefore that if they had seen throught her lies, they could not have done the mistake they commit in chapter 10. Sure, some chapter later, they tried to help her... after discovering she was under a spell and that she was clearly having a mental break down... chapter 18 as Alear explaning that they are confused and have mixed feelings over her.
In chapter 21, when Sombron tries to kill Veyle, they are the one protecting her, paralleling with chapter 1 -3 where they were the one being protected, first by the twins and Vander, and by Lumera who gave her life to save theirs.
And let's see how this works in comparison of Past Alear.
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After finishing Ys VI, I started Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which is the second game in the Napishtim engine. Ys: The Oath in Felghana is the remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, which originally came out in 1989. If you want more details about this Ys VI, you can read my thoughts on the game here.
After this quick introduction, I can start talking about the game and I’ll start from the story.
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In their travels, Adol and Dogi hear some rumors that things are going badly in the land of Felghana (which also happens to be Dogi’s homeland). After that, they decided to reach Felghana and after they arrived here, they noticed that a monument dedicated to god of safe journey destroyed.
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After this it’s revealed that monsters are running loose in the country, and Adol ended up saving Elena from the attack of said monsters. Elena is an old friend of Dogi, and with her, you reach the city of Redmond.
In the city you learn that the mine, which was the main source of income for the city, was closed by the king, which causes the anger of people living there. At this point you learn that some miners and the mayor went against the order of the king and entered the mine, but they ended up getting trapped inside of it. After Adol learns about this, he goes to rescue them. And in this way, the journey starts.
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The story is really simple overall, you shouldn’t expect anything amazing here. That said the story is kinda nice and it serves his purpose well enough.
After the story, my next point of focus is the gameplay. Oath in Felghana is a fast-paced ARPG which throws at you constant resources to keep things fast. The combat in Felghana is even faster compared to the one that you have in Ys VI (which makes sense, this game came out after Ark of Napishtim while using the same engine so they could make some improvements to it). Like in Ys VI, the combat is a blast.
So, which improvements they made to the formula while keeping the fast-paced combat? Like I anticipated in my Ys VI post, Oath in Felghana replace the 3 swords system with the potion system (system that will return in Ys Origin).
Enemies drop these potions while you fight them, and they give passive stats booster to you when you pick them up. These stats include strength, defence and MP (which increase the recovery rate of your magic power when picked up). These boosts are temporary, and the bottle's dimension effects the time you can use the buffs. You can stack them up to a x5% multiplier, which is actually insane.
Alongside this, when you kill enemies, you also get an exp multiplayer, which makes you gain experience faster. You only need to kill them, and this multiplayer will increase. The maximum here is x1,99%, so you can technically gain double experience from enemies when you kill them.
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Just like in Ys VI, enemies drop healing items as well, but they work in a different way from the previous game (unless you are playing Ys VI in Catastrophe mode). In Oath in Felghana, when the enemy drops the healing item, you collect them immediately and use them. So, if you get damaged and an enemy drop this, you heal immediately.
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You will find save point scattered through the land. You can fully heal at these monuments, and later in the game you will gain the ability to fast travel and reaching them without much trouble. This is really good to have at hand, in this way you can easily reach the city (in order to upgrade your equipment) without a lot of backtracking to do.
Another thing that Oath in Felghana introduces (compared to the previous game) is the boost system. When the meter is charged, you can use the meter and temporarily increase Adol strength and defence for a short amount of time. Which means that you will damage more the enemy in this instance, and this is extremely nice against boss specifically since you can’t access the potion system in these segments. In this game you can’t enter the boss fight with the boost meter already charged, but you can charge it during the fight and use it when this is ready.
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In the Psp (or Nintendo Switch) version of the game, the double boost meter was added and is obtained with the double jump. Once Adol's boost gauge reaches 100%, it will start filling up in red again, and when it is completely filled, you can activate the double boost. When activated, the double boost releases a burst of energy that damages nearby foes, and actually provides a greater boost to Adol's abilities than the regular boost mode, while also slowly restoring his health based on his hit combo.
The double boost meter isn’t present in the Pc version of the game. I will give more details about the different version in another post.
Adonis, the blacksmith of the town, can upgrade your weapon, your armor and your shield two times if you bring him Raval Ore, which is needed for this upgrade. The stats bonuses aren’t really that high, but they can make a difference when you fight enemies, you might kill them in a faster way overall.
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It’s worth mentioning that the dungeon areas are really fun to go through: the way everything flows is great. In general, the gameplay is easily the main reason why this game is fun.
The next things that I want to talk about are the boss fights. Like in Ys VI, boss fights have patterns: once you figure out how you should fight them you can generally blast through them.
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That said, in this game, sometimes some bosses don’t have a clear pattern to fight them or said pattern is difficult to figure it out: in this case it will take some time to actually figure out what you should really do to damage them. Not every boss has this problem but at the same time this isn’t the greatest thing in the world.
This is especially worth mentioning because Falcom actually understood the issue and actually addressed this in Ys Origin, which is the next and last game in this engine.
Overall, I would still say that the majority of the boss fights are really fun but you will notice this issue; that said if you like the games in this engine, you will love Oath nonetheless.
Like Ys VI, this game still looks really good and pleasant on the eyes. The visuals are really nice.
The soundtrack is amazing. The music is based on the original Ys III soundtrack (in fact, you can choose in the option if you want to use PC-8801 and X68000 ost from the menu screen) but the arrangements are completely different and they are great.
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Some tracks from the game:
The Oath in Felghana ~ A Premonition =Styx=
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Prelude to the Adventure
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The Boy Who Had Wings
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Illburns Ruins
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Valestein Castle
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Believe in my Heart
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Beat of Destruction
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A Premonition =Styx= (Acoustic Version)
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Overall, I still love Ys: The Oath in Felghana a lot but I’ve been able to notice some problems that I really didn’t notice the first time that I played the game, but this game is still a blast to go through and in general, this is a really fun game to play. Hoping that the Switch remaster will be officially released in the west as well, it will be a new chance for people to actually notice this game.
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therandommoogle · 2 years
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3 flaws from Fire Emblem Fates I will never get over
I love Fates. It has its flaws, but I can look past most of them. However, there are 3 specific flaws that still bother me to this day so I've decided to vent a little
These are ordered from least annoying to most annoying
1. There is no Azura/Camilla support
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Seriously.... Why wasn't that a thing? She has supports with every other sibling and Camilla outright said she wanted to be closer with Azura. To add insult to injury, the Nohrian Festival DLC never happened in America and Warriors didn't even think to give them a support
I get that everyone was limited to 3 A+ supports, but in this case, they should've made an exception
2. There was no Valla Noble class (image from @fecipherfullart )
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The whole point of Revelations was that you could pick Hoshido and Nohr and bring peace without killing the other. Sounds great, but then it becomes promoting Corrin, you still end up having to pick a side. For story purposes, it would've made more sense if Revelations had a third class
When I played Revelations for the first time, I couldn't pick a class. It drove me insane. I straight up just got the skills from each class and made my Corrin a Lodestar for the rest of the playthrough
Needless to say, I was very happy when Cipher gave them a Valla design
3. And the thing that will torment me everytime I replay Fates
WHY DIDN'T THEY GIVE HINOKA AND CAMILLA LEGENDARY WEAPONS?
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Okay, I can understand why Sakura and Elise don't have legendary weapons. They're the youngest of the royals and start off as healers. Storywise and gameplay wise, it makes sense that they wouldn't have weapons. Azura? She has her pendant and songstress class. It's fine that she doesn't have a weapon
Meanwhile, Hinoka and Camilla are the eldest daughters in each kingdom. They're already skilled combatants and should have more experience than Takumi and Leo, both of whom start off with Legendary Weapons. It makes no sense
The game has 3 legendary swords, 1 bow and 1 tome. We could definitely have a legendary lance and axe. I always upgraded and used "hinoka's spear" and "camilla's axe" as their personal weapons, but it's just not the same. Part of me wants Legendary Hinoka and Legendary Camilla specifically so they can retcon that and give them their sacred weapons
That will always bother me. If I somehow end up working on a Fates remake years down the line, expect Hinoka to be wielding the Suijin Naginata and Camilla to have a fancy new axe called Kriemhild
Of all the characters that should have legendary weapons, the eldest princess and second oldest should get them before their younger siblings and I just can't understand why they don't
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iaintyourbro · 4 years
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Talking about FFVII and FFVIII
I started writing this a while ago - probably around June. It’s based off of this article:
Theory: FFVIII’s Squinoa was Square Enix’s Appology to Cloud and Aerith Fans
Alright, so, I came across an article stating that FFVIII’s Squinoa was Square’s apology for Cloud and Aerith. I don’t know why, but this one brought up some anger within me that I can’t explain. Mainly because it’s ridiculous.
However, it’s also an opinion article. This means Square Enix never said this. The title of the article also says “Theory” meaning there’s nothing saying this is real. You know there is a reason I’m writing this finally - well, finishing it. 
This is also gonna be long. FFVIII was my favorite FF game up until Remake came out, so it’s still very special to me. I hate that it’s treated as some type of apology for a ship. Its a game on its own. A fun one, a lighthearted one, and one that I really enjoyed replaying as an adult. 
It just so happens that I had started to replay FFVIII when I came across this article. It was recently written. I have noticed some official source articles that are leaning heavy on the C//erith side came out after Remake, even if it was regarding old content. 
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Rinoa is Rinoa. Comparing her to Aerith or Tifa frustrates me, because you should just do that for all of the other main FF female characters, but if we want to do this, then we can say Rinoa is a mix of Tifa and Aerith. 
So with FF8, FF7 OG, and FF7R fresh in my mind, I thought it may be a good time to do this one. There are heavy spoilers for FF7, FF8, and FF
One of the lines in this article that threw me was saying that Rinoa was a manic pixie girl. I never got that impression from her. I’d say at times she was a bit forward, a bit flirty, and a bit immature, but they ALL were. They were 17 and 18. They were written like 17 and 18 year olds on purpose. I actually liked Rinoa, but didn’t like OG Aerith. So I definitely never compared the two. 
For the record: I LOVE REMAKE AERITH
FF7 had characters in their early 20s up to their 30s (and Vincent, but he went to sleep at like 27). FF7′s characters also had extremely tragic backstories and collectively enough mental trauma to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. The world was dark and cruel. 
FF8 was a bit lighter on the whole tragic backstory. All of the main party members, minus Rinoa, grew up in an orphanage. Yes, you could say it’s sad that they were in an orphanage. It was war time, their parents were most likely killed. In Squall’s case, we know his mother died shortly after he was born and his father had just sent their “adopted daughter” back to Winhill, so both of them were sent to this orphanage. 
But honestly? Compare this to the orphans in Advent Children. They’re homeless, dirty, and sick. The orphans in FF8 were well fed, clothed, and had a loving “home” with Edea. 
Rinoa grew up as a rich girl, pretty much. She lived in a mansion, her father was high up in the military, and her mother was a famous singer. I’d say she had a pretty good life. Her mother does die when she’s younger, and her relationship with her father falls apart.
Here’s a Tifa parallel: Rinoa’s father is a highly regarded figure in the Galbadian army. Brian Lockhart is a highly regarded person in Nibelheim. Rinoa’s mother dies when she’s young, Tifa’s mother dies when she’s young. Tifa had a pretty good life until Sephiroth decided it was time to ruin everything.
She joins a rebel group (oh - hey another Tifa parallel) and honestly seems pretty good at what she has to say when you first meet her in Timber. She has a strategy, a plan, and explains this plan. 
Tifa was also in a rebel group. 
In Remake, Tifa was always the one to have a solution on what to do next when Cloud and Barret were scratching their heads. She was good at strategy, but she was modest about things.
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Rinoa is much more forward than Tifa, by far. So, you can say that’s her “Aerith quality”. However, Rinoa also has her moments of shyness. Asking Zell about Squall’s ring for example. And honestly, the interaction between Rinoa and Zell during that scene is exactly what you’d expect with teenagers. 
The biggest thing with ALL of the FF8 characters is their severe lack of worldly experience and their immaturity. Which makes sense, they’re 17. You do get to see them all grow. Rinoa and Squall, in particular, mature quite a bit as individuals throughout the game. 
Rinoa’s affections towards Squall initially are purely based on how he looks, it seems. He’s the hot guy at the party she dances with to kill time while trying to find her target (Cid) to ask him to help The Forest Owls. Obviously her feelings grow way past just “hot dude” as the game progresses. 
In fact, Rinoa and Squall fight quite a bit in the beginning. Mainly because Squall is definitely a bigger dick than Cloud, initially. You luckily get insight in to Squall’s thoughts, so some of these dick moves make some sense. Cloud, you’re left to “interpret” what he’s thinking. Hello LTD...
Then they go on to say Quistis is like Tifa. For one, Quistis and Squall DID grow up in the same orphanage until Quistis was adopted. Quistis was “bossy” and saw herself as a big sister. With Squall, she wanted to replace “Sis” after she disappeared.  
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Squall and Quistis don’t even remember each other until Irvine reminds them all. Selphie, Zell, and Seifer were all there as well. The major difference between Quistis and Tifa from a childhood friends trope perspective... Squall at no point seems to have really interacted with Quistis heavily. 
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He says that Seifer and him went to Garden at around the age of 5. There is absolutely no indicator that the two of them even really interacted much. So Quistis was around until Squall was 5 - not his entire childhood. She then ends up in Garden a few years after being adopted due to issues. So during their teen years, it was her, Seifer, and Squall.
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Cloud and Tifa, on the other hand, have quite a childhood trope story. His entire subconscious becomes a Tifa shrine. He makes a promise to her, takes this promise very seriously, and then they reunite in Midgar after a lot of really fucked up shit happens to both of them. 
In addition, it’s blatantly stated that Cloud has feelings for Tifa in the Lifestream. And they are deep. 
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Quistis herself even questions her feelings for Squall as romantic love or more big sister love. Squall is never shown to have any interest in Quistis. We know this is not true for Cloud in regards to Tifa.
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Tifa and Cloud do end up BOTH confirming their feelings for each other. Remake it making the mutual attraction very obvious early on. It’s much more slow in OG and much less obvious until you get to the Northern Crater and he starts to crack. Then it’s fully realized in the Lifestream.
If you want to say FFVIII was an apology for something, I’d say it would be for the incredibly dark plot that FFVII had in comparison. Though, I don’t think an apology was needed. I definitely don’t think there was a thought for FFVIII as apologizing for a ship. 
One thing they DID make sure to do was make the canon romance more obvious going forward. There was no more ambiguity - Squall and Rinoa, Zidan and Garnet, and Tidus and Yuna were all made obvious by the end of the game.
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Oh wait, Cloud and Tifa were too... I guess the difference is there wasn’t an illusion aspect or a major character death for the future titles. FFX is one you could say there was, but that gets wiped out in X-2 when they bring Tidus back. 
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silver-wield · 4 years
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The Promise Analysis (Cloti)
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Sorry about that, Nonny, I relate the promise between Tifa and Cloud to some of the stuff that happens during their resolution and went full tin hatter on it.
Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven't played (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it's gonna be a long one so prepare to scroll.
Also, this is one person's interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that's cool and we'll agree to disagree.
You're also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I'm grabbing them from Youtube and it's frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.
Other analyses if anyone's interested.
Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 
Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 
Tifa character analysis 
Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory) 
Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 
Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 
Cloti reunion analysis 
Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.
Recapping for anyone who's forgotten the basics – cause I assume by this point you're ok with spoilers and me pointing that out is kinda dumb lol
So, chapter 4 and it's mission time with the trio – I love these dorks, especially Wedge, he is my child and if he's dead Imma riot. Jessie is off being sneaky and it's up to Cloud and co to play tag with the security team.
As Charlie Biggs (if you got the ref kudos) explains the plan, Cloud looks up at the night sky — which is a whole lot different to the one we fade up to and I personally wonder what it was about that sky that made him recall the promise to Tifa. Was it just the fact he'd been talking to her and it was his first time he'd paid attention to it? Before that he was under the plate and before that he was in the reactor, so I guess it's safe to assume this is his first chance to relate the two things.
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Ok, after the fade in, we're treated to a pretty damn romantic set up. The water tower, the night sky and lil Cloud waiting for Tifa.
In the OG it mentions he waited for so long he started getting really cold, but he stuck it out because he wanted to see her and hoped she'd show. That's an OG lifestream detail not in the first OG promise scene, but let's assume for now it's gonna get a callback in the Remake. That means bby Cloud has been sitting there waiting for Tifa for a while now.
Ok, call her a thirteen year old bitch if you feel good about yourselves here, but she's thirteen and her dad is super overprotective. He stopped Cloud from playing with Tifa after she had an accident at 8 that wasn't Cloud's fault and in fact if he hadn't been there she'd have died on the mountain because nobody would've known where she was. Ok? Ok.
So, he's been waiting, and it's clear he's nervous – he looks so fucking cute I just can't stand it! Nervous fidgeting, balled fist, head down, mouth pulled into a pretty grim line. He thinks she's not coming, but still he's waiting for her.
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Sorry, just to further hit home the above points. That is the face of a boy who is desperately hoping the girl he likes is gonna show, but has half given up hope. There's sadness in his eyes and a tensing along his jaw line. This boy is disappointed and my heart breaks for him.
Going back to that focus in on Cloud's eyes before the flashback and we can see here the massive difference mako makes to the colour. Cloud's eyes are a deep blue, while his mako infused eyes are blue/green. I get why he goes on about them a lot because he's probably not used to seeing them like that yet; maybe he never will be. Tifa's comment was about the look in his eyes – which I touched on in a comment I made while replaying. Tifa isn't focused on the colour, she's dismayed he has such a hard look in his eyes and when you compare the look in this boy's eyes, it's clear to see what she's getting at. This Cloud is the real Cloud and he is soft as fuck and trying to look tough.
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GODDAMNIT!! There's way too many good moments to grab for this analysis! Look at this precious boy! All but folding under the weight of disappointment! But, what's this in the bg? Our heroine, here at last!
If anyone anyone tries to say Cloud didn't have a great stonking crush on Tifa as a kid then please tell me what this means if it isn't he's gutted he's waited and waited and she didn't show.
We don't know why she's late – maybe Remake will clear that up for us – but I'm guessing she couldn't sneak out or maybe, judging by the amount she's dressed up, she was doing the typical girly thing and couldn't decide what to wear, asking herself if this is a date and second guessing why Cloud called her to the water tower – which is known as a romantic meeting place. Whatever the reason, she's thirteen, sheltered – thanks to her dad – and naturally shy. Maybe she worried herself into a state about whether she should go and had to find her courage to meet Cloud. She likes him just as much as he likes her remember. It's canon, don't argue.
Now, her face is this bit is out of focus, but that's nothing to my weirdly myopic eagle eyes – it's a very specific gift. Tifa's smiling. That we can tell even before she's fully in shot. There's a bunching of the cheek muscles that tells us that. She's pleased he's still there. Obviously, she can't read his body language, but she'd probably be a bit upset to realise she upset him. Because she's not actually a bitch like some people like to claim. Sorry, but she's thirteen. How threatened are yall that you gotta call a thirteen year old girl a bitch and try to erase how important she is in Cloud's childhood just to further your own ends? Seriously, get help.
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Sorry for the janky, but this is a transition between focus so it's not gonna be great anyway. Here we can see Cloud's expression when Tifa says heya. Eyes open, wide with surprise. She showed. That's what his face is saying. He's trying hard not to show his emotions too much – I mean he is still Cloud and too cool for all that nonsense – but he's relieved. Maybe his heart even skips a beat, but I'm speculating. Her greeting is casual, reserved. Tifa. She’s being cute even though he’s not looking because she wants him to think she’s cute.
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Tifa, ever respectful and respectable sits the right amount of difference away that both encourages Cloud she's interested in being near him, but doesn't over encourage him and make him think of her in a negative way. She's likely cultivated this on purpose – she's the mayor's daughter so she's always got to be proper – because she's got a lot of male friends and having any of them get the wrong idea would be bad. You'll notice in her other flashbacks where the boys feature that she's not sitting too close to any of them and they're running around her, not touching or anything. They're satellites that revolve around her because she is untouchable to them. Because she's the mayor's daughter and has to be a good girl all the time. This is further evidence that goes towards Tifa's overall personality. She's very careful and respectful to people. She doesn't go out of her way to offend anyone unless she has no choice. Though she's a skilled fighter, she's very slow to anger and tries to look on the bright side as much as she can, despite the tragedy in her life. (I'm gushing, I know, but she's such a great multifaceted character and way more than the tropes people shove on her to make her into nothing).
Where was I?
Right. So, in direct contrast to their later conversation during the chapter 14 resolution, here we see Cloud with his back to Tifa and her with her head tilting, inviting him to confide in her. Yes, there really are that many awesome parallels purposely inserted in this game and that's why you need to take more than one look.
From her face we can conclude she's optimistic. She's smiling and doesn't look like someone who's expecting a bomb to drop any second – Cloud if you only turned around you wouldn't have gone through this shit. Sure, you'd have likely died when Sephiroth came to town, but hey, you'd have gone out with your childhood sweetheart lol
What she's probably expecting is for Cloud – who has purposely invited her to the watertower hot dating spot – to ask her out. And since she's there and dressed up, we could conclude she'd accept him.
Cloud is trying to find the cool words he wants to say that'll motivate Tifa to miss him, maybe even push her into saying, “No, don't go,” because even though he's fourteen, Cloud is no good at talking to women. This is just one of his character traits. It's why we wanna strangle him over the Triangle. Bby Cloud is hardly better than adult Cloud, but at least bby Cloud knows he likes Tifa.
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Bomb dropped. Kaboom. Poor bby Tifa. Look how disappointed and upset she is. She wasn't expecting this one bit! She looked so hopeful in the seconds before Cloud's hesitant declaration, only it wasn't the kind she hoped for. I wouldn't go so far as to say she's crushed, but she's upset, that's for sure. Her brows have come together and she's turned away from Cloud because she doesn't want him to see how she looks in this moment. She's trying to put a brave face on it, but bby Tifa isn't as good as her grown up self. You can see the mouth trying to form a smile, but the eyes have a different expression in them.This is again seen in chapter 14 when Tifa tries to put a brave face on for Cloud before breaking down. 
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Shots fired! Tifa goes for dismissive and succeeds! Never mess with a girl with a crush lol
Cloud was trying to get a reaction out of her, but she got one out of him instead. Brave face wins. Well, what did you expect? She's the mayor's daughter and raised on being proper.
He stutters that he's not like the other boys – so cute – and shows off his lofty dreams. He's trying so hard to impress her. He only has these dreams because of the incident when they were smaller where her father said if Cloud can't take care of Tifa then he has no right being around her. This is what drove Cloud to distance himself from Tifa and her friends. Talk about shoving an inferiority complex and identity disorder on a kid. I get it, the mayor was worried about his daughter, but Cloud didn't deserve the bear the brunt of his anger and blame. Still, the fact that nine year old Cloud took that, held onto it for five years and still decided to pursue Tifa by becoming a SOLDIER has huge meaning for them. He was nine. Ok, for argument's sake let's say he didn't have a crush on her, but they were friends and he was told he wasn't good enough to hang with her. So, thanks to propaganda he gets it in his head that SOLDIERS are the best and if he's one of them he'll be good enough for her father to let him see Tifa again. We're not told at any point – nor shown it – that Tifa is only interested in Cloud if he's this elite who can impress her. Remember, she already likes him. Look at what she's wearing compared to him ffs. This girl – again – dressed for a date with Mr Oblivious. Yes, I'm rolling my eyes. Yes, I want to smack him upside the head. Yes, I know he's 14, I meant adult Cloud.
Back to it. The look on his face here is one of “she thinks I'm like the others? I'll prove I'm not. I'm better than that. I can be next to her if I prove myself.” At this point, he's definitely gone from wanting to be around her in a friendship capacity to borderline romantic. I mean, he did call her out to the watertower. Did I mention that? A few times? Because it's significant. He's frustrated she compared him to her friends – no she didn't friendzone him, she likes him. He thinks she friendzoned him. Kids are frustrating and the adult versions aren't much better.
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Shots fired part two! Points to Cloud this time! Smug lil fucker, I see that smirk!
Okay, so Cloud says he's gonna be like Sephiroth and at this point in time Sephiroth isn't batshit crazy, he's someone to be admired. Tifa to be fair, doesn't sound impressed, but she's humouring Cloud. Then, she says, “Isn't it hard to become a SOLDIER?” And Cloud replies with “Yes, so I won't be back for a long time.”
Okay, now. This is definitely to get a reaction. The smirk on his face is saying that he's partly getting her back for her earlier shot and partly trying to goad a reaction from her because he thinks he didn't get one before – this is why eye contact matters.
Tifa, for her part, doesn't look happy. He's got a reaction out of her, but it'd be really super helpful if he was facing her to see it. Because he isn't, she can get away with a breezy reply that makes him think she doesn't care.
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I'm sorry, can I just say serves you right and leave it at that? Seriously, Cloud, don't mess with girls when you can barely form coherent sentences most of the time. What did he expect? She'd throw herself on him, clinging, crying and begging him not to go? Probably. Once again, our angsty hero is on the backfoot in their conversation. This is why eye contact matters. He's looking a bit gutted at her reaction. He likely hoped for more and got far less than he wanted. It's no wonder he goes to Midgar and doesn't approach her when he comes back as a grunt. He's carrying this presumed disappointment around with him that stops him from seeing her. (I can't really go more into CC events since I haven't played it and I've only seen a few bits and pieces, but what I got from it was Cloud is an idiot.)
Tifa asking if he'll be in the papers is both a brush off towards his baiting and also she's trying to encourage him. This is his dream. He called her out of the house late at night to tell her – just her – that this is what he's gonna do. Of course she won't stop him. She's not that kind of girl. She's supportive and kind. She doesn't understand that Cloud's doing it for her – I honestly don't think it enters her mind at any point until he reveals it OG during the lifestream sequence. She's pretty much as oblivious as he is and assumes they're just really close friends and her attraction is all one sided; same as he does about her.
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Ah ha! Tifa thinks, realising that Cloud's lukewarm effort to be in the papers won't be enough to satisfy her. If Cloud's going to become a SOLDIER, then he'll be a hero – like Sephiroth. What do heroes do? Save people. He said he won't be home for a long time, but there's even less guarantee he'd come back at all, and she wants to see him again, even if it's just once. She can't leave Nibelheim. As the mayor's daughter she's got responsibilities to the people there – even though the town is dying out and nobody new is settling. Eventually, she'll be the only person her age left and maybe never hear from any of her friends again. But, she can't leave. She can't abandon the people. She'll be left, alone and lonely, until everyone’s gone. Her life wasted. But, she could see Cloud again and that makes her optimistic. Maybe she wouldn't mind the time so much if she thought she'd get to see him again. See that at least he's pursuing his dreams and he's happy with the direction his life took. Maybe she'd get one grand romantic gesture in her life if SOLDIER Cloud could save her.
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Confused boi is confused. From Cloud's pov, he doesn't understand this odd request. He hasn't thought about Tifa saying everyone leaving means she's alone. He's only seen this from his pov, so he can't see why Tifa would need saving or how he would even know she needs him. He doesn't realise it's her way of trying to get some guarantee they'll meet again.
I mean, we can see he's trying to understand her. He's actually turned to look at her this time and his expression is searching, like he's looking for clues why she said this. He also invites her to explain by making a verbal cue.
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And now that Cloud has her full attention – you know, the thing he was trying to get all along – he doesn't know what to do with it. He's flustered and awkward, and she's cajoling and turning on the charm, which she likely has in spades because mayor's daughter. I know I say that like it's a personality trait, but in part it is. She's had to learn decorum and everything that goes with it. She needs manners and good behaviour. She has to be just enough of an extrovert that she can attend functions – because even though I know I said the town is dying, they still have a reactor and that means they still get visits from important people. She can't show her dad or town up. In the Resolution analysis I made I said she hasn't been allowed to show emotion for five years since she arrived in Midgar, but it's very likely she's never been allowed to show much emotion. She's gotta be the doll. So, since she can't show she's sad, she goes for positive, and Cloud's frowning because he's not sure how he'll keep this promise she wants so bad and if she isn't interested in him then why is she asking for one anyway? Remember, they just did a do-si-do with each other's feelings acting like they don't like each other.
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But then, oh look! Oh look! In the face of Tifa's unrelenting cheer and optimism, Cloud starts to smile. Eyes soften and the slightest lift at the corner of his mouth. He's starting to like the idea of being her hero. And it's just once and maybe from that one time save things would move forward for them. He's definitely not opposed to the idea – especially since he's the one who brings it up with Tifa later and she's pretty embarrassed at the reminder. The confusion from before could be because he thought she wasn't serious, but looking her dead in the eye – this is why eye contact matters – he sees she's serious. She wants him to be her hero. She wants to see him again and even offers a get out clause by saying “just once.” He doesn't have to do it forever or whenever she wants, just once. So, she can have hope she'll see him again some day.
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And now we're back with the big idiot, who squeezes his eyes shut as he remembers Tifa in the bar earlier saying she feels trapped. Guilt likely pinches. Maybe he wonders if this was a hint she wanted his help – I'm wavering on this because she does say later she didn't expect this kind of thing when she asked for his promise – but if we go by choice of words alone it's leading. Then again, bby Tifa uses the word trapped, so it could just be a word that she feels comfortable using to describe her feelings. How we speak is made up of specific words we go to that feel right when we say them. It's just one of those things and why not everyone speaks the same even when they're from the same region or you have friend groups where you speak one way and other groups where you speak another.
From the dev pov I'm assuming it's meant to be a callback to the promise, but I wouldn't put it on Tifa doing it purposely to encourage Cloud to help her. If that makes sense.
And we close off with Cloud clenching his fist and resolving to help Tifa. To keep his promise.
At no point do we have confirmation from Tifa that the reason she asked Cloud to make a promise was to get a favour off him.
Conclusion
This is actually a very tragic scene from Tifa's pov. I've seen some people say this is because she's a young girl acting like a fairy princess, but I can't marry that idea with the gritty themes FF7 portrayed, and Remake does still hit those notes. Tifa is a young girl who had her romantic hopes dashed and she's looking for some kind of consolation from the boy she likes. He's leaving her. They're all leaving her. She'll be alone. She just wants hope that she'll see him again.
Is it manipulative? Yeah, ok, if that's how you see it. She's thirteen. Did I mention that? I'll say it again. She's thirteen, and one of the last people her age in town. Soon, she's gonna be the only one her age. She's lonely and doesn't want to lose everyone in her life. If you say that's manipulative by asking her crush make a promise so she can have hope she'd see him again, then go off I guess.
And let's touch on hope. Tifa is someone who has a lot of enduring hope – this is why I initially linked the ask to the resolution scene because the theme of hope runs through both. Tifa gets knocked down a lot. She's almost died several times, lost people close to her when they left town, lost Cloud when he left and still found a way to go on. She was never a damsel or trying to be one. She's wearing a cute dress because Cloud asked her out. She thought it was a date. Or she wanted it to be. And since when does wearing a dress make someone a weakling? Or does it only apply to Tifa because convenience?
After Cloud leaves, Tifa begins training every day. She learns from a master and develops her skills until she's at the peak. I mean, you've seen her fight. She kicks all the ass.
She wasn't sitting around like a damsel waiting for an opportunity for Cloud to come and save her. She got on with her life. She was happy at times, sad others. It was normal. She missed Cloud, I know that much from CC. She dressed up – again – hoping he'd be part of the group inspecting the reactor. She was disappointed when he wasn't there.
The promise between them wasn't about furthering a childhood romance or making Tifa someone Cloud couldn't get over. Neither of them was aware the other had feelings. It was awkward mutual oblivious crushing that clearly carried on for another two years until Cloud showed up with Zack, but didn't appear before Tifa because he’s that kind of idiot.
And what happened during the trip? Well, a lot of stuff, but the thing I know about is Sephiroth went batshit cray cray and slaughtered everyone in the town and then burnt it to the ground. He nearly killed Tifa. Cloud was there and that's what we see in his headache flashes about “I let you down again”.
He carries a lot of guilt about not being Tifa's hero, which is why he tries so hard to protect her. He made a promise to her that part of him believes he hasn't kept, but if it wasn't for him, she'd be dead. Again. He did save her. And he keeps on saving her. Not because of the debt of a promise but because he wants to be her hero. The real Cloud that's hidden deep within him, the one that made the original promise, the one that almost died saving her and got stuffed in a mako chamber for years until Zack rescued him, that Cloud wants to be Tifa's hero.
That's why after he recalls this moment – and it's one of the ones where he doesn't have a headache at all (just thought I'd mention that because certain people go on about how a specific scene is all Cloud not headachey Cloud whatever) – that he becomes focused on helping Tifa. He opens up both to her and others – check the camaraderie with the trio after the mission and him offering to walk Wedge home. 
This recollection of a promise is the first step for the real Cloud to finding his way back. That's why it anchors his development and that's why his and Tifa's relationship will never be less than something deep and meaningful.
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lacquerware · 3 years
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2020 Recap - My Year in Gaming
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2020. What a year for video games. I had big plans for last year, but in the end I did very little besides play video games, and I don’t think I’m alone there since we were all stuck at home looking for a way out of reality. I wanted to do a year-end recap as I’ve done sporadically in past years, but this one will be different than the typical “Games of the Year” format because despite all the games I played in 2020, almost none of them came out in 2020, and some of the things that defined my year in gaming weren't even games. 
Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4)
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RE3 was one of the only games I played in 2020 that didn’t coincide with the deadly pandemic's spread across the US. RE3 is, of course, a game about the spread of a deadly virus in Anytown, USA. It was an appetizer, I guess. 
When the Resident Evil 2 remake dropped in 2019, there were some things I loved about it, and a few things that felt like steps back from the original. I feel much the same about RE3. I had also theorized that a Resident Evil 3 remake would be better off as RE2 DLC than as a separate full-length game, and considering how short RE3 turned out, with some of the best sections of hte original cut entirely (namely, the clock tower), I stand by my theory. 
Oh well, at least Jill gets this rad gun, which for the time being is the closest thing to a new Lost Planet we can hope for anytime soon.
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Sekiro (PS4)
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Sekiro is the first video game I ever Platinumed. This is partly because conquering the base game was such a spartan exercise that going the extra mile to get the Platinum didn’t seem so bad, but it’s also surely a result of the pandemic. I needed a project and a big win. Who didn't? 
I wrote at length about why I like Sekiro more than every other modern FromSoft game, and also about the game’s cherry-on-top moment that reminded me of blowing up Hitler’s face in Bionic Commando. Please read them!
Death Stranding (PS4)
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Release date notwithstanding, this was obviously the Game of 2020. I wrote about it here, here, and here. This game bears the distinction of being the second one I ever Platinumed. It took 150 hours. Only then did I learn I had a hoverboard.
Streets of Rage 4 (PS4)
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This is the only 2020 game I played for more than a few hours. In fact, I cleared the entire game at least five times. I still don’t think it captures the gritty aesthetic of the prior Streets of Rages (nor even tries to), but this is probably the best-feeling bup I've played. Huge bonus points for finally bringing back Adam, but in the end I found it hard not to pick Blaze every time.
Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch)
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What impressed me about this sequel from Inti Creates was that it wasn’t just more of the same, even though that would've been fine. BMZ2 builds on its already excellent predecessor with a catchy new format where players can freely cruise the cosmos and stages take the varied form of planets—some big and sprawling, others short and sweet. Hopping at will from planet to planet without ever knowing what experiences and treasure each one held felt like system jumping in No Man’s Sky and island hopping in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, both of which felt like opening presents.
Dragon Force (Saturn)
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Charming, satisfying, and addictive as a bag of chips. Unlike a bag of chips, when it’s over, you can do it all again. And again. And it’ll be different each time! This might be the first strategy game I've truly loved. Better late than never.
The PC Engine Mini
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The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Mini seems a particularly justifiable mini-console for people outside Japan because so many missed these consoles entirely, the games are hard to obtain, and the lineup includes titles spanning the entire convoluted Turbo/PC Engine ecosystem—the TurboGrafx-CD/CD-ROM², Super CD-ROM², Arcade CD-ROM² and SuperGrafx, in addition to plain, old standard HuCard games. I myself didn’t know the first thing about these systems before. It’s like reliving the nineties again for the first time. 
Most of the titles included are simple action games that don't require a command of Japanese, but make no mistake: being able to understand Snatcher and TokiMemo does make me feel like an elite special person worth more than many of you. 
(Side note: From a gender representation perspective, the difference between Snatcher and Death Stranding is stark. Virtually every interaction with every woman or girl in Snatcher is decorated with ways to sexually harass her. Guess someone finally had a conversation with our favorite auteur.)
A Gaming PC
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I’d threatened to transition to PC gaming for years after beholding the framerate difference between the console and PC versions of DmC in 2012, and last July I finally took the leap, buying an ASUS “Republic of Gamers” (ugh) laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU. It seems like consoles are getting more PC-like all the time, especially with all these half-step iterations that splinter performance and sometimes even the feature set (à la the New 3DS and Switch Lite), so with the impending new generation seemed like a fine time to change course.
In the half-year since, I’ve barely played a single PC game more recent than 2013, but just replaying PS3-era games at high settings has been like rediscovering them for the first time. 
I also finally experienced keyboard-and-mouse shooting and understand now why PC gamers think they're better than everyone else. Max Payne is a completely different game with a mouse. Are all shooters like this??
The USPS
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Early in the year, I rediscovered my childhood game shop, Starland, which is now  an online hub known as eStarland.com with a brick-and-mortar showroom. To my delight, it has become one of the best and most modestly priced sources for import Saturn games in the country, and I scored Shining Force III’s second and third episodes, long missing from my collection, for a mere ten bucks each!  
In June, I treated myself to a trio of Saturn imports from eStarland: the tactics-meets-dating-sim mashup Sakura Taisen 2, the nicely presented RTS space opera Quo Vadis 2, and beloved gothic dungeon crawler Baroque. Miraculously, this haul amounted to just around thirty dollars total. Less miraculously, they never arrived. This was the second time I’d had something lost in the mail in my entire life, and also the second time that month. Something was wrong with the USPS, and it wasn’t just COVID pains. We would soon learn Trump had been actively working to sabotage one of the nation’s oldest and most reliable institutions in a plot to compromise the upcoming presidential election.
Frankly it’s a miracle there’s still such a thing as “delivery” at all, and a few missing video games is the last of my worries considering what caused it, but nevertheless this was an experience in my gaming life that could not have happened any other year. I won’t forget it.
*By the way, USPS reimbursed me for the insured value of the missing order, which was fifty bucks. So I actually profited a little off the experience.
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Mega Everdrive Pro
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I love collecting for the Genesis and Mega Drive, but I will not pay hundreds of dollars for a video game that retailed for about sixty.  The publishers never asked for that, and the developers won’t see a (ragna)cent of the money. I'm also far less inclined to start collecting for Sega CD, since the hardware is notoriously breakable, the cases are huge and also breakable, and the library just isn't that good. 
Still, I'd been increasingly curious about the add-on as an interesting piece of Sega history, so when I learned Ukranian mad scientist KRIKzz had released a new Mega Everdrive that doubled as a Sega CD FPGA, I finally took the plunge into the world of flash carts. This has proven a great way to play some of the Mega Drive’s big-ticket rarities I will never buy—namely shmups like Advanced Busterhawk Gley Lancer and Eliminate Down—as well as try out prospective additions to the collection. I never would have discovered the phenomenal marvel of engineering and synth composition that is Star Cruiser without this thing, but now that I have, it’s high on the shopping list.
The Mega Everdrive Pro is functionally nearly identical to TerraOnion’s “Mega SD” cartridge, but slightly less expensive, comes in a “normal” cartridge shell instead of the larger Virtua Racing-style one, and supports a single hardworking dude in Ukraine rather than a company with reportedly iffy customer service.
Twitch
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Getting a PC also resolved issues that had long prevented me from achieving a real streaming setup, and much of my gaming life in 2020 was about ramping up my streaming efforts. I even made Affiliate in about a month. Streaming has been a great creative outlet and distraction, as well as a way to connect with other people during the COVID depression and structure my gaming time. Find me every Monday through Thursday 8-11pm Eastern at twitch.tv/lacquerware.  
Metroid: Other M (Dolphin)
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PC ownership also gave me access to the versatile Dolphin emulator, liberating a handful of great Wii exclusives from their disposable battery-powered prison. 
One of the Wii games I fired up on Dolphin was Metroid: Other M, a game I’d always wanted to try but had been dissuaded by years of bad publicity and the fact that I never had any goddamn batteries. I know I should temper what I’m about to say by acknowledging that I was playing at 1080p/60fps on a PS4 controller so my experience was automatically a vast improvement over that of all Wii players, but I’m increasingly confident Metroid: Other M was the most fun I’ve ever had playing a Metroid game. I haven’t decided yet if I’m willing to die on this hill, but I will just say that if you like the Metroidvania genre in general and aren’t particularly attached to the Metroid series’ story or its habit of making you wander aimlessly for hours, there’s a very high chance you will enjoy Other M—especially if you play it on Dolphin.
Don't Starve Together (PC)
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Don't Starve is the only game my friend Jason plays, so last year I tried to get into it with him. I respect this game's singular devotion to the concept of survival, but make no mistake: every session of Don't Starve ends with you starving to death. Or freezing. Or getting stomped by a giant deity of the forest. The entire game is staving off death until it inevitably comes. Even when death comes, you can revive infinitely (in whatever mode we were playing), which means even death is not an end goal. There is no end goal. You don't even have the leeway to "play" and create your own meaning as you do in similarly zen  games like Dead Rising. 
Don't Starve is a game for people for whom hard work is the ultimate reward in and of itself. Don't Starve told me something about Jason. 
G-Darius (PS1)
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In the early fall, Sony announced they were dropping PS3, PSP, and Vita support from the browser and mobile versions of their PSN Store, and since the PS3 version of the store app runs like a solar-powered parking meter in Seattle, I decided this was my last chance to stock up on Japanese PSN gems. 
Among my final haul, the PS1 port of G-Darius proved an instant favorite. Take down the usual cast of mechanized fish in a vibrant, chunky, low-poly style that perfectly inhabits the constraints of the original PlayStation hardware. I believe this is the first Darius game that lets you get into giant beam duels with the bosses, which is quite definitely one of the coolest things a video game has ever let you do. The PS1 port is also surprisingly feature-rich, including some easier difficulty levels that present an actually surmountable challenge for non-savants.
This one’s coming to the upcoming Darius Cozmic Revelation collection on Switch alongside DARIUSBURST, a good-ass romp in its own right.
Red Entertainment
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In my effort to shine a tiny spotlight on some of the unsung Interesting Games of gaming, I found myself drawn again and again to the work of Red Entertainment. First there were cavechild headbutt simulator Bonk’s Adventure and twin shmups Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder on the PC Engine Mini. Then I streamed full playthroughs of the PS2’s best samurai-era, off-brand 3D Castlevania, Blood Will Tell and the Trigun-adjacent stand-‘n-gun, Gungrave: Overdose. Then I was dazzled by Bonk’s Adventure’s futuristic spin-off cute-‘em-up, Air Zonk, which was also sneakily tucked away on my PC Engine Mini in the “TurboGrafx-16” section. It turned out all these games were made by the same miracle developer responsible for Bujingai, the stylish PS2 wushu game starring Gackt and a household name here at the Lacquerware estate. How prolific can one team be???
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Month of Cyberpunk
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In November, I started toying with the idea of themed months on my Twitch channel with “Cyberpunk month.” It was supposed to be a build-up to Cyberpunk 2077’s highly anticipated November release, but holy shit that didn’t happen, did it? Still, I always find myself gravitating toward this genre in November, I guess because I associate November with gloom (even though this year it was sunny almost every day). A month is a long time to adhere to a single theme, but cyberpunk is such a well-served niche in gaming that I could easily start an all-cyberpunk Twitch channel. The fact that we’re so spoiled with choice makes Cyberpunk 2077’s terrible launch all the more embarrassing. Here are just some of the games I played (and streamed!) in November:
Ghostrunner Shadowrun (Genesis) RUINER Remember Me Transistor Rise of the Dragon (Sega CD) Shadowrun (Mega CD) Cyber Doll (Saturn) Binary Domain Shadowrun Returns Blade Runner (PC) Deus Ex: Human Revolution Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Observer
Shadowrun on the Genesis gets my top pick, but the two most recent Deus Ex games are great alternatives for those looking for something in the vein of 2077 that isn’t infested with termites.
Lost Planet 2
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Every year. I played through it twice in 2020.
Dead Rising 4
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I slept on this one too long. While it's a far cry from the original game, it's easily the most fun I've had with a Christmas game since Christmas NiGHTS. This is the game a lot of people thought they were getting when they bought the original Dead Rising with their new Xbox 360--goofy, indulgent, and pressure-free.
Devil May Cry 5: Vergil (PS4)
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Vergil dropped for last-gen consoles in December and breathed a whole lot of life into a game that was already at the head of its class.
Nioh 2
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I’ve only played a few hours of Nioh 2 because I promised my friend I’d co-op it with him and wouldn’t play ahead. But he’s a grad student with two small children. Nevertheless, Nioh 2 is my Game of 2020.
And that's it! Guess I'll spend 2021 playing games that came out last year, and maybe eventually getting vaccinated? Please? 
11 notes · View notes
cloud-side-gaming · 3 years
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Cloud’s Chronic Chapter 18
I’m new to tumbrl, so I’ll start with my latest gaming blog. Which I wrote a few days ago and post on a gaming site. I’ll add old chapters here too. Then the new ones going forward. I do most my gaming on PS5 & PS4
Pretty late with this chapter. I spent pretty much a solid month playing and loving Returnal. I got to 97% of the way to platinuming the game and my game crashed. I had to turn console off to get it to do something. Then when it came back on the save file had corrupted. For some reason the cloud save was corrupted too. Maybe it overwrote. This was the most gutting and annoying save corruption I’ve had.
I managed to do a perfect run on my first run after the tutorial run. Biomes 1-3 and then 4-6 in one smooth run and completed the game again. Then it took weeks and weeks of replaying through the 2/3 biomes I needed all collectibles for to get the respective last trophies. I think the last one I needed was in the desert biome and was an ultra rare room that has one chance to spawn per run. I think it took 70 runs to unlock.
Then finally after that massive grind and pretty much earning the platinum twice over I got one of my favourite platinums in my collection. It’s a good job I liked the game so much.
After that I chilled out a bit and then got the beautiful Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. It’s truly gorgeous and one of my fave platform games I’ve played on PS along with Astros. I’ve played about half way through so far. I need to go back and finish it as I put it on hold to complete a milestone I was close to.
I decided to make FFVII Remake my 100th platinum as it’s a special milestone and FFVII is a special game to me. One I grew up playing as a school kid and the one that got me hooked on RPGs and JRPGs. Also one of the only games to make me emotional.
Firstly though as FFVII intermission has just come out. I decided to enjoy Yuffie’s DLC first. I loved the story and the fact that it was based in the same time frame as the main game. Parallel to the main story. Yuffie was really fun to play as in combat with a great ranged and close range mix. Can’t wait to play as her in Remake part 2. Another great addition was the mini game Fort Condor. A simple yet addictive strategy battle game. With different troops and board set ups. I really hope they bring that mini game to part 2 also.
The other real hard part was the pride and joy fight in the battle sim. Where you take on 4 summons back to back and then the ultimate weapon. The hardest fight is Bahamut who also calls a summon for a hand and hits you with a one hit kill move every few mins. Only reprieve or a mana barrier could save you. Somehow I passed that on my first attempt. Thanks to some luck and a recommended set up. At 40 mins long, I’m glad it didn’t take a lot of try’s. As a reward you get a necklace that lets you start with a limit break. That was super useful in the last few chapters. I popped a few easy plats to get to 99 after that. Then got the platinum and 100 milestone earlier today.
The last few days I started Hades. Omg what an amazing, beautiful hand drawn and addictive game. I can see why it got so many GOTY’s on the switch. I fell in love with it the first day I played it. After 14 attempts I finally made my first successful escape / run on my third day playing it. This will be my chill out game and one I play along with a few others if I can get off it. I really want to get this platinum and spend a lot of time with it. I bought the PS4 version with free PS5 upgrade. So once I have the 5 plat. I’ll go back to it sometime and earn the PS4 plat.
The game is a brilliant Rouge-like. You have 6 weapons you eventually earn. I favoured the bow at first and really enjoyed the range and safety it provided. As you go through the rooms you get given boons by the Greek Gods Zeus, Poseidon etc etc. That Biff your attack, special, cast (spell) and more. Each one is noticeably different and fun. Also you can get Duo boons that combine the power of two gods for very powerful effect. Like lightening on top of a water pushback.
The game is difficult but as you make your runs you get permanent upgrades to work on that make each run a little easier. Like extra health, extra lives etc etc. There is also a god mode. A 20% damage reduction that increases 2% every death to a cap of 80%. Now Ive completed my first run. I might start using god mode to make the grind a bit easier.
As you meet more characters and give them gifts they give you keepsakes. Another powerful bonus to help you along. Which you can level also. The character interacts and the way the game adds story slowly each run is a master stroke in rouge like story telling. This game really is a joy. I look forward to playing more and learning more.
As I’m writing this Ghosts of Tsushima Director’s Cut is minutes from release. I stopped playing it only a few hours in for last years GTTSC. So this is the perfect time to restart and get into one of last years best games in its ultimate form on PS5
Another great few weeks or months of gaming are ahead. Have a good one all.
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chibi-encubierta · 4 years
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Trials of Mana, Session 5: "Too much forest and I actually like Charlotte... a lot a bit"
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Wait... They are recommending NOW to switch classes? When you could do it at lvl 18?  I did that so long ago... Or are they suggesting getting to third class?? I'm on lvl 31 so I need more training AND the items to unlock them aaand the seed to get the items :/ ===============   Anyway, time to call Vuscav and head to Moonlight Forest
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Japanese voice Kevin sounds like he is begging the ruler of the seas, please, pretty please, such a cinnamon roll.
===============   Serious talk with Faerie and stereotypes about the Beastmen
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And that only the followers of Gauser are the ones that gives the beastmen a bad reputation... Now that I think about it... Up to this point in OG and remake, he has never ever mentioned he is half-beastman or the prince, I mean the party knows he turns into a werewolf at night, but still everyone is saying just how vicious and evil and terrible are the beastmen... Kevin just remains silent and now that he is alone with the Faerie and she brought that up he says a little bit. I always had the headcanon he says it and the team kinda accepts it in a “not all beastmen” style but still I though they will add a little more here, I mean we know if we get him in the party but not as main, but if Kevin is the main... Not a single mention of his linage.
=============== Obligatory detour to Karl's grave I always take if Kevin is the main... Also I don't want to go to the tower yet... ===============
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No, I don't wanna fight Ludgar yet...
=============== (uugghh I forgot to take screenshots of this part, Deathjester saying that Kevin is just “stupid” and naive and paralized him and then tells him how “delicious” his soul must be because he is a beautiful cinnamon roll to good for this world, too pure) I want to kill deathjes... Goremand so hard!!
I don't remember this scene from the OG, but I like it! And then Charlotte jumps in and get slapped hard, that had to hurt! Goremand I hate you! Only I can treat the satan spawn like that! I cannot wait to get to the forest of Illusion and kick your bony sorry ass.  And now he talk about Heath and his fate with Belgar, father of the year that makes Gauser looks like he does actually good/excellent parenting While Kevin is paralized by Goreman and wants to eat his soul >:(  (I really don’t remember this scene form the OG... Guess I will have to replay it :D)
Thanks for the save Ludgar...  but I still don't want to fight you :(
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Ludgar beast form is so cool in 3D!!!
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this part always get me a little sad :( I mean, these 2 would have been great siblings but no. =============== (The emotion in the japanese voices! I just love how much sadness you can feel from Kevin and Ludgar. Riesz has a lovely voice acting and the other characters too, even  with Charlotte’s desperation asking where is his beloved Heath). ===============
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From cool beast form to the cute baby form. Good bye forever baby Ludgar! (I already spoiled myself by accident that we see him training with Kevin as some kind of master-disciple //siblings in the Credit roll and it is so cute!!!) I'm really happy we could finally see that they ended like brothers (pretty sure that was not in the OG) will make a screencap later on.
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Even Charlotte here is dropping her "I'm a mischievous devil" face and is actually worried for the baby. ===============
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Yup, he is the real enemy... But don't forget his master: Belg... The Masked Mage. And finally Charlotte is being nice and  stopping acting like a spoiled little child and realizing she is involved in something bigger, saying how much she also hates Goremand and that she believes that with Kevin, they can beat that real Satan spawn. A+ character development you had there Charlotte.
===============
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Just took this screencap because Riesz looks like she is still angry by the fact she just heard from that other dying beastman that Kevin is a prince and not just a random beastfolk, and now he calls the king his father... What kind of best friend keeps that as a secret? she needs to talk with him about it later because this Goremand is a more pressing matter; And Charlotte is looking at him like she just realized he is a Cinnamon roll. lol ===============
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Big cinnamon roll having a big anime moment here, the voice acting in Japanese is on point ===============  Time to get the last spirit! To the Lampwood Forest!
Charlotte: Follow them, the yellow red flowers
Another Charlotte moment you go girl! :) (I wonder why they decided to make Charlotte talk like that in the English subtitles/dub... in Japanese she doesn't talk like that, just high pitched :/). ===============
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Still a better love story than Twilight  That’s actually something I didn’t remember from OG, only that they passed away for some reason, tragic indeed. =============== I can’t believe I ran out of money!!! No new weapons for the party :(
=============== 
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Ohh Kevin gave Charlotte his condolence... Precious cinnamon roll. I’m really feeling a change in attitude from Charlotte since the Moonchart Tower. =============== 
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Let’s just make a close up of this:
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Happy half-puppy and half-devil :D so pure! ===============
Wait... What... What just happened???!!? The entire party died from ONE ATTACK of the Grapplavine !?? Whaaat? my first game over in this game :D =============== Next Time: It is time for revenge Kevin...Revenge on a plant !!! >:(
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benisasoftboi · 4 years
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Gushing time.
Rune Factory 4 Special arrived a day early, so my entire day has been consumed in nostalgia. The original Rune Factory 4 was the first video game I ever bought on release day - I remember saving up all my money and making my mum drive me to like three different shops trying to find one that had it. I was already a fan of the franchise - before then, Rune Factory 3 had been my favourite video game, across the board. Aside from a playthrough of the first game last year, I haven’t played a Rune Factory game in a long time, certainly not RF4. But just starting up the game and hearing the music again, it was like it was suddenly seven years ago. Running around Selphia and seeing all the characters again - I love JRPGs, have played a lot of them, and I can think of very few that have characters that have stuck with me this long. And the aesthetics - the best thing about the Rune Factory franchise has always been the aesthetics, the music, the scenic and character design, just the general world. It’s a beautifully whimsical balance of urban and fantasy, and it’s the only JRPG world I think I’ve ever come across that I would genuinely want to live in. Rune Factory may no longer be my favourite game franchise - but I don’t think there has ever been another series that has felt so much like home to me.
Here’s a very long selection of personal highlights from the art book (by which I mean photos of the art followed by my rambling opinions):
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Yeah, see, here’s the thing - Rune Factory 1 is not a good game. I could write an entire essay on why it’s bad (I actually started and got pretty damn far before realising no one’s interested in my two thousand word review of a game that came out over a decade ago - the short version is ‘Misty Bloom-fucking-Cave’. Anyone who’s played RF1 knows exactly what I mean). Don’t get me wrong, it has good qualities - excellent boss fights, for one, and also, as with the rest of the franchise, it is aesthetically wonderful. But ultimately, it feels less like playing a video game, and more like playing a proof of concept for a game. Which I guess it kind of was - and I can’t hate it because we wouldn’t have the rest of the series without it.
But it literally ends with a dragon spewing plant breath on a tank to make a turnip grow out of the gun. ‘Profound’, my arse. 
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It’s Raguna! The “master sowrdsman!” (that is not a typo on my part that is a direct quote from the ending of Rune Factory 1 this game’s script had so many issues-). And Mist! My favourite of the ‘canon’ love interests!
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Best girl! When I was a kid, my favourite love interest in RF1 was Rosetta. As an adult, it is Tabatha. I don’t know what it is about her that I find so likeable (she’s as lacking in personality as any other RF1 character), but... idk, I just like her a lot.
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Camus’s big ambition is to leave town like even once. He will never achieve it
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Fun fact about Melody is that she’s extremely depressed, a fact that comes up once in an optional side quest and is never addressed again. It’s incredibly dark for an RF game
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Fun fact about Lukas is that he sucks (he’s one of those ‘obsessed with talking about how hot all the girls are’ characters, an archetype that thankfully doesn’t show up again in these games). But also, interestingly enough, thanks to one of RF1′s many, many script errors, if you marry Rosetta (the girl Lukas is the most obsessed with), he’s supposed to express disappointment that he lost her to Raguna - but instead, he implies that he’s disappointed to have lost Raguna to her. The translators typoed their way into giving him a sexuality change. Which is honestly kind of amazing.
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LOOK AT THIS SLIME THIS IS SUCH A COOL SLIME LITERALLY EVERY OTHER JPRG SLIME GO HOME DRAGON QUEST GET FUCKED (jk I like Dragon Quest a lot and its slimes are cool too). Wish you could see in-game that this is what they’re meant to be like.
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I just generally love the monster designs, they’re really charming
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Rune Factory 2! The RF game with the most weirdly mundane protagonist name (Kyle. In the main four games of this franchise we’ve got Raguna, Micah, Lest, Frey... and Kyle). The two generations thing was actually very cool, but when they say ‘each chapter captures a different lifestyle’, what they really mean is ‘the first half is a weak Harvest Moon I’m sorry, STORY OF SEASONS game, and the second half is a pretty good Rune Factory game’  
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lookit this little fuck
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Yue Yue Yue! I love Yue so much, she’s great. She’s kind of like a much chiller version of Anna from Fire Emblem.
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It’s really cool that we got to see grown up Cecilia (she was in RF1). I have this silly headcanon that if Kyle doesn’t marry Mana, Nicholas (her friend in 1) comes to visit Cecilia one day in the hazy-post game future, and meets Mana, and they get together. While Yue is my favourite, I do genuinely like Mana a lot, and I just want her to find love, I guess.  
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Here’s original Barrett! There’s a reason he was popular enough to make a reappearance (well, aside from the whole grumpy pretty boy thing he’s got going on) - he was a great character in this game. His and Dorothy’s relationship is also definitely the most compelling of the rival romances. Bonus Max, who also has a little shout-out in RF4 (check the diary in what will become Dylas’s bedroom at the start of the game)
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Ray is male, but apparently he was originally going to be a female character, as he has an unused portrait in a wedding dress. My friend and I agree that this makes him a Trans Icon
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Monster designs remain excellent. Especially the goblins
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Skipping over Frontier (and also Oceans later), as I never got to play it growing up due to not having a console, and still haven’t got around to it - might try this summer. Except I do need to point out that these guys should be memes. I don’t know in what way. But they should.  
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Rune Factory 3! My first RF game. The transformation thing was very cool, even if it was basically useless outside the main story. My friend and I spent hours mucking about in the WiFi dungeon. I loved the desert settlement and all of the dungeon designs in general, and man, RF3 is just great. I hope it gets a remake one day.
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Raven Raven Raven! I LOVE Raven (as do most). Her story with Micah is the first time I can remember getting genuinely invested in a video game romance. I’m so glad she cameos in RF4. I love her. She’s wonderful.
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I have an odd fondness for Marian. When I was about twelve, I decided to do a playthrough where I deliberately romanced the least popular bachelorette. After poking around on forums, I determined that character to be Marian, and did a run with her. And... I actually came to really like her. I find her endearing. I get that people find her annoying and don’t like her... unethical medical practices, but doing that run has still made me a pretty protective of her. It’s been a long time since I played RF3, so maybe I’d change my mind if I replayed now, but currently, as far as I’m concerned,  Marian’s a good’un.
I think I also used to low key ship her with Collette lol 
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Pia’s official art has always been super weird to me because it’s so not what her character is like in-game. She’s a ditzy airhead. This makes her look so serious
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RAINBOW! Another character whose art makes them look way more serious than they actually are. Daria is great and would be a meme if this game was more popular. I think she’s also implied to be a relative of Margaret. 
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I’ve always been super confused about what Kuruna’s skirt is meant to be. Is it fur? Is it part of her shirt? Is it even a skirt at all?
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Check it out, it’s the guy everyone would ship Micah with if this game was more popular
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I want Zaid to make a reappearance and interact with Doug. Pretty sure it’s canon that they’re from the same clan? Think it would be very interesting.
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RF3 definitely had the coolest farm. Also, still love the desert settlement.
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This is from Oceans, so I have no context, but it’s just so cool that I had to share
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Rune Factory 4. Culmination of the series is right - when I was playing it for the first time, I remember being blown away by just how much it is a true love letter to the franchise. I have never come across another game series that so consistently grew and improved from entry to entry. RF4 was a perfect ending.
Not that I’m complaining about getting RF5. Quite the opposite.
But if it had been the end (as we all thought it was until about a year ago), well, like I say. Perfect. 
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Well. Aside from soda can nipples. Can’t believe they didn’t fix those. Though in some ways, that would have made me sad too
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Dolce has such a cool design, in both human and monster form. I’ve always kind of crack-shipped her with Margaret, for no real reason at all
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Vishnal! I love Vishnal. Vishnal is pure as heck. Marrying him this time around.
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Doug! My choice from last time around. Another character who looks more serious in his official art than he is in-game (well... most of the time)
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And then there’s Dylas, who looks much happier here than he does most of the time. Kind of looks like he and Doug swapped bodies, actually. There’s a fanfic prompt for you.
Their ship name is Dyldo. I love them
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Leon is nostalgic for me mostly because my friend and I used to get into a lot of arguments about whether or not he’s the hottest character in the game. She maintains that he is, because muscles. I maintain that muscles aren’t actually that attractive. It is a rift that divides us to this day
(He looks oddly... younger in this art though? Weird)
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Sechs Empire is such an unfortunate name. Seriously. How rushed was RF1′s localisation team? All those script errors, and then this (the Sechs were the antagonists in the first game, and were only referenced in passing in the rest until RF4 - so it was a bit of a ‘sins of the father’ situation by then).
Seriously, try saying ‘Sechs Emperor’ out loud and tell me you can take this man seriously 
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I??? Love??? Them???
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I??? LOVE??? THEM???
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Still confused as to why Kiel, Xiao Pai, Arthur and Margaret are on the cover now. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but... Amber, Dylas, Dolce and Leon made way more sense? Even the Archival Cover makes more sense (Vishnal, Clorica, Forte), as those three are all kind of Lest/Frey’s servants (well, Forte for the whole town, but still). Of those first four, all but Arthur basically lift right out of the game with little-to-no impact on the story
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NO HAT TABATHA NO HAT TABATHA
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I’ve always really loved this Raven picture
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And I am thankful for you <3
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cloudbatcave · 3 years
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Cloud Plays White: Finale
This is a long one, folks, since I realized I had a bit in my notes I had forgotten about and only found after I posted this, lol, so I have now edited it in.
when we last left off I was criticizing Alder for being useless in apprehending Ghetsis and Iris for not just taking me to Drayden’s house herself when it is Right Fucking There. 
So I’m still futzing around Opelucid here.
“No way, without pokemon, I’ll be lonely and sad! …but am I just using my pokemon, then?”
wow, seems there’s some brain cells there after all. you keep exercising those, brah.
I run into a guy who thinks that it’s okay for team plasma to take pokemon from weak trainers, even though he considers himself one and feels bad for the people they rob.
There’s another dude in the same room who used to be part of team plasma but left because it was weird for him that everyone thought the same way.
See, I appreciate this part of the game’s writing - I wish there was more stuff like this, people who are conflicted and their viewpoints being front and center instead of the simplistic garbage we’re fed by Iris and Alder and company.
Though there’s an absolute nut job who says that despite the years he’s trained with his pokemon he’ll let it go if it makes it a perfect being and I am just not even gonna unpack all the lunacy there.
There’s a kid who thinks that just because N has the legendary pokemon, he must be the hero.
I am very concerned about everyone in Unova being so gullible.
“Your Scrafty looks like it can try a little harder.”
WELL FUCK YOU TOO RANDOM LADY??? LAD DOES HIS BEST AND I WILL NOT HAVE HIM SLANDERED THIS WAY
I finally go to Drayden’s and get told how the original dragon performed mitosis and now we have two dragons and also they once destroyed the region with fire and lightning but it’s chill.
“People may hurt pokemon even more by imposing their selfish thoughts on them. But no matter what, Pokemon and people believe in each other, need each other, and will continue to live together…”
Drayden is smarter and more nuanced than like, anyone else, why is he not a main character.
Iris chips in about how much she can’t forgive Plasma and Drayden mentions they don’t know how to wake up Zekrom.
Well, to be fair, I’d be very surprised if they did.
Off to the gym, this’ll be interesting since I have no ice or dragon moves on my team.
I get through the trainers okay, now time to fight Daffodil.
Her Haxorus was a bit tricky but nothing I couldn’t handle, and when I walk out Juniper shows up.
And somehow she knows how to resurrect Zekrom. Cool!
She blahs about how it’ll wake up when it deems someone worthy and talks about how much I’ve changed and shows me to the gate where the route to the pokemon league is.
“Chirae? Do you regret setting out on your pokemon journey?”
UH.
MAYBE?
mmm, that’s not fair to my pokemon though - nigh everyone around me may be looney tunes or incompetent, but they’ve been good pals.
So I hit “no” after all.
and she gives me a master ball. dope.
I make it to the gates of victory road and I honestly really like the bit where each section of them is themed after the badges! That’s a nice touch, I think that was only also done in the FRLG remakes if I recall correctly. It makes it feel a lot more ceremonious and important.
Ah here come my two idiots.
Bianca asks Cheren to smile and he’d probably implode if he did. He finally isn’t an asshole though, good for him.
The bug badge guard tells me to “fight valiantly like an insect” which is funny but I guess does make sense. Ants can fuck some stuff up, man.
Honestly I want to be a badge gate guard, seems like a fun job.
Also, I caught an excadrill in a raid the day I wrote this, and caught an excadrill in this game. Their pokedex entry includes this gem:
“Their tunnels can be destructive to subway systems”
Given the battle subway exists in this game, their insurance payments must be obscene. Imagine getting your match interrupted by a giant mole with metal fists that doesn’t give a fuck.
I named her Beans. She looks like a Beans.
I also caught a Deino. The Irate Pokémon that can’t see and tackles people to learn about its surroundings. I feel a kinship with this creature.
I named him Mezzo for laughs.
And I managed to get myself back to the beginning of victory road. Good job, cloud.
Okay I think I’ve found the right path, found a new dude to beat up which is a good sign. Apparently he’s lost too.
Love when a trainer switches out to a Pokémon mine doesn’t have a type advantage against and it gets wiped in two hits anyway. Death is inevitable.
“I’ve thought about what I can do to help my Pokémon win and I finally figured out the answer!”
Is it git gud?
Flame charge raises my speed, opponent’s klang uses automotize to prove it can do that too, dies because it’s too busy trying to go fast.
Then I get nailed by a flare blitz. Darmanitan is toxic to gen 5 nuzlocke runs, I swear. Especially since I have no one on my hodgepodge team resistant to fire. At least my unfezant is faster.
“Read what your opponent wants to do. Your opponent is human and may change plans from moment to moment. Be careful!”
There’s some meta joke to be made there but I’m not thinking of anything witty. Something something AI having a point even if not in this context.
Back to the beginning again but I think I know what I need to do now.
I looked at a walkthrough to check, tho, lmfao. Was tired of climbing up there only to fall down the wrong spot.
“There’s an item at the bottom! Do you want to slide all the way down?”
You’re the devil talking and you tempt me but I will ignore your silver tongue for now.
So I’m at the league and I thought Cheran would pop out of the bushes before I got here. That’s weird. I could swear he fights me one last time before I challenge the elite four.
NO CHERAN. OKAY. WHAT. IS MY GAME GLITCHED??
I guess not! Huh.
All right then. Time to try and see if I can win with my very unbalanced team.
Lmfao yeah my first attempt against the ghost trainer crashed and burned. Literally, thanks to her Chandelure. Very glad I saved on the outside. TIME TO GO TRAIN MORE.
No Marty, you may not learn wild charge, this is a no recoil moves household, self harm is bad.
Some grinding later, I am ready to try again.
Shauntal gave me a little trouble but was much more manageable. Grimsley was easy, only his Krookodile gave me issues.
I really like the elite four battle areas in this gen, I do admit. Very aesthetic.
Ah shit I know that Musharna is coming.
Never mind, that pink and purple snoozeball went down easy. I didn’t have a single Pokémon faint.
Unless Marshal breaks the trend the fights have actually gotten easier as I went.
He actually was a bit tricky, gave me a good show.
Hello endless stairs, hello N and Alder, hello giant random castle that just explodes out of the ground somehow.
“What has just appeared is team plasma’s castle”
Thanks mate, never would’ve figured that out without you. Why do you need a castle. 
Oh wow, the gym leaders finally decided to be useful and fight the sages for me instead of letting extremists wander around unchecked.
Thanks y’all! Trying not being pointless more often!
“Ignoring team plasma...that would be a terrible thing for us gym leaders to do.”
You all already did that, Elena. I watched as Clay and Iris let these assholes go. We could have avoided this whole plot if literally any of you had done more earlier.
So the game says the castle was built by the Pokémon team plasma took but how the fuck did they like...work underground...you know what I’m not gonna even think about it too hard because it makes no sense and I know that. I must make my peace.
I also like how the castle is nonsensical and yet there’s a line of dialogue about how they’ll liberate the Pokémon in PCs too for their Master Plan(TM), which is surprisingly thoughtful. This game is so inconsistent with how much sense its lore makes. It’ll come up with something clever and then wear its underwear on its head the next minute.
“Will you go the Pokémon league?”
Hey what - WHY DID YOU TELEPORT ME HOW CAN YOU DO THAT. DO YOU HAVE AN ABRA OR WHAT
THAT WAS RANDOM
Well at least there’s someone there to randomly teleport me back too.
WHEEEEEE
Hi Reshiram, convenient how that mini fire tornado you made didn’t burn me or N.
Hi Zekrom, convenient how your lightning didn’t hurt us either, you’re a considerate chap
Aight, let’s see if I can catch this bastard
...I did and it only took me like five balls. Okay then.
N gave me a good fight, so there’s that.
Love how Ghetsis’s bouffalant kills itself via recoil from its own move and my scrafty’s rocky helmet.
He gave me a good fight too though.
I do like the ending, despite my issues with how the game presents its message. N is a great character and I appreciate what Nintendo was trying to do with the game’s plot, they just...didn’t really delve into it like they should have.
I’m glad I replayed it. I still have my issues with gen 5 but I see a lot more of its positives now.
We’ll see if I do any post-game content, I have gotten kind of attached to my grump-ass trainersona and his weird team.
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cobwebcorner · 4 years
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The Resident Evil 3 remake is out! I've beaten it twice so far and here's my thoughts
"Short but good" really sums it up. The first playthrough might take you about 8-9 hours if you explore properly (that's total time, not in game time, which doesn't count cutscenes). So that's really the same length as your average (non-6) resident evil game. I think it feels shorter than it actually is, but I'll get to that. Follow under the cut for some lists.
The Good
The revamped story is fantastic and makes so much more sense
All the characters and their interactions are amazing. I could go through them individually but the result would be me saying "x is now y and this is amazing" over and over.
The game is heckin gorgeous
The dodge mechanic is excellent. It's tricky to hit but feels amazing when you do, and unlike Rev 2, enemies don't teleport to you to make up for your increased maneuverability (was that just weird lag on my end or game design? I don't know)
All the Nemesis boss fights are SO COOL. Acid nemmy doesn't make me want to tear my hair out anymore! The rail canon fight is so much more interesting! Nemesis has fantastic designs in his later forms!
Raccoon City is so colorful and lively and looks like a real city
Carlos's section has been expanded and it’s really good. High point of the game.
It is fun to play
Jill is a BAMF. I know I said I wouldn't go through characters individually but hot damn JILL IS A BAMF. They did my girl right. I'm so happy she's finally allowed to say fuck! She has attitude and personality! It's like they're finally bringing her English characterization around to how she's always been in Japanese! AND SHE GETS PANTS!
There is an excellent amount of enemy variation, with old enemies getting cool upgrades and a couple new guys making an appearance.
I haven't played through them all yet, but all the unlockables and the harder modes seem promising from a replay-ability standpoint.
The Bad
Where have all the puzzles gone? I don't just mean the 'sit down and dick with an interface' kind of puzzle, but also the type that's built into the level design where you have multiple routes with different hazards and you have to plot the best course through them while taking into account limited resources. I feel like they concentrated most of that in the demo section, and the rest of the game is very linear. RE 2 remake and RE 7 really nailed this so I'm sad that RE 3 fell so short. I think this is why RE 3 feels short, because the pace is so breakneck and you run through so much of it. You don’t have to stop and think things through very much.
Nemesis feels hella scripted. It's like he's switched roles with OG Mr. X. Once the game has decided he's on you, he's on you. There's no losing him. You can put in the effort to down him if you want, but as soon as he's up again he will spiderman straight into your path no matter how far away you got. Most of the areas where you run from him are just straight corridors with no branching paths. It's very disappointing after how much they were hyping his advanced AI.
Of the many varied and iconic areas from RE 3, this game has used....one. Now I went into it knowing it would be a "reimagining", not a faithful remake, but I can't help feeling cheated. It isn't just that I don't get to see some of my favorite areas in HD, or even that I fear change, it's that what they gave us instead is so generic and uninteresting (and linear). A few of the classic locations can be spotted in the background and I spent more time than is healthy running at invisible walls yelling "let me iiiiiiin I want to see iiiiit".
The latter parts of the game feel rushed. I suspect some of the area changes were made so they could reuse more assets from RE 2. I would have been happy to wait another year if it meant [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] that I could see the clocktower, the park and the dead factory instead of another fucking sewer section and all the cut bits of the RE 2 lab cobbled badly together [END SPOILER].
Fuck whoever designed the entire drain deimos section. In the mouth. With an ovipositor.
The Questionable
I have come to love New Nemesis' weird horse teeth and garbage bag dress, but I cannot accept the nose.
I love how all the gameplay-neccessary restrictions on Nemesis' behavior give him a very unique personality. He had 10,000 opportunities to finish Jill off and he kept choosing not to. He's like a big cat trapped in the body of a rotting linebacker who doesn't know what to do once he's actually caught his prey. He will punch his way through several walls and ceilings but he won't break into the toy store, presumably because he fears the life-size Megaman figure. In later forms when he gets really mad he runs in circles for no reason. I love him.
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rosaguard · 4 years
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summer waxes poetically about her favorite aeris gainsborough ships:
i never reblogged that five ships meme because...well i don’t have five aeris ships i care about lol. however, i was challenged(tm) so here is something close to it. i do feel like it is fitting to make this post on here since aeris was actually the first muse i truly started writing a ship on after asking someone first ( and i had been writing on tumblr for like...5 years on and off before that for context. anything before that was just..maybe flirting - nothing i felt invested in ).
aeris & happiness.
   the most important ship. the OTP. no other can compare. i think the biggest tragedy of aeris’ death is that so much was taken from her. she had so much to live for, so much to do, and her life was brutally and suddenly ripped away when she was finally getting the chance to figure herself out and rise to her full potential. i don’t want to aeris to die in the remake ( especially because everything about the whispers would’ve felt like a waste of time if nothing significant changes and aeris living is probably as significant as you can get ) but if it happens, it happens - i’ll just be really sad and disappointed by it lol. i’ve always been very clear that aeris’ death is not a bad one despite my blog canon essentially retconning it. there’s a reason she dies and it’s not to further cloud’s man pain ( he had enough of his own trauma already ); she dies because she’s a legitimate threat to sephiroth’s plans. she’s actually an example of a character death, especially a female one, done incredibly well, especially compared to SE’s recent output ( serah, luna, etc. ). also anyone who says she was created just to die is also wrong. barret was originally written to die first and they decided to change it.
    anyway, the point of me bringing all of this up is that i didn’t decide to do away with her death because i think SE sucks and they hate women. i did away with it because a lot of aeris’ character development ( her learning about the cetra at cosmo canyon, figuring out what the white materia does, etc ) is implied / off-screen since we never know her point of view and then well...she dies. i wanted to explore what her feelings would be if she woke up alive after being attacked while meteor is slowly drawing closer to the planet. how would she handle that? how would she feel? would she feel like a failure? would she be angry? what would she do after meteor is destroyed? would she travel the world? join the w.r.o? tell everyone to fuck off and then move to a cottage in the middle of nowhere and live the rest of her life in peace? these are the questions i wanted answered when i thought about aeris living. i don’t care if she ends up with cloud, or zack, or whoever because they don’t matter: aeris matters. she’s her own person with goals, desires, wishes, and more. no one talks about what she would want and do if she had lived. all people care about is what ‘man’ she belongs to as if she’s a prize to be exchanged between them.
   the second reason is simple that she fucking deserves it. she deserves it after living in a lab for 7 years and watching her mother die just trying to get her out. she deserves after having to deal with being stalked by the same company responsible for a lot of her suffering. she deserves to finally be around friends that make her feel loved, accepted, and cared for. she deserves to not feel alone, or like an outcast, or a freak because of her powers. she deserves to be able to go to icicle inn too and see footage of her father for the first time. she deserves to be able to go back to kalm and see her mom again. she deserves to live happily just like everyone else gets to do. her life has been filled with so much tragedy and pain yet she never lets it define her. she blooms in the face of adversity. she keeps smiling even up until the end of her life. she deserves happiness as her end-game and if i don’t get it in canon, i’m going to create it here myself.
aeris & cloud.
    i disliked this ship for a long time. it actually wasn’t because of the ship itself but due to some of my experiences with the shippers. i won’t go into my fandom experiences but i ran an account dedicated to ti.fa for almost six years so i’ve seen how...unpretty both sides of the 'ship war’ can get and it turned me off. a lot. when i decided to write aeris, i immediately started a replay of the the original game with an ‘aeris-lens’ ( analyzing her character, her relationships, making sure i got her date, etc. ). it made me look at her relationship with cloud in a different light since i had never really paid attention to it as heavily before since i avoided the ship tbh. i ended up enjoying their dynamic a lot. they have a natural chemistry with each other but there’s also this unspoken distance between them which is fully intentional - she has her own walls up and he has his. 
    they have a very ‘tragic love’ since well...she dies before anything can fully go to the next level. their relationship in canon is a very ‘what if’ and as a result, i often see people who don’t like the ship claim that they wouldn’t work because aeris wouldn’t be able to ‘deal’ with cloud and would’ve left. to be blunt, this a bad take considering supporting one another is prevalent throughout their relationship: 
aeris: i learned a lot. the elders taught me many things. about the cetra... and the promised land... i'm...... alone... i'm all alone now... cloud: but i'm...... we're here for you, right? aeris: i know. i know, but... i am the only...... cetra. cloud: does that mean we can't help?
cloud: ...i gave the black materia to sephiroth...? wha... what did I do... tell me, aeris. aeris: cloud... be strong, ok? He writhes and clutches his head. cloud urrrrrrgh... what have I done!? aeris: cloud... you haven't done anything. it's not your fault.
cloud: yeah, I hear you. sorry for what happened. aeris: don't worry about it. cloud: ...i can't help it... aeris: oh... then, why don't you REALLY worry about it? and let me handle sephiroth. and cloud, you take care of yourself. so you don't have a breakdown, okay?
    the remake only reinforces everything i like about their relationship: their banter is great, aeris gently takes his hand during one of his ‘moments’ and supports him, she confides in him about talking to her flowers, and he never treats her differently ( which is a big deal when just two nights before, he told someone to ‘get help’ when they claimed they could hear the planet lol ). they have so much in common as well: they both have struggled with loneliness, being an outcast, and not having a lot of friends. i’ll always find it incredibly interesting how cloud is repeatedly not invited to be apart of group functions in the remake ( he wasn’t allowed to celebrate with avalanche and had to sit outside jessie’s house as the others ate pizza ) until he met aeris and she invited him to have dinner with her and her mom. despite the ‘bodyguard’ dynamic to their relationship, they always feel like equals to me.
aeris: today’s special!!! cloud: why? aeris: because i met you, you dumb binch!!!
aeris: *says cryptic stuff and tells him that they can’t fall in love* ( i’m saying they because apparently in japanese / other languages she says ‘we can’t fall in love’, not just ‘you can’t fall in love with me’. ) cloud: uh....how about i do anyway??? also i’m saving you so...see you tomorrow at 11. bye.
me: their relationship never gets to a serious level because the opportunity was taken away from them de to unfortunate circumstances. 
also me: they’re just just...dumb and in love!!!! i’m sorry, that’s just the way it is!!!! she literally tells him that meeting him again was special to her and the silly boi doesn’t get it!!!! one of the composers of the game even said a tracks that plays with them is meant to have a romantic vibe!! when she pulls away from him, he reaches out for her because he doesn’t want her to let go!! the lyrics of hollow is literally ‘this time i’ll never LET YOU GO’ AAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!
    anyway, i’ve also noticed this weird trend in the fandom where it feels like cloud is never allowed to just has his own dedicated feelings about aeris - and i’m not even talking about romantic feelings. i feel like whenever there is talk about cloud’s relationship with za.ck or ti.fa, no one inserts aeris into it. they’re allowed to have their individual relationships with him yet with aeris it feels like you cannot talk about how much she meant to him and vice versa without other characters being thrown in. i don’t know if it’s because of shipping and people don’t want to acknowledge that like...characters can have feelings for multiple people or what but the reality is that cloud did feel something for her. she did mean a lot to him; so much so that he slept in her church two years after she was dead and went to her burial place alone. he missed her.  maybe it was just as a friend, maybe it was because of something more but i really dislike how their relationship and importance to each other, regardless of whether it’s platonic or romantic, is constantly invalidated.
aeris & gene.
     when kas / @castershot first created channels for gene and aeris in our rp server last year, i honestly did not think these two would have a serious relationship at all. i figured maybe they would have a fling or something at best / aeris would be the equivalent of a filler character in a few episodes of the show and then they would go their separate ways. ...that didn’t happen but i’m glad it didn’t! i didn’t know a gosh diddly darn thing about outlaw star but i’m very good at researching and aggressively reading wikis so i was able to whip up a verse ( and someone who watched the show thought i had actually watched it after reading my verse so i guess i did a darn good job! ). anyway, i feel like when writing aeris it’s very easy to...hmm...fall into very certain dynamics and considering gene’s line of work ( doing odd jobs, being a bodyguard for hire, a general jack of all trades ), i didn’t want it to be the ‘he’s a bodyguard, she gets protected, blah blah blah’ dynamic but in space. so their relationship ( at least in my head - there’s a lot going on in there tbh!!! ) basically became somewhat of a deconstruction of cl.erith + ( bad ) stereotypes about aeris in general:
      what if the helpless flower girl that needs saving from the big bad corporation is actually a liar who works for said corporation and was sent by them to retrieve something important(tm) and eliminate anyone that gets in her way? what if aeris, a secret member of the turks, has become so desensitized when interacting with other people since she is constantly wearing a mask and she can’t tell if she’s genuinely falling for someone or if her acting is just so good that even she can’t tell what’s real or fake anymore? what if i took all those bad takes about aeris knowing she would die, flip it, and actually make it so that she does know and still goes alone anyway because she wants to save lives for once instead of being the person who takes them away!!
me: imagine the drama!!! the angst!!! kas, casually: [redacted name b/c of spoilers] would just bring her back to life. me: WHAT?! >:(
apparently one character in the show is casually just GOD and can revive people so they can come back like:
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    my bubble was BURST. dreams DASHED. plans CRUSHED. dramatics aside, i still kept the idea of her dying because i do like the take of a more secretly jaded / not as ‘pure’ aeris that works for shinra and has to basically relearn how to trust / care about others again + i live to attack kas and all of her muses. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  anyway, the point is that i love them and they’re a dynamic i’m very invested in the more times passes. they’re both so stupid and passionate and loud ( the first in character thing i wrote when i remade this blog was them screaming at each other in an argument ) but they’re also sensitive, don’t open up to others easily, and have trauma!! oof x 100.
me: this ship won’t be serious lol the ship, months later: may or may not have a thread with them going on a date. may or may not have gone to ti.fa and cloud’s wedding together ( where kissafist’s tif.a may or may not threaten to smash his balls in if he doesn’t treat aeris right. *smash em, rip em plays in the distance as aeris aggressively laughs nervously* ), they may or may not get married and have twins that may or may not be named ren and rose. me: clown putting on make up.png
so yea, they’ve come a long way(tm).
the end.
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shielddrake · 4 years
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Final Fantasy XII: A Retrospective Review
So, I received Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for Christmas last year.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy franchise.  I have played almost every game with that title that has been released…at least the ones released in America, since I sadly do not speak Japanese. So it’s not unreasonable to assume I would want a remake of one of its games.  I have quite a few, in fact, including V and VI on my iPhone, III and IV on my DS, and I and II on my PSP.  Final Fantasy IX was the first game I put on my PS4 when I got it (yeah, I admit I put a PS1 game on my PS4 before anything else) and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying VIII when its remaster came out last September.
 Final Fantasy XII, however, is a bit of an exception because, my Internet friends, I have a confession to make: Final Fantasy XII is my least favorite in the franchise.
 Now I wouldn’t say that FFXII is a bad game.  Far from it. It’s a very good game.  For the most part, I completely understand why so many people love it.  I just don’t feel the same way.
 When I first played the game when it was released, I was not too thrilled with a lot of the gameplay decisions and where it ended up going story-wise.  At the time, I concluded that while it was a good game, it was a poor Final Fantasy title.  And this is taking into account the fact that I had played and beaten both Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance several times before playing FFXII.  Both of these games are quite different from the main FF series, but are great in their own right. I basically consider the Ivalice Alliance as a separate spin-off series, sort of like the Crystal Chronicles games or the Dissidia series.  
 But FFXII was not that great, in my opinion.  I didn’t feel invested in the characters, I was not a fan of the combat or license board system at all, and I felt the story was incomplete at best and annoyingly vague at worst.  There were a lot of missed opportunities for the use of the characters.  I was neutral about the graphics, which, although beautiful, I felt did not really improve on what was presented in Final Fantasy X, and I didn’t like that a lot of the regular trends known in the previous installments (the summons being the main example that comes to mind) were thrown out for something completely disconnected.  I finished the game just feeling a mix of boredom and irritation, to be perfectly honest.  The only thing I can recall even remotely liking was the music, despite it not being composed by Nobuo Uematsu, my favorite composer of all time even to this day.
 Needless to say, playing The Zodiac Age was not on my list of priorities, and I’m not sure I ever would have played it had it not been gifted to me.
 All that said, I received the game and felt that, well, maybe since I have it anyway I would give it another shot.  Let’s see if FFXII is as bad as I remember. Maybe a retrospective review would be a good thing to post on the twelfth anniversary of the game’s original release, so why not?
 * Looks at the dates and realizes Final Fantasy XII was originally released 14 years ago, not 12. *
 Uh, never mind. Clearly I’m way too late for that party.
 Anyway, as I started playing, I decided that there were two big questions that I wanted to answer with this retrospective review:
 1.) Is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released?
 2.) Would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise?
 Obviously the game has been out for a long time, remake or not, but I want to warn against spoilers here just in case. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s experience after all.  With that, let’s get started.
Statistics
 I just wanted to start this review with a few facts about my playthroughs (yes, the plural is intentional).
 I played through The Zodiac Age twice, once for about 42 hours in length and the second for about 47. I used each of the jobs in the zodiac job system in each playthrough, but in different combinations and on different characters.  Of course, I couldn’t account for every possible combination.  That would take a very long time…
 The party was at level 46 on my shorter playthrough and 51 on my longer one.  I did not complete all of the hunts, although I fought more of them the second time through. I did not try to get any of the special gear like the Zodiac Spear, mostly because I don’t know how.  I also did not get all of the espers, because other than the required time you have to summon Belias to get into Giruvegan, I never used summoning.
 I avoided any guides or other playthroughs for the game, relying on the game’s directions and my memory from my previous plays…fourteen years ago…to guide me through the main part of the story. Yeah, I haven’t played FFXII since it was released in 2006, maybe 2007, give or take a few months. So, if I got confused or lost during the course of the game, it was because I either missed directions or the game was not clear on where I needed to go.
 At the time of this review, I have not experimented at all with Trial Mode or played through New Game Plus.
 Graphics
 This section will be short, since I don’t have a lot to say about it.
 The graphics are very good. As I stated above, in the original I did not feel the graphics were all that different than Final Fantasy X released four years prior, and my opinion of The Zodiac Age hasn’t really changed.  According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, the game was given “high resolution upgrades to backgrounds, character models, 2d parts, and movie scenes.”  To be honest, I didn’t notice much of a difference, although that might be because I didn’t play the game often enough to have the original graphics etched in my memory.
 However, that does not mean the game looks bad. On the contrary, it is still a beautiful game, despite a few small glitches such as Balthier’s dialogue not syncing up to his lip movements or Basch’s hair not moving, Those are minor nitpicks. The game is still lovely to look at.
 Sound and Music
 Again, the music for this game is excellent. As I mentioned before, the music was probably the one thing I would praise about the game when it was originally released.  The Zodiac Age somehow manages to make it better by providing a rerecorded soundtrack that makes a lot of the notes sound less harsh. There is the option of switching it back to the original version, but I preferred the new one. Basically they took the one thing I liked about the original game and made it better.
 The voice acting I am pretty neutral about. For the most part, I don’t think anyone’s voice work was either bad or good.  Other than the overuse of sighs, of which I get most annoyed by Ashe’s because she sighs all the time, I don’t mind the voice acting very much.
 The only one I have a problem with, and this was also the case when I first played FFXII, is with Fran’s voice.  I always feel bad criticizing a voice actor because they put a lot of training and passion into their work, but I just can’t help but be really annoyed at the choices SquareEnix made when casting Fran. She sounds so different in the English version compared to the Japanese one, and I don’t think it fits the character at all.  Viera, all viera, are supposed to be these rather ethereal beings akin to the elves in The Lord of the Rings.  So why, then, would the translation team have Fran be given a voice that makes her sound like a nasally four-year-old?  According to the Wiki, the translators wanted to “sell the new take on the viera,” but it just falls flat.
 Miscellaneous Gameplay
 Okay, I only made this section so I can briefly go over some of the extra gameplay components the game has, both old and new.  First, the good.  
 The high-speed mode is great. I always thought the characters moved so annoyingly slow! This fixes that problem and honestly saves a lot of time.  I feel like it sheared off a couple of hours off the game that are just empty time needed simply to move from place to place. I used this in the FFVIII remaster as well for the same reason.  I basically never turned it off.  It didn’t affect cutscenes, so that wasn’t a problem. Also, the sound effect of four people running in high-speed mode is strangely hilarious to me.
 There is a transparent overlay map now available.  I find this to be much more useful than the minimap alone, which was constantly moving and incapable of helping me orient myself. Previously, I was frequently frustrated and getting lost in pretty much every area, dungeon and town when I played the original version.  The overlay map was especially useful in places where direction was important, like the part in the Tomb of Raithwall where you need to turn the statues to face the blade. I could never tell which way to turn them and needed to bring up the main map over and over and over again. The overlay map resolves makes this and general navigation much easier.  
 My only complaint is that, although it is transparent, it does take up a lot of the center of the screen, but that is a small price to pay for the relief of so much frustration. There are times when the overlay map isn’t useable, namely in parts of Giruvegan and the Bahamut, and then the frustration rises again, which only emphasizes how nice the overlap map is the other times.
 Autosave feature.  Need I say more? Thank you, SquareEnix, for an autosave feature! Especially during some of the hunts.
 And now the bad, which can be lumped into one thing: minigames.  Or I guess they’re minigames.  They’re small quests that are required to further the story that are not combat based. The yell at the guards to make them move game while stealing the Dusk Shard, AKA the dumbest guards ever.  The have Vaan declare he’s Basch in front of people in Bhujerba to get the Resistance’s attention, which unless you had already played the game you don’t know to do in front of the guides, leading you to just listening to Vaan spout annoying nonsense while literally nobody listens.  The exchanging information quest in Archadia to get chops to be allowed to ride a flying taxi, which is only slightly less annoying this time around because they reduced the number of exchanges you need to do from nine to three.  I guess they realized how tedious it was.  I disliked all of these when I first played the game and they were superfluous and dumb and add nothing to the experience this time around too.
 Character Progression and Combat
 Now we get to the parts where I feel I can really say something constructive. I was initially going to have these be separate sections, but they are so closely related to one another that it seemed silly to split them.
 There is something I want to make perfectly clear, that I must admit came very much to my surprise: The combat in The Zodiac Age is nowhere near as bad as I felt it was when I played the vanilla game.  Before it felt like a boring slog just to get from one quest to another, but I found that not to be the case this time around. I think the changes to the license board helps with the combat be more dynamic and require a bit more strategy since not every character ends up being the same.  I’ll get to the license board in a moment.
 With the job system in place, you have to think more about how you’re going to approach an enemy rather than having everyone just attack the whole time.  I mean, you can still do that, but your white mage is not going to be as strong as your knight, so having the white mage do only physical attacks doesn’t work quite as well.  And with the option of giving everyone different abilities, it means that every character has a different role to play in battle.  
 The ability to add a second job later in the game adds to the diversity you can bring, since you can make any number of combinations of jobs and really none of them are bad.  You’re also not limited by which characters can have which job.  Once you pick a job for a character you are stuck with it (at least on the PS4 version) but that does not lock the job away from other characters.  You can have two white mages, two knights, five red battlemages, or make every character a bushi if you so desire.  You can have someone balanced, someone focused on only offensive spells, someone focused on healing, someone just for physical attacks, a tank…the possibilities are huge!  
 The gambit system is still in place, and I still am not a huge fan.  If I have to micromanage a character’s actions, I’d rather have a system that allows me to input commands individually like in previous Final Fantasy games rather than allowing an AI to do it.  However, I understand that the combat in FFXII is fast-paced enough that it makes that sort of system more difficult, and I managed to deal with it fine. I wish I didn’t have to buy gambits for every single miniscule action though.
 On the other hand, I did find having multiple gambits useful for the various abilities each character has, especially since the job system allows for more individualized characters. This time, I felt like having several gambit slots was actually worthwhile because I had the characters able to do more things under specific circumstances, especially for spellcasters. This made it seem like it was worth the license points to spend on gambit slots from the license board.  So while I still am not fond of the gambit system, I found it overall less annoying than before.
 Obviously the license board is the biggest change to The Zodiac Age.  The job system is excellent this time around, compared to the complete lack of a job system in the original version. Normally a blank slate for character progression isn’t a bad thing.  VI, VII and VIII all had no job system as well, but you could still customize the characters to fit with a play style that you liked.  Vanilla FFXII didn’t allow that.  It was far too easy to make every character identical, so it ultimately didn’t matter which character you had in your party.  This time, the available variety made it much more enjoyable to play and experiment.
 The board was also improved on in that it was much more logical within each job.  Before, the board was literally just a board, with every license just kind of lumped together. The license for a helmet was next to a license for the fire spell.  It never made much sense and it seemed hard to predict what adjacent licenses you were unlocking. This time, armor licenses are together, sword licenses are together, magic licenses are together, and so forth.  Some licenses in the same category are spread apart, such as the technicks, but for the most part there is at least some sort of logic to it all, making it much easier to plan character growth instead of it feeling random.
 Later on, it is possible to make the characters very similar to one another, so that everyone can cast white magic, use the same technicks, wear the same gear, etc. This is especially easy if you pick secondary jobs that are opposite the first job (for stance, adding a foebreaker job to a white mage).  This doesn’t happen until late in the game though, so it doesn’t feel nearly as cheap.  FFX did the same with the sphere grid, but you had to be pretty far in the game before that was possible.  Same thing here.
 I feel I should mention the quickenings and summons, even though I never used the latter in battle. The mist abilities now have their own gauge rather than using MP, which is a nice throwback to the limit break bars of some of the previous games.  I definitely prefer it that way.  I found myself using quickenings less frequently than during my first playthrough, but that might be because the game was made to be overall a little easier.
 Story and Characters
 While the job system was the big change for The Zodiac Age, and certainly for the better, I feel I still need to talk about the story and the characters even though nothing about these parts of the game have changed.  The big reason for this is because the story was where I had the biggest problem with the original version of FFXII, and therefore will probably have the biggest impact on answering my two burning questions at the beginning of this review.
 That being said, if I were to go into all the details about the story and characters and what I think of it, this review would probably be three times as long as it already is.  To add to that, since the game has already been out for twelve fourteen years I’m not sure there’s a whole lot I could add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said, other than to point out how I would change the story to make it what would be, in my opinion, better.
 Perhaps if people are really interested in my in-depth analysis of the story I can do that in another post, but for the purposes of this review, I’m just going to give summarized version here.
 1.) Reks should have lived, or been replaced by Vaan, or have both in the party.
 2.) Vaan is not as annoying as I previously thought, but he needed to have a more concrete connection to the plot.
 3.) Same for Penelo. Still kind of preachy, but seemed more like a Jiminy Cricket character this time around.
 4.) The Strahl needed to be stolen somehow, both to give Balthier a better reason to go with the group and to give a better excuse to not just fly somewhere.
 5.) That said, knowing the whole plot of the game makes Balthier’s behavior throughout the story make more sense. Better foreshadowing, in a way.
 6.) Fran’s storyline needed to have a more satisfactory conclusion.  It just sort of ended.
 7.) Basch and Gabranth needed to have more personal interactions throughout the story to make their final moments more satisfying.
 8.) For that matter, have more personal interactions between the party and both Dr. Cid and Vayne. We meet both of them a total of two times…over the course of a 40-hour game. Too disconnected from the party’s actions to give much motivation for us to defeat them.
 8.) Why did they not use Vossler’s actions as a bigger plot point, with Basch trying to stop Vossler from doing what Basch was accused of? It’s sort of there, but it ends far too quickly.  Big missed opportunity.
 9.) More judge fights! We fight a total of three, Ghis, Bergan and Gabranth. I wanted more judge bosses!
 10.) To add to that, have more context for some of the bosses.  It kind of felt like so many of the bosses were there just for the sake of being bosses, and there’s only so many times I can say to myself, “It’s probably a guardian of whatever place.”
 11.) I still don’t get the love people have for Ashe.  I just don’t get it.
 12.) And finally, Larsa should have been the main character.  End of story.
 …Yeah, that’s the summarized version.
 Conclusion
 All things considered, I definitely had a different experience playing through The Zodiac Age compared to when I first played FFXII twelve fourteen years ago.  And ultimately this is why I decided on playing this game again.  I wanted to see if my opinion had changed, if I could look at it from another perspective rather than just negative memory. And although some of my feelings haven’t changed, it’s good to look back on something and see that maybe it isn’t exactly as I recall it.
 Let’s go back to the big questions I proposed at the beginning of this review.
 First, is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released?  No, it’s certainly not.  I think the changes made to the license board made the combat more enjoyable for me, and by extension it seemed less of a hassle and more of an actual game. I enjoyed running around and exploring more, and the bosses and hunts were more entertaining as well.  While I’m still not fond of the gambit system, I wasn’t as irritated by it and actually found myself experimenting more with it.
 Second, would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise? Eh, probably not.  Again, even with the alterations made to the game, there are still a lot of things that I personally was not a fan of, especially involving the story.  I’m one of those people who love the story of a game more than anything else (which is clearly why I prefer RPGs to any other game genre). Since the story is still the weakest aspect of FFXII, in my opinion, especially compared to other Final Fantasy games, the game overall doesn’t grab me as much as some of the earlier ones.  It’s still a good game, but not great.  To be fair, short of completely overhauling the storyline and characters, it would the difficult change those aspects for the better in just a remaster.  This makes me wonder how the FFVII remake is going to go, but the jury’s still out on that one.
 With all the various opinions and thoughts about what makes a video game good, it’s hard for developers to create what might be considered a perfect game for everyone, and the Final Fantasy franchise is no exception.  That doesn’t mean a game cannot be corrected to make it better than the original.  That’s what is good about patches and remasters.  It gives the developers another opportunity to improve on what was criticized.  Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age definitely succeeds in this, even if there are still parts that are not quite as good.
 Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Kingdom Hearts DLC to play and then proceed to tear apart.
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sillyfudgemonkeys · 5 years
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My stance on P5 (cause apparently I need to explain myself :/)
So someone just told me someone was vagueing about me on the confessions blog (can’t say my name cause it’s against the rules but they’ll try to get as specific as they can 🙃 if you have issues just be a real anon hater and send to my inbox directly you coward). And I’m not going to do a reblog to that post, because I’m pretty sure that person must be on my blog. Because the post they were vagueing me about was......not tagged.....in the P5 tagged (I did not tag it as P5 nor Persona 5), it was just a post that was on my blog (now if it showed up in the tag or search I dunno why but I didn’t tag it for P5 for a gd reason cause I keep it to my blog). The post was me pointing out how P5 when they first enter Futaba’s dungeon they didn’t have shoes on, but after the cutscene they DID. The post was more comical (with me getting salty in the tags, but then you’d have to go out of your way to read my tags). And tbh, I’m half and half, yeah I know it’s a nitpick, and I’d just chalk it up to an animation error and let it go usually, but it’s P5 and that game is already inconsistent with it’s plot/world building/characters/anything important that I’m like “nah I’mma rag on it cause it’s just one more thing they screwed up” so I’m like half let it go and half rag on it (fun fact, when I saw they didn’t have shoes on I was gonna make a post saying “hey look this is cool, nice attention to detail” and then they messed it up literally 2 seconds later so dklsjf;afa yeah). (oh and btw, it wasn’t just “one” character, it was the whole PT cast at the time 8U” at least get it right 8U)
But the thing is......that was just a post on my blog, I’m not me berating the P5 tag. So that means you, person who vagued me, tend to go on my PERSONAL BLOG. So like....why are you on here? No, don’t ask me about me and P5, I will answer that, but you answer why are you bothering looking at my personal blog? Is it cause of certain content I post? Then just blacklist certain tags (like my “silly plays” tag cause nothing really interesting happens in that tag, or my more negative “persona problems” type tags), I know I need to be better at tagging my asks, but if you like my original content then just.....go to the OG content tags (aka videos/pictures/edits/coloring)? That way you avoid anything not made by me? Or if you don’t have a reason and you’re just here to be mad cause someone doesn’t like your game, then block me. You don’t seem to like me, so just....why are you here? You seem to want to ask why I’m here with P5, and I have my reasons, but if you don’t have a reason to be on my blog then why are you on it?
I’m not saying this to be mean, but I don’t want to be policed, esp if someone is going to be hypocritical about it. And it’s annoying to see vaguing (cause imo you are as bad as someone who sends anon hate, but you don’t have the balls to just send it to me directly XP)
Ok now where’s my stance on P5? I don’t like it, but it’s a part of a larger series and lore which I do LOVE! Which means, considering I’m a LORE WHORE, it doesn’t feel right to just skip a game esp if it could contain info about the MegaTen/Persona lore (or even Character lore) I want to know. In fact, I really hate it when I’m talking lore with someone and if expanded info is brought up from a side game they are like “Oh I didn’t play that game so it’s not canon” No Bethany, just because YOU didn’t play a game doesn’t mean it’s not canon. And no, no one is bullying you over the fact you didn’t play it, you just don’t like being wrong and the person was like “Ok well it IS canon and it’s in the game, you don’t have to play it but you.....can’t ignore this fact, also why are you arguing this part of the lore when it’s heavily established in said game you ignored???? I mean you do you but don’t get mad when someone corrects you. No one’s forcing you to do anything.” Ahhhhrrrrgggh so many convos I’ve seen happen, I’m not going to be on the end that I hate. DX<
Also, P5 is not the entire Persona fandom, so while I put up with it and indulge in it by association, it doesn’t have the ownership of the fandom (like with all the original games+ spinoffs+all remakes/ports and P5S/P5R included, but not mobile games, it’s only 23% of all of Persona in terms of game entries, and that’s overlapping with crossover games, and if we included other stuff P5 is def a minor aspect in terms of entries). It’s not that hard, I’m just a bigger all around Persona fan than I am a Persona 5 critic (I don’t want to say hater, because it feels like it sounds like I’m hating it just to hate it, when really it was a game I was excited for and loved and then it just burned me bad and I’m just dealing with the scorn). Always keep in mind, I loved P5 before I hated it, it’s probably why I’m as salty about it as I am, because I love P5′s potential and....I was just let down (it wasn’t unrealistic expectations, like I said earlier, P5 contradicts itself.....all over the place, it’s hard to ignore and it’s not something that was as big of an issue, or even an issue at all, in other games). 
Why do I still post P5 stuff when I don’t like P5 (by which I mean...posting about the OG manga raws, or wanting to do a partial game to anime dub or even would be willing to help with editing a fandub for the anime)? Because I remember being a newbie Persona/Megaten fan, getting into the series, and wanting to know more about it and it’s side materials but then not being able to have access it any of it (because it was still prettty niche when I first joined and I had no money at the time). I want to give people access to it! Sure it’s harder for me to now to devote time to it (than it was a few years ago), but I want to help with giving access to this Persona/Megaten stuff now that I have some ability! And it also means P5 as well gets some of that love. 8U
As for why I was replaying P5, so this is one thing that’s making me wonder if you are a regular on my blog or not because I’ve been talking about playing the Korean version (but in my one post I forgot to type “silly plays P5/Persona 5 KOREAN” so yeah I forgot to specify Korean at the end). So tbh....I’m actually ignoring P5′s writing while I play (cause I’m just going through the gameplay motions), cause I don’t know korean. 8U And I’m mostly using that tag as a means to point out different things in the korean ver (no that much, but yes Ryu’s shoes ARE censored 8U). But why? Well.....I talk about it here and there but anon/person....1) I’m a trophy whore, I love plat trophies and P5′s is super easy I can get it (and I’m not above playing bad games, oh yeah burn, I’ve played a lot of bad games for plats, and I’ve also played the same games multiple times for plats, I do this to myself but really I don’t mind replaying P5 4+ times for 4+ plats esp since I don’t really have to pay attention). 2) I’m a big MegaTen/Persona collector, I want all the plats I can have (I plan on platting the other versions of the all the dancing games on Vita and PS4, P4G, and the versions of Catherine I don’t have, like I legit have a gd excel sheet keeping track of the versions of Megaten games I don’t have yet....I’m just doing P5 cause it’s 1) one of the easiest to do and 2) it was easier to get my hands on them atm). I don’t talk about my trophy hunting on here that much tbh, but that’s.....really a big reason why I’m doing it (plus with the Korean/CHinese ver I don’t have to pay attention to any story so it’s all good! :D) Yeah I do it to myself, but I don’t really mind. 8U And I mean I tend to keep most of my P5 issue on my blog too. I think the only two posts that I put in the P5 tag were 1) a few consistency issues I wanted to meme about (aka the I’m about to head out post, which was actually the 2nd post I made on that topic but I decided to just meme that one, so I thought it was better than me just bitching, at least I tried to make it a bit funny yet informational 8U), and 2) something that I tbh had an issue since I back when I liked P5 (aka wishing they worked on speeding up the loading times and the fast forward feature), so since I was playing the game I was like “That reminds me, man I hope they fix this in the re-release!”. As for english P5, the only reason I’ll be playing P5 OG in english is for either archiving reasons or research reasons (probably both at once so I don’t have to play through it more than once again).
As for P5R, uhhhhh I’m excited for Kasumi (Jose is cool too, and the new dungeon has me interested too, and all the P2 demons coming back to it makes me wonder what else is/if anything is coming back), she’s my main draw. Yeah it’s connected to P5R, but she looks so much like Hamuko I JUST HAVE TO KNOW WHAT’S UP WITH HER! Hamuko’s my girl, and I need to know if Atlus is going to do something with that, or if I need to be pissed for them literally lifting Hamu’s face! Am I gonna get pissy about P5R’s new add-ons (aka, I’m aware that P5R is probably going to keep the issues from OG P5, so I’mma just judge P5R based on it’s new content)? Yeah, if they kept up the same writing P5 OG had. So yeah, I’m probably going to get pissy if they eff it up, but I’m not going in pissy, going in with really low expectations tbh, but I’m giving it a chance. But if they don’t eff up the new stuff then......that’s good! It means they did something right. So far Kasumi is not Marie so we’re off to a good start. I’m hoping the keep that momentum. 8U
So yeah, I think I have valid reasons for staying, maybe you don’t like it anon/person, but they are there. 
tldr; someone feels like the need to police me despite the fact they could just ignore me (even tho it seems like they specifically came to my blog to get mad, rather than me clogging up the tag, like I post there maybe once or twice every 2 months). My stance on P5 is that I deal with it cause it’s part of a bigger fandom I’m a part of and the fact I love the lore of that bigger fandom so it’s not like I can ignore it. I also have a Playstation trophy problem. 8U And I’m excited for Kasumi is that so bad???? (also I didn’t mention it, but Anne/Haru are enough to keep me around 8U)
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