Lurker > Kotetsu534

Ghost

Anagram posted...

Hey man, I beat the chocobo racing minigame when I was fifteen or whatever, but I never beat lightning dodging.

The only ultimate weapon I ever got was the one that requires like zero effort, I think it's Yuna's?

Auron's and Yuna's are the two easy ones to power up, but Yuna's can be made much harder in versions of the game with the Dark Aeons (you need to unlock Anima, which means if you don't open a particular chest in each temple on your first time through the Besaid and Macalania temples you'll need to fight Dark Valefor or Dark Shiva to do it). Rikku's and Wakka's aren't too difficult but are very time consuming. Obviously if you are good at chocbo racing Tidus' is very easy to power up fully too.

Seems like they have to at least try to find out what level of Game Pass subscriptions it can drive. If they create a new tier or exclude it they're virtually guaranteed to see a decline in subs from annoyed users.

If Hades II comes out it should take it. Otherwise probably something coming out in the back half of the year that reviews well (perhaps Indiana Jones?). Rebirth would probably win if held today.

FFIX's trophy list deserves a dishonorable mention. 10,000 enemy kills (probably 10x more than you'd ever need to kill to beat the game and get to level 99) and 1,000 consecutive skipping jumps (a trophy I suspect has driven thousands to using Remote Play and a script) are just very, very silly things to ask players to do.

From what I've heard XIV has some ridiculous grinds for its trophies, but I've never played it so can't comment.

Leonhart4 posted...

Also yeah, the Rebirth OST is fantastic. Perhaps one of the most impressive achievements of these two games is how good the music has been. I'm usually not a fan of remakes, remixes, or covers when it comes to music, but Remake and Rebirth nailed it.

I think the Remake/Rebirth/Intermission set of OSTs are one of the strongest and most comprehensive ever put together for a series in any medium (i.e. setting aside TV series and MMOs that run for years). Can only imagine the work that went into it - must be well over 500 arrangements over the three, and there's still a few big songs kept back for Part 3. The range and quality is incredible, its deployed so effectively (contextual music, different arrangements for dates, background themes gaining instruments and flourishes as you explore, sidequest characters getting their own themes, etc.), and it (mostly) honours the legendary source material too.

One day I want to replay the whole series and count up every song that plays during a battle. 15 years ago a lot of games would literally have one or two battle themes and three or four boss themes - Rebirth must have more than 50 battle tracks.

Yuna. We probably decide to make love? Certainly I'm not killing her and unless she can summon she isn't killing me (if she can, well... oh dear).

Rebirth has some beautiful music stashed away in random places few will listen to. For example the Chapter 8 "date" version of On Our Way that plays if Cloud explores on his own (linked below). Worth an explore since the OST is not very complete (think it has less than half the tracks in the game on it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL__x_jma1M

I'd like them to give us more accessory slots. There are like 60 accessories and 1 slot! I bet 90% of players use the same 5 or 6.

And just delete the folio system and try something else. There's really nothing interesting about it in terms of customisation/strategy, especially once you get later in the game. I'd say Remake's weapon skill system was much better, and that's not saying much (even if the menu and UI were awful).

More interesting combat arenas, with more structures and positioning based encounters (makes the interplay between range and melee more interesting, think Eligor and Airbuster in Remake).

Yep, those two plus Nanaki's (more horrific than tragic) got me good.

What did you think of the 'trials'? A couple of them got a bit of an emotional response from me.

Night

Wordle 1,058 6/6*







TARES
PETER
MITER
VOTER
OTTER

Got it on the sixth guess. Eek.

Point

Executives just see the potential revenue and engagement live service hits (Fortnite, Roblox, CoD, GTA, Minecraft, etc.) generate and demand it be chased. Unless you are a private company or specialise in huge single player hits that's where the big resources are going to get thrown, especially with costs rising and limited growth. GamePass doesn't seem like it has big growth potential (let's see how MS handle CoD).

Pretty funny to see that the big acquisitions made under Phil Spencer's leadership are resulting in real pressure to make Xbox contribute some profit. Be careful what you wish for.

Two years ago Casemiro was putting on a display of unreal dominance in a UCL final (vs. Liverpool), and now he's cratered. Time really isn't kind to DMs.

Mad

Street Fighter II
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Tekken 3
Mortal Kombat

Valkyria Chronicles 4 hasn't been mentioned but I thought it was very solid.

Men

Mildly fascinated by World of Goo getting a sequel 14 years later. That's a gap alright!

Horizon: Forbidden West

I much prefer Astro's Playground as a game though.

I voted 4 as I found sneaking through Big Boss Extreme one of the most thrilling and intense gaming challenges ever. Can still remember the chills when completing the boat in Chapter 5. I'd put 2 second - the enclosed environments create a lot of natural tension unlike 3's open areas, even if everything after the Harrier is very barebones/simple. In fact I think I found sneaking through Extreme on 3 mostly easy (to the point of hardly needing retries, other than the section where you have no gun early in Op Snake Eater... oh, and guarding Eva). V is weird; on some missions I found sneaking excellent and intense, but much of the time I just tranq -> fulton'd or had a (very enjoyable) firefight. Being open world and so big I wanted to play time-efficiently rather than stealth, even if it was well designed.

Yasujiro Ozu
Hayao Miyazaki
Ingmar Bergman
Sergio Leone

Nolan and Hitch didn't feel like they met the spirit of the question so left them off.

Future

Yup

Kim
Madeline
Chloe

Malenia - Elden Ring
Mike Tyson - Punch-Out
The Matador - SMT: Nocturne
Sephiroth - Kingdom Hearts 1 [Feel slightly weird about this as its an optional fight, but it's probably the (non-MMO) fight I've discussed most in person.]

Hmm read the thread and convinced by the anti Wii arguments.

Replace Wii with NES.

PS2
Wii
SNES
PS5

PS2 defined console gaming in most of the world. It was the biggest console when console gaming was the biggest deal relative to other platforms. Wii broke new markets and sold an absolute ton, and had a cultural presence others didn't (I was not a fan, but I'm acknowledging its pre-eminence and impact). SNES is legendary and so many of the greatest console series and genres really came into their own on it. PS5 is a bit of an out there pick but I wanted something to capture the modern 'tentpole' game era of console gaming - where it's not growing or establishing itself, just being what it's been for 20 years and being very good at it.

I actually learned because of this mini-game that I am much better at spamming button presses with my right hand than my left (in hindsight this seems obvious, but it wasn't till the alternating challenge that I realised).

Hojo is the best villain in the game. An unremitingly slimy evil piece of work, who absolutely lives to experiment on living creatures and has earned the direct enmity of most of the party. Even Aerith daydreams of torturing him.

Roche has his moments but I wasn't entirely unhappy to see him robed. Thanks for the keychain, buddy.

Hey Jude
Eleanor Rigby
A Hard Day's Night
I Want to Hold Your Hand

I think Hey Jude and Eleanor Rigby are my "lock" picks. The other two really could be from 15 tracks.

I greatly enjoyed Yuffie in this game. Felt like she fit the game's "natural" tone to a T - overflowing with relentless energy and confidence, and at its most fun when being camp and over the top. She also improved the party's dynamic a fair bit, which was already excellent, but as more members are added it needs someone to force more interactions between them. I especially liked her and Barret starting to bond a bit over their shared resentment of Scarlet. Her English VA does an incredible job (linked her singing her theme song below if you want a listen - can't imagine many would be able to such a good job). They could have toned down the materia obsession a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZdb4EsWBXc&list=PLqoNvBHIgpJF3bPBOVLGTeXaHtvLGe7-w&index=158

And from a gameplay PoV she was my favourite character. The shuriken dynamic letting you swap from range to melee freely makes her such a versatile main - I thought she was clearly a step above the first four characters in Intermission - and almost every one of her abilities is useful. There's a fair amount of depth to her kit too which most players probably won't unearth (not to the same degree as Tifa though), setting aside the broken interaction between Brumal Form and ATB Ward.

If I was the sort of person who wrote wonky 2000 word blogposts, I'd write one about why the cool, reserved semi-undead dude was the breakout star of the 1997 OG while the over the top cute girl is the breakout start of Intermission/Rebirth.

And yeah this game's battle system absolutely kicks ass. On a level all its own when it comes to turn-based action combat. The depth of the characters is almost without precedent in a single player action game. I think when people go back to Remake they'll start to realise how much this game added (not picking your own party, not having synergy spells and abilities etc.). The RPG elements around the system could have been substantially improved though.

The arenas though... Musclehead just spams the same enemies over and over again and Chadley has like 50 challenges many of which are 5 or 10 rounds bouts (creating a bad kind of difficulty where the player has to go through the same fights they've won 10 times to try the one they're dying at again). And while the music is incredible, the setting is so boring, more of the post-game should take place in iconic settings, fitting for all out battles against the biggest foes. I've forgotten 95% of them already.

wg64Z posted...

I honestly think Rebirth is probably the best video game I've ever played, full stop. My gripes with it are so incredibly minor and I loved 99.5% of my experience top to bottom.

Anyone whining about the mini games needs to either skip them, or stop sucking. Also why would you want no variety in the gameplay at all? Then you get FFXVI and that game was mid minus.

I was thinking I might consider it the best single-player game ever during and between Chapters 6 and 9, but the fall off in average quality from 11 to 14 plus the messy design of the post-game hold it back. Especially 11 (last half) and 14 which were oofs.

The Last of Us. Driven by its lighting, animations and textures.

World

Congrats! Good luck with the rest (if you haven't already done them). The legendaries are a lot more fun than that set IMO.

Chris

With you on liking the moogle mini game. I especially liked how you'd just round a corner and suddenly the music would change away from the area theme to the slightly manic moogle theme (this happened to me in both Gongaga and Cosmo while deep in "exploring" mindset), letting you know it was time for the zaniness. And the cadence of the actual game is unusual in that the threat level starts out maximised and you have to quickly subdue a moogle or two to make it manageable (rather than ramping threat like many others). I also only failed once, on the second to last version.

Chadley though... okay, one of my problems with Chadley is a bit unfair, in that whenever he piped up to give his rote, wordy, exposition, I was aware of what we could have had instead. I.e. suppose instead of Chadley making basically the same comment over and over at every piece of field intel, why not have Aerith comment on a particular type of rare flower, or Barret marvel at how the lifestream's still going, or Tifa say something about the summon? If you took one third of his lines and reallocated them to the party in the field, little would be lost and much would be gained.

The more fair issue is that he can just be annoying. Why are you having a go at Cloud for not having gathered much field intel in a region we just landed in?! And why do you insist on saying the same line I've heard seven times when I pop out of the simulator to change my accessory before I can get back in?! Just a bit of editing and polish would have sanded these edges off, but over time I found them a bit grating, and in general substantially more annoying in Rebirth than Remake. Still, he's cool though, and I look forward to seeing what they do with him in R3.

Presumably Palmer next...

YoBlazer posted...

I don't want to hijack the topic, but Resident Evil fans have been complaining about this exact thing for at least 15 years. Being a pretty big fan, a part of me has always resented how Western Hollywood Action Explosion-Time rotted what was such a cool part of the franchise.

Resident Evil 1 - dual female/male leads, female character way more popular
Resident Evil 2 - dual female/male leads, about equally popular
Resident Evil 3 - female lead
Code Veronica - dual female/male leads, female character more popular
Resident Evil 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - male leads

I'm also a fairly big RE fan (although I've skipped a few entries) with RE2R is one of my favourite games in recent years, and part of the reason is Leon and Claire co-starring in it. The dynamic works very well with the 'survival horror' leaning too. I'd love to know if the shift towards singular male protagonists is just what the developers wanted or if it's led by focus group or fan sentiment analysis.

Yeah I liked what they did with Tifa in this game but I want her to be a stronger / more forthright presence, even if she's careful about picking her moments (I can live with her deciding random hippies just aren't worth the bother). It is at least implied there's a fair bit going on off screen between her and Aerith on how to handle Cloud's increasingly loose grip on reality, but showing more of that would go a long way to making her come off less passive.

I also found it plain weird that Cloud nearly killed her in Chapter 9 and it was almost ignored in their conversation afterward. That was a shocking act that was written in to this version of the story and it should have had more of a direct impact on their relationship IMO (even if Tifa just acknowledged he was out of control and forgave him for it).

It's up in the air whether Tifa gets more of a leading role in part 3 with Aerith essentially out of the picture (setting aside lifestream / weird alternate reality pop ups) or she gets further sidelined because her best relationship isn't there. I very much hope she has a prominent role throughout the story. The worst thing they could do is shoehorn Zack into being a surrogate lead for some reason while Cloud is out of action, essentially finding an excuse for a minor male character to have a leading role which pushes the natural female lead (in FFVII's back half) to the side.

It is somewhat odd that FF games had more agentic and prominent female characters 25 years ago than they do now (see FFXV and XVI).

Also you can do some crazy stuff with Tifa if you really understand her kit, e.g. these videos explain some cool techniques (going a bit further than spamming Divekick cancels).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMl3rfHQ2ng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88T6R99vhnI

Write-in vote for Jim Houseman, Secretary of Defense, MGS1.

Not really serious, but I do love that he was listed in the manual as a member of the cast (along with like, Otacon, Meryl, Mei Ling etc.).

I've been a bit surprised how many people responded emotionally to the Loveless play. I found it enjoyable, but it didn't get much emotional reaction out of me. I guess "Simple and Clean" is more my kind of female vocal song than "No Promises to Keep". But it's fun, Cait Sith's at this best and the QTE choreography is great (and mercifully not difficult). The ferris wheel scenes are the highlight in that stretch though.

Rocket

Yeah, I dunno either.

Godiva

I have the semi-joking opinion that there are at least five villains who are more compelling than Sephiroth in Rebirth and Scarlet's one of the best. Enjoyed Yuffie and Barret bonding over their shared lust for vengeance too.

Desert Rush does prove Square's willing to tone down the difficulty on mini-games, which I wouldn't mind if they did a bit more of for part 3. You basically just need to figure out the route then it's yours, whereas Remake (or was it Intermission?) required a super clean execution as well.

I'd guess Barret for most meme-able?

Jose

Mai would've been fine if her voice didn't come out of the controller super-loud every time you retry an Enemy Intel (in fact, she is fine if you just do the work yourself to sort the sound out). I liked the random enemy lore dumps.

The Johnny quest is one of my favourites; it feels natural when the game leans into a comic tone like that, and it plays out over multiple chapters so feel more substantial than some of the others. I found Yuffie teasing Cloud about cloning Tifa during it quite funny too. It's also quite believable to see a goofball like Johnny getting scammed while trying to do something good - seen that story play out in the real world before.

Peach's Castle (SM64)
File City (Digimon World 1)
The House of Hades (Hades)
The Normandy (Mass Effect 2/series)

I love hub worlds where you bring characters back from your adventures and they help develop it, and the best example I can think of for that is Digimon World 1 (the game is better remembered as a town builder than a digimon game, which I'm not sure was at all intended).