Lurker > Robazoid

Vivi
Dagger
Fang
Yuna

I think the async is going well so far. I enjoyed doing Stardew Valley, but it was a ton of work. I don't think I'll do it again any time soon. I've gone through all four seasons and done all the checks I realistically can other than grinding my last few skill levels. What's holding me back from finishing is that I still only have a Training Rod and I need to capture a few fish that stubbornly aren't turning up at my traveling merchant.

I watched the first three episodes of The Apothecary Diaries. I'm a sucker for this kind of herbalist character, and it's definitely doing a good job. Still, given that it's about a girl solving mysteries in a fantasy Chinese-inspired imperial palace, I can't help but compare it to Raven of the Inner Palace. So far at least, I enjoyed Raven a lot more.

Rydia
Faris
Terra
Tidus

Tidus - 7

https://archipelago.gg/room/hHf9VT4sTMmUxaZF5zXixg

There's the room link, have fun everyone. I need to go and take care of something first, but I'll start playing in the next hour or so and do as much in my Stardew as I can!

The cutoff to join the async is a little over twelve hours. I decided to drop my Hollow Knight because I think the Stardew Valley will keep me busy enough.

1- Robazoid (Stardew Valley)
2- Razenclaf (Stardew Valley)
3- Reg (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle)
4- Alchav (Stardew Valley)
5- Koala (Super Mario World)
6- JeffreyRaze (Mega Man Battle Network 3)
7- MrSmartGuy (A Link to the Past)
8- AriaOfBolo (Slay the Spire)
9- Mewtwo (Ocarina of Time)

I haven't even played Remake yet and Jessie >>>>>> Cid

I've been watching Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You... but then I rage-quit halfway through episode nine of the second season and I don't think I have it in me to go back.

The first season was really good but... my god, this is one of the worst cases I've ever seen of an anime turning to complete dogshit in the second season. Like this is legitimately some of the crappiest, most forced drama I've ever seen. The number of times the two main characters almost had a moment together only for some clueless friend to stumble into the scene going "HEY GUYS WHAT'S UP???" has me thinking the author is just outright trolling the audience at this point. I wouldn't have even thought it was possible for two sentient beings to have some of the misunderstandings Sawako and Kazehaya are having. My fucking god, how can they both confess to each other in the most direct way the Japanese have and somehow both walk away from that conversation thinking the other rejected them. And then, weeks later, Sawako finally musters the courage to confess again and they almost have a moment again only for some douchebag faceless friend to stumble into the scene and ruin it again and Sawako runs away from the conversation thinking she was rejected again even though Kazehaya was literally hugging her and about to kiss her a second ago is just ughhhhh...

I really did like the first season. Sawako was great and cute. I liked how people thought she was strange but she was just such a sweet girl that it didn't get her down and it always worked out in the end. Kazehaya was a good dude doing his best to get close to her, and they even avoided the dumb misunderstandings that would usually cripple a romance anime. Ayane, Chizuru, and Ryu, they were all great too. Then in the second season the main couple took approximately a thousand steps back for the most contrived reasons ever, and the entire supporting cast seemingly only exists to express frustration at how lame everything has become. Like all of them know exactly what the misunderstandings are and they never, ever try to step in and actually fix things. It's infuriating.

I started watching this because I thought it was neat that an old anime is getting a surprise third season over a decade later, but even if I muster up the courage to finish season two, I really don't want to find out what the eventual season three might have in store...

Yeah, Lumina is only in Lightning Returns. And she's great! One of my favorite FF characters.

My brother (Razenclaf) will most likely be joining with a Stardew Valley too. Still a few days for other people to join before October 21st!

1- Robazoid (Hollow Knight)
2- Robazoid (Stardew Valley)
3- Razenclaf (Stardew Valley)
4- Reg (Sonic Adventure 2 Battle)

3.5

Kefka
Garland
-
Steiner
Quina

I don't know which match is tied but I'll vote in the first two just in case it helps

Y'shtola
Vincent

I finally started watching Frieren. It is indeed very good. I like this kind of story. Calling it slice-of-life doesn't quite fit, but it definitely has a similar vibe in terms of appreciating the little things. So far, it has also managed to pack a lot of emotion into those little things. Frieren is an interesting character. I'm enjoying watching her journey and how it relates to her nostalgic memories.

Dark Gathering is still my favorite airing show, though. I've watched up to episode twelve, and now I'll probably wait for a few more episodes to come out so I can binge them all at once. Unless this anime really drops the ball in the second half, this will easily be a new top 10 show for me, maybe even top 5. It does such a great job at setting up a genuinely spooky atmosphere, but it also knows when to have fun or insert a joke to balance things out. I always love it when stories can so deftly mix two contrasting genres. The overall plot it's setting up has been really compelling too. Who knew a little girl catching evil spirits like they're Pokemon could be so wonderful. Yayoi and Eiko are both amazing characters... especially Eiko. Without spoilers, I'll just say she's a refreshing take on a certain character archetype that I've always had a soft spot for. With spoilers, for anyone who doesn't care, Eiko is the best yandere ever.

I won't talk about Dark Gathering again until it's over because I know endless praise can get annoying. I've just been really loving it so far, and I hope at least a few people here will check it out! It's on HiDive, so I'm afraid it'll go under most people's radar. I wasn't very active in the topic when last season was starting, but, checking the archive website, I'm literally the only person on B8 who has mentioned it! DG deserves better than that.

-
-
Quina
Vanille

I don't usually read episode descriptions on streaming websites, but I'm glad I ended up seeing this one for Dark Gathering episode six. I really hope this anime keeps up the quality because it has been 10/10 so far. This description is legit spooky. It's the kind of thing I'd expect to find in an SCP article where the text is being taken over by the ghost.

"Camping was to be a reprieve, but the bridge is calling, the bridge is calling, the bridge is calling, the bridge is calLING, THE BRIDGE IS CALLING, THEBRIDGEISCALL-"

Billy (from Billy and the Cloneasaurus)

MacArrowny posted...

Do you think they're all bad characters or just dislike them as people?

I've never really thought about it, but I guess I hate them all because I dislike them as people. I hate Shadow, Laguna, and Jecht because they each abandoned their children (well I guess Jecht's wasn't on purpose, at least I don't think it was, but he was an awful dad in any case so yeah). Shadow and Jecht are huge pieces of shit on top of that, Laguna is at least only incredibly lame. I hate Wakka because of racism, Cid because of abusiveness, Edgar because he's a pedophile, and Edge because he was a huge creep towards Rydia (and, like Laguna, incredibly lame).

I feel like bad characters don't usually merit hate. Jihl Nabaat is a bad character because she gets so little development and doesn't add anything to the story, but I'll probably still give her a 3/10 or whatever.

I felt bad for giving a lot of 1s lately, but I think there will only be one more! Edge from FFIV, Shadow and Edgar from VI, Cid from VII, Laguna from VIII, no one from IX, Wakka and Jecht from X, no one from XIII.

Squall
Porom
Edward
Braska

I always liked the Hope/Snow confrontation. The subplot itself isn't the greatest, and those two are easily my least favorite from the main cast, but it's a good moment for both of them once they finally get there.

I started watching Dark Gathering, a show that started last season but is still ongoing. I'm only four episodes in, but, man, this anime is great so far. It's about a guy who attracts dangerous spirits, which always terrifies him. Then he teams up with his friend's cousin, a little girl who excels at fighting evil spirits. I'm always a fan of supernatural shows like this. What really puts Dark Gathering over the top is how well it balances the spookiness with jokes while still telling a compelling story. It isn't especially scary, but it uses horror elements to build a stellar atmosphere. There's a lot of humor in how over-the-top the main guy's terror is, which is especially funny when contrasted with the excited glee of his friend and the little girl who love hunting evil spirits. It's genuinely impressive how many jokes this show has while still managing to remain tense, and the way it's building up the characters has been great so far.

I also started watching I'm in Love with the Villainess. I'm enjoying this one quite a bit too. It definitely isn't the deepest story (I laughed at how nonchalant the main girl was about being isekai'd), and the romance is kind of shallow too, at least so far. Still, I really like the dynamic between the main girl and the villainess. I'd be happy with an entire anime about an ineffectual bully getting progressively more creeped out at how much her target is enjoying it. It looks like this is building an actual relationship, though, and I'm excited to see how that plays out.

SEASON RANKING SO FAR (I'm caught up in everything except Dark Gathering, still have to start Frieren and obviously Apothecary Diaries hasn't started yet)
Dark Gathering
The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch
Tearmoon Empire
Stardust Telepath
I'm in Love with the Villainess
Shy
I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness
The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess

Rat Boy

I finally finished Undead Murder Farce. I praised the first eleven episodes in an earlier post as a good supernatural mystery show, but, honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it. Watching the last two episodes only deepened that feeling. The first arc with the vampire castle was great, but the next two sucked. Both the second and third arcs set up an interesting mystery, carefully examined the clues... and then it just turned into an action show. The action was decent with all the different monsters and people with weird powers. In a different kind of show, I would've liked it a lot more. In a show like this, though, I wanted them to focus on the mystery. I hated the evil bad guy group. And I really hated the second, different bad guy group. Every time either one of them showed up, the show switched gears instantly from a mystery into an action show with a lot of pointless death and destruction. Then by the end they'd solve the mystery and I'd just look over at the fresh pile of corpses and wonder why the original mystery even mattered in comparison. The end of the third arc was also absolute garbage. Sure, you killed a bunch of innocent people including children and an artist who wasn't even in the village when you were wronged, but lol we're letting you go anyway. Ugh, what a crappy anime.

I don't have any rankings today, but I'd like to finally do three from FFVII.

Cloud - 9.5
Sephiroth - 4
Cait Sith - 2

I'm going to make a dedicated effort to keep up with things this season, and I started by watching quite a few first episodes. I'll talk about them in the order I liked them from best to worst.

The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch: a young-looking witch who is actually 200 years old finds and raises an abandoned human baby who grows up to look like a sexy lady by age 16. So, a loli mother and MILF daughter. The first episode of this show was incredibly stupid... and I loved it. I'm a big fan of stupid humor. When a summoned phoenix started competing with a literal houseplant for the title of "best familiar", it was perfection. I like the dynamic between the mother and the daughter too. They're both really devoted to each other (usually in a sweet way, sometimes in a kinda obsessive way, but it was always funny so it's fine)

Stardust Telepath: an incredibly shy girl who wants to meet an alien meets a classmate who is an alien. Looks like this will be the cute girls comedy of the season, and I am here for it. Shy girl is shy, alien girl is energetically weird, and both of them are cute. What's not to love?

Tearmoon Empire: a bloody revolution led a princess to the guillotine, but then she was sent back in time to her younger self for a second chance. I always like this kind of "change the bad future" story. And, if the OP is anything to go by, this show won't take itself too seriously despite the downer beginning. Can the princess resist her bratty nature and save the empire (and her head)??? I'm excited to find out.

Shy: a Japanese superhero whose power is... crippling shyness. Well, at least you're not the stereotypically drunk Russian superhero. The main girl's shyness was keeping her from saving people, but she kind of got over that already so I don't know where the story goes from here. Still, the first episode did a good job setting her up as a character.

I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I'm glad this show is about being, like, the bad kind of naughty and not the sexy kind of naughty (at least not yet). A demon wizard rescued a girl who'd been accused of a crime she didn't commit. She's actually a perfect saint, so the demon wizard wants to corrupt her by doing such naughty things as... gasp, eating cake for dinner! This show definitely won't be amazing or deep, but it's kind of cute so far.

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess: This was easily the show I liked the least. A powerless vampire is forced to pretend to be a powerful general, otherwise her subordinates will kill her and take over. It's an okay premise I guess, I just don't think it'll be enough to carry the show for a whole season. I'm also not a huge fan of the creepy maid. Still, I didn't hate it. Maybe this show will surprise me.

The other shows I plan to watch will be I'm in Love with the Villainess, The Apothecary Diaries, and Frieren. I was going to watch Undead Unluck too but I don't think it's available in Canada yet. Not sure yet what I'll pick for my tenth show us UU isn't an option.

I mean, I wouldn't go into it expecting a really good game. I'm seeing a lot of 7/10s when I googled for reviews and that sounds about right for a starting expectation. I wound up liking it quite a bit though! It's a fun game if the idea of collecting and stacking classic FF monsters appeals to you. There are also a ton of FF cameos

Yeah, lacking Lightning was a big part of it. I like Serah well enough, but Noel is super lame and together they couldn't hold a candle to the XIII main cast. I also absolutely hated the platforming section in the final area leading to the final boss. Platforming doesn't work when there are random encounters! It took me hours to get through that awful area because I couldn't line up a jump without getting into a fight with some gremlins who'd summon a behemoth that I couldn't defeat. The main problem with XIII-2, though, was that they really dumbed down the combat system. In XIII, the battles felt like they had a rhythm. I got by without Sentinel, but having all five of the other paradigm roles was a must. In XIII-2, I got through almost every battle with three Ravagers to fill the gauge, then switching to three Commandos to do max damage, then repeat. No need for Saboteur or Synergist, and no real need for healing with Medic. It just wasn't for me.

Lightning Returns was amazing by comparison. Not only was my main girl back, she had another awesome combat system! Mastering the timing of stuff like blocking in LR felt so rewarding.

Yes, my fist Final Fantasy game was the XIII trilogy in 2016. I think my order was something like XIII trilogy, IX, VIII, X/X-2, VI, WoFF, I, II, IV, and now VII.

I don't think XIII being my first one is the reason it's my favorite, though. I really, really loved that combat system. Also Lightning is my favorite FF character, so it has that going for it too.

Vivi
Relm
Garnet
Tifa

Man, people liked Edgar a lot more than I would've guessed. I didn't like him even before he started checking out little girls!

Terra
Aki Ross
Golbez
Tidus

Jub Jub

LeonhartFour posted...

It's honestly a good thing she didn't because it would've only made things worse since she was wrong, too! I don't really blame her for not knowing how to bring it up because she can't fathom how Cloud knows the things he does. Like how do you have a conversation along the lines of, "Uhhh, you know everything like you were there, but like, you...weren't? So...how do you know all that?" Tifa is as confused about what happened as Cloud is, so I don't hold that against her.

I guess that's a good way to look at it. I just can't help but feel that there must've been a more elegant way to handle this plot development. Early on, I could see her prioritizing Cloud's mental state over getting the truth, so it makes sense that she wouldn't bring it up to avoid breaking him. By the time he shared the big story in Kalm, though, Sephiroth was potentially a threat to the entire world. I think, in that situation, getting to the bottom of things would take precedence even if it became messy and confusing.

Pokewars posted...

Here's an old Newgrounds video. Just reminded me when you chose harem of Aerith and Tifa. And there's a part that will make you go >:| hehe...

Man, I miss Newgrounds. Thanks for linking the video! And yes, that was unwarranted Yuffie hate... but I can sympathize with the party in the video getting wrecked by the Tonberry. That little guy was brutal.

LeonhartFour posted...

also I don't know if you noticed this but all the party members in Advent Children wear pink ribbons, and that's meant to be in memory of Aerith

At first I thought it was just a thing Cloud and Tifa wore, maybe a promise they made to each other or something. Then I finally noticed some of the others wearing them at the end when they were all together and it clicked for me. That was a nice detail

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who followed along with this playthrough. I enjoyed the game, and having people to share my thoughts with and get advice from was great. I hope all of you enjoyed following along too!

I'm actually really curious about the FFVII remake now. Not enough to buy it at full price, but I'll definitely snatch it up on the next Steam sale. Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if people would be interested in a playthrough topic for that as well? It wouldn't be for a month or two at the earliest, but it might be boring to follow along with me playing the remake so soon after I played the original. I could always just make a topic with overall thoughts once I beat it, if that would be better than a full playthrough topic? Let me know! I really want to get to that Yuffie DLC to see if they did my girl justice.

Tifa: I'm not a huge fan about how she never said anything when Cloud was being wrong about his recollections. Maybe that's because my mind was blown so hard initially at the idea that Jenova had messed with Tifa's memories too, so the realization that she was just... not saying anything for some reason, it couldn't help but be disappointing in comparison. Still, that's my only complaint about Tifa. I really liked her relationship with Cloud. The revelation that they weren't actually close as children was an important one, I think. Tifa is endlessly supportive of Cloud, but it isn't because they had some unbreakable bond. Much like Aeris, she winds up being drawn to the person he is now no matter his fragile mental state or anything else. I found that a lot more compelling than a typical "childhood friend" connection would've been. Her friendship with Aeris was great too. I'm glad that they were never catty towards each other over Cloud's attention. Tifa was as devastated as everyone else when Aeris died. I also liked that she was never jealous of the other woman's memory. Aeris had meant a lot to Tifa too, after all, so she understood why Cloud had trouble letting go in the movie. I was also a fan of her overall character. She's a sexy lady who kicks ass. She should be the confident bruiser of the group, but instead she's demure and shy about her feelings. It was a nice contrast with Aeris.

Cloud: Now we're into characters who managed to make it into my overall top fifteen. I'm a big fan of things like amnesia because it allows me to examine characters in interesting ways. Cloud is a great example of that. He was an outcast as a child, driving him to try and become a great warrior... but he failed. Then, when a chance to really prove himself finally arrived, he rose to the challenge and did the impossible by killing Sephiroth. His mind was shattered afterwards, but I think I was wrong with my original theory that Hojo literally implanted Zack's memories into him. In the movie especially, it seemed like Cloud adopted that persona all on his own because of his fragile mental state, as a way to live up to Zack's sacrifice. I find that really interesting, because it means that the hero Cloud becomes was within himself all along rather than skills implanted from Zack. The loss of his friend spurred the change, but it was nothing more than a motivation. It was Cloud himself who managed to resist Sephiroth's corruption when he was nearly compelled into killing Aeris. Once Tifa helped him put his mind back together, it was Cloud, not merely Zack's memory, who led everyone to victory against impossible odds. I dunno, I could keep talking about him but these posts are going to be long enough as is. In short, I think Cloud's character is really interesting.

Yuffie: Ah, my beloved ninja thief. How I wish I could justify ranking you higher. Yuffie may not be the deepest character, especially not compared to Cloud. She's just so hilarious and charming. I talked a lot in my updates about her various quirks. Her motion sickness always made me laugh. The way she was so single-minded about acquiring Materia was great, at least once I got over the stinging betrayal of her stealing my Materia. In short, Yuffie is amazing. The only reason she isn't my number one is that she's missing that one final element. In a lot of ways, Yuffie reminds me of Eiko from FFIX, another character who is unfairly hated for her quirks. Both of them are characters who people dislike because of their attitude, but I find that same attitude endearing. However, Eiko has that one final element to give depth to her character. At her core, Eiko is a scared little girl who acts the way she does because she doesn't know any better and doesn't want to be alone anymore. Yuffie doesn't have anything like that to give her depth. She disagreed with her Dad about Wutai and wanted to get Materia to become stronger, but that isn't enough. Yuffie was missing just a little bit of pathos. She needed something serious to carry her character over the finish line. Maybe she'll get something like that in the remake, I dunno. For now, she'll have to be satisfied with being my number two.

Aeris: I talked about this before, but I went into this game not expecting much from Aeris. I knew she would die, and I thought I knew what that meant for the character. She would be the perfect saint, too good for this sinful earth, and her loss would be the tragedy that motivated the characters to stand against evil... yawn, snore. Yep, there's Aeris, selling flowers in the slums like the perfect saint she most surely is. There's Aeris... overcharging dudes outside a brothel for her flowers because they're so horny that they'll pay anything? There's Aeris gleefully helping Cloud dress up as a woman, and then putting a sexy dress herself to tag along?? There's Aeris threatening to mangle Corneo's dick to get him to talk??? Much like Tifa, who one would expect to be a confident bruiser but who is actually shy and demure, Aeris' character is a wonderful contrast compared to what one might expect. She's still a good person, willing to risk anything to help others. She still dies, and her death motivates the heroes against evil. Everything I initially expected of her was in the story in some way. She just had a streetwise edge to her too, and that provided enough of a twist to make everything so much more compelling than it would've been if she was a perfect saint.

I loved how she was open and flirtatious with Cloud. I loved her friendship with Tifa. I loved how energetic she was, like when she insisted on having fun at the Gold Saucer. And, of course, I was heartbroken when such a vibrant soul was taken from the world by Sephiroth. I knew Aeris would die. I've known that for decades. Since I knew, and could mentally prepare myself, I didn't expect it to hit me as hard as it did. That final moment when she smiled at Cloud, genuinely happy that he managed to resist Sephiroth's corruption urging Cloud to kill her... it was beautiful. The way everyone mourned her afterwards. The way her memory echoed into everything that followed. I loved it all. Even in the movie, even without that streetwise edge, I still loved Aeris. I was also a big fan of how her relationship with Cloud progressed. After the reveal that she loved Zack, I, like many people apparently (I've googled this a bit), wondered if the similarity to Zack was why she liked Cloud. I'm happy the date scene addressed that, because it would've been a mark against her character otherwise. She truly was falling for Cloud because of who he was, not simply because of the persona his shattered mind was trying to live up to. I think that's important, because it makes losing her that much more tragic. At the end of the movie, her soul and Zack's walk into the light together... but that isn't necessarily a perfect ending. There's still the sense of loss, of what might've been or might've happened between her and Cloud if she had lived. It adds that extra layer to the emotion of everything and god damn I loved it. I love Aeris.

Aeris > Yuffie > Cloud > Tifa > Barret > Vincent > Red XIII > Sephiroth > Cait Sith > Cid

And here's my new top fifteen Final Fantasy characters! Vanille, Tellah, and Auron have been bumped out by three new arrivals. I really wanted to rank Yuffie higher because I love her so much, but in the end I couldn't justify it. She's more fun than Eiko or Lumina, but she's missing that little bit of depth that those characters also had. Still, let me just say, if the FFVII remake gives Yuffie some depth and pathos, Lightning herself had better watch out!

Lightning > Yuna > Aeris > Dagger > Terra > Rinoa > Squall > Eiko > Cyan > Lumina > Yuffie > Cloud > Sazh > Rikku > Reynn > Tellah > Auron > Vanille

Overall, I enjoyed Final Fantasy VII. The story and characters in particular were both great. I like the concept of Jenova crashing into the world to poison souls, the creation of Sephiroth, and all these unlikely heroes banding together to stop him. Shinra was a touch too moustache-twirling over-the-top evil for my tastes, but I suppose that was their role in the story. The likes of 'Gya-ha-ha' Heidegger and 'Kya-ha-ha' Scarlet certainly weren't there to provide moral nuance! Rufus was actually cool in the movie, so I'm sad he was such a dingus in the game because I still don't feel comfortable liking him. At least the Turks were good, a nice mix of friendly rivals, comic relief, and genuine threats.

I'll talk more about the ten major characters below, so for now I'll just talk about the gameplay. There's no other way to say this, FFVII felt a little dated. The main aspects like combat and exploration were fine, and I really liked the whole Materia system. Still, it all felt worse than FFVI which came before and definitely worse than FFVIII which came after. I guess what I'm saying is that this game was firmly in that awkward early PS1 era where they were still figuring stuff out. I know I shouldn't hold that against it, but it was hard not to sometimes with all the janky minigames and terrain that was confusing to explore and character models that looked like Lego minifigures.

As far as my Final Fantasy game ranking, the story easily carried VII above X, but the gameplay held it below VIII. Every time I considered ranking it higher, I compared all the crappy minigames in VII to the awesomeness of Triple Triad in VIII, and I just couldn't do it. Still, it's a good sign that all of my issues come down to the age of the game holding certain technical aspects back. Maybe they'll remake Final Fantasy VII someday? Then I could get this wonderful story with amazing graphics and more modern gameplay! Man, that would be sweet.

XIII > X-2 > LR > VI > WoFF > IX > VIII > VII > X > IV(3D) > II > I > XIII-2

Now I'll rank the ten major characters from worst to best:

Cid: This guy was terrible. He was verbally abusive to Shera for... *checks notes* saving him from dying in space. His obsession with space nearly killed everyone when he refused to cancel the launch. His one character trait other than being a jerk and liking space was falling asleep during meetings. He was a sexist ass to Yuffie in Advent Children. I hated this guy so much.

Cait Sith: I'm honestly curious to hear why people thought I would like Cait Sith, because I didn't. The idea of a mechanical cat riding a mechanical moogle is fun, sure, and I even kind of liked the twist that Reeve, a Shinra exec, was the one controlling it. Still, it's a good idea because a character like Cait Sith should provide fun and whimsy before blindsiding you with the seriousness of who's behind the controls. This character didn't actually provide any fun or whimsy. He was just kind of there. The seriousness wasn't handled particularly well either. Even in the scene where Cloud goes on the date with Barret, the big guy barely reacts to hearing that Marlene was kidnapped. It would've been nice to get some character development out of Reeve controlling it, but we never saw him again after learning that. He left Cloud a voicemail in the movie, but that's it? Lame.

Sephiroth: I'll admit, for as famous of a villain as this guy is, I was expecting him to do a whole lot more than he did. He has a cool aesthetic, and the few times he was messing with Cloud's head were nice and menacing. For most of the plot, though, he felt more like a distant obstacle rather than an actual character. Other FF villains like Kefka or Kuja or Seymour, guys who are right there alongside the heroes for large portions of the story... I dunno, Sephiroth felt kind of underwhelming in comparison. I didn't dislike him like Cid or Cait Sith, he was just kind of meh.

Red XIII: This might be my fault for never bringing the guy along in my party. I mean, look at how I fell in love with Yuffie from seeing her little character moments. For me, Red's whole story was being rescued from Hojo, that one subplot with his dead dad in Cosmo Canyon, and his grandpa dying. That's it. I like his aesthetic as a monster, and his personality was fine. I'm just not sure I would've noticed anything was missing if he was removed from the game entirely. I was originally going to rank him above Vincent at least, but then Vincent got one cool moment in Advent Children and that was all it took to move up a spot. Red didn't do anything in the movie other than give Cait Sith a ride, and, without the moogle, Cait Sith couldn't even contribute anything to the fights!

Vincent: This guy looks super cool. If I was allowed four party members, I would've taken him for sure. Still, while both he and Yuffie were optional party members, Vincent was the only one who felt optional. For most of the story he was just kind of there. Talking to him between plot events never felt impactful. He didn't have a little quest like every other character (even Yuffie), just that one flashback scene in the cave. Again, this might be my fault for never bringing him along in my party. I imagine he would've had a confrontation scene with Hojo at the very least. As it is, though, Vincent was just kind of there. He had that one cool moment in the movie. That's about it.

Barret: Now we're past the characters I'm neutral on and into the characters I like! Barret was a good character. I liked it when he said a wire looked like a golden shiny wire of hope, and who could ever forget that there's no gettin offa this train we're on. And of course there were those moments where he was a big old softie, either around Marlene or when he hid in a bathroom and wore his sailor suit. He seems like such a hardass early on, so seeing that other side to him was nice. Barret had a lot of depth, too. I liked that the game explored the morality of bombing the reactors because innocent people got hurt. I also absolutely loved that there were moments where he remembered Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. A lesser game would've forgotten those characters existed the moment they died. He wasn't one of my favorites, but I liked Barret. My biggest complaint is that we never got a little scene where he gave Marlene the pendant from Dyne.

I'm finally done the rough draft of what turned out to be two huge posts containing my final thoughts! I'll read through them again for a quick edit before posting, but I wanted to apologize in advance to anyone who actually reads all of these. I just had a lot to say.

LeonhartFour posted...

Barret got the worst treatment in the movie because it felt like everything he tried to do in the fight didn't work and someone had to bail him out

lol I noticed that. The only one who looked worse than him was Cait Sith, and that's only because Cait Sith is literally useless without the big moogle lower half providing strength. Poor Barret deserved better.

Well, Advent Children certainly was a movie. The animation still looked really good, and I caught a lot of fun fanservice moments. The battle victory theme played as a ringtone when Tifa (momentarily) won the church fight! I caught at least two of Cloud's limit breaks! Yuffie was still a Materia gremlin! That stuff was great. I also liked some of the little gags, like when Rude's sunglasses broke and he looked sad for a few seconds... but then he pulled out a backup pair.

Overall, though, I thought the movie was a bit underwhelming. The Sephiroth goon squad was lame. I liked it when Rufus trolled Kadaj by having Jenova with him all along, but that was about it. I'm still not 100% sure what those guys even were. Were they the remaining Sephiroth clones, those cloaked guys who were trying to get to the Reunion? I dunno. Still, my biggest problem with the movie was that it spent way too long on the action scenes. The entire second half was just one after another, a big monster fight to a motorcycle fight to a church fight to another fight to the Sephiroth fight, all with nothing in-between. It all started blending together. The motorcycle fight especially could've been cut I think. They already had another motorcycle fight earlier in the movie! I wanted to use that time to have the characters interact with each other a bit.

The action scenes were still good, don't get me wrong. I liked Cloud's new modular sword, and the fight where all the old party members teamed up against that big monster was great. The Yuffie fanboy in me got super hype when she parachuted in, choked back the vomit from her motion sickness, and then asked who's been messing with her Materia so she could go kick their ass. The people who made this movie really understood all the things that made her great. Later on, Cloud was fighting Kadaj alone, and Yuffie ran in with Materia to help. Then everyone else totally shut her down, saying Cloud needed to do this alone... but why??? Yuffie didn't understand and I don't either. Cid told her it was a guy thing, and she rightly called him sexist. God, Cid is the worst and Yuffie is the best. Cloud probably wouldn't have been cut up so bad if his seven superpowered friends lent him a hand instead of just watching from the sidelines, that's all I'm saying.

As for the other characters, Red, Barret, Cid, and Cait Sith were barely in this thing. Vincent at least had a cool big moment when he rescued Cloud in the white forest. Otherwise, this was all about Cloud, Tifa, and, oddly, Aeris. Her ghost was a huge part of this movie both symbolically and literally. It was nice seeing her again, but she didn't have the fun personality from the game that made me like her so much. I guess it's hard not to seem like an angel when you're dead, but still. Cloud was brooding over how he let Aeris die, which was odd to me because I thought he'd resolved those feelings in FFVII. At one point in the game he literally said, quote, "We've got to let go of Aeris's memory" because he wanted her soul to move on. His guilt was also resolved really easily. He had one vision of her saying "I don't blame you" and then Cloud was in hero mode again. Why even have this plot point in the movie if that's how easily it'll get resolved?

Other than the Yuffie fanboy moments, my favorite part of the movie was the relationship between Tifa and Cloud. She was rightly disappointed in him for leaving, and at one point told Marlene that he wasn't going to be allowed back without a good scolding... but, at the same time, she understood him well enough to not hold too much of a grudge. The story is weirdly coy about whether or not they're in a relationship, but I hope they are because I think those two would really fit well together.

Anyway, that's my Advent Children write-up. I'll get started on writing my final thoughts now!

Rydia
Barret
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I definitely have the Complete, 2 hour 6 minute version

Thanks again for following along, everyone. I'll start Advent Children soonish and then do a final update with overall thoughts and character rankings afterwards. And I'm honestly still not sure if Yuffie is my favorite or not! It's down to her or Aeris (sorry to fans of other characters), but I'm going to need to do some soul-searching to decide between them. I feel like Homer in the film festival episode of The Simpsons, trying to decide between Barney's heartfelt movie and Football in the Groin. "Aeris had a lot of heart, but Yuffie had hilarious motion sickness". It's a tough decision.

Ranzoh posted...

Hey I remember you, didn't you used to write reviews. I thought you wrote rpg reviews before but I guess I'm confusing you with someone else. Anyway interesting, an older poster that hasn't played the FF series or FFVII before

I've never been a reviewer (the last official review I did on GameFAQs was twelve years ago) so yeah you must be thinking about someone else. I have done lots of other playthrough topics for Final Fantasy games though

Mr. Black

I have now completed Final Fantasy VII

I started by chasing down the Ultimate Weapon. The hardest part of this process was fighting my impatience because it took forever to land between battles. It was so satisfying to finally destroy this stupid thing. Then I checked out Cosmo Canyon with Red, and... damn, his grandpa died. RIP Red's grandpa. Then I headed over to Vincent's cave and got his stuff too, apparently left behind by the ghost of the girl he loved. RIP girl Vincent loved. I dug up the Midgar key and headed in to get Tifa's ultimate weapon as well. Thank you to everyone who pointed out all of this stuff to grab. It was a sad moment passing by Aeris' old church... and seeing a ghostly memory of her tending to the flowers inside. RIP to you too, Aeris.

After all of that, I finally descended into the crater. Even at my high level with good gear, this area was rough. I've never seen so many enemies who could cast Death. Still, I descended further and further, eventually finding a spot where the path split in two. I was briefly worried I was about to get punished for only leveling three people, so I sent everyone else to the left just in case the weaklings needed to cover each other. Thankfully, though, I only needed to focus on my main party. Then I got to the actual bottom of the crater, plopped down a save point where I could, healed up, and finally entered the final battle. Their levels ranged from 63 for Cloud to 61 for Yuffie, which I hopes would be enough.

The first phase of the final battle was dead easy, especially since I'd finally equipped everyone's ultimate weapon (I didn't do it earlier because they had no Materia growth). Jenova's tentacles each died after one hit. Yuffie was smacking this thing for 9999 damage sometimes! It was a joke. Then I had to fight Sephiroth... and, again, I was terrified that I was about to be punished for only leveling three people. I had to create two parties. You mean I need to use three of these jokers? I outfitted Barret, Red, and Vincent as best I could, but they were like fifteen levels behind my main party so I wasn't optimistic. I was really glad that switching to the other party turned out to be optional. Every time it asked me to, I just said no and kept beating the hell out of Sephiroth.

After beating the first form, the battlefield turned white and the iconic boss music began to play. Unlike the first two phases, this version of Sephiroth was no joke. I was doing good damage, but he hit me with some immense attacks too. After one attack, a video began to play of a meteor soaring into the galaxy. It annihilated Pluto but, pfft, that's not even a planet. Then it annihilated Saturn. And then Jupiter. Uh oh. Then it hit the sun. And the sun went super nova. Uh oh! The super nova hit my party, and I was wondering if anyone would survive. They only barely did. During my frantic healing afterwards, Sephiroth also hit me with something that nearly killed everyone again. I don't know how I survived, but I did. And Cloud had his Limit Break. One Omnislash later, and Sephiroth was dead.

I settled in for what I assumed would be a final video, but things weren't quite over yet. Cloud got pulled into a black void for one final duel. The only choice I could make was to Omnislash him again, though, and Sephiroth died for the last time after one final combo. Cloud, Tifa, and the others were able to ride the airship out of the crater using Holy's shockwave. The meteor was still close, descending on Midgar with disastrous results. It looked like Holy wasn't going to be enough... but then the planet's lifestream emerged and began rushing towards the meteor. CUE CREDITS, followed by... 500 years later?!? That's quite the jump. At least it looks like Red is still alive, although nature has reclaimed the ruins of Midgar.

Huh, that ending felt kind of abrupt. I was expecting a montage showing what all the characters went on to do after their adventure was over. I guess I'll need to watch Advent Children to learn what happens next, and I'll do that tomorrow! There are a lot of things I want to talk about, but it's late now so I'll save that for a final update after watching the movie. For now all I'll say is that Final Fantasy VII was a good game and I'm glad I finally played it.

I want to end this update with my traditional 'Yuffie is great' moment of the day. When Sephiroth was hammering everyone with psychic attacks, she cried out that coming here wasn't worth it. No Materia could be worth this. Then, a second later, Yuffie realized what a crazy thing she'd just said. She instantly found her resolve and shouted that she still wanted it, and all of it was going to be hers! Yuffie is the greatest. I hope she's the main character in Advent Children somehow.