Final Fantasy - the classics

"A true paladin would sheathe his sword"

For the longest time I've had one of the most garish gaps in my own video-game expertise it is possible for one to have- I lacked a classic video game franchise of my own for which I held the utmost personal experience and regard. The furthest back my personal experience went was Metal Gear- and that was a franchise I only really got into, to the degree of fanaticism, around the era of MGS 3- not exactly straight to the source of the river. As such that is something I've tried to amend over the years falling into an obsessive series omnibus of the Divinity Games (Still haven't finished Beyond Divinity because I found it just that odious to endure), Splinter Cell (Sans Pandora Tomorrow because that one still hasn't been ported to modern software despite a PC version having actually existed at some point in time apparently.) And Baldur's Gate (No notes- literal legendary franchise even to this day.) But beyond that there has always been a glaring omission to my own knowledge base- that of Final Fantasy.

Now, Final Fantasy has not enjoyed the smoothest road directly to my heart. Indeed, it's often felt like Final Fantasy entered into that space of a game someone should enjoy if they love games, rather than just one that people naturally do- and when you enter into that equation a equally natural friction enters into the relationship of expectation versus personability and taste. I almost felt inclined not to care when all the Xbox world lost their collective britches at the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII back when I was first becoming aware of the gaming landscape around me, and thus avoided a lot of that world when it came to. It would be years later until curiosity won me over, I would play the demo for Final Fantasy XIII-2, find some latent spark of potential and realise that "Hey, this franchise everyone says RPG lovers will love? This ol' gal might have a bit of fun to her! Who'd have thought?"

From there my experience tumbled forth like water breaking the dam. I brought Final Fantasy XIII, played a good portion of it before moving on (Still haven't finished it. Thanks for asking.) Found temptation call me towards the legendary Final Fantasy VII- really got into that one, found an unforgettable world and iconic beyond iconography itself cast of characters. Got swept away on the hype-train for Final Fantasy XV, buying and playing through 'Type-Zero' just to get access for the demo of XV, loved that game despite it's blatant and still enduring flaws. Totally ignored the PlayStation exclusive XVI during it's marketing and release. Picked up XVI the day it dropped on Steam- really impressed by it, some of the best character and world work in the franchise as I had experienced it. Oh, and of course I played XII in the lead up to XVI's steam launch. Can't forget that... experience.

But through all of that there has always been this wide disconnect between the Final Fantasy I proport to know and this franchise worth of anthologies that stretch back to the heart of gaming as we know it. I've truly neglecting video gaming history and... I guess I just got tired of missing out on all that. Some place between playing through the VII Remake saga (which I forgot to mention) and Crisis Core (There's so bloody many Final Fantasy games!) a seed of curiosity got sprouted. What are the references that are so very core to the identity of this franchise that they come back entry after entry? But really I think it was Stranger of Paradise that really pushed me off the edge. A game that not only retells the original game (a game to which I was ignorant) but also (as I've come to learn across my journey) adds a bizarre connective tissue bridging across all FF games? How can I appreciate that without diving in face first? So you know the drill- Omnibus time.

Thanks to the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters I've had the chance to not only dip my toes into the past brought to the present with life-saving improvements, (Like the ability to buy multiple items at once in the store in Final Fantasy 1) but giving a true-to-the-original pixel style which, whilst slightly homogenising these game's visually- does so much more to capture the heart of the original than those honestly garish PC remakes that existed throughout the 2010's. I lacked the context to really know what fans hated about them at the time but now, on the other side of this experience, I totally get it- those look like a disaster in motion!

So let's start simple- with Final Fantasy 1. Final Fantasy 1 is a very interesting prospect to me, because it's not the only classic Japanese fantasy RPG game from this time period that I've tried to get along with. Actually I tried to find some spark for the Dragon Quest franchise by going back to it's original entry only to find a game so rudimentary and dull that I bounced off the series entirely. I still can't find the ability to care about Dragon Quest- sad as that is. Though my time with Final Fantasy 1 proved to ultimately be anything but. There is a simplicity to the first Final Fantasy, absolutely- but within that simplicity comes a frightening playability which cuts through all the apparent shortcomings to just become an easily digestible experience.

There's very little Final Fantasy asks of you. You have your set of characters, blank slates with names, who assume classes of your choice from the get-go among a pretty standard set of professions. Monk, Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage, etc. Final Fantasy 1, as you can imagine for a game of it's age, troubles itself little with creating a narrative with characters and progression and instead just gives you the basics- Four elemental crystals that need purifying. But that isn't to say the game is without structure- in fact, Final Fantasy 1 actually lays out a structure most of the other pixel games follow suite with: an almost Metroidvania style 'travel where you can'. As you progress you'll unlock new modes of travel that allow you traverse rivers, then seas, then the skies. It's genuinely so much better than the strung-along moon logic most RPGs of the early age found tantalising.

Now just because Final Fantasy is simple, that doesn't mean it's barren. Actually FF has a world with a few interesting details scattered here and there, the ruins of some ancient civilisation called the Lufenians, and a far-passed scientist of theirs who long ago mastered airship technology called... Cid? That's right, Cid is the first reoccurring name in the franchise, who'd have guessed? Then, right at the end, the narrative takes a near unhinged swerve into time-travel and a causality loop that feels so slyly bizarre I couldn't help but laugh. That famous complex nature of Final Fantasy plotlines shines through even in their very first outing, what a hoot!

In heart Final Fantasy is mostly about enduring dungeons that grow increasingly gruelling as it comes to resource management, which can actually make it quite the struggle what with your very limited spell slots (Yes, Spell Slots. This was before MP became a function.) Recovery is a real challenge until you realise how the healing staff works, that knowledge alone kind of breaks the game a little. Bosses are more of endurance bouts than real challenges of strategy with one glaring exception. Turns out that, for some insane reason, the Pixel Remaster bases itself almost exclusively off the original Japanese release of these games in all but one crucial metric. Chaos, the final boss, comes from a 2000's re-release called 'Dawn of Souls'. A re-release which, crucially, made Chaos much tougher in order to compensate for extra dungeons which the game borrowed from later Final Fantasy games. And by 'much stronger' I mean health times a factor of five!

That sounds insane, and it is- Chaos is twenty levels tougher than anything else in the game- but to be fair.. the original Chaos was as about tanky as a Warmech, which isn't hugely tanky. (The Warmech being an insanely rare enemy spawn mini-boss whom I spent about thirty minutes grinding to get to.) New Chaos was so tough and hit so hard that it forced me to learn a mechanic I literally did not know existed at any other point in the entire game because I didn't need to know... buffs stack. That's right, in FF1 buffs don't run out and then stack- which is a necessity when Chaos is one shotting people left-right-and-centre, but utterly overkill for anyone else in the game. So not exactly perfectly balanced, but fun without doubt. I do slightly love the fact that the Final Boss truly is the baddest creature in the land- we don't get that often!

Now before we move onto 2 I might as well share my sin with you. You might have noticed that I mentioned the Warmech, an uber rare spawn who is the bane of any FF completionist, and winced. Why would I force myself to face that thing, I just wanted to experience these games right? Well something along the way of playing FF poisoned my sanity and I realised that no, I don't want to just experience the game's on that small level- I wanted to know them fully. And thus expanded my mission further than I had done for any Omnibus previously. I wasn't just completing these games, I was 100%-ing them. And doing so on my first run- which meant I picked the perfect game to realise this because Final Fantasy 1 is the only game in the franchise as far as I know without any missable achievements or bestiary entries. Thank god I started using a 'missables' guide for the next entries- they got a little tough from here on in.

Final Fantasy 2 gets a bad rap, and I sort of get it, but I also understand the huge wave of praise the original release got for being an 'anything but safe' sequel. Ditching the largely simple story of FF1, FF2 weaves a tale of an evil empire scouring the land, a royal resistance crushed underfoot and a heavily foreshadowed story of corruption that feels underbaked but I love that they went there. There's even an attempt at giving player character's some basic personalities and even canonical names- truly Square were shooting for the moon with this game! As it happens, Final Fantasy 2 actually underwent several revisions over it's development as temperature shifted between doing a direct sequel following the basic formula of the first game or something newer and distinct- a decision that would come to shape the Final Fantasy franchise from that point onwards.

Perhaps FF2's most controversial, whilst also it's most interesting, idea would be the bad levelling system. It's pretty messy by modern standards, but at the time I gawk at the sheer ambition Square were attempting and laud the bravery to go with it. Totally eliminating the level-based experience point system of most every other RPG in the world, FF2 adopts a skill-development system wherein every attribute a player has can progress independently after every fight. Your HP, your MP, skill with a sword, skill with a dagger, skill with each independent spell- all grow separately under a metric of 'whatever you use, you become better at.' Sword users will grow their sword stat and fire spell wielders get better at it. Take damage and your health grows. Deplete mana and your magic grows. It's a natural levelling system which predates the excellent Elder Scrolls system and offers a route for Role Playing totally unexplored in any other game of the time. Truly revolutionary!

It's also pretty bad. You see, weapons skills (and spell skills) level from 1 to 16, with each level indicating how many times your weapon actually hits each turn. So yes, when you have a sword at level 5, each swing actually hits the enemy 5 times. Quite powerful, no? Too powerful, actually. If you hit max level with any weapon by the endgame you can steamroll through anything, even the final boss, without sweating. Of course, because of how convoluted levelling actually is, it's unlikely you'll hit max level unless, oh I don't know- you're trying to 100% the game and thus need to figure out the levelling system in order to max out at least 1 weapon skill and 1 spell. What a terror that would be, right? So here's my attempt at a crash course. (Please skip the next monster-paragraph if you can't stand overly complex systems explained to death.)

There are level bars under every weapon, but they don't increase every fight- even if you use the corresponding weapon for that fight. So what gives? As it turns out, you only get experience for that weapon type if you use that weapon the equivalent amount of times to the level you have in it. That is to say, you need to use your sword three times in a fight in order to get sword experience for that fight. (And yes, this calculation is made independently for every fight.) But that's easy, right? After all, your sword swings multiple times every time you use it corresponding to your level, doesn't it? Not quite, you see the calculation only counts the amount of times you actually press the attack key, not how many times the attack hits. If you only attack once and the attack lands 15 times, you'll only get the credit for attacking once and not get any XP. (The calculation is a little more complex than that, with negative experience entering into every fight that takes into account the difficulty class of each enemy you fight- but my explanation works just fine if you ignore all that.) 

So the best way to level your chosen weapon is to, whenever you face a large group of enemies, put everyone else on standby and have your levelling character wail on each enemy with one attack each, overkilling is allowed and multiple hits will never bleed onto another enemy meaning you can massacre every large group of enemies you stumble onto for a little EXP shot. But there's a problem even there- the max level is 16 and the largest group of enemies you can possibly find is 8! By the time you're fighting at level 8 there's no group of enemies that will last more than one swing from you! So what gives? Well in comes my cheat code- dual wielding. Dual wielding weapons causes a double attack on each swing, and these attacks do count as a separate activation which is counted towards the XP calculation. Making use of this not only allows you to speed through weapon skills in the early game, but makes Firion, the FF2 protagonist, look like a badass. So did you get all that? I bloody-well had to in order to complete this game!

Outside of utterly perplexing levelling, Final Fantasy 2 introduces some series staples for the first time. Cid returns with another airship, only this time Cid is alive! Chocobos are given their debut into the franchise and we even get our very first Behemoths! Gods alive, what a sight they are! Of course, we also get the Iron Giant, but given that the Iron Giant is this game's Uber rare- I wouldn't blame anyone for not knowing that. (Took me about half an hour of grinding to get him.) Also introduced in Final Fantasy 2 is the frankly ridiculous death count some of these games love so much- pretty much everyone in FF2 dies, it's grimly hilarious. Oh, and this game's music really steps up the game. The Castle of Pandemonium theme is actually a series high.

Oh, and as for my quest for 100%, Final Fantasy 2 was my first dose of missable content. Code words, random hidden chests, blink-and-you-miss-it locations- FF2 seemed as determined to ensure you don't experience everything as I was to get that sweet 100% on my first go around. Luckily I had the power of guides on my side! Final Fantasy 2 was good, overly ambitious but I prefer over-ambition to... Ubi-slop. Liked the game, can't wait for the Netflix adaptation.

Final Fantasy 3 kind of feels like a do-again of 1, only with much more ambition and experience behind them. Narratively 3 is kind of the blandest, going back to the 'Warriors of Light' concept from the 1st game only lacking the insane time travel stint of the final hour of Final Fantasy storytelling and instead settling for... I actually can't remember. Throwing aside the 'everyone dies' angle for a more light hearted story, with a little bit of character sprinkled in for good measure in the silly characters of the world, leaves less of an impression but isn't quite unwelcome as one might think. Sure Xanthe won't go down as one of the greatest villains ever, particularly as he doesn't even make it to 'Final Boss' status, but I remember his name, which is more than I can say for the actual Final Boss who is... um...I have it here in my notes that this game has 'the least interesting Final Boss', let me look it up... Right, the lady cloud- yeah, this game ain't winning any narrative awards. But that also wasn't really the point with this game.

Enjoying one of the larger worlds to date, and the introduction of moogles, Final Fantasy 3's claim to fame is the 'Job System' which would be my first introduction to a concept that gave me chills. Jobs were always this thing that later Final Fantasy games dabbled with which sounded daunting- giving the player the freedom to pick classes also gave us carte-blanche to screw up. Just look at my Final Fantasy 12 crew who had dual jobs picked at seeming random and struggled to face any of the true endgame content- I didn't want to end up in that hole again! Luckily Final Fantasy 3's job system is, honestly, quite darling.

Jobs are classes you can switch to freely at any point, opening up versability to your play style and meaning you can approach any fight in anyway. Need a team of mages for this fight? Go ahead! There's no penalty for job switching and it just means you're incentivised to buy four sets of every armour type as you progress. This also allowed for the team to develop more specialised and tough boss encounters, including some decently tough optional bosses that fill out the gameplay experience. We also get the best Airship yet in 'THE INVINCIBLE' which acts as a genuine home base- albeit one you get pretty late into the game to enjoy.

Ultimately despite being narratively basic, FF3 proved to be the most engaging, and thus the most materially fun, Final Fantasy game yet. But there still felt like some degree of potential left on the table that wouldn't be realised until a couple of games down the line...

Final Fantasy 4 might be considered one of the real break-through moments of the franchise, where Final Fantasy really figured out what it needed to be in order to have a future in the, to become very crowded, RPG space. It was the moment that Final Fantasy really started to focus on Characters, introducing a morally grey (at least initially) protagonist in Cecil, driven by relationships and loyalties explicitly laid out throughout the plot. He has a woman he loves despite his ills, a king he serves despite their onset tyranny and a child he adopts after murdering her mother and destroying her village. Yeah, FF4 isn't perfect with it's characterisations yet, and some personalities feel a bit flat, but ambitious is an understatement for all they were planning.

This also marks the very moment that Final Fantasy stopped being a pure turn-based franchise, for all those that bemoan the apparently 'implacability' of Final Fantasy's game style and their shirking of those 'turn based roots': these games stopped doing that in 1991! This is the start of the ATB real-time/turn based function, wherein every character has an 'action bar' that fills up in real time requiring players to stay active and in the moment to not get slapped silly by enemies. This also takes us back to the fixed classes for characters, but matches them with unique functionality which makes these various classes feel somewhat unique. Also, characters actually naturally learn spells this time, rather than requiring you to go spell hunting all over the world. God I missed that.

There's a lot of character and special 'above and beyond' aspects of Final Fantasy 4 which made it my favourite thus far. A rare party limit of five gives almost overwhelming choice in the early game, gear feels more intentionally placed to have specialties pointed towards upcoming threats making the 'click optimize and push forward' meta obsolete, encouraging actual thought into planning. Octamammoth's evolving sprite which lost more tentacles the more you fought him was cool, coward character Edward actually fleeing battle when his health get's low really characterised who he was, even just recycling the jobs from 3 into actual roles which characters possesses instils the world with a sense of immediate death and objectivity. You can place the role and it's connection to society instantly naturally filling out the scope of the world. Of course, that isn't to say the game is perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

Bards are functionally useless, now expending potions to heal everyone for no reason. Character growth moments lack the grace one might expect from a narrative this ambitious, character relationships evolve so quickly the narrative feels like it's in first forward. (Remember I talked about Cecil adopting a girl who's village he burned and mother he killed? Yeah, that happens like... the next day. And She, Rydia, seems cool with it.) And whilst some of the narrative twists seem really grand and interesting, others seem mind-numbingly dumb. Rosa and Rydia getting unsanctimonious dumped from the party for no other reason than 'woman' only to be let back into the party thirty seconds later is both a waste of time and a plot hole. (The team left them on Earth, and bumped into them again on the Moon. How the hell did the girls manage to catch up? Did they hold onto the ship as it flew into space?)

Still, Final Fantasy 4 really feels like the moment the Final Fantasy we would come to love came into view. And I'm not just saying that because this is the first time we see 'Bombs'. We have protagonists that actually rank in character, a cast some people might actually want to revisit and a world that felt like it had purpose and heft. I understand why this is one of the few games in the franchise to enjoy a follow-up (Final Fantasy 4: The After Years), even if I'm not invested enough to actually seek out and play the thing.

Final Fantasy V is the biggest and fullest feeling Final Fantasy so far. In fact, it was the one that took my longest to 100% by five or so hours out of this collection. It also presented me with great music and the prettiest visuals so far from the get-go, so my expectations were high. I knew that Final Fantasy V would see the return of the job system, but what I didn't expect was for this to be a marriage between jobs and narrative driven storytelling! I honestly thought the two concepts would be largely divorced in my head out of necessity, and whilst there is a level of objectivity which is lost under free-form job placement, I'll be honest- it kind of comes together in the finished project.

FFV's jobs are a world more interesting than they used to be. This time around you can level whatever job you want, but they actually have a proper levelling limit, as befitting their separate levelling metric to base levelling. All jobs get points after every fight which push them towards levelling up, each level up grants a 'universal skill' from that job, one of which can be slotted in conjunction with another job. For example, if you get the two-handed perk from levelling up the warrior tree (wielding one weapon in two hands to double the damage) you can then equip that perk whilst wielding the Samurai class to double the damage of the powerful Katana's they get to wield. Already this blows open the customisation of the job system.

In narrative FFV goes once again for the light hearted approach of 3, only this time with a wit and humour that some find endearing. I thought it made the story less engaging, but I could appreciate the odd funny line from Bartz, (our canonically named protagonist) or Gilgamesh. (Yes, Gilgamesh is introduced here.) Unfortunately, thanks to that narrative, Final Fantasy V also has the most missable content with two huge world shifts that render entire tables of enemies redundant. Filling out the bestiary for this game was a nightmare, and this was the first time I wished I hadn't neurotically decided to 100% this franchise.

Also, speaking of negatives- can Blue Magic die in a fire? Blue Magic is the ability to use an enemy skill, which can be pretty powerful however- You have to be hit by that enemy skill beforehand. Whilst being a blue mage. And that might just be the most annoying stipulation I have ever seen in a class ability in existence, with the exception of the 'gambler' skill from FF6 but we ain't there yet. First off- there's no way to know what skills you can steal, so you better have a guide open with you because there's only a handful across the entire game. Secondly, some of these skills are insane. Take 'Death Level 5' for instance, a spell which kills anyone who is a level divisible by five. Yes, just straight kills them. Which means you have to get your mage to die to this spell (having it miss doesn't count) whilst ensuring that at least one person in the party isn't a level divisible by five because a party wipe demands a reload. Also everyone levels up at pretty much the same rate so you're only ever a couple battles away from everyone being the same level.

Then there are some spells that enemies only ever target themselves with. So now you need someone else in your party with the Beastmaster class who needs to land the control skill in order to control the enemy and make them use the skill on the blue mage. But then there are skills that an enemy can't target a party member with, meaning that you need to use control to take over an enemy whilst another party member casts reflect so that when the enemy casts the spell on themselves it reflects and hopefully hits the blue mage. Or just make everyone blue mages. And, of course, one of the achievements asks you to get every blue mage spell. Hated it.

There feels like a lot of grind to Final Fantasy V which was almost non-present in previous games. World 2, for example, features a galling jump in difficulty for 10 level plus 15,000 health overworld enemies out of the blue. Several quest-threads just kind of stop, leaving the player to wander around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next. And all guidance just slips by the back-end meaning 100% searchers have to drag their sorry hides around the entire world space to go bestiary filling. That being said the challenge was appreciated with the exception of the series-first superbosses, Omega sure had me pulling out all the stops, I just wish that 'the stops' didn't include 'strands of hair' as his abilities utterly transcended logic to the point of sheer RNG. I had to pray my way through his reaction moves everytime I 'Rapid Fire' 'Two handed' katana-ed him!

Exdeath was certainly a weaker antagonist, not least of all thanks to that dumb name, but I found the characters and their tales to be enjoyable and full enough. No one character is drooling depth, but with a lighter narrative like this one that just seems more tone fitting, I suppose. I have to praise Final Fantasy V at least for having some of the coolest endgame sprites and the start of the 'Neo' naming convention that the franchise would come to love from here on out.

Which bring me to Final Fantasy VI. I wish I could come to this game with a more nuanced and cold take, but you know the drill already. Final Fantasy VI is easily the best of the Pixel Remasters games- it feels like the grand opus of everything that Final Fantasy had been working towards up to that point, sans the levelling system for Final Fantasy II because I literally think Square have never tried something like that again. (At least Bethesda carried the torch.) From the moment go Final Fantasy VI has the most gorgeous visuals of the series thus far, the most intriguing world building in this unique post-magic fantastical industrial-era tyranny and a jaw dropping, I can only assume iconic, intro. Actually, the only question I was really asking myself throughout all of this game was... how does it compare to Final Fantasy VII- the only game that is largely considered it's rival. Traditional wisdom gives FFVI the prize but from the lens of hindsight, regarding only the original FFVII, I wondered if the same conclusions would dawn on me.

Story really is the guiding heart of Final Fantasy VI, and this game's grasp of character and world feels a genuine step up from all previous attempts. Every character from this vast cast has genuine place and a desire for purpose in this story that frames itself around that search, giving a valid path of growth for just about everyone save the mascot characters and Gogo. Who is just... I don't understand Gogo. Like at all. Now true, I wouldn't say there's anything particularly profound about an RPG narrative where every character is framed around a search for purpose but FFVI seems so tightly wound to this concept that they create a heart around this ideal that transcends what might otherwise be considered somewhat pedestrian. I came to care about pretty much everyone. Also, 'Magitek' is introduced for this game. Yay.

FFVI also manages to wiggle itself around the whole 'class' system, whilst giving everyone consistent classes to better fill out the world building they introduce 'relics' that act as substantive modifiers to the way you play that can, in some instances, prove as powerful as job perks from FFV. We also see a whole slew of really unique class types. Celes' Runic Knight class is quite circumstantial, but an interesting idea. Gau's... whatever he is makes for an interesting trade-off between versatility and control. Strago is a much better blue mage- in that he doesn't need to be whacked in the face by a spell to learn it, he merely needs to see it be performed in a fight. FFVI's ATB bars refill so much slower than previous games' and it isn't until you see the depth of command at your disposal that such a choice makes sense.

Espers are a curious addition to the toolset, operating like Magatama from SMT 3, every Esper you equip slowly bleeds their skills into the equipper as you level up with them, and others even buff stats if you level up with them- creating that kind of optional character building for those really looking to min-max their character builds. They also relate back in the story in a significant way which adds a sense of gameplay-narrative congruity that enriches the overall experience. Glad they made summoning feel worth a damn this time around.

Kefka is the villain this time around and the man has an earned slot among the franchise greats. His laugh is an iconic haunting byte punctuating an inexplicable clown routine which feels in danger of making him seem incompetent, but rounds-off into sheer unpredictability. Kefka is the first villain who feels genuinely interesting to see on the screen as well as to just hear about off it. Even if you never really get to dissect who he is directly, there's enough context to draw conclusions. Kefka's general ridicule even by his own peers, his status as an errant experiment by a tyrannical emperor all belies a search for purpose underlined by a malign nihilism which drags him to madness even at the height of his strength and power. There's a depth to Kefka utterly absent from other antagonists and I was left just wanting more from the man, not so much more of the joker-esque jester antics that are typically highlighted in other games he shows up in (like Dissidia) But more of the silent torment that wracks through him. What drew him to the way that he is? How was it growing up with Terra? What was their dynamic like? How must it irk him to know everything that gives him worth was extracted and copied from Terra's natural talent? It's almost a shame this game doesn't give us these stories, feels like potential left on the table rather than just margins designed to be read into.

But FFVI is very confident about it's storytelling. Enough that key character moments are sometimes left to complete optional chance. You'll sometimes be dragged away from one set of characters to control another simultaneous scenario, or meet someone new entirely. That confidence is warranted. VI has a strong cast of characters that nearly all get completely satisfying arcs from start to finish, such that those who don't, like Shadow, feel utterly intentional to instil that forlorn longing for resolution which keeps fans wistfully wondering for years to come. ("What if Shadow had a chat with Relm- just for a moment! >sigh<")

I do have my issues. I think the Esper system is cool, but it does homogenise character abilities near to the end of the game, making everyone spell slinging demons. Sabin's QTE blitz system is just annoying. Not difficult, just a waste of time to do everytime. Setzer's slot machine can go jump off a cliff, I spent three hours trying to get 777 for the achievement before learning the game nonsensically rigs the result for no reason. Also, it can randomly kill the party if you set it on autobattle (which happened for me thrice. Screw Setzer.) Also, and I get this is slightly unfair, 'Aria Di Mezzo Carattere' is way too close to Aerith's theme. I know, I know- this one came first- but I can't help but compare! Only Aerith's theme is justifiably iconic for emotional range and musical depth, which makes 'Aria Di Mezzo Carattere' feel like the first half of a breath, bizarrely incomplete. Unfair, but I have to be honest.

Finally, I need to talk about the World of Ruin. I did not know that Dragon's Dogma 2 was a send-up to Final Fantasy 6 but now it seems utterly obvious, the WOR is such an interesting place for a FF game to go in. Cutting the thread of narrative off and leaving you in an open ravaged world- it's utterly unique and chillingly daunting. Also curious how the protagonist seems to shift from Terra to Celes for a time, making this feel like a narrative that transcends character and rather settles on the drive towards purpose itself. Final Fantasy 6 left me with a sensation I can't shake- I think there's a genuine masterpiece in mould that makes up the game, but it isn't quite on the screen. Whereas Final Fantasy 7 earns it icon standing through everything we see, Final Fantasy 6 lingers on the heart and mind more, to such an extent it leaves a longing to realise all of that heart in action. I think a Final Fantasy 6 remake could, and would be incredible, but for the game we have today, compared to the original FF7, I have to give it to my boys in Midgar. More distinct world, more full antagonist, and slightly more nuanced meta-narrative; but I love both games and the choice between the two is not cut and dry!

The Pixel Remasters have been a fantastic route into gaming royalty. Each game held something special and I didn't fully dislike a single experience, which across a franchise as storied as this one marks something honestly special. I've always wondered about the legendary status of Final Fantasy and honestly held off on this little retrospective just in case reality did not live up to the stories. What I experienced what not what I expected, not by a long shot, but not a disappointment. What I found was a playability and relevance for each one of these games even in the modern age, to a degree that makes me slightly aggrieved I never did this earlier. I've learned a lot not just about history, but the evolution of a legend- and something makes me curious where the games went next... Final Fantasy VIII remaster next?

A Dauntless Tale

 

Monster Hunter games are becoming a genre- that most dreaded of foibles- after two decades of being that incredibly niche little side project that Capcom threw out every now and then fill up space between bigger franchise games. And maybe that is the strength of Eastern game developers- never sticking all their eggs in one basket but keeping loose and creative so that little underdog you might never have given two cents a while ago ends up polishing up to perfection in the background and perhaps even becoming the next 'Like a Dragon' is raised right. We've seen Wild Hearts step up to try and score some attention, we're apparently going to be seeing a Horizon series game based on this style of progression (as though base Horizon Zero Dawn doesn't already owe enough to the MH franchise) and, yes, we even have the old faithful of Dauntless.

Now, Dauntless is actually something of a special case- because it was conjured up off back in a time before Monster Hunter broke into the mainstream. Sure, Monster Hunter was a pretty well known off entity for the sheer number of entries it had accrued within it's relatively short life and simply the staying power the brand seemed to have in the minds of those who played it- but how many people had actually played the games? Enough to justify the franchise existing, evidently, but not enough to set off a fever pitch. Phoenix Labs, off Riot Games heritage, spun off with the hopes of making 'big games with small teams', and aimed right dab at the Monster Hunter franchise based on nothing but hunches and ambitions. I guess they had some solid market analysts to hand, then- because Dauntless would manage to score a release date within 12 months of Monster Hunter World.

There's no understating the monumental success of Monster Hunter World- a title released globally for all major platforms whereas previously the franchise had been mostly relegated to handhold or Nintendo Wii. It was inescapable for it's time, everyone had to talk about the big monster game- the addictive game loop, the oodles of build variety, the insanely complex enemy designs- Monster Hunter World benefitted from a decade and a half of hard-built experience all being exposed to a new audience at once and they were dizzied by the prospect. And about a year later, when the lustre of World has worn some and folks were wandering about for their next fit- here roles up Phoenix Lab's Dauntless with a promise of recurrent content updates built on a live service model. Oh, and it was free-to-play? You couldn't dream for more optimal conditions for a studio's virginal outing.

Dauntless scored big with a core audience that flocked to the game and gave it their all, proving the validity of the Monster Hunter brand and probably directly spawning the modern day interest to be included in conversations of 'generic diversification' right alongside 'a battle royale spin off' and 'An extraction shooter spin off'. (Waiting on 'Final Fantasy 7 Materia Hunter' to be announced any day now...) And to their utmost credit Phoenix labs knew exactly how to capitalise on the excitement around their game to keep some folks around- entering that stable state of player interest that few live services achieve. Not a burning phenom perhaps, but a healthy and approachable medium. Dauntless lived off itself for years and Phoenix Labs were going to use it as a springboard to launch their vast game development dreams. Until reality came knocking.

Looking at Phoenix Labs today you might be surprised to see the headlines- with the majority of the staff being let go and the future of both Dauntless and their (farming-based cozy game?) 'Fae Farm' being up-in-the-air. What happened? Capitalism obviously. Phoenix Labs were affected by the industry funding troubles as surely as anyone else and through a series of bad circumstances that led to them being acquired by a company so odious that the team actively (and arguably maliciously) attempted to hide the identity of their purchaser from everyone including potential hires. Forte- a Blockchain company. Blockchain and games go together like ionizing radioactive material and Deoxyribonucleic acid- which it to say: one totally ruins the other. Blockchain people are just so terminally unfun and deprived of basic lovable properties that their sheer repulsiveness just sucks the talent and life out of everything they touch- and yes I very much would love to say that to any of their faces; were any brave enough to leave their circles of protective sycophantic yes-goblins.

So what do you think happened when Forte- a cadre of creepy cretins- took effective control of their modestly popular- if lightly declining- game? Well of course they ended up tilting the company, directly or otherwise, towards what might go down in history as the worst 'revamp' a video game has ever received. A Steam launch to a bigger set of players, thanks to the end of Epic Exclusivity (can only imagine how many companies have grown to resent those deals in hindsight) should have been a cause for celebration- but when that launch heralded a wiping of all progress, a total reworking of progression to be flat the recycling of previous rewards into paid cosmetics- well... let's just say the cheering crowds never arrived.

There are few dumber ideas, when nurturing an years long fan base, then wiping progress to make a worse experience- When Final Fantasy XIV did something similar, that team pulled every stop imaginable to ensure the game born out the otherside was as polished and lovable as possible. Phoenix Games, however, just murdered their game loop and rolled out the corpse for mockery. It was a disaster. Fans that were still with the game were pushed out the door, the new audience saw the headlines and stayed well clear and the game managed to peak on Steam with under 1000 players. Which is bad, if that needed to be said.

Which leaves us with a tale, one of Dauntless prospects being squandered- seemingly under the direction of people who couldn't draw a circle with a compass. At least, that is what we can assume happened to the game. There's always the chance that the entire team was just hit with a stupid ray and came to Steam with the intention of killing their own game from day one- but I guess we'll have to wait until Jason Schierer does the expose on that on. Until then we can take away the lesson- when the devil comes to bargain baring gifts- remember to treat everything in that wicker basket like it's a curling monkey paw in waiting- sometimes it's better to die with dignity.

Ubisoft might actually be doomed

 

Of all the common L's that I very much expect Ubisoft to make: lasr year has proven to my absolute shock that this industry might just have a much lower tolerance point than I assumed it had. I think we might finally be getting to a point of genuine rejection where we no longer tolerate an absolute bottom-feeding tail-chasing overbloated badly managed black hole of a company to be successful anymore. Much to my utmost shock I think the industry might have finally outgrown my sworn nemesis- at least in their current form. I still attest that Ubisoft are too big to fail and, once again, too big for anyone to seriously want them to fail. The last thing we need is an accelerated industry crash because Ubisoft went belly-up. But if Ubisoft got bought out by a company that actually knows how to publish games- maybe those massive resources the company regularly squanders could be put to genuine use? (Meh, I'm getting way too hopeful, aren't I?)

The victim today for the big U was none other: than XDefiant! That's right, the Cod-like competitive shooter that Ubisoft put out this year! The struggling live-service shooter game that soundly failed to launch in the soft-spot of the Cod train, essentially leading them to lose momentum to the famous shooter literally the same year as their historic multiplatform Game Pass deal which led to the game breaking launch records. It's no secret that XDefiant dropped the bag- that was such an inevitability that if you go back- you might remember how XDefiant actually got rebranded because of how badly it's reveal came off. People already had the thing labelled as 'uncool' giving the title an uphill struggle to traverse. But positive first hand impressions did wiggle under some skin at the beginning- it's just a shame they were too late to really make something of it.

Too late, I say, because as you might have heard- XDefiant has just been given the swift boot up the ass. After the game director coming out and belly-laughing at all those worried the game was not long for this world- as it turns out the game really isn't long for this world. Without so much as seeing the end of the year- XDefiant has had it's cord cut and is currently staring down the barrel of a cut-off date midway through 2025. Refunds are on the table at the very least for microtransactions bought within a certain period- but there's no giving back all the time people invested into giving this game a shot and hoping it would carve out a space for itself in this cursed would of ours. So ends the journey of the one Ubisoft project that some people actually kinda liked for a bit.

Then we have Skull and Bones which, impossibly, has plans for a season 2 coming into this year despite the very real fact that it... has no more potential whatsoever. If anything it might have scoured members of the pirate-fantasy searching crowd had it a couple more years to work on itself, but unfortunately between hijinks-simulator 'Sea of Thieves' and the rapidly approaching 'Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii'- I'm pretty sure that crowd has been well-and-truly sniped out of the water before they could be swooped up. Shame. Pretty much the only reason Skull and Bones is still around is because everytime Ubisoft try to wiggle out of their responsibilities they catch sight of the Singaporean leg-breaker waiting at the back of the room.

Assassin's Creed Shadow is pretty much Ubisoft's only hope and though it is obviously going to hit it's more modest sales targets and probably even score some of the higher tier ones because this is a franchise that is immune from consumer backlash- I'm not sure that Ubisoft has ever had the entire weight of it's company resting on the back of a single game's success before. I wonder if a team as large as Ubisoft's can feed itself off a single hit anymore. We're not talking a Rockstar level world-wide phenom incoming- we're talking about the kind of game that is going to be picked up day one by incumbents whilst enthusiasts scoff again at another overly safe and unambitious entry in a tired franchise limiting it's immediate-audience appeal. A hit, but not a smash.

And beyond Assassin's Creed what does Ubisoft have? Maybe another NFT disaster? It utterly boggles all sensibilities that Ubisoft put out two NFT games within the past year and both were worse than what first time Unity-dev Crypto-heads have managed to scrounge together. Sure, those lot tend to use pre-built assets, but they make stuff more playable than the card game which was utterly non-functioning for it's first weekend of life. And some games with a little more playability than the glorified flash-tier Captain Lazerhawk disaster that Ubisoft spat out later. (God, the inexplicable cultural success of 'Blood Dragon' really was a latent poison, wasn't it?) This is all Ubisoft have to pad out their back catalogue. Well, that and the demi-successes. 

Games that Ubisoft put out which cross the border of 'good' but lack the star power to land with a splash like they were angling for- demi-successes. I'm talking games with the vibe of 'Avatar: blah blah Frontier' which took the Far Cry formula and tweaked it just enough to fit the Avatar licence. People seem to think the game was pretty good- just not worth the AAA over-premium pricing that Ubisoft insist on out of some vain self-deserving belief system. 'Star Wars: Outlaws' is said to be half-decent once you scrub away at it's issues, but to put it as the same price point as the Black Myth game is a laughable proposition- who's gonna go for that? These games had strong brands and didn't really go the distance with them- they aren't pillars to hold up a large company.

Now with sharks in the water circling around Ubisoft's collapsing stock it feels like we might be looking at the final years of Ubisoft antics and I'll be honest- I'm not entirely sympathetic. I mean if they were going under I would be- but it looks like what we're looking at is a buy out and proceeding slow suffocation. No one who could do this company proud is interested in buying it- and I'd imagine we see a slow bleeding of talent over the following few years as Ubisoft shrivels up into a shell of it's former self- which is perhaps the most humane well to kill a beast like this, which has feasted on the blood of this industry for so long, without causing some kind of giant industry crash. Couldn't happen to a more deserving waste of a studio.

 

Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age review

How old are you?

Boredom is a funny thing that takes us to strange places- unless you're a gamer in which case there's very little guess-work about the places your boredom is going to take you. For me, however, the boredom which led me to finally delving into the vast world of Final Fantasy (for which my only prior experience was a bit of XIII, the entirety of XV and the 7 games) was tinted with anticipation over the upcoming launch of XVI on PC. A launch which has apparently not been very profitable for Square, maybe because it was so under-marketed that I only knew it was happening because my sickly seventh sense for upcoming video games poked me to search for any news on the PC port randomly only to find it due within the coming month. (My sixth sense is the ability to know a good or bad game or movie before release with a high rate of accuracy, for those keeping track.)

Picking up and immensely enjoying that demo was enough to secure my purchase, if not the majority of other gamers, which meant that FFXVI would be on my mind for the next month- how would I deal with that? Well, there was always the vast well of other titles with more traditional JRPG systems to keep me entertained- I thought- and surely they could keep my attention for at least a bit of that torturous waiting period. Surely I wouldn't actually end up finishing an entire Final Fantasy game within that short time for what legendarily massive adventures they are. But I guess that's the thing about legends, isn't it? You can never live up to them. I ended up beating FFXII just before XVI launched and experienced enough to have some very definite thoughts about my time and it only took me- give me a moe... Yikes, Steam says '62.9 hours'. I withdraw my point- I'm an addict.

Now, it's very important you understand my reasoning and expectations going into Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age so that you can be on the same level with me in that experience. I wanted a Final Fantasy type game to bide over my time that gave me familiar JRPG vibes of your everyday Japanese title. The kind of turn-based tactically light stuff I play from indie devs off Itch.io running on RPG Maker every other week. I also knew actually nothing about this game, or really any Final Fantasy I haven't played aside from the major ones like... I think there's a guy called Tidus in... FF X? And... is VIII the one with Squall? (That silly bugger who calls himself Leon in Kingdom Hearts.) As for XII? I actually didn't know the protagonist's name and spent a decent chunk of time wondering how I was ever going to take a guy called 'Reks' seriously over the course of an entire game. (Thank goodness that young boy got murdered in the prologue... uh... spoilers I guess. The game is eighteen years old, I'm going to spoil at least a little bit of the story.)

Now with those expectations, those who are familiar with FFXII might understand exactly where I'm going with this. My face dropped the moment I started playing the game and found out to my surprise- the combat isn't turn based. Not really. It's this weirdly horrific mix of MMO-reminiscent auto-attacking accompanied with acquirable skills and an 'action cooldown' that has your player stand around awkwardly between slashes in combat. It's weird and ugly to look at... but when you're playing a 60 hour JRPG there are things you just have to get used to and this was one of them. I grew to... endure this combat system and in doing so came to reflect a bit more on Final Fantasy as a whole to realise- I'm not sure if they've ever had a traditional combat system!

I mean I assume the pixel games have, 1-6 look like they do from screenshots I've seen, but all the titles I've played have some kind of hybrid between tactical turns and straight action gameplay or are simply just action games out-and-out. It really did surprise me how 30 odd years of video game legacy just kind of clouded my actual analysis, as I think it did a lot of people who assumed FF16 suffered from breaking away from FF's formula- despite the franchise not really having a clearly defined gameplay formula really ever. I guess that's why Final Fantasy is a monolith- you really never do know what you're going to get next.

So after surviving that combat-jumpscare, my next point of remark was the world of Final Fantasy XII both visually and within the plot. For which I have to say- Final Fantasy always covets some of the quality world building throughout all JRPGs. I couldn't tell you the name of the starting towns in half of the average RPGs I've played but every Final Fantasy world exists with distinction in my mind. FFXII is a great example of this with Ivalice serving as a fantasy world plucked straight out of the fruits of the imagination tree. With unique and interesting fantasy races, (alongside the race of tall bunny girls that5 have half their asses hanging out at all times) fabulously grandiose middle-eastern inspired architecture and really striking character designs. It's all really rather inspired if you ignore the very obvious Star Wars Prequels influence.

Rabanastre might be pretty much fantasy-Naboo but it's all a richly beautiful and diverse city teeming with people going about the open-air bazaars, taking in the fabulous courtyard water fountains, and gazing up at the giant maximalist structures that will make you wish the game let you look up a bit more reliably. I feel like a real-estate broker saying all this but seriously, the work put into bringing these spaces alive is truly excellent and whilst I think the first city is probably the most brimming with character and visible culture- that design excellence persists throughout. Sure the black armour of the Inquisitors looks like a take on Darth Vader's famous armour- otherwise the obvious Japanese Samurai helmets have literally no visual place within these design themes- but I find something nostalgic about going back into the era of prequel-mania- even through the eyes of a... visual copycat feels a bit dismissive but I mean that with all the love in the world.

To accompany this visual treat we have the writing and acting which is... the quality of a 2006 game. Far enough along in the game that actual actors who know what they're doing are being employed, but not enough for decent recording equipment and/or sensible sound mixing practises to become the wide-spread norm. Then maybe there's a lack of enthusiasm in some cast members, and some rather clear poor direction resulting in ill-fitting performances of the odd line. But overall I wasn't offended by the quality of the voice work and coupled with rather gorgeous and well-parsed verse in the script, I found some meat on the bones to latch onto. Of course, I speak of the writing here, less what the writing actually says- and that's because I'm trying to start off positive. But I guess in the pursuit of an authentic review I'm going to need to expand my feelings.

I don't like the combat. I don't like that when you start it takes no fewer than three button presses in order to perform a basic attack. I don't like that in order to 'overcome' this limitation that game expects you to literally write basic if/and conditional code using their rudimentary interface so that the Ai presses the buttons for you. I hate how the sign of a well-balanced and wisely deployed team is a battle that fights itself with minimal, sometimes even no, input from the player whatsoever. I don't like the fact that the 'Esper' system the game employs in place of traditional summons appears to be functionally useless by the time you reach the mid-game, also that it takes forever and is bad. I hate the fact that basic spell upgrades which every other boss enemy has are hidden as one-time drop items tucked away in the deepest recess' of the most out-of-the-way dungeon instead of, you know, cool thematic items that flesh out the world by simply existing where they do. And finally- I think the dungeons are kinda crappy too.

Ah- but as you picked up in the midst of all that- I do like the game enough to want to learn more about it's world- I wish it related to the gameplay more. And I also wish that the complex lore snippets earned by extensive monster slaying and bestiary filling pertained to lore that more closely linked to the plot in even the most abstract way. You know, like if the extensive religious pantheon they spell out were in any way presented in the actual gods that appear in the plot! Imagine how silly I felt learning about the various myths and legends only to be told "Actually, nah these are different deities who we failed to set up in the story sufficiently before literally launching them at you." But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What is FFXII's story on an even basic level that it eventually involves the gods? A redundant question, this is a JRPG- the game could be about maintaining a successful farm and somehow end with a duel against god. (I'm still only on the first month of Harvestella but I'm pretty sure that's where that game is heading too.) FFXII actually surprises as a tale that doesn't so much ground itself in a heroes journey against the heavens as many other FF stories do, but instead takes a more macro sweeping eye at wide-stage geopolitics as the various co-existing nations of Ivalice are threatened by... >sigh< an evil empire... This one isn't just a Star Wars reference, rather a reference to Final Fantasy's many reoccurring plot elements. Little sick of it by now, to be honest.

In this pursuit FFXII took a rather drastic sacrifice of the individual stories being told throughout the game, not that you don't get characters with personal drives to them- just that they don't drive the plot as much as are carried along by it. Much of the plot is actually pretty lazily strung along with a 'do this and then do that' structure that belies connective tissue and makes it hard to really feel the pulse of the plot. Unless you engage with discovering the world, like I did, I can definitely see this boring people expecting a narrative to the level of, say, Final Fantasy VII at least. As for the wider nation-shifting narrative- there are some problems there too. Problems very much highlighted in gusto after my playthrough of the narratively excellent Final Fantasy XVI which managed to marry complex nation movements and individual character storytelling without skimping on either. (Guess 20 extra years of storycraft is going to amount to some improvement.) 

What we have here is a story of plucky rebellion against overwhelming power, and the nature of power of what it comes to wield it eventually being brought to the table and... left about for inspection. Final Fantasy has never been the most introspective of theme-examiners and XII is no different, but I respect there was at least an attempt to establish a heart and it shines through. From a distance, on a list, the game has all the formulas it needs to give us a tale about the human cost of power, whilst in practice it sort of plays out a bit more unfocused than that. And perhaps the game would have a better time figuring itself out if it wasn't for it's protagonist problem, Yes, we're talking about Vaan in this review. 

Now I have to come to learn that little Vaan has something of a cultish devotion which, upon examination, seems to have spung up for a very particular purpose. You see, Vaan is singular amidst Final Fantasy protagonists as being... how do I put this... not particularly good. And that is a pretty vague sentiment which could go in a million directions, but I keep it general rather to highlight just how overwhelmingly 'not good' the man is by every metric. Is he interesting? No. Is his journey engaging and dynamic? No. Does he take charge in the narrative? No. Is his perspective an invaluable perspective to providing a complete story? And this is the tough one because it really is the last bastion that his fanbase rally to... but honestly the answer is still no. Vaan is laughably redundant in every aspect- so why do so many insist otherwise?

There has been at least one complete essay written in his staunch defence and when you actually take to the word of the argument it becomes pretty clear why. The sentiments are wavy but follow a similar vein- 'Vaan is the audience perspective', (despite that clearly being Ashe) 'Vaan represents the common man in a story about powers which dehumanise the human cost.' (only he offers no presence or perspective in key moments concerning such costs, nor does he seem all that impassioned about the plight of 'the people' in general.) And finally the 'Well why does Square keep putting him up as the face of the good characters every crossover fighting game if he's so bland?' (Precisely because he's bland. There's no ambiguity to him. No depth, no contradiction. He's just along for the ride and will hop aboard anything short of genocide.) So what's the heart behind his impassioned defence? It's actually pretty simple. It's the underdog effect.

Vaan has been in the crosshairs of everyone confused about his protagonist status since the game launched, and when you love a game (as some do for FFXII) it's natural to default to defending the thing. It's easy to push away the glaring flaws and hold up your project on a pedestal as some sort of eternal monolith of perfectly logical consistency, instead of a product developed by people who sometimes get it wrong. Just ask Square developers why they made Vaan. Their last game, Vagrant Story, garnered some criticism for their adult protagonist and so they decided to err towards a younger man for the next game. It feels right to create some sort of excuse, to fill in the blanks with your own imagination and conjure some genius interpretation of the character when if you just be objective, look at the character plain, and most importantly- observe the effect he has on the audience: he's just a dud of a character. Even if we lived in a world were the writers had knowingly cooked up a protagonist so inactive to the plot that he literally doesn't even share any words with the end-game antagonists, all in some thrilling subversion of expectations- (in a game with an already shaky narrative) it pretty clearly failed to translate to most of the critical audience. Maybe Vaan is a stroke of genius, (he isn't) but he didn't pan out that 'genius' in a way that enriched the narrative. So Vaan's crap, rant over.

As for the rest of the cast? They're fine. I get the feeling that FFXII was born at a time of rapid improvement in technology, were studios had to really put down their foot to keep up with the changing times and maybe some more fundamentals, such as rounded character writing, got lost in the scuffle. The original Final Fantasy 7 arguably had some much simpler characters, but they gave each cast member time to develop- with FFXII it feels like they picked favourites constantly. Fran was a decently interesting character; (Choice to have her voice direction be so quiet she can barely be heard in the sound mix aside) but her story kind of fizzles out so Balthier can take the stage. Balthier actually has a really solid narrative on paper, but his actually solid character connections with his father and the parallels his origins shares with other members of the cast and the theme of power in general feel rushed. I know! 'Rushed' in a 60 hour game! Maybe we should have had more time to unravel his character and connections- which we could have done were he the protagonist? (Actually Balthier is a pretty early companion, they had plenty of time to make him more than 'the rather ironically soft-spoken supposedly 'suave' swashbuckler-type who gets vague about his past all the time.')

Ashe is the real protagonist of FFXII in all the ways that matter. She has the impetus of the story laid upon her, her's is the internal struggle that plays out detailing the core theme of the plot and it is from her perspective that the world and it's people are slowly uncovered as we explore the vast lands of Ivalice. She's also the princess who's Kingdom is stamped upon by the Empire, and who's bloodline just happens to hold overwhelming significance to the plot. I would go so far as to call her presence the connective tissue which pulls events together if this were a slightly tighter narrative that I could confidently call 'pulled together'. And she is... a fine character. I'd categorise Ashe less of a 'dull character' and more a 'product of her time where protagonists had to be a certain way'. Some Final Fantasy protagonists break from the 'middling scope of personalities' available to that generation of storytellers, but most didn't. I understand why Ashe, nor most of her party, wind up at the top of 'favourite Final Fantasy characters' with the exception of Fran. But her popularity is so deeply tied to her looks that when Final Fantasy XIV respectfully yoinked the bunny-race of the 'Viera'- they effectively plucked all of Fran's cultural relevance with them. Rather mean of them if you ask me.

What this game does wonderfully, as I hope out of any Final Fantasy game, is provide that sense of vast adventure across a wild and fascinating land of varying cultures, peoples and traditions. Travelling the land from one edge to the other, as is genuinely asked of you from time to time, will take you from snowy outcrops writhe with winged beasts to hollowed out ancient oil rigs plunged across a vast desert haunted by dangerous tribal scavengers. There's so much diversity and intrigue to Ivalice that I held absolutely no surprise to learn this land ended up being the setting for the much beloved 'Final Fantasy Tactics' games. Games which are still not legally purchasable on modern hardware for some insane reason! (I'd love to try them out.)

Ivalice also treads a curious line between the manifested gods of Final Fantasy lore and the more grounded aspects of less fantasy-driven world building. The famous summons of the series for example, Odin, Bahamut, Shiva are present not as summons but rather gigantic airships that are central to the narrative as unstoppable machines of war. Much of Ivalice culture is based around skytravel, (despite there being no actual sky-plane gameplay for some insane reason) so these flying fortresses determine the shape of the world in a much more tactile way than magically shifting mountains and waging celestial warfare. It's a really inspired subversion of the typical Final Fantasy reoccurring factors, only slightly dampened by the fact that they did actually try to include their own magical summons through the 'Espers' system, only for those Espers to be vanishingly forgettable and crappy by comparison to the old summon system. 

I particularly love the inclusion of optional 'hunts' to encourage the player to explore. High level and sometimes gimmick strewn duels that will drag you all the way over Ivalice and really put you to the test. There's a progression tree to committing to them, actually substantive rewards for the early game and an invaluable familiarity with the quirkier aspects of the combat system up for grabs for those that engage- as well as some curious tidbits about the history and biology of these creatures in the log book that a Monster Hunter lover like me just finds invaluable. It's really right up my alley. Some of these hunts even carry curious side-quest style plot threads with them that offer some of the really unique moments which stick with you after the game. The system is still a little finnicky though, with there being no real neat way of tracking which bounty belongs to which applicant if you do something sacrilegious and 'take a break from the game and forget what you were doing'. (Hell, I didn't take any breaks and still struggled keeping everything straight!)

And of course as you get deeper into the game the optional content starts to bloom outwards, although unfortunately a lot of that delves into the more 'ultra obscure game guide bait' style of content. Side Quests with ludicrously vague steps you'd never happen across in a normal playthrough, secret weapons so obscure you would literally never know they are there unless you looked it up and the route to one of the superbosses being an utterly impenetrable maze of near-identical hallways scattered across a slog of a dungeon. That's another point, these dungeons kind of suck. Final Fantasy never really boasted the most interesting dungeons in JRPGs but FFXII in particular seems to subscribe to the 'drag it out until the player wants to tear out their hair' school of design. I might actually consider calling SMT 3's dungeons better by comparison, until I remember how trail and error the last one in Nocturne was. Yeah, I'd rather slog through a near endless dungeon then bash my head against a maze of invisible teleport traps for the rest of my existence.

All this belies the fact that despite how much there is to do and see around Ivalice, the main story actually doesn't do a great job of handling a geopolitically driven narrative. You hear about the rising tensions of the various world nations under the blustering of the Empire and yet none of it feels as tactile as it should. You hear about Bhujerba's rivalry to the empire but the Bhujerba you visit is little more than a relatively tiny floating town with a prominent mining community, they don't really sell the 'independent city state' vibe very well in the actual presentation and game - it seems unfeasible to think of that as the basis for so much as even a military annoyance for the giant empire. And what about the... I have to look this up... the Rozzarian Empire, not to be confused with the more obviously antagonist Archadian Empire. They have such little actual presence in the game the fact they exist is only brought up when their debonair harem-wielding prince saunters into a scene halfway through the game to shameless flirt at a totally nonplussed Ashe and vaguely threaten global warfare against the Archadians. This isn't how you handle political drama guys, you need to give us a proper global overview of the world situation first so we understand and respect the weight of individual shifts of state across the various nations later- which is exactly how Final Fantasy XVI does it.

Now I've talked a lot about 'Final Fantasy XII' but where does this 'Zodiac Age' come into it, you may wonder. I was actually quiet curious about this one going in, speculating that these 'Zodiac' might refer to some aspect of the lore which this rerelease edition expanded on to some greater degree and I was half right. Kinda. The Zodiac are one of those vaguely mentioned sub-lore aspects that are buried by the actual gods present in the narrative, and as for 'The Zodiac Age'. That entirely refers to the revamped class system. Yeah, they named an entire rerelease for a job system that bares no relevance on the plot. (Simpler times.) The Zodiac job board presents a kind of semi free-hand system of class building where you pick a couple classes and then use battle obtained points to select 'licences' to use certain spells and equipment. It's... serviceable as far as RPG systems go. But very sterile and bland too. When all your levelling amounts to static stat block increases or the 'legal right' to equip a certain tier of armour, progression can feel pretty passive. And in passive progression systems I usually prefer to be hands off and let the stats build in the background, instead of in the forefront picking the hardly noticeable power increases by hand. On the flipside this system does uniquely allow for extreme low-level playthroughs if you are that deranged enough- so there's that.

But if you've followed along with me this far you'll no doubt how picked up on a certain passion with how I speak about this game and it's world, no matter if I'm praising it or digging at it. And that's because I did actually really enjoy playing it! For it's faults and gaffes there is a heart to Final Fantasy XII which makes it fully understandable why some out there hail this as a formative game for them- it may not be perfect but it's hardly a bad game by really any metric- it just shapes up poorly in comparison to actual masterpieces out there- which is no great shame. I even think that somewhere, with some spit'n'shine and a total rewrite of Vaan's character so that his driving motivations don't almost completely disappear the second Ashe joins the party, and I think this game could make for a blinding Remake one day. Unfortunately, I'm sure there are far more deserving Final Fantasies worthy of a remake first- so I'm not sure XII will ever see that day.

Final Fantasy XII is a strange one. Solidly made but structurally flawed, evocative yet unfulfilled, ambitious yet narratively absent. And also I don't like the combat but I'll confess that's a personal bias. As far as Fantasy games go, however, Final Fantasy XII nails it where it counts for someone like me, who flocks to this genre for fascinating worlds that spark the imagination. Ivalice is another unforgettable world in a franchise full of them and it's light alone deserves a recommendation if just to see the grandeur of Rabanastre if not to stick around for the whole game. The story does kind of fall on a flat note and I'm not sure any character really feels that fully developed- and the player character really let's the story down in terms of connecting the audience with the moment. I think my feelings can be summed up in one scene: at the very apex of the game, when the protagonists and final villain finally meet, and that same tyrant turns to our heroes and says "Who are you?" It's the beginning of a middling speech but by god in that one moment I thought "Right! Who the hell am I?!" Which shouldn't really be your take away by the time of the plot climax. FFXII deserves it spot in fantasy games history, if not exactly a plinth of honour for all it achieves. Which leaves me with a tentative recommendation if all those negatives I just described doesn't fully turn you away and a arbitrary review grade of... this one is hard... I'm going to go C. C+ if you just love fantasy enough. Not a failure, but far from the best this franchise is capable of and what this world deserved. 

Metaphor Refantazio review

 Fantasy lives on...

Persona has risen very much from the depths of niche-hood into the very heart of relevance thanks to the runaway smash-hit of Persona 5. Just like the Yakuza franchise had done before it- 5 introduced a whole new breed of potential fans to the wonders of the Japanese game market- wherein forgoing the absolute cutting edge of technology allows for quicker turn arounds, developers who are more familiar and adept with their current toolsets and, usually, more introspective and interesting stories. I still find myself utterly stunned with just how many ATLUS projects we've seen in the past 5 years compared to the best of the western world. Five games in as many years- (with one technically being a re-release with more content in 'Persona 5 Royal') What about Naughty Dog? Last of Us Part 2 and... remasters of both games. With an upcoming second remaster of Part 2 soon. My point is- the Asian gaming market is on the rise and for good reason.

Of course I did find myself wondering just how transitive the success of Persona would ultimately be on ATLUS as a whole. I mean sure- I ended up really gelling with the brand and introducing myself to the wider world of their products- but I'm an anomaly with too much time on my hands. Shin Megami Tensei V certainly did decently, but it's still a niche brand in comparison to Persona and it seemed like ATLUS really understood that what with how thoroughly the team committed to milking Persona 5. What else did they have? Soul Hackers 2? That game got panned, unfairly so I'd argue, for the crime of not really being anywhere near as good as the Persona games. (Not that it was really trying to be- you could feel the lower budget seeping through every aspect of that game.) Which is what brought me to considering Metaphor a risky proposition.

Don't get me wrong- from an artistic standpoint I thought that marrying the ATLUS formula with the creative freedom of a pure fantasy world was such a no-brainer that it honestly astounds me that the team seem so surprised that they went this direction ultimately. The tacit comprehension of complex themes disseminated and personified into tangible aspects of a thematically driven plot, broad and emotionally driven character writing that colours shades of personality into even the most drab places, a deep grasp of various international cultural myths and the intellect to cleverly appropriate those aspects to create fascinating world spaces. (Take note: 'Devil May Cry'; you haphazard culture-nicker, you!) ATLUS had been cultivating these skills with every one of their projects up until now- of course they were primed to bring it together into a fantasy. In fact, a fantasy setting could even be the perfect melting pot to bring all those talents to their ripe-most fruition!

Now those are very bold proclamations that I make, and it was with a tempered heart I reflected on what Metaphor would actually be. First off, ATLUS were forming a new team to make it, Studio ZERO- which could either be an investment made in confidence that this would form a team worthy of carrying their own legacy for years to come- or a calculated risk to isolate a limb in the off-chance it may need to be cauterised if things go south. In a manner so very fitting for the subject matter of the day, I gave into my fear of the unknown and allowed anxiety to close off my heart to the hype train for Metaphor- only really re-engaging around about release time when I figured- "Eh, there's a free demo- might as well see what it's like." Needless to say, I brought the game on the spot soon after.

In many ways Metaphor feels like a marriage of everything ATLUS has achieved up until now, in every aspect from the character writing to the storytelling to the gameplay. But for the sake of observable and easily communicable evidence, lets start with gameplay. Metaphor borrows the press-turn combat system from Shin Megami Tensei alongside it's buff/debuff stacking kit- accessing the much greater tactical burden and reward afforded this system over the more pithy, albeit quicker and punchier, Persona route. Yet it neatly nicks the celebrated Social Link relationship heart of the Persona games in order to bring the relationships to the forefront of the narrative and world every bit as successfully as that franchise does. Picking and choosing.

This comes from the pedigree of Studio ZERO which is picked from across ATLUS' greatest hits with talent from Neon Genesis and elsewhere padding out the other artistic positions- presumably lending to the uniquely lively style of ReFantazio's visual artistry. And personally, as one deeply entrenched in ATLUS' emotionally-poignant examinations of the human condition, I am so happy to find Metaphor not just full to bursting with one of the studios most complete breakdowns of their theme, but a beautifully evocative commentary on so much more besides, from the very nature of power to the purpose of art as a concept. Once more ATLUS amaze with how aware and clever their narratives can be- leaving not a pinch of doubt in anyone's mind when they took the 'Best Narrative' award at the Game Awards.

Metaphor presents a fantasy world that slips away from many of the usual go-to tropes that Japanese fantasy in particular falls down- there's no World Tree- thank god! In fact- there's no central worshipping force around which all the world revolves- sorry, Final Fantasy. Instead there's a deeply grounded soul to the world of Euchronia. (very cute synonym there, by the way- with 'Euchronia' literally meaning a utopian era of technological and social achievement- in stark contrast to the world present.) The world is made up of fantastical races split into tribes, with Elf-like Rhodanthe prized for their martial strength to the bat-like Eugief who are treated as an ugly and dirty people- likely for how distinct they look from other more humanoid style peoples. This is a land of social struggles and racially-enforced classism that leads to strife and discord across the land- it's a near endlessly rich world depicting a society on the brink in such a tangible way.

Such a turbulent world is brought to a boiling point where the king is brutally assassinated by a villain we establish directly from the get-go- Louis, or as I like to call him: "Fantasy-Dio". Forgoing the cat-and-mouse of later Persona titles we have our man of the hour front and centre before we even have controls in our hands which gives Metaphor plenty of time to give us one of the best villains ATLUS has ever made. Both distant enough to remain a point of intrigue for a good portion of the story and oppressively present so that his essence looms over proceedings finally complete enough that when the puzzle pieces do start coming together, it feels every bit as rewarding as you'd hope. Louis feels like the perfection of the Takaya-style Strega character that ATLUS have been taking a shot at every now and then ever since Persona 3.

That 'conflux of good practises' comes to a pinpoint in the combat too, which really seems to nail all it aims for. Aside from hitting on a more tactically rich space than Persona without getting overwhelming, Studio ZERO also built in one of the most user-friendly features I've ever seen from a JRPG. At the press of a button you can instantly reset any fight to the start in order to try it again. If ever things aren't going your way, or you used too many resources that one time, or maybe you just missed an opening you really wanted to nail and are willing to save scum to get it right- Metaphor gives you that power in the most seamless way possible and I simply love how accessible it makes an otherwise potentially foreboding fight system. You can get to learn a fight by slamming yourself up against it before starting again with a clearer idea of how to tackle it. Clever- but that's just the iceberg.

What they did for dungeons is hats-off brilliant yet so-very simple. As you can imagine- dungeon delving is an important part of Refantazio, both in side-questing in the surprisingly rewarding side-content on offer or simply hitting the main dungeons throughout the core game. Each of these spaces are visually distinct and usually filled with their own brand of thematically appropriate enemy, sometimes with cute gimmicks such as a fear of mages that causes goblins to flay into a rage whenever they see a staff and becoming much harder to kill. But engaging with these dungeons takes valuable days to commit to- you don't want to waste a trip on an ill thought-out loadout, do you? Thus was born the informant system. People shoed up in Inns who, for a small pittance, give stories about locations of interest stuffed with hints about the kinds of monsters there, the gimmicks at play and what sort of weaknesses you'll want to exploit or shore-up against. Suddenly you're gearing up for dungeons beforehand- spending wisely on appropriate gear, changing up your party makeup prematurely. In a simple hint system built within the game's fiction Studio ZERO have reinforced the 'adventurer fantasy' so beautifully that I'm going to be asking for something similar out of my future RPGs. That alone has reshaped the standard. So smart! 

And that's without even touching on the boss fights themselves! Metaphor contains some of the most interesting boss fights across the ALTUS catalogue by, again, just injecting a little bit more core creativity in design. Of the larger bosses you'll find mechanics built into various targetable limbs that serve different functions throughout the battle and offer specific steps-up if you target them, explicit attack patterns that demand study and dutiful response and classic attack chains that challenge the player's rounded party composition. Once again, these take the best from across the board. The gimmick fights of Persona 5, the attack patterns of Soul Hackers and the attack chains of SMT (and some choice Persona 3 bosses.) Identifying the best-of-the-best is one victory- bringing them together so deftly is yet another.

These flexible fights are made feasible by the archetypes system, which is personally the only aspect I'm still not in-love with when it comes to Metaphor. It presents the overall flexibility of demon/persona-collecting with skill-swapping and collecting in a manner somewhat reminiscent of SMT. Which it gives a lot of play variety, I personally found it robbed the individuality of your teammates until the very late-game when your builds are set in stone. Which in some ways is very much the point of the system, allowing for definite replayability when it comes to totally fresh party builds- but I guess I just have a soft-spot for knowing who my damage dealer is from the moment I lay my eyes on their stat sheet. More of a personal preference issue I guess. Also I'm not a huge fan of the over-designed style of the archetypes, a lot of which look indecipherable at a glance- but that is the first and last time you'll hear be critiquing Metaphor's art style.

Refantazio is ATLUS' most gorgeous looking game by an absolute country mile- solidifying the company's refined anime style just as some bigger slop studios were starting to work their way around to something similar. 5 decent-quality anime waifu-collector games dropped in 2024 and Metaphor totally shot past the rapidly-deprecating generalised anime visual with grace. Metaphor breathes with swirls and patterns that dance in the sky and even in the shading on people's bodies. There is constant subtle movement painted into the groves of this world that conjure to my mind some of the abstract of JOJO's art-style, and which make the otherwise intentionally grim environs, such as the backstreets of Gran Trad, alive and almost squirming. It feels flowing and never stagnant, matching the beating heart of the world and narrative neatly.

And then there's the music, oh the music! Had I been on the Metaphor hype train and spent months listening to what was coming, I probably wouldn't have got it. The bombast, the weird monk chants- none of it gells with the typical ATLUS image in a vacuum- but in context it is pitch perfect. Dramatic, ritualistic, anxious, alive! Music is actually canonical to the fiction of the world, presented as 'the first music' and played within the protagonist's head by his guiding fairy, Gallica, and that pans out with the how every track perfectly enhances the moment. From the hollow tones of the Sandworm burrow to the rapid rap-pace of the 'surprise' theme- ATLUS have once again proven utterly singular in the art of game soundtracks, even when stepping into ostensibly well-trodden musical mediums.

What more can I really say whilst keeping this a specifics light-review? I loved every single character dearly, from the core cast all the way down to the incidentals who show up once or twice but leave an impression. I am absolutely enraptured by the world of Metaphor that even though I feel it almost sacrilege to the spirit of the game to do so I simply yearn for a sequel. Or prequel. Or re-release with more content. Just anything to keep me in this world! Once again ATLUS have nailed their ending in a way only they can. Beautifully rich and narratively fulfilling- they make it look easy. I've come away thinking about this game, it's story, it's themes and mulling over the messages it imparts. I haven't felt this buzzed about an ATLUS game since I first discovered them, and that is the highest praise I can muster given how they are my current favourite JRPG developer. 

After having Baldur's Gate 3 totally redefine the standard for Western RPGs last year I absolutely was not expecting to have similar bars raised over in the Eastern world. And to be fair, Japanese RPGs tend to be distinct enough that there isn't really a thing as 'overall bar raisers'. But if any title was going to do it, it would be Metaphor Refantazo. A step-up from what many, myself included, believed to be their defining game in Persona 5- Metaphor does the near-impossible by encompassing the best of what ATLUS is and distilling it into an inspiration of a product. The game is art and none of my little gripes here and there with things like the Archetype system or certain aspects of the endgame (particularly the final boss composition) detracts enough from my view of Metaphor- as an example to the artform. And you know what examples get, don't you? A recommendation, of course, and an S grade in my arbitrary review scale- which technically breaks my school-theme I've got going for these grades but I gave the same to Baldur's Gate so I figure the ship's already sailed on that one. If you only ever play one JRPG in your life (and I strongly recommend you make the time for at least a few more) let it be this one. 

When it rains

 

Even given my time stepping back from the forefront of the news cycle to literally do anything else, somehow I find myself constantly faced with the sheer insanity of the daily goings-ons in this fair industry of ours. And wouldn't you know it- somehow Ubisoft have remained the centre of my ire even after all this time? I should rename the blog into 'The Ubisoft hate circle' for the amount of times they appear on the pages- but I guess I just can't help the fact that, for some insane reason, their management is determined to make themselves a cancer upon the industry. I'm talking- genuine danger to the health of gaming as an artform- that seems to be their biggest goal in life; beyond even making a profit. I don't even know if EA were ever this bad. Or at least, EA did a better job at hiding their active disdain for games and those who buy them.

Of course I'm referring to the recent rumour popping about (big underline with the 'rumour' part of this, the source is unnamed and i've yet to see anyone reputable back this up- it just happens to fit the Ubisoft MO so horrifically well.) Star Wars Outlaws. Apparently Ubisoft have acknowledged the flop internally and expressed a desire, alongside some other unnamed accomplices, (I imagine Sony must be one) to pressure Steam into restricting their API access. Basically they want strict provisions put around the data that the public have access to so that they can keep figures such as Player Numbers private- to what end? All this would achieve is giving Ubisoft the anonymity to gussy up a flop in front of investors- essentially giving them the authority to white lie when they want to. Which is illegal so I'm not accusing them explicitly of lying to investors- just that they happen to want to pursue the very tools that would facilitate such lying.

And I want to impress just how largely useless such a move would be. I know that companies like Ubisoft are so desperate to divest themselves of responsibility for any mistake they'll accept any old scape goat that flies through their window- but it takes a special kind of delusional to think that the observation of player numbers would drive people away from a single player open world game. A multiplayer title? Sure. I'll bet that at least some people considered buying Concord only to see it on the path to crashing and burning and decided against that purchase. Outlaws? Not a chance. More likely they saw the developer, weighed their reputation up and decided to wait for a sale. That's pretty much how I think of Ubisoft- that developer who puts out games that are never worth their RRP. And, well... that's the kind of reputation which is pretty well earned!

But that's not the only story of the day. How about FromSoftware, kings of the Souls-like, currently being hunted by Sony for an acquisition. Oh good lord, why do the horror stories never end. Sony have proven themselves ill partners in the modern age of the live service order, which has already documented at least two strictly single player studios having their arm pulled into spitting out live service prototypes- both of which proved not interesting enough to be developed to launch. FromSoft have their art nailed down to perfection, they've managed to iterate upon their own greatness and reach ridiculous heights- and they seem to be one of the only modern respected studios building themselves to be generational, so that when the current guard inevitably move on- the studio will retain that sparkling standard with the next generation. (take note Bioware.) They don't need Sony stepping on their back.

Now as far as we're aware the Sony acquisition is not entirely their own volition. They're being called to the role, as if they're saviours bearing down from up high. But that doesn't change the fact that their proven track record has been atrocious, they have themselves a FromSoftware game they've bitterly refused to work in the slightest. Not porting it to their newest consoles, let alone to other platforms, the same as with Metal Gear Solid 4 which has been trapped on it's release platform since release. (Although in fairness that one is just as much due to Konami being mean.) I don't want Playstation standing guardian over who gets to play game this big. Heck, it's been under a Sony exclusivity deal that the once biggest JRPG in the world, Final Fantasy, has floundered and failed to make the cultural impact that it- following my actually playing FFXVI- fully deserves to. That game slaps! Sony just aren't the partners they need to be right now.

And the last point of this dying embers of the year is hardly a revelation but deserves mentioning all the same. Bethesdsa just really don't seem to get any of the heat that has fallen their way. Now obviously I really liked Starfield for what it was, not for what people wanted to be or even what I hoped it was going to be. (Although to be fair, I gave up on my hopes years before launch the very second they made it clear the game wasn't going to be 'fun' sci-fi. So maybe that's just low expectations going in.) But the game honestly isn't a patch upon it's predecessors and it has nothing to do with it being a new IP that goes in a new direction that fans aren't sure about. Metaphor Refantazio dropped this very year from a pedigree that mainlined Shin Megami Tensei and Persona for decades beforehand and it might just be the single most complete, thematic strong, relatively lean and mean JRPG of all time. What's the difference? ATLUS gets it. Bethesda don't.

From the absolute barest of the bare faced peep- sure, we can look at the fan dissatisfaction with Shattered Space and conclude that people would have been happier if the game saved up some of it's free releases and dropped them with the DLC (As Todd Howard was said to to have proposed during a chat with Phil Spencer). I objectively believe that would have been partially true, even if buggies actually don't gel well with the DLC's environments specifically. But that wouldn't have been real satisfaction. That wouldn't have been solving a problem. That would be like sticking a pacifier in the mouth of a screaming child- give something to focus on for the next few minutes but not actually addressing the route issue. That issue? Shattered Space just wasn't very good. It lacked a core thesis, I don't know if they even know what sort of fantasy they were working towards providing, I personally think it's visual palette was frightfully uninspired and dull, (which is a hot take, apparently) and it stands as perhaps the least engaging full-blown DLC's that Bethesda has released for one of their mainline games ever. That should be a significant wake-up call. And it hasn't been.

Now at the tail-end of all this is a reminder that no- this hasn't been the end of everything this culture has to offer. This has been such a solid year for games that I genuinely have a dissociative moment whenever I see anyone claim otherwise. If you haven't managed to find at least one game that released in 2024 that hasn't scratched at your best-of sensibilities then I have to be honest- that is a skill issue. Unless you're a sports game fan but those folk should be used to disappointment by now. (Actually, they did get their College Football madden-style game they waited 10 years for- so even that crowd should be pleased.) But it's important to take the lumps with the porridge. To not let compliancy cloud what could be improved, what might not be going the way it should and how next year might grow to even greater heights. And man, for the companies mentioned here today (sans Ubisoft) I sincerely hope that they do. They deserve it all.