Mera'din

Microsoft should have learned YEARS ago to just run with their code names. Those were always 10x cooler sounding. 'Scorpio' and 'Scarlet' being the two that immediately come to mind at least. Still make no fucking sense but at least it stands out. XD And yes, I was very excited about the Bloodlines 2 trailer. Even if it didn't really look like it belonged in a big 'look at all the pretty next gen stuff' type of showcase. >_>

I don't remember if it was here or somewhere else I've talked about the game where someone was talking about Leslie (Corneo's door guard guy that seemed to get an excessive amount of screentime) but just FYI he is an established character from some side stuff around the time the whole 'Compilation of FFVII' stuff was going. I had remembered that Kyrie was but had completely forgot about him. https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII_The_Kids_Are_Alright:_A_Turks_Side_Story

I still watch his regularly, and yeah this is probably the nicest he's ever been to a JRPG. And it sounds like he actually made it through the whole thing. Something that doesn't seem to happen often with him and JRPG games. As such, there are some spoilers from the end so be warned for those who haven't finished it. The main point I agree about is their insistence on calling the game FFVII "Remake". Like, a ridiculous number of games have been remade at this point that just call themselves what they were and are actual 1 for 1 remakes (more or less) and this is more of a re-imagining or adaptation and felt the need to put 'Remake' in the title. Feels a bit confusing.

Yeah I saw a LOT of complaining about how hard that was online when I was looking for some tips for it. Took me a solid hour before I managed. X_x I'd be cool with that style of semi-open world too. After this game, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt whatever route they chose though as long as they can keep up the quality we got with this one.

Yeah the visuals in this game are wonderful. It's one of only 2 games so far that have made me reconsider not getting a PS4 Pro (and the other I can get on PC anyway so it almost doesn't count). It's one of the very few times I've actually stopped to take a screenshot in a game just because of the view.

I tried classic on the demo. It forces it into Easy difficulty, and the characters (including the one you control) all auto attack/defend so you focus solely on what to do with your ATB gauges (effectively mirroring the original game). I also think going into spell and item menus fully pauses the game instead of just making everything move super slow. And the linearity doesn't feel like a hindrance like it did in FFXIII (feels more like FFX now that you mention it). Whereas XIII literally felt like you were running in a straight line the whole game, Remake makes it feel organic (which honestly, Midgar in the original wasn't terribly different anyway) much like how it was in X. I think if they don't have some sort of overworld type of thing going into future titles though, you may see some people get upset. As much as I enjoyed this though, I'm honestly not sure if it would bother me a whole lot as much as I would miss it. What Ma mentioned about the game forcing you to go where it wants does get a bit annoying though. I'm very much a "explore all the side paths ASAP" type of person and that got on my nerves a few times, but it's a small gripe next to everything they did right. Mostly I hated it because it was literally the game forcing your character to turn around and popping up a sign over cloud. When they want to redirect you I prefer it being more natural. There were a few places where you can't take a side path because guards are posted there or a gate is closed and you can't open it yet. That feels a lot more natural.

Quite the opposite imo. They use some similar exploratory techniques that 13 employed, but they actually did it right this time, as well as one of the few things that people seemed to like from 13's battle system (staggering). More elaborate explanation: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-xiii-staggered-so-ffvii-remake-could/1100-6476215/

Last bit of that should not actually be in the spoiler tag and I honestly have no idea why it pushed it into the spoiler and it won't let me edit anything after the 2nd spoiler tag so fuck me I guess? Repost of non-spoiler comment: As for boss mechanics: Losing the stagger was annoying, but manageable. However, there is nothing worse than blowing a limit break because of that. Watching it do almost no damage because you popped it just before a phase change and the boss goes immune for a bit is almost rage inducing. >_<

Wait, there's no benches? I thought that was what you were supposed to use? Not that I'm fare enough in to have seen one anyway but Jeeze. O_o Apparently you can save scum the breakable crates though if you get into too much of a tight spot I've read. XD And yeah, I thought about using it with Barrier, but I didn't use it enough to justify it over the MP savings of having it on Cure. Regen to all right away in a fight was nice too. I didn't do much with Refocus, but saw it's usefulness. Was a fan of ATB Boost on Tifa though. Could recharge a bar instantly and really rip into things with her. Apparently I need to make use of Steal as well in this run since one of Aerith's weapons has to be stolen. X_x

I could see Yuffie being more of a hybrid. Some Tifa style melee stuff along with throwing her Shuriken for some ranged abilities. Maybe her unique ability would to switch styles (ala Cloud) but between melee and ranged combat. Would definitely give her a useful niche to stand out with. Agree with Vincent too. His limit breaks would be a lot more interesting in this style of game too. Cid should be fun too. I played Dragoon in FFXIV when I had played it and it's a fun style of gameplay that would translate well into this system I think. Started my hard play through and got through the first chapter. I feel like it's going to get pretty brutal before the end. Have to be REALLY careful with your MP. I also think it's a dick move that you're not allowed to use items at all, but chests and the breakable crates still drop items. >:| May have to actually use the Refocus materia too. Didn't feel like it served much purpose initially, but in Hard it may make all the difference in some fights. Side note: It took me WAY to long during my initial play through to realize that the Magnify Materia worked on more than just attack magic and is basically the 'All' materia from the original. Magnify linked with Cure is a godsend. XD

Consoles also charge for updates (or cut a deal with the developer where they're allowed x number of free updates and then charge after that) so it's an even worse argument at that point. XD Also, this:

So, I finished it. They definitely dropped some Kingdom Hearts into this shit. Jesus. Not that I didn't enjoy every second of it, but the end just goes nuts. O_o Have very minimal complaints about the game overall and there seems to be a semi-decent amount of replay value with some of the stuff that unlocks after beating it. Hard Mode sounds like it will be pretty damn frustrating but will have to wait and see on that. As wary as I was of the music after the demo, ultimately it worked out. Still feel like some of the redone music lost some of its "oomph" but it's still the music I know and love and found myself really enjoying it throughout the game with few exceptions. Still not a fan of a lot of the "Jazz" versions from the music discs though. A few of them were cool, but a lot of it is almost unrecognizable to me. Some of the non-Jazz ones I liked a lot better. Maybe I just don't like Jazz? XD I loved how unique each character felt to play too. Really glad they give you the opportunity to fully use each of them and I found myself switching between them regularly. Also like that you can designate a "primary" for when fights start too if you prefer someone other than Cloud to start. Now for the spoiler stuff Hopefully it won't take long to put out more. There some interviews translated recently from the Ultimania they put out for the game that says the story going forward won't change dramatically from the original as some people worried it would, and that they were discussing doing shorter, more frequent releases vs bulky releases with a long down time between. As long as it's priced accordingly though, I wouldn't mind shorter more frequent releases. Just wish they would have had a plan for this shit in place already. Honestly annoyed with their short sighted approach to this. I don't know if they wanted to wait and make sure it was actually well received or what but come on. Edit: Now that I've read your whole spoiler post @Psycho666Soldier, I feel like I was on the right track with some of my thoughts about the end. We seem to agree pretty heavily on what the intent was so I'm confident that is probably the right way to look at it.

Pretty much purely FF7 Remake and Persona 5 Royal pretty evenly. Play Royal while my wife is awake since she played the original version and wanted to watch me play through it and play 7 when she's in bed since she wants to play through that herself and doesn't want to catch any spoilers. Been working out pretty well so far so that I can keep going on both games. Had also been playing Quantum Break on PC before FF7 dropped. Will need to get back into that soon before I forget what the hell was happening. XD

FF7 is probably the game I've replayed the most (never go over 2 or 3 with anything usually but have played through FF7 a good 6+ times at least), but it's been a solid 15 years at this point since I have so I think I'm good for replay finally. XD As for the rest of the FFVII stuff, I love me some Advent Children though it's actually starting to look dated now compared to Remake (seeing Barrett especially). Crisis Core was a pretty solid game. I actually still have it on the PSP (though I'm not 100% sure my PSP actually still work. >_> ). Dirge of Cerberus was interesting enough, but it got pretty awkward at times (gameplay was pretty mediocre overall). We never did get any kind of port of Before Crisis though. That seems like it was mostly AVALANCHE faffing about vs Shinra/The Turks though from what I recall. May have been an influence for some of the new story stuff in Remake honestly. Really surprised they didn't bother rerelease/remaster CC and DC though by this point.

I think once I finish up with Remake I'm going to do another run through the original. There is so much nostalgia fuel in it that I'm having flashbacks to the original constantly and trying to remember exactly how the story went. I bought it on PS4 a while back but never got around to it so this will be a good opportunity. Think I'll be done with Remake soon-ish if I ever get some time to play (been working a lot) and then plan to do a Hard run through but I look forward to playing the original again when I'm done.

Especially to the person least capable of giving you a reason for why normal policy is different after just being talked to by the person who IS in fact capable. That's when you know they don't care about an actual answer to their problem and they just want to be a disruptive jackass.

I was almost late for work a couple weeks ago because I had to run in to grab food for work (so I had like 2 items) the person I was behind in line threw a giant baby fit about not being able to get a rain check on some fucking muffins. AFTER the manager came over and explained to him that they're not doing rain checks currently because of everything going on, but that she would take down his name and number and honor the price after everything went back to normal (effectively still technically giving him a fucking rain check). Waited for her to walk away and then started complaining at the cashier who was checking him out. Whole thing took like 15 min. -_-

Sometimes I'm grateful for my job and so glad I don't work in a customer service based job anymore. XD Worst we have to put up with is truck drivers, which CAN be an experience on occasion. At the moment, we have all the entrances locked and signs posted at EVERY door saying nobody is allowed in without authorization. The door the truckers used to come in to get checked in for loads has an additional sign telling them exactly how to contact us to do this (they can call on their cell phone, use the 'air phone' on the wall next to the door, and a radio is often left outside as well if the other two methods are too complicated for them). Sometimes the door gets left unlocked because we use that same door to go out to the grains building for samples, or to check on issues at the mills and some of the grain silos. It never fails, if it is not locked when a trucker pulls up, they always ALWAYS end up walking in and down to the control room (despite the fact that at least 75% of the drivers are the same guys every day). Luckily customer service rules don't tend to apply with us. Last time it happened the supervisor responded to the guy walking up with "Do you not know how to read? You can't be in here."

Yeah, the GeForce now thing makes no sense to me. How is this in any way affecting the publishers when you have to already own the fucking game? This has to be a pretty fucking gray area in general for copyright stuff I would imagine since you're effectively just playing games you already bought and Nvidia is probably just trying to play nice but it's getting downright idiotic at this point with how the game publishers are acting about it.

They did a protest here in MN too. Honestly expected better of the people here overall. I don't disagree with WHY they were protesting (overreach of power is an overreach of power regardless of circumstances and there have been repeated mixed messages about what exactly we're supposed to be doing and consequences therein) but the way they did it was fucking moronic. At least this wasn't one of the imbecilic places where they were trying to block ambulances and hospital entrances and shit. They all just stood around looking stupid at the governor's residence.

Yep. There's a general lack of places to send the stuff too due to the number of restaurants that have shut down and various other related issues. One of the hog farmers we sell feed to said they're looking at having to start slaughtering piglets soon because there's no room for them. Just had 30+ confirmed cases at the meat packing plant in a town close to where I live which doubled that county's cases overnight. Likely to see some here now because a fair number of people that work there live here or have spouses that work at the plant here.

I think most people did, other than his stuff. Everything else I've stumbled across from there is usually vapid pointless shit like "Lol I gave all the random NPCs backstories in FF7 Remake" (this is not a joke). His articles were always really good though. Looking forward to seeing where he is going.

Whelp. There goes basically the last person that kept Kotaku relevant.

I just hit Wall Market last night. Definitely noticed some differences, but they did a good job with it so far. There's enough familiarity in NPCs and events that I'm really happy with it. I like the new characters they added, and the increased presence of Johnny is actually kind of fun. The thing I found most impressive is the fact that I actually KNEW who some of the NPCs were supposed to be when I saw them. Things like the dress maker and his son, and the "mohawk punk" style npc they had that they used for the arena announcers were all specific styles of NPCs I remember from the original and I was impressed at how much effort they put into keeping them familiar to their original designs. As for soundtrack, I haven't minded the Wall Market music as much as some things. The redone music is a fairly mixed bag so far. Some of it is solid and holds to the original, and some of it just feels off. I honestly hate most of the "special" verisions of songs you get as collectibles in the game though. That jazz rendition of the Cosmo Canyon theme made me cringe. I sincerely hope they do a more traditional one when they get to that point in the story because that did not fit the feel of that place even a little. Beyond some of the music, the only real complaint I have so far is how restrictive they made some of the exploration. It's constantly redirecting you away from places it doesn't want you to explore, and not nearly as much stuff can be interacted with as I would have hoped considering the original. All the details are there, but none of the added touch. A recent example I can think of is finding the giant 'AVALANCHE' spraypainted across the wall in that secluded area and it was cool to see it but I would have expected some kind of interactivity or comment about it but there was nothing. Also, in Wall Market itself I remember being to do a lot of the 'leg work' for the dress stuff before even going to Corneo's place and you can't even pretend to find anything before hand now which was a little disappointing. At least the ability to interact with the vending machine in the inn and stuff to acknowledge that it has a purpose if nothing else. At least the one item machine still tries to shoot you when you mess with it so that was nice. Edit: Near the end of the Train Graveyard now. Overall feelings on Wall Market are mixed. They did some amazing things with that area, but I feel like some of it was almost... over indulgent and superfluous. I'm a bit disappointed with some of the things they took out/changed, but it's balanced pretty evenly with how much I enjoyed it regardless. It made for an enjoyable experience ultimately so I can't really fault them. Train Graveyard has been excellent though. Had a really well done creepy vibe that feels like what they probably WANTED to pull off with Ch. 13 of FFXV.