The original game collection (1, 2, 3D, and… Fractured Furry Tales?) is coming out this year too.
Also, I guess their other two games, Paws on Fire and Woolies Strike Back are being kinda ignored here.
5 was fun. The gameplay was way better than 4. The biggest issues, imo, were making 2/3 of the game “follow MC due to being vaguely suspicious” and bringing back Cortana, even though it was a rampant version of the original.
The positives were Evil Cortana was the best best villain 343 has had, the Guardians were a great replacement for the Halo rings, and the gunplay was fun again. Also, Warzone was awesome.
XIII isn’t in my top 5 FF games. But the interpersonal dynamic is the absolute best in the series. The scene where Sahz discovers why his son was branded is one of the most impactful moments in gaming. Two of the most cheerful characters in the franchise, suddenly broken.
I don’t love how restricted the game is at the beginning. But each of their personal stories are magnificent, usualy leading to their Eidolon awakening.
How much baggage do you have to address? Evil Cortana, Guardians, and Prometheans. The rest can be managed around.
If Infinite didn’t have to wrap up the previous games, it wouldn’t have that stink on it. But then it would have had even less substance. And the shitty open world wouldn’t have been any better.
It would have been better if they just used Cortana and the Guardians to wrap up the Promethean saga. But then they’d still have to write a decent story, which apparently they are incapable of.
4 and 5 didn’t ruin anything for me. There’s stuff I genuinely like about them that got me excited for the next game. Plenty I didn’t like about them too.
Then there’s Infinite… it feels like the DLC or post-game content to a game we never got. And the multiplayer was unplayable last I saw. It made me no longer excited for the next game.
I still do Halo game nights a couple times a year though.
It definitely depends. You need to keep people engaged, so a lot of the time there’s still development on good content. But the good content that doesn’t fit in the MTX scope is cut.
And I mentioned the flood of bad cosmetics. Although I think fluffing the cosmetics is more about artificially extending replay value for grinders and giving deep purchase incentives for whales. In my experience, the purchase incentives are terrible (expensive) compared to just playing. Then again, I don’t buy MTX. So if I’m not advancing without paying, I’m likely to just quit.
If implemented in a specific way, I actually agree.
Getting thousands of lootbox cosmetics unlockable through MTX or by normal playing is awesome. The MTX funding means the devs can continue to support the game.
Having 10 minor variations on one cosmetic or making unlocks incredibly time consuming is not. Not to mention the millions of other ways they can undermine gamers over greed.
Let them fight.
But also, I get the idea of selling to other markets for cheap for a little extra profit. There’s a difference between profit based on cost of production and profit based on the development of the product. Same as with medicine costs. Not sure how that’s Amazon’s fault though, considering it’s Marketplace.
X actually went back to fully turn-based, getting rid of the ATB.
XII still had the ATB, but you could move freely in the environment and all enemies were already there. So no more random battles.
XV was the first mainline Final Fantasy with active battles. But games like Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and Lightning Returns had it earlier.
I’ve loved most of the Final Fantasy games. But the PS1 games (the golden era) were the worst about this.
Pre-PS1 typically required more thought. You had to balance magic use, item use, and of course melee. But even then you had to debate whether to spend a turn reviving your healer or try to get the victory before a team wipe.
Post PS1 you had X’s rock paper scissors battle. You had to figure out who could attack who. It wasn’t too complicated but it forced variety.
XII streamlined the auto attacking and allowed you to focus on the exceptions (enemy weak against fire, use silence, cure). That could be automated too, but I liked to handle that myself.
XIII & XIII-2 forced you to balance your jobs/classes constantly in battle.
Lightning Returna, XV, and XVI were real time.
Tactics was PS1, but it definitely required more than just attack.
The PS1 games, for the most part, could be dominated with “press X”. Most of the strategy took place outside of battle.
I liked a lot about the original. I thought the real-time, turn-based fighting system was going to take over as the new fighting system going forward to replace the ATB as the go-to, and I was happy about it (XIII and XV would have been better for it).
The remaster raised the game to its full potential imo. Having jobs is so much better than free-for-all. And getting rid of the Zodiac Spear disqualification treasure chests is just good on my psyche.
Agreed. To me, VII was always the ugly one in the series. Unfortunately I played VIII first and was blown away at the technical marvel the game is.
Afterwards I played VII as a kid and it was unplayable. It felt like playing with cheap, homemade, wooden dolls. It was always the game that needed a remake the most.
That’s what I was going to recommend too. And very short too. It’s just a rainy afternoon.