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I wanted to save this for the rambles section of the site but after thinking on it for a while it's not really substantial enough.
I have some thoughts on FF7 Remake and Rebirth. Overall I have nothing but praise for the games as they've really taken the world of FF7 and expanded upon it in ways that I absolutely adore. Remake taking place entirely within Midgar was a choice that I'm 100% fine with since I love Midgar. It's such an amazing setting in my opinion. The only real issues I have with Remake is.... the ending, but probably not for the reasons you might expect!
!!Spoilers ahead!!
The part of the ending I'm talking about is specifically the fight with Sephiroth. It's a cool fight don't get me wrong, but I just.... don't like that they did it? It's a weird feeling to put into words but even though the fight is cool, the music is great, and the gameplay is fun. I still just don't like that it ends with a fight again Sephiroth. It very much feels like "oh it's the end of a Final Fantasy 7 game, of course you're gonna fight Sephiroth" which I don't know, it feels kinda unearned? It doesn't help at all that they had a thematically appropriate and completely unique boss with the Whisper Harbinger. That felt like such a good final boss considering what happened in the story. Then Sephiroth gets shoehorned at the last second because we gotta fulfill a Sephiroth quota.
Like I said, great fight but it just makes me a little upset with how it's used.
This brings me into one of the main gripes I had about Rebirth when it came out. I love Rebirth, genuinely it does SO MUCH and nails almost all of it and as a fan of the original it just makes me so happy. Then we get to the Midgar Zolom aka Midgardsormor. It's hard not to draw comparison to the original when playing through Remake and Rebirth. Which I feel most of the time they absolutely do the original justice but this moment left me feeling a little disappointed. In the original it was such a great "story telling through gameplay" moment where you encounter the Boss just by naturally exploring the world map. You encounter the boss and realize you're not beating this thing no matter how hard you try. You're not strong enough. You get a chocobo and outrun this massive monster that has proven itself to be far beyond your capabilities.
Then you see it.... another one of its kind killed. Not just killed but hung up in such a way that it's a display of its corpse. Almost as if someone was expecting you to see it. "Did Sephiroth... do this?" while I know this became a bit of a funny little meme for a couple of days, this line still holds such weight to it. A monster you had no chance of beating no matter how hard you tried, now lays before you dead, in such a manner that makes it look like whoever did this was toying with it. The only assumption on who could've done it, is the same guy that you're out to find. You are in over your head.
Now imagine if none of that happens and you just fight the thing, beat it, and a cutscene plays literally showing you Sephiroth killing it in front of your eyes. Not gonna lie, this is like the one moment in Rebirth that I just straight up don't like. It still gets the message across that Sephiroth is just leagues stronger than Cloud and friends but YOU as the player don't feel that like you did in the original.
Obviously this one scene doesn't take away from the MOUNTAIN of good that Rebirth does, but man, it still stinks. It only stinks as much as it does because of how good Rebirth is overall..
Only other thing I hate about Rebirth is that THEY DIDN'T LET US PLAY AS VINCENT! THE BOSS FIGHT WAS AMAZING BUT I WANT MY MAN! INSTEAD WE GOT CAIT SITH BOX THROWING!
HUZZAH! I am here to talk about one of my favorite games of all time. CAVE STORY!
Released in 2004 (It's gonna be 20 in December!) this little freeware title has rooted itself into my DNA. I discovered it around 2010 when it got a wiiware release. I didn't play the Wiiware release though, I originally played the fan translation of the original freeware version.
To this day I always associate Balrog with "Huzzah" instead of "Oh yeah!" because of this.
I am someone who never got into the Metroid series. I just don't vibe with them, which is why whenever someone asks me "what's your favorite metroid game?" I always just tell them Cave Story. I can't tell you why. Maybe it's the shorter size. Maybe it's the setting. Maybe it's just the overall moment to moment gameplay. Whatever the reason, Cave Story has stood the test of time for me. It's one of those games I could replay every year and still enjoy.
The question is, should YOU play Cave Story? YES! ABSOLUTELY! IT'S NOT EVEN A QUESTION!
It's free, available on a multitude of platforms, and FUN. There is no excuse not to at least give it a try!
Just head on over to the Cave Story Tribute Site's Download Page and find a version that you can play. I'm sure there is some way you can play it. It's on PC, Mobile, Mac, Linux, and ported to a multitude of systems. All free to download and made by the community.
Please enjoy good video games :)
Recently watched Lain a week or so ago. It was really good. It's such a strange and interesting world if you allow yourself to learn the rules of it. I've known about Lain for a very long time thanks to fauux's neocities page. [!!!Photosensitive Warning!!!]
It wasn't until recently I watched through the series though. I found a rip of the VHS dub home release on archive and that's how I watched it. It was nice having it broken up into 4 sections, each lasting around an hour to hour and a half.
Huge recommend to anyone looking for an anime that offers strange and intriguing vibes. It's one hell of a ride, especially near the end.