june 9, 2024
i started playing this earlier this week.
it's kind of fucking spectacular. i needed a new rpg, something real, after picking up emerald rogue 2.0 and almost immediately burning myself out.
this one has Characters and Presentation, which is exactly what i needed. it has big kingdom hearts vibes, but it also feels closer to ffv than any of the modern final fantasies. it's really reshaping how i view the series - a transition from classic to modern around ff6/7 doesn't make sense anymore.
at the time of writing this, final fantasy 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 are the ones i've had Significant Time with. i've played a bit of the others (most notably 6) but not enough to really understand the vibes beyond the surface. like i said, 5 is the one i'd compare this to so far. that's purely based on vibes though. the cgi cutscenes feel like what 5 wanted to look like.
speaking of, the intro starts off with a fucking bang. the 3d models are... extremely charming, both in and out of the prerendered sections. this era of rpgs where the protagonist looked Significantly Worse during gameply is just adorable
i thought the intro was pretty cool, and the controls felt dog-awful, but as soon as i learned a bit about the GF system it felt like fucking peak. that kind of structured and direct tinkering of stats and abilities is exactly what i love in rpgs, and this seemed like a beautiful harmony of FFV and FFVII's approaches. this is how i felt about it before i got into any battles, of course - the tutorial was just awe-inspring
the battle system seemed pretty cool. i don't know if anything's ever gonna touch FFX's system for me, but i ventured out and fought a couple guys and got to ifrit. and then i witnessed fucking Peak
you get ff7-level summons at the start of the game, and you get to use them For Free, and they look SO fucking good they look so fucking good it's unreal. and they also function as sort of a shield and secondary health bar? when someone's charging up a summon, their GF (lol) takes damage in place of them, but you can still heal them. it's awesome. and the animations are unreal
i got even more impressed once i beat ifrit and realized that more magic draws = more stats. i found the weakest guy in the dungeon and stole like 100 fire/lightning/blizzards off him, and i felt *alive*
eventually, you end up joining some mercenary operation as part of your training. and this is where the game really pulled me in (besides all the times it did that again in the past and future). ff7 leveraged a lot of pre-rendered backgrounds, and this game does the same thing. but its ability to transition between backgrounds and cutscenes as you're playing is jaw-dropping. it's absurd. it's awe-inspiring. i think it's really magical
once you clear out a town square, seifer and squall decide to abandon their post to go fuck up some more guards. and this is where the game really pulled me in. this shitty bully conspiring with the sullen protagonist to do some more shitty violence is just... ough. chef's kiss. i think they should kiss. i walked into this mission thinking seifer might just get got but i think they should make out honestly. seifer promises squall he'll tell him about his romantic dreams later. it's unreal. they need to make out
the gameplay-cutscene transitions continued to astound me as i finished up the mission. the gameplay Kept Getting Better, too - choosing which character's strengths or weaknesses to shore up with GF augments is already engaging. and the draw system is just magical - you get to try spells out for free! you see a "???" and go "i wonder what that does" and then you Have It. i pulled some "Double" spell from the boss without even really knowing what it did and lost my shit. you just Try Things Out and get stronger and discover something new all at once. it's really wonderful. and the action economy side of things feels pretty great, too, especially with buffs like that coming into play