List items
-
The developers of this immense re-telling of one of the greatest JRPGs ever are asking us to hold their hands and trust where they take us. The very idea of doing a carbon copy remake seems ludicrous in hindsight. We wanted to respect the purity of what existed, but when picking that idea apart it quickly becomes obvious that it would never have worked that way, and Square smartly expands or adapts in ways that only make the original experience into a more enjoyable modern gaming experience.
The characters and locations from the original game are where the greatest expansion takes place - they feel incredibly true to their PlayStation 1 counterparts, but magnified to a level of detail now possible with PlayStation 4 and 5 hardware. There are more character interactions and dialog that confirm these are still the characters we know and love, and they act every bit as we expect. New characters fill in the gaps opened up by expanded segments of the Sector 5 slums and Wall Market - and although the game can feel just a bit padded in this regard, the new additions are generally enjoyable.
But the greatest expansion may be the awe-inspiring views of Midgar - looking up and seeing the steel sky from the slums never gets old. And the environment design invokes everything you'd expect from the original game - the dusty, half-completed maze of construction that is the slums - left behind by Shinra as they purse something greater from within their lavish headquarters building. Also, now in 2021, any oddities that occurred with some PS4 textures and apartment doors have been smoothed over.
While the story mostly plays out as expected, a few twists and turns start to hint that Square has something slightly different in mind. This is where we're asked to take a bigger leap and trust in their storytelling. Literal plot ghosts attempt to fight against these deviations, but the main party is insistent on pushing them aside in favor of forging their own path. It's confusing, but also feels -right- in a strange way, where breaking free of those restraints may lead us to the place we want to go - wherever that is (the Promised Land?). There's something exciting about knowing we may be breaking new ground, and certain characters even seem to know it and embrace it. Sephiroth, after all, is all about unmaking what's known and rebuilding his own twisted vision. And although one complaint of mine is they perhaps overindulged on the Sephiroth fan-service a bit too early, I'm willing to look the other way if it is in service of an interesting grander story that comes in part 2.
In the meantime, an Intermission episode featuring the best video game character that ever existed, Yuffie Kisaragi, has been released and provides roughly 5 additional hours taking place during the middle of the main story. It's a simple enough story of Yuffie and Avalanche allies sticking it to the Shinra man by doing what Yuffie does best - stealing materia - but provides some interesting additional views of characters and events we've already been introduced to. But it mostly feels like an apology for both Dirge of Cerberus and the clunky air combat of the base FF7 remake, and is an acceptable answer to both. The combat is the stand-out of this DLC episode as Yuffie's ninja mobility and attacks are very satisfying.
-
I'm late to the party here, but once I jumped in I'm really glad I did. It's just as much fun as Smash has ever been, and the ridiculous amount of characters and stages is going to keep me coming back for a long time.
But the best part of this game has always been the story about how it is just a monument to video games. Some of the collaborations still feel like dreams. How they navigated the Disney legal nonsense to grab Sora is beyond me, but I'm sure glad they did. The fighting game representation is also particularly fantastic - a little bit of representation from Tekken, Street Fighter, and King of Fighters is a welcome addition, and they clearly took a lot of care in implementing these characters to be love letters to their respective series.
Not much more to say other than I have no idea how they can top this.
You may rest now, Sakurai.
-
This is everything I want from a Shin Megami Tensei.
There's demon negotiation that makes you feel extremely clever when you get into the demons' heads and tell them exactly what they want to hear. You also feel like a champ when you plainly tell greedy, manipulative demons to piss off when they think they can walk all over you.
There's a big open world where I can just run around to fight and collect demons. The Nahobino smoothly glides and jumps around in a way that makes traversal easy and fun. There's side quests and items to look for as well.
The world is super bleak and it feels like we're minutes away from Lucifer or some other unholy entity from shaping this doomed world into his own vision, unless we do it first. It's perfect.
-
I have to be honest, this update feels a tad bloated. Nothing new that has been added is bad, it's just that there's -so much- of it. New mechanics, new interactions and scenarios, new places to go. It's all great, it's just a bit like eating too much pie or something.
That aside, it's still Persona 5 and it's still stylish as fuck. It still has the same problems like some of the main characters being just a bit too bland and their stories not that interesting.
It provides some quality of life improvements such as streamlining the day-to-day activities without so much complaining about needing to go to sleep.
The main new feature is an additional dungeon and semester which are hard to talk about without giving much away. It's an interesting experience that delves more into the cognition stuff and some character backstories.
-
New expansion is spooky.
-
Dinosaurs and GOLDBLUM! That's my review of this game.
-
This is just some good Metroid.
Load Comments