Browny

Might just be me, but I'm under the impression FF17 is under development to be released as the third MMO in the series.

14 is already a dozen years old, and 11 is absolutely ancient, and given the sheer success of both, I'd be very surprised if they weren't making a third game, perhaps finally sunsetting 11.

As for the more action oriented approach the series has taken since as far back as 13... not my cup of tea. But if this is the direction of the future, I won't begrudge it or bemoan it. I still have Dragon Quest for a more old school feel.

As they release more and more information and screenshots, I'm more and more interested.

More so for the visuals and designs, rather than the narrative/setting, which really doesn't do much for me (looks and sounds like medieval Persona).

I hope it delivers.

As of right now, it feels like a genuine coin flip on if they'll kill her. And personally, I hate that it's even a question we're having.

The original VII wasn't this amazing story, but it did have a well-crafted beginning, middle and end. For the remake to change that pivotal event, which helped solidify the second half of the narrative, would fundamentally change everything. Change isn't a bad thing, but if what they change it for isn't as good or better than the original, what even was the point?

Kill her off. We all know it's coming, we all expect it. It'll still hit in a way, if not the same as in the original.

Honestly, this one always felt a bit backwards to me. F2P, but the beta/early access was paid with the cash shop in full effect?

Switching from F2P to a normal purchase, but keeping all the cash shop microtransactions in place, AND paid expansions? AND maintaining the F2P progression model?

Ick. I know Mr Mouse doesn't eye the particulars as long as he gets his cut, but this is about as bad as the Battlefront 2 fiasco a few years back.

Best girl in P3.

Best girl in all Persona.

Or it could make virtually zero impact on the actual plot, kinda like how I'm sure there was something something important about the final world of the third game and a million different keyblades or whatever and it tied into the last mobile game.

The diehard fans will eat it all up. But for those of us who only play the mainline games, it'll be explained in 10 seconds haphazardly, make about as much sense as anything else in the series, we'll shrug and move on to beating up more baddies without a care in the world.

That's the beauty of the series, IMO. You can have ZERO clue what the heck is going on, but the game is fun enough and flashy enough to not care and just enjoy the theme park ride.

To be told by the creator himself that you did right by his creation... I don't blame Yoshi-P for tearing up. Honestly even I felt my eyes glass over from the video.

I have spent the entirety of 2023 playing XIV for the first time, and I'm sad I missed out on so much of the journey. But I have loved every minute of the experience.

Steady development. After two years.

I know the Enix side of things at Square-Enix takes their sweet time, rivaled only by the SaGa and Mana divisions, but MAN. How much longer does it take to create a dolled up remake of a nearly 35 year old game?

I stand by what I've always said: VI would benefit the most from a remake, but not to change what's already there, just smooth away the rough edges of the narrative presentation.

Having played through most of the Pixel Remaster, the gameplay was mostly patched up nicely. But the story presentation still needs considerable work.

@nocdaes
Maybe those of us who don't care to play XVI or VII Rebirth?

Just saying.

Not everything Square puts out is something every fan wants to play. It's on Square to keep a steady release schedule.

I believe it's real, given the track record of the NVidia leak.

My only hope is that they don't touch the narrative. IX is not only my favorite game in the series, I'd argue it's the best one in the series. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I also don't trust modern day Square Enix to do right by the original vision of Sakaguchi.

One place it could use improvement (aside from a nice visual upgrade), is the speed at which combat flows, which in the original was glacially slow. Oh and it goes without saying: don't change the combat system, either. Rebalance it, sure; game was super easy. But keep it the traditional ATB.

Like a few others have mentioned, I dropped nearly all forms of social media several years ago. Partly for my own health reasons, but mostly because of the toxicity I continued to see fester in every platform under the sun.

I don't know how everything will turn out in the coming years, whether social media will continue to ingrain itself in society or be eventually cast off like a terrible fad at the dawn of the age of information. But I'm find keeping up with news through sites such as this, with extremely limited interaction between the peanut gallery and the reporter.

And honestly, my free time has never been more abundant since dropping that incessant need to refresh an app or two.

If it turns out to be an exclusive, let Microsoft have the win.

The poor console is always starved for quality RPG content from Japan, outside ports. Let them have this as a timed exclusive, and this being Atlus, we'll inevitably get a better version of the game 2-3 years later with improvements.

The latest SF I played was vanilla SF4 way back when. It was fun, but I kept going back to Third Strike which I found to be much more fun. Or to other fighters around that time, such as the original Blazblue or Guilty Gear XX.

But fighting games are in the past for me now, so at most I'll watch some matches, but nothing more.

I've been addicted to the game for the last two months and change, this being my third attempt at getting into the game. Finally clicked for me, and the game has become my primary time investment, so much so that I've ignored all other releases since, even the entire backlog.

And honestly, I'm okay with this. At first, it was a mental hurdle of "play as much as you can because you have to get your sub's worth", but now? Not only do I find both the game fun, but the community makes the experience unlike any other, and I could even see myself dropping most other games entirely to focus on this for the foreseeable future.

I'm still at least weeks from reaching Endwalker content, but it's awesome to know the game continues to trudge onward.

I would argue for V above the rest; while the narrative may not hit as many high points as VI, it is more consistent than VI (which frequently dips in quality due to limitations of the time).

V also has the best gameplay of the bunch.

I personally don't see a reason to buy or play SF6.

They already perfected the series with Third Strike. It can only go down from there.

I haven't gotten around to the DLC yet, and likely won't for a while, but...

Not my headcanon lol.

I ship her with Erend. He's a true bro, and I admire his tenacity.

"The eyes of the fandom watch unblinking, Matsuno."

Matsuno: Let them watch. I know something of baseless theories.

Final Fantasy III on DS is actually one of my fondest memories from my school days, because there was this certain charm attached to the game because it had never seen release until that point. Shame the game turned out to be brutally difficult and borderline unbalanced in that iteration (looking you, Chimeras).

But this is probably the entry I'm most looking forward to replaying of the bunch. Yet another return of Vancian Magic like the original NES release, gorgeous sprite art, and those wonderful music remixes?

All in.

While I've never managed to sit through the entirety of FF2 from start to finish, dropping off around half way through the game, I am willing to try this one again and again.

Pixel Remaster might be the point where I finally finish it.

I'm glad that for this version of the game, they kept the original Vancian Magic instead of the MP system that was used in the later remakes.

That's the real reason I want to go back to this one.

Let them follow the game.

Since the show was announced I've been eager to watch the same hilarious hysteria that gripped overly sensitive gamers reach millions of TV viewers who developed an emotional bond to the duo.

It will be glorious.

I'm all for the modifiers.

When I was a kid, I wouldn't mind spending hours killing the same monsters over and over again to get levels and AP. But today? I'd rather turn on the maxmimum modifier, do one fight, get the boost I want/need, and move on.

This is going to make cutting through FF2 much more palatable, guaranteed.

That clip from Twitter has me in stitches.

I hope they bring back Van Damme to play an older, grizzled Guile.

Diminishing returns at this point. Maybe it's because I'm kinda blind as it is, but I don't see how much better we can get graphically speaking.

I honestly find myself preferring and using performance modes to nail that smooth 60fps than higher and higher resolutions, which add less to the experience IMO.

And yeah, my PS5 is about six months old because it was nigh impossible to get one any sooner than that.

I'm still waiting for that release date myself, since I plan to buy the lot for Switch.

But... I am still hooked on 14, so I might not get around to these for many a month to follow.

@Mikey856
A relic of a bygone era. Before the proliferation of the "Free to Play" model, and every platform having their own subscriptions to play online, PC first experiences could have individual subscriptions per game, most notably with the MMORPG.

Now, the argument could be made if this is still viable, given that a game with less antiquated design on "modern" devices like a smartphone (Genshin Impact, for example) can be enjoyed almost in its entirety without ever spending a penny.

I doubt we'll see many new games with subscriptions like the MMOs of old, but those that still exist will continue to operate as long as there are people willing to pay the monthly fee.

My two cents for those in the comments concerned about dealing with other people: in recent updates, they have added a feature for a lot of the earlier dungeons where you can run them solo with a party of NPCs. This doesn't apply to all dungeon instances, however.

As a newcomer, the biggest problem I've found is that people running these low level dungeons have been doing it for so long, that they just bum rush to the end with little concern for newbies along for the ride. If you're the kind of person that likes to take things slow and take it all in, this is a problem, naturally.

YMMV, but I've yet to run into a group in dozens of dungeon runs that have been rude or mean about a newbie in the party. Sometimes I fell, but they were always supportive, even when I was the healer and my falling is the worst possible outcome.

I still think the best approach is to play if you have a small group of friends, preferably three others to always party together for dungeons. But of the many MMOs I've played, this is one of the friendlier ones.

As someone who returned to 14 after two failed attempts, I've actually become a new mainstay WHM/BLM.

I think I just needed to be in the right headspace to get into the game, and I've finally gotten here. So much so that I've abandoned all other games for the foreseeable future to focus on all this content.

I was always against the monthly subscription, but I've decided to stop being a cheapo and just pay it, since while I do, I'll be passing on all new major releases, so it'll be a net win for me.

So... about 50-65 hours then?

Over the years I've developed this uncanny ability to "min-max" my ability to complete RPGs, where I intuitively find the fastest way to the end of every quest, mainline or side.

I'm hopeful this one turns out to be a better experience than 15, but I suppose time will tell.

Hmmm... I wonder if similar improvements will be made to the Switch version, which is what I got.

Not that I need them; I beat the game at launch, and I find it to be perfectly fine and playable as is.

I confess to sleeping on this one until now.

It'll be put on the list to buy later this year, as I've wanted to try more action heavy games recently to balance out my penchant for RPGs.

Sure, if it's ported and has additional content, I'll gladly triple-dip.

If it's just the same game with no new content, I'll pass.

@Andee
I would actually disagree with the naming of DQX; it was a great way to demonstrate that even when moving into the MMO genre, the "Enix" team within Square-Enix were still more than capable of making an MMO feel distinctly Dragon Quest. It was modified just enough to work as an MMO, but the turn based menu-driven combat is still there.

Now if only it wasn't such a financial gamble for Square to localize it... then we all would have been playing it here in the west. I'll go cry myself to sleep again now.

@KaijuKaiser
The series having radically different approaches to gameplay started with 8, to be fair. Prior to that, the main series tweaked the core formula, improved on it in some ways, but they were simple RPGs through and through.

8 started that trend by revamping the leveling system completely. 9 was a "return to form". 10 switched it up by doing turn-based again over ATB. 11 was an MMO. 12 evolved the ATB by blending it with aspects of an MMO. 13 went back to ATB but streamlined it to such an extreme it removed most control from the player. 14 was a refinement of the MMO introduced with 11. And then 15 went ahead and dropped most pretenses about being an RPG and went full-on Kingdom Hearts.

I always figured this shift, while starting with 8, was a result of Dragon Quest being brought into the fold after the merger. At least, that's when it started shifting in the extreme.

Granted, anyone who expects the next game to not be radically different from the last at this point is being a little silly. They've been doing it so long it's hard to remember a time before it. But I would count myself among those who do hope for another FF9 style "return to form" with a classic turn based RPG. Even though we have the superior Dragon Quest games to enjoy that kind of gameplay.

I've been avoiding the coverage for this one as much as possible, if only because I want it to be good.

15 was a massive letdown despite the hype going in, so I'm hoping this one truly does shape up to be a great game.

Oh nooo... anyway.

Given the lukewarm reception (at best), I'm not surprised. From all the coverage the game received, it looked like the most bog standard fantasy third person shooter imaginable, and it's a crying shame given how much effort clearly went into the presentation.

Maybe that talent can be put to better use on better put-together games. Poor Square really is taking L after L these days.

This is one I wanted to try back when it originally launched, but never quite got around to it.

I'll keep an eye on this come Black Friday, hopefully it'll drop to half price or better around then.

Having never played the original, this is one I would actually consider if it happened. I remember hearing good things about the game back at launch, but something about it made me put it off until eventually the generation came and went.

Would be nice if it did happen, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm so sad this doesn't fit the AirPods Gen 3... I'm not one for cases for... a case... but it looks so nifty.

I honestly didn't find anything overtly bad about the remaster. It ran like the original, which for modern sensibilities may not have been the greatest experience, but as someone who played the PS1 original half a dozen times, made little impact on me personally.

Could it have been improved? Could it run better? Could they have made quality of life changes here and there?

Yes, yes, and yes. But I don't think the game NEEDED these to be enjoyable today.

@OMG_Waffles
Oh wow, I didn't realize neither of these were in the game. They sound like they'd be great DLC options!

I remember from the GBC titles, they had the collectible wizard cards... I wouldn't be against a return of those, along with a straight up TCG side game!

I actually hated fighting slitherfangs.

I already have very poor skills when it comes to fine tuning aiming; add that to small targets and an unbelievably jittery target?

Not at all a fun time. I confess that when I needed to farm some parts from them, after about the third battle in the desert area I chose to just drop the difficulty to the lowest point. Only for the farming portion.

But overall the game was a great experience, and I actually can't wait to go back for the Burning Shores DLC.

The witchcraft comment had me chuckling.

Put a hex on someone. I dare you.

Having only watched someone play the first game, this is one I might consider picking up for myself.

The first game looked like one of the best takes on being a Jedi ever made, so why I chose not to play it is beyond me. It's been so long since I enjoyed a good Star Wars game, not since the MMO.

How could Tifa let the bar get so dirty? Shame on her.

Doesn't she realize she has a toddler running around that place? Honestly...

That controller is super nice!

I might try to get one as my second controller for my PS5, but if I miss it, I'll just wait until Black Friday for a sale on a normal version.

@get2sammyb
Thank you! I appreciate all you do here for the site, too.