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hogso

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Everything posted by hogso

  1. It's a little hard to explain spoiler free, but in short, Rebirth feels like it wears it's influences on it's sleeve - FFXV, Horizon, Witcher, AC/Ubisoft open world games, Ghost of Tsushima, MGS V...which is a statement that would have struck fear in to fans before release, probably. The game is all the better for taking all that inspiration though, as it's absolutely still a Final Fantasy game, seeing as the series has tried to reinvent itself umpteen times in the last couple of decades to degrees of success ranging from fine to failure. The comparison with 16 is a good example, the level design in that game was just fine for an FF, but Rebirth is on another level. The difference between areas like the Grasslands and Gongaga is absolutely staggering and as far from a copy and paste texture swap of areas that you can get. The towns are awesome, the dungeons are great...it's not quite a 10 out of 10 game though, as some of the lighting issues are annoying. The low quality textures and issues in performance mode don't bother me, but you'd have to acknowledge them when considering how good it is objectively. Some of the mini games, as I've mentioned before, are annoying, but they're mostly optional and even if you do try them all once as most players do I imagine, you can score a 'pass' score with relative ease, but getting the top score for the best prize can be difficult, and it shouldn't be right?
  2. Yeah, only really Witcher 3 is on the same level I think. The devs took a lot of inspiration from Horizon, and it blows that open world out of the water.
  3. So the route to the platinum trophy has now been, uh, revealed and it was something I had every intention of getting as I really enjoyed getting it for Remake. But OH **** it is going to be so tough. So so tough. Light spoilers below for chapter 8 related to the completion of a side quest in Costa Del Sol If I do go for it, I can see my play time going 200 hours+
  4. Is this the best FF game ever...? I think it has to be top 5 for me at the moment. Granted I'm not finished with it yet, but good lord. It's an excellent game.
  5. Chrono Trigger the other biggy I guess Was impressed by the time given to his death on the news this evening. Why didn't they do the same for Miura? Oh, wait...
  6. Short answer, yes there is an open world map to explore. Longer answer is there are 8 maps in total spread across the world, covering the regions of Grasslands, Junon, Corel, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Nibel, Meridian Ocean and Northwood. On top of that you have places which are independent to those regions, for example Golden Saucer. That's where I am at the moment, so anything after the Corel region I can't comment on, but they are big. Doing everything in the Grasslands region for example, the first area you have access to, took me about 10 hours. In terms of the original game, that's the period of time from where you leave Midgar until you enter the Mythril Mines. Rebirth still follows that general route - Kalm, flashback, Chocobo Ranch, acquire a Chocobo, cross the marsh, enter the mine, but of course there are collectibles, optional mid boss encounters, side quests and so on. Saying much more than that would be venturing in to spoiler territory I feel, as there are umpteen little bits dotted around to find and be surprised by. The game does feel massive, and really fleshed out, with things having meaning behind them rather than being a mere tick box exercise towards completing a region. Dared I say it feels too big, daunting almost, especially as a gamer whose gaming time is now limited. At the same time though, I'm loving it, and don't want it to end. Considering the vertical slice of the game as a whole, there are few other games I've played which come close to troubling the content available, the amount of systems, side activities, mini games...it's almost unbelievable. The obvious comparison would the Yakuza/LaD, I guess.
  7. Hope you're enjoying it my dude. I've just left Junon. The game is everything I had hoped for, and more. And how's about this for a nifty little QoL feature (well I think it is) - the clock on your playtime pauses if you idle on the menu. Amazing. Oh, and Queen's Blood is really growing on me! A big advantage it has over Gwent being that with that game, once you got to a certain point, you just couldn't lose if you knew what you were doing. This game really requires a lot of strategy and deck building skill, depending on who you're playing. The story to the game, as much as I've seen so fa anyway, is curious too.
  8. Nope - BT don't carry exclusivity anymore, Amazon have some stuff, as do Disney, but there's currently no official carrier of the series for the UK. Ratings wise it's done really well (relatively speaking) so hopefully it'll pop up somewhere soon officially. It would be the high seas unofficially, I'm personally loving Stremio and Torrentio plus Real Debrid for my streaming needs at the moment.
  9. So, The Ones Who Live is the first worthwhile viewing in the Walking Dead universe for years. Genuinely good TV, although I do wonder if some of the context will be lost on those who haven't watched the post Rick stuff, specifically World Beyond.
  10. It was only a matter of time before someone made a decent, high budget, Earth Defence Force clone I guess. EDF! EDF! EDF!
  11. hogso

    Eurovision 2024

    I'm not sure. Even if the committee (or sometimes the public via vote) responsible for choosing the act chose a massively popular one, would they do it? I don't think so. They'd have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Why expose yourself to potential humiliation when you already have adoring fans across the globe?
  12. 10 hours in, not gone through the mythril mines yet They've done a good job with the side content, there's a lot of world building done in stuff that is completely optional, clearly taking a lot of inspiration from Witcher 3 in that regard.
  13. @Chindie hasn't been online for a week. Don't suppose anyone has a route to contacting him outside of VT?
  14. I managed to put about 3 hours into Rebirth last night, having been able to finally sit down with it at 9pm. I skipped the flashback bit you can. The opening 5 mins had me grinning like a baffoon, whilst also being kind of shocked that they went there so early. Fascinated to see where that goes. The opening Grasslands area just feels huge, and alive, and lived in. Oh, and Queens Blood is not better than Gwent. Should also mention I'm finding the game unplayable on performance mode. It just looks way too rough. Graphics mode is fine though.
  15. Right, how did I do these.... Hogso's 'Sequential Numbered Final Fantasy Series Playthrough Retrospective Reviews' (HSNFFSPRR) PART VII It is impossible for me to talk about Final Fantasy VII to XII without indulging in a heavy dose of nostalgia. I'm sure the same is true for a lot of you as well. For me, those games represent anchors to points in my life which few other things do. I suppose when it comes down to it, that's why I like the series so much. With that in mind, I'm going to break down this one in to segments, and probably will for VIII - XII too (and VII Remake for different reasons) because to me, the context of my life at the time I first played these games feels as important as the game itself...which some people may have no interest in! That'll be in spoilers. I'll follow that up with something more in line with the previous format for the I-VI Remaster release on PS4. Part I - Nostalgia - The Year 1998 Part 2 - Emulation of Past - Replaying FFVII HD on PS5 I'll kick this off in reverse, as the thing that struck me about playing the game again now, following I-VI is just how close a call it is to say which FF I think is better. Not my favourite - better. Objectively, not subjectively. That's not at all an easy thing to do, but my god I tried. I do rank VII above VI - just. And I mean just. I believe VI beats VII in a number of really key areas, soundtrack, late game, and some of it's key scenes out do VII. However...I think the Materia system is great, the pacing of VII is just awesome, and few gaming moments from a gameplay perspective live longer in the mind for me than leaving Midgar. That whole world out there, not just the city you've been in - wow. Storywise, they're pretty evenly matched, as are Kefka and Sephiroth in the Villain stakes. But when you consider the role of Hojo in FFVII, the true Villain of the game, VII starts to take the edge, and the reveal of Cloud's true role in the Nibelheim incident (especially when you see the photo for the first time) plus that bit with Aerith...yeah I think it's barely, barely a better game. Now, as you wouldn't be surprised to hear if you've read the whole of this post, this is a game I know inside out. The quickest I've ever played it through is about 15 hours, nothing to trouble speed runners obviously, but I can fly through it if the feeling takes me. This run was 24:12 which is a little shorter that VI was, and for reference I did not do the Materia caves, Chocobo Breeding, Ultima, Emerald or Ruby Weapons...this was very much a 'story playthrough'. If you're curious my save file at the end of the Northern Crater when I did platinum FFVII HD and did everything was 48:55. As I spoke about it in my other reviews, I will mention the trophies here even if I had no others to get - it's a really decent list which pushes you to do a few bits and bobs which some playthroughs might skip, specifically doing things like getting all the level 4 limit breaks (it's so easy not to ever see Aerith's for obvious reasons), some mini game related stuff, getting the master Materia...and dating Barret! You love to see it. The worse one is grinding not for levels, but for gil, 99999999 is an insane amount. Total playtime for this series so far is 122:45. I think my last FFXII playtime was about that one it's own. And as for X, well...let's not go there just yet. Rolling ranking 7 just 6 5 4 3 1 2 Next up at some point in the future will be VIII, and perhaps an even sterner test for me to play through and consider it's place in my own personal ranking objectively rather than subjectively than VII was. And in case you are reading this the day I post it, no, Rebirth still hasn't arrived. Cry.
  16. Praying he does Rendezvous with Rama next.
  17. Yeah the fact it's called cum on irene
  18. Remake got a patch yesterday to change the final line from Aerith which was I miss it. The Steel Sky , referring to finally seeing the real sky and not the underside of the plate in the Midgar slums, to This Sky...I don't like it Weird. This new line was in a Rebirth trailer, so it seems for consistency they've gone back and changed the four year old line to match. It's worse though, right? 48 hours-ish from Rebirth, unless my parcel turns up early (it won't!). I'll have my FF7 retrospective posted tomorrow, I think. I managed to finish that playthrough, but didn't even get started on a FF7 Remake one.
  19. You get an accessory, and can skip the flashback sequence in the main game if you've already done it in the demo. Other than that, no carry over.
  20. I imagine it'll be broadly equivalent to Remake, as @Dante_Lockhart says. If I had to guess, it'll involve something turning up that begins with the letter 'Z'...
  21. I thought the same thing! I really can't see it myself, we'll only know once we get hands on with it though I guess. Although Gwent did have some proper story side content in the DLC, it didn't really have a story as such attached to it, right? Queen's Blood seemingly does, with 'boss' characters to be beat and stuff. Even if that's simply a modern emulation of the CC Quest in FF8, I'll be happy. And for anyone playing the Junon demo, make sure you don't sleep on Red XIII. His abilities are great, and once you get the Materia level up thing from Chadley you can slap that on his Comet Materia to enable the Cometeor spell, which is wild - looks like something out of Dragon's Dogma
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