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Err...let's hope any similarities don't continue with Floyd's story for much longer. That is one wild story.

Loved Star Ocean 2. What I'd give for Xenogears to be given the same treatment...

Tom is great. I think his how not to travel Europe series has been his best thus far.

You could call it a passion project, or a labour of love...but I am sincere when I say I really would love to play them all through sequentially, even to the point that I've considered putting off starting 16 until I've completed the other numbered games. Spoilers, I won't, mostly thanks to the demo. Shall we talk about it? It's kinda great. The main portion of the demo allows you to play the very start of the game, and lasts for about 2 hours. It's exposition heavy as a result, but it does at least allow the player to get a proper feel for the world and characters rather than just being dropped in to a scenario and showing off some gameplay and how pretty it is (which is my enduring memory of the FF8 demo). What is fantastic, and simply must be a main stay of the series from here on out, is the Active Time Lore system, which allows you to pause the game at more or less any time - during exploration, most battles, most cut scenes - and being situation specific will give you lore on your location, the characters who are present at the time, terms they've used, allowing the player to get an immediate fix on 'wait, who is that? what does that mean? where am i?', and it's absolutely seamlessly implemented. A great example is the character of Jill. The writing is good enough to avoid 'as you know' dialogue so there's no unnatural explanation as to who she is between the character, but at the same time we're shown that Clive and Joshua are clearly close to her, they trust and care for her, but actually the player has no idea who she is. Well, the ACL will tell you exactly who she is, where she came from, and why she knows Clive and Joshua so well. The graphics and soundtrack are just incredible. I've played it on graphics mode so far and the performance has been really good, to the point that I'm not sure I'd bother with performance mode in the full game. There are vistas presented to the player which you just want to stare in to, and although it may be a gripe of some that this is a not so clever way of making it look open world when it isn't, I don't mind it at all. If the story remains focused as a result, and I hope it does, I'd take that over a fully open world anytime. Once you get your hand in with combat it feels really responsive and satisfying. I think that's all I can say about it, it's not the most amazing combat for those who have played lots of action RPGs, or adjacent genres, but man is it infinitely better than FF 15. I also need to hold my hands up and eat a bit of humble pie, I think. I felt some disdain towards the comments I'd heard and read when people played the demo versions of the game early as there was a lot of talk about Game of Thrones, when I felt that the identity of FF as it's own thing was so strong it seemed a bit lazy to make that comparison. But, you know what...it's kind of hard not to draw those comparisons now I've played it. There's the political intrigue, there's the betrayal, there's the fore, the swearing, heck even the sex (just a light amount in the demo!)...the tone it sets does indeed draw your mind back to those earlier series/books in the GoT story if you are or were a fan. And I think it's that tone that has me so excited for the game now. It's such a departure for the series, which has oft felt very anime esque. OK, I wouldn't say this is a million miles away from that, but it is very, very far removed from the bro's of 15, the destiny fighting of 13, the often light heartedness of 9 and 10...you'll notice that I've skipped 12 there, as for all intents and purposes this is an Ivalice game, and tonally has far more in common with 12, Tactics, 14 and Type-0 to the point that it almost doesn't feel like an FF game. But it is an FF game! For me as a total fan boy, this is the best possible outcome, I love to see the series evolve over the years. I know there is a desire from some to go back to turn based - and maybe they will one day - but when I play the new Dragon Quest games I always find myself thinking 'well it's good...but it's just too similar to the old stuff'. So if you haven't played the demo, please try and make time! It might surprise you if you don't know anything about 16 yet. And if you have played the initial demo, DO NOT sleep on the Eikonic Challenge section of the demo which unlocks. This isn't simply a little battle, it's a fully formed section of the game from later on, with story, a bit of exploration, bosses, and the chance to use more abilities and experiment more than you can in that section from the start of the game.

Yeah it's a bit bad when you think about that FF 10 playtime I had versus what my playtime with the pixel remaster is! I wouldn't include Vagrant Story, but I am very fond of that game and did a playthrough of it not too long ago on original hardware. In a list of JRPGs in general, it wouldn't be up there with the likes of FF7, FF 10, FFT, Xenogears, DQ5, Chrono Trigger...but it isn't far off. It makes a fascinating double bill with MGS by the way, there are a lot of parallels to draw between the games, and not least because of the 'Phantom Pain' connection. I kind of can't wait to replay 13. Not because I think it's amazing - I don't think it's terrible either - but out of all the of the numbered games I have no idea where I will place it. Lower mid table I guess...?

FF5 Plat'd. Now this is Final Fantasy. Everything Square learned in the 6 years since the first game comes together absolutely beautifully here. For me, this game contains the best song (Battle on the Big Bridge), possibly the best story scene (Galuf v Ex Death), and the best job system in any of the numbered games. I did get a bit frustrated with the Blue Magic requirements, it's very similar to 7 in so far as some them require control/manipulation of enemies and there's an rng element too with getting the spawns in the first place, but it's not a bad Plat at all. I enjoyed this playthrough so much that I actually did a bunch of stuff not necessary for the plat, like all summons, all songs, and some of the 'secrets' like the Bonobo Gourd accessory, or whatever it's called. I love that they settled on 4 (OK, 5) main playable characters as it allows their stories to breathe and build with each plot twist and story development. I know a lot of fans of the series don't rate 5 due it's tone, there are some proper belly laughs to be had and the juxtaposition against some very heavy moments was fine for me. It's true that if shows it's age in the way it deals with, let's say some delecate issues as we look back on it from space year 2023...but there's nothing obscene here, certainly not on a par with say Shera in 7. I also love Bartz as the main character, he's almost like a proto Tidus - laid back, passionate, drawn in to this story through no fault of his own, but along for the ride come what may. My play time here was 24:44 taking my total playtime to 71:41 Rolling ranking 5 4 3 1 2 On to 6, and I suppose the question is, do I dare rank 5 above it? Hmm.

The demo is out for XVI on PSN now. It covers the first couple of hours of the game - apparently, currently downloading it myself. I've now played it, and well, it's good, you should try it.

I think the golem rock type boss fight was in the Mythril Mines. The appeared to be those locations from post Midgar we all recognise - Chocobo Ranch, Kalm (well, the Inn), Mythril Mines, Junon, the boat to Costa Del Sol with the Jenova fight. No Fort Condor but that's not too much of a surprise given that it was repurposed for the Yuffie DLC, and no Zolom which again isn't too much of a surprise for story reasons I won't spoil if @HKP90 is currently playing Remake! With the same in mind I'll post where I think Rebirth will end - probably not for anyone who hasn't finished Remake!

Persona 3 Reload does indeed look like the promised P5 style remake of P3, which version of P3 though? Well, it's not P3P, and if it isn't FES I wouldn't complain. P5T was indeed a P5 Tactical RPG, not sure I'm totally enamoured with it on the basis of this trailer, it looks very Persona Q.

Summer Games Fest off to a good start Decent little trailer, I guess the release will be around March 24. Lots of familiar locations for those who know the OG story after Midgar. The part that isn't familiar is the most interesting part to me - that being the very start of that trailer, which all but confirms that there are at least two time lines, or alternate realities, or dimensions or whatever...one with Cloud and Co loosely following the OG plot following the events of Remake having broken free of fate, one where Zack is alive, and one where...Cloud and Co didn't even leave Midgar at the end of Remake? Huh. FF gonna FF.

Coincidentally good timing for my FF9 Remake post yesterday - seeing as a gameplay video for the Memoria Project (a fan made FF9 remake in UE5) was released yesterday. This really is unreal, and if the actual FF9 remake is real I suspect it won't quite look like this. For fans of FF9, I strongly suggest freeing up 25 minutes to watch this, and just imagine what could be!

I tried 'Aunt Bessies' Roast Potato and Black Pepper crisps so you don't have to. They taste like butter.

Well, I take your point, but FF7 Remake is a Creative Business Unit 1 game within Square Enix, and as Crisis Core was co-developed with a third party, I'd assume the same would be true of 9, and therefore wouldn't have an impact on the development of 7 Remake (for the same reason XVI being developed by CBU 4 hasn't impacted the 7 Remake project). I could well be wrong, and 9 remake might not even exist - but if it does, that wouldn't be a concern for me, given the job that was done with CC 'remake'.

Getting there with my FF5 playthrough, it's simply a much bigger game than the other 4. Spoilers for my final post on it though - it's even better than I remember (helped by some QoL features I guess, and the really good arranged score). FF9 Remake rumours are gained pace AGAIN. This time the speculation is that this is a remake/remaster much more in line with Crisis Core than FF7, thereby retaining it's original turn based gameplay. That would be just...a dream come true for a lot of fans, I think. As long as they **** off the platinum trophy requirements. What playing through the pixel remasters has demonstrated to me is just how much FF9 is effectively the definitive Final Fantasy...or should I say, it's Sakaguchi's definitive Final Fantasy. There's so much overlap between 1-6, especially 3, 4 and 5, that it's almost like the events, setting, and characters of 9 are canon to those games. I physically stopped mid game during 5 and had to catch myself - "hang on, isn't this song from FF9?" well no it isn't, but it's almost a remix in 9. I almost feel like it would make a lot more sense to go from 6 to 9 and then go back to 7, such is the link between it and the older games. Not that I'll have time to before FF16 now!

All eyes on the Xbox showcase as part of Summer Games Fest on Sunday ay 6pm (BST) - P3 Remake almost certainly going to be revealed formally, and with a recent domain name for 'P5T.jp' there's also speculation there will be another Persona 5 spin off, in addition to Phantom X which is a Chinese made, gacha mobile app thing. I really, really enjoyed Strikers, so something akin to that in the spin off states would be cool. The T could be...Tactics...a P5 tactical RPG...Tour...a P5 racing game...or perhaps Tournament, another Persona beat em up?

Isn't this very well known amongst atlas enthusiasts?

Unbelievablely terrible reviews for Gollum. The 'give head' meme on reddit had me absolutely howling.

Yessss DD2 After all this time, I still don't get Five Nights at Freddies

Ooo new Remedy game looks interesting Ah, it's Alan Wake 2!

OK, that was cool. Not enough on it, but it's MGS, dammit.

New Giant Squid/Matt Nava game looks neat And the following game, let's just say I'm NEVA going play it, ahahaha

What better way to wait for the PS Showcase that running through the FFIV Plat? Yep, it's in the books. I've had a lot of free time to be able to knock this one out in the last few days, so I took full advantage. Looking at this game though the lens of experiencing the series in sequential order, this entry stands head and shoulders above everything else so far. Looking it at with hindsight and knowledge of what follows...there's some **** bizarre stuff going on here. The good is that the story regularly feels absolutely epic. There's heartbreak, betrayal, loss, species banding together to save the world, an unspeakable evil manipulating things from the shadows...it's all here. It feels like a proper FF, and the series would be lost to the annals of history if Square had not taken some risks with this, I feel. Scripted battles with text to give in battle story is a game changer, and game play wise the ATB system debuts and works really well. As do the rigid jobs each character has, each of which is woven in to the story and lore of the world. Long gone are the days at this point where you party does what they do...well, just cos, really. IV introduces us to Cecil, a dark knight trained in a life shortening art at the behest of his king. For the first time a main character that goes on a real emotional journey. It's by and large good stuff. Ending spoilers. Side characters come and go, but when they're present, there is a gravitas to their actions, and you remember them. Some even offer some proper comic relief for the first time. There's also genuine challenge, and boss battles that throw unusual things at you to deal with. Battles that are almost like puzzles are more common place. And who can deny the fun of status ailments including not only mini and frog, but PIG. And then there's the, well not bad but...the crazy. I'll spoiler this for anyone intending to play (which I would recommend). It's indicative how much there is to say about it that it really was a massive leap forward. As for the Plat, I had heard horror stories about green and yellow dragon spawn rates for the 100% bestiary, and even worse for pink tail drops from flan princess farming in the final dungeon. Well, my final play time was a neat 13:44, so either my rng was good, or this version has had some changes to loot drops for the secret summons. If so, phew. That takes my total play time to 46:57 Rolling rankin' 4 3 1 2 Onwards to V. You know, the first time I played I, II, IV, V and VI were on PS1 with the standalone release of VI, and the Origins and Anthology collections. V was my favourite.

They've got some making up to do... >___>

FFXVI demo release + FFVII Rebirth new trailer = jizz Rumours for a P6 reveal trailer with a release next year seem to be growing, timed exclusive on PS5 supposedly, and although P3 Remake may be on the Xbox showcase in June that won't be an exclusive. Both of those things happening within a few weeks of each other would be amazing, P3 in the style of P5 would just be incredible. For me, Atlus have never quite attained the heights of the third game with regards to it's story beats and twists, although they've absolutely refined the gameplay and art exponentially since then with each release. To combine all of that and revisit P3 is a recipe for perfection.

Persona 6 would be so sick. I did hear that Persona 3 Remake is going to be shown on an Xbox event, though.