hogso

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. 

20 minutes ago, EvilChameleon said:

Getting more Persona game announcements this year than we did for the 25th anniversary would be something else. 

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. 

GC ran a fun little least likely game to be announced write in topic this week. I really appreciated the mention of Alundra 3, and in a post Zelda BotW/TotK, Elden Ring, and Witcher 3 era, I do wonder if it could find a niche spot to occupy gamers who like those sorts of things. 

Glad you opted for that video from the plethora available this week @Chindie, I have a lot of time for Max - as much as he can be very excitable and rather OTT at time, in focused videos like the above away from his live streams, he more often than not makes very level headed and fair comments without much bias...more so than I would be able to about FF XVI I'm sure. 

I've seen a number of comments about the devs taking a lot of inspiration from Game of Thrones which I just find a little bizarre. Perhaps it's because I'm playing through the pixel remasters, as documented on here, but it's not exactly difficult to recognise that the first GoT book was released in the same year as Final Fantasy Seven's original release date. There's been castles, dragons, betrayal and death in the series for far longer than those books have been a thing. In fairness, I recognise that perhaps there has been a shift from the late 90s to mid 00s where using that high fantasy setting was seen as a potential sales risk - just look at how IX performed sales wise, regardless of how great that game is. 

What I'm not concerned by with XVI are the gameplay, graphics, story, soundtrack and characters. I've seen more than enough of that to already believe this to be potentially the best FF game since X. I do have some reservations about the side quests and maps though...but without actually playing it, I won't know how that will click with me. 

Any fans of XIV are very much in the camp of believing that this is going to be the best thing on PS5 due to the way CB Unit 3 have dealt with that game since the release of Realm Reborn. I really hope that faith pays off. 

Sony's biiiig event for 2023.

I'd love to see Dragon's Dogma 2 gameplay. 

MGS in some shape or form seems likely, and I wonder if Bluepoint will be involved with that. 

Ghost of Tsushima 2 would have people really excited I imagine. 

Spiderman 2 and Wolverine gameplay would be cool. 

With my JRPG hat on...

Something on DQ12 PLEASE. Announced about 2 years ago with barely anything since. 

Like a Dragon Gaiden and 8 gameplay would be great. 

FFT and FFIX remakes are unlikely for me, but would be really exciting. I'd settle for a big new trailer for FF VII Rebirth (maybe even a release date?) 

Final Fantasy 3 done. This must have been what fans at the time were hoping for from FF2 in the wake of FF1. It's just a bigger, better version of that game with more of a story focus in line with FF2. 

Moogles and summons debut, you have access to, I think, 4 different airships over the course of the game, and there are 4 world maps too - although only 2 of those are proper maps. Two of them do have very neat story related twists to them, though. 

The job system was the thing that I was most interested in experimenting with, and as cool as it is, you still end up using the same two jobs at the end anyway, cos you'd be mad not to (unless you grind for the onion gear). 

I can't imagine what playing through the final dungeon must have been like for players of the original version on original hardware. There are four mandatory sub bosses before the final boss - the infamous Cloud of Darkness - and their HP pools are insane and they hit really hard. That much was clear to me making full use of the modern QoL features. 

This is also the first time in the series thus far where I've felt there are 3 or 4 really great tracks on the soundtrack. 

Playtime this time was 11:18, it actually felt shorter than that. 

Total play time : 33:13

Rolling ranking :

3

1

2

Onto 4, the game where the series really found it's feet. 

Jimmy Havoc

I see Peacemaker, Homelander, and Omniman are all suggested as future DLC in a leak. Pretty cool. 

Ahhh such a shame.  Sweden always looked and sounded a winner, the Finnish track will go down as a classic runner up. 

Called 4 of the top 5, happy with that. 

You know you'll be hear next year @Demitri_C

Whoa, Austria scored awfully. Could Finland score 350+...?

YESSS 

The points Norway deserve there. 

Thought there might be a few more pity votes for at least hosting it. Can't finish last though. 

Finland hanging in there. Unfortunately I think Sweden will be popular enough with the public to see it through...but I reaaaally hope not

Cannot believe the placing of Norway in the jury vote so far, shocker.

Hopefully Finland can hang on to top 10, and they'll be in with a real shout I think. 

Top 5, in order

Finland 

Sweden

Norway

Israel

Austria 

Let's goooo

Huuuuge Norway track, nailed on top 10.

Comfortably the worst entry thus far, near Irish levels of 'we really don't want to win again thanks' on display. 

Mel in with a shout of the @rjw63 top totty award there?