This. The reviews never seem to add up for the FF series. I thought the same thing about 15. Not sure who all these mega fans are nowadays, but it’s not those of us were playing FF2 on snes back in the day and whatnot. I’ve wondered about review manipulation on Square Enix’s part though I could just be majorly out of touch. It is possible that people genuinely are seeing something there that I’m not.
I don’t know if I count as a mega fan, but I’ve been playing the FF series since FF1 on the NES. I loved FF1-FF9, but then I sort of lost interest in the series. I kept trying each new game, but they never really clicked for me.
Then I tried FFXV when it came out, and while it was a big departure from what the series was before, I loved it. It wasn’t perfect, but it finally clicked again for me. Same with FF7 Remake. I haven’t played FF16 yet, and I won’t until it comes out on PC, but I have a feeling I’ll like it.
I guess my point is, there are plenty of long time fans that are into the new games. And plenty that aren’t! I think the new direction is pretty polarizing.
@catfishman I'm a long time fan (6 & 7 my favorites, I know not very unique opinion) and have no interested into the newer games. From the reviews, looks like 16 is not for me (as 15 wasn't). Did you play 12? That is a very traditional Final Fantasy.
I played it a little bit of FF12, but I may not have given it enough of a chance. I remember losing interest when I had to set up all of the gambits for my party.
I wrote a longer reply on someone else’s comment. Mostly, I’ve been a fan since I was a kid and I’m less thrilled with the creativity, heart, innovation and originality in the series as of late. Tho, as you get older I suppose lots of things start seeming less exciting haha
It’s kind of a long standing quality of the series, since they are always trying new stuff that will resonate with different people. Outside of like actual FF2 (I assume you are talking about IV since you mention the SNES) I think I have heard people make a case for every FF being their favourite. Which is great, I am glad they try to shake it up every time.
Both of the projects Yoshida has been involved with I have been pretty lukewarm on though, so I am just a bit concerned if he is going to be the proverbial face of the series moving forward.
Yes, that was a ref to the weird choice to brand 4 as two in the US. Which I as a kid only later learned was what has happened
I can believe it. I’ve kinda figured I might just be settling into old person syndrome and thinking everything from my younger days was somehow better. I loved the series changing styles, vibes, characters, stories, worlds, etc., while some themes and elements remained the same. Nowadays tho, little changes and the stories and characters seems less and less compelling.
The thing with Yoshida is interesting because I feel exactly the same way, but I also changed opinion on his works over time.
I don’t know what changed, but Heavensward era FFXIV was pretty cool in both gameplay and story, and Stormblood too has some great moments (primarily in the 4.X patch quests) while being even better, gameplay wise.
Since then the gameplay has been going in a direction I really don’t care for, and the same goes for story (though Shadowbringers had some great moments). I couldn’t make myself finish Endwalker.
I’m curious if you experienced this shift as well or you just didn’t care for FFXIV from the outset.
I wasn’t a massive XIV fan at the outset, but there has definitely been a trend in the game design I didn’t like as it moved towards later expansions. They continually moved away from any kind of player agency/customization, so everything is super homogenized now (or at least when I last played). I stopped around the end of Shadowbringers, never actually got into Endwalker content.
They used to have cross-class skills and things like that, so it really felt like a FF job system where you would play different classes to unlock skills for your main. I think any FF player should be pretty comfortable with that. They have since simplified that, which I am sure is great for newer players but I don’t really like it. Now, if I am a level 80 warrior I am exactly the same as every other level 80 warrior, except for the number next to my item level. That kind of customization is a big part of both MMOs and FFs for me, usually.
They have definitely gone further down the path of homogenisation and simplification. I don’t actually mind customisation being sacrificed for better encounter balance, but many classes started to lose their identities as features and mechanics got scaled back, Dark Knight and Astrologian being two examples. And of course what they did to healers in general. Personally the removal of Hissatsu: Kaiten from Samurai was the last straw.
Killer soundtrack though, Soken does good work.
He does produce some bangers, but I’m such an unabashed Uematsu fanboy. I actually felt Soken did some of his best work remixing, building on and riffing off of Uematu’s themes and melodies, which is another reason I enjoyed the earlier expansions.
I really enjoy the “Was it good?” series by Josh Strife! I guess technically they aren’t long plays, he plays through older, fondly remembered games, trims the recordings, and adds great commentary. The videos are still quite long though. I especially enjoyed his commentary of Tomb Raider (the original).
…I guess I’ll also mention, I also do some let’s plays with my friend 👀 but I don’t think they’re really anything special. We just enjoy retro video games and chatting!
I keep being tempted to pick one up but I’m not a huge fan of old handheld games. Even growing up I was always like “I wish these were more like the PC or console versions.” My first system was a GBC so maybe a bit before my time. Happily playing PC games on a steam deck these days though. My childhood dream is real now! lol
But it’s not just handheld games. My analogue pocket has the entire SNES, NES, Mega Drive and Pc Engine libraries, plus Amiga. Loads of MiSTer cores have been ported.
Playing SNES on the pocket is amazing. And it’s better on the pocket than any other device I’ve ever used.
Oxygen Not Included. Gotta compute the rate at which dupes consume resources to adjust production. It’s so hard yet so satisfying. The dupes are extremely stupid though
I always wait for a game where you manage a remote Starbase and the main part is to put together Spaceships out of parts made by yourself or salvaged from fights. So you repair and build them out of a limited amount of parts and assign them to your pilots, give them patrols or mining missions etc.
True MMORTS with persistent non-instanced map and PVE content.
IMO best example was Ballerium developed by Majorem ( but game doesn’t exist anymore ) - on graphical level looked like WC3, on PVE side there were monster encounters and monster pack migrations that you could engage or had to run from
Here is what I believe to be the definitive answer for maxing out your library on 4 inputs:
Gaming PC/Steam Deck - you'll have access to a sprawling library of games from all generations and can even emulate console exclusive games from previous generations. The reason I'm not recommending an Xbox console on this list is because basically every current gen Xbox One (+ X|S) game is already on PC (as are many OG Xbox and most Xbox 360-era games), GamePass is an option if you wanna play some OG Xbox/360 games legally, and emulation can get you any games that aren't available otherwise. Sony is also making many recent PS5 exclusives available on PC now with more to come.
Nintendo Switch - it's got a kick-ass library of exclusives, almost every Wii U game has been ported over (minus like ~8, I think?), they've been remaking/remastering a lot of older games and are reportedly going to go hard on that for the remainder of the Switch's lifespan, and with NSO it has a respectable library of retro Nintendo and Sega Genesis games if you wanna go the legal route.
PS4/PS5 - A PS5 would be ideal for maxing out your possible library size, because it can play any PS4 or PS5 game; however, there also aren't a ton of PS5 exclusives at this point in time, PS5 games are being ported over to PC faster than PS4 exclusives, many recent PS5 games are also on PS4, PS4s are cheaper, and the PS4 can be jailbroken. There's a case to be made for getting a PS4 instead.
Modded PS3 - Especially if you can track down a phat model with hardware back compact support, you can load up a HDD with games and play the entire PS1, PS2, and PS3 libraries.
With these four, you should be able to play essentially any game ever made. You will have...
Official hardware support for:
PlayStation
PlayStation 2
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4 and/or 5
Nintendo Switch
PC (Astonishingly huge library)
You will have the (paid) option of legal software support for many of the best games from:
NES
SNES
Sega Genesis
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo 64
Xbox
Xbox 360
You will have the capability to emulate anything from Atari 2600 through to some Nintendo Switch, including Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, arcade classics, and many, many more.
IMO, this is the best way to max out the 4 ports on your TV. You can also get a PS Vita and mod it for PS Vita + PSP games, and a 3DS modded for 3DS and NDS games. They don't need to be plugged into your TV, so they weren't included on my list of 4, but they are both excellent handheld consoles with great libraries.
Wouldn’t a Series X be better than a PS5 for range of titles, the PS5 only natively supports PS4 back cat, where as the Series X also supports a range of 360 and OG XB titles. It also adds improvements to spend of them with better frame rates or resolution.
I don't think so, only because most of the 360 games available for back compat on the Series X are already ported to PC, a lot of them can be accessed on PC by way of GamePass, and the rest can be emulated on PC. You cannot currently emulate PS4 or PS5 games and only a handful have been ported to PC so far, so original hardware is the only option for playing PlayStation exclusives. Whether to get a PS4 vs PS5 is debatable imo.
If you're planning to do everything the legal way (i.e. no emulation of games you don't own), don't want to buy discs to rip, and prefer the available Xbox & Xbox 360 games to the PlayStation exclusives, you could get a Series X--but honestly, if you are cool with buying discs and don't care about PlayStation exclusives, getting a 360 would be a significantly cheaper solution than a Series X, especially since there aren't really any console-exclusive Xbox games in the last couple of hardware gens and the 360 had better back compat for OG Xbox games than the current gen Xboxes do. So if you were gonna swap the PS for an Xbox, I'd personally go 360 over Series X.
La-mulana. It’s one of those games that only has value if you play it blind and without a walkthrough. The game’s platforming and combat is subpar at best and atrocious at worst, but the riddles and the mythology make up for it. I played it around 2008 on the “MSX” freeware version, and it took me 10 months and 2 new save files after getting stuck. You have no chances of completing that game without extensive notes.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne