Every final fantasy game is different in terms of gameplay, story and characters, themes, music. If you like the genre, I think it’s worth playing the newer games and rediscovering the older ones. Every entry is unique, and they tend to resonate differently with different people, so it’s hard to point at one and say “play that one, it’s the best”, but IX is usually ranked pretty high among the fanbase. I don’t think it’s the best JRPG ever (that would be Xenogears), but I rank it pretty highly, too.
I also never played it, but X-2 is (as far as I know) considered pretty mid or even bad by some, so if you’ve been put off by that one, it could be worth playing at least its predecessor.
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. It’s true. I’ve been playing with emulated games for as long as I can remember, but none of my friends are even able to unzip a file without me following them step by step. I’m also active in the Pokémon homebrew community, and let me tell you, the amount of tech illiteracy from people is astonishing. Even with a step-by-step guide, even simple things like downloading a game ROM and patching it is a herculean effort for some.
These releases allow people who are not accustomed to the sort of things to legally buy, own and play old games. And as for me, even though I have the entire catalogue of PS1 games+emulator on my hard disk, I sometimes appreciate being able to quickly download and boot the game from a launcher I already have installed on my pc without the hassle of whipping out the hard disk, and that is enough for me to warrant spending a few pennies.
If you were to listen to the internet, it would seem that AAA studios are be on their last gasp, with indie devs dancing on their graves.
The reality is that, aside from the big indie game of the moment (think Silksong or Expedition 33, if you want to count the latter as indie), most gamers don’t care or don’t even know indie games exist in the first place.
I have a few gamer friends (each of whom spends a few hours daily on games), and only one of them plays maybe one indie game per year, and only those who manage to breach through his bubble via influencers and streamers.
People tend not to click on links without info about what it is, so I’ll copy-paste the video description here:
Think “Diablo Lite meets Stardew Valley” and you’ve got a good starting point in mind for Emberville, the just-announced pixel-art action-adventure-RPG from developer Cygnus Cross. It features Doug Cockle (The Witcher series) and Alex Jordan (Cyberpunk 2077) as voice actors, and it’s due to be released in Early Access on Steam in Summer 2026.
Minecraft started as a building game, NMS started as an open-world sandbox, or is it an aesthetic planetarium? Does that mean expecting good dogfights is unwarranted?
It’s a sandbox exploration/crafting game, not a combat/flight sim game. The survival aspect in Minecraft is barebones and monsters are stupid and useless, so what? Why is Minecraft “crystal clear” about being a “building game with a survival element” but you still insist on NMS being a “space game”? What does space game even mean? Can’t two space games provide different experiences, a different focus on different mechanics, or is good dogfighting a prerequisite to all space games?
Would you please check their original promotional material on what they are selling?
I did. I could count the number of SECONDS space battles featured in their pre-release trailers on one hand. The major focus was always on exploring planets, taking in the sights and gathering resources.
Because it is a common tactic for NMS fans to claim others have “different expectations”, which you have done twice already.
I’m not a NMS fan. I think the game sucked. I hate sandboxes.
Don’t do that? I recently replayed the remastered versions of the old PS1 Final Fantasy games, and they have built-in cheat codes (press left and right stick to turn on God mode). I didn’t do that and played the game normally.
Thanks for proving my point.
You are strangely confrontational for some reason. But anyway, my point was that the game is, and always has been, exploration first, and everything else is complementary to the main gameplay loop. You were setting your expectations up for some sort of grand RPG dogfight game that never was, and are now telling us that it’s HG’s fault.
There are also different factions in the game that the player can interact with and gain/lose reputation. According to the wiki, entertaining relationships with the in-game factions net the following benefits:
Availability of certain blueprints to purchase.
Faction specific dialogue options.
Possibility to start missions, which require a minimum faction standing.
High standing will grant the player aid at times when under attack by pirates.
Discounts on technology modules in Space Stations.
Maybe it’s not as in-depth as you (and I) wish it was, but it’s there already.
Your argument is that the game doesn’t fit its “space tropes”, but somehow that’s not you having different expectations than what it was actually promised and delivered?
Instead of completely changing the game into something else, they opted to add features that complement the original gameplay loop, and lots of people love what the game has to offer.
There’s nothing wrong with not liking NMS, and as I said, I don’t like it either, but I wouldn’t say that the game doesn’t fit the promises made just because you don’t like it. From what I remember, they promised a sandbox game with a big universe and tons of planets to explore along with your friends. NMS currently has that, plus base building, ship customization, and more. All these systems are subservient to the main gameplay loop of going to planet -> gathering resources -> building more stuff, but it’s like that for every sandbox game. I don’t like Minecraft and Factorio either, but like, it’s my opinion. NMS never promised a 10 hrs story driven experience and cinematic cutscenes.
A redemption arc implies fucking up in the first place and working to rectify the previous mistakes.
They lied and the game was missing a lot of features at launch, but now all those features (and more) are in the game, which is still being updated for free a decade later.
I don’t like the game, and I wish the devs acted differently so that a redemption arc wasn’t needed in the first place, but it is what it is. The devs worked their asses off, the game is now playable and feature complete and is still being updated, and from the looks of it Hello Games have learned from their mistakes and are not promising the moon for their next game.
I hunt down achievements when I enjoy the game and the achievements sound fun and not busywork. If it’s interesting side quests, minigames, or fun challenges, I almost always do them. I also like playing at max difficulty when it’s fair.
If it’s about going through a checklist to collect 100 feathers or spending 50 hours learning the entire game by heart to complete some hardcore challenge, I’d rather do something else with my time.
In a world of subscription services, Bandcamp’s a breath of fresh air. You pay, you own it. You can download it and store it wherever you want and play it to your heart’s content. Their cut is reasonable and the artists are well paid, it feels great to own stuff and reward the people making it.