Recent reviews by Legato Bluesummers

Yet another FF game that is inexplicable, difficult to qualify, and filled with hits and misses. I would grant this a mixed rating based on some of the wonky design choices. The story is the highlight and yet a bittersweet pallor hangs over it the entire time, making it on par with FF7. Unlike 10, 12, 13, LR, and especially 15 (the worst offender), the writing is clear, the worldbuilding, characters, plot, and themes are laid bare and, in some cases, beat you over the head until you nod along. Which makes it a very welcome and surprising departure from their formula of nebulous whimsy.

The Great: Story
The Good: Combat, storytelling, music, art/graphics
The Mediocre: Characters and character writing, RPG elements, weapon designs, upgrades and moveset, antagonists
The Bad: Side quests, plot progression, antagonists
The Ugly: The cohesion of the disparate parts, while largely fine on their own, left a lot to be desired and this ran up next to the fact that this feels like a completely different series from just about everything that came before it. I probably wouldn't have minded if it weren't a numbered mainline title, but this game wears the FF skinsuit while feeling miles away from an actual FF game. This may not bother people, since it's a competent game (mostly), but once again, I am left dumbfounded by the insane design choices. Not giving us a sprint button and having it (maybe) work after 5 seconds (usually longer) is just nutty given how much distance you need to travel before you get a chocobo which is locked behind a sidequest which, like almost all sidequests in the game, is basically you killing stuff. The thing I hated the most was the extreme amount of cutscenes, many of which simply lingered way too long. When I played NG+, I skipped all the cutscenes and found the game very linear and very short and very repetitive. Movie game gets tossed around as a pejorative, but this is a game who earns that distinction.

I'm not sure who the target demographic for this game was supposed to be, but I don't think it was me. There's a flavor of melancholic drama that permeates just about every scene, and while they don't entirely commit to a brutal timbre, it's more raw than most other stuff coming out of Square Enix. In some ways this is good, in other ways, it feels like they tried to make a game to appeal to a Western audience and there's probably a substantial amount of westerners who are going to take issues with some of the themes in the game. At the end of the day, I don't really know what to think about this game. It's very strange.

Overall, better than I thought it would be. After playing Crisis Core, I came into this with extremely low expectations. Having played the original FFVII a couple times and hearing all the squawking about this game for years, I was at least interested to see how it would play out. We got about 3 hints total that someone might have recognized Cloud's iconic sword which does not seem to mesh very well with Crisis Core. It was pretty enjoyable except the ending which seemed like it was trying to make a statement about itself, which I found very off-putting and bizarre. There's about 4 chapters out of 18 where you can kind of breathe and run around. The minigames were mostly tedious, but at least there is a break between all the big scenes and spectacle which is radically different from the original. The English voices were surprisingly good, Aerith's was probably the weak link, with Barret stealing almost every scene he was in. Given that Midgar is like 15% (if I'm being generous) of the original game, I'm very interested to see how far they get in Rebirth. Maybe they're going to overload the 3rd game, but at this pace, I don't really see how they're going to get through it without making some cuts. And the time ghosts were dumb and annoying as well as how they implemented the chapter select and DLC. FF team have lost their minds. Still, not bad overall. I do question why they would make a Remake of a game that practically requires you to have played the original to catch on to their shenanigans.

On my 2nd playthrough on Hard, I decided to take the stairs in Shinra HQ. Whatever you do, do not ever take the stairs. You have been warned.

I would say mixed if we had that choice, but I do not recommend this to anyone but the most hardcore FF7 fan and even then it has its problems.

First, as a prequel, I am baffled. The pretentiousness is off the charts and like almost all post-FF6 games, is filled with implication rather than effortless storytelling. The writers wrapped the story around the in-game Loveless poem/play and it was extraordinarily confusing. I just wasn't following along and that cost me at the end where one of the antagonists says something that has serious implications to our Protagonist, Zack, and yet I understood nothing about it so I missed it because the poem/play was so vague as to mean almost nothing throughout the story. Then, there is the hamfisted inclusion of Cloud, which I could barely register as human, he was so worthless until he needed to do something superhuman. I don't think this was a good prequel, it didn't do much other than kind of explain how Cloud came to get the sword, but fleshed out a number of antagonists that seems dreadfully at odds with their FF7 counterparts. Maybe this was made in mind for the remake, which I haven't played yet.

Second, as a game, it has some of the best stuff Square-Enix has ever done, unfortunately the package they wrapped it in was terrible. 300 small side missions were a slog to go through, the later enemies are unforgiving and require meta builds to even get through. 20 larger side missions would have sufficed imo. As it is, the side content is just painful if you want to go through all of it.

Lastly, the combat carries the game pretty hard, the main character is unfortunately a lot more interesting than Cloud ever was, but more unfortunate, we never build a real relationship between the characters. Cloud is a passing acquaintance to Zack at best. This is a major missed opportunity and something that doesn't square with the ending, where Zack leaves his legacy with Cloud, despite them not really knowing each other very well. Zack helps Cloud out primarily due to his own ethos, not because they share some kind of bond other than both being country boys. It could have been so much more relevant to the plot of FF7, but it does a minimal job of setting the stage; choosing to mainly be a character study of someone who is barely relevant to the plot of FF7. And for that, I am sorely disappointed.

Looks good, plays good on PC and Deck, looking forward to 1 and 2; I sincerely hope we get original ports of the rest of these games instead of waiting on unnecessary remakes. I'm not a tremendous fan of the hd-2d style, but it's not bad by any measure.

Everything I hoped Elder Scrolls would become. If we compare to Morrowind, MW has more stuff but it is extremely shallow. KCD captures the right balance and focuses on solid writing. KCD is by far my favorite game in this genre, Im glad I waited on all the DLC but I also feel like I should have played it much earlier.

Some things worked, some things didn't. It really felt like they were trying to recapture the magic of Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana. and I think they did, for the most part. The story isn't as strong and the ship combat is a bit rough. There's also a lot more cutscenes in this game than any other Ys game. Maybe it's just been awhile, but 8 and 9 didn't seem like they were nearly as heavy handed with the cutscenes. Ofc, Ys is a series that barely relied on any cutscenes in the past. I think they could have trimmed a good 5 hours off and it would have been more effective.

The combat system is a step back for me. There's a lot of stuff going on and it got too convoluted IMO. I appreciate they were trying something new, but it lacked the soul of the earlier games. You can hold one button to tank 90% of shots and only a few bosses really take advantage of guard breaks on you. This hot mess also came with a bizarre controller scheme, which I had to play around with to make it work for me. I think it's better than Ys IX (9) by default b/c it felt more like an adventure. Having Falcom's Trails series leak into this is not a good thing imo. 8 was the sweet spot, but it's getting too story heavy. and the story itself, well it's a bit tropey, to be generous. I think newcomers to the series are going to like this a lot more than long time fans, overall. It's a great action game that still holds that old school soul in a modernized package. It's hard to go wrong with any Ys game.

It's great. The first game feels much older, more jank, but is somehow far better than Years 5-7. Something about it is just not as much fun. The story sections are longer, more involved, the exploration is cut in half. but it feels and plays like a much newer game. Still, a lot of fun. Highly recommend.

All in all a good sequel to the nuGod of War game that release awhile back on steam. The consultancy did sour a few moments. Despite being rare compared to the bulk of the dialog, it's just disappointing when they got their kicks in. Angrboda was an unwelcome addition and particularly awkward. The character was fine but it just felt so out of place in a European pantheon and that opens up so many other disturbing questions about the future of the franchise. Are we going to get Whites or Asians in the African pantheons? Consistent culture is very important and putting it in just pulls you out of the story which is a cardinal sin of writing. It's uncomfortable because it feels like they're doing a reverse uno racism where they parade the diversity around with a smug, creepy look on their faces awaiting the inevitable reaction. This is supposed to be entertainment and attempting social commentary and High Art™ is obnoxious and petty. You should be able to look past all of that, but it might be harder to look past the overall themes and slow, confusing buildup to the story. I honestly had the most fun outside of the story, going around collecting shinies and doing other things. The combat is the same and is still mindless fun with a few new tricks and updates to keep it interesting. Overall, I recommend it but temper your expectations. The million dollars they paid SBI for the half dozen clapbacks was not money well spent as it did nothing to enhance the game.

If you're going for 100%, Capture every bounty, do not kill any of them. Also, the last Chapter is really hard. Use the flamethrower. Dodgeroll the last boss, tie her up and shoot.

This is a difficult game to review, some things it does right, some are very wrong.

The good: it's beautiful to look at, the worldspace is incredibly well-done. The characters (mostly) are well-written, believable (mostly), and bring out some interesting philosophical ruminations. The combat is snappy and lets you adapt most of the combat encounters as you prefer. The story is good, engaging; the side content is a bit weak but was fun. It's a solid, but predictable, safe, typical, ubishite-esque game if ubishite wasn't completely awful.

The bad: the elephant in the room here is that I felt it was somewhat disrespectful to Japan. It's so subtle that it probably would fly under the radar of most people. First, it's historically inaccurate, completely so. That's fine, but it really makes a fool out of traditional japanese bushido philosophy, as if they were really pushing a modern interpretation onto a pseudo-historical setting. I'm not trying to say it's somehow woke, but I could tell a western studio made it. Aside from the main character, anyone else competent is a woman. The mainland really disregards the situation happening in such a way to make it look like monkeys are running the show. I can't put my finger on it, but it felt, in some ways, malicious. I don't want to give examples because they would be spoilers, but I was quite surprised throughout the story. I think I would sum up my impression of their take on another culture as subtlety dismissive. Idk if it was intentional or not.

The mediocre: just about everything else. it's a typical, fairly empty, repetitive affair. Aside from the parkour, combat, story, it's dry as a bone. Stay away, far away, if you're a completionist. They went to lengths to summon great suffering, particularly with the hideously banal and awful multiplayer hellscape. If you want to run around a gorgeously designed 13th century japan with a perfect dash of mysticism and romanticism, then I heartily recommend it. Taking it too seriously or thinking it's the next Witcher 3 or Baldur's Gate 3, it's not. It's on the level of other Playstation fare such as Horizon Zero Calories. But generally, I would hesitate to recommend it. It's hard to give this a thumbs up.