PS2/PS3/PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy X

 Final Fantasy X was the game that brought Square Enix into the 21st Century with Final Fantasy.  The change from Squaresoft to Square Enix was also appropriate for the time considering the merging of two big gaming companies. The other main thing, it brought with it a new console, the PlayStation 2.  For PlayStation, it was critically important to have a monster game, which ended up being FF7.  Square needed to have another hit launch for the PS2, which they made in FFX.  What did this game do well? What needed to be changed? All that and more below as we end 2021 with FFX! 

Positives

1. New Gen, New Improved Graphics- And yes they get even better on the PS3 and PS4 remasters.  However even just for the PS2 it is fantastic the graphics as they moved into a new era of gaming.  The Square Enix people did spend three years on this and it was time well spent and they deserve all the accolades for how they did transitioned to a new console to make the graphics.

2. Voice Acting- Gone were the text boxes, in with the voices and with it, voice acting.  It was a major change from FF's of past.  It resembled the new changes, but it works here.  Yes they were not the most obvious mouth movements in the words but the emotion in the voice acting was top notch to be honest.  As the era changed, FF changed with it.  In this instance it was a real good change. 

3. Story- The story, it's massive, it's life-changing, it tells about everything and it is emotional.  I don't think there is one part of this story that is missing.  There is friendship, love, death, dreams, dreams dashed, remembrance, hope, fear, redemption, and triumph all wrapped into one game.  Heck some Final Fantasy games don't even provide that, and FFX did.  Which brings me to..

Side Note: The story/arc I enjoyed most was actually Auron's.  From his beginning of the game helping Tidus, to learning about him and then the end, his arc was most dramatic and most genius.  The way he was written in this story is nothing short of masterful.

4. Devious Villain? Yes- Yes I admit Seymour is a tool, however he is devious enough to warrant being a plus here.  He has his plans, and executes them quite well and would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids and their older guardian.  All jokes aside, yes Seymour is devious because of what he can control, which is..

5. Playing on Religion/abuses of power of Religion- He almost has a devious way of controlling Yevon's teachings and abusing them for his power.  We see that a bit with a very important part of the story at one point and his ability to stay on Spira.  This is also shown with another major plot point involving the heroes and more specifically Yuna.  We see it with how they want to script one thing about machina, but use it in their own way.  They play on the religion aspect but use it to show an abuse of power, much like some people in some religious circles today.  It is a fine line that Square can go with that, but with this they play it perfectly throughout.

6. Music- Going next gen meant they needed to hit the music.  They did.  The remastered games are better with this though.  I love the remasters on this and the music is more fluid sounding and just better overall.  The battle theme in the remaster is absolutely amazing, but the next to last major boss fight is the one people will most remember.  And for good reason.  The song is an absolute banger and well worth it.  The music in every way is fantastic and I really enjoyed listening to it.

7. Race? Yes- Race plays a major factor here with the religious aspect but also with a couple characters.  Luckily one of those characters views change over time due to their eyes finally opening (those that have played will know who I am talking about.) but it exemplifies the plight one race of people have endured due to the religious aspect in this game and the vitriol they face through the game.  It's still an issue today with race, but not totally necessarily due to religion.  However, people can still learn a massive lesson with this game in my opinion because Square brought it in a game and executed it again brilliantly.

8. Yuna- Her poise in the midst of incredible odds, her determination in the midst of everything falling apart, her ability to express emotions when things are going right or wrong is something that Square hit absolutely on target with.  You could argue she is the main protagonist in this story and you wouldn't be entirely wrong.  Yes the story is about Tidus, but it's easily clear that Yuna plays at the worst a second role to this.  Her ability to grow throughout the story is nothing short of amazing considering what her journey should be as opposed to what it becomes.

Negatives

1. Sidequests- They are way, way too arduous.  Notes: All the Aeons, all the celestial (ultimate) weapons incur a lot of arduous tasks and especially for the aeons means if you miss one thing oh boy you are in a world of hurt later on.  I honestly think that doing these sidequests are meaning they are way to arduous and way too story breaking.  In all honesty as well, as long as you use the sphere levels, you may or may not need to do these either. 

Overall Rating/Ranking in Final Fantasy Rankings

Overall, this is an excellent game.  You can nearly disregard the sidequests but it helps immensely if you don't.  However that would be the only downside.  This game is so thorough, so well done that you can disregard one negative out of this.  I overall very thoroughly enjoyed this game and it has such an emotional ending that you should play just for that.  I give a rating of 9.5 out of 10.  Where does that rank FFX in terms of my FF Rankings?

1. FF 6

2 (Or possibly 1a, as they could be co-equal #1's in my opinion). FF 10

3. FF 9

4. FF 5

5. FF 7

6. FF 15

7. FF 4 

8. FF 8

9. FF 1

PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy XV

 Final Fantasy XV is the first game designed for the PS4 for the Final Fantasy series (And will be the only minus the first part for Final Fantasy VII's Remake and other remasters that other past games had) and it features a lot of different things than what games of past did.  This was done in 2016 and it was met with much anticipation but much scrutiny from reviews and fans alike.  What does this writer like? What do I not like about this game? All that and more below!

Positives

1. Combat system- It's active, it's fast paced so you have to think and attack on your feet so to speak.  It's good because it shifted from a decade and a half of turn based attacking to more active based attacking starting in FFX-2.  Overall, minus some deals with some attacks taking far too long to register, this is done really very well overall I thought.

2. Character arcs- I thought the development of the characters did well.. but with a catch.  Yes you had to do the DLC for this (more on this below) but once you got the full deal of this the arcs of the characters were done really pretty well.  I thought the best story overall though was..

3. Noctis' Character Arc- You have to feel for this young man in this story.  Starts out with immense heartbreak, midway has more heartbreak, tries to do everything he can to save the world, only to have something bad happen but then has a major change and becomes the ultimate hero.  All while having to carry the weight of a world on his shoulders and the weapons of past kings.  It's a terrific comeback story.

4. Graphics/Music- The graphics are very, very great, and the music is good on its own. I like that they add past soundtracks with the car that you drive around.  The duo of these makes it really good overall I felt.

Negatives

1. Storyline- It's a decent storyline, but it is far too short.  If you don't do the sidequests (more on that also below) it can be 20-25 hours in game time to beat this game.  That just is at least 10-15 hours too short.  There was so much more ability to add more to the story but they didn't.  I think they wanted to add more hence why..

2. DLC Content- I'm sorry but you could have just added this in the main story anyway.  Make it flash back material, make it part of the actual story, just anything.  Then you wouldn't have had to stick it on the DLC area.  I get that games today will be littered with DLC and expansion but this game just seems to have had it needlessly.  Speaking of needlessly though...

3. Over-reliance of Sidequests- Oh dear me the over-reliance of the sidequests were absolutely ridiculous of this game.  Any town, any place, it's sidequests upon sidequests and it just is far too much.  Some are good, some aren't and that is that.  Overall it is just far too much reliance on these and it is honestly a shame. 

4. Ardyn- I'm sorry, I get his back story after seeing the DLC, but they made him so horrendously unlikable in my eyes and they try so hard to make him a villain but he just ends up being a wannabe tool in my opinion.  I just.. I didn't understand it.  He wasn't brooding, he wasn't overtly villainous, he wasn't demonstrative.  He just seemed to have a hatred for Noctis and wanted to get at him at every point that he just seems super petty the entire time.  It's very unfortunate and in all honesty they would have done a lot better scrapping him as the villain or massively re-doing his arc.

Overall Rating/Rank All-Time of Final Fantasies

Given the ups and downs of this game, I would have to give this 7.5 out of 10.  It has a lot of good things you could build on, but there are a lot of things that really needed to be refined.  Specifically Ardyn's character and the over-reliance of sidequests.  I felt that this really could have prompted it up to a 9 or so if it wasn't for some of these flaws.  Then all I could say some nuances of the combat would be rough.  In terms of the Final Fantasies that I have played to this point, here are those rankings, FFXV included.

1. FF 6

2. FF 9

3. FF 5

4. FF 7

5. FF 15

6. FF 4

7. FF 8

8. FF 1

PS4 Game Review: Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue

 Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a multi-game, one cinematic disc that features the games Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts 0.2- A Fragmentary Passage and the cinematic (movie) of Kingdom Hearts X, Back Cover. I will detail all three here starting with the cinematic!

Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover

 The cinematic is just over an hour long detailing the beginnings of the keyblade and who may be behind the possible evil that comes up in the future.  They are unknown who has been succumbing to the evil but trouble is brewing for this group as someone is becoming evil with power.  Overall I didn't mind the cinematic.  I thought it was alright, it detailed a good story.  I thought overall knowing more about the past it warrants a solid 9 out of 10.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2- A Fragmentary Passage

This game features after Birth By Sleep, after Aqua has been put into the Realm of Darkness.  This follows Aqua's journey through the Realm of Darkness and how she meets our good Mouse friend Mickey.  It is a modestly short game, something that will only take only 2-ish hours, 4 hours at most.  It's a game that will be quick and is a favorite of some to speed run through.  I felt it was a quite alright game, very straight forward, not too challenging.  I do wonder if it could have been just put in as a cinematic rather than a game but it was enjoyable enough to finish in a day.  Overall, solid 8 out of 10.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

Oh boy there is a lot to cover here.. Without further ado..

Positives

1. Riku- He gets a major feature here in a big way and in most ways it is positive.  You get to work with his wide arrange of skills, his ability to be very good not just on ground but a great aerial attacker as well.  You see how much this means to him over the time span and it makes him look at his roles of maturity through the series.

2. Graphics- Yes, this was always going to be a positive.  It never isn't but for a game that came from the Nintendo 3DS to PS4 it's a good step forward.  I felt that every world was very well done overall.

3. Lack of Gummi Ship- This.. I thought would not be a positive but it was actually quite nice to see a change with the dropping into the world.  There are different challenges so it is a nice change of pace from me.

Negatives

1. Combat- I despised the combat system in this game because it was a loading time for everything besides just plain attacking.  There is a reason you have MP in every game and to go with magic.  This game was completely nonsensical in this way and it really just struggles to make me like the combat system.

2. No World Depth- Other than Traverse Town, there is no depth to any of the worlds.  At least in KH1, KH2, KH3 there is some depth to the story.  These just don't really showcase much, if any, depth and they just seem to want to jump from one to the other minus The Grid with Sora and Tron.  After that there isn't depth to this, even in the Musketeer world.  Which brings me to..

3. Sora- Bro, you cannot be serious with how they scripted him through most of this game.  They almost make him not intelligent or very daring by nature due to either thinking he is going to have something catastrophic happen to him or he just is clueless.  Take for instance he essentially knows what is supposed to be happening by the end of the first world but by the Musketeers world he still doesn't know what is happening, which is confusing to me.  Typically as well he does try to do something insanely obtuse but that doesn't happen in this game either.  So it's like a very tame Sora that doesn't work.

4. The Drop System- Just.. Just why with this.  I get if you have to be mandated to switch characters but then just mandate it without the player having to have the choice.  Otherwise it just looks tacky and weird and you have to use drop-me-nots just to just not have to be dropped to the other person which just is weird.

5. Execution of the Pet System- I do like the concept of the pet system, however the execution they did of it is not very good.  You don't have any clue what is effective against the enemies, you just know what they are equipped with.  If you don't use a guide you are going to struggle on this because it doesn't really tell you the best combinations for a certain situation.

6. Storyline- Yep it doesn't flow well at all.  It just is one that bounces from place to place and really doesn't have a good sense of progression.  Even when ending the game you are more or less just show casing the fact that KH3 is right around the corner thankfully to take the story back together.  This was a struggle through and through due to this.  It never flowed and it made it a major struggle to really like this game.

Overall Rating of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

Overall, I can't really recommend Dream Drop Distance for the many flaws that it has.  The story is just all over the place and never flows, the execution of the pet system and the combat is just bad at best.  The main saver here is that Riku is written very, very well overall.  Otherwise this is a pretty rough game that is a massive struggle throughout.  Overall Rating: 5 out of 10.