After two years of journeying through the vast, rich world of Eorzea, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker brought me to a poignant, reflective halt as I watched the credits roll. This is more than simply a game review; it's an account of a transformative experience, a celebration of the art of storytelling, and an exploration of the core of what it is to be human. I've been thinking about this masterpiece for four days, and now I'm ready to express my opinions.

I'd like to briefly touch upon the gameplay. My gaming experience was completely changed by the addition of NPCs who followed and interacted with me on my adventures instead of just meeting up at certain locations. Checkpoint dialogues with characters like as G'raha, Alisaie, Estinien, and many more seemed more like genuine moments of connection and narrative richness than just marks of progress. With the addition of what could be the best combat music in the series, the dungeons and trials turned every battle into an unforgettable symphony of hardship and victory. The music crafted by Masayoshi Soken, particularly the songs On Blade's Edge, The Final Day, and Flow Together, has greatly raised the bar for my favorite OSTs alongside Shadowbringers.

The story of Endwalker, interlaced with the rich fabric of Ascian mythology, unveiled an epic full of existential crises and deep epiphanies. The plot took a surprising and profound turn with Zodiark's early demise, along with Hermes and Meteion's inclusion to the narrative. The story of Meteion, who's sisters traveled the universe and saw horrors far and wide, offered a tragic picture that forced reevaluation of how fleeting existence is in the face of unavoidable disintegration.

The Ultima Thule expedition is the apex of Endwalker's narrative. Close in the Distance did more than just establish the mood; when it slowly filled the eerie, hollow spaces of this last zone, it spoke straight to my soul. As I struggled with existential dread, this music, resonating through the memories of departed civilizations and Scions, became a source of understanding for me. It emphasized the idea of accepting death as a necessary part of life—not with hopelessness, but with a resolve to treasure each brief moment and stand tall.

One of the highlights of my gaming experience was facing the Endsinger as a Paladin. Final Fantasy XIV did what it does best—it flipped the script in the most dramatic and exhilarating way possible. As we braced for our inevitable defeat with the second Oblivion, the Scions' voices pierced through the despair and With Hearts Aligned began to play. After feeling so hopeless before, I couldn't help but yell with excitement. The dramatic shift from being on the edge of defeat to being carried away by this wave of hope and encouragement from well-loved characters was a masterful work of narrative and emotional design that demonstrated the game's unmatched storytelling abilities.

And then I reached true turning point of Endwalker—the confrontation with Zenos, the pinnacle of a conflict that spanned three expansions. When Zenos asked if I enjoyed the same thrills from fighting to the death, I replied that I did, a moment that chilled my spine and brought to light the complex relationship between enemies. My character Guinevere's sly acknowledgement of the rivalry, which had been built up over years of story development, highlighted this battle as more than simple one; it was a very intimate affair that signaled the end of an era and the deep journey I, as a player, had begun.

I could talk forever about this expansion, or better still, Final Fantasy XIV in its entirety. It's one of those rare games that completely changed the way I thought about video games as a medium. It's been a life-changing experience that has altered the way I think about video game storytelling and its ability to reflect the complexity of existential reflection, love, and life. Beyond just being entertained during the course of these two years, I have learned invaluable lessons about life's meaning, the importance of spending time with the people we love, and the courage that comes with accepting what is unavoidable.

Not only has Creative Business Unit III created a masterclass game, but they have crafted a profoundly uplifting experience that goes beyond the digital realm and touches the very essence of what it is to be human. I sincerely invite anyone who is intimidated by the complexity of massively multiplayer online games to give Eorzea a try. The Final Fantasy XIV experience is completely transformational, the journey is extensive, and the teachings are priceless. I look forward to the release of Dawntrail this July.

Thank you, Naoki Yoshida.

This game and this expac changed my life. Like there's a certain experience that just cant be found anywhere else than in mmos. Playing this on release and seeing discussion revolving different parts of the story, talking about things with friends, travelling the journey with new friends you've made along the way; its just magical. All of the memories you make, the challenges you overcome, and the growth you have, on top of just having a fantastic game overall is amazing. Endwalker specifically really feels like the culmination of the entire final fantasy franchises lifespan come into appreciation of its players. Will probably forever remain my favorite game.

I have lots and lots of thoughts on this game, so many that it’s tough to know where to start. I will say this though: while this is a far from perfect game in every area, I feel pretty confident in saying that the full scope of this journey is significantly more competent than you might expect looking at its individual elements.

FFVII Remake is a game that I have relentlessly defended since I first played it in 2020. Where many criticized its admittedly overbearing padding and certain choices regarding the ending, I fell head over heels for its combat system and expansion of its world and characters. It’s not without its issues, but I’ve always believed it deserves to stand head and shoulders alongside the greatest action RPGs.

So it was extremely strange for me to start playing FFVII Rebirth and immediately get struck with the feeling that everything on offer was an immediate downgrade. The presentation is noticeably weaker than the last game, the opening chapter is quite poor in my opinion with lots of unnecessary dragging moments, and the open world was seeming to be far too big and generic for its own good. My first 10ish hours with the game were a fairly large disappointment.

And I want to hone in on that open world now, because it’s one of the strangest I’ve ever seen in the sense that the whole thing isn’t actually an open world at all. Regions are distinctly separated, the map feels like it’s tricking you into thinking each area is far larger than it is, and the first region is by far the largest in the game. The whole thing almost feels like it’s begging you to believe it’s a big open world that can compete with the expectations of AAA games today, when in reality its scope is much more controlled.

I really could’ve done without all the Ubisoft-esque World Intel… some of it like the protorelics and combat challenges were worthwhile and fun, but most of it just felt like checking off a checklist just because it was there. This was the biggest factor of my initial disappointment. Compared to Remake which is a linear rollercoaster without many chances to break off the main path, Rebirth has a significantly more open structure with way more side activities. And during that first section, I felt like I wasn’t making any progress and just wasting time filling out a meaningless checklist, and I hated that feeling.

However, the further into the game I got, the more this feeling disappeared. Call it Stockholm syndrome I guess, or maybe just bc I was so engrossed with the world and characters being presented, but I began to slowly cherish every moment I spent with the game. Exploration never did much for me but I loved seeing the enemies, doing the side quests (which are MUCH better than Remake’s I have to say), even all the minigames, there’s something really special about just soaking in everything this game has to offer.

And I have to stress that this is the game’s single biggest strength. There is SO much to do, and most of it is a ton of fun. It’s so varied, it rarely dips into copy/paste territory, and it really goes a long way into injecting this world with a palpable sense of life that I haven’t felt from a single-player entry in this series since Final Fantasy X… and I really mean that. Combine all that with the gorgeously expanded towns and in its best moments, FFVII Rebirth brought me back to the magic I experienced on my initial run throughs of all those classic FF games, a feeling that I thought the modern industry just wasn’t able to deliver.

As for the parts of this game that are an actual adaptation of the original game… it’s a mixed bag. Some sections are pretty incredible and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I was playing them out, such as the Upper Junon parade, the Gold Saucer visits, and the climactic trek through the Temple of the Ancients. The game excels when it’s cranking up the fun, the charm, and the spectacle, and all of these sequences are loaded with those.

Other parts left me disappointed and feeling like they were missing lots of the weight of the original game, like the opening sequence in Nibelheim, the scene with Barret and Dyne, and most unfortunately of all, Aerith’s iconic scene in the game’s finale. It’s not even that any of these are bad sequences on their own, they just feel sanitized and lacking compared to the hefty impact they all left in the original, and that’s pretty disappointing to me as the story of the original Final Fantasy VII is one that means a lot to me.

So even as a straight adaptation of this story, this game doesn’t quite match the original where it really counts. But as anyone who’s played this game or its predecessor would know by now… this isn’t a straight adaptation. And initially I found that exciting! It wasn’t what I wanted, but I was intrigued by the new direction and excited to see where things went. And that’s exactly why the direction of the original parts of Rebirth’s story confuse me so much…

I won’t get into specifics, but Rebirth has a significantly less ambitious story than I expected. The ending of Remake made it seem like they were gearing up for Part 2 to have loads of changes and spin off into an entirely new thing by the end of it, but that’s just not the case at all. Rebirth plays it very safe in terms of its overall structure. If you’ve played the original game, it’s going to hit every beat you expect and outside of a few brief moments that honestly don’t affect the outcome of things very much, there aren’t many surprises.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that it leaves the game in a position where Part 3 is likely to take an extremely similar approach and stick to the original game beat for beat until the very last chapter where it goes completely off the rails in a way that ultimately pretends to have way more of an impact than it actually does. It leaves me in a position where I can’t understand what the point is because it feels like the new story adds absolutely nothing to the experience and just alienates the parts of the fanbase that would’ve preferred a faithful remake.

So story wise… yeah the direction of this entire trilogy is a mess and I sincerely doubt the third game will save it for me. But I know without a doubt that I will be there day 1 when Part 3 comes out because I do still LOVE these games despite not liking how they handle the story. It’s carried by everything surrounding it, the characters and their countless interactions, the incredible combat which has only been further refined here, and above all else the unbelievable scale and life of this world.

Although I was initially disappointed, ultimately I came around to like this game even more than Remake which surprised me. I went out of my way to do everything I could, it took me comfortably over 100 hours, and the grand scope of my whole adventure was a seriously entrancing experience. It helps that it has some really strong post-game legs too, I was immediately beckoned to come back for more once I hit credits, and now that I’m just one hard mode playthrough away from reaching the platinum trophy, I can very confidently say I don’t regret any of the time I put into this.

For reference, at the time of writing I’m nearly 130 hours in, and by this point in my Tears of the Kingdom playthrough I was starting to get pretty tired of the game and only continued to trudge through because I was so close to the end. I’ll surpass that mark pretty soon and I have no signs of fatigue or even wanting to slow down. Not saying this to dog on that game, just to show that this one has serious staying power for me.

It’s not as well realized or polished as something like FFXVI, but I still ended up preferring this in the end because of the massive beating heart at its core. FFVII Rebirth is deeply flawed in execution, even more so than its predecessor, yet it’s an unforgettable experience underneath it all.

Just to get this out of the way - the rating is for the experience as a game itself. I have some gripes with it as the third rerelease of this game, but on its own this has some of the strongest gameplay and story I’ve ever seen in a video game. This is a new all time favorite for me.

Persona 3 is a game I’ve had a very complicated relationship with over time. The first time I played it years ago, I was honestly quite disappointed with it. I felt the pacing was terrible, the gameplay mechanics were counterintuitive, and the story was underwhelming compared to 4 and 5 which had recently become two of my favorite games of all time. For years after my first playthrough I championed it as my dream remake, something with amazing ideas that needed the further refinement that would come in its sequels.

Over time, something strange has started to happen. As I’ve gotten older, my perspective on games has changed a lot. Aspects that I previously wrote off, such as the tactics system or Tartarus in general, I grew to appreciate as unique design decisions instead of just artifacts of the game’s age like I had initially assumed. In short, I realized that during my first playthrough, I wanted the game to be more like its successors and less like itself.

And so by the time Persona 3 Reload was finally announced, I found myself oddly unenthused, especially considering it had been a dream project of mine for years. The absence of the FeMC from Portable and the noticeably budgeted visuals only added to my lack of enthusiasm. Future trailers definitely started to look better, but I had finally arrived at a position internally that I would have scoffed at years ago: “why bother remaking Persona 3? FES is fine as is, it just needs a remaster.”

Actually playing the game for myself though, while I was originally pessimistic, I was won over extremely quickly, sucked into the inescapable gameplay loop of Persona once again. I was loving the new combat, the more refined social mechanics, everything about it really. Jump to 80 hours later, and I’m staring at the credits through my tear stained glasses, realizing I’ve just experienced what is now one of my favorite games of all time.

And so my position on this project has changed one last time: Yes, Persona 3 was fine as is. But this is better.

But unfortunately, some parts of Reload are almost inarguably NOT better than the original, specifically regarding the game’s presentation. For some reason I will never understand, the entire soundtrack was re-recorded, and every single song is quite easily worse than the original. Atlus is clearly aware of how much these soundtracks mean to their fans, so their decision to overwrite it without an option to use the original is pretty baffling to me. The new songs are pretty great though!

In terms of visuals, nearly everything is overbrightened for seemingly no reason. Turning the in game brightness down definitely helps quite a bit, but it also makes certain sections that take place in dark areas nearly impossible to navigate. On top of that, the anime cutscenes are all noticeably less creatively directed than the original, some having been replaced entirely with in game cutscenes.

By far the two worst offenders come right at the start of the game, with the first Apathy Syndrome victim and Awakening being so much less striking that it’s impossible to ignore, and generally leaving a horrible first impression. The game is never this bad again, but it only makes the presentation of these scenes more perplexing.

For what it’s worth though, I found the key emotional moments of the game to hit harder here than they did in FES (I went back to rewatch to confirm I’m not misremembering, and I still feel this way). Specifically, the events on October 4th, November 22nd, and March 5th were all rendered with the game’s 3D assets, but despite this I found the overhauled presentation of these scenes to be quite effective and made the emotional punch hit harder for me personally.

In general, I found it pretty easy to ignore the presentation issues the further I got into the game. Partially because I just got used to them, but I think mostly because I was so engaged in everything else to care.

The gameplay here is a staggering improvement over the original. I feel like this remake generally strikes a great balance of keeping the mechanics that made the original P3 unique (split physical skills, three social stats, etc) while also cutting the fat in certain areas that were more annoying than anything (fatigue). It hasn’t been homogenized to play like 5 is basically what I’m trying to get at which I think was the right call, but it still takes some of the best cues from 5 (baton pass!!!).

Tartarus has been expanded a lot in a very good way, I love how different each block feels now, I love the monad doors, I love the reworked shuffle time mechanics, I love managing Twilight Fragments, basically everything. It all felt so much less monotonous than before and even by the very end of the game I was never bored of it.

The story is recreated extremely faithfully, beat by beat there will be no surprises here if you’re familiar with the original. Very refreshing seeing as how lots of recent remakes, even some of the best, don’t stick to the original script nearly as much as they should imo. That’s not to say the story hasn’t been altered at all though, as the new additions in the forms of link episodes are extremely strong and suit the story in a very natural way. Shinjiro’s was especially powerful to me.

But honestly, most of the reason I found myself so much more engrossed in the story this time around just comes down to me being a different person now than I was all those years ago. I think being in college now has helped me to connect with a story about dorming students with time in their hands and no overbearing parental figures. I think my revised expectations helped a lot, when I wasn’t expecting an episodic structure I didn’t find the pacing nearly as glacial. And I think the maturity and nuance of these characters appeals to me now a lot more than it used to, everyone here is exceptionally well written.

Another thing I came to appreciate much more this time is how Persona 3 has by far the most developed main theme in the series. As often as people make out P3 as the edgy one obsessed with death, it’s really all about life and appreciating the time that you have. For as sad as this game can be at points it’s so much more hopeful than anything else. When framed this way, it’s so obvious that this was the game in the series that invented the social link structure. Every day matters, and you won’t get to do everything you want to, but that only makes the time that you do spend with everyone all the more important and meaningful. Life can end at any moment, so don’t waste it.

I’m so happy to say that I unquestionably LOVE Persona 3 now. It was always an outlier in quality in my head but that couldn’t be further from the truth at this point, and while Reload is absolutely my favorite version, I really don’t think it would be all that different if I went back and replayed FES, which I intend to do someday. Absolute must play of a JRPG if you have the time to commit to it.