“Words Aren’t The Only Thing That Tell People What You’re Thinking.”

Final Fantasy VII is my second entry in the series, after having played and finished everything Final Fantasy XV had to offer.

I knew that I would like this game, but my god I did not expect to be this happy to play it. It felt like a moment everythings occurred with a smooth flow from the beginning to the end, while being an ambitious open world.
I only knew one thing beforehand, being the most iconic death scene in the media that I could not escape being spoiled.

The rest is magnificent, this game amaze me because story wise it’s deep, I was not ready to see this much care into something that mostly children were going to experience. The relation between the entire cast is something that needs an article of its own to respectfully embrace the density of the work. But a few iconic moments that resonate with me must be noted, first the truth about Nanaki’s father, a very compelling backstory even if it’s obvious from a mile away. Then Valentine’s quest alongside Lucrecia where everything unfolds before our wetted eyes. And finally Barrett's moment before losing his arm, even if I found it a bit rushed at the end.

Nevertheless FF VII lives up to expectation story wise and surpasses them in terms of gameplay, seriously the action sequences in this game being enhanced by the 3D, the soundtracks or the cinematics are truly something that defined future video games. It demonstrates to the world how to tell a story without words only through gameplay, cutscene or characters behavior.

Moreover, FF VII has the nerve to put you in a number of surprising moments, such as the meeting with Zack's parents, Shinra president's final moment, or dialogue in the form of a Turk with a crush on Tifa. Little things that add a lot to the game world and character.

Then comes the characters that surprised me the most, first Sephiroth. He is the epitome of badassery, he's presented as a god before we even catch a glimpse of him, and when we do, it's always memorable.
Aerith is the purest human I've seen in a video game, truly a character that can soften any burden and any heart, whether inside or outside the game world. I knew about that scene, but it still broke my heart.
And Tifa managed to prove to me that she was going to be one of my favorite female characters in video games. She's got a hell of development, she's badass, a loving bird and her relationship with Cloud is a plus even though I haven't really liked Cloud as a character since the beginning of the game.

Finally, I understand now how this game came to be a PS1 classic, that’s being revisited on the fifth generation console through remakes.

"PERHAPS, THIS IS HELL."

I had high expectations for Signalis since its release in October 2022 but was busy catching up to the genre with Silent Hill and Resident Evil to fully understand the depth of the survival horror era.

What a ride it's been, to come to the conclusion of nearly 30 years of survival horror with Signalis.

It was breathtaking for the entirety of my playthrough and I loved playing it.
But what's more is the understanding behind it. I had no problem witnessing the result of the magnificent community that worked together to ensure proper explanation and theories about the world to us and the audacity from the devs to make a deep enough story that self drives anyone to craziness as it did to the characters from the game.

The fact that two people created this game amazes me, and the level of detail and love that emanates from it makes me really grateful that inde dev can now express themselves to a wider audience thanks to the digitization of games.

Signalis is not a reference dump.
What's the difference between a good reference and a bad one, or between homage and plagiarism?
It’s the purpose, and Signalis' aim, to bring such a tragic story to life, moves me.

It's a compelling story of romance, purpose and promise.
A story in which the boundary of identity between gestalt and human is revealed in a magnificent movement of devotion.

I had to read a few theories online to fully understand some very simple plot details from the game's documentation. But I think it's part of the beauty of video games to be able to create a community that helps each other in a never ending loop of friendship that crosses the boundary of distance between players.

I love tank control, I love Tchaikovski, I love Lovecraft, I love romance, I love time traveling and loop, I love difficulty, I love NieR, Neon Genesis Evangelion, GinEiDen and Monogatari. What more to ask than Signalis to be one of my favorite games of all time ? God, I love video games.

"..I know you want to continue living... After all, you were just born. But.. I want to live too ! Like all other human beings !"

Square, I tip my hat to you.
Making FF VII was already a success but to follow with Parasite Eve a mix between Resident Evil and Final Fantasy.
It’s truly like a dream for me. ( RE is like my favorite video game license in terms of number of games i have play and the overall quality time i spend on most of them, and FF is something that I have always wanted to play as a child but unfortunately never got the chance. )

Although I started it late, I could smell the nostalgia from the gameplay. The CGI cinematic, the background, the camera angle and the instrumental/opera music.
This game made me a child again for the entire length of my playthrough.

Also Aya Brea made a straight jump in my top favorite female protagonist, with her unmatched charisma and epicness. With her combo of blue jeans, white shirt and black jacket, she has one of the coolest designs in video games for me.

While Mitochondria was a familiar term for me, I believe that I learn more in those 10 hours than in my entire year of highschool. Because this game is full of passion and I was blown away by how interesting the events are told and adapted to a video game.

Nonetheless, man, this game was hard.
In my opinion, nothing beats the good old fashion game where you had to think strategically, and learn from your mistakes.
I died a lot of times, but I had a really good time.
Isn’t that the essence of a video game ?

"Story of my life"

It's a good remake. I enjoyed playing it, the game has some interesting features, the weapons are cool and the parrying system is brilliant, but half the playthrough i was feeling empty.

When i was playing RE4 as a child i was blown away by the supernatural aspect of certains areas which aren't present in the remake, i understand why they did this but no lava zone in the castle, no laser dodging and no U-3 boss.
They removed the essence of coolness and filled the game with realistic aspect to make up for today's standard.

But in all this emptiness I enjoyed it, I am only left to wonder what an experience it could have been if the game was shaped for the fan and not for the majority.

Mercenaries and Separates Ways are a big part of the original experience for me and I hope it gets all the right additions.

UPDATE

Starting today, we finally have the long-awaited Separate Ways.
Which as expected adds a ton of content cut from the OG game and puts Salazar's second bodyguard in action, chasing Ada throughout the game, instead of getting killed by merging with boss Salazar in the OG.

It's rather nice for me to see U3 become Pesenta and the combat use of ada's grapplin gun, but in addition the laser room is back in a new chase sequence that looks incredibly sloppy and ass designed.
The difficulty curve isn't balanced, early game boss feels like tank and later boss feels like random encounter using - what feels like - unlimited money and ammo thoughout the game
I think the additions are there, but they could have been a hundred times better with love and care for the remake of one of the most played, most impactful, most innovative game in history.

Mercenary mode is much more enjoyable here than in the OG, with fast-paced action, lots of characters each with a good arsenal, perks and gameplay around 4 very different maps, and the fourth map being the final boss arena instead of the "docks".
It feels like a final map, and the double chainsaw guy is back - what a thrill !

"Find something to believe in, and find it for yourself. When you do, pass it on to the future."

This isn't a game, it's art.
Kojima and his team have used the opportunity of a game to create something that cannot be recaptured.

This unique piece of media has touched me more than once and I will always remember the importance of freedom.
In the grand scheme of things, it's not enough to live life to the fullest, you have to find yourself and pass the torch to the next generation.

I have never been so moved while playing a video game.
And the fact that I arrived so late to witness the legacy of the game which is worth it, when I see that this game was a prelude to what my life has been up to now.

In my restless dreams,
I see that town.

Silent Hill.

Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill..
Why so much praise ? What did this game do that made it stand out from other survival horror games ?
This review of the PS2 game will contain minor spoiler of the game mechanics, part of the introduction and details on the process of individuation.

In the list of successful license sequel for its time Silent Hill does not look bad, next to Resident Evil 2, Fallout 2, Half Life 2, Portal 2? Diablo 2 or Metal Gear Solid 2. Fans of the first opus are eager to know what Team Silent is up to. The bet is won, a new story independent from the first part is created, a new protagonist, a new message while staying on the same bases, the same city, the same atmosphere whether visual or sound and the same gameplay.
Fans are thrilled, and newcomers are blown away, the video game is evolving so fast it seems absurd.
It's not about slaughtering hords of enemies to achieve mission objectives or saving the world. In Silent Hill, it's about understanding what's going on, why are we here? How did we get here? When are we ? Who are they?
As many questions that arise in the player's mind as curiosity about the game and its world.
And that's the pinnacle, the game is playing us.
Everything is before our eyes, but we only see what we want to see.
It is by becoming aware of our truth that we are able to see beyond the "normal" in its etymological sense.

Video games are the most emotional medium, which makes them very appropriate for horror stories, and Team Silent understood this. In order to create what will become their magnum opus, the team simply took inspiration from the best of the best elsewhere on the globe.
They don't hide their inspirations from Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder, a cult work of American horror cinema, or from the other side of the Iron Curtain with Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Works that are as outstanding in their media innovations as in their undeniable and immeasurable generational impact.

This is the genius of the Silent Team, we still have to define it. As Lucretius said ex nihilo nihil fit - nothing can come from nothing, which can be simplified to " blending ". Genius is knowing how to mix what exists and transform it into an original and independent object.
Silent Hill 2 is therefore a masterpiece on the one hand because its creators are geniuses who had fun shaping their creation to the smallest detail, but this is only one surface of the game. The scenario is written, it only remains to adapt it to the medium.

The game will have strong points from its reception to the press as its immersive atmosphere, the power of the Playstation 2 allows the game to have a unique identity in time and this is one of the reasons why the HD collection will be a disaster.
We arrive in Silent Hill welcomed by a heavy mist that plays a major role in the immersion of the player we do not know what is in front of us, we are blind we feel observed, the camera seems so confined. The music is melodious in contrast to the distressing sound effects. But we are only prey to our imagination at that moment, nothing explicitly passes before our eyes.
Until the first encounter with a monster, a monster in the first sense of the word, something that is indescribable and incomprehensible to us, but in which we detect a small part of humanity. And never before has the gaming experience reached such a level, the video game has succeeded in doing what no other medium has been able to do: to make everyone agree at least once, at that moment everyone is terrified.
The game unconsciously guides us all towards the same goal and thus surpasses the cinema in its staging. It is a choice of the player to arrive there in this choice, it was subjected to tensions attacking the primary senses being the sight and the hearing which provokes an almost synaesthetic sensation to the players.

However, although the game inherits more and more over the years a masterpiece status, it also suffers paradoxically from aging control. The result of the evolution of the gameplay which certainly improves the playability but participates in the obsolescence of older games.
Besides, many people at the time did not manage to finish the game or enjoy an optimal experience as you progress in the game. It's because of this demarcation from the standards of the time and the lack of accessibility to guides like we have today.

It is this distinction of a style more narrative and philosophical than action that differentiates it from its national and survival horror opponent : Resident Evil.
The latter has found an audience in its shooter gameplay, its inventory management, its claustrophobic but immense level design and its replayability on a larger scale.
This difference is what makes Silent Hill 2 more like a work of art than any Resident Evil.
A work of art is by definition the result of an artist's creation intended to produce in other individuals, a particular state of sensitivity.
In the context of video games, we will focus on two people collaborating together with respective teams: the game designer and the composer,
Who elevates art to a common creation.

So we have broken down the different aspects of Silent Hill 2 that make it a good game but what makes it unique in its medium and unanimously praised by gamers. It is its philosophy and the study of the psyche of the protagonist James Sunderland, hints of the final plot twist are right in front of us from the introduction. James looks at himself in a mirror, he doesn't look at what others see in him but what is inside him, in a way he is making a topography of himself.

Indeed James will undergo a process of individualization of his psyche during the entire game in order to overcome the denial of a post-traumatic disorder (individualization is simply a conflict between unconscious realities and conscious perceptions as for example the passage to adulthood of a teenager) and this is where the game plays the player. It controls the distinction between our conscious, preconscious and unconscious forms so that the player feels what James feels.
And that's when the final revelation comes as much as a shock to James as it does to the person who has been controlling his every move for the past few hours.
The game distills symbolism into the simple action of descending (one of many examples of symbolism), the protagonist only descends into the town of Silent Hill before his redemption to symbolize his descent into hell for his sins or illustrate James' sinking into the evil.

To conclude, Silent Hill 2 is a work of almost infinite potential for interpretation and symbolism that has generated interest that has never been so great in its medium before. 20 years later it is still playable and relevant in its narrative.
Despite this, a remake will arrive in 2023 to give the new generation a chance to live the ultimate survival horror experience on the latest console with updated controls and graphics. In the way that it was inspired by other cult works to build its universe, Silent Hill 2 is now inspiring a generation of people in its turn.

This brought Konami into the ranks of the great video game companies where games like the Metal Gear Solid license, Castlevania, Silent Hill or Suikoden II have influenced an unimaginable amount of gamers around the world. It was as if Konami had redefined for the world what a video game was.

"Everything that lives is designed to end. They are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death"

This is my second review, focusing more on the game itself than my post-game feelings about it.
--> NieR Automata first review

NieR Automata was - in my life - a turning point in gaming with all that it proposed.

The combat system is brilliant, and slightly different for each character - this is PlatinumGames after all.
RPGs mecanics, HUD and journeying through the city ruins, the desert, the forest or the attraction park is perfect from a level design point of view.
In addition to that, will culmine great boss fights to conclude those areas and make a face of between quality and quantity cliché. But with the repetition of boss fights comes different perspective dependant of the character you are playing as, adding stupefaction to the retelling of a story in a fight that became on top of that more rigueous.

But where it shine the brightest for me is in the narrative and in the secondary quest for that.
Yoko Taro and his team approach on the philosophical and META genre, it's my kind of cocaine, and Yoko Taro drugged me to death with his game.

Kaine Salvation's first experience in the Garden of Lunar Tears, the boss battle in the desert, the entrance to the theme park and the E ending turn an already really great game into an unforgettable media experience.

Where Yoko Taro made me think, Keiichi Okabe made me cry.
It is still today the greatest Soundtracks I ever listen to.
It reverbs brightly into a mix of beauty, intimacy, sorrow and prejudice. Those feeling then, opens the gate to the context of NieR Automata while witnessing the constant growth in the android's side, the robot's sides and the Weight of the World.

A gate to an artistic look into the video game genre, what a beauty it can achieve and convey to an audience, separated by the entire world but - at the same time - reminescent of the same experience.

"You're right. This is just the beginning."

Peak Gaming.
The 4 minute cinematic at the beginning sold the game for me. It was enough to make me understand the step Resident Evil 2 took in history.

Just like Metal Gear Solid 1 used the PS1's memory card and optimization to blow away a generation, using the save game to unlock the true ending is a good and original addition in my opinion.

I played the remake before I played the original game and I can safely say that I much prefer the 1998 version.
The blooming romance between Leon and Ada made it clear to me that they had taken Resident Evil to the next level. And I LOVE it.

Some years ago I watched an anime recommended by a friend, liked it pretty much.
Then he told me that there was a deeper meaning in it
Something that only those who know can relate to.
I was not part of the targeted people, because of my lack of culture in the genre. And with his help I came to realize what an iceberg I was missing out.
The shows doesn't tell you anything, it whispers only to those who are worthy and I genuinely appreciated the result of me questionning my own "knowing".

But this time, while playing NieR Automata, a game released 5 years ago, I came to relate everything the story tells, I feel related to the work, to the story, to the characters, minor as they were, all while being under the spell of the magnificent achievement of Keiichi Okabe's beautiful music that was quietly telling a story (this game doesn't stop at being itself, I only played NieR Automata but I felt the echoes of Yoko Taro teasing me through the game to enter in his world).

This, the deeper meaning, the thing.
I loved it, I was finally part of THE community.
It was as if this game was here for me to play it at this exact time and this time only. A consecration of my past experience in all of the media that I witnessed.
It may sound ludicrous, I may come back to my word later. But as it is now, I seriously had my fun playing NieR Automata !

"How to make a great cover, great marketing and then drown in emptiness"

I enjoyed shooting, but this game looks like a fan made game full of reference and empty of work.

The game doesn't know how to tell a story and every interesting question is skipped, nothing make sense.
I don't understand since when RE5 and RE6 are inferior to this.

Inspiration is not necessarily a bad thing, but when your entire experience is based on over work, you fall in a lack of identity. This is not a game, it's a mockery.

One : Be skeptical think for yourself
Two : Don't play it, value your time a bit more.

End of original trilogy here and oh my god could Bungie Studios have done better ?
It's the pinnacle of a great shooter game mixed with patriotism and great story telling.
Nevermind the music even people who don't know who masterchief is recognize at least the Halo theme.
Halo 3 has to be your favorite Halo game because before possibly being one of the greatest shooter it's a magnificent prequel and ending for the Halo trilogie.
Doing that after the nearly perfect Halo Combat Evolved is proof that Bungie completly understood the player and made a story that we didnt even know we needed.
enhanced with very good multiplayer and coop mode.

"Life Has A Way Of Punishing You For The Mistakes You Make."

The pinnacle of RPG having a great community of modders made this game accessible to so many people that experienced what a open world should be.

This game is the definition of a good FPS-RPG, you are free to play as you want. Being good or evil and support whatever faction of your choice, each having distinct ideology leading to the final battle where your path will forever affect the futur of the Mojave and each PNJ that you met.

Diplomacy, Dictatorship, Autocraty, Independence, Exiles none leads to the true endings because your own playthought is your true ending.

With each playthought you can have many ways to build your character, being a melee warrior, explosives fanatic, sniper, gunslinger with basic or laser weapon, or a pacifist resolving dispute with high intelligence. A charismatic playboy or a lucky wanderer.

What makes it special in my heart is the number AND quality of the sides quest.
NPCs are GREAT you have so many companions that will progress out of what you can imagine because of your interaction.
So many story describing each life and each take in this wasteland of a nation where humanity found a way to emerge.

So many peoples need help because humanity didn't learn from their mistake, as said, war never change.

The DLCs made it further is the symbolisms and is a huge part of the experience.

I've never seen a post-apocalyptic world so alive.