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motomu toriyama should have been allowed to put yoshi-p in the device when he said that ff16 had the first gay couple in final fantasy history

In this game you're a "good" (white) colonizer, the only one that can protect the poor natives of this unexplored (by the whites) island from the "evil" colonizers, even though you're also colonizing their land and often the game makes you side with the "evil" colonizers in killing all these savages that have no right to live in the land that is theirs, as if that's such a Normal and Right decision that why would the game present you with an option to not do that?
In the end, after killing the natives' leader that was trying too hard to defend his people, because you wanted to manipulate their election and put someone more amenable to your requests in his place, you learn he was actually right to defend them but obviously the game never makes you reflect on your evil actions.

Everything from the gameplay mechanics and what actions measure your progress to the narrative is racist, disgusting and rancid.

It doesn't escape me that due to the ending ruining the colonizers' plans to this land the upcoming sequel will be set 3 years in the past, the devs (who are europeans, to really put the cherry on top) had to figure out some other reason to let you continue living your happy little colonialism fantasy.

Is this the first movie tie-in game to elevate its source material?

Rogue City is the ideal AA game and will be pointed at for years for people looking for a more sane direction for the industry. Every single compromise deriving from a smaller budget comes with greater payoffs.

You shoot (mostly with your pistol), punch, and throw shit. You're a one man wrecking crew and it feels like it, but the tug between man and something less than that is everpresent as the core story beat. It's a struggle over whether robocop will succumb to the easy pitfalls of law & order fascism in a society that no longer functions for anyone but the powerful, or wield their power as a liberator and become more human even if it involves greater pain and sacrifice.

It's a far more convincing simulator of the character than any superhero game I've played, and it was already a tougher job to pull off.

This review contains spoilers

Chadley may be an interesting avatar of SHINRA's desire to dissect and extract every nugget of value from the planet, and therefore reflect the modern player's desire to do every peabrained activity if it has a node on a world map but he still SUCKS.

Rebirth is boring open world busywork in between the actual interesting bits that made Remake such a fantastic game. I still like those bits, I still like the whole conceit of these sequels, but this is an unnecessarily bloated recitation of those elements.

The sidequests are not far removed from the pointless overworld nonsense and are as weak as they were in Remake. The world at this fidelity just isnt as symmetrical or foreboding as it was on PSX; the party dont fade into the background of the world, they tower over it with far more colored in personality. I believe, for a number of reasons, that this is fine considering the nature of the game's existence and what it's saying about FF7 as a cultural product, but it also means that the more this new series becomes a by-the-numbers AAA rpg the more a contradiction arises.

please save this game from its control scheme

i wish british people were real

This review contains spoilers

(Review at ~24 Hours of gameplay)

A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.

DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.

At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.

I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.

So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.

Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.

KIRA has a finger perfectly on the pulse of 90s PSX nostalgia. Basilisk & Basilisk 2000 were entertainingly meta, but I was curious what the longform of that kinda game looked like. Was the stamina there?

Lunacid is 10 hours of tight adventure. Within its labryinths, nearly every dead-end has a purpose: a new item or weapon, a journal entry, a secret door. Level ups are brisk and correspond to easily observed changes in ability, not just increased attack but higher jumping and quicker walking. Weapon upgrades happen only for a few weapons but when they do, the entire appearance and sometimes material makeup of the weapon changes.

Nothing is wasted, so in the end Lunacid does not feel like a watered down King's Field, or worse cropped out, but something just as filling in a smaller package.

My only issues with Lunacid is how it becomes a nexus of 90s standard definition nostalgia buried underneath a mountain of referential nods to important games, especially Demon's Souls. KIRA is talented enough that one day people will be referencing them in their own indie games, but for now the winking and nodding breaks a little of the magic.

Amy has a really cute win animation

There is no greater sign that I've grown as a person than playing this game I used to love 17 years ago and realizing it's actually terrible now that I have a critical mind.

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