I liked how Yuffie runs! Boy, that was clearly the C team doing level design, though, right? And who are the sudden Kingdom Hearts characters at the end?

If it was a few years ago, maybe I would have been super into this to tide me over. Alas, I am an old man, burdened with the nerd's completionism urge. I had to play this & know, but also, I did it on easy, ignored side quests, and even skipped some cutscenes - including the penultimate death scene.

I feel nothing. Time for Rebirth.

Language! It's weird!

A classic adventure game, this - but so much smoother in the user experience. Lots of time-saving measures that reduce that key interval between knowing the answer and solving the puzzle. Makes you feel so goddamned smart.

I only wish we had 1 or 2 more animations for our main guy. Like what if he sprinted! Or tiptoed! What a little guy for the ages.

Finished in a surprise single sitting. A visual delight and some interesting lore! I found the voiceover irritating at first, but it grew on me - though the forward momentum had me skipping though dialogue. I did not linger on the cat and his chattering.

Because God dang, what puzzles! Nothing too strenuous, but wow - each one, a surprise. Never seen any visuals like that before, and may not again! The visual trick, which evolves with each puzzle and stage, never got old.

The finale sucked though, and I appreciated how it eventually just turns the counter-productive timer off. Thanks.

After realizing the second part of the FF7 Remake was coming out in 6 weeks, I first had a moment of crisis, upon realizing I had not only forgotten about the release date - I also wasn't terribly excited. I imagine my teen self pulverizing my older now, and screaming at the top of his lungs. "I upgraded our CPU to 200mhz and got more RAM to play FF7 at the lowest settings and resolution on the family PC," he cries as he stomps my face into the pavement.

After thinking about that, I remember this game! For the PSP! I played it most of the way through in my 20s but playing it now, I was surprised by every plot point. Not because they were surprising, but because I had zero recollection of anything, until you meet Gackt.

Turns out, this isn't a great game! Glad they remastered it for legacy's sake, for the completionists and PSP cultists. And the combat is acceptable. But the story is fanfiction-esque with a celebrity insert. And they didn't update the VO! It's AWFUL - which is nostalgic, in that it hurts and is old.

Anyways, six hours in, and Gackt's got a wing, so I guess I'll play Intergrade Episode Yuffie, Big Trouble in Little Wutai, instead.

Proof that fanfiction has meaning and value, and this is a double - for a beloved Italian puppet story and for an wet hat eldritch slasher.

So let's start with the story. I didn't care about the plot - the sequence of events, the moments in which I made decisions, or why/what characters changed. The story though - that's a success. A richly detailed environment with the right drops, the right enemy placement, all tells the story of a city in freefall, in the chaos our young hero enters into. And that tone of wondering, Huh?, and then, Snuh?, matches the excellent standard set by FROM. For me, the implication of story carried this for my first playthrough, like every FROM game.

But the real hook here is the mechanics and feel. Carrying from the story, the stats and progression have enough obfuscation to make it feel strange, and then understood - in that familiar way a FROM game unlocks for you after 10 hours. You're hunting through maps, getting bizarrely titles items of questionable worth and use, and then you find the use. There are QOL changes - the fast travel screen has icons to show when a new thing is happening or has changed - but it has the tone down.

But all of that is nice. It's nice! But would be worthless without the Gamefeel. This game comes as close as you can to nailing a sweet spot between DSIII, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, with movement, attack options, and blocking/parrying. It's a wonderful combination, clearly designed by devs with a schoolboy wish to have all of the styles in one. That being said, I don't feel I ever got the blocking right? But that might come with time, and the game doesn't force it, unlike Sekiro. Heck, I beat the last boss by throwing elemental explosives.

My other complaints are merely preference. I wanted some more optional content, more to explore and discover. This is about as linear as you can be, and a little more variety in locales could've gone a long way. But even then, I don't fault it too much for it.

Yes, this is derivative, but so is all art. Every poet must confront his poetic fathers, and this game absolutely stands tall before FROM. I'm shocked.