so this was my first post-patch critical run on the main story and I'd say it has solidified its status as my favourite in the series, but it's just too long for me to play it as frequently as i do runs of kh2.

it's coming up three years since this game launched so i approached this run with a somewhat fresh perspective on all fronts. and so ill talk a little bit about the story. I've docked half a star for basically the shonen manga misogyny writing wrt kairi. with all that this game shoulders, i think it does the best with the hand it was dealt, of course the dealer and the player both here are the same nomura tetsuya. this is my favourite video game series so my thoughts are kind of all over the place whenever i talk about it but I appreciate this game a lot. how it lets it's characters cry, even a traditionally masculine to the point of actual stupidity character like terra. it's pure catharsis. of course final fantasy is not unfamiliar with pure displays of emotion. but even in the wider jrpg sphere it's not the most common even as they spell out what every character is feeling at every second. and in the now western aaa dominated video game industry it's as rare as it can get. so on that level, just allowing these characters to cry and hug each other is appreciated. i wanted to write more about the jrpg and it's relationship with the hollywood melodrama here but i think ill save it for when i next play a mainline final fantasy

"fuck it, finally a fantasy"
~fred durst (2021)

consistently fun but bogged down by way-too-frequent mmo-esque fetch quests, a dogshit main antagonist and jill's comical lack of characterization

when it hits though, it really fucking hits. clive is a terrific lead, (kupka is also a fantastic rival) every major set piece manages to one up the last and the combat, while a bit easy for an action game absolutely braindead, is really fucking fun

only ps4/5 game thus far to feel like a truly "next gen" experience and a crystal clear reminder of the heights this series can reach when it's not rife with developmental problems

edit: that last line is still mostly correct but not in the way i'd like. it's certainly next-gen in terms of scope and scale with regards to spectacle, but the actual writing is piss poor. this was very much a honeymoon game and ng+ made it clear. xvi feels like a first draft

I understand why Stormblood focusses on Ala Mhigo and Doma. It was becoming untenable to keep talking about Ala Mhigo's subjugation and using Ala Mhigans as plot devices— the WoL murders gods and saves the downtrodden left and right, so it was time to solve the situation instead of leaving the whole nation as an eternal place of pain and suffering.

That said, the narrative starts badly enough by yeeting us to Kugane and Doma, and gets much worse the moment we return. As much as I do believe everything is political, Final Fantasy as a franchise is not generally well-equipped to address geopolitics: wars, governments, ethnic tensions, none of those things can be satisfactorily addressed by 1: a single person; 2: a hero whose main talent is "murder stuff really good." Hien coming out of nowhere and usurping Xaela's customs and rites to force them into the conflict is…not great. The few times the Alliance and the Scions mention their opponents would tell them everything after being "interrogated" made my skin crawl a bit. I'm not saying prisoners were tortured, but…you know, that's something that happens very often in war and that a fantasy franchise about magic crystals cannot really address.

Another weird choice in this expansion is how it is clearly the expansion about Ala Mhigo, yet we spend the majority of time in Doma, learning about Doma, and freeing Doma. Ala Mhigo is really more of a vibe than an actual concern for, what, 70% of the story?

Most of the major characters are not really great. Zenos is just a basic and overpowered sadist—a trope I am personally not a fan of. Yotsuyu is evil in a really campy way, which is cool, but also tired (and sort of annoying in how the game really wants us to see the pleasure she takes in committing atrocities is at least partly sexual). Fordola might have benefited from more attention, but since we spend so little time in actual Ala Mhigo, who knows. I assume the patches will shine more light on this. Lyse is not great either, her evolution from comic relief pugilist to resistance leader requiring enormous quantities of suspension of disbelief—though perhaps the issue is less about disbelief and more about the writers being very keen on pushing a bland secondary character into a position of power and heroism.