#square-enix

Final Fantasy 14 was something I always wanted to play because it felt like half my friends were having the time of their lives with it. This was after A Realm Reborn. I even ended up buying the game on sale once, which came with a month or two subscription. Nowadays I think that game is free to play, or almost free to play.

Unfortunately, a lot of those friends moved on years ago, because everything from (I think?) Shadowbringers onwards felt like diminishing returns for them and they quit within a couple years I think. So now it feels like there's little incentive for me. I'm not an MMO guy anyway, but every now and then I get curious about FF14 and even World of Warcraft. I just don't like games that force me to be social, and have to be played like jobs.

To me, going from FF14 v1.0 to A Realm Reborn felt like Square was turning over a new leaf. This was also right around the time games like Bravely Default were beating out Lightning Returns in sales and Square made a vow to stop prioritizing production value over gameplay.

This is a little bit funny to me, considering people who know me know that I am a gigantic Final Fantasy VII Mark. I put over 100 hours into the PS1 game, finishing almost every quest and mastering every materia without using a guide.

Final Fantasy VII Remake was maybe one of the last games I bought before things got really bad for me. It took me a while to work through because unless it's my Fortnite dailies or something I'm playing for review, I tend to work through games in fits and starts. But I did stream the ending about two years ago:

I think I did that in prep for Rebirth coming out, so people wouldn't spoil anything for me. Then last year I remembered I had a PS5 and I hadn't touched the Yuffie DLC, so I did a private friends-only stream for that.

In the interim, a friend gifted me both Crisis Core and Rebirth... last year? The year before? For my birthday and I just haven't started them yet. Part of that is indecision; I don't know if I should play Crisis Core first or Rebirth. Some people say Crisis Core, other people say Rebirth.

With Revelation announced I'd dive head first into Rebirth, but the problem is I started Final Fantasy 9 in September of last year and I'm still sluggin my way through that, bit by bit.

And I'd rather not juggle multiple Final Fantasies at the same time. Heck, I'd rather not juggle multiple JRPGs at the same time.

What this ultimately means is that I am kinda-sorta in the dark about Rebirth, and I have been deliberately avoiding even the reveal trailers of Revelation. I've also been forcing myself to focus harder on getting through Final Fantasy 9, because these games are typically ~30 hours long but I'm pushing 20 hours and I'm still on Disc 2 of 4.

I really loved FF7 Remake. Absolutely adored it. I love the idea that it's both a remake and a sequel, and a large portion of the game is sort of reckoning with forces trying to push the story in a new direction versus the phantoms of the past trying to keep things on track. Really smart stuff, really stellar characterization, just the absolute perfect adaptation.

Downloaded the new demo for Elliot of Mana on the Switch 2 and played with the "Rendering Settings" options to see if I could notice any meaningful difference in performance. Left is "Low", middle is "Medium", and right is "High", and the options are depth of field, vignetting, and shadow quality, and for posterity, the screenshots were taken in handheld mode.