So like a week or so back there was a thread talking about everybody's favorite reoccurring Final Fantasy monsters *(mine is absolutely Iron Giant...cough)*, when somebody mentioned Bombs and posted a picture of one, and it hit me what a cool Jack-o'-lantern they would make.

The family together for pumpkin carving last night. And I am elated with how this dude turned out. Props to my dearly beloved, who blew (exploded...) all my pictures out of the water with her snapshot (the first one). It legot looks like a magazine ad from the 90s or something, I love it!

Anyways, I hope everyone has an amazing Halloween!

It's that I've been pronouncing every character's name wrong

Yes, another post gushing about a game. But I absolutely love the graphics of this game. After playing alot of HD2D-games, I really believe this one has the best design/graphics.

Another 3D render I did just for fun. This one is a more casual one with Tifa and Aerith ready to go for a ride.

First image is a cropped close-up, the second the full image followed by the 3D setup.

Personally, I find Aerith to be the most expressive in cutscenes and casual dialogues. Always choosing her dialogues first.

Comment below!

Took a while longer than I expected, but so excited to get into it. Pizza is on the way and I’m not going to answer my phone lol. I am aware I opened this like a rabid squirrel

And I’m not talking here about recurring FF characters, summons, or creatures with the same names that incarnate in almost every FF game.

Examples:

• The Goddess of the Warring Triad (FFVI) = Lady Yunalesca's Third Form (FFX)
• Ultimecia's Third Form (FFVIII) = Aeon Anima (FFX)
• Esper/Scion Zodiark (FFXII) = Clive Rosfield's Ultima Eikon Form (FFXVI)

small question and maybe a bit random.

I’m not asking for the best quote, or the most beautiful, or the most powerful. Just the line that got stuck in your head and never left, even after many years. Maybe it’s not even a “good” line, it just stayed there for some reason.

For me is Zidane from IX, something like “You don’t need a reason to help people”. I don’t know why but it hit me hard and I still remember it. Somehow I think it melts my heart haha I was not expecting it from Zidani at that time.

The second one I remember is from the Shinra side, something about “do you want to become another Sephiroth?” I don’t remember exactly how it was, my memory is not perfect, but the feeling is still there, like a cold thing in my stomach lol. If someone remember the real line, please tell me!

Sorry for my english, is not my first language. I really want to read yours, doesn’t matter which game or if is a small line from a side character. Spoilers tag please if you can 🙏

Obviously, you can share more than one, and I’d appreciate it if you included some references.

Thanks!

They went hard into the hybrid chibi + Nomura character designs for this one. It was most likely to appeal to a younger audience, which also probably explains a handful of hamfisted running gags for the sake of comedy, but the overall art direction I thought was pretty strong. The anime cutscenes were particularly impressive to me. Especially the opening movie that plays once you clear the prologue. They went 110% into the bit and I can’t help but applaud that. And I can’t lie, seeing chibi versions of serious characters like Cloud and Lightning will never not be funny.

I want to open a small debate, maybe a bit nostalgic but I really think about this a lot.

When I play the old FF games with pre-rendered backgrounds (VII, VIII, IX), I feel like those scenes have a identity and a artistic touch that is very hard to copy with real time 3D. Every screen looks like a painting someone made by hand, with a lot of detail and mood in every corner. Even now, many years later, they still look beautiful for me.

And the funny thing is, real time 3D sometimes gives me more “corridor feeling” than the old pre-rendered games. In the old ones, the camera was fixed and the world felt big even when you only could walk in a small part of it. In many modern games with full 3D, the path is open in theory, but I feel like I’m walking in a tube from point A to point B. It’s strange, no?

Also I remember those games needed big teams and a lot of money just to make the backgrounds, because every scene was like a small piece of art made one by one. Now almost nobody does it this way, and I think we lost a bit of that craft. Maybe it was too expensive and limited, I know, but the result was special.

So my question is: do you think we really lost something with pre-rendered backgrounds, or is it just nostalgia? Is there any modern game that gives you the same feeling?

I know real time 3D has a lot of advantages (free camera, bigger worlds, no limits), I’m not saying is bad. I just want to hear what you think.

I’m asking about the moments that made you feel uncomfortable or uneasy, not the sad ones or the epic ones. Just the ones that give you a weird feeling in your stomach.

For me is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The first hours feel like a fairy tale. Bright colors, happy music, everybody smiling, you think “ok, this is a cozy game”. And then you start to notice little things. A person who doesn’t remember something that they should remember. A conversation that feels empty. Nobody seems to be worried about it, and that is the part that scared me, the world keeps being cheerful like nothing is happening, with the same happy music playing over it.

What strikes me is that you wouldn’t expect this from a game that seems so friendly at first.

And the Black Knight, always there, never fits in that world, and every time he appears the mood changes a little. Add the narrator voice telling the story like a bedtime tale, calm and soft, while you slowly understand that the story is not so soft. For me that mix is horrible in the best way. It’s not a jump scare, it’s the feeling that something is wrong and the game is smiling at you.

The second one is FFVII, and I’m still playing it, so please no spoilers about this one! I just feel that something is off with Cloud. The way he remembers his past, and how some people react when he talks about it, doesn’t fit well. It’s a very strange feeling, like the game is hiding something from me and I don’t know what. I like it a lot, but it’s also a bit uncomfortable.

So, what about you? Maybe a place, a character, a music, a line of dialogue, a boss. It doesn’t need to be a “horror” part, only something that made you feel strange or uncomfortable. And if it’s from a game that is not so famous, even better.

Just finished FFXVI and holy shit.

Never have I played a game this cinematic. I went into Final Fantasy XVI without any prior knowledge about the game (I did play Final Fantasy VII before tho), and I never expected they'd let us play as the Eikons.

The boss fights are hella cinematic, and I love it. The combat being hack n slash kinda feels good too.

My biggest issue is the PC optimization. Frequent frame drops got annoying, and I wish the performance was better. Some parts also felt a bit dragged out.

STILL, I had a blast. The Eikon fights alone make this game worth playing.

Which Final Fantasy game should I play next?

Looks like the game is about 50 hours long. Does it have any post game bosses or challenges to find and grind for?

I'm moreso a nuanced person when it comes to discussing modern final fantasy, I love it but also hold a lot of criticisms toward specific games. Resonance, while not being the first fanservice-ridden self-love letter to the series, is one as charming IMO as 9. It references & nods to all parts of the franchise while also being able to believebly sit next to the OG pixel games. Whereas 16 continues taking the mechanics to different places, Resonance brings back turn based that half of us have been begging for - its story isnt as cinematic & emotionally taxing as 16s but is entertaining & really invokes a cheesy 90s adventure storyline, with these tropey characters that aren't going to get video essays dissecting their psyche anytime soon but are endearing enough to get you fully invested in them as party members with other factors like design & kits

I just started chapter 5, & while i agree the voice acting + writing can be a miss sometimes & gave me a little emotional whiplash here & there, I think it succeeds in what its trying to do - which i think is emulate a 90s anime fantasy adventure with some modern production, with unusually charismatic characters & an epsidodic storytelling structure that treats every chapter like a totally separate storyline while keeping an overarching goal in view to keep us coming back every Saturday morning; not to mention i think it just genuinley gets some things right despite having SATAM cartoon-style pacing issues in Olderin & Zoldaad. I find myself caring about this games story the more I play it, whereas prior to the halfway point of chapter 3 the gameplay loop & music where the main things that I fell in love with instantly.​ I'm not bored, & i honestly am a little fatigued of overly drawn out, excessively bloated scripts in RPGs ive experienced recently, so having a game go full on SNES levels of simplistic writing that gets straight to the point (to a fault sometimes) is honestly refreshing for me. The voice acting is not consistent, but there are some really good performances in here that I feel are getting skimmed over right now in favor of highlighting the more awkward or "cringe"​​ moments.

The gameplay is kinda perfect if you ask me, the visions acting as both kit extensions to the party but also their own character in the vein of demons from SMT makes the game feel like Final Fantasy x Mario Kart Double Dash. It's comfort food for turn based gamers in it's most delicious form, & i dont think it'll excite you if you dont care about final fantasy being turn based again, it succeeds at its gameplay loop to a similar degree of the pixel remasters. My only complaint is that, on normal difficulty the game has felt a bit too easy until the final boss of chapter 4. Part of me could stroke my ego & say I'm just really adept at final fantasy, but im pretty sure the game just overpowers us a bit needlessly. Also dont appreciate the rather hand-holdy nature of the map markers. Why set up an exploration quest for carbuncle if you give me a giant ping for every single spot described in the riddle? I actually wanted the promise of getting lost trying to study the map to find these locations, only for it to hand it to me as soon as possible. This wouldn't be a heavy complaint for me if the option to turn off pings or the mini map as a whole (PERMANENTLY) existed. Just feels like the game has promise of good exploration that gets spoiled a bit with those obvious location markers

OVERALL: I think i love this game more than 16. I enjoy it more than 14, & I was way more excited for this than anything regarding FF7R; I want this game to succeed & remind square that there is an audience for this era of Final Fantasy, or just the style of turn based RPGs in general. As opposed to wanting 17 to be turn based (though i would flip out if that happens), my biggest hope for Resonance is that it's successful enough to get a sequel game to expand on the story, which from what I hear gets REALLY good in Brave Exvius in events past this games story arc. It's not a perfect game & stumbles in some areas that other modern FF gets right, but i also think it shines brighter than what we've been getting the last few years for the things that make it stick out​