Wolf Kanno
is almost as funny as Nait
Memento Mori
Site Contributor

They're worth a watch, tbh, so I hope you get to them soon!

Meanwhile, I've finished my 100% story FFX-2 playthrough. Overall, my opinion stands. I'll just add that the Mascot is probably the most emblematic of the problem this game's battle system has. It's hands down the best class in the game, to the point that you won't be using any other one because everything about is just so much a cut above the rest that anything else is obsolete. I'd really much rather that the girls had started out as a freelancer that could later be customized, a la FFV, instead of this, because these things are just broken with no effort. It's pretty much a necessity for the optional dungeon you wanna do for 100% story completion, but like, it completely trivializes the rest of the game so eh

So now that I'm done with that, I've decided to shake up my gaming schedule a bit. I'm putting the games I\ve been playing (or rather, replaying) on hold to focus on games I have but have never played. Starting with Torment: Tides of Numenera which looks very interesting so far, courtesy of the one and only Chris Avellone. The others I have lined up are things that were given to me during the recent sales, so Ys VII and Trails in the Sky. Very excited to dive into both series.

For my handheld gaming, I've decided to replay Bravely Default, mostly as a palate cleanser after X-2 since it has a job system that's actually, you know, good. Now that I've booted it up, I'm honestly falling in love all over again. The job system is fantastic, as it's basically a refinement of the FFV system and I love how pretty much every single job (sans I think Merchant) is a classic FF job - one of the factors that made me cry and go "they did it! They made a classic FF again!" when I was first playing it. The atmosphere in the beginning section is just superb, and of course, the soundtrack is stellar as always and I feel it's pretty safe to say it's still my #1 gaming OST of all time. And now that I'm coming back after playing the sequel, I can already tell how much better this game's writing is. The dude that wrote BD's script is responsible for this little VN/anime gem called steins;gate and even though BD is very much a classic FF story with a lot of tropes, I feel it's still one of the better told games of its ilk. It's got a lot of nuance to it that I feel goes over people's heads and makes them appreicate the second game's much more... anime story better.

Probably yeah. You thinking of any other forgotten gems from that era?

Definitely.

Goddamn Ys was ahead of its time regarding music in general though =P

Yeah, though I imagine our backgrounds are a bit different in that regard, considering he often mentions he’s a sound designer by profession, which I honestly know nothing about (and I do disagree with some of his takes on the music). Still, I do enjoy watching him occasionally. I was very pleasantly surprised when during his FF retrospective series he reached XII and had a lot of praise for it.

Resonant Arc is pretty cool. Though I feel he makes some grand sweeping statements at times, overall I think he’s pretty diligent and thorough in his videos and has a very nice voice

I will also forever fail to understand why people hate this theme so much

Not playing it per se, there's just this one youtube channel that posts comparison of classic Ys tunes - since Ys 1-3 have like ten different versions - and the PCE versions always stand out. Like on this track for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUz9G184giI (PCE version starts at 5:15)

Kinda fascinated atm with how good the PC Engine / TurboGrafx CD OST quality was way back around 1990.

I think they’re doing pretty OK nowadays. It’s Western Europe that’s currently rediscovering fascism and the far right currently I know that the Balkans have a reputation of being cheap and pretty, so it’s quite a popular tourist destination, though I’ve never been there.

Speakling of job systems, when do you plan to dive into Bravely Default?

Oh, don’t get me wrong, the context is extremely silly, but I think the 1000 Words scene is just very well directed, showcasing a level of visual storytelling that was so far beyond anything SE could do with X cutscenes that it was also kinda hilarious. But yeah, to each his own I guess. I’ll definitely admit the gameplay doesn’t hold up. Somehow it’s much more interesting on paper than it is in execution