Teddie

My only real issue with combat so far is getting nibbled out of my attacks and stunlocked by rats because they still ignore poise. Rats are the scariest thing in this game by far. Also, the big, slow weapons I gravitate towards make horse combat unplayable.

I've noticed the longer windups and honestly, I can respect it on some level. I was fighting some giant hands that would knock you down, and if you spam/panic roll on wakeup they will hit you with the exact same attack the second your roll ends, and they will keep doing it until you die. It felt like some programmer at From was assaulting my neanderthal brain and forcing me to learn. Still aggravating as all hell in the moment.

The more egregious stuff is probably intentional because the jump has some i-frames. For example, those giants in Limgrave and Godrick have big AOE slams you can just jump over, and that can allow you to stay in melee range and punish with a jump attack.

So nice I played it twice. Like you mentioned it has an obvious cut in the budget department (you won't find any Leona Lewis singles here), but man this game felt like a step up from XIII in every way that mattered. Like, they actually got things back on track for a minute there!

The DLC was especially crazy, as someone following it all on release. Mass Effect costumes, Gilgamesh and the Pupus become superbosses, and waiting for a story DLC that would apparently expand on that insane cliffhanger ending. I was actually pretty pumped for a follow up back in the day.

And uh... Lightning Returns does have a lot of fun stuff in it (and an ending so audacious I can't help but admire it), but it lacks a lot of the charm XIII-2 had, particularly in the character department. Noel and Serah were incredibly compelling and entertaining protagonists, but Lightning just genuinely sucks, and Returns was determined to make her duller than ever.

Looking at this trilogy as a whole is truly wild. Each game is so radically different in tone and narrative, their own little lime capsules throughout the PS3 generation and Square's struggle to adapt and gain their footing in it.

It's hard for me to really come to a conclusion on the changes until I see it all play out. I'm pretty neutral on OG FF7 as a whole-- it's good but it never blew me away. The Compilation stuff, on the other hand, is everything I hate about modern Square Enix condensed into greasy, rancid packages, and I'm desperately hoping Remake doesn't join them when it wraps up.

It's very obvious they have no clear plan for this story, or even the scope of this project. A lot of the development side of things so far rub me the wrong way, and already set off a lot of my alarm bells. I don't know that Square Enix can pull this off-- or maybe they can pull it off, now that they're playing to their strengths instead of trying to recreate the magic of a decades old classic?

At the very least, I've adjusted my expectations for future games. I also disliked the direction Kingdom Hearts took after the first game, but when I went into KH3 expecting another dumb fun ride, I got that, and I had a blast with it. Now that's become what I want outta Kingdom Hearts, and as long as this Remake endeavor keeps the same humour and upbeat attitude the first entry had, I can see the value in it.

I was making my way through the final chapter of Azure when this news dropped, and man, it felt great to know those people were now getting paid for this labour of love. Absolutely deserved, they did stellar work and went above and beyond what anybody could expect from a fan translation.

As for the games themselves, couldn't put them down. The Sky trilogy left me burned out (The 3rd really did not gel with me), but after the Crossbell arc I cannot wait to continue into Cold Steel. Crossbell feels like the point they really figured out what this franchise was going to be going forward-- solid self contained stories that all come together in a larger world.

Hollow Knight might be my favorite indie game of any generation. Once I got into the rhythm of it, I couldn't put it down. So much fun to explore, the secrets were genuinely rewarding and surprising, and they absolutely nailed the combat. The world they made for that game is oppressive, but incredibly endearing and tonally consistent-- the art, sound, and narrative all work together perfectly and I loved being in that world. Honestly, it clicked with me so well that I think it ruined all other Metroidvanias for me.

Also want to give props to Stardew Valley, which was my first farming game. Was totally addicted, and have gone back a few times over the years and put solid time in exploring aspects that I didn't focus on in my initial burst.

Last one I'll mention is Undertale. Gameplay was only ever serviceable, but it has the best exploration of "things you can do with the video game medium" I've experienced in the industry. Huge fan of the story and characters, the music is stellar, and the amount of creativity packed into everything was very refreshing.

It's starting to sink in how prevalent these guys have been in my life, and I felt like I needed to thank them all for putting on such an incredible show for so many years.

I haven't been able to keep up with the site as much as I wanted to for a while now, but there was a comfort knowing it was all still going on and I could always return. It's rough losing that, and it's hard not to focus on the sadness of everything, but I'm happy enough knowing Brad, Vinny, and Alex are doing what's best for them.

Best of luck to all the duders. Whatever the future of Giant Bomb ends up being, you gave us something truly special.

There's so much uncovered ground outside of Shepard's crew during and before the original trilogy, I don't have a specific desire but there's the usual suspects: The First Contact War, anything with Anderson, exploring the species that didn't get much screentime or homeworld visits (let me roleplay a volus you cowards).

I also think they should bring back the paragon/renegade stuff, because as binary as it was it was a damn sight more interesting than the complete absence of any choice -> consequence scenarios in Andromeda, which felt empty in comparison.

Honestly, there's just a lot of potential for a smaller scale mystery to uncover, because of the way they set up the world. Something as simple as a murder mystery would work for a main plotline in this universe because they have so many opportunities for red herrings and entertaining motives/character interactions/locations.

I don't think I have a consistent answer for this, it usually just depends on how I feel after finishing the game. When I played Graces F I'd already got everything I needed out of the main game, and never even looked at the epilogue stuff.

I think a bigger factor is whether it was intended to have an epilogue or if it was added in a re-release. Something like Red Dead 2 I didn't mind going right into the epilogue because as tacked on as it felt at times, it still wrapped up some lingering threads and was cohesive with the rest of the game. I can't imagine the extra Graces or Xenoblade content is anything more than a high-production variant of those drama CDs or light novels that JRPGs get all the time.

@humanity: @pudking: Let's be honest, Sony are doomed.

Point and Click games are probably the genre I've tried the hardest to love, because the kind of writing and art and exploration they revel in are all things that are right up my alley. Even the obscure puzzle stuff didn't bother me so much because I genuinely enjoy trying to think in those esoteric ways to solve problems.

But for me they always break down to methodically exhausting every dialogue option with a character, then exhausting every item on every intractable, because you absolutely can't affordto miss anything in these games, and then I feel like I'm not so much playing a game as performing chores. So even when I absolutely adore everything about the narrative, I don't feel like my input is really necessary and wind up detaching and falling off 'em, and wishing I could experience them in book form or something instead.

...God I wish I could've finished The Longest Journey.