Day 259 - The 2024 Video Game Year in Review Autopsy (Continued)
Sam is just reviewing a different game, RPG, Mass Effect 2 ·
Skeeter’s Take:
We’re back for day two of our end-of-the-year autopsy! “But Skeeter,” you are probably saying, “Sam stayed up until 3am last night diligently writing reviews on all 20 games he played this year. What more could he possibly talk about?
And to that I say “I have no idea, but I worry for his sanity, sometimes.”
Real quick, I just want to mention that I forgot to give a shout-out to Mouthwashing - that game fucking rules but I passed over it since we have already reviewed it and I glazed the fuck out of that Mouthwashing donut. But yeah, it deserves to be on the “not-list” list of games that stood out to me this year.
Today, however, I want to talk about my guilty pleasure of the year - Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (what the fuck is the “Intergrade” for?).
This is one of those remakes of which I have never played the original game. Just know I have no frame of reference of the original games, so everything I discuss will be about this Part 1 remake. I was somewhat familiar with some of the characters - Cloud was in the newest Smash Brothers and Tifa found her way into the Italian Senate, but I never understood what the game was about.
The best way I can describe Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is that it is the most anime. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. It’s just like they cranked the ridiculous meters all the way up on every aspect of this game and threw in everything that a 13 year old would find badass and cool.
You play as angsty-teen insert Cloud as he takes on a Mercenary job to help some eco-terrorists blow up an energy reactor that is stealing an ancient energy from the core of the planet. The group succeeds, destroying a large portion of the city that was located in the same sector as the reactor. The aftermath is fantastic. You are forced to walk through all the lives you’ve just destroyed and upended directly after celebrating your “big win”. It’s a great flip of the narrative - “You did it! You destroyed the reactor! You completed your mission! Do you feel good about it? Huh, punk? Look at all these sad families! You are a piece of shit! But it’s for the greater good! Enjoy your win!”
This is the inciting incident which leads to Shinra (the giant mega-corporation who owns the city and all the reactors) to hunt the terrorist group down. This kicks off the rest of the game.
There are big swords, flashy finishing moves, a guy who can bounce around on a motorcycle like it’s a pogo stick, a talking dog creature that might be a former soldier, and magic bullshit powers that may derive from an ancient energy source. Soldiers are possibly genetically altered and I think it might have something to do with the creepy god lady at the end of the first part? You fight a Baba Yaga house. There is an extended sequence where you must dress in drag to sneak into a perverted crime-lord’s mansion to save your sex trafficked friends. This game has everything in it, and it’s all cranked up to the absurd. It’s jarring at first, but once you get on for the theme park ride the game is, it’s an absolute blast.
If you aren’t following, don’t worry about it. Honestly, everything in this game pales in comparison to what is embarrassingly my favorite part about this game.
And that is the Love Triangle.
Final Fantasy really does try to live up to that name - this is the Final Fantasy, the ultimate fantasy game. As stated before, this game has so much crazy bullshit. I love it for most of it. But at the heart of all this chaos and strangeness you are thrown into are some very great characters. Some of these characters have been engineered to make you fall in love with them, and the devs know you will.
The game makes the fantastic decision to put the player in the role of ex-soldier Cloud Strife (what a name). Cloud is damn near the perfect edgy-high schooler self-insert. He’s almost the titular character for that demographic to project themselves onto, until you really get to know him. He starts off stand-offish and acts like he doesn’t care. He’s just on the eco-terrorist “blow-up-the-reactor” job because it’s a job and he’s getting paid. He states numerous times that he’s out after that, and won’t stay to help.
But who do we find back at the bar where the eco-terrorist group keeps their headquarters?
Why good ol’ childhood friend and current smokeshow Tifa Lockheart! Her and Cloud grew up in the same sector before he was shipped away to undergo rigorous Soldier training.
She sort of convinces him to stay a bit longer, and eventually he gets swept up in the cause, staying more to assist his friends than to get paid.
As the game goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Cloud cares. Cloud really cares. He’s got a good heart, he cares for his friends and wants to see the best for them, but he doesn’t want to show that. He tries to hide his emotions, but he’s terrible at it. He’s such a fun character, especially when juxtaposed against the two main love interests.
Tifa is strong willed, capable, a go-getter, runs her own bar, is clearly interested in Cloud and was a childhood friend of his. She’s kind, good with children, and uses kicks and punches in combat instead of a sword or magic or a gun. She’s fucking badass. It feels like the game is basically telling the player “Hey, check out this cool love interest! Wouldn’t you love to get to know her better?”
And then, once you’ve started to get an idea of who Tifa is, they throw Aerith into the mix.
Aerith (pictured right in the above photo) is more kooky and aloof than Tifa. She’s gentle, kind, and extremely flirty towards Cloud. She seems more gentle and has an interesting lens she views the world through. She also might be a descendant of ancient magical bloodline (a la Ciri in the Witcher) which makes her a target of Shinra later. She’s introduced to us early where she gives Cloud a flower, which Tifa actually calls him out on when he gets to the bar and meets for the first time.
These are the two major players in the triangle, with the third obviously being Cloud. I appreciate that the game doesn’t do the obvious and have them bicker and fight between themselves over their obvious affection towards Cloud. They actually end up becoming good friends and bond over making Cloud uncomfortable, which they both seem to understand exactly how to get to him:
Honestly, Cloud makes this triangle. The fact that he acts like he doesn’t care, but Tifa and Aerith know he cares makes for some great “Let’s fuck with Cloud” moments.
The game knows you are going to fall for one of these characters, but what’s more interesting is it is also operating on the assumption that you might not be able to make up your mind between who to pursue.
Take for instance the most difficult decision I have had to make in a video game:
After a tough fought battle, Cloud stands up to find both Tifa and Aerith on the ground. He then has to choose which one to help up first. If you help one, the other looks sort of disappointed that it wasn’t them who Cloud ran to help. Let me tell you, it doesn’t feel great disappointing a video game character you’ve grown to see as a fictional, part time friend. I felt like whatever decision I made was the wrong one because either Tifa or Aerith was going to be let down, and I didn’t want to see that.
This choice I believe is a game check that will come into play later as the game itself is tracking the players decisions on specific parts to see who their affection leans more towards. I met Aerith later when I started doing all the side quests, which I didn’t do with Tifa since Tifa was at the start of the game, and I had not yet realized how important these side quests were. The game factors in if you’ve completed side quests with each character, as well as certain decisions or choices the player made throughout the game. This determines who Cloud finds in the garden scene. Aerith showed up for me, since I didn’t do all the Tifa quests, but I read that you can also have Barrett show up if you don’t lean towards Aerith or Tifa, which I think is pretty neat. It’s a fun little system.
I feel a little childish, having these fake emotions towards fictional characters in a video game. I feel more embarrassed that this was a huge selling point for me on this game. I like strong characters in games. It’s one of the reasons Mass Effect will always be one of my favorite game trilogies. But there I was, a 30 something year old man being absolutely frozen by the decision of which of my friends to help up first, not wanting to inadvertently hurt the feelings of the other. Obviously this is all tinted through my male lens, but hey, it is effective in making you feel bad for making your decision and I was having so much fun with the drama of choosing.
Going through this long adventure with these characters that you really get to know after a while was a highlight. There’s a ton of great world building and lore to support all of this, but the relationships drove me. Hell, even the non-romantic relationships progress in a great way.
Take Barret (center) for example:
He’s a gruff and intimidating man hellbent on his mission to stop Shinra. He’s got a Mini-gun instead of his right arm, he shouts at people who he disagrees with on trains, and he’s hot-headed and impulsive.
He also loves nothing more in the entire world than his daughter and I think he would kill everyone if it allowed his daughter to keep living. Him and Cloud butt heads so much at the start. They are drastically different people. Barrett is part of the eco-terrorist group because it is his goal and passion in life to make a better world for his daughter. Cloud is just there initially for a paycheck (or so he says) and eventually grows into these friendships and volunteering his help. I don’t think Barrett trusts Cloud much at the start, especially since he’s not “down with the cause” and they tend to bicker between each other a lot.
But by the end of the game, Barrett sees Cloud for the good man he is, and vice versa. They find a middle ground to stand on, and while they still have different ideas, you can tell they care about each other. It’s such a natural progression. There’s not really a single moment I can think of where Barrett goes “You’re alright, kid!”. It’s woven in more tactfully. As the player, I really didn’t like Barrett at first. I thought he was too extreme and a liability. But I kind of had that same character arc Cloud goes through where I learned to appreciate him. It’s all very well done. I love the characters in this game… Well… most of them:
There was a single moment in this game that pushed it from “this game is pretty good” to “this game is fucking amazing”.
During the raid on Shinra tower, you are presented with an option. You can take the elevator up to the top floor, or you can take the stairs. The characters imply that the elevator may be dangerous, but it is 63 floors up and the stairs might not be the best idea.
Being the video game nerd I am, I assumed “No way they make me climb all those stairs. I’ll probably get a cutscene that takes me to the top. I’m taking the stairs.”
Let me tell you, I’ve never been more wrong in my life.
The game makes you painstakingly climb all 63 flights of stairs and it is my favorite part of the game by far. You have Tifa and Barrett with you at this point. The climb starts out pretty normal. There’s some light chatter between the characters as you climb. However, as you get closer to the top of the tower, the characters get progressively more exhausted since, you know, they have to climb 63 fucking flights of stairs. Cloud slows to a slow shuffle, just barely crawling along at a snail’s pace. Barrett is breathing so hard and is so exhausted I started to worry that he might not survive the climb. He’s out there fighting for his life.
Tifa, while winded, is clearly in better shape as she makes it to the top first and shouts down words of encouragement. After ten real life minutes of climbing stairs, you finally reach the top. The gang is absolutely exhausted, and I start to wonder if I really made the right call. Perhaps a few enemies in the elevator might have been easier to handle than the 63 flights of stairs. It’s absolutely incredible, and I’m glad they had the gall to go through with that. I’ve never seen a more entertaining stair climbing sequence in a game. It’s my favorite part, and it’s not even close. It’s in my top ten video game moments for sure.
But yeah, I love the characters, I love the love triangle, I love the game. It’s got great combat that combines button mashing and turn-based combat. It’s got great world building and so many fun moments. Also, the game looks amazing:
I never had a moment where I felt like the game was taking itself too seriously. It’s almost Camp. I know I’m like 28 years late on this, but Final Fantasy VII might be a good game! I don’t know, I’ve never played it. I’ve just played Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade.
I’m extremely excited to step into Rebirth when that comes out. I have no idea how the talking dog ties into everything, or what the strange monster goddess does, or even what the fuck Sephiroth’s issue is, but who really cares - how is the Cloud/Tifa/Aerith love triangle going to end?!
Recommend: Fuck yes
Replay Percentage Chance: Fuck yes
Time Played: Fuck yes
Sam’s Take:
Well I kinda went through every new game yesterday, so I guess it’s time to go through some things I replayed. I’ll do something I can keep short, because I’m still tired from staying up until 3am writing yesterday’s review.
Oh I got one, did you know that some people have spent well over a decade combining Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas into one world connected via train? Did you know that it’s the best way to play both games?
Tale of Two Wastelands is mostly the only way I play New Vegas, and CERTAINLY the only way I’ll play Fallout 3. Now I’m a Fallout 3 defender. It’s a hard thing to defend sometimes. The main plot is awful, the dialogue is mostly bran-flake tier, and the quest structure seems precisely designed to avoid the most interesting locations in The Capital Wasteland, and if you’re a Fallout 1 fan… I’m sorry for what 3 did (but 2 kinda started it). The good thing about 3 is unfortunately kind of hard to write about (part of why I think it gets over-bashed a bit) and that is its worldspace. Go off in any direction and you’ll find something interesting on the horizon. In that building there will be sick loot, you’ll use the sick loot to fund a trip to the next building. If you want to have fun with Fallout 3, you kind of have to tell the story to go fuck itself and just walk around. Basically it’s a looter shooter with a cool coat of paint, if you play it in the most fun way possible.
The issue is that Fallout 3 does a fucking terrible job of making you explore. I’m going to make a map real quick of where you would go if you followed the main quest in Fallout 3:
The blue circle is a forced quest teleport for one mission. Assuming you beeline the main quest and fast-travel to the closest location to get to each quest marker, this is all you will see. Now I’m being both very fair, and not fair. Very fair because I’m assuming you were unable to speech check your way through any skippable quests (the north-most line is actually very likely to not be there on most speech heavy builds), but unfair because obviously the main quest is not the only way to explore. Each major location has side quests! So let’s be fair and assume that you fully explore each location you visit while doing the main quest and accept any quest there. I’m going to assume you don’t take the quest to enslave 4 people, or blow up Megaton, since both are not done by most players their first time through the game. I will assume you checked out Tenpenny Tower though, since it really stands out and several NPCs mention it and mark it on your map:
I need you to keep in mind, this is someone who may not visit every location, but go to every single place a quest tells them to go to, and then fully explores that place. Their quest log will be empty by the end of the game following this route. This is a pseudo-completionist run. Look at the entire northern half of the map, at the bottom left corner, most of the south. If you are roleplaying someone who does almost anything they’re told to do, you have no reason to go to any of these places.
You know what, just for fun, let me put a purple square around my five favorite places to explore:
Keep in mind, those two that seem close to many quest lines are inside that white area, which means they are only accessible by going through a series of subway tunnels for no reason other than just walkin’ around. OOPS!
The point of all this is just to show that while I like Fallout 3, I do get the complaints. It’s like actively hid all of their most fun locations, which makes randomly exploring very rewarding and fun, but playing the RPG like an RPG, extremely boring.
New Vegas is the exact opposite. The desert is barren, and if you do walk in a random direction and find a cave, there’s most likely nothing of value and it’s boring. Bethesda is better at designing mini-dungeons than Obsidian, but that’s alright. Obsidian know where they are good at, and they made sure to make a few cool locations, then make every quest in the world go there.
There is no reason to do the same map exercise with New Vegas, the whole thing would be covered in lines. Every main questline sprawls out to minor hub areas, those hub areas have quests that sprawl out to minor locations, and if they accidentally make a good dungeon, you bet your ass at least 46 quests will take you to that dungeon (looking at you plant vault).
Randomly walking in New Vegas sucks. The world is flat, the landmarks aren’t super interesting without the context of quests, and almost all the interesting places will already be found via questlines (I had to say almost because of literally one sick voting vault with no quests attached). Look, I’m a Fallout 3 defender, but I’m not saying it’s better than New Vegas. Especially once DLC gets involved… but that’s another review.
But let me ask you this, have you ever finished an RPG, and then just walked around post-game with your overpowered character? You probably got bored pretty quick right? No hard fights, you’ve seen all the good places, no more new dialogue. Not much to see. Now imagine if they was an entire new fuck-around map. The quests aren’t as good, but there are harder enemies, and random dungeons everywhere to show off your late game build. Welcome to the Capital Wasteland!
Fallout 3 has level scaling that actually sucks during the main game. Since everything levels with you there’s no sense of progression, and very few areas can be unique by having higher/lower tier enemies. When coming back to fuck around on your level 50 guy who just finished New Vegas though? It’s amazing. Everything is hard to kill again, you actually need to use all your overpowered weapon. You’ve been playing a story based game for 100 hours, be real, you’re not paying attention anymore. Explore the sewers, shoot high levels ghouls, really test the limits of your build. Fallout 3 is the greatest New Vegas victory lap ever made.
When I play Tale of Two Wastelands, I always play the same way. Start in Fallout 3 (because you gotta get born in the intro), rush the main quest until you’ve freed your dad from the simulation, then headcanon that it will take them many years to fix the purifier and head to Vegas. Then I play all of New Vegas because it’s simply the best, then I come back for the Fallout 3 fuckabout. All of its weaknesses don’t matter anymore. I’m storied out and ready to just chill in the wasteland. It’s hard to describe how much better Fallout 3 is when played this way, when you’ve naturally reached the part of the open world mental cycle where you are just going to new places for no reason. You start to notice how good Bethesda is at creating landscapes, and sculpting enemy encounters, and creating a sense of progression inside of a building. Bethesda is extremely good at making looter shooters, it’s just crazy that they keep pretending to make RPGs.
I can not recommend Tale of Two Wastelands enough. I’ll link the guide below, it’s easy to follow and if you’re at all a fan of these games, you’ll have a blast.
Recommend: Oh yea
Replay Percentage Chance: 100%
Time Played: Well over 1000 hours
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