It sort of makes sense though—they're all from the same city-state and all, which is, by the looks of it, pretty monocultural. Maybe the party will discover other locations with different races, like in the classic FF games?

I still don't get what's better about them though—besides, of course, a "clickety clack" noise that some people enjoy.

larger cracks for bits of food/dirt to fall in

What's better about a mechanical keyboard? In my experience, they just get dirty easier.

I didn't mean *literally* Melee—just more like Melee than Brawl and with a reasonable, but not excessive amount of added content. I mean, I'm all about content, but this game has taken way too long to come out considering what it could have done for Nintendo if released early in the Wii U's life cycle. Less is more is…

There is so much ancillary content in this game. Couldn't they have scaled their goals back a bit and simply released Smash 4 as Melee in HD with stable online and a few more characters and stages like...a year ago when the Wii U really needed it?

I wanted so badly to like SO4. There are so many great ideas in that series, but so little aesthetic sense.

Is it just me or is Hajime Tabata the most promising FF director since Kitase left that role?

When did "addictive" gain these positive connotations? The last thing I'd want my games to be is "addictive."

I feel like Final Fantasy is back in capable hands, at long last. Naoki Yoshida and Hajime Tabata both seem like men who excel at getting things done, whereas all Nomura has proven in recent years is that he's great at teasing vague yet appealing concepts. Kingdom Hearts is a fun series for the most part but I'm glad…

The reason why so many FFXIII games were released in such a relatively short time is that a surplus of assets were created during XIII's development. I think it was Kitase who said back in 2009 that there was enough cut content to make another whole game. Well, that's what they did.

I think the general consensus is that no, the XIII sequels are not good Final Fantasies. There's a lot to like about XIII-2, however, and I even had a good time building my characters and doing Pulse missions in XIII. If you calibrate your expectations, you'll probably find something to like in all three games. The…

Actually, what's always struck me about Versus XIII/XV was how straightforward it's storytelling was compared to XIII. It's basically a retelling of the crystal mythology from FFI, III, and V. Invading army comes to Noctis's kingdom and steals the last remaining elemental crystal. Noctis and friends are forced to flee…

Thanks for posting this, Jason! I actually liked how combat flowed in the TGS trailer—although what we're seeing here is flashy and exciting, the constant warping seems overindulgent. I hope the combat doesn't turn out feeling like Infamous: Second Son—too twitchy and amorphous.

As someone who works in the fashion industry and is a Final Fantasy fan, I must say that this is the first time I've been excited about the costumes of FF characters in a really long time. These are really, really well-done. X's were hideous (even though I love that game), as were XIIIs with a few exceptions.

I dislike the mechanics but love the idea...and the music. So conflicted!

Well, it may not ever have serious traction in the United States, but for places like Japan, England, or South Korea, the internet infrastructure very much is there. It's largely the US and third world countries that will have a hard time making use of it.

All this "cloud gaming is the future" business makes me antsy because I feel that it might diminish the user's control over her own data. Who am I to make predictions, though? Maybe it's more secure to have dedicated server managers watching over your precious FFVII save files.

This is the best game I've played so far this year. While big-budget titles like Destiny continue to advance the hype boom/bust cycle of huge "must-have" games, Velocity 2X slipped quietly onto my Vita—for FREE—and into my heart. Impeccable style, clever controls, AMAZING music, and infectious gameplay combine to…

Meaning is extrinsic, just like "value" and "artistic merit." That doesn't necessarily mean that these concepts are subjective, only that they're governed by context.