Oh man, this is a great question that I love answering, haha!

Sounds like it probably would’ve been a good idea to include some of these story elements in the original game, so we could see a well-rounded antagonist and an Ardyn that isn’t just a one-note fedora-wearing creep with a poorly defined power set.

Indeed it does!

You definitely have a point on the love story aspect. I enjoyed that and thought it was mostly done well! I’m just a bit iffy on the sorceress stuff, which is the “story” story. It gets anime as heck trying to explain how the big bad is actually a witch from the future sending her mind back through time to other…

A remake it is then!

I love the heck out of it too! I acknowledge that it has many flaws, but I still love it a lot

Oh man, that’s really sad. They should just remake VIII then!

That would make a lot of sense!

Oh is that what’s wrong? They should just use the PC version and build off of that then!

The plot is certainly not one of VIII’s strong points, but the music is among the best in the series for sure!

Well, that’s certainly opinion. As I said, there are many on this game!

I’m waiting on that too! Although with Square-Enix’s track record, I don’t have the highest hopes for how it might turn out...

It is rather strange how ordinary it looks, kinda like XV, but at least it features some weird architecture, like the garden, and other fantastical elements (unlike XV).

And there’s still no love for Final Fantasy VIII... I mean, I’m glad there’s IX (the best) but VIII is so out there it needs to be experienced to truly understand! New generations must know and study why it's so polarizing!

It’s Persona, so I must have it. Whatever it is. I was even ready to settle with Persona 5 Racing if it came down to that!

I really loved the “I have nothing to prove to you” moment at the end! Oddly enough, I love it as much as the moment in Winter Soldier where Batroc taunts Cap about being more than just a shield and Cap puts it away for a hand-to-hand fight, even though they go completely differently, hahaha

I think you’re right about fan backlash being pretty quick, but I can’t remember reading any negative reviews for them from other gaming sites in the lead up to its release. There would be some parts that say, “Yeah, it’s a bit linear, but if you’re a fan, you’ll love it!” for most impressions, I think.

I remember XV being universally praised when it came out, then later down the line, the actually critical and objective reviews started gaining some ground and people started realizing that they initially loved it because it was so shiny, new, and anticipated. The same thing happened with XIII as well, which is now…

Yeah, you’re right that he’s shown in his original for the first 2 Dissidia games. I totally forgot that KH2 came out well before Dissidia. I guess the new one justifies the change by having him plucked out from his future somewhere.

That’s fine then if it’s just random choice or the popular pick. Admitting that they were picked that way would at least be consistent. It would completely go against Inhert’s justification that they picked it because it’s his most recent canon appearance then, which didn’t make sense to me.