Exactly! The best roguelikes are punishingly difficult but they are addicting because they make it easy to think, "Okay, just one more!" and jump right back into it. Hades would be a slog if they made you clear the tutorial every time you failed a run. Instead, you have the choice of either chilling out with some cool…

So what does the run back accomplish that a simple pause screen couldn’t do? I stop to think a lot when up against a difficult challenge, but I often pause whenever I need a breather and because I know I need to logic out the problem. I’m also never going to get the hang of the wacky hitboxes if I never jump in to…

I’m not sure what you mean here. Are you suggesting that reason people learn the fights better in these games is because they have no choice and feel like they would suffer if they failed? As opposed to people freely able to practice as much as they want without consequences?

You may have missed the part where I said I actually enjoy learning how to beat a hard boss. I get it, the fights are supposed to be hard and that’s part of the charm! But why does that mean absolutely every aspect of the game has to be as long as drawn out as possible? Does adding a long walk with easy to kill…

I haven't played Elden Ring yet, but have no heard they did that, so I'm glad it seems they're phasing out the run back, haha

Absolutely, that had me going up the wall! So I’m also limited in how much I can practice against the boss?! It's not just about getting good but grinding too!? Get outta here with this game design!

Are those lanterns right outside the boss fight? Because I played a lot of Bloodborne and the DLC and don't recall any of the lanterns being that close. Granted, it’s usually less than a minute to run back, so I’m not losing much time, but when you have to retry over and over again, that time builds up to a lot. But…

It baffled me while playing Bloodborne, how a game that people kept telling me was designed around the need to “get good” was so unfriendly about letting you get back into the boss fight right away to keep practicing. Instead, a boss could kill you in a few moves, then you had to trek all the way back to try and learn…

There is some real potential in this idea, haha! Maybe there are several Sephiroths from other timelines that succeeded in becoming one with the planet, and now they’re finding each other to become one with the multiverse!

That’s a good point. They might just go in on the “Reunion” subtitle and have an alternate ending where Zack “reunites” with the rest of FFVII. That would be disappointing... Maybe if they present them as 2 parallel endings that both happen? I might be persuaded by that, haha

That’s a good question! From the trailer, it does seem to keep a lot of the original gameplay, but with an updated interface - slots in the corner, item selection in the other. Will be interesting to see how much of it translates to a non-handheld platform.

I was not too pleased with some of the story direction in Remake compared to the original game, but they should just go all in on the absurd twist and make Rebirth just go completely off the rails from the original timeline. I mean, just make it entirely the flashback in Kalm but it goes differently, or make half the…

Aside from the phenomenal ending to this game, I hope they use this opportunity to rewrite the story for this so that it’s actually good and not something that feels like the fanfiction I was imagining as a 7 year old. I did not care at all for Genesis or Angela...Definitely keep the ending the same though. Holy moly…

I’m assuming this refers to the fact that P5R included all the DLC of the original P5 when it released on PS4, and probably not all of the new DLC for Royal.

So dang good to hear Time Scar again! I was so surprised to see that it included Radical Dreamers. Always wanted to play that!

This series deserves much more than a slide show to really get into a proper discussion of rankings, but I guess if the higher-ups demand more slide show listicles, you gotta do it.

Totally agree! The Joker reveal was definitely the most surprising for me. And the idea of using the award show and dressing it up like heist works beautifully to tie the style, concepts, and vibes of P5 into a big surprise announcement that not only introduced the first big DLC fighter, but also signal the world that…

Good for him! Sad he’s leaving, but glad he’s going for his dreams. And he still has a good relationship with Atlus, so he’ll likely do some stuff for them here and there.

And Cloud was already in when the announced Sephiroth, but they still went back to revamp several things with Cloud and included several other VII references in the new stage. Just saying, that other stages and final smashes used the opportunity to include cameos and references to characters that couldn’t be included.…

A little surprised they were able to get Sora, but not surprised by the lack of many KH signatures that had to be dropped to make it happen - no references to Donald or Goofy, no Utada Hikaru, no FF cameos - the things that put KH on the map for a lot of people. But this was still pretty neat, ending the big crossover…