“Looking strong, John!” was my favourite part of the episode. Sebastian Stan just nails that delivery.

I was going to say this myself. It’s not new or necessary information, but it was still great to see Bucky so vulnerable and happy. Sebastian Stan is so good and I hope more people will appreciate him and this character.

Seeing that deprogramming scene with Bucky was so satisfying. The want of that moment has launched tens of thousands of fanfics since 2014.

That opening scene really got to me. They crushed it.

Went back to watch that scene again, it still made me tear up flawlessly.
It was beautiful. I still can’t even go into a thorough enough explanation of why it was so gripping for everyone to watch.
In less than five minutes, they told an entire story of personal triumph over pain, a pain we all felt, some…

the opening scene was heartbreaking; beautiful acting, and another angle of insight into the damage done by what Bucky went through, from brainwashing to recovery.

Listen...I went to an HBCU. I am a fan of HBCU bands of all stripes.

I was distracted by how good the music was. And I’m not at all sure who all was representing at the rally. It was at Walker’s old high school but that was no high school marching band. If that’s an existing military band I want to know more.

Yes! This is exactly how I have been feeling about it. It is so refreshing to feel like they are actually friends instead of just all needing each other. Persona 4 did such a good job with this that I think I got spoiled, so it’s great to finally see the Phantom Thieves hang out and enjoy each others’ company.

Agreed! Not one piece of expanded universe stuff is worth bringing along for the ride—a ride that is *fantastic* so far. It’s all wildly inconsistent in tone and quality, and is generally just baggage that should continue to be discarded.

Glad they went back to a medieval theme for this one. Maybe there’ll be a coherent aesthetic this time. Seeing 4 leather dudes with swords and daggers visiting a town of people in crocs and ballcaps was so jarring.

I’m cautiously optimistic about the gameplay and story given the team, but Jesus Christ, did they lose all their artistic talent over the years or do people actually like the bland High Fantasy photorealism that the series has had since 14? Put a dump truck full of money in front of Akihiko Yoshida‘a house and let…

So I’m not crazy. That’s exactly what it looked like. DAMMIT SQUARE YOOU GOT ME AGAIN!

Does seem like they’ve sold out doesn’t it? Completely gone is the FF of my youth. If you took out the chocobo I wouldn’t even recognize it as a FF game. It looked an awful lot like the Witcher series.

Mostly because it’s being done by Yoshida’s team, the only FF team with talent and self-awareness

They talked about a mother crystal and that’s an element used heavily in FFXI and FFXIV. I’m optimistically excited that they will somehow find a way to connect the universes, as they’ve already done with a few franchises in XIV.

The desaturation of color in Final Fantasy seems to correlate quite nicely with its lost sense of whimsy. I miss the days of IX.

This makes me appreciate Persona 5's very clean and streamlined UI even more.

The reason why those were good: because THEY WERE IN THE ORIGINAL GAME, they were just expanded upon in CC. And that’s basically every attempt to expand FFVII in a nutshell: the original is still timeless, relevant, and groundbreaking, but every time they’ve tried to add something it’s blown up in their face.