I have no idea why this comment is pending approval and I don’t like it.

Are the novels any good? I remember the story of Lunar being pretty standard hero’s journey-type stuff with a slice of...uh *checks hazily-remembered notes* space aliens and dragons?

Lunar were some of my favorite RPGs growing up, even if the stories—iirc—weren’t super deep or complicated. They’re right up there with Grandia and Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II in the US) as the first RPGs that helped get me into RPGs that weren’t blockbuster hits at the time, like FF7 or Star Ocean: The…

I mean, agree to disagree.

I mean, if you over-explain everything and gloss over how these things connect together, of course you’re going to get nonsense. None of what you described is revealed at the same time, nor is most of it thrown in your face shotgun-style without build-up or explanation. (I will concede that the final boss of FF9, Necro…

I think that attitude is also going in the wrong direction, tbh. Good storytelling is always going to be subjective no matter the medium, and one of the first things everyone should learn as an author—especially if you’re a white male author—is that there’s nothing new under the sun. Most every idea has been done…

because not one of them would pass muster for a book publisher and editor if you presented them as a coherent or remotely interesting story.

“Play the Persona series if you want to see good storycraft.”

I will never understand this take. FF7&8 maybe have obtuse stories—FF7 moreso than 8—but mainline entries into the franchise since then have not been difficult to understand.

Can’t see the video, Bashcraft.

Avatar had two major alien species, one of which were basically long space cats while the other were pterodactyls. None of the humanoids in the movie also moved or reacted or did stunts in a way that was superhuman—which, as far as the Spartans and Elites are concerned, are par the course for how they fight.

Assassin, the original party game this and all iterations of games like this are drawn from, has been a thing for several decades, so.

CGI would never be able to capture the aliens in the series, and/or it would be way to expensive to create the look of the Spartans + the Covenant with conventional make-up and prop work.

Bashcraft and other authors rarely read comments on smaller articles like this. There’s a difference between a lengthy blog post they write about something they’ve done original research/writing about and slightly rewording a press junket to push what amounts to a written ad to the site.

That’s not what a second persona perspective is, at all. You’re looking for the term audience surrogate.

The way I see it: Vaan is the audience insert within the Greek/Shakespearean tragedy that is FF12, and the true story is supposed to revolve around Basch, Ashe, and Balthier.

It’s based on the Ifrit from FFXIV

Final Fantasy XVI: Game of Witchering Thrones!!!

All very fair points, as well.

God, remember when John Boyega was so hype to be part of Star Wars because they’d told him, almost verbatim, he was the new star of the films?