A lot of women that I’ve met have a weak/no handshake, so the surprise at a firm handshake makes sense to me. I am surprised when a woman has a firm handshake. I have wondered if it’s throwback conditioning to old-timey “don’t-shake-hands-just-offer-your-hand” kind of socialization, but I don’t know. I am always a…

I threw in for The Amazon, myself, but Star Man would be great too, and probably provide a couple better alt colors.

I was expecting something goofy, but that music swap straight up ignited interest in a game that I previously didn't give a crap about. The hype is real.

At the urging of friends, I gave Persona 3: FES a try - and while I liked the game, I didn't enjoy the battle system/dungeon so much. It felt repetitive, and I hated having to sometimes battle my team's AI as much as the enemies themselves. But I was determined one day, to finish the game out of spite.

I was thinking similar things.

Well, my copy of Type-0 is coming on the 17th, so I'll see what I think at that point. =)

Well, I don't think that's so at all. It's kind of esoteric because the spell/element names are wacky, but Persona is all about exploiting weaknesses so you can get your One More! attacks and gang-ups. They try to emphasize the summons, but ultimately I didn't feel like they mattered too much as long as you had a good…

Well now this is just weird. I can't say I'm crazy about the idea. It just kinda feels like flailing about.

It's too bad you're not into the Persona games, I think you're missing out. I have friends who tell me the same thing about the core SMT titles though, which I don't care for, so I can see where you're coming from.

Heh, I don't think having optional pitstops make for a 'natural' feeling progression. I don't have a great counter-example off the top of my head, but FF7 was very much "do this part, now do this part, now do this part, now do this part..."

Well, genre fans have been lucky enough to have other games that scratch that itch, from Bravely Default to Persona 3 & 4 to Lost Odyssey, they hew to the genre conventions pretty firmly while still doing interesting things in their own right.

Well, sure. That's a process called "gating." The player is dissuaded, or outright barred, from venturing into a new area until they've met certain requirements: i.e. leveling, finding a macguffin, etc. Early Dragon Quest games were even more transparent with this, in that crossing a bridge in the overworld was a very…

Well, I'll start with the obvious ones, Far Cry being a first-person shooter. The tenets of world design in an FPS generally tend to be radically different from an RPG. At least, ones I prefer — FF13 had some area design that felt like it'd work in an FPS, but that game isn't known for its design. So when someone says…

See, that doesn't jive with me. I don't know how you can say it feels like a Final Fantasy game in one breath, and in the next say that it "feels totally different than any Final Fantasy before it" in the next. Both statements can't be true, in my mind. I just know that when I sit down to play a Final Fantasy game,…

Well I'm certainly withholding judgement til I play it, I'm just not jazzed about seeing a JRPG compared to an FPS or a western-style RPG I had a hard time getting into. Guess we'll see!

helloooooooo

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

I have a lot of thoughts. The short version: Final Fantasy XV is full of smart ideas, and although the tropes are all there—phoenix downs, gysahl greens, peppy victory music—it feels totally different than any Final Fantasy before it, more akin to Skyrim or Far Cry than any JRPG we've seen to date. But can Square…

So much fucking complaining. I've realized now that the only "acceptable" cast amongst people who care about this sorta thing belongs to Thomas Was Alone.

Whatever, other commenters, I was totally tickled by this. Yes it was Royal X-Baums, but it was recognizable and delightful. Plus it probably would have not worked as well to do The Fantastic Mr. Xavier. (or maybe it would? I don't know.)