I respect your response, but I feel quite differently. I would’ve been turned off if all they had done was adapted FF7 blow by blow. (Not to the level of a hashtag, but in the “unlikely to buy at release” camp.) I’ve already played that game. I go back and play it sometimes. It’s great; just port it periodically so…

FF7: Remake is a series, and this is the first game of the series, yes.

I can’t make that assessment without seeing how it’s implemented in game. Tone especially is so dependent on context that, at best, I can only say that it’s different.

Legend of Mana is my favorite Mana game, perhaps because it makes so many odd-yet-charming design choices.

A few reviewers will allow you to compare tens of games, not thousands.

If you have a way to sift through thousands of releases without an algorithm, let me know!

This. He’s being excessively emotional; he can’t even take a little counterargument without engaging in personal attacks.

You didn’t have to suggest I lied about earning a PhD, or misconstrue my examples in bad faith. You deserve no further response.

You haven’t even beaten the Bloody Baron and you’re waxing hyperbolically about the writing being objectively bad.

Sanic 3 and Cankles with Males Chowder was fantastic, especially when I went Souper Taliesin and had Fuckies flying around me.

To each their own. I delighted in the puzzle design and the sense of physics-based mayhem I could wreak as a goose. I found it accurately rated - a small gem.

Absolutely. Dragon Quest XI with faster battle speed is downright fun; without it, the animations are cute for about the first forty hours. In classic games, bumping up battle speed to x3 or x4 lowers the monotony for more repetitive encounters.

Yes, it had holes. I’m still writing and thinking about the film, though. Overall, in the moment, I enjoyed it. It beat most of the prequels for me.

Stripes was the film where Richard Gere became a naval officer and sorted out his life, right?

The reading experience this morning was like so:

I entirely agree that linearity is not binary. Also, your list did not initially identify itself as “ways in which XIII diverged from Final Fantasy”; you said,

Isn’t what true of anything? You didn’t quote anything specific, and I have two replies in this thread. With little to go on, I will assume that you’ve read both replies, start with a statement you made in the middle, and work my way out:

Preference isn’t binary though. It’s possible to like both what a prior Final Fantasy did and what a present game does, just as it’s possible to like both less linear games (Xenoblade Chronicles X) and more linear games (Xenosaga), and just as it’s possible to like a hypothetical FFX with more/less linearity either…

Most of the items you cite are only bad if you except the premise that they are bad. For example, is linearity bad? It depends who you ask and what the context is. For instance, I like FFX and Xenosaga.

I’ve never understood why that is a problem. I loved the linear approach in Final Fantasy X. Several other RPGs take the same basic approach - Xenosaga, for one.