I was always under the impression that changes to the story had less to do with Matsuno leaving (every interview I’ve read downplayed that fact, saying the story was finalized early into development) and more to do with Square thinking players valued androgyny. I thought because of that they shifted the perspective…

My guess? The people that we have been told we should look to are fallible. If musicians/actors/politicians are disappointing us, why shouldn’t superheroes?

This would have been great during any of Tim's Kingdom Hearts streams last week. Did anyone count how many times that guy tried to send spoilers for a pre-release game? Props to the people who kept reporting him though!

For what it’s worth, SE have released a couple of collections on PS3 & 4 that make the whole series playable on modern consoles. It seems like they’re really counting on everyone who played the two mainline games way back when to purchase the new game, though.

That oral history is outstanding, and I think Eidos did the port of VIII as well, but I didn’t mention it because I couldn’t confirm it.

The word on the internet is that the original source code is in fact lost. You’re right that the Steam version is relatively new, but it’s based on the original PC version, not the Playstation version.

For the past couple of years, my reading wishlist has been filling up with books with longer page counts. For a handful of reasons, I’ve been pushing them off. This year, I’m not going to take length into account when I pick my next book.

After playing sporadically since I got my Switch in September, I finished Breath of the Wild last week. By the time I decided to approach the castle I was ready to be done with the game, but my time with it was perhaps the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time.

Not quite 5 months later and I'm really enjoying Octopath Traveler. But there's nothing intuitive about this dungeon/quest, and that's a problem in a game with a disconnected narrative, at least as far as I'm concerned

You beat me to it. I’ve had a hard time with the album, but the only time I’ve listened to that song since May brought me to sobbing tears

There are a lot of solid options on Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit, and I might have picked something from My Backwards Walk. But since Scott’s death I haven’t been able to listen to Floating in the Forth. I feel haunted just thinking about him singing “I’ll float away.”

It’s unfair because it’s content that should reasonably be included in the main game. It may have been inconsequential that Gladio disappeared for a chapter, but it’s disingenuous to imply that it’s meaningful (which Square did) and sell the story separately. It’s abusive to have a major character revelation late in…

Counterpoint: Octopath Traveler, a 2D and intentionally ‘retro’ game, shipped a million copies in less than a month

I finally pulled the trigger on a Switch, with Breath of the Wild and Octopath Traveler. My goal was to try out both, and download Hollow Knight, but I haven't been able to pull myself away from Zelda. It's so much fun. Somehow you've all managed to under-sell it

Very sad to hear this. It was clear from the music that Scott had some struggles, but I’d hoped that the release of subsequent albums meant he was managing. A reminder to get help if you need it.

I’m so here for deep, textual analysis of Dragon Age 2. Appreciate you

I picked up Rise of the Tomb Raider during the Squeenix publisher sale a couple weeks ago and I’m really hoping to finish it. I can’t put my finger on the reason, but I’m not having as much fun with it as I did with the first, even though they feel practically the same

If the first 5 minutes don’t explain how Tessa Thompson and Ed Harris got away from the massacre at the end of the first season, while apparently everyone else died (that was a shot of Ford’s reveal, wasn’t it?) I will not be sticking around

I & II were released a year apart. III, IV, & V were released a year apart. VIII, IX, X, & XI were released a year apart. For a long time, yearly releases were the Final Fantasy way.

Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ was my first breakup album and still the one I go back to. ‘My Backwards Walk,’ ‘Keep Yourself Warm,’ and ‘Poke’ make Frightened Rabbits’ ‘Midnight Organ Fight’ a great one as well