Some brief updates and musings on a few of the rabbit holes I've jumped down over the past few month.
Final Fantasy XV
More ironic than a franchise called “Final Fantasy” being
one of the longest-running gaming franchises in existence is this new endeavor
Square-Enix has made to stubbornly turn entry since XIII into its own
platform. Though some good came out of the weird mess that was
who-knows-how-many-games-with-Lightning, there’s clearly something
counterproductive at work here, and it’s something SE refuses to acknowledge. FFXIV I will give a pass because it’s an MMO, but I’ve already started to see the
signs in FFXV’s production as well. I still plan on giving the game a chance whenever
it releases, but I stopped actively caring about it years ago, along with Beyond Good & Evil 2 and The Last Guardian. There’s a reason
why plenty of us are so enamored with Final Fantasy XIV and it’s because it’s
actively showcasing what made the series unique and loveable before X happened, which is
the point where the series began relying on a weird and heavy-handed gravitas
it never earned in titles past IX (again I’m exempting XI and XIV because their
natures are very different). Right now, XV looks like it’s going to be the same
mess that XIII was initially, which isn’t surprising but kind of sad, especially
since Square clearly is reacting to this (even if they don’t realize it), by doing
this platforming of single worlds and things like dragging VII out of its
casket for a remake. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if I wound up
enjoying World of Final Fantasy more than whatever XV eventually presents as,
hell I wouldn’t surprised if I enjoyed Heavensward’s next patch more than I do
XV.