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Friday, March 15, 2024

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade "INTERmission"

Released as downloadable content for Final Fantasy VII Remake (but frustratingly not available on the PS4 version), INTERmission is a new chapter of the story starring a relatively minor character from the original version of FF7; namely, Yuffie.  Mostly set around the Sector 7 slums, it has Yuffie ally with a new character named Sonon as they attempt to steal Shinra's "ultimate materia"; a story that unfolds in about 3-5 hours of playtime.  Of course, like the main game there's also plenty of side content to undertake beforehand, with the majority of it going to a new minigame.  Loosely based on the real-time strategy minigame Fort Condor from the original FF7, it plays out as more of a MOBA style minigame this time, having you summon units to defend your three towers and destroy the enemy's (or at least deal more damage) on a three-minute time limit.  It's simple, but fun and surprisingly deep - you'll need to change up your team loadout and tactics quite a bit if you want to conquer every opponent in it.

Sonon is only available as an AI-controlled ally (though you can give him commands), but thankfully Yuffie has more than enough versatility to make up for it.  She can fight both in close-range by slashing with her shuriken, or toss it away and have it spin in place (damaging anything it touches) and fight from afar by using magical bursts, giving her quite a bit of versatility.  Her innate abilities are also quite varied, letting her effectively exploit any elemental weakness without requiring Materia or MP-consuming spells.  Her HP is relatively low, but she is extremely speedy and mobile, so avoiding damage isn't as problematic as you'd think.  Intergrade also introduces a mechanic that would become more refined in Rebirth, namely Synergy - she can Nonon can both spend an ATB bar to unleash powerful attacks, or even both spend a Limit bar at the same time to inflict massive damage.

INTERmission is what you'd expect - an interquel side-story in the form of paid DLC, with a few mechanics (and a major character) that would of course have more prominence in the next game in the series.  While not strictly essential to enjoy the experience it is quite fun, and it doesn't wear out its welcome; you're provided with some fun minigames and a decent enough side-story containing about 4-6 hours of content to enjoy.  Worth a pickup or a bundled buy for sure.


Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 2021
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

The second part of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy finally gets the party out of Midgar and continues the remixed plot right where the last game's left off, working in many new open world elements, character interactions and minigames along the way.  But does it prove a worthy continuation of Remake, or does Rebirth just give more weight to the criticism that it's an overbloated and unnecessary reimagining of a classic?

There was much buzz about the Final Fantasy VII remake, in no small part because Square had been not-so-subtly teasing it since the Playstation 3 era, remaking the intro from scratch as part of a trailer.  It finally debuted in 2020, and while well-received overall, also attracted a fair amount of criticism for changing up the story in some rather bizarre ways (something upper management insisted upon against director Tetsuya Nomura's wishes), and for feeling more than a bit padded.  I can't personally disagree -  the dungeons did feel overly long at times and the sidequests just weren't too interesting for the most part.  Still, it had enough new twists to hold my interest and it didn't stretch out into a 60+ hour slog just for the sake of it, so I had fun playing it and it didn't wear out its welcome.

Rebirth continues right where the last game picked up, but seems to take some criticisms of the original to heart.  One thing you notice right away is that the game world is much more open; in fact, once the intro (the familiar Nibelheim flashback) plays out it dumps a whole bunch of quests on you all at once, prompting you to venture around the grasslands near Kalm in order to analyze rare enemies, acquire a piece of armor from some thieves, activate broadcast towers and, of course, battle Chadley's simulated critters to unlock summons and other goodies.  Various NPCs also give quests of their own, so within the first few hours you've already got 40 or so side-tasks available.  And there's only more to come once you reach other areas; basically, almost every time you'd hit a stretch of empty world map in the original you're now given a bunch of optional objectives to complete.  They are all fun though and almost never devolve into tedious item-farming, so that's a definite plus.

Some new mechanics quickly show themselves too.  Right away you're given the Item Transmuter and introduced to the game's crafting system (because every game nowadays needs one of those).  Basically you find various items on the field (or in shops) that are useless on their own, but can be crafted into useful things like Potions, Phoenix Downs and Ethers, as well as more powerful versions of each that affect the entire party.  As you craft new things and complete sidequests you'll gradually upgrade the Transmuter, earning new recipes that can prove quite handy in other ways - creating new accessories that can't be bought in stores or upgrading armlets, with upgraded versions having slightly better stats than the standard ones.

Party Level also crops up right away, and it's tied to each character now having a skill tree, earning more points by - you guessed it - completing sidequests and purchasing skill books.  These do have a number of useful purposes, with a prominent one being that you can now launch elemental attacks without requiring MP; just spending an AP bar.  Others include new synergy moves (more on those in a second) and just straight stat buffs, giving a character more HP, damage or making their unique skills more effective.

Synergy is another new addition, and it comes in two forms - Skills and Abilities.  Skills serve as new attacks and are activated by holding down R1 to block and then pressing one of the four face buttons, which causes your current character and a second character in the active party to perform a flashy team-up move.  They tend to do quite a bit of damage and also quickly build up AP, so they're very handy in the more hectic battles where enemies love to hound you constantly.  Performing them also builds up bars, which can then be spent to activate Synergy Abilities - powerful cinematic attacks that also grant temporary buffs like unlimited MP or extended stagger time.  In both cases, it's a good idea to mix them up - using the same ones repeatedly will also cause them to take longer and longer to recharge. 

Rebirth of course follows the central part of Final Fantasy VII's story where much of the playable cast joins up, so they've added several new playable character and given each their own mechanics.  Yuffie returns from the Intergrade DLC chapter of Remake and plays largely the same as she did there, able to attack from melee range as well as throw out her shuriken and bombard the enemy with ranged attacks while it remains separated from her (doing damage itself as it spins in place and damages nearby enemies).  Red XIII is made fully playable, able to block attacks to fill his Vengeance meter and enter Vengeance Mode once it's at least partly filled, boosting his damage and dodge speed and getting a secondary attack in Siphon Fang, a move which absorbs HP.  Cait Sith is perhaps the strangest character of all, effectively being three characters in one - the Cat can fight solo, but much of his effectiveness stems from his summoned Moogle, which can fight on its own or pair up with the Cat in "Mounted Mode" to greatly expand their collective moveset.  Their special moves (and Limit Breaks) are also dependent on their Luck stat, so bolstering that with some Luck Plus materia will let you get more mileage out of them.  Vincent and Cid assist as AI-controlled allies, but are not playable; presuably they'll follow in Red's footsteps and become full-fledged characters in the third and final entry.

An integral part of Final Fantasy VII's gameplay was of course its minigames, and Rebirth certainly doesn't skimp on bringing that back.  In fact, there's enough minigames here to rival one of the Yakuza games.  From crunches to combat challenges to smashing boxes to herding moogles to a MOBA-like minigame based on Fort Condor (also seen in Intergrade), and that's all before you hit the Gold Saucer, which has plenty more of its own.  3D brawling, shooting targets, and even a Rocket League style minigame with Red playing a high-speed version of Soccer.  For the first time since Final Fantasy IX, we also get a game-spanning substory in the form of Queen's Blood - a collectible card minigame.  It has a similar element of controlling space on the board, but comes down more to strategic placement of your own cards ratings rather than trying to dominate or destroy your opponent's; basically, you place cards down to mark adjacent spaces as your own for future moves, and once both players pass a turn, whoever has the highest score in each of the three lanes gets points for that lane, with whoever has the highest score in total winning the game.  There are a wide variety of different cards and tactics to employ, as well as some rare cards with powerful effects to overcome and use yourself, so there's certainly no shortage of tactics despite being a simple game at a glance; you'll have to get pretty creative if you want to conquer every opponent and collect every card.  Thankfully you don't lose your own cards when you lose a round either, which spare a lot of the tedious reloading saves that came with FFVIII and IX's card games.

One thing I did find a little jarring about Rebirth (and Remake to a degree) is that it plays up the humor element quite a lot compared to the 1997 original.  Nomura isn't in the director's chair this time, but his influence is still felt, with  hammy voiceover, jokey dialog and no shortage of exaggerated silly moments.  One that particularly stands out in my mind is the famous Midgardsormr death scene - a chilling scene we only saw the aftermath of in the original, but here it's an onscreen event - one that's so abupt and over-the-top that it actually made me laugh out loud.  The original FF7 did have its moments of levity, but certainly not to this degree; honestly the Remake series almost feels like a parody of Final Fantasy VII at times rather than an earnest attempt to recapture the original's heavy mood.

Rebirth feels like a logical extension of Remake in almost every respect - addressing some prominent shortcomings of the original, adding a much wider world to explore and keeping the core combat intact while adding in numerous new mechanics and playable characters.  The addition of more (and more varied) sidequests and minigames helps it quite a bit too, staving off the monotony of constant combat and dungeon-crawling that its predecessor frequently fell into.  The Final Fantasy VII Remake series may not quite rank as essential gaming material, but it is a lot of fun, it looks gorgeous in 4K and certainly doesn't lack for content, humor value or putting clever twists on many elements of a long-standing genre staple so I still consider it a success, and an easy shoe-in for one of the best games of 2024 so far.


Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 2024
Platforms: PlayStation 5
Recommended Version: N/A

Monday, March 4, 2024

Star Control II: the Ur-Quan Masters

A followup to the moderately successful 2D space strategy sim, Star Control 2 takes things in a much different direction.  Drawing heavy inspiration from Starflight, there is now a much greater focus on storytelling, resource gathering and following a trail of clues to defeat a powerful enemy.  But does this blend of simplistic, arcadey combat and complex storytelling work out for the best, or does it get lost among the other stars of early '90s gaming?

The original Star Control was a modestly successful game in its time; with gameplay encompassing a blend of strategic board control and arcade action, it worked both as a single player experience and as a two player head-to-head combat game, earning a following both on computers and from a Sega Genesis port produced by Ballistic.  There was an overarching story about a war between two factions - the Alliance of Free Stars and the oppressive Ur-Quan Empire - though it was mostly told in text blurbs at the start of each campaign and had little bearing on the gameplay save for determining what types of ships each side utilized.  Combat was inspired by one of the very first video games ever made - 1962's Spacewar! - and featured one-on-one top-down duels between two ships, with varying specs and weapons depending on the type of ship.

Star Control 2 retains the top-down combat in both single and multiplayer mode (called "Super Melee!"), but the rest of the game is completely reworked into a narrative experience.  After the Alliance canonically loses the war in the first game, the people of Earth are permanently imprisoned by a "Slave Shield" that encircles the entire planet.  The player, captain of a skeletal ship from a long-lost alien race called the Precursors, was stranded during the final leg of the war and thus was not imprisoned with the rest of humanity.  Aided by the crew of a space station orbiting Earth, they begin a journey to seek out other alien races, build a resistance force to the Ur-Quan and eventually reclaim their freedom.

Building on that, you start off with just your skeletal Precursor ship (and should it be destroyed at any time, it's an immediate Game Over) and a single Earthling Cruiser.  However, you have the option to build more Cruisers at the space station, and as you interact with and befriend other alien races, more options become available.  From the cowardly Spathi (whose Eluders are weak, but relatively durable and extremely fast) to the Pkunk Fury (with a short-ranged minigun and random ability to resurrect from death) to Arilou Skiffs (which can teleport and move independently of inertia), there are numerous options.  Enemy ships are equally varied, of course, and picking the correct ship type to counter their strengths is invariably a good idea.  Each ship has up to two weapons and runs off a slowly-recharging energy supply to ensure that you pick your shots carefully rather than just firing wildly.  If you're severely outmatched you can also press Escape to flee from battle, though you are left vulnerable for several seconds while the escape drive activates, so it's best saved as a last resort.

As in earlier games like Starflight and Elite, you won't get too far on a basic ship and little backup, so you'll need to purchase a boatload of upgrades to give yourself a fighting chance.  Crewmen also effectively serve as your ships' hit points and (of course) do not regenerate on their own, so you'll have to purchase quite a few replacements over the course of the game.  This is primarily accomplished through exploration - visiting other star systems and planets in search of raw materials you can trade in for Resource Units (abbreviated as RUs), which in turn can be spent to buy upgrade modules.  Resources are color-coded by value, ranging from common (cyan) materials worth only 1 RU apiece all the way up to radioactives (orange) being worth 8.  Scarcer still are "Exotics", colored purple, which are worth a whopping 25 apiece, but are very hard to come by outside of rare Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald planets.  Planetary surfaces come with their own array of hazards - violent storms, earthquakes and waves of fire on particularly hot planets, as well as wildlife that can damage you on contact and potentially destroy your landers.  Stunning wildlife with your landers' beams allows you to collect data icons, which indirectly serve as a secondary resource - by trading it to another race called the Melnorme, you earn Credits to purchase useful clues for your journey and an array of useful upgrade modules for your ship and your landers.  From making your landers more resistant to planetary hazards to more efficient fuel tanks to stronger weapons, they all prove quite useful, though the order you get them in is fixed and they cost quite a few Credits apiece.  The Melnorme also pay highly for the location of "Rainbow Worlds", of which there are only a scant few in the entire game, so those are well worth seeking out once you have the means.  Finally, they're a much cheaper source of fuel than your starbase (1 Credit per unit as opposed to 20 RUs), so they're invaluable for refueling your ship, especially when you're far from Sol.

Of course, the meat of the game is finding and interacting with other alien races; not just to add more combat ships to your repertoire, but they'll often give vital clues in the form of planets with valuable deposits or point you in the direction of other helpful races.  Of course, help rarely comes for free - you'll often have to complete some quest or another to convince other races to aid you in the fight, and at times you'll even have to get creative - coercion is a perfectly valid tactic.  The dialog throughout all of these encounters is incredibly inspired and often downright hilarious, succeeding in bringing the universe of Star Control to life and getting you raveled in its lore while rarely regressing into stretches of empty exposition.  Even without the 3DO version's voice acting, they still manage to add some personality to each individual race by having them all speak in different fonts.  Solid proof that a well-written narrative does leagues more to keep you enthralled in a game than any amount of empty filler missions could.

Despite being over thirty years old at this point, Star Control 2 remains a highly regarded game among fans of both science fiction and PC gaming.   There's little doubt to why after you play it for only a short while - with its relatively simple interface and combat but engrossing story, sharply written dialog, a massive universe to explore and countless secrets to uncover and mysteries to solve, a it's downright addictive experience.  It proved to be a big inspiration among industry names too, with developers on high profile titles like Fallout, Mass Effect and Stellaris citing it as a major influence.  Since it's also been made open-source and fan-ported to numerous platforms (with the title trimmed to just "The Ur-Quan Masters" owing to copyright concerns) and can be freely downloaded and played natively in Windows with the benefit of controller support and enhanced music from its 3DO port, there's little reason not to at least give it a chance.


Developer: Toys for Bob
Publisher: Accolade
Released: 1992
Platforms: MS-DOS, 3DO, PC
Recommended Version: As mentioned above the 3DO version of the game had its source code released in 2002, allowing for freely-available enhanced ports to numerous platforms under variants of the title "the Ur-Quan Masters".  These include HD graphics, native Xinput support and numerous gameplay extensions, as well as implementing the voice acting and enhanced music from the 3DO version.  Check out the vanilla version at this Sourceforge site, or the Ultronomicon Wiki for other versions of the Ur-Quan masters (including an HD remaster).