ike's steam platinums blog (latest one: 177. age of wonders 3)

[Integrity]

13 hours ago, lenticular said:

I read through this entire post reading GF as girlfriend, which was at least moderately hilarious. I was dreading having to google "final fantasy gf" to try and see what it actually meant, but then I went back and read the start of your post again and got an actual answer. That is all.

i read the entire game reading GF as girlfriend. it's insanely fucking funny, because the characters constantly use the acronym too. there's just nothing like

SQUALL: Our power comes directly from GF...

5 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

In all honesty,

ok hater jeez lol. nomura kicks ass i'm sorry for your disorder

Edited May 20 by Integrity

[Lord_Brand]

What's wrong with my critique? Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean you need to dismiss it as a "disorder". I've followed the series for a long time, my complaints are legitimate. People go on about how "iconic" Final Fantasy is as a JRPG, but I feel it lost touch with its roots a long time ago. And while Nomura may be a good artist on a technical level, his stuff has begun to feel repetitive. I don't know if that's the art director's influence or his own personal choice, but my opinion stands.

And honestly, I'm concerned the admin of this server would attack me over my opinions. I'm sorry if my criticism offends you, but you're an admin, you should be conducting yourself with more dignity. Toxic behavior does nothing to make you look respectable or reliable. And if this is how the admin of the server behaves, because I criticized an artist they like, then I don't have high hopes for the server itself. Maybe it's time I looked elsewhere.

Edited May 20 by Lord_Brand

[Integrity]

i'm sorry i violated decorum by taking badly to you bustin up in here to say how all the final fantasies for the past twenty-seven years have lost their way, compared to the six years of final fantasy before that. it's not wrong to hold that opinion, even if i think it's really dumb, but this ain't the time nor place to drop a reddit-ass screed like that my man. if you don't like final fantasy, that's fine, but you're not just expecting to go right after a guy posting about how great a time he's having with these 3d final fantasies with how you think they suck actually using the absolute most shallow of critical language, are you? lenticular's post after the ff7 one was gently deranged but at least addressed points rather than just being sweeping critiques of "rpgs don't need contrived narratives"

[vanguard333]

7 hours ago, Integrity said:

ok hater jeez lol. nomura kicks ass i'm sorry for your disorder

2 minutes ago, Integrity said:

i'm sorry i violated decorum by taking badly to you

I can honestly say that I expected better behaviour from an administrator. Speaking as someone who actually has a neurodevelopmental disorder (specifically, autism spectrum disorder), accusing another person of having a disorder as a way to mock them goes beyond "violating decorum"; it's outright crass and disrespectful.

[Integrity]

i won't argue that it wasn't a dickheaded thing to say or anything, but you guys have posted here before. you're free to expect better behavior, but i genuinely don't see why you would. my pattern of behavior has been clear for years, and i do not appreciate this "expect better from an administrator" stuff.

 

i apologize for being a dick, i took things too far, but everything else stands.

[Original Alear]

On 5/19/2024 at 11:28 AM, Integrity said:

FINAL FANTASY VIII (SQUARE, 1999)
Finished: 19/5/24. Playtime: 123.3 hours.

Onwards and upwards, fellas. Starkly below even my limited experience with 7, being Just Most Of Midgar, my prior experience with 8 amounted to a demo disc where, as I recall, you got to explore Balamb Garden and go into the Fire Caverns to do the tutorial dungeon and that was it.

@ your comment about the demo disc: I think you're remembering wrongly, because the demo I played is just the Dollet mission (no Ifrit mission prior). I never beat it because your guys don't level and the mecha crab is too strong. I don't remember if junctioning worked - I mean, your guys automatically had GFs and abilities junctioned but I'm not sure there was status junctioning. I looked on the wiki, it doesn't LOOK like anyone knows of a demo which just covers the ifrit mission. But it turns out there's another demo disc (not US) that covers the part of the game where you go through the training center with Quistis and fight Granaldo.

Personally, I don't look back on FF8's story with pronounced fondness. I no longer find myself particularly moved by it. But there were many parts of its story/music/art style that I found appealing. The character design (in terms of fashion and distinctiveness) is mostly not that great IMO, though I kinda like Squall's gunblade and normal clothing. But the environments/locations are probably my favorite in the series, probably some of my favorite in fiction altogether. The ruins where Odin and tonberries are found probably top the list. Fisherman's Horizon is true greatness. The headmaster of Galdabia Garden ending up there and admitting he has cards confiscated from students was just one of many lovable touches. And while I don't have current attachment to the story now, I thought it was pretty fun at the time.

Junctioning is kinda eh.

Lightbrand, considering how harshly you criticized Square ('insufferable self-absorbed artists), you shouldn't expect to be treated particularly agreeably by who appears to be a genuine fan of what you were criticizing IMO.

[Integrity]

9 minutes ago, Original Alear said:

@ your comment about the demo disc: I think you're remembering wrongly,

entirely possible, i literally played it for the last time two continents and twenty-six years ago. i do remember zell being there? so that would suggest that it wasn't the fire cavern

 

10 minutes ago, Original Alear said:

But the environments/locations are probably my favorite in the series, probably some of my favorite in fiction altogether. The ruins where Odin and tonberries are found probably top the list.

yeah i didn't really go into that but most of ff8's locations (major outlier being the prison at the start of disc 2. christ.) at least attempted to be interesting. i have no idea how the odin dungeon or the final dungeon would come across on original hardware without a handy guide, but they were certainly trying to be more than Just RPG Dungeons, both visually and mechanically. it was cool.

my major disagreement is that FH actually sucked ass but not because it didn't look cool or wasn't neat to vibe in, but entirely because of the multiple screens you had to transition across from balamb to actually get into it, and then back, and then you didn't even end up back in the pilot seat at balamb, you had to walk back to the cockpit and take back off. i tagged it once or twice by accident and had to go through the whole rigmarole to just get back to the world map and i will forever hold a blood feud with the citizens of FH for that reason and no other

[Lord_Brand]

1 hour ago, Integrity said:

i won't argue that it wasn't a dickheaded thing to say or anything, but you guys have posted here before. you're free to expect better behavior, but i genuinely don't see why you would. my pattern of behavior has been clear for years, and i do not appreciate this "expect better from an administrator" stuff.

 

i apologize for being a dick, i took things too far, but everything else stands.

I was under the impression others were giving their critique of the game; the part about the orphanage in particular reminded me of how contrived a plotline I thought that was, and that lead to me voicing my opinion of the series. I deleted that part so as not to put a downer on good times.

I appreciate your apology. Please conduct yourself more carefully in the future to avoid future such incidents, as shall I.

19 minutes ago, Original Alear said:

Lightbrand, considering how harshly you criticized Square ('insufferable self-absorbed artists), you shouldn't expect to be treated particularly agreeably by who appears to be a genuine fan of what you were criticizing IMO.

It took me a moment to figure out you were referring to me and not someone on here named "Lightbrand". We're talking about a company as opposed to a person here, and I was not directing my critique towards any member of the forum prior to being accosted myself, but for what it's worth I removed that part from my post, and I in turn apologize if my own language came off too harsh. I too am a genuine fan of the series, at least its classic installments, and though I will not continue voicing my opinions on the matter here, I remain frustrated with where the series has gone since.

To provide some kind of positive commentary here, FFVIII's versions of many of the summons such as Shiva and Ifrit have long been my favorites, and when I think of them, these versions are the ones that pop into my mind. FFVIII too was a part of my childhood and early teen years, thus I do have some nostalgia for the game.

Edited May 20 by Lord_Brand

[Integrity]

fair enough. i'll let it lie and shan't belabor it any further.

[Original Alear]

Reg the demo: I actually think you're right, that it isn't the fire cavern, since the wiki would probably know about the demo disc in the Fire Cavern if there was one. But, it's actually the case that Rinoa appears in the Dollet Mission during one of the demo discs. So Zell appearing in the fire cavern would perhaps not be a complete refutation of your memory.

my major disagreement is that FH actually sucked ass but not because it didn't look cool or wasn't neat to vibe in, but entirely because of the multiple screens you had to transition across from balamb to actually get into it, and then back, and then you didn't even end up back in the pilot seat at balamb, you had to walk back to the cockpit and take back off. i tagged it once or twice by accident and had to go through the whole rigmarole to just get back to the world map and i will forever hold a blood feud with the citizens of FH for that reason and no other

Fair.

[lenticular]

2 hours ago, Integrity said:

lenticular's post after the ff7 one was gently deranged

Well, if nothing else, this conversation has at least given me an incentive to finally get around to looking up where I have to go to add myself a member title, so it hasn't been a total loss.

[Integrity]

it's a fantastic title honestly

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Squall discovering his true power comes from GF:

(I have no idea if the non-remastered Steam release matches this PS1-resolution image)

There's only one argument I can see for FF8 not being Final Fantasy and it's taking Sakaguchi's Drunken answer to Yoshinori Kitase's (incidentally, the creative Director of Final Fantasy 8, but that's just one of them) question 'what is Final Fantasy' to heart. Blue Text Boxes. Kitase ignored his sage wisdom and went for the sacrilegious gray text boxes in FF8. But if you keep reading you'll discover his amended response is always striving to do new things, even if it's still the old stuffy blue text box.

Maybe he just didn't envision a future where game characters would speak their lines audibly rather than delivering dialogue entirely through text

[Integrity]

honestly i didn't rag on it enough for that. after the fucking rgb fiesta of ff7 menus, ff8's were total dogshit

[Original Alear]

It might be meant to convey the stolid, professional nature of SEEDs as mercenaries. Meanwhile, Avalanche probably took some hallucinogenics in 7th Heaven and Cosmo Canyon and are enjoying pretty colors. I'm no expert on FF Crisis Core's SOLDIER menus since I only played the opening mission, but it looks like its menus are a little more refined than 8s but still pretty businesslike.

[Tryhard]

my opinions on ff8 may have been tainted by the fact that people tried to argue that the draw and junctioning systems were both cool and good game mechanics at the time, unsuccessfully

that said, I found it very hard to care about the story and ended up dropping the game some time into it.

I remember it being a popular fan theory for many years that Squall actually died at the end of CD1, on the account that the rest of the game takes a turn for the strange and the rest of the game is just squall dreaming. this was eventually debunked by the game director himself. i find it incredibly funny that it was talked about with genuine legitimacy for a very long time.

https://squallsdead.com/ is still up and a fever dream

that said, laguna is based

Edited May 27 by Tryhard

[Integrity]

1 hour ago, Tryhard said:

I remember it being a popular fan theory for many years that Squall actually died at the end of CD1, on the account that the rest of the game takes a turn for the strange and the rest of the game is just squall dreaming. this was eventually debunked by the game director himself. i find it incredibly funny that it was talked about with genuine legitimacy for a very long time.

lol fuck i remember this, regrettably

[Integrity]

RAILBOUND (AFTERBURN, 2022)

Finished: 27/5/24. Playtime: 8.5 hours.

It's a puzzle game! A puzzle game about trains. There's twelve worlds of fifteen-ish puzzles each. Some of the world gimmicks worked for me, some didn't, and I wasn't shameful about looking up hints rather than spending a long time staring at a puzzle or another. Some may say this cheapens the game, and they're right, but I got what I wanted out of Railbound, so who wins in the end? I'd guess if I did this legitimate all the way through it would have taken more like twelve or so hours.

Completion is straightforward as it gets. Twenty-four achievements, one for each of the numbered worlds' main levels and one for the harder bonus levels that you unlock as you go. Three achievements for solving a puzzle without using all available rails (one, two, three puzzles) and three for fucking up in increasingly sad ways. The thirty-first and final is, if you watch the credits 'til the end, you get a bonus puzzle called ❤️ to solve and you get a special achievement for that. It's cute. Railbound was fun.

[riariadne]

i enjoy the contrast of pivoting from paragraphs about FF8, a labyrinthine, occasionally incomprehensible JRPG to "railbound was fun :)"

it's the full range of gaming experiences

[Integrity]

21 hours ago, Integrity said:

It's cute. Railbound was fun.

what the fuck i manifested an announcement from these devs about their new game and it's about dogs playing soccer how fucking powerful can i get

[Original Alear]

What does it mean to manifest an announcement in this context?

[Integrity]

i finished their game and the announcement dropped the next day, because i'm the main character of the universe (as is known)

[Integrity]

RACK AND SLAY (LUDOKULTUR, YESTERDAY)

Finished: 5/29/24. Playtime: 7.8 hours.

ROGUELIKE. DUNGEON DELVING. BILLIARDS. Sometimes, you can tell a game was created entirely out of someone mashing [Keyword]s together like in a CRPG and trying to realize the concept, and by God, this one did. What else is there to say except the tagline? It's exactly what those three [Keyword]s stuck together make you think. Sure, it throws in its little skill system and has more hazards than just corner pockets. Sure, it's got a collection of creative little enemies to throw at you. All that doesn't really matter - those three [Keyword]s tell you everything you need to know, and all that's left is whether it sticks the landing or not. It does. It's not the deepest game you'll ever play, but it's absolutely a $10-$15 game with a $5 price tag, and I still wasn't tired of it by the end of the achievements. I'll probably pull this one out occasionally to just shoot some pool again.

The achievements, essentially, just require twenty-two complete runs of the game. A run of the game is actually really modularly designed: it's a traditional level-shop-level-shop routine, and you decide two things: length and difficulty. Difficulty is the usual modern Ascension type thing, but interestingly you start with up to 10 unlocked, and you unlock it by twos as you go up to 20; it's also not required for achievements, play wherever you like. Length give you the option of Raid, Crawl, and Delve. Raid is one level, Crawl is five, and Delve is ten, but they also change your itemization. Raid gives you five random item picks straight up at the start, Crawl gives you two per shop, and Delve is just the usual clear level pick item loop. It's a cute way to control length while also giving you the opportunity to make kits and see fun synergies even in the short modes.

Anyhow, the achievements. Complete five each of Crawls and Delves. After that comes the Challenge modes. These are all various little ruleset breakers (very Mutation coded, for the 2000s FPS heads) where you get to do a Delve run on any difficulty you choose. The rulesets are cute, from one that has scant holes and shitloads of spikes to one that gives you very few shots but you refill one per enemy killed to one where all enemies are special enemies but you get a bunch of bonus items. Only one of them was truly a pain in the ass, and I genuinely liked more than half of the rest. Each of the ten has an achievement to clear it once at any difficulty. After that, there's a Daily and Wild challenge. Daily is the one time you're forced into a difficulty, but I didn't find it too bad. Wild grabs from a pile of random rules and smashes a handful together and tells you to just go for it. Complete one of each for an achievement each.

There's a handful of achievements for things you do along the way, like clearing out a stage (all enemies and pickups) in total, killing one of each type of boss ball, and various "interact with the systems" type of achievements, but I got them all along the way without trying. One thing I want to highlight in the last paragraph, instead, is the metaprogression. I've talked a lot, especially in these Final Fantasy writeups, about systems that way outstrip what you expect to put into them and make you wonder what the hell the devs were thinking, and here I'm going to very rarely talk about the exact opposite of that. You unlock new items for the shop by playing, simply getting one per five levels beaten regardless of whether you win the run or not. It's a pretty good system, and interestingly only applies to the main game; the Challenges all have all items unlocked from the jump, but still count as levels cleared for earning new stuff in the main game.  I hit my final unlock, maxing out the game, while doing my tenth from ten challenge, with only the Daily and Wild ones to go to 100% the game. Now that's appropriate scaling, oh man. Once you do, incidentally, the "next unlock" screen turns into the following message:

Quote

All items unlocked! Glad you seem to have liked the game! 🙂

You know what, Fabian? I totally did. Thanks a lot.

Edited May 29 by Integrity

[Integrity]

this is why i always do my steam discovery queue in the morning with my metaphorical coffee. it usually sucks, but every once in a while this happens lmao

[lenticular]

8 minutes ago, Integrity said:

ROGUELIKE. DUNGEON DELVING. BILLIARDS. Sometimes, you can tell a game was created entirely out of someone mashing [Keyword]s together like in a CRPG and trying to realize the concept, and by God, this one did.

Looking at the Steam page, I see that the same developer has also made a Wikipedia trivia roguelike. Mashing unlikely keywords together is clearly their jam.

I might pick this up, though. It looks neat, and I need something to distract me from the pain of banging my head against the brick wall of high-stakes black-deck Balatro.