RPG Diary

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

My goal to replay the Final Fantasy series was interrupted by the real world — a new Pokemon game was released. Pokemon is a more social experience than the typical RPG thanks to its trading and battling mechanics, so there is some pressure to play it while everyone else still is. I played a lot of Pokemon during 2020-2021, but I did not follow any news about these games at all, so I went into this one fairly blind.

Title	Pokemon Scarlet Pokemon Violet
Year	2022
System	NS
Developer	Game Freak
Publisher	Nintendo

The biggest change from the previous games is the open world map and removal of random encounters. While Pokemon Sword and Shield had already started this with the Wild Area, this time there are no legacy style routes at all. I think this is a great improvement as you can choose which wild Pokemon to battle. Alongside this change is the non-linear progression: after the prologue, you can complete most of the game in the order you choose. However, both wild Pokemon and trainers do not scale with you, so you are still somewhat nudged to progress in a certain order.

The last few Pokemon generations have introduced stupid gimmicks to battles, and the latest gimmick is called "Terastallization". This changes the type of a Pokemon which adds some strategy, though the NPCs of course never use it an interesting way. However, I was relieved this was not as dumb and gamebreaking as the previous "Dynamax" gimmick.

Pokemon as a series has never been particuarly known for its plot. However, this game manages to feel even weaker than the average Pokemon game due to its non-linear nature. After the prologue, you are suddenly left to just explore and do whatever you want with little explanation or motivation. There are three storylines that occur in parallel for the majority of the game, but they feel more like sidequests than a main plot. The rival, Nemona, is particularly underwhelming. Thankfully, the game does end on a high note as the final story arc is easily the most interesting part.

The worst thing about this game is undoubtedly the various graphics glitches and slowdown. It's not uncommon for Pokemon or scenery to briefly disappear or jump to strange locations, particularly during battle. Even more frustrating is simply waiting for the game to render. The most obnoxious slowdown is in your Pokemon boxes of all places — it takes a few seconds after changing boxes to see what Pokemon are in there. This was never a problem in any previous game and it becomes a serious detriment to collecting Pokemon.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this game. The gameplay is fairly standard (and perhaps too predictable) for the series, but the weak plot and graphical issues lowered my motivation to play. I hope the next game features more doubles battles since that is what the official PvP scene is focused on.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. I was a little disappointed with this game, but I never considered abandoning it, so it's easy for me to slot this one.

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X is a game that I have many fond memories of. It's one of the very first games that I can remember buying for myself. I know this game well, but it's been 15 years since the last time I've played it. Does it still hold up today?

Title	Final Fantasy X
Year	2001
System	PS2
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

Final Fantasy X is the first game in the series with spoken dialogue. This seemingly minor change along with the next generation (at the time) graphics make a huge impact, giving the game a very cinematic quality. This style suits the game well as it is probably the most plot-focused title so far — there are very few sidequests until the endgame. I personally enjoyed the pacing and presentation of the game, but my wife complained about the frequency of little cutscenes, especially in the first couple hours.

It goes without saying that such a plot-focused game needs a good plot. Thankfully, I think it has one of the best plots in any RPG that I've played. The world of Spira feels much more immersive than the settings of previous games. The main character, Tidus, is foreign to Spira which allows the game to explain the world naturally. This leads to several memorable plot twists. Yuna's impending death and everyone else's knowledge and acceptance of it really surprised me during my first play. While I did not understand the ending the first time I played this game, this time I was really saddened the way Tidus and Yuna's fates were swapped. However, I hated the post-credits scene with Tidus again because I felt it ruined the ending.

Final Fantasy X replaces the classic "ATB" (active time battle) system from previous games with a new battle system. Battles are turn-based again, but quick characters (and/or quick actions) can "lap" slower characters and act again before the slower characters. The game provides a timeline preview so you can determine when every character will get their next action. I really enjoyed this system as it felt very tactical, yet there was no anxiety over an enemy moving before I could select my action. The game also lets you swap out party members mid-battle. This is a great mechanic because most characters are specialized for certain enemies and it helps keep the party evenly leveled. Overall, this is one of my favorite RPG battle systems. My only complaint is that endgame superboss strategy mostly degenerates into just equipping Auto-Haste and spamming Quick Hit so that the enemy cannot use their big party wipe attacks.

Final Fantasy X eschews conventional character levels for the sphere grid system. For lack of better description, this is basically a board game in which your characters move along to unlock stats and abilities. In theory, the numerous intersections on the board allow for a lot of customization. However, many of these intersections are blocked for much of the game (at least in the original release), so characters mostly just complete their own section first. The optional superbosses require very high stats, so I ended up sending a few characters all the way around the entire board anyway. Thus, I think the sphere grid is more of an illusion of customization than an actual source of customization. Unfortunately, to truly max stats you need to actually erase and rewrite a significant amount of the board! This is a very tedious grind and it is not really worth the effort in the original release. (Re-releases added even harder superbosses which seems to justify it.)

The only serious complaint I have about this game are the mini-games. Thankfully, these are optional so you are not forced to complete them. However, many ultimate weapons are locked behind them. I found the following mini-games painful and I abused save states to finally beat them for the first time: dodging lightning, chocobo training, and butterfly catching. Many people will also include blitzball in this category though that mini-game is not difficult, just very time-consuming (minimum 9 hours). I personally enjoy blitzball and have actually loaded the game a few times just to play it, but even I did not unlock Wakka's ultimate weapon before I finished this play.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Clearly this is still one of my favorite games of all time, but it's getting crowded at the top. I preferred the plot just a bit more than Final Fantasy IX, but the painful (though optional) minigames leave it just under Final Fantasy V for me.

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX is another game that I've not played before (unless you count the first hour or so). This game seems to be popular and I've heard it's somewhat "retro", so I've always been curious about this one.

Title	Final Fantasy IX
Year	2000
System	PSX
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

Final Fantasy IX is a very plot-focused game, and I was totally hooked once the plot started unfolding. I really liked the characters in this game — they are memorable and most of them show growth during the game. I also found the villain very interesting as they do some awful things and their motives are unclear. Overall, I would say the game has good pacing and the main plot keeps moving from start to finish. My only complaint is that the intro sequence at the very beginning starts off very slow with a lot of dialogue and few battles which is a bad first impression.

Once the battles finally started, they felt a bit sluggish to me. Final Fantasy IX uses an ATB system like the previous 5 games in the series. However, it seemed like I was often waiting for queued actions to finally happen compared to previous games which seemed to move more swiftly. Ultimately, I played with ATB speed on the highest setting, but this was still a minor annoyance at times.

Final Fantasy IX is a relatively simple game. For about half of the game, the party is fixed so there are no decisions about who to use. The only form of character customization is learning abilities from equipment, but this mostly comes down to efficiently rotating gear between party members. This may disappoint some, but I personally enjoyed it as it allowed me to simply focus on the plot and play the game without stressing over optimal builds.

My least favorite part of this game is totally optional: I found all of the mini-games to be somewhat tedious and annoying. Chocobo Hot and Cold is basically a metal detector game: you check for treasure and get a vague hint about how close you are. This concept is fine, but the game adds a time limit to it which makes it very frustrating when you cannot quite find the exact location of the treasure and some of the best equipment is only obtainable from this mini-game. Frog Catching is also another tedious mini-game that I perhaps did not understand how to play efficiently. Thankfully, the rewards for that mini-game are much less important.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game thanks to its simple gameplay and interesting plot. While I had a few complaints, they are all minor or related to optional content. One of the ultimate weapons in this game is locked behind a ridiculous time limit, so maybe I will try a speedrun of this game someday.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. It's a tough decision for me between this game and Final Fantasy V. Since I had more (admittedly minor) annoyances with this game, I'll slide this just under it.

Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII is a game I had never played before and I had very little knowledge about it. Despite being released during Square's "golden era", it seems to be less popular than the other games released during that time. With that context, I was very excited to play this game.

Title	Final Fantasy VIII
Year	1999
System	PSX
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

Unfortunately, I felt this game started off on the wrong foot immediately. The opening FMV is a confusing blur that blends a proper prologue scene (the duel) with teasers of FMVs from later in the game (everything else). The game itself then begins with little up-front explanation of what is going on or anyone's motivations. This made me start losing interest very early on. (Who is Galbadia? Are they "evil"? Should I even care?)

Things continue to be only loosely explained as the game progresses. Some plot lines are just dropped without resolution and several plot twists felt absurd. A quick list of the main things that bothered me: Seifer's irrelevence, Squall's impalement, NORG, Squall in charge of Balamb Garden, the forgotten memories, and Squall's abrupt obsession with Rinoa. As a whole, the plot felt disorganized and rushed. Overall, I think I enjoyed the Laguna sub-story more than the main story itself.

Final Fantasy VIII has several experimental mechanics. Instead of MP or spell charges, spells are a consumable item held by a character. However, these consumables are not bought, they must be either "drawn" (stolen) from enemies in combat or acquired by dismantling playing cards. Instead of conventional equipment, these spells can be "junctioned" (equipped) to character's stats to raise them. The effectiveness of the junction scales with the quantity of the spell held, which discourages actually casting them. While these are interesting concepts, they made combat extremely tedious to me: if the enemy has a new spell, then I spent 10-15 minutes drawing it until the party was maxed out, otherwise everyone just used "Attack".

Most enemies in this game are leveled to match your party level. Overall, this did not seem to have much an impact on my playthrough, but the final boss(es) were notably challenging. (I was overleveled since I completed everything.) Since there's not much reward for leveling up and combat is tedious, by end game I was frequently using the "Enc-None" ability to disable random battles.

Sadly, the Triple Triad minigame is probably what I enjoyed most about this game. This card game can be played with most NPCs, so it's always available. There are a variety of different rules that can modify the game, and I still don't fully understand what all of them do! However, it also allows you to really break the game early since by dismantling certain cards into late game magic (which can then be junctioned!). I generally tried to avoid acquiring magic early this way to preserve some challenge.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. I was thoroughly disappointed with this game and may have abandoned it if I wasn't committed to playing the entire series. The plot is a mess, but I'd probably prefer playing this again over Final Fantasy II.

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII is hugely popular, but I've never actually completed it before. As a child, I got about halfway before I abandoned it for some reason. I've actually always had some resentment for this game, but I'm not entirely sure why — perhaps because it has overshadowed the previous games that I had enjoyed so much as a child. Now it's time for me to finally give this game a fair chance.

Title	Final Fantasy VII
Year	1997
System	PSX
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square (US Sony )

Immediately, the game makes a great impression with the smooth transition from the intro FMV, to a little cutscene, and into the first battle. FMVs are used with great effect in this game and it's a big improvement over the previous console generation. However, I was occasionally frustrated with the 3D maps because it was occasionally difficult to walk where I wanted to go. (The game predates the analog DualShock controller.)

Moving even further from high fantasy and doubling down on the steampunk style, the dystopian city of Midgar is such a memorable and iconic setting. The prologue in Midgar is so long that I thought the entire game would occur there — I remember being surprised the first time I saw the world map. Personally, I found the Shinra corporation a much more interesting opponent than Sephiroth, so I was disappointed when they became less important for a large portion of the game. Compared to previous villains, Sephiroth is elusive and enigmatic — it's unclear what his goals are for a long time and he barely interacts with the party. On the other hand, Shinra is a more traditional villain that directly engages the party on multiple occasions and I think the Sector 7 plate drop is one of the most evil events in the series.

The story in this game is highly memorable for its many twists. In particular, Cloud's personal arc felt so unique and unconventional. The game even ends on a cliffhanger without clearly explaining final outcome — the planet survives, but it's ambiguous whether mankind has survived.

I do have a few complaints about the game. I thought the game felt a little slow for most of disc 1. The first couple events are interweaved with a bunch of exposition, introducing characters and Midgar. However, after leaving Midgar it feels like the party is just aimlessly wandering across the map in search of Sephiroth for no particularly clear reason. I began to lose interest here and this may be why I abandoned the game before. Thankfully, once the story finally picks up it gets really interesting and I had no problem finishing it.

I was not a fan of the materia system. Early on, materia is in short supply, so I was constantly juggling them between party members which was annoying. However, by mid-game it honestly felt like most of the materia were useless anyway and I wonder whether it was even worth the effort to train them (especially since many materia reduce strength and HP). There are exceptions: Enemy Skill is hugely overpowered, and the infamous Knight of the Round is possibly the most gamebreaking ability I've ever used in any game. I actually decided to stop using it because I felt that it was ruining the game!

Overall, I enjoyed this game much more this time than I did on my first abandoned attempt. I'm happy I finally beat it so I can now fully understand all the references to such a famous game.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. It's a tossup with Final Fantasy VI. Both games had great plots but suffered from some less interesting moments. I'll give the advantage to the game that finishes stronger: Final Fantasy VII.