Category: Final Fantasy

The new DLC “Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission” absolutely whips (but god what an awful name when it’s also attached to the new “Intergrade” subtitle for the PS5 version). Yuffie is a blast to play almost to the point of being overpowered; her toolset allows her to adapt to every single enemy’s elemental weakness. She’s a swiss army knife allowing you to adapt to whatever situation arises. I was reluctant about Sonon not being a playable character (unlike your party in the main version) but you actually have a good amount of flexibility being able to issue him commands. Having him be the AI controlled bullet sponge allows Yuffie to really punish enemies and gives you that really accomplished feeling. Both characters are great too. Yuffie is overeager and confident but has the skill set to back it up which makes her effortlessly charming. The bit of people underestimating her because she’s young, small and female never wears out its welcome because it never phases her. She stumbles and jumps into things in a comedic way and always bounces back up. Sonon acts like her older brother; slightly embarrassed but supportive in a real way. He follows her lead and calls her boss and it’s never condescending. He really trusts her which is reinforced through the bit of backstory we learn about him throughout the episode. My only complaint, it’s too short! I don’t mean that in the “gamer” way of minimizing the DLC but I’m just sad I don’t have more time to sync into this. Maybe this is a plus for people who found the 35-40 hour runtime of the main game too much (I thought it was jusssssst right). It’s got me excited all over again and I’m now working my way through the VR battle missions to take on the new secret boss. O ya, did I forget that there’s Dirge of Cerberus enemies in here? This Remake sure is wild. My goal is to turn recorded footage into a video wrap up, now I just have to hold myself accountable.

What I really want to talk about with this blog is what for me was an early highpoint; the Fort Condor minigame. It’s so much fun and easy to pick up with some challenging matches as you progress up the ranks. It’s just like Clash Royale! Wait where are you going… Really I mean that as a compliment, as Clash Royale is a very addicting mobile game that unfortunately comes saddled with all the insidious free to play stuff that the Clash series is known for. Fort Condor is another win in the line of mini games that occur across the Final Fantasy series. The original FFVII had a similar mini game that takes place at the Fort Condor location. Fort Condor houses a Mako Reactor that Shinra is interested in taking and has been attempting to seize it. Your party helps out and you defend it through what’s essentially a Tower Defense mini game where you have to outlast waves of enemies. The one weird thing about the translation to the Remake; it’s represented as a board game that people love which has potentially weird lore implications. Since INTERmission takes place in Midgar, maybe the struggle has been translated to a board game where two equal sides fight against one another. That way the struggle is downplayed even though Fort Condor is in a much less advantageous position (that’s my read anyway). 

Anyways, Square made it a point to include mini games in the mainline series and have them interwoven through the game. Triple Triad in VIII was a big expansion as you played cards throughout whatever regions you were in and even informed what ruleset you abided by. There was another card game in IX but was deemphasized and merely a side activity (meaning you couldn’t turn cards into items). X decided to up the ante and created a new sports game/management sim Blitzball, where you could play in tournaments and recruit new players across the game. Square decided to take some time off until FFXV who thankfully littered the open world with new side activities and mini games. I have traditionally completely misunderstood how these activities mesh into the game. I wrote about my early circumstances with Triple Triad and I continued a streak of unfortunate losses after that. I eventually started getting my footing but I missed important people to play cards against and still have a shaky understanding of the rules. Blitzball I especially fumbled even on my playthrough last year; somehow I progressed too fast and was never able to recruit anyone. The Besaid Aurochs deserved a better coach than me. I even missed playing darts in FFVII Remake. I assumed I’d have another chance to go back and win but pushed forward too far. The unclaimed trophy still haunts me, maybe I’ll have to restart and get it…

Unlike those other times, I was determined to finish and play through Fort Condor. Even though I still managed to complete it, I still messed up. Fort Condor is a strategy game where you deploy units to attempt to take your opponent’s towers before they take yours. You have an ability meter “ATB” that allows you to deploy units that continually fills over time. Units consist of different costs (more ATB = more powerful units) and correspond to one of 3 different types: Defense, Vanguard, and Ranged. The unit types govern strengths and weaknesses which is similar to rock-paper-scissors (see also Fire Emblem’s weapon triangle). Defense beats Vanguard, Vanguard beats Ranged, and Ranged beats Defense. Once deployed, the units will move and attack on their own so the main balancing act becomes when and what to deploy. Battles also take place on a 3 minute timer so you’ll have to keep active if you want to take more towers than your opponent. Before the game you’ll have a chance to pick what units to take in and what boards to use. Boards govern how many units you can take in, how fast your ATB meter fills and what materia you can use (abilities like Blizzard, Cure or Haste that you can use once in battle). You’ll also see your enemies’ board and unit choices so you can pick and choose based on balance matchups. This can make or break a match and later opponents required me to completely reconfigure my lineup until I could find a strategy forward. Sometimes the strategy was as simple as choosing more Vanguard units to defeat their Ranged types, other times I had to try and use more lower cost units to balance their more costly ones. It’s really rewarding to find that fit and running a battle. There were more than a few times that I had a nail biting victory and was hoping my units could hold out long enough.

Now this probably would’ve been easier or at least had a bit more variety if I knew the full breadth of how to acquire new units and boards. You’ll find all of your opponents in the Slum area of the DLC. You’ll start as Rank 1 and have a variety of people to battle against. Once you’ve beat them all, you rise a rank and have new enemies. You’ll receive new boards and units as you win and rank up, but that’s not the only way to acquire them. I didn’t know this however and started finding considerable difficulty against higher rank opponents. That pushed me to get really clever with my available items, but I would also see units that others had and be extremely jealous. Why don’t I have a helicopter? Where did they get that type of robot? Turns out, vendors throughout the slums sold these and for relatively low cost. I had a singular focus on completing Fort Condor before I progressed so I pushed through to beat the Grandmaster (Chadley!) with the items I had. Imagine my surprise as I was going to purchase battle items and see all types of units and boards. There’s the helicopter! This board seems cool! But by then I was ready to move on and play the main thrust of the DLC. I can still go back and replay battles but without having new opponents to play against it didn’t seem exciting.

Even with the unintentional handicap, I still had an absolute blast playing Fort Condor. It’s an amazing surprise to an already excellent piece of DLC with its own separate rewarding gameplay curve. I must have spent at least half my time engaging NPCs in mini games as I did playing through the main experience. Cannot recommend the DLC and Fort Condor enough, if you can get your hands on a PS5 that is. Here’s hoping there’s more of this when Remake Part 2 eventually rolls around.

I thought I could go into Final Fantasy VIII with no guide. I had heard rumblings of its complexity, but I wanted to go in as fresh as possible. I have 0 conception of what it is as a game so I was excited to experience it as unaffected by game culture as possible. Everything at the start of the RPG was going just fine, albeit with lots of text being thrown at me about all of its intricate systems. A lot to parse to be sure, but I didn’t hit any roadblocks. There was even a fun optional card game mentioned, Triple Triad, a student NPC was kind enough to pass me a starting deck. I completed my first mission, received a new GF or Guardian Force in Ifrit (I’m sure this joke has been made a million times but GF will always be read as “Girlfriend”) and even received Ifrit in the form of a card. I was starting to feel comfortable and upon returning to Balamb Garden decided I would challenge people to Triple Triad. I reviewed the rules in the tutorial section fairly quickly and played the first person I came across, a man waiting around near the gate.

A brief note on the rules of Triple Triad. The game is essentially War where you take cards based on numerical values. If one card has a greater number, then that card wins and the player who has the most cards at the end wins the game. Triple Triad is more complex in that you place cards on a 3×3 grid. Each individual card has 4 values representing each side of the card (up, down, left, right). The winning card is determined by the numbers that are adjacent to the card played next to it. For example, two cards placed horizontally will match their left and right values and the winner is determined based on the numbers next to each other. Both players are assigned a color at the start, red or blue, and winning a card is represented by that card changing color to the other players. If you’re red and your card wins, then the other card will change from blue to red. This gets more complicated with multiple cards being placed adjacent to one another and there are different rules governing turning over cards in this situation. It seems like later in the game elemental affinities play a role and there will be different rules on turning cards over, but I was only an hour in.

My first game with the man at the gate loads up. I select my 5 cards to play against his, including my fancy new Ifrit card, which has much higher numbers than the other starter cards in my deck. I place this card in a corner first feeling that its high numbers will do me good. He places a card and immediately Ifrit gets turned over. No matter, I see a part of Ifrit that has a lower number than one of the cards in my hand. I place it underneath and nothing happens. My adversary places a card next to my new one and that flips over. I immediately begin to panic as 4 of the 9 cards played are all red (his color). I place a card adjacent to his new one and it flips! My excitement quickly drains as he places another card and flips yet another one of my cards. The game becomes decisively his and by the end I don’t have a single blue card exposed on the table. I start to get mad, feeling cheated after losing by a landslide in my first game. My anger only ratchets up as I realize that losing a game means losing a card and the AI goes straight for the jugular and takes my Ifrit card.

This mother fucker from 1999 just conned me. What seemed like a nice innocent side game just turned into a blood match. How hard could this game be after only a few short tutorial screens? This is the starting area, shouldn’t everyone I play be relatively easy? Final Fantasy VIII instead came to play and swiped my lunch money in the process. Now you’re probably saying “Brenton no worries, just reload your save and it’ll be like nothing ever happened.” Well you see I essentially backed myself into a corner by breaking the RPG cardinal rule; I didn’t save right before this encounter. In fact, I hadn’t saved since before the first full mission. I could go back and start from this save and make up the couple of hours I sunk in. It wouldn’t even be too hard. But now my ego was involved and if the AI could take cards so could I. I paused the game and did some Google Searches for Triple Triad walkthroughs. Multiple walkthroughs mentioned how good the games tutorial on it is; I beg to differ. I also saw that you should probably wait until you have more powerful cards; too late for that one. I was going to humiliate the AI with my crappy cards and win my dignity back.

Just like a drunk in Las Vegas, I was making poor decisions by continuing to engage with the game. I had a sunk cost and I was going to win my money back. Obviously this was a poor decision even if I had a better understanding of the rules. I continued to lose repeatedly and I watched card after card disappear from my deck. The house continued to rob me blind as I watched my life savings slowly be offered as a tribute to the gambling god. Now I am left with only 4 cards in my deck and can’t even play against people anymore. The casino sent over its security and despite my protests through me out onto the street. I felt wobbly and gave them the finger but it’s not like they can notice from behind the glass doors. I was thoroughly defeated in a side game that consumed my playtime. My dignity had been traded to the man at the gate and added it to his deck with passivity. The game was stacked in his favor from the beginning and I willingly played into it.

Anyways I hear the RPG part of this game is pretty good, guess I can start finding out.

While you kill god in most Final Fantasys, Final Fantasy X is the only one that is about God. Your main goal in the game is to destroy Sin, a monstrous whale that destroys anything it comes across. Sin is believed to come from its namesake; namely that the people of Spira angered the balance of the world and that Sin is their punishment. The world of Spira also has a church devoted to attoning for/keeping balance of Sin, lingering spirits, and even beings called the “Fayth” all which serve to very clearly outline an interrogation of modern Catholicism. I am finishing up my second playthrough; my first in almost 14 years (and my second replay of Final Fantasy games). I’ve changed a lot during that time and I’m finding the game’s themes ring even truer now. I am a bit of a reformed Catholic; I don’t outright deny the existence of a God but I also don’t find the same comfort in the teachings of the church. This paradigm shift colors my views of the characters, their belief systems, and the game’s wider commentary on power, control, atonement, and theology. All of which is to say that I no longer see Yuna’s journey as Christlike, but rather dismantling the very idea that sacrifice leads to spiritual fulfillment.

The church of Yevon is the predominant religion, and governing body, of the world of Spira. Their teachings are not too dissimilar to Catholicism; you are born into the world with Sin (in the game’s terms, that means the literal manifestation) and that you must atone by following the teachings. They also implore that people reject “Machina” (technology) and that Sin is the people’s punishment for becoming too reliant on it and hedonistic. Catholicism also teaches followers similarly; don’t take too much from the earth lest you become too lazy or greedy (and therefore farther from God). The people of Spira have a ray of hope; Summoners who pray and learn the teachings of Yevon to defeat Sin. Through them people are also passed on to the “Farplane” (afterlife) through a ritual called a “Sending.” Without a proper Sending, souls cannot pass to the afterlife much like in the Old Testament before Jesus.

Our main entry point into the church of Yevon is through the character Wakka. Wakka is a devoted follower of the church. He was raised on the teachings but after losing his brother in a battle against Sin (using Machina), he cemented his beliefs. His brother Chappu’s death was a seeming confirmation of the teachings of Yevon and he devoted himself to becoming a guardian, protecting Summoners on their pilgrimage to defeat Sin. He constantly corrects Tidus when he should be praying, how to address church officials, and how he generally speaks about important religious teachings. Growing up Catholic, this rang all too familiar. Catholicism is one of intense rituals with strict rules regarding interaction and language with religious ceremonies. No speaking in mass, no taking His name in vain, and memorizing prayers are all part of the knowledge required to be a good Catholic. Even as I type this, my brain reminds me every time I need to make proper capitalizations when referring to God (and when not to capitalize). I was not too dissimilar to Wakka; I didn’t interrogate my beliefs as they were taught to me as the strict truth. To stray from those teachings meant an eternity in hell; in Wakka’s case that meant death.

I don’t blame Wakka for being reticent or even hateful in his beliefs. The structure of the Church of Yevon makes up his entire worldview, especially after the death of his brother. Chappu’s death provided what many people have with Catholicism; a renewal in their faith with God. The universe had seemingly taught him a lesson and he listened. It also informs his wrong-headed hatred of Al-Bhed; a race of people persecuted by the church because they don’t believe and use Machina. Their existence flies in the very face of the teachings. Like many uninformed prejudices, Wakka only really hates the idea of the Al-Bhed. He doesn’t even realize Rikku is Al-Bhed, but how could he when he has no framing of them as people?

When the rug begins to get pulled out from under him, it’s all too familiar to anyone who suddenly starts thinking critically of faith. Anyone who studies history knows that spiritual leaders failed to follow their own teachings and Final Fantasy X takes this one step further. Long ago, the city of Bevelle destroyed the city of Zanarkand using Machina. Zanarkand was a spiritual utopia, one that combined faith with technology, but was utterly crushed by the advanced weapons of Bevelle. Sin was actually constructed as a direct action against Bevelle, a last ditch effort to preserve Zanarkand. In an ironic twist, The church of Yevon is actually named for the individual who created Sin. Besides just its history, the church is also actively evil. They cover for powerful individuals mistakes (not sending dead leaders, Seymours whole arc) and actively ignore their teachings (use Machina). We may not get moustache twirling speeches from modern religious figures, but past actions are damning enough.

In most stories that would make Yuna, with her sacrificial journey, Jesus. Yuna is a summoner and to defeat Sin, the summoner must give their life. She is part of a long lineage of Summoners as Sin reappears after each defeat ten years later. Spira cycles through a whole host of Christlike figures as they bring the world together again and again, if only for a brief time. 

The differences between Yuna’s fate and Jesus’ wrestle with what it means to actually achieve salvation. Before Christ’s sacrifice, the souls of the dead were prevented from entering into heaven. Jesus served to absolve the dead’s sins through his selfless crucifiction. Humanity could never hope to rid themselves of the inherent sin that comes with being born. Yuna and her guardians (apostles) are not resigned to this fate. They choose not to use the final aeon (the supposed key to defeating sin) as all summoners had done before. They choose instead to defeat Sin from within, to destroy it not through noble sacrifice but in a heroic struggle to break the cycle. They choose to completely rid Spira of Sin.

This is in stark contrast to the Catholic teachings. Jesus’ sacrifice was a great debt that everyone must repay. He didn’t rid the world of sin but allowed a path so the dead can pass. Humans will always be evil the church says, so you must always repent. Yuna’s path to enlightenment is one of caring and resolve; she fights for the future to be completely freed of Sin’s violence. She creates a future where the living are not saddled with the mistakes of the past. Old souls trapped are now freed to move on and be at rest. Her selfless is not one of sacrifice or debt, but rather a complete absolution of the very notion of them.

Yuna’s journey to completely absolve the world of Sin rings especially true as a reformed Catholic. “Catholic Guilt” is a heavy weight to hold on you, the notion that you are always sinner and the best you can do with your time on earth is get back to zero. It’s a burden and keeps you tied to the church; the other alternative is eternal suffering. I found that it contradicted what the church was ostensibly about, mainly a place of spiritual enlightenment and fulfillment. The Catholic church can be stifling, especially if you’re a woman or LGBTQ. I never found the fulfillment that my family found because the rules seemed anti-humanistic. It’s exclusionary by design; their rules are the one way to reach Heaven. There are rules to be kind to one another, but if their path is different than theirs then that already creates a false equivalency. They will never be able to truly atone for their sins. 

Final Fantasy’s vision is true faith in people; absolve sin completely and set them free. There they can dictate their own path removed from self sacrifice and consistent atonement. It’s a much more positive and trusting spin on centuries old doctrine. Trust that people are not inherently bad from the start and place trust in yourselves and others. Needless to say this resonated with me, an alternative vision that prizes empathy and understanding. It’s a much easier path to allowing people the freedom to live their own lives than the teachings I was raised with.

I come to Final Fantasy for the stories. As mentioned in my blog on Final Fantasy VII Remake, I came to the series in the Sony era of consoles so I missed the series more fantasy oriented origins on the original Nintendo systems. These games told melodramatic, rich, and sometimes dark stories of a party battling against godly forces in a setting that was a mixture of science fiction and fantasy. These games sold me on that type of story and I wanted more of it. When I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy XII on my PS3 (I didn’t have a PS2 but did have a backwards compatible launch system), I found myself spite playing it. “What is this more straightforward fantasy setting? Why do they half of the characters talk like they’re in an Austen adaptation? Where is the no angst?” I played desperately waiting for some sort of twist or turn to take place that left me and the cast of characters truly shocked; a haunting ritual to end Sin ala final fantasy x, a fight for personhood ala VII, or even a love story like VII, anything! All of this frustration, but I still ended up playing it for over 30 hours, so obviously something kept me there. I still bad mouthed the game for many years after playing it and how big of a disappointment it was. I remember at the time the overall opinion of the game seemingly fit my narrative. 

Cut to years later, and my staunch “gamerism” has softened a lot. I’ve grown a lot in the decade or so since I had played XII and realized there is room for different kinds of stories in my life. I can appreciate a more archetypical fantasy adventure and not every JRPG or Final Fantasy have to be VII or X. The game’s reputation has improved since then and become more beloved among certain circles. Since the game had been rereleased on Switch, I took the opportunity to replay it with a much more open mind. While I had a great time playing it, it turns out my original opinion of the game remained oddly intact.

First the positives. This is absolutely one of, if not the best, playing Final Fantasy games. Comparisons to MMO combat are very on point, as your characters are able to move around in real time while action bars fill up to use an action (attack, use an item or spell, etc). I’ve always been a big fan of MMOs so seeing that type of combat adapted into a single player adventure is 100% my jam. Better yet, the game allows you to program your characters’ actions through their “Gambit” system. You are able to literally program what actions your characters take (including the one you control) using if then statements. For example, you could set your characters to attack the enemy with the lowest health, cast fire spells against enemies that are weak to it, or heal allies if their health drops below 50%. You can then prioritize actions so characters know what actions to perform (ex: healing characters below 50% at the top, use attack on party leaders target below). Once you have these set, you just love your characters into enemy range and let the systems go. It is so satisfying to watch your programmed actions fire. It is a completely different sort of satisfaction than conquering an action game; watching your carefully planned gambits pay off makes you feel so damn smart.

But man is the story bland. The setting isn’t the problem, although the world of Ivalice has not taken off the way Square seemingly hoped it would have. It’s not the characters either, a lovable crew of fantasy archetypes. It’s that the actual plot winds up going nowhere. It starts out promising enough too, a ground level view at poverty within an empire occupied city (Dalmasca). The main villain, Vayne Solidor (great name), is even introduced with a sympathetic speech; a monologue delivered to the people of Dalmasca about preserving their way of life that resonates with the crowd. While the fantasy plot is apparent, it seems like we’re going to get more political intrigue. But once the full party is assembled, this is quickly discarded for a more boilerplate story of chasing ancient weapons. Comparisons to Star Wars are very apt, at least that the broad strokes are about a rebellion fighting against an evil empire. There’s even a Han Solo character, Balthier, who may not have much to do but looks very cool doing all of it. The action pertains to you shuffling off to random locales gathering random items across the globe for no other reason other than “plot.” It unfortunately resembles some of the worst parts of modern blockbusters (looking at you Rise of Skywalker). 

There’s not much momentum in the plot either. There are set pieces sure, but not a lot of weight behind them. The main thrust is concerned with whether Ashe, the former queen of Dalmasca and true protagonist of the game regardless of who the game actually has you control, will use the magical (read: evil) stones to fight back against the empire. See these stones (nethicite) can cause untold amounts of damage and are granted to humes (yes, the humans name) by the gods of this world. The empire meanwhile are manufacturing their own (manufactured nethicite) so they want to destroy the god related ones. You end up coming to the same conclusion as the empire, to destroy them, but still ending up in opposition because they are still invaders in your home land. This friction between more grounded political dealings and fights against god causes a hollowness in the story. There are lots of talks about preventing a war but the game ends up focusing way more on stone collection that it’s easy to forget what the grand stakes are. The true cost of the empire invasion is evident in the setting (refugees on Mt. Bur Omisace for example) rather than the focus on the plot. Vayne, Cid, and the other empirical judges are evil because they lust for power not because of the collateral damage they cause to civilians.

In the end, you beat the bad guys, free yourself of gods, and decide that the two countries with the right rulers can live in harmony. It’s a pay ending to a very shallow plot that’s expected throughout the whole way through. The characters are left mostly unexplored, mostly serving as mouthpieces to ask “will Ashe seek revenge???” When in the final cutscene it’s discussed that they don’t see much of each other anymore, it makes a lot of sense like coworkers who no longer work together but see their posts pop up on Facebook every once in a while. There was no extended bonding merely a perfunctory sense of “well we have to beat the Empire, they are evil.” It’s easy to gloss over though when the game plays that good.