Post: Junon Awaits
Saturday the 8th of June, 2024, in the late morning.

Though the mines I spent my Saturday morning plunging. Greatly expanded from the original where traversing the mines wasn’t much more than an animated story beat, this time through some of those same beats were tapped but the game went on rails (sometimes literally) for about a ninety minutes of play while Barret took lead and I had to learn some new fighting tactics. I burned though a supply of potions in another big boss fight and crossed over into Chapter 4 where the city of Junon awaits on the horizon.

The goal of this narrative this log, I’m keeping of my gaming experiences is not meant to be a walk-through or recounting of the plot of these games. Rather, it is more of a experiential explanation of some of the things that I think and do and the choices I make around gaming as a guy who is approaching 50, but who has been playing video games for most of his life. Final fantasy in particular has been something of a revelation on this, because I find myself playing a game for specifically a remake of a game that I first played almost 30 years ago in my early 20s. It very much represents a certain landmark milestone in the games I chose to play and my self declaration as someone who enjoyed large elaborate narrative, driven RPG games , and now 30 years later to be experiencing a version of that same story translated into a modern console version it very much highlights not just the changes that have come across to the industry in those 30 years but my own personal expectations from games and entertainment in general. that’s kind of to say that while playing Final Fantasy seven over again a number of times in the last 30 years I have experienced that game and the story in various perspectives of maturity for myself in that span and now to see the game itself, mature, and still find myself enjoying it for not just the nostalgic reasons but as a new product has been an interesting experience.

Post: Draining the Swamp
Saturday the 8th of June, 2024, in the morning.

I pressed onward. Crossed the swamp. Fought the beast. Entered the mines. And I saved my game on the doorstep of chapter 3.

Even in the orginal incarnation of this game, the crossing of the swamp on the back of a chocobo was a kind of barrier. Sure, you had fought some hard-won battles in the introduction of the story and even that has been true in this remake. In fact, I gave up on one of the sidequests because I just couldnt seem to make any progress without getting obliterated early in the fight. I’m not sure if I need more levels or simply a different strategy, but as I left this particular zone having explored every corner and fought every beast a dozen times and unearthed every treasure, I was even then reluctant that my skills could have used just a little more polishing before facing off against the legendary Midgarstormr guarding the swamp. It was a tough fight. I mean, I’m not playing on crazy hard or anything, just having set my difficulty level to normal right from the start. I am a middle aged dad after all. But I used up most of my magic doing urgent heals and pounded away on the beast with the best of my spells and skills and even a couple synergy moves (which I’m just starting to figure out!) And at the end it was a combination of some luck and Saturday morning patience that pushed me onward and into chapter 3. The barrier, the swamp, has been crossed.

Post: Sinking Into It
Sunday the 2nd of June, 2024, around lunch-ish.

I crossed the ten hour mark in the game last night and I’m digging into the multiple side quests as an homage to my classic play style in the original: grind until your characters are overpowered enough to plow through the main plot.

Just how I like it. I admit that I have watched a couple of those “things to do when you start” videos for tips on weapon configurations and getting the settings and shortcuts finely tuned from the perspective of experienced players. And some of those hints are to do pretty much exactly what I’m doing: focus on some side quests in an attempt to bolster your player and your own skills to ease the game as you start to encounter more challenging battles.

Post: New Game Smell
Thursday the 30th of May, 2024, in the mid-afternoon.

Of course it may just be a case of new game syndrome but I played another couple hours into the story until I rightfully found myself in the true open world part of the gameplay. As it was there was another hour or so on rails as the story plodded you through a couple more quick tutorials on a few more of its myriad of systems. There are the standard mechanics of levelling and item management, but there’s also a little card game with odd and tricky rules to learn as you challenge npcs in the world. Luckily I won my first real game so I must have followed the explanation well enough. Either way, a few more rails guided me out into the plains and now I’m doing the usual stuff like fighting random encounters and collecting ingredients for portions as I reveal chunks of map. Onwards.

Post: I May Have Spent Some Money
Thursday the 30th of May, 2024, in the late morning.

I relented and as the second instalment of the Final Fantasy VII remake series went on sale this week I decided to take the plunge and begin my inevitable journey. Ive read and listened to a few reviews by this point so my understanding is that the first act is very much a transition from the on-rails story of part one into the more open world adventure of part two, so playing for the first couple of hours of the game, finishing the familiar story of Nibelheim, I think I’m almost into the open world play that I’ve been hearing so many good things about. I’ve played the original so many times in the last 25 years there was little surprise in the story, though as usual it was pretty neat to see it fleshed out so much more as a kind of extended tutorial rather than just a mid game exposition stage. I was a little confused at the outset by the into step with Zach so I may need to read up on what I missed in bailing on the last game half way thru. But either way, I think I’m enjoying it so far… more than part one as far as my initial vibe check goes.