This post is a day late. BUT as opposed to all the other times I have forgotten to do it and pushed it back a week I actually have a reason. Today the embargo went up for Final Fantasy XVI previews and I really wanted to include my thoughts on the game. Hence, the delay.
I previewed the game in London last month, which was a wild trip and a great time. I also got to meet Naoki Yoshida, which is literally the name I said when during an interview for the position I now have at inverse I was asked who I would interview if I could interview anybody. So that was a big moment for me.
It has been an interesting past week; I covered a lot of timely AAA games. I rarely do that! Ok, I did still cover a lot of indie games and weird old games that nobody but me likes. Anyways here are the highlights.
Final Fantasy XVI still hasn’t won me over
The bottom line is that this game just feels like an imitation of other popular media in hopes of appealing to the widest possible audience. While the game is impeccably made, it doesn’t feel innovative. This is tragic since I think innovation has always been the through-line of the franchise. Instead, we have Game of Thrones with Chocobos. [Article]
Tears of the Kingdom is pretty great, especially in its narrative details.
I wrote two articles about Tears of the Kingdom that I like. The first has to do with how the game heavily takes influence from the trifecta of Ghibli movies with nature vs industry and anti-war themes (Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke). It’s neat! [Article]
Secondly, I am in love with this game’s characterization of Zelda. She is a big nerd who loves history and she just wants to enjoy her special interest with her supportive boyfriend next to her so she can infodump on him. I love it. [Article]
Do you think I would miss the Drakengard 3 anniversary?
I will never miss a chance to talk about Drakengard, the perpetually awful video game series that I continue to insist is actually an artistic stroke of genius on the part of Yoko Taro. Drakengard 3 is a cringe-filled game headlined by girlboss protagonist Zero who absolutely hates that she has to be in this bad game. I love her and also she tricked me into falling in love with Drakengard 3. [Article]
Red Dead retrospection
The original Red Dead Redemption turned 13 and I looked back at how well Rockstar used the open-world set-up of “cowboy GTA” to make a constricting experience focused on telling a story about the violent death of the Wild West at the hands of government-sanctioned violence. Rockstar has always been a studio obsessed with tearing down the American mythos, and Red Dead Redemption is the pinnacle of that goal. [Article]
Play good indie games
Yeah, Tears of the Kingdom is out, but there are a million great indie games from this year that you should also be playing. They won't require you to know basic mechanical engineering or ask you to torture Koroks. I picked my 7 favorite indie games of the year so far. [Article]
See you next week!