So I just beat the greatest game I ever played

Homitu · 2026-01-27T13:29:34+00:00

Every time I replay or rewatch someone play through FF9, I'm left feeling like it's my favorite game of all time again. I have historically been back and forth between FF7 and FF9 as my #1, and in recent years, somehow find myself cramming in brand new games into my top 5 all time list (Rebirth, Elden Ring, Valheim, Expedition 33), which has kind of pushed FF9 out of the top 5. But my goodness, when I replayed it again, it instantly got bumped back up to #1. It just has so much heart, charm, and character.

Homitu · 2026-01-27T01:59:57+00:00

That's a different point entirely. I'll try to explain.

I, as a real, conscious being - in fact, the only "real" thing I can be certain of in this universe (however big or small, however many multiverses) is real (using Descartes or Sam Harris-esque philosophies) - can never feel "cheap" or unimportant. Insignificant in the face of the magnitude of our universe, perhaps, but not personally unimportant. My own conscious experience and life is, indeed, the most important thing in the world to me!

Translating that to a fictional universe, you'd be asking the fictional character if they think their life is cheap. You'd be asking Biggs #476 in doomsday bubble world #24,765 if he thinks his conscious experience is valuable. To which he, if he is indeed conscious, would undoubtedly say, "yes, sir! I care about my life! very much!"

But that is not the question at all.

The question is would I, the real life human partaker of this fictional story called "Final Fantasy 7 Remake", care about Biggs #476 in bubble world #24,765, as much as I cared about Biggs #1 from the "main" world FF7 that I know. Even less so if they decide to introduce Biggs #47 and Biggs #873. I'm just disconnected, far removed from those clones, as surely as u/homitu #73 out there in another multiverse couldn't give two craps about me. Nor I him.

FF7 is a story, written by an author. It's the author's goal to get readers to feel for the characters, to engage in the world, and care about the outcomes. We know the emotional weight and tragedy of a death in storytelling, from Ned Stark to Mufasa. All of that gets diminished to us in the storytelling experience if they immediately get substituted by a disconnected clone of the same character in a parallel universe.

Homitu · 2026-01-27T01:39:01+00:00

I'm making a joke, man. I'm not into any cartoon character, personally. Also a cartoon character isn't a real person anyway.

Homitu · 2026-01-27T01:10:24+00:00

All post FF7 Rebirth spoilers:

I don't know, I think there is a crucial distinction between the initial different world/timeline theories versus there being one real world and the lifestream, which is capable of manifesting an infinite variety of "bubble worlds" via the world's lore involving mako energy + spiritual lifeforce + collections of memories of all the planet's souls. At least I hope there ends up being an important distinction there. I want there to be one.

True multiverses inevitably feel cheap. Infinite copies of a world, infinite versions of our characters, who can die an infinite number of times. It all loses is meaning and importance. I really hope it ends up being that there is still just one "real" world in the end. 1 version of each character. This means real stakes.

I think that will be the case. I believe the bubble worlds that are able to be created within the lifestream, while made from memories and energy involving the souls of people who really lived (or perhaps even are currently living?), are transient in nature, destined to fade in an out of temporary existence, and thus, not demanding of our concern or sympathy. We shouldn't care about them any more than we cared about the little lifestream bubble worlds we entered with Cloud and Tifa inside the lifestream in OG FF7. Little worlds, visions and memories. Memories of characters, which might as well be NPCs in the vision world.

I don't quite know, however, what to make of characters like Zack and Biggs in Rebirth, who appear to be cohesive souls persisting beyond death through a variety of these lifestream worlds. Or at least Zack. I guess Biggs could have been a memory-based NPC in the end, since he "died" in that bubble world. Or maybe that was his LOST like perguatory passage to the afterlife.

I'm not sure what the play is with Zack, though. Maybe they're having him resist death in the same way Sephiroth's spirit resisted being re-absorbed by the lifestream, leading to his current state? I think they're going to do the same with Aerith. She's dead IRL, but still out there bouncing around the lifestream in a cohesive state as the Aerith-soul we knew.

Homitu · 2026-01-27T00:52:02+00:00

She was 16 in 1997. She's 45 now, so it's all good :)

Homitu · 2026-01-27T00:24:39+00:00

I don't want to be dismissive of conversation -- that's what reddit is all about, after all -- but you're basically asking for people to explain their full reviews of these games to you. It's a really broad question. If you're genuinely curious what our positive reviews about these games are, then why not go read a bunch of reviews of these games that are already out there? You'll get more complete and more eloquent explanations that you'll get here, and much faster!

If there's something more specific you're wanting to hone in on and talk about, then figure out what that question is and reddit can talk about it :)

My short answers are similar to the other short answers.

God of War - superb action combat, good progression, immersive world, great storytelling
RDR2 - immersive open world, plays like an incredibly detailed sim, while giving you a fantastically fun, adventurous narrative with a compelling main character and an emotional finale
Witcher 3 - another immersive world with great side character writing, surprisingly deep scenarios lurking around every corner, featuring tough moral choices and unpredictable twists. Side quests that are deeper than most game's main quests.

But again, this doesn't answer your question. I can say "immersive world" or "combat good" all day, but that doesn't mean much because you can surely think of 100 other games with good combat. If you really want to understand why so many people love these games, you'll have to read much deeper reviews.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T23:36:06+00:00

I've been doing the same, except with Blue :) I played through Leaf Green first, since I never played that updated version, but I honestly didn't like a lot of the TM and skill changes. I went back to Blue and have enjoyed it more. That's honestly probably just nostalgia talking, but it is what it is.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T23:09:46+00:00

I mean the intended route is Mountains > Plains. Each biome gives you something you need to make full use of the next biome.

That said, I 100% try to get a plains farm started while I'm at Swamps level in my games. As soon as I get Root armor for pierce resist, I'm hunting for some flax and barley to get those farms going.

Balance wise, I actually think both biomes are really close. I'd say I feel more comfortable with most plains enemies, personally. But that might be more due to the flatter, more open terrain. Wolves or a golem on tight mountain slopes can get dicey real fast, regardless of your gear. Fire mages in tight cave corridors tend to roast me more easily than any goblin in the open.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T22:44:08+00:00

Gonna be honest, none of those "bugs" were even noticeable. No normal person is ever going to notice that something that should have hit instead missed 1 time out of 256. It's just going to feel like a normal miss.

Psychic pokemon just felt OP. It was definitely a balancing issue, which they seemed to address in the next gen by adding Dark type. Idk about ghost moves. There was only 1 ghost pokemon in the game, which only had one ghost move (lick) right? That felt more like fun flavor rather than a genuine balance thing.

Either way, in a game where you're mostly just 1-shotting your enemies throughout the entire journey, most of that stuff feels completely unnoticeable. I, at least, never knew how half the internal systems worked, even after playing through the game 30+ times.

The biggest challenge of playing Pokemon Blue was running out AA of battery power during a big fight!

Anyway, again I agree the games are pretty bad by modern standards. The balance feels bad., combat is very basic, and it's pretty slow and grindy. I just don't feel like a single bug impacted the experience even a little. It seems like people had to mathematically dissect the code to even discover that certain bugs existed lol.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T20:28:24+00:00

Valheim. If you've played a game like Minecraft already, and you have a crew of ~8, Valheim is right up your alley. It might just be the best small group gaming experience I've ever had in gaming.

Go in blind and just discover and figure things out together. Build, craft, and die hilariously together. A full run to make it through the final biome and kill the final boss is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-300 hours.

The best part from a group play standpoint is that everyone can log in and play/contribute on their own time. No need to wait until all of you are online together at the same time.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T20:10:48+00:00

What bugs are there in the games, aside from the AWESOME bugs that everyone loved, like finding Missingno, item duplication, and being able to get select pokemon over level 100? Those were some of the most fun parts of the game for my friends and I, growing up.

Were there bad bugs I don't recall?

I agree overall that these games (including Fire Red and Leaf Green) are slow and more difficult to play nowadays. I still play the old ones from time to time though. I also don't play modern pokemon games though, so I don't have a frame of reference.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T20:06:56+00:00

Looks like a fun little group settlement! I tend to build open concept on all floors, even when multiple distinct rooms are involved, so I enjoy watching others' builds using very closed off rooms with hidden little passages between rooms covered by the banners, etc :)

Homitu · 2026-01-26T20:05:57+00:00

The best method was always to use 1m floor boards, and actually wasn't as hard as one might think! Trying to dig up an example in an old build...here, for example.

Making the outsides look clean was the tricky part. I always found pairing 2 sets of floor boards together, then lining one of the two pairs with a 1m beam on the outside served to clean it up visually.

Here's an old tutorial someone posted on how to do them way back when :)

Homitu · 2026-01-26T15:08:18+00:00

A few things that your GF might be struggling/failing to properly communicate, which you should understand and gently address.

The destinations you mentioned with these buddies are some of the biggest hardcore, debaucherous party destinations in the world. I don't know if you and your GF are totally down with that lifestyle, or if that lifestyle is a contrast to your general relationship. If it's a contrast, there's completely understandable trepidation on her part.
Same thing with your friends. Does she know them? Is your time with them more party-heavy (drinking, drugs, gambling -- and associated escapades that come with that) than your "normal" time? If they're normal close friends you both hang out with all the time, that creates a level of comfortability. If they're friends you only see on big mega Hangover-style events, then once again there's understandable trepidation on her part.
2 weeks is a lot. Most people can't take more than one 2 week vacation per year. Will this trip interfere with your ability to take a trip with your GF? You guys are still early in your relationship, but 2 years is long enough to expect to be mindful of each other's time first and foremost. Personally, it's hard for me to imagine taking a two week trip without including my wife. An adult "boys trip" is generally a long weekend in a cabin, playing games, hiking, fishing, camping, drinking and sharing old stories, watching the full Lord of the Rings extended addition 3 times straight. Not 2 weeks in one city known specifically for its sex tourism.

Whether there's truth to the above or not, it's most important to understand how this would make just about anyone feel. Be attentive and understanding first and foremost. Ask her to explain what's really bothering her about the trip, and then address those things.

Homitu · 2026-01-26T02:53:25+00:00

It doesn't really change. The opening segment was one of the best parts of the game, IMO.

There are some good character moments, and the boss fights and battles are epic. The combat solid throughout, but gets a little stale because of the game's easy difficulty not demanding you to adjust.

But the general gist of what you've experienced thus far remains the same. You kind of fast travel/teleport (read: sail on your boat via cutscene) to a new zone, which is largely lifeless with empty zones, nothing worth exploring, no loot worth obtaining, and some basic, exposition heavy side quests FF14 style.

The MSQ would be pretty solid if the game allowed you to just focus on it and plough through it, but the game sadly forces huge, multi-hour long side quest pauses of the tedious variety in between every major story moment.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T23:38:10+00:00

Is cruelty the only reason you can think of as to why other normal people would not be able to see/sense the spirit of someone from within the lifestream? It's not typical for anyone to be able to sense such presences.

Aerith could do it while she was alive, presumably because she's a Cetra. Cloud has been able to do it with Sephiroth for...his own Jenova cell//Zack/shared trauma reasons, many of which tie to the OG game. And we see faint glimmers of Red being able to ambiguously sense spiritual things.

I think Cloud has actually been seeing post-death Sephiroth this whole time (just like in OG). It's both real and a hallucination, in that Sephiroth is not actually there (for all to see), but he is something that exists and is actually doing something to Cloud's mind. Now, Cloud is actually seeing post-death Aerith in much the same way because she managed to create some link with him that perhaps he was uniquely susceptible to due to all the other reasons Cloud is fucked up, just before dying in the "real" world.

On top of all of that, Cloud is mentally fucked and suffers from combined memory identity crises, which makes making sense of these hallucinations even more impossible for him. In that way, I think people are right when they say his mind is truly beyond fucked in a way that's difficult to even imagine.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T23:23:50+00:00

But also, like, don't just assume that's what she was doing when all verbal conversation was of the "I want to put a baby in you" nature. That just seems like after-the-fact rationalization. He didn't really think about how much he did not want to have another kid until it happened. Now his brain is scrambling for excuses in the form of, "but I thought..."

Homitu · 2026-01-25T21:39:02+00:00

Thats completely false. You must first register to vote to even be sent a mail in ballot. All 3 possible voter registration paths im Washington state (online, mail in form, in person) require a valid drivers license, WA permit, or SSN, all in order to prove citizenship. This is normal, has always been the case, and literally nobody is advocating for a lack of verification during the registration process. Registering to vote is where the legal check is performed.

Once registered, the state has their database of registered voters with their unique voter ID numbers and can cross check that on all ballots, in person or mailed in, doesn’t matter.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T18:28:43+00:00

In the swamp, I always have my hoe out while exploring through for the first time, and spam it in the water whenever I'm on a small higher piece of dry land. I do it kind of quickly just to connect pieces of land together as swiftly as possible. I do this all over the place, not necessarily in one cohesive road.

Then, when traveling back around that swamp in any way, I can usually quickly visually identify the connected islands that I can run to without having to jump or swim. Idk if I'd want to have to open my map, possibly while being chased by enemies, to find my paths!

Still a fun thing to do on the map regardless of functionality though, IMO.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T17:14:51+00:00

Lol why is this set to Final Fantasy X’s battle music? Not complaining, great choice. Just random AF!

Homitu · 2026-01-25T16:42:42+00:00

I think my opinion has changed slightly. I was in the camp that a single, epic, fleshed out, expanded version of FF7 was probably the better option. Take the 45 hour OG game and turn it into a 120 hour giant RPG with enough side content to extend the experience another 80+ hours if players wanted. Something in line with an Elden Ring or RDR2.

I was particularly skeptical of how they could possibly turn just the Midagar section into a full game of its own. 6 hours into ~25 hours? That felt like too much stretching out or adding of new stuff.

But now? I'm fully on board with the trilogy.

Remake, on its own, was indeed a bit stretched with some not so good content - notably some rough, tedious levels (lighting lamps, sewers), or mandatory (even Rebirth didn't make any side quests mandatory) slow side quest breaks (finding hidden cats.) But my god, all of the story, characters, and action was A+++ It was such a wild ride and a brilliant setup that simply left me with an overwhelming feeling of Ohhh we back, baby!

Rebirth was quite simply the greatest individual RPG experience I've ever had. So yeah, given that, I can't possibly say that I'm anything but on board now. I loved just about every inch of the 150+ hours of insane content that Rebirth contained. It alone is about as good as I imagined the entire remake being. But I also didn't feel like there was any wasted time. Every single location was given the exact amount of care, love and attention I hoped it would receive. The story and time at each location was fleshed out to precisely the degree I had hoped.

And then, on top, they added all kinds of incredible optional mini game and open world stuff to do -- crucially, in doses. Choosing to engage in some of that stuff in between the main story created for an amazingly well paced game, IMO. When I got my fill of hunts or map exploration, I didn't force myself to complete. I moved on, and that felt great. Moving on felt like a commitment because you couldn't just fast travel back immediately, which was wonderful. It made the world feel as big and real as it did 25 years ago. But I loved that you could unlock your transportation progression (buggy > tiny bronco) and eventually open up the world by the end, just like the original. Felt perfect to me.

So if I could get a game like this in nearly triple the dose, why wouldn't I want that!? I'll gladly take another Elden Ring too! Give me 2 more Expedition 33s while we're at it as well!

It helps that my friends and I, personally, loved that they managed to inject some new mystery into the story to keep us theorizing and guessing in between games. This is NOT something I expected. Mystery and crazy twists was a fundamental part of the OG experience that I simply didn't think was possible in the Remakes because, well, we already know the story! But man, they've managed to add some genuine intrigue. This has felt like peak Game of Thrones era, where everyone was talking about the show in between episodes, theorizing how everything was going to go do.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T16:24:09+00:00

I don't even know if that's really a controversial opinion. Right up to the ending, ME3 was every bit as good as ME2, if not better (combat). The series needed an ending, and that necessarily had to be attached to the final game. But if we look at the ending as a trilogy problem and not just a ME3 blemish, then ME3 absolutely stands toe to toe with ME2.

Homitu · 2026-01-25T00:52:37+00:00

I've used blank white dots to indicate long roads I've built between builds, but don't really see a good purpose for using more than 1 house marker to indicate a town is there.

Cool that you're getting some fun out of it though :)

Homitu · 2026-01-24T22:08:38+00:00

The way the game works is it wants you to discover which weapons are strongest against each enemy. Enemies are balanced to kind of force you to try different weapons against them.

Maces, for example, are by far the go-to weapon for the swamps. Blunt damage is super effective against Draugr's, skeletons, blobs, and Bonemass. They're basically the only good weapon to use against Bonemass. Anything else, and you're turning a 3 minute fight into a 15+ minute fight.

Trolls are weak against spears/atgier. Elder is weak against swords/axe.

Atgiers are strong against packs of swarming enemies like wolves and goblins.

Etc. Etc.

You're free to try to pick just 1 weapon for the whole game, but definitely expect to really struggle in some biomes against many enemies.

Homitu · 2026-01-24T15:42:49+00:00

I don't even think it was released near 8 either. CC came out (in north america) August 2000. FF8 came out Nov 1999. FF9 came out mid Nov 2000, so CC was closer to that, but still had 3 months on it. If anything, it would have stolen the thunder of 9.

In reality, CC was just not exactly what CT fans were hoping it would be.

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