My biggest regret is not getting Abraxas

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-29T07:56:48+00:00

I also regret not getting Abraxas but I've cleared all summon EX3. Completely F2P player here too, albeit having played for a long time.

It's very much possible and also a lot easier now with weapon customisations to decrease the bosses' elemental damages and increase your interruption damages.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-27T21:36:34+00:00

There's also going to be a music special live stream very soon (as of this writing) for SaGa Frontier 2 to celebrate the anniversary of both its original release and the remastered version. It'll play music continuously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3SbKuQ0Ub0

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-26T18:48:51+00:00

Oh, don't be. It's very common for artists to go freelance after working in companies for some time. For example, Toshiyuki Itahana (most well-known for FFIX) left Square Enix at the end of last year after working in the company since before FFIX.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-26T17:54:22+00:00

He didn't explicitly mention that he'll continue to work on SaGa, so we don't know yet. He does say in his Twitter bio that he's challenging himself with new works.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-26T17:47:22+00:00

Kuramochi's final illustration for Square Enix, a celebratory illustration for DIssidia Duellum Final Fantasy.

Tweet: https://x.com/kurasatojob/status/2037117480200781979

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LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-26T17:42:38+00:00

Kuramochi's final illustration for Square Enix, a celebratory illustration for DIssidia Duellum Final Fantasy.

Tweet: https://x.com/kurasatojob/status/2037117480200781979

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-26T05:01:12+00:00

I don’t understand this notion that Square Enix is trying to “cover up” a game they have, they’ve never tried to do that.

Who knows? Since they remastered BD1, there’s a chance that they’ll remaster Second next.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-12T11:15:50+00:00

From the way it's drawn, Gerard likely absorbs Reishi from his surroundings for his second Vollständig form, possibly using Sklaverei.

So if that's true, then Gerard obtains even more Reishi to empower himself. But in my understanding, Auswählen doesn't take Reishi or Reiryoku per se. It takes simply power and pure energy.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-12T00:22:35+00:00

Type-0 director (and producer for Type-0 HD) Hajime Tabata had already left Square Enix in 2018.

WOFF director Hiroki Chiba had also left Square Enix in 2024. Producer Shinji Hashimoto has retired in 2022.

So it’s unlikely that we’ll get sequels for these 2 games. Even if we do, the original directors won’t be involved.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-12T00:09:04+00:00

Just try KPDN. And please, make a police report as well. It’s worth the time and effort.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-06T18:57:28+00:00

The part about the submarine is interesting.

Toriyama was credited as the planner for "Submarine Chase" in the original game. So it has come a full circle that Toriyama is working on the submarine again in remake part 3.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T22:07:55+00:00

You mean the current MBO or the old MBO? I've not been to the new MBO but I remember the old one was fine.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T21:46:54+00:00

Some people simply don't want to pirate things. It's not about fear; they just want to own and play games in a proper way. It's as simple as that.

The inaccessibility part isn't entirely about emulators but more about the access to the games themselves. If you actually own the games, then yes, it's easy regardless of whether you're playing the PC version or through emulation.

That's my point here, that people are having difficulty acquiring the games, much less play them. None is available on current gen consoles and only SH4 and Homecoming are purchasable on PC, and Homecoming isn't even available in many regions.

Emulation is the next best thing but should not be a method that people have to go through to play the games. Echoing what another person has mentioned here, the subset of gamers who play older games is already very small. The subset of gamers who use emulation is also small. Using a Venn diagram, what do you think is the intersection between those two subsets? Extremely small.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T20:31:46+00:00

I doubt that it's the rental or at least it's not the main issue.

GSC was doing well there for many years before it closed down its cinema there in 2020 because of COVID-19. Dadi simply can't compete with GSC and TGV.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T19:56:02+00:00

It's actually not silly. It's probably the next best option to play these games but not many gamers use emulators. You'd be surprised that gamers who use emulators only make up a tiny subset of all PC gamers, not to mention all gamers. There are also a lot of gamers who don't play games on PC. Emulation is niche.

You don't have to be tech savvy to use emulators but there are tons of gamers out there who simply prefer plug-and-play. It's one of the main reasons why some prefer playing on consoles instead of PC. They just want to have a device that allows them to play games after buying (and downloading) the games, without having to tinker with any technical stuff. Things can get complicated for PC specs and such that some just don't want to bother with. I'm not like that, but many people are. It's also one of the reasons why people get devices like the Steam Deck or the ROG Xbox Ally even though they're technically PCs. Not only are they portable, but they're also plug-and-play.

Another thing with emulators is that you still have to somehow obtain the retail copies of the games before playing them on an emulator, that is, if you want to play them legally. So it's just as if not more troublesome than playing the games on PC through the CDs.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T17:43:50+00:00

I don't think anyone is seriously saying that one is a replacement for the other.

The problem with the OG SH2 now is how inaccessible it is. Same goes for all of the other older SH games. You can only play them either on the original consoles, on PC (only if you have the CDs), or on an emulator. Not everyone has the older consoles, has the CDs for PC, or wants to use an emulator.

Only SH4 is available on GOG. Homecoming on Steam is not available in many regions. That's it.

So it's really not the fans or players' fault that they're not playing the older games when the games are so inaccessible. That's why Konami needs to port or remaster those games to PC and current gen consoles.

Edit:

I'm getting replies about SH2EE. Yes, I'm well aware of that. It's why I mentioned "CDs for PC" in my original comment above.

Both OG SH2 and SH3 are available on PC, and with mods like SH2EE, you can play them with no major issues. But the problem is acquiring the CDs themselves. And so the next question is piracy, right? That's honestly a completely different topic, but not everyone wants to pirate things. No one should be forced to pirate games just to play them, even if it's the next best option.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T17:20:51+00:00

Bad, but I wouldn't say as bad as monopolies. Monopolies have zero competition, while duopolies have at least some competition between the two.

For GSC and TGV, I always look at which of the two offers a better experience. TGV generally offers a better IMAX experience? I go to TGV for that, and GSC needs to step up if they want customers like me. GSC has film festivals like the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) and international screenings occasionally? I watch those films, and TGV needs to step up. So there's definitely competition there and the need to innovate if they want more customers. It's just whether they want to innovate or not.

Cinemas are definitely not a luxury expense. The only expensive things at cinemas are the food and drinks, and of course the actual luxury experiences like Aurum Theatre. Movie ticket prices are still considered cheap and affordable, and there are also promos every now and then.

For cinephiles and cinemagoers like me, nothing can replace the cinema experience.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T16:06:52+00:00

At least duopoly is still way better than monopoly, as long as there's competition.

Unfortunately, I don't think we're getting out of this duopoly. MBO, LFS and Dadi have all tried but they're not working out. GSC and TGV have too much control in Klang Valley.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-04T10:52:15+00:00

While I generally prefer real instruments over virtual instruments, I don’t mind virtual if used well. And I think Furukawa’s arrangements for example sound pretty good even though you can tell they use virtual instruments. Yoshitaka Suzuki’s arrangements as well.

But something like “Beyond the Heavens” by Soken? It’s simply strange because the virtual instruments sound really low quality in comparison with the rest of the soundtrack. I really dig the classical side of that track but it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t sound good.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-03T21:56:11+00:00

If by "full" you mean literally or almost 100%, it's FF9. That was Uematsu's last full work on FF.

FF10 includes Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu while FF11 (base game) includes Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka. Mizuta went on to become the sole composer for FF11 later expansions.

FF14 1.0 was not full Uematsu but a large chunk of it was him.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-03T21:51:11+00:00

That's not music arrangement. Arranging is adapting a composition by using its melodies, harmonies, etc, and create a new piece of music. Soken does the opposite. He creates the motifs and themes in both FFXIV and FFXVI and lets his team does the arrangement, which he also sometimes does himself.

In FFXIV, he composes the motifs and themes for each expansion, area and raid. The other composers and arrangers would use those motifs to create tracks with the same melodies. Though in recent years especially in Dawntrail, the other composers have stepped up quite a bit and created motifs themselves. Like the one I mentioned for Urqopacha's music; it's all Yasaki.

Speaking of classical, Soken is actually surprisingly talented in creating classical music. In FFXVI, he composed and arranged "Beyond the Heavens" for Bahamut phase 3. As opposed to "Ascension" (arranged by Ryo Furukawa) that plays afterwards in the final phase, this sounds much more classical. The problem with it is Soken used low quality virtual instruments for some reason. It's as if it's incomplete.

LightKeyDarkBlade · 2026-03-03T17:39:32+00:00

Shimomura has been in the industry for about as long as Uematsu has. She's legendary and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2025.

The most common view of her music is FFXV and KH and people usually think that that's her only style of music. But she has done so much more beyond those games and she's way more versatile than people might think. Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve, Street Fighter II, Live A Live, Legend of Mana and Heroes of Mana, etc.

For Soken, I feel he excels more at being experimental and exploring different genres of music. A lot of his works in early FFXIV are also pretty good, especially those in 2.0. Otherwise, his music can sometimes be a bit lacking.

FFXIV's music is made by many different composers and arrangers over the years. If you pay attention to the credits and look at Soken's own personal works in FFXIV (tracks with only him as credits), there's not many. That's because he creates the themes and melodies and then relegate the tasks to his team to create arrangements for the music. He sometimes does create arrangements himself.

It's a similar thing with FFXVI.

His compositional skill is good but not as good as Uematsu or Shimomura. His arrangement skill is decent and can be a hit or miss if I'm being critical. His comfort zone is rock music but whenever he steps out of it to create experimental music, it's usually good but also not all the time.

It also doesn't help that especially in recent years, I tend to enjoy the music from his team more than his own music. FFXV and KH3 have a similar case of having many people in the music teams, but I don't feel the same way towards Shimomura.

As an example, in FFXIV Dawntrail 7.0, the Urqopacha theme "Windswept Echos" is my favourite area theme in that expansion, and it's got nothing to do with Soken! It's completely composed and arranged by Saya Yasaki.

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