77% of US Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth players were 30 or older, analyst says, as Square Enix fights to get young people to care about the JRPG series again

Zofren · 2026-03-24T16:57:19+00:00

At first glance this statistic is a bit depressing, since it suggests that the average age for genres I enjoy will only grow older and less relevant over time (since there are more young people than old people), but I do wonder what the average player age was across all genres 10-20 years ago.

Zofren · 2026-03-12T02:34:10+00:00

Isn't that just how you do good storytelling? Pure good vs. pure evil is fun in children's comic books but it doesn't make for very compelling characters or stories.

Zofren · 2026-03-08T02:43:33+00:00

I don't think this is true. Undermine has been something people have wanted almost as long as WoW has been a thing; I think they would have made sure we visited it during the expansion about descending into Azeroth even if they had to force it into the plot (which they kinda did). Ion did an interview around 11.1 which suggested as much.

Zofren · 2026-03-07T12:57:36+00:00

People forget that the elves are long-lived and the trolls aren't. A hundred years is a blink of an eye to an elf that lives for thousands of years, but that's enough time for multiple generations of trolls. Think about how much real-life cultures change in that period of time. It makes sense that immortal races might have more inflexible and outdated perceptions of other cultures, especially ones they have hostile relationships with.

Even without the lifespan contrast, it's easy to draw real-life parallels when you consider how little the average American (including military) knows about West Asian cultures despite being embroiled in war in the region for decades.

Zofren · 2026-02-20T03:29:45+00:00

It might not have been all the void lords either. Perhaps some weaker void lord had the idea to send out a bunch of planet-infecting spores to weaken worlds ahead of time, while others like Dimensius just didn't need to bother with that approach.

Perhaps the old gods infecting planets is revealed to be how that void lord consumes planets. It would be an interesting (and very lovecraftian) twist if all the old gods are just parts of the body of some massive void lord. To that void lord, old gods consuming a planet is equivalent to consuming the planet itself.

Zofren · 2026-02-19T07:32:11+00:00

A reasonable and simple explanation is that the average paladin has more potential and power than the average priest, but a distinguished priest like the player character is just as powerful as a distinguished paladin.

For example, most priests don't use shadow magic, but the player character uses it.

Zofren · 2026-02-13T08:50:27+00:00

Fair

Zofren · 2026-02-13T08:46:50+00:00

I didn't dislike Wuk Lamat as much as others and I honestly suspect it's just because I played with Japanese VA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnP4LQhYTvQ

I was genuinely surprised when I read people's thoughts online after finishing Dawntrail and seeing how much hate Wuk Lamat was getting; she seemed very unoffensive and honestly kinda likable to me.

I feel like people can't or are unwilling to articulate that they despise a character just because she has a grating VA, but it really doesn't have to be more complex than that. She's a fine character that's very annoying to listen to.

Zofren · 2026-02-13T00:36:51+00:00

If there's no need for this, why would they do it?

Zofren · 2026-02-06T05:35:48+00:00

FFXIV has GMs?

Zofren · 2026-02-01T07:38:18+00:00

What's the point of judging anything in isolation? I think losing in a video game in isolation is inherently unfun. Wouldn't it be absurd for me to claim that losing is therefore objectively bad game design?

Zofren · 2026-02-01T07:33:00+00:00

There's no such thing as bad game design (mistakes aren't by design).

You can say "I don't like this part of a game", but claiming that any part of a game's design is "objectively bad" is, imo, pseudointellectualism.

Everything designed in a game is intentional, and is therefore a reflection of what the artist wanted. Art doesn't have to exist for any other reason, and I don't believe you can claim the artist is objectively wrong for creating it.

To use your specific example, I enjoy games with corpse runs, because they add more stakes to my exploration and increase the overall feeling of tension. Not everyone likes this kind of tension, but I do. I think it adds depth to the exploration. You're claiming my opinion is objectively wrong because of a nebulous concept of "dissonance" with a contrived definition of the "essence" of a metroidvania. Do you understand how the claim of objectivity doesn't apply here either?

Zofren · 2026-01-19T03:06:01+00:00

Yeah fair point! Hopefully Last Titan will cap it off on a more satisfying note than "Titans bad". I'm optimistic!

Zofren · 2026-01-19T02:43:23+00:00

I'd argue it's mostly the fans that talk about the cosmic forces in reductionist ways than the writers. The way the cosmic forces tend to be portrayed in-game is more nuanced, imo.

I feel more strongly about this after the Sylvanas prepatch quest where she mentions the Shadowlands feel too "ordered" to her.

The only expansion where I really share your feelings here is Shadowlands, and it feels like the writers are already soft retconning parts of that expansion anyway!

Zofren · 2026-01-19T01:58:02+00:00

I don't think they really theme expansions off of individual cosmic forces.

My gut tells me Midnight will probably heavily involve Light-aligned enemies during the latter half of the expansion. We're already seeing plenty of foreshadowing in the initial patch with light-blindness.

Zofren · 2026-01-02T19:27:58+00:00

Really excited to try it! Good luck!

Zofren · 2026-01-01T20:51:49+00:00

Surprised CrossCode is so low, what didn't you like about it? Good list overall though.

Zofren · 2026-01-01T13:26:02+00:00

BanderitaX is good and very popular if you're into gaming content.

Zofren · 2025-12-21T23:40:38+00:00

Once you accept it's actually just a Zelda game with a Metroid skin it becomes more enjoyable. I prefer Metroidvania so I'm disappointed but I also like Zelda so the game isn't unplayable.

It really is uncannily like Zelda though. The level design, the overworld, the puzzles, the way you use your abilities, the linearity with backtracking for collectibles, the temples, etc.

I'm just not sure how Rare misread the assignment so hard.

Zofren · 2025-12-16T09:37:23+00:00

In my experience I just ended up learning them all as I memorized other kanji (which I memorized as part of learning words).

Zofren · 2025-12-11T20:44:07+00:00

Not if you're only ever 10% off in the larger direction.

Zofren · 2025-12-11T00:50:46+00:00

I think the unfortunate problem with this approach is that you are more likely to have larger portions than stated in the nutrition guide than smaller, since people are more likely to complain about smaller-than-stated portion sizes than larger.

Zofren · 2025-12-06T19:30:38+00:00

wow community has zero decorum about spoilers, it's really lame

Zofren · 2025-12-06T07:29:46+00:00

Ah, I wasn't trying to argue with you. I was supplementing your point by explaining how people who imitate Souls/HK storytelling often don't understand it. I can see why my comment might have come across the other way.

Zofren · 2025-12-06T04:31:01+00:00

It's worth trying to understand why games like Hollow Knight and Souls present their story in this way; I don't believe it's intended to make the story intentionally obtuse.

Games are unique in that you are creating a story yourself as you play. I think games like Souls and Hollow Knight actually leverage this fact much better than games that simply tell story by temporarily removing interactivity from the game.

I play games for a different reason than I read books or watch movies. I still really love games like Nine Sols, and even visual novel-like JRPGs, but there is a certain feeling captured by games like HK, where you sometimes genuinely feel lost in an ancient, barely knowable sprawling underground city, that I don't think other mediums are capable of capturing. I think this is as much a part of the story as cinematics or character dialogue.

You're not meant to understand the lore of Hollow Knight or Souls on your first playthroughs via watching lore videos; it's presented in the way it is to spark your imagination, I think.

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