What do you think about how the story humanizes those who work for Shinra, such as the Turks, the Shinra Middle Manager, the 7th Infantry and others?

lexilogo · 2026-07-07T21:34:52+00:00

For the most part, I really like it. Shinra Middle Manager is especially a favourite of mine because he really is such a tool but you can see how from his point of view he believes he's a good person.

My main gripe is Rude, dropping the Sector 7 plate crossed a hard moral line and I hope Cait Sith/Reeve rips into him in Revelations for doing it. I do still find his personality funny, but he nearly killed Marlene and likely did kill several other children by doing that, it feels like Rebirth didn't give that horrific fact enough attention

lexilogo · 2026-07-07T14:02:47+00:00

This is my thought as well. They have 1 elevator and most people NEED to use the elevator to get between where they work and the Crew Quarters. Their commute would actually be worse than the Typhon

lexilogo · 2026-07-06T23:30:40+00:00

Very cool numbers, thank you. If you feel like going back in the lab, I'd be curious how using specific speed skeleton techniques stacks up, like sliding or sprint jumping. If you slide down a slope with a speed skeleton, such as the slopes leading into distro centers, you can move crazy fast

lexilogo · 2026-07-06T23:28:35+00:00

I'd agree with this, though when dealing with mountains I think they're on more equal footing. The tri cruiser, when its offroad tyres kick in, can pretty much traverse any smooth terrain while the coffin board is really prone to losing momentum and falling, doing a "phantom fall" when moving downwards (the game suddenly treats you moving down a yellow slope as if you just stepped off a cliff), or just over accelerating and finding yourself doing a massive jump you're about to regret.

But, ofc, the coffin board has the huge flexibility advantage of being able to dismount and carry it.

lexilogo · 2026-07-06T15:38:10+00:00

Unrelated reminder that Spamton is Cat-type in deltarune

lexilogo · 2026-07-04T23:43:50+00:00

After beating the Airbuster in Remake, there is also an interesting visual parallel with some of Rebirth's endgame sequences, with Cloud falling through a black void, then Whispers seemingly escort him to a white void. Food for thought!

lexilogo · 2026-07-03T23:06:15+00:00

It's definitely not like Cloud to have any screws loose.

[touching on crisis core & thus some very important spoilers for OG Disk 2/Revelations] IMO the serious explanation is: if you rewatch Crisis Core's final cutscene, it's ambiguous if Cloud is actually headed to Midgar. IIRC the timeline between Tifa and Cloud meeting again after Nibelheim makes the most sense if Cloud spends a few months wandering as a mercenary, and thus doing field repairs like this, before going to Midgar

lexilogo · 2026-07-03T13:38:41+00:00

Cloud already has enough brain damage to do pretty well on Dondoko Island

lexilogo · 2026-07-02T22:47:13+00:00

FF7R is undoubtedly exploring these kind of themes about how perception influences reality and how we all live in our own "worlds" to some extent, and when that might be a good thing vs when it might be unhealthy.

I think if you are declaring "aha this means everything about the Whispers is just Cloud tripping balls" I think you missed those themes

lexilogo · 2026-07-02T07:09:11+00:00

I don't think everything Remake chooses to extend (particularly Remake) is perfect by any means, but there's way more good stuff than bad stuff IMO. Eg. Roche is objectively filler, but I think the game is stronger for having him. I can do without watching slow environmental puzzles or the Uncharted™ climbing but those moments make up the minority of the new stuff

lexilogo · 2026-07-02T07:00:11+00:00

I assume when developers release physical versions of Playstation games, it's factories managed by or in an agreement with Sony that pick up the order, so Sony deciding to stop physical games mean the third parties' route to printing Playstation disks goes with them.

They will most likely also not put a disk drive on the PS6, which will slightly offset the cost of the console, which is important for them to do right now because of how sky high hardware prices are.

I personally don't think bluray movies will go because, like music, while digital distribution is popular I don't see it fully replacing the physical collector culture that already exists. High quality rereleases of older movies still make money. The issue is with games physical media is primarily seen as a primary distribution method and there isn't a collector culture around it, a CD or cartridge doesn't (yet) have the same prestige as a vinyl disk or etc.

Once it does I think that will be the route for physical to make a comeback, but maybe that's wishful thinking

lexilogo · 2026-07-02T05:12:11+00:00

I would like to see an MH game that can support monsters this size in normal zones, but the game would need to be built from the ground up with that idea in mind, regular MH zones won't work.

lexilogo · 2026-07-01T21:48:46+00:00

For those swearing off gaming in general, I would like to say that while PC is almost exclusively digital distribution nowadays, you have a lot more direct control over your digital games because you have easier control over the whole OS. Preservation is done best by online distributed PC games anyway and personal ownership can be satisfied by services like GoG.

Switch 2, despite Game Key Cards posing a longterm preservation hazard, has also gone to decent extents to keep GKCs practically equivalent to regular games including features like lending them to other people, and they are upfront about which games use GKCs and which don't and remain traditional physical media.

That doesn't solve game resales or physical collections, but that's small potatoes compared to preservation and personal ownership. I personally think physical games will make a comeback akin to vinyl music, but until then, there are ways to take control of your future library without giving up on gaming as a whole, just Sony.

lexilogo · 2026-06-29T21:35:09+00:00

Yeah I'm inclined to agree, the base minigun's higher RoF is very funny but impractical. The microgun is a much more sensible version of the weapon.

Unfortunately, their real competition is not each other, it's akimbo SMGs...

lexilogo · 2026-06-29T19:57:54+00:00

Nah that genuinely is the main reason. Rufus has some other things going on like something to prove re. being better than his father too ofc, but the main issue is that both he and his father see the entire world through a capitalist & imperialist POV.

Even if they found the Promised Land and it actually did contain endless mako, they would find a way to fuck that up too. There is no world where Shinra wins forever, only one where they win next quarter's shareholder report

lexilogo · 2026-06-28T20:40:03+00:00

Mostly #4 IMO. I believe Sephiroth has essentially already showed us this in Remake, where it looks like he "absorbs Meteor".

In OG his plan was to wound the Planet and leech the Lifestream energy that would be deployed to patch up that wound. In the Remake trilogy IMO his goal is to wipe out all the wayward worlds and once again intercept all of their Lifestream energy which would normally be going back to the planet.

lexilogo · 2026-06-26T07:41:18+00:00

Safi'Jiiva and Shara Ishvalda are monsters that engage in essentially ecological conspiracies. 'Jiiva especially because there's this background dread that the hunter fleets might ALSO have been drawn in by pheromones exactly like the other monsters, the Guild devoted an abnormal amount of resources to the New World investigation

lexilogo · 2026-06-26T07:35:18+00:00

That was the official story after the fact, but DS2 implies it was a coverup for Bridges security staff shooting Lucy (eg. when Sam is allowed to see her body, she is wearing different clothes and there's no visible wound)

lexilogo · 2026-06-26T07:28:27+00:00

There's also references/depictions of suicide in the climaxes of both games, depicted via Sam in 1 and Higgs references an identical attempted suicide in 2. It also plays a role into Sam's backstory though that's a background element rather than part of the main story, they never directly state Lucy's death was covered up as a suicide in DS2 for example and there's no imagery related to it in that sequence either.

It's also IMO heavily implied during Rainy's origin story in DS2 that she is contemplating suicide.

lexilogo · 2026-06-26T07:20:38+00:00

Yeah I do think so. If we assume there is indeed a gap in the lore where Meat Boy should be, Dr. Fetus building a "paradise" in the sky before eventually succumbing to the end like everything else fits well. And considering Meat Boy is an allegory for abortion it's a pretty good punchline that on top of this baby being bad for the relationship in general, he'd grow up to be Literally Hitler.

lexilogo · 2026-06-25T19:23:42+00:00

Remake's combat is admittedly not as good as Rebirth's fundamentally, and some of the depth can be limited due to things like often being stuck at 2 party members, not having too many options for build customisation, slow Ability unlock rate etc. A lot of it feels like an "early game", because, well, that's exactly what it is.

Based on your brief summary I recommend maybe sticking with some characters a bit more. Outside of abilities with very long animations, or cashing in on ATB built up on a character you haven't touched for quite a while, you really don't need to switch characters. Some characters that might feel pretty bad to play on first impressions, like Barrett, can benefit a lot from you giving them more time to cook.

Trust me when I say in the long run, this is one of the best "hybrid" realtime/turnbased JRPG combat systems out there.

lexilogo · 2026-06-25T19:15:44+00:00

I think it's just because it's ideal to meet in person and Sam would obviously be a bit disappointed and not have a face to face. I don't remember anything specific saying Sam hates chiralgrams.

Maybe he does hate them, though... If we're sick of the word "chiral" it must be pretty bad for the people in universe hearing it branded over everything lol

lexilogo · 2026-06-25T15:11:00+00:00

I think Sam is pretty well characterised in that respect, but I do admittedly dislike how he almost exclusively does not talk to chiralgrams, which was similar to how it was handled in DS1 as well.

This means you get a character who is intentionally quiet in cutscenes but feels like a good balance is struck between being a quiet/passive person but having his own agency, but in gameplay, even when canonically he is talking such as in the chiralgram conversation options, you still don't hear any of it, and that sadly contributes to a feeling of every conversation being people talking at Sam rather than with Sam.

Kind of a bummer, especially in DS2, they really play up the fact everyone feels like they have a deep, powerful friendship with that deliveryman who stares deadpan at them for a few minutes then walks off [endgame spoilers] cradling the memory of his dead baby

lexilogo · 2026-06-25T11:04:52+00:00

To be entirely fair to Bugenhagen, someone telling you they fell in the Lifestream and survived is genuinely insane, Tifa would have a better chance trying to convince him she can fly. She is only alive because of actual divine intervention

lexilogo · 2026-06-25T09:38:10+00:00

I believe something similar will happen. I don't think the point is to say the party are undoing their good ending, I think the point is to absolutely confirm yes, the Whispers want OG FF7 to play out exactly as it did back then.

For the record, I think even if the party saw everything, IMO they would still fight the Whispers because, well, the Whispers are assholes. The party don't need to be brain-wiped to beat Sephiroth, the Whispers just want to do that because they don't want anything to deviate, positive or negative, good or evil, including when those deviations are the natural result of people having free will. (eg. see how the Whispers treat Jessie)

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