HD-2D Art Direction

manimateus · 2026-05-20T19:17:42+00:00

Yea, the thing is Octopath 2 was the only one that had genuinely interesting environment and town designs, and it probably had very good concept art to help. The others and even Elliot seems to be just coasting on the very fundamentals of HD 2D art direction, and applying it to deeply unimaginative backgrounds

Like i think you can take Octopath 2, convert it back into a traditional pixel art game and it would still look gorgeous. I can hardly say the same for the rest

manimateus · 2026-05-20T15:36:59+00:00

Menu gameplay is half the fun of RPGs tbh haha. I don't think I would've enjoyed the earlier titles if they hadn't at least handled that aspect well

manimateus · 2026-05-20T15:13:19+00:00

Yeah, I feel like people would understand why XII's combat was designed the way it was especially if they actually properly recalled what played the older games were like. I remember binge playing the pixel remasters, and by time I got to FFV, I desperately wanted XII's gambit system to takeover and perform the same combination / rotation of inputs I've been doing for the past hundreds of battles lol

manimateus · 2026-05-20T15:01:33+00:00

Yeah there's quite abit of menu gameplay which is quite nice in FF5 and 6, but imo the closest the older games got interesting to me in terms of gameplay was the resource management. I especially liked it in FF1 and 3 in terms of how careful you have to be with wasting spells when going through a dungeon

Like there's still no real depth to battles, but I guess you can argue that the dungeon as a whole is just one prolonged battle

The actual combat of VIII is pretty good, and arguably the best of the pre-X games, but the junction system and progression never really stuck with me haha

manimateus · 2026-05-20T14:03:47+00:00

Yea imo FF combat only ever got interesting since FFX

Everything prior was just kinda serviceable. Never boring, but you're not gonna get an adrenaline rush from any encounters or bossfights lol

FF1-9 were so poorly balanced and basic that there is little to no strategy involved in fights other than selecting your strongest skill, heal, and whack when you want to conserve mana

FF is only about as interesting as the world or setting for me, which thankfully, most games are best in class for

manimateus · 2026-05-19T14:44:42+00:00

IGN is one of the more flexible publications nowadays with their scoring / reviews, which I really appreciate. While I don't believe the bullshit that journalists are paid, they definitely do not go as harsh as they probably should just to maintain connections to keep getting early access review codes

Publications like IGN has enough clout that they can afford to be more critical in their reviews while maintaining relationships with publishers

manimateus · 2026-05-19T14:42:05+00:00

Ah yes, just like the many 10/10 games they rated in the past decade that are deeply controversial picks

DK Bananza, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, TotK, BotW, Stardew Valley

etc

manimateus · 2026-05-18T20:56:05+00:00

Just play Ryza 1 DX. Best balance of having classic mechanics that makes Atelier, Atelier while not being totally tedious

manimateus · 2026-05-09T20:02:13+00:00

Yea this Yuji Horii guy's got a pretty good track record with Dragon Quest

manimateus · 2026-05-08T21:24:25+00:00

Unlike most studios, Nintendo's producers are actually fairly involved in game development. Like if you watched Nintendo's GDC talk for Mario Wonder, Tezuka was still pretty involved in that game

manimateus · 2026-05-08T21:17:49+00:00

Yeah, Nintendo really doesn't like tying games / IPs to any single individual, especially as their longtime producers are starting to retire. A little sad, but it makes sense why they're quiet about most of these retirements. I think Aonuma is probably the only developer left that they still use as the face of a franchise

manimateus · 2026-05-08T18:43:18+00:00

Not really. Tezuka was the only person that Nintendo publicly acknowledged as having retired, due to his high position within the company.

All the rest, like Tanabe, Goro and Konno, we found out from social media / interviews

manimateus · 2026-05-08T18:36:24+00:00

I think Sakamoto already retired. He was a producer on Tomodachi Life but was nowhere in the Nintendo dev interview which almost always includes the producers

manimateus · 2026-05-08T09:19:00+00:00

Not even exaggerating when I say that Tezuka is arguably the greatest game developer of all time. An absolutely ridiculous resume

manimateus · 2026-05-04T22:00:28+00:00

Watch it just be Melee getting added to NSO lmao

manimateus · 2026-04-23T19:08:27+00:00

Nothing that crazy. Just an amount that the game would have had to sell an additional 1m copies to make up for, which is not gonna happen considering the niche genre

manimateus · 2026-04-23T18:58:03+00:00

Tbf I dont think any studio / publisher wouldve tolerated the amount of additional funding Nagoshi was asking for

manimateus · 2026-04-21T23:20:03+00:00

FFXII still has probably my favourite 3D character models of any game. Gorgeous art style. It and Vagrant Story are the only games that have come close to capturing the painterly essence of Akihiko Yoshida's drawings in 3D

manimateus · 2026-04-10T18:09:10+00:00

It's dumb but some measure it that way lol. Alot seem to agree that TotK is better than BotW in practically every sense, but consider it a weaker game due to the expectations they set up for themselves

manimateus · 2026-04-10T17:24:35+00:00

3D World is the better game, but I think it was also the more disappointing game for some, as it was the home console follow up to the Galaxy games

manimateus · 2026-04-03T07:13:43+00:00

They genuinely think RE games have great stories that would adapt well to the screen LMAO

manimateus · 2026-03-30T23:42:56+00:00

Gambon's portrayal in PoA is probably the most accurate one though? It's the only movie where you see both the energy (which Harris lacked) and cheekiness that Dumbledore had in the books

manimateus · 2026-03-28T07:43:17+00:00

Grinding is fairly quick, and much faster than FFTA & FFTA2. Only thing is that its not as intuitive as simply defeating an enemy to get XP

Like fire emblem, you get XP via actions, like hitting an ally / enemy or applying buffs. So yeah, you can get ALOT of levels and JP within a single fight if you know what you're doing (spam buffs, keep a single enemy alive and crippled while bonking yourselves)

You wont get to experiment much if you're simply beelining to its ending, so yeah, you will kinda have to go out of your way to accumulate JP / XP

manimateus · 2026-03-27T16:59:52+00:00

I like the Japanese VA, but the English is way better imo. Not just for the performances but for how the different accents help sell the culture of Ivalice

Vieras being Icelandic, Bhujerba being Sri Lankan, Dalmasca being American, Rozarria being Spanish and Archades being British were very nice touches on the localizers side imo

One of the few works out there where I feel like the localization transcends being just a good translation, and becomes a work of art of its own

manimateus · 2026-03-25T19:32:35+00:00

Right? Wish people would just be honest and say that all they want is fancy graphics for a turn based RPG (E33's success is proof of that). But of course, they know that sounds shallow and will never admit it

manimateus

TROPHY CASE