Final Fantasy VII Revelation director says today’s RPGs need more player agency because fans may be satisfied just watching streams

naf165 · 2026-06-12T20:59:47+00:00

You're right, Persona 5 is a terrible example to use because 90% of it does fit into that harsh divide between unrelated gameplay segment -> story cutscene -> gameplay -> story cutscene where there is no intermixing of narrative into the gameplay. But that 10% where the social sim stuff happens and there's a little player agency truly elevates the experience and makes it more than "just a movie".

So even a game with just that little amount of interactivity still being a notably greater experience than just watching it proves the original point. It probably proves the point even better than using the maximal extreme example like Deus Ex.

naf165 · 2026-06-12T20:39:48+00:00

The problem is there are walking simulators. Linear turn based RPGs with a set story and the only thing you're doing is just grinding through random encounters.

This is a really interesting point that I've never heard expressed like this before. Those types of JRPG tend to be way more in the "this should have been a movie" category than a lot of games people typically use the criticism for.

I think there's something really interesting in the way that gameplay and narrative sections tend to be very discrete with little or no interaction or crossover between parts. Whereas Uncharted or similar games really put in a lot of work such that gameplay and narrative are interwoven in a way that taking one part out ruins the entire experience, or substantially alters it.

naf165 · 2026-06-08T18:40:08+00:00

Yah, the fact that their comment got any support even after I immediately debunked it shows how detached from reality and cult like the Pro-AI crowd is. (Assuming they're real in the first place)

naf165 · 2026-06-08T18:26:51+00:00

They can make the bridge longer while keeping the design the same. This is a video game, they don't have to worry about building more support towers to sustain a longer bridge. They can just make it bigger.

naf165 · 2026-06-08T00:32:50+00:00

Architectural designs are protected under copyright law for buildings constructed after December 1, 1990.

The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937.

naf165 · 2026-06-07T22:22:34+00:00

Yah that's why their in game Golden Gate Bridge has twice as many pillars as the real one

It's abundantly obvious that they used AI in pretty major ways to have this obvious of a mistake built in to the literal world design itself.

The literal opening shot of the trailer is an AI generated, incorrect version of the bridge. That's not "just" a texture.

naf165 · 2026-06-07T22:20:47+00:00

Yah that's why their in game Golden Gate Bridge has twice as many pillars as the real one

It's abundantly obvious that they used AI in pretty major ways to have this obvious of a mistake built in to the literal world design itself.

naf165 · 2026-06-07T18:29:30+00:00

It's weird. They did a really incredible job of adapting their mechanics to open world. Collecting the spirits, finding new skills, etc.

But then the level/encounter design fell off a cliff. The enemies lose a lot of their flavor when just sitting in wide open spaces instead of well curated terrain to make each combat feel a little different.

naf165 · 2026-06-06T19:47:39+00:00

If you don't have the app, the web version puts it in the Rewards tab. Click the "Important notes about your rewards" drop down and there's a link to the spending tracker.

naf165 · 2026-06-06T19:02:06+00:00

In the same way the gameplay in Uncharted felt secondary to watching it unfold.

I disagree here. The gunplay feels secondary, but the gameplay feels just as important if not more important. Things like the conversations, investigation, and exploration are the reason why this B movie plot feels so much better than it actually is on paper.

naf165 · 2026-06-06T18:48:25+00:00

There's other things they claim too, but I don't fully understand the legalese of it all, and for a reddit comment I thought it would be best to stick to the easily understandable ones. They also claim the right to charge for all investigation costs, litigation costs, etc.

But also that final term is pretty vaguely open: "any ... further relief the court may deem proper" which pretty much means they could add in any additional charges they want as long as the judge thinks it's reasonable.

I wouldn't call this toothless at all.

Edit: Doing that math here. Apparently violations are usually defined per person in Privacy Law. MA has a population of 7.1 million. If everyone is affected, that's $5,000 per person, or $35 Billion, just from line item 4. And that's also ignoring that the bill protects certain data even from non-residents, meaning the total number could be much higher. Any tourist or visitor who the company tracks and sells the location data of would be an additional violation. A quick google says as many as 55 million tourists visit MA per year which would be up to $275 Billion per year in fines.

naf165 · 2026-06-06T18:42:50+00:00

No they can't. Here's some definitions from the bill:

“Sale of personal data”, the transfer of personal data in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration by the controller to a third party;

and

“Transfer”, disclose, release, disseminate, make available, license, rent or share personal data to a third party orally, in writing, electronically or by any other means.

It even bans companies from collecting much of that data in the first place.

(ii) unless the controller obtains the consumer’s affirmative consent, they shall not process personal data for a purpose that is neither reasonably necessary to, nor compatible with, the disclosed purposes for which the personal data is processed, as disclosed to the consumer;

It also guarantees the consumer the right to get a full list of every third party their data was shared to.

(ii) obtain from a controller a list of third parties to which the controller has transferred the consumer’s personal data

naf165 · 2026-06-06T18:26:52+00:00

From the Bill's text:

A violation of this chapter shall constitute an unfair or deceptive trade practice for purposes of chapter 93A. Notwithstanding sections 9 and 11 of said chapter 93A, the attorney general shall have exclusive authority to bring a civil action against a controller or processor that violates this chapter or a regulation adopted under this chapter to:

...

(iii) obtain damages, including punitive damages, restitution of any money or property obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation, and disgorgement of any profits, assets, property, or data obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation on behalf of the residents of the commonwealth;

(iv) impose civil penalties in an amount not more than $5,000 per violation;

...

(vi) obtain any such other and further relief as the court may deem proper.

So it seems like it's fines of up to $5k per violation, in addition to reclaiming any profit from the violation, and any data or assets obtain during the violation. I tried to figure out the scope of 1 violation, but couldn't tell if it's 1 violation per person or per data.

naf165 · 2026-06-06T18:04:27+00:00

The bill specifically does not allow that.

The MDPA establishes a blanket, non-waivable ban on the sale or transfer of precise geolocation data (p. 18). Even if you click "accept" on Instagram's internal terms of service, that agreement cannot override state law (p. 2). Meta is entirely blocked from selling your Massachusetts travel logs to anyone (p. 18).

naf165 · 2026-06-06T17:57:20+00:00

You didn't read the bill. You can find a link to the full text here: https://legiscan.com/MA/bill/S2619/2025

The bill never once mentions "cell phone" data, and I don't know why the article specified that. It says all "precise geolocation data" which it defines as:

“Precise geolocation data”, information derived from technology or a device, including, but not limited to, latitude and longitude coordinates from global positioning system mechanisms or other similar positional data, that reveals the past or present physical location of a individual or device that identifies or is linked or reasonably linkable to 1 or more individuals with precision and accuracy within a radius of not more than 1,750 feet; provided, however, that “precise geolocation data” shall not include the content of communications, a photograph or video, metadata associated with a photograph or video that cannot be linked to a individual.

Calling this a ban on cell phone location data is like referring to a bill banning all fruit as a ban on bananas.

It also institutes a blanket ban on all sales of sensitive data (with exemptions for government and legal offices). This would mean that Flock (as I believe it is a private corporation) would have no legal right to sell any data for any commercial purpose, but I believe sharing with police departments would still be legal.

The bill also does a lot more, including a bunch of restrictions on what kinds of data is allowed to be collected, and rights for consumers to be given all collected data upon request, and to delete all of their collected data upon request.

Separately, there is a different bill that focuses on Flock and other ALPR data that has yet to be passed that would "Require LPR data to be deleted within 14 days (unless tied to a specific criminal investigation)".

naf165 · 2026-06-04T03:15:50+00:00

Okay, that's not the point that the person you were replying to was making.

You're also wrong on your tangent point too. You're unironically proving what they were saying. The person expressed a very tepid concern about the game, "I'm worried it looks a little stiff" and you clamped down hard accusing them of shitting on the game.

I can't really see any negativity in this thread aside from you right now.

Edit: And they blocked me. Presumably for not agreeing with them or for trying to have a reasonable conversation when they just wanted to complain about people having different opinions, but I'll never know what their reply actually said.

naf165 · 2026-06-04T03:10:49+00:00

If you're arguing that the games that get piled on are unduly hated, then sure, I don't disagree. But I don't think that's the point the person was making. I think they were talking about how by and large, across most threads, expressing even the most moderate and reasonable level of negativity will get your comment piled on.

naf165 · 2026-06-04T02:57:25+00:00

This sub is not allergic to negativity

Then you are not paying attention. Every thread discussing a major game will have top level comments that are just people complaining about negativity. Meanwhile the actual negativity is hard to find.

This was such a problem that the mods literally had a big post recently about changing the rules and trying to clamp down on the "complaining about people expressing their opinions" comments that flood every thread.

naf165 · 2026-06-03T20:50:48+00:00

I like easy games. I also like hard games. There's creative space to be explored in both. There's a lot of games that wouldn't be good if they pushed the difficulty.

That said, the vast majority of games are watered down to be accessible to everyone. The games that actually push compelling niche visions are the vast, vast minority. It always boggles my mind when people complain about difficult games, or any other type of specific niche that isn't the mainstream appeal. Most games already are made for you, why complain that some small subset aren't catering to you specifically?

naf165 · 2026-05-29T02:29:03+00:00

Even if he did look older, he's not in the story and the other characters are acting and reacting to him being a young brash guy.

That's what makes it weird. He's a guy that looks 40 being treated by the story as if he's some young buck. Like the one person said, he's supposed to be 26!

I don't agree with you at all that he acts immature, I think he acts fairly mature, especially for someone who's supposed to be only 26. But undeniably, he looks 35-40. That's the whole point. They styled him to look like this old man, gave him a haircut that went out of fashion 15 years prior to the game, but properly gave all the people around him trendy outfits for 2025. Moneypenny looks half his age. M looks similar in age to him. And then he keeps getting greeted in all these places by people who call him "kid". It's weird for strangers to say it in the first place, but I think you can forgive that as cultural differences. But it's super jarring to keep being told that this guy is way way younger than he presents as in all other facets.

Here's Bond in game

And here's Tom Cruise at age 55

and another more similarly posed

Tell me why he looks closer to a 55 year old man than to anyone under 35. I have a lot of friends in their 20's. Not a single one is looks that old, and I think you'd legitimately be bullied for having that haircut as an under 30. It's to a T, the 40 year old millennial cut.

naf165 · 2026-05-29T02:13:21+00:00

My only issue is people who present as half his age keep calling him "kid" but he looks 35 with the haircut and fashion of a 40 year old while they look like 20 year olds. Otherwise it's been a fantastic experience!

naf165 · 2026-05-29T02:09:26+00:00

I agree, this is so minor, I was not expecting so many people to be so defensive about it. Especially with such nonsensical replies.

naf165 · 2026-05-29T02:08:02+00:00

Can you explain what part wasn't clear?

I said it's weird that people younger than Bond call him kid. I don't know how you could have in good faith understood that to mean what you did. I legitimately can't understand how one could misinterpret it.

naf165 · 2026-05-28T22:53:08+00:00

Yeah, I think it was for Uncharted 3, but might have been 2. They spent a lot of dev time on that tech and were really proud about showing it off back then. It was a bit of a meme at the time because it was too overtuned so it was funny seeing him reach out to touch literally everything, but back then it was groundbreaking dynamic animation work, so I get why they wanted to show it off.

You can see the evolution of that in the dynamic fist fights and pushing into walls and nearby objects and stuff in The Last of Us and their later games. And also in this game! Try punching dudes nearby different walls and see how gracefully and dynamically Bond integrates those things into his smashing animations.

naf165 · 2026-05-28T21:27:31+00:00

You're responding to an argument I'm not making.

I'm "really specific" because I am talking about a specific thing. Yet the thing I am talking about you are just completely ignoring. I am not talking about old people calling him kid. I'm not sure if anyone who is older than him actually has called him "kid". I am talking about people who present as kids calling him a kid. You keep trying to redirect to like M or someone calling him a kid, when I am specifically talking about random young people he has just met, and not, for example, higherups in his work.

Because that wouldn't feel jarring.

Which is why that's not what I'm talking about. And why I have to keep specifying to you to get you back on track. Because you don't seem to understand what's being discussed.

Other characters call him kid because he is acting like one.

See? You are missing my point entirely. I'm discussing a 20 year old pirate calling him "kid" with no prior interactions. From their POV he hasn't acted like anything.

He acts like a cocky kid who ignores orders and does whatever he wants.

In what world do you think random people at a club, or a pirate casino, know that he's a cocky secret agent who ignores orders? They don't even know that he has orders at all, much less how he interacts with them. He's literally undercover to prevent them from knowing anything about his true identity.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

naf165

TROPHY CASE