Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae Demo Impressions

Earlier this week, we were given our first real taste of the long-in-development Final Fantasy XV. How does it sit with me, someone who has been a long fan of the series, and one who has also believed that Final Fantasy has been on a steady decline for quite a while?

Find out after the jump!

Disclaimer: I apologize in advance for any odd pacing in this article, as it's pretty difficult to write about a game that's a small piece of a bigger whole. Not to mention, the full game isn't even finished yet.

Injustice: Gods Among Us (Demo Impressions)

Nearly a year and a half ago, Netherealm Studios revealed that their next game wouldn’t be Mortal Kombat 10. Instead, they chose to pursue a project which would completely abandon their beloved franchise. Most fans (including myself) were disappointed with NRS’ decision… until we saw gameplay of Injustice: Gods Among Us, a brand new fighter that featured famous DC superheroes as selectable characters. The footage looked pretty similar to Mortal Kombat, but the fighting game community all wondered if it actually played as such. The game is not slated for release until April 16 th , but a demo has been released, finally letting us get a glimpse into what’s to come. So what are my impressions?

Why do people want an FFVII remake so badly?!

Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy VII is probably the most popular game in Square’s Final Fantasy franchise. Released way back in 1997, Square used clever marketing tactics to basically dupe people into buying their huge-budgeted game. These tactics basically involved NOT showing any gameplay during ads and commercials, only CG cutscenes, and not really letting anyone know what they were buying. I remember thinking every time a commercial was shown, “People think this is awesome, but they don’t really know that it’s an RPG.” Around this time, RPGs weren’t rare by any means, but RPG fans weren’t exactly turning up in droves, either. For a lot of American gamers, FFVII was not only their first game in the series, but was also their first RPG. Because of this, FFVII carries a lot of nostalgia. I don’t consider myself a “VII hater,” but the game is, to me, nothing special. The three games released before it were much better and so were the three games after it, in my opinion. That’s not to say that I’m some kind of retro guy that says only the 8 and 16-bit games were good (FFX is probably my 2 nd or 3 rd favorite in the series). FFVII’s plot really involves nothing more than chasing the main antagonist, Sephiroth, from one place to another. Literally, that’s all you really do. Several years ago, as a way to show off the PlayStation 3’s graphics horsepower, Square released a tech demo that recreated the opening cutscene of FFVII using real-time, in-game graphics. This tech demo ended up looking better than the original game’s opening. Check it out: Pretty, huh? What Square didn’t realize was that they were opening up a can of worms that fanboys have been gobbling up for the 6 years since that tech demo was released. Anytime a new Final Fantasy game is either reviewed or revealed, fanboys come out of the woodwork, crying and moaning, “Where’s the FFVII remake?!!!!?!!!!” Instead of remaking FFVII, Square has opted to create full remakes on the Nintendo DS of older FF titles like III and IV. In my opinion, remaking the older titles makes more sense than FFVII. By remaking the older titles, Square can add a new perspective on games that originally were only perceived on a 2D playing field. FFVII already had 3D graphics, albeit mostly on pre-rendered backgrounds, but the older titles were all sprites and mode-7. If you’re going to remake a game, there should be a good reason. What would be the reasoning behind remaking FFVII? “Because it’s AWEZOME!!%)!)%!*%^” That’s not good enough for me and it’s apparently not good enough for Square, either. Recently Square CEO, Yoichi Wada said that he believes that if Square remade FFVII, the Final Fantasy franchise “would be done with.” In my opinion, the Final Fantasy franchise is already done with, but that’s a different article for a different time. But in all honesty, I can see what he’s saying. Wada went on to say that until the company makes a Final Fantasy that exceeds the quality of VII, a remake will never happen. While I don’t necessarily agree with Wada’s comments that a Final Fantasy hasn’t lived up to VII’s quality (VIII-X were all better games, in my opinion), I understand what he’s basically getting at: “We don’t want to make that game right now. We know you want it, but we don’t.” So there you have it, folks. An FFVII remake is inevitable at some point, but it’s just not going to happen right now or in the foreseeable future. I honestly wish that Square would spend their time developing some decent new IPs rather than putting all their energy into new Final Fantasy games, or give us sequels to some of their existing properties. A sequel to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, anyone? How ‘bout that?! -Josh Source: IGN