We’re back, and this is the largest cast of guests we’ve had yet!
This week, Don and Mike open the show with new releases and news. Then, Tim, Joseph, and Kyle join Don to talk about anything and everything – nothing is off limits. We’ve got some Dead Space 3, a lot of Final Fantasy talk, some Metal Gear, PAX Prime coverage, and way more. Enjoy.
Final Fantasy 13 was first introduced to us back in 2009, almost four years after Final Fantasy 12 was released, and fans had been eagerly anticipating the next installment. But when it finally arrived, there were mixed reactions, including complaints about its linearity, the lack of towns and NPCs, and the limited control over the characters. At the time, Square Enix kept its game production behind closed doors and didn't take in a lot of feedback — especially from Western fans.
The game has been revisited by many different Final Fantasy fans since then, and some, like myself, have come to love it again. Almost all staple entries in the series have found their way to modern consoles, so it's about time that the FF13 trilogy gets a remaster
I've been thinking about this. I agree. While I really disliked it at first I never played it again. After hating ff15 so damn much I just think it can't be worse then 15 and if I'm not mistaken atleast it's turn based. I need more of that in my life.
I actually finished FFXIII and on the second playthrough found I actually liked the game.
Actually I have liked most of the FF games (I have not played FFIX unfortunately) and I do agree with you with regards to FFXV. Graphically IMHO FFXV is excelent but for some reason I just could not get enthusiastic in playing it.
As for "turn-based", I prefer active and real time although to be fair "turn-based" is a real plus especially when confronting a difficult protagonist. I found this to be especially the case when playing FFXXII where you could switch rapidly between "turn" and "active" although having a resonable knowledge of simple Boolean Algebra is IMHO essential when playing this game.
Ridiculous comment, first of all i think you should replay 15, second of all that game is 10 times better than the XIII games especially the royal edition. And third .. turn based combat is a dying (almost dead) style of gameplay and i personally wont miss it at all so don’t act like that is some sort of big plus because XIII has it.. it is not.
Ff15
Sucked imo. I don't need to give it another try. Last time was the 3rd time and I had 34 hours into it. It just wasn't good imo
How is turn based dying or almost dead? Pokémon is one of the biggest RPGs in the world and is and has always been turn based. To some it is a plus especially when it comes to FF since the first 10 of them all are and are arguably better games than any FF to come after
XV was rubbish, but understandable given the development hell. That overworld for me is the biggest example, so strangely designed and empty. And parts of the story awkwardly cut for DLC, most egregious being that prompto part where he's like "I'm a clone", or whatever he was (it was that forgettable), and the other guys basically shrugging it off.
Turn-based is alive and well: Pokemon, Dragon Quest, XCom, Civilization, Homeworld, Age of Wonders, Total War, Original Sin, Baldur's Gate, Warhammer, Yu-Gi-Oh, Company of Heroes, Wasteland, Pathfinder, Disco Elysium, Octopath Traveler, Chained Echoes and many, many more great games, both new and old, franchises and new IPs are selling well, reviewing well and sequels are coming.
If you don't play the game, maybe the turn-based has just died in/for you, but certainly the genre has never been so alive as in 2023! Plus, when you look at Final Fantasy franchise, it started going down in quality when it left turn-based combat behind. FFXVI may redeem some of the glory (and FFXIV was great), but the turn-based games were higher rated and deeper in terms of gameplay and had more interesting things to do in the world.
I'd say Persona 5 is one of the best of the best games in a couple of decades.
I don't think you manage that with a dying gameplay format.
Levii92
Turn based is way funner imo then just some hack n slash rpg. I like both but prefer turn based.
Far as dying I doubt it. It's also kinda funny cause the best final fantasy have been turn based. Ff still to this day can't top ff6 through ff9. Interesting.
Far as someone who brought up persona 5. I dislike the art style so I've yet to play it but I'd throw dq11 in there. Best jrpg I've played in fkin years. Over a decade.
Last I was a bit iffy on chained echoes because of the sp and no traditional leveling system. I recently bought it. Looks gorgeous, story is fantastic so far, but I cannot for the life of me get over how much I truly hate the leveling system. It's just flat out whack to me. I'm still going to finish it cause unlike ff15 atleast chained echoes doesn't feel like a chore
The XIII series (especially Lightning Returns) has far better combat than XV, and you don't need to watch an anime and a movie to make sense of the story.
15 was only fun for derping about in the wilderness, at least FF13 had a better story and was more coherent overall (plot, characters, gameplay, world, ect...).
15 was just beautify garbage, so much wasted potential, the Duke Nukem Forever of the FF franchise.
I really loved Persona 5, can't wait for P6 to be announced, I'd love ports of the first few games (we already have P3P/P4G/P5R available on almost everything now).
People act like XV killed one of their family members. It wasn't the best FF ever, but it certainly wasn't a bad game. You "hated it so damn much"? Chill.
I agree, FF13 is better than FF15, but I don't think I can play through that trilogy again, I'd rather play one of the older games.
Thank you. A ton of FFXIII articles recently. Most of the people who like this game are not old enough to have played 4 to 9. Even 10 and 12 are vastly superior to this game. That being said a remaster would then make all the FF titles available on the PS platform.
Citation needed
Do you have some kind of official survey of ff 13 fans ages?
Would love a link
Also, all games are available on multiple systems, re released many times
"Not old enough" doesn't even make much sense
That was part of what I was trying to say. I've gave 15 3 try ff13 deserves atleast a second. And like I said I could use some turn based in my life
I've also played through or played all of the ff games starting with ff1 way way way back.
"Good" is subjective. I love FFIX but I know many fans who don't like it for the art style and the slow combat.
Recently replayed them and I agree a remaster would be great. The complaints about linearity are fair, but they only really apply to the first half of the first game and while I agree that it would've been nice to have proper towns, minigames and subquests, it didn't detract from the intriguing story, interesting characters, tactical gameplay and amazing soundtrack in my opinion.
XIII-2 fixes a lot of the issues of XIII and expands on the story in interesting ways. The combat and progression builds on top of the systems of XIII and the nonlinearity and discoverability of secrets is a big inprovement over the original game. It's easily the best game of the trilogy.
Lightning Returns was probably a bit too experimental for it's own good. It tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The solo party for most of the game and the outfit based combat felt like a downgrade over XIII-2 combat system. It does have a unique vibe, but the plot kinda goes off the rails and many of the story beats didn't land as much for me as they did in the first two games. The race against time aspect was an interesting idea, but it never felt like it mattered, because it wasn't much of a challenge to manage the remaining time even while doing all the subquests.
XIII-2 is by far the best of the trilogy. Went out of my way to get the Platinum trophy on it. Which is actually a fun one to go for. Didn't take too long, only about 70-80 hours to accomplish. Loved every second of it though.
I don't think linearity is a fair critique, when every FF up until that point was fairly linear esp. in the first half of the game. People herald FF VII(including the remake), but it is just as linear as FFXIII was. The linearity complaints came at a time when open-world games were just starting to become a thing and people thought every game should be open-world, but now that every game is, people now want more linear experiences. Go Figure.
Ff10 was pretty linear to. Haven't played through all of 13 but 10 was linear as fk until the end
Totally agree. I never fully understood why 10 was so universally praised when it had many of the same design philosophies xiii is criticized for.
I felt the same for the most part except the LR combat system. I thought it was an upgrade on the party of three system the previous two games had as now you had more control over your moves with different sets being an L1/R1 click away, and could move the single character around in battle and attack limbs or tails of certain enemies, or reduce the distance between you and an enemy you're after saving ATB.
LR combat certainly has it's merits. I would've preferred it if it wasn't tied to the costumes which can make Lightning look quite ridiculous and out of place sometimes though.
But mainly I would've preferred to see an evolution of XIII-2 systems. Since they are so different it's obviously just a preference. Can't really compare them objectively.
Yeah I get ya, and I can totally see why the costume part got to people. I'm someone that doesn't care what the character looks like as long as I'm happy with the stats (looking at Xenoblade). LR to me is just one of those odd games that I can't help respect for mixing things up, even if the outcome wasn't the best lol. But yeah too different to compare.
Why would a remaster be great? They exist in HD, on a console that is still compatible with modern televisions, and you just replayed it.
I replayed them on my PS3. I just think it would make sense for those games to be more accessible to Playstation gamers, which is where the majority of the modern FF fanbase is (due to the exclusivity deals of VII Re and XVI).
300,000 Metal Gear games were sold during the first quarter of 2023, Konami has announced, bringing the total number to 59.8 million.
Do not worry they will give use those pichincko remakes for top dollar soon.
Metal gear solid 3 in the fox engine looked/ran amazing but was sealed away :(
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
I know re-makes and stuff have been played to death this generation.
But damn I wouldn't mind an MGS4 remake
I thought the series would have sold more over all these years and different releases.
Metal Gear isn't that big, and there hasn't been a new release in years. Also MGS2 and 3 are still missing from digital storefronts.
5 mgs games in total if I'm not mistaken. 59 60 million seems about right. Mgs is dope to some of us but it would be hard for a lot of regulars to understand
Although there are notable exceptions (GTA, certain first-party Nintendo games, Gran Turismo), as a rule games didn't sell as much in earlier generations as they have in the past few generations. So a lot of PS1-PS2 era titles that are viewed as seminal games didn't actually sell all that much by today's standards (yes, despite the large install bases of those systems lol). I remember a similar surprised reaction happening a few months ago when Square announced the total overall sales of Final Fantasy VII.
Some of the best fun you can have online was the first metal gear online and to a lesser, but still fun to an extent, MGO2. The magazine, CQC, stealth, and tactical play Vs real players is just a blast. Not to mention playing Snake vs everyone? Amazing. The game will never be the same without Hideo, but Konami can definitely update what’s already there and take my money.
You wouldn't be talking about the OG MGO that was included with MGS3:S would you? It's rare running into another former player. Those were some of the best memories of any online game I had.
Yes my man!! That seems like the BEST game that nobody played! Tranquilizer pistol, drag the body to a corner and lay a girly mag right by their head so they wake up and instantly get caught by the mag. You could get real toxic if you wanted at that point, but man that game was incredible! The only thing annoying was that damn Konami ID
Hideo Kojima: "After the launch, many people seemed to expect GZ to be a full game."
People would have gotten “your intention” if you stated it from the beginning but people didn’t want smaller episode like MGS games.
He should have just focused on MGSV and work Ground Zeroes into that game instead
I don't remember there being confusion over Ground Zeroes being a full game. But then again I was just starting to catch up on the MGS series as a whole at that point so I might've not paid enough attention or simply have forgotten that there was confusion about it. I bet the whole Moby Dick Studios thing didn't help the casual observer understand what the hell was going on though.
I only got both MGSV games when Phantom Pain was already out and I kinda agree that it probably would've sucked if I had to wait one and a half years to pay The Phantom Pain after Ground Zeroes.
I'm sorry what now?
Who expected that?
If it was meant to be episodic or an experiment for that, the price should / would have reflected that
To be fair, there really wasn't enough content to actually justify even the smaller price tag. It was still half the cost of a full game, yet a 20th of the content.
I can't stand these paid glorified demos.
Honestly, it was basically similar to the FF15 Duscae demo. My theory is he was taking too damn long to make a game and Konami was like, “Sell what you got!” It just has kind of a scummy corporate “let’s sell this demo for half the price of a full game,” feel to it.
That’s just my take on it. I love Kojima and I love the MGS series, but this and 5 were the biggest let downs, ever. Clearly unfinished work forced out because, in Konami’s defense, Kojima was going over budget and taking forever on the project.
Lol, I loved Ground Zeroes, but releasing that level at $40 during a dryspell for games at the onset of the new gen was an obvious cash grab.
I handed over my money happily, but plenty of non-diehard fans were understandably letdown by the scale of what $40 bought them.
The price was originally $40 for the physical PS4 and XBO versions, but due to controversy it dropped down to $30 before launch. And as much as I love GZ, and even bought it twice, I do agree that $30 was too much. It should have launched at $20.
https://kotaku.com/konami-c...
I don't know how about anyone else. But i've bought it for $20 1 week after release (or $15, don't remember the exact exchange rate) and spent 24 hours beating every mission and getting all the steam achievements. I was 100% aware what the game was about beforehand though and i did enjoy every second of it. I knew it was a work in progress and it was probably the best and less restrictive game i've played in a long time (and controls were just perfect).
Even previous MGS games didn't gave me that much freedom as Ground Zeroes did.
Love stealth? Got you covered.
Want to speedrun? Here's the timer.
Wanna kill everyone? No problem, grab that AK then and let's party.
Wanna cause chaos? Just tell Pequod where to land.
Love to drive? Then go ahead.
Miss Raiden? Then play as him.
I wish they would continue MGSV, finish remaining chapters and add more missions as DLCs, there was SO many options... A poor man still can dream...
