Growing up I spent more hours playing games at my friend’s house than I ever did at home. I would ride home with him after school and we would fire up whatever piece of garbage we had rented for the N64. Eventually my Mom would finally get off work and come pick me up, and as much as I would try, gaming just wasn’t the same by myself. I don’t think I’ve ever shared that with him.
So, time went on and we both grew up. I found myself attending college and dating the girl of my dreams, but my friend’s life turned out to be more of a struggle. His family had always been unstable, but as the years progressed things just got worse for him. Abusive families have a way of keeping people down, and victims often blame themselves for what’s going on around them. It’s hard to tell someone that their own family is a toxic environment, so most of the time you just sidestep the issue. Eventually me and my friend stopped talking regularly. He was so busy with the absurd situation he was living with that everything else fell by the wayside, and I wasn’t sure how to approach him anymore.
I still live close to him, and from time to time I’ll give him a call and try to talk like I don’t spend every week worried about him. Sometimes we’ll talk about how badly he needs to get out of there, but it’s hard to gain any ground in that conversation when you don’t want to sound pushy, or like you know what’s best for them. I had always imagined we would start our own company someday, or invent some stupid gadget, but life has a way of turning the tables on you I suppose.
Recently I’ve gotten back in touch with him, and was a little happy to hear that things at home seemed a little better, or at the very least a bit more stable. We started talking like old friends do, like not a second had passed since the last time we spoke, and I mentioned I was playing Dark Souls. To my excitement, a friend who is currently living with him had a PS3 and a copy of the game, so I tried to schedule a time for us to play.
The time rolled around and he wasn’t responding to my messages, and I figured he had just flaked out. I wasn’t surprised, he does this kind of thing a lot. He might be planning to come hang out right when some fight breaks out, or someone stumbles in drunk and yelling. I tried again the second night, and I actually managed to get him on Skype and Dark Souls at the same time. After several minutes fiddling with placing summon symbols and arguing over the exact rules of summoning, I was a white phantom in his world.
Minutes into playing we were laughing hysterically, conquering enemies, and strategizing around every corner. We both started as deprived, meaning we were basically naked. He had barely played before now, and I was by no means an expert, but we were having the time of our lives battling through the Undead Parish and tackling Gargoyles.
He’s always preferred atypical hero characters with big swords, big muscles, and a filing cabinet full of soliloquies about honor and justice. I’ve always preferred ugly, battle-scarred old warriors who’ve forgotten the difference between right and wrong. In the game this translated to him wrapping himself in a full set of black leather armor and carrying the Uchigatana, while I stomped around mostly naked, absurdly overweight, and wearing the rather hideous Gargoyle Helm.
As time went on and one night morphed into three nights of playing Dark Souls, I found myself feeling something I thought I had lost. I was playing games with my oldest friend, and it felt like fourth grade all over again. We have to fight to make progress, but when we do it’s a sweet victory. His life is in no way miraculously fixed by us playing a game together, but it’s given both of us a way to be close again. Aristotle used to say that tragedy puts viewers into a state of catharsis, a sort of emotional cleansing, and watching our two emaciated corpses scrape, claw, and struggle their way through death and dismemberment in Dark Souls has most definitely emotionally cleansed both of us.
We’ve recently made it to Blighttown, and we’ve started experiencing something new the game has to offer: dread. We’ve both been this far before and remember how much of a frustrating slog it can be, but with teamwork and an ample dose of hilarious antics we seem to be making solid forward progress.
I’m not sure what the future holds for our two characters, or how much longer he’s going to be able to continue playing on a regular basis. After we finish playing together our lives may once again drift apart, but the game has given us just a little more time together. With any luck we can overcome the hurdles of both the game and our lives, but only time will tell if a black knight waits around the corner for either of us.
Alan Wake, from Max Payne and Control creator Remedy, is a horror classic, prompting one player to buy 4,000 copies that don’t even work.
Kind of a goody story...
On a serious note, that is why I try activating gift cards asap. It's happened to me where the store didnt scan it right where the card was unusuable. Happened at Wally World.
Usually most of those redemption card have an expiry date on them. If they expired all buyer did was buy recycled paper. And some of those codes are country locked to certain countries. I buy a card from the States I can't use it in Canada.
UKIE published its latest Consumer Market Valuation Report, showing that the UK games market was worth £7.82 billion in 2023, a 4.4% increase compared to 2022's revised total of £7.49 billion.
Final Fantasy is a long running series at this point — it's easily one of the most storied franchises in gaming. But when you're up to the sixteenth mainline entry, you must start wondering whether fresh installments still have the power to pull new players in. Indeed, audience growth will be an important metric for the suits upstairs at Square Enix.
Pretty much. It was barely an rpg. Sorry if I like a little rpg in my final fantasy games.
I really hope this doesn’t mean they are going to continue to streamline the games even more going forward
It didn’t even have element weakness and the like during battles. A game with element based Eikons you use in combat and they didn’t include any elemental strategic tactics
I expected fire to burn grassy enemies. That didn't happen.
I also expected to see a "we have to go there!" moment in a cutscene, and have to travel there myself. FFXVI instead loaded the map to one selectable map marker and the next cutscene loaded to us there.
Disappointing as an RPG. Disappointing as even being "open area". I'll maintain that this game would've been best served as a more linear DMC-style experience than what we got, because the core of the combat and story were so great.
Foxtrot
I can't imagine they'd try and go back to a turn based game to see if younger fans would like it. They've really never even tried though. Hell my 13 year old loves turn based jrpgs
I'll always play them because I've played every one, but if 17 goes in the same direction I'm not excited any more. It just wasn't a Final Fantasy game, just a decent action RPG. Thankfully Rebirth had everything that was missing in it.
I'm an old fan who's played literally every FF game (excluding 2) and I *loved* FF16.
I genuinely struggle to understand the mindset of people are who get weird and territorial over JRPG franchises. I think as a whole we should be encouraging developers to try new things. We're the old guard - what we want to see in a game is going to become increasingly irrelevant with time so we gotta change the way we think about this stuff.
Classic franchises thrive on their familiarity. While they can introduce new ideas, it's crucial that these innovations stay true to the essence of the franchise. Otherwise, it might be more appropriate to develop a new franchise or spinoff.
And that's where FFXVI sort of drops the ball for many. It doesn't offer much to old Final Fantasy fans. Honestly, I loved the game, but I feel it might have worked better as a spinoff, a new franchise, or even a reimagination of another classic series like Musashi or Dewprism.
I agree. FF games have always been about evolving when it comes to the gameplay mechanics. Big budget FF games like FFXVI with realistic graphics just won't sit too well with turnbase gameplay. The ones complaining are the old fans that are stuck in a rut or still stuck in the 90s style of gameplay.
It didn't feel rpgish at all. It's not a territorial issue with everyone.
Elda
As much as I like turn based and would prefer that. If that's my only issue with ff16 then why am I loving rebirth, and remake. Truth is to me 16 just blew. Dark, dull, missing so much actual ff stuff, elemental damage non existence. It lacked to much of anything rpg like.
I get innovation but ff16 really didn't innovate anything. They just gave us a mainline title of a straight action game with lite rpg builds.
Sounds exactly what Tales did with Arise. I enjoyed FF16 more than FF13 and FF15 personally. I just hope the next mainline entry Yoshida makes is more party RPG based.
I enjoyed the game but I would like them to try making a turn based FF. It’s been too long. Even if it was a spin-off that would be fine.
For me the Bravely Default series is more Final Fantasy than current Final Fantasy. Since it started its development as a FF spinoff, it even keeps some FF stuff like magic names (Fire/Fira/Firaga etc.).
Unfortunately it doesn't sell that well and we can't be sure Square will keep making them, but I hope they do.
I wish they'd at least take the chance. It'll sell off name alone. Hell at this point try and add both and let it be an option.
"This doesn’t mean that all future Final Fantasy games will take a similar direction to Final Fantasy 16,"
Here is a quote from the article to keep the XVI haters easy .
I enjoyed the game for what it was. What the team wanted to make. And i hadn't enjoyed a mainline FF game like i did XVI since X. Not counting Remake. People say it isn't an JRPG but it's pretty much Kingdom Hearts gameplay wise.
I decided to play some Arcade mode in XVI to get ready for the DLC after 220 hours of Rebirth and i still love the gameplay.
Can't wait for the DLC to hit in less than a week and see how crazy the Leviathan fight will be.
Really nice story man. We can all relate to how our lives are when we're young and how looking back makes you realize how a lot of things change that you would never expect, for better or worse.
Like in your case, im sure most people have those friends who were their best friends when they were young but things happen that cause them to drift apart. But the thing is, like you mentioned, when you do meet again its like you were never apart and you're a kid again, you just click with each other. Thats nice when it happens but it also brings that bittersweet sting with it, like a form of nostalgia, causing a poignant feeling deep inside.
Dark Souls is a very special game indeed, the way it pulls you into its world.
Great game and a great story,i miss my best friend to, we spent endless nights racing round a track on super sprint for the atari st.I would give anything to play dark souls with him now as i have not seen him for years.I have met new friends playing ds in fact i have met more people playing that game than any other which is crazy as there is no voice chat.
Great story man. I'm in a similar situation, I have a friend who I've known since 5 and he's been going through some bad times. I try to rekindle our relationship, but its hard to find time to really talk to him.