Eat Shit And Die
Seph...
A couple of shots of the "Age of Stars" ending of Elden Ring. It looks so much better on the PS5.
Troll Kingdom
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Menty’s Breakdown (of Games)
- Thread starter Mentalist
- Start date
FINAL FANTASY XII
So, the main purpose of this thread has basically turned into a journal where I track my own game progress for posterity. Looking back at that insane, sprawling stream of consciousness on Yakuza: Kiwami 2, I’m going to try and dial it back a bit. I get in this headspace where I want to explain everything I’m thinking, and it quickly gets unwieldy.
Anyway, I forgot to list Final Fantasy 12 here, which I technically finished last week (100% completion), though I actually rolled credits on it about 18 months ago. I move at a glacial pace.
Honestly, I probably have more to say about this frustrating masterpiece than I do about Kiwami 2, but I’m going to restrain myself because I don’t want to write another essay.
It’s an absolutely brilliant game, but it’s got some of the most infuriating dungeon design ever committed to the medium. Every time you think the devs have had their fill of trolling you, they come right back at it. The Great Crystal is, hands down, one of the most ridiculous dungeon layouts I’ve ever seen. It’s so convoluted and so easy to get lost that even with a map, I was stuck in there for over 20 hours.
How? HOW? How is it possible to get stuck in there even with an online map?
Like this. Add in timed gates, and the fact that you’re CONSTANTLY under attack. Every time you arrive in a new area, the camera spins you around and you can’t even tell which path is the middle, left, or right, depending on the route. You’re in trouble. And you’re in even more trouble if, like me, your brain simply doesn’t do well with complex navigation in games. It’s unforgiving if you’re just trying to finish the story, but it gets so much worse if you’re after the platinum trophy. There’s just so much tied to this place.
A lot of this is down to the devs’ expectations back in the early 2000s. They basically assumed you’d have a pen and paper handy to map it out yourself (just lol), or that you’d pony up for the expensive guide book. Not the best design philosophy, but at least it’s not horse armour or loot boxes. It was a different era.
The rest of the game is just fabulous. FF12 is a controversial entry in the series since it ditched traditional turn-based combat for the real-time gambit system. Personally, I love both approaches in Final Fantasy games. I’m a fan of the classic ATB style most of them use, but the gambit system here is genuinely brilliant. People complain it almost plays itself—and yeah, that’s true to a point—but you still have to program the instructions, and the number of gambits you can set up is impressive. You get some seriously granular control over how your party acts. I’d love to see a modern version of this system, because it’s really underrated.
The story gets a bit of stick for being thematically close to the original Star Wars trilogy. It borrows a lot and isn’t shy about it. That said, the world of Ivalice is unique, and the game oozes so much of its own style and systems that it doesn’t really matter. And anyway, it’s a good story to retell.
The platinum for this was pretty nuts, as I mentioned. My save file ended up at 184 hours. Yeah. I’ve been chipping away at this on and off for YEARS.
I’ve got a lot more I could say about this one, but I really do need to learn to edit myself better. It’s an incredible game, an incredible Final Fantasy title—but like Kiwami 2, only go for the platinum if you truly hate yourself.
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Persona 4: Golden
Hot on the heels of FF12 is another epic JRPG that I’ve finally rolled credits on after a good 70 hours. Phew. I need to stop stacking these giant long JRPGs, but I can’t help myself.
Technically, this wasn’t my first trip into the Persona universe. Persona 5: Royale came out on Xbox Game Pass a few years back, and I put about 20 hours into it before Game Pass unceremoniously yanked it from the library. I wasn’t about to fork out 50 quid for it, not when I was already paying for Game Pass. The whole thing left me a bit miffed.
A friend gifted me Persona 4: Golden on Steam though, so about a week later I started it up, thinking it would just be a short side adventure before I circled back to Persona 5 once it went on sale.
And yeah, this one completely consumed me for ages. I LOVE this game. You’ll notice a trend: if I’m in here writing about it, it generally means I enjoyed it. It’s why I never bothered with review scores—everything would just trend to the top anyway, since I’m only playing great games by design. Of course, I still have a few quibbles.
The gameplay and dungeons are about as basic as they come. Dungeons are just corridors with enemies and a boss at the top floor. It’s serviceable but honestly pretty mind-numbing. Once it was dungeon time I’d put on a podcast and zone out, since it’s not that engaging until you get to the boss and actually have to think.
It’s everything else that makes this game special. The cast is incredible. I still haven’t gone back to finish Persona 5 (and at this point I’d just start over), but from what I remember, I liked the cast in Persona 4 more. It’s a really strong group, and the murder mystery setup is so compelling. The story unfolds in Inaba, which is basically Japan’s version of bum fuck nowhere, and despite the serial murder plot, it’s just cosy to exist there. The whole social sim side adds so much depth and stakes. You actually care about rescuing your friends. Hell, I even cared about doing well on the school tests.
No platinum run on this one. I just made sure I got the proper golden ending, because it is EXTREMELY easy to get one of the four bad endings if you’re not paying attention. Since the game runs on a calendar, you can easily lock yourself out of the good ending way back in March, even though the game ends in December
While I’d recommend this game to anyone who likes JRPGs, it’s one of the worst-kept secrets in gaming that Atlus is well along with a Persona 4 remake. I’d probably hold off for that, because I’m sure it’ll get a proper quality of life pass on the dungeons and the like, but everyone should experience this story. It’s superb.
Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention the soundtrack. Nothing I would ever listen to on my own time before this, but after beating the game and deleting the files to free up hard drive space, I made sure to keep the soundtrack on my PC. It's one of the most memorable soundtracks in gaming history, IMO.
Everyday is great at your Ju-nes!
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
I havne't played any Persona games outside 5, and I remember ater playing that I read about 4 a bit and it did sound like something I wanted to play. The problem is just not having time for all these absolutely massive games. I've still got to finish Xenoblade X before the Switch 2 comes out next week. Then I'll have the new Mario Kart and I'm finding it highly likely that I'll get Cyberpunk 2077 not long after that. And there will be always be new (or a couple of years old) games I want to play after that so realistically how could I fit in something like a Persona!? But I do want to.
Eat Shit And Die
Seph...
I championed this game for like 20years whilst everybody I talked to about it told me it was shit and that I have shitty taste in FF games..
I mean, I feel this in my bones. It’s a widespread phenomenon. Everyone’s backlog is outpacing what they actually want to play. I’ve had Cyberpunk 2077 sitting on my hard drive since it released, dutifully updating it and adding the expansion over the years. I’ve played about 15 minutes just to see how it runs, then closed it because my backlog is never-ending. FF12 was originally released in 2006 and Persona 4 in 2008. Together, those two games alone represent about 250 hours of my life. Sure, I’m playing the versions with a few quality of life improvements (Zodiac and Golden), but still.
I definitely suffer from FOMO when it comes to big sprawling JRPGs, and the genre (despite the endless whining on Reddit) has seen a massive resurgence. There are so many top-tier games on my radar, but when they all take this long to complete…
I still haven’t finished FF7 Remake, or Rebirth, FF16, P5, Metaphor: ReFantazio (same Persona team), and now there’s this apparent masterpiece called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is supposed to combine the best of FF and Persona. I’m really interested in that one too.
Plus, I’ve still got the new Yakuza games to play.
And it doesn’t stop there. I play a lot of turbo mental illness games like Crusader Kings and Stellaris. I’m also into VNs, complex FPS games, and plenty more.
When I was a kid, getting a game was a big deal. It was a financial commitment. Those console games weren’t cheap. Now I’m in a more financially secure place, so I don’t have to worry about impulse-buying a Steam game (on sale, I’m not an idiot), but finding the time (and my time is more generous than most) is still very hard.
I have been pushing quite hard the past month to finish these titles up because I’m ready for some new titles. I am now in a position where I get to choose the next two big games to play (and there are like ten candidates).
OK, first world problems, but it’s a thing!
I championed this game for like 20years whilst everybody I talked to about it told me it was shit and that I have shitty taste in FF games..
While I started FF12 on my own steam due to my love of the franchise, I don’t forget your championing of it. Nor your selfless help in navigating Arcadia and the Henne Mines like you were guiding a blind badger in a sack. Much appreciated. My save file would be another 100 hours on top.
Eat Shit And Die
Seph...
Mate it was a pleasure, it was the closest we had gotten to gaming with each other in about two decades.
It was running round the Resident Evil 1 mansion all over again and the nostalgia of reseting your compass every 30 seconds was not lost on me, pizza hut and a zoot of brockie were the only ingredients absent to a misspent youth.
Anytime bro, anytime.