Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night Review

The genre widely known as “metroidvania” has been very popular in the indie market. Many metroidvanias tend to follow in the footsteps of the original Metroid but Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is not one of those games (not directly at least). For those of you who don’t know, Bloodstained is a spiritual successor of the Castlevania series, particularly Symphony Of The Night which was directed by Toru Hagihara and Koji Igarashi, a game that changed up the Metroid formula to pioneer a completely new take on the formula. Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night continues the legacy of Koji Igarashi’s revolutionary Igavania genre.

What is an Igavania you ask? Is it just a fancy name for metroidvania? It is… sort of but not really as Igavania defines a game that has all the tight, methodical exploration of the Metroid games but with more emphasis on RPG elements to spice things up. I love this as it allows me to grind levels and farm items while I find my way around the confusing levels in order to make progress. Put simply there’s always something to do in Igavania games and Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is no exception.

Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night doesn’t just give you content, it overwhelms you with it. Right from the get go you are introduced to the game’s shard mechanic, similar to Aria Of Sorrow’s soul mechanic only this time you can upgrade your shards and each shard in your inventory stacks with other shards of the same type to amplify its capabilities. On top of all this there’s crafting, cooking, sidequests and tonnes of secrets to find. I hope you have plenty of time on your hands because this game will keep you up till the early hours in the morning.

Like other games of its kind, Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night’s gameplay functions very much like a platformer but with an emphasis on combat. What I mean by this is that the combat is very over simplified in these types of games as most of the time you will only be pressing the attack button to do a basic attack over and over again rather than building up combos like a beat em up would have you do. Despite this, Bloodstained adds an extra layer of flexibility in the form of special moves that require input commands to pull off. This likely harkens back to Symphony Of The Night’s magic system where you had to input commands similar to that of a special move in Street Fighter. Special attacks are unique to certain weapons but can be mastered in order to be used by all weapons of its type, therefore encouraging more experimentation with the combat.

As for the shards themselves, you can equip 1 shard of each type. You have your red shards which are used for a multitude of things including summons, then you have your blue shards which drain your mp over time, triggering certain effects, purple shards are directional, therefore you can adjust where they are fired using the right analog stick. Passive shards are special as maxing them out permanently applies a weaker version of their affects to Miriam even if they aren’t equipped. Finally you have green shards which can summon familiars, not to be confused with the red shard summons which are temporary, these companions will stick with you and level up in order to become stronger, much like the familiars in Symphony Of The Night.

With all this in mind, there are a lot of things to be mindful of in this game and there are a lot of things that may easily be missed on a first playthrough, particularly if you get well acquainted with your setup. Fortunately the game has a new game + feature which allows you to carry almost everything over from your previous playthrough allowing you to experiment further with everything you have acquired. There is so much experimentation to do in this game and much like in Symphony Of The Night, certain setups completely break the game’s difficulty, making you feel like an unstoppable god. Then again, what do you expect from a game that has such diverse flexibility? There’s just something quite satisfying to see and experience Miriam going from a frail shardbinder to a savage beast by the end of the game making Alucard’s shield rod exploit look like a freaking joke by comparison, if you can think it, chances are you can probably do it in this game, though the game does have its limits sadly.

The platforming is as straightforward as you would expect from a metroidvania but it is a lot of fun. Miriam has countless movement options at her disposal which can be very useful in all kinds of situations. With the help of shards she can pull off some insane maneuvers that would make even the most athletic videogame characters gasp in amazement. I’ve set to play a game that features platforming as loose as Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night, the freedom and awe of Miriam’s movement is liberating and exciting which does wonders for the game’s pacing. The level design is strongly reminiscent of Symphony Of The Night in a lot of areas but it also has some interesting ones with a few nice platforming sections along the way. It never feels to overbearing though and is accessible for those who suck at platformers.

Like in Symphony Of The Night, you are inevitably going to come across certain progression barriers which require certain items (usually shards) to progress. While I was never a big fan of these progression barriers, I think they are spread out just enough to avoid being a nuisance. One issue I have with the game however is that while Dominique offers hints on how to progress through these areas, these hints are never repeated and if you miss them, you may end up not knowing where to go at certain points because there are certain parts of the game that are quite vague, requiring the use of a guide. The good ending is especially notorious for being incredibly vague, there’s no way I would have figured out how to get it without a guide. While I get that back in the day this sort of thing was used as padding to keep you hunting for things you may have missed, nowadays it’s just a nuisance, especially when the 2 bad endings are literally game over screens, they make Valkyrie Profile’s B ending look phenomenal by comparison.

 

“I hope you have plenty of time on your hands because this game will keep you up till the early hours in the morning.”

 

The visuals are noticeably different this time around, putting a heavy emphasis on vibrancy over detail. Some areas are better than others and those that are highly detailed tend to be the ones that stand out the most. Bloodstained is clearly going for a different tone to Castlevania as it lacks the feeling of melancholy that the Castlevania series was known to have. Instead, Bloodstained opts for a colourful, vibrant look which completely demolishes the tone of the Castlevania games, making Bloodstained’s visual representations look more comical by comparison. While the Castlevania series has always had its comical moments such as finding chicken hidden in walls, Bloodstained just goes all out with it and in doing so, sacrifices some of Castlevania’s appeal as a result.

What Symphony Of The Night did well was melding different aesthetic themes together such as the lava filled catacombs, the transition from the castle cellar into icy tunnels that flooded with water and Olrox’s Quarters which melded stately architecture with a gloomy dungeon. The latter of which is one of my favorites as the contrast between the two themes not only has a sense of irony but it makes sense as it illustrates the darker side of the castle while also illustrating the majestic feeling of the castle. Now Bloodstained does have a few areas that mix in multiple themes such as the Libre Ex Machina but some areas are lacking such as the Forbidden Underground Waterway and the Infernal Caverns which feel rather uninspired compared to their Symphony Of The Night counterparts which is a shame.

Some of the 3D backdrops look gorgeous, they remind me of Valkyrie Profile 2 a little

Ultimately if I was to judge Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night as a Castlevania game, I’d argue that the visuals were a massive disappointment but as a standalone game, I’d say that the visuals are pretty good for the most part as the vibrancy is dazzling in many areas. I think that the visuals are going to be something you’ll either love or hate depending on what you expect from them, it’s kinda how Diablo 3 completely changed the tone of the visuals from Diablo 2 but Bloodstained isn’t a Castlevania game in name, so it gets away with it.

The music, while enjoyable to listen to, felt a bit sub par for Michiru Yamane’s standards. I think she did a much better job in Curse Of The Moon and other Castlevania games than she did in this. Now don’t get me wrong, the game does feature some great tracks but I find that they lack the majestic and melancholic feel of Symphony Of The Night’s soundtrack. Another complaint is that there are a few areas that have no music playing whatsoever, granted those areas are short but I think not having music in them is a bit of a shame. Much like the visuals though, if you never played any of the other Castlevania games or heard any of Michiru Yamane’s work before, you will probably enjoy the game’s soundtrack a lot as it is really good, just not as good as her previous work.

There are a few issues in the game to note, the biggest issue is that the game has the tendency to crash every now and again. It should also be noted that Miriam’s death animation doesn’t always occur when you get a game over and getting knocked down to 0 health merely transitions to the game over screen. While this isn’t a major issue, it can make the game look a bit sloppy. One thing that did bother me about the game is that while you can skip dialogue, you can’t skip the in game animations during all the dialogue, forcing you to watch characters move around awkwardly with no context should you wish to skip through the scenes.

Speaking about scenes, the story isn’t really anything special, then again neither were the Castlevania game’s storylines. There’s quite a lot of dialogue in the game and quite a few people to interact with but there really isn’t much to say about it. There are a few scenes that made me chuckle though. I think the biggest problem with the story is that the characters you interact with don’t really have anything interesting to say, they try to give a little backstory on things but there isn’t any strong connection between the characters, even though the game clearly expects you to care about them. I don’t think this is a big deal though and is easily overlooked considering the fact that you’ll be too invested in the gameplay to care about the story.

In any case, regardless of its shortcomings, Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is a highly engaging experience to the point that the game’s issues aren’t likely to become bothersome to anyone craving a solid metroidvania experience. Those that are expecting Symphony Of The Night will find this game to be a poor imitation but the same can be said for all spiritual successors. On its own Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night is a solid game that is a great entry point for newcomers and an enjoyable throwback for veterans of the genre. There’s something for everyone here and I think it would be wise to pick the game up and give it a try if you are on the fence, just don’t go in expecting it to live up to Symphony Of The Night or you may end up disappointed.

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Plot/Story: Mediocre

Visuals: Good

Gameplay: Great

Music: Good

Difficulty: Medium

Lifespan: Quite Short (To beat)/Quite Long (To do the side stuff)

Would You Replay? Yes

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Overall: Great

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Value £35.00

 

 

Breaking Down Fanatical’s Mystery Bundle Justification Blog

So it seems after all this time Fanatical has finally figured out that their customers are becoming fed up with mystery boxes and have assembled a blog post with the intent of justifying the business model. To read the article for yourself, click this link.

Now the first thing I want to point out is the tone of this blog and how it starts out by saying words like “exciting” and “fun”. The purpose of this is to create a positive atmosphere in order to condition the reader’s brain to think positive (think We Happy Few), therefore nullifying any potential skepticism. In reality, the only thing this does is emphasize how delusional/vain Fanatical are regarding their products/business practices.

How on earth are mystery bundles fun or exciting? Surely they should at least back up these claims before making them, otherwise it just seems insincere and makes Fanatical look even shadier. My advice to anyone who wants to sell any product is to be informative and sincere about it, put faith in your products and sell things that you would want to purchase, don’t sell worthless shit and paint it as being highly valuable, give the customer what they would want and put a price tag on it that gives you a reasonable return on it while making it competitive with other distribution sites. This is how you build trust, by communicating with integrity.

The problem with this article so far is that it clearly lacks integrity. Why? Because Fanatical are making their own judgement on their business practices, claiming that they are good when that’s not really their decision to make, it’s our decision. Only vain companies label their business practices as “fun” and “exciting”, sadly this is what many companies are nowadays, too vain (or greedy) to admit they are wrong and promise to change their ways.

The article then goes into the topic of legitimacy. For starters, if people think you’re selling keys illegally, why do you even have an audience in the first place? If people don’t care about legitimate keys, they’ll either buy the game from G2A (which is cheaper) or if they’re smart, download the game off of the pirate bay. The fact that there are customers shopping on Fanatical to begin with proves that people are aware that it is legitimate (or at least believe that it is), therefore this part of the blog post is completely unnecessary unless they have something to hide that they don’t want to reveal. All this does is make Fanatical look suspicious for being so defensive over this.

The next point talks about why mystery bundles are a thing to begin with. According to them it is to allow people to discover games they may otherwise never be interested in, isn’t that why Steam has a discovery feature that recommends games to people based on their preferences at no charge nor commitment to buy? If that’s the case then why can’t Fanatical do something similar? Oh wait, it doesn’t generate any income… yeah that pretty much sums it up. Generating income is fine and all but not at the customer’s expense it has to be a fair trade but this isn’t a fair trade because you have no idea what you are getting.

Fanatical try to justify the fairness of mystery bundles by bringing up the price. This is Fanatical’s biggest problem as a company, it only considers the monetary value, not the actual value. I paid less than £.5.00 for Valkyrie Profile 2, Painkiller and Mount And Blade Warband, three of the highest rated games on my website. This proves that monetary value has nothing to do with the value of the game, rather how old the game is, especially when it comes to digital sales. Plus the total value of the bundle is based on the base price, not the sale price. The true value of codes can be found on /r Indie Game Swap, where people trade games for either money or other games, those that take money put a price they are willing to accept for games, same goes for buyers, they offer a price based on how much they are willing to pay for games. This is the true value of these game codes, always check /r indie game swap to make sure you are getting value for money on games from digital distribution sites.

Now I can forgive Fanatical for both their ignorance and their need to make a return on their products but they should not go dictating the value of games, it is not their decision to make, that decision is reserved for us, the consumer. Reviewers such as myself exist for this reason, to help fellow consumers judge the value of games so that they can make an informed decision on whether or not they want to purchase something. Fanatical even state that they do not even know what people are getting in their bundles. How the hell can you not know what it is you are selling people and state that they are getting a fair deal!? It’s madness to even think you are offering a fair deal when you are selling them what might as well be an invisible product.

Another thing they talk a lot about is working together with publishers and apparently making confidential agreements with them to not reveal their games in the mystery boxes. Why would they need to do this? I could put a tin foil hat on about these confidential agreement with publishers here but I’ll abstain for now, I just think that this doesn’t excuse the existence of mystery bundles. If you need to agree to not showing the games, why bother even doing the mystery bundles? Oh yeah… to make tonnes of cash from other people’s potential misery.

You see, the whole concept of mystery bundles is so anti-consumer that is proves just how little Fanatical gives a shit about its customers. I find this quite sad to be honest as they aren’t a massive juggernaut like Steam. Honestly I probably wouldn’t mind so much if they didn’t constantly advertise these bundles everywhere in the same way Microsoft tried to push Windows 10 down our throats… almost.

I think Fanatical needs to seriously rethink their business strategy and consider taking these mystery boxes off their site, replacing them with a cost free alternative to finding games but that’s just my take on it. The fact that these mystery bundles sell proves that people are willing to take the risk, however I personally believe that the act of buying these bundles is unhealthy, therefore I highly discourage it. In addition, the purpose of this article isn’t to tell people to boycott Fanatical, rather to see the reality of what mystery bundles are. You could be buying anything, there is absolutely no guarantee that it will be valuable to you at all. I think people deserve to be aware of this before they consider buying anything off of Fanatical so that they can form a stance on this knowledge.

Fanatical aren’t as bad as the Epic Games store, nor are they Origin levels of bad, their insistence on pushing these mystery bundles however is both vain and obnoxious. Just admit that you did the wrong thing Fanatical, admit that people are sick of mystery bundles and do away with them. People will not be upset by this decision, especially if you add a discovery que like steam does, either that or an optional randomize feature for your pick and mix bundles. Problem solved.

Actions speak louder than words and removing mystery bundles and coming up with a more ethical alternative is how Fanatical will gain the respect of their customers and therefore, more sales in the long term. In any case I do commend Fanatical for at least going public about this, even if they did twist the whole thing in their favor. I just hope that their next step is to go about making actual changes instead of excuses and justifications.

My Game Of All Time Tier List And Explanations

For a more zoomed in image click here

So I posted a tier list on Twitter a while back and I feel the need to talk about it a little. For starters I want to point out that some of the game on this list I haven’t played in ages. One of which being Kirby’s Adventure Wii. I put the game high on the list because that’s what I rated it back in the day in one of my earlier reviews. Yeah things might have changed since then and perhaps I was to generous with its rating… or perhaps it really deserved the rating who knows. All I remember is enjoying it so much that after beating the last boss, I knew it was going to be my GOTY… though that’s not saying much considering it was 2011, the beginning of the videogame draught. It deserves a mention regardless for being the only game in 2011 worth a damn.

Another game I rated highly was Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. When I played the game back in the day I absolutely adored it. It was the only mario game besides Galaxy that managed to hold my attention for longer than a few minutes. I considered it to be the best Mario game. However at some point I ended up losing my copy of the game and the memory card the data was on after moving to a new home. The sad part was that I made it all the way to the last boss and could never beat it. Is the game worth playing all over again I wonder? Will it feel as good as it did back then? That’s a good question. It’s position on the tier list reflects my opinion on the game at the time rather than now.

You will probably notice that a lot of popular games are in the middle tiers which I call “above average” “average” and “mediocre”. I want people to understand that “above average” does not mean bad, nor does “average”. I consider above average to be games that barely miss the mark of receiving a “good” rating for one reason or other. Perhaps the game just didn’t impact me as much as the games higher up in the list did, or prhaps the game would have been amazing if it weren’t for its flaws. People asked why I put Warcraft 2 so low on the list and the reason for this is that not only did I only play the PS1 version but I hate RTS games. Then why is Warcraft 3 so high you ask? Well if you check out my Review of the game, you’ll find out why.

Let’s just say that Warcraft 2 isn’t really much of a storydriven experience like Warcraft 3 and as much as I love its world and lore, the gameplay really isn’t my cup of tea, especially considering the fact that I played the Playstation version. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, true RTS games don’t exist. Single player RTS games are methodically designed, requiring players to find a solution to beating the enemy whereas Multi player RTS games are pure action games where the goal is to multi-task building, upgrades and unit micromanagement faster and more efficiently than the enemy. I hate these types of games because much like fighting games, it takes a lot of time to get used to all the hotkeys and maneuvers in order to improve at micromanagement and this is just simply overwhelming to me. Warcraft 2 is not a bad game though, it’s an RTS for better or worse but it does at least have a great soundtrack and it’s set in the Warcraft universe so I can’t say I really dislike the game because I don’t.

As for Warcraft Orcs and Humans being lower, have you even played the game since Warcraft 3 came out? The game has aged horrendously and a lot of the missions feel very much the same. I mean it’s still Warcraft and it set the foundation for the future of the series but I cannot give it a higher rating in its current state, it is a relic of the past which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone nowadays. It may have been amazing for its time but it just doesn’t hold up today. The only saving grace it its nostalgia factor and that it is Warcraft, hence why it is in my average category. I know this is a GOAT list but I’m not giving special treatment to games that have aged badly regardless of how good they were for their time, if they don’t hold up today, they don’t get high on the list, it is that simple.

I should also point out that the “frustrating” category doesn’t necesarrily mean that the games are bad, it means that the game made me want to punch the TV/Monitor in anger, either that or they suffer from severe difficulty burnouts. To me, games that make me frustrated just aren’t enjoyable, hence why they are low on the tier list.

Now to talk about the bottom tier, games that I despise the most. Why isn’t World Of Warcraft this low you ask? Well I will give World Of Warcraft some credit, it does have an amazing world map in it (I mean come on, it’s the Warcraft universe for heaven’s sake) and for this reason I gave it the benefit of the doubt because I have great memories of flying across outland on my flying mount, it’s definitely an experience to remember… unlike just about everything else about World Of Warcraft which can be best summed up as being literally cancer.

Why is Legion and Battle For Azeroth the lowest? Because they’re the latest and as is typical of WOW, with each expansion, the story gets worse and worse. Now Sylvanas, the worst character in videogame history is Warchief of the horde, not only that but the Burning Legion have been defeated, thus removing any real threat to Azeroth as a whole making the story as dry as a bone compared to how it was in Warcraft 3 when the Legion were threatening. It couldn’t possibly get any worse than that surely (it can and it will, this is Blizzard we are talking about), I refuse to believe that it can. Nevertheless It deserved the position on the list, I wish I could have put it lower, something like “games I want to spit on, shit on, piss on, and mail back to the publisher that distributed it” but that would be hard to do for games like League Of Legends which are digital only… why does that game exist again? Oh yeah, dumb egotistical pricks thats why. Guess what spawned League of Legends? DOTA. What spawned DOTA? Warcraft 3… A Blizzard game… I hate you Blizzard, I really fucking do.

So what about the games at the top? Well I just uploaded a video explaining why Valkyrie Profile 2 is up there, click this link to check it out. Why is F-Zero GX up there then? What sort of question is that!? Have you even played F-Zero GX!? Go play it now!!! I suppose I shall humor you by telling you that the reason F-Zero GX is up there on the list is because it is a game that allows you to casually break the laws of physics allowing you to drive at the most ridiculous speeds imaginable in a racing game with 30 other racers who are all out to kill you, but you can kill them too. All on a track full of hazards. It’s the ultimate adrenaline pumping experience and if you have never played it, you haven’t lived life. Forget rollercoasters at theme park, go play F-Zero GX and if you want an authentic experience, go play on one of the hard to find monster arcade cabinets of F-Zero AX.

Painkiller and Grandia 2 are not far behind obviously. I shouldn’t have to explain why Painkiller is so high up, I think you all know this by now my review is here if you still haven’t figured out the reason for it being this high on the list for god knows what reason.

You will probably note some Zelda games on the list (and Metroid Prime). I contemplated whether or not I should bother putting them on the list but I did because why not? In any case, I hate the action puzzler genre, I hate puzzles and that’s the meat of these games, solving puzzles, moving on only to solve more puzzles till you reach a boss fight that is a puzzle in disguise with a tiny little bit of action involved. Boring ass games they are but I think Twilight Princess had an absolutely wonderful aesthetic and the music was pretty good as well, shame about the gameplay. Why didn’t I put them in the boring catagory? Because as boring as they are to me, I can appreciate the level of detail that goes into designing the worlds inside these games and I think that is ultimately what makes these games so appealing to the masses. They just aren’t my cup of tea.

You may also notice an absence of fighting games on here, I hate that genre as well but unlike action puzzlers which seem to have a lot going for them in the linear exploration department, fighting games just feel slapped together to me. Sure there’s a lot of detail that goes into the animations and balancing but I really don’t see the value in that personally. Every single fighting game in the past few years has felt like a copy/paste of the previous iteration. I just see it as a genre that is stagnating and refusing to evolve, relying on the E-Sports crowd to keep it afloat because normal people such as myself don’t want to waste hours of time fighting against a dummy to get good at them. There are a few fighting games that I found somewhat appealing such as Tekken 3, Mortal Kombat Deeption and Soul Calibur 5 but I never found myself closely attached to them.

Finally there’s the Final Fantasy games, they seem a bit low right? Well of course they are, they may be a strong brand but most of the games aren’t anything special to me… except for V, I put VI up there as well since it is also a good game but I consider V to be vastly superior by comparison. Put simply, I can’t see myself going back to VI any time soon. For a Final Fantasy game, VI is a masterpiece for as a standalone RPG it’s good but nothing special. V is also a masterpiece for a Final Fantasy game but unlike VI, I do think it is special because it gave me a feeling of adventure that no other game managed to give me. I still rate it alongside VI though since I do think that VI deserves the recognition, I just want to be clear on which one I liked the most.

The rest are spread out across the list, many are in the middle but a few are at the bottom. I think my recent article kinda explained why the more recent games in the series are closer to the bottom.

Finally why did I put Star Ocean Till The End Of Time so low yet I put the rest of the games in the series so high? Because it has the most badly designed battle system I have ever seen in an Action RPG save for Gothic 3. Why is Gothic 3 higher on the list? Because it has one of the best open worlds in videogame history and the crafting system doesn’t suck donkey balls like the one in Star Ocean Till The End Of Time. Why doesn’t Star Ocean Till The End Of Time get a lower rating? Because I still kinda like the game despite the many issues it has, it is kinda a guilty pleasure of mine I suppose. I love the music for one and being a Star Ocean game, it has a really interesting universe with a story that is interesting enough to keep my attention (even though it’s somewhat flawed). I consider it to be a love/hate relationship of mine.

Anyways if you have further questions about my tier list, leave them in the comments or respond to the twitter post I made for this blog post.

 

 

 

The Truth About Final Fantasy – Why Square-Enix Are Selling Us A Lie

I hate making blog posts like this, I really do. I like to assume that my readers are smart and know a lot about videogames, therefore I don’t like to waste their time on articles like this because I find it to be an insult to their intelligence. However I have reached the point where I feel the need to speak out about this because the ignorance of some people out there frustrates me to no end and the only way to solve this issue is to educate people on what should be common sense because I am sick and tired of people who are so unbelievably gullible that buy a game in a series day 1, complain about it post-launch, then proceed to buy the next game in the series day 1 expecting it to be better. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? It is and that’s why something has to change, right now, hence the reason why I wrote this article.

Anyways it is time we discussed the Final Fantasy series, a series I barely ever talk about surprisingly enough. Back in my youth I was a huge fan of the series to the point that I believed that the series could do no wrong. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, having the name “Final Fantasy” on the box was like a seal of quality, a symbol of a truly amazing JRPG experience. Nowadays, while the brand continues to thrive, recent titles in the series have received a lot of flak, a lot of which I find is deserved, though others would argue that much of the backlash given to recent games was blown out of proportion. Personally I’m not too fond of the newer Final Fantasy games myself, not that my opinion amounts to anything in relevance to this topic, just be aware that I’m not writing this to express my personal bias, rather I am writing this to express why opinions are so divided on the latest installments in the series.

This isn’t Final Fantasy

With the release of Final Fantasy XV, many people were disappointed and quick to hate on the game. Others were satisfied with the game and praised it. Put simply, the game had a mixed reception, something that I predicted would happen many years before its release. In fact the exact same thing happened with Final Fantasy XIII, a game that many were anticipating for quite a while, only to be bitterly disappointed upon release. I was one of those people. I imported a copy of Final Fantasy XIII before its regional launch because I was so excited to play it, heck I even paid £60.00 for it, no joke. This would have been my most regrettable purchase of all time… if it didn’t shape me into the gamer I am today.

You see, it was after playing Final Fantasy XIII and Dissidia Duodecim that I gave up on the series entirely. After that I vowed never play another Final Fantasy game ever again and stuck to my words ever since, hence why you rarely ever see me talking about this series. The only reason why I’m even bringing up this series to begin with is because I believe that it is the perfect example of what I shall call a “brand facade” and I think such a topic is very important to discuss, because it greatly affects the industry as we speak and is starting to become a major issue with games in general. It’s about time I expose this once and for all so that people can finally understand what truly matters in gaming, it’s the very reason why I started blogging in the first place and it’s about damn time I lived up to the name “Cynical Gaming Blog”.

Now I’m not necessarily trying to imply that branding is inherently a bad thing, rather I wish for people to realize that branding can potentially be a bad thing. I want people to understand that Final Fantasy is nothing more than a brand name and that brand names are inherently meaningless to consumers. So why do we have branding? That’s simple, publishers of course… why else? After all, the whole point of this entire site is to point my finger at publishers every time there’s a problem with the gaming industry because 9 times out of 10, they are the ones to blame for all the bullshit.

While branding is not inherently a bad thing, I believe that Square-Enix have misused the Final Fantasy brand name, essentially taking advantage of Hironobu Sakaguchi’s legacy for the sake of maintaining their sales numbers. From a corporate perspective, this is perfectly understandable, after all they are a business and making money is essential for businesses to thrive but I’m not here to talk about a corporate perspective, I am a consumer and I wish to speak from the perspective of a consumer for the sake of other consumers so that I can hopefully empower other consumers with knowledge, knowledge that I believe everyone needs to know right now. Therefore, ever since Sakaguchi’s departure from Square-Enix, I believe that every single Final Fantasy game released since then has been a lie.

Now don’t misunderstand my point, I am not saying that modern Final Fantasy games are bad, rather I am saying that they are not truly Final Fantasy games. Why? Because Hironobu Sakaguchi himself was the core of what made Final Fantasy what it was, without him, Final Fantasy is nothing but a hollow shell, he was the creative mind behind it, therefore the credit should go to him, not the “Final Fantasy” brand name and certainly not Square-Enix. Eventually, Sakaguchi would release a game called Lost Odyssey, a game many considered to be the true Final Fantasy XIII. One could even consider it to be the true Final Fantasy XI, however I personally believe that Lost Odyssey was not meant to be a Final Fantasy game, rather it was meant to be Sakaguchi’s attempt at creating something new and fresh.

It’s common to make assumptions, especially when the information given to us is enigmatic but rarely does one make assumptions about something that people are well-informed on. Thanks to the power of the internet, information is bountiful, to the point that it can feel somewhat suffocating at times, to me at least. Due to the objective nature of gaming news however, much of this information is enigmatic. Because of this, people feel more inclined to view things at face value and this is ultimately the biggest issue with the brand name “Final Fantasy”. The name holds so much power and influence now that the name itself holds more value than any videogame ever could. After all, a videogame is nothing more than a bundle of code and assets melded together, surely there isn’t any value in that… oh wait, that’s the very thing that we are getting when we spend out hard-earned money on these brand names.

Put simply, Square-Enix needs Final Fantasy because shareholders expect consistent sales figures (ideally going up), if they didn’t continue to release Final Fantasy games, they would start to lose face in the industry and eventually they would lose their value as a company as a result. They need to prove that they are still the face of Final Fantasy in order to maintain the consumers trust because without Final Fantasy, their value as a company would be drastically lowered to the point that they wouldn’t be able to please their shareholders, thus the downfall of Square-Enix would be inevitable, hence why they refuse to let go of this IP.

Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to realize why the Final Fantasy series didn’t end with Final Fantasy X, it’s not because the developers are passionate about the series to the point that they want to see it continue, nor is it because they are trying to improve the series (well at this point I’d be more inclined to say that they are trying to reinvent the series), it’s because the series is valuable and generates a shit ton of money that the company needs to maintain stability. To take Final Fantasy away from Square-Enix would essentially cause the entire company to collapse like a Jenga tower, because Final Fantasy is the central pillar that holds the company together.

This isn’t Final Fantasy either

Sure, Final Fantasy is known for mascots such as the moogle and chocobo but let’s be honest here people, how important are those mascots really? Star Ocean has giant bunnys which serve exactly the same purpose as chocobo’s (there are even bunny races which are totally not inspired by chocobo races), Grandia has carros which might as well be considered moogles because they are trying to be the same thing, a cute looking furry thing that is easily identifiable, isn’t that the whole point of a mascot? The truth is, aside from their aesthetic design, these mascots have no real value to consumers and their aesthetic design is merely an attempt to give value to the brand, which is why you see moogles littered all over Square-Enix’s games these days.

The point is that none of this matters really, all Final Fantasy games are completely different from one another, just like how all Grandia games are different from one another. The difference is that Grandia is pretty much dead at this point and rightfully so as the creator passed away a while back. Final Fantasy on the other hand is still alive and Square-Enix are milking the series for every last penny. Heck I wouldn’t even say that Final Fantasy is even alive at this point, rather the series has been inflicted by the zombie status ailment where healing it only ends up damaging it. Final Fantasy isn’t alive, nor is it dead, it is undead, much like how Sylvanas is undead in World Of Warcraft in the sense that its presence has become a nuisance.

This is Final Fantasy

Sure you could just ignore it and move on and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for years but it’s very hard to ignore it when people continue to talk about it. Like I said before, information on the internet can be suffocating to me at times, that includes anything related to Final Fantasy… it’s suffocating to constantly hear people talk about the series and I believe that I can’t just ignore it anymore, I really have to make it clear to people that the Final Fantasy series is no more. You have all been lied to by Square-Enix, modern Final Fantasy is an impostor and nothing more.

As for the games themselves, Final Fantasy XII has more in common with Vagrant Story than anything XI and XIV are MMORPG’s that have more in common with World Of Warcraft and XV is just your typical open world experience that could have quite possibly been received a lot better if it wasn’t titled “Final Fantasy” but Square-Enix don’t care about that, they already got your money and they’ll get it again with the next installment, because you’re blinded by the brand name “Final Fantasy”. Sure I realize that this does not apply to all of you and I realize that many of you that follow me are smart enough to know all of this but there are many who are still blind to the truth and those people need to know the truth for the sake of gaming’s future.

Why is this so important you ask? Why can’t we just simply ignore all of this? Because publishers need to recognize that they can’t succeed on brand names alone, they need to ensure that the product itself is top quality so that people who buy it will not be disappointed, therefore trust in the company’s products will grow… as idiotic as that may sound but hey, that’s the system we have to work with I’m afraid, it’s called capitalism and I’d certainly prefer that over communism.

Instead of complaining about these corporate entities for milking these games, why don’t we instead take control of the system? We as consumers have the power to shape the future of this industry as we are the ones who are essentially giving these big CEO’s their paychecks and keeping the shareholders happy. How do we do this you ask? It’s called keeping your wallets shut and boycotting on principle. I’m not saying that you should stop playing Final Fantasy just because it’s a lie, I’m just saying that you need to be more skeptical of the brand and base your purchase on reviews, not on trailers or on brand names. Wait for the reviews to come out and then decide whether the game is for you or not. Do not pre-order any more Final Fantasy games should you wish to avoid further disappointment. This is my message to all of you who continue to blindly support this series. Once again, I am not hating on the series and I am not saying that you cannot enjoy it, nor do I say that the modern Final Fantasy games are Inherently bad. This applies to all brand names, not just Final Fantasy, remember that.

Now that I have made my point clear, I believe I should talk about the positive side of branding. Let’s look at Valkyrie Profile for example, a brand that is unknown to many but beloved by many of those that do know it. Now bear in mind that when I say the word “brand”, I’m not just talking about the name, I’m talking about all rights associated with it, much like Final Fantasy’s moogle mascot. Unlike Final Fantasy which is a different game each time for the most part, Valkyrie Profile is set in the same world with the same lore, same characters, same mythological setting with a combat system that emphasizes the timing of button presses to perform combos via the face buttons with each face button representing a character. This is something people have identified with for a long time and while Exist Archive brought many of this back, due to copyrights it was unable to truly be a Valkyrie Profile game despite wanting so badly to be one.

Needless to say, tri-Ace gave Exist Archive a completely different setting with completely new characters for they realized that trying to make their own take on Valkyrie Profile would be futile because people would be unable to take a game that is too similar to Valkyrie Profile seriously, hence why they made Exist Archive’s universe completely different. Regardless, it is the closest thing to Valkyrie Profile 3 we will likely ever get, therefore I respect it for what it is.

Then there are games like Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon which is pretty much the latest Castlevania game, just without the name “Castlevania” in the title. It has the same director, same composer and even the same visual style with a very similar setting and almost identical gameplay. This game was well received but this was likely due to Castlevania’s absence. Had it not been for the absence of Castlevania, Bloodstained would never have been as successful as it was, though it would probably still have a cult following.

So I do see the value in branding, it gives a series of games an identity, something that people can recognize. When I see the name “Dynasty Warriors” I know exactly what I’m getting into (well I should… but the first game is a fighter and the earlier titles are insanely hard to the point of frustration), a dumbed down 3D beat em up that lets you mow down armies of enemies with minimal effort which thrives on visual spectacle to give players a feeling of catharsis. That information is important to me and many of us but is a brand necessary to present that information? Not necessarily. There are other ways to present this information but publishers continue to shove brand names in our faces because it’s the easy way for them to make money. Just don’t fall for it people, don’t buy into the hype!

Edit (As of11/07/2022): I thought I should mention that the recent announcement of Valkyrie Elysium is the biggest example of everything mentioned in this post, another example of Square-Enix selling us a lie.

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