Gaming off the Beaten Path

The wait is over, its finally here.  What started as a random tech demo at E3 years ago has finally evolved into a reality: the Final Fantasy VII remake is here.  It took a little extra time for me to get my hands on a copy thanks to the COVID-tastic shipping schedule, but my collector’s edition finally arrived early last week. I’m not going to lie, I haven’t quite finished the game.  Quarantine or no quarantine, putting 40 hours into a game in two weeks is just not something I can do right now.  I thought about going into the history of this game, but I think most hardcore fans already know it and most casual fans don’t care.  I already discussed the original, so that’s out too.  I am going to do a full review next week, but I certainly have enough time in it to give some initial thoughts. My biggest takeaway here: this isn’t really a remake, its more of a re-imagining.  As far as I am in, I’m not sure how I feel about that.  But there are also a lot of

Here’s a fun fact: Ehrgeiz means “ambition” in German. Sorry, I didn’t know what else to start with.  I have been thinking about covering this very, very strange game for a while now and looping it in with Final Fantasy VII seemed like the best idea.  Your first question was probably “what does a random 3D fighting game from the 90s have to do with Final Fantasy VII?” (Actually, your first question was probably, “how the hell do I pronounce the title? But whatever.) It’s simple.  Most of the cast of FFVII are playable characters in this game.  Before I get really going, the more hardcore FFVII fans out there are probably all like “why didn’t you just review Crisis Core?”  Well, it’s been a while since I played it and while I do have access to a copy of the game, I don’t have a functional PSP to play it on.  Crisis Core is awesome, and I’m not sure I could get too in depth with my thoughts on it since its been so long.  So, back to Ehrgeiz we go. As I m

Nowadays, it seems like any game that becomes remotely popular gets some sort of spinoff.  Hell, they took a mini game from The Witcher and turned it into its own standalone title. But that wasn’t always a given.  Even with a game as popular as Final Fantasy VII, the thought of having a cannon spinoff wasn’t something that crossed most people’s minds.  I talked last week about how deep the characters in FFVII were, so it would make sense to give them their own time in the spotlight.  Dirge of Cerberus puts said spotlight on Vincent, one of the more popular characters from the original game.  Though he’s and optional character, Vincent has a very deep, intricate backstory that is very closely related to many of the critical characters of the universe.  Aside from Cloud, he’s probably they only member of your party that has close ties to both the Shinra and Sephiroth.  So a spinoff about him definitely makes sense from a storyline perspective. Rather than

For my 10’s, I’ve decided that one post isn’t enough.  Each Tuesday after I write about one, I’m going to do an additional post pertaining to the game or series I covered.  Most of these are going to be lists, rankings, etc.  As always, these are subjective, unscientific and literally just one guy’s opinion.  I do plan on going back and doing one for the two I already covered (Doom and Madden), but for now we are going to stick with FF VII.  I am going to rank the party members based on usefulness, power level and just generally how good they are.  This has nothing to do with how well written they are, how cool they are, etc. its strictly about their combat prowess.  I am also going to be considering how they perform for the whole playthrough, not just maxed out.  That’s a whole different discussion.  Anyway, without further adieu: 9 - Cait Sith - In a lot of Final Fantasy games, characters that are obnoxious or unlikeable actually turn out to be useful party members.  That isn’t the

“There ain’t no gettin off this train we’re on...” Happy Final Fantasy VII month!  In case you weren’t aware, the much anticipated remake of the 1997 classic is slated to release April 10, quarantine or no quarantine.  I was going to cover FFVII with my other 10s anyway, but one post can’t adequately convey how I feel about this game and its universe. So, I am going to dedicate this whole month to FFVII, its spinoffs and finally, the remake (If I can actually get my hands on it, that is).  Now is probably the time to mention that there are going to be some serious spoilers, though I am going to actively try to avoid them. What is there to say about Final Fantasy VII that hasn’t already been said?  It was a killer app for the original PlayStation, which was even more impactful for Sony as it flipped one of Nintendo’s key franchises.  It put the PS1 through its paces, setting a new standard for what games could do in terms of graphics, sound and presentation

Don’t let the title fool you, I’m not going to start writing about movies any time soon. There are plenty of video game movies out there, most of them terrible.  There are probably even more video games about movies.  But what about video games about movies about video games?  I can only think of one. Street Fighter: The Movie is the fighting game you weren’t sure you needed, or even wanted.  I can’t imagine what was going through Capcom’s head when they green-lit this.  Think of it like this: imagine that someone decided to write a book called “Lord of the Rings,” but it was based on the movie, which is already based on a book.  It wouldn’t make much sense at all.  There would be some differences, sure.  But would it really be worth your time? While you think about it, let’s talk a little bit about the similarities between SF:TM and Super Street Fighter II.  It’s got all the same characters (Sans Fei Long, the only character that wasn’t in the movie

While the series is a little too mainstream for what I originally intended, I realize that I have yet to review a Mario game.  I have tried to stick to the obscure, but at this point I have covered Sonic, Final Fantasy, Madden and any number of popular franchises, so why not. I still wanted to keep it a little out there though.  Most people have heard of the Lost Levels, but its certainly the black sheep of the old school series.  It’s origin story is probably more well known than the game itself.  This was actually Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan.  It was deemed “too difficult” for U.S. audiences by Nintendo of America, as it was assumed they weren’t as skilled or patient as Japanese players.  Instead of releasing it stateside, they re-skinned a game called Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters, called it Super Mario Bros 2 and called it a day (which explains why that game is so different from everything else in the series).  It wasn’t until the release of the Super