Trabia Garden

I've finished playing Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion, the remaster of Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core! I watched a cutscene compilation of the original back in 2015 and enjoyed it - it gave me a new appreciation for Final Fantasy VII, which I'd struggled to get along with up to that point - so I'm glad the game's finally available on a console I actually own.

Crisis Core is an odd beast. The battle system and soundtrack are excellent, and Reunion is a great-looking remaster. On the plot front, we've got dodgy writing and voice direction, poor characterisation of Aerith, impressively terrible additions to the Final Fantasy VII canon, but sometimes it'll reach into that mess and pull out something genuinely affecting.

Crisis Core is a bit like Kingdom Hearts, in that respect. The writing of the Kingdom Hearts series is questionable and the plot is nonsense, but it's got real heart, and its emotional moments can hit hard.

Angeal: I never use my sword. Use brings about wear, tear and rust.
Angeal: Anyway, Zack, here's your sword. (stabs Zack's sword straight through some wooden floorboards)

Sephiroth said he, Angeal and Genesis used to sneak into the training room 'for fun', and then we got an astonishingly homoerotic flashback to them having a swordfight on top of Junon's enormous phallic cannon, and I'll be honest: it was pretty great.

All the line delivery in this game is so weird. You don't have to pause in the middle of every sentence!

I'm very touched by the way Zack keeps talking to Cloud even when Cloud is barely conscious and not taking anything in.

The ending was agonising, right up until cheerful pop music kicked in at the most inappropriate possible moment and I cracked up laughing. I think that's the perfect encapsulation of Crisis Core as a whole, a game that's simultaneously genuinely emotional and absolutely ludicrous.

I'm so glad this game lets you join a fan club for yourself.

I've been having a good time with the Final Fantasy Kiss Battle!

I've received some great responses to my prompts. necrophilia wrote me Edea/Seifer, and requiems wrote me Serah/Hope. (necrophilia and I actually both prompted Edea/Seifer at the same time, because we are both terrible people with great taste.)

I've also written a couple of ficlets myself. Here they are!


( Debts, Final Fantasy XV, Prompto/Ignis, 800 words )


( Across the Distance, Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy X, Aerith/Yuna, 900 words )


('Riona, did you name your Aerith/Yuna fic Across the Distance after Celene Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"?'

N-no. No. No, of course not. No.)

I finished Persona Q, if you hadn't deduced that from the fact that I wrote a fic about it!

At one point, Yosuke said he'd give me a shoulder massage later. I risked the Reaper to get that conversation, and it was worth it.

The trouble with Persona is that it's a really charming series of games about THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, but occasionally it has strangely mean-spirited scenes that don't seem to fit the themes and tone at all. In particular, there are moments when a party member is upset or distressed and, rather than giving you the opportunity to intervene or comfort them, the game goes 'and then you just walked away and left them to it, it was hilarious.' When Yosuke's on the verge of tears because of a misunderstanding, please just let me explain it to him!


Having finished Persona Q, am I going to shut up about Persona for a while?

No. No, of course not. It's time for Persona 5 Royal.

After I finished Persona 5, my main thought was, Wow. That was incredible, but it was also vast and exhausting. I definitely want to play the Royal expanded edition, but I don't think I'll be ready for that for at least a couple of years.

Seven months later, here we are.

Now that I've played Persona Q and met the actual Persona character called Rei, I probably shouldn't name the Persona 5 protagonist Rei again; it was already confusing, given that that's my housemate's name, and is now doubly so. That said, I'm naming him Rei again and nobody can stop me.


( Rambling about the early hours of Persona 5 Royal. )


I'd forgotten how much Persona 5 makes me think of Final Fantasy VIII, between the school setting, the quiet protagonist and Ryuji 'Zell Dincht' Sakamoto. Ryuji and Zell aren't identical, but there's definitely enough similarity to call Zell to mind.

I dreamt a couple of nights ago about Squall and Zell kissing, and I'm blaming this game. (Maybe 'thanking' would be a better word than 'blaming'. Squall/Zell was my first ever ship, and I woke up reflecting very fondly on it.)

I just looked up the account of the dream I wrote when half-asleep, and I'm going to type it up because it made me smile:

Dreamt I was Squall Leonhart and kissed Zell after an intense foot race around a raised track. EXTREMELY GOOD. I think I was sort of trying to hint at it and he went 'yeah, you don't have to ask, you can absolutely kiss me' (because, as we all know, Zell is very in love with Squall).

Barret was annoyed with us for kissing on the track instead of continuing to race. Barret, the race was supposed to be seventy-two laps; it was lap five and we were all exhausted already. Making out with Zell was a much better conclusion to the race than actually seeing it through. Also, what are you doing here? You're a FFVII character.

Rinoa had previously suggested letting Zell win to make him feel better. Hopefully the kissing succeeded in making him feel good without having to compromise the race.

I have finished Final Fantasy VII Remake! Here are my notes on the last few chapters of the game.


( Spoilers up to the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake. )


In conclusion, I've had a great time, and also ???????

Final Fantasy VII Remake continues, by which I mean it continues to confuse me. I'm in chapter fourteen; we've just set out from Aerith's house and we're planning to head to the Shinra building.


( Final Fantasy VII Remake, up to chapter fourteen. )


Probably not that long to go, unless I get distracted by sidequests. (I am definitely going to get distracted by sidequests.)

Still playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, you'll be unsurprised to hear. I'm in chapter nine; I've just reached Wall Market and started to poke around, but I haven't yet started the quest that Wall Market is famous for.


( Final Fantasy VII Remake: notes up to early Wall Market. )


Wall Market is slightly overwhelming, which I suppose makes sense.

More Final Fantasy VII Remake! I'm in chapter five, just emerging from the underground rail tracks.

Tifa's theme reminds me of 'Eyes on Me' at points. If Square ever made a Final Fantasy VIII remake with this level of detail and affection, I think I'd spend the entire game in tears.


( Notes on Final Fantasy VII Remake, up to chapter five. )


I hadn't really anticipated how good it would feel to have this fascinating game world to explore when I'm confined to one place in real life. I was looking forward to this game as a way of keeping myself entertained during lockdown, but I hadn't expected it to help so much with the restlessness.

Made an actual Silent Hill 2 edit of the Softer World strip I named my recent James/Mary fic after, because A Softer World and Silent Hill 2 are both totally timely and I know what year it is. I can't believe this strange, dark pairing still has so much power over my heart, all these years later.


The Final Fantasy VII Remake demo is now available on PS4! Just as a heads-up, it's about an hour long and you cannot save. Thoughts:

- Cloud is so pretty. Everyone is so pretty.

- You can't jump, alas! I keep accidentally opening the menu because I want to leap around pointlessly like you can in Final Fantasy XV.

- Cloud and Jessie have more chemistry than I'd expected. Huh. I loved them exchanging glances and shrugs while Barret lectured them in the elevator.

- I'll be very entertained if this remake not only reignites the ferocious Cloud/Tifa versus Cloud/Aerith shipwars but adds a Cloud/Jessie faction.

- I enjoyed Barret going 'okay, now prove you're one of us' and Cloud going 'uh, I'm... not?'

- Guard Scorpion struck me as an unreasonably tough, lengthy first boss fight. Nearly wiped out my supply of twenty-something potions. Maybe I just need to get a better grasp of the battle system? I think it's possible to switch difficulty levels mid-playthrough, so at least I'll be able to shift down if I continue to struggle in the full game.

- I really wanted them to have an 'attack while its tail is up' joke during that fight, but alas no.

- I don't remember any other voiced Final Fantasy in which the characters swear, and I am not yet used to it. At one point Cloud said 'no shit' and my reaction was very much 'gasp, he said a naughty word'.

- If you run into the security lasers five times, Jessie will stop expressing concern and start laughing at you. If you run into the lasers ten times, Jessie will ask, 'Um, do you have a fetish or something?'

- So far, it's looking promising!

Pokémon Go was the only mobile game I'd previously played, but jecca_mehlota mentioned Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, and I thought I'd check it out. It's not that heavy on the story - it's designed to be consumed in small bursts, so both cutscenes and battles are brief - but it does have some cute interactions between assorted Final Fantasy characters, and characters from different Final Fantasy games interacting is something I have a huge weakness for. Here are some things I've liked:

- Cloud reminds Sazh of Lightning. 'Looks like other worlds also have their fair share of strongheaded soldiers who take on way too much alone.'

- Hope giving Vivi reassurance and courage and then being taken aback when Vivi says 'thanks, mister!' (Hope, being fourteen, probably isn't used to being called 'mister'; Vivi, being nine, probably doesn't think anything of addressing him that way.)

- Vaan running up to go HEY YOU GUYS HAVE A REALLY COOL AIRSHIP and Sazh going 'finally someone gets it!'

- 'I don't like the look of you. You remind me too much of... someone I know,' Seifer says to Cloud.

- SEIFER WANTS TO BE YUNA'S KNIGHT. You should have been born in the Final Fantasy X universe, Seifer; being a guardian would really suit you! Well, I mean, you'd like the idea of it. You wouldn't necessarily be good at it. But you'd like the idea.

- Everyone goes 'hey, Seifer, come with us and save the world' and Seifer goes 'no, screw you, I'm going on ahead of you and I'm going to save the world first.' Seifer's the worst and I love him.

- Zidane: (speaking of Yuffie) Must've been hard to work with someone as flighty and brash as her.
Cloud: Yeah. She's just like you.

A story detail I found interesting: they come across ruins and assume people had to have lived here at some point, and Mog explains that, no, this world was constructed based on their various worlds, so these ruins were just... built as ruins, without history behind them. There's something fascinatingly creepy about that.


The Kingdom Hearts Let's Play we've been watching as a household has just hit 358/2 Days, and my housemates can't get over the fact that every member of Organization XIII seems to be flirting non-stop with Roxas.

Ginger: It's not helping that the 'dialogue advancement' icon is a literal fucking heart.
Axel: (to Roxas) You have to look around. Sometimes what you're after is sitting right under your nose.
Rei and Ginger: OH COME ON.

Rei, who is gay and always on the lookout for queer fiction, is increasingly outraged that the Kingdom Hearts series is not considered a staple of gay culture. 'Nobody ever told me how gay these games are! You've all failed me!'

We're on the verge of a new main-series Final Fantasy release! It's been a while.

One of the things that fascinates me about the Final Fantasy series is the way it reinvents itself with every new game. Every entry in the series tries new things; every entry has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Here, for no particular reason, is my list of pros and cons of the main-series games I've played extensively (I haven't played the online entries, and VI is the only 2D release I've played for a substantial amount of time). Direct sequels and spin-offs aren't included. I've tried to avoid very subjective judgements, which is why 'the characters are the beeeeest' doesn't appear under VIII and XIII. Please imagine that 'music' appears on the 'pros' list for all of these games except XII (sorry, XII).


Final Fantasy VI:
Pros: Still looks good twenty years later. Characters all have distinct battle abilities. You can suplex a train.
Cons: Feels a bit unfocused on account of having too many characters and a non-linear second half.

Final Fantasy VII:
Pros: Materia system allows for interesting setups. Midgar is a great setting. Fascinating storyline.
Cons: Graphics have aged badly. Awkward translation. These two things, combined with oddly out-of-the-way backstory cutscenes, make the fascinating storyline very difficult to grasp. It's sometimes hard to tell how you're supposed to progress. (The upcoming remake may well resolve some or all of these issues.)

Final Fantasy VIII:
Pros: Actively rewards not getting experience, so it's great if you prefer exploring and progressing the storyline to fighting random encounters. Triple Triad!
Cons: Confusing stat system, making it easy to screw up your playthrough if you don't know what you're doing. Revolves very, very strongly around Squall, which is great news if you like Squall but may make things tricky if you don't. Story falls apart at disc 3.

Final Fantasy IX:
Pros: Fun and cute! Doesn't take itself too seriously, on the whole, despite dealing with some bleak themes. Contains Chocobo Hot & Cold, the greatest minigame ever made.
Cons: Slow battle system. You will eventually finish the Chocobo Hot & Cold sidequest and be sad that there are no more Chocographs to find.

Final Fantasy X:
Pros: Nicely strategic battle system. Excellent levelling system; the Sphere Grid defines initial roles for the party members but allows for customisation. Strong, reasonably coherent storyline (this is very rare in a Final Fantasy game), although things get weird as you approach the end (this, by contrast, is very common). Probably the most accessible game in the series for newcomers.
Cons: Very linear. Awkward voice acting. A bit too cutscene-heavy. The European release likes to drop murderous superbosses in your face when you're innocently trying to revisit previous locations.

Final Fantasy XII:
Pros: Great translation; a lot of thought has gone into the way different characters would speak. Intricate world. No random encounters.
Cons: Poorly paced; long segments without any story advancement make it hard to follow the plot. Although the voice acting is good, the sound quality (on the PS2 version, at least) is poor. Boss battles tend to be a bit of a slog.

Final Fantasy XIII:
Pros: Good pacing, great battle system, gorgeous. Extensively explores the relationships between the party members. Rarely demands grinding.
Cons: Very linear; no sense of exploration. Writing occasionally lacks subtlety. No gameplay variety; there are battles and there are cutscenes, but that's your lot.


I've no doubt that Final Fantasy XV will also get some things right and some things very wrong, and I'm looking forward to seeing what those things are. Going by this lovely piano-and-violin piece from the Episode Duscae demo (and the fact that the composer is Yoko Shimomura), 'music' seems likely to be one of its successes.

If you'd offer different upsides or downsides for any of these games, I'd be interested to hear about them!