rionaleonhart: final fantasy viii: found a draw point! no one can draw... (you're a terrible artist)
Q: Riona, do you really have time to write mini-reviews of every game you've ever played?
A: I absolutely don't.
Q: And yet.
A: And yet!

Some of these are more just reminiscences than reviews, but I've said at least a line or two about every game. Possibly. I've almost certainly forgotten about some.

For the most part these are listed alphabetically, so you can easily track down any games you're interested in, but games in a series are listed together, so, for example, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, Virtue's Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma are all under Z for Zero Escape, and World of Final Fantasy comes under F. I've put a (LP) next to games I've only experienced through Let's Plays. Flash games, text adventures and electronic versions of card, tile or board games are not included.

Games I first played after originally posting this entry are marked with an asterisk.


Thoughts on every game I've ever played, or close enough. )


I'm glad I've put this very important and necessary entry into the waiting world.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy viii: found a draw point! no one can draw... (you're a terrible artist)
Someone commented on my horrible Oxenfree fic to say I'd made them 'ship Alex/Jonas, and I felt a bit weird about it. I don't think there's anything wrong with 'shipping it, but it seemed strange that I'd caused this, given that I don't 'ship it myself. How had I converted someone else to seeing a stepsibling relationship - a stepsibling relationship I enjoy a lot! - as romantic?

In retrospect, my first mistake was writing about said stepsiblings making out.


I received World of Final Fantasy for Christmas! I am pleased to report that, although it is very different from Final Fantasy XV in most respects, they share a penchant for terrible puns. When you activate a switch to progress in an early dungeon:

'A new path! Check out that switchcraft!'
'Now we know switch way to go!'
'Switchever one of you thinks you're being clever is about to get a knuckle sandswitch.'

I finished the game a week or so ago. It was cute, but I had little real emotional investment in it, sadly. I did very much enjoy having an adorable baby Behemoth on my head, though. Plus there's an absolutely incredible Final Fantasy X reference at one point.

Bizarre omissions from World of Final Fantasy: Bartz, Terra, Cloud, Squall, Tidus and Lightning are present, but no Zidane. There are no characters whatsoever from Final Fantasy XII. Aerith isn't there! For some reason, this is the one that really shocked me. I encountered Tifa and went 'well, obviously we'll be meeting Aerith at some point.' Nope!

Faris and Quistis have really poorly suited voices. This is particularly frustrating because Faris's voice would have worked perfectly well for Quistis; it's just not a voice for slinging pirate slang around in. I'm delighted that Faris is in the game, though!

I've started to come around to Doug Erholtz's voice for Squall at last, having disliked it in Kingdom Hearts II. This means that, for the first time, I've started to think seriously about the possibility of a Final Fantasy VIII remake. If the VII remake does well, is there a chance they'd do VIII as well? There's a part of me that really wants to see that, and there's a part that doesn't know whether my heart would be able to take it. This game means a lot to me.

If nothing else, I suppose it'd provide an excuse to replay it. I've played the original so many times I really can't justify doing it again. (I had to buy a replacement copy of Final Fantasy VIII a few years ago, having played my first copy until the discs just gave up and stopped working. The game lost the ability to tell when a battle had ended, so my party would defeat the enemies and then just... stand there, looking confused, waiting for orders to fight something that wasn't there.)