Classics 2

Story Positives:

1. Generally fun, adventurous Atmosphere and Tone throughout
2. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. The ending is just not good. The time travel aspect is actively self contradicting and lead to ‘it was all a dream’ reset button

Gameplay Positives:

1. Some good quality of life interface features (Optimize or Remove equipment, sorting inventory, R and L to swap quickly, auto dash, menu stuff, etc.)
2. The music is wonderfully arranged based on the original, and is legitimately beautiful in how it flows
3. There is excellent flow and design in the nature of the overworld and how it’s built (what you can access, where you can land) and it doesn’t railroad you too hard or lightly, and contributes to the adventuring tone of the work
4. Some cool dungeon gimmicks across the game, including damaging tiles, teleporters, pitfalls, etc.
5. Aggregate: The bestiary has some good info // The intro to the game is not the best, but is still good; establishes the initial quest, introduces combat, equpiment, spells, story tidbits, doesn’t hold your hand or slam you in the face, and guides you well // The super optional dungeon gimmicks are actually pretty cool // Chaos is a decently fun and interesting final boss fight
6. Smooth, good Power Progression Curve
7. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. The encounter rate is just too high
2. Aggregate: Invisible encounter tiles, which can lead to issues, throughout the game // Nothing in the game indicates how certain aspects of game design works // The final dungeon is kind of not good, mostly at the beginning, and that’s just sub standard for a final dungeon
3. There are several instances of unnecessary and bleh Backtracking

Story Positives:

1. The intro (terminating after the first boss, the turtle dude) is surprisingly good at establishing theme and tone. It keeps things grounded, shows us ground-level perspective of the war, and is logical in how and what we need to fight back. It also makes it very clear how dark the game is overall
2. Soul of Rebirth adds good stuff throughout, with additional world building, characterization for Mateus, Minwu, Josef, Scott, and Richard, and tidbits for Cid, as well as just being a cool section… storywise
3. Aggregate: Minwu is easily the best character in the game, being reliable, self-sacrificing, and cool // The thrust of the main plot and the struggle against the Palamecian Empire is engaging and interesting // The game is quite dark without going into edgy or darkier, and holds nothing back about permanent consequences and killing off characters and whole towns // The horror of the world being wrecked, the overworld mobs changing to suit, the Cyclone and internal fortress, and the slow walk up to the first encounter with Mateus are all good
4. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

Gameplay Positives:

1. Good quality of life features (optimize equipment, sorting inventory, R and L to quick swap, auto dash, menu customization, etc.)
2. There are several truly great songs in the game, notably Pandemonium, the Rebel Army, and Deist
3. Aggregate: The bestiary has some good info (though not as good as 1’s) // Spell animations are pretty cool and, better, upgrade over time as you level spells // There’s some reasonably good sprite work for Altair and a few other locations
4. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. The power progression curve is incredibly unbalanced and arguably badly designed. Most weapons are effectively not worth using because unarmed is just unilaterally superior throughout the entire game, armor is demonstrably worse than unarmored because the evasion stat is just that much better than defense, and spells have to be leveled individually, person by person, which all leads to a curve that is wonky as hell unless you already know what you’re doing
2. The overworld. It’s badly designed cosmetically, and badly designed gameplay wise. It’s not just an absence of flow, it’s actively player hostile and has no ‘opening up’ design… which is especially weird since the first game had that
3. Troll Rooms (multiple room options in dungeons with no indication of what the correct path is, while simultaneously teleporting you into the middle of the room if you pick the wrong one and massively increased encounter rate within, which only gets worse the further in the game you get)
4. The Intro… is awful. It combines most of the problems of the rest of the game, with an unclear path to progressing, a too-long dungeon with multiple Troll Rooms, a disinteresting boss fight, and a few other niggling issues
5. Encounter rate is, per usual for the time, just too high
6. Dungeon design is a combination of absent and awful, with heavy reliance on dead ends and troll rooms and effectively not too much else
7. The difficulty curve is, as per usual, wonky and relies too heavily on you leaning on spells, and has multiple cliffs
8. The music resets to beginning, rather than remembering its position in the song, which causes aggravations
9. Backtracking! You have to go back to Altair so damned many times it gets really old
10. Itemization is just awful, with long windy paths leading to treasures that aren’t worthwhile 90% of the time, sometimes literally requiring you to backtrack an entire dungeon to grab three useless items
11. AOE petrify and confuse attacks from enemies with high speed who often ambush you leads to what is effectively an RNG game over from no real fault of the player, which is worsened by the fact that the best way to avoid this is to spam cast spells on yourself to grind your magic defense up
12. Soul of Rebirth grind… is just atrocious, and incredibly padding’d for what is ultimately a fairly short section
13. Mysidia Tower. Very long, horrible layout, eighteen Troll Rooms, and enemies that are fast, ambush, and spam status effects
14. Cyclone, where almost the entire dungeon is one long Troll Room if you go the wrong way
15. Jade, good lord, Jade
16. Aggregate: The boss song is just awful, weird, and utterly unsuitable for a boss song // Running away is horribly designed, and only gets better with unintuitive leveling thanks to the… ‘leveling’ system, and there are some formations you just can’t run from // The level of some spells (Esuna, Life, Teleport) determines its hit chance in combat which… can seriously suck
17. A second negative for extensive Backtracking
18. The Rebirth section in general is pretty lacking in gameplay
19. Second negative for one of the worst Overworlds in RPG history

Story Positives:

1. A very real theme of adventuring prevails throughout, as you go from quest to quest solving local issues
2. Finally leaving the Floating Continent, flying out and finding just… a vast, barren, frozen realm shrouded in the literal clouds of darkness is a great moment, and really gets across how badly the darkness stasis is
3. Proper Remake positive
4. Aggregate: The party quips with guest members are good stuff, only hampered by how random they are // While minute, there’s some good little ‘emotes’ the characters use to help express themselves in cutscenes // The light hearted tone really does help the overall presentation // The ‘everyone from previous adventures’ helping us redirect and escape the curse of the wyrms is a neat scene
5. Surprisingly good Gameplay and Story Integration
6. While it’s barely addressed in the game itself, the overall Theme of balance and ‘dark is not evil’ is among my favorites
7. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. There is a lack of central plot or cohesion to the story, and it lacks depth due to effectively switching gears each new quest
2. There’s entirely too much convenience in the plot, to the point of ridiculousness (the solution to any given local issue is always just a few feet away, or on hand from the previous quest… like Unnei’s dreamstone kills all regular stone thing, or the mythril ring at the beginning
3. Xande and related plot holes, inconsistent lore and world building, and a disappointing lore dump in the World of Darkness

Gameplay Positives:

1. The class system is actually neat, allowing you to swap more or less at will out of combat and being balanced enough that, for the most part, each class is useful for something or another. They also all look cool and distinct
2. As with FFI, there is a definite good flow and design to the overworld, both aesthetically and gameplay wise
3. Proper Remake positive
4. Aggregate: There’s a decent amount of variety to the job appearances, and it sticks in cutscenes // The art style of the characters is decent, notably in cutscenes // There are several good songs in late game
5. Good Enemy Variety
6. Surprisingly good Gameplay and Story Integration

Gameplay Negatives:

1. The intro is entirely too difficult and grindy for being… the intro. You also don’t get the jobs until the intro is done, which really should have happened earlier given how absolutely awful the Freelancer jobs are
2. Unskippable cutscenes (made even worse because most of them are the fade in-fade out style)
3. Absence of itemization is aggravating; cannot buy Phoenix Downs, Tents and the like do not exist, there’s very few ways to restore ‘mana’, etc.
4. There’s a weird delay and slowdown to almost everything; entering combat, entering commands, taking actions, selecting menu options out of combat, entering and exiting zones, etc.
5. Encounter rates, as per usual for older RPGs, are just too high
6. Lack of save points, meaning you can only save on the overworld, which combined with the slowness of combat and frequency of encounters can lead to losing huge chunks of your life because screw you
7. There are multiple aggravating grind walls in the game
8. There’s a built in difficulty curve that mandates grinding because the power progression curve isn’t stylized to match the difficulty curve
9. The outro is not good. There’s two ‘final dungeons’ back to back with no saves and no breaks, 9 bosses, and lots of grind walls everywhere. The recommended level for this place is 70
10. In addition to the previous outro problem, the sheer length and arduousness of it serves as a good demonstration of all the game’s problems in a nutshell; no saves, no phoenix downs or methods of restoring magic uses, long dungeons with unskippable cutscenes, very high encounter rate, RNG of battle difficulty, etc.
11. Several dungeons mandate using spells or abilities that, while not a bad idea by itself, doesn’t do anything with it than serving as a ‘mana tax’ or artificial debuff
12. Several bosses are actively badly designed, especially with the fact that they can take multiple actions per round and a heavy reliance on RNG which makes encounters swing wildly between ‘very easy’ or ‘kills you effortlessly’
13. Aggregate: The sound effect of going in and out of places is just irritating // The font selection for the PC port is poor // There’s a laziness to the design of towns in terms of how pixelated and slanted (to add to the visual illusion of the top down camera) stuff is (trees, buildings, etc.) // Several songs are just not pleasant in the remake // There’s a hostile architecture problem with some ‘faded to black’ dungeon walls that are walls and some that are doors
14. That Difficulty Curve is… not great
15. A second negative for Grind walling, yuck
16. Several sections of the game have no real Guidance or Flow to them on what to do next
17. A second negative for bad Itemization
18. Honestly that entire Outro deserves a third negative
19. For the only FF we’ve reviewed, the game has legitimately bad Visual Distinction, being hard to see what’s where in dungeons, what’s a door and isn’t, and the camera being entirely too zoomed in
20. Some pretty bad Walkthroughitis for several sections of the game

Story Positives:

1. Opening (A very good Quiet Opening, with somber lighting and surroundings, people acting morosely, a sad melody, etc. all dragging your attention in immediately)
2. There is a lot of great showing not telling in the Intro, most notably during the Otherworld cutscene which very efficiently and powerfully establishes many points: Sin’s power, Auron’s presence, the fall from decadence theme, Tidus being ripped from his comfort zone, etc.
3. Wakka is a great example of a common believer in the Yevon faith; he follows what he’s taught, but he also questions it, and effectively self-polices his faith… he’s also one of the few characters to get good voice acting in the game consistently, and is generally a nice guy who is also very flawed. A very very human character
4. The intro is just gold, almost across the board. Lots of showing not telling, great establishment of characters and setting, central plot and initial quests, and of course the whole thing feels completely differently the second time around
5. The destruction of Killika hits right in the feels each time I see it, and the follow up scenes and build up really help to firmly establish the ‘natural disaster’ nature of Sin as well as give a very ground-level view of what devastation he causes
6. The dynamic between Jecht, Tidus’ mother, and Tidus is complex, nuanced, and subtle. The game slants it as if Jecht is a horrible person, but we see his mother was far more neglectful and simply endured longer, and Jecht is simultaneously a nice and loving person who is also narcissistic, and of course there’s the fact that Jecht was a bad drunk, and the whole thing is awesome
7. Auron gets a very strong proper introduction at Luca, and the scene between him and Tidus is genuine and well presented, and further the not-really-twist of Jecht = Sin is a nice touch in that it’s not really a twist (that’ll wait until Zanarkand) but does change the dynamic of Tidus’ relation to Spira substantially
8. Memes aside, hate aside, I really like the Tidus and Yuna scene. It shows how horrifying it is to live in Spira in a very personal way, it’s touching because of how it shows the two properly connecting, the fake laughter leading to real laughter, him being uncomfortable with it despite his position, etc.
9. The reveal of Yuna’s sacrifice is intellectually powerful, if lacking in emotional punch, and you can really comprehend just how awful Tidus feels for all that’s happened to-date in his interactions with Yuna. It’s also the biggest moment to really make the first half of the game feel completely different. Finally, this is a key turning point in the story, with Tidus (and crew) starting to look for solutions, now that they’re aware of the problem
10. The combat banter is well done in this one. It varies based on story and location, and isn’t too common to be irritating
11. The big climactic scene with Yunalesca is still one of the best scenes in the franchise, and even lackluster voice direction doesn’t ruin its impact or power
12. There are many memorable, interesting secondary and tertiary characters throughout the game that add to the flavor
13. Auron remains one of the better parts of the story, managing to not just be cool, but to showcase what’s left when faith is broken, and that desperate desire for a change… a true, real change, rather than a false, poisonous hope
14. The finale and ending are powerful as hell, hitting me right in the feels every time. The final confrontation with Jecht, Auron’s goodbye (having finally found a world changed), Yuna and Tidus’ farewell, and that one, last high five by Jecht and Tidus
15. The emotional impact of the final farewell to your Aeons hits substantially, and right in the gut
16. Aggregate: Rikku and Yuna aren’t the best characters, but they’re still good, with arcs and critical roles in the story, and help add to perspective and presentation
17. Aggregate: Tidus is an interesting, if flawed, character, who is a very precise shape for the hole he was shoved into in the story // Jecht, while mostly fleshed out in optional content, is nonetheless a good classic example of the flawed narcissist turning it around and becoming a hero
18. The quiet, gloomy Atmosphere works well through most of the game
19. Good Doodad utilization across the game
20. Ignoring the ‘twist’ with Yuna, much of the rest of the game has some legitimately good Foreshadowing and build up
21. Good Internal Continuity to the plot
22. Good use of Music Direction to really uplift scenes (which lord knows they need, with that voice acting…)
23. While there’s some issues, the Story Sequencing actually works pretty well, probably helped by the overwhelming drive of the central plot
24. Good Visual Storytelling
25. Really good World Building…
26. …in almost every area and scene, despite issues

Story Negatives:

1. Voice direction in general is substantially lacking throughout the entire game, to the point where many lines have the wrong tone, emotion, emphasis, and even timing
2. Consistently bad voice direction, all the way up to the end, actively ruining scenes that should have had far better impact and require emotional distancing to properly appreciate
3. A massive aggregate for many smaller plot holes or issues where things are a bit too melodramatic or otherwise silly / stupid
4. Technically an Aggregate, but there are many issues with the big twist reveal about Yuna; the build up, the writing around the problem, the camera work, the voice direction, the music direction, the animation, etc.
5. The entire fake drama scene of the wedding, capture, the illogic of events, the weirdly forced ‘oh my gawsh’, just… gechk
6. Aggregate: Costumes suck and are actively distracting (Seymour!) // Tidus (properly) acts completely un-used to the sword and literally falls on his rear before suddenly and inexplicably being a combat vet for the rest of the game // There are multiple scenes where Tidus is just… dumb to the point of removing my enjoyment of the scene
7. The second time through actually makes the story worse in several ways, as the characters’ refusal to just spit things out and some general tone deafness hurts what could have been good Babylon 5 Effect
8. There’s some weird Gameplay/Story Segregation as the characters constantly do things they can’t or shouldn’t have to
9. Which ties in nicely with the Cutscene Incompetence
10. The ‘spiral’ of Sin legitimately reduces the enjoyment of the World Building, actually making less sense than the idea that it’s a regular feature of their lives

Gameplay Positives:

1. The Overdrive system is just phenomenal
2. Built in cheats are good, but the variety and selection of built in cheats are excellent and most of them toggleable on or off at will
3. Turn based gameplay and UI design is excellent, with a delay system, full turn based, and a full visible target and turn indicator which can be scaled forwards
4. I rather enjoy the management side of Blitzball; recruiting, leveling, training, learning, etc.
5. Equipment customization system is phenomenal, with equipment having ‘slots’ allowing you to mix and match all sorts of abilities to make whatever gear you want within reason
6. There’s generally good interface design decisions; The ability to see who’s in your party right now, little purple arrows showing what’s currently equipped, dots showing who’s been where on the grid, highlighting who’s still in need of healing items, etc. etc. etc.
7. There are several legitimately well designed and interesting boss fights; the Spectral Keeper, Yunalesca, several of the Arena Bosses
8. Properly designed difficulty curve all the way through Zanarkand, with no needed grinding all the way up (though that required some good tactics and prep work)
9. Aggregate: Map design is easily understandable and informative // Built in options are pretty damned good on the PC version // There’s several small things done to speed up combat that helps keep it punchy and prevent it from slogging too badly // The final boss (The real one, against Jecht) is good stuff
10. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
11. While not initially obvious, the customization of summons and equipment makes for some great Alternate horizontal Leveling
12. Well designed Encounters
13. Good Enemy Variety
14. Some of the better Enemy Variety in the franchise
15. Good in-combat HUD
16. Good inventory system and Itemization
17. I’ll admit it, the soundtrack has grown on me, and there’s some good stuff here
18. Quick and smooth Save System
19. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable cutscenes
2. Unskippable cutscenes are some of the worst in all of gaming, with huge, slow, long cutscenes in between save points and bosses (and with the advent of the autosave this is barely changed, since it usually involves autosaving back to the last screen, which is usually right by a save anyways)
3. The intro is lacking at best in the gameplay department, and worse has a severe problem with heavily forced tutorialization (including literally greying out options they don’t want you to pick)
4. Blitzball itself is just too slow and sloggy, especially if you really dig into it, and involves a fair bit of walkthroughitis in who to recruit (and when), and the whole thing is a massive grind long term
5. Cloisters… are slow, insisting on playing every single animation to full length each time, they interrupt both game and narrative flow hard, and they are barely puzzles (leaning entirely too much on trial and error)
6. Bevelle Cloister is, by itself, absolutely atrocious in its tedious, semi random, aggravating, time wasting design
7. Sphere Grid Grind and arduousness in menu, especially given other issues with the Grid itself (minuscule increments in power, odd approach to customization, lots of empty nodes, incredibly grindy past a certain point, etc.)
8. The ultra endgame is just one long horrible slog of grind
9. Aggregate: Forcing party members at point // Irritation of swapping while leveling // Dark Aeons which, in addition to being boring stat walls from hell, are also literally in the way of re-accessing areas at the Freedom Point // The last dungeons are not interesting, are some of the larger difficulty cliffs in the game, have multiple irritating design decisions, and are ultimately just boring
10. A second negative for the awful post/endgame
11. It’s not super Grindy, but Leveling in this one just feels unsatisfying as you barely increase in power in tiny little increments, all too slowly
12. Honestly that entire Outro is weak, but made worse by how irritating it is (or quick, if you have enc none on)
13. Not only is the Tutorialization not particularly good, in how it forces you into actions…
14. …it lasts entirely too long

Story Positives:

1. There’s a substantial amount of ground-level world building throughout the game, though a lot of it is optional
2. Pretty much every scene with Wakka is, no surprise, good stuff; showcasing his uncertainty and hesitation in this new future, not knowing how to be a good father, wanting to cling to the past while being willing to lose it, all good stuff
3. There’s a lot of good character and world building in the Chapter 4 commspheres section
4. The 1000 Words section is beautifully done, good exposition, and really shows the emotional power at the core of the story, and highlighting the tragedy of Lenne and Shuyin
5. Though most of it is optional, the design and layers to Paine makes for good characterization and growth. She’s an introvert, but she’s just as silly as everyone else, and she’s been hurt, but she’s trying to grow from that. It’s what Lightning should have been, and a good overall take
6. Yuna’s emotional journey throughout the game is fantastic, culminating in the wonderful scene where she admits, finally, just how unhappy and sad she really is, and refuses to accept regret anymore… and refuses to fake smiling
7. Kind of cheating, but it still has the good Doodad utilization from FFX
8. One of the only FFs with good External Continuity, as it follows through on and addresses a decent amount of the fallout from FFX
9. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s some legitimately good Humor in this game… somehow
10. Weirdly good Internal Continuity, as the game acknowledges and follows events logically
11. While you wouldn’t think it at first glance, the usage of NPCs throughout the game really helps with Lindblum Effect
12. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. Brother
2. Rikku is just awful in this game. Her being excited and happy, sure. Her being excessively random, ehh. Her being actively stupid? No
3. Technically an aggregate, but there are just many moments that are beyond description. They’re not childlike, they’re not energetic, they’re not ridiculous, they’re just awkward and cringe-worthy
4. The music, whether you like it or not, is horribly mis-applied to scenes, actively ruining the impact of otherwise decent or good scenes
5. The cotton candy coating over the story makes it difficult to properly appreciate
6. The Intro is legendarily bad
7. So bad it gets a second negative for not only being completely tone deaf and weirdly constructed and bizarrely presented but nearly made me quit the game the first time I played it
8. The Outro is sort of bizarre, weird, doesn’t feel properly set up or paid off, and just kind of flounders

Gameplay Positives:

1. Good New Game +
2. A second positive for that great NG+ feature
3. Easily one of the best combat systems in the franchise (fast, fluid, allows for very tactical and frenetic combat, and encourages combinations across jobs and movesets)
4. Combat: You can use abilities you learn in combat immediately after learning, the game auto moves targets properly based entirely on animation timing, substantial work done on revamping the skeletons of the three party members so they have good, interesting, and fluid animations, the ability to manipulate the ‘stack’ to determine what happens when
5. A second positive for generally fun and excellent combat throughout
6. The intro is efficient and well designed, quickly tutorializing all the basics of the gameplay and tone thereof (dungeons, jobs, grids, combat, swapping, ‘platforming’, etc.)
7. The job system is fantastic. Each job is designed to be at least situationally useful, and there are tons of worthwhile combinations and setups you can do with them
8. Built in cheats are good, but the variety and selection of built in cheats are excellent and most of them toggleable on or off at will
9. There’s generally good and informative UI design, especially in combat, quickly letting you know who is doing what, where, with what debuffs and times, etc. as well as having ‘standardized’ menu selection in combat (unlike, say, FFX)
10. There are several side quests and minigames that are pretty fun, and enjoyable to play through
11. Effort is made to keep things balanced throughout; Side quests are worthwhile, accessories are useful, each job has its uses, missions give xp even if you avoid encounters, all of this leads to one of the smoothest power progression curves in the series
12. Generally well done power progression curve throughout, with absolutely no mandatory grind unless you want to max out or do end game stuff, coupled with good, relatively low encounter rate throughout
13. Well designed difficulty curve throughout, including well designed optional encounters that are properly difficult
14. Aggregate: At multiple points, effort is made to ensure you always have access to either immediately going back to the ship, a nearby shop, or something to ensure you don’t get soft locked // There’s a large number of very small polishing touches to the combat
15. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
16. A second positive for the class system…
17. …and a third, especially given how you can cross classes in mid combat quickly and efficiently
18. Surprisingly good Boss design throughout
19. Well designed Encounters
20. Good Enemy Variety
21. Arguably some of the best Enemy Variety in the franchise
22. It’s very enjoyable to Level in this one, especially on your second or third time through
23. Excellent gameplay Pacing, with each mission keeping its beat going well, in fact…
24. …it’s so good it deserves a second positive
25. Generally good Quality of Life features in shortcuts and ease of menu manipulation
26. Between all the optional content that can be done in whatever order or ignored…
27. …and the class system, and New Game Plus, FFX2 is hugely Replayable
28. Very quick and easy Save System
29. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. There is a consistent, if low-key, walkthroughitis problem across the game where it is entirely too easy to screw up side quests or lock yourself out of events or content because you did things just a little bit wrong
2. There are several side quests which are, frankly, not fun, badly designed, or generally disinteresting
3. The Chapter 4 Commsphere section is awfully designed; It’s hard to tell when or what you need to see, it can involve a lot of waiting, and there’s almost nothing to indicate it
4. The outro is generally lackluster; boring final dungeon with bad music and disinteresting final boss fights
5. Via Infinito gets a negative all by itself as a truly awful endgame dungeon

Story Positives:

1. A truly excellent opener, with very good and efficient visual exposition, storytelling, cool factor, and tone establishment, as well as symbolism… plus good camera-work and editing
2. A truly excellent job of localization, which not only takes into account spoken word rather than written, but has a good usage of New English in order to convey the particular archaic tone of the work
3. Absolutely excellent doodad placement and general NPC usage in towns to the point where it really, really adds to the fleshing out of said towns
4. Lindblum Effect is really on display, especially in the three main cities of the game (Rabanastre, Archadia, Bhujerba)
5. The initial speech by Vayne is wonderfully crafted and does a great job of not only showing the type of character he is, but of showcasing the type of writing the game has in general
6. The intro is generally good stuff across the board, efficiently and positively establishing characters, theme, tone, setting, and plot
7. The turn of the story, with the destruction of the 8th fleet, and how Ghis completely interrupts the entirety of the story, thus setting off a huge chain of events going forwards, is just great
8. The voice acting in general is top notch across the board
9. Vayne
10. Basch
11. Balthier
12. Ashe
13. Larsa
14. World building is all over the place, excellent, detailed, and well thought out
15. The sequence of cutscenes leading up to and including Vayne’s claiming of power as autocrat of Archadia are fantastic every time I see them
16. For the first half of the game or so, there’s a general quality to the writing that’s above and beyond standard, in terms of dialogue and events’ progression
17. Generally good camera work and cinematography throughout the major cutscenes
18. There is a truly large amount of excellent world building at all levels, from individuals to cultures to food to magic to technology to history to war… it’s only lacking in a few key areas (notable inclusions of world building lore are in Hunts, NPCs, and the Bestiary)
19. The music selection, while almost entirely atmospheric, does add to the ambiance and vibe of almost every scene it’s in
20. Archades is just… so awesome, with the culture of perceived decency, information, and chops determining social and economic status
21. The culmination scene of the Occuria, and subsequent relevance to Ashe’s journey from villain to hero, and presentation of both Venat and their relevance to Cid and Vayne… is great stuff
22. The climax cutscene at the top of the Pharos is pure gold; Gabranth showcasing his shame overwhelming his sense of duty and growing core, Ashe finishing her journey away from villain, Cid proving the final provocation, and Vaan being relevant for the final time
23. Aggregate: Reddas, Doctor Cid, and Gabranth are all very interesting characters with their own relevance, character arc (in the case of Gabranth), and general enjoyment
24. The Animations in cutscenes are legitimately fantastic
25. A second positive for Animations and…
26. …a third one as well
27. The political intrigue Tone is a great backdrop to most of the game, as well as the looming Atmosphere of war
28. Really, some excellent Background Lore (lookin’ at you, Hunts)
29. Some amusing Banter between party members, even despite Vaan
30. A second positive for Camerawork
31. A second positive for Cinematics
32. Some truly excellent Consequence Storytelling…
33. …and a second positive for how much things matter throughout the work
34. Easily the best written Dialogue in the FF series
35. A second positive for the Dialogue
36. And a third for Dialogue
37. A second positive for great Doodad usage
38. Internal Continuity is very tight…
39. …as events have substantial effects and consequences
40. A second positive for really excellent Localization
41. Additional positive for Hunts and related story and lore
42. While there’s severe issues with it gameplay wise, the Outro still has some good narrative beats with Vayne, Larsa, Gabranth, and the ending
43. Quite good Storyboarding for most scenes, even if it’s usually just people talking they work to make it good and enjoyable
44. The central Theme of political intrigue and the lives caught up in and changed by large scale events is great
45. Good Visual Storytelling
46. Really good Visual Storytelling, especially in the cities
47. A ridiculous third positive for World Building
48. Really some great Voice Direction
49. A second positive for Voice Acting

Story Negatives:

1. There are multiple moments of general cringe (usually associated with Vaan) which tend to drag multiple scenes down and feel jarring and out of place
2. There are several noticeable holes in the overall storytelling and plot, almost entirely due to the amount of cut content the game had but it’s to the point where it detracts from an otherwise very logical and well thought out sequence of events and world
3. There is a difficult-to-define sudden shift in tone and presentation of story the moment you head to Giruvegan which strongly reduces my enjoyment of the overall story. It feels like all the interesting stuff is going on over there while we’re off randomly descending into mystical hell because that’s what JRPGs do
4. General absence of story in the latter chunk of the game
5. There is a weird lack of visual continuity in zone design, to the point where it feels like you’re just randomly teleporting between disconnected worlds rather than following a linear path across the map
6. I should mention that the Story Sequencing is just flat out bizarre at times, with it clearly being ‘Hey we need another dungeon here’ rather than a legitimately good reason to go that way

Gameplay Positives:

1. Gambits; putting the AI in the hands of the player and allowing you to set up the scripts is awesome, and it’s optional
2. A second positive for Gambits and the complexity and design thereof
3. There are several good and efficient interface design elements that make perusing and moving through menus swift and easy, which is good considering how much this game leans on pre-battle strategy (notable addition; almost always visible boss health)
4. Generally good minimap and area map design, with icons and connecting points clearly indicated and easily navigable
5. There’s a generally good amount of and variety to the kit allowed in this game; Lots of passive License abilities, spells, techniques, equipment which isn’t just stat based, etc.
6. The usage and positioning of ‘overworld enemies’ allows the encounter rate to sit entirely on the player’s shoulders, whether they choose to avoid or encounter or grind is up to them (also helps when you’re specifically looking for one type of mob to hunt or steal from)
7. The Archades ‘dungeon’ is great stuff, encouraging the player to think through a ‘social puzzle’ rather than combat or traditional puzzle design
8. Overworld design is generally good, with nice layouts, visual storytelling, internal consistency, etc.
9. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
10. A third positive for the best Gambits system in gaming
11. Fun Core Combat
12. Well designed Encounters
13. Good Enemy Variety
14. The Graphics are legitimately impressive…
15. …showcasing what the PS2 could do at its limits (hey that sounds familiar)
16. Good in-combat HUD
17. Generally good, atmospheric Music throughout
18. Good Save System, though unique to the Remastered version
19. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. There is a severe grind problem… not in levels like a traditional RPG, but instead in grinding drops, gil, and License Points, designed entirely too much like a typical MMO
2. The intro takes entirely too long to really showcase the gameplay (notice how long it takes to reach the point of even unlocking Gambits proper) and effectively is much of the gameplay problems of the game as a whole zoomed in
3. The dungeon design is lackluster at the best of times, with long empty hallways filled with occasional enemies, and it gets worse from there
4. There is a decent amount of lore locked behind otherwise irritating things to do; these include filling out the bestiary (which by itself isn’t bad, but the number of and random spawns of many enemies make it a complete chore) and Hunts (which can get very grindy and boring, especially after the difficulty spikes)
5. There is an astonishing amount of walkthroughitis in the optional stuff, which is compounded by the sheer amount of RNG and/or specific things you need to do to accomplish them
6. The difficulty spikes at several points in the game, more or less mandating grind (as part of the MMO design)
7. The Great Crystal is arguably textbook bad dungeon design. Boring, repeating same-looking rooms, excessive load screens rather than being able to see where you’ve been, no map… it’s not that bad the first time through, but heaven help you if going back to get optional stuff
8. Incredibly poorly implemented ‘invuln’ phases in the form of Palings which don’t do anything interesting with the idea at all and just drag the fight out
9. Pharos is long, boring, sloggy, walkthroughitisy, and basically all the worst aspects of the other dungeons made even worse
10. Last dungeon and final bosses are lackluster, boring, and ultimately disappointing
11. The post/endgame dungeons are boring and sloggy
12. A second negative for Grind problems
13. In contrast to its fellows, FFXII suffers from a Pacing problem as most sections simply drag on too long before shifting gears
14. A second negative for the entire Outro being lackluster and dull to play through (even worse if we include Pharos in it)
15. A rarity for the series, but the distribution of Items is not great in this one, often de-emphasizing the desire to even bother with chests

Story Positives:

1. The Intro sets up a lot; foreshadowing plot, character, and setting points as well as having a great mercenary vibe to it
2. First Laguna sequence is great; we meet Julia, Laguna, establish the time nature of it, actually funny, and legitimately good camera work
3. There’s a surprisingly large amount of (entirely optional) flavor lore everywhere, in little skits or NPCs you can talk to or things you can read or Scans you can do, etc.
4. There is a lot of obvious tight crafting to the plot to showcase things both making sense and logically following, which also coincides with a lot of Babylon 5 Effect
5. There’s a surprisingly large amount of humor which still gets me laughing to this day
6. At multiple points the game is quite creative with its usage of camera and direction, but most notably during (of all scenes) the Basketball Scene where they merge visual presentation and narration to brilliantly showcase a variant on what’s happening
7. Laguna (manages to be endearing, kind hearted, and an idiot without going too far into the realm of caricature which makes him both enjoyable and awesome)
8. The station, Lunar Cry, Rinoa, Ellone scenes in space are just… fantastic
9. The music is better then average about half the time, and really helps add to many scenes
10. The CGI cinematics are surprisingly good, even to this day, and generally do some great things both in terms of camera-work, animation, etc. but also layering them over the activities of the player
11. The ending is touching, heart-warming, and only messes up a few times
12. The main plot is surprisingly tightly crafted, managing a Type 1 Time Travel story with no real plot holes
13. Consistent and creative visual design elements
14. Given the tightly woven plot, it’s no surprise there’s some legitimately great Babylon 5 Effect in this one
15. Second positive for Babylon 5 effect
16. The game’s plot has a lot of good Foreshadowing, if a bit hidden at times
17. Surprisingly good Gameplay/Story Integration, mostly due to the GFs and how they operate
18. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. The assassination plot is stupid, the lead up is poorly executed, Quistis is literally character assassinated in the middle of it, and the Scooby Doo logic of them happening to get locked in the room is ridunculous
2. There’s a series of events that feel weirdly disconnected and generally lack any real logic or coherency at the beginning of Disc 2, and the story just kind of flies off the rails for a while there… to the point where the whole time I’m just shaking my head
3. The Basketball Scene. Problem 1: It’s a stupid premise. Problem 2: There’s (almost) no lead up whatsoever. Problem 3: There’s no real follow up or significance going forwards. Problem 4: The timing of the scene is awful in the narrative. Problem 5: The scene actually starts fine and focused on Rinoa and then shifts to this stupid, and Problem 6: It’s a point multiple people have literally quit the game over
4. Seifer is horribly mis-used in this game. While a lot of his characterization makes sense given his childish, fantasy fixation and his opposition to Squall (who is more on the reality side of the theme) the fact is he’s awful in almost every scene he’s in, actively irritating me, and made all the worse because after all the terrible things he does he gets a happy ending
5. Aggregate: The Basketball Scene is so bad it deserves to be mentioned again // The overworld design is frankly awful, with huge gaps of nothing in between what is supposed to be cityscape or civilized country, and no real logical connect between areas // The ridiculousness of finding and being rescued on the Ragnarok is beyond belief, and // the coincidences in the game get a bit much, to the point of actually detracting from the story
6. Rarely for the series, the absence of NPCs and their usage actually detracts from the game, making it feel weirdly hollow and empty when it… shouldn’t

Gameplay Positives:

1. Legitimately good built in gameplay cheat options, with enough variety to avoid simply being overpowered
2. The ability to customize and level your GFs is actually a pretty neat horizontal leveling system, and offers good build options
3. The junction system (that is to say, junctioning magic to stats) is actually a pretty neat idea (minus how it’s implemented) and, again, lets you have a method of power increase that’s completely horizontal
4. Triple Triad is actually quite fun to do, with a good ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ curve and nice interface
5. The music is just phenomenal
6. Good quality of life interface features (Switching, auto equipping junctions based on priority, L and R swapping, inventory sorting, etc.)
7. Ultimecia’s Castle is excellent dungeon design and generally one of my favorite final dungeons in the franchise
8. The bosses in Ultimecia’s Castle aren’t much individually but as a whole they have some decent gimmicks and style to them
9. Consistent usage of visual design elements to indicate connecting points across areas, enemies, etc.
10. A third music plus for an absolutely phenomenal sequence of songs in the Outro; Lunatic Pandora, Compression of Time, The Castle, Legendary Beast, Maybe I’m A Lion, and The Extreme. Great stuff
11. The Outro is actually really good, with an excellent final dungeon (minus the save thing), about half good final bosses, and good lead up and finale along with the excellent visuals and music
12. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
13. Fun Core Combat
14. Good Enemy Variety
15. Good in-combat HUD
16. Weirdly enough, a huge amount of Info is on display in game
17. Surprisingly good Gameplay/Story Integration, mostly due to the GFs and how they operate
18. The Intro is still one of the strongest points in the game
19. Specific to the Remaster, the Save System is quite good

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable cutscenes
2. Lack of proper information on the level scaling, leading to people leveling and screwing themselves over without knowing or realizing
3. The junction system (that is to say, junctioning magic to stats) is part of the overall magic ‘problem’ where the ammo system and issues with acquisition make the whole thing more annoying than it really should be and, further, de-emphasize magic entirely outside of junctioning
4. The ‘Regional Rules’ aspect and Queen quests for Triple Triad friggin’ suck
5. This game is probably the worst example of walkthroughitis in the franchise; not just having optional content or missable content, but also the base designs of the game are unique and different, allowing multiple progression paths… with no real indication of how or why, more or less mandating a walkthrough or prior knowledge in order to know what and how to do
6. The prison dungeon sucks. Repeating rooms that are awkward to navigate thanks to the circular styling, enemy encounters which just make it worse, and having to repeat the already repeating rooms three times
7. The difficulty curve is… wrong. It’s designed around the idea of either being constantly way behind the curve (and possibly making it worse) or being completely overpowered via breaking the game in half via many different ways
8. Aggregate: The section with finding the White Seed ship suuuucks and there’s no real direction whatsoever on how to get to Esthar immediately after // There are questionable or bad design choices with several of the final bosses (random party choice, deleting spells, mandatory pulsar stat gating) // The fact that you have to unlock Saving in Ultimecia’s castle is just… what?
9. While not the worst, the Level Scaling still sucks
10. The Overworld is actively badly designed, especially in how bare and not-laid-out it is
11. While Invisible Walls are in most FFs, it’s probably most egregious here as there’s no real indicators of it other than running in place, and it often makes no sense compared to how you’d think you should be able to move through towns, dungeons, etc.
12. The Power Progression Curve has massive issues, mostly due to how incredibly lopsided ‘leveling’ is in this game
13. A second negative for long, long, long Unskippable Cutscenes
14. The entire game has probably the worst case of Walkthroughitis until XII…
15. …earning it two negatives

Story Positives:

1. Good usage of background graphics and visual style of combat and explore arenas to help establish tone and atmosphere
2. The game does a lot to quickly and efficiently establish the stakes and setting early on
3. There’s a good amount of Babylon 5 Effect on display given what we eventually learn in the game
4. There’s surprisingly well done animations for the sprites to help showcase mood and action during scenes
5. The Sector 7 Plate sequence is astonishingly horrifying, especially given the limitation of graphics and the time, and gives me chills to this day
6. The Trail of Blood scene is just fantastic across the board; the lead up, the tension of the open cell door and the corpse, the song which over-rided combat music, the blood, the gashes, all leading to a corpse and a sword
7. Regardless of Sephiroth himself, the way he is presented (build up, direction, animation) is as a horror monster, and it adds wonderfully to his presence
8. The Intro wonderfully sets up setting, characters, themes, plot points, and has good pacing and sequencing and is just a treat
9. Tifa (initial characterization, obvious motherly qualities, initial hesitation and confusion at Kalm, etc.)
10. Barret (a very flawed father figure who is probably the most human of the characters, being scarred by vengeance and a bad past but not letting it get in the way of his life but at the same time being pushed to places he shouldn’t go)
11. Cloud (initial characterization is deliberately inconsistent, and shows him flip flopping between the geek and the ‘cool mercenary’)
12. Aeris (quickly established as being very aggressive and assertive and being more than willing to maneuver the situation to her liking, while not losing her kind qualities)
13. The Kalm flashback sequences is a great sequence; it does good setup for the second time around, establishes Sephiroth and the stakes, and shows good character stuff for Tifa and Cloud
14. The music is really used very well to emphasize scenes and tone in addition to just being great
15. The entire Temple of the Ancients sequence works great in story, mostly with how it utilizes Sephiroth and the reveal of his overall plan
16. The death of Aeris, the build up, the follow through, still hits me to this day
17. The Northern Crater false reveal, and culmination of Cloud’s story up to that point, and Tifa’s fears, and excellent little camera work tidbits, all good stuff
18. The big, real twist that Cloud was real and there all along is just fantastic. Wonderfully built up, wonderfully paid off, and I love it every time I see it
19. A second plus for the big twist scene for the presentation, significance, and feel of it
20. A plus for Yuffie. She’s the glue of the party, clearly cares, has good characterization in her side quests (even if they’re aggravating gameplay wise), and remains a favorite
21. The final confrontation of the mind between Cloud and Sephiroth’s will is a fantastic culmination of Cloud’s story arc, Sephiroth’s presence as the horror villain, and the story as a whole
22. Story-wise the game is exceptionally well paced, with events happening in a wonderful pattern throughout the entire game, and never staying too long on highs or lows
23. Aggregate: While not really worthy of positives by themselves, Cid, Vincent, Red XIII, and Cait Sith are good characters who do good stuff with their limited screen time
24. Surprisingly good and well done Animations for cutscenes, again
25. The overall sombre, serious Tone of the work is just excellent
26. A second positive for truly fascinating Babylon 5 Effect
27. Lots of good Background Lore
28. There’s some great Foreshadowing for the game’s various turns and twists
29. Several decent jokes and humor
30. Good Gameplay/Story Integration, especially with the materia
31. Second positive for usage of Music in the narrative
32. Good use of NPCs to flesh out the setting
33. That wonderful narrative Pacing gets a second positive
34. Truthfully, the Plot of FFVII is legit
35. Especially in how it twists in between Shinra and Sephiroth
36. Really good Story Sequencing in how events lay out
37. Good Storyboarding for scenes, especially when they get more actiony
38. Core Themes of evil, negligent companies and uncertainty about ourselves and those around us are great
39. Good Visual Storytelling
40. Good World Building, especially in Midgar

Story Negatives:

1. The Turks. They’re either whitewashed after Midgar (despite being horribly generic villains in Midgar) or written incredibly inconsistently
2. Translation is… really lacking, with some dialogue sections and some entire scenes being basically gibberish
3. The ending really does not work for me; it’s too brief, too little information, and for me it cuts off too early
4. Aggregate: Rufus’ continous need to have yet another means of transportation to ‘keep up’ with the search for Sephiroth is stupid at best // Nibelheim being rebuilt and filled with actors really makes no sense, and it gets worse the more you think about it // The coincidence of the Sister Ray hitting Diamond, and related events, are just kind of ridiculous // The total illogic of the ‘everyone comes back while they’re not looking despite not having the airship’ scene bugs the crap out of me // There’s nothing indicating the optional Zack lore which is both critical and good

Gameplay Positives:

1. Music!
2. Good quality of life interface features (Experience bar after combat, Limit Break bar, L and R to quickly swap, clear indicators of stat changes on equipment and Materia, etc.)
3. Combat is smooth and well animated, and not only goes by quickly but has good cool factor
4. Motorcycle game is surprisingly fun for a minigame, very smooth and intuitive and actually rewards tactics
5. Shinra Tower is one of the best designed dungeons in the franchise, with so much going for it I’m not even going to try and summarize
6. The Intro is one of the better designed ones in RPG history, with lots to do, good variety, low encounter rates, good progression curves, optional rewards, minigames, and general fun
7. The Materia system is very fun, with a lot of possible combinations and setups you can do, which keeps expanding for most of the game
8. A second positive for how great the Materia system is
9. A third plus for just fantastic, epic, amazing music
10. There are a lot (a lot!) of gameplay decisions designed around increasing both the impact and smoothing the design of Aeris’ death and how she is permanently removed from the party… from Limit Break to equipment distribution to party mandation, to finding equipment after her passing
11. Some of the better bosses in the franchise, with fun ones like Air Buster (counter), Aps (hits himself), Bottomswell (drowns you), Carry Armor (removes you from the combat)…
12. …Heli Gunner (ranged), Midgar Zolom (removal abilities), Schizo (cast on death), etc.
13. Some decent attempts at varying up dungeons that result in more action oriented stuff (Great Glacier, Gaea’s Cliff, the Ancient Forest)
14. The final boss trio and lead up into the planet core is fantastic
15. Aggregate: Good minigames (Motorcycle racing, submarine, snowboarding, Chocobo racing, Chocobo breeding, Battle Arena, Rollar Coaster)
16. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
17. Some great Animations, most notably in summons and spell effects
18. A whopping third positive for the Materia combo system
19. Lots of possible Builds in the game
20. Second Build positive
21. Third Build positive
22. Good, smooth Difficulty Curve
23. Well designed Encounters
24. Good Enemy Variety
25. Second Enemy Variety positive
26. One of the games I use as an example to this day of it being fun to Level
27. Good in-combat HUD
28. Good overall Interface design
29. Easily the best Intro in the series, second positive for it
30. And a third positive for that amazing Intro
31. Despite some issues in the endgame, there’s still very good Itemization through the first chunk of the game
32. Really well done Overworld design, especially by the point at which you reach the western continent
33. Excellent gameplay Pacing, especially with all the breathers and tension points
34. Great Power Progression Curve between items, equipment, and Materia
35. A second positive for the second-best Quality of Life features in the series
36. Good, iconic Sound Design
37. Good Tutorialization in several areas in Midgar and Junon
38. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable Cutscenes
2. Catching chocobos sucks, with too easy to screw up with auto targeting, a large amount of RNG which can lead to grind, and the fact that it’s intended to be mandatory early on is just gleh
3. The console port has a few issues (menuing is borked, with cursor ‘skipping’ options occasionally, and here and there hard-locks requiring rebooting the game, occasional blipping on the music)
4. The Yuffie section has multiple issues with it… the most obvious being the Materia loss, but far more important is you run into the wall of a boss who will absolutely destroy you unless you’re carefully prepped for it, and on top of that the boss is difficult in a section where they know you don’t have Materia
5. The game’s difficulty curve and power progression curve presumes a level of either grind, exploration, or optional content in its design, meaning playing through normally will lead to one running into ‘grind walls’
6. The loot distribution towards the end of the game is frankly awful, with entirely too much great equipment being in the final dungeon, with no New Game + to help mitigate the issue
7. The last dungeon is just lackluster in encounter design, visuals, and layout
8. Aggregate: No memory cursor across battles // Extremely vague instructions on how to find Dyne in Corel Prison, which leads to frustration and sand worms // Inconsistent geometry in the Great Glacier, which combined with the maze nature of it and repeating screens makes getting around a pain
9. There’s a very real Seconds In Minutes problem in how combat plays out, with the slow pull in and the delays on animations making the whole thing take seconds longer for each minute that passes
10. Some of the stuff in this game is just impossible to find without a Walkthrough

Story Positives:

1. Opening is very well crafted, symbolic, shows off and hits the right emotional beats and is well edited and basically awesome… if you’ve already played the game
2. Thought bubbles are a fantastic narrative tool to show what characters are thinking (in contrast or alongside what they’re saying) and it’s so smooth and intuitive
3. A second positive for continued excellence in the usage of the thought bubbles throughout the game
4. The dialogue is frankly excellent, with good nuance and word choice, and of course I love the archaic english
5. Surprisingly good story and gameplay integration throughout the game
6. The encounter at the top of Mt. Ordeals is still an awesome scene and, as usual, great gameplay and story integration
7. Cecil is an excellent character, fully realized in his path from unwitting instigator to repentant victim to triumphant redemption
8. Voice acting is quite good, with its only flaw being its relative infrequency
9. A second plus for continued, excellent usage of gameplay and story integration
10. Tellah’s death is still just as impacting as it’s always been
11. Cid’s ‘death’ scene is absolutely amazing. The voice acting nails it, his line “And so young too!” is just so Cid, and of course Cid (who’s spent his entire life studying flying) finally flies unaided
12. The ending is surprisingly enjoyable even now, with closure and conclusion to all the characters, and it serves as a form of an epilogue after the adventures
13. Proper Remake positive
14. Aggregate: The ‘death’ scene for Palom and Porom and Cagnazzo’s final revenge // The Intro is good at what it does, but is ultimately too short and unambitious to really justify a full positive // The animations in cutscenes (both in-game and pre-rendered) are surprisingly good for what they’re working with // Similarly the graphics are better than I remembered on the character and enemy models
15. Aggregate: Edward is actually pretty awesome and grows well in his few scenes // Rydia too // Ditto for Yang // Tellah while we’re at it // And the twins!
16. Good Camerawork, both for pre rendered and in game cutscenes
17. Maybe I’m the weirdo, but I rather like the Dialogue in this version, so a second positive for it
18. Great Music Direction to accent scenes, which honestly helps salvage otherwise lackluster moments
19. The central Theme of redemption and moving on really works for me
20. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. Yang’s death scene is stupid on many levels; First, his death is un-needed. Second, it had no build up and comes out of no where. Third, they have time to drama-it up which deflates the scene. Fourth, they have the door… which they just unlocked… close behind him which, it’s worth noting, also survives the explosion.
2. Cid… survives. And then he has another fakeout death. Sigh
3. Yang survives his death scene, which somehow makes his existing death scene even worse than it already was
4. The ‘oh you should stay behind’ scene is as awful as it always is. It’s pointless to begin with, everyone just kind of goes along with it, and it lasts about 30 seconds before it’s immediately undone
5. Aggregate: …the Opening, while very cool, is really built for older players. For new players it spoils the hell out of several major story beats // There are far too many examples of coincidence to name that are just ehh // Several instances of the story smashing too many unnecessary plot points into one scene at a time // The ‘rescue the team from Babil’ scene is just stupid for every reason (why does the bridge collapsing send them plummeting from hundreds of yards up, they land ON an airship with propellers… with no damage, Cid knows how and where to find them, the general physics issues, etc.) // The fall from the top of Babil because bullcrap trap is bullcrap and padding and awful… it’s there because the GM hadn’t written the rest of the adventure yet so he forces the party to derail

Gameplay Positives:

1. The auto combat mode is actually quite good, allowing you to select what action (or spell or item) is used each turn, and being able to toggle it on or off at will
2. The Augment system offers some fantastic customization for the characters, allowing both new abilities and cross-class abilities
3. Surprisingly good story and gameplay integration throughout the game
4. The game is quite creative in using the Counter concept to add tactics to bosses and enemies, which by itself isn’t
5. The auto-save is actually really good in this one, saving basically every zone and encounter AND after cutscenes for bosses
6. The DS/PC version adds new tactics and gimmicks to many boss fights, making them among the best in the franchise. The Antlion (weak to Edward’s abilities right after you recruit him), Baigan (reflects magic right when you’re pretty reliant on it and regenerates parts), Barnabas and Lugae (change how the fight goes depending on you)
7. The Calcabrina fight is probably one of the more interesting and well designed fights in the game
8. All four Elemental fiends have one additional niggle added to them that make them far more interesting and challenging
9. The big Golbez fight (the one with Rydia’s reveal) is probably the best fight in the game. He’s brutal, hits like a truck, you start off on a back foot, but you’re given an advantage you didn’t have before. It’s great
10. Many of the Moon bosses have a gimmick or two that make them fun
11. No grind necessary because of smooth difficulty and power progression curves
12. The final boss fight is both very fun and appropriately difficult, and nicely epic
13. Proper Remake positive
14. Aggregate: The HUD has some good information on display // The in game map feature is actually pretty cool, but doesn’t deserve a full positive because A: You have to keep re-summoning the map after combat and B: Occasionally you just can’t find that ONE little spot you’re missing
15. Aggregate: The Scarmiglione sequence is awesome // Substantial effort is made at multiple points to balance things nicely between the characters you’ll have at the dungeons and enemies you’ll be fighting // The bosses hiding gear upgrades and the gear being excellent is a nice touch for the final dungeon
16. In this version especially there’s some good Enemy AI design
17. Fun Core Combat
18. Good, smooth Difficulty Curve
19. Good Enemy Variety
20. The Intro does a lot right; Enemy tactics, the ATB system, towns, dungeons, overworld, saving, items, etc.
21. Good Itemization and inventory design
22. Despite the substantially worse soundtrack, it’s still pretty good
23. The entire Outro has some issues (save placement!) but it’s still fun, rewarding, and generally good
24. Good Overworld design… all three of them!
25. Good, optional Tutorialization in the first few towns
26. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable Cutscenes
2. The encounter rate is, as per usual for the era, just too high
3. The encounter rate is really rather too high
4. Total lack of memory cursor in menu or in combat, as well as losing the map everytime you do anything
5. New Game +… is awful in this game. It only carries forward very little (Augments, map progression, stat up items, and adamant stuff) and you have a permanent cap on how many you can do! (only 3 runs total)
6. The Lodestone Cavern is just a big middle finger to the player. You have to drag your way through with Tellah (low MP) and Yang (low damage output) plus enemies designed to be weak to weapons who hit hard (when you have no armor on)… and on top of that it’s not rewarding or properly designed loot wise to compensate
7. The Sealed Cave is… boring. Really really boring. The encounters take forever because of health, aren’t particularly difficult, there are too many fo them, and it is a massively huge place you have to walk in and out of (or warp out of level at a time)
8. Aggregate: The walk-to-run leftover from the mobile port is a constant irritant // You basically need a walkthrough to really get the best value out of the Augments system, in a way that’s frankly counter intuitive // The Sylph Cave and Feymarch Cave both suck, with the ‘Float not lasting between floors’ thing which is just awful // The final dungeon is ultimately lackluster; too long, too boring until the crystal part, and too many encounters
9. There are several times you’re forced to backtrack through long, tedious dungeons

Story Positives:

1. The game has a surprisingly good approach to comedy and light heartedness which still gets a chuckle out of me to this day
2. Galuf’s death is still a great scene, at least in story, to this day. His refusal to give up, pushing himself entirely past the point of reason, and dying because he simply cannot be healed at that point
3. Good usage of Doodads, mostly in towns but also in dungeons
4. Okay, yeah, the game gets a second positive for Humor
5. Good Gameplay/Story Integration, especially in the classes, crystals, and mechanics
6. The Intro is actually probably the strongest narrative section of the game. We are introduced to the theme, concepts, characters, world, and tone
7. The Outro works quite well too, with the big build up towards the finale, and a rather satisfying and lengthy ending
8. Good Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

1. Aggregate: So… they’re on a mountain, fighting a couple who hunt dragons, who are using Lenna’s father’s helmet as bait, and then a chasm opens up… what? // The portrait mismatching is just distracting // As with 4, the coincidences colliding with each other to make the plot happen are just ridiculous (as with the aforementioned mountain issue)

Gameplay Positives:

1. Good convenience and quality of life features (quick and easy equipping and equipping of jobs and gear, L and R to select, holding A to push through combat, memory cursor, etc.)
2. The Intro does a lot of general good game design decisions, with lots of (optional) tutorials and introductions into most of the mechanics of the game, as well as a reasonably interesting dungeon and boss
3. Music is, as per Uematsu’s style, great stuff
4. The Job System allows for a huge amount of customization in playstyle and party makeup
5. There’s no real ‘building yourself into a corner’ with the possible Job setups (as best highlighted by the Four Job Fiesta)
6. The Job System allows for tons of possible combinations and possibilities
7. The number of possible combos which are end game viable is astounding
8. The Job System has almost no bad or otherwise more worthless jobs, meaning just about everything has its uses
9. Boss design has so much variety of strategy and proper difficulty, where any given fight just requires rethinking it rather than leveling or luck based
10. Multitude of possible strategies on almost every major encounter, most notably bosses (which tend to have at least 3 separate strats you can use… per boss)
11. Specific pluses for bosses which include; Adamantoise, Antlion, Apanda, Archeoaevis
12. Archeodemon, Atamos, Azulmagia, Bahamut
13. Calofisteri, Catastrophe, Cray Claw, the Crystals
14. Garula, the Gilgamesh fights
15. Halicarnassus, Karlabos, Liquid Flame, Magissa and her husband
16. Neo Shinryi
17. Omega
18. Omniscient and Sekhmet
19. Soul Cannon, Siren, Titan, the Wendigos
20. Twintania
21. The first ExDeath fight is brilliant. He has many phases, they all do many things, and there are many ways around all of it
22. Dungeon design is designed around gimmicks and tricks to vary them up, while also not being too short or long
23. More dungeon plusses, including for… The Ship Graveyard, Walse Tower, Fire-Powered Ship
24. Library of the Ancients, Ronka Ruins
25. Castle ExDeath, Drakenvale, Phoenix Tower
26. Barrier Tower, Pyramid of Moore, Island Shrine
27. Great Sea Trench, Istory Falls, Castle of Bal
28. Encounter design is design is moved towards enemies being both the right relative power level they need to be for the area they’re at, designed in a way to indicate the types of tactics you can or should be using
29. Encounter design continues to be well crafted throughout
30. Reward distribution of spells, equipment, and items is very well designed from towns, encounters, and dungeons
31. Every World 3 dungeon has worthwhile loot throughout
32. Overworld design is designed to naturally guide you towards your next overall destination while still allowing for exploration and having a map that gives the player ideas of where and how to explore
33. Overworld design of World 3 deserves special mention for continuing the flow of 1 and 2 but merging them in ways that make sense, and lead to new methods of progression (like entering the ruins cave near Jachol to get into Bal’s basement)
34. Due to a well designed power progression curve and the aforementioned good difficulty on bosses, the game requires no grind all the way through
35. The Outro is quite good gameplay wise. An excellent last dungeon visually and musically with good and rewarding enemies, loot, fun bosses, and a great and challenging final boss fight
36. Aggregate: The bestiary has some good info, which can especially be useful on repeat playthroughs // The music, while not the best, gets an Aggregate second positive for general quality // There are several good instances of gameplay/story integration
37. Some of the better Enemy AI design
38. Special mention for how much Build gameplay FFV has…
39. …thanks in no small part to the class system, but also smart itemization
40. Good, smooth Difficulty Curve
41. A second positive for the excellent Difficulty Curve
42. Good Enemy Variety
43. A second positive for that great Outro dungeon, optional bosses, and final boss rush
44. Excellent gameplay Pacing
45. This game has the best Power Progression Curve I’ve seen in the franchise, between levels, items, classes, and the bonus things you can do to progress
46. A second positive for that amazing Power Progression Curve
47. And a third one as well
48. Three positives for the incredible Replay value on display here
49. Replay mk. 2
50. Replayability mk. 3
51. Quick and easy Save System
52. Good, optional Tutorialization in the first town
53. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable Cutscenes
2. By the time you hit World 3 the encounter rate is just too high
3. Aggregate: Encounters on the ship discouraging exploration // The encounter rate in the Forest of Moore is just too high // Running is just entirely too RNG, just like it was in previous games // Landing on a precise spot with the airship can get mildly irritating // The menu can lag a bit on the GBA version, requiring the player to be excessively patient with it // The light flickering of buffs can be distracting

Story Positives:

1. Doodad placement is just nuts in this game, with tons of detail on every screen
2. The animations for the characters are very expressive and well done and help show a ton of emotion and feeling for the scenes
3. The ATE system is… Excellent at showing Meanwhile Elsewheres, mostly optional, and really used to good effect to help develop characters, background lore, worldbuilding, and occasionally plot
4. The Intro to the game is exceptional, doing a lot to establish characters, world building, initial plot, and begin several threads
5. The Village of Dali is a great story piece. It slowly builds the mystery, pays off with revelations about the construction of Black Mages, and ties it all together (Garnet, Steiner, Vivi, Alexandria, and the Black Mages). It also establishes the real trunk of the story going forwards
6. The Lindblum Effect in this game is real, and so much of it feels so alive and believable as you traverse it
7. The camera has no hesitation about moving direction multiple times through the first half of the game, focusing on different parties who are concurrently adventuring, which not only changes the pacing and tone but helps keep things moving and frankly is a great narrative tool
8. The presentation and delivery of the somber, sad, darker tone of the entire Burmecian section is awesome
9. The entire Cleyra sequence is great. A peaceful people, with time and effort spent trying to develop them and increase the overall player interest (especially since so many Burmecian refugees end up there), who are then all wiped out… which, in addendum, showcases the exact nature and threat of the Eidolons, a recurring element in the whole game
10. Background lore and world building
11. Construction of sequence of events is very tightly woven and logical for the first half of the game
12. The devastation of Lindblum and the follow up to the Atomos attack is great, and really emphasizes how dark the story has gotten at that point
13. The pacing of the first half or 2/3rds of the story is actually quite excellent, never staying in one tone or event style too often or too short
14. Vivi is adorable, and of course has an entire well done existential character arc
15. Steiner grows substantially throughout the game, reaching the point by the time he rejoins the party where he’s allowed more of himself to show and taken the blinders off
16. Garnet is a put upon character who barely deals with the issues she’s thrust upon and struggles through three separate character arcs beautifully
17. The music is very well directed and does a good job of maintaining themes and motifs throughout
18. You Are Not Alone
19. The big confrontation with Garland, Kuja, and Garland and Kuja is just… great stuff and I love it
20. Zidane… is an amazing character. He wields a mask of thief, a womanizer, a helper, but as his core he has no identity whatsoever and throughout the game this peeks out bit by bit, until through the course of the game and his real, actual love for Garnet helps push him to developing into a real person, culminating in his wonderful descent into identity and realization of self in Terra
21. The Skirmish of the Silver Dragons is one of the best ‘allies help the main party’ scenes I’ve seen in gaming
22. Memoria is very well done visually and musically and in showcasing the ideas of memories, memories merging, and the pseudo lifestream, as well as a cool and interesting sequence leading to the finale
23. The ending still has all the right emotional beats, decisively concludes the arcs of most of the characters, and has an actual proper epilogue in addition to being probably my favorite ending in the FFs
24. Kuja… is a bit lacking as a character, but is well positioned as a part of the obstacles to overcome. Portrayed in a similar vein as to Superboy Prime or other such villains, he is so threatening and dangerous precisely because of how much power a child like him has
25. Aggregate:Eiko // Freya // Cid // Beatrix // Cid, all fun and awesome characters, just lacking a bit in screen time
26. A second positive for excellent Animations for cutscenes and storytelling
27. The second time through really changes how you look at things, with a decent amount of Babylon 5 Effect on display
28. As part of the overall Lindblum Effect, there’s a lot of good Background Lore
29. Some good Banter, mostly between party members
30. Some really good Camerawork for cutscenes
31. Good Dialogue throughout
32. Some good Foreshadowing of multiple points early on
33. Pretty darn good Gameplay/Story Integration, even into the primary plot at points
34. Good Internal Continuity
35. Generally good Localization
36. Second positive for NPC Set Dressing and Lindblum Effect
37. Good Storyboarding for actiony cutscenes
38. A second positive for the ATE system
39. The central Theme in this one, Life, still gets me at my core
40. Good Visual Storytelling
41. A second positive for great Visual Storytelling, especially when you get to Terra, but even leading up to that
42. A second positive for World Building everywhere

Story Negatives:

1. Beatrix’s 180 in personality from stereotypical evil henchman to good person is done very badly, at least in this version. She literally goes from normal villainous speak to good guy in the space of three sentences
2. The entire attack on Alexandria doesn’t work for me across the board. Bahamut is super powered and does nothing, the sequence is badly paced and has multiple sections that take too long, it culminates in a MASSIVE detonation which does nothing and hurts no one, and Alexandria is fine afterwards
3. Aggregate: The game weirdly likes to just skip over the consequences and continuity of several major events and plot points // The bizarre contrivance of the Eiko capture in Kuja’s Palace is just… weird, and badly storyboarded // There’s a bit of FFIV Syndrome in general, where they clearly just want to get to the next plot point (good example; Hilda randomly being inside the previously-sealed Gulug Volcano so we can rescue her)

Gameplay Positives:

1. Good, well designed built-in cheats
2. The ATE system is almost fully optional, and a good built in system to encourage the player to explore more, as well as being entirely in the player’s control
3. The music is the usual Uematsu standard of quality
4. Items to learn things system is actually pretty awesome; it allows you to grow horizontally in power, it allows you to permanently learn abilities, or temporarily if you don’t want to spend the time leveling
5. The spell effects in combat are really just phenomenal in this one, easily some of my favorite spell graphics in the series
6. The overall menu and interface design is good, with the ability to see specifics per item, flip quickly between things, etc.
7. Loot distribution is well designed in a way that both locks your progression while encouraging exploration and side stuff
8. Loot distribution continues to be good the entire game, and also takes into account abilities that can be learned on all available characters at any point in the game
9. Well designed and easily accessible auto-save
10. While it takes a while and is irritating to unlock, the Ozma fight is very well designed and has a lot of potential strategy and things to keep in mind
11. Fossil Roo and the Desert Palace are interesting dungeons, with some fun mechanics to them
12. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
13. A second positive for the item-to-learn system of Alternate Leveling
14. Probably the best overall built-in cheats in the franchise
15. Fun Core Combat
16. Good, smooth Difficulty Curve
17. Well designed Encounters
18. Good Enemy Variety
19. A second positive for varied types of encounters in Enemy Variety, not just enemies themselves
20. A second positive for Graphics, clearly showing off what the PS1 could do at its limit
21. Good in-combat HUD
22. Surprisingly good Gameplay and Story Integration
23. Second Music positive
24. Memoria isn’t super memorable gameplay wise… except for the usage of bosses and ease of exit design
25. While usually not super relevant, there is nonetheless a clear and well done design to the Overworld
26. Legitimately good Power Progression Curve
27. Generally good Quality of Life features (Y in combat to swap, select to see info, left or right to select enemies, L and R to switch through menus, etc.)
28. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Unskippable cutscenes
2. Trance (somewhat weak, variable use based on character, random generation while building up, triggers instantly, goes away after combat)
3. Chocobo Hot and Cold can go to hell. It’s RNG (item spawn) on top of RNG (location) on top of RNG (depth). It’s boring. It takes entirely too long. It’s a substantial minigame, and it comes with tons of worthwhile rewards
4. Beatrix’s boss fights literally cheat
5. Several port issues: Encounter rate issues with port (effectively a power progression curve problem, because the encounter rate is SO LOW you basically have to stop to level to keep up) // The sound effects are entirely too loud // The occasional load time taking forever glitch is just bleh
6. Tetra Master is… not fun, but more to the point you HAVE to successfully win two matches in order to progress the game, which makes it unbearable
7. The… slowness of combat just drags after a while
8. Aggregate: Multiple irritating or bad minigames and side quests, such as jump rope, Tetra Master, the hippo racing, Chocobo Hot & Cold, catching frogs, and Cid using the hourglass

Story Positives:

1. Excellent adapted usage of the character sprites to emulate the equivalent of blocking and directing in cutscenes; effectively good animations
2. Kefka is one of my favorite villains across fiction for a reason; he’s broken in a very particular way, shows just how absent he is proper connection, and gets plenty of excellent screen time
3. Kefka develops and moves throughout the story with us, escalating as we do, and serves as the ultimate point character for the primary theme of the work; the connections between people
4. There are multiple points of very early foreshadowing that are only really apparent upon second viewing that help set up threads for later on (Edgar, Locke, Terra being the big three, but also Kefka)
5. The music direction is excellent and really adds to the tone and theme of the scenes
6. The Intro (which ends right about the South Figaro Cave) does an excellent job of establishing setting, threat, plot, and characters as well as beginning the first major character arc (Terra’s lack of identity and memory, as well as her fears of being different)
7. The entire Sabin scenario is quite well done and enjoyable, both seriously and from a silly perspective. The jokes still get a chuckle out of me, and the serious moments still matter
8. A special mention for the absolutely incredible scene at the train station with Cyan and his departed family
9. As with FFIX, the narrative has no problem following multiple angles and party members, as well as showing multiple angles on events
10. The Battle for Narshe, the build up to it, the fallout from it, are all great moments and fundamentally alter the status quo and give us our first real snag in the ‘beat the evil empire’ plot
11. The flashback and reminiscing scenes between Sabin and Edgar in Figaro Castle are fantastic (and optional!) and really show where they’ve been vs. where they are now
12. The scenes in Kohlingen with Locke and his past with Rachel are great, but made even better if you bring Celes along who realizes just how badly Locke is really hurting
13. Magicite makes perfect sense in lore and serves as a great reason why the party is able to do what they do and stand up to Gestahl
14. The Zozo sequence in its entirety is good stuff. The nature of the poor people, the good (and short) exposition with Ramuh, the sea-change that is Magicite, the revelation about Celes, and the decision to infiltrate Vector
15. The opera sequence is a great section in general, but also really helps add the beginning of Celes’ character arc
16. The playable Esper World Maduin sequence is really quite fun and helps keep the exposition fresh and mostly optional
17. The game does a pretty good job of showing multiple sides of several things, most notably the Gestahlian Empire (best showcasing during the pre-banquet talks)
18. The doodad placement and usage is fantastic, really helping to sell the tone and feel of areas (most notably in towns, but also in dungeon areas)
19. The plot pacing and logical sequencing in the World of Balance is quite excellent, with most of the game being you essentially helping the villains without knowing it and leading to the release of the Espers, that being a sea change that forces Gestahl to improvise, which leads to the Floating Continent scenario
20. The conclusion scenes of Thamasa with Leo’s death, Kefka finally cutting loose, the forced magiciting of the Espers, all good stuff
21. The big confrontation at the end of the Floating Continent, outside of the one logical hiccup, is great stuff and the showcasing of the ruination of the world is horrifying
22. The Celes’ suicide scene is… really powerful, and still hits me really hard
23. The directing is nothing short of excellent throughout, making astonishingly good use of the limited animations, sprites, palette, and camera in order to somehow craft a cinematic experience
24. The final scene between Rachel and Locke is powerful as hell, and really concludes his character arc wonderfully
25. The World of Ruin in general is, to me, very enjoyable in its structure; guided but freeform. What I like more about it is the heavy character focus
26. Terra and her quest for emotion, understanding who and what she is, the amnesia that never really recovers forcing her to grow into a new person, and finally discovering love in family rather than romance
27. Celes and her lack of identity in the World of Balance, her quest for self, her connection with Locke and how he centers her, and how she experiences despair and hope in the World of Ruin
28. Locke and his constant need to maintain the mask, his secret fear and pain, and slowly recovering from all he’s done
29. Aggregate: Edgar the born leader, who masks his pain with flirting, and is reliably competent throughout // Strago and his earnest care for his granddaughter, as well as his desire to prove himself // Relm and her managing to be childlike without childish, as well as amusing and bouncey without being irritating
30. Cyan goes through hell and back and his arc and coping with loss is a huge theme of the game, and his dream section and his Mt. Zozo section really show how much he’s suffering still
31. Dancing Mad is a master-class in musical storytelling and really showcases all you need to know about Kefka, his path, and how he dies in silence
32. The Outro in general is just fantastic. Great last dungeon (a giant trash pile smashed together), great encounter with Kefka (arguably his best scene), great music…
33. …and an amazing epilogue which showcases the conclusions of everyone’s arcs and characters, and how they’ve changed and grown, finishing up with a great series of credits over artistic airship shots and intertwined with little shots showing that the world has begun the long, hard road to recovery
34. A final personal plus for the most touching theme of a game I’ve ever played; the theme of the connections between people. Friends, family, loved ones, it is united we are who we are
35. A second positive for cutscene Animations and clever usage thereof
36. A good amount of Background Lore in a lot of towns and via NPCs
37. The Dialogue in the GBA version is quite good
38. There’s some decent Gameplay/Story Integration, especially in the magicite
39. The game acknowledges and pays off Internal Continuity throughout
40. Specific to the GBA version, some good Localization
41. Surprisingly good usage of NPCs to flesh out the setting
42. I’m sorry, a third positive for that absolutely fantastic Outro
43. The Pacing of the narrative gets a second positive
44. A second positive for excellent Story Sequencing, as the series of events really does make perfect sense in structure
45. One of the only sprite-based RPGs where I feel the Storyboarding is good enough to be noteworthy
46. A second positive for that absolutely amazing Theme…
47. ..and yes, a third one as well. I’m not sure there’s a game who’s Themes hit me as close to home as this one, and is present in almost the entire work, from the very beginning to the very ending
48. Good Visual Storytelling
49. Great Visual Storytelling, which helps distinguish the areas from each other

Story Negatives:

1. Lack of individual party lines for non-mandated party members in cutscenes
2. The time skip in general doesn’t work (Celes in a coma for a year?) and almost the entire game feels like it’s been more like a week than a year, but it becomes actively aggravating with Figaro Castle being stuck underground without air for A YEAR and everyone’s fine
3. Aggregate: The lack of different sprites for flashbacks gets a bit jarring during several scenes (Sabin being a fully muscly dude as a teenager, Terra being full aged while being mind controlled, etc.) // The poisoning of Doma as shown on camera has tons of logical flaws to it and frankly doesn’t make sense // Leo and Cid really are either that bamboozled by Gestahl or are that naive to reality
4. Aggregate: The fact that Celes does absolutely nothing during Kefka and Gestahl’s confrontation is bleh // The fact that Celes is just basically fine after a year comatose and somehow Cid has kept her alive is bleh // Edgar pretending to not be Edgar is just stupid

Gameplay Positives:

1. Music is good to the point where I can’t think of any song I don’t like within it
2. Spritework on background is excellent, detailed, and wonderfully designed and animated
3. Spritework and animations for the characters and NPCs is great
4. Best convenience features in the franchise (Auto-A, memory across battles, L and R across characters and in menus, spell order preference changing, auto equip preference changing, menu backgrounds and color selection, font color selection, languages, swapping between characters in battle)
5. The menu interface is very good, with lots of info on exact stat changes, what it does, who can equip it, and the tooltip comparison is baked into the equipment menu
6. The NPC design is spot on throughout the whole game, with good direction and allusion regarding what you can do, where to see or encounter events, etc.
7. South Figaro is an excellent example of built-in gameplay tutorialization; It introduces the helpful NPCs concept, loot in non-treasure-chests, how Relics work and access to them, alternate routes through areas, and general base-level shopping and equipment
8. The combat is arguably the second smoothest of the series, with no issues or problems and is just fun (and quick)
9. There is substantial effort put into varying up the tactics and design of all the bosses throughout the game
10. I love the use of the Scenarios to highlight the three major types of gameplay in the game (combat with Edgar, exploration with Sabin, and Telltale with Locke)
11. Magicite is an awesome tool in the game. It allows you to summon (per usual summoning rules for the FFs), it allows you to customize party members via permanent stat changes, and it allows you to learn spells
12. Dungeon variety; there is a good and strong variety to dungeons throughout the game, usually with little gimmicks to vary them (Phantom Forest, Zozo and the climb, the Magitek Research Facility, Phoenix Cave, Gogo’s lair, Umaro’s lair, etc. etc.)
13. Loot distribution is well designed throughout the World of Balance, ensuring that there’s not just decent loot but actually good and varied loot to help continue to progress and add new combos for Relics
14. Magicite distribution is handled very particularly in the World of Balance, to the point where they frontload most of the good espers in order to ensure you have plenty of time to design your mage characters however you want by the time you’ll need them
15. The dungeons continue to be varied in design throughout the World of Ruin
16. The loot distribution is uniquely well designed, with lots and lots of the ‘best’ pieces of gear for different builds and characters spread far and wide across every area of the World of Ruin, from Daryl’s Tomb and onwards
17. Design built around multi party equipment scenario, such that there are multiple versions of the good loot in the World of Ruin
18. Each possible party make-up is feasible, even without magicite
19. Kefka’s Tower is a fun, interesting dungeon with nice puzzles, and I love the multi party setup, as well as how lucrative it is. Great last dungeon
20. Some legitimately good Enemy AI design
21. A second positive for the Magicite system
22. Fun Core Combat
23. Good, smooth Difficulty Curve
24. Well designed Encounters
25. Good Enemy Variety
26. A second positive for the fantastic Graphics and Spritework
27. It is legitimately fun to level up
28. Good in-combat HUD
29. Some of the better, most clear-cut Info In Game in the franchise
30. Surprisingly good Gameplay and Story Integration
31. The Intro is one of my favorites in gaming…
32. …earning a second positive for sheer quality
33. A second and…
34. …a third positive for one of the best soundtracks in gaming history
35. A second positive for one of the best Outros in gaming history…
36. …and yes, a third as well
37. Overworld design (both of them) are quite good overall
38. …but earn a second positive for how well they use the World of Ruin’s design to inform flow and gameplay
39. Excellent gameplay Pacing, weaving back and forth between Combat, Town, and Dungeon styles
40. A second positive for some of the best designed RPG Pacing I’ve seen
41. The Power Progression Curve is quite smooth…
42. …such that you naturally are so much stronger at points that you often don’t even notice how or why you got there
43. A second positive for the best Quality of Life features in the franchise
44. Quick and easy Save System
45. Good, well used Sound Design
46. Good Visual Distinction in both modes

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Port issues (no matter which version you play it’s got significant issues; in the GBA’s case it’s timing, lag, bad sound effects, and bad music)
2. Unskippable Cutscenes
3. Encounter rates
4. Encounter rates!
5. The Colosseum is just awful. There’s no in game way of knowing what you can get for what, most of the actual bets get you junk or worse items, you always lose the item you wager, and the RNG on what your people do is awful
6. There’s a hard to explain general jank and stutteriness to the GBA version that just makes the whole game irritating to play
7. Aggregate: There are just too many characters who’s special abilities are either lacking or poorly designed; Cyan and Bushido basically being worthless, Gau’s Rages being entirely too frustrating to get, Mog’s Dances barely working unless under the right circumstances, Sketch being almost never worth doing, etc. // The timer on the pre-banquet section basically necessitates a walkthrough or knowing what you’re doing // The Ebot’s Rock cave really is entirely too RNG and can take a little or a lot of time depending
8. The harsh reality is that the game is pretty grindy unless you A: Fight every encounter as you go or B: Know exactly what you’re doing in leveling

Story Positives:

1. Taris, narratively, works very well for me. It takes its time to showcase the world, the characters, build up our investment in people, and then destroy it all as a way to help establish the threat and mentality of our villain
2. Side quest design has some interesting and fascinating stories to tell
3. The Sunry quest in Manaan is arguably some of the best writing in the entire game, wonderfully nuanced, additional layers, multiple outcomes, etc.
4. There is a fairly large amount of very well done foreshadowing and Babylon 5 Effect building up to things, leading to…
5. …the big reveal about our identity. This is an extremely well done twist in my opinion, fundamentally tied into the main themes of the work, the plot, the characters, changes our dynamic with everyone, throws questions at our faces, and forces us to consider if we will change how we’ve been playing after that point
6. Voice acting for most of the major characters (playable party members, main villains) is generally excellent
7. Mission is just an adorable ball of teenage and sunshine without boiling over into irritating, and while she doesn’t get as much centric screen time she ends up being the morality focus for Revan in the end. Zaalbar gets some small mentions when connected to Mission as well
8. Canderous has some wonderfully pragmatic perspective on a lot of things, adds a lot of insight into the mandalorians and the history leading up to the current era, and ultimately is a very tragic character who showcases the folly of the shortsighted mentality his people so practiced
9. HK-47 is just a great character. While a typical archetype (the affable evil / humorous psychopath) he is genuinely hilarious, and surprisingly insightful
10. Jolee is entertaining (he makes me laugh even harder than HK) but he’s also a great example of a good Jedi without the hang-ups of the Jedi Order
11. Carth Onasi is well acted, and well presented… he gets irritating in his repeating of his issues, but for the most part I enjoy his perspective and addition to the overall lore
12. Malak has a wonderful voice actor, excellent presentation in general, and is a well-written stupid character who perfectly encapsulates the unique terror of being a child with a gun
13. The Infinite Empire, the creation of the Rakatan species, the way they fit seamlessly into the old lore of the setting (Tatooine, Kashyyyk), and the general worldbuilding thereof
14. Bastila is admittedly a far more interesting character the second time around, when the truth has been revealed and all her actions and feelings make more sense
15. The Outro has several good scenes and worldbuilding in it, good stuff with Mission, Jolee, Bastila being redeemed by love, and the final scene with Malak
16. Aggregate: The banter between characters isn’t as common as I would like but it’s good when it’s there // Reasonable explanation for why a solo party is required, re: Endar Spire and Taris as consequences of trying it the ‘large way’ // Planet variety // Good visual design, being both Star Warsy and not
17. Second positive for Babylon 5 Effect throughout the first several sections of the game
18. Surprisingly good NPC Set Dressing for the age of the game
19. For all its simplicity, the Plot is pretty engaging
20. Within each planet there’s good Visual Continuity (probably most notable on Dantooine and Tatooine)

Story Negatives:

1. While most visible on the Endar Spire, there is a serious issue with bad exposition and dialogue issues
2. While understandable, the sheer repetition and irritation of the non-english voice acting bits just grates
3. Calo Nord’s presence and survival is just honestly stupid
4. There are several instances (most notably the entire Leviathan sequence) where things happen more or less because plot, and not because of logical flow of events but the worst part is the presentation of the ‘big sacrifice’ Bastila makes is… just incredibly badly done
5. The Dark Side NPCs, in general, are portrayed as cartoonishly stupid and villainous to the point where it is arguably bad dialogue… the worst example being: There are elements of Bastila’s dip into the Dark Side (either permanently or for 10 minutes depending on your choice) that just feel rushed and un-earned, most notably because she just acts like a switch was flipped in the back of her brain to ‘evil’
6. The Outro has several really boring or awful points to it storywise, including no real payoff, no epilogue, a boring ANH ape-ing ending, the ultimate droids plan, and some pedantic fake drama with the battle
7. As is usual for early Bioware games, the Camera actively hurts most scenes it’s in
8. Several pretty bad examples of Cutscene Incompetence
9. The core Theme of redemption is actively hurt by the literal memory erasure and the lack of exposure and time spent on said Theme

Gameplay Positives:

1. Taris is good tutoralization, has good side quests to help flesh things out, loops nicely in on itself to prevent needless backtracking, and is generally well paced (with the sole exception of the double climax)
2. Side quest design is fun and has good variety to it
3. The non-combat gameplay of the Manaan Sunry quest is some of the better showcasings in this game of ‘dialogue encounters’ and offers multiple routes and pathways to victory and failure
4. Town portal system is a nice convenience feature and allows you to be careful with resources or cut down travel time
5. Korriban is easily the best main quest segment of the game, with multiple paths and options and good variety to cater to your playstyle, as well as multiple endings
6. Aggregate: The ‘talk to companion’ mechanic // The ability to do the planets in effectively any order allows for some decent replayability // The Bioware Formula
7. Several good examples of All Roads Lead To Rome quest design
8. Decent partner AI
9. Difficulty Curve is smooth
10. Most Encounters are well placed and well designed (if, in some cases, trigger based)
11. Leveling is pretty decently designed, with effectively no Grind in the whole work
12. The Intro (that is to say, Taris) is really quite enjoyable, probably my favorite section of the game to replay (along with Dantooine)
13. The Power Progression Curve is quite smooth
14. Good and quick Save System
15. Visual Continuity helps you figure out where you are and where you’re going (except maybe on Kashyyyk)

Gameplay Negatives:

1. The Endar Spire is not good tutorialization, but what makes it a full negative is the fact that it’s completely unnecessary in the wake of Taris’ far better approach to tutoralization
2. The game’s approach to level restrictions irritates me greatly; First, you cannot take non-jedi levels after becoming a jedi. Second, there is no respec available at any point in time (notably when you become a jedi). Third, there’s a hard cap of 20 on the levels so you’re limited in what’s available
3. Game-breaker bug with the elevator on the Leviathan; repeatable and consistent, and a hard crash each time, at a point you have to access to progress the game (solution was to change the resolution to minimum to proceed)
4. Stupid turret sections of boring stupid stupid
5. The outro is… not good. The planet below is lacking in anything interesting in terms of puzzle, convo, or combat and the Starforge is just bland and boring, with samey corridors and boring trash fights, culminating in a frankly boring final boss fight who’s big amazing plan is… he can heal
6. Aggregate: The skill system is… lacking a best, with just too many limitations on skill gains and how they’re used in the game // The run speed is, honestly, just a bit too slow and it drags on longer treks // The long, slog sections underwater in Manaan get a bit old and don’t really add to the atmosphere like the rest of it does // The companion problem endemic to almost all Bioware games is present here // Lazy difficulty
7. Aggregate: Occasionally losing control of character and have to reload // The dialogue stuck in skip mode glitch // Bad pathing, which can cause little issues all over the place (most notably the ‘gather party before venturing forth’ issue) // Occasional glitched quests // Occasional crashes
8. Honestly the Enemy Variety is pretty lacking
9. To the point where fighting any given fight feels like any other given fight
10. A second negative for that awful Outro

Story Positives:

1. Plague: Plague Knight himself is so adorable I squee so hard for him and Mona
2. Plague: Plague Knight did some good stuff with the narrative, showcasing the ‘other side’ of events while Shovel Knight was happening, and tying things up nicely while remaining generally heartwarming
3. Spectre: They finally add in and flesh out the backstory for the Enchantress, Spectre Knight, and Shield Knight and the events that led to the original two games
4. Spectre: The ending really is a combination of morose, heartwarming, and dreadful and it ties the three games together very nicely
5. King: Humor! The game gets a chuckle out of me more than a few times, and I love the straight-man approach everyone has to the ridiculous King Knight
6. King: The ending is just the right brand of tragic and horrible and really paid off the character build up throughout the campaign
7. Aggregate: The dream ‘catch her!’ sections are nice in Shovel Knight // Each of the Knights has a distinct personality which helps distinguish them // The Outro for Shovel is quite satisfying and had a surprisingly good ending for how brief it is // And the Outro for Plague Knight is also quite satisfying
8. Good Animations for cutscenes
9. Good Doodad usage across the stages
10. Strangely good Storyboarding for a sidescroller platformer
11. Usual excellent Visual Storytelling

Story Negatives:

Gameplay Positives:

1. All: A general positive for polish and quality throughout, far above and beyond the AAA standard
2. All: The Challenge Modes for each character are very inventive, fun, and enjoyable
3. Shovel: The penalty for failure is brilliant; it allows for failure to matter, without being too penalizing, relies on skill (and design) to recover from, but can be permanently lost
4. Shovel: Proper co-op campaign mode!
5. Shovel: Excellent spritework and animations for the background
6. Shovel: The music is really just fantastic and enjoyable
7. Shovel: Pridemoor Keep
8. Shovel: The Lich Yard
9. Shovel: Lost City
10. Shovel: Iron Whale
11. Shovel: Explodatorium
12. Shovel: Clockwork Tower
13. Shovel: Flying Machine
14. Shovel: Tower of Fate
15. Shovel: Spectre Knight boss, Mole Knight boss
16. Shovel: Plague Knight boss, Treasure Knight boss
17. Shovel: Tinker Knight boss
18. Shovel: Propeller Knight boss, Polar Knight boss
19. Shovel: The game consistently has visual design that gives hints to indicate areas of interest, and the game consistently rewards exploration with money, upgrades, etc.
20. Shovel: The Outro is suitably epic, despite a few hiccups, and the last bosses are just fantastic
21. Plague: Absolutely fantastic spritework and animations for Plague and the various new creatures and minions
22. Plague: The variety of kit and options in playstyle with the ‘customize your bombs’ mechanic is through the roof, with lots and lots and lots of possible combos
23. Plague: Plague Knight himself is substantially more technical than Shovel Knight, and while a bit difficult to control is very fun to just maneuver with
24. Spectre: The tutorial stage is absolutely wonderful tutorialization, right out of Super Mario World, and deserves special mention
25. Spectre: The music remixes are frankly fantastic and really add some wonderful depth to the soundtrack
26. Spectre: A second music positive for the Spectre Knight remixes in particular
27. Spectre: Pridemoor Keep
28. Spectre: The Lich Yard
29. Spectre: Lost City
30. Spectre: Iron Whale
31. Spectre: Explodatorium
32. Spectre: Clockwork Tower
33. Spectre: Flying Machine
34. Spectre: Stranded Ship
35. Spectre: Tower of Fate
36. Spectre: Each boss has new gimmicks added to them for this expansion
37. Spectre: The curio tutorial levels are a fantastic way to quickly and efficiently teach the player how to use them
38. Spectre: Spectre Knight himself is very fun to play as, with incredible flow to his movement options which is only improved by the curio system
39. Spectre: The final dungeon and final bosses are great stuff
40. Spectre: The NG+ challenge mode is fantastic
41. King: Clever level layout which specifically keeps in mind the unique moveset of King Knight and is wonderfully challenging without being unfair
42. King: Plains
43. King: Lich Yard
44. King: Pridemoor Keep
45. King: Explodatorium
46. King: Iron Whale
47. King: Lost City
48. King: Troupple Pond
49. King: Stranded Ship
50. King: Clockwork Tower
51. King: Flying Machine
52. King: Birder Bluffs
53. King: Tower of Fate
54. King: Movement options for King Knight are great, with rolls, dashes, lunges into walls (and the lunge is controllable), the spinning which can actually be a detriment if not controlled properly, etc.
55. King: Good variety of abilities and moves to attack, heal, maneuver, or avoid enemies and obstacles
56. King: At several points the game bothers to give little obstacle courses, similar to Spectre Knight, to help tutorialize abilities and moves
57. King: Spritework on enemies, objects, and locales is excellent and distinct, with great animations
58. King: The new bosses and variances on bosses are just really awesome stuff all around
59. King: Clear indicators of what you can interact with and how in level design
60. King: The card game is wonderfully simple to pick up and enjoyably complex to master
61. King: The UI for the card game is top notch, with tons of at-a-glance info, information on what actions are possible or how things will resolve, what cards do what, how many arrows of what you have in your deck, etc. etc.
62. King: The Outro, last dungeons, and final bosses are truly epic, awesome, and fun as hell
63. King: The NG+ challenge mode is awesome
64. Truly excellent Animations to help with boss fights and platforming
65. A second positive for that full campaign Co-Op for Shovel Knight initial
66. Core Combat is really quite fun
67. Core Combat is even funner as Plague Knight
68. Core Combat is somehow even funner as Spectre Knight
69. …listen, you know the drill. King Knight, Combat, yadda yadda
70. Generally excellent Difficulty Curve…
71. …across all four campaigns
72. Good Encounter design across the various levels
73. All four campaigns…
74. …have really good Enemy Variety…
75. …and a special mention for how many of them will change up how they function across campaigns
76. Generally good HUD design
77. All four Campaigns have a really good Intro stage that gets you into things, figures out the specific mechanics of your playable, and are generally very well designed
78. Intro for Plague Knight
79. Intro for Spectre Knight
80. Intro for King Knight
81. The Mid-Mission Checkpointing is pretty decent across the games and…
82. …the best part is it’s actually optional, as part of a risk/reward mechanic
83. So honestly that’s some of the best Mid Mission Checkpointing I’ve seen in gaming
84. There’s only platforming and combat but…
85. …the Pacing between both is excellent
86. The games all have fantastic Replayability
87. …and a second positive for Replayability
88. Good Sound Design
89. Terrain Design is nothing short of fantastic, always keeping in mind what you can do, what items you have access to, enemy types and attacks, et cetera
90. Terrain Design mk. 2
91. Terrain Design mk. 3
92. A second positive for Visual Distinction

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Shovel: Megaman style boss refights without adding anything to the equation
2. Plague: Megaman style boss refights… again

Story Positives:

1. Good usage of continuity tying things together in both the Rebel and Empire campaigns

Story Negatives:

1. FoC: The dialogue is just kind of bad across the board in the campaign
2. FoC: The ridiculous fanfic superiority of Zann and the Consortium is noteworthy in and of itself (he takes on the Galactic Empire as his main foe, and effortlessly crushes Jabba, as a start)

Gameplay Positives:

1. The ‘hardpoints’ system for capital ships and stations is actually really cool, and allows for tactics in targeting when it comes to space combat
2. The fact that the ships fire while moving and have notable weaknesses and the ability to hyperjump people in and do positioning and basically there’s good tactical options in the space combat
3. Pretty much everything you need to know is available In Game

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Ground combat is incredibly simplistic and simultaneously very frustrating to control
2. There’s an irritation to ground combat that makes it feel like it was tacked on or otherwise poorly designed. Troops can’t attack while moving, the pathfinding stumbles over itself, they have no idea how to respond to threats, there’s no pulse aggro to assist troops, it all just feels like a mid 90’s RTS
3. Auto-resolve is ridiculously slanted against the player, to the point of insanity
4. FoC: The Consortium is ridiculously over-powered, throwing all semblance of balance completely out the window. Their fighters overpower everything, they can easily corrupt and gain half the benefits of conquest, and they are a colossal pain to fight against
5. FoC: The Consortium campaign is just… bad
6. Aggregate: Excessive voice spamming during missions // Mission dialogues and triggers tripping over each other // Game crashing on loading autosaves // General interface issues // Camera bug
7. Pacing issues between Ground, Space, and Strategic combat

Story Positives:

1. Chatterbox in general is hilarious and awesome. It’s sole downside is it runs out of new material before you leave the first act.
2. The ads built into the various radio stations are not only amusing but add a bit to the world building and feel of the game
3. The intro does a good job of neatly and efficiently sliding you into the action and establishing the initial crime family drama

Story Negatives:

1. The Outro is… just… not good. There’s no real connecting thread between missions once you leave the first island and all of the sudden you just sort of stumble into Catalina and the game acts as if you’ve been after vengeance this entire time but it doesn’t earn it, and the climax is underwhelming
2. A weirdly large amount of Empty Text after a certain point in the narrative, with lots of people talking and not saying anything

Gameplay Positives:

1. The ability to set up custom radio stations is an awesome feature
2. The music selection, while not entirely original, is pretty well set up and the radio stations well designed
3. The game has a general fun factor associated with the open world nature of it, which can lead to fun and enjoyable moments and gameplay
4. The intro is reasonably well designed with good layout, mission flow, and gradual tutorialization of mechanics
5. Aggregate: The driving is pretty fun in and of itself // The built in cheats really do help smooth out some of the rough edges of the game // While it’s rough around the edges, genuine praise for the layout and design of the city
6. Penalty for Failure is actually legit (you lose weapons and some money, and respawn at the nearest hospital)

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Missions lack checkpoints, which can cause issues
2. The health of the cars in 3 is just way, way too low
3. The lack of a map combined with the lack of proper icon usage on the minimap combined with the lack of control over the minimap makes getting around a hassle until you’ve memorized everything
4. The layout of critical elements (pay and spray, safehouses) as well as their distribution are bad to the point of aggravating the earlier point about checkpoints
5. The game is pretty crash heavy, with several hard-locks
6. The timer mission design is just way too damned tight and unforgiving, which combined with the other issues makes many missions just a pain to do (and redo) (and redo)
7. Saving is just such a chore, and with no autosaves combines with all the previous problems to be just frustrating
8. The gangs slowly turning hostile to you, effectively ‘locking away’ parts of the map bit by bit until everyone wants to kill you, really makes the overall experience frustrating and effectively discourages doing sidequests and roaming for optional stuff in late game
9. Mission design is not good at best, and actively bad at worst
10. The Outro is just sort of badly designed. It’s too heavily scripted but, worse, it’s very easy for it to go wrong, it’s not particularly fun, it’s on a timer, with a heavy assault mission, right after they strip you of everything (so no prepping), and the ‘final battle’ is barely even there
11. Issues with Encounter design… or rather the lack thereof, as it’s usually just dudes with guns dropped randomly in an area
12. Which is related to the Enemy Variety… or rather the lack thereof

Innovators and Codifiers:

1. Codifier: One of the two games that, really, pushed open world gaming as a genre and concept

Story Positives:

1. VCPR has very long, very hilarious skits
2. KChat is, as usual, amusing
3. The world building and connections to the rest of the 3D verse are well done
4. The intro is very well done story wise. It establishes the setup, the characters, the area, the threat, the goal all very efficiently
5. While there’s a few exceptions, the voice acting is quite good across the board
6. While no one individually stands out, there is a good cast of characters
7. Good Visual Storytelling in the city

Story Negatives:

1. The pacing of the game is wonky at best, but it’s made worse by the Outro in which Sonny sort of comes back into focus (along with Lance) and it falls flat at this big epic finale

Gameplay Positives:

1. City design and layout is good stuff, especially with the increased number and types of pedestrians and vehicles
2. Good general mission variety. While some are good and some are bad, there’s at least no real boring repetition (unless you’re doing the procedural stuff)
3. While the music is licensed, they did a good job of selecting and utilizing it to set the tone of the game
4. Custom radio stations is still a cool feature
5. Several missions are rather enjoyable (Riot, Sir Yes Sir, All Hands On Deck)
6. Good variety and amount of in game cheats
7. As with 3, good Penalty for Failure (lose weapons, a bit of money, respawn at hospital)

Gameplay Negatives:

1. A combination of camera and control issues makes some missions just a colossal pain to play (Demolition Man and the RC plane come to mind immediately, but also the boat race)
2. Several missions are just aggravating due to design issues (Trojan Voodoo, Love Juice, Messing WIth The Man, Boat mission)
3. Several more missions (Dildo Dodo, G-Spotlight, Boomshine Saigon, Driver)
4. The cop design is frankly bad in Vice City, with it being too aggressive and difficult to shake in direct response to complaints about 3’s being ‘too easy’
5. The Property Missions are… not good. They’re not labeled, the game doesn’t indicate how to do several of them or their mandatory nature, and the missions themselves basically all suck
6. The Outro isn’t as bad as III’s, but… it’s still bad. It’s a boring hold the ground mission against an infinite spawn with no real cover or mechanics of note, no music, one quick ‘jaunt’ to kill Vance, then taking down Sonny and… that’s it
7. As usual, no or bad checkpoints
8. Aggregate: Framerate issues related to the port // Graphical bugs related to the port // Audio clips playing too frequently… related to the port // Several inconvenience features (having to manually grab money, no indicators on minimap of safehouses or properties
9. The game Controls honestly pretty badly
10. The Difficulty Curve is extremely bipolar

Story Positives:

1. The level of voice acting quality is noticeably higher than the previous games, and damned good besides
2. The animations in cutscenes of people are really good, surprisingly well done motion capture which does a lot to add to the scene
3. The camera usage and background elements of cutscenes are very well done, again adding to the scenes
4. As usual, the game still makes me laugh to this day
5. WCTR is just amazing, and on point as usual
6. Big Smoke is a surprisingly well done character; he’s well acted, likable, and nuanced enough that his betrayal fits nicely and smoothly while still stinging
7. The Intro is good stuff pretty much across the board, with the only downside being that CJ’s character arc doesn’t even begin until late Act 2
8. Kendl and Cesar are chill, helpful, interesting characters that really bolster CJ’s character arc in Act 3 and onwards
9. Characters in general are memorable, well acted, and interesting
10. Woozie is a bro, surprisingly congenial, smart, and interesting
11. Toreno manages to be the most terrifying thing in the game, has the best scene in the game to himself (in terms of writing and acting), and has the benefit of being voiced by James Woods
12. Tenpenny is just fantastic, an excellent and brilliant example of a Krennic character, and brought to life in a way that shouldn’t work by Jackson
13. The ending is very well done, a good showcasing of character arcs and how they’ve progressed, and CJ’s new crew
14. Some of the better External Continuity of the whole franchise, tying in 3 and Vice City nicely
15. Good NPC usage to flesh out the Lindblum Effect
16. As per usual for the series, good Visual Storytelling
17. Good World Building, as per usual for the GTAs

Story Negatives:

1. Catalina is irritating and stupid but far more to the point, the way she’s interacted with actively detracts from CJ and Cesar
2. There is a fair amount of cutscene incompetence across the entire game, most egregiously with the many cutscenes where you just sit and watch the enemy run or get in the car or set up or whatever while you stand there like an idiot

Gameplay Positives:

1. Custom radio stations is still a cool feature
2. The Intro is pretty good. While it’s tutorialized it all slides neatly into gameplay and story both, and there’s some fun missions and good progression throughout
3. The layout and design of Los Santos itself is very well done, probably the best designed city to-date
4. Good amount and variety of built-in cheats
5. Mission variety is good, especially in the Las Venturas missions
6. San Fierro is pretty well designed and is fun to go around
7. Los Venturas is easily my favorite city in the game
8. I rather enjoyed The End Of The Line (part 1) up to and including the final boss with Smoke
9. Aggregate: Music selection for the radio // Despite some frustrations, the Dark Project missions is actually pretty fun // Mission log for missed texts // Several of the casino heist missions are pretty fun
10. Unlike the previous two games, this one actually Controls quite well
11. Driving around is pretty fun in this one, especially on motorcycles
12. Unlike the previous games, actual thought is put into the Encounter design
13. As per usual, Penalty for Failure is good (lose weapons, some money, respawn at hospital)
14. Great gameplay Pacing with what events and quests happen where
15. Special mention for being legitimately enjoyable doing the various side activities
16. One of the only GTAs with good Tutorialization; not in the Tutorials themselves, but mostly in the first two regions and the quests therein
17. Good Visual Continuity, which helps you know where you are and where you need to go at a glance
18. Good Visual Distinction

Gameplay Negatives:

1. No Music moments basically anytime you’re out of a vehicle which makes several missions just awkward
2. No mid mission checkpoints, as per usual for the GTA series
3. The Zero Missions. Enough said
4. The Flight missions for Toreno
5. The Freefall mission is just the worst mission in the entire game, with entirely too narrow a window for success and taking way, way too long to retry
6. The 35% or 20 hoods conquering part that’s mandatory at the end of the game is awful, boring slog of a badly designed mechanic
7. Aggregate: The Saint Mark’s Bistro mission is just a boring slog, easy to screw up, and takes way too long to retry // The very final mission is frankly pretty boring… it’s just an auto scroller followed by a near-impossible-to-lose bit
8. Aggregate: The ‘losing territory’ bit at the end of Act 1 sucks. They probably should have pushed territory gaining later, or reduced the amount of it you can do early on, because while it makes sense and it’s not a huge loss, it’s still a punch to the player in a frustrating way // The gun sounds are just kind of awful // Flat requiring a certain amount of lung skill for a mandatory mission with no lead-up to it is not good design
9. The Difficulty Curve is amazingly bipolar, ranging from stupidly easy to controller-breakingly irritating

Story Positives:

1. There is a well done and well maintained tone and aesthetic of silly, wacky fun in the game
2. Game maintains a silly, light-hearted atmosphere

Story Negatives:

1. As with a lot of early PS1 and N64 games, the blurry, samey brickwork actively hurts the game

Gameplay Positives:

1. Surprisingly good Yoshi Drums usage throughout, both in general but also to inform on areas or level design
2. Sound design in general
3. Internal level flow is well designed, with distinct ‘paths’ of guidance to help you find or solve each puzzle or area
4. Several of the worlds are quite fun, notably the snow, seasonal, and first two worlds, and there’s a good amount of variety to the approach
5. Aggregate: There are a weirdly large number of convenience features; Invuln frames after losing a power up, the ability to cancel fall damage, all enemies drop health, nothing respawns until world is reset (either by leaving or you dying), you don’t leave flying mode upon bonking something, there are indicators for when you get all of a certain collectible within a level

Gameplay Negatives:

1. Controls (early 3D game) and camera (early 3D game)
2. Resetting progress on death in level is aggravating and frustrating
3. A second negative for the added stress and aggravation of the mandatory music notes which reset on death
4. A second negative for the control and camera issues which are just constant
5. Rusty Bucket Bay is just awful in how it is approached, with many (many) ways to die quickly and few recovery options, harsh timers, instant death pits, etc. in addition to barely visible holes and windows you can enter (several of which have no indicators whatsoever of said entry-ability)
6. The final boss is actually reasonable except for four major issues, 1; The inability to aim properly, 2; the total lack of checkpoints in a 5 phase fight, 3; the near requirement to 100% the game in order to have the ammunition and resources necessary, and 4; the incredibly tight timing on the final phase which more or less mandates no mistakes (which is only really an issue because of the previous points)
7. Aggregate: Mighty Mr. Vile // The frickin’ Clanker sequence is absolutely horrid // The board game section is, honestly, just pure padding
8. The game’s difficulty curve is absolutely all over the place. It will zig zag between too easy, too hard, fine, okay, and bad

Innovators and Codifiers:

1. Innovator: Got the Collectathon genre going (along with Spyro)

Story Positives:

1. A: Humor, with quite a few bits that really make me laugh
2. A: Humor, with Phoenix as the straight-man
3. A: Humor, with punstorms
4. A: PC thoughts as a storytelling tool
5. A: Animations are generally good despite their simplicity
6. 1: The scene during Case 3 when Edgeworth starts helping you against Vasquez is a generally awesome moment, both in terms of the build up to that point but how it really starts to let Edgeworth shine
7. 1: Foreshadowing is a bit on the nose, but still they do their homework and lay the pieces well in advance throughout the first game (Babylon 5 Effect as well)
8. 1: The final case of the first game is legitimately well written in general, far more complex and with far more mature overall writing
9. 1: Edgeworth! (presentation, growth, awesomeness)
10. 1: Damon Gant is an astonishingly interesting character, being simultaneously interesting and horrific
11. 1, 2: Ema is just adorable, and Pearl is legitimately heartwarming and wholesome
12. 2: Edgeworth is really awesome despite having relatively low screen time; he figures things out quickly, helps repeatedly, is far more congenial and just kind of awesome
13. 2: The final case of 2 (2-4) is better built up, and paid off, with good general complexity and turning a lot of the typical tropes on its head, and forcing actual thematic choices, forcing Phoenix to actually develop a bit, and having us defend a guilty suspect
14. 3: 3-2 was legitimately clever, with good complexity and writing and a nice segue from theft to murder case
15. 3: 3-4 was… incredibly well presented, acted, and emotionally impacting
16. 3: 3-5 was just a master-class in writing, easily the best written and most complex case in the game, not just in general but in terms of the mystery and how to solve it
17. 3: 3’s continuity usage is also excellent, effectively forming a cap of the entire trilogy to-date
18. 3: Dahlia was a horribly wonderful villain and Phoenix’s final coming of age was very well done
19. 3: Iris and the reveal of her relationship to Phoenix and the way it just totally changes the viewing lense on 3-1
20. 3: Babylon 5 effect is real in game 3, with lots of foreshadowing and altering of perspective
21. 3: The Edgeworth section in 3-5 was easily some of the best written Trial segments in the entire series
22. 3: Aggregate: Gumshoe // Mia
23. Animation does a great job of selling the characters, scenes, and…
24. …helps establish the atmosphere and tone
25. While not the best, the dialogue is generally well done
26. The Intro (to the first game, specifically) really does some good work establishing everything it needs to narratively
27. Music actively adds to almost every scene, especially in the first game
28. 1: All three games have an excellent Outro case, which usually is a culmination of themes, character pieces, or actual plot across the game
29. 2: Outro, again
30. 3: Outro, easily the best of the three
31. A general positive for good plot design across all three
32. The sound effects during court cases really add to the ‘directing’ of the scenes

Story Negatives:

1. 1: The ‘logic’ of the path to success in some of the cases is a bit wonky, in some cases actively requiring the player to just wildly continue and not give them the option to just… logic their way with the pieces the game has bothered to put in their path
2. 2: Pacing and presentation in 2-3 and… just… general stupidity and bad setup and follow through
3. 2: Aggregate: ‘Dr’ Hotti // Amnesia // 2-4 is a bit too repetitive and too slanted, to the point where the second act just feels like filler
4. Aggregate: Excessive flashbacking within cases // Larry is so stupid it stops being funny and just gets irritating // The way Phoenix is used in the second game really just doesn’t gel for me
5. Entirely too many instances of cutscene incompetence

Gameplay Positives:

1. A: The Trial sequences and their function are quite fun (1?)
2. 1: Music!
3. 1: Sound design
4. 1: The final case is substantially better designed than the previous cases, actively rewarding the player for logicing their way through
5. 3: The psyche-locks are a good addition but are much better handled in 3
6. Aggregate: Save anywhere at anytime // Generally good and quick menu navigation outside of investigations // Music in 3
7. 1: Special bonus points for the first case, by which I mean the tutorial one, which serves as an Intro and establishes everything you need to know about how to play the game in a surprisingly fun manner
8. A second positive for music, good lord
9. 1: As with the narrative, all three Outro cases are fantastic in gameplay and usually involve more depth or critical thinking than the rest
10. 2: Outro
11. 3: Outro
12. Ease of saving on the fly, even in the middle of interrogating a witness!
13. Special bonus points to all three games having a good tutorial case

Gameplay Negatives:

1. 1: The conclusion of Turnabout Sisters feels like it rips me out of the game for the GM to solve the case for me
2. 1: The ‘investigation’ parts are really kind of not interesting gameplay wise, and involve a little too much ‘click everywhere’ design
3. 2: Case 2-3 just is not well designed. There’s just too many facts that are told in a bad order, and key information is withheld, and generally the construction of it just does not work well
4. Railroading in a VN game / Lack of gameplay issues which come up repeatedly
5. Mia herself is fine but good lord the way she just shows up at the last minute out of no where multiple times to pull us out of the fire is just aggravating
6. Aggregate: The Badger song // Meekin’s annoying audio blares // The stupid jar puzzle in 1-5 // The ‘spots only connect to specific spots’ thing is already irritating but what’s worse is it sometimes makes no damned sense what connects to what