You are listening to Video Games to the Max. Hello, and welcome to
a special edition of Video Games to the Max. We are talking all things
final Fantasy sixteen. We're doing a spoiler cast here that the description didn't gets
you already, and thankfully I am not hearing myself to do this. Of
course, we have the host of the Chapter Select pod here on the network
and Fantasy aficionado himself, mister Randysville. Right were you supposed to play Fantasy
sixteen before we did this part? Hope? Yeah, I'll be right back.
Yeah, I guess go watch it, Fitz, so you can come
back to this like lit hours. Yeah hours, We'll see you. And
of course we also have the host of the duo since podcasts and part of
GNM, Andrew Roschol. How are you man, how's it going? I'm
excited so of course appreciate, uh, glad that you are able to be
on And of course the you did the review for Outer Haven, it's just
a Scott, how are you good? Great? I'm actually really happy to
talk about it as spoiler wise, because I always feel like, all like,
when you talk about it publicly, you can't go into spoilers, so
it's just like very vague, like it's not bad, batter, it's really
good here, and it's just like I can't explain why. Yeah, I
hate that too. You get to the point where you're like, okay,
as whether you whether you reviewed it or whether you just kind of finished it
as just as playing it, and you're kind of like, okay, cool,
but now I can't talk to anybody about this. It's like it's it's
it's cool to be able to have like a where we we go deep dive
into the plot and all this stuff, and that's what we're gonna try to
do here. So this is your We're not gonna do it like right away,
but just go ahead and tell you spoiler warning. I'm not gonna do
this again. So if somebody says a spoiler in the middle of talking about
something else, don't get upset. I just warned you. If you have
not played the game, or you have not finished the game, you might
want to go do that and then you can come back and watch this or
listen to it later on audio or whatever you want to do. So one
time, one last time, spoiler warning for everything that is in Final Fantasy
sixteen, and because this game is so story focused, and I think we
can all agree that the story is probably the biggest reason to play this game.
You definitely want to make sure that you've gotten as far as you want
to get in this game where you start listening to people talk about further parts
of it. So I'm gonna go to you, Randy. You know you
and I have been talking offline about this since the game came out, But
like, what is your feeling on the game, Like, if you had
to give it a rating out of ten, what is that for you?
And what does it compare it to like the other five fantasies. Man,
this game really is hard to rate because if I rated it in the first
half of this game, I absolutely love my experience. The second half of
the game, I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first half.
It really felt like two different games. It felt like these over the
top battles in the first half and then really diving into your side characters.
And some of the side characters are great, but there's so much of it
that it just felt like all of the momentum of the story really halts.
I also really felt like I love the intro to Ultima and I wanted to
see where he went, and then it went in a direction I really didn't
want it to, and it just became kind of generic. So I give
it an eight out of ten. I still absolutely loved this game. I
would probably put it in my top third maybe if all fantasies, if I'd
had to go through and rank all of them, would take a while to
remember that I thought of the rest of these things. But I love the
combat. I know it was a lot. It was a departure of most
Final Fantasy games, but I thought they nailed it. I do think they
could have went a little bit farther with it and just completely gotten rid of
the RBG elements because they became just nonsense. Yeah, and I didn't care.
I don't think I loved at the menu longer than thirty seconds at a
time. I just went, this one was better, Okay, I have
a new one, move on it. Yeah, And so they I think
they were trying to hold on to some RPG stuff that didn't need to.
But overall, I absolutely love my experience, even if it kind of fell
off a little bit. Yeah, I think we can all agree with that
RBG stuff that maybe if they would have just went into the direction of this
is an action game and that's what this is. We wouldn't have that issue
where it's like, Okay, we're trying to put some RPG elements in,
but where are the rest of them that probably should be in here too?
Andrew like, what did you think about the game? What would you rate
it? Where did you put it on your your echelon of file fantasies.
Yeah, I'm pretty similar to right there where Randy is. We're definitely upper
third. Definitely, I think it's my it's my top five. But yeah,
there was not that much thinking when it comes to like equipment like um
for example, like I would see like there's an accessor to increases magic.
I'm like, like magic fairly does anything at all, Like it's almost pointless
to use, Like even the elemental types don't really matter. You can use
fire on fire and it doesn't really change anything. So like I wish there
was a little more thought, Like I wish I would have felt the need
to like, oh, like I'm finding this kind of nymy, let me
switch to this icon for like this elemental like you know, typing or whatever,
and like it really does not matter at all to the point where I'm
like, I don't even know why even different elements, but I guess it
just you know, to help break up visually the different colors you know,
on the wheel and stuff and all that. But yeah, I mean I
love the story. I think the story is really great. I kind of
see where Randy's coming from. Where the first half of the game is very
much like games of Game of Thrones where it's very political national these nations,
these armies, and like the second half of the game it just becomes like
a very like a you're the chosen one. Yeah right, we're Final Fantasy.
You have to fight God pretty much, right, Yeah, yeah,
like you can't. We can't avoid that trope, right, And it's pretty
much that point, right, Like I mean, you're you're really finding like
the creator right of your world and stuff, so it gets it doesn't get
the top stuff. But like I don't I don't mind that too much because
again, like like Scott said, like that's always been Final Fantasy, like
pretty much every fantasy I can think of, Like halfway through, he's like
the big aha moment, So it's kind of par for the course. But
I wish I'm forgetting too. The combat mechanics and stuff, but I wish
there was a little more need for switching up the different combos and stuff,
like the different abilities. I was kind of just and you can tell,
like they have like the MMO like pedigree from like Fasting fourteen because you're just
waiting for the cool downs on like all your abilities, just waiting for the
cool down to like cycle through to the next thing. And I think the
beginning until you get your third icon, like I think the beginning of the
game feels very slow, like combat wise, you're kind of just tapping the
same combinations until you get to like when you finally get the fourth one and
you can only carry three, that's when things start to get more interesting in
terms of like a actual like gameplay, mechanics and stuff. But the story,
I love. The voice actor is amazing, the cinematics are amazing,
The Kaiju boss battles are amazing. So, like, I'm still more positive
than I am negative, So it's definitely a I would probably I'm closer to
like a eight point five to nine. I know I've said a lot of
negative things, but like those negative things still don't aren't enough to hamper all
the positives in my opinion. Yeah, And I think that's kind of the
thing that since the beginning of the cycle and discourse about this game has been
how much of the negatives can you tolerate to make your you know, what
you think about the game as awesome or whatever, because for some people they
just they couldn't and it's not this great game that everybody was happy enough to
be in. For some it's just like that stuff didn't matter. All this
other stuff is so much better, So you know, I loved it in
the end or whatever. So Scott, you actually have a review out there
for people to read on the Outer Haven, so like you have your thoughts
collected, I guess in that way. But like what what I guess is
your like rating for people that haven't read it, and where do you put
it on your Echelona final fantasies there? So mine is definitely at the higher
tier of final fantasies. I do have my review. I gave it a
four point five out of five or like a nine out of ten, And
my thoughts are not just with the mechanics but also just the visuals. Final
Fantasy sixteen is a beautiful game. All of the like textures they have all
the character models, the way the animations work. It is very like Polish
and a very good production of everything that Final Fantasy has to offer. I
really enjoyed the story. I do admit it definitely turns into Final Fantasy problem
esques on the second half of the game, once you get into the ultimate
stuff, because in the first half, it's basically you're following Sid doing Sid
stuff, and that starf is great because Sid is great and Clive and Sid
are fantastic together. And then the second half you're no longer with Sid,
and things start to focus more on a lot of other characters, and it
starts being less about the main characters more about the side characters. And honestly
that I'm fine with that. A lot of the great side characters that we
got were pretty good. Gab was amazing. We got more moments with the
jail, We got more moments with the cast that we generally don't really care
as much about because it's not said right, and so I really do appreciate
that they gave us those moments. I really do appreciate that they let Clive
kind of grow and be a better person, as well as let him kind
of get out of his shell to have to become the hero that Venicilia Vasilthia
needs its needed bath words. So overall, I love this game. Um.
I think Final Fantasy sixteen is well worth its praise. But it does
have its issues, which most issues have of mainly being Final Fantasy issues itself.
I think it was Richard Hogan some other folks that are like they put
keenom Heart's nonsense sense of this game. You nonsense is actually it's been Final
Fantasy nonsense for a while. Man, That's where this game game from.
So you know, that doesn't really bother me because I expected that at some
point it was going to turn into a Final Fantasy game. I didn't think
that they were going to be able to keep up the Game of Thrones stuff
the entire game. It's just they had already copied so much of Game of
Thrones that like, what are you going to do? Copy the entire movie
and everything last two seasons? I mean even they still took stuff from the
last the last season two Like so some of that Muhammad fight, it's straight
out of the last season. I mean, so like it's just and that
and that's fine, Like that's actually what made this game intriguing is that they
were able to take that as a concept and you know, transcribe it to
Final Fantasy and make it its kind of own dark fantasy thing. And I
loved it for that, and I love the story all the way through.
I kind of get where you're going, Randy, because my issue is that
if they would have divvied up the side quests a bit more, the problem
is when you get to the end of the game, Yeah, it's just
like, oh, yo, here's like fifteen psycquests and then oh wait,
now you got to fight the icon. Oh there's like thirty psy quests here,
and oh, do all of these before you get to the end of
Origin, because then once you do it, it won't really mean that much
because you're really beat the game. So it's like, yo, here's like
four or five hours of you just doing the cyquests. So you know,
that's that's the issue is like a lot of the story, which is not
just the story itself, it's also in the psy quests, and you have
to do these cy quests to get the most out of the story and get
a lot of the stuff that's told at the beginning of the game, like
the bear stuff and the things with all the other side characters, and I
can see where Randy's Randy's point is that it kind of drags everything down to
a hole where it's like, oh, Okay, I gotta get through this
and then I can get through that, and it's like, yeah, we
kind of could have messed this in a little bit better on that front.
But everything else about it, like the combat is it's not perfect. There's
a lot of things missing. For me, the elemental stuff not being there
is so jarring, like trying to hit a bomb with fire and it does
nothing, and I'm just like, yo, he's supposed to be like resisting
and getting bigger and he's not doing that. And it's beard if not just
straight up healing from yeah, exactly. And it's just like I'm hitting an
ice thing with ice and like it's just like no big deal, and I'm
just like this is so weird. So I agree with you also that like
we have the elemental, so we didn't put in elemental you know, weaknesses
or anything like that, which I kind of get because then they would have
had to make it to where you can switch to any icon at any point,
and then it kind of makes the point of having loadouts moved, so
I don't know. They also could have made it where you save loadouts,
so that yeah, having the cycle back to which I don't know why they
never did that, because if you want us to mess around with the icons,
it'd be a lot easier if you let us actually save loadouts so I
could just switch between, like like I pas thirteen we have like the loaded
like your Paradi and the twelve had the Gambit thing that you could save and
all that. Like it's it's that's something they could add as DLC also or
in a patch. But yeah, I get I'm giving the game of nine
out of ten. For the most part, everything about it is great and
for me, like what is actually puts it above a lot of the fin
fins, which, to be fair, some of them it's unfair because they
were on the Super Nintendo. Yeah, like we're all just talking crap about
the game, like that's still a nine though, right as much as because
we're gonna talk about all the great things about the game and its crap when
you get into the hang of it. Yeah, that's true, that's true.
But go with like going to the Garuda, going back to e freed,
going back to Phoenix stuff, and it's just like this is so much
fun, Like grab people, do AoE attacks, push them away, go
but into them, attack them, go out, grab them again, and
do everything all over again. Even the dodging and pairing is fun too,
because just like watching him do that. I never got tired of watching him
do that slide every time I dodged, and then I freaking hit him with
something else. Like that's great, especially how satisfied you feel when you're one
hit from death and you're like dodging machine here when I kill them, like
awesome. Yeah, So there's there's a lot of great things about this game.
We're not just talking about negatives here, so let's let's get into that.
Let's talk about like some favorite things from the game. Like, I
guess I'm not going to include Clive here because Clive is obviously the main character.
The whole game is about Clive. Um, We're gonna get into Clive
in the second when we talk about the story, because again it's all about
him. So like, what is your I guess, if you excluding Clive,
what is your other favorite character? Um? Of all the characters that
I guess, get some kind of screen time in this game. Shit was
so good. I mean, it made his death that much better. I
mean, because that was one, Like, that's the best sin out of
all the Final Fantasies. If we're ranking this game on all the other Final
fantasies, I think this is the best sin. M absolutely, And I
can even argue there's two sins in the game. Yes, true, right
the second sin. I also, I also loved Gav. I thought it
was a great character. I'm blanking on the uncle's name, but myrie,
thank you great is just fantastic. That whole scene is great, and I
think part of the reason why I felt like the story fell off is because
all of the side characters and the enemies that I fell in love with or
just loved to hate all died and the last couple just didn't hit. But
like Dion and his whole family drama, which by the way, Clive's mom
needed a much worse death than what she got, and I felt so I
felt cheated by the whole section. But that I mean, you talk about
Game of Thrones, The whole Dion thing was great. I loved Hugo.
I thought Hugo went through a crazy arc and I absolutely loved him. We
don't get better addictive very much, but she was a great character too.
And then you just get left with the Odin guy, who was very generic
and boring. Like I said, when I first got you get introduced Ultimate
and he's like trying to figure out the human spirit and stuff. I was
like, Oh, he's gonna go into these different things, and then the
entire second thing is like nope, we're leading you along this path this whole
time. It's like, well, then what were you doing? You try
to take over client at the beginning, and now he's like, no,
I can't take over your body until you get all of the you know,
the crystals. This was all part of the play. No, no,
let's not do this, And that's what I felt. It's like we got
rid of Hugo, and we we got rid of the don stuff and then
it was literally just crystal crystal, crystal crystal, and it was like,
but the crystal moments, what happened to all this cool stuff? And I
think that was my favorite. It's just some of those enemies at the beginning
and really diving into like their issues and you know, they what makes a
good villains as a professional wrestling fan, what makes a good bad guy or
a good heal and wrestling is you know, you disagree with the reasoning,
but the reasoning kind of makes sense a little bit, and then you hate
them even more because they kind of makes sense. And I think at least
with Benedicta and Hugo and Dion, their issues made sense. Or makes a
good bad guy is just someone everyone can hate, like clives some moment.
Yeah, if only we had more moments to actually, you know, beat
the crap out of her for what he deserved, rather than it just being
a cut, giant cut scene. She took her life. It was so
sad. I wanted more. I wanted Joshua to just beat the crap out
of her, right, especially when I think because I don't think Joshua Joshua
was too good, I don't think he would have actually done it. You
know, I would have likely somebody, just anyone was trying to yeah,
exactly one other quick, I mean, trying to avoid the negative, but
there's one more negative I have to hit with the story. They built up
Turgo, and Turgo was a good boy and fantastic and then all of a
sudden he became this crazy dog and they're like, all right, let's figure
out what was going on. You figure it out. He never does it
again, No, he doesn't. He does it in the thought on the
side, they just don't make a big deal about it when he does it.
I wanted more to I wanted Turgle to continue to go insane like that
was another moment when he went super Dog was one of my favorite moments.
It was like, all right, turtles even better than I expected. And
they had a really good explanation for it too. And then it's like,
oh wait, so he doesn't evolve again, Like that's it, and I
agree with you, Randy, there wasn't. It was a certain point where
like I moved the camera over and then I noticed that he actually changes,
but they don't. They don't really make it. It's just like, oh,
okay, I guess the battle gets too big. And then he eventually
just like okay, I'm gonna be super dog now or whatever. He's like
the wolf or something. He's basically ghosts, but you know, um,
Andrew is there. I guess we we talked about most of the big character,
but like, it's there's another character you wanted to mention. I mean,
I just I adored Adon. I love this character like how he's just
like like when we were first introduced to him, it's like when Odin takes
the field like that little skirmers they have, and he just kind of just
leaves his tent, transforms into this big ass dragon. There's a couple like
passes and then just comes back. It's like, Okay, that's enough,
like like like like it's yeah. It's kind of funny though, because like
you get the sense that like all these nations have like WMDs or something with
like their icons and like okay, like well Odin's out there, like I
gotta show up now. It's like okay, Oden's retreating, Like I want
to retreat too. So it's like it's only kind of like for moral it
seems like sometimes, but like I just love the whole like because when you
enterest when you see him, you're like, Okay, I don't have to
fight all these icons and I'm probably gonna have to take their abilities like forcefully,
right, And I mean you do end up fighting him, but it's
not like he's not like an actual villain, like he is very much a
sympathetic like he's like very chivalrous, like he's only wants his talent to not
die exactly right exactly, and like I was like, okay, I kind
of I kind of dig this guy. But the whole, like like when
he meets up you see these he meets up with Joshua, and Joshua was
kind of explaining him to what's going on. He's like like all right,
I'm in, and it's like, oh, like let's go, like all
right, we got somebody else on, we got another like icon another dominant
on our side kind of thing, and just the whole like his progression of
like hating you know, obviously going after his step mom and accidentally killing his
dad, I was like tragic and everything, and he just like flips out.
But I like how he's like the one guy who like he's just like
a powerhouse as Bahama, and he's like he sticks you know, to your
side, like by your side to the very end, and then like I
love that. There's like a very touchy moment towards the end where he's talking
to like his attendant, the guy who's like he secretly has like a relationship
with, and then Joshua says something about like um, like oh, like
he knows he's not going to see him again or something like he knows he's
not coming back from this and just like his whole like, I'll lead us
there so you guys can save your strength and then like we'll just have this
big old giant Kaiju battle things. He's just a really badass character and I
liked how he just when we first introduced to him, and I'm like,
oh, he's gonna be like another like Hugo or Benedictine. It's like now
like he was like a complete like like not all dominants are like not all
dominance are vengeful exactly, Yeah, Scott, any any other ones who want
to mention there. I really did like Jill a lot, Mum. I
do think that a lot of what Jill strength does is kind of sad that
they focus it on like one arc of one of the crystals, and then
she's pretty much put to the sideline most of the time after that. But
I do like the moments we did get with Jill Um. Poor goal was
was best dog. Yeah, the only consistent party member throughout the whole game.
Yeah, yeah, which is why he's the only one you can control
in any regard the other ones kind of just do what they want, which
is one reason I can't wait for this to be on PC when they do
have mods, because I'm absolutely getting a party control modest. Yeah, I
mean yeah. The thing with Jill is like I kind of get the what
people were saying about, Oh man, she's kind of not a lot of
the women characters kind of get thrown to the side in this game, and
I kind of understand that. In a way. Jill, I feel like,
even though she's not always present, she is there for Clive, is
like a person to talk to, and like you see their relationship grow.
It's actually one of the I felt like, at least as a love story.
It's a sweet love story, as in, like you see it from
when they're young too now and they have that consistent care for each other.
Even at the end when you see the ending, the way she reacts is
just like it makes you feel more for Clive in that moment, and so
I felt like by the end that relationship works. Yeah, maybe it's not
the most bombastic and the most in your face like un or whatever, but
yeah, we don't get the death sceams like we did in Final Fantasy seven
or ten. Yeah, um, and and I think, like you you
touched on it that Gab was also like Justab was great like him and thought
he was gonna die in the first half and then he shows up and he's
just like amazing. It's like never mind. Yeah, I wish like that's
buddy. I wish he was like an actual like party member, Like I
wish you had you have like you retroduced all these different characters, and it's
like it would have been cool, like if you're like, oh, you're
going to side quiz like choose someone to go with you or something, be
basically yeah, like like the one quest where you can choose someone to go
with you. Wish I was like all the side quests, right, Yeah,
it was understand what the mechanics would have been. How difficult that would
have been to do. Where I understand the main quest, like why you
can't have circuit, but like, if you're going to have quests at the
end of the game where you can basically make Joshua and Jill permanent party members,
why can't you do that at other points of the game. Also,
like it's just kind of weird that that you have that but you can't do
it throughout the game. I get the point if you didn't really want to
have a party, but it's like even if you have them there and you
let give us the choice of pick who you want and oh maybe you can
mess with what he wears or I don't know about the equipment because that necessarily
doesn't really matter in this game that much, but it has ye, yes,
yeah, you get to see the sword that Clive chooses, but that's
a right. Here's here's a pallete changed from a sword you saw like three
swords. Yeah. I think it's even more funny with like the strongest sword
in the last half of the game is just the first sword remodeled in a
different color. Yeah, it's like the better defender. Oh that's right.
Yeah yeah, and then the was it grab Garmer tag or something like that.
I think it's like the best one, right, Yeah, that's like
the ultimate weapon from for this game besides Ultimate the ultimate one in Fantasy Mode.
Yeah. Yeah, So what was y'all's favorite icon to use? What
is your You would say it's like your your main actually just because Walton got
rid of it because it was only range. Well, I think using Bohammad
for the charge up for like mega flare, like yeah, yeah, if
you get a perfect dodge, it instantly like fills up the meter so that
you can just do like passive damage. And then the the other one is
the impulse thing that sends out these little orbits that kind of just yeah,
and then of course the giggle flare and you just charge call yeah. People
all talk about Game at Thrones. This this game has even more to do
with like Dragon Ball Z than at the very end, you know, like
when you're at the very at the very end of the game when you and
Ultim are going through all the icon abilities and basically he uses bigga flair use
mega flare is basically just mashed the button too, like like push through Brandy.
What was Your Mine was more a combination of Shiva and Ramu because I
thought they really worked well together. Like Shiva would bring them all in and
then Rama would just do some kind of a area attack, and that was
my favorite with every kind of bob I would pass like all right, Shiva
pull everyone in, and then I just did this big attack and then have
all of the enemies are at half damage and then you just kind of go
to town. So I think it was basically those two in boham it were
the three that I stuck with. Once I got those three, that's all
I always using, Scott, what was your alrighty? So my first one
that I always began or kept with was usually the Phoenix, just because I
liked tavy the ability to just teleport to people whenever I need to closed distance.
The one that would always do the most damage for me, though,
was actually Odin because you could just spam the crap at his intent sun on.
It stops everyone in their tracks for a set period of time and you
could just keep doing more damage on them. So I just loved spamming the
crap out of that when I could. That saved me a lot of the
times when I do bigger fights. And then I did it initially, but
when I went to Final fantasylod I switched out for the Titan because I noticed
that dodging doesn't always work as well in the Final Fantasy mode, but blocking
does fantastic, and being able to parry also is very nice when you like
you do everything just at the right time and you just she used like the
raging fists, ability to parry like an attack at the right time and then
you just hurt. You just basically get rid of their stagger bar and they're
staggered for a bit. So that that's my main three that I was working
with. Yeah, by the end, I was just using if. I
was using if it, uh, Garuda and Bahammad, like I would open.
I always have the exact same routine for every group of enemies, where
it was like, Okay, there's a lot of enemies near by, I'll
do like a little spinning like flame thing that kind of sucks them in a
little bit. And then if it's just like one enemy, I'll just do
like the wing smack thing where like just a smash. It's usually it's like
a one hit koll like on a regular enemy or whatever, like the second
part of the attack kills the enemy. But uh, and then I would
just like if it's like a big enemy or whatever, I would just search
to garut us, I can do the uh, the little the quick talent
thing, and then yeah, if you get the sagar bar halfway down,
you do the thing where you pull them down. It's like that whole thing
scorpion. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like a
half staggered kind of thing. And by that point, I usually have like
the you know L three R three ready to the limit break something prime yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, when you I can't remember the turn,
but yeah, it's like the limit break thing basically, and just like I
just go handle the ching ching ching is the story everything. So like I
had like a like a routine. We're like, okay, clearly this this,
this, this and this, and then we'll cycle back to the beginning
and just keep it going. I used the Phoenix, Ramu and Bahamad for
most of the game. I loved using Phoenix to be able to you have
the flames of rebirth where you can heal yourself yeah in a bad moment.
And then I love switching between I love that the rising Flames one where you
just basically do like a big ass uppercut that takes off like half their health
or the old health, and it's just like an awesome movie. You can
pull out of nowhere and just oh he turned around right from my face,
bamn, and you can see him like, knock him out. That's great.
And uh, I love doing Ramu to both the pile driver move where
you're doing the area air attack like Randy does. And then I love doing
the big old where you just like slam it down and take out like one
dude completely, and then the course the special one is even more awesome because
it just takes out like half their stagger bar or the health bar. And
then of course Bahama it's all his mood set is awesome because you can just
I love using that impulse constantly because it kills their stagger things so quick.
Yeah, and then any moment that you need to take out a bunch of
enemies and it's perfect for that because it I use the everything like you're saying.
But then there's times where like they're not all in a nice little rose
so when you start turning around, he doesn't. He doesn't really grab people
here, You're kind of having to like really twist and turn that thing.
So whatever he doesn't grab them, Bahama will just take out the rest with
the impulse things. So I love because like by the end of like when
you have like the big like when you're finding like, um, I'm pretty
sure yeah, when you're finding like the Behemoth, like you're in terms of
the end of the game, the big ass Behemoth, Like I'm just like
stalling letting megaflare refill, and it also like, just send the Impulse.
I'm like, i can't afford to stop to attacks. I'm just gonna say
impulse and Impulse will do like it's you know, let's do this a little
or whatever, and it's like, okay, the bars full, all right,
let's just hit him with a big ass beam while we still can kind
of thing like that was pretty much just like I was just how Niky Bosses
was with behamed by the end, I think one of my favorite things and
it never got old, even though you play this game for like fifty hours.
Is getting to a stagger on a big enemy and you have set it
up perfectly where you have everything is refilled at the right time, and you
just catch all of them and you just like, let's see how high this
number could get. And by the time you've used them all and your limit
break, some of them have come back. You're like, you sucked,
dude, here we go your staggers still not fix. All right, let's
do it again round two, And every time it just felt satisfying. It's
like, all right, and even when you do the ultimates, it thoughts
them, so you can even do it when they're not stag and they will
stop them in their tracks right there, and you still can whoop them after
that, which is yeah, it's even I love doing that the exact same
thing. I would wait until everybody everything's filled up, then I'd hit the
limit break and then I would do the stagger part and just unload everything.
And it's so satisfying. It doesn't matter how many times you do it.
Another thing that's, you know, is fantastic about this game is, obviously,
you know, we talked about it, the icon battles, and I
think, like I've heard you know, you you listen to people, you
watch people, you go on and write it. Everybody's thoughts, Like what
was your favorite icon fight of the all the ones in the game. Actually,
my favorite one actually was It was Bahammad at first, and then it
was the Odin fight. What I really liked about the Odin one was the
moment where you break his sword and then you use the sword against his like
horse or whatever, like you do the skin like reverse it on him or
whatever, and then he like he's like you dare or something like that.
I was like, yeah, I dare whole that was like probably the hard
Honestly, I found that fight to be harder than Ultimu himself. Like yeah,
so like I mean it kind of helps the games like kind of kind
of holds your hand where like if you die, like you just start like
at the previous checkpoint with all your items refilled. So like it's it's not
it's almost impossible to like lose, like completely lose. I mean it is
possible if you don't try hard enough, I guess, but like you,
I don't even not gonna try. So there was like a part where I
was like stuck for three rounds because I could just not I just couldn't get
to the next like cut scene checkpoint to like trigger like okay, like this
is gonna be the next checkpoint where like it was when he's wearing like the
full armor, right he's like you're fighting barnabus on grat on the floor and
you're like on a statue I think or something. But like I just he
it was just like so combo heavy that was really hard for me to nail
all like the like went to dodge, went to jump because like like different
animations have different like links or attack animations have different like lengths and stuff.
So like I was stuck there for about two or three like deaths until I
finally figured it out and I was finally able to get to like the next
portion of the battle. So that was the one where I actually felt like
I had to try the hardest because like you're going into the fight and it's
like he's already like bested you twice. Like I mean there were story parts,
but like he's already best in you twice, so like you know,
this guy's like the legit, the real deal and just the whole like it's
just like sword on sword, like his whole thing is like like his element
is darkness or whatever, but like he really just has a big ass sword
kind of thing. So it just feels like, I don't know, it's
like a really bad like just one on one kind of like the Slatner fight
you have earlier in the game, like with the silver haired guy like the
commander of his Guard, where it's just a good yeah yeah, we has
like the armors just a biggest sword fight. It was like it was just
kind of like that again. So that was although going into space with Muhammad
was badass, I think the the Odin fight just felt way more like hided
for me, like way more more tension. Yeah, I'm with Andrew.
I think Bahamas was probably my favorite, but it was the Titan fight that
made me just go, what is this game? Because there was like thirteen
different stages to that fight, and every single one of them was completely different,
and everyone felt like, all right, this is it, and it's
like now now you have to run across his arms. All right, now
you're going through his body and if you take forever, then I guess Titan
absolutely gigantic because that fight could take a bit while you're falling through the ground
and then you get more and then you're doing this and that. I'm like,
that was really the the fight where I went, I don't know what
this game is an Yeah, that that fight is something else, Like I
think everybody that kind of has gone when they go through that fight, it's
like, holy crap. Wow. But it also feels like it takes forever
because there's parts where it's like, oh my god, I'm doing the same
like three movements constantly you can try to avoid his attacks and then going into
mind and whatever. Um. I would say that, like it's amazing too.
They've had other games where you play as a summon. It's like ten
and stuff like that, but it's actually super fun to play as E Free
and and also to know that his name is he Free and not if it
right, I call him for it forever and then like Free, I'm like,
oh you say the eye like that? Okay, yeah, that's he's
like come to me like, uh, actually really like the fight where you're
fighting yourself Okay, oh yeah, Like that's actually yes, that one's like
really good. And it's like not only the story part right where because he's
accepting the fact that like also like you have to accept the fact that you're
this dominant now, and um, you do kind of do the Kingdom Hearts
like anti Sooro thing where you fight yourself and then you fight E Free and
then you know, you fight yourself and you free again, and it's like,
wow, this feels epic. It feels awesome. And then you go
back to the you know, it's like, man, can I do that
again? Yeah? I mean none of the icon fights are are bad.
They're all great. Um. It kind of feels kind of sad that like
Garuda doesn't get this like big epic one. I feel like hers feels the
most I guess ordinary compared to the other ones, but yeah, man,
they're all scott which one mine was probably gonna be Bahamas. My favorite um
Titan though, was the one that I had to record. I recorded myself
for the Outer Haven and then had to throw out the thing because I left
the stupid controller microphone on, so you have the stupid echo going on,
as well as in some of the fight areas where it was a little more
hard where I was actually having a little struggles with, especially like when you're
fighting him in like the little room and he's constantly just throwing spikes from the
ground and from the sky all over you and you just have to keep dodging
and weaving without dying. It's a great fight, but holy crap, it
was intense. There's like three moments in that fight where I thought like,
Okay, we're done, and I was like, no, I think that
My favorite fight is still probably a Behammed, just because of just it shows
you the scale of everything that's going on, so well, you're in space,
yes, and then it really feels like it turned through it a completely
different game because you're like just basically like a spaceship or whatever. What I
like about that fight though, with Bohammad is. I like, how like
he keeps ratching up kind of like like moham goes like Super Sayan and Super
Sian too, and then like Super Sayan where it's like Mega Flare, Giga
Flare, Tara Flare, Like we're just going through all the Flair tiers and
stuff. It's like like by the time like you're the last pem, he's
like all golden. It kind of reminds of the last Vohamat you get in
Fancy seven because you get like the different types of Bohammets. It's like,
now we're in space. Just like how like in that Summit I seven like
that one, like he's literally firing from space. I'm like okay, like
there's like that's a that's a nod. That's like a Final Fantasy seven not
right. Yeah, yeah, they get to Zeta Flair. Then I was
thinking about Donald Duck the whole time. No one is as strong as Donald
Duck in the Final Fair. I mean, another awesome thing about this game
is the music. God Yeah, obviously um and all of the fights had
their own theme, and then you know you had the different boss battle themes
than obviously the other music. That's in the game, Like, do you
have a favorite piece of music that when it came on you're like, yeah,
I'm going, I'm ready, you know, let's do this. I
mean, obviously, what is it to find? The Flame one is the
one you hear the most. That one's great. I love the Phoenix one.
I forget what the actual title of that song is, but the the
opera stuff that goes on during that song is just fantastic. I actually listened
to it before we started. It was one of the few that that I
was listening to. I remember, like during the final fight, I absolutely
loved that song, just because it felt like it was a mix of a
lot of the ones that we've had. But going back actually listening to it,
it wasn't this epic. Maybe it was just because the final fight was
going on and I was like, all right, this is just it.
But yeah, I think the Phoenix theme is is my favorite song out of
here. But the soundtrack is fantastic. There's the opening notes of the regular
like battle thing we're just finding like regular mobs. It's like so reminiscent of
Pall Fantasy eight, where the like the very beginnings, like that was this
extra Phomacy eight. But my favorite check in it's shudn't say it's my theory
because I don't remember the name, but it's uh the background music that it
plays when you're when you're in that one forest section early on. Um,
you can go back to it later on obviously they're like, yeah, it
has this really cool, like just mellow sound to it. I really like
it's just very distinct from the rest of the game. Um. But yeah,
I think that that track, I don't know what's called it someone that
plays when you remember you're in that forest, when when you Sid first takes
you out to that forest and you fight that big like rolling blizzard thing.
Yeah, the background music that plays there is really nice. And uh yeah,
like um, like Randy said, the course of the Phoenix thing.
I think those are the two ones that really stuck out because I was going
to the forest a lot for like side plays and stuff, but when you
fight the griffin and all that. So I really liked the four I don't
know what's called. I just called it forrest theme, but it's really true.
My favorite one is actually probably Sid's theme the hide Hideaway. Yeah,
I didn't think like I I guess I think it's because of Reef doing the
game again and hearing some of the themes in my head. I didn't recognize
just how much actually like Sid's theme until Sid shows up for the first time,
and it's just like, how's it going? After he saves you from
all the humongous people at Lightning and then his theme comes on, It's just
like, this is such a good song. How come I couldn't remember at
all because he's not here in the second half. Well, you still hear
it when you go to the Hideaway every day. Yeah, but that made
me want to fit and be in the Hideaway because that song is I agree
with you, it's actually so good that it works. Um, I guess
it's the main boss team. There's like two or three that are sort of
like they keep changing depending on you're fighting. The one that plays when you
do the hunts. For me, like every time I came on, I'm
like, okay, let's go. I'm ready to kill whatever this thing is
like, and it's so good. I can hear it on repeat a bunch
of times, and I think it's gonna wind up being like one of the
battle themes that stand. You know, I know you can probably rank those
with all the other I think it's it stands up there with with some of
the better ones of all the pop fantasy stuff. Do you guys have a
favorite hunt that? I don't know if everybody's like done? Me and Randy
both did all of them, Like I only did like three or four?
How can you live with yourself? I was rushing my playtime, thank you
very well? Okay, people, how need me down to right stuff?
And I was like, I want to play the game. Both there's one
there's a reason why I did it like the second half of this game because
holy goddamn quests exclamation marks, And two there's a reason why I will never
beat the Witch or three if you throw exclamation marks and question marks on my
screen, I have to complete them. The shame goes with the hunts.
And that's why I was like, oh, I just I want to finish
this game. But but there's seventeen question marks still over here, and three
of them could be good. I can't remember that, I will say,
but most of the side quests felt very much fetch QUESTI yeah, very mmmo.
We know where that came from. Inspiration from go pick up the sand
for me? Was just like, you know what, that's the main quest
too. It was when you're building the ship or whatever. It really mad
at me because I'd be skipping dialogue and it's like, what do you do?
It's like, this is like literally when when your main character goes why
am I doing this? Or you go up to somebody you shouldn't be doing
this. You're you're the leaders, Like, I know I shouldn't be doing
this, but I am because no one else is stepping up here. Thank
you. No attack the two things that you need mean to attack and I'll
move on. But no, all the the str rank hunts, I thought,
we're all pretty good. I like that there was a big variety of
the different kind of animals that you fought. I really enjoyed the fact that
they went, hey, it's it's it's in this area kind of I go
find yeah, and then you look through the map to try to find it.
And it was really the only reason to explore, Like the only thing
that made expiration rewarding was finding at the end of the time that you'd be
there is oh there's a hunt. Okay, cool, let's say And honestly,
I mean, I I've I've flipped them crap for not doing the hunts.
You don't have to do them, because yeah, what do you get
for most of them? Three of the same item. I have five hundred
of already and I don't use so yeah, but you like some more?
Why right? No, but I'd like a meteor I Oh, well,
I can't help you with that. Yeah, give you that. That's the
one you got to go buy at the store, and they only have like
one of and so I was so annoyed. I like, I needed like
three more meteorites for one of like the best weapons in the end game.
And it's just like, where do I get meteorites? I don't know.
One of the side quests, which one I think I liked? Um,
the drag Dragon is like one of the last ones you get. It's called
like the Ruined we Awakening or something in the hunt board it That dude is
no joke. You really should be close for like level fifty when you fight
him, because it's he spamsy with ship and then he all of a sudden,
he's just like he's not like the other dragons that you fight in the
game, Like he has different attacks that are all like you know, Firebase
and he gets to the point where he just like does all three at the
same time, and I'm just like, what the hell is it? Something
like I'm trying not to die. I remember fighting him the first time.
I don't think I would. I was probably like low forties or whatever,
and I'm like, all right, this is going great. And then I
died. I'm like, I had two thirds of my health left. So
yeah, move just happened here. Just the screen went insane and I was
bad. Yeah, okay, I will come back to this later, and
this not for me, as I am not ready for you, sir,
But yeah, I remember that that was good. Yeah. There's the big
behemoth that you fight also in one those is uh pretty great too. I
mean there are like all variations of people that you find. There's actually two,
there's two of them. Wow, there's one that a quest and then
there's another one that's like the big, big behemoth. Yeah. So yeah,
so like that kind of leads me into getting you know, let's get
into I guess this. Oh. We forgot to mention one character, which
is probably the most well done of the female characters mid mid Awesome. Her
act for one, the voice actress is awesome because I love her accent.
She's definitely not mid and she has like one of the best moments where it
does feel like you have a party where she's like it's the first time you
have the airship or whatever, and she's like ordering all of you guys like
Okay, everybody get in the line, and then they all have to like
that yeah, And I'm just like, man, we should have more moments
like this where it feels like they're all battling together. And I'm like,
I always said the leader when he had med who could have been a leader
does? Yeah? You know what's funny about that is, uh, as
you guys mentioned that right now, I didn't realize how much of a cast
of side characters there was until the very end of the game where you see
them all like lined up in front of you and it's like, oh,
shoot, like there really is a lot of side characters and pull up this
game. That's not just Clive. Yeah. Yeah, but I didn't really.
I just I it just hit me when you see them all like lined
up for like the last farewell before the final fighting, and like it's like,
oh shoot, like they like they just kind of just because you only
see them like one at a time and like scattered throughout the whole story.
And again, like everybody lined up in front of me, and it's like,
oh, that's right, you have you know, Karen and Goots and
Byron and Mid and the Tombs, and like I was like, oh,
shoot, Like it's actually a big cast of characters. It's just like you
just don't spend that much time with them individually. It seems like like you
don't really get to know I guess, I guess if you do the side
question if you do at the ends. Yeah again, Andrew side quest at
the very end, Andrew that I knew there were so many side characters when
there were seventeen question marks. There are too many side characters in there that
doesn't include Martha at her in and then the guy that was at the desert
place his stuff, and yeah, the one to move board, the one
I'm glad that I did do, was the one that gets you Ambrosia back,
the Chokabo back, because yes, I couldn't imagine doing the whole rest
of the game without especially because there's understand yeah, somebody understand why Clive has
to like do a jog and then gradually then he has to turn a porter,
which stops him again. No, I lost the moment because doesn't have
the dedicated panics going on here or like, oh, you can't use Ambrosia
here. I'm like, oh, come on, man, that's a yeah,
even Ambrosia. It gets a nice story at the end. Hey,
that's so cool. Though, it's like a it's a silver Chokable with an
eyepash. I'm like, yeah, that's that's a hard ass choko bo.
I mean, she didn't go through the Phoenix Gate thing. It's like it's
like everyone's like solid stink or something or something. Yeah, why can't we
see his character arcs? That's that's DLC. Honestly, I wish they do
have DLC for the other characters. Well, they said they weren't gonna do
DLC, right, but then they said, we're like rexam, we are.
We're re examining if we should or not because now we're successful. We
didn't think it's going to be as successful apparently, right right, that's how
Square Phoenix works. We're not planning on DLC. Strangers of Paradise. Oh
crap, people bought the game. Never mind, We're we have three DLC
packs. On the way. Don't worry, you get a couple of million
more out of these people's right. Yeah, well we'll get into that too,
and a little bit like what we think the DLC will be. But
like getting into I guess the story. I mean, obviously it's based around
Clive. He's your main character. It starts with him and Joshua, and
then I think one of the themes that I love the most of this game
is how he Clive is always Joshua shield from beginning to end. Even when
he is Clive and he is the main guy, he still cares so much
for his brother that it's important to him that Joshua lives on, even though
you know he's supposed to be the god here or whatever. Like, I
love that they kept that consistent throughout the game, and from the moment you
see them together, you feel that moment for them, which obviously gets heightened
when you think he's dead, to the rest of the time where they find
each other and you have all these big moments with them, and it's like,
that's so rewarding to me, is that the Joshua and Clive relationship in
this game. But I love the flashbacks that they had between the two where
you kind of see because obviously the mom absolutely hates Clive because he wasn't granted
all the Phoenix powers, so he what a horrible human being he is.
And I'm gonna move on to Joshua and stuff, But just seeing how Clive
accepted his role and was like, no, that's fine. I was always
going to protect my little brother, but now I have a reason too even
more, and this is my role, and I'm going to make sure he's
the best Phoenix that he could be. And just kind of as they reunite
and that that bond regrows, you kind of then get to go back and
see just how close they were as kids and thought I thought those two and
and their brotherhood was was told really well. Love. I love how later
on like, um, Joshua obviously you know he comes back and they now
there's like two fire dominance and then like when the team up du like it's
just it feels like if you played King Harts. It feels like when you
get Ricou back with Sore at the end of Harts Too, where it's like
it's like, all right, we got both the boys back. They both
are like super Saan, Yeah, you got back, like let's do this,
let's do this, like just like when they do when they combine into
like that improved like if you like whatever with the wings. I was like,
oh, this is like again, this is like it's like the fusion
dance for dragon Like, let's not do the King the Marsing. I missed
the dragon ball Z stuff. That's like whenever you think like okay, like
the game can't get more like crazy than it keeps getting crazy, and I'm
just like I love this, man, I love this. That that's I
think for me, what makes this game stand out the most is the presentation
just absolutely nails everything and perhaps maybe scoring and it has to start thinking about
maybe the English feel is a little bit more important than the Japanese. I
don't know, but like they just got such perfect voiceover for most of their
main casts. They did record the English version first, right I heard yeah,
yeah, is matched to the English version exactly, Yes, But it's
not even the list thing. It's like the way that most of the conversations
are not stilted unless you go into like the very low end side quest where
it's like literally literally tell you can you help feed these people? Sure?
Yeah, But like all the main story stuff is so well done. It
feels natural. It feels that they're talking to each other. It's not like
somebody standing there England. And then there's like a ten second pause and then
so you're saying, yeah, would you say ready, I didn't hear you.
Oh. Some of the side quests made me feel like the game we're
gonna stand on our mark and we're just gonna stare into space and say our
line with the least amount of emotion possible. All right, now go yeah.
Now that's not just the side quest, that's also their main the game.
I will not tolerate this, spith as the slander. Alright, you're
right, they like Bethesda jink. Yeah. I love the Bethesda games.
I loved Oblivion. I love Fallout four and three and New Vegas, which
I mean obviously that's Obsidian, but still same regard. But they do have
their issues. That is one of their big ones. Actually, there was
I had zero glitchers in this game. It was Yeah, it was really
polished, like there was very minimal clipping and if at all, what a
different simation. But you can have like a whole year toolish the game.
Yeah, they did a lot with polishing the game, and they're like,
yeah, the game's done already, but we want to make sure that it's
perfect, and that that makes a huge difference. Um, you know,
you touched on a rainy But like, I do think that the Ultimate from
where it starts to where it ends, like the way they reveal all of
these things and they're kind of pushing you through it. Maybe the way that
he says that at the end, it's kind of like, oh, yeah,
I was trying to get you to do that. But like, what
do y'all think about I guess how they built up the big bad? Do
you think he was a good big bad in the ends? Like Ultima's fine,
yeah, but I also think that it suffers a lot from the same
regard as a like Final Fantasy twelve is where the ideology and the and like
the characters are a lot more interesting, and then when they do finally pull
out the reason why this one character has been acting so weird is than just
like it feels almost like a cop out at times. But Ultima was a
better version of that than Twelves, but it still had that same issue of
it being the all like the stuff surrounding the character's interesting, but the character
themselves as the villain is kind of just yeah, ultimome's the reason. He's
just like, oh, we just wanted to make our own planet that magic
existed, because magic seems to just destroy every planet it's on. Yeah.
I agree with Scott too, where obviously twelve was one of my favorite ones,
and the whole thing with Vain. Vain, who's like the main attachons,
is way more interesting before you find out he's being manipulated by the Vanat
And at that point it's like it's like, oh, man, like you
were way more intriguing before I found out you're just the puppet kind of thing.
You had a reason. I thought that was going to be interesting,
but it turns out no, just God told me so, Yeah, exactly,
exactly. Yeah, I do agree with that. It's Ultima makes as
much sense as time compression all that crap makes sense. And found Fantasy eight
where I'm just kind of like like what people yeah, like okay, sure,
why not? I mean like I feel like I think Barnabas kind of
muddies that a little bit too, where he comes in here and it's like
like he knows you have to take his icon to fulfill the whole thing that
Ultima wants him to do, but he's still like putting up a fight,
and it's like like aren't you getting aren't you like contradicting yourself getting in the
way of this prophecy thing, But like, yeah, you know what I
mean, Like there's some things that towards the end of the game where because
I saw some tweets about this too, where people were saying, like,
the first two thirds of the game story wise are solid, and then it
kind of just does the final fantasy thing where it kind of just can't really
nail the story landing. It just becomes like you were like you know,
like like like Randy said, like you're destroying the crystals because I wanted YouTube.
It's like like what no, like Sid wanted us to do in the
first place. And I'm like, you know what I mean, Like it's
how did you do the rest? And like, I don't know, It's
just it you have to ask yourself, like why would Ultimate want to interfere
with you destroying the crystals if that's what she wanted to from the get go
to do, right, Yeah, I don't know if they just could not
come up with an ending, But you guys brought up two great points and
final Fascy history with eight and twelve, where Final Fasty for the entire time
was like, oh, here's your big bad the whole time, just kidding,
here's your real bad bad. Yeah, Ultima was always the big bad.
I was waiting because I would agree with you guys, this final fight
was okay. I was like, all right, well, this is just
a setup to whatever was really controlling Ultimate that we've never seen before. No,
it was just Ultimate. But like Andrew said, it was the entire
first half with Ultimate, which I loved, was like I need to weaken
you and I need to make you feel weak and have no hope, and
that was his whole thing. Is like, oh wait, okay, so
I didn't understand this about the human being, So now I have to defeat
this, and now I have to make you weak this way. And then
at the end it's like, Nope, Barnabass is going to make you stronger
and you have to be in your ultimate form for he to for him to
be able to take it over. No, that's not what you were saying
this whole time. Yeah, so it just kind of flipped itself on its
head, and I was like, I was really excited to kind of see
where things were going and seeing different spoiler casters are out and the different theories
of it. Was Barnabyss who sent Benedict's head, Yeah, definitely was barnamous
continue building all that kind of stuff up and really sing humanity to its edge.
Was like this, this is like it was built so fantastically and in
the end it was like, no, all of this happened because I wanted
it to. No, didn't stop it just at one point go, you
know what, I've done everything I can. You're just a pest and now
I'm just gonna kill you because you're I can't do this anymore. Not No,
this was all part of my master plan written by your brother in his
book that we saw. Yeah, I like that. I thought that was
cool. I kind of like the ending. I like, yeah, like
the post credit scene was built up in one of the side quests by the
way, Yeah, I heard about that the case people are confused, Yes
there was. There was built up for that, like after credit scene if
you did the side quest near the end, but it was one of like
the twenty of them, so if you yeah, yeah, exactly you have
to know which one of the twenty you have to do before. I don't
know how close we are to any of this, but I would be remissed
to neglect this part. I love. I like the idea of of how
deep the lore is in the background of the game. Yeah, yeah,
what's her name? I think it's not Vivian. There you go. She
kind of has this whole like the Games of Thrones interests moving like okay,
yeah, yeah, the arrows showing you like, oh, like Barton of
Us, like he's not from here, he came from some other continent.
He conquered this continent, and like he brought he revived this religion that like
went out of style like years ago. Like I love like the background stuff
and the like the active time lower stuff that you just push the button and
like here's how all these characters are connected. And then here's the timeline if
you want to get more in depth with it of like who's the like who
kills who and kind of stuff. Like I love how how they thought about
that to make it where it's not just like when you get a time,
like when you get time, here's the glossary or an index like way over
here kind of and it's not even just characters or the way different groups have
been handled items and stuff like there weres parts fere I'm like, what is
the second moon? Yeah, you click the button and it tells you about
it, or yeah, when they got handcuffs, I'm like, how does
this work? You click it? And they have For the longest time,
I thought there was like a red smudge on my screen. I was like,
what is But then I was like, no, no, it only
shows up when the moon shows up. Like Okay, it's not smudge,
that's like the star or something. Really, it's like, yeah, when
you find it in the in the like the little lord thingy, and it
tells you like, oh, it has a name, and here's like its
relationship, like not just like in position, but like also also like here's
a lower reason, like why these people think that this moon has this name
or represents this thing. I was like, Oh, that's so cool that
you do that, and and like you shaid it with Vivian and and the
way she was showing you how the different battles worked, and and her map
was kind of showing me the blight, which I guess we haven't talked about
because it was just it was such a side thing. They were like,
oh, the blight's coming over what is it? It was a good playing
the number ending story. But and I another thing that kind of rubbed me
the wrong way a little bit was what you just brought up where she's like,
well, Barnamiss was over here and we really what I loved is she
didn't know much about him because he was on this island and nobody could get
over there. And then you get over there, it's like, well,
we know nothing about him because his entire army's dead and yeah, and he
really rules nothing over here, so that's why nothing's happening from him. But
but yeah, I love that. It's just you just at any point you
could just it was a very lived in world and you could it was maybe
have an explanation for why Gil is called Gil the currency, like yeah,
it's founded by this banker named something Gillian. Like that's cool because like that's
the thing from across like Chocobo's and Google is like the money is always Gil.
It's always Gail. I don't know why, but it's always Gail.
And like, oh, here's an actual reason why it's called Gil. And
like that is so cool. I love like those extra details that are not
necessary, but like we're just gonna put them there. Anyways. Well,
I started doing was before like a big scene you can actually do the actil
woman. It gives you context for like what you're about to watch. So
it's like it's a wonderful tool for in so many ways of just being able
to tell you, oh, these are the things that you're about to like
see, and then you kind of know what they are, and then when
they talk about them, you don't feel like you'd be like what are they
talking about? Like you actually knows so active time more for every JRPG from
here on out. Yes, now, yeah, that definitely needs to be
in there. I would kind of cheat a little bit with it, where
like someone would show up and like I would immediately like tell me who they
are before they introduce themselves, like I would try to read up ahead.
No, and then also, like the thing with Vivian is it tells you
like how they all know each other, Right, there's that part of Okay,
this person's relationship started here, and this is how they know each other.
And then this is like there's so much for you to learn if you
want to and it's not read fifty volumes of text. It's there for you
and explained, which is way better than a lot of other fantacy to do
it where it's like, yeah, we have encyclopedias here for you. Yeah,
I don't want to real. A lot of you guys ever played Star
Ocean in three, But Star Ocean three has that where it's like thick,
thick, like just a wall of text. Yeah. Everything, It's like,
this is cool. Bit man, it's just a wall of text.
Like it's like not, yeah, it's not giving me any kind of people
read in video games. No, I mean you mentioned it. The blight
is really it's sort of like a just this is why we're having to do
the things we do because all this stuff is gonna get die anyway, like
you know, and and oh, well the crystals are the way we're gonna
end the blight or whatever. So I guess it kind of gives them a
context as to why they need to eventually destroy the crystals, so it exists
for reason in a way. And uh, also so you can have the
night King hordes happened that Cassic or that too. Um yeah, man,
there's there's really just a lot of it's actually fascinating, Like I watched this
thing of like how many Game of Thrones things they took like literally took from
there and put into this game, and it's it's cool that. Another thing
we haven't really talked about is is how bearers are basically slaves and how horrible
yea half a humanity is, Like I forget that town that's by the ocean
that has some of those that my maid turned into stone and Daddy won't buy
me enough one and then you're like, holy craft, that's a person like
wow, or the dad that wants you to go save his son and then
when you do, he's like, no, you were supposed to die for
their table. It's like, oh man, some of these people are just
horrible. No. And then just the way that they like insult you,
it's just like my god, wow, they do not. And then people
complain that they wanted, you know, people of color to be in those
positions. I mean, what would you be thinking right now if that was
that and you're hearing that and then you're seeing that, like I think that
would hit you more, but not in a good way, you know.
So we had a whole area just middle Eastern people. That's all the people
we need with with the cliche music of like yeah, yeah, I mean
it doesn't help that they all have like turbans and like, yeah, Middle
Eastern. I mean, I guess that's the closest to them geographically, So
maybe, But I feel like if you play through most of the psy quests,
they do a really good I was explaining the stuff with the bears and
and all of that, Like I feel like that kind of gets lost if
you don't do the psy quest, like, because yeah, that is difference
of when you're Clive talking to people in the first half of the game versus
the second half of the game, because they all like you're a Bearer in
the first half and the second half they don't. Yeah, I'm just gonna
just cover that up, skelp my face off for a second. They still
acknowledge it, but now it's like, Okay, you're sid. So it's
sort of like yeah, but like seeing the way that they like that one,
well it's a main quest, but like you see more of it too
when you do the psych quest, of like the way they die and like
what they have to go through and all that. Just because they were born
with the Crystal Magical Hours. Yeah, it's like wow, it really gives
you a unique look on like Okay, this is like this is kind of
hitting you there. Like they really do a good job of having those moments
with with that where it's like, oh, this is a dark fantasy and
this is getting real dark, like you know. And then there's like the
echoes of Fall Fantasy seven in there too, where like they have the crystal
shards and they kind of use them kind of like material almost where like you
just make magic. But then also like you're just like it's also draining you
know, the blight and all that is like the source of like the Eighth
or whatever they call it. It's like a point to like the Mother Crystal.
So it's like you're bombing like these like Maco Reactor crystal things like throughout
the entire game. And I'm like like there's like a there's a lot of
shades of like fan Fasy seven in there. Yeah, a lot of cloud
could turn into you know, a giant if free to go destroy the castle
planting bombs. Dude, isn't there a point where Ultima literally has one wing?
Right? Yeah? The big wing pops out on one show. I'm
like, yep, it definitely has a lot of love letter sent callbacks to
Final Fantasies. That was another thing I was gonna bring up. I don't
know how you can say this is not a Final Fantasy game. There are
more references in this game to other Final Fantasies that I can never remember any
other Final Fantasies having. I mean, most of the game is about freaking
crystals and summons. I mean, how do you get more Final Fantasy than
that? Like the fact that people are still mad that fin Fassy sixteen is
not a turn based rpg. We haven't had one in like twenty years.
Yeah, ten was the last one that was turn based, and that was
a long thirteen Max. But that's because of like a mixture of like ATB
and Okay, that's fair. Yeah, and I try to block thirteen thirteen.
Thirteen was trying to do too much with its battle system, and I
made a lot of people not like it. Yeah, well, not to
mention, there's my favorite. Final Fantasies has the best music in the series
of my opinion. The problem with thirteen is there's so much time where you
don't actually get to fully explore with the bottlesystem can be be because they split
up the party to wait to wait till Grand Paul until you can explore.
But that's like on chapter ten of thirteen. Yeah, so you have nine
chapters where everyone's just like it's just a hallway sent me a later every final
fantasies A hallways sent me a later game. The reason I don't like thirteen,
I don't care about the Hallway. I just never got into any of
those characters. But did you, guys ever feel like you wish the game
was open world or did you like the open zone out with how slow they
make you walk? Right? Okay, that makes it the way you don't
do that with a few exceptions, like where the game blocks you from going
to back to other places. I do like how you are free to kind
of just like go back into this place for whatever reason. I did like
that. I did like how it's like compartmentalized, like that way where you
know these different sections and then like you can trigger new like um, not
safe points, I guess, but yeah, I guess knew, like little
spots like once you travel and now you'll find another one of those like tower
the White tower thingies or whatever. I did like, I thought it was
nice. It was a nice kind of compromise of you know, singular like
here's your main quest, but also like go ahead and explore a round.
That's why I didn't care that it was open zone or open world. I'm
fast traveling wherever I need to go anyway, so if it's connected by roadways
or just one giant open world, I don't care. I'm skipping to where
I need to get. Transverse trasversal was good, Like I mean, it's
not gonna be like a Spider Man level of I just want to be Spider
Man and go somewhere. I don't think they could have done it like even
in like Final Tannasee fifteen, when you basically had to do everything via the
car. It wasn't that actually wound up not being fun after a while.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it gave me moments where I could listen
to Final Fantasy thirteen music. But I feel like they made the world bigger
on purpose to stret out have the same like three lines of dialogue every five
seconds exactly. I think they by the end when you do all like the
cyclists, there's a lot of the world that like stretches out where when you
do the little mini map, a lot of it can be connected just connected
to and you can traverse that without having to do the you know, fast
travel or whatever you want to. So like it does end up feeling like
these zones keep getting bigger and bigger than more you do explore. So,
like Andrew said, I think they did a great compromise in that. And
also like there's there's so many damn open world games now, Like not every
game needs to be open world. That's just how many check mark checkpoints there
would be if this was open world. Yeah, I think there'd be way
more question marks, like the fifty of them. Um, is there anything
from the story that you guys want to touch on or like? Also,
there's one kind of thing that I wish they did a little bit differently,
and that would be introducing Joshua as alive a little later on in the story.
They introduce you to Joshua being alive like almost immediately after you go into
the time Skoo, and it's just kind of like cool, Like it's kind
of a shocker, but then you don't like even see him at all until
he shows up again, and then you're like oh wait, he's back.
I forgot. Yeah. I didn't wish that they showed him a little later
so that that little like part didn't just jump at you, or if like
even that jump itself could have been when they introduced him as being alive,
because it kind of just felt like almost unnecessary because I kept trying to imagine
when he's going to be showing up, like is this going to be important?
Is this going to be important? Is this going to be important?
For like hours on end until he finally shows up again. I did like
forever the air of mystery they kind of give Joshua when you do see him
again for the first time after so much time has passed, and he kind
of has like like this like organization, thirteen thing going on and everything,
but then like he also has like it makes sense because so much like I
don't know thirteen or whatever years that passed, but like he has like this
mastery of like as the Phoenix, like he's like wait, like all mystical
and crap, like okay, this is cool. Like he's like he was
like a little whimpy little kid and now like like I'm grown a grown as
man kind in prisons. Ultimately, in his chest, Like whoa, Like
this guy's been he's been hitting the books since last time. Yeah, Like
that moment with Clive is actually like really cool because like shows that he's not
this weak kid that he's you know, oh, I'm gonna do something to
protect my brother now, but now I gotta you know, he this leads
to his even worse sickness than he gets later on. Yeah, you know
what it reminds me of, actually, Scott, it reminds me of how
Mickey is so elusive throughout Kingdom Hearts too. We're like he's you're always just
missing him. We're like, you know, no, because look like remember
when they go to uh, I don't know what the town is called,
but's the sad place, the sands, the desert town, and like he
like leaves through the window, he goes out through the second floor window,
and then like Clive just barely misses him. Ye, always just like a
little bit further behind. And like this feels like it feels like when you're
when you see Mickey in the background Kendo Mars two, where he's kind of
you know, just always somewhere. Yeah, or even like the beginning moments
of when Soros trying to find uh goofy and Donald the kingom hearts one like
districts like always over here, he's over here. It's over here, he's
over here, he's over here, until they literally fall atop with each other
and yeah, yeah, I mean anything else for you guys that you felt
like we really should touch on? Do you think what do you think?
DLG couldn't even be well, I guess before that, like did you guys
like the end, do you like when like when Joshua slaps Clive or actually,
yeah, yeah, wanted to fight with you. Yeah. I like
how he's like he's like it's for like it's it's for the better good or
whatever, and he's like like, man, you better be right about this,
Like yeah, I do like though, like because I kind of thought
I kind of felt that too, where I'm like, damn, like you're
taking away her powers, like I know, for I know, for Jill,
she just she's more as a curse than as a blessing kind of thing.
Like she's like there's like trauma associated with it. But I just thought
like like damn, like you're really taking away the one thing that makes her
very useful as a party member, like and claiming it for yourself. So
then when Joshua was like, like you took you right, He's yeah,
he's just like just like Deck someone like like thank you, Joshua, thank
you. Yeah. I always felt like he also did it because I think
he kind of also had a thing for Jill. But you know, I
mean they all three of them grew up together. Yeah, I think about
anything about that way. Maybe no I did. I did like that as
well, Like, and then the interesting thing of like they can still use
their powers even after Clive takes them. Yeah, apparently I get into like
emotional moments, their powers can still Yeah. Yeah, like Benedicta, it
literally can still basically she still has the icon inside her, right, I
guess I don't know what does are each time? Right? Each time like
oh you've taken a fragmin or similar or something right like not the whole thing,
you're taking like a part a bit. Yeah, So what did you
What did y'all think about the ending? Do you feel like this is definitive
right, like Clive's dead, Like there's not gonna be a Clive came back.
I hope he does say it? Would they do stick with the death
but there's also I mean, if you look at like Twitter, there's so
many random crep theories going on him. How that like the death is super
vague or he won't actually be dead and if they did this, they're just
pulling another Final Fantasy fifteen. Yeah, I mean it seems rather clear that
he does he uses the last bit of his life to save Joshua or which
is how he writes the book or whatever, and so yeah, I just
I feel like that kind of tells you he's he's gone. You did y'all
like that decision? Did you feel like he needed to live? Or I
mean I don't think it. I think at least Dion should have had something
to do at the end. But yeah, yeah, that would be one
of the criticisms I have at the ending is that Dion, Joshua, and
Clive all fight, but Dion's the only one who doesn't get a moment right
well, he gets that moment where he like kind of says, this is
my last one to kind of give you all that that last bit that you
need to get ready or you know, But yeah, he doesn't have this
like one oh my god, remember me kind He just falls, right,
he just falls in like, yeah, if we don't see a body,
and I mean Clive turned to stone, but somebody can find a soft potion
and Ben fix probably this, right, Like it's it's like the whole Ariosphoenix
down thing, right, So yeah, what what do you guys think?
You know? Because there's multiple theories? Right, there's the talk of the
one summon that's not in this game. Did they make allusions to Leviathan the
Loss or whatever? Um? Is it gonna just be prequel stuff? I
mean, yeah, I wasntly the only way you could have Leviathan was go
do a prequel stuff and maybe the start of the blight, But then I
don't know how you would even wrap that up. But yeah, I don't
know. I don't think I'm kind of with Square. I don't know if
this really needs DALC. Yeah, I think it was kind of an open
and shut game, and I wouldn't to have one with Leviathan. Yeah,
but I get that, But I think what if I would want from deals?
He would probably be similar to how Final Fantasy fifteen did. It's DLC,
where I had different episodes showing what characters were doing in between moments where
we weren't there with them that be like we had Jills moments or SIDS moments
or even Gabs moments where they're doing stuff where episode Joshua would be cool.
Yeah, like what was Joshua doing for those twenty years? Because yeah,
yeah, like what's Jill's like? We get the actual backstory with Jill,
what happened with that priest or whatever the heck and all that stuff like that
would be interesting. Just please guarantee me that we're actually gonna get to completion.
Don't get to like three forts the way through and then go, oh
it's canceled, not getting the rest of it. I mean, the thing
that suthing about pomp Has fifteen was that that's how they were going to tell
you the whole story, whereas at least this game you get the whole story.
This Yeah, don't have to worry about needing it, but I wouldn't
say I would not want it. Yeah, we don't have anybody who disappears
and comes back blind or something. Yeah, we have moment. Do you
have anything like calm that wise that you'd want to see them? I guess
do in the DLC maybe differently effects status weaknesses are PG elements or just get
rid of all of them. Yeah, well, if they did do a
le viling thing one, that would be like a whole other set of ability.
So yeah, yeah, that would be interesting. I would think that
it would have to be more than just Leviathan, unless they're just gonna do
that so that you can use Leviathan powers in the main game, But that
would kind of seem kind of arbitrary at that point. Like, yeah,
I think if they're really gonna do it, it's gonna be something so almost
like an expansion. It's not gonna be yeah, I mean, I don't
know, because the main character dies, right, so that wah. Yeah,
But they could do something like um like which we call it, like
some of those games that add like like we have something actually to do right
before the game tells you like this is the point of no return. It
could be something like like elder Ring had, like the expansion word it's like
here's an arena kind of thing. It could even just be like a call
of sem thing or like a boss rush or like something trivial like that.
I don't know. Yeah, it reminds like the DLC of Mass Effect three
of that happens like at the Citadel and stuff. That's right before the ending
of the actual game. Because yeah, that game. That's another controversial topic.
Yeah, that game's a whole another Can we don't mean that spoiler cast
today? Um? Yeah, it's anything that like you guys would want.
So there's nothing in the cont Like, I don't think they're going to be
adding in RPG. It's possible. I guess that they they could add that
stuff in, but I don't know. I feel like that would then lead
to people being like, why can't we just have this of the whole game?
Yeah, you know, it's like a lot of work. I think.
Do you think there's a possibility for them to do more with Fantasy sixteen
like another game or I don't know if they have enough for like sixteen Dash
two? No, I don't think No. I don't think so either.
I'm over the dashes her. I do want to see this combat system used
again, so I do too. This was a really fun combat system.
I'd definitely like to see it mastered and basically more evolved. So where do
you think we wind up with A Well, I don't know. We can't
really tell because it's always different, But Final Fantasy eighteen is gonna be Yoshida's
MMO with action RPG elements rather than he can make magic matter again. Yeah.
Yeah, magic was like a gun in this game. It's like,
yeah, there for you. Because you can't get close to the person,
you just shoot him. Yeah, it did work well. Any any I
guess any lasting things you want to say about sixteen, Like where do you
think sixteen is gonna Let's let's go forward. I guess a little bit like
by the time seventeen is coming out, do you think we're still gonna think
this fondly of sixteen? Or probably too distracted by hopefully part two? In
Part three of Final Fantasy seven remake, I totally forget the sixteen never existed
out. I feel like, damn. I feel like every Final Fantasy game
goes through that period where it's like for some reason, like it's like popular
to hate on, Like I feel like every one of them goes through that.
I feel like this one will probably will have it's gonna be the people
who are very upset about it not being like Final Fantasy enough. I think
we're gonna be like the louder, loudest detractors from in the future. But
like it's hard to know because it's just so fresh. But I think,
like for myself, like I's in my top five top six series, So
I think it's gonna be regarded as like the one with the best voice actor,
the one with yeah it's the best, like hey for us, Ben
Star, there you go. Yeah, it's gonna be. It's gonna be
like I think many people's like favorites going forward. And I don't know if
it's just because of the big moments or I mean, there's parts of the
story that we'll stick with me. But I will remember a lot of different
things that happened in sixteen for years to come. And I can't tell you
three things that happened in Found Fantasy fifteen. And when I played Foul Fantasy
fifteen, I enjoyed it, but I can't remember anything from it. And
partially maybe I'm just getting goddamn old and I'm forgetting everything. But with sixteen,
at least they have the moments that they're gonna kind of stick with you.
Fifteen it was just kind of an experience and it was just I will
say one thing everyone should at least remember fifteen is the Lefiathan fight. I
was about to say that I was about to say that that is in Fight
Leathan fight and in the Big Beheman fight, they all got trumped by sixteen
sixteen fights, I do agree are better the icon versus icons. Yeah,
jus yet, but I will say Leliathan fight was something that always stuck with
meybe of just like the scenery and the set pieces and everything with Final Fantasy
fifteen, and I still think it's probably the best fight of that game.
I can't remember the name, but that city you go to, like with
the waterfalls and everything, yeah, oh yes, yeah, yeah, I
don't remember the name, and I know I think that says a lot that
we don't remember the name. I think for me one of the lasting impressions
of this game is I think it's doing exactly what they wanted to do.
I have at least four friends that do not play Final Fantasy games at all
that are playing this game right now and enjoying it, and I think that
that will be one of the things that people will think about what this game
is. This could be the game that gets so many people into Final Fantasy
as a series, because it is so different from the other games what it's
doing. That for our friend Tucker, who he was like all in now,
He's all yeah, he's a pill. Now it's gonna do this,
and then the seventeen will come out and it will master all this stuff and
the story will go even crazier, and then eighteen will go you know what.
We want to go back to our roots, go back to turn based
RP. Like fin Fantasy nine was like, we're going back to like our
nes s nes Days. We're going back to the at b gage, We're
going back to fantasy. Screw the sci fi nonsense. Well, this one
want to do that, Like it's like medieval right, It's like not really,
Yeah, yeah, we kind of did that here. Yeah, you
went back to to those days. She's a good experience, that's for sure.
Yeah. I mean so like, hopefully if you're listening to this you
enjoyed. I mean, if you if you're hate watching I don't know,
hey watching every spoiler cast about five Fantasy sixteen, good job with your life.
Yeah really, but hopefully you've enjoyed this game. Like, do you
guys think this will be I guess just looking at this year in general,
it's almoudy have been a ridiculous year. Do you think this will be like
a game still in the Game of the Year conversation nominee, A nominee for
sure. I don't think I don't think it will be as much of a
contender. Yeah, yeah, I think that's not because the Final Fantasy sixteen
itself, as much as this year is just absolutely stacked. Yeah, and
we're not even done with the year yet. We're halfway through the year.
Yeah, we're not. We just now Starfield Spider Man, and we already
have games that could probably be better than all of them, or Super Mario,
Wonder, Balder's Gay three Year. You know, there's like a bunch
of of games that are still coming. I feel bad for you, yeah
really, um, but yeah, you're gonna talking about all these games.
I'm just ready for moving out too. There you go. If you want,
I really need to get back into streaming. You need to watch me
and my kids play that game and the amount of yelling. You would think
we need therapy playing this game. But we love it. That's me,
that's all. It's like unpacking, right, but like in reverse. Right,
boy, it's like overcooked, but you're moving instead of ye yeah,
you're you're throwing things out windows and making sure chickens getting a moving van and
okay, and it feels the levels later gets so insane. It's great.
Hopefully they fixed against it feels a little bit too floaty for me compared to
like Overcooked, Like sometimes I'm just like moving around and the thing goes everywhere
and it's like, what the hell is? Kind of the point is the
game is there to piss you off. That's me and playing Overcooked with my
my daughter and my mom that don't play console games. That less. I
was me yelling like yo put it. But yes, regardless of all that
stuff, Hopefully enjoy our spoilercast today. If you did. There was a
regular stof videogamest to the Max each week. Sometimes we have guests like all
of these guys here. Hopefully we can add them all again at some points
and have new guests as well. Those subscribe Video Games to the Max on
audio podcasts wherever those are at on YouTube, subscribe W two network you get
us, and then other things as well, including the ridless folks that always
do tremendous video movie reviews. They've done Barbie already, that did Oppenheimer's,
so you're looking for reviews for those and yeah, like, hopefully you enjoy
Finey sixteen and you can let us know your thoughts in the comments of wherever
you watch this or listen to it later and yeah, this is gonna be
Uh, there's more stuff coming throughout the year, so maybe we'll have another
spoilercast for another game that you enjoy. So until then, still that everybody bite