Cloud is as iconic in 2022 as he's ever been
In 1997 we were a couple of years into the PlayStation 1 life cycle. A lot of games had already been
released over here in the UK and across the world by this point. Certainly in the UK, we didn’t get a lot of JRPG’s in this time, nor was the JRPG genre as prominent or as popular as it is now. Developers Squaresoft had always had their previous Final Fantasy games all on Nintendo Systems. That all changed. Sony managed to acquire Final Fantasy 7 to be exclusive to PlayStation. Good job too. Square had major reservations about bringing FF7 to the Nintendo 64. There was no possible way they could get what they wanted to bring to the game in a cartridge. The benefit of CD-ROM was more information could be put on the three disc masterpiece that we got in 1997. I consider Final Fantasy 7 to be one of if not my favourite game of all time. I was in awe of this game. From the opening credits and the opening bombing mission, I knew this was going to be all kinds of awesome. I could go on for ages about what FF7 means to me, I am sure it means the same to many other gamers all across the world. For years around about the 360/PS3 generation, rumours had been circulating that Square Enix was about to unleash a full remastered version of FF7 for current gen consoles. It never materialised until one day June 15 2015 at E3. We finally knew that it was coming. We didn’t get much more info than that. As later press releases came along we found out that it was coming to is 2020. However it would not be the full game. FF7 Remake would only cover the events that happen in the story in the city of Midgar. So in the grand scheme of things we was getting a remake of the first six hours playtime of the original game. When this was announced and we saw gameplay, cinematic sequences and the battle system, I was not optimistic. I certainly had my doubts. Just because it looked good, would we miss the great story? Would the battle system hold up to the classic turn based combat? How could they create a massive game using only Midgar as the main and only World?
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Dragon Quest XI (PS4) Review
Up until this review, I had never played a Dragon Quest game at all in my life. In Japan this franchise is essentially a cultural phenomenon, it’s massive. I read articles where Enix and later Square Enix would only release a new Dragon Quest game on a Saturday. This was due to prevent kids skipping school and adults skipping work, just so they could play the latest release. I’d had the game for a while in my backlog, I picked it up on a whim and thought it may be worth a go. My inspiration for buying it and playing it was from YouTuber Happy Console Gamer.
Johnny speaks so highly of the franchise and how much joy it had given to him from his early years in gaming when the game was known as Dragon Warrior (due to a trademark issue) on the NES. So we are now up to the eleventh game in the series. All of them have followed the traditional JRPG formula over time, except for Dragon Quest X which ventured into the MMO universe. Various spinoffs have been released such as Dragon Quest Builders. But as I said this is my first foray into this IP and before I go into depth about the game, I say this. Why did I wait so long??? Before we go in depth into the review, I need to say I am reviewing the original version of the game. I am NOT reviewing the definitive edition which was released a year or so after this one. I also want to add that I will try to review this without spoilers. No one wants their experiences ruining. The old saying in life goes as follows. “If it isn’t broke, then don’t fix it.” That’s exactly how I feel about this game. Dragon Quest XI is probably the most cookie cutter JRPG game I’ve ever played, it feels like a pair of old slippers, that fit perfectly even after a long time. That is not a bad thing. You can play this game, leave it for a week and seamlessly go back into it where you left off. I didn’t ever at any point struggle with getting back in to it because the gameplay is simple and effective.
Guest Blog By Kevin @Agent_Prince
Mistwalker Game Studio - How they helped the Xbox 360
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the world famous ‘father’ of Final Fantasy, could well be considered the Miyamoto of JRPG games. Since the unfortunate box-office bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (which Sakaguchi directed), Sakaguchi left his presidential position at Square (which ultimately became Square Enix), and founded his own company, Mistwalker in 2004. Since that time, Mistwalker have developed a range of titles for different platforms, and a further title looks to be on its way, although only concept art has surfaced thus far. Sakaguchi also enlisted the immense musical talents of Nobou Uematsu, who also left Square in 2004.
Mistwalker initially signed up with Microsoft to produce Xbox 360 exclusive titles, of which there are two: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Blue Dragon in particular helped boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan, at the time of its release (2006). Microsoft sold 35,343 Xbox 360s – an increase of nearly 90 per cent over the previous week’s figure of just over 4000 consoles. It’s likely that the rise was linked to the release of Blue Dragon, which was developed by Mistwalker, the studio led by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi
– Ellie Gibson, Blue Dragon release boosts Xbox 360 sales in Japan, GamesIndustry.biz
Guest blog by Luis Gonzalez
When gamers heard the words Final Fantasy in the late 90s/early 2000's, most associated it with large scale, grand and epic video games. Games that immersed the player in a large world and a story full of intrigue, adventure and wonder. They contained characters we loved and some we hated. Areas and scenes we'll never forget, battles that had us at the edges of our seats and music to wrap it all into one almost perfect package. And it wasn't just Final Fantasy that allowed us to feel this way. There were dozens of games being developed at that time who, while not reaching the levels of success as Squaresoft did with Final Fantasy, still managed to keep things fresh in a genre many people hold dear to their gaming hearts: the Japanese Role Playing Game.
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