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. 
Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably one of the most hyped video games since Grand Theft Auto V back in 2013. The success of The Witcher 3 on PC and all major consoles left big boots to fill when it came to CD Project Red’s (CDPR) next adventure. Fast forward to December 10th 2020, and after Cyberpunk’s multiple delays the gaming universe was finally graced with the release. Sadly that release has fallen flat on its face and us gamers are not happy. Cyberpunk 2077 has been branded “a buggy mess” and even more so on base Xbox One and PS4 consoles. It warrants the question; why did CDPR bother releasing such an ambitious game on base consoles? Why not exclusively release on the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X? I believe money is the most obvious answer. Not everyone has been able to acquire the latest generations’ consoles which would have meant a very large portion of the market not being able to play Cyberpunk 2077.
So here we are, two days after launch as I write this! I have been live streaming Cyberpunk on my PS4 Pro. The textures seriously lack, rendering takes quite a few seconds (especially on vehicles), the city feels drastically empty and the combat is very lethargic. In summary, I completely agree that Cyberflunk is a broken mess. Gamers unable to see the console performance prior to launch too. All previews and reviews showcased PC footage. CD Project Red also provided reviewers with the actual review footage. That’s right!! The embargo did not allow reviewers to capture their own gameplay. That is a red flag right there. I would go as far to say that this is very misleading in the marketing of Cyberpunk for console gamers. To cap it off Cyberpunk 2077 is rocking an eye watering and painful Metacritic score of 2.3 on PS4 as I write this. For a game studio as big as CDPR this is unacceptable. In fact I believe it is heartbreaking for gamers that are trying to play on base consoles. With most other game developers I would be worried that the game would be broken forever but as we know, CDPR are a dev team that show long term support for their games. |
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