Might get some hate for this one.
This might change with the release of the recent remaster, but this has been my favorite Final Fantasy for years. It's an incredible game (just like everything Ivalice and Matsuno), and I wish more than anything that it'd been allowed to reach its full potential as per Matsuno's original vision. I think it would've been praised as a masterpiece. Even still, it's wonderful, and I think unfairly maligned. It strove to do something different with the Final Fantasy series, and I think it succeeded. It has incredible art design, and some of the best graphics on the PS2; great music by Hitoshi Sakimoto, one of my favorite video game composers (I really hope that the remaster will change the perception that it had bad music); an incredible translation (seriously, the writing is so good) by Alexander O'Smith and perhaps the best dub in JRPG history (WARNING: Spoilers; a fascinating storyline about the consequences of vengeance; a massive world to explore; FUN as FUCK Hunt sidequests; and great gameplay (imo), the Gambit system was great, fuck the haters. The game has serious problems (pacing, sound design, lack of character development), but I still consider it a flawed masterpiece.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Don't get me wrong. I really, really enjoyed this game. I did. And it's certainly better than most JRPGs that've come out in the past few years. But I think people are seriously overhyping it, especially in terms of story. Okay, sure, the story is perfectly fine, serviceable; I enjoyed the ending, I enjoyed 9S in the latter half of the game, and I loved the sense of mystery and atmosphere in the first route. But...best video game story ever it is not. The writing, in my opinion, was very...cliche, visual novelesque, especially in terms of the romance. The game's attempts at philosophizing are...unfortunate. And while I love the concepts and the scale (if nothing else the game excels at amazing spectacle and setpieces), it didn't wow me...mostly because I've read/watched things with strong existentialist themes that were, well, far better executed than in Automata. That might sound somewhat condescending; I'm not trying to tell people who love this game to read a fucking book, but...at the same time, I think that Automata's attempt at existentialism is just kind of trite and not very well done. The reason doesn't necessarily lie in the writing, I think, but rather in the lack of connection I felt with the characters. The relationship between 2B and 9S just wasn't believeable imo. I didn't feel any emotion for their plight, I didn't feel anything towards A2...the characters aroused absolutely nothing in me, though 9S' "fall" was really good. I know that a large part of this is because, as per usual, Yoko Taro relegates the most important material regarding his world to side stories, novellas, concert scripts, what have you. And like, imo, that's fine if what you're writing about reveals information that's not ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to the central plot and characters. But in the case of Automata, the most important shit is in side material, most of which is either mediocrely translated or mediocrely written. I just couldn't believe that I was supposed to feel something for 9S and 2B and their """"""""love"""""""" when I knew next to nothing about their pasts. It would've enriched the game, and my enjoyment of it, had that been accessible IN-GAME, as is a lot of content regarding the world. I have no problem with important shit being in books. Morrowind, for instance, basically requires you to delve into the in-game books to figure out what the hell is going on. But Automata? No. It just feels like a sucker punch, and on the part of Taro, kind of presumptuous. "Har har har, I'm so mysterious, I'm so zany and whacky, I'm so non-conventional, my games are so intricate and multifaceted, there's 297842348927349 endings, hehehe, so crazy amirite?" It's just become a meme at this point. In NieR it worked, because that game really made you feel invested in the characters. You wanted to know more about the world, so you really sought out the side materials, because you were hungry for more. Because you felt engrossed. I think that Automata commits a cardinal sin in that it believes that by making the characters go through emotions, the audience must feel emotions as well. Because I'm denied crucial information about the characters, there's nothing anchoring me to the world, nothing that drags me in, other than the mystery of what is really going on, which I think ultimately doesn't really come to much; it got dispelled far too quickly, and in an unsatisfying manner to boot.
That said, I think it's a good game. I'd rate it an 8.5/10 at the very least. I loved the gameplay, the atmosphere, the huge setpieces (I mean, come on, giant boxing robots) the MUSIC, the art design and graphics, the side quests. I just was pretty disappointed in the story.
Underrated: Final Fantasy XII
This might change with the release of the recent remaster, but this has been my favorite Final Fantasy for years. It's an incredible game (just like everything Ivalice and Matsuno), and I wish more than anything that it'd been allowed to reach its full potential as per Matsuno's original vision. I think it would've been praised as a masterpiece. Even still, it's wonderful, and I think unfairly maligned. It strove to do something different with the Final Fantasy series, and I think it succeeded. It has incredible art design, and some of the best graphics on the PS2; great music by Hitoshi Sakimoto, one of my favorite video game composers (I really hope that the remaster will change the perception that it had bad music); an incredible translation (seriously, the writing is so good) by Alexander O'Smith and perhaps the best dub in JRPG history (WARNING: Spoilers; a fascinating storyline about the consequences of vengeance; a massive world to explore; FUN as FUCK Hunt sidequests; and great gameplay (imo), the Gambit system was great, fuck the haters. The game has serious problems (pacing, sound design, lack of character development), but I still consider it a flawed masterpiece.
Overrated: NieR: Automata
WARNING: SPOILERS
Don't get me wrong. I really, really enjoyed this game. I did. And it's certainly better than most JRPGs that've come out in the past few years. But I think people are seriously overhyping it, especially in terms of story. Okay, sure, the story is perfectly fine, serviceable; I enjoyed the ending, I enjoyed 9S in the latter half of the game, and I loved the sense of mystery and atmosphere in the first route. But...best video game story ever it is not. The writing, in my opinion, was very...cliche, visual novelesque, especially in terms of the romance. The game's attempts at philosophizing are...unfortunate. And while I love the concepts and the scale (if nothing else the game excels at amazing spectacle and setpieces), it didn't wow me...mostly because I've read/watched things with strong existentialist themes that were, well, far better executed than in Automata. That might sound somewhat condescending; I'm not trying to tell people who love this game to read a fucking book, but...at the same time, I think that Automata's attempt at existentialism is just kind of trite and not very well done. The reason doesn't necessarily lie in the writing, I think, but rather in the lack of connection I felt with the characters. The relationship between 2B and 9S just wasn't believeable imo. I didn't feel any emotion for their plight, I didn't feel anything towards A2...the characters aroused absolutely nothing in me, though 9S' "fall" was really good. I know that a large part of this is because, as per usual, Yoko Taro relegates the most important material regarding his world to side stories, novellas, concert scripts, what have you. And like, imo, that's fine if what you're writing about reveals information that's not ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to the central plot and characters. But in the case of Automata, the most important shit is in side material, most of which is either mediocrely translated or mediocrely written. I just couldn't believe that I was supposed to feel something for 9S and 2B and their """"""""love"""""""" when I knew next to nothing about their pasts. It would've enriched the game, and my enjoyment of it, had that been accessible IN-GAME, as is a lot of content regarding the world. I have no problem with important shit being in books. Morrowind, for instance, basically requires you to delve into the in-game books to figure out what the hell is going on. But Automata? No. It just feels like a sucker punch, and on the part of Taro, kind of presumptuous. "Har har har, I'm so mysterious, I'm so zany and whacky, I'm so non-conventional, my games are so intricate and multifaceted, there's 297842348927349 endings, hehehe, so crazy amirite?" It's just become a meme at this point. In NieR it worked, because that game really made you feel invested in the characters. You wanted to know more about the world, so you really sought out the side materials, because you were hungry for more. Because you felt engrossed. I think that Automata commits a cardinal sin in that it believes that by making the characters go through emotions, the audience must feel emotions as well. Because I'm denied crucial information about the characters, there's nothing anchoring me to the world, nothing that drags me in, other than the mystery of what is really going on, which I think ultimately doesn't really come to much; it got dispelled far too quickly, and in an unsatisfying manner to boot.
That said, I think it's a good game. I'd rate it an 8.5/10 at the very least. I loved the gameplay, the atmosphere, the huge setpieces (I mean, come on, giant boxing robots) the MUSIC, the art design and graphics, the side quests. I just was pretty disappointed in the story.
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