Recent content by Dr Frasier Crane

Fair. I just don’t see Rebirth, on its own, being rated for its story in the long run. Not as other games in the series are. It doesn’t really have an ending. Instead it has a “superposition” that allows the devs to follow whatever way the wind is blowing later on. It’s a total cop-out. And...

I’ve just rewatched compilations of people sobbing at the ending of Final Fantasy X. That shot of Tidus fading with the pyreflies around him - you know the one - still moves me 20 years later. We could have had that. We could have had people talking about how Rebirth absolutely floored them...

Hoo boy - 15 months later, I have finally rolled credits. They toyed around with one of the most iconic moments in video games, for the sake of “lots of speculation from everyone”? The New York Times published an article all about this particular moment! I get that you don’t actually want to...

Another thing I’ve got to say while I soldier (lol) on through the end game: as someone who’s seen Les Miserables a little too much, No Promises to Keep is not a very good show-tune, and it’s a shame that it’s not.

Brain dump for lack of a better place to share this: So I’ve finally picked this back up after setting the game down for around 6 months. I got to Chapter 12 back in September, and I remember being genuinely impressed with the reveal that the whole world was in fact contiguous and you could...

Death of the Author take: everything that a player experiences and interprets is more canon than what has been or will be clarified in an interview with the author(s). Therefore, if 50%+ of the playerbase got the Tifa date, it doesn’t matter if that date is not canon from the perspective of the...

Not to derail the thread but my understanding is that Bleach ended up canonising Ichigo/Orihime and not Ichigo/Rukia, right? I know the author restarted Bleach a few years back, so I don’t know if he ended up dialing back on those pairs. The point I want to make is that even in this thread, I’m...

It’s an interesting example to draw a comparison from. Dragon Quest V, as I understand it, is even more beloved in Japan than FFVII. There’s two counter arguments from me: 1. While a far less popular topic on the English speaking Internet than the LTD, I’ve definitely seen people argue about...

To boil it down to its simplest elements, the hug scene in Remake is about one friend in emotional distress, being clumsily comforted physically by another friend who is not experienced in such matters. Are Cloud and Tifa an item after the hug? Absolutely not. Have they closed some of the...

The key marketing tagline for this game was: “DEFY FATE TOGETHER”! They’re messing with us, man!

Terrific bit of art here on Twitter

Ah - so not quite an Ultimania, but nevertheless, it is indeed a book published by Square according to this wiki page (which also links back to the TLS translation page!). Thanks for the clarification!

Wait a minute… “through these the distance between them shortens”. When would this Ultimania have been published, Eerie? 2007/2008? “Closing the distance” is a recurring visual motif for Cloud and Tifa in Remake and Rebirth. There’s the barstool occupying space between the two at Seventh...

I think it’s clear now that Rebirth and XVI have underperformed. Both games would have been very expensive to produce and keeping them confined to one console has not been a recipe for success. There are lots of threads to pull at around this topic, so please forgive the following brain-dump. I...

I mean, he didn’t need to write a ballad, but I’m glad he did. There’s a bit of a sea change going on this time. The debate appears to be over and many authors now consider the canonicity of Cloud and Tifa’s love as settled business. I wonder if the LTD thread will need closing soon after part...