I have seen people claiming the Octopath Traveler gacha has a better story than the console game if only because the various paths do end up converging to a single narrative, instead of being relegated to a hidden sidequest. This is very interesting.
The gacha game has three different paths to my knowledge: Power, Wealth, and Glory. The new update converged them into a singular story where you fight a super important boss. Basically all three "routes" lead to a climax
It seems to be a very high quality gacha game from the outset. I haven't played it personally but people are really impressed with the content on display. In fact, I'd almost say that Octopath's formula is better suited to mobile gaming.
Considering the quality of the Octopath gacha and how they must have been working on it for at least three years. I am almost thinking that Team Asano are making console games with their potential as gacha off-shoots in mind.
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The recent FFXII remaster managed to highlight the technical prowess of the game even more. Amazing how much a 2006 game still holds up to scrutiny thanks to great art direction by the Ivalice team.
The graphics of Vagrant Story is often touted as the best the PS1 could offer but the visual effects were also an incredible showcase! Spells are still a sight to behold even today!
Not only that, sound effects didn't have any samples. They were created by manipulating waveforms
In regards to sound effects in Vagrant Story created by manipulating waveforms, this means that everything you're listening here in terms of ambient sounds like wind, water, birds chirping were made "by hand". Literally transforming noise into lifelike sounds.
This level of craft and mastery is the work of Tomohiro Yajima, a sound engineer still working at Square-Enix.
He notably worked on FFXII, Dragon Quest XI and NieR Automata as Sound Director and Supervisor.
This review of Paradise Killer is still the hardest case of "when you get it but still didn't get it" I've seen.
To put a purity test on Vaporwave and call it orientalist (??) is really smoking me
you're telling me that an artificial world shaped by religious zealots abducting people to work for them until their assigned time to die comes up might be vain and ostentatious?
The Crimson Shroud upscaling project is advancing nicely! There is still a lot of work to be done but I have reached the end of the game and the vast majority of textures have been touched up.
I still need to go through New Game+, and do a few more passes but it's close!
The bulk of the work happened on the UI, which took a grueling amount of time and trial & error. It's still not done, and I still need to more tinkering but it's getting there
Some concessions will have to be made due to my limited skills. I would like to offer crisp portraits but I simply cannot do this restoration process by myself as I'm neither an artist nor a graphic designer. Thankfully, there are only three portraits in the game so it should do.
I learned a lot of things in the Kamikokuryo video but what stood out is how FFX's world was centered around the keyword "Asian taste" being a mix of cultures, whereas FFXII's world was more mediterranean but made each country have its own separate culture
Isamu Kamikokuryo also had a lot to say about FFXII and the team, calling them "an all-star team", praising the craftsmanship aspect and how they wanted the world and architecture to feel logical, as if it could be part of the real world.
Also interestingly enough, Isamu Kamikokuryo said the FF13 team was almost the same as the FF10 one!
I'm going to give an overview on the people working on FFXVI, where they come from, their experience, and speculate on the people that might also be working on this game but have not been confirmed yet.
TL;DR: FF Tactics/FFXIV fans, you should be excited
FFXVI is being worked on by Creative Business Unit III, helmed by Naoki Yoshida. They are known for making Final Fantasy XIV. They are also very different people from the ones who worked on FF for the past decade. They come from a very different lineage in general.
This means that the game will very likely not see any involvement from Nomura, Kitase, Toriyama, and others who worked on and off from FFXIII to FFXV (FF14 excluded).
These people are already busy working on FF7 Remake Part 2 and other projects.