The Queue: I’ve never been so hyped for a game in my entire life

The game is Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, releasing in 22 days for the PS5 (and a few months later for other platforms). There was a Sony State of Play showcasing it last night and… aggghhhh. I’m beyond sold. I can’t wait. I absolutely cannot wait.

But since I have to wait, let’s do this Queue thing in which I use pictures to try to sell it to others as well.

If they retcon too much, the fans are gonna flip.

The main problem with Chronicle that soured it in the eyes of a lot of people was that it was first presented as a “definitive guide” to WoW lore, but was later revealed to be “just the Titans’ point of view of the story events.” In a way, Blizzard retconned what the books even were: people expected solid, final answers about the lore, and instead they got books that present events as interpretations, leaving them uncertain. This change in expectations tends to not be well received at all.

So even though there are some sore spots in the more recent lore — Shadowlands definitely comes to mind — I feel like Blizzard is better off just moving on, keeping things as they are, and expanding upon the lore without actually changing it. Adding new information that re-frames what we already knew is okay, I feel — but it has to be done very carefully.

1) If I’m being honest, I don’t like WoW novels. I don’t like it when story that helps explain or contextualize in-game content is delivered outside of it. So unless the novels tell a story that is completely optional, my honest opinion would be “no novels.” (But if we have to have novels, I’d rather have just one.)

2) I like the idea of trilogies, because they give the writers the opportunity to tell a bigger story over a longer period of time, rather than having every single expansion need to have its own self-contained threat — “and thus, Azeroth was saved from total annihilation for the 28th time.” The formula was already tired, so it’s great to see something new being tried. However, it’ll all hinge on execution: until we actually play through the upcoming trilogy, we won’t be able to make more than wild guesses.

3) I don’t think we will hit 20, but I do think they’ll keep adding classes to the game. I know some players don’t like the idea of more classes being added because it makes balance harder, but I feel like the community as a whole places an exaggerated value on balance — i.e., determining that a spec is “unplayable” when it’s perfectly playable for 99% of the playerbase, but perhaps underpowered for the 1% doing absolute cutting edge content.

Game design lesson of the day: perfect balance is impossible, and balance is just one of many pillars of what constitutes a good and fun game. I really don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the most beloved expansions WoW has ever had — Wrath, Mists, Legion, Dragonflight — are the ones that added new classes. It gets the community hyped to try a new playstyle, it compels relapsed players to return, it makes even people who don’t plan on sticking with that class feel like the game is evolving. It injects an enormous amount of new life into the game. It’s perhaps the most effective way to combat staleness.

They absolutely won’t change the main character, Sigurd. However, they might do what a few other Fire Emblem games did and add a player avatar character — in Three Houses, that character was Byleth, while the “Sigurd figures” (or actual protagonists) of that game were Edelgard, Claude, and Dimitri. You couldn’t decide to join the Blue Lions house and make Dimitri a girl, but you could make Byleth either a boy or a girl and then still experience Dimitri’s story the way it was intended.

Fire Emblem 4 Remake, Persona 2 Remake, Persona 6.

At the moment, four: Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max.

I never use HBO Max. Perhaps I should drop that sub.

I can’t see why not.

I agree.

I’m glad we had this discussion!

I mean, nothing I could say could do a better job selling this game than this trailer.

If you’re at all interested in FF7, or in Final Fantasy in general, or in playing massive, story-heavy JRPGs with tons of content, check out this trailer, and perhaps the demo if you have a PS5 (it’s already available). My hype has reached such a high level that it has overflowed and looped over, and I find myself unable to put it into words with much coherence. Just watch the dang trailer, peeps!

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

Take care! And remember: if you break the penal code, you will turn into a Toad.