The Force Awakens - Spoiler Review

EDIT: It turns out I am stupid and the whole post is visible all the time. So just make sure you scroll down very quickly to the next post.

Sooo here is everything that I didn't include in the No Spoiler Review, for obvious reasons.
Only read this if you have seen the movie or really don't care about spoilers.
Honestly

I will be discussing my fealings regarding all the important plot points, so stay away if you have yet to see The Force Awakens.

I will try to make my introduction as long as possible to make sure no spoiler will is visible on the front page, but no promises.

Of course this is a good time to talk about spoilers in general.
I think this whole spoiler hysteria went out of hand. I mean look at Final Fantasy VII. The original that came out in 1997. That was 18 years ago. It can now buy alcohol, drive a car and have sex.
It's plot is generally common knowledge. We all know that Aerith dies, Cloud has fake memories, or that Sephiroth was dead all along. I knew all of these and more when I had my first playthrough. And guess what. I loved every minute of it. Well written moments work just as well if you know they are comming. *cough* I am your father *cough*. Plus it is not the same to read: Snape kills Dumbledore in an internet forum as reading or watching that scene in the context of the whole story. If a huge blockbuster in 2015 can't affect its audience as well as a nearly two decades old console game it has failed miserably.

With that out of the way let's look at the movie!













You ready?






Your sure?









Okay. So TFA was awesome. There is no point denying that unless you are obejctively wrong.
Sure there are a few details we can nitpick about - and I totally will - but none these minor things are worse than the plotholes of the Original Trilogy, or Back to the Future II or The Matrix. Or Terminator 2 for that matter. And Jurassic Park.
So yeah, you get the idea. Yet we ignored all of those cause everything else worked. So we shall give The Force Awakens a free pass as well.

Most of the legitimate complaints against TFA can be traced back to two issues.

1. It was predictable. Very predictable. The guy who looks a lot like a young Harrison Ford, plays Han Solo's son. The tech savvy orphan living on a desert planet turns out to be Force sensitive. She's also a very good pilot.
Oh, quick question: If a good guy wants to redeem the villain while standing on a long bridge above a bottomless pit, what will happen?
If you answered: The good guy dies, you win.
And come on. Everyone figured out R2 has the missing map piece as soon as 3PO mentioned that it is impossible.

2. Very little new stuff was in it. Of course when I say new stuff I mean stuff that didn't pay homage to the OT. Granted I loved all those moments, but appart from the Knights of Ren and their 2-3 seconds of screen time, everything had at least a little bit of: "I have seen this before" flavor.
Of course it is understandable why the movie was playing it safe.
If we don't count the special editions, we have gone for 30 years without a star wars movie that wasn't utter garbage. We have also gone for 10 years without any kind of star wars movie. The last time Lucasfilm revived an old IP, it turned out to be a disaster. The last time JJ revived a sci fi frachise, he didn't quite grasp the essence of it, And quite a few people doubted that Disney is the right company to produce new star wars movies.
Considering all this it was probably a smart move by the people involved to create a movie that is essentially a soft reboot that mixes Episode IV and V and leave the experimentation to Episode VIII and IX. Now that the new team has our trust they can steer the story in all sorts of interesting directions.


Han's death and the Luke reveal also passed the FFVII test. It wasn't as shocking the first time because of its predictability, but at least the second viewing didn't take away the effect.

Another thing worth mentioning is the ammount of world building the movie and the visual dictionary does. We got a nice glimpse at what people eat on Jakku and at the entertainment in Maz's bar. We also got several new organizations, planets and events. Rakata Prime is back in canon and the VD also mentions the Scourge of Malachor. I have a feeling SWTOR will soon be completely decanonized by a Kotor remake. Whatever happens, the Lore Vampire is happy with the new details it can chew on.

The Force Awakens - No Spoiler Review

Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting for so long, but I have been preoccupied with lots of stuff, including my thesis, a wierd illness I can't seem to shake off and of course Christmas.

That reminds me: Merry Christmas to you all! Yeah I know that technically Christmas is over, but we still have tonns of leftover food from the hollidays, so it isn't really over yet.

Speaking of food, I had my second serving of The Force Awakens today.

While all the spoilers are pretty much common knowledge now I'm still going to write a spoiler free review on the off chance that some of you dear readers still haven't seen the movie. Like my oldest cousin.

Short answer: I really enjoyed it. Most importantly: I enjoyed it the second time as well. More than a full week of hindsight didn't bring to light horrible plot holes and contradictions. At least not ones I noticed.

John Williams' score was a bit subdued this time, with no score piece standing out. However JW is a few decades older than even Nobuo Uematsu, so he kinda earned the right to not top himself every time. Plus, if the John Williams score is the least spectacular part of the movie, you know you are doing something right.

When discussing TFA we can't look over the acting. The movie has a huuge cast with returning classic actors, promising newcommers and illustrious cameos. And they all do their jobs really well. After the wax museum of the prequels were everyone beside Ian McDiarmid and the late Sir Christopher Lee acted like a tranquilized Pierce Brosnan it was really great to see genuine emotions on every face. Even Chewbacca was more expressive than usual. John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver in particular stood out.

TL;DR: For the second time JJ Abrams managed to revitalize a sci-fi franchise that has seen better days. Can we please give him the Mass Effect movie? Pretty please?

Final Fantasy VII - Episodes

Surprise!!!

I'm back again. Looks information began to flow regarding the Final Fantasy VII remake and it is not enough for one blog entry.

After the controversy of the not entirely turn based combat (which looks awesome by the way) we got another hype killer. As it turns out, the Remake will be released in multiple parts.

Now this idea has its merits, but I really don't like it.
First, let's look at its merits:

It will enable a bigger game.

• FF VII is already cut into several chapters. It's the parts where you change disks.
• It will enable a really large game as there will be time to do everything properly without cutting stuff out AND even include additional stuff.

Okay, now why it is stupid:

• No matter how good the remake is, one third of the remake won't be as good as the entire original was way back.
• It will inevitably be overpriced.
• It could mean that we won't have the same freedom to go anywhere we  want and do anything we want as we did in the original. ALL episodic games are linear. Even those that incorporate player choice.

I sort of understand the rationale of Nomura, but this is a  dangerous move. One wrong step and it can sink the remake and alienate a huge chunk of the fanbase. No pressure.

Final Fantasy VII - Remake update

Hello boys and girls. Sorry for not writing for such a long long time but I have been busy completing my thesis and hyping over the release of The Force Awakens, which draws closer and closer.

But now I am back with a vengeance as we finally got a gameplay trailer for the Final Fantasy VII remake!!!!!

Behold it in all its glory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMWEjWCwjzM&feature=youtu.be

A few points:

• I was right of course about the new angles we can see the city from. This is not a simple engine update. Gaia is being rebuilt.
• Totally unsurprisingly we are going to get actual cutscenes instead of speech bubbles we click through.
• Barret has a pretty cool sunglasses.
• Jesse, Biggs and Wedge all speak. In english no less.
• The combat system went to full action. Yuffie will need to do something about her combat style.
• We can totally switch between active party members. Hallelujah.
• Cloud jumps off the top of the train. Good.

And you know what the best part is? Beside Barret's sunglasses I anticipated every single one of these changes. On second thought, Barret's sunglasses might be an acessory or a dlc costume.
I love being right. And I love Final Fantasy even more.