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Would you want Square Enix to do more collab games with Final Fantasy such as Record Keeper, Dissidia, or WoFF? Personally, I love these collab games! Actually amongst my favorite.

My first FF game was FF7, and at first it most certainly set a precedent for what I wanted in a Final Fantasy game (really strong emphasis on serious, cinematic storytelling). For a long time I held the other games I played to that standard, which is why I didn't like Final Fantasy 5 very much at all when I first played it. Over the years I've opened my mind a lot more to the concept that each Final Fantasy was trying to be different and fresh, and since then have learned to enjoy all of them with the exceptions of FF11 and FF13.

Resonant Arc

Hey Cynthia! Casen won't be on the podcast tonight and I'm sure we're all aware that I'm not a KH expert by any means, so I probably won't talk about it on the podcast, but I did watch the trailer and I can see that it is looking incredibly polished. Everything I've said about KH3 leading up to now pretty much remains. It's looking very good!

Resonant Arc

Can you please discuss the two recent Kingdom Hearts III trailers? (Even though the first shorter one was presented as a preview of the longer one, not much of the content is the same.)

I was going to ask the same thing as Jeff Caruso in regards to the FF ports for Nintendo switch! With particular focus on why they left out FF8? Is FF8 the black sheep? Or is it just too difficult to port/release? I know there’s a lot of divided opinion on 8, but I can’t help but feel it’s one game that’s almost been abandoned by square...

If it makes things more interesting, you can swap the entire party into this scenario to support the ring bearer.

Hat

What was your first final fantasy game and how did that impact your impression of the series as a whole? For example, 12 was my first rpg, and I initially found more typical entries such as ff 7 "weird" because it was so different than what I thought the series was about. I now know how different and devisive ff 12 was with its battle mechanics, but it will always be special to me as my first jrpg.

Which main Final Fantasy character, at the beginning of their character arc, do you believe would have the correct temperament/personality to complete Frodo's journey from Lord of the Rings in success? The character would be able to have character growth throughout the journey, as would be appropriate with what would seem reasonable for their personality. The question implies that the character would carry the ring the entire time, and be subject to the same temptations, and emotional manipulation that Frodo experienced. Which character do you believe would have the highest chance of success, and which characters would have the most difficult time with this given what you know about their character?

Hat

Do you feel that a JRPG could sustain your interest if it didn't include an epic save-the-world plot? I don't mean the erasure of story conflict, of course, just making the game's stakes far more personal and small-scale. (For instance, a Persona game that solely focused on high school relationships without the threat of apocalypse, or FFVII where the core problem of the game was simply uncovering Cloud's past without the looming threat of meteor.) There are certainly a lot of high-quality visual novels and related media that might arguably meet these story criteria, but they lack the AAA gameplay (battle system, high-quality visuals) that makes a game truly interactive. Do you feel that there's a market for well-told, personal stories within the infrastructure of a full game?

What did you think of the Nintendo Direct? Specifically all the Square games that are being ported over. What’s your theory on why FFVIII was excluded?

I've been experiencing the strange situation with Octopath Traveler recently. I adore nearly every individual element of the game... except for actually playing it. I feel the characters, the visuals, the music, the battle system, etc. are all great and endearing. But I'm about halfway through chapter 2, and I don't really have any interest in continuing to play it. Have you guys ever had a game that you loved pretty much everything about, but just didn't have any desire to play it? If so, do you think the sort of thing is a case of personal preference, or indicative of poor design?

Are there any game franchises/genres you don't enjoy as much as you used to? Platformers seem to not be able to grab my attention as much as they had before. Personally, I used to play the 3D Mario platformers all of the time when I was younger, but I can only play about an hour at most before I get bored of the process. I still believe platformers (especially Mario) hold several great games within the genre, however I just cannot seem to enjoy them as much as I used to.