Samantha Lienhard

Final Fantasy VII Remake 8-Disc Soundtrack Revealed

Apr 012020

With the Final Fantasy VII Remake almost upon us (with people getting their copies any time between now and who-knows-when due to the current chaos), Square Enix revealed the track list for its complete soundtrack.

Its 8-disc soundtrack.

Okay, the eighth disc is a bonus disc included with the “Special Edit Version” that contains music from the in-game jukebox, but that still leaves us with 7 discs for the game’s main soundtrack, with 156 songs listed.

For comparison, the original Final Fantasy VII’s soundtrack contained 85 songs over four discs – and that was for the entire story. This Midgar-focused first entry of the remake already has far more songs, which makes me wonder how much music there will be once the subsequent games are also remade.

This is not to be confused with the mini soundtrack included with the Final Fantasy VII Remake Deluxe Edition. That is a mini soundtrack sampler that contains 12 songs. The full soundtrack will be released on May 27.

Peruse the track list at your own risk, since the titles of certain songs might imply spoilers for the game.

Speaking of spoilers, now is the time to filter Youtube and avoid Final Fantasy VII Remake discussions if you’re hoping to play it without seeing spoilers ahead of time, because copies are already out in the wild due to Square Enix shipping the game early to certain regions to avoid delays.

For those of you with digital pre-orders, the pre-load begins this Friday. I’ve debated about switching to a digital copy to play the game on its release day, but right now my love of physical games is still winning out.

Anyway, I’m excited by the sheer number of songs in this game (and I thought this would be a safe topic to blog about instead of news that could be mistaken for a prank today), and I can’t wait until I can play. Are you looking forward to the Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Nier Replicant Remaster and Mobile Game Nier Re[in]carnation Announced

Video games 1 Response » Tagged with: nier, rpg

Mar 302020

In honor of Nier’s 10th anniversary, we knew a live stream was set for yesterday and there were plenty of rumors about a potential Nier remaster.

Well, the rumors turned out to be true! Square Enix has announced NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

(And yes, that’s the name they’re going with, “NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…” That number is the square root of 1.5, but I don’t want to see any Nier fans picking on Kingdom Hearts titles ever again.)

The remaster appears to be specifically Nier Replicant for both Japan and the west. For those of you who don’t know, when Nier was released in Japan, it had two versions: Nier Replicant and Nier Gestalt. The sole difference between these two is the protagonist and his relationship to Yonah. Replicant starred a young man who was her brother, while Gestalt starred an older man who was her father.

Only Gestalt was ever localized for the west, so this remaster will mark the first time the younger Nier has ever been playable in an official western release. It appears as though this will be the only version remastered.

Now, I’ve been calling it a remaster, but the official explanation translated by Gematsu leaves that slightly uncertain. It was officially described as “neither a remaster or a remake, but rather an upgraded version of the game.”

Voice-overs and background music have been re-recorded, and new elements have been added, including at least one new character, and the voice actors for 2B and 9S from Nier Automata will have small roles. However, it’s still undecided if there will be any new endings.

It still sounds like a remaster to me, but whatever it is, they hope it will feel fresh even to fans who have already played the game. I enjoyed Nier a lot when I played it last year, so I’m keeping my eye on this for sure.

But that wasn’t it for Nier news yesterday! They followed that announcement by revealing Nier Re[in]carnation, a new entry in the series for iOS and Android.

I’m not crazy about it being a mobile game, but additional details translated by Gematsu make it sound more promising.

According to producer Yosuke Saito, “at first glance, it doesn’t look like a smartphone title” and they’re approaching it as though it would be a multiplatform release, and he wants it to “cause a stir” even if it isn’t a profitable game. Director Yoko Taro described it as “a strangely startling type of game.”

This sounds like there’s a chance it won’t follow the usual free-to-play gacha model that turns me away whenever I see a mobile game announced. I’ll be interested in seeing more about Nier Re[in]carnation.

Meanwhile, I’ve gone back to my playthrough of Nier Automata and hope to make progress in that soon. Are you excited for the Nier Replicant remaster? What about Nier Re[in]carnation? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Kingdom Hearts III’s Re:Mind DLC Pushed Me to My Limits

Reviews, Video games 7 Responses » Tagged with: kingdom hearts, kingdom hearts 3, rpg

Mar 272020

After Kingdom Hearts III’s Re:Mind DLC launched in late January, one thing about its reception became very clear.

Players who had no interest in fighting superbosses often criticized the DLC as not having enough content, while players who enjoyed superbosses generally found the DLC to be fantastic.

Now I’ve finally finished playing Re:Mind in its entirety.

The DLC is divided into three major parts: the Re:Mind story scenario, the Limit Cut, and the Secret Episode.

(Plus the Data Greeting feature, which lets you pose characters to set up your own scenes for a ton of creative potential. I messed around with that for a while, although I was disappointed that some of my favorite characters like Vexen weren’t available for it.)

Each unlocks after the previous one, so you begin with Re:Mind. The start of the scenario is a little bland, since it largely retreads the final part of the game, with new context and content.

I enjoyed the changes to the cutscenes, but it is a bit repetitive. After that, however, things become more interesting, as Re:Mind gets into new content and lets you finally explore that certain area in Kingdom Hearts III that felt like it should have been an explorable world. The latter half of the Re:Mind scenario has some pretty cool moments, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I took my time exploring, and so that part took me about 5 hours.

Then I unlocked the Limit Cut episode and realized that not only were the superbosses a good portion of the DLC’s content, but I would also need to fight them if I wanted to see all of its story.

The first boss I attempted immediately destroyed me. I was tempted to call it quits there and look up the cutscenes online or even play through the main game again to use the newly-added EZ Codes to make the fights easier (the DLC also added Pro Codes, which make fights harder), but after waiting so long for Re:Mind and finally experiencing a Kingdom Hearts game when it came out instead of years later, I decided to give the fights an honest try.

And so I leveled up until I hit level 99 and started fighting the Limit Cut bosses. It’s strange, but while each boss has its own pattern and style for you to learn, I also felt like I had to learn how to fight superbosses at all. I’d never beaten a Kingdom Hearts superboss before, and they all felt impossible at the start, but there was a certain point where it clicked and I understood how to learn the fights.

Countless deaths and hours later, I’d defeated all of the Limit Cut bosses and unlocked the Secret Episode, which presented me with the most challenging boss I’ve ever faced.

I don’t want to think about how many hours I spent on that fight. Certainly more than 10. I’d sit down in the evenings and fight for an hour or two, dying over and over but slowly learning how to deal with each attack and gradually getting better, until I finally won.

As for the story, I’m confused about everything, but I’m ready to ride this wild ride to the end and see where Nomura is taking us in the next Kingdom Hearts saga.

Re:Mind left me with some satisfying story moments, many hours of ~~death~~ entertainment, and a sense of accomplishment from beating all of those fights. I’m one of the people who found Re:Mind to be an excellent conclusion for Kingdom Hearts III.

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