Finally, A Fantasy Remake - Renegade Arcade vol. 2
Greetings, gamers and non-gamers alike! This is the second episode of the Renegade Arcade, in which we discuss a whole ton of remakes and a whole lot of Final Fantasy VII! Join our hosts Tony, Josh, and Keona as they take you on a nostalgic but modern trip down memory lane, chatting about such titles as Capcom’s Resident Evil 3 remake, and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake! We also discuss our feelings on Halo 5 Guardians and more!
I’m going to go ahead and plant a Spoiler Warning right here if you haven’t played the games or are still in progress with the FFVII Remake. Just in case. Most of the podcast doesn’t get into anything specific, but there is one thing during the Final Fantasy section that might be considered a spoiler. Sorry about that.
Also, we recorded this the night before my birthday, which was on April 24th, so excuse the references to an impending b-day that we threw into the show.
We love our Tifa!
Anyway, we hope you enjoy the podcast and that you all are playing some awesome games as we wait for the worldwide pandemic to pass us by. Personally, I’ve been replaying the Final Fantasy VII Remake, as well as Insomniac’s excellent Spider-Man game on Playstation 4. FFVII was our main topic on the show, and I need to reiterate how awesome the experience of playing through it was! It’s a game that brings characters to life that I never thought I’d see again, fully voiced by an amazing cast of actors. It is a treat. I know that many are upset or disappointed about the changes that have been made, and I do sympathize, but for me, it was so close to being a perfect game in so many ways that I honestly just want to play the next chapter already. We’ll talk spoilers in the near future, so be sure to look out for that!
As for Spidey’s PS4 adventure, all I can say is that it’s one of the best video game versions of the character since the original Playstation game and its impressive Dreamcast port. The voice cast is spot on, the gameplay is awesome, especially when it comes to swinging around the city, and the combat mechanics are very similar to the Batman: Arkham series. Insomniac did a fantastic job bringing our favorite wall-crawler to life, and I hope they get to make a sequel to it on the next gen systems. That would be spectacular!
We also chat a bit about the controversy surrounding Bethesda’s Doom Eternal soundtrack album, which was not mixed by the composer, Mick Gordon. Numerous outlets have reported on the issue, and Gordon himself has been quoted as saying it’s unlikely he’ll work with Bethesda again, which would be a shame, especially if they plan on making more Doom games. That’s a huge bummer for me if it is true; Gordon’s music is synonymous with the franchise at this point, and his work never fails to get the blood pumping as you rip and tear demons to shreds. Hopefully Gordon finds a way to mix the album himself and properly release it as he intended. If not, Bethesda should be ashamed of themselves.
Jill’s a badass!
Another game we discussed this week was Capcom’s Resident Evil 3 remake, which hasn’t been the critical darling that its predecessor was in 2019. For me, the game was perfectly fine; yes, it was short, and no, it wasn’t as scary as RE2, but I had loads of fun playing it, and Nemesis was frightening to me when I did run into him. It’s a shame they did away with the random appearances by the hulking monster, but I honestly don’t know if my anxiety could have handled that. *nervous chuckle* Anyway, the reason I loved this game can be summed up in two words: Jill Valentine. My goodness, I love this character so much. She’s obviously struggling with coming to terms with the events of the first game, in which she saw monstrous creatures utterly destroy friends and colleagues, but she doesn’t freeze up or stay down. She pushes through, and even though she could be killed at any moment, she survives. I love that about this version of Jill, and voice actress Nicole Tompkins does a fantastic job in the role.
Finally, we chat about Halo 5 Guardians and the state of that franchise ahead of the holiday release of Halo Infinite. I felt extremely let down by Guardians’ story, especially in light of the marketing campaign surrounding the game, which made it seem like the Master Chief had gone AWOL to search for Cortana and you played Locke, a Spartan operative sent to bring Chief in. While that narrative was paid a bit of lip service during the actual game, it didn’t play out in a satisfying way. I hope that 343 Industries manages to recapture the Halo magic in Infinite, but only time will tell. The franchise needs to get back on track.