What was the last game you finished?

Hah, glad to hear you're having such good times with your son, there dschult3. I'm the same way with A Link to the Past and a few other games. I haven't played Final Fantasy 6 in a few years, because any time I feel like it, I can pretty much just close my eyes for a replay

It was really cool to play A Link Between Worlds the first time for the same reason. If you know A Link to the Past really well, it is fun to see what secrets are in the same place, or which ones have fun new twists. It was still fun on my recent replay, but when I picked it up when it first came out, that was a fine nostalgia wave.

I just beat Final Fantasy VIII on the Switch. The 3X speed really sped up the process. I remember playing this on my PC in the early 2000s, and I knew it would take me about a month's worth of time to play through it. It was nice to see the touch ups on the graphics, and I still love the music and the story. I found myself being meaner to Rinoa at first, because I used to always go along with her antics 20 years ago, for fear of not getting a good ending. Nothing changes, from what I could see this time around. I absolutely loved hearing those experimental tracks during the Ultimacia fight at the end too. That music always psyches me up.

Oh, and during this play through, I spotted a HUGE hole in the "Squall is dead" theory. For those of you who don't know, there is a very intriguing theory that has been around for quite some time that states that Squall died in space, so Rinoa became the bitter sorceress in the future. She became cold and calculating out of the selfish desire to use time compression magic to bring back Squall. I've seen other creepy pastas state that she used the time compression magic to give Squall the possible future vision in the last moments of life in space. I've always loved the dark tone of that theory, but I read it long past the point I had played through the game, so I took it as a great theory, even though Squaresoft (at the time, not Square Enix) denied it. Well, during this play through, I was saddened to see the theory get killed before my eyes during the assassination attempt scene. While controlling Edea, she tries to kill Rinoa as a sacrifice. That would kill her future self, so... yeah. The creepy pasta is dead in my eyes.

Anyways, I still love the game. I understand why Final Fantasy VII is getting an HD AND game play makeover, though. As a CGR type guy, I was mad when I originally heard about the changes. In my mind, the games are a piece of history, and they shouldn't be messed with. Playing through this edition 20 years from the launch has COMPLETELY changed my mind. The nuances of the late 90s era of gaming on the PS 1 just pissed me off, since I'm a semi-modern gamer. The pre-rendered backgrounds with the sprite overlays were cool back then, but the odd perspective changes from screen to screen annoyed the hell out of me. It was not uncommon for me to leave one screen to go to another with a changed perspective, and the damn directions changed because of the lay out. I was so angry at the fact that I would often times go back or move to another screen, because it messed up the flow of the game. At other times, I couldn't figure out where I had to be placed perfectly to touch a button, hit a switch, or go up and down a ladder. It would be nice to see the FF 7 treatment applied to 8, but somehow, I doubt it will happen any time soon.

Anyways, I love this game, but I won't rate it. My rosy colored nostalgia glasses would over rate the game for 2019. The PS 1 era issues would completely turn of a kid these days, unless they are really into old school RPGs. My son was semi interested, but the lack of voice acting and the complicated GF junction system (which is not that important to understand completely) had him more interested in his other games (and his Sega Genesis Mini).

On a side note, I really wish Square Enix would do an MMO with this world. Using SeeD as a merc group, while exploring more of Laguana's story, NorG's story, the history of the Sorceresses, and the Shumi would be awesome.

I just finished up playing through Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3) on the Collection of Mana on the Switcch. Overall, I really enjoyed it, though I wish they'd taken the time to improve a few things. The full-screen menus still load very slowly, though the ring-menus are still quite quick. The boss fights are not exactly difficult, but very, very time consuming, as though the design staff had decided to make the bosses harder than in Secret of Mana, but could only think of increasing their hit points by 5-10 times. As a result, I found myself getting fairly bored during boss battles.

I played the Duran/Angela path, with Charlotte as my third character. I think I'll hold off until the remake to play the other paths.

This was a bit of a sad one for me. I've been playing it slowly since November, and my father passed away unexpectedly in December. It kind of killed my enthusiasm to do just about anything for a while, but it felt nice finishing off the game now that things are starting to get back to normal for me.

Next up, Fire Emblem: Three Houses again, now that the DLC is out

Finished up the 20th anniversary edition of Final Fantasy 1 for the PSP (played on my Vita and PSTV). Probably the prettiest way to play FF1.

I really enjoyed it. FF1 is a bare bones RPG, but it had all the elements that really captured my imagination as a kid. I didn't bother with any of the bonus dungeons available in this one.

Finished up the Trials of Mana demo.

I played and enjoyed the original in the Mana Collection recently, and was looking forward to this. Overall, I'm really happy with what I've see/played.

The interface is vastly improved (as it should be in 20+ years), but I think they also translated the locations very well to the 3D space. Combat feels peppy, which is an improvement over the original. It feels a bit odd to play a Mana game where you can jump, but it works.

The game is bright, and cherry, fitting the series, and the updated music works really well. I'm really looking forward to the full game.

Finished up Trails in the Sky the 3rd.