Final Fantasy X - The Intermission

 

It's unusual for me to post about a game that I didn't finish. With my Playstation Plus subscription, I get access to all kinds of games that I tryout and otherwise would never have the opportunity to play. Subsequently, it is rather common for me to start a game to see if I like it, only to quit after an hour or so. Typically, if I try a game and I like the game, I'll make a point to play it till the end. At that point, I will typically write a post about the game. Currently, I'm a little over 30 hours into Final Fantasy X. I've definitely done more than a trial of this game. The problem is that I am stuck on a boss fight that I haven't been able to get past. In my defense, I am new to the Final Fantasy (FF) series and turn-based gameplay in general. My first Final Fantasy game was Remake in 2024, which wasn't a classic FF game in the sense that its gameplay wasn't turn based. I really enjoyed Remake, as well as Rebirth. This got me interested in playing other FF games, and X was highly recommended. Thus far I've enjoyed most aspects of X. I hope to finish the game one day, and have a follow-up post where I talk about the positives. In this post I am going to do a little bit of complaining about the game, however.

I think most of my issue with this game has more to do with early 2000s game design than the specific game itself. In the era of the autosave, you get so used to a game autosaving that you completely take the feature for granted. This game does not have an autosave feature, and more specifically for this game, the manual save points can be quite spread apart. Some of the boss battles can be quite lengthy, like 30+ minutes, and on a handful of occasions I found myself in a boss battle where I was defeated, and had to start over after battling the boss for 30+ minutes. And forget about starting over at a certain phase of the boss battle, or even at the beginning of the boss battle. Sometimes the save sphere was 30+ minutes of gameplay prior to the boss battle. I've had entire evenings of gaming progress wiped out because of this game design, and you can imagine how frustrating this scenario becomes. I don't know if any games were using autosave in the early 2000s, but if nothing else a save sphere could be placed closer to a battle where the likelihood of dying was high.

The other frustration that I have with this game is the situation that I'm stuck in now where I cannot advance past the enemy. Being stuck on a boss battle simply because the boss is difficult is one thing, but I can't get past the boss that I'm on currently because of lack of acquired skills for my characters. I fully accept that I'm a novice when it comes to turn-based RPGs which could contribute to the predicament that I'm currently in. However, this game is fairly linear. There doesn't appear to be a lot of areas to roam around to get extra skills for your characters. Apparently "grinding" in this game doesn't involve side quests as much as it involves doing battles over and over again. This is fine, I suppose, if you knew it was necessary. The problem is, I wasn't aware that I was going to need certain skills moving forward, and thus didn't just randomly do the same battles over and over again to get more skills. Now I'm stuck on a plane for this boss battle, with little options in terms of advancing my skillset by grinding out battles. And don't get me started on what a convoluted mess the skill tree is in this game. But hey, at least there's a save sphere right before the boss battle.

As it stands now, I can get through about 75% of the boss battle that I'm stuck on. At that point in the fight, he unleashes a move that I cannot survive. There are a couple of skills that I've read about online that can help with this fatal move, but I have no way to acquire the skills since I'm stuck on this plane. My only hope at this point is to hang my head and ask my brother-in-law to help me. He has significantly more experience with this game than I do. I'm concerned that he won't be able to help me advance based on the situation that I am in, but I don't think there is much else I can do. If we're able to advance and finish the game, there will be a second part of this post released in the future. If you never hear about this game again, assume I was never able to advance. It really is a shame, because I think the story and characters are really intriguing, with a quirkiness similar to FF VII. 

The Paper (Season 1)

 

I was always a fan of the show The Office, so of course I was interested in The Paper spinoff show. The Michael Scott era of The Office was fantastic, and continues to give through its internet memes. The Paper is a similar show in that it is about the office dynamics of some odd individuals. This time the office is for a newspaper instead of a paper distribution company. They did a good job of not trying to match the characters 1:1 with the characters on The Office. From ChatGTP:

The Paper follows the struggling Toledo Truth-Teller, a once-proud local Midwestern newspaper now reduced to clickbait, wire copy, and near-irrelevance. A documentary crew — the same one that filmed The Office’s Dunder Mifflin — shifts focus to this beleaguered newsroom as it tries to reinvent itself in the digital age.

Overall I thought the first season was good, and has promise to be great. It was humorous at times, but never really laugh out loud funny. It had Office vibes without trying to hard to be just like the Office, which I appreciated. I'll likely watch season 2. I'd give it a soft recommendation for someone who enjoyed The Office.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Books)

 

For a gaming series that spans such a wide timeline, and features some of the best games ever made, it is very difficult to point to a single game in the series as being my favorite. And yet, I continue to come back to Twilight Princess (TP). It initially came out on the GameCube, a system that I never owned. It subsequently came out on the Wii, which is the system I played the game on, with its weird motion controls. Not having the GameCube is important in this story because it means I never played Wind Waker (until now, that is). This means that the Zelda game that I played prior to TP on the Wii was 1998's Ocarina of Time (OoT), nearly a full decade prior to TP's release. Ocarina of Time is a great game, and is rightfully praised by almost everybody. TP blew my mind when I played, because it was set in a similar-appearing version of Hyrule as OoT, but everything about it was bigger and better. The story was also much darker and complex, and I found that to be appealing as well. It has the best plot of any game in the series, in my opinion. 

I mention this background for two reasons. One is to explain how much I like the game and why I like it. The second is to point out that the game isn't exactly easy to play these days. While I still have a Wii, using the motion controls is cumbersome and the game doesn't exactly translate great to modern TVs with the Wii's outdated connections. An HD version of TP came out on the Wii U, and when I bought the Switch I thought about buying a Wii U instead so that I could play BOTW and TP HD, but decided against it because the Wii U was going for $350+ at the time. Probably made the right decision going with the Switch. Doing a quick Ebay search shows that the Wii U is currently selling between $50-$250. This is where the Twilight Princess book series comes into the conversation, because it was a great way to relive the game without being able to easily play it.

The Twilight Princess is a series of 11 books, written in Japanese Manga style. I never read comics as a kid, let alone manga. For the uninitiated, manga is written right-to-left, and you start at what would be the back of the book and progress to the beginning. It took a bit to get used to, but after a while it became easy enough to read. The animation is spectacular and really brought the TP version of Hyrule to life. My only small criticism is that some of the scenes were a bit dark and/or small and difficult to see. Overall, though, the visuals were great and really brought the game and story to life. The books mostly follow the events of the game, with small variations. Link is famously mute, and puzzle solving in temples is a major part of any Zelda game. Neither of these features of the game necessarily translate well to a book, so some improvising had to occur. For the most part, I think the author(s) did a good job with this. There were a couple of parts of the story where it strayed far enough off the main plot that I found it annoying, but this was infrequent. 

Overall, the books did a great job of retelling the story of one of my all time favorite games. The animation was great, and really made me feel like I was back in Hyrule at the time of the events of Twilight Princess. There are several other books by the same authors for other games in the Legend of Zelda series which I plan to read in the future.

Andor (Season 2)

 

One of the challenges of watching TV in the streaming era is that the seasons are short and oftentimes separated by a large quantity of time, typically a few years. This makes it difficult to not only remember what happened in the previous season, it's also hard to maintain a sense of caring about the show. I remember Andor season 1 being very good, and thus was interested in season 2. Once the reviews came out, I knew for sure I wanted to watch it and it did not disappoint. Andor season 2 is probably the best season of a Star Wars show ever made. The Empire has a heavy presence in season 2, but there are no Jedi, no lightsabers, no Force. Just really good writing, acting, and dramatic plot set in a galaxy far, far away. Even thinking about the season as I write this post is giving me goose bumps.

Season 2 takes place in 3 episode blocks, with one year passing after each block. Starting in the year BBY 5 and ending right before the events of the movie Rogue One in BBY 1. By the time of the events of A New Hope, the rebellion was well established and clearly able to take on the mighty Empire, blowing up the Death Star at the end of the movie. In the year BBY 5, however, the rebellion is just forming, and they are a complete mess. They're unorganized and lacking leadership and power. The Jedi are long gone, in hiding from Order 66, and the Empire is an already established power house in the galaxy. The rebellion's lack of leadership is displayed in the first 3 episodes, when Andor is captured by a group of rebels who proceed to fight over what to do next. He's on their side! People know that change is needed, and that the Empire is evil, but they do not know the best way to proceed. 

I thought the first 3 episode block was just OK, but what happens starting in the second block of episodes (episode 4) until the end of the second season is fantastic. Orson Krennic is the director of an Imperial "power program" that is a cover for the materials needed to build the Death Star. From ChatGTP:

Andor Season 2 continues Cassian Andor’s transformation from reluctant rebel into a committed revolutionary, directly bridging the story to Rogue One. The season is structured around time jumps that show how the Rebel Alliance rapidly evolves as the Empire tightens its grip on the galaxy.

Cassian becomes deeply embedded in organized rebellion, carrying out increasingly dangerous missions for Luthen Rael and other rebel leaders. He struggles with the moral cost of resistance—assassinations, sacrifices, and civilian casualties—while learning that victory against the Empire requires compromise and secrecy. Cassian’s identity as a symbol is deliberately erased so the rebellion itself can survive.

Meanwhile, Mon Mothma takes major steps toward open rebellion. Her financial manipulations and political maneuvering finally collapse her cover, forcing her to flee Coruscant and fully commit to leading the Rebel Alliance. Her storyline shows how rebellion isn’t just fought with weapons, but with reputation, family, and personal ruin.

The season also shows the birth of unified rebellion: scattered cells begin coordinating, sharing intelligence, and accepting that martyrdom may be necessary. Several supporting characters pay the ultimate price, reinforcing the show’s central theme that rebellion is built on sacrifice, not glory.

By the finale, Cassian is fully committed, emotionally hardened, and strategically vital—but still largely unknown. The season ends immediately before the events of Rogue One, positioning Cassian as a key operative ready to accept a mission he knows he may not survive.

Andor mostly takes missions from Luthen Rael, a guy pulling the strings behind several undercover missions for the rebellion and is using his antiques store as a front. His missions rely on intelligence and espionage, and feel like a cold-war era spy story, a la James Bond. As the rebellion grows, Mon Mothma had been pulling strings with her power in the senate, but eventually loses her cover and flees to the main rebel base in Yavin. Luthen ends up dying - his cover is blown and he kills himself to avoid Imperial torture and giving away the rebels secrets. He is a mostly unsung hero of the rebellion, as the shift in focus goes to Yavin and the soon to happen battle of Yavin where the Death Star is exploded in A New Hope. The spying, espionage, sacrifice, everything that was required to get the rebellion up and running to be successful provided fantastic drama. Andor seasons 1 & 2 will be remembered as some of the best Star Wars television ever made.

F1: The Movie

 

Initially, I was on the fence about watching this movie. It got great reviews, however, so when it was released on Apple TV I decided to give it a watch. Overall I thought it was really good, with only some minor plot points that held it back. From Chat GTP:

The film follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a former Formula One driver whose promising career ended decades earlier after a devastating crash. Now a veteran racer competing in other motorsport series, Sonny is unexpectedly recruited by his old friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), the owner of a struggling F1 team on the brink of collapse.

Sonny returns to Formula One not as a championship favorite, but as a last-chance gamble to help save the team. He’s paired with Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a young, highly talented rookie whose raw speed is matched by inexperience and ego. Much of the film centers on the tense mentor-student dynamic between Sonny and Joshua, as they clash over racing philosophy, pressure, and what it takes to survive at the highest level of the sport.

My biggest takeaway from the movie is that the on-screen racing action is fantastic. The racing scenes were filmed during actual F1 race weekends, and the way the action is portrayed feels very realistic. It has the best racing scenes and action that I've ever seen in a racing movie. It feels very authentic.

The plot is good enough. It's a bit of a stretch to think that an older, retired F1 driver can return to a struggling team to save the season by winning a race, but it provides for an interesting story. It reminds me a bit of Philip Rivers returning to the Colts this season. Too bad it didn't work out as well for them. The biggest thing that I didn't like was the one night stand that Brad Pitt's character had with the race engineer. It felt a bit forced and unnecessary, honestly. Additionally, the crashes were over the top, especially Pearce's crash at Monza. I also didn't like how everyone turned on Sonny after Pearce's crash at Monza. Pearce did the opposite of what Sonny recommended, crashed, and everyone blamed Sonny. Seems incorrect.

Criticisms aside, overall the movie was really well done. It has the best, most realistic racing action I've ever seen in a movie. The plot is intriguing enough, and I really like how they didn't dumb down the racing dialog. It's probably the best racing movie ever made, or at least the best one made in my lifetime. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're a racing fan.

Star Wars Outlaws

 

Being a Star Wars game, Outlaws was on my radar the moment it was first announced. When it was released, it got good but not great reviews, I think because of some quality of life issues around how the game dealt with stealth gameplay. From what I read, subsequent patches were released which improved on these issues. By the time I played Outlaws, a year after it was released, the gameplay issues which plagued the game were long gone. Outlaws is unique for a Star Wars game in that it doesn't feature any Jedi. In fact, with the exception of two cut scenes that feature Darth Vader, the game doesn't involve any of the traditional characters you'd expect to see in a Star Wars story. It takes place after the Battle of Hoth, or right around the time of episode V in the movies. From ChatGTP:

You play as Kay Vess, a scoundrel and thief trying to leave her troubled life behind and make it big with one massive score. Early in the game, she takes a job breaking into the vault of Sliro Barsha, the powerful head of the criminal syndicate Zerek Besh. The plan goes sideways when she discovers the crew she’s working with are Rebel Alliance operatives trying to free their leader, Asara Deyn. Kay is shot, blamed for the break-in, and branded with a death mark — essentially a huge bounty on her head.

To escape her predicament, Kay steals a ship called the Trailblazer but crash-lands on the desert moon Toshara. Stranded and desperate to fix her ship, she gets drawn deeper into the galaxy’s underworld and must work with or against various local syndicates to earn enough to survive and repair the Trailblazer. 

Eventually, Kay teams up with outlaw Jaylen Vrax and the droid ND-5 to assemble a crew for the ultimate heist — breaking into Sliro’s vault again. Along the way she recruits specialists across the galaxy, including a safecracker, a droidsmith, and even her estranged mother, the slicer Riko Vess. 

The game emphasizes a stealth approach, but you can use a blaster first approach if you prefer. Sneaking around all of the time is a bit anxiety inducing, but is definitely the easier route. When you're noticed, you are often outnumbered by a lot, and at times the gun battles can be tough, especially since Kay doesn't have any Force powers. There are few things in gaming more fun than aim and shoot gameplay, and I tend to enjoy this more than sneaking around. I'm glad this game incorporated both styles and not just stealth. There were also a handful of battles in your ship in space, which I didn't expect.

You get to visit a handful of planets with different environments, which was nice. You deal with different criminal syndicates, some of which are well known such as the Hutts, the Pykes, and Crimson Dawn. Depending on the choices you make throughout the game, you either get on the good side or bad side of each of these syndicates. I honestly thought this would play a bigger part of the game, but it really didn't seem to affect the outcome at all, which was a bit disappointing. I basically just did what benefitted me the most at the time and didn't worry too much about the various syndicates. 

In addition to the stealth and blaster gameplay, there was some mild puzzle solving and periodic platforming. My only complaint about the game is that on a handful of occasions I had to consult a YouTube video to figure out what to do or where to go to next. This happened despite yellow paint being used. Most of the time, if I couldn't figure out what to do next, it was a situation which involved using my sidekick pet Nix. After a bit I got used to this gameplay, but it through me for a loop a few times in the beginning. I should mention there were lots of vents to crawl through in this game, a la Snake and Metal Gear.

Overall I enjoyed this game quite a bit. The mix of stealth and blaster fire gameplay, along with visiting a handful of planets with beautiful environments, made for a fun time. The story was decent, and I had fun in the Star Wars world without being a Jedi. The main story clocked in right at 20 hours, which is just fine with me. I don't need every game to be a 50+ hour behemoth of a quest. I just need the game to be fun and enjoyable, and Outlaws ticked that box for me. 

My Game of the Year Award for 2025 (& 2024, 2023 & 2022)

Since joining Playstation Plus in 2022, I have had access to more games than I have ever imagined. I've been able to play games from major series for the first time, such as Fallout, Assassins Creed, and Final Fantasy. Additionally, I've been able to play smaller, more independent games. This got me thinking about my favorite game of the past year. I get to play so many titles, some until I see the credits role, others for just a short trial of an hour or two, that it is fun to think back on all the games I've played in the past year to determine my favorite. Keep in mind that I usually only post about games that I complete the main story. In 2025, for instance, I posted about 10 games, but played 67 games according to my Playstation wrap-up for 2025. I thought about this concept of game of the year in 2024, because my favorite game was a surprise to me. But I never got around posting about it, and now that it is the end of 2025 and I thought of the concept again, I thought it was time to make the award happen. This award goes to my favorite game that I played in 2025, it does not necessarily have to be a game that came out in the year of the award. With that being said, and without further delay, my 2025 game of the year award goes to...

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. I had seen the cover of this 2015 game many times prior to playing it, but had no idea what it was about. Geralt's face on the cover scared me, quite frankly. But it was available on Playstation Plus, and when I did a brief search I discovered that the game got fantastic reviews and was very well regarded. I decided to give it a try, and boy was I not disappointed. After learning the characters and what a "witcher" was, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. The story, characters, and settings are all intriguing. The gameplay and pace of the game in terms of how Geralt levels up vs the level needed for the next main quest is perfect. The music and visuals are great, especially for a game that is 10 years old. Just about every aspect of this game is done well. I enjoyed it so much that I even did some of the side quests, which is rare for me (and always a sign that I like the game). When I was about halfway through the game, it went off Playstation Plus and I was able to buy the game plus its two DLC packs for like $10. Since finishing the game, I've read the first book in the series, and plan to return to play the DLC packs and possibly watch the Netflix show. Runner-ups include Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Assassins Creed: Valhalla, and Dredge. To complete my game of the year awards in my Playstation Plus era, my 2024 game of the year award goes to...

Dave the Diver was my surprise game of the year for 2024. I played a lot of really good games in 2024, as you'll see from the runner-up list below, but Dave stood out for its intriguing story and fun gameplay and characters. This is a good example of a game I'd never play without access to Playstation Plus. My entire family liked this game so much we even went as characters from the game for Halloween. I'm really looking forward to the DLC package that is coming out in 2026! My runners-up for 2024 include Echoes of Wisdom, Fallout 4, Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and Ghost of Tsushima.

My 2023 game of the year is Tears of the Kingdom, and my 2022 game of the year is Horizon: Zero Dawn. God of War: Ragnarok is a runner-up for 2023, and God of War (2018) is a runner-up for 2022, as is Gran Turismo 7 and I was still playing Breath of the Wild in 2022, though it would have won game of the year in 2017 or 2018 for me if I were going that far back.