Ok so a few things.

First off, and this leads into the second thing, I finally went to hang out with Richard for the first time in months and that was pretty sweet.  Didn’t get back home until Monday morning which is why there wasn’t a strip up that day, apologies.

Second, we picked up where we left off in our Final Fantasy 7 Remake run and oh my god it continues to be a (mostly) joyless experience that outside of the gameplay kind of shits all over the original material.

There’s lots to pick from, but I’ll go with the train graveyard as my personal strongest example thus far.  In FF7, the train graveyard is exactly what it sounds like, an old railroad station area that is littered with presumably old model, abandoned trains.  The section last like five to ten minutes and while there’s no explicit dialogue explaining the area or why it’s called the “train graveyard” you can assume that the station used to be a source of industry for Sector 7 and the neighboring areas and was a hub of activity.  Accompanied by the sad music, the aging, rusted machinery tells the player that things aren’t what they used to be and likely aren’t going to get better for the denizens of the Midgar slums.

In FF7Re, the train graveyard is SPOOKY GHOSTS SCOOBY DOO CHILD GHOSTS THERE’S GHOSTS HERE IT’S SPOOKTOWN.

Like… wat?

The game is primarily focused around the effects of industry on the world environmentally and socially.  The original train graveyard was a perfect display of it’s negative effects on both.  The new one… like it’s about lost children ghost spirits…

…whyyyyyy

Also the magic healing benches are stupid and Cloud should share.