Everything you said in your aside about ADHD was tremendously familiar. We're not alone in this world.

I was familiar with the concept of twice-twice before playing Elden Ring and it was delightful to see them in there. There's also a place that trolls you with a rolling ball i think.

Q1: unless what? What would possibly cause you to go back to Other M...

Damn, did they actually hire you as an "independent" contractor at 343 or is that shorthand for temporary employee? Because it sure sounds like employment to me if you work exclusively for them, in their office, using their toolchain under their direct management.

Mediocre. Lol. And this dude said he worked in game development. Sure thing.

1:40:00 "Anyone who plays games regularly has favorites that feature some janky behavior or other rough around the edges content." *looks at cars doing ballet in Forza Horizon series*

I was wondering. What are your thoughts on gamers from Western countries romanticizing East-Asian games and studios as the last bastion of "anti-woke" games? Is it okay to be anti-West and anti-woke for games?

Nice Q&A! I found it all interesting, but thank you especially for the insight into your time working at 343. What an absolute nightmare...

Hey folks, I just want to note that I unfortunately don’t have subtitles for this video on upload. Normally I consider them a first-class feature-I personally find accurate subtitles to be very helpful, and I know many of you out there do as well. Usually I can put my script into KZbin’s subtitle tools and things work out pretty well, but these answers were unscripted (as you can hear) so I would have to do a manual subtitle pass for this one. Please let me know if you want/need manual subtitles here by responding to this comment, and if there’s sufficient demand I’ll make time to do so. Also, again since these answers were unscripted, I want to clarify something I said at 46:43, where I said the company was staffing up “indiscriminately.” As I mention later on, I didn’t meet any fellow workers there that weren't good at what they do. In other words: I’m not saying that they hired “incompetent” people, and I want to make sure this comment doesn’t get misconstrued as such. What I mean by this is that the priorities were changing rapidly (due to the tight production timeline), and the staffing process couldn’t adjust at the same rate. This meant there were a number of contractors hired to do certain things but frequently they had to work on something completely different. (I witnessed this personally a few times.) Also another company is in the (initial) thumbnail for this video because I didn’t have a great time there either, but it certainly was less of a mess than what I mention here…

It would be so nice if my subscription feed actually showed me videos from channels I've subscribed to. I'm a bit late, but looking forward to sitting down with this.

This video singlehandedly inspired me to start making troll levels. For the past few months I've been creating trolls non stop and I've made 3 full levels already and am working on the fourth. I've found a sincere passion and creative outlet all thanks to this video

My favorite game mechanically in the series is Final Fantasy VIII, which is such a remarkable examination of Karl Marx's theory of space-time annihilation through ludic form. Definitely looking forward to writing something about that in more depth someday.

As someone replaying through the main series and just started 7, your timing is perfect! I appreciate that you touched on how the materia system high plasticity removes much of a character's identity beyond their weapons and limit breaks. Couple that with Cloud being a mandatory party member (for most of the game) and therefore always being over leveled compared to everyone else, and it felt like my party comp choices didn't really matter. I have a similar issue with 8, and I much prefer 6 and 10's mixture of rigidity/plasticity in their systems. Loving the past two vids! Can't believe I didn't sub after the last one!

You should analyze Xenoblade series.If you like final fantasy series.

It's been years since playing the game for me and yet when the ending E music came on it still brought me to (happy) tears. Ending E sits as my most powerful moment ever in over 30 years of gaming. Yoko Taro is one of the greatest auteurs working today

Awesome video Infernal. Found your channel through the troll video and watched all of your content since. Was curious if you were aware of MyHouse.WAD, if you know nothing about it I recommend looking it up on modDB and playing it totally blind. It is an experience you'll never forget.

So you're telling me FFVI is a Communist game? As a Comunist, I call bullshit. While magic disappearing from the world of FFVI is arguably a good thing, Terra losing her powers is factually a bad thing. Since she always used them for good and she was pretty much the only non-evil Esper left. Magic disappearing doesn't level the playfield, as our very own world shows. People would just build weapons out of machines and rule with steel not sparkle. The problem isn't magic but people like Terra, who can wield such power beind so few and so reluctant to do so, and usually giving away or losing their powers. Now excuse me cause I got to go to a senate session and get stabbed by a dozen senators.

Kefka isn't the Joker. Kefka is Donald Trump. Authoritarian, self-important, takes delight in placing himself above others in some cosmic hierarchy, endorses collective punishment, uses the apparatus and trappings of the state to give his abuses a veneer of normalcy, lacks empathy utterly, sees the "weak" as deserving whatever happens to them, and pursues power despite no ideological mooring besides serving himself. Sorry if some don't like it, but this is the more apt comparison. So go be a Returner, not one of those goons cheering the Emperor on, who probably all marched to their demise by the end of the first half.

your ability to analyze video games remains as staggering as the analyses are fascinating :O

skip to 12:30

You should analyze Xenogears.

I find repeating levels the top tier and bottom tier at once. When you make a level that loops into a different version once or multiple times where you forget the previous one when suddenly you are reset to the first layout again just to not do the entire run in the first place since a dev door was there to begin with previously locked off but an easy way to block yourself off from entering it if you're doing the first part (the section you've done the most) is done quickly without waiting. It's the perfect contraption.

What a great dive into the brilliant FF6! My favourite game of all time. I love what you had to say about Kefka. One thing I find quite interesting about Kefka and how he relates to the game, is this idea that *he* is the main character of FF6. The argument is that he drives most of the plot, and we're mostly reacting to what he sets in motion. It's an interesting idea, even though I can't find myself to be entirely on board with it.

Thank you so much. This game is really important for me, as I was motivated by it in many ways, it's a source for creativity and joy and a place of comfort for me at the same time. And I am happy that such analysis exists. I believe FFVI deserves it. I am writing something for the game (although only for myself and my friend), and it's a really big project where I want to really dive into characterisation and world-building, so I found your analysis. Not only you have voiced my thoughts, but also gave me new information to discover. I always will have a whole lot to learn. Yes, the video is long, but it doesn't drag & I hope that more people, including those who know and love FFVI, will watch it. You did a tremendous work (I think) and the finale was beautiful, answering my afterthoughts about this game. And as always, I apologise for any mistakes made.

I'm saving this for when I'm finally done with playing ffvi. Now I have even more motivation!

It's a little-known fact that John Locke would steal the clothes right off a merchant whenever the urge would strike him. I'm glad you touched on it 💯 Fun video too, I think you did a nice job on it; I'll have to check out the next one as well

Thanks

Really excellent video, I wish more people would see it! If everyone were willing to grapple with the themes and subject matter in their favorite games (and other artforms!) then the world would be well on its way to becoming a better place. I'll share this with everyone I know, at least!

When Loki started talking I was like, " I know that voice... Is that Bakura from YuGiOh?!" And apparently it is indeed the same voice actor haha Edit: when listening to more lines, it dawned on me that the Valkyrie's voice was familiar too and realized it was Mai from YuGiOh too. They should have done a crossover lol

oh thank god, the kefka and joker comparison always annoyed me but i couldn't figure out how to put it into words until you came along incredible work

FFVI was the reason I learned English by myself (and a pocket dictionary I asked my dad to buy for me in 97) so I could understand what was going on. Every other year I replay it myself, trying to make different challenges or just picking one of those hard mode hacks. But that's not the point of my comment. The story really takes a turn that even the pre-teen me felt it was "too real". Things don't always go as planned. Things can go wrong and we can't go back. It's still by far my favorite entry in the series, followed by Tactics, IV and IX and your video really brought me back that feeling of discovering, deciphering word by word and watch that isn't (at least for a big part) a happy story. Thank you for the upload, also I really like your voice too. Subscribed!

This deserves soooooo many more views.

Thank you explaining ecological collapse I wanted to know why they just died no understanding

This is a superb breakdown of the themes of VI in a saturated market of bad takes on the game. How is it only around 400 views?

Great video

I also did a really long narrative analysis of FFVI today! I'm glad it led to me finding your excellent channel ^_^

I love how you look at kefka as representative of nihilistic evil with institutional power People whether through denial or naive optimism, seem to act like there’s no way certain types of people in power can just be monstrous people. But the more power people have, the more scrutiny they should be examined with, we have to, to avoid us all being in danger

That line in the middle about how the social dominator already lives in the lawless world which their followers fear so much was a line that sent chills down my spine. This video was haunting and while it covered the themes in much the same way that I've already been considering for my own writing work it still gave me some new things to think about. It also taught me about this really cool game which I had never really appreciated compared to its sequel FF7.

Andrewism is definitely a channel also worth checking out. For more history on the nukes/Japan: Shaun has a breakdown of primary sources countering popular misconceptions Source ref 29 is far too common, so I appreciate the doc.

Great work, dude 👍

Talk about surreal. I remembered watching this months ago and it got me interested in actually playing troll levels. Today, while just messing around with Mario Maker 2 due to having that 14 day free trial thing from Mar10 day, I was playing what I thought was a normal level until I just could not find an exit. Just when I was about to give up and claim there was a dev exit somewhere, a lucky accident happened and a path I had not considered opened up. This lead me to a door, I went into the door and it put me..............into the same place I just left. Still not realizing this was a troll level because it had this legit, fun mechanic to it(This mechanic turned out to be a trap to get me to do the wrong thing, of course. The name should've clued me in, in retrospect. "Just throw the bomb, how hard could it be?" or something like that. Come on now -.-), I wrote that door off as a "lol you thought you got around the mechanic didn't you?" door and kept banging my head against the wall until I started wondering about that door more. Eventually I went back into that door, found the correct way to get to the goal in this door and could not stop laughing. I could only think "WAS THIS A TWICE TWICE ALL ALONG?!?!?", and it occurred to me that I wouldn't even have known what a twice twice was without watching this video. So here I am once more, just for 3 hours of ramblings.

What the fuck

1:40:32 “forgive me troll priest for I have sinned”

Seen quite a few NA analyses and this is a standout.

Thank you for making this <3

I too made a troll level in the style of a recreation of the 1st Cat Mario level. The description even says “Avoid The Trolls.”

Gorsh

I'm really gonna miss Geek :(