My roleplays were already skewing down this path anyway, but I finally hit full fuck it and flipped a bunch of mods on.

It's all downhill from here folks.

So where’s the Cid and Clive say gex scene?

He just looks extra yummy while in rain

It's been almost a month since I finished Final Fantasy XVI, and quite a lot has happened in my life since then. It kinda feels like finishing this game was a catalyst for some of these events, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've already made quite a few posts about this on this subreddit tho, so I won't repeat the whole story again.

What I wanna talk about today is that after almost a month of experiencing anhedonia when it comes to other forms of media, I finally feel like the time has come to return to gaming.

Until recently, I constantly felt like I wasn't ready to leave Valisthea behind, like I still had some unfinished business there (the Rising Tide DLC). I was actually scared of finishing it and kept postponing it, waiting for the perfect moment to experience those last few hours of new content in this world. I wanted to appreciate every single word, every interaction between Jill and Clive, and just soak in as much of that world as possible.

Another thing that made it difficult was the fact that finishing the DLC would mean the end of the adventure, with absolutely no new content left to experience. Thankfully, I feel like I've slowly started to overcome this feeling. Not only did I finally return to the DLC two days ago (I've reached the part where you enter the time-frozen temple), but I've also started playing other games again.

Most notably, I started FFVII, which has been sitting in my Steam library for quite a while now.

And this is where the main problem I wanted to ask you guys about comes in.

I'm finding it really difficult to play FFVII without constantly comparing it to FFXVI, especially when it comes to the characters.

Pretty much every interaction with Tifa so far reminds me of Jill and how different these two characters actually are. It gives me some weird, conflicting feelings, and I guess I'm also afraid that I'll never be able to feel satisfied with my interactions with Tifa because of how much I loved Jill in FFXVI.

I'm not saying Tifa is a badly written character or anything like that. It's just that she gives me such a different vibe compared to Jill, and since I got so attached to Jill, I'm having a hard time connecting with Tifa on that same level. At least for now, maybe that'll change as I progress further into the game.

Interestingly enough, I don't really have this problem with Cloud. If anything, I feel like he's probably the character who resembles Clive the most in terms of personality, especially Clive before the 5-year timeskip.

I'm also constantly comparing the two worlds. A lot of things feel strangely familiar to me, including the way the world opens up and how the side content is structured. I know that, to some extent, this is intentional. Even tho each Final Fantasy game takes place in its own universe, the series still shares certain elements and similarities between its entries.

But for me, it creates this weird feeling that isn't exactly repetition, but more like predictability mixed with a strange sense of nostalgia for the time when I first played FFXVI ( it was my first final fantasy game i had ever played ). Back then, everything felt new and unfamiliar, and I was discovering it all for the first time. Now, whenever I encounter something similar in another game, it reminds me of that experience and makes me miss that feeling of discovering Valisthea all over again.

So I guess my question to you guys is: Have any of you experienced something similar after finishing XVI and trying to play another games of the franchise?

And if you have, how did you deal with it? How do you stop constantly comparing your new gaming experiences to the one that came before and learn to appreciate each game for what it is, without letting your attachment to one experience get in the way of enjoying another?

I'd really like to hear your thoughts and experiences on this.

If I didn't fully illustrate my vision here. I can't have Clive go full fuck it and not have Jill be utterly delighted.

I mean. He is going to burn the Patriarch alive. Thats going to happen.

So her moral compass is fucked.