Steven Isbell

Community, Social Media, Communications for 12+ Years
Previously: @LittleBigPlanet, @PlayStation and More...
Next Adventure: TBD
This is my personal account.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

All good things must come to an end…
And after an unexpected extension this year.

My time with Sackboy and @LittleBigPlanet is truly coming to an end on November 29th.

So today marks the beginning of my last two weeks with the most amazing community that I have ever known. ❤️

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

After 12 years, my time with Sackboy and @LittleBigPlanet will be coming to an end in March.

I'm looking for new opportunities, so if you wish for someone with over a decade's experience to lead your Comms, Community, Social Media.

Feel free to get in touch.
My DMs are open. ✉️

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Aerith's were notably absent from Rebirth. 😉

[J19_Gaming89 @J19_Gaming89]

🚨 GREAT NEWS 🚨

Hamaguchi confirms that we will see every characters' Final Limit Breaks and their Ultimate Weapons in Final Fantasy VII Revelation!! 👀🔥🔥

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

The one that always makes me laugh is that the reward for defeating the Brutal Challenge - Rulers of the Outer World is the Götterdämmerung accessory.

An accessory that gives you a Full Limit Gauge at the start of battle and gradually refills your Limit Gauge throughout the rest of the battle.

Which is obviously an incredible reward for completing one of the hardest challenges in the game and one that is truly deserved for doing so.

Meanwhile... Streamlined Progression cheats come along and besides including stuff like Infinite HP, Max Damage, etc...

There's also a cheat for Infinite Limit Breaks.

An ability that far surpasses the Götterdämmerung accessory (and Infinite Limit Breaks is frankly redundant when you do Max Damage with each basic attack anyway).

So it's just laughable that people now use these cheats to unlock an accessory that has now been made completely pointless by those very same cheats.

And frankly, we all know that they don't want the in-game reward of an accessory to increase their power, since they're cheating and character stats/builds mean nothing to them.

All they're really after is the Platinum Trophy or Xbox/Steam Achievements for completing all challenges.

So it truly is a feature built for people to skip playing the game altogether, unlock their meaningless trophies/achievements and then move on to the next game. 😒

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

It genuinely seems like they're absolutely terrified of players putting down the game because a battle may be even slightly challenging.

What is the point of introducing the FITS system to Revelation, if the entire game is designed to still be completable without ever using it?

[Cammy Dalamud | EVERCOLD ~第四世界~ @Cammy_Dalamud]

Some additional details from the interview that I missed earlier.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Speaking more about Rebirth than Remake here, since I feel it did a much better job of defining character roles.

But I do always love when the Remake Trilogy haters say that Remake has done nothing to improve on the original game.

And speaking as someone that would call the original game their all-time favourite video game.

Remake Trilogy improves on character builds in a monumental way, by giving every character a specific role that can be enhanced or altered via their loadout.

Unlike the original game, where the only thing that really separated the characters besides their easily modifiable stats, was their Limit Breaks.

And even then, you're just looking for the Limit Breaks that do the most hits in a single turn.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Rebirth is excellent, but I would be one of the first to say that the Brutal/Legendary challenges are way overtuned compared to the rest of the game.

I would have always welcomed a proper rebalance of those to bring them more inline with the rest of the game.

That would certainly have been more ideal than just adding the Streamlined Progression cheats that made all of the Hard+ challenges completely pointless.

And I have no issue with the concept of Streamlined Progression for those that just want to enjoy the story.

So with that in mind, Streamlined Progression should have just been kept to Easy mode.

The issue only arose for me, when they were also added to the optional Hard/Brutal/Legendary challenges.

And they’re being used by players to unlock trophies, achievements and awards that are now meaningless.

Because nothing is actually being achieved when cheats are being used to make it impossible to fail.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

When I went back to replay Remake recently.

It was honestly shocking, just how much more restrictive that the combat system was.

Even the materia system having a maximum of 10 slots with half of those being dedicated to mandatory stat boosts and basic setup such as First Strike, ATB Boost, Elemental, 2x Strength Up, 2x Magic Up, HP/MP Up…

Left only a few free materia slots per character.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Oh, I totally agree that Rebirth's combat system is one of my all-time favourite combat systems and I'm hoping that Revelation will improve on it even more.

My only real concern is that they seem to be trying a bit too hard to make the game appeal to players that seemingly do not want to play the game at all.

We have already had direct mention of...

- Fast-forwarding cutscenes/dialogue highlighted as a primary feature in a trailer.
- Auto-levelling in the story.
- Platinum Trophy that can be achieved by over 20% of players.
- Streamlined Progression cheats undoubtedly being added later.
- Skippable minigames that still provide all of their related cutscenes.
- And now a statement that the new FITS system can be totally ignored, since it's totally not required to complete the game.

All of this just seems to be aimed more and more towards players that want to play as little of the game as possible.

So I'm just hoping that they still consider including plenty of content, exclusive unlockables and rewards for those of us that actually want to play the game and want to dive into everything this game has to offer.

Unlockables and bonuses that will make our added investment into the game feel much more rewarding than if we just chose to skip everything.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Tifa's mother in her childhood flashbacks.

[FINAL FANTASY VII @finalfantasyvii]

The piano minigame returns with new enhancements in Final Fantasy VII Revelation! 🎹

Learn more about young Tifa’s special connection with music, play beloved Final Fantasy VII melodies, and discover a side of her you’ve never known before.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

@TifaTheMonk Oh and don’t think that I didn’t notice them sneakily obscuring Thea’s face there.

Hopefully we will get to finally see her sometime during Revelation.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

@TifaTheMonk To be honest, I always wished that Tifa was the default piano player outside of the Nibelheim flashback.

Just makes the most sense that she would be the character most interested in playing the piano again.

I certainly hope that new Seventh Heaven gets a piano in it one day.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Absolutely never needed them with good materia/accessory loadouts.

Tifa with Unfettered Fury and ATB Assist materia would build ATB and feed the other party members ATB faster than I could spent it.

Aerith with Synergy materia and Arcane Ward would be constantly popping off powerful magic attacks from the same setup.

Genji Gloves and MP Absorb on her would ensure that every spell cast would restore more MP than I spent, so Unlimited MP was never required.

Third party member, typically Cloud/Yuffie/Barret could support even further with Haste/Manawall/Bravery/Faith to ensure survivability and boost damage output even further.

All of this was much safer and more reliable on Hard Mode than using Synergy Skills and Abilities.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Synergy attacks were too much of a liability to risk using in Hard/Brutal challenges, since the more aggressive opponents could just kill you mid-animation.

So in that sense they are purely spectacle and don't add much to the combat gameplay.

If they say that such features add strategic depth to the combat system, then I'll have to respectfully disagree.

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

I feel attacked. 😅

[mr shart @drshavargoo]

When the autism tells me to waste my time and sail the entire sea and get rid of this unexplored fog

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

This looks great, but my one hope for Midgar is that we would be able to return to Sector 5 and Wall Market, just like we could in the original game.

[FINAL FANTASY VII @finalfantasyvii]

Explore the Midgar region in an entirely new way in Final Fantasy VII Revelation, kweh!

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Went to a children’s science festival with my nephew yesterday and one of the exhibits was to design our own video game character.

And I’m very confident that my totally original character ‘Clothguy’ will be the competition winner. 😉

[sackboy daily @sackboydaily]

how hard should i squeeze him

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

Yuffie on guitar.

[浜口直樹 /FINAL FANTASY VII REVELATION, April 8 2027 @nhamaguc]

The piano minigame returns in FFVII REVELATION, with even more features and improvements. This time, you can also choose from a variety of instruments beyond just the piano.
-
『FFVII REVELATION』でも、ピアノミニゲームがさらに進化して帰ってきます。 今作ではピアノだけでなく、さまざまな音源を選んで演奏することもできます。

#FF7R

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

It feels very unlikely, but I would love to see the Darts minigame return from Remake.

It would be great to be able to play that minigame in the various bars and inns across the world.

[Genki✨ @Genki_JPN]

Naoki Hamaguchi revealed the piano minigame will return in Final Fantasy VII Revelation with even more features and improvements! via @nhamaguc

There will be a variety of instrument sounds you can select beyond the piano sound:

- Piano
- Acoustic Guitar
- Drums
- Double Bass

[Steven Isbell @StevenIsbell]

@realradec Lemmings is possibly the biggest IP that I wish we did as a full level pack instead of just a costume pack.

It would have been a nice opportunity to introduce some new Lemmings-style puzzles and tools for community creators to use in their levels.