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This article contains light spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Folks who were playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake before I started were telling me, “Yo, this game’s got some real Yakuza energy going on.” At first, I took it with a grain of salt, doubting how a serious-looking game about radical environmentalism and fighting an evil corporation could reach the levels of outlandish charm of Sega’s long-running crime-action franchise. I thought, maybe it’s because FF7 Remake has side-quests to help build out the NPCs that embody its hub areas with similar stylings as Yakuza’s Kamurocho or Sotenbori. But that’s only scratching Midgar’s surface.

I often describe the Yakuza series as a journey through Japan’s violent criminal underworld where “absurdist humor meets gripping melodrama starring an adorably naive but beefy man with a mean mug, fists of steel, and a heart of gold.” I immediately fell in love with main man Kazuma Kiryu and how the series balances seemingly opposite ends of the tonal spectrum to make you laugh, cry, and cry from laughter. FF7 Remake doesn’t quite hit the same extremes–which is fine–but when the game channels that energy, it gets it so right.

The most stark examples come from Chapter 9 in FF7 Remake, when Cloud and Aerith venture to Wall Market in search of Tifa. Wall Market’s a seedy red-light district in the Sector 6 slums, lit up by neon signs, run by a few influential individuals, and filled with bars, clubs, and shops to feed any vice of its patrons. And the first place I thought of when walking Wall Market’s cramped streets? Kamurocho.

Now, Kamurocho isn’t exactly a downtrodden slum (it’s modeled closely after the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku in Tokyo), but the way Wall Market is brought to life is the same. When you approach Don Corneo’s mansion, it’s just as imposing a sight as the gaudy mansion of Yakuza’s Purgatory area, architecture and all. There’s even an underground fight club, AKA Corneo’s Coliseum, that you participate in where pyrotechnics blast as a betting crowd roars, watching you engage in some violent combat sport. However, instead of Kiryu fist-fighting tigers or his secret best friend Goro Majima, it’s Cloud and Aerith destroying a mechanized house that’s outfitted with jet engines and elemental magic.

It’d be a bit presumptuous to say that FF7 Remake wanted to create its own little Yakuza-like town, but the parallels can’t help but make you think so. The scenario that solidified my love for FF7 Remake’s commitment to this tone was in the Honeybee Inn rhythm game. Since when did Cloud have the beautiful dance moves in him to perform on stage with Andrea Rhodea? Well, since when could Kiryu flawlessly boogie on the dancefloor to Koi no Disco Queen, and why is Majima on rollerskates singing 24-Hour Cinderella in a perfectly choreographed boy band? Both games are so unapologetic about their eccentricity in a way that wins your heart and convinces you that, yeah, my self-serious protagonist is a badass dancer, too.

Between the two games, it never comes across as “haha, we’re trying to be funny,” because there’s a good measure of genuine wholesomeness behind the outlandish story beats. Whether it’s Kiryu settling a harmless bet with another club-goer (or impressing a Michael Jackson stand-in) or Andrea’s message that beauty transcends the concept of gender, both games bring these scenarios back down to earth in a way that stays true to themselves.

And the whole “Burning Thighs” competition at the Wall Market gym feels like a sweet Yakuza substory that somehow didn’t make the cut. The squatting minigame is, of course, a reimagination of the one from the original FF7. What really sold me, though, was the chemistry and energy from Jules and their two inconceivably swole sidekicks who run the gym. They talk trash before the challenge, and when you beat them, they’re nothing but positive. One sidekick Ronnie learns his lesson after defeat as Jules asserts that one should not body shame. When it’s all settled, they continue to flex and speak to the uplifting virtues of fitness.

While FF7 Remake’s Wall Market is the shining example of its Yakuza-like spirit, the similarities don’t end there. Actually, I was pretty convinced by Chapter 4 with the first encounter against one ludicrous biker whose only desire is to get in a real good fight. My man Roche is Majima in Final Fantasy form. Not only does this bike chase sequence through Midgar’s corkscrew train tunnel look and feel like one of those instances of yakuza clan members pursuing Kiryu on Tokyo’s open roads, but it showcases Roche’s unhinged tendencies.

He respects Cloud yet berates him, then admits that he’s his only match in the world. Roche is a Shinra SOLDIER too, though he doesn’t particularly care for the name and really just joined so he can get in wild brawls–right out of Majima’s playbook in Yakuza Kiwami, and I love it. When Roche busts onto the scene, Shinra troops stand aside and do as he says. When Roche wants to fight Cloud one-on-one, that’s what he gets. When Roche wants to do gravity-defying stunts that make absolutely no sense in the context of realism, you accept that.

Now replace “Roche” with “Majima” and every other proper noun with its Yakuza parallel and my words will stand 100% true.

It’d be quite the stretch to say Cloud and Kiryu are the same–Cloud was his own character well before Kiryu was conceptualized. Though, now with Cloud further developed in FF7 Remake, they do share similar traits and paths. They reluctantly do things to help people, find themselves in ridiculous predicaments, and beat the shit out of comical goons. Although Kiryu often has a bit of wisdom to impart on those he beats down or helps out, Cloud kind of becomes the town hero, too, whether he likes it or not. In side-quests, he helps kids find their cats, plays along with their shticks, lends a hand to the Sector 5 orphanage, and begrudgingly assists other adults on their indulgent pursuits, all while keeping a straight face.

Even in FF7 Remake’s combat sequences, there’s an unmistakable feeling in how some of its biggest fights use intense cinematic cuts to transition between phases of the battle. Quick cutscenes that seamlessly go to and from gameplay display environmental destruction, enemies going into new phases, and your own characters stylishly taking action and gathering themselves before handing back the controls, UI elements intact and all. None of this is to say that Square Enix pulled from Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s games, because these techniques are in no way exclusive to Yakuza. But as someone who loves both games and franchises, I’m absolutely delighted that they evoke the same invigorating sensibilities during their most thrilling moments, drawing me into their completely different causes with a bombast and personality I can get behind.

FF7 Remake doesn’t lose sight of its source material or the overarching message it’s trying to send through its main story, even through all its flair and additions to flesh out Midgar. Like Yakuza, it flips the script on what seems to be out of place, and embraces the absurdity to pull you in and breathe richer life into its characters and the world around them. If you like FF7 Remake and haven’t played Yakuza, or vice versa, this is me selling you on doing so.

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This week on Good News Gaming, we take a look at some of the incredible things people are doing from home while socially distancing themselves. A group of Halo Reach fans finally manage to land a trick jump that they’ve been working on for 10 whole years, and a group of friends make an IRL Diablo-style RPG for their friend, who had to cancel their bachelor party.

We’re still deep into Animal Crossing memes and this week we’re taking a look at the best KK Slider album covers out there, as well as learning about a cut feature from Fable. We also see NVIDIA’s impressive RTX Voice in action.

In this video:

VRStudio’s Beat Saber fail: https://gfycat.com/forthrightathleticicterinewarbler-beatsaber-trick-funny

Termacious Trickocity’s Master Chief Statue success: https://youtu.be/19jEy2Oh-mw

Realm Pictures’ IRL RPG: https://vimeo.com/410640806

NVIDIA RTX Voice in action: https://twitter.com/theGunrun/status/1252789873699745792?s=20

RTX Voice setup guide: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/nvidia-rtx-voice-setup-guide/

Insert Coin Clothing: https://www.insertcoinclothing.com/

Fable Fart Command story: https://twitter.com/retrohistories/status/1251526167401836544

StealthGamerBR’s Dishonored 2 video: https://youtu.be/366P5JjdO0g

KK Rumors: https://twitter.com/Merosamoras/status/1251858478068633600?s=20

KK Revolver: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g5sd6y/spent_days_working_on_this_creation_kk_revolver/

KK Heroes: https://twitter.com/eyeball1126/status/1252632373096615936?s=20

KK Nevermind: https://twitter.com/h0lysarthole/status/1252616493390614528?s=20

KK Van Houten: https://twitter.com/Primeslimee/status/1252765460573143042?s=20

Zelda Dungeon Animal Crossing: https://twitter.com/PairofCellos/status/1251222389238558721?s=20

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Some 23 years after its initial release, one of the gaming’s most influential titles is seeing a major resurgence. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not only very good, it has revitalized a classic story with a new retelling that expands on all its best parts–at least in its first installment.

As many of us know, there’s a lot more to the Final Fantasy 7 story than just what’s covered in the remake. While we have to wait for more FF7 installments to see this new telling, the original game is still widely available. And this weekend is the anniversary of the North American release of the original FF7’s animated film sequel, Advent Children. You can stream it for free on Crackle, if you want to revisit the place where the FF7 story officially ended (in a cliffhanger sort of way) way back in 2005.

If you’re finished with FF7 Remake, you might want to fire up Advent Children for its birthday, because the movie has some serious implications for where FF7 Remake might go next.

Warning! Spoilers for FF7 Remake’s ending, the original FF7 story, and Advent Children beyond this point!

You might remember Advent Children as being a bit, uh, confused. It’s largely about Cloud and company dealing with three silver-haired guys who show up and start hassling people about the location of their “mother.” They look a lot like Sephiroth, but of course, Cloud and co. killed Sephiroth at the end of FF7. Turns out these guys are Sephiroth “Remnants”–essentially, people willed into existence by Sephiroth still-sentient spirit. The mother they’re after is a chunk of Jenova, the alien creature that once threatened the entire planet and whose cells were used to create Sephiroth.

The Remnants want Jenova because they can use the alien monster’s last remaining chunks to resurrect Sephiroth; in fact, that’s what happens. Kadaj, the leader of the remnants, manages to get hold of Jenova’s head toward the end of the movie and literally turns himself into Sephiroth. He fights with Cloud, but Cloud wins, and Sephiroth is again eliminated. But Sephiroth pointedly says that he will never be just a memory, implying that he could, in fact, stage another attempt to come back from the dead–FF7’s own unkillable Emperor Palpatine.

It’s not just Sephiroth that reaches out from beyond the grave. Cloud has visions of both Aerith and Zack, both dead at this point, who help him gain the strength he needs to defeat Sephiroth. Aerith even manages to heal Cloud of Geostigma, the disease that’s slowly killing him and a bunch of other people in the wake of FF7’s conclusion. Just as Sephiroth is seemingly influencing events despite being dead, Aerith does some important but inscrutable magic to save her bud Cloud, and then, help to get rid of the evil skin rash that’s infecting most of the movie’s children.

So Advent Children mostly amounts to being a story about how Cloud and his friends again wailed on Sephiroth, and not much else. The whole affair is pretty heavy on fan service, with a plot that’s poorly explained and hard to follow, and seems to echo pretty much all the same story arcs as the game, but in a much less satisfying way. But Advent Children seems to serve one other major purpose: It sets up Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Through FF7 Remake, Cloud has visions of Sephiroth, who constantly goads him with cryptic nonsense about being weak and failing to save people. In your first playthrough, whether you’re experienced with the FF7 story or not, these visions all have the feel that Sephiroth is referencing his past experiences with Cloud. If you know what happened in Nibelheim, it’s natural to assume Sephiroth is talking about the past, and Cloud even has a few flashbacks of those events, even though they’re only alluded to in the remake and never explained in full.

By the end of the game, though, Sephiroth’s taunts take on a new meaning. FF7 Remake isn’t just a straight retelling of the original story–it’s also about Cloud and his pals running up against the Whispers, the “arbiters of fate” who intervene in events when people stray from their assigned destinies. The Whispers intervene throughout FF7 Remake to force Cloud and his friends into events and decisions that mimic the story of the original FF7 story. The Whispers weren’t in the original game, though, which raises the question: Why are they in this one?

It seems like Advent Children is providing the answer, or at least some of it. In the movie, Sephiroth is able to influence events and even create pseudo-clones of himself through sheer force of will, despite being dead and, as in FF7 lore, “returned to the Lifestream.” Sephiroth is so powerful that even as a spirit who’s back in the big river of souls that gives FF7’s planet life, he’s trying to do a bunch of evil junk (but hey, Aerith is able to do stuff too, so that’s cool). In Advent Children, Sephiroth’s spirit attempted to bring himself back to life using the Remnants. And it appears that in FF7 Remake, Sephiroth’s spirit is using time travel to influence events in the past and change his destiny. Near as we can tell, it seems like Sephiroth is using the former SOLDIERS with number tattoos, found throughout the game, to make his influence felt; those guys are infused with Jenova cells, which allows Sephiroth to control them, and makes them very similar to the Remnants in Advent Children.

The Whispers reacting to keep things on track really only makes sense if there’s something trying to push things off track–and that thing must be Sephiroth. His scenes are ambiguous enough that he could be talking about things from Cloud’s past, or events from the original game that will come in later remake installments. It all culminates in Chapter 18, when Sephiroth cuts a portal to the Whispers’ dimension and sends Cloud in to challenge the Whisper Harbinger and literally change fate. As the group fights the Harbinger, they even see flashes of the future: “a glimpse of tomorrow if we fail here today,” as Red XIII says.

All that really makes it seems like Sephiroth is the driving force behind the FF7 Remake story; after his defeat in FF7 and Advent Children, the Man in Black is still trying to come back to life, but this time, he’s using Cloud to do it. We don’t know exactly how yet, but it’s Sephiroth who drives Cloud and his friends to change the FF7 Remake timeline by defeating the Whispers. That completely upends the timeline, since the Whispers no longer exist to make sure things go the way they’re “supposed to” as seen in the original game. We even see a scene where Zack survives his death as it occurred in the original game and its prequel, Crisis Core–which seems to mean that other events still to come in the story may or may not take place the way they did in the original. So at the end of FF7 Remake, as it turns out, Sephiroth is at least partially successful in his plans.

And all that means one important thing: that FF7 Remake isn’t a retelling of FF7, it’s actually a sequel to Advent Children. Good news! You can watch the animated FF7 Remake prequel right now for its anniversary. It’s like a reunion!

Combat rarely lasts longer than a handful of rounds in the newest XCOM. In each encounter, XCOM: Chimera Squad kicks in the door, dives headfirst into an intense firefight, then walks out through a pile of bodies a minute or two later, dusting themselves down, a little scarred perhaps but eager to do it all again in the very next mission. XCOM’s turn-based tactical combat now comes in condensed form, relieved of extraneous matter, and for the most part all the better for it.

Assuming the human resistance triumphed in XCOM 2, the eponymous Chimera Squad is a special task force composed of human and alien soldiers that also serves as a symbol of a newfound cooperation between species. Dissidents remain, however, and so when the mayor of City 31 is killed in a terrorist attack, it’s up to the Squad to track down those responsible. The stakes feel a lot lower than the global emergencies gripping previous XCOMs, yet the smaller scale of the situation dovetails perfectly with the tight-knit group of characters under your control and intimacy of the tactical maps on which they’re deployed. There’s a focus and clarity of purpose here that stands in sharp relief to the sprawling saga of a typical XCOM campaign.

Indeed, Chimera Squad feels like it spins the Geoscape and puts just one city under the microscope. Nine districts comprise the strategic map, each day highlighting a few of them with new missions to undertake–some advancing the story, others providing valuable resources and gear. Ignoring one mission in favour of another will raise the level of unrest in the neglected district and contribute to a citywide measure of anarchy that spells game over if it tops out. Despite the lower stakes, there’s still an urgency to your mission, especially as the doomsday clock of city anarchy ticks closer to midnight. And the strategic layer does a decent job of forcing decisions over which missions and districts you need to prioritise, even if it’s mostly a dry game of resource allocation that fails to evoke any kind of emotional response to the lives sacrificed along the way.

Chimera Squad performs better when bringing to life the characters of the squad itself. Beyond the initial gang of four there’s a full roster of eleven named soldiers to be recruited over the course of the game, each of whom boasts a unique set of abilities that are unlocked as they gain experience. And I really mean unique. No two abilities are the same. Even when the broad roles they perform are similar, the specifics cunningly conspire to demand separate tactical considerations.

Shelter and Torque both possess useful abilities centred on manipulating enemy positioning, for example, but while the former’s psionics let him swap places with a target, the extraordinary reach of the latter’s snake tongue allows him to pull a distant target onto an adjacent square. I mostly used Torque’s Tongue Pull ability in conjunction with Bind to take one dangerous enemy out of play and gradually squeeze it to death, but I also used it to pluck an ally out of danger or prevent an enemy from reaching a certain destination. Shelter’s Relocate ability let me drop him in behind enemy lines for a perfect flanked shot, while on one memorable occasion I killed the last enemy in an encounter by swapping positions immediately after that enemy had thrown a grenade my way, leaving him literally hoist by his own petard.

Across a cast of 11 characters with seven abilities each, five of which can be earned in any one playthrough, that’s an impressively diverse tactical lineup–one that succeeds in etching distinct personality traits on each soldier through the substantial differences in their play styles. Adding further character definition are the clever ways a soldier’s loadout is both limited and given flexibility. Weapon use is restricted to just one class, but guns can be outfitted with multiple mods, and on later missions you can discover one-off named weapons that confer a unique ability on its owner.

Axiom and Godmother may both wield shotguns, but my Axiom’s Run & Gun ability complements his weapon mod that boosts crit chances at close proximity. My Godmother, on the other hand, can unload three shells at once to Ventilate an enemy through any cover, an ability that I chose to pair with weapon mods that not only increased clip size but gave her the first three reloads for free. Like Shelter and Torque, such variations fill out Godmother and Axiom’s respective suites of abilities, and what at first may appear to be negligible differences acquire more nuanced markings in the field.

Missions are designed around short, sharp bursts of action and are often split into multiple (but no more than three) encounters confined to a handful of rooms that, in themselves, are much smaller than any map you’d find in the recent XCOMs. The tactical choices start with the breach, where your decisions over who enters via the main door, the side window, the skylight, the imminent hole in the wall, and so on have immediate consequences. Here, you’re determining the order in which your soldiers take their turns in the initial phase, the buffs they can apply, and the positions they’ll take up once the fight gets underway. All of these choices are vital. Get them right and you’ll tip the balance in your favour; get them wrong and you’ll have learned some lessons for next time.

There’s a coarseness to the feel of the tactical combat that contributes to the sense every decision matters. Actions are big and definitive. Outside of the odd boss encounter, you’re never whittling away at an enemy’s health bar. Shots deal damage by the wallop, and you can down many foes in one, two, or occasionally three hits. Abilities can often be more impactful than standard attacks, to the extent that I completed plenty of missions without firing a regular shot. Recognising when the stars have aligned for you to deploy that battle-turning ability is an important tactical asset; being able to plan ahead and, in the space of a turn, manoeuvre your squad and the enemy into position to take full advantage of said ability is invaluable, not to mention endlessly satisfying when you pull it off.

Less satisfying is the addition of androids to provide support to your squad. If, while on a multi-encounter mission, one squad member bleeds out, you’re able to replace them with an android for the next encounter. I played through the campaign on the Normal difficulty and called upon a replacement android just once, thus rendering the resources I’d invested in upgrading them pretty much wasted. I needed their service more frequently on the higher difficulties, but I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that anything I invested in backup troops would be better spent on my core squad. Yet on the occasions one of my elite squad members went down, the untrained android sent in their place simply wasn’t up to the task. There’s an uneasy balance here, one that left me feeling like I could only make poor decisions, and it’s the one area where the tweaks to the XCOM formula aren’t obviously successful.

By stripping back XCOM combat to its bare minimum, Chimera Squad is able to make nearly all your choices vital. This isn’t a series of small choices that slowly accumulate into something interesting; it operates more like a one-two punch of big decisions. You don’t spend any time in an encounter here patiently edging forward, stationing your squad on overwatch and wearing down the enemy. Instead, the enemy is right there in your face from the jump, and you’ve got to act now and act decisively. Luckily the Chimera Squad is there to back you up.

Working your way through Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you’ll often get your best, most useful, or most interesting Materia from Chadley, the strange kid you meet in Chapter 3. Chadley gives you “Battle Intel” assignments, and unlocking each one lets you purchase a new Materia. Among those is Enemy Skill, a Materia that lets you turn the strengths of your foes against them.

Finding all the enemy skills in Final Fantasy 7 Remake earns you the “Master of Mimicry” Trophy, but nabbing it can be difficult, since very few enemies have skills you can learn with the Materia. Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about Enemy Skill, including where to find all the enemies whose moves you can master.

If you need more info, check out our huge rundown of FF7 Remake guides, covering everything from an spoiler-free walkthrough, to boss battles, to side-quests and secrets.

Where To Find Enemy Skill Materia

Complete Chadley’s Battle Intel 16: Monster Bio Pt. 4, which you can unlock in Chapter 14. It requires you to use Assess Materia on 30 enemy types, but the total is cumulative–any enemies you’ve assessed before Chapter 14 will count toward the total. Just keep using Assess in every battle to clear this one, then return to Chadley to purchase your Materia.

How Enemy Skill Works

Enemy Skill is a Command Materia, which means it gives a character new options under the “Ability” menu in combat. While you have Enemy Skill equipped, you can learn a few specific abilities if enemies use them on that character. That means to get all the abilities for the Materia, you have to seek out specific enemies and get hit by their abilities. To get them all, you’ll need to complete the game once and get access to Hard Mode on the newly unlocked Chapter Select menu.

Here’s a rundown of each Enemy Skill ability, what it does, what enemy has it, and where to find them.

Algid Aura

Generates an aura around the character that does Ice damage to any enemies nearby. It’s handy to use against fire creatures on a melee fighter such as Cloud or Tifa, since you’ll get extra damage as you attack your foes.

What Enemy Has It

You can get Algid Aura from fighting Cerulean Drakes; you’ll need to be hit by their Ice Aura ability.

Where You Can Find Them

• Chapter 3’s “Just Flew In From The Graveyard” side-quest
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 15

Spirit Siphon

Creates a large area-of-effect aura around the user that drains HP from enemies and gives it to the character. Useful in fights when you need a quick health boost but you don’t want to stop fighting, or you have multiple enemies surrounding a character.

What Enemy Has It

You’ll need to get hit by a Phantom‘s Energy Drain ability.

Where You Can Find Them

• Chapter 14’s “Missing Children” side-quest
• Chapter 16 Shinra Combat Simulator, in the “vs. 3-C SOLDIER Candidates” fights

Self-Destruct

Triggers a big area-of-effect explosion around the user that does a whole lot of damage, but incapacitates the character that uses it. Useful in dire situations when a character is surrounded or about to die anyway.

What Enemies Have It

• Smogger: get hit by its Self-Destruct ability, which it uses after you kill it
• Vaghidpolis: get hit by its Apoptosis ability
• Bomb: get hit by Apoptosis
• Proto-Trypapolis: get hit by Apoptosis
• HO512-OPT: get hit by Apoptosis

Where You Can Find Them

• Smogger
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 14, in the Sector 5 Slums
• Vaghidpolis
  • Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14, in the “Subterranean Menace” side-quest
• Bomb
  • Chapter 9, in the “Dynamite Bodies” side-quest
  • Fighting Fat Chocobo in Chadley’s VR simulator
  • Chapter 17 (Hard Mode), in the Shinra Combat Simulator fight “Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend”
• Proto-Trypapolis
  • Chapter 14, in the Collapsed Expressway
• HO512-OPT
  • Chapter 16

Bad Breath

Hits an enemy with just about every status effect in the game, all at once.

What Enemy Has It

Just one: Marlboro. You’ll need to get hit with Bad Breath to capture the ability, but make sure you have a teammate on standby with Cleanse Materia and the Esuna spell.

Where You Can Find It

• Chapter 17 (Hard Mode), in the Shinra Combat Simulator fight “Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend”

Now Playing: 6 Final Fantasy 7 Remake Combat Tips You Need To Know

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