Because I believe in transparency, I would like to start by saying that there is no greater number for that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth than me. I know the fans of Final fantasy 7 are legion, and that they all believe they can lay claim to the title of biggest FF7 fan. They have a right to think that. They are wrong too. I Love Final fantasy 7 the most, and I enjoy it Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth probably more than all of them. However, there is one thing that I am not enjoy: Fort Condor. Fuck that game.
A quick summary: Fort Condor is a tower defense minigame that first appeared in Pauseadded the bonus chapter to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade release again. Based on a segment from the original F.F7, Fort Condor has taken the form of a board game played by the characters Pausewhere players customized a lineup of small troops (attackers, defenders, and ranged units) and sent them to destroy their opponent’s tower – as well as counter units sent by their opponent to do the same.
Pause‘s Fort Condor was bare, but charming and fun. The kind of thing you can immediately stop in your tracks to play as much as possible before you get bothered by the so-called ‘main plot’. I was glad it came back in Rebirth – and then I actually played. People? I detest it.
New Fort Condor is not a small board game to tinker with, but a series of crazy challenges with wildly escalating difficulty, and the difference between the two versions leaves me reeling. I don’t think a single game has introduced so much extra challenge since professional football invented the forward pass.
Image: Square Enix
That said, I Doing understand why the new version of Fort Condor is much harder, and why it’s even a good idea. See, despite some superficial changes – replacing materia spells with hero units, or letting players choose from fixed formations instead of building teams – any given Fort Condor match is always a puzzle, with one ideal solution. Can be seen in the previous version Pause, that puzzle could be solved before you’d even started the match – all you had to do was look at the opponent’s formation and insert the necessary counters. Simple rock, paper, scissors.
Enter the new Fort Condor Rebirthhowever, limit yourself to a few possible configurations based on the overall strategy: Do you think an offensive or defensive style of play is best? Which of the three unit types will you build your match around? Which combination of the two do you think will bring success?
While you can find out some of the formation puzzle, the actual solution is found during play: learning the formation and cadence of your opponent’s team (which never changes) and optimizing your timing to exploit weaknesses. This actually makes Fort Condor more of a game for you playand not one that you just spam through.
I just think that game is worthless. It is mainly a process of trial and error, where the moment-to-moment decisions are not very interesting and are largely made for you. (See defensive units coming your way? Get your ranged units out.) In my experience, there is only one “Eureka!” moment per game, and it’s the one that ultimately gives you victory. This can come after a few tries or a few dozen tries – and neither feels satisfying because I never feel like doing it I’ve thought of something.
Look, I’m usually a smart person. I do crossword puzzles without looking anything up, and I understood Commencement the first time I saw it. Maybe one day I’ll even read Pynchon on a beach, just to show how easy it can be. Challenging art is good, and I don’t think minigames have to be simple to be fun. Howeverthere is a difference between a game that is difficult and very annoying, and if you want to know what that is, I recommend that you play Fort Condor.