Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Overplays Its Hand With Queen's Blood Tournament

I was enjoying my time with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Queen's Blood well enough. I don't usually like card games inside my video games, but the simplicity of Queen's Blood, plus the aggressive nature of its counter plays, had me hooked. Initially I just played enough to complete the various side quests, but as I 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:rolled through the optiona🔜l open ꦜworld objectives, I hunted out every single game I could find. I imagined myself becoming the ultimate Queen's Blooder, or a less-gross version of that title. Then it made me play, and now I hate it. Thanks for that.

This happens in Chapter 5, while you're on the cruise ship headed towards Costa del Sol. When the bartender announced that there was to be a Queen's Blood tournament, I was glad. I had practised, I was enjoying trying new cards, and there was even the chance to buy more. My enthusiasm dampened a little bit when it turned out the vendor only had cards I'd already bought from the shop in the Grasslands, but all in all, I was hype for cardboard. Oh, how it all went so wrong.

Queen’s Blood In Chapter 5 Features A Major Decision

Cloud facing down Aerith at the Queen's Blood Invitational

The first game was pretty standard, and was against a steampunk robot to boot so that's kinda nifty. We played and, for the first time, there was a tie. The game reacted as if this was a loss though, so a rematch was in order. I won, and on I went. Next up, the crucial FF7 choice - I could play against Aerith or Tifa. This choice doesn't impact your relationship with either sweetheart, but it's still a very sharp indicator of your preference. Naturally, I chose Aerith, and like a bully yanking her pigtails on the playground, crushed her.

At this point, I started to notice the bartender who organised the league tables was wearing progressively more Cloud merch, and felt justified in my love of Queen's Blood. Next up was Madam M who put up a significantly tougher fight than my robot friend and flower-wielding beau. I needed a couple of retries, but it was a good clean match. Queen's Blood is great! I never enjoy these card games this much! I'm going to write about it tomorrow! What naive thoughts I had as my victory over Madam M was confirmed.

I Get It Now, I Hate Chadley Too

Cloud facing down Chadley at the Queen's Blood Invitational

Next up was the semi-finals, and glory was in sight. Better yet, five battles was a manageable amount, not overstaying its welcome too much when there was action ahead. Unfortunately, my next bout was with Chadley. Dorky little🎃 no friend having, android being, card cheater Chadley. Nothing worked in the face of his dweebiness. I played offensively into his space and he destroyed my cards. I played defensively to shore up my backline and he attacked t൲he space. I played big value cards and he destroyed them. I played small value cards to expand into and he blocked them.

It was a severe difficulty spike for a minigame that I now felt was being given increased importance, all while he had a better deck than me. I used the different preset decks and tried to play to their strengths, but Chadley always had a counter. I picked my highest value cards and couldn't get them out. I played low value fast cards and Chadley's few outnumbered my many. It felt impossible.

I know I could just quit the tournament and move on to the next part of the game. I could just wear a diaper and play Bluey instead too. I wanted to play this, it was just irritating that the game stopped me so suddenly in my tracks. But hey, what are video games without a bit of challenge, eh? I eventually decided that a mixture of playing high upgrade cards plus the Chocobo & Moogle (which gets a boost when these are played), along with fast aggressive cards needed something extra, so I added some destructive cards and played them against myself to remove this fast, cheap chaff once I'd gained the territory.

When Will It All End?

Feature image of Cloud approaching Queen's Blood champion on FF7 Rebirth's Shinra-8 ship

I won, and shook hands with Chadley - if Aerith had been looking I might have given him a wedgie so she'd think I was super cool. Onto the final, and turns out Chadley was less a difficulty spike and more the new normal. My opponent for the final was Regina, who proved similarly impossible to overcome. Cue many restarts, much frustration, and a lot of talking myself out of just calling it quits in second place. Eventually, using the same tactic that felled Chadley, I was victorious.

I won the final. Final means last. Therefore, it was over and I had won, right? Is it ever that simple? Instead, Red XIII, poorly disguised as a Shinra officer, wobbled over and challenged me to one last game that caused another several retries before it was finally over. I didn't feel happiness, I didn't even feel relief. I felt nothing. All that was left was my affection for Queen's Blood slowly dissolving in the ocean waves.

I don't know if I'll keep playing Queen's Blood after this. It's extremely satisfying to reach 100 percent in any given map, but Queen's Blood isn't required for that. I don't want to give up entirely, but if I'm going to have to use my (maxed out, yet underpowered) deck against players like Chadley with better cards, I'll find it easier to walk away when it's just a generic activity on a map rather and part of the story. And when Aerith isn't watching.