My beloved, it's been 128 weeks since I last saw you. Almost 900 days since I last witnessed your blocky stature..
. shining not as a bunch of low-polygon grapes, but as a gorgeous, fruity berry crystal. Which, admittedly, did look a bit naff.
It's actually kind of hard to believe that it's been two-and-a-half years since Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker's grapes went viral. Their extreme low quality was both revered and teased, before Square Enix very quietly did maintenance on a grape . It was such a minor thing, but it kickstarted a bit of a love and appreciation for all things virtual, edible and delightfully blocky.
Don't get me wrong, I'm also an appreciator of some ridiculously detailed videogame food—I still find myself getting all mouth-watery over Final Fantasy 15's meals, and it feels illegal to skip any of Monster Hunter's incredible culinary scenes. But there's something so deeply interesting about a stunning game serving up some incredibly crusty provisions. Corners must be cut after all, lest our PCs chug and overheat from the sheer weight of million-polygon spaghetti.
But I especially kinda like that raggedy vibe when it comes to food, something so reminiscent of older games that continues to live on. So, of course, when a fellow journalist asked me during the Dawntrail media tour: "Did you see all the low-poly food?" I immediately ran over to my station to nab as much footage of the chunky culinary delights as I could before the preview session wrapped up. This i.
