General Gaming Final Fantasy VII Remake OT - Big Trouble in Little Midgar

[Nokt]

Just a fair warning. I tried to youtube some of the OST yesterday and had something spoiled for me because it popped up within the search parameters. So I'd probably just avoid Youtube for anything FFVII.

[Greatoneshere]

5 hours ago, darkness35 said:

The PSN version does have WotL, and requires either a PSP or Vita to play it.  Last time I had it on my Vita it still lagged.  I'm actually surprised and disappointed this never got patched.

 

A shame. The mobile port is known to be an excellent port, and I'd still play WofL over Tactics original any day, even with slowdown.

[Chairslinger]

1 hour ago, Nokt said:

Just a fair warning. I tried to youtube some of the OST yesterday and had something spoiled for me because it popped up within the search parameters. So I'd probably just avoid Youtube for anything FFVII.

 

 

 

Other than the first few announcement trailers from years back I have been surprisingly successful at avoiding almost all videos and even details about the game. I am looking forward to maximizing the wow factor of the game when I first pop it in.

 

This might sound like a silly question, but I almost never play physical discs on my PS4. Like, the last time I did it may have been the first few weeks after I bought the system in 2016. When I put FF7R in the PS4 am I going to be able to play immediately, or is there an install delay while it moves assets onto the harddrive. I seem to remember Uncharted 4 did something like that when I first loaded it up. I'd rather plan to kill some time after the game gets here rather than have it surprise me and be all pissed when I am amped up to play the game and all of a sudden have to wait.....

[Nokt]

11 minutes ago, Chairslinger said:

Other than the first few announcement trailers from years back I have been surprisingly successful at avoiding almost all videos and even details about the game. I am looking forward to maximizing the wow factor of the game when I first pop it in.

 

This might sound like a silly question, but I almost never play physical discs on my PS4. Like, the last time I did it may have been the first few weeks after I bought the system in 2016. When I put FF7R in the PS4 am I going to be able to play immediately, or is there an install delay while it moves assets onto the harddrive. I seem to remember Uncharted 4 did something like that when I first loaded it up. I'd rather plan to kill some time after the game gets here rather than have it surprise me and be all pissed when I am amped up to play the game and all of a sudden have to wait.....

I guess what spoiler for me wasn't really a spoiler, I just didn't remember that happening. It was just upsetting to not have that experience again because of a youtube title.

 

I'd imagine you'll have to install the game before getting to play as most if not all games do that now.

[legend]

8 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

Oh just 85 hours or so to go. 

 

My original playthrough was probably close to 100 hours. This one has a whole additional semester, so I might be looking at more than that even  

 

8 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

That's kinda why I'm holding off on this. It looks better than I expected and I sort of want to play it now, but I'm just now getting back in a gaming mood and I'm trying to decide between Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Dragon Quest XI. I've got no shortage of RPGs to play.

 

Yeah, those are some long ones too!

[johnny]

Fighting as Tifa is really fun. Love her combos and abilities 

[Paperclyp]

I’m working through Morrowind, Doom, and  Animal Crossing right now but I am so tempted to buy this as well. 

[Chairslinger]

Got my copy today. Waiting on the 40GB install.

 

 

[Firewithin]

so what are the best materia to equip on each person?  i know they should change out depending on who is with you but are there some that should be on certain team member 100% of the time?

[atom631]

I guess I’m the outlier but overall I’m finding it kinda cheesy and lacking any sort of charm or personality. I’m really trying to be objective and not compare it to the OG that we all see through rosey glasses - but it’s also really hard not to. 

 

The chapter 3 side quests were awful and very obviously filler just to extended the game time. 

Spoiler

Killing rats on one quest  and searching for cats on another? Really? REALLY? 

the linearity of the “sections” where you do the sidequests felt EXACTLY like playing Crisis Core. Just barren long corridors with muddy textures. Just overall dull. 
 

the motorcycle sequence was straight out of 2008. 
 

At first the slums looked and felt alive. But after 10 minutes of “exploring” you quickly realize there’s nothing to it. And the constantly repeating dialogue that never changes every time you walk past an NPC is lazy and obnoxious. 

 

the whole sector 7 area was lifeless and clinical. It has zero personality and just felt so empty. 
 

and then there’s just the gamut of anime tropes.  
 

im just starting chapter 5 and about 7hrs in. The only thing keeping me going is I actually find the combat kinda fun. If that dulls our or becomes repetitive (which I suspect it will) I may bail on this game. 
 

really disappointed so far. 

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

One thing I've noticed about the combat and Xbob touched on it in another thread is

(well more than one thing)

1. The enemies seem to just soak up damage and not react to being hit. They react when you get a stagger gauge to go up but it seems unfair that your characters react to everything but the enemies do not. It's like halfway between wanting to be like the original and trying to be an action RPG.

2. When there are a bunch of enemies and you switch your character the character you're not controlling will just get demolished by the enemy because they have dumb AI. Especially on the bigger boss battles and such.

3. There isn't enough combat. You don't grind in combat in this game you grind in MMO side quests.

[crispy4000]

Still waiting on my copy, but it arrived in a local shipping center today.

[johnny]

10 hours ago, Firewithin said:

so what are the best materia to equip on each person?  i know they should change out depending on who is with you but are there some that should be on certain team member 100% of the time?

I’ve been just randomly giving people materia that I want to use and I’m on chapter 8 and I haven’t ran into a problem yet. Maybe I will in the future but I’m trying to focus on leveling up the materia. 

[Greatoneshere]

I think one aspect I really like about the game is the pacing - it's very propulsive, with each chapter really leading into the next one. It feels a lot like a TV series, in that way. All the expanded story content has been enjoyable so far.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I've updated the reviews compilation post with all that have been posted to OpenCritic.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

I've updated the reviews compilation post with all that have been posted to OpenCritic.

 

What's your review?

[Spork3245]

Am I alone in thinking that the English VA for Barret is awful? I tried switching back from Japanese to English and it was fine until Barret came back on screen. Holy F, the dude voicing him over exaggerates each line of dialogue.

[crispy4000]

On 4/12/2020 at 10:26 PM, atom631 said:

At first the slums looked and felt alive. But after 10 minutes of “exploring” you quickly realize there’s nothing to it. And the constantly repeating dialogue that never changes every time you walk past an NPC is lazy and obnoxious. 

 

the whole sector 7 area was lifeless and clinical. It has zero personality and just felt so empty.

On some of those quests now.  I can appreciate what they’re trying to do here, although it could be more interesting and less of a progression gate.  All the town dialogue reminds me of FFXIII, but truth be told, FFXIII really could have used something like this to break the monotony.

What I especially love is the view of upper Midgar from the slums.  So it’s kind of a fascinating setting to me regardless.

[johnny]

2 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Am I alone in thinking that the English VA for Barret is awful? I tried switching back from Japanese to English and it was fine until Barret came back on screen. Holy F, the dude voicing him over exaggerates each line of dialogue.

It’s a little much but I thought that was part of the sort of anime thing. Idk, not an anime guy but I chalked it up to that. 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Am I alone in thinking that the English VA for Barret is awful? I tried switching back from Japanese to English and it was fine until Barret came back on screen. Holy F, the dude voicing him over exaggerates each line of dialogue.

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Chairslinger]

6 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Am I alone in thinking that the English VA for Barret is awful? I tried switching back from Japanese to English and it was fine until Barret came back on screen. Holy F, the dude voicing him over exaggerates each line of dialogue.

 

 

I mean, it's a little over the top but that's how I always imagined Barret, anyway. One of the cool things about seeing Remake's graphics is how it's not just about being prettier. For fans who have played the hell out of the original the animation and voice acting really brings to life what the old game could only kind of hint at with it's limited graphics(especially the non-combat character models).

 

For instance, I thought Barret berating those Shinra employees on the train back to Sector 7 was perfect. In the original, his character was bopping all around trying to show the emotion and intimidation, in the Remake you got to see he damn near made them piss their pants

 

 

32 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

 

So far Tifa and Aeris are my favorite fits as far as voice acting goes. It's cool to see that she's a fan of the source material.

[Spork3245]

6 hours ago, johnny said:

It’s a little much but I thought that was part of the sort of anime thing. Idk, not an anime guy but I chalked it up to that. 

 

2 hours ago, Chairslinger said:

 

 

I mean, it's a little over the top but that's how I always imagined Barret, anyway. One of the cool things about seeing Remake's graphics is how it's not just about being prettier. For fans who have played the hell out of the original the animation and voice acting really brings to life what the old game could only kind of hint at with it's limited graphics(especially the non-combat character models).

 

For instance, I thought Barret berating those Shinra employees on the train back to Sector 7 was perfect. In the original, his character was bopping all around trying to show the emotion and intimidation, in the Remake you got to see he damn near made them piss their pants

 

 

 

 

So far Tifa and Aeris are my favorite fits as far as voice acting goes. It's cool to see that she's a fan of the source material.

Try switching to Japanese. He yells a lot, but it doesn’t come off as unnatural or as if he’s reading the lines for the first time while yelling them. The words spoken are def over-the-top anime, that’s not my issue, the VA’s delivery comes off poorly and forced, IMO.

[Keyser_Soze]

2 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

 

Try switching to Japanese. He yells a lot, but it doesn’t come off as unnatural or as if he’s reading the lines for the first time while yelling them. The words spoken are def over-the-top anime, that’s not my issue, the VA’s delivery comes off poorly and forced, IMO.

 

But if you play in Japanese you have to read and you miss out on action on screen and a bunch of other excuses.

[Spork3245]

50 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

But if you play in Japanese you have to read and you miss out on action on screen and a bunch of other excuses.

My eyes are trained from anime  

[johnny]

6 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

 

Try switching to Japanese. He yells a lot, but it doesn’t come off as unnatural or as if he’s reading the lines for the first time while yelling them. The words spoken are def over-the-top anime, that’s not my issue, the VA’s delivery comes off poorly and forced, IMO.

Idk, don’t really have a problem with the voice acting from any of the characters. 

[Greatoneshere]

11 minutes ago, johnny said:

Idk, don’t really have a problem with the voice acting from any of the characters. 

 

Same. Barret seems exactly like Barret should - over-the-top, outsized, loud. That's who he is, a bit of a cliche. I actually think Cloud's voice actor has impressed me the most since he has the hardest job making him likeable and he pulls it off.

 

Barret's also part of the whole anime conventions thing, so it's that too. It's just as bad in Japanese, you just can't tell since so-and-so doesn't understand the language. But whichever options works for the person, that's why it's there.

[Spork3245]

14 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Same. Barret seems exactly like Barret should - over-the-top, outsized, loud. That's who he is, a bit of a cliche. I actually think Cloud's voice actor has impressed me the most since he has the hardest job making him likeable and he pulls it off.

 

Barret's also part of the whole anime conventions thing, so it's that too. It's just as bad in Japanese, you just can't tell since so-and-so doesn't understand the language. But whichever options works for the person, that's why it's there.

You’re just assuming this. I’ve been learning Japanese off and on for awhile. Again, the dialogue from Barret is cheesy over-the-top anime stuff, but that’s not my issue. I have zero problem with any of the other VAs. Also, the previous English VAs were fine to me.
 

[Greatoneshere]

5 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

You’re just assuming this. I’ve been learning Japanese off and on for awhile. Again, the dialogue from Barret is cheesy over-the-top anime stuff, but that’s not my issue. I have zero problem with any of the other VAs. Also, the previous English VAs were fine to me.
 

 

I'm not, as I've seen enough anime in Japanese, and from watching it with those who speak Japanese. Japanese VA's can often be excellent, no doubt, but JP dubbing's way of doing things inherently plays up the broad archetypes in anime and video games, they play into the tropes, where Western dubbing typically tries to add more layers into the performance (these days, obviously English dubbing in the 90's was a different time). For instance, every voice always matches every character design in anime and video games. "Gruff old guy" gets cast with a typically extremely gruff old guy in real life in Japanese who really plays into the gruffness. English dubbing adds more shades to it in my experience, and not always casting for type, but often against type or in unexpected ways. I didn't mean my comment at you specifically, just that it is broadly true that if you don't understand a language, you do miss the nuances of the performance, particularly with voice acting, so it's harder for the non-Japanese speaker to really say whether so-and-so JP VA is good or not. Live-action is much easier to tell due to their being more to their performance that just speaking the lines (body language and movement, etc.). 

 

And it's not always the case, of course, I'm speaking in many cases. And more than anything else, Japan is notorious for treating and casting black characters particularly poorly. Barret could be better in Japanese, I was simply using that as a jumping off point for a broad point.

[atom631]

Nevermind. Got past it. On chapter 7 now. 

[Nokt]

A great game marred by unneeded/awkward story changes. Its not a remake, its a reboot.

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, Nokt said:

A great game marred by unneeded/awkward story changes. Its not a remake, its a reboot.

 

You should have read Bacon's thread you would have been prepared for disappointment

[Nokt]

8 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

You should have read Bacon's thread you would have been prepared for disappointment

I'm kind of glad I didn't. The game is, for the most part, a faithful recreation until the end. Reliving those moments was great, going in with a bad attitude would have taken what enjoyment I got out of it.

 

That said, I'm probably going to let part 2 come out and see what happens before I bite.

[TwinIon]

I'm only a couple hours in. Just about to leave the slums for the first time. So far I'm really enjoying it. I think the battle system is pretty good. Longer fights force you to think like you would in old school FF games, but the faster pace and action elements are real improvements. The graphics are great, and I think the voice acting is pretty good.

 

The only complaints I have about it so far are more about JRPGs in general and less about this game specifically. I guess I haven't played many modern AAA JRPGs, because there's something a bit odd about a game that has such incredible technology and production value and such an interesting new battle system, but retains some of the odd structure of old school JRPGs.

 

The area layouts in particular feel like an unnecessary throwback. When you've got sprite maps or pre-rendered backgrounds or primitive polygons, it makes sense to build a town that is a effectively a couple of corridors. With the incredible detail put into these scenes, it's hard not to be so much more aware of the artificiality of the map layouts. The last RPG I played was  Witcher 3, where they really went the complete opposite direction. If anything, it can sometimes be annoying in that game that a castle is nearly the size of a castle. There's so much "wasted" space, so much space to get lost in that doesn't really have a lot of content, but it makes a castle feel like a castle,  a house feel like a house, or a whole town feel like a town. In FF7, I can't help but feel like the maps betray the presentation.

 

That level of artificiality definitely applies to the voice acting and dialog, but that I have less trouble with. It's campy and strange, but it's not like you could have Cloud and Barrett running around in some entirely grounded reality. It's that anime insanity that you either get on board with or not, and I'm fine with it so far.

[crispy4000]

@TwinIon  It’s closer to FFXIII’s design template in its linearity.  Not quite so hamstrung as that, thankfully.  It’s done much better here, doesn’t feel nearly as claustrophobic or railroaded.

 

DQX11 strikes a better balance between landscape scope and typical JRPG progression. 

 

On the other end of the spectrum you have the Xenoblade games, which sprawl out extensively and take an ‘if you see it, you can go there’ approach.

 

I like all three.  Don’t really have a preference, when they’re done well.