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

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[johnny]

Having to play the whole chapter if you only need one thing from it really does suck. I started today and I was like nope not playing 2 hours because I want one thing I missed at the end of the chapter. 

[Spork3245]

3 hours ago, johnny said:

Having to play the whole chapter if you only need one thing from it really does suck. I started today and I was like nope not playing 2 hours because I want one thing I missed at the end of the chapter. 

Which chapter?

[ThreePi]

5 hours ago, johnny said:

Having to play the whole chapter if you only need one thing from it really does suck. I started today and I was like nope not playing 2 hours because I want one thing I missed at the end of the chapter. 

Yeah, I wanted to go back and do the Hard battle stuff, but I don't really feel up to playing through the whole chapter to get to where that stuff unlocks. I'm actually going to shelve the game for now and play.... original Final Fantasy VII.

[Greatoneshere]

I felt I got all the reasonable trophies, so my trophies are hovering around 70%. Everything after those ones seemed unreasonable to bother getting once you've beaten the game. "Level up all weapon abilities"? Why? I beat the game. Get all music CD's? Yep, that I can do.

[TwinIon]

At chapter 16 now, so I'm getting to the end.  I'll hold of on reading through all those spoilers until I finish the story, but in terms of the rest of the game, I've really enjoyed it. 

 

At a technical level, I'd say it's impressive but inconsistent. They obviously put a ton of effort into the character models, and they switch to the high quality assets at every opportunity, and it pays dividends. Backgrounds and textures can often be muddy, and a lot of stuff is repeated a bit too often to feel natural, but overall it's a solid effort that I'm excited to see expanded upon on the PS5. My one issue is that I really wish they'd put in a ton of particle effects and dust in Chapter 13+. We'd been through so many ruins that it was hard to differentiate the old ruins from the more recent ones.

 

The music is phenomenal. There's a lot of variety, it sounds great, and it reminds you that some of these riffs have been classics for a reason.

 

I have a few little nitpicks, but the primary one is that I'm still, 30 hours later, constantly going to a pause screen instead of the menu. I understand why that's the case during combat, but I don't see why I can't just go to the menu if I'm ducking under something or finishing talking to someone. It's minor and silly, but it happens a lot.

 

I've mostly gotten accustomed to the "series of corridors" nature of the game. I still think it's at odds with the presentation and feel of the game, and while it's the biggest thing I hope they can change in the next games, it's fine.

 

I can appreciate that they tried a bunch of tactics to mix things up, from the motorcycle section to jumping across rooftops to dance sequences, but I don't think the gameplay in any of those sequences was worthwhile. None were horrible, but none were actually fun. Platforming isn't fun when all it involves is walking to the right square, QTEs went out of style a long time ago, and the "puzzles" probably shouldn't be described that way. If they're going to make a bunch of gameplay happen outside of combat, they need to find better ways to spend it.

 

Speaking of combat, my appreciation for it has only grown. I think it might be my favorite JRPG combat of all time. It's fast and fluid, flexible and strategic. I love that materia and weapons level independently, so I never felt pressure to find a perfect build, and was always sure that I was at least gaining experience that would be useful. I like that it pushes you into different builds as party makeup changes, and that the system allows you to adapt to those shifts in any number of ways.

 

 

One other thing that I think is really hard to do is that the combat system in this game never felt out of sync with the story. Cloud is an awesome SOLDIER from day one, and even though you don't have many skills, you still feel like it. Still, there's plenty of room for growth. There was never a point where I felt like I'm supposed to be this tough guy but I'm swinging around a stick barely surviving against rats. I always felt like the toughest guy in the room, but was also always looking forward to mastering that next weapon power or leveling up another magic.

 

 

While I still wish that I had the entire FF7 story to play through, I'm very happy with this first installment. The story is still worthwhile, the characters have only grown more endearing with their new high poly models, and the combat is really excellent. I hope they make some improvements in the coming games, but I'd happily play another 30+ hour game or two even without any. This remake could have gone very poorly, but it's easily going to be one of my top games of the year.

[crispy4000]

Just beat the coliseum boss.
 

It really does feel to me like a modernization of everything that made PS1 Final Fantasy (and Chrono Cross) special.  There’s occasionally some attempted humor that misses the mark.  And it is linear, but this game is soooo much better than XIII in that.  I could easily recommend this to someone who hasn’t played FF before, even though it isn’t fully to modern tastes (ie: open world).

 

I do like the mini-game sections so far.  Not because they’re amazing, but because most modern JRPGs just don’t go there anymore.  Super Mario RPG will always be one of my favorite Square games because just how jam packed it is with them (and other secrets too).  Looking forward to Chocobo Racing and snowboarding in the sequels.

 

[Mr.Vic20]

Completed! It was a great ride with the exception of a particular boss fight very late in the game. Overall it was fun and beautiful!  

[crispy4000]

 

[Spork3245]

So, there’s some incredible graphics mods for the OG game.

This is by far my favorite:

https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy7/mods/4?tab=description

The updated character models are fantastic 

[SaysWho?]

Ch 7 boss spoiler. This is what I decided to do:

 

Spoiler

You have to get rid of M units the first go-around. When you have a choice, I took away two AI programming cores (reduces frequency of using that stun attack and slows down Air Buster) and one BB bomb. I don't know what the best is, but I'm gonna try it this way, then read more about what others did after the fight.

 

[johnny]

45 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

Ch 7 boss spoiler. This is what I decided to do:

 

  Hide contents

You have to get rid of M units the first go-around. When you have a choice, I took away two AI programming cores (reduces frequency of using that stun attack and slows down Air Buster) and one BB bomb. I don't know what the best is, but I'm gonna try it this way, then read more about what others did after the fight.

 

Spoiler

I got rid of all the bombs. My thinking was at least I wouldn’t get bombed and knocked out. 

 

[SaysWho?]

I feel like all the pushover bosses in the original are badass in this. Ch 7 boss was pretty damn awesome.

[Anzo]

6 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

I feel like all the pushover bosses in the original are badass in this. Ch 7 boss was pretty damn awesome.

Agreed. There are no “pushover” bosses in this one, which is awesome. I was blown away by Ch 7 boss (dat music) and they just get better from there. 

[Keyser_Soze]

On 4/22/2020 at 2:19 PM, Greatoneshere said:

 

Thanks for the answers! I have follow ups then . . . 

 

  Hide contents

6. Are we to interpret the Whisper mini-bosses that fight "from the future" on behalf of Whisper Harbinger are Tifa, Cloud, etc. from the future in the OG timeline, representing the selves they became from the original timeline that they are trying to protect (you find out this info if you use Assess on them when fighting them).

 

Clarification about the fight at the end, seems it was misinterpreted and maybe you will or will not like the answer

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Slug]

On 4/24/2020 at 6:23 PM, Spork3245 said:

The biggest disappointment for me was 

<snip>

FWIW it's a lock he'll be playable in Part II.

[Spork3245]

53 minutes ago, Slug said:

FWIW it's a lock he'll be playable in Part II.

Well... yea  

People have already modded save files to make him playable now. 

[SaysWho?]

Aerith is adorable.

[TwinIon]

Wow, the end of Ch 17 was really something. A whole lot of action set pieces in a row.

 

I'm pretty sure I died on phase 7 or something of the final (or penultimate?) boss. I haven't used it too much, but I do appreciate when the game gives you the ability to restart in the middle of a battle sequence, though I've found it inconsistent in when it will allow that. There have been times I've been surprised that it let me skip phase 1 of a battle, and others where I was kind of annoyed that it didn't. There's probably some logic I'm missing. 

 

 

One other minor annoyance I forgot to mention before: that you can't interact with objects unless you're looking right at them. I hate going up to a chest or a lever or something and not being able to open it or pull it unless the camera is in the right position. There are certainly more serious issues with the camera in battle, but somehow this one sticks out to me as something easily fixed and consistently annoying.

[Greatoneshere]

5 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Clarification about the fight at the end, seems it was misinterpreted and maybe you will or will not like the answer

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Very interesting - makes sense, don't hate it at all, just different.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Very interesting - makes sense, don't hate it at all, just different.

 

Who said anything about hate?

[Greatoneshere]

5 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Who said anything about hate?

 

Just meant in answer to the possibility of whether I like or don't like the answer. 

[SaysWho?]

It's funny playing this game and going through the side missions and added story beats considering one of the attacks was, "Oh so we're getting a fraction of the story but they added darts!"

[Greatoneshere]

1 minute ago, SaysWho? said:

It's funny playing this game and going through the side missions and added story beats considering one of the attacks was, "Oh so we're getting a fraction of the story but they added darts!"

 

To be fair, we did still only get a fraction of the story, just greatly expanded.

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

To be fair, we did still only get a fraction of the story, just greatly expanded.

 

We knew we were getting up till Midgar, but there was this persistent idea that we weren't getting a whole game, and we clearly did, and there's clearly more side stuff than the darts at the bar.

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

We knew we were getting up till Midgar, but there was this persistent idea that we weren't getting a whole game, and we clearly did, and there's clearly more side stuff than the darts at the bar.

 

We did get a whole game, no doubt, I just meant that technically, it's all still padding/expanded/fraction of the whole story no matter which way you dress it up. I thoroughly liked the game, but that can't be denied. I logged 50 hours after everything (including some trophy hunting) and that's plenty for me. Given there are only a few minigames, bare-bones "discovery" quests, and only like 15 or so very simple side-quests, it's actually impressive how much of the 50 hours really is the main story and not side stuff, of which there wasn't actually much of in the end, so that's a point in the game's favor.

[SaysWho?]

Just now, Greatoneshere said:

 

We did get a whole game, no doubt, I just meant that technically, it's all still padding/expanded/fraction of the whole story no matter which was you dress it up. I thoroughly liked the game, but that can't be denied. I logged 50 hours after everything (including some trophy hunting) and that's plenty for me. 

 

I'm saying I reject the premise that it's not a full game simply due to it going through Midgar, especially since the entire thing is reimagined from the ground up.  

[Greatoneshere]

Just now, SaysWho? said:

 

I'm saying I reject the premise that it's not a full game simply due to it going through Midgar, especially since the entire thing is reimagined from the ground up.  

 

I'm not saying it's not a full game, your original point was that one of the attacks was that it's "just a fraction of the story", not that it's not a full game. It is a full game, but it is also a fraction of the story, with no "episode" subtitle to boot.

[SaysWho?]

7 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I'm not saying it's not a full game, your original point was that one of the attacks was that it's "just a fraction of the story", not that it's not a full game. It is a full game, but it is also a fraction of the story, with no "episode" subtitle to boot.

 

That wasn't my point, yo. Lemme phrase it this way:

 

My point was that the concern trolling was we were getting a small game whose side missions consisted of darts to pad the length when the dart game is about 5 minutes if you want to do it, not that it's not a fraction of the original story (but still adds to the backstories of people like Jessie).

[Greatoneshere]

8 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

That wasn't my point, yo. Lemme phrase it this way:

 

My point was that the concern trolling was we were getting a small game whose side missions consisted of darts to pad the length when the dart game is about 5 minutes if you want to do it, not that it's not a fraction of the original story (but still adds to the backstories of people like Jessie).

 

That's fair, though since the game hadn't come out yet I think it was more of a very real and potential concern bring voiced at the time than it was a genuine "attack" because at the time at best it was speculation since the game wasn't out yet. But I get what you mean.

[SaysWho?]

Just now, Greatoneshere said:

 

That's fair, though since the game hadn't come out yet I think it was more of a very real and potential concern than it was a genuine attack because at the time at best it was speculation. But I get what you mean.

 

I think some were just being ridiculous. Like, an RPG nowadays just having darts for side missions when even something like Tomb Raider has basic ones?! Preposterous!  

 

Also, kinda nuts to believe after the "E3 of Dreams" in 2015 that all of it has released. TLG came real quick and then Shenmue/FF7 took a while. Never played Shenmue, but FF7 has been so much fun and a real delight to hear the 2020 versions of classic songs.

[Greatoneshere]

13 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

I think some were just being ridiculous. Like, an RPG nowadays just having darts for side missions when even something like Tomb Raider has basic ones?! Preposterous!  

 

Also, kinda nuts to believe after the "E3 of Dreams" in 2015 that all of it has released. TLG came real quick and then Shenmue/FF7 took a while. Never played Shenmue, but FF7 has been so much fun and a real delight to hear the 2020 versions of classic songs.

 

Some were definitely overboard on the hate, I agree. I think it's because Square Enix has had a disappointing run as of late, though I disagree with that assessment.

[SaysWho?]

On 4/24/2020 at 8:31 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

 

 

This is a good time to remind ourselves that Max loves this game, but the poor guy had to go through this six years ago first:

 

 

[Kal-El814]

2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

We knew we were getting up till Midgar, but there was this persistent idea that we weren't getting a whole game, and we clearly did, and there's clearly more side stuff than the darts at the bar.

There's also pull-ups, yes.

[TwinIon]

So I finished the game and have some thoughts:

Spoiler

I'm perfectly happy with the idea that we're getting a whole new take on the FF7 story. I think it's a ballsy move, and certainly gives a new meaning to having "remake" in the title. 

 

I do agree with the idea that the ending escalates rather quickly. A couple hours before you're jumping from hanging lights to grab a keycard so you can open a door, and then suddenly you're battling fate itself? The story of FF games has always been bombastic and out there, so it's not as if I was dumbfounded by such a turn, but it was a severe deviation from the rest of this particular game.

 

The more I think about it, the more excited and interested I am by what will come next.

 

Watching the pre-rendered cut scenes at the end did make me wonder how close the PS5 will be able to get to those models. The real time cut scene graphics in this one aren't that far off already. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to find out, though I won't expect a sequel for a long time.