Final Fantasy VII Remake

[Mr. Gerbik]

48 minutes ago, Hexx said:

 

Aerith is so much better than Barrett

 

I'm strictly speaking about the remake here. Aerith is one of the most annoying tee-hee ditzy anime golly characters I've seen in a game in a long time. I'm desperately hoping for Sephiroth to show up and free us from her. 

 

 

Hey, remember when they told me it was all good from Chapter 9 onwards? They lied.

Spoiler

Bloody hell Chapter 17 and the fucking endless slow-ass party switching is doing my nut in. I don't know what's worse, the sheer boredom of Chapter 8 or the annoying fucking slow-ass switching in the most uninteresting samey rooms ever designed for a videogame in 17. 

I'm really close to the end now, so I'll persevere but I agree with @Moz above on one thing. It's a game of high highs and incredibly low lows. Up until this point it was brilliant from 9 onwards. Way to stretch it out. Jeez.

[Hexx]

Chapter 17 is a really slow point. It's really odd and completely kills any story momentum and pacing and it's not even interresting.

[Mr. Gerbik]

5 minutes ago, Hexx said:

Chapter 17 is a really slow point. It's really odd and completely kills any story momentum and pacing and it's not even interresting.

Yeah, you're all excited battling your way to the finale, a wonderful crescendo building towards something that feels epic and spectacular, you're really close and then.... and then suddenly the story tellers slam on the brakes. Poof, record scratch, crescendo stops, momentum killed stone dead. 

 

The overall game could be so,so much better by simply removing 8 and 17. Literally nothing of import happens.

[Hexx]

7 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Yeah, you're all excited battling your way to the finale, a wonderful crescendo building towards something that feels epic and spectacular, you're really close and then.... and then suddenly the story tellers slam on the brakes. Poof, record scratch, crescendo stops, momentum killed stone dead. 

 

The overall game could be so,so much better by simply removing 8 and 17. Literally nothing of import happens.

 

 

In the original you sneak out of jail, into a mysterious building you last saw bustling as death is everywhere...something's broken out Jenova....who or what? Myterious...unsettling...

 

 

In this it shows you who broke it out (someone you've met before) and then throws you into HoJo's boring tests...rather than what they're up to with Jenova

 

[sprite]

17 is a mixed bag, it’s a big chapter and does pick up again. But agree with you all, once I got into the party switching bit I lost the plot a bit and had to have a break   By splitting it over two days it was easier to deal with and then it got fun again toward the end.

[Mogster]

I'm approaching the end of chapter 14 at the moment, which I'm surprised to say was quite enjoyable for the most part. There's no doubt it brought the pace to a screeching halt though, and makes it worse towards the end with padding on top of padding. 

 

I imagine Square felt it was necessary to add all this stuff in order to stretch the game out and justify the full price release, but personally I wish that they'd kept it tight. This would have made for a better 20 hour game than a 40 hour one.

[mikeyl]

Got the credits. Thought it was great. Yes the game has some subjective issues around pacing and filler but the highs were absolutely thrilling.
 

I’m still furious with the overreaction this got a week before it came out. I didn’t know the details but saw the entitlement, the thread title changes, the boycotting, the crying and passenger seat 2nd hand criticism.

 

Played the whole game with an anxiety and speculating on what kind of catastrophe is going to occur until right to the end.
 

Was the plot going to nosedive into something objectively irredeemable? Was the bad thing that happened in the first game going to happen early or happen to another character? Is there some sort of game-breaking technical disaster? What’s the plot twist? When’s the plot twist? (Apologies if these seem like spoilers, they are more like un-spoilers. The actual spoiler is that it’s sequel may possibly be open to new possibilities, that’s it)
 

Should’ve known better. It’s was always the same sort of entitled manbaby over exaggerating the dramas because something is not the exact same equal to what they have pictured in their heads. Then, after exhausting the possibility that creators should be allowed to create, start banging on about semantics (btw Westworld is a remake, the Office is a remake, Oceans 11 is a remake, Psycho was a shit remake).

So yeah thanks lads, waited 20 years then went through 40 hours stressing about a massive bed-shitting that didn’t happen.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Just finished, and while it was great overall it did have a few terrible dips in the pacing (8 and 17) and to be honest for me it never recovered from 17's dip. The highs were extremely high before 17, epic scenes with fantastic nostalgia, but after 17 it became

Spoiler

way too Kingdom Hearts for me It was okay, but I didn't like the fight against Shinra jr, the motorbike scene went on too long, and the end battles were a mess. As the credits started rolling I immediately looked up explanations for the ending and to me that's just bad story telling. Good story telling that manages to still obfuscate stuff and leave a sense of unkown mystery, also leaves you with a sense that you know enough to feel satisfied - you want to know more, but what you do know feels like a coherent, complete story. Here it's just anime random shit galore, counting on you to Google it to make any kind of sense of it. 

Overall I loved it, despite my above criticism. I never imagined that simply being able to look up would add so much to this game if you loved the original. Overall I also like the vast majority of the new stuff, with the exception of the dreadful dullness of 8 and 17. The ending is what it is, it could have been executed far far better but the basic idea is nice and I'm looking forward to seeing where they take it from here. Sometime before 2027 hopefully but knowing Square

 

[Kevvy Metal]

11 hours ago, mikeyl said:

Got the credits. Thought it was great. Yes the game has some subjective issues around pacing and filler but the highs were absolutely thrilling.
 

I’m still furious with the overreaction this got a week before it came out. I didn’t know the details but saw the entitlement, the thread title changes, the boycotting, the crying and passenger seat 2nd hand criticism.

 

Played the whole game with an anxiety and speculating on what kind of catastrophe is going to occur until right to the end.
 

Was the plot going to nosedive into something objectively irredeemable? Was the bad thing that happened in the first game going to happen early or happen to another character? Is there some sort of game-breaking technical disaster? What’s the plot twist? When’s the plot twist? (Apologies if these seem like spoilers, they are more like un-spoilers. The actual spoiler is that it’s sequel may possibly be open to new possibilities, that’s it)
 

Should’ve known better. It’s was always the same sort of entitled manbaby over exaggerating the dramas because something is not the exact same equal to what they have pictured in their heads. Then, after exhausting the possibility that creators should be allowed to create, start banging on about semantics (btw Westworld is a remake, the Office is a remake, Oceans 11 is a remake, Psycho was a shit remake).

So yeah thanks lads, waited 20 years then went through 40 hours stressing about a massive bed-shitting that didn’t happen.

Yes! This is also why I was calling out this behaviour in the thread earlier as complete shit on the parts of those involved that wanted to stir it all up. You’ll go through the whole thing excepting something that probably isn’t even a thing. 

[NecroMorrius]

The fuck is up with this 6 wheeled boss, piece of shit Sonic Adventure bollocks

[Mr. Gerbik]

4 hours ago, Moz said:

The fuck is up with this 6 wheeled boss, piece of shit Sonic Adventure bollocks

Absolutely hated that part, it was then that I decided I would definitely not bother with hard mode

 

Tip: hit the brakes and/or swerve to avoid big, damaging attacks. Use block to block the bullets.

 

[Hexx]

2 hours ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Absolutely hated that part, it was then that I decided I would definitely not bother with hard mode

 

Tip: hit the brakes and/or swerve to avoid big, damaging attacks. Use block to block the bullets.

 

Hard mode lets you skip the bike sections 

[Mr. Gerbik]

1 hour ago, Hexx said:

Hard mode lets you skip the bike sections 

Ah, that's good to know. Although there's also a trophy attached to the first bike section iirc... but I suppose you can do that on easy.

 

Way back when I was a cute young Gerbik I played and replayed the original FF7 three times in a row, immediately going back to disc 1 after the credits had finished. Nowadays, I'm still kinda cute but also a grumpy old man with far less time and - paradoxically - also far, far more games. Maybe I'll return to FF7R but time constraints in combination with my huge backlog and the idea of having to play through the bad sections again, means I'm done for now.

 

I'm back in Disaster Report 4, with Judgment after that

 

[BitterToad]

I've pretty much hated the side quests thus far, or at least found them a bit of a boring slog, but I'm really enjoying them in Chapter 14. I like how the game kind of leaves you to your own devices on quite a large section of the map and has all of these quests that all link together in fun, satisfying ways. It removes the frustration of "oh I can't find that" or "I don't know where that is" because I just go off and do something else and eventually it tends to point me in the direction of the first thing. 

 

I've not really seen side quests that link together like that in a game like this, certainly not done this well. 

 

There are definitely some sections in this that go on too long, and if it is a 40 hour epic (currently at about 28 hours) I think it'll have been a much more succinct, satisfying 30 hour thing, but it's my favourite thing I've played in a while. I'm spending a lot of time enjoying that nostalgic glow and gob smacked that it even exists. If they keep the quality up I'm really excited at the idea of going back to this story every few years. 

[mikeyl]

16 hours ago, Kevvy Metal said:

Yes! This is also why I was calling out this behaviour in the thread earlier as complete shit on the parts of those involved that wanted to stir it all up. You’ll go through the whole thing excepting something that probably isn’t even a thing. 

Yes I couldn’t understand the motivation there, going back and reading it. Gonna start a NG+, free of any tbc trauma and can fully invest in the characters this time.

 

 “oh but imma protecting the general public from making a £60 purchase they might regret”, alright consumer rights champions, the Anne Robinsons of Sector 7, where were you when I bought my set of Phillips Hues which don’t fit in any of my light fittings.

[meatbin]

I have to keep pinching myself to check I'm actually playing the remake of FF7.  I never thought this would actually happen amid all the speculation throughout 2003-2015-ish

[Ran]

It's a really odd beast. I can't say I found the combat always satisfying and the side quests were mostly drivel but I enjoyed most of the 50 hours even so. Particularly Chapter 9...  that's one of the best things I've experienced in a game for a long, long time.

Chapter 9

Spoiler

All the Honeybee Inn stuff, the training gym with Jules. It just felt all so effortlessly inclusive and well judged.

end spoilers

Spoiler

It's a really interesting direction they've taken because they could still pull in elements from the original game to thrill anyone looking for their memories played out in glorious high polish but they are also free to surprise and take unexpected directions with the story / events.

I hope they don't use it to simply fart out a super cheesy everyones happy ending and nobody died!

I do wonder where they will go mechanically too. Will your materia carry over somehow? In the original game though you could grind it out generally you'd be hitting those high spell levels towards the mid to endgame but here we are at the end of chapter one and all your main magics are maxed out. Definitely signed up for the next episode.

 

[sprite]

16 hours ago, mikeyl said:

Yes I couldn’t understand the motivation there, going back and reading it. Gonna start a NG+, free of any tbc trauma and can fully invest in the characters this time.

 

 “oh but imma protecting the general public from making a £60 purchase they might regret”, alright consumer rights champions, the Anne Robinsons of Sector 7, where were you when I bought my set of Phillips Hues which don’t fit in any of my light fittings.

One of the “spoilers” I read here was actually completely inaccurate, and led to me playing through the whole game thinking something was gonna happen (still with an open mind) that actually didn’t  at least I stayed surprised.

 

Lesson learned.

[Captain Novaforce]

Just finished, really enjoyed it! Don't think I'm in the mood to go back and try for the different cut scenes was happy enough watching them on YouTube

 

Spoiler

 

 

Surprisingly horny game this! In fact I loved the whole wall market section, quite a few genuine laughs.

 

"I know. Nailed it. Thank you, moving on"

 

Quite happy with the direction they took with changes to the timeline, I played the original about 3 times all the way through so the possibility of some surprises is great.

 

 

[Harrisown]

Done.

Probably close to 60 hours So I  got my monies worth.

Combat never got old.

Side quests were a chore after a while and they dumped them all together in one section. Worried the next game might be open worldish and full of them.

 

Great game though. Epic ending.

Love the tease of what might possibly be coming in the future.

 

So are we thinking 2021 for the next one or 2022? 

[Alex W.]

Might already be posted, but a YouTube channel I follow did a bit about the arrangement of the Mako Reactor theme:

 

 

Clearly the demo left an impression because I played it three or four times so I might get around to this game eventually despite my distaste for the combat system.

 

[Mogster]

This really does grind to a halt in chapter 17, doesn't it? 16 was great, but so far 17 feels like it was squeezed in purely to drag things out. 

 

As ever it's rescued by the combat though, which I've enjoyed more and more as the game's progressed.

[sprite]

45 minutes ago, Mogster said:

This really does grind to a halt in chapter 17, doesn't it? 16 was great, but so far 17 feels like it was squeezed in purely to drag things out. 

 

As ever it's rescued by the combat though, which I've enjoyed more and more as the game's progressed.

it did my head in, that bit of 17. It picks up again though.  Just seemed so out of place but on the plus side...

 

getting to spend more time with Red XIII is always a plus in my book  

[Uzi]

Finished this the other day. It is a different beast to the original but my god - what a beast it is. It retains EVERYTHING precious about the original for me (characters/music/location and vision) and bumps on an insanely good combat system. I genuinely enjoyed every single combat section.

 

Going back through the original now modded on PC with random encounters off (no patience for that shit these days) and it is reinforcing they did an incredible job - really was a passion project and it shows with near every important moment in the game. 

[Kevvy Metal]

I really disagree with a lot that’s been said about the likes of the side quests, they almost always seem to happen in a “town” if you will and expand and get you grounded and invested in that area. 
 

Same with the “level” sections with environment manipulation and groups of mobs. It’s all for good pacing and palette cleansing. 

[Majora]

On chapter 17 now, I suspect near the end of that chapter. I've generally enjoyed my time with the game but I am ready for it to end now. Looking back, chapters 2, 4, 9 and 16 were the definite highlights for me. The rest of the game has some good stuff dotted around but it's sandwiched by some fairly tedious stretches too.

 

Strangely, it reminds me a bit of Alice:Madness Returns sometimes in the way it takes an initially intriguing location and objective and stretches it out far beyond what's necessary. Missions that were fun for an hour get decidedly less so when you're still running down those same narrow corridors several hours later. I've played for 50 hours so far and I reckon if you cut out 10-15 of those hours I wouldn't miss anything.

 

I have enjoyed it on the whole though, more than I thought I would. Very curious if they're able to stick the landing and make this part feel satisfying on its own merits.

 

[Mogster]

One boss towards the end of 17 caused me more trouble than any other fight in the game, taking me about six attempts and a few different materia combinations to beat. It was a real Dark Souls moment when I did though.

 

I think I'm right at the very end now. I've loved it for the most part, but I'm glad there's likely to be a bit of a wait for part 2. This part was good, but bloody hell was it long.

 

[spanx]

Well I think this joined the abandon pile. I just can’t get in to it at all. The combat is ok but everything else just seems dated and half arsed. I just can’t raise any enthusiasm to boot it up and grind through another 20 minute boss battle. 
 

Shame, I really wanted to love it. 

[NecroMorrius]

On 02/05/2020 at 18:50, Kevvy Metal said:

I really disagree with a lot that’s been said about the likes of the side quests

 

Fair enough. Hey, while you’re here, can you kill ten rats for me please?

[Kevvy Metal]

59 minutes ago, Moz said:

 

Fair enough. Hey, while you’re here, can you kill ten rats for me please?

It’s there for you to learn the ropes of the whole game, by that logic you’d skip every encounter in something like DMC. Can’t say I’m surprised that would wouldn’t have the patience or attention span. 
 

Why not go one step forward and just straight uninstall it?