I kind of agree with this. Everyone hated FF13 for this (Disclaimer: haven't played it myself) but loves the FF7 remake despite it being essentially on rails. It might be the case that people are willing to overlook it because it's FF7 and they have their nostalgia goggles on.
I have no problem with this kind of game structure btw, and the original Midgar section of FF7 was linear. I'm curious how they'll handle the next installments now that the world map has opened up. I'm thinking the structure won't change so I wonder how people will take to that.
I'm still saying: the gameplay of FFVII it's almost the same than FFXV. And everybody hated FFXV.
And the money politics were shitty, but what about FFVII spliting the game into three? FF community of the last 10 years seems kinda toxic and hypocrite to me (disclaimer: I'm not a fan of FF at all)
Alright I finished Midgar in the original. So the remake it's only Midgar? I finished it in 6 hours, how the hell did they do to turn that into a +30 hours game?
As I said before... I get why this is such a legendary game. I can imagine every kid/teenager shitting their pants in 1997 playing this.
Aaaaand I gotta say I really like the turn base system because it's kinda "mix". It's not like Octopath traveller system, which it's something like "alright this is MY turn and won't change until I do something". The time limit here makes it much more dinamic to me.
Alright I finished Midgar in the original. So the remake it's only Midgar? I finished it in 6 hours, how the hell did they do to turn that into a +30 hours game?
Alright I finished Midgar in the original. So the remake it's only Midgar? I finished it in 6 hours, how the hell did they do to turn that into a +30 hours game?
As I said before... I get why this is such a legendary game. I can imagine every kid/teenager shitting their pants in 1997 playing this.
Aaaaand I gotta say I really like the turn base system because it's kinda "mix". It's not like Octopath traveller system, which it's something like "alright this is MY turn and won't change until I do something". The time limit here makes it much more dinamic to me.
I actually do quite like the remake, but yeah, what was once 6 hours is kinda padded out to 30+ in the remake. To be fair, it's mostly just spending more time with characters that weren't really as meaningful in VII (Wedge, Biggs and Jessie namely.)
I've enjoyed it but at the same time I was left to think a lot of it is just padding.
It is. I vividly remember the internet being set ablaze by fans who were railing on the lack of overworld, 'no towns,' and running through hallways. I have seen the game on many occasions referred to as a "hallway simulator." Qualms about the story were comparatively much less prevalent, probably because that wouldn't really make sense coming from a fan of IV, VI, VII, VIII or X. Maybe that's the next straw people have begun to grasp at in more recent years. I haven't played XIII since it was released, so I don't recall a lot of the intricate details, but it at least had characters that elevated, in spite of Nomura's hokey designs. (Probably because it followed XII, which unquestionably would have been the best story the series could ever hope for, if Matsuno hadn't stepped down in the middle of production.) They all actually spent time working through serious flaws, and the gameplay opens up to reflect their personal growth by expanding into a practically boundless space in a new world. (Not to mention what a nice throwback that was to FFIII.) It also had the best combat system the series has ever known, outside of (maybe) peak FFXI.
I noticed that, along with trying to reclaim in its ending a lot of what Pulse represented, FFVII remake seems to have adopted XIII's character growth system for its weapons, as well.
I vividly remember the internet being set ablaze by fans who were railing on the lack of overworld, 'no towns,' and running through hallways. I have seen the game on many occasions referred to as a "hallway simulator."
I mean that was certainly a big part of it no doubt, but FF13 does eventually open up hence the infamous "it takes about 20 hours to get good" backhanded compliment. There was plenty of hate for everything from the story, the characters, the villains, the combat, the progression; people just really didn't like it (though it still got good reviews at the time, natch).
Qualms about the story were comparatively much less prevalent, probably because that wouldn't really make sense coming from a fan of IV, VI, VII, VIII or X.
Most FF fans point to one of those five games as their favorite, but the plot synopsis for any one of them is basically as bonkers as XIII's. (A little less so for IV or VI.) So it would be pretty asinine to criticize XIII's plot in light of that.
Absolutely far better than it has any right to be, but the feeling of on-the-fly tactics and sense of read-and-react in XIII (and taking out a Long Gui for the first time) is pretty unmatched in the series, outside of Thiefing it up by closing Light off a Tachi: Kasha with some Haste, March, and Minuet, then Trick Attack > Shark Bite on the tank; Maybe working around to the other side to throw out a Sneak Attack -> Dancing Edge to allow for Tachi: Kasha to close Gravitation, if the Black Mage's magic burst, and Samurai's third weapon skill hasn't already sent the Dhalmel to its watery grave in Bibiki Bay.
Most FF fans point to one of those five games as their favorite, but the plot synopsis for any one of them is basically as bonkers as XIII's. (A little less so for IV or VI.) So it would be pretty asinine to criticize XIII's plot in light of that.
It's true that their plots are crazy (as early as FF4 you begin the game as a conflicted soldier and end up fighting god on the moon) but I don't think it's fair to say that there's no difference. At its best, the FF series is known for endearing casts of characters (6, 7, 9), memorable story moments (the opera house, Nibelheim), and good villains (Kefka, Sephiroth); all of which 13 falls well short of. It's not helped that the story largely throws a bunch of samey jargon at you and you have to read a bunch of glossaries if you want to figure out what the hell is going on (pulse fal'cie, la'cie, fa'lcie etc.).
I finally finished the remake yesterday, 44 hours all up. Out of those 44, I'd say ~38 of them were somewhere between enjoyable and incredible, with about 6 hours of "eh, get on with it". By the time I reached Chapter 14 there was no way in hell I was going to complete all those sidequests.
So yeah, definitely padded out longer than it needed to be, even if you're mainlining it, but no where as bad as some JRPGs.
I kinda liked the ending as well. It wasn't flawless but I'll take mystery and ambiguity over extremely literal and straight-forward any day.
I just finished FFVII remake a few days ago and I think it was incredible. However I see a very similar correlation between Final Fantasy VII and Shenmue.
- Can't wait for gamers to start making requests that their game save carry over to the next FFVII remake sequel :)
- With the scope of what was done in Midgar. It will take forever to complete the story. Never thought I'd say this, but I like our chances of Shenmue reaching it's finale before FFVII does.
Prolly wierd of me to jump in here with this but, I do wish we get another FF with as much world-building depth as FFX. That entry is the most memorable becuase it almost felt like a virtual tourism at times of Spira despite not as explorable as previous FF entries overworlds.
I beat this yesterday and overall thought it was pretty great. I played the original once maybe about 10-15 years after it first came out, so I don't particularly have deep nostalgia for it or hold anything sacred, which might be to my advantage, haha.
I can see the padding arguments, but for me, it really came down to the fact the sidequests were generic and were only open during a specific window, so you had to do them all in one go. Other than that I did like a lot of the story additions related to characters. I also liked spending more time in Midgar and am on board with their plan on breaking out the chapters and expanding the story in certain segments. I know this game was originally outsourced but then brought back internal due to quality concerns, so hopefully the next few games could cover more story if they're internal from the start.
Some random thoughts:
The combat was a lot of fun and I liked switching characters to get different gameplay feel and to have better control when I needed to use their abilities.
It's great to hear the orchestrated music in a game context - I thought they did a great job here.
Great presentation, and switching between battles and cutscenes was almost seamless. I barely noticed the texture pop-ins that others have mentioned and I thought it was super impressive they were able to pull this off on UE4.
I liked how as weapons leveled up, they tend to serve different purposes for different character builds. It went against some of the RPG instincts that "new weapon > old weapon". However, it was a bit frustrating to not be able to see all the weapon specific stat upgrades in the equip menu, as well as the fact some of the upgrades were hidden from view until the weapon leveled up.
Things I did not particularly like (story related):
Sephiroth is shown WAY too many times through Cloud's visions/hallucinations/whatever, and took away from the mystery and build up of the character. One thing I did like in the original, from what I remember, is Sephiroth's first big reveal is when he slaughtered everyone in the Shinra Building.
I didn't like the addition of the Whispers and what it might mean for the story going forward. My hope is that they were there to play off the expectations of the FFVII vets that "hey, this story might not play out like you're expecting!", only to follow the main story formula from the original game.
I just don't dig the potential "multiple timeline" and "destiny!" plot points. It could take away from any dramatic plot points, because "that bad thing didn't happen in this alternate timeline!!@!", or "that bad thing that happened wasn't supposed to happen!' For example, when Barrett was stabbed I knew right away that the Whispers were going to save him. Also, It seems that Aerith and Sephiroth are aware of events that have happened in the original FFVII. All this stuff can get super convoluted and frustrating to follow, when there's already so much story to retell.
However, like I said, my hope is these Whispers go away in the future installments and really just existed as a red herring to misdirect the FFVII vets. Also, I'm of course speculating on what could go wrong with the story, but for all I know this could be incorporated into the story very well. I'm just wary from what I've heard about what happened to the Kingdom Hearts story.
I didn't like fighting Sephiroth so soon, with One-Winged Angel playing and everything. It also goes without saying that the Whisper's boss fights weren't satisfying because they're just these random things that popped up out of nowhere.
I beat this yesterday and overall thought it was pretty great. I played the original once maybe about 10-15 years after it first came out, so I don't particularly have deep nostalgia for it or hold anything sacred, which might be to my advantage, haha.
I can see the padding arguments, but for me, it really came down to the fact the sidequests were generic and were only open during a specific window, so you had to do them all in one go. Other than that I did like a lot of the story additions related to characters. I also liked spending more time in Midgar and am on board with their plan on breaking out the chapters and expanding the story in certain segments. I know this game was originally outsourced but then brought back internal due to quality concerns, so hopefully the next few games could cover more story if they're internal from the start.
Some random thoughts:
The combat was a lot of fun and I liked switching characters to get different gameplay feel and to have better control when I needed to use their abilities.
It's great to hear the orchestrated music in a game context - I thought they did a great job here.
Great presentation, and switching between battles and cutscenes was almost seamless. I barely noticed the texture pop-ins that others have mentioned and I thought it was super impressive they were able to pull this off on UE4.
I liked how as weapons leveled up, they tend to serve different purposes for different character builds. It went against some of the RPG instincts that "new weapon > old weapon". However, it was a bit frustrating to not be able to see all the weapon specific stat upgrades in the equip menu, as well as the fact some of the upgrades were hidden from view until the weapon leveled up.
Things I did not particularly like (story related):
Sephiroth is shown WAY too many times through Cloud's visions/hallucinations/whatever, and took away from the mystery and build up of the character. One thing I did like in the original, from what I remember, is Sephiroth's first big reveal is when he slaughtered everyone in the Shinra Building.
I didn't like the addition of the Whispers and what it might mean for the story going forward. My hope is that they were there to play off the expectations of the FFVII vets that "hey, this story might not play out like you're expecting!", only to follow the main story formula from the original game.
I just don't dig the potential "multiple timeline" and "destiny!" plot points. It could take away from any dramatic plot points, because "that bad thing didn't happen in this alternate timeline!!@!", or "that bad thing that happened wasn't supposed to happen!' For example, when Barrett was stabbed I knew right away that the Whispers were going to save him. Also, It seems that Aerith and Sephiroth are aware of events that have happened in the original FFVII. All this stuff can get super convoluted and frustrating to follow, when there's already so much story to retell.
However, like I said, my hope is these Whispers go away in the future installments and really just existed as a red herring to misdirect the FFVII vets. Also, I'm of course speculating on what could go wrong with the story, but for all I know this could be incorporated into the story very well. I'm just wary from what I've heard about what happened to the Kingdom Hearts story.
I didn't like fighting Sephiroth so soon, with One-Winged Angel playing and everything. It also goes without saying that the Whisper's boss fights weren't satisfying because they're just these random things that popped up out of nowhere.
I really like the concept of the Whispers (as a representation of the fans), and I like the idea of Sephiroth (from the future?) attempting to interfere with the timeline in order swing fate in his favour. It seems clear that both Aerith and Sephiroth know aspects of the future, presumably because they're Ancients and have a special connection to the planet...this is just me guessing at this point because I haven't actually played much of the original yet...but it worked for me as a newcomer.
With the chains of fate broken and the Whispers gone, my prediction is that the next game will still closely follow the original story. I think it was a bit of a fake-out, to make this new version more exciting, and to cast a shadow of doubt over the rest of the story.
I've seen people predict that the next game will follow the same structure as this one -- mostly linear with the occasional hub area -- but I expect a more open game next time round. I think they need to deliver that freedom in order to stay true to the spirit of the original, which I think they're fully committed to doing.
Hope you enjoy it. FF7 Remake was one of the more unique experiences I've ever had with a game. I've played plenty of remakes and enjoyed the hell out of them, but something about this game hit me differently. The moment where you walk up to Seventh Heaven with the reorchestrated Tifa theme playing was a surreal emotional experience. Best way I can explain the feeling is something like seeing the Star Wars Episode 1 opening crawl the very first time and having to pinch myself that I was revisiting a world that was a substantial part of my childhood almost 20 years later.
I have the PS5 version in prep, but intend to replay it while on the hype train for Part 2 - I haven't played the Intergrade content either as I want something new to experience when I go back to it :)
I did really enjoy it! A couple of sections dragged on a bit too long like trudging through sector 6 but it was a great experience! I do wonder how the next game will fair going forward to world map, but regardless I will be there day one for sure!
FF7R is one of only a handful of games in which I’ve started up a second playthrough almost immediately after finishing the first. I returned to it a few weeks ago to check out Episode Intermission and will probably replay the whole thing again ahead of the release of part 2. I still prefer FF6 and FF10 to 7, but 7R is still the best Final Fantasy game in almost two decades and by some margin.
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