Finally beat it a couple times, let it sit for a while, and had a chance to think about what I think about the game. It's crazy how much Yas Forums is fighting over this shit and I can see why it's so divisive.
To be honest, the changes to the story at the end were the least of my concern. Yeah it felt totally out of nowhere, but I think it'll be fun to see where they take the story in later chapters. It's not like we won't always have the original story to go back to (and it's not like the original story was some masterful literary or narrative achievement.)
It's really cool to see Midgar and FF7 characters in modern graphics with voice acting. I kind of like the combat, but I feel like the game it's framed in outside of combat is just pretty mediocre. The world is a chore to traverse, it's nothing but hallways straight out of FF13 that take hours where the original game had the sense to end those areas before they overstayed their welcome. There's really nothing to break up the monotony aside from some some really lame non-challenge non-fun segments, such as the crane-arm shit or the laser grid in the intro. It feels like the developers knew how empty and hallow the elongated hallways felt, so they included them as some half-assed attempt but didn't really care enough to do anything interesting.
Towns are a mixed big. NPCs feel more real now that they're fully voiced, but the sidequests are just so uninteresting that I stopped doing them after I got to Sector 5. Lots of missed potential there in my opinion, because they feel like MMO quests and there's not a single memorable non-story NPC in this game. In the end, I found myself only staying in a town as long as the story necessitated and moving on as soon as I was allowed to.
I still like the game, especially Chapter 4. Well, what did you think about the gameplay? No one's really talking about it except to say they liked the combat, but I feel there's a lot of missed potential when you spend hours upon hours in FF13 hallways. They could have used that time to open up the world a bit more, or else include the game world outside of Midgar like Kalm or even all the way to Junon.
Jayden Watson
I'm only in chapter 16 right now, and I've already been spoiled on the general idea of what happens in the ending, but I have to ask: What the flying fuck was up with the Shinra tour, when you get to the room that talks about the ancients and then meteor happens and Sephiroth kills Barret and Tifa? I thought it was just Cloud having another moment, but no, they all saw that and the others comment on it, why the fuck does that video show meteor hanging overhead and Cloud's party being killed? Who fucking programmed that shit? >Hello sir did you enjoy the tour? >Yeah, but what was up with that giant burning rock in the sky? And why did it depict SOLDIER 1st class Sephiroth killing some girl and a black guy? Is that really what Shinra's about? >Why of course. Our favorite SOLDIER kills thots and niggers, and we wanted to make sure everyone knows that. And we know for certain that somehow Sephiroth will bring a meteor crashing into the planet, killing us all and destroying all our hard work. >Uhh... Wha- >I wish you a good rest of your day at Shinra HQ. Hello ma'am, did you like the tour?
Like what is the logic here? This genuinely pissed me off, and I'm sure its only going to get worse from here when I get the full details on the bullshit that happens in the end.
>Well, what did you think about the gameplay? Its got a solid foundation, but is overall very flawed. Half the time its fun, the other half its awful and I hate it. >Enemies are damage sponges, especially bosses >Buffs other than haste don't last long enough to be worth using >Enemies can easily gang up on one character and kill them in and instant >Dodge button is worthless since there's no I-frames, and just simply running away from attacks is always the better option and works out more often than dodging >Ice and wind spells are useless because they take a few seconds before actually dealing damage, and enemies can just move outside of the range >Only two ATB gauges leaves almost zero variety in how much skills cost to use >If you get interrupted while using something, not only do you lose the ATB, but you lose the MP that would have been spent as well >Limits can be interrupted >AI is brain dead and won't even consistently try to attack things, will usually just stand around and guard or dodge >There's basically no strategy involved in the combat, just try to keep everyone's health up while you spam weaknesses or do whatever the game tells you to do in order to stagger enemies, then deal big damage, rinse and repeat
Camden Cook
This thread seems like the best place to post this since it's not just a retread of every other thread again.
I don't think it's overstating it to say that the entire point of the original game was to make the characters and the player deal with death and tragedy.
With that being said I really took issue with how they handled certain character's deaths and the falling of the plate in general. First of all, the lack of blood or any kind of realistic violence hurt the death scenes a lot imo. That combined with the overwrought and cheesy writing really lessened the impact for those characters. And I can't overstate how much of a terrible idea I think it was to show Cait Sith watching it all happen either. That character makes no other appearance in the game and has no reason to be here. They just chose an awful moment to flash to such a goofy character. Wedge surviving, new characters like Marle surviving, it all feels like they chickened out because they didn't think they could do it justice. I was hoping that they could have done something impactful with the platefall in a post-9/11 world but I guess not.
And then you have the ending. It makes it so that death isn't permanent and cheapens the events that have already occurred. Nothing is ever processed or really confronted either, it all feels so unimportant.
And then there's just the things that aren't as overtly contrary to the original themes, but just weird. How is it that you go back to Sector 7 slums? Where's the city that fell on it? How did Wedge survive a city falling on him? Everything should be flattened. We watched it happen, but then it's like it simultaneously didn't. And then you look at it from above and it's totally different. It's just weird.
It seems like everything important was botched. The remake contains a good game, but the writing decisions really drag it down if you go in with any expectations based on the original. Anyway I'm hitting the character limit now so bye.
Jaxon Rivera
>Ice and wind spells are useless because they take a few seconds before actually dealing damage, and enemies can just move outside of the range Flying enemies being weak to Aero but also constantly moving around was such bullshit.
Alexander Butler
>feels like they chickened out because they didn't think they could do it justice I don't know, felt impactful enough to me when I thought Biggs/Wedge/Jessie died seeing Biggs alive at the end ironically made me smile
Robert Hall
>the lack of blood or any kind of realistic violence hurt the death scenes a lot imo I know right? Fuck, I would have been able to take stuff like Bigg's death a lot more seriously if he looked like Zack did at the end of CC. I didn't even think they were going to have him die in that scene because he didn't look like he got fucked up at all, just looked like he was tired.
Yes, the death of Avalanche should have been the defining moment of the game but it was just so hammy.
I didn't mention how frustrating it was to have Sephiroth leave a trail of purple goo instead of blood too. And then he stabs President Shinra and Barret and there's just like a black mist?
Christopher Price
Jesus christ take this to Reddit.
Matthew Gonzalez
God forbid we have a thread with actual discussion of the remake, and not just time janny shitposting. Fuck off.
Chase Evans
I mean, it's always been known that Jenova creates illusions. Can probably just write that off as one of them. In fact you can see one of the Sephiroth clones in the scene, and we know two of them are in the Shinra building at that time to reclaim Jenova's main body, and they create more illusions later. So it makes sense, but it's still an unnecessary scene.
Nathan Cook
All of these points are either flat out wrong(such as buffs being bad or dodging being useless), or actually good design(skills being interruptable, AI not playing the game for you). Boy you're stupid.
Lucas Wright
Ice rarely hit, only big enemies. Sometimes it knockbacks/stuns the enemie on the initial hit but most of them dont flinch. The AI is dumb as fuck and block most of the time. Dodging is useless, especially on attacks that cant be blocked and do 800 dmg+. I managed to dodge them rarely, but its most of the time not possible, especially the final fight against bahamut.
Ian Bailey
Buffs are useless. Barriers don't last for very long, and are just a complete waste of MP.
Dodging is also useless because it has no i-frames and is slower than just running.
I didn't complain about skill being interruptable, I complained about the blatant shit design of MP still being taken away if you get interrupted, when you didn't even cast the spell yet. Its even worse for tier 3 spells which cost a whopping 20 something MP and take a like 5 seconds of charging time before they're actually cast. Its one thing to make you lose the ATB, but losing the MP too is just bullshit.
I'm not asking for the AI to play the game for me, I just want them to do fucking something when I'm not using them. Do some attacks, use Triangle skills, fucking build the ATB to some degree. Instead I'm forced to play hot potato and try to juggle three characters at once and make sure they get some ATB built up and don't get themselves killed.
Oh wait, I did complain about limits being interruptable, and that is indeed an issue, and the only thing that shouldn't be interruptable. Limits have very long animations and you're just stuck standing in place as you perform them. Its fucking stupid that you can just be killed in the middle of a limit break, when those are supposed to be your last resort special options. They should take priority over everything, like they did in the original. In the original game, not only would reaching your limit instantly fill up your ATB, but when you select it, the limit jumps to the front of the queue for actions waiting to happen and is guaranteed to be the next action taken. But here in the remake, they take 7 years to build up to a full meter, and one you use them, you're a sitting duck and can easily get shit on. They totally ruined the powerful feel of limits.
Luke Torres
man that last post is heartwarming, used to watch my dad play FF on the NES too and just looked at all the cool monsters in the guidebook
Carson Smith
Maybe fans will fix it with mods, or remake the game on their own. A lot of people were kicked into the curb with this remake.
My Mother's boyfriend bought me the FF7 guide book when I was playing it. Really based, critically based.
Josiah Kelly
>And I can't overstate how much of a terrible idea I think it was to show Cait Sith watching it all happen either. That character makes no other appearance in the game and has no reason to be here. it's obviously foreshadowing for episode 2. >Wedge surviving fans complained about biggs and wedge dying when the original came out, which is why they've never killed them off in any ff game after 7. that's obviously also why they spared wedge.
I kind of wish dodging wasn't even included, because you go in thinking it's worth something, and you realize oh no Square has no fucking clue how dodge buttons are supposed to function. My lizard brain keeps instinctually going for a dodge when I should be blocking because real fucking action games have halfway decent dodges. Just get rid of it if it's only for easily avoidable shit like Rufus' laser beam, fuck off with this trash function or fix it.
Eli Barnes
>His hobby is fortune telling, but like his personality, it's pretty unreliable ouch
Joseph Phillips
Damn, he hit a lot of points that bothered me too.
I was waiting to go down the lower level but it never happened. How dare they. I wanted to see angry bag punching Barret.
Gabriel Parker
wait you don't actually get to see the fucking base
I completely agree. Even 40 hours into this game, I still make the mistake of trying to use the useless dodge button instead of just eating half the damage with R1. The habit for me was probably developed from the Souls games, since O is always roll in those. I just always expect to be able to avoid damage with good enough timing.
Y'know, its annoying how sometimes Cloud and Tifa won't automatically jump in the air to attack flying enemies, maybe they should have used O as a jump button instead.
Cameron Sullivan
I knew they would cut this but I was hoping they wouldn't. Yoko Taro wouldn't have cut it.
