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The issue of linear game design, and why this is better than XIII by a mile is context. The Midgar section of FFVII was a fairly on-rails experience, so it’s not surprising that older fans are okay with this. Also, regarding linearity, you have to remember the problems of XIII wasn’t that it was “linear”, but it’s hallway level-design which didn’t stop until later in the game for one area. Just taking the Sector Seven Slums for example: Its way more open than anything resembling a town in XIII. There’s even two dungeon-like areas there that not only do more with an area that XIII ever did, but do more with the original area that VII did. If anything the design feels more equative to FFX. The real question is what FFVII Remake will do now that we’re out of Midgar in the next game. How is it going to show the open-world? How is it going to show multiple towns with dramatically different art designs and scale? I’m concerned. No matter how much I’m enjoying this game, whether or not I have confidence with modern Square is pretty up in the air. And while I haven’t spoiled it for myself, the minor things I’ve heard about the ending kinda incapsulates everything wrong with that company not understanding the games they make and why they were popular in the first place. That being said: I really want to be wrong on both those fronts. What they did with the battle system made a turn-based purist like myself a fan so there is hope. And while there seems to be a ton of padding, some of the extra stuff especially with Avalanche is perfect.
@@nickblomgren You took the words out of my mouth ! Original FF7 was very linear in it's Midgar section and the open world parts are the least likable parts of that game for me the cities towns dungeons and ruins were the highlight all of which were linear in nature. If the outside world of FF7 remake do not include the incredibly tedious walking in a mostly empty world map between points of interest I could not care less and would rather have some large very detailed places to explore with some of the surroundings than a wide empty open world I think Mass Effect like ''world'' map where you fast travel between points of interests and cities without doing all the walking would be great for FF7 because just grinding XP in the big empty open seems unappealing these days.
6/10. AI is a joke. NO Gambits, Dragon Age Origins had smoother better combat then this. oh LOOK: the stagger mechanic from 13...wow so much "depth" switch: hit hit hit, switch: hit hit hit: wow this bosses HP is PADDED: JUST like 13! Switch hit hit hit...Combat = 2/10. Hmmm...Xenosaga's plot with Sephiroth shoe horned in? Same dinner scene from Xenosaga...same length as Xenosaga...same side quest length as Xenosaga...same POINTLESS SELF INDULGENT CUT SCENES THAT DEVLOP POINTLESS ZERO SUM CHARACTERS: Like CORNEO'S SECRETARIES/HENCHMEN!!! Wow look a Arena...THAT'S PADDING. Oh look: the Gnosis who guard Xenosaga's Time Loop! I, I, I mean the Watchers of fate with a fan metaphor who GUARD THE TIME EVENT to hide the fact their ripped off from Xenosaga! Oh look...they;'re legitimately rubbing it in long terms fans faces that this IS: what we PREDICTED IT WAS from 3-4 YEARS AGO: Padding: and RETCON CITY as a FIVE HOUR SECTION DOESNT HAVE THE CONTENT TO JUSTIFY A FULL GAME! Ohhh right: this is the Post Advent Children Ff7 fanbase...and ASIDE fro Kingdom Hearts GRANTED: FF7 Post Advent Children: has the most shill defensive fanbases: in ALL of gaming. As this LAZY 6/10...has NO excuse to be rated above that: 100 to 1: other then... It's NAME, NOSTALGIA, and...having no idea: what GOOD AI companions look like. Oh and Waifu's... Most kids are backing up to: "I like Waifu's" and "This game gives me feeling"...MEN are saying "This game makes me feel"...as a JUSTIFICATION for it to be ABOVE a 6/10. And THAT'S: total gamer devolution...I just...will never be a part of. *Enjoy Xenosaga V2.0, for 300-400$: suckers.* (Note: be like me and get totally legal 10$ copies...as you can then throw them OUT: once you've been insulted by it's lazy ass self)
I think the reason for all those slow moments like sidling between pipes and moving cupboards is to hiding the loading/streaming of the levels. They are using Unreal Engine 4 which is notorious for its texture streaming and input/output calling issues (look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for an excellent example for what happens if you go through levels too fast).
Other games use this technique as well; God of War 2018 and Tomb Raider 2013 have their own enclosed places where you’re forced to slow down and crouch or crawl, the Uncharted games have a ton of places where you have to mash a button to open a door, in Dead Space games some doors take longer than usual to open, Gears of War and Batman Arkham games force you to walk slowly while you’re talking in a radio conversation; all of these are hidden loading screens.
@@andresmora2453 It certainly does, which is why I'm looking forward towards the next generation of consoles because developers won't have to work around slow hard drives anymore and can focus on more seamless environments.
Yeah, as much as I do love the Remake, the huge problem is the pacing. The game is either non-stop action and tough boss fights and hour+ long dungeons, or slow side content in slums that would feel welcoming and homey if they didn't massively overstay their welcome. Meanwhile the awesome cool action stuff overstays its welcome in its own way, where I wound up finishing a very difficult Airbuster fight after like five hours of dungeons, and then was forced to fight an INCREDIBLY hard battle with Reno with no break whatsoever. Then after that, like four hours of downtime? I like nearly everything I've been given, but it's like being faced with too many excellent dishes at a buffet. Eventually you'll just want to stop.
Reno was incredibly hard ? Past the fact that I felt that the whole game was actually a bit too easy, Reno was definitely more like a small mini boss. If you parry him in the first phase he literally can’t do a single move, and on the 2nd phase once you destroyed the lightning balls, he becomes even weaker than in the first phase...
While I agree with you on a lot of points that you make about this game, there is one thing that I think you should maybe take in consideration. Those animations which are slow and bring down the importance and flow of the game are sadly not a way for square to beef up the runtime of the game, but it's because of the fact that the ps4 and the pro are both still very outdated builds, and one of the biggest problems is the 5400rpm hdd that it possesses. This means that the only way for all of this texture and model data that needs to be streamed sometimes outpaces what the physical hdd can achieve. Hence why they have these points where they need to be able to have the next section loaded otherwise the game would freeze or have a lot more loading times. This is just a developers trick to work around the limitations of the hardware that the game has to run on.
I understand the desire to hide loading behind the animations but, at some point, it makes more sense just to have the loading screen. If I mod my console to have an SSD, why should I be tied to the lowest common denominator? It's also faster to load and unload assets if you set everything aside and use all of your threads to do so instead of maintaining a "seamless" experience that I'm sure also has an additional buffer over what that lowest common denominator hardware requires.
I know this is an older post but I'm getting this game and a couple days and I am super excited for it. A huge memory I have of my teenage years was sitting in front of the PlayStation playing Final Fantasy 7 I absolutely loved it and even though I know this isn't supposed to be a 1 to 1 of the original I have the feeling it's going to be good
Despite how some of the changes are polarising, I think that almost everyone - those who disliked the changes and even those who loved them, even *the big change* - is united in that feeling you have, about this being a starting point with so much to cover and so many ways it could go. It is kind of a disheartening experience for April 10 to arrive and you finally move on from 'anxiously speculating about how FF7R will turn out' to, uh...anxiously speculating about how the rest of FF7R will turn out. I'm in the camp of people who loves even the controversial changes (on paper), but I do feel a pang of nervousness over wondering how long it will be before part 2, let alone the eventual finale, surfaces. If nothing else, I hope that they take on board feedback about how swathes of people felt the game was stretched a bit too thin, and sidequests didn't lean into the setting as hard as would have been ideal. I guess we're in for the long run, huh? Here's hoping that Square Enix doesn't dilly-dally-shilly-shally.
Hopefully it'll be relatively faster cos they have all the groundwork in place. The battle system, more than half the playable cast, all the RPG mechanics, etc.
@@Raging I really hope that's the case. I'd like to see some news / an estimated window at most a year from now. But with that said, all FF sequels have diverged a lot from the previous games. 10 and 10-2 were significantly different. Each FF13 game kept the same framework with some tweaks and both sequels still took two years and 23 months respectively to come out.
"It is kind of a disheartening experience for April 10 to arrive and you finally move on from 'anxiously speculating about how FF7R will turn out' to, uh...anxiously speculating about how the rest of FF7R will turn out." This. I'm eager to see where the Remake goes thanks to That One Big Change, but even if all the necessary assets are in place for Squeenix to plug-and-play new assets for The Rest of the Story, which should result in some dev time shaved off, we're still looking at The Rest of the Story filled with typical Squeenix graphical AAAnime shenanigans, on top of one Cosmic Retcon potentially derailing the train into a whole new direction, which requires even more time to think, write, edit, and implement. The Squeenix Spectacle alone may stretch out dev time far more than a solid groundwork laid out with Game One can save.
@@WarMomPT I always kinda presumed we'd hear something about the other parts at e3, given how close the release is to the event and how much anticipation there'll be for any kind of news. Whether or not that's still likely given the current pandemic I don't know, but I hope we'll see some kind of online announcement from them.
Yeah, it's....it's going to be a lot. Though personally I can't see the whole project ending as rosy as Square thinks. There are thematic issues with it that run counter to the spirit of the original and I'm not sure what point the creative team is trying to make with it. And considering present Square's history, I'm not confident it's anything good
we'll see. as pretty much everything, no matter what they do people will be split on it. a lot of people love crisis core, but others dont like what crisis core did to the original game, even if nojima says that's what he wanted to write to begin with. For me personally, i really liked FF7R-1, and its not replacing FF7. ANd that's what i expected ever since they announced it. The original will always exist, so im excited to see what new things they can come up with, even if its possible to fail as anything is
@@MrInuhanyou123 Not the point being made; when you do something like that you're saying something about the original game and I'm trying to figure out what they're saying. Then again, considering Nojima's recent history as a writer, I'm not sure he's the best person to consult when talking about theme and context. Cuz...YIKES
@@Aiddon all im saying is that you wont know what this remake project is saying until its done. so being worried about something we dont know yet isnt really worth it imo. Especially if the first game is pretty good on its own.
@@MrInuhanyou123 Considering SE's history as a whole over the past twenty years (especially when it comes to guys like Kitase and Nojima), there are more than enough reasons to be apprehensive.
Given the way Nomura treated the themes of Kingdom Hearts, I am very, very afraid of how this project is going to end. But hey, there's always Dragon Quest 11 S.
I'm an OG fan of FF7, playing it during my formative years. I completely missed all the 'compilation' add-ons, like Advent Children and Crisis Core. Believing firmly in the Death of the Author, as an aspiring author myself, I believe any work should be judged purely on its own limited scope. And this game is... a doozy there. I don't think it's a secret to say that Sephiroth plays a big part in it. He appears the first five minutes of the game, whereas you didn't see him until AFTER Midgar in the original. The 'remake' also includes some tie-ins with Crisis Core and Zack. The game tells us Sephiroth is a bad guy. It doesn't show us, it flat out has a character say they have a feeling this guy is more dangerous than Shinra. The game tells us nothing about Zack, yet still shows him on screen. I can't help but wonder then how total newcomers must feel then. The game is just assuming 23 years of hype is part of its storytelling process when it's not. So maybe it's not for newcomers. Maybe it's for the fans. Except... I find it kind of insulting. I won't say anything explicit but this verges on spoiler territory. I fell in love with the story of FF7. The emotional ups and the emotional downs. Basically, 'remake' feels less like a remake and more of a 'redo', as if Tetsuya Nomura is saying "I can do this better this time." ...and, well, I don't have faith in him to rewrite the story better than what it was. Especially considering he wasn't the lead scenario designers of the original. I'll just put this quote from director Yushinori Kitase to give some context on why I find this decision so insulting. "In the real world things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. When you lose someone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think, 'If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently. These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood." So who is this game for? I don't think it's for newcomers, because they'll be lost. It doesn't feel like it's for fans, because it tells them that the story they loved wasn't good enough. Is it just for Nomura? Is it just for Squeenix to capitalize on 23 years of hype?
It is the last part of the compilation, taking everything related to the vii universe and working it into the og, so most than any other game, it is for the fans, the ones that always wanted more and more of this world, be through books, games, or the movie.
It is not a redo either. It's a sequel. The game acknowledges the original timeline and says we're in a new one. I... like it and hate it for that. I'm curious to see where they'll take it, that's the like, and I hate it because I really just wanted the original, slightly expanded on, with better graphics like this and voice acting.
We gonna talk bout how they did 5+ years of deceptive marketing and vague bullshit bout staying faithful to the original narrative and locations so that square can sell a rebooted and padded 30hour game of a 5 hour section of the og game disguised as a Re:Make?
It was an intro. That's why it was linear. It was not a full game, it was just cd1. They would never have done a FF like that. And I wonder how can you say ffx was linear with all the secret areas and stuff to do it had. You don't know what linear means I guess. Persona 5 is more linear than ffx, for example, just because you don't have the same freedom of movement
Although I have issues with the story additions and changes, I can’t deny that this is the first REAL final fantasy game I have played in years. This game, though straying away from the original, definitely has the “soul” or “character” in it that made all main final fantasy games 12 and backwards amazing. There’s an actual slow burn story that doesn’t drown you In pointless information. The characters are likeable and there’s actual character progression. The combat-THE COMBAT. The setting is visually and culturally rich, only giving you just enough information and then allowing you to explore and learn more about the world. There’s no huge exposition dumps, no annoying lack of cohesiveness, we aren’t just expect to go along with a crap scenario that makes no sense. Everything in this game has its place and purpose. Nothing is just pointless. Yes some of the mini games were kind of thrown in and messed with the flow but aside from that I love this game. Maybe it’s because it’s relying on the original as a blue print but I honestly was thinking that there would never be another final fantasy game that carried all the qualities of the golden age games. And I don’t think it’s just because of nostalgia. This easily could have been thrown together in a year and I would hate it. I can tell despite limitations and deadlines they put all of their energy into making a good Final Fantasy game. And because of that I hope they continue to do so with the rest of the story...even if I’m worried about what they might do with it.
Gonçalo Ferreira 13 was ambitious but for me missed the mark in both gameplay and story due to how grand of an experience they were wanting to make it. The story is chalk full of mountains of info that you have to sort through to determine what’s really important or not. The world structure is very linear, which is not a bad thing in itself just that it was nothing but hallways and one open area. Wasn’t a fan of the autopilot gameplay either. 7 remake is linear as well but the level design is more intricate giving you a sense that you are in control of where you are going even though the game is pointing you forward. All Final Fantasy games have some level of “information overload” but XIII took it to a whole new level with the large volume of primers you had to read through to understand the world beyond a superficial level. XV had a problem with the world being too large with not enough content to fill it, and the story was a complete mess. They clearly threw it together at the last minute after the original story of versus XIII was scrapped. It’s very generic fantasy plot and most of the major events happen before the game or off screen. The gameplay wasn’t bad in XV it was just very barebones in my opinion. I definitely wanted more magic options and having to progress pretty far to switch between characters was a curious choice.
@@mostcreative3680 thanks for answering. Your problems with 13 are very typical and i would surmise them as bad narrative. they could not tell their story and present their characters in an interesting way. In a way it is the bad worldbuilders problem: we have all this cool worlbuilding, we have to tell it to the player somehow( primers). The thing about linearity always confuses me. Games were always linear but that is now a problem? perhaps it is a symptom of people putting open worl games on a peddestral for a couple of years? Have you played 13-2 and 13-3? the second part is my favourite but the story also isnt great. lightning returns though for me. it had some great parts- like the return of "jobs" and fashion- bad the bad parts and the story outweighted the good. Still havendt played 15. Too much of a mess and nothing that calls to me.
How the hell does this remake carry the quality of the golden age FF games? Its literally got 1/8 the story content and areas to visit. Theres no exploration at all whatsoever (invisible walls anyone?) The RPG elements are boring as fuck (there really isn't any) Its the first 8 hours of FF7 stretched out to 25 hours (not even a full 40-60 hour worth of gameplay unless you count the cutscenes) OH BUT THEY MADE MIDGAR IN 3D!!!!!!!
I have to strongly disagree. There's a lot of pointless information. In fact, nearly all of the additions are pointless information. There's a lot of time devoted in the story to telling us how good of a person Aerith is. But for those who played the original VII, we figured that out with the much less information given. Because it was concise and effective. The Drum and the second run through the Sewers were pointless, you didn't have to do most of that. The First half of the train graveyard, which is in between the graveyard proper and your run through the sewers was also pointless. Remake never made me feel like we were learning more about the world than we did in the original, which was marketed as being largely it's point. The characters were likeable and had progression in the original, so nothing new there. Combat I think is about taste, so it's up to the individual, but I liked both with some caveats (original is too easy, remake how limits and phase transitions are handled make me puke). crap scenario that makes no sense like the plot ghosts and the kingdom hearts boss made a lot of sense? Okay.
I think that there's a lot in the middle of FF7 that could be trimmed back or condensed. I've always found myself wanting to see the Midgar section of the game extended, as that seems like the most interesting both from a setting and visual standpoint, especially since when you leave the game shapeshifts back into traditional Final Fantasy map crawling. Certain dungeons could be shortened or excluded, as they don't fill much of a narrative purpose beyond "Cloud and party go through here to get there", so I could 100% see them making it a 3 game deal. Also a personal wish of mine that I would *love* if they explored... just how similar Barret is to Sephiroth at the start of the game. The only difference is how much power they can tap into, and that Cloud was able to bring him away from the edge in time for him to redeem himself.
Exactly. The amount of press and hype that midgar got during the lead up to the original made it seem like it would be a focal line of the game. Instead you spend 6-8 hours there and never return except for a super brief moment at the end. For the amount of effort they put into the design, feel, and politics of Midgar it ultimately almost felt like a rope a dope, or at the very least a missed opportunity. I think this episode was their chance to correct that, and I think they did a pretty good job as of chapter 14. Just a rough guess but I could see the next game taking us to the end of disc 1 in the original and part 3 going all the way to the end with a heavy focus and little gap between the reunion and Mideel.
I hope they don't remove any content like you're suggesting. Some places being just a dungeon padding can be applied to Remake. Which also is a downer for you and me.
midgar accounts for about 30% of the text in the original, it just had an absolutely furious pace with little time to slow down and take in the world. this remake will almost certainly be a trilogy, it’s just adjusting the pacing to make midgar the fullest version of what it was meant to be. arguably square didn’t nail the side content, but this is a well deserved fleshing out of the opening act.
i agree^^ also hoping that crisis core gets added in somehow, even if its through a dlc or something. i am enthralled in this world, and if they make the next ones on par with this, ill still be happy
@@Xcizior they actually mentioned a tidbit or two that you only learned about in Crisis Core in the Remake. The Remake is fantastic and if the only complaint I personally have is muddied textures I am happy to be playing this. I hate how every reviewer is bashing on the sidequests. They provide a good way to learn about the people and how the townspeople treat and talk about you in the world.
Yeah, and you actually go back to midgar in ffvii, so, how are they going to put the whole city in an open world? Didn't think of that? I guess they don't really know what they're doing
I'm an old fan of the original game, and i'm perfectly fine with the ending to this part 1. Like you said, i don't know if it would have been entirely necessary if the remake wasn't "episodic" but i found it intriguing, and i don't believe in being such a purist that they shouldn't be allowed to change things, the original game hasn't gone anywhere. And many of the changes to the game are being celebrated, so how can we then be upset about a change that some might not like, when we don't even know yet where it will lead us. I'm excited to see where the next part takes us :D Now i'll be busy grinding for what will probably 2 years, i just hope there will be some DLC adding things to the Colosseum and the combat simulator.
It's not that big of a change, really. Just a very random subplot they tacked on so they could have a more "epic" ending for this particular game. It feels really out of place, but at least it's only like 30 min of the 30 hour game and doesn't change the overall story.
@@michialphelps2339 the writing is hit and miss... sometimes it's incredible but some decisions are questionable. how can the good guys get away with some of the things they do (when they couldn't in the original, where they did less crazy things), why are the bad guys doing the things there doing, when it contradicts their goals at every step. why does the game show as hints of the major antagonist of the original game right from the start as well as showing him outright an hour into the game, when he was a mystery for the whole first act and really got his developement after leavin midgar (well, that's easy, they just can't have a lack of sephiroth in the FFVII remake, even if it fucks with the amazing storytelling of the original)
They should have ended the story after Motor ball and replaced Leviathan/Bahamut with Ramuh/Titan. I would have made Sephiroth less involved in this part of the game, just kept it to odd hints because when we get to Kalm and Cloud tells the story of Sephiroth then it would have introduced him better. I get this feeling that they're blowing their content too fast with the main villian and the higher tier summons because does that mean we're going to fight Sephiroth again and again for every end of episode.
They could have even ended the story in Kalm, with Cloud telling the Flashback. But they need their plot ghosts so we have this so that we know this is a sequel, not a redo, and we're in a new timeline.
I almost forgot to check this video since I wanted to beat the game first. I had hoped to prevent external opinion impact my own as I played the game, but instead the surrounding conversation still became a whirlwind of emotion for me. The original Final Fantasy was one of my first games growing up, right alongside The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. By time I was in second grade we rented Final Fantasy IV (released then as II for the SNES), and it defined the possibility of games as a narrative medium for me. It's what made me a fan of the franchise, and while titles like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger would ensure Square was one of my favorite companies, Final Fantasy VI (released as III) would mark Final Fantasy as my favorite franchise. So needless to say, when I played Final Fantasy VII at the age of twelve, it was a pretty big game for me. Which is why I was always against the idea of a remake, no matter how many other nostalgic fans clamored for it. I suppose Advent Children didn't help, which I described at the time as the most expensive fan-fiction ever made. Final Fantasy VII was big and momentous for a lot of reasons in 1997, both for current fans of the franchise and for those that never played an RPG before. But the landscape of gaming has changed so much that there's no way a remake could have the same impact as it had then. If Square Enix seemed to understand this, I'd be fine. Instead, every interview and every insistence on making it the most "beautiful" (in terms of realistic graphics and aesthetics) game they'd produced yet indicated to me that they were not only trying to remake the game, but remake its legacy. Ready for the George Lucasing of Final Fantasy VII, I was ready to dismiss it until the gameplay reveal in 2019. I don't believe turn-based combat is obsolete, nor do I view the current combat system as an "improvement". I disagree with you there, but not because I think the old system is better. I disagree because it's like saying Devil May Cry 5 is better than Resident Evil 2. They're two different systems with different intent, and while it's perfectly fine for someone to have a preference for one or the other it's more like comparing apples and sausages. As someone that enjoys both turn-based and action-based game systems, it was the combat that made me willing to try the game out. The demo was so fun I played it three times, and it was at that moment I knew I'd purchase the game and experience a roller-coaster of emotions. Of course, nothing could prepare me, but having beaten the game, I can confidently say that it's an interesting piece. The most I'll say regarding its ending, and the story as a whole, is that I believe the authorial intent here is to express frustration at treading old ground when the development team would rather make something new. Consider for a moment that Nomura's last original game that was released was The World Ends With You. Final Fantasy XV was at least an original idea, but it was torn away from him as he was forced to work on a pre-existing game, only to then be put on yet another pre-existing game. I also have a feeling that Nomura and Nojima were big fans of Hideaki Anno's work with the Rebuilds of Evangelion. Perhaps that's saying too much, but it certainly has me interested to see where they go next. I wouldn't expect it to be faithful to the original, however. Otherwise, I simply found it to be a worse telling of a story that was already told well. Midgar is a dumpster but lacks the dangerous edge the original game presented it with. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie have more spoken dialogue but with the exception of Wedge they're not even really the same characters. People forget some of the nuance placed in such primitive polygons in order to communicate ideas about that original cast. Moreover, all you need to know about Nomura's inferior directorial skills to Kitase's is to compare the Sector 7 Pillar scenes. Yes, the original game has primitive blocky characters, and boy has the discussion around this game never let me forget, but if you put the two side-by-side Kitase's is actually a chilling sequence that conveys meaning with the best of film direction techniques while Nomura's execution is inundated with Snyder and Bay stylistic choices. But all of that said, I still had a good time with the game, and for every scene that had me groaning or rolling my eyes, or for every portion that felt frustratingly padded, or had me feeling like the recycling of certain levels was torn right out of Halo: Combat Evolved, there was plenty that I did enjoy. Red XIII was a delight, I loved Elmyra's flashback, and I'm glad they made the stairs as perfectly as they should have been. At the end of the day, though, it's the combat system that kept me coming back, and it's the combat system that will keep me returning for Hard Mode. If I want to actually experience Midgar and the Avalanche crew, I'll just load the old game back up. Anyway, those are the long, drawn out thoughts of an old time fan of this franchise. Hope it helped sate your curiosity some.
As a massive Nomura fan I should be foaming at the mouth to play this but... I'm not? I kind of feel like investing in this first part and not just waiting for a potential bundle later down the line is a bum deal? I'm still not convinced that the original game needed to be stretched out at all.
@loafhero what pointless filler do people keep talking about? Every side Quest has a point and lets you learn about the world and let's you see how the people of midgar are. I see more pointless filler in almost every single western rpg to date.
@loafhero you have your opinion and I have my truth. I can clearly see what they were going for where people like you just want to be blind. I'm starting to doubt you've even played it.
5 hours into the game. My theory is that, the next parts are far more truncated, I feel like Midgar is super great so I think this first remake can get away with being indulgent. We'll see tho
I hope so. Midgar is FF7’s most iconic location. I can’t imagine them making entire games out of Cosmo Canyon or the Northern Crater. That would just be a massive waste of time.
It's more likely that the next part will be open world, like the original was after you left the Midgar. If that's the case I can see Part 3 being the final chapter of the game similar in its linieraty to this game, and part 2 simply being everything in between but set in an open world
If i were a major fan of the original, i think I'd be pretty pissed that they're calling this "remake". As I'm not, I'm just kind of uninterested in a rote collection of current gaming tropes like slow confirmation prompts and squeezing through tight spots carried by the aesthetics of late 90s Final Fantasy. Shame too because i wanted this to be a valid way of experiencing FF7, much like RE1 or RE2 remakes are for their respective originals.
it's really not the bad. most of the time you have huge areas to explore, mostly to soak in the atmosphere but there are some side quest and immersive sim- type quest thrown in there for good measure. dungeons aren't just hallways but they do contain them. there are a lot of puzzle segments intermixed with fighting and exploration so they offer quite a bit of diverse gameplay, though they are a bit to long for my taste. battles are flashy and dynamic but not as tactical as hamish makes it sound. it's not really spectacle fighting but also not really tactical. I'd say it's a bit weaker than kingdom hearts, but still fun. I' interested how they solve the problem with a particular battle in the original, where the music as calm and melancholic and the turnbased combat really accomodated the feeling they were going for.... can't have that with people running and dodge rolling around the place...
SE basically needs to go all in on this: they have to, like they have with FF14, keep striking while the anvil is hot. Even if it seems like it's right at the end of it's relevance, they HAVE to see this through. Whether they know it or not, they've committed to something huge. The director of the game has sited, again and again, that reactions of hardcore fans like maximillianDOOD and others kept them motivated in their low moments, and I only hope they keep looking to continue that heat and passion. here's hoping we see a continuation to this new story, either in expansion passes live service style or FFVII R Pt2 coming out within a year or a year and a half rather than 5 from now. They can't rebottle this genie now that's it's out, this is the one chance they have.
This is my first in-depth foray into the FF-verse. I never played the original and didn’t have this game on my radar at all. I stand top-side, chapter 15 and can not wait to play this on Hard all over again. This has been the most pleasant surprise I’ve experienced in all my life.
Now I am like you never got into FF7 originally, but respected it's place in gaming halls. Now this one has me hooked. And I wouldn't worry so much about the other parts, I can see them coming out within the next few years. I say this because the original once the Midgard section was over the world opened up to an actual open world map. So the following games don't need to pad out anywhere near as much time. I highly doubt they will expand each hour into 10 like they did here. And with the other parts the "hallway" feel will go as well. It's a juxtaposition to part one. Midgard is the humans abusive of nature and Gaia. Decrepit and decaying held together with a wish and a prayer, but the expanse of wilderness where people live free of a dependency on Mako or Shinra will have hours of exploration. I honestly think you will see a much more Witcher 3 vibe with part two. But I'm just a guy so who knows
They also have all the main characters and enemies already created because of part 1. They have so much to work with now, it definitely won't take that long
Michial Phelps all good points. They have the engine which is another point. But this is Square Enix, not Square Soft. I can’t remember the last time they actually had a timely release, if ever. I am up to chapter 9 (hellhouse) and absolutely loving this game, so they have renewed my faith in them as a dev that can actually make a good game, but after ffxv and even the production of this game, I won’t ever expect a timely release.
Patrick Germain forgot about 13. And fair point. That had a vision though, not saying ff7 doesn’t, however they haven’t even told us how many episodes or anything about the rest of the series. Only glimmer of hope is they are in development now. Ff13 they said it was a trilogy from the start. That was a decade ago. KH3 took how long to ultimately suck? The director is the director of ff7. Ff15...how long did that take? How many times did they change that (versus, etc)? And ultimately they released an unfinished game that needed countless dlcs to explain that convoluted mess. Like I said. I will not put faith in their ability to release games in a timely fashion because of their history, especially with “next gen”. But hey I would love for them to surprise me and I would love to have confidence in square again. I’m halfway there since this game is very enjoyable.
Being ~10 hours in I can definitely say this is exactly what I would have wanted from a remake of FFVII. It feels like what I’ve wanted to see in JRPGs but that they were limited to do. The turn based combat often felt like it was done out of necessity more than desire and they’ve expanded the world to feel more alive and vibrant (one of my favorite aspects of XII and what had it as my favorite for so long).
No. Turn base combat allows better focus to play as multiple characters during battle. FF7R is not only too easy, but since you can't fully control the A.I, the other characters just run around aimless or spam some weak magic
Guts is Ok Sure, you can play multiple characters better but in a much less interesting way. As well, general consensus seems to be that Remake is in no way too easy. It would have been nice if Hard was available from the start for people like you who are above the curve.
@@factspeaker8518 Turn based combat was definitely more out of necessity in the beginning. It's way easier to program and adjust turn based combat than action combat, especially from a sprawling RPG. Think of how much less you have to do for animations and AI. That's not to say it is bad... but if they could have, they definitely would have done something more action-y (if it wasn't so much work). A majority of Final Fantasy turn based combat is not particularly interesting.
right now my opinion on this game is, that it is a pretty good game, but as a remake it varies between fine, silly and even outright bad. There are just so many confusing decisions in the story and presentation and I guess the episodic nature of this release is to blame for this.
@@muby102 hasn't changed much. Party still leaves midgar to hunt sephiroth. Rufus takes control of shinra. A few small changes sure. But nothing major has actually changed from the overall plot
@@muby102 zacks alive in a different timeline, so it doesn't actually affect the main story. The party have visions of the future, but they don't actually understand them. Aerith is the only one that somewhat understands them. So again, a few small changes but nothing major has changed from the main plot
I'm a bit late to this video but after finishing it. I'm not so interesting in it anymore. I'm a huge fan of the OG and that's not what we been asking them for the last 2 decades. I wish them luck with the project but this isn't for me. I'll probably one day try the other parts eventually but I'm in no hurry to buy them at full price after all the horrible padding of the first one.
I agree I think people are overhyping this game big time. Hopefully after all the hype settles down people will stop screaming that the game is a "10/10" and stuff. Because I definitely don't see how it is.
I think the fact that this isn't even a full game, but a cut out piece of a whole story should exclude it from 10/10s. But everyone is riding that hype and nostalgia train so hard, you can't trust most reviews out there. Even if they didn't like it, most reviewers are too scared to be honest due to the fanatics.
Yeah, I sensed a bit of XII, a bit of XIII, and a bit of XV in there. Lots of modern Final Fantasy design philosophy mannerisms in there, but I also sensed a bit of IX, and even a bit of X as well. I even got Witcher III vibes, dammit. This game has one thing on that game, and that's the kids in this game aren't nightmare fuel, they're convincingly child-like as opposed to obviously voiced and written by adults who hate kids lol. "Too linear" is a strange criticism to hear against this game, considering its a remake of the game that popularized cineamtics jerking controls out of players' hands. And the "look don't touch" angle even stranger. There's a minigame in here, that sprung up from a static background shot in the original, and now I got to move it around and see first hand the practical use of what was previously just some intangible prop. It's literally the opposite of "look don't touch". I think Disk 2, Part 2, or whatever they call it, will be doing the opposite: trimming the fat. I got the impression Midgar was the exception for that approach to the remake, since they talked so much about having to cut content from the original and wanting to add it back in, more fully realized than it would or could have been if they hadn't had to take it out of the original. I think part 2 will be the one "open-world" game, where you explore all the towns, with slightly expanded scenarios, perhaps each one the length of a feature film, and part 3 will be a more refined version of part 1, finishing out the scenario in a roughly one for one modern translation based on the feedback from part 1. That'd be my guess. I can count my criticisms on one hand, a nice short little list: 1. Why are there so many dialogue choices removed and canonized into scripted cutscenes? There should have been more dialogue choice interactions, not less. 2. Party members phasing through the leader model during platforming is immersion breaking. We can bump into NPCs, but the party member models can't react to you physically being there? In combat, I get it, but up close and personal segments, like walking around, or climbing ladders, or squeezing through corridors is when that kind of detail would be most appreciated. 3. Some of the environmental textures are embarassing. Might just be I passed on upgrading to a PRO, but wow. XIII on the previous gen hardware is more graphically impressive to up close inspection than this game is in places. Maybe that will be remedied when the game is re-released for PS5. Some of the NPCs are smeary looking as well. You see HD detailed party member models conversing with low end PS3 models... just weird, but I get that to have that kind of density with the crowds they probably had to make compromises. 4. I hate the red low health screen, especially when it lingers during in-game cinematics, which only happened on a couple occasions, but that seems like something they'd have ironed out. I remembered being bothered by it enough to list it. 5. Pressing the hold button doesn't have the wind up animation. It's awkward just standing there waiting for the input to trigger the action. Mere nitpicks. I'm incredibly happy that we still have more to look forward to. As nice as it would have been to have the complete remake package day 1, I love that this hype train will continue for the foreseeable future... hopefully, provided it isn't the apocalypse and game over for making video games on a triple A scale.
They were struggling to make the open world and there's a high chance we will never see a part 2. That is the real reason why they stretched Midgar into one game. The cost of bringing the FFVII world into life would be too prohibitive cause it's far bigger than the open world of FFXV.
@@johnm9893 well, Midgar was the most detailed and focused act/location in the original. There's a lot of unneeded space in the overworld. we don't need to visit every town. the game doesn't even need to be open world, they can just have a few zones connected by airports, harbors and car rental services. You visit such a place and chose where to go next. regions we need to see are nibelheim, gold saucer, woutai, the city of the ancients, whatever town cid was from and maybe two or three generic villages. get some field- forest and/or mountain -areas around them for generic kill quests and you have yourself a game
@@UnicornStorm It's quite possible they may follow the same formula as the first part of the Remake, albeit with more expanded Side Quest/travel portions. There is absolutely NO way they won't make a Part 2. That is silly talk. I can only imagine the money they are going to make from this Remake, and the end of the game literally says "The Unknown Journey Will Continue"
@@UnicornStorm So we don't need Cosmo Canyon or Junon? lol. As for minor villages; You just put in Icicle Inn, Gongaga, and Kalm and you literally have every town anyway. Chocobo Ranch and the Dig Site aren't towns or villages and exist in a small enough capacity to keep. Besides that there's only Fort Condor which was reduced to an insulting mini-game.
Maybe its because I have my nostalgia goggles on a little too tight, but even though I noticed the linearity of the game, it hasnt bothered me simply because the Midgard section in the OG FF7 is really linear itself. It has really made me wonder how Square Enix is going to handle the world beyond Midgard though.
OMG, an FFVII Remake review that is even-handed, thoughtful, constructive that neither over-praises and over-bashes the game, realizing what it achieves while acknowledging its shortcomings.
He also has no idea what he's talking about for the most part. I am fully aware the game isn't perfect but I don't think this guy has ever even seen a video on the original game let alone played it.
@@zanplays5308 He directly addresses his experience with the original and even uses shots from the PC version of the original to reinforce his points. No to mention him heavily implying that he has issues with the ending of remake versus what the original did at that point in the story. Did YOU actually listen to the whole review?
What you said at 1:15- 1:20 explains how I was going into the remake. I knew of the ff7 and it’s significance on ps1 and the main story beats. I thought cloud and the gang looked cool in kh1 but that was it. Now with Remake PT. 1 I completely understand why this story and characters are so beloved in the gaming zeitgeist. I cannot wait for pt. 2 on (I assume) PS5.
I grew up on the original. I'm not even that old (31) so it's weird for me to think of people who never played the original growing up. As a fan of the original and currently only being in ch 14 of the game I'm loving everything about it so far. I don't mind the pacing. I'm fine with the backtracking because so far walking there is the only way to get around and without random encounters you can't really grind battles so the back and forth through tunnels still makes sense to me. I also agree that the sense of often exploration is significantly reduced, but I believe that's because Midgar was always the most linear section if the game. It didn't open up to free movement throughout the world until after Midgar. Even then you were limited where you could go until you got the various vehicles and of course the airship near the last 3rd of the game. I don't get the hate honestly. Sure, I wish it didn't end in Midgar. I love the story and want the full thing but maybe I'm just more patient than others. I don't mind waiting for the next part. It's not much different from waiting between seasons in a tv show or sequels of a movie or book. Just chill y'all. Buy the game. Have a blast. Then enjoy the next one when that comes out.
How is the combat fluid? You constantly need to awkwardly move in menus to do anything more fancy than a basic attack. That completely stops any kind of momentum or fluidity the combat could have. It's super awkward.
For a game with lots of managements and lots of unique moves and play style I say the combat is pretty dam smooth and it should be an achievement, ur not mindlessly pressing triangle just to deal dmg(like kingdom hearts) ur building your bar to find ways to stagger enemies and heal at the sometimes, however the control of the game are something to be question
In regards to the early mention that the game covers so little of FF7: I agree, however, there is a giant black hole in the middle of FF7's story. Many of us have rose-colored glasses regarding the open-world sections of FF7, but ultimately not much of a real consequence happens. In fact, for the most part even all of the companions you meet outside of Midgar are inconsequential and not important to the story at large. I still expect this series can be done in a trilogy (or 4? Would be somewhat fitting considering the disc structure of the original). There's also the question of how much streamlining will happen in the future. The expanded plot in games like Crisis Core have done a lot to muddy the story of FF7 and I look towards FF7R and its later sequels to clean up that mess.
We did get some Deepground/Genesis references though. They talk about S and G genes. Also, there was another one about underground labs and such under Sector 7, but that could be referring to the labs you go to later on, and not the Deepground sector
@@neobahumuth6 True. The problem with this remake series is that it blows up the parts of the original that weren't important, though. Train graveyard was an entire dungeon, whereas in the original it was a small area with no bosses. You just KNOW they're going to have a massive snowboarding section when they finally get to remaking disk 2. Great glacier will have 20+ areas, gaea's cliff will be the size of Mt. Everest...meanwhile Sephiroth will just be asleep in his cave. If they managed to slow down Midgar this much, how bad do you think it will be once they reach the parts of the original that were made of filler? I'm shuddering imagining Cloud digging in Bone Village for hours...
This was a good review, and really reflected how I felt after finishing it in a lot of ways. I totally understand your curiosity (and worry) for the future of this project
As someone who loves the FF series, my thoughts on Linearity: most Final Fantasy games have been pretty linear (barring some exceptions, like the second half of VI, Lightning Returns and X-2) but XIII and the main missions of XV did a bad job at hiding it.
I feel the same - it's less the linearity and more the everything that surrounds it, the pacing, the opportunity to slow down and do sidequests, etc. FF10 is very linear but there's never really a shortage of sidequest carrot-dangling, towns to relax in and explore, and even linear areas were wide and allowed for movement and exploration, rather than 13's claustrophobic corridors.
True, and I think a lot of people seem to be forgetting how 'linear' the pre-FFX games actually were. Sure there was an overworld with a few pit stops or side areas, but generally you were pretty limited from point A to B to C.
XIII wasn't trying to hide that at any point though. It never gives you a reason to assume that it's an open world game in those early sections. The narrative stresses the urgency and the goal is clearly set. The only reason people criticise this is because people *wanted* an open world game. The criticism is completely meta and the game gives the player no reason to assume it should be an open world.
Not done watching but one thought that deserves its own comment: this episode really presents something I like about more linear games, and that's a sense of urgency and narrative momentum. Throughout most of what I've played so far (I'm in the subway tunnels hint hint), it's like "GO GO GO" and it's actually really exciting? Only some of the FF games gave me this feeling and only briefly: in X, when you're on the run in Macalania and again after Via Purifico, and then in XIII in the several sequences when the Cocoon PSICOM troops are chasing you. But I love how much urgency there is in FF7, really wish I'd replayed the original before the remake came out to see if it feels the same. I honestly think that's a major benefit to linear games if they have a narrative like this.
I haven’t played the original yet, so story aside, as a filmmaker who has analyzed many scenarios for work, I think this game had one of the best written characters that I’ve ever experienced. The dialogue was well written, everyone had understandable weaknesses, good humor and consistency in behaviour. It really made the game and cutscenes feel like an experience, especially with the amazing music from Nobuo
I know I'm in the minority here, but this combat really does nothing for me. It's almost all flash and you pause the game so much, it should've just been turn based in the first place. At the very least then you could pay full attention to the flashy explosions. If you guys love this stuff, check out Square's other action RPGs like FF Type 0 and Crisis Core, because this game is pretty much a mishmash between those games and FFXIII's stagger system.
One thing that I haven't seen anybody mention is how the combat animations don't track properly. I can't tell you how many times I've had an attack entirely miss because one of my allies bumped my character so I slid (across gruff broken concrete like it was ice) slightly to the side, so now the attack misses entirely. Quite a few enemies have dodge animations, and that's fine; part of the battle. But to see my master warrior miss because the enemy took a step or three to the side always left me feeling cheated; not to mention how silly it looks.
The game may have only been actually officially announced in 2015, but fans have been waiting for it since 2005 when Sony showed off a clip of a remade FF7's opening sequence and accidentally gave fans the impression that a remake or remaster was in the works. And though Square REPEATEDLY said it wasn't going to happen right up till that E3 2015 show, it's not hard to wonder if somewhere they weren't working on the beginnings of the games pre-production even back then.
Your channel is gold: Concerning my thoughts on the remake: I am one of those little kids that played the original when it came out and, for me, it is still one of the greatest game I played. After the hype and two playthrough I can say that ffvii remake is a big risky and fearsome promise. But if there is an aspect of the game that fills me with hope is that, almost certainly, this game and its aspects were made with a lot of passion.
Give it two weeks and this will be the ff15 problem: where you have a lot of hype that quickly dies down as people realize that they just brought a glorified demo. Also, its the ff13 problem of diminishing returns. How long do you think people will keep being strung along?
Why do you believe that the game isn't linear? Does it have elements that at least mitigate a feeling of linearity, much like FFX as opposed to FFXIII?
Great stuff man! I just wish they kept the, very Kingdom Hearts, ideas out of it. It just grates at my every fibre to imagine THIS story falling down a Nomura hole.. Thanks as always for the fab content! Stay safe man
a reason why I didn’t mind a lot of the linearity as much as I might have in say ffxiii is bc the story and characters are wayyyyyy better handled and more compelling, tho I will admit being familiar with ff7 before probably influences that
I just don't understand why they decided to split it in multiple parts instead of just taking the time to make it one game. I mean, why did they decide to expand Midgar into 40 hour thing with a ton of filler and padding ? Is it really just a ploy to sell 3 (or more) games with the name "FF7 Remake" ? Because I see no reason why the original couldn't have been remade in one game. Seems like they just chose to stretch it, just like The Hobbit movies stretched one short book into 3 extremely long movies.
@@GrimJackal I did watch the video, and what I got was a 13 minute explanation of why this game had too much padding and covered too little story. The question is did YOU watch the video ? Besides, you can expand on the themes and add context without splitting the game into 3+ parts, which is utterly absurd no matter how you slice it.
When the original ff7 was first pitched the entire game was going to be set in midgar, but the studio heads said no (although as a result parasite eve inherited some of that document's ideas). In some select ways it's truer to the director's original vision.
Because they wanted to expand on the original and Midgar was originally going to be longer anyway. Also I'm like 20 hours in and I really don't find there to be much padding. The sidequests are amusing and give me a reason to fight more snd new enemies in the fun combat system while the added story stuff builds lore and characters up.
@@tigerfestivals5137 the sidequests are also pretty useful and get access to some of the best materias, so while allowing the player to realky explore Midgar, they also reward him for taking the time to do so.
Just got into Wall Market and, yeah, this is a very different take on Final Fantasy VII. I appreciate the efforts made to give the player more of a connection to Sector 7 and the members of Avalanche but a few things are frustrating me. The game keeps taking control away from me, the chapters with Aerith are ainful because the game keeps slowing me down and restricting where I can go. It's like, "Just let me play the damned thing!" I even accidentally hit a point of no return where I was convinced there was a chest in a tunnel I wanted to double back to but because I'd hit an invisible cutscene trigger, I was locked out.
What I am hearing is that it's going to actually do the game justice by fleshing out SO MUCH and creating a TRULY epic play experience. A groundbreaking moment in gaming.
I'm glad someone shares some of my thoughts about this game. Midgar wasn't even "Disk 1" of the original game, it was the (admittedly long) prologue segment that just sets up what kind of world FF7 takes place in! In the same amount of time it took me to get past the first round of fetch quests in the remake... in the original, by that time, I had left Midgar behind, never to return. This is like what they did to the "Hobbit" movies... "like butter scraped over too much bread" I thought playing this after Persona 5 Royal would be a step up. Quite the opposite though, I kind of want to get back to Japanese teenage Inception heists now
Regarding the sidequests, I have to say that while they are bad, they are at least a step in the right direction compared to FFXV. The characters they involve usually have a bit of personality and you get some idea of their motivations, and in the mid to late game even a lot of the 'go here kill this' quests have a unique and somewhat interesting boss to fight. Also there's a lot fewer of them, which was definetly a good decision. They aren't Witcher 3 or even Skyrim levels of qulaity, but it's a step up from 'my car broke down please fix it'.
I was super hyped for RE3 remake which fell short in many ways that disappointed me. Just started playing this and I love it. Only about an hour in, it tickles my inner child so hard I can't wait to see what's in store.
So how to people think they are going to do the underwater weapon fight in the next game? I mean in the original your characters were just standing on the sea bed 😅
Well one other thing you gotta realize, the Midgar section in OG FFVII was linear af too, the open world didn't kick in till you left it, does make me wonder how they'll do the second one tbh, since ppl will deffo riot if stays pretty linear on that end too
Having not played this remake I can't say myself, but for me the idea of this being a trilogy was ridiculous from the start. Midgar is maybe a 6th of the game in terms of what actually happens, and more if you account for the major story enriching side quests I doubt they'll make quite as optional; to me if this is Midgar then part two would obviously end in the Ship departing Junon, it's just the next step in the story, and you go through what I assume would be a fairly chunky open world section in between (which to be fair would be mostly grass so assumedly less detailed than Midgar and probably easier to make?). To me while it felt Cheesey it seemed like there would probably be 7 episodes just to cover what the game does, and while as stated most of those areas wouldn't need quite as much detail density, since it's not the whole bloody city of Midgar, they'll probably still take years each and would last the whole next gen.. which could actually be pretty cool to be honest, but again, there may be changes I'm not accounting for.
I honestly think they limited this first game to Midgar BECAUSE it was a bunch of hallways and corridors to keep the graphical fidelity so high on the PS4. This lets them open up the world more on a much more powerful system later.
Only ever played the demo of this as a kid. So im not part of the hype. I'll mostlikely rent it when the first part comes out then decide to buy it if its okay and not too over the top jrpg. I dont mind jrpgs but final fantasy can be way over the top to the point it makes me stop caring.
They really expanded on so many things, especially characters and how much you can read out of fascial expressions you really have to look out for (tifa's winks are quite subtle and easy to miss for example). The combat system is insanely good, but from what i read of other peoples opinion, it would be a plus for many, if you could play the game controlling only one character in battle and not having agro almost all of the time. I on the other hand had fun rotating through them. I just feel a bit sad for the devs that people ran like the devil past all the NPCs. They have interesting dialogs that really help contextualise the world and shinra's and avalanche's actions. I also liked the plethora of music tracks. Many choices in certain situations where pretty bold, but imo fit the tone and where just enough to not break the immersion. (Maybe a SPOILER, but i saw this in many videos already: clouds dancing may be a bit to much, but i think it was a fun fanservice moment i just hope they don't go overboard with in the future).
It’s nice to have a Final Hallway remake. I kid. I really like it. It is sad that Square didn’t give the player more freedom to explore but overall I am enjoying it.
After playing the first 3 hours it made wanting to play the original so hard, I can,t describe it! Remake is a fine game BUT the original is still better, the PACE, the story, no downtimes, characters are not so dumb overpainted and one dimensional ...
This game doesn't exist in a vacuum and can't be judged/discussed as such. Especially when the fact that it's existence is a reference to something else is in its title.
Thank you. It's like instead of restore the Monnalisa they remade it pop art and with a different smile. You cannot not complain or wonder what's the point
I feel like you’ve attributed the over all story of 7 into this arc. This game is basically disaster response and survival. It's about people without a voice trying to find one in their small world not knowing what the outside world is like. They are suffering from the higher class and the burden and fear resulting in being in a society that decides your fate without your input. The resolution and final chapter revealing the depths the corporation has gone to, and implications of the entire world, mirror something like global warming arising as an existential threat, instead of something like war. If I were cutting this game into pieces, I would absolutely stop here for the first section, as it is definitive in perspective divergence. Once these characters leave this city, the whole world changes for them. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like there isn’t a better place to end in the game without just going full on with the entire thing... anyone have some ideas?
Only 40 hrs for the remake?... ngl, I was half expecting more than that with how big a download it is (Internet is trash-tier where I live; been downloading for like a week and I'm still ~20 GB short of having it all).
Perhaps they were trying to be true to the original game with the linear nature of the Midgar section in the original. It’s just expanded and shown off to a much much greater extent. Hopefully, they’ll be more “traditional final fantasy” and open the world up in the same way OG FFVII is after the Midgar section. We’ll see.
As someone who never owned a Playstation until the PS3 and has a hard time playing older games, this game is perfect for me. I loved Final Fantasy VI on the SNES but never got to play FFVII until I had already gotten to the point where it felt too slow and tedious. So now this is the perfect opportunity for me to experience the story I have always wanted to experience, but with a modern new sheen that I can definitely get behind as someone who enjoyed FFXV.
That's exactly the problem with this remake though. They pull some story related stuff (that I obviously won't spoil) that either confuses newcomers because they simply lack necessary knowledge or pisses off fans of the original for altering it in the way they did. This remake isn't faithful to the original at all and with the way it is right now, I'm honestly not sure who it's even made for.
I'm just glad this Remake exists. Guys, the original game was HUGE...what they did here is an accomplishment. I'm enjoying it very much--combat is fast, fun, and engaging; the Slums looks amazing; music is amazing; voice acting is amazing; the materia and weapons system allows for flexibility and is my favorite system of the series...the original was linear as well during the first parts but opened up once you leave Midgar. I hope it becomes more free and open on the next installment and we are allowed to explore and venture off at will, to a certain extent. Can't wait to see what they do with Vincent, Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Sid.
Massive fan of the original here. Your thoughts are pretty spot on to me. It was such a strange mix of absolute highs and frustrating lows. Some of the best game moments I have experienced possibly ever mixed with a lot of "what, why?". I went into this thing with the most open mind I ever could, I have not voiced a single complaint until getting my hands on it. With the ending in particular, I feel more conflicted than I ever have. I get what they are doing, and I now feel a strange mix of disillusion and interest. I think the best way to put it for me right now is that I'm now excited for the small stuff. I want to see how the next set of locations and events gets visually reimagined. But as for the overall trajectory of the story they want to tell, they have lost my trust, and will have to earn it back.
Full spoiler comment below: I am a fan of the original, old enough to have played it back when it came out. I always believed I would have loved nothing more than a 100% true remake with modern graphics, turned based combat, set camera angles and everything. I realize now that I love this more than I would have my hypothetical ideal remake. To be clear, I'm not 100% on board, I don't think that's plausible even. But I do believe I'm a solid 80%-90% on board, and that even these 80% give me more joy than my aformentioned 'ideal' remake ever could have. I played FF7R at a very slow and relaxed pace. I never ran past NPCs, I often intentionally walked in these calm chapters because it fit the game world and I listened to the multiple voice lines each NPC had. That and doing rough 95% of what a first playthrough has to offer and it took me ~70 hours to get to the credits on normal difficulty mode. I then played the Midgar part of the original PSX FF7. It took me 7 hours. And let me say this. FF7 is rough. The original does not waste time. It shoos you from place to place, giving you very little character exploration in between, precious few text boxes that are magically still somehow filled with enough characterization for you to get how these people relate to each other. You spend very little time in one place and even the roads in between often consist of only a handful of screens with relatively few random encounters. You see a lot in these few hours and it's a sign of the developers world building skills that people made such deep connections to these places and situations. It's been 15, maybe 20 years since I had played FF7 for the last time. When I booted up the remake I had no solid memory of what exactly to expect. I was only this deep routed connection that I had build back then and over the years through recalling the game. When I entered this high-fidelity triple-A behemoth of a game I did get exactly that. I got a game that connected me to that place. After the bombing mission FF7 rushed me onto the train, down into sector 7 and back up into reactor 5. Remake on the other hand had me explore a terrorized and distraught upper city. And then had me live amongst the slum citizens and hear their ambivalence towards Avalanche which they considered a terrorist organization and a threat to their lives. Something that that really pays off when the plate comes crashing down and you experience the aftermath of that in Sector 6 and 5, during the climb and in the Shinra Building. FF7 gave me rough idea of what the characters went through at that time. It was like a stage play, all the necessary parts are there, but your mind makes up for missing detail and over the years you're convinced the details were actually there. The Remake now gave me these details. The Remake gave me the version of FF7 that I believed all these years I had played. Like every textbook on remakes for games: don't rebuild what's already there, rebuild the experience. I loved pretty much all locations for faithfully recreating what I expected them to be. I loved the feeling that you are actually moving the full distances between places where the original kinda suggested that there is a lot more space in between the separate screens. Every time I watched that iconic intro scene of the city I wished I could explore these streets and the remake kinda gave me that feeling. It's like the original was a tiny diorama of what the scene was supposed to look like and the remake put me into the actual scene. On top of that it made character relationships far more believable and fleshed out, they often made more sensible decisions resulting in the story appearing more reasonable than the original and I genuinely feel like the entire thing was a more coherent experience for that. Truthfully, there is a quite a bit of padding with the quest system. But the more fetch-questy ones are non-essential afaik and the more elaborate quests in Wall Market are such a blast that imo fit with the original spirit of the game and scene so well that I'd hate for them to not be there. The only padding I really disliked were the very lengthy reactor 5 mission with the lights and robot parts, the train graveyard and the Hojo Lab in the drum. I still appreciate them for not just being in my way but rather building on some world design that was always there and now gets fleshed out more. But they take a looong time and usually delay very interesting story parts. Finally, I hate whispers and the ending. Yep, that kinda type I am. Not for the gist of it. Fighting destiny? I'm all on board for that. I mean, I'd love a straight recreation of the OG storyline, but I'm excited where this goes. I midway predicted that whispers were related to their destiny and getting that payoff felt great. But I really hate how these things mess up scenes and character interaction, they are just annoying. There had to be a better way. On top of that, the final batte sequence just felt like it was ripped out of Advent Children and there a few things I hate more than that schlock. More how they fight than that they fight destiny. Also I got beef with them including Sephiroth into that fight and mimicking the ending of the OG game, the show off with him and Cloud. That belonged in FF7 due to a long lasting antagonism between the two, one that the player also explored and could relate to due to the death of Aerith. It was cathartic. It was earned. In the Remake it comes off as cheap. And as was said I have no idea if newcomers to the game and story can in any way understand or appreciate what is being talked about. Personally I would have gone with a completely different approach, but that's just me. Overall, 11/10 would cross dress again.
Square Enix is Shinra and the FF series is the Planet, getting its life sucked out. FF7R is a metaphor for itself. Can such a company craft an honest story when blind to their own deeds?
Very good points about the very linear maps. That is definitely something that I've hated since is started happing in ffx. The difference for me is that I expected it with this game being in Midgar as that's how it was in the original. But if whenever the next comes out and we dont have an open world map, I will be upset for sure.
I just don't see why they had to keep the environments almost completely the same (but stretched out to be ridiculously longer) when they took liberties (that paid off) with everything else. There's no reason the exploration isn't at least as fun as in Kingdom Hearts 3.
Dude, you cant really notice the difference between FF XIII corridors and FF VII Remake? It's noticeable right there in your video. FF XIII had almost no NPCs, no towns, no atmosphere. You had your characters going through literally corridors with some background far from your party. In FF VII you have towns, way more NPCs with dialogue, way more geometry and ambience. It feels and looks lalive in ways that even FF XV despite being open world couldnt be. With FF XV you had some really small towns with some not voiced NPCs here and there, and almost no interactions with the town itself. Look at the Wall Market, we never had something like that in FF XV. It was all sterile and boring.
Quality of the remake aside, I find myself baffled at how many people seem okay with this thing being split up across multiple parts. Seeing people completely willing to pay full price for what is essentially a fraction of a full game blows me away. I understand people's attachment to the game and I'm aware of the things they are adding to the game to "justify" the cost, but to me it's difficult to fathom the critical reaction to this game's release knowing full well the questionable future of this remake.
what do you mean by "questionable future" ? I am with you that the multiple parts thing is terrible. Square played their cards and they didi it right. using FF7 fame to try a new form or business that if suceds is overall bad for the industry. and how can it fails with so many ff7 fan thirsty for the remake? people will wait whatever time they will take to release the full game and pay whatever necessary.
@@goncaloferreira6429 By questionable future I'm referring to the infinite amount of factors that can impact the drawn out release structure of a game like this. The possibility that people lose interest as the remake goes on which is a high possibility when you consider fan responsiveness typically spikes at the beginning and end of a series. Hardcore fans will continue to follow through as a series goes on but those less invested are more likely to participate in something at the very beginning or at the very end when it's easier to market something as important and necessary. There's also the development of the remake itself. Shit was announced five years ago and we are now only receiving a FRACTION of Final Fantasy VII. It's difficult to tell how streamlined the development process will become when also factoring in the resources needed to port each part of the remake to PC and soon also adapt to the new technology provided by the PS5. Not to mention this game is directed by Tetsuya Nomura who somehow manages to keep getting work as a director with Square. He's a great ideas man but without a talented team and strong-armed producer alongside him, this man is fucking incompetent at making games. This is the same dude who headed production on Final Fantasy Versus XIII back in 2006, and after years in development, in 2013 wanted to re-work everything in the game to be a musical and Square finally realized he needed to fuck off and gave the game to someone else. There's also the incredibly rare possibility that gamers will finally grow some balls and stand up to predatory sales practices that Square is especially guilty of. As someone who jumped off the Kingdom Hearts bandwagon a decade ago, I can only cringe at people I know who fully admit to Square's bullshit yet still decided they NEEDED Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue as if that title itself doesn't warrant someone getting fired. The thought that people would be willing to shell out HUNDREDS of dollars just to play through a nice looking yet needlessly bloated remake of a game over the course of possibly a decade honestly blows my mind.
@@Zombehz4lyfe So basically you fear the FF15 situation all over again. Fair. The remake will take for sure as many years to complete as 15. The jump to playstation5 is also inevitable and that will further delay things( who knows how easy is to make games to that platform). Another thing in my mind whenever i see a piece of media devided like this is this: do they have the full remake allready planned? or are they doing it entry by entry? also, how vulnerable are they to critics? will they keep the planned course or will they change things depending on players feedback?
You're not wrong when you said OG FFVII fans would feel disappointed. One look at dedicated fan hubs of the series will show that most of the people there are mostly all of the same mindset. The general consensus is that "new characterization and combat system is great, but the story changes feel like a slap in the face to those who liked the original". I don't think it's really that those fans feel disappointed because of hype, but because they have in some way been mislead by Square's marketing of the game. By most people's definition, this is not a remake, but rather a weird semi-sequel alternate universe thing where the original still happened but not? And now there's time travel involved? Needless to say, those who wanted a straight up remake with an expanded world did not get what they were promised in trailers and interviews. Without spoiling too much of the new story stuff, there's a very valid meta-reading that the bad guys of the story are the ones who wanted this to be an exact remake. They go out of their way to keep everything exactly the same, denying any changes to the original story. And you end the game by killing one of them, while Cloud's party literally (and metaphorically) move on to unknown territory, both in the sense of going beyond Midgar, but also without the shackles of having to stick to the original storyline. If I were a die-hard FF7 fan, who grew up playing this game, and had it shape my conception of what video game could be, I'd also be pretty darn mad to find out said game makes me out to be the one in the wrong. And for what, for wanting to relive that life-defining experience? It makes the game feel like it's going "ugh, FINE" at first, and then pulling out the rug from under me when it's got me in its grasp. And I think most of this could've been avoided if Square had just been up-front about that. If they'd been honest and presented FFVIIR as what is actually is. No promise of recreating your childhood, but one that goes out of its way to question those memories. Also Aerith is definitely gonna survive this version of the game. And if she doesn't outright survive it, you can meet special requirements to make it so. Bet.
I'm still kinda baffled that the overarching message of the Game is that retelling the same story is bad/evil. The hamfisted meta narrative about fans expectations feels like the writers taunting fans, who wanted a faithful retelling and thats super weird. It's like an actual middle finger to one part of the fanbase and I don't understand why? Why call it FF7 remake when it's best to play this after having played the OG game and misslead so much with the trailers? I'm not even angry just really baffled
"from a company resolute to give players what they wanted" except they completely ruined the story with a bunch of Kingdom Hearts crap. No one who plays this first is getting the actual, good FF7 story. The careful Sephiroth build up and reveal is completely gone. It's baffling to me why they did this. Everything else they got mostly right, but the story, the one thing one would think it'd be easier to adapt since it's already fucking there, they pull this off. It's almost as if Square Enix is trying to make crappy games
It’s a game. I love it. I don’t care if they come out with a next part. I enjoy what I get and move on. I have no expectations for anything which is why I always happy. Thanks game.
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The ending was damn good, prove me wrong.
The issue of linear game design, and why this is better than XIII by a mile is context. The Midgar section of FFVII was a fairly on-rails experience, so it’s not surprising that older fans are okay with this. Also, regarding linearity, you have to remember the problems of XIII wasn’t that it was “linear”, but it’s hallway level-design which didn’t stop until later in the game for one area. Just taking the Sector Seven Slums for example: Its way more open than anything resembling a town in XIII. There’s even two dungeon-like areas there that not only do more with an area that XIII ever did, but do more with the original area that VII did. If anything the design feels more equative to FFX. The real question is what FFVII Remake will do now that we’re out of Midgar in the next game. How is it going to show the open-world? How is it going to show multiple towns with dramatically different art designs and scale? I’m concerned. No matter how much I’m enjoying this game, whether or not I have confidence with modern Square is pretty up in the air. And while I haven’t spoiled it for myself, the minor things I’ve heard about the ending kinda incapsulates everything wrong with that company not understanding the games they make and why they were popular in the first place. That being said: I really want to be wrong on both those fronts. What they did with the battle system made a turn-based purist like myself a fan so there is hope. And while there seems to be a ton of padding, some of the extra stuff especially with Avalanche is perfect.
@@nickblomgren You took the words out of my mouth ! Original FF7 was very linear in it's Midgar section and the open world parts are the least likable parts of that game for me the cities towns dungeons and ruins were the highlight all of which were linear in nature.
If the outside world of FF7 remake do not include the incredibly tedious walking in a mostly empty world map between points of interest I could not care less and would rather have some large very detailed places to explore with some of the surroundings than a wide empty open world I think Mass Effect like ''world'' map where you fast travel between points of interests and cities without doing all the walking would be great for FF7 because just grinding XP in the big empty open seems unappealing these days.
6/10. AI is a joke. NO Gambits, Dragon Age Origins had smoother better combat then this. oh LOOK: the stagger mechanic from 13...wow so much "depth" switch: hit hit hit, switch: hit hit hit: wow this bosses HP is PADDED: JUST like 13! Switch hit hit hit...Combat = 2/10.
Hmmm...Xenosaga's plot with Sephiroth shoe horned in?
Same dinner scene from Xenosaga...same length as Xenosaga...same side quest length as Xenosaga...same POINTLESS SELF INDULGENT CUT SCENES THAT DEVLOP POINTLESS ZERO SUM CHARACTERS: Like CORNEO'S SECRETARIES/HENCHMEN!!!
Wow look a Arena...THAT'S PADDING.
Oh look: the Gnosis who guard Xenosaga's Time Loop! I, I, I mean the Watchers of fate with a fan metaphor who GUARD THE TIME EVENT to hide the fact their ripped off from Xenosaga!
Oh look...they;'re legitimately rubbing it in long terms fans faces that this IS: what we PREDICTED IT WAS from 3-4 YEARS AGO:
Padding: and RETCON CITY as a FIVE HOUR SECTION DOESNT HAVE THE CONTENT TO JUSTIFY A FULL GAME!
Ohhh right: this is the Post Advent Children Ff7 fanbase...and ASIDE fro Kingdom Hearts GRANTED:
FF7 Post Advent Children: has the most shill defensive fanbases: in ALL of gaming.
As this LAZY 6/10...has NO excuse to be rated above that: 100 to 1: other then...
It's NAME, NOSTALGIA, and...having no idea: what GOOD AI companions look like. Oh and Waifu's...
Most kids are backing up to: "I like Waifu's" and "This game gives me feeling"...MEN are saying "This game makes me feel"...as a JUSTIFICATION for it to be ABOVE a 6/10.
And THAT'S: total gamer devolution...I just...will never be a part of.
*Enjoy Xenosaga V2.0, for 300-400$: suckers.* (Note: be like me and get totally legal 10$ copies...as you can then throw them OUT: once you've been insulted by it's lazy ass self)
@@benjaminkeith1417 Would you like some cheese with your whine 🤔
By the time the full remake is done, it'll be time to remaster this episode. Square Enix are setting up an infinite loop.
meanwhile, no new FF game will be launched that reaches the levels of the classics.
The Pokemon effect
@@thomasgeppi6762 ?
I think the reason for all those slow moments like sidling between pipes and moving cupboards is to hiding the loading/streaming of the levels.
They are using Unreal Engine 4 which is notorious for its texture streaming and input/output calling issues (look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for an excellent example for what happens if you go through levels too fast).
And star wars use of elevators to mask loading screens
Other games use this technique as well; God of War 2018 and Tomb Raider 2013 have their own enclosed places where you’re forced to slow down and crouch or crawl, the Uncharted games have a ton of places where you have to mash a button to open a door, in Dead Space games some doors take longer than usual to open, Gears of War and Batman Arkham games force you to walk slowly while you’re talking in a radio conversation; all of these are hidden loading screens.
Still it kinda ruins the pace and makes the game unnecesarily slow most of the time.
@@andresmora2453 It certainly does, which is why I'm looking forward towards the next generation of consoles because developers won't have to work around slow hard drives anymore and can focus on more seamless environments.
Surprice
Ff7 ps1 was also semi linear...more than ff 15
Yeah, as much as I do love the Remake, the huge problem is the pacing. The game is either non-stop action and tough boss fights and hour+ long dungeons, or slow side content in slums that would feel welcoming and homey if they didn't massively overstay their welcome. Meanwhile the awesome cool action stuff overstays its welcome in its own way, where I wound up finishing a very difficult Airbuster fight after like five hours of dungeons, and then was forced to fight an INCREDIBLY hard battle with Reno with no break whatsoever. Then after that, like four hours of downtime?
I like nearly everything I've been given, but it's like being faced with too many excellent dishes at a buffet. Eventually you'll just want to stop.
reno is piss easy if you know how to parry
Reno was incredibly hard ? Past the fact that I felt that the whole game was actually a bit too easy, Reno was definitely more like a small mini boss. If you parry him in the first phase he literally can’t do a single move, and on the 2nd phase once you destroyed the lightning balls, he becomes even weaker than in the first phase...
clawfather, just block
@Charlie Reeder "look at me I didn't have trouble with game"
nice!
bit of an exaggeration. reno was like a 1 minute fight
While I agree with you on a lot of points that you make about this game, there is one thing that I think you should maybe take in consideration.
Those animations which are slow and bring down the importance and flow of the game are sadly not a way for square to beef up the runtime of the game, but it's because of the fact that the ps4 and the pro are both still very outdated builds, and one of the biggest problems is the 5400rpm hdd that it possesses.
This means that the only way for all of this texture and model data that needs to be streamed sometimes outpaces what the physical hdd can achieve. Hence why they have these points where they need to be able to have the next section loaded otherwise the game would freeze or have a lot more loading times. This is just a developers trick to work around the limitations of the hardware that the game has to run on.
eiriyuki19 expect the next game to be way better because this time it will have ps5 hardware to work with
@@Darkaria668 Yes and no, it will be much better, but the engine, UE4, is very slow at streaming lots of data, regardless of hardware.
I understand the desire to hide loading behind the animations but, at some point, it makes more sense just to have the loading screen. If I mod my console to have an SSD, why should I be tied to the lowest common denominator? It's also faster to load and unload assets if you set everything aside and use all of your threads to do so instead of maintaining a "seamless" experience that I'm sure also has an additional buffer over what that lowest common denominator hardware requires.
Darkaria668 S SE themselves have claimed that there are no plans to develop this game for the PS5.
BF DOOM considering each iteration will prob span 2 years a piece how could they not use the hardware from ps5?
I'm in chapter 11 right now and I'm having the time of my life! It's been a long time since I had so much fun with a game.
Me too
if you a big fan of the story, wait till you reach the last 3 chapters
I know this is an older post but I'm getting this game and a couple days and I am super excited for it.
A huge memory I have of my teenage years was sitting in front of the PlayStation playing Final Fantasy 7 I absolutely loved it and even though I know this isn't supposed to be a 1 to 1 of the original I have the feeling it's going to be good
Despite how some of the changes are polarising, I think that almost everyone - those who disliked the changes and even those who loved them, even *the big change* - is united in that feeling you have, about this being a starting point with so much to cover and so many ways it could go. It is kind of a disheartening experience for April 10 to arrive and you finally move on from 'anxiously speculating about how FF7R will turn out' to, uh...anxiously speculating about how the rest of FF7R will turn out. I'm in the camp of people who loves even the controversial changes (on paper), but I do feel a pang of nervousness over wondering how long it will be before part 2, let alone the eventual finale, surfaces. If nothing else, I hope that they take on board feedback about how swathes of people felt the game was stretched a bit too thin, and sidequests didn't lean into the setting as hard as would have been ideal.
I guess we're in for the long run, huh? Here's hoping that Square Enix doesn't dilly-dally-shilly-shally.
Hopefully it'll be relatively faster cos they have all the groundwork in place. The battle system, more than half the playable cast, all the RPG mechanics, etc.
@@telltellyn This, it won't take anywhere near as long as this part, especially as they get used to the engine and stuff.
@@Raging I really hope that's the case. I'd like to see some news / an estimated window at most a year from now. But with that said, all FF sequels have diverged a lot from the previous games. 10 and 10-2 were significantly different. Each FF13 game kept the same framework with some tweaks and both sequels still took two years and 23 months respectively to come out.
"It is kind of a disheartening experience for April 10 to arrive and you finally move on from 'anxiously speculating about how FF7R will turn out' to, uh...anxiously speculating about how the rest of FF7R will turn out."
This. I'm eager to see where the Remake goes thanks to That One Big Change, but even if all the necessary assets are in place for Squeenix to plug-and-play new assets for The Rest of the Story, which should result in some dev time shaved off, we're still looking at The Rest of the Story filled with typical Squeenix graphical AAAnime shenanigans, on top of one Cosmic Retcon potentially derailing the train into a whole new direction, which requires even more time to think, write, edit, and implement. The Squeenix Spectacle alone may stretch out dev time far more than a solid groundwork laid out with Game One can save.
@@WarMomPT I always kinda presumed we'd hear something about the other parts at e3, given how close the release is to the event and how much anticipation there'll be for any kind of news. Whether or not that's still likely given the current pandemic I don't know, but I hope we'll see some kind of online announcement from them.
Yeah, it's....it's going to be a lot. Though personally I can't see the whole project ending as rosy as Square thinks. There are thematic issues with it that run counter to the spirit of the original and I'm not sure what point the creative team is trying to make with it. And considering present Square's history, I'm not confident it's anything good
we'll see. as pretty much everything, no matter what they do people will be split on it. a lot of people love crisis core, but others dont like what crisis core did to the original game, even if nojima says that's what he wanted to write to begin with. For me personally, i really liked FF7R-1, and its not replacing FF7. ANd that's what i expected ever since they announced it. The original will always exist, so im excited to see what new things they can come up with, even if its possible to fail as anything is
@@MrInuhanyou123 Not the point being made; when you do something like that you're saying something about the original game and I'm trying to figure out what they're saying. Then again, considering Nojima's recent history as a writer, I'm not sure he's the best person to consult when talking about theme and context. Cuz...YIKES
@@Aiddon all im saying is that you wont know what this remake project is saying until its done. so being worried about something we dont know yet isnt really worth it imo. Especially if the first game is pretty good on its own.
@@MrInuhanyou123 Considering SE's history as a whole over the past twenty years (especially when it comes to guys like Kitase and Nojima), there are more than enough reasons to be apprehensive.
Given the way Nomura treated the themes of Kingdom Hearts, I am very, very afraid of how this project is going to end. But hey, there's always Dragon Quest 11 S.
I'm an OG fan of FF7, playing it during my formative years. I completely missed all the 'compilation' add-ons, like Advent Children and Crisis Core. Believing firmly in the Death of the Author, as an aspiring author myself, I believe any work should be judged purely on its own limited scope.
And this game is... a doozy there.
I don't think it's a secret to say that Sephiroth plays a big part in it. He appears the first five minutes of the game, whereas you didn't see him until AFTER Midgar in the original. The 'remake' also includes some tie-ins with Crisis Core and Zack.
The game tells us Sephiroth is a bad guy. It doesn't show us, it flat out has a character say they have a feeling this guy is more dangerous than Shinra. The game tells us nothing about Zack, yet still shows him on screen. I can't help but wonder then how total newcomers must feel then. The game is just assuming 23 years of hype is part of its storytelling process when it's not.
So maybe it's not for newcomers. Maybe it's for the fans.
Except... I find it kind of insulting. I won't say anything explicit but this verges on spoiler territory.
I fell in love with the story of FF7. The emotional ups and the emotional downs. Basically, 'remake' feels less like a remake and more of a 'redo', as if Tetsuya Nomura is saying "I can do this better this time." ...and, well, I don't have faith in him to rewrite the story better than what it was. Especially considering he wasn't the lead scenario designers of the original.
I'll just put this quote from director Yushinori Kitase to give some context on why I find this decision so insulting.
"In the real world things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. When you lose someone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think, 'If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently. These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."
So who is this game for? I don't think it's for newcomers, because they'll be lost. It doesn't feel like it's for fans, because it tells them that the story they loved wasn't good enough. Is it just for Nomura? Is it just for Squeenix to capitalize on 23 years of hype?
It is the last part of the compilation, taking everything related to the vii universe and working it into the og, so most than any other game, it is for the fans, the ones that always wanted more and more of this world, be through books, games, or the movie.
It is not a redo either. It's a sequel. The game acknowledges the original timeline and says we're in a new one. I... like it and hate it for that. I'm curious to see where they'll take it, that's the like, and I hate it because I really just wanted the original, slightly expanded on, with better graphics like this and voice acting.
We gonna talk bout how they did 5+ years of deceptive marketing and vague bullshit bout staying faithful to the original narrative and locations so that square can sell a rebooted and padded 30hour game of a 5 hour section of the og game disguised as a Re:Make?
No they're not going to talk about that. They just don't know what kh is and what is waiting for them
I feel like a lot of people forget that FF10 was also linear and so was the Midgar segment of the original FF7
I think they forgot the Midgar part (disc 1) was a linear thing because they were clouded with nostalgia and just nitpicking, or even trolling.
It was an intro. That's why it was linear. It was not a full game, it was just cd1. They would never have done a FF like that. And I wonder how can you say ffx was linear with all the secret areas and stuff to do it had. You don't know what linear means I guess. Persona 5 is more linear than ffx, for example, just because you don't have the same freedom of movement
Although I have issues with the story additions and changes, I can’t deny that this is the first REAL final fantasy game I have played in years. This game, though straying away from the original, definitely has the “soul” or “character” in it that made all main final fantasy games 12 and backwards amazing. There’s an actual slow burn story that doesn’t drown you In pointless information. The characters are likeable and there’s actual character progression. The combat-THE COMBAT. The setting is visually and culturally rich, only giving you just enough information and then allowing you to explore and learn more about the world. There’s no huge exposition dumps, no annoying lack of cohesiveness, we aren’t just expect to go along with a crap scenario that makes no sense. Everything in this game has its place and purpose. Nothing is just pointless. Yes some of the mini games were kind of thrown in and messed with the flow but aside from that I love this game. Maybe it’s because it’s relying on the original as a blue print but I honestly was thinking that there would never be another final fantasy game that carried all the qualities of the golden age games. And I don’t think it’s just because of nostalgia. This easily could have been thrown together in a year and I would hate it. I can tell despite limitations and deadlines they put all of their energy into making a good Final Fantasy game. And because of that I hope they continue to do so with the rest of the story...even if I’m worried about what they might do with it.
so in your opinion what is lacking in the 13 games and in 15?
Gonçalo Ferreira 13 was ambitious but for me missed the mark in both gameplay and story due to how grand of an experience they were wanting to make it. The story is chalk full of mountains of info that you have to sort through to determine what’s really important or not. The world structure is very linear, which is not a bad thing in itself just that it was nothing but hallways and one open area. Wasn’t a fan of the autopilot gameplay either. 7 remake is linear as well but the level design is more intricate giving you a sense that you are in control of where you are going even though the game is pointing you forward. All Final Fantasy games have some level of “information overload” but XIII took it to a whole new level with the large volume of primers you had to read through to understand the world beyond a superficial level. XV had a problem with the world being too large with not enough content to fill it, and the story was a complete mess. They clearly threw it together at the last minute after the original story of versus XIII was scrapped. It’s very generic fantasy plot and most of the major events happen before the game or off screen. The gameplay wasn’t bad in XV it was just very barebones in my opinion. I definitely wanted more magic options and having to progress pretty far to switch between characters was a curious choice.
@@mostcreative3680 thanks for answering.
Your problems with 13 are very typical and i would surmise them as bad narrative. they could not tell their story and present their characters in an interesting way. In a way it is the bad worldbuilders problem: we have all this cool worlbuilding, we have to tell it to the player somehow( primers).
The thing about linearity always confuses me. Games were always linear but that is now a problem? perhaps it is a symptom of people putting open worl games on a peddestral for a couple of years?
Have you played 13-2 and 13-3? the second part is my favourite but the story also isnt great. lightning returns though for me. it had some great parts- like the return of "jobs" and fashion- bad the bad parts and the story outweighted the good.
Still havendt played 15. Too much of a mess and nothing that calls to me.
How the hell does this remake carry the quality of the golden age FF games? Its literally got 1/8 the story content and areas to visit. Theres no exploration at all whatsoever (invisible walls anyone?) The RPG elements are boring as fuck (there really isn't any) Its the first 8 hours of FF7 stretched out to 25 hours (not even a full 40-60 hour worth of gameplay unless you count the cutscenes) OH BUT THEY MADE MIDGAR IN 3D!!!!!!!
I have to strongly disagree. There's a lot of pointless information. In fact, nearly all of the additions are pointless information. There's a lot of time devoted in the story to telling us how good of a person Aerith is. But for those who played the original VII, we figured that out with the much less information given. Because it was concise and effective.
The Drum and the second run through the Sewers were pointless, you didn't have to do most of that. The First half of the train graveyard, which is in between the graveyard proper and your run through the sewers was also pointless. Remake never made me feel like we were learning more about the world than we did in the original, which was marketed as being largely it's point.
The characters were likeable and had progression in the original, so nothing new there. Combat I think is about taste, so it's up to the individual, but I liked both with some caveats (original is too easy, remake how limits and phase transitions are handled make me puke).
crap scenario that makes no sense like the plot ghosts and the kingdom hearts boss made a lot of sense? Okay.
I think that there's a lot in the middle of FF7 that could be trimmed back or condensed. I've always found myself wanting to see the Midgar section of the game extended, as that seems like the most interesting both from a setting and visual standpoint, especially since when you leave the game shapeshifts back into traditional Final Fantasy map crawling. Certain dungeons could be shortened or excluded, as they don't fill much of a narrative purpose beyond "Cloud and party go through here to get there", so I could 100% see them making it a 3 game deal.
Also a personal wish of mine that I would *love* if they explored... just how similar Barret is to Sephiroth at the start of the game. The only difference is how much power they can tap into, and that Cloud was able to bring him away from the edge in time for him to redeem himself.
Exactly. The amount of press and hype that midgar got during the lead up to the original made it seem like it would be a focal line of the game. Instead you spend 6-8 hours there and never return except for a super brief moment at the end. For the amount of effort they put into the design, feel, and politics of Midgar it ultimately almost felt like a rope a dope, or at the very least a missed opportunity. I think this episode was their chance to correct that, and I think they did a pretty good job as of chapter 14.
Just a rough guess but I could see the next game taking us to the end of disc 1 in the original and part 3 going all the way to the end with a heavy focus and little gap between the reunion and Mideel.
I hope they don't remove any content like you're suggesting. Some places being just a dungeon padding can be applied to Remake. Which also is a downer for you and me.
midgar accounts for about 30% of the text in the original, it just had an absolutely furious pace with little time to slow down and take in the world. this remake will almost certainly be a trilogy, it’s just adjusting the pacing to make midgar the fullest version of what it was meant to be. arguably square didn’t nail the side content, but this is a well deserved fleshing out of the opening act.
i agree^^ also hoping that crisis core gets added in somehow, even if its through a dlc or something. i am enthralled in this world, and if they make the next ones on par with this, ill still be happy
@@Xcizior they actually mentioned a tidbit or two that you only learned about in Crisis Core in the Remake. The Remake is fantastic and if the only complaint I personally have is muddied textures I am happy to be playing this. I hate how every reviewer is bashing on the sidequests. They provide a good way to learn about the people and how the townspeople treat and talk about you in the world.
Yeah, and you actually go back to midgar in ffvii, so, how are they going to put the whole city in an open world? Didn't think of that? I guess they don't really know what they're doing
I'm an old fan of the original game, and i'm perfectly fine with the ending to this part 1. Like you said, i don't know if it would have been entirely necessary if the remake wasn't "episodic" but i found it intriguing, and i don't believe in being such a purist that they shouldn't be allowed to change things, the original game hasn't gone anywhere.
And many of the changes to the game are being celebrated, so how can we then be upset about a change that some might not like, when we don't even know yet where it will lead us. I'm excited to see where the next part takes us :D Now i'll be busy grinding for what will probably 2 years, i just hope there will be some DLC adding things to the Colosseum and the combat simulator.
God, I knew some weird story shit was gonna happen when they said Nomura was going to direct.
He's not writing.
The weird thing is that Nomura wasn't even aware he was the main director until the E3 reveal. Like...what the hell, Square?
It's not that big of a change, really. Just a very random subplot they tacked on so they could have a more "epic" ending for this particular game. It feels really out of place, but at least it's only like 30 min of the 30 hour game and doesn't change the overall story.
@loafhero the writing is pretty damn good so far. Are you blind or deaf?
@@michialphelps2339 the writing is hit and miss... sometimes it's incredible but some decisions are questionable. how can the good guys get away with some of the things they do (when they couldn't in the original, where they did less crazy things), why are the bad guys doing the things there doing, when it contradicts their goals at every step.
why does the game show as hints of the major antagonist of the original game right from the start as well as showing him outright an hour into the game, when he was a mystery for the whole first act and really got his developement after leavin midgar (well, that's easy, they just can't have a lack of sephiroth in the FFVII remake, even if it fucks with the amazing storytelling of the original)
They should have ended the story after Motor ball and replaced Leviathan/Bahamut with Ramuh/Titan. I would have made Sephiroth less involved in this part of the game, just kept it to odd hints because when we get to Kalm and Cloud tells the story of Sephiroth then it would have introduced him better.
I get this feeling that they're blowing their content too fast with the main villian and the higher tier summons because does that mean we're going to fight Sephiroth again and again for every end of episode.
to be fair bahamuth isn't exactly high tier in the FF7 universe
They could have even ended the story in Kalm, with Cloud telling the Flashback. But they need their plot ghosts so we have this so that we know this is a sequel, not a redo, and we're in a new timeline.
I almost forgot to check this video since I wanted to beat the game first. I had hoped to prevent external opinion impact my own as I played the game, but instead the surrounding conversation still became a whirlwind of emotion for me.
The original Final Fantasy was one of my first games growing up, right alongside The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. By time I was in second grade we rented Final Fantasy IV (released then as II for the SNES), and it defined the possibility of games as a narrative medium for me. It's what made me a fan of the franchise, and while titles like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger would ensure Square was one of my favorite companies, Final Fantasy VI (released as III) would mark Final Fantasy as my favorite franchise. So needless to say, when I played Final Fantasy VII at the age of twelve, it was a pretty big game for me.
Which is why I was always against the idea of a remake, no matter how many other nostalgic fans clamored for it. I suppose Advent Children didn't help, which I described at the time as the most expensive fan-fiction ever made. Final Fantasy VII was big and momentous for a lot of reasons in 1997, both for current fans of the franchise and for those that never played an RPG before. But the landscape of gaming has changed so much that there's no way a remake could have the same impact as it had then. If Square Enix seemed to understand this, I'd be fine. Instead, every interview and every insistence on making it the most "beautiful" (in terms of realistic graphics and aesthetics) game they'd produced yet indicated to me that they were not only trying to remake the game, but remake its legacy. Ready for the George Lucasing of Final Fantasy VII, I was ready to dismiss it until the gameplay reveal in 2019.
I don't believe turn-based combat is obsolete, nor do I view the current combat system as an "improvement". I disagree with you there, but not because I think the old system is better. I disagree because it's like saying Devil May Cry 5 is better than Resident Evil 2. They're two different systems with different intent, and while it's perfectly fine for someone to have a preference for one or the other it's more like comparing apples and sausages. As someone that enjoys both turn-based and action-based game systems, it was the combat that made me willing to try the game out. The demo was so fun I played it three times, and it was at that moment I knew I'd purchase the game and experience a roller-coaster of emotions. Of course, nothing could prepare me, but having beaten the game, I can confidently say that it's an interesting piece.
The most I'll say regarding its ending, and the story as a whole, is that I believe the authorial intent here is to express frustration at treading old ground when the development team would rather make something new. Consider for a moment that Nomura's last original game that was released was The World Ends With You. Final Fantasy XV was at least an original idea, but it was torn away from him as he was forced to work on a pre-existing game, only to then be put on yet another pre-existing game. I also have a feeling that Nomura and Nojima were big fans of Hideaki Anno's work with the Rebuilds of Evangelion. Perhaps that's saying too much, but it certainly has me interested to see where they go next. I wouldn't expect it to be faithful to the original, however.
Otherwise, I simply found it to be a worse telling of a story that was already told well. Midgar is a dumpster but lacks the dangerous edge the original game presented it with. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie have more spoken dialogue but with the exception of Wedge they're not even really the same characters. People forget some of the nuance placed in such primitive polygons in order to communicate ideas about that original cast. Moreover, all you need to know about Nomura's inferior directorial skills to Kitase's is to compare the Sector 7 Pillar scenes. Yes, the original game has primitive blocky characters, and boy has the discussion around this game never let me forget, but if you put the two side-by-side Kitase's is actually a chilling sequence that conveys meaning with the best of film direction techniques while Nomura's execution is inundated with Snyder and Bay stylistic choices.
But all of that said, I still had a good time with the game, and for every scene that had me groaning or rolling my eyes, or for every portion that felt frustratingly padded, or had me feeling like the recycling of certain levels was torn right out of Halo: Combat Evolved, there was plenty that I did enjoy. Red XIII was a delight, I loved Elmyra's flashback, and I'm glad they made the stairs as perfectly as they should have been. At the end of the day, though, it's the combat system that kept me coming back, and it's the combat system that will keep me returning for Hard Mode. If I want to actually experience Midgar and the Avalanche crew, I'll just load the old game back up.
Anyway, those are the long, drawn out thoughts of an old time fan of this franchise. Hope it helped sate your curiosity some.
As a massive Nomura fan I should be foaming at the mouth to play this but... I'm not? I kind of feel like investing in this first part and not just waiting for a potential bundle later down the line is a bum deal? I'm still not convinced that the original game needed to be stretched out at all.
I really recommend it. I've been playing nonstop for 3 days. The music alone will bring nostalgia and may just make you cry.
I will say this. Being able to learn more about Jessie, Biggs and Wedge alone has made the game worth it.
@loafhero what pointless filler do people keep talking about? Every side Quest has a point and lets you learn about the world and let's you see how the people of midgar are. I see more pointless filler in almost every single western rpg to date.
@loafhero you have your opinion and I have my truth. I can clearly see what they were going for where people like you just want to be blind. I'm starting to doubt you've even played it.
@@robardian3697You're right. The game is great!
5 hours into the game. My theory is that, the next parts are far more truncated, I feel like Midgar is super great so I think this first remake can get away with being indulgent. We'll see tho
I hope so. Midgar is FF7’s most iconic location. I can’t imagine them making entire games out of Cosmo Canyon or the Northern Crater. That would just be a massive waste of time.
It's more likely that the next part will be open world, like the original was after you left the Midgar. If that's the case I can see Part 3 being the final chapter of the game similar in its linieraty to this game, and part 2 simply being everything in between but set in an open world
If i were a major fan of the original, i think I'd be pretty pissed that they're calling this "remake". As I'm not, I'm just kind of uninterested in a rote collection of current gaming tropes like slow confirmation prompts and squeezing through tight spots carried by the aesthetics of late 90s Final Fantasy. Shame too because i wanted this to be a valid way of experiencing FF7, much like RE1 or RE2 remakes are for their respective originals.
it's really not the bad. most of the time you have huge areas to explore, mostly to soak in the atmosphere but there are some side quest and immersive sim- type quest thrown in there for good measure.
dungeons aren't just hallways but they do contain them. there are a lot of puzzle segments intermixed with fighting and exploration so they offer quite a bit of diverse gameplay, though they are a bit to long for my taste.
battles are flashy and dynamic but not as tactical as hamish makes it sound. it's not really spectacle fighting but also not really tactical. I'd say it's a bit weaker than kingdom hearts, but still fun. I' interested how they solve the problem with a particular battle in the original, where the music as calm and melancholic and the turnbased combat really accomodated the feeling they were going for.... can't have that with people running and dodge rolling around the place...
Good thing you aren't a fan
SE basically needs to go all in on this: they have to, like they have with FF14, keep striking while the anvil is hot. Even if it seems like it's right at the end of it's relevance, they HAVE to see this through. Whether they know it or not, they've committed to something huge. The director of the game has sited, again and again, that reactions of hardcore fans like maximillianDOOD and others kept them motivated in their low moments, and I only hope they keep looking to continue that heat and passion. here's hoping we see a continuation to this new story, either in expansion passes live service style or FFVII R Pt2 coming out within a year or a year and a half rather than 5 from now. They can't rebottle this genie now that's it's out, this is the one chance they have.
This is my first in-depth foray into the FF-verse. I never played the original and didn’t have this game on my radar at all. I stand top-side, chapter 15 and can not wait to play this on Hard all over again. This has been the most pleasant surprise I’ve experienced in all my life.
Given Square Enix's track record, expect this to be a trilogy to be released during the next 20 to 30 years.
a trilogy? are you mad? only if they trimed the story and the WORLD to bare bones after swelling Midgar.
@@goncaloferreira6429 look at what they did to FF 13.
@@ARIXANDRE ?
Wait, what?
2009 - 13
2011 - 13-2
2013 - 13-3
They’ve literally done exactly what you just said, and it took 4 years.
@@patrickgermain2507 apples and oranges
Thanks for this review! It is fantastic video and I loved the way you stated the start of it.
Now I am like you never got into FF7 originally, but respected it's place in gaming halls. Now this one has me hooked. And I wouldn't worry so much about the other parts, I can see them coming out within the next few years. I say this because the original once the Midgard section was over the world opened up to an actual open world map. So the following games don't need to pad out anywhere near as much time. I highly doubt they will expand each hour into 10 like they did here. And with the other parts the "hallway" feel will go as well. It's a juxtaposition to part one. Midgard is the humans abusive of nature and Gaia. Decrepit and decaying held together with a wish and a prayer, but the expanse of wilderness where people live free of a dependency on Mako or Shinra will have hours of exploration. I honestly think you will see a much more Witcher 3 vibe with part two.
But I'm just a guy so who knows
They have been working on part 2 for 1-2 years now. They should be done by next year or 2022 by the latest I guarantee it
They also have all the main characters and enemies already created because of part 1. They have so much to work with now, it definitely won't take that long
Michial Phelps all good points. They have the engine which is another point.
But this is Square Enix, not Square Soft. I can’t remember the last time they actually had a timely release, if ever.
I am up to chapter 9 (hellhouse) and absolutely loving this game, so they have renewed my faith in them as a dev that can actually make a good game, but after ffxv and even the production of this game, I won’t ever expect a timely release.
Fy 4b mentioned this somewhere else, but theve done this exactly a decade ago with the 13 series... 4 years, 3 games.
Patrick Germain forgot about 13. And fair point.
That had a vision though, not saying ff7 doesn’t, however they haven’t even told us how many episodes or anything about the rest of the series. Only glimmer of hope is they are in development now.
Ff13 they said it was a trilogy from the start.
That was a decade ago. KH3 took how long to ultimately suck? The director is the director of ff7. Ff15...how long did that take? How many times did they change that (versus, etc)? And ultimately they released an unfinished game that needed countless dlcs to explain that convoluted mess.
Like I said. I will not put faith in their ability to release games in a timely fashion because of their history, especially with “next gen”.
But hey I would love for them to surprise me and I would love to have confidence in square again. I’m halfway there since this game is very enjoyable.
The most concise, honest review I've read. So much more refined and descriptive than big brand critics. I feel like you deserve a wider audience.
Can't wait to play this in 20 years when it's finished.
Being ~10 hours in I can definitely say this is exactly what I would have wanted from a remake of FFVII. It feels like what I’ve wanted to see in JRPGs but that they were limited to do. The turn based combat often felt like it was done out of necessity more than desire and they’ve expanded the world to feel more alive and vibrant (one of my favorite aspects of XII and what had it as my favorite for so long).
No.
Turn base combat allows better focus to play as multiple characters during battle.
FF7R is not only too easy, but since you can't fully control the A.I, the other characters just run around aimless or spam some weak magic
Guts is Ok Sure, you can play multiple characters better but in a much less interesting way. As well, general consensus seems to be that Remake is in no way too easy. It would have been nice if Hard was available from the start for people like you who are above the curve.
@@factspeaker8518 Turn based combat was definitely more out of necessity in the beginning. It's way easier to program and adjust turn based combat than action combat, especially from a sprawling RPG. Think of how much less you have to do for animations and AI. That's not to say it is bad... but if they could have, they definitely would have done something more action-y (if it wasn't so much work).
A majority of Final Fantasy turn based combat is not particularly interesting.
It doesn't need to be the same pace. Remember disc 3 of the original doesn't have so much story. I believe in 3 parts 2-3 years apart for each one.
right now my opinion on this game is, that it is a pretty good game, but as a remake it varies between fine, silly and even outright bad. There are just so many confusing decisions in the story and presentation and I guess the episodic nature of this release is to blame for this.
Story hasn't changed that much though
@@hoffa9000 I guess you weren't paying attention during the ending
@@muby102 hasn't changed much. Party still leaves midgar to hunt sephiroth. Rufus takes control of shinra.
A few small changes sure. But nothing major has actually changed from the overall plot
@@hoffa9000 Zack is still alive and the party or cloud know about future events already. They're some pretty major changes if you ask me
@@muby102 zacks alive in a different timeline, so it doesn't actually affect the main story.
The party have visions of the future, but they don't actually understand them. Aerith is the only one that somewhat understands them.
So again, a few small changes but nothing major has changed from the main plot
I'm a bit late to this video but after finishing it. I'm not so interesting in it anymore. I'm a huge fan of the OG and that's not what we been asking them for the last 2 decades.
I wish them luck with the project but this isn't for me. I'll probably one day try the other parts eventually but I'm in no hurry to buy them at full price after all the horrible padding of the first one.
I agree I think people are overhyping this game big time. Hopefully after all the hype settles down people will stop screaming that the game is a "10/10" and stuff. Because I definitely don't see how it is.
I think the fact that this isn't even a full game, but a cut out piece of a whole story should exclude it from 10/10s. But everyone is riding that hype and nostalgia train so hard, you can't trust most reviews out there. Even if they didn't like it, most reviewers are too scared to be honest due to the fanatics.
i think it'll be the opposite, this game is gonna age really well
Yeah, I sensed a bit of XII, a bit of XIII, and a bit of XV in there. Lots of modern Final Fantasy design philosophy mannerisms in there, but I also sensed a bit of IX, and even a bit of X as well. I even got Witcher III vibes, dammit. This game has one thing on that game, and that's the kids in this game aren't nightmare fuel, they're convincingly child-like as opposed to obviously voiced and written by adults who hate kids lol.
"Too linear" is a strange criticism to hear against this game, considering its a remake of the game that popularized cineamtics jerking controls out of players' hands.
And the "look don't touch" angle even stranger. There's a minigame in here, that sprung up from a static background shot in the original, and now I got to move it around and see first hand the practical use of what was previously just some intangible prop. It's literally the opposite of "look don't touch".
I think Disk 2, Part 2, or whatever they call it, will be doing the opposite: trimming the fat. I got the impression Midgar was the exception for that approach to the remake, since they talked so much about having to cut content from the original and wanting to add it back in, more fully realized than it would or could have been if they hadn't had to take it out of the original.
I think part 2 will be the one "open-world" game, where you explore all the towns, with slightly expanded scenarios, perhaps each one the length of a feature film, and part 3 will be a more refined version of part 1, finishing out the scenario in a roughly one for one modern translation based on the feedback from part 1. That'd be my guess.
I can count my criticisms on one hand, a nice short little list:
1. Why are there so many dialogue choices removed and canonized into scripted cutscenes? There should have been more dialogue choice interactions, not less.
2. Party members phasing through the leader model during platforming is immersion breaking. We can bump into NPCs, but the party member models can't react to you physically being there? In combat, I get it, but up close and personal segments, like walking around, or climbing ladders, or squeezing through corridors is when that kind of detail would be most appreciated.
3. Some of the environmental textures are embarassing. Might just be I passed on upgrading to a PRO, but wow. XIII on the previous gen hardware is more graphically impressive to up close inspection than this game is in places. Maybe that will be remedied when the game is re-released for PS5. Some of the NPCs are smeary looking as well. You see HD detailed party member models conversing with low end PS3 models... just weird, but I get that to have that kind of density with the crowds they probably had to make compromises.
4. I hate the red low health screen, especially when it lingers during in-game cinematics, which only happened on a couple occasions, but that seems like something they'd have ironed out. I remembered being bothered by it enough to list it.
5. Pressing the hold button doesn't have the wind up animation. It's awkward just standing there waiting for the input to trigger the action.
Mere nitpicks.
I'm incredibly happy that we still have more to look forward to. As nice as it would have been to have the complete remake package day 1, I love that this hype train will continue for the foreseeable future... hopefully, provided it isn't the apocalypse and game over for making video games on a triple A scale.
I sensed a bit of VII in there too.
They were struggling to make the open world and there's a high chance we will never see a part 2. That is the real reason why they stretched Midgar into one game. The cost of bringing the FFVII world into life would be too prohibitive cause it's far bigger than the open world of FFXV.
@@johnm9893 well, Midgar was the most detailed and focused act/location in the original. There's a lot of unneeded space in the overworld. we don't need to visit every town. the game doesn't even need to be open world, they can just have a few zones connected by airports, harbors and car rental services. You visit such a place and chose where to go next. regions we need to see are nibelheim, gold saucer, woutai, the city of the ancients, whatever town cid was from and maybe two or three generic villages. get some field- forest and/or mountain -areas around them for generic kill quests and you have yourself a game
@@UnicornStorm It's quite possible they may follow the same formula as the first part of the Remake, albeit with more expanded Side Quest/travel portions. There is absolutely NO way they won't make a Part 2. That is silly talk. I can only imagine the money they are going to make from this Remake, and the end of the game literally says "The Unknown Journey Will Continue"
@@UnicornStorm So we don't need Cosmo Canyon or Junon? lol. As for minor villages; You just put in Icicle Inn, Gongaga, and Kalm and you literally have every town anyway. Chocobo Ranch and the Dig Site aren't towns or villages and exist in a small enough capacity to keep. Besides that there's only Fort Condor which was reduced to an insulting mini-game.
Maybe its because I have my nostalgia goggles on a little too tight, but even though I noticed the linearity of the game, it hasnt bothered me simply because the Midgard section in the OG FF7 is really linear itself. It has really made me wonder how Square Enix is going to handle the world beyond Midgard though.
OMG, an FFVII Remake review that is even-handed, thoughtful, constructive that neither over-praises and over-bashes the game, realizing what it achieves while acknowledging its shortcomings.
He also has no idea what he's talking about for the most part. I am fully aware the game isn't perfect but I don't think this guy has ever even seen a video on the original game let alone played it.
@@zanplays5308 i wouldn't go that far but i mostlu agree that he's not on the money here
@@zanplays5308 He directly addresses his experience with the original and even uses shots from the PC version of the original to reinforce his points. No to mention him heavily implying that he has issues with the ending of remake versus what the original did at that point in the story. Did YOU actually listen to the whole review?
@@Lailoken2 yes I did watch the video which is exactly why I said what I said.
@@zanplays5308 Did he state something about the original that didn't happen? Or does he just have a different opinion that yours about the original?
What you said at 1:15- 1:20 explains how I was going into the remake. I knew of the ff7 and it’s significance on ps1 and the main story beats. I thought cloud and the gang looked cool in kh1 but that was it. Now with Remake PT. 1 I completely understand why this story and characters are so beloved in the gaming zeitgeist. I cannot wait for pt. 2 on (I assume) PS5.
I grew up on the original. I'm not even that old (31) so it's weird for me to think of people who never played the original growing up.
As a fan of the original and currently only being in ch 14 of the game I'm loving everything about it so far. I don't mind the pacing. I'm fine with the backtracking because so far walking there is the only way to get around and without random encounters you can't really grind battles so the back and forth through tunnels still makes sense to me. I also agree that the sense of often exploration is significantly reduced, but I believe that's because Midgar was always the most linear section if the game. It didn't open up to free movement throughout the world until after Midgar. Even then you were limited where you could go until you got the various vehicles and of course the airship near the last 3rd of the game. I don't get the hate honestly.
Sure, I wish it didn't end in Midgar. I love the story and want the full thing but maybe I'm just more patient than others. I don't mind waiting for the next part. It's not much different from waiting between seasons in a tv show or sequels of a movie or book.
Just chill y'all. Buy the game. Have a blast. Then enjoy the next one when that comes out.
How is the combat fluid? You constantly need to awkwardly move in menus to do anything more fancy than a basic attack. That completely stops any kind of momentum or fluidity the combat could have. It's super awkward.
You can set up shortcuts to moves like you can in Kingdom Hearts so all you need to do is hold L1 and press a face button to do an ATB move.
For a game with lots of managements and lots of unique moves and play style I say the combat is pretty dam smooth and it should be an achievement, ur not mindlessly pressing triangle just to deal dmg(like kingdom hearts) ur building your bar to find ways to stagger enemies and heal at the sometimes, however the control of the game are something to be question
You can set up shortcuts. Also using the menu allows you to be more tactical with how you cast your spells
You can hold L1 and quickly select abilities using the x, circle, triangle and square...
Sounds like you're just not very good if you're spending a lot of time in menus.
In regards to the early mention that the game covers so little of FF7: I agree, however, there is a giant black hole in the middle of FF7's story. Many of us have rose-colored glasses regarding the open-world sections of FF7, but ultimately not much of a real consequence happens. In fact, for the most part even all of the companions you meet outside of Midgar are inconsequential and not important to the story at large. I still expect this series can be done in a trilogy (or 4? Would be somewhat fitting considering the disc structure of the original).
There's also the question of how much streamlining will happen in the future. The expanded plot in games like Crisis Core have done a lot to muddy the story of FF7 and I look towards FF7R and its later sequels to clean up that mess.
disk 2 after northern crater is honestly veeery light on story
We did get some Deepground/Genesis references though. They talk about S and G genes.
Also, there was another one about underground labs and such under Sector 7, but that could be referring to the labs you go to later on, and not the Deepground sector
@@neobahumuth6 True. The problem with this remake series is that it blows up the parts of the original that weren't important, though. Train graveyard was an entire dungeon, whereas in the original it was a small area with no bosses. You just KNOW they're going to have a massive snowboarding section when they finally get to remaking disk 2. Great glacier will have 20+ areas, gaea's cliff will be the size of Mt. Everest...meanwhile Sephiroth will just be asleep in his cave. If they managed to slow down Midgar this much, how bad do you think it will be once they reach the parts of the original that were made of filler? I'm shuddering imagining Cloud digging in Bone Village for hours...
@@evanglicanism and that's a problem because? not what you envision but what was added to the actual remake btw
This was a good review, and really reflected how I felt after finishing it in a lot of ways. I totally understand your curiosity (and worry) for the future of this project
As someone who loves the FF series, my thoughts on Linearity: most Final Fantasy games have been pretty linear (barring some exceptions, like the second half of VI, Lightning Returns and X-2) but XIII and the main missions of XV did a bad job at hiding it.
I feel the same - it's less the linearity and more the everything that surrounds it, the pacing, the opportunity to slow down and do sidequests, etc. FF10 is very linear but there's never really a shortage of sidequest carrot-dangling, towns to relax in and explore, and even linear areas were wide and allowed for movement and exploration, rather than 13's claustrophobic corridors.
WarMom I think the bigger pacing issue is the lack of save points, so you can’t go “okay, I can stop here for today”
True, and I think a lot of people seem to be forgetting how 'linear' the pre-FFX games actually were. Sure there was an overworld with a few pit stops or side areas, but generally you were pretty limited from point A to B to C.
@@theoxbellows I think a big issue is that as the graphical fidelity improves, the corridors become harder to put up with.
XIII wasn't trying to hide that at any point though. It never gives you a reason to assume that it's an open world game in those early sections. The narrative stresses the urgency and the goal is clearly set. The only reason people criticise this is because people *wanted* an open world game. The criticism is completely meta and the game gives the player no reason to assume it should be an open world.
Not done watching but one thought that deserves its own comment: this episode really presents something I like about more linear games, and that's a sense of urgency and narrative momentum. Throughout most of what I've played so far (I'm in the subway tunnels hint hint), it's like "GO GO GO" and it's actually really exciting? Only some of the FF games gave me this feeling and only briefly: in X, when you're on the run in Macalania and again after Via Purifico, and then in XIII in the several sequences when the Cocoon PSICOM troops are chasing you. But I love how much urgency there is in FF7, really wish I'd replayed the original before the remake came out to see if it feels the same. I honestly think that's a major benefit to linear games if they have a narrative like this.
I haven’t played the original yet, so story aside, as a filmmaker who has analyzed many scenarios for work, I think this game had one of the best written characters that I’ve ever experienced.
The dialogue was well written, everyone had understandable weaknesses, good humor and consistency in behaviour. It really made the game and cutscenes feel like an experience, especially with the amazing music from Nobuo
Just watch, if it finishes, this remake is going to be seven parts long.
I know I'm in the minority here, but this combat really does nothing for me. It's almost all flash and you pause the game so much, it should've just been turn based in the first place. At the very least then you could pay full attention to the flashy explosions.
If you guys love this stuff, check out Square's other action RPGs like FF Type 0 and Crisis Core, because this game is pretty much a mishmash between those games and FFXIII's stagger system.
I don't find it too bad but I agree.. they should have just went turn based
One thing that I haven't seen anybody mention is how the combat animations don't track properly. I can't tell you how many times I've had an attack entirely miss because one of my allies bumped my character so I slid (across gruff broken concrete like it was ice) slightly to the side, so now the attack misses entirely.
Quite a few enemies have dodge animations, and that's fine; part of the battle. But to see my master warrior miss because the enemy took a step or three to the side always left me feeling cheated; not to mention how silly it looks.
i'm excited to see where this goes.
Stay safe and healthy, thanks for the great content!
The game may have only been actually officially announced in 2015, but fans have been waiting for it since 2005 when Sony showed off a clip of a remade FF7's opening sequence and accidentally gave fans the impression that a remake or remaster was in the works. And though Square REPEATEDLY said it wasn't going to happen right up till that E3 2015 show, it's not hard to wonder if somewhere they weren't working on the beginnings of the games pre-production even back then.
I doubt they will finish it. It's another typical BIG scope project that a developer is underestimating.
Dude nobody thought this game would see the light of day then boom here we are so have a lil faith brother.
Your channel is gold:
Concerning my thoughts on the remake:
I am one of those little kids that played the original when it came out and, for me, it is still one of the greatest game I played.
After the hype and two playthrough I can say that ffvii remake is a big risky and fearsome promise.
But if there is an aspect of the game that fills me with hope is that, almost certainly, this game and its aspects were made with a lot of passion.
Give it two weeks and this will be the ff15 problem: where you have a lot of hype that quickly dies down as people realize that they just brought a glorified demo.
Also, its the ff13 problem of diminishing returns. How long do you think people will keep being strung along?
The only criticism I disagree with is "linearity," but EVERYTHING else you mentioned (both positive and negative) is spot on with how I feel.
Why do you believe that the game isn't linear? Does it have elements that at least mitigate a feeling of linearity, much like FFX as opposed to FFXIII?
Great stuff man!
I just wish they kept the, very Kingdom Hearts, ideas out of it. It just grates at my every fibre to imagine THIS story falling down a Nomura hole..
Thanks as always for the fab content! Stay safe man
a reason why I didn’t mind a lot of the linearity as much as I might have in say ffxiii is bc the story and characters are wayyyyyy better handled and more compelling, tho I will admit being familiar with ff7 before probably influences that
What if the camera wasn’t always freeform and instead on a predetermined rail from section to section like it was in FFX?
I just don't understand why they decided to split it in multiple parts instead of just taking the time to make it one game. I mean, why did they decide to expand Midgar into 40 hour thing with a ton of filler and padding ? Is it really just a ploy to sell 3 (or more) games with the name "FF7 Remake" ? Because I see no reason why the original couldn't have been remade in one game. Seems like they just chose to stretch it, just like The Hobbit movies stretched one short book into 3 extremely long movies.
@@GrimJackal I did watch the video, and what I got was a 13 minute explanation of why this game had too much padding and covered too little story. The question is did YOU watch the video ? Besides, you can expand on the themes and add context without splitting the game into 3+ parts, which is utterly absurd no matter how you slice it.
When the original ff7 was first pitched the entire game was going to be set in midgar, but the studio heads said no (although as a result parasite eve inherited some of that document's ideas). In some select ways it's truer to the director's original vision.
Because they wanted to expand on the original and Midgar was originally going to be longer anyway. Also I'm like 20 hours in and I really don't find there to be much padding. The sidequests are amusing and give me a reason to fight more snd new enemies in the fun combat system while the added story stuff builds lore and characters up.
@@tigerfestivals5137 the sidequests are also pretty useful and get access to some of the best materias, so while allowing the player to realky explore Midgar, they also reward him for taking the time to do so.
It's not padded. It was expanded and fleshed out. It was good actually.
And I am an FF8 fan.
Just got into Wall Market and, yeah, this is a very different take on Final Fantasy VII. I appreciate the efforts made to give the player more of a connection to Sector 7 and the members of Avalanche but a few things are frustrating me. The game keeps taking control away from me, the chapters with Aerith are ainful because the game keeps slowing me down and restricting where I can go. It's like, "Just let me play the damned thing!" I even accidentally hit a point of no return where I was convinced there was a chest in a tunnel I wanted to double back to but because I'd hit an invisible cutscene trigger, I was locked out.
SJ Webster if you’re ever going to be locked out, they always have a warning.
You either return there or you aren’t locked out, just diverted.
What I am hearing is that it's going to actually do the game justice by fleshing out SO MUCH and creating a TRULY epic play experience. A groundbreaking moment in gaming.
Exactly my thoughts as well.
I'm glad someone shares some of my thoughts about this game. Midgar wasn't even "Disk 1" of the original game, it was the (admittedly long) prologue segment that just sets up what kind of world FF7 takes place in!
In the same amount of time it took me to get past the first round of fetch quests in the remake... in the original, by that time, I had left Midgar behind, never to return.
This is like what they did to the "Hobbit" movies... "like butter scraped over too much bread"
I thought playing this after Persona 5 Royal would be a step up. Quite the opposite though, I kind of want to get back to Japanese teenage Inception heists now
Regarding the sidequests, I have to say that while they are bad, they are at least a step in the right direction compared to FFXV. The characters they involve usually have a bit of personality and you get some idea of their motivations, and in the mid to late game even a lot of the 'go here kill this' quests have a unique and somewhat interesting boss to fight. Also there's a lot fewer of them, which was definetly a good decision. They aren't Witcher 3 or even Skyrim levels of qulaity, but it's a step up from 'my car broke down please fix it'.
I'll wait for a bundle
I kinda like the slower moments
I was super hyped for RE3 remake which fell short in many ways that disappointed me. Just started playing this and I love it. Only about an hour in, it tickles my inner child so hard I can't wait to see what's in store.
4:56
I can't wait for his rage filled review of Yakuza 7 and I love Yakuza 7
I'm gonna love Yakuza 7 when it comes out.
@@tigerfestivals5137 as everybody should.
There's way too much unnecessary bloat. It's going to take 500 hours to get to knights of the round.
So how to people think they are going to do the underwater weapon fight in the next game? I mean in the original your characters were just standing on the sea bed 😅
Well one other thing you gotta realize, the Midgar section in OG FFVII was linear af too, the open world didn't kick in till you left it, does make me wonder how they'll do the second one tbh, since ppl will deffo riot if stays pretty linear on that end too
People complain about open world games, and also complain about linear games. You really can't win.
People complain more about linear games
There are a lot of people. It's expected they're going to have different tastes.
Having not played this remake I can't say myself, but for me the idea of this being a trilogy was ridiculous from the start. Midgar is maybe a 6th of the game in terms of what actually happens, and more if you account for the major story enriching side quests I doubt they'll make quite as optional; to me if this is Midgar then part two would obviously end in the Ship departing Junon, it's just the next step in the story, and you go through what I assume would be a fairly chunky open world section in between (which to be fair would be mostly grass so assumedly less detailed than Midgar and probably easier to make?). To me while it felt Cheesey it seemed like there would probably be 7 episodes just to cover what the game does, and while as stated most of those areas wouldn't need quite as much detail density, since it's not the whole bloody city of Midgar, they'll probably still take years each and would last the whole next gen.. which could actually be pretty cool to be honest, but again, there may be changes I'm not accounting for.
Trust me when i say they did a good job at stretching it out. All of it makes sense and it gives the story a lot breathing room. It works
I honestly think they limited this first game to Midgar BECAUSE it was a bunch of hallways and corridors to keep the graphical fidelity so high on the PS4. This lets them open up the world more on a much more powerful system later.
Only ever played the demo of this as a kid. So im not part of the hype. I'll mostlikely rent it when the first part comes out then decide to buy it if its okay and not too over the top jrpg. I dont mind jrpgs but final fantasy can be way over the top to the point it makes me stop caring.
They really expanded on so many things, especially characters and how much you can read out of fascial expressions you really have to look out for (tifa's winks are quite subtle and easy to miss for example). The combat system is insanely good, but from what i read of other peoples opinion, it would be a plus for many, if you could play the game controlling only one character in battle and not having agro almost all of the time. I on the other hand had fun rotating through them. I just feel a bit sad for the devs that people ran like the devil past all the NPCs. They have interesting dialogs that really help contextualise the world and shinra's and avalanche's actions. I also liked the plethora of music tracks. Many choices in certain situations where pretty bold, but imo fit the tone and where just enough to not break the immersion. (Maybe a SPOILER, but i saw this in many videos already: clouds dancing may be a bit to much, but i think it was a fun fanservice moment i just hope they don't go overboard with in the future).
It’s nice to have a Final Hallway remake.
I kid. I really like it. It is sad that Square didn’t give the player more freedom to explore but overall I am enjoying it.
30hrs? I did in 57, now doing it in hard mode and boy it is exactly that! My game of the year by far.
After playing the first 3 hours it made wanting to play the original so hard, I can,t describe it! Remake is a fine game BUT the original is still better, the PACE, the story, no downtimes, characters are not so dumb overpainted and one dimensional ...
I can’t wait for final fantasy 7 remake part 7...
This game doesn't exist in a vacuum and can't be judged/discussed as such. Especially when the fact that it's existence is a reference to something else is in its title.
Thank you. It's like instead of restore the Monnalisa they remade it pop art and with a different smile. You cannot not complain or wonder what's the point
I feel like you’ve attributed the over all story of 7 into this arc.
This game is basically disaster response and survival. It's about people without a voice trying to find one in their small world not knowing what the outside world is like. They are suffering from the higher class and the burden and fear resulting in being in a society that decides your fate without your input. The resolution and final chapter revealing the depths the corporation has gone to, and implications of the entire world, mirror something like global warming arising as an existential threat, instead of something like war.
If I were cutting this game into pieces, I would absolutely stop here for the first section, as it is definitive in perspective divergence. Once these characters leave this city, the whole world changes for them.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like there isn’t a better place to end in the game without just going full on with the entire thing... anyone have some ideas?
Only 40 hrs for the remake?... ngl, I was half expecting more than that with how big a download it is (Internet is trash-tier where I live; been downloading for like a week and I'm still ~20 GB short of having it all).
Thats only like 10 or so hours shorter than the full original game so it's kind of impressive imo
I kinda like the narrative change. It feels like these characters Ive loved for years now have agency.
Perhaps they were trying to be true to the original game with the linear nature of the Midgar section in the original. It’s just expanded and shown off to a much much greater extent. Hopefully, they’ll be more “traditional final fantasy” and open the world up in the same way OG FFVII is after the Midgar section. We’ll see.
As someone who never owned a Playstation until the PS3 and has a hard time playing older games, this game is perfect for me. I loved Final Fantasy VI on the SNES but never got to play FFVII until I had already gotten to the point where it felt too slow and tedious. So now this is the perfect opportunity for me to experience the story I have always wanted to experience, but with a modern new sheen that I can definitely get behind as someone who enjoyed FFXV.
That's exactly the problem with this remake though. They pull some story related stuff (that I obviously won't spoil) that either confuses newcomers because they simply lack necessary knowledge or pisses off fans of the original for altering it in the way they did. This remake isn't faithful to the original at all and with the way it is right now, I'm honestly not sure who it's even made for.
I'm just glad this Remake exists. Guys, the original game was HUGE...what they did here is an accomplishment. I'm enjoying it very much--combat is fast, fun, and engaging; the Slums looks amazing; music is amazing; voice acting is amazing; the materia and weapons system allows for flexibility and is my favorite system of the series...the original was linear as well during the first parts but opened up once you leave Midgar. I hope it becomes more free and open on the next installment and we are allowed to explore and venture off at will, to a certain extent. Can't wait to see what they do with Vincent, Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Sid.
Take my money! Your videos are of sublime quality both in terms of production and content! :)
Massive fan of the original here.
Your thoughts are pretty spot on to me. It was such a strange mix of absolute highs and frustrating lows. Some of the best game moments I have experienced possibly ever mixed with a lot of "what, why?". I went into this thing with the most open mind I ever could, I have not voiced a single complaint until getting my hands on it. With the ending in particular, I feel more conflicted than I ever have. I get what they are doing, and I now feel a strange mix of disillusion and interest. I think the best way to put it for me right now is that I'm now excited for the small stuff. I want to see how the next set of locations and events gets visually reimagined. But as for the overall trajectory of the story they want to tell, they have lost my trust, and will have to earn it back.
Full spoiler comment below:
I am a fan of the original, old enough to have played it back when it came out. I always believed I would have loved nothing more than a 100% true remake with modern graphics, turned based combat, set camera angles and everything. I realize now that I love this more than I would have my hypothetical ideal remake. To be clear, I'm not 100% on board, I don't think that's plausible even. But I do believe I'm a solid 80%-90% on board, and that even these 80% give me more joy than my aformentioned 'ideal' remake ever could have.
I played FF7R at a very slow and relaxed pace. I never ran past NPCs, I often intentionally walked in these calm chapters because it fit the game world and I listened to the multiple voice lines each NPC had. That and doing rough 95% of what a first playthrough has to offer and it took me ~70 hours to get to the credits on normal difficulty mode. I then played the Midgar part of the original PSX FF7. It took me 7 hours. And let me say this. FF7 is rough.
The original does not waste time. It shoos you from place to place, giving you very little character exploration in between, precious few text boxes that are magically still somehow filled with enough characterization for you to get how these people relate to each other. You spend very little time in one place and even the roads in between often consist of only a handful of screens with relatively few random encounters. You see a lot in these few hours and it's a sign of the developers world building skills that people made such deep connections to these places and situations.
It's been 15, maybe 20 years since I had played FF7 for the last time. When I booted up the remake I had no solid memory of what exactly to expect. I was only this deep routed connection that I had build back then and over the years through recalling the game. When I entered this high-fidelity triple-A behemoth of a game I did get exactly that. I got a game that connected me to that place. After the bombing mission FF7 rushed me onto the train, down into sector 7 and back up into reactor 5. Remake on the other hand had me explore a terrorized and distraught upper city. And then had me live amongst the slum citizens and hear their ambivalence towards Avalanche which they considered a terrorist organization and a threat to their lives. Something that that really pays off when the plate comes crashing down and you experience the aftermath of that in Sector 6 and 5, during the climb and in the Shinra Building. FF7 gave me rough idea of what the characters went through at that time. It was like a stage play, all the necessary parts are there, but your mind makes up for missing detail and over the years you're convinced the details were actually there. The Remake now gave me these details. The Remake gave me the version of FF7 that I believed all these years I had played. Like every textbook on remakes for games: don't rebuild what's already there, rebuild the experience.
I loved pretty much all locations for faithfully recreating what I expected them to be. I loved the feeling that you are actually moving the full distances between places where the original kinda suggested that there is a lot more space in between the separate screens. Every time I watched that iconic intro scene of the city I wished I could explore these streets and the remake kinda gave me that feeling. It's like the original was a tiny diorama of what the scene was supposed to look like and the remake put me into the actual scene. On top of that it made character relationships far more believable and fleshed out, they often made more sensible decisions resulting in the story appearing more reasonable than the original and I genuinely feel like the entire thing was a more coherent experience for that.
Truthfully, there is a quite a bit of padding with the quest system. But the more fetch-questy ones are non-essential afaik and the more elaborate quests in Wall Market are such a blast that imo fit with the original spirit of the game and scene so well that I'd hate for them to not be there. The only padding I really disliked were the very lengthy reactor 5 mission with the lights and robot parts, the train graveyard and the Hojo Lab in the drum. I still appreciate them for not just being in my way but rather building on some world design that was always there and now gets fleshed out more. But they take a looong time and usually delay very interesting story parts.
Finally, I hate whispers and the ending. Yep, that kinda type I am. Not for the gist of it. Fighting destiny? I'm all on board for that. I mean, I'd love a straight recreation of the OG storyline, but I'm excited where this goes. I midway predicted that whispers were related to their destiny and getting that payoff felt great. But I really hate how these things mess up scenes and character interaction, they are just annoying. There had to be a better way. On top of that, the final batte sequence just felt like it was ripped out of Advent Children and there a few things I hate more than that schlock. More how they fight than that they fight destiny. Also I got beef with them including Sephiroth into that fight and mimicking the ending of the OG game, the show off with him and Cloud. That belonged in FF7 due to a long lasting antagonism between the two, one that the player also explored and could relate to due to the death of Aerith. It was cathartic. It was earned. In the Remake it comes off as cheap. And as was said I have no idea if newcomers to the game and story can in any way understand or appreciate what is being talked about. Personally I would have gone with a completely different approach, but that's just me.
Overall, 11/10 would cross dress again.
How far does this remake get - Is it the boss fight after the motorway sub-game ?
$60 for one episode? Or $60 for all and it’ll be added?
Square Enix is Shinra and the FF series is the Planet, getting its life sucked out. FF7R is a metaphor for itself.
Can such a company craft an honest story when blind to their own deeds?
Very good points about the very linear maps. That is definitely something that I've hated since is started happing in ffx. The difference for me is that I expected it with this game being in Midgar as that's how it was in the original. But if whenever the next comes out and we dont have an open world map, I will be upset for sure.
I think they're gonna pull a Kingdom Hearts.
nomura is leading and from what we've seen at the final chapter of this remake, thats the dumbass route he is planning to go.
i keep hearing this, what does it mean? parallel universe asspulls or something?
@@NameSpaceVoid believe me, not even Nomura knows what he's doing with kh
@@NameSpaceVoid Basically a bunch of cool concepts that don't really make sense when you pull them apart.
I just don't see why they had to keep the environments almost completely the same (but stretched out to be ridiculously longer) when they took liberties (that paid off) with everything else. There's no reason the exploration isn't at least as fun as in Kingdom Hearts 3.
Dude, you cant really notice the difference between FF XIII corridors and FF VII Remake? It's noticeable right there in your video.
FF XIII had almost no NPCs, no towns, no atmosphere. You had your characters going through literally corridors with some background far from your party.
In FF VII you have towns, way more NPCs with dialogue, way more geometry and ambience. It feels and looks lalive in ways that even FF XV despite being open world couldnt be.
With FF XV you had some really small towns with some not voiced NPCs here and there, and almost no interactions with the town itself. Look at the Wall Market, we never had something like that in FF XV. It was all sterile and boring.
Quality of the remake aside, I find myself baffled at how many people seem okay with this thing being split up across multiple parts. Seeing people completely willing to pay full price for what is essentially a fraction of a full game blows me away. I understand people's attachment to the game and I'm aware of the things they are adding to the game to "justify" the cost, but to me it's difficult to fathom the critical reaction to this game's release knowing full well the questionable future of this remake.
what do you mean by "questionable future" ? I am with you that the multiple parts thing is terrible. Square played their cards and they didi it right. using FF7 fame to try a new form or business that if suceds is overall bad for the industry. and how can it fails with so many ff7 fan thirsty for the remake? people will wait whatever time they will take to release the full game and pay whatever necessary.
@@goncaloferreira6429 By questionable future I'm referring to the infinite amount of factors that can impact the drawn out release structure of a game like this. The possibility that people lose interest as the remake goes on which is a high possibility when you consider fan responsiveness typically spikes at the beginning and end of a series. Hardcore fans will continue to follow through as a series goes on but those less invested are more likely to participate in something at the very beginning or at the very end when it's easier to market something as important and necessary. There's also the development of the remake itself. Shit was announced five years ago and we are now only receiving a FRACTION of Final Fantasy VII. It's difficult to tell how streamlined the development process will become when also factoring in the resources needed to port each part of the remake to PC and soon also adapt to the new technology provided by the PS5. Not to mention this game is directed by Tetsuya Nomura who somehow manages to keep getting work as a director with Square. He's a great ideas man but without a talented team and strong-armed producer alongside him, this man is fucking incompetent at making games. This is the same dude who headed production on Final Fantasy Versus XIII back in 2006, and after years in development, in 2013 wanted to re-work everything in the game to be a musical and Square finally realized he needed to fuck off and gave the game to someone else. There's also the incredibly rare possibility that gamers will finally grow some balls and stand up to predatory sales practices that Square is especially guilty of. As someone who jumped off the Kingdom Hearts bandwagon a decade ago, I can only cringe at people I know who fully admit to Square's bullshit yet still decided they NEEDED Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue as if that title itself doesn't warrant someone getting fired. The thought that people would be willing to shell out HUNDREDS of dollars just to play through a nice looking yet needlessly bloated remake of a game over the course of possibly a decade honestly blows my mind.
@@Zombehz4lyfe So basically you fear the FF15 situation all over again. Fair. The remake will take for sure as many years to complete as 15. The jump to playstation5 is also inevitable and that will further delay things( who knows how easy is to make games to that platform). Another thing in my mind whenever i see a piece of media devided like this is this: do they have the full remake allready planned? or are they doing it entry by entry? also, how vulnerable are they to critics? will they keep the planned course or will they change things depending on players feedback?
Final Fantasy Remake 2: The Kalm Saga
You're not wrong when you said OG FFVII fans would feel disappointed. One look at dedicated fan hubs of the series will show that most of the people there are mostly all of the same mindset. The general consensus is that "new characterization and combat system is great, but the story changes feel like a slap in the face to those who liked the original". I don't think it's really that those fans feel disappointed because of hype, but because they have in some way been mislead by Square's marketing of the game. By most people's definition, this is not a remake, but rather a weird semi-sequel alternate universe thing where the original still happened but not? And now there's time travel involved? Needless to say, those who wanted a straight up remake with an expanded world did not get what they were promised in trailers and interviews.
Without spoiling too much of the new story stuff, there's a very valid meta-reading that the bad guys of the story are the ones who wanted this to be an exact remake. They go out of their way to keep everything exactly the same, denying any changes to the original story. And you end the game by killing one of them, while Cloud's party literally (and metaphorically) move on to unknown territory, both in the sense of going beyond Midgar, but also without the shackles of having to stick to the original storyline. If I were a die-hard FF7 fan, who grew up playing this game, and had it shape my conception of what video game could be, I'd also be pretty darn mad to find out said game makes me out to be the one in the wrong. And for what, for wanting to relive that life-defining experience? It makes the game feel like it's going "ugh, FINE" at first, and then pulling out the rug from under me when it's got me in its grasp.
And I think most of this could've been avoided if Square had just been up-front about that. If they'd been honest and presented FFVIIR as what is actually is. No promise of recreating your childhood, but one that goes out of its way to question those memories.
Also Aerith is definitely gonna survive this version of the game. And if she doesn't outright survive it, you can meet special requirements to make it so. Bet.
I'm still kinda baffled that the overarching message of the Game is that retelling the same story is bad/evil. The hamfisted meta narrative about fans expectations feels like the writers taunting fans, who wanted a faithful retelling and thats super weird. It's like an actual middle finger to one part of the fanbase and I don't understand why?
Why call it FF7 remake when it's best to play this after having played the OG game and misslead so much with the trailers?
I'm not even angry just really baffled
"from a company resolute to give players what they wanted" except they completely ruined the story with a bunch of Kingdom Hearts crap. No one who plays this first is getting the actual, good FF7 story. The careful Sephiroth build up and reveal is completely gone. It's baffling to me why they did this. Everything else they got mostly right, but the story, the one thing one would think it'd be easier to adapt since it's already fucking there, they pull this off. It's almost as if Square Enix is trying to make crappy games
It’s a game. I love it. I don’t care if they come out with a next part. I enjoy what I get and move on. I have no expectations for anything which is why I always happy. Thanks game.