Changing the reactor bombing into "Shinra did it" and changing the plate falling into "everyone got out before the plate fell" PISSES ME OFF!!! They keep downplaying everything important and impactful to the story.
Facts! And for the sake of argument, let's say "FINE, Shinra did it"... but why didn't they at least hold off on that revelation and let us THINK it was Avalanche's (Jessie's) mistake for a while and THEN reveal it later? Wouldn't that have been more impactful? The writing and direction they took with this game points to one thing and one thing only: They needed money so they completely obliterated FF7 in order to sell games AND merchandise for the next decade off this IP alone.
I think it's still said that thousands of people died during the plate falling and even at that scene when Tifa said we did it and Barrett said no it was Shinra you can still see with her fist closed she knows that Shinra did it because of them. I do agree that they should have made the blame feel more heavy on Avalanche and well it makes sense that they would want to help get people out yeah it does lose some of its feeling. One thing remake really does right tho is having you walk around the destruction and hearing the people call out for their dead loved ones. Honestly I was more pissed with the stupid ass KH whisperers and Septhiroth showing up so much. I get having him be the final boss but not showing up within the first hour.
The forced grandness of the ending of Remake is also a lot to do with the fact that the opening stretch of the original was fairly grounded. But it had to be because of how the story unfolded. The Remake fundamentally misses the point of almost every aspect of the original, then smugly says "yeah well I wasnt TRYING to understand it!" well if thats true, then just create the original story you want to tell. using nostalgia to sell it is pathetic
@@doctorfresh3856 in yet buying nostalgia is exactly what your asking for in a 1 to 1 remake of a game made in 1997. I don't totally disagree with the argument, but they didn't have to put in anything extra and making the OG in the same quality as the remake is a feat considering the content.
Wow… I just finished FFVII this evening after marathoning it for the last few days. EVERYTHING you’ve said in this review is exactly how I feel. This game honestly felt more like a chore to complete than anything.
Happy that I'm not alone with my impressions ^^ I'm almost surprised that it got so many very positive reviews, but ofc people have different tastes and maybe weight some problems not as strong as I did.
Bro we need to sign a petition to get tetsuya nomura off of ALL ff games, maybe even booted out of square. He is a day laborer pretending to be a storyteller. He is at the root of ff series demise
As far as over the top anime stuff, I think it was justified in Advent Children. In that movie, Cloud was supposed to be viewed as an overpowered level 99 character. Of course he could slice through buildings and shit and I loved it. FF7R though? The very first part? Didn't even leave Midgar? Absolutely inexcusable. Would have loved this stuff in the LAST part.
Exactly. in AC, Cloud and Co were extremely advanced fighters. Literally the strongest on the planet. They spent an extreme amount of time fighting, having equipped materia infuse into them and enhancing their bodies, they literally fought off avatars of the planet and sephiroth/jenova, and it took the ENTIRE game for them to get there, starting from struggling to beat medium-sized mechs. In 7R? They literally struggle to beat a relatively basic Shinra mech (the roadroller) one minute, and the literal next minute, taking down gods of fate and sephiroth. Like........... what?
Except there are no power levels, it's not an isekai. He could have grown stronger, yes, but that implies everyone else gained superhuman abilities as well, considering the whole cast except Barret were jumping high. If that is what it means to grow stronger in that world, it was not evident in the original anyone could just cut through buildings if cool enough.
@@blumiu2426 In the original, you can conclude that they were strong enough to accomplish superhuman feats... even Barret. Barret's final limit break Catastrophe has him jumping at least 80 feet in the air. They also defeat huge kaiju beasts (weapons). In the world of FF7, the more battle experience, the stronger the person. In our world the cap stops around level 2 or 3... in their world it stops at 99. And Advent Children is probably 99+... so put that into perspective.
@@TenderViddlez That was a lot of speculation and guesswork on your part. So you're saying characters literally do their limit breaks in real life, not just a visual representation? Then all would be dead when Safer Sephiroth did Super Nova. And you also forget characters are only superhuman when called for in a given situation. Go back and look at VIIR at the times Cloud demonstrates being a grasshopper and other times he just falls or doesn't use any athleticism he does other times. It's situation and when script demands or they would be doing these things in-game, not just in cutscenes. If Cloud could always cut through buildings, he would easily any mechanical enemy and the trains in his way during the drawn-out level. See what I'm saying now? It's just inconsistency of feats done for coolness, not a reflection of reality. There are no literal levels existing in their world lol! If that were true, ask yourself who was in physical altercations in the FFVII party up to the start of the story? If Avalanche was in altercations, then even Biggs, Wedge and Jessie wouldn't have been knocked off so easily (speaking to OG,not the VIIR mess where no one dies). If not, only Tifa would have had training, but no true battle experience among them. , Cid, Yuffie, Aerith, Cait Sith would have no battle experience. Cloud himself only had training up to taking on Zack's persona, no battle experience. Because VIIR packed everything into happening in the first part of the game, either the world itself is massively underpowered to meet their inexperience and able to fight Sephiroth and planet's will already, or they just messed up with the remake. Also, by your logic, The Turks should have been able to kill the protagonists outright given they have experience in conflict as Turks. And if we expand upon this, Zack should be stronger than Cloud...except he's not. Because he was defeated by Sephiroth while inexperienced Cloud was able to. It's anime logic, not practical or logical. You can't be overpowered just because at the start of the game, or they are only as strong as they are because of bad writing picking and choosing when they can do amazing feats. Remember no one did any damage to Bahamut Sin in Advent Children, only scratched it. Cloud is the one that did any damage and defeated it. Only Cloud did anything to the trio while everyone else got smacked around.
finally someone gets it. I wrote this in an essay awhile back, Tifa in chapter 18 falls from a great height and says "omg i could of died" few chapters before Wedge survives a 50 foot drop and a pilar being chucked on him. They broke the physics of their own game.
I agree, a lot of nonsensical aspects added to a story that did not need them. Like adding Baked Beans or Tuna Fish to a Cake reciepe, yes some people might like it, but it does NOT make sense to add it to an already good formula.
@@ThePhilosophersGames , that is another part I agree with you on, visiting Jessies family home. This inclusion felt natural and added to the story and it's characters. More of this type of thing would have improved it.
Thank you for reminding that my initial response not to buy any more of these games was correct. The pretty Intergrade chapter was reeling me in, but there is no way these games could ever go back to what they used to be.
My biggest gripe with the story in the remake is Sephiroth. In the OG FF7, you only hear his name uttered by certain characters describing him as some sort of incredible soldier. And it all builds up to finding President Shinra dead, with Sephiroth's legendary sword stuck in his back. We didn't even get a true glimpse into who Sephiroth was or what he even looked like until later at Kalm with Cloud's flashback - which featured a younger Cloud allied with Sephiroth, who was actually in your party - yet uncontrollable, fighting monsters that made even the toughest bosses you've fought up to this point look like jobbers. And Sephiroth is already dealing damage in the thousands - far beyond anything your current party is capable of. In the OG, Sephiroth had an air of mystery. He seldom showed up, and when he did, it was a big deal. But in the remake, Sephiroth shows up every twenty minutes, in person, taunting Cloud and talking shiet. He even winds up being the final boss right after leaving Midgar. You literally wind up beating his ass, twice. What a way to disintegrate any mystique or sense of threat. Yeah sure, he's still alive and well, but that feels more like a contrivance. The devs knew that 'Remake' was only going to cover the first 15% of the OG game's story but they just couldn't resist blowing their load immediately and shoehorning Sephiroth into the game whenever possible. It seriously detracts from his impact as the main villain if we just wind up kicking his ass over and over again. And surprise surprise, he's the final boss of Rebirth too. Unless they plan on some massive bait and switch and wind up making someone like Genesis the true final boss of 'Part 3', the way they handled Sephiroth has only been a disservice to his character in general. And dear God, please don't make Genesis the main villain. Because that would be even worse than rehashing Sephiroth three times in a row.
Totally agree with your points. The whole remake feels like bad fan fiction. I mean, it would be like remaking the Titanic but at the end the titanic doesn't sink. In FF7's case Aerith will live in this version which won't surprise me. Zack now being alive is the same thing. The game has no stakes anymore when you can use time/alternate reality to get out of any situation. It's bad writing.
Yes the fan fiction thing is a good comparison. i don't midn fan fiction, but it's so weird where they are taking the game - officially! The story of FF7 is already very complex and in parts confusing in its original form, now let us add parallel universes and maybe even time travel 😅
It would be like remaking Titanic but then Rose gets a vision about the Titanic crashing into the iceberg and sinking, and then the day before she meets Jack another handsome dude called John appears and takes her for dinner and a nice stroll on the deck at night, just before they kiss suddenly a bunch of floating trash bags appear and create a storm and suddenly John gets pissed off and insults Rose, and Rose gives John a slap, then the next day she meets Jack and things continue as per the original story etc. Only at the end before the Titanic hits the iceberg Rose touches Jacks forehead and gives him superhuman speed and ship-steering capabilities, and he runs all the way to the captain's room and steers the ship away from the iceberg, meanwhile floating trash bags appear again and try to deter him and he takes out a gun and has an epic duel of the fates with floating trash bags that combine into a big trash bag that looks like a god.
Yeah I kept playing and enjoying, on the basis that I read that they weren't going to change the story, so I kept just imagining out the whispers and sort of editing in and out the things I liked and didn't like in the game (in my mind). But then I kept reading that they might change the story and then I got to the end of the game, and as soon as that warp hole opened I felt a bit sick, a bit like when you found out your girlfriend cheated on you, like a proper nauseas feeling. I felt properly cheated at the end. And suffice to say I won't be buying the next instalment. It's kind of put me off square-enix as well.
No real grind system. *you fight, when they tell you to fight* *"Go back to the main linear story path" messages when you wanna wander around midgar* SE is smoking crack if they think part 2 is gonna get the same treatment as part 1. *my nostalgia glasses are OFF*
Let's be honest here guys... if you are a long time SquareSOFT fan... you already KNEW they were going to F*** this game all-the-way up. The moment they said it would be episodic is when I knew they would absolutely GUT this game from top to bottom. One thing that really grinds my gears are influencers like Maximillian Dood who are straight up shilling for this game in order to keep their pockets lined. You'd be hard-pressed to have him admit even ONE bad thing about this game when he KNOWS it's a piece of crap. He has somehow centered himself as "The FF7 guy" to many people who never even played the original... which I feel is a kick in the face to the real fans. Namely because Max didn't even play the original when it came out and had to be convinced to because (and I quote) he thought "RPG's were for nerds". The guy hasn't even played any other RPG's from back then or the golden era but he's somehow sucked all the attention for himself by jumping in front of this "remake". Just like sephiroth waiting at the planets wound caused by meteor hoping to suck all the planets energy that gathers there.
I just started replaying the game, so of course I am off to the internet to find opinions similar to my own. This video is exactly it. I was pretty forgiving of the pacing, and did not mind not being allowed to explore when escorting Aeris. I even tried to not care so much about the fate ghosts, hoping they were just inconsequential padding to the game. But that terrible tacked on ending after the highway chase just completely undercut everything I had been doing up to that point. I felt tricked afterwards, like nothing I did mattered, and I had been playing a different game than I thought for the last 30 hours. I am also very happy you pointed out that horrible Tifa platform section, followed by her flying into the air and smashing a small mountain of concrete to pieces with a kick.
Yes the ending is just so strange. I personally react a bit stronger to the pacing problems, and if that would have been fine, I could have overlooked that the game is extremely linear, but some of the changes (esp. the Ending and its implications) really ruin it for me.
@@ThePhilosophersGames My last hope now is that they reel it back in for part two. That they say the final battle was all in your head, and that all the alternate timeline stuff is just hypothetical glimpses of what could have been. Or something.
@@sverdmester Same. I really really REALLY hope Naoki will take it in that direction, and tie all the KH stuff up in a neat package to then set aside. But it will still be very difficult to untangle the damage done, especially since the big bad is no longer scary and the stakes can't possibly be raised any higher
@@cinderling5472 yep nomura may have destroyed one of the greatest games ever made. And the dlc also bodes unwell for the future... yuffie dancing with her materia is super cringe. And it looks like a bad dlc to boot
Good video. I agree with pretty much all of your critique here. One thing that I think is important to note about FF7R is that despite it's flaws, it did a great job on the characters in terms of personality, characterization, and voice acting. (Sephiroth perhaps being the only exception). Sadly, I think this all that was needed in order for the general gaming audience to embrace and love this game. A good story is made up of Characters, Setting, Plot, and Themes. I've noticed that many people only care about Characters and/or Setting. Ask people to recall the plot of a Marvel film. I bet most couldn't do it. But many of those same people could quote their favorite lines from Iron man or whoever. Ask them what makes MCU Iron man a good character, and 99% of people will tell you it's the Actor's performance and not the character's Arc. People nowadays just want to see their favorite characters portrayed on screen in a way that makes them happy or entertained in the moment. It seems like there is no thought or appreciation for long term storytelling in the general audience these days. People see Zack at the end and just Wonders "What does this mean for part 2?" No one is asking the purpose of his death in the original story. (Cloud's Arc). People see Sephiroth showing up frequently and just think: "OMG it's Sephiroth. He's so cool. What is he planning now?"... 35 hours later... "We're fighting Sephiroth! This is so crazy!" Whoa look that's Cait Sith! OMG Biggs is alive? Is Jessie alive too? What's going on? So the sad part of this situation is Square Enix made many mistakes with FF7R's storytelling, but the modern audience is blind to it because they are trained to just clap and be happy when familiar characters show up and say or do the cool things the characters are known for. Not questioning if the character's inclusion at this point is beneficial to the story. Then many (not all) of these same people will accuse critics of FF7R as just being 'nostaglia blind' or a 'hater' or whatever else. "Go watch Maximilian Dood" is another one.
Yes I agree, they really nailed the characters for the most part I would say. I also like your theory that how story telling often works today might be a reason why people are either tolerating some potential flaws in FF7R's changes, don't see them or don't put too much weight into them for their overall perception of the game (and ofc that is their right to do so and there is nothing wrong liking the game). For me the original FF7 was like a huge "aha moment" when it comes to experiencing a story, that allowed me to put some thought into it and discovering ways of understanding it, which might not be obvious during the first play through. I guess I never experienced something like this before. I really replayed it many times and started writing down game dialogue passages in the hope to find clues to make more sense out of it. I also remember posting in online forums of the "early" internet of the late 90s to discuss those matters.
@@ThePhilosophersGames Absolutely, the original game had a subtlety to it's story that made you think about it long after the credits. I suppose Remake now has that too, but it wasn't subtle about it in the slightest. The original had questions about Sephiroth vs Jenova in control (like you I'm partial to the Jenova theory, I don't care what the Ultimania guide says lol). Or the ambiguous nature of the ending, letting the players wonder what the planet would have decided to do with humanity based on the few clues in the game. Remake really put it's twist-narrative front and center too much and it takes me out of the story constantly. Like a D&D game where the dungeon master constantly tries to railroad the plot he wants your group to follow while also over explaining everything.
3:00 Could be an AC reference with chopping through buildings, which I'm pretty sure was taken from the "Deep Dive" hidden ending from KHI Fimal Mix and KHII's chopping of buildings at the ending. The hidden ending was a BIG influence on AC.
If you need just one example which encapsulates just what is wrong with the remake, it's the train graveyard chapter - long, boring, drawn out, nonsensical and completely devoid of any relevance to the overall story. Like... they had just found out that Shinra was going to destroy the sector 7 plate, so you'd think they would be in a rush to get there... but no. Instead we're going to have cut scene after cut scene of them talking and staring... They've really messed up this game. They (Square Enix) had the blueprints already to make a great game even better, and they just completely ignored it through what I can only describe as hubris.
The huge amount of padding between the first bombing mission and then getting to Mako reactor 5 is ridiculous too. There's literally NO way you should be 8 to 10 hours into this game before you fall into the church in Sector 5. Im pretty sure you're there 90 minutes in the OG.
@@brijor6ff7 I really hate to say this (because I am a huge fan of the original game), but this game is the sole reason why I will not be excited or buying the next instalment of this series. I have a feeling they will have learnt nothing from this and will continue to eviscerate one of their best I.P. that had a story which quite frankly was amazing from start to finish... so sad.
@Cuotemoc I agree with you. The trailer for Rebirth looks amazing, but I'm guessing that's all it has going for it. I think this trilogy will be one of the biggest missteps in gaming history, TBH . I wish more people could put aside the love for FF7 IP and look at Remake in an honest way. It's bad.
I totally agree with you. My biggest problem with this game is the combat system and the interaction with the stage (too guided). For me poorly implemented. In regards to combat. They wanted to do as a hybrid between action and strategic turn-based, but it doesn't let either get their full potential. To be honest because Tetsuya Nomura was the main director, I thought the game was going to be like Kingdom Hearts. Which in my opinion has the best real-time combat system created to date (very agile). The combos have a lot of harmony between them. You can jump whenever you want, doing aerial combos and combine them with ground ones in a masterly way, or vice versa. And also with quick dodging movements, or moving at high speed around the stage using even the walls and other structures in our favor in a very organic and natural way. The Remake's combat is also more cinematic, there are a great variety of attacks in which we do not feel in control of them. The effects, artistic and graphic design are very well elaborated. But its playable mechanics don't feel entirely polished.
And I want to add, given that I didn't say it before. That in terms of combat, there are very well performed attacks by the characters of the game, but the final result when putting everything together is not so good. For example, to mention one of those points that in my view are not well implemented, is that when some opponents are attacked by us they remain very static. In adittion most of the time they fight back very quickly, not letting us to finish our combos with harmony. In my opinion the rhythm of the attacks is not very well managed. I remember that sometimes we attacked each other at the same time (talking about the oponent and the character we was controling) which seemed very strange to me. Among other things. Like the final battle against Sephiroth, which is also very cinematic and has the problems I mentioned earlier. I personally don't like it. But what I would most like to see changed or modified in the following parts of the Remake concerning with this section of the game, is that the developers add aerial combos for certain characters. Also, that they enable a button to jump or propel us up freely in case we want to start directly with air attacks. Thus being able to combine them with the terrestrial ones in order to making longer and more attractive chains. With the level of precision, harmony and agility that is seen in the best games of KH (That in my opinion are 2 and 3). Even as we go through the adventure, we can learn different types of basic or regular combos, not only specials and limits. In fact, when I saw that Cloud had 2 fighting stances. I thinked that would be great if he learned regular combos for each one, in order to expand and also give them more variety. I even thought that he might have a new one where he performs very fast attacks. Allowing him to even move much faster around the stage. Covering in this way 3 fighting styles: 1. One for normal attacks. 2. Another for heaviers. 3. And the last one for the fastest. - - - Finally, regarding the interaction with the stage I definitely wish it will be much more organic and natural. Indeed, I think that the option to jump freely should also be enabled when we travel around the game world. In one of the last Intergrade gameplay trailer, Yuffie is on a cliff, and in front of her there is another with some boxes. There should be the option that if we want to, we can either break those boxes from afar as shown there. But also jump towards the rock and break them melee so to speak. In other words, that they give us the option to move much more freely. Without so many restrictions. Curiously they have done very well in other games, but not in this one. And it seems that they do not realize it yet. I really don't get it. I wish that all these things could improve greatly in the next episodes!. But we will have to wait and see what happens. :) **And all of this I've said is about the base game, because I haven't played the DLC yet. But from what I've seen in the gameplay videos, I get the feeling that it has improved a bit, although I'm not sure.
This is probably the most comprehensive explanation of the issues with the remake I've ever seen. I have to say, I agree whole heartedly with most of what you were saying. I think personally I can at least forgive some of the level design for the sake of updating the games feel to a more modern take. That being said the full on anime power cutscenes starting so early in the story was a huge issue for me. As a fan of the story that they wrote for crisis core I have a very specific view of Cloud's abilities in the beginning of the game. He's not that strong, in any way. That's the whole point. Zack had to drag him away from the Shinra troops half dead because Cloud couldn't fight them. It's the whole reason his death had impact. He couldn't go all out because he was protecting Cloud which meant that he took hits he should have been able to avoid which compounded and inevitably killed him. It's a crushing moment. Am I glad that he's alive and I might be able to play a game where he's around again somewhat yes. Would I prefer the heart wrenching moment to have been immortalized properly? Fucking definitely.
Yes exactly. If this was the end of the game and we would see our heroes get stronger and stronger (as they level up), one could argue it makes sense that they become so powerful at some point. But this is after like 7-10% of the story 😅 And as said if you make them so powerful, make some changes to the level design. Let my fly around through levels like in Sekiro.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I've heard the argument that because of the events of crisis core and how Cloud was given Jenova's cells it explains the power jump and I agree with that too. But I no way is he going to come out of a coma at the end of that game and have any sort of control over that strength. He would have come off as uncontrolled and dangerous rather than skilled like they show him. Those cutscenes are mid level Cloud around when he gets proper use of cross slash, but they show him closer to omni slash levels of control which is silly.
To further your point, it makes no sense for cloud to be jumping around like a maniac in the Midgar section. In his own head, he was the soldier guy who didn’t hold a candle to Seph. He believed he was weak. It wasn’t until later, when you found out the actual truth. That cloud was never in soldier. But he still had the massive strength to confront seph when tifa was in danger. protecting people gave him the strength he needed to defeat seph. This need to protect tifa turned into a need to protect the planet, and thus, gave cloud the ability to fully use his strength. It’s after that, at least in my head canon, that cloud unlocked his true strength, and was able to do things like Omni strike and all of the other crazy feats he pulls off in combat.
@@rsk3286 to a certain extent this is true yeah. The crisis core story clarifies some things like technically he was a soldier but he was basically a non-com recruit because he hadn't been through the process yet. By the time he does it's the end of the game when he would have been official but ahit goes south fast. It's that weird Flux state he was in combined with the fact that he idolized Zack and basically copied what he remembered of Zack's fighting style only poorly. Which is why Zack always feels like he's significantly stronger and cloud always looks like he's flailing around unless he's using omni. It's pretty amusing actually.
I admit and agree that the FF7Remake did some things REALLY well. Most of the audio-visual translation from the original game to the remake is done marvelously, and in my opinion I absolutely adore 99% of the updated combat system. I were VERY skeptical when initial combat trailers showed real-time action combat, but I honestly thing they've done an amazing job respecting the old ATB system while modernizing it by injecting real-time action into the combat as well. It's a mix that I'm honestly surprised how well it works. ..BUT. What the remake does poorly.. frustratingly so.. goes against WHY I wanted an FF7 remake in the first place... and therefore have made me lose interest in the remake. It's not a remake of the original game, it's just yet another spin-off that is milking more money out of the massive success that the original ff7 was.. I'd honestly rather just replay the original game again.
I can imagine a ton of people disagree or just really like the game. It has its strengths too, but ultimately I didn't like it myself. And as mentioned this was once part of a different video and supposed to be a short section in it, bu blew up to a 206 minute long section, so i made it its own video. As a result it is a bit like a rant and focusses a lot on the negatives. Only half a review in that sense, but still it's my critique of the game. PS: there seems to be a lot of need to talk. I think though that the reception of FF/ Remake was mostly positive, there are definitely some points people don't agree on, which I can understand. Links: Half-Life in 60 Seconds (Remaster) by Jakob Rompkowski - ruclips.net/video/3VaGsoL9Nuk/видео.html (Bla bla bla Mr. Freeman 😂) Jenova Theory video - ruclips.net/video/cXUFZtWagZ4/видео.html Podcast Stream will be on Twitch around 23:30 CET/GMT+1 // 17:30 EST // 14:30 PST: twitch.tv/thephilosophersgames Guests are Pawnce & Voice of Geekdom, Topics: Games; Tolkien ► Social Media: ➥Twitter (@PhilosophGames): twitter.com/philosophgames ➥Twitch Channel - twitch.tv/thephilosophersgames ➥Discord Server - discord.gg/SPW68vh ► Playlists: If you are interested in Tolkien's legendary #fantasy Epic The Lord of the Rings and his related works, here some recommendations: ➥ Reviews & others - ruclips.net/video/asS7hE9Mze4/видео.html ➥Book/Film Differences Series - ruclips.net/video/qe-4l74B8mw/видео.html ➥Recommended Lore Videos - ruclips.net/video/lZDYJTTWknQ/видео.html
People are finally beginning to realize that SE are simply living on their past reputation. When was the last time they made a truly top tier rpg/action game? This critique is SO on point because it clearly addresses just how many aspects of game design FF7 remake utterly fails at. It's a remake made by a studio that is simply way past it best. That they think invisible walls from FFX will be acceptable fifteen years later is just hilarious to me. Let me not even talk about the anime characterisations.
Thank you for expressing the part about death and in the exact same way I have tried to tell others. Most people simply do not understand the distrust of death because of the whisperers and constant bait of death and survival. People find retconned head canons, tries to rationalize away it as symbolism and what not. It simply does not connect for them that it is about the writers' conveyance of death on a narrative level and perhaps that is generally why stories get away with fake death-outs. I mean... it works. People give so much praise for the meta messages in this game yet avoid this specific (well one of the things they ignore). I can forgive Cloud for jumping high once or twice because of cutscenes, but the ending was way over the top, regardless of pocket dimension time compression power level or being a symbolic fight in some kind of lifestream space, corrupted or not. For some reason everything is supposed to be okay if you read, watch and play all FF VII media, choose and pick what and when and accept fan theories. Not like people can simply dislike time-travel/time-shenanigans within or outside the lifestream, fate as a manifested being and concept of the worlds divine workings and death fake-outs as a narrative tool in general and especially FF VII. If others think it is okay and are intrigued by assumptions and fan theories that is one okay for them but I, for one, did not like it and I also do not like seeing so many not understanding that yet argue from their own point of view based on feelings of like and want. I have a hard time seeing how people do not consider altering the past as a big no-no regarding Zack. It should bother everyone except hard core Zack fanatics. Then again I do understand that theories is supposed to be a gospel and solution for getting more content, being excited and have favorite characters survive and matter. But then people are not allowed to judge the things happening in the remake as of now with criticism but allowed to adore all of it (so judge it positively...). It does not matter if it is a sequel as most seem to adapt as of now. It is still sad story telling and not want I wanted, especially not in FF VII. And I liked most of the compilation. Anyway take care as well in these times and have a like and sub from me.
It's as if they tried their best to disappoint even their most easy-to-please FFvii fans. All it needed was to be treated like a classic and given proper respect, like how Lord of the Rings is the same classic story even though there are completely different versions that are adapted in different ways. This "remake" isn't FFvii in spirit at all, it's mainstream bait-and-switch nostalgic fanfic trash.
@Aaron9 the "fans" are usually brand-obsessed weebs whose input shouldn't even be considered since they WILL immediately buy these products and defend it like it's their job. Capitalized weeb/otaku culture ruined one of the only stories that managed to transcend the common stereotypes that bogs down a lot of Japanese media. It's a travesty.
And its amazing how most people loved it hu? Don't like it? Ok..go make a better game. Yeah I get it "remake" means something else. Story padding, weird shit that doesn't make any sense, alt timelines, ..i get it...but A LOT OF PEOPLE LOVED IT. "Oh we waited 20 years for this"...yeah we did and its great. Final boss was amazing. Millions love it. Get over it. You don't have to like anything...but for the love of FF7 fucken chill.
Great video and very valid points. Was so disappointed with this game as this is my 3rd favorite RPG game of all time (Just a tad behind Suikoden II and FF6). And so agree with the over the topness of this game. I cringe every time I watch a cutscene. I miss the original Squaresoft.
I don't get the near-universal love for this game. While I think that some of the points you make here are a tad nit picky, I definitely agree that this remake felt lacking. I never played the original and was excited to see what people liked about it now that it had updated visuals and gameplay, but I walked away thinking that I was pranked or something. I was getting into it during the wall market bit and the part where you invade shinra, but by the end I had no idea what was going on since I intentionally stayed mostly spoiler free about the original
I don't get it either 😅 For sure I'm a bit nitpicky, but I noticed some of that during my first playthrough and found it immersion breaking or annoying + I hate the story changes (not because they did changes at all, but because they are bad). The end of the Remake (and the fate stuff) is also not in the original game at all xD The death of President Shinra is very different, Sephiroth does not appear, the Wall Market section is also a bit different (outcome the same) and the Collapsing Pillar stuff is also shorter and done better imo. In the original you just leave Midgar after the Shinra HQ and are chased by Shinra Motor cycle soldiers + the boss, then you leave and enter the overworld (the whole Midgar section is basically just an 5-8 hour section and can be seen as tutorial and intro). What is going on with Zack (also completely different in the original) you learn much later in the game in a seceret sequence that most people will miss on their first playthrough. I can still recommend playing the original game, because the Remake is very different so far even implying time travel and parallel universe stuff, which was also not in the original. No idea what they were thinking.
@@ThePhilosophersGames Sorry for another comment in another thread. I just wanted to say that The ultimania plus has Toriyama confirming 2 things. That whatever visions Aerith infects people with are caused by "sensitivity" and are visions that transcend space and time. So they are actually themselves ground Zero for a multiverse because this would mean that the visions are true even if they do not happen. It could all be a "deterministic" time loop except that the OG exist, and we know that the whisperers want to preserve that one. Their mere intervention proves that there is at least some version out there that they did not have to change things in. Anyway, this is time travel information so that fact alone confirms that this is now a time travel story. The other thing is that the edge of creation is indeed 7 seconds before the planet actually dies. Whatever that means when we know that meteor is actually not the end (or if it still is before prevented), it still means that they "travelled" there and back. So even if the singularity is not some warped time, going to the edge of creation is full-fledged time travel as you come back to exit Midgar. And now people think that OG had same time travel because the scene is similar. It all baffles me. And I am so angry with the fanbase for accepting this kind of writing and how it will go down in history as "a masterpiece". I understand developers saying whatever, as Toriyama has also gone out saying (but this is old I think): "However, there were times when we were restricted by the original game. For the staff who had a lot of attachments to FF VII, we had to make sure that we did not stray too much away from the source material. For those who made the original FF VII, these restrictions did not exist as it was a completely new story, and whatever we thought was interesting to put in we just added to the story. We wanted to be able to do that this time around too, though, so we tried to lessen the restriction and do what we wanted to while also keeping the original in mind." They made the remake but wanted to be free. Kitase has also said he wants to continue "the positive" subversion. And both say it will not deviate too much but still be new, the theme of loss is important, yet the game itself literally plays with death in the worst way a TV drama could do. Apparently they saw the OG as a limitation. (Toriyama is new to the project) Edit: No he is not that was bad on my part, so I guess that is fine, but it saddens me to see Kitase allowing this destruction of FF VII OG being the director of that. Even worse is that the fandom embrace this so openly. I try to think of more than "but I just want to see the characters on new adventure" but I cannot understand how little people actually cared about the story. It baffles me and fuels anger inside of me. I just had a dude trying to explain to me in many words (although I wrote far more back) that it is so cool that Aerith and Sephiroth knows things that they aren't letting people know, and it is worth sacrifice everything of the OG for this excitement. It does not matter that this was supposed to be a remake, it still destroys FF VII in every way possible and the developers are blind towards that for some reason and people believe in their "grand plan" and many even commenting that it is better by default of being new and refuse to admit it is simply because they like the characters and just want to see more of them. Story be damned.
man i played this game(old ff7) around 10 yrs old. granted i didn't understand much of the story back then. so decided to replay it when i was 16 yrs old and got fully blown away again by the story. i've loved and cherish the game even ff8/9. since 2020 pandemic hits i never got around to play it and also didn't have much money to blow on a game since i got sick last 2020. my god it was so good yes the padding is kinda bad but i love it cause its ff7 right? up until the tower/pillar thing where Wedge survived and i remember he is supposed to die there, and if the damn Whispers is preventing stuff diverging from the original game then why did they ignored Wedge surviving in that area? then i finished the game i'm 50/50 on it because of the shock, after a few days i realized they butchered one of the greatest game and my childhood memories in just one game. i watched alot of criticsm and it was so bad i saw alot of 1 hour videos going around criticizing ff7 remake, and alot of those share my sentiments. we can only hope Naoki Hamaguchi can fix what Tetsuya Nomura brought upon us.
I just wanna ask you what videos you have watched? I have watched many, but I am always trying to get more :S. And I do not mean those that praise the game blindly but those that have criticism and analysis. Hating also gets overboard :/. My personal wish would be that people simply understand that the whisperers is not a good idea, but taste is subjective :S.
@@vincentgraymore taste may be subjective but quality certainly isn't. And the biggest problem is the fanboys ( not calling you a fanboy to be clear) will not take any critisism whatsoever.
Personal opinion, don't get mad. That said...the remake is great but the story is weak now. ...no one dies....theres no gravity or consequences for it. Part of the city crushes the slums and it looks like no one died from it. Fake out barret death lasting all of 1 fight... Tifa is an emotional waffle, who only seems strong if cloud isn't there. Both Tifa and to a lesser extent aerith seem more helpless when he's in the party, needing him to save them more. They took out choices...you can't not buy a flower, you can't choose to give it to Marlene. Zack is dead...died before cloud came to the city. In another timeline he made it...but...why? Why can't there be tragedy in the story? The bad guys, and main charaters are using lethal force, unless the sword cutting through a building can't kill a person....It's supposed to be a fight to survive. At no point am I worried for any of them, because this is just fan service. The story had no teeth to it. In the original game yuffie was an obnoxious pain in the ass but her side story made her a little bit of a better charater and worth it in the end. I like barret a lot battle in the remake, Aeriths magic and abilities should be more potent or less slow since her hp is awful. Tifa is fast but the lack of reach I tend to pick aerith over her going with cloud melee, barret as melee or range depending and her range. The fact the last fights are so epic, if my charaters are stopped by a fence in part 2 at this point itll be ridiculous. It's like they made the game thinking they wouldn't have a part 2, how can they top part 1 now? It'll just get so much more over the top...they're God lvl at this point already.... Ppl go bonkers over sephiroth....why is he a good villain?...he kills a main charater, no way to bring her back. It changed the tone, you couldn't be sure if you'd lose more ppl....he was a real threat. They blew their load so early with him....to please fans? He's a joke now. Defeated in battle already....and jenova....these were end game fights..... now what? They're just 2 low lvl sub bosses? In the first...half?...first 3rd of the remake? I want aeith to live, but the only 2 deaths that would impact the game are hers, and cloud. He's the link to sephiroth, shes the link to holy, and the life stream, saving the planet from meteor. If they go all happy.....great, fulfill some ppls fan fiction fantasies. But over all it hurts what was such a strong story that it hung in there for over 20 years. It wasn't perfect, but it should leave you wanting more not less. And it did, ppl wanted more of those charaters. Time travel, crossing dimensions, ....just feels to over used. A cheap trick at this point and I hope it doesn't go that way. Looks great, fun to play, but I'm not invested in the charaters now. ....sorry...long rant. This is just me reposting a comment from another post I made on the game so I didn't need to retype it all. You've got great points. They went way over the top, and will abandon good story to please fans that just love the charaters.
Thank you ^^ Yes that sums up some of my points from the video too. I'm a bit baffled by the positive reception of the Remake. I get that some people really enjoy the combat (I think combat works great for the most part for a "mainstream" single player game or a Final Fantasy in general), but the changes to maybe one of the most important things about Final Fantasy VII, the story, are really not that great in the Remake. They could have created a "what if character X survives and Y dies instead" spin off story, but they ruined that with introducing this stupid meta narrative element. Not sure if you have seen the end of the Yuffie DLC 😅
@@ThePhilosophersGames I didn't even see her dlc yet. I loved cid, he was a cranky bastard but had a good heart snd great limit breaks. What they need to do is not fear killing chacters, or npcs. If they're gonna go full happy I'd rather see multiple endings so I could at least try and pretend I got the empty husk of a good story.
I was pretty bummed out, midgar wasn't made with more exploratory. Just seems like a wasted opportunity. I think they should had put characters in different areas of the city to expand how huge the city really is and imported a cell phone system , as in GTA 4 to where you have to call then drive your motorcycle to the character. A buddy system, where you can relax with the characters, also. Motorcycle upgrades, gear upgrades being physically shown on characters and being able to swim. A jump bottom, also. Give me the option to climb fences. Everything is flash over substance now. I'm not saying make FF7, GTA4. I'm just saying, where was the immersion? Why not nail it right the 1st time.
Hey Chris! Just stopping by to say hello! I still don't play games but like to hear you talk! Lol ...and find out new stuff the kids might be interested in. Have a beautiful day!
haha ^^ Have a great day too! The original FF7 looks sadly very dated, so not sure if kids these days would ever touch it, but I think it's still great. The Remake can be fun, but I didn't enjoy it =/
with no deaths there is no stakes. And if there is death but alternative timelines to bring characters back, then it undermines their death. Either way it is a fail
yes the decision did not help the story and the weirdest thing is: the original had none of this fate ghost nonsense and handled characters dying very impactful and well. Such a great game and story and a true classic of video game history. I'm not against some changes, but then you have to improve the source, which I felt was not the case here.
@@ThePhilosophersGames Totally agreed. I am a massive fan of the original and played it multiple times on the PS1, PS3 and PC. I finally got to play FF7R just a week ago on PC. And to me it felt like Nomura wanted to rush through the highlights of the original story overall but do it within Midgar. Use the fate ghost to then open the story to any and all of his ideas for the future of the game. He should have just did his own FF game instead of Kingdom Hearts in the world of FF7.
My theory is that at some point after the party finally defeated Sephiroth at the end of the original game, some part of him was still able to survive and regrouped. Aeris in the lifestream has somehow altered the past to now redirect the party's fate (original game's events) towards helping the party finish Sephiroth off for good. That's why whenever a key character is about to die, fate intervenes to keep them alive so that they can finally defeat Sephiroth. Sephiroth then somehow hijacked the fates and forced a fight between the party and fate. After killing fate, the party is now no longer destined to follow the events of the original game. They might even become aware of this in the second game and realise they have to do things differently this time around to completely destroy Sephiroth. That means that the idea of Final Fantasy VII will be completely remade whilst also freeing them up to take the story in any direction they please.
i cant agree more! especially about how Sephiroth seemed so damn POWERFUL in original game, i too remember fighting those monsters that he literally one shotted! there were a lot of moments when we could 1st hand witness how insanely powerful he is and it made you feel like he is unbeatable, as it SHOULD BE cuz its original intention! he is supposed to be a mega uber ultra ultimate villain. But in remake he looks like some loser, a pushover.. what a shame💀to me, the story was all over the place and my focus wasnt even on Sephiroth, while in original game i waited his encounter with bated breath. Also, Aerith's death was a pillar to the story, its such a memorable and impactful moment.. and here, everyone is fine and dandy, as if nothing happened. even all the enemies! it made me feel like there was literally no impact in any event of the story. And they added a lot of new things to the story, even threw in Nero and Weiss from Dirge of Cerberus! which i was very happy to see, of course, but they could add more content from original ff7 instead.. i didnt get enough content about Cloud and Tifa relationships/past, for example. There is such a huge gap in the story, we just jump to the ending and thats it.. Stretching the gameplay was also so frustrating for me that honestly i couldnt wait to finish the game and be done with it.
I couldn’t agree more on the possibility of a new story. And it makes you wonder why. If they wanted to change the story this much, why not just make another final fantasy? Makes no sense to me.
@@rsk3286 when assassin's Creed has a better openworld than FF7R you know it's embarassing. They could easily expanded Midgar like Odyssey did with major cities in small sections. They could made Midgar even more interesting to explore. But you got the typical fan boys saying they did expanded. Ah yes exploring corridors of junk ward sure was interesting.
@@RIELSG Yup. That’s what I was expecting, along with more bits like learning about Jessie’s parents. Not corridor “city” and killing off characters like Barrett and then being like, nahhh we are just kidding. Fate ghosts kept that from happening. WHAT??? BARRETT NEVER DIED IN THE ORIGINAL GAME. 😂 And don’t even get me started on fighting seph. Took all the wonder and mystery out of his character by doing that. Not only that, but actually showing that he could be fought. This ruins the soon to be flash back with seph and zack, where seph is made to look invincible.
@@rsk3286 exactly after a year now I can't say I don't like it and I don't care anymore about future parts. They sort of lie about not changing the story if they wanted to do a sequel or retelling should've been honest. Now I'll be boycotting all products from square Enix or just wait cheap sales. They lost a loyal customer that used to buy collectors edition from them.
FF7 Remake was not made with newcomers in mind. When I saw this random dude with the Buster Sword and black hair, of course I wanted to know who he was! I’m currently playing through the OG, and while I’m definitely having fun, I’m also very sad that I can’t truly experience the plot for myself
I don't think much thought was put into it really for newcomers or original fans. I am surprised at how much they destroyed a good story, and how inept they were. I can't explain why they did it, because non of it makes sense lol. I'm going to try the original on PC, I played the old game 3 times on ps1 and love it. I do feel robbed of the money a bit, but I just kind of enjoyed it and just told myself to ignore and imagine out the whispers, but the end of the game I really lost any enjoyment. It was really terrible to be honest.
Game is a disaster. So many things done right, but so many more done abysmally bad! Not a purist, I don't lament the old combat system, making characters look less anime, expanding on some supporting characters' flavor and stories (gotta love Jessee and Charlie She... I mean Biggs)... But... Combat is awful (good idea, but terrible realization), story is mutilated beyond redemption (and don't get me started on the deus ex machina of deus ex machina, the cancer of plotlines, the septic tank of writing that is altarnate reality twists!). Characters have so much plot armor I literally started giving my screen the middle finger after the 37th time something collapsed under them and they survived... And then, the characters look more realistic, but still behave like anime characters. Cloud on a motorcycle downing a helicopter!? That's just... I dunno, I think that's kinda much even for a Vin Diesel movie! And the entire project being split into parts is the stupidest decision ever! Ok, I understand that old FF7 might be too big for to remake in one go, but 35-40 hours of MIDGAR!? That is beyond insulting! If they wanted to split it, why not make it up to Costa Del Sol!? Have Sephiroth appear at the time he did in the original, make JENOVA Birth the final boss... NO! Instead, we get the Angel of the Slums and Jonny questlines. We get the insanely tedious Corneo questline and then... MORE of the insanely tedious Corneo content repeated! Choices that Square made in this game are beyond redemption and have literally condemned any and all possibility for the remake to be good! EDIT: I LOVE how well you explained the power creep! Finally someone said it!
As you said, some of these elements could work if the story and gameplay were structured around them. But it wasn't. The Whispers, for example, could have worked on at least a gameplay level if they had simply given the player more of a choice in the direction the story went. Give the player the choice of whether to stick with the original plot or go a different way, and if the player chooses a different route, THEN the fate ghosts show up and you have to deal with them. That has potential to actually be a pretty groundbreaking and unique element for a remake, while also pleasing the fans that still wanted a faithful remake. But the player doesn't have a choice in where the plot goes, the story just shoves this abstract fate ghost stuff at the player with a ham-fisted message about "destiny". To a player who is unfamiliar with the original, that is not going to make any sense. To a player who is familiar with the original and loves it, it just feels like the game is giving them the middle finger.
Textures are a issue. And it shows, during the daytime scenes. Especially in sector7 and 5. Somehow, they look less artistic then they do in the original. Also. It's a basic as dumpyard and steelyard, with linear paths. Wallmarket is the only area you want to actually roam around. Just seemed like wasted opportunity. FF7 could be soo much more. I think people would had been more forgiving and willing to be okay with them milking this project, if it was open world. Why show me how big the city is, when I can't even explore it. The intro to this game is a major tease. Level design was tacky and dragged out linear pathways with some alleys and rooftops. That area where you jump rope onto the top plate was hideously done. This game won't age well.
Thank you for this. I was very in the minority when it came to my opinions on this game. I was excited and was ready for it. I didn’t mind most of the level design and combat but when it came to the over the top end and the jumping out of no where and the floating “ghosts” it took me out of the moment each time and the game played super safe with death when the original had it present and was used as an overall theme with passing and “death doesn’t mean the end”. I’m still excited for the next one but it’s on a thinner line than the linear design of it keeps me for the rest. Sigh, here’s to hoping they can land this one.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I wasn't fond of the low mp system which made it useless compared to physical attacks and just midgar for a 60 dollar game feels like a ripoff
The pacing in remake sucks and also the Disneyfied redesign of the world- Subterranean slums that have glaring sunlight over every inch of surface just arent as cool looking and also make no sense. If the plates dont mostly restrict sun light, what is really the difference between the bottom layer and the top?? Another example is the train tracks level- It's lit like an outlet store; why are they this well lit? Its like everything dark and gloomy about the old one just doesnt fit into the Disney Kingdom Hearts aesthetic, so they scrapped it. But the run down grittiness, the desparation of the old game was a large part of its charm. Characters in Midgar were seedy, beaten down, questionable, and desperate. They were too "mature" for the little kids they want to play these games, so they just scrapped it
I don't really think they are defeated, but one could make the argument (because we defeated the big one). But at the same time you could just come up with an explanation why they are still there. They are imo not great as a "device" for the story.
If they had cut out everything to do with the dementors (including Barrett’s nonsensical non-death) and chop off all gameplay after Chapter 17, the Remake would have been satisfying for everyone. Sephiroth can stay around as a lingering force-of-nature presence, but he was not the villain of this game.
*been playing it game and it's worst then when I had my nostalgia glasses on* The NPCs was another problem. They look bland in a cyberpunk world. Aerith's combat went from her hitting with her pole to her doing dances and shooting magic? Is this a barbie game now? *Idk what it is with Japanese video game studios. BUT it seems like making actual today's standard side quests and NPCS that don't seem lifeless or out of place* ...just seems like rocket science to them. It didn't even seem like they tried. You can tell, which parts they got lazy with...or gave no crap about at all. The game has a really unbalanced vibe of getting things right and making things 100% worst. Making you want to just fire up the 1997 game and die knowing you least experienced that. Yuffie DLC? 🤡 sounds like something I won't be playing... 2 reasons, it doesn't add new content and that short azz DLC should be free....seeing it's yuffie in midgar.
I would not go as far, but I didn't like the changes to story. I have no problem changing the story, but than it should be marketed as a spin-off and the changes should be good. In my opinion they are not good and handled pretty inconsistently (ludo narrative dissonance).
@@ThePhilosophersGames dude the fate ghosts represent the old fans holding back the story. This game has a lot of contempt toward classic ff fans, they hate us because we get in the way of them making money off weebs and little kids.
@@seanmills7586 I honestly don't care what the fate ghosts represent. I think it's just a meta commentary on "we remake a story that already exists". They simply don't work for the story and are destructive for how the story works. There is nothing "fans can hold back" when it comes to story telling. Just tell a good story that makes sense.
@@ThePhilosophersGames lol yeah but nomura's stories are so profound don't you know? He can do it better so he can't help himself lmao. In all seriousness he is very pompous with his crappy fate story he keeps trying to force us to like. We didnt like it in 13 or kh3 so just stop. But unfortunately he has done it with a legendary game and slaughtered it.
@@seanmills7586 You say that now, but you'll be a changed man in 2037 when you see everything come full circle in Final Fantasy VII 2, Dirge of Advent Birth by Sleep 420/69, where you'll discover that this new story is what ultimately leads to Cloud working for Hades in Kingdom Hearts, not to mention Ansem is secretly Genesis fused with Mog from the Gold Saucer arcade game (the arcade game of course being a symbolic representation of Mog's perception of his existence within Final Fantasy, a sort of CHIM attainment that allows him to break away from the Time God of Fate who he sets up the party to kill at the end of FF7R).
*pacing and level designs* are awful. *No real exploration. No real reason to want to drown yourself in this game* .... it's boss fight after boss fight.... *after finding some switches and holding down triangle* ... walk and talk gameplay is 40% of the game .... ladders .... *making the worst types dungeons, the main ones* ... that train graveyard, made me turn the game off just now. No jump botton, YET I just watched a cutscene with Cloud doesn't know what gravity is. *part 2 needs to shut the critics up or it's a wrap for this remake*
I just dont like the direction they took after the original. Its so over the top and feels like its just there to show how cool Cloud and the rest of the gang are. The bike chase sums it up well. Cloud jumps from a driving motorcycle to another one while doing flip-flops. If my brother (who isnt gaming) saw this, he would probably ask me: "Who is this aimed for? 12 year olds?" This way it feels like there are barely any stakes at all. Like when Aerith and Barret try to flee from Shinra HQ they get surrounded by Heidegger and his troops, everyone pointing their guns on those two. In real-life anyone would fear for their life. But not in this game. Aerith and Barret start insulting Heidegger. Why? Because its a videogame and we know nothing can happen to them. Then Cloud shows up on his motorcycle and the game displays how cool Cloud is and how incompetent our enemies are. Although they all have guns with them, they decide to let themselves get run over by Cloud one after another (in the 'coolest' way possible ofc) without even trying to shoot at him (after a long while they do.. but why not before?). I am baffled that people love this.. feels like style over substance to me. I find it hard to take it seriously. They nailed a lot of the character interactions in calm moments, but with their changes in the narrative, I feel like nothing makes sense anymore. The whole Wall Market section is the prime example. Is it entertaining? Absolutely. Does it make sense? Less so. I mean the premise is that we want to rescue Tifa by infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion. And how do we do that? By signing up to a tournament which is held by the don. So we are actually drawing all the attention onto us although we actually want to achieve the opposite. But not only that.. where is the urgency? Time is kinda important when you want to rescue someone, isnt it? But such a tournament would normally at least take hours with all the regenaration and the other fights in between. Also.. whats up with the lack of urgency when trying to prevent the Turks from blowing up the pillar? We get these drawn out melodramatic 'death' scenes of Biggs and Jessie. I would understand if Cloud wouldnt think rationally if it was Tifa dying. But not the other two.. in the narrative it makes no sense to waste our time when every single second could decide if the whole sector dies (himself and Tifa included) or not. Lots(!) of other scenes/changes that bugged me a lot. Having the basic structure of the original, this game felt like wasted potential to me.
Yes you make a good point about the urgency (and secrecy) of the Wall market section. I noticed that too while playing and found it not so great. They do a lot of things quite well, but the story, plot and structure of all of this (plus the absolute "over the top"-ness) do a lot of damage. No idea if they can fix that in the later sequels. Someone argued that Cloud ability to jump so high, etc was only in this dimension where they fight fate and Sephiroth at the end, but as you said it also happens in the regular world (like the motorcycle chase). Can't remember if I pointed that out in the video (could have added many more points, but it was supposed to be a relatively short section of another video and then got far too long so i made it its own video). After seeing the end of the Yuffie DLC it also really seems they will be going down the different timeline/parallel universe routes (it's not just a little implication at the end of FF7R). No words for this ... Very worried about it too
I’m from the background of a child who learned how to read playing the original game and thought Advent Children was the coolest thing ever. I’ve understood that anime fantasy is not really the best direction for Final Fantasy VII, but Square has been going in this direction since Kingdom Hearts and I’m just having fun with it since I still fuckin’ love AC.
Yes true. Square Enix pushed into this Anime direction in the past 2 decades. i don't mind it too much when they would do it for their newer releases and design them appropriately, but - as mentioned in the video - for my beloved FFVII I think it generates too many problems and does not really fit.
I can’t stand the boss fights. Why do my hero’s suddenly go from badass to little weaklings? It’s like the fights are stretched out to take up time or try to feel epic ? I don’t like dark souls, something hard just to be hard, not skill, memorization beats those games. Stupid and not fun.
dude most dark souls bosses aren't even spongey, they are super spongey in this crap game. I think dark souls has tons of skill involved, dark souls is nothing like this.
Sorry for the late answer (didn't see your comment =/). I found the bosses in FF7R ok, some fights were kind of lame though and overall I found it quite easy on normal, but difficulty can be very subjective. I agree though that some fight felt really stretched. I would not agree on Dark Souls though. Ofc learning patterns and attacks and what to do is part of it, but combat for casual playthroughs has many nuances and imo require some sort of skill (judging the situation, keeping your resources in mind, timing your dodges right, decide when to attack, etc). I would argue learning patterns is in a ton of games. Some parts are frustrating for the sake of being frustrating though. I just completed my Demon's Souls replay (PS3 version) on stream and yes some stuff is actively wasting your time for the sake of being annoying (e.g. Valle of Defilement). It got less in the successor Dark Souls though, but it's still present here and there. i don't mind, but cn see why people would criticise it. But keep in mind I'm a huge Souls fan ^^
1 100% respect your opinion and you have every right to have it. I personally respectfully disagree because growing up I loved FF7 and to this day it's my favorite FF game in the series. However the remake also put the characters in positions and scenarios that gave them a fresh look on who they are or could be in the game. I also enjoyed the unique setting of the original but call me simple minded but I wasn't a big fan on some of the aspects that took way to long to explain or just to traverse a level. I feel the remake made the game more action based which is my favorite type of game but also mixed in aspects of Crisis Core in regards to story and lore but I also think that the new twists are great. I say that because while the original did have its EPIC takes, I do think that the characters in the game are capable of a lot more so giving them some new quests of scenes that weren't in the original just expands on them as heroes or villians. I personally REALLY liked Aerith in the game and I REALLY liked Sephiroth. They were fun to watch and had enough mystical aspects to warrent a part 2 or even a Crisis Core Remake. This was a great aspect in my opinion. I don't like the compare the remake to original (even though I have) but its because nostolgic factors may effect my judgment in regards of the potential that new takes may have in the game's universe. Did I originally want a point by point Remake? yeah. Did I get it? Nah, but did I enjoy it? Hell yeah. But we all have our opinions so I can't say I am the ultimate judge. Great respect towards you.
I’m halfway through the video and so far your are so, so right, that the problems of this game and my gripes with it seems obvious, but I think that the public for this game are delusional og fans and gen z players who know no better. Anyway it is unbelievable how we agree about the same aspects, this video reflects many of my comments about this game.
Remake is all style with no substance. The fact none of us can't openly admit this fact w/o the fandom mob or FF7 grifters calling us 'purists' or 'haters' points to a bigger issue that extends beyond FF7 Remake.
Hey man, I used about 1 minute from this video in an essay I posted to my channel, discussing FF7R's story problems. I hope that's OK (I cited you). The clip is at 2:08:35.
No problem. Nice you found it worth quoting discussing the game ^^ Also very impressive work you put together there. I wish you much success with it! PS: also thank you for asking/contacting me 👍
I wondered about this, because I heard they made massive changes with the end having a lot of 'friendship and love'...and it's not even the full game or something. I never got into the series aside from VI, but I did like your analysis and I'm sorry that you were disappointed. Those Genoa theory videos made me hope that you would have a positive analysis, but hopefully something better comes along at a later date.
I'm - maybe - a bit of a FF7 fan boy. Some might look at this more relaxed. But some of the elements I disliked immensely. Nice that you enjoyed the Jenova Theory video ^^ Yes we will see where the story goes. There's still hope and even if they go with the alternative universe approach, I would be fine with it, as long as they remove their supernatural Deus Ex Machina.
The ending was *unnecessary* and dragged the game out even longer. Towards the end, the game got painfully dragged out. Especially when it's boss battle after another. Your just like "SE, c'mon the hell on...end it already"
*sorry for the spam comments, I just booted up Remake and I still cannot get over how they spit in the fans faces with that game* And even worst, are charging ppl now to unlock crap. As if milking the game into how many parts, they feel like making while playing on our nostalgia ?😑 wasn't bad enough.
I guess my personal main problem is marketing the game as a remake showing scenes that recreates scenes of the original 1:1 we know from the original game (e.g. intro with the train arriving) before release and then altering the game so much. Ofc some fans are then disappointed. I would not have mind a alternative reality spin off or some even some changes, but a lot of the changes are imo not good. Also the pacing of the game is not great, some levels are absolutely terrible, the side quests are also often not great and there is too much "ludo-narrative dissonance" as explained in the video. So overall I did not like it. I think the combat system is decent, I liked the section where we visit Jessie's parents, etc, but also there is so much stuff I did not like.
*Don't get me started on how they ruined Aerith or are trying to* She's my favorite female in FF7 for the PS1. I HATE her in the remake with a passion 😑 the voice acting... she comes off as some naive powerful girl now. *who doesn't wanna accept her position, as being one of the greatest deaths in video game history* .... they are going to try and make you seem like you can save her.... watch. ZACK too... idk why the hell he even in Remake.
The more I played the Remake, the more I hated it. I wanted to go back to the original ASAP. Honestly the only thing I like its the presentation. Nothing else is good (Battle system sucks, pacing sucks, side quests sucks, the fact that its just Midgar sucks, etc etc)
yes there truth in that, but it's a huge spoiler I guess and the said they want to retell the original story. Depending on where they are going calling it a remake is imo a bit misleading. Still the game has the problems discussed in the video.
So you don't have it 100% here. The fate ghosts (whispers) are actually not the enemy here. They are actually the personification of people like us, fans of the original game who want to preserve the original story as closely as possible. They prevent Barrett from dying because that would be a stupid fucking decision, while allowing the death of President Shinra, who dies according to canon. Also, that is foreshadowing, in that the whispers would not prevent Aerith's death; the only way she lives is if the whispers are not around. This would not need to exist if the damn writers weren't trying to destroy the original story, but they did, because it becomes clear that Aerith and Sephiroth both already know the events of the first game and are both trying to change them, Sephiroth because he doesn't want to fail to become a god and Aerith because she doesn't want to die. Then, the devs have you MURDER the whispers/Arbiter, therefore putting to death the embodiment of your desire to keep faithful to the original story, now freeing the devs to completely fuck up the story for the next two installments. Nobody dies, Cloud now is irrelevant...welcome to Nomura's Multiverse of Madness
yes this sequel impression you get from it is really weird, but they marketed as Sequel and said in an interview: "We’re not drastically changing the story and making it into something completely different than the original. Even though it’s a Remake, please assume the story of FF7 will continue as FF7 always has." - Final Fantasy 7 Remake Ultimania (Translation)
@ThePhilosophersGames also saw in another article where they then said that somethings will drastically change. Then, the Rebirth trailer, where Aerith says, focus on the future, not the past, while showing Meteor hit. Yeah, I'm not gonna trust or support them until I see how it all plays out on RUclips playthtoughs.
Is a mediocre JRPG, very limited, you fight or “explore” when the directors wants it, not freedom at all, the level design is bad and the pacing atrocious. Graphics, sound and combat, the only things that matters to this developers team. They can have part 2 all for themselves, i hope XVI team can make a proper FF game, come on, the last good of the series was released like 15 - 20 years ago, it’s sad.
yes it's a very linear experience. When I first heard of the remake I imagined you could go top teh trainstation and explore other areas of Midgard as you please, maybe even find new little stories. I think art style, music, etc are well done. Also the Combat has options and many nuances, though most of that you only truly use during an "NG+" play through, while the normal one lacks this here and there,though it's still solid. But the story changes an most additions etc are just not great. For sure the section where you visit Jesse's parents is great, but this chapter also some really weird additions. In general a lot of ludo-narrative dissonance that makes you question: what were they thinking and destroys the immersion for me. Level design is also abysmal. So yes I would agree, it's not a great (J)RPG.
You seem like you really don't want to say "ludo-narrative dissonance". I can understand not wanting to jump on bandwagons, but sometimes the bandwagon goes in the same direction you're going.
haha yes I tried to avoid it, but it's exactly this and i think I could make clear what I mean (and showing examples) without saying it all the time. There is often a lot of debate when this is brought up and i think I could bring my my point across without it anyway, because it is so obvious in this game.
I have to admit that I expected at least some of my criticisms to be more common 😅 I'm a bit surprised that so many people really enjoyed the game (which is totally fine; good for them). I guess everyone weights certain aspects differently and can maybe look over some flaws easier. But glad to see some people agree with me ^^ Also thank you for commenting!
@@ThePhilosophersGames I appreciate you making this tho, i was sitting here in the middle of the sephiroth fight confused asf. I genuinely thought I missed something, so with this wave of confusion hitting me I looked up “FF7 criticism” and here I was. It was like you were reading my mind dead serious no joke. Then again I didn’t really waste any money, I’m only 14 so I got it when it came out on ps+ in March. But seriously tho I was so hyped and after 3 chapters I was just bored for the rest of the game (excluding some cutscenes). I just genuinely didn’t want to play the game anymore. Then after 3 days of forcing myself to play praying that it would all get explained, BAM! We’re at the edge of creation??? Like what were sephiroths motives? What is this dog named red? Who is zack? How did cloud get the buster sword? Those are some questions I had at the end of the game, and tons more that would stretch this comment out to the point where I just look weird if I don’t already, sorry if I’m just rambling it’s just I genuinely think I missed something.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I just gotta ask: have your opinion got worse or not with time? Mine have. Even now 1½ years later and with additional scene that Zack indeed is alive most people are still not understanding basic criticism. Anything can be rationalized with feelings, but it is a shame that people did not want better writing, but worse just for the subversion and addition of excitement for the unknown with fan theories.
@@vincentgraymore no still don't like these multiverse time travel stuff. I don't mind some changes or a new spin or an alternate history setting, but this is not what I hoped for. I'm also a bit surprised that the fan base likes it so much, though the criticism of the ending and the implied changes are often discussed and not like but some people. I guess most hope it won't go overboard too much, but imo it already has and the Yuffie DLC Ending also had some implications. Really not a fan of adding a time travel story that was never there.
sephiroth wasn’t really a villain in ff7 until the temple of the ancients he was better described as a myth even when you see the dead snake there is no implication of “wow i’m in terror” its more like “well that thing is strong i wish it doesn’t take me as an enemy” plus FF7 r is trying to continue on the story rather than remaking it which is a good enough answer for the change there is an explanation for the deus ex machina and that is sephiroth doesn’t do anything just out of a wimp or anger he is contortive and has more understanding about what is happening but the party doesn’t that is true that the party learns that the planet wants only one path but they don’t understand the implications of that so when sephiroth killed barret and the whispers did heal him the characters now understood that these things are more of an enemy to stop rather than a friend to accept if they want to continue in their journey this is obvious to see when they talk on the bridge and the characters purpose is clear with that for example cloud chooses to change fate because he already got memories of the future leading to him having to feel the pain that he felt when he lost aerith so he doesn’t want to lose her again barret is just a big hero who wants to protect the planet and if sephiroth continues he might harm the planet greatly and be yet again close to destroying it aerith is a complicated character in the sense that she wants to go to change fate and go with the party but she is hesitant because if she does she migh harm cloud even greatly more than her death in the OG this is just simply her old conflict but cranked up to the limit which leads me to the ultimate point which is the remake has a great story that has alot of potential to challenge the narrative of the OG to the limits which might leads into a very well written story
Never played the original Final Fantasy 7 so not knowing anything about the game I found this game pretty fun. I've been going through a lot of depression and I didn't want to like play a really huge open world RPG like Dragon Quest 11 or something because it's too overwhelming but this game was really linear and I was able to beat it without thinking about it really so it was perfect for my frame of mind at the moment dealing with depression. I'm not picky though I never really think about the content while I'm playing it. It's just like with a movie review when you watch something for the first time you don't have any problems with it and then you here about a review and then you start piecing it together and then you notice the negative things. But if you never saw the review you wouldn't even think about it you would just think it's good. Like that saying ignorance is bliss. People just think too much sometimes and overcomplicated. sometimes things are just an easy hack and slash.
It's ofc different for every player. I know that players don't weight the problems of a game differently. Or don't notice. I personally notice stuff like this constantly (that is just how/who I am), but also have seen it better done in other games. In this case we also have an original game, which is a really important game for me personally and seeing its Remake changing so much and handling important topics not as well or not at all, disappointed me greatly. But ofc others can enjoy the game, even if it's criticised by others and I'm happy that you liked it (and had the right length for you) and that it helped you in hard times. I wish you all the best. I know living with depression is tough.
@@ThePhilosophersGames yeah I've seen a lot of other videos now and I see the problems on how they're not being faithful to their original story. They're making some kind of weird Multiverse story that has to do with Advent Children and an alternate timeline like what they did with Kingdom Hearts. I'm not emotionally attached because I never played the game growing up but it is disrespectful to the fans. And thanks it's getting a little better everyday with the depression
Amazing video as always, man! It's unfortunate that I have to agree with you on these points... The original was so much better :(. Oh well, let's see where the story goes from now
Dude give it time! Why would you want to pay 60-80.00 for the same game with better graphics and frame rates? Play ever crisis in 2022 then. That’s what it is there for
Thank you ^^ Yes it seems the fan base is quite divided on this one. Even though I think the overall reception was more positive. My comment section is not representative, but I get comments that agree and some that disagree. Yes we have to see where the story goes, but ofc FF7 remake is still a full price game and some flaws or controversial changes will not vanish.
I'm gonna say it I'm just gonna say it All we asked for was them to take the story of FFVII and remake it in a modern style. They did that for 1 - 6 on the DS and updated everything about the look. But this. they just wanted to make a new story and slap on the name FFVII, its an insult to the fans who have been asking for in for 24 years now.
Yes they advertised it by showing 1:1 translations of scenes from the original. I don't mind an alternative timeline spin off (what if X survived), just communicate that you are doing it and leave this stupid meta narrative ghost thing out of it. Just tell a good story and have some budget for level design left.
@@ThePhilosophersGames If I'd been told "Final Fantasy VII: RE-Start" or something similar I wouldn't have an issue with this. I'd know what I'm getting, something that looks similar but is different. But you're right, they marketed this as a 1:1 remake and they just wanted to do a new story. I won't be getting any more of the FF brand and I'm 99% turned off of Square as a whole now they're done this. (y'know what the funny thing is, I loved your argument about ADDING things, if they wanted to take it in a new direction, have Biggs Wedge and Jessie survive and have things expand from there. I liked Jessie's character in this game it was one of the few things I really enjoyed. But nah, they just want to thumb their noses at us and say "you'll buy what we tell you to buy" which is annoying)
@@Dave-sk9mn As i remember the writer of the original FFVII stated that the first one was like the worst ending route of a visual novel and this time they want to explore different posioble outcomes.
@@tiamath3755 okay gonna be as blunt as I can here Tiamath. What piont are you getting at? Have you spent 24 years asking Square to remake a game and then have them deliver a shit for you instead? Because if you've not then kindly don't argue to me about "bad endings" We didn't ask for this, we wanted the game we enjoyed upscaled to modern graphics and given tender love and care, not an insult in our faces.
Wow you really hated on this game lol I loved it personally and I played ff7 original when I was 12 and loved it then but people have own opinions on things I love the jenova theory video btw
It would be interesting to see a FFVIII Remake and how they approach to make it, but I think there might be quite a few changes. FF8 is quite unusual in many ways.
Glad you liked my critique so far ^^ I often feel a bit alone not liking FF7R, but I expressed my honest opinion and also tried to explain why I didn't like it.
Hey thanks for your video. Some points: 1) the last chapter was a type of spiritual realm within the Lifestream. The devs have confirmed this. That is perhaps why characters were jumping 50 meters high or whatever. The event was spiritual, symbolic, not physical or grounded. The environments changing and the intense images were a mix of memories of the Lifestream and the power of Jenova. Recall that during the Jenova battle, the entire environment “changed” via the illusion powers of Jenova.
No problem ^^ I know some people will disagree with me. And that is totally fair. There's the motor cycle chase scene, where Cloud jumps from one motor cycle to another doing 5 backlflips and spins while doing so. The game pretty clearly establishes them being able to jump really high early on. Also the section seems to have gravity and rubble could hurt them (why would it be used if not?) as a result I think it's a reflection of what the characters can do and it's in line with the battles from the other FFVII related games (AC, Crysis Core, etc).
@@ThePhilosophersGames Sure. I think like many Japanese (and sometimes even western) there isn't 100% consistency. But I think if you can appreciate chapter 18 for what it is, the game stays more grounded. Afterall, there are different rules for the mundane world vs the spiritual Lifestream world. If you want to look more into it, google "World of Meteor vs World of Lifestream" where the Material Ultimania had more to say about it. I do agree though, that if you aren't super grounded in the lore, it would be easy to be confused. The game didn't spell things out well, perhaps on purpose to create intrigue for the next game.
There's so much disappointing elements in Remake...the materia system and combat overall..looks great ..but is as shallow as a puddle..very little depth to combat...no depth to materia customization.....this game is the epitome of style over substance.
Also, I disagree that “death” in this story is arbitrary. They established a narrative rule that the Whispers are creatures (literally, voices) of the planet that try to influence a future it thinks is best for itself. They did not “revive” a dead Barret. They simply healed him with healing magic as you can literally see in the scene. Therefore, the whispers resemble WEAPONs like in the original game, whereby the planet take steps to protect itself by means of these creatures. Now that the Whisper Harbinger is gone, that WEAPON is no longer there and can’t use the whispers to influence history.
Yes they heal him, but if healing was so simple, why do Aeris, Tifa or Cloud not heal him up? Before Barret awakes again, a whisper comes out of him and all are surprised. That does not look like he just got a scratch and got healed. he was legit killed by Sephiroth and brought back to life by the whispers - that is what this scene communicates. In a narrative there are practically no "limits". They can pull out elements like these anytime in the future again, it's part of the story now. Here asimple made up example: the heroes (or any other group) finds an ancient apparatus of the Cetra in an old ruin that can with the right item (e.g. a crystal) piece the "fractured fate" back together and as such can reconstruct the Arbiter of Fate again -> Boom Whispers are back on the menu, boys. It's that simple. And it can even be a cool quest line or a well written section. The problem is the fundamental concept of these "fate ghosts" that they established and what they can do in the story. The writer is omnipotent in his universe and only his fantasy (and maybe some conventions of story telling) are the boundaries. They might not use them ever again, but we don't know. After FFXIII and freinds my confidence in Square is not the best anymore if it comes to singleplayer Final Fantasy games and their stories.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I think there is a fundamental difference between the healing abilities of our party (small materia) vs healing abilities of the planet, with direct access to the Lifestream. I think that head canon explains it enough for me. The point is, the planet can pick and choose who it wants to save, with powers that are beyond what our party has available.
I played the original when I was a kid I beat it I loved it however ff7 remake I tried it and out around 13 hours, I didn't really like it the visuals are nice the sounds are good and cinematic scenes too, my main issues are the combat and camera it's do hectic I can barely see what's going on half the time the dodge button seems pointless, this game just doesn't feel like a strategy game they ate trying to make it a hack and slash but wit turn based when it's not, it just seems like they're trying to do too many things at once and was likenok were done let the players figure it out and of course there's always a bunch of ppl calling it the best combat system because it requires little to no skill. I know a lot of sheep's are calling it the best cuz they feel like it's so dynamic when it's not I'm disappointed but exactly what I expected most games are disappointing nowadays because they gotta make games to satisfy the woke generation. I actually enjoyed ffxv more than this game and I didn't even really like ffxv.
You can try the new classic mode, it's not bad, just make sure you observe what the enemies are doing and only issue commands right after they finish their attacks so you don't get interrupted. Or actually no, just don't play the game or get disappointed by the ending like I did.
Changing the reactor bombing into "Shinra did it" and changing the plate falling into "everyone got out before the plate fell" PISSES ME OFF!!! They keep downplaying everything important and impactful to the story.
Facts! And for the sake of argument, let's say "FINE, Shinra did it"... but why didn't they at least hold off on that revelation and let us THINK it was Avalanche's (Jessie's) mistake for a while and THEN reveal it later? Wouldn't that have been more impactful? The writing and direction they took with this game points to one thing and one thing only: They needed money so they completely obliterated FF7 in order to sell games AND merchandise for the next decade off this IP alone.
I think it's still said that thousands of people died during the plate falling and even at that scene when Tifa said we did it and Barrett said no it was Shinra you can still see with her fist closed she knows that Shinra did it because of them. I do agree that they should have made the blame feel more heavy on Avalanche and well it makes sense that they would want to help get people out yeah it does lose some of its feeling. One thing remake really does right tho is having you walk around the destruction and hearing the people call out for their dead loved ones.
Honestly I was more pissed with the stupid ass KH whisperers and Septhiroth showing up so much. I get having him be the final boss but not showing up within the first hour.
The forced grandness of the ending of Remake is also a lot to do with the fact that the opening stretch of the original was fairly grounded. But it had to be because of how the story unfolded. The Remake fundamentally misses the point of almost every aspect of the original, then smugly says "yeah well I wasnt TRYING to understand it!" well if thats true, then just create the original story you want to tell. using nostalgia to sell it is pathetic
"The Remake fundamentally misses the point of almost every aspect of the original"
Yes, agreed =/
Because they knew Nastalgia would be the only way to sell massive copies. It's a money grab using old characters we know and love to tell a new story.
@@doctorfresh3856 in yet buying nostalgia is exactly what your asking for in a 1 to 1 remake of a game made in 1997.
I don't totally disagree with the argument, but they didn't have to put in anything extra and making the OG in the same quality as the remake is a feat considering the content.
@@genorem 🤨 I didn't ask for a 1 to 1 remake. Where in my comment does it say I wanted a 1 to 1 remake? 🤔
I didn't mean to apply that to you personally I was speaking in general, my bad.
Bad Grammer use on my part.
Wow… I just finished FFVII this evening after marathoning it for the last few days. EVERYTHING you’ve said in this review is exactly how I feel. This game honestly felt more like a chore to complete than anything.
Happy that I'm not alone with my impressions ^^ I'm almost surprised that it got so many very positive reviews, but ofc people have different tastes and maybe weight some problems not as strong as I did.
Bro we need to sign a petition to get tetsuya nomura off of ALL ff games, maybe even booted out of square. He is a day laborer pretending to be a storyteller. He is at the root of ff series demise
I agree with you!!
FF7 (1997): Mysterious
FF7R: Pretentious
As far as over the top anime stuff, I think it was justified in Advent Children. In that movie, Cloud was supposed to be viewed as an overpowered level 99 character. Of course he could slice through buildings and shit and I loved it. FF7R though? The very first part? Didn't even leave Midgar? Absolutely inexcusable. Would have loved this stuff in the LAST part.
Exactly. in AC, Cloud and Co were extremely advanced fighters. Literally the strongest on the planet. They spent an extreme amount of time fighting, having equipped materia infuse into them and enhancing their bodies, they literally fought off avatars of the planet and sephiroth/jenova, and it took the ENTIRE game for them to get there, starting from struggling to beat medium-sized mechs.
In 7R? They literally struggle to beat a relatively basic Shinra mech (the roadroller) one minute, and the literal next minute, taking down gods of fate and sephiroth. Like........... what?
Except there are no power levels, it's not an isekai. He could have grown stronger, yes, but that implies everyone else gained superhuman abilities as well, considering the whole cast except Barret were jumping high. If that is what it means to grow stronger in that world, it was not evident in the original anyone could just cut through buildings if cool enough.
@@kawashinimon Yup, this is what happens when SQE prioritizes fan-service OVER story/logic.
@@blumiu2426 In the original, you can conclude that they were strong enough to accomplish superhuman feats... even Barret. Barret's final limit break Catastrophe has him jumping at least 80 feet in the air. They also defeat huge kaiju beasts (weapons). In the world of FF7, the more battle experience, the stronger the person. In our world the cap stops around level 2 or 3... in their world it stops at 99. And Advent Children is probably 99+... so put that into perspective.
@@TenderViddlez That was a lot of speculation and guesswork on your part. So you're saying characters literally do their limit breaks in real life, not just a visual representation? Then all would be dead when Safer Sephiroth did Super Nova. And you also forget characters are only superhuman when called for in a given situation. Go back and look at VIIR at the times Cloud demonstrates being a grasshopper and other times he just falls or doesn't use any athleticism he does other times. It's situation and when script demands or they would be doing these things in-game, not just in cutscenes. If Cloud could always cut through buildings, he would easily any mechanical enemy and the trains in his way during the drawn-out level. See what I'm saying now? It's just inconsistency of feats done for coolness, not a reflection of reality.
There are no literal levels existing in their world lol! If that were true, ask yourself who was in physical altercations in the FFVII party up to the start of the story? If Avalanche was in altercations, then even Biggs, Wedge and Jessie wouldn't have been knocked off so easily (speaking to OG,not the VIIR mess where no one dies). If not, only Tifa would have had training, but no true battle experience among them. , Cid, Yuffie, Aerith, Cait Sith would have no battle experience. Cloud himself only had training up to taking on Zack's persona, no battle experience. Because VIIR packed everything into happening in the first part of the game, either the world itself is massively underpowered to meet their inexperience and able to fight Sephiroth and planet's will already, or they just messed up with the remake.
Also, by your logic, The Turks should have been able to kill the protagonists outright given they have experience in conflict as Turks. And if we expand upon this, Zack should be stronger than Cloud...except he's not. Because he was defeated by Sephiroth while inexperienced Cloud was able to. It's anime logic, not practical or logical.
You can't be overpowered just because at the start of the game, or they are only as strong as they are because of bad writing picking and choosing when they can do amazing feats. Remember no one did any damage to Bahamut Sin in Advent Children, only scratched it. Cloud is the one that did any damage and defeated it. Only Cloud did anything to the trio while everyone else got smacked around.
finally someone gets it. I wrote this in an essay awhile back, Tifa in chapter 18 falls from a great height and says "omg i could of died" few chapters before Wedge survives a 50 foot drop and a pilar being chucked on him. They broke the physics of their own game.
Hey, sorry if this sounds weird. But can you link that essay. I would love to read it.
@@kazzfuchsia1073 thank you, when I post it on my website, I'll send you the link 🥰
@@kiriavatar123 thanks
I agree, a lot of nonsensical aspects added to a story that did not need them. Like adding Baked Beans or Tuna Fish to a Cake reciepe, yes some people might like it, but it does NOT make sense to add it to an already good formula.
Yes only few additions felt fitting, most of it was just weird.
@@ThePhilosophersGames , that is another part I agree with you on, visiting Jessies family home. This inclusion felt natural and added to the story and it's characters. More of this type of thing would have improved it.
Thank you for reminding that my initial response not to buy any more of these games was correct. The pretty Intergrade chapter was reeling me in, but there is no way these games could ever go back to what they used to be.
My biggest gripe with the story in the remake is Sephiroth. In the OG FF7, you only hear his name uttered by certain characters describing him as some sort of incredible soldier. And it all builds up to finding President Shinra dead, with Sephiroth's legendary sword stuck in his back. We didn't even get a true glimpse into who Sephiroth was or what he even looked like until later at Kalm with Cloud's flashback - which featured a younger Cloud allied with Sephiroth, who was actually in your party - yet uncontrollable, fighting monsters that made even the toughest bosses you've fought up to this point look like jobbers. And Sephiroth is already dealing damage in the thousands - far beyond anything your current party is capable of.
In the OG, Sephiroth had an air of mystery. He seldom showed up, and when he did, it was a big deal.
But in the remake, Sephiroth shows up every twenty minutes, in person, taunting Cloud and talking shiet. He even winds up being the final boss right after leaving Midgar. You literally wind up beating his ass, twice. What a way to disintegrate any mystique or sense of threat. Yeah sure, he's still alive and well, but that feels more like a contrivance. The devs knew that 'Remake' was only going to cover the first 15% of the OG game's story but they just couldn't resist blowing their load immediately and shoehorning Sephiroth into the game whenever possible. It seriously detracts from his impact as the main villain if we just wind up kicking his ass over and over again.
And surprise surprise, he's the final boss of Rebirth too.
Unless they plan on some massive bait and switch and wind up making someone like Genesis the true final boss of 'Part 3', the way they handled Sephiroth has only been a disservice to his character in general.
And dear God, please don't make Genesis the main villain. Because that would be even worse than rehashing Sephiroth three times in a row.
Totally agree with your points. The whole remake feels like bad fan fiction. I mean, it would be like remaking the Titanic but at the end the titanic doesn't sink. In FF7's case Aerith will live in this version which won't surprise me. Zack now being alive is the same thing. The game has no stakes anymore when you can use time/alternate reality to get out of any situation. It's bad writing.
Yes the fan fiction thing is a good comparison. i don't midn fan fiction, but it's so weird where they are taking the game - officially! The story of FF7 is already very complex and in parts confusing in its original form, now let us add parallel universes and maybe even time travel 😅
yep retconn all deaths cuz this is now ff7 disney edition where no one dies! lol just like reality!
Trust me, it is not about time. That is a red herring.
It would be like remaking Titanic but then Rose gets a vision about the Titanic crashing into the iceberg and sinking, and then the day before she meets Jack another handsome dude called John appears and takes her for dinner and a nice stroll on the deck at night, just before they kiss suddenly a bunch of floating trash bags appear and create a storm and suddenly John gets pissed off and insults Rose, and Rose gives John a slap, then the next day she meets Jack and things continue as per the original story etc. Only at the end before the Titanic hits the iceberg Rose touches Jacks forehead and gives him superhuman speed and ship-steering capabilities, and he runs all the way to the captain's room and steers the ship away from the iceberg, meanwhile floating trash bags appear again and try to deter him and he takes out a gun and has an epic duel of the fates with floating trash bags that combine into a big trash bag that looks like a god.
Yeah I kept playing and enjoying, on the basis that I read that they weren't going to change the story, so I kept just imagining out the whispers and sort of editing in and out the things I liked and didn't like in the game (in my mind). But then I kept reading that they might change the story and then I got to the end of the game, and as soon as that warp hole opened I felt a bit sick, a bit like when you found out your girlfriend cheated on you, like a proper nauseas feeling. I felt properly cheated at the end. And suffice to say I won't be buying the next instalment. It's kind of put me off square-enix as well.
No real grind system.
*you fight, when they tell you to fight*
*"Go back to the main linear story path" messages when you wanna wander around midgar*
SE is smoking crack if they think part 2 is gonna get the same treatment as part 1. *my nostalgia glasses are OFF*
Let em know brotha man!
Let's be honest here guys... if you are a long time SquareSOFT fan... you already KNEW they were going to F*** this game all-the-way up. The moment they said it would be episodic is when I knew they would absolutely GUT this game from top to bottom. One thing that really grinds my gears are influencers like Maximillian Dood who are straight up shilling for this game in order to keep their pockets lined. You'd be hard-pressed to have him admit even ONE bad thing about this game when he KNOWS it's a piece of crap. He has somehow centered himself as "The FF7 guy" to many people who never even played the original... which I feel is a kick in the face to the real fans. Namely because Max didn't even play the original when it came out and had to be convinced to because (and I quote) he thought "RPG's were for nerds". The guy hasn't even played any other RPG's from back then or the golden era but he's somehow sucked all the attention for himself by jumping in front of this "remake". Just like sephiroth waiting at the planets wound caused by meteor hoping to suck all the planets energy that gathers there.
Max is a shill
@@eW91dHViZSBpcyBjZW5zb3JzaGlw Let's be honest, a lot of youtubers are.
I just started replaying the game, so of course I am off to the internet to find opinions similar to my own. This video is exactly it.
I was pretty forgiving of the pacing, and did not mind not being allowed to explore when escorting Aeris. I even tried to not care so much about the fate ghosts, hoping they were just inconsequential padding to the game. But that terrible tacked on ending after the highway chase just completely undercut everything I had been doing up to that point. I felt tricked afterwards, like nothing I did mattered, and I had been playing a different game than I thought for the last 30 hours.
I am also very happy you pointed out that horrible Tifa platform section, followed by her flying into the air and smashing a small mountain of concrete to pieces with a kick.
Yes the ending is just so strange. I personally react a bit stronger to the pacing problems, and if that would have been fine, I could have overlooked that the game is extremely linear, but some of the changes (esp. the Ending and its implications) really ruin it for me.
@@ThePhilosophersGames My last hope now is that they reel it back in for part two. That they say the final battle was all in your head, and that all the alternate timeline stuff is just hypothetical glimpses of what could have been.
Or something.
@@sverdmester Same. I really really REALLY hope Naoki will take it in that direction, and tie all the KH stuff up in a neat package to then set aside. But it will still be very difficult to untangle the damage done, especially since the big bad is no longer scary and the stakes can't possibly be raised any higher
@@cinderling5472 yep nomura may have destroyed one of the greatest games ever made. And the dlc also bodes unwell for the future... yuffie dancing with her materia is super cringe. And it looks like a bad dlc to boot
this pacing of the game is best described by bilbo "It feels thin... stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread"
Sadly like the Hobbit films as well.
haha well said ^^
Perfect description lol
The original is definitely better.
Good video. I agree with pretty much all of your critique here.
One thing that I think is important to note about FF7R is that despite it's flaws, it did a great job on the characters in terms of personality, characterization, and voice acting. (Sephiroth perhaps being the only exception).
Sadly, I think this all that was needed in order for the general gaming audience to embrace and love this game. A good story is made up of Characters, Setting, Plot, and Themes.
I've noticed that many people only care about Characters and/or Setting.
Ask people to recall the plot of a Marvel film. I bet most couldn't do it. But many of those same people could quote their favorite lines from Iron man or whoever. Ask them what makes MCU Iron man a good character, and 99% of people will tell you it's the Actor's performance and not the character's Arc.
People nowadays just want to see their favorite characters portrayed on screen in a way that makes them happy or entertained in the moment. It seems like there is no thought or appreciation for long term storytelling in the general audience these days.
People see Zack at the end and just Wonders "What does this mean for part 2?"
No one is asking the purpose of his death in the original story. (Cloud's Arc).
People see Sephiroth showing up frequently and just think: "OMG it's Sephiroth. He's so cool. What is he planning now?"... 35 hours later... "We're fighting Sephiroth! This is so crazy!"
Whoa look that's Cait Sith!
OMG Biggs is alive? Is Jessie alive too? What's going on?
So the sad part of this situation is Square Enix made many mistakes with FF7R's storytelling, but the modern audience is blind to it because they are trained to just clap and be happy when familiar characters show up and say or do the cool things the characters are known for. Not questioning if the character's inclusion at this point is beneficial to the story.
Then many (not all) of these same people will accuse critics of FF7R as just being 'nostaglia blind' or a 'hater' or whatever else.
"Go watch Maximilian Dood" is another one.
Hi dude from Phoenix edge
Yes I agree, they really nailed the characters for the most part I would say. I also like your theory that how story telling often works today might be a reason why people are either tolerating some potential flaws in FF7R's changes, don't see them or don't put too much weight into them for their overall perception of the game (and ofc that is their right to do so and there is nothing wrong liking the game).
For me the original FF7 was like a huge "aha moment" when it comes to experiencing a story, that allowed me to put some thought into it and discovering ways of understanding it, which might not be obvious during the first play through. I guess I never experienced something like this before. I really replayed it many times and started writing down game dialogue passages in the hope to find clues to make more sense out of it. I also remember posting in online forums of the "early" internet of the late 90s to discuss those matters.
@@GRAG3R Hello! Thanks for the self promotion 😁. And thanks for watching!
@@ThePhilosophersGames Absolutely, the original game had a subtlety to it's story that made you think about it long after the credits. I suppose Remake now has that too, but it wasn't subtle about it in the slightest.
The original had questions about Sephiroth vs Jenova in control (like you I'm partial to the Jenova theory, I don't care what the Ultimania guide says lol).
Or the ambiguous nature of the ending, letting the players wonder what the planet would have decided to do with humanity based on the few clues in the game.
Remake really put it's twist-narrative front and center too much and it takes me out of the story constantly. Like a D&D game where the dungeon master constantly tries to railroad the plot he wants your group to follow while also over explaining everything.
3:00 Could be an AC reference with chopping through buildings, which I'm pretty sure was taken from the "Deep Dive" hidden ending from KHI Fimal Mix and KHII's chopping of buildings at the ending. The hidden ending was a BIG influence on AC.
If you need just one example which encapsulates just what is wrong with the remake, it's the train graveyard chapter - long, boring, drawn out, nonsensical and completely devoid of any relevance to the overall story. Like... they had just found out that Shinra was going to destroy the sector 7 plate, so you'd think they would be in a rush to get there... but no. Instead we're going to have cut scene after cut scene of them talking and staring... They've really messed up this game. They (Square Enix) had the blueprints already to make a great game even better, and they just completely ignored it through what I can only describe as hubris.
The huge amount of padding between the first bombing mission and then getting to Mako reactor 5 is ridiculous too. There's literally NO way you should be 8 to 10 hours into this game before you fall into the church in Sector 5. Im pretty sure you're there 90 minutes in the OG.
@@brijor6ff7 I really hate to say this (because I am a huge fan of the original game), but this game is the sole reason why I will not be excited or buying the next instalment of this series. I have a feeling they will have learnt nothing from this and will continue to eviscerate one of their best I.P. that had a story which quite frankly was amazing from start to finish... so sad.
@Cuotemoc I agree with you. The trailer for Rebirth looks amazing, but I'm guessing that's all it has going for it. I think this trilogy will be one of the biggest missteps in gaming history, TBH
.
I wish more people could put aside the love for FF7 IP and look at Remake in an honest way. It's bad.
I totally agree with you. My biggest problem with this game is the combat system and the interaction with the stage (too guided). For me poorly implemented.
In regards to combat. They wanted to do as a hybrid between action and strategic turn-based, but it doesn't let either get their full potential. To be honest because Tetsuya Nomura was the main director, I thought the game was going to be like Kingdom Hearts. Which in my opinion has the best real-time combat system created to date (very agile). The combos have a lot of harmony between them. You can jump whenever you want, doing aerial combos and combine them with ground ones in a masterly way, or vice versa.
And also with quick dodging movements, or moving at high speed around the stage using even the walls and other structures in our favor in a very organic and natural way.
The Remake's combat is also more cinematic, there are a great variety of attacks in which we do not feel in control of them.
The effects, artistic and graphic design are very well elaborated. But its playable mechanics don't feel entirely polished.
i didnt like anything about this game,., i wasnt a fan of the ps1 ff7 much , but this 1 was just awful
And I want to add, given that I didn't say it before. That in terms of combat, there are very well performed attacks by the characters of the game, but the final result when putting everything together is not so good.
For example, to mention one of those points that in my view are not well implemented, is that when some opponents are attacked by us they remain very static. In adittion most of the time they fight back very quickly, not letting us to finish our combos with harmony.
In my opinion the rhythm of the attacks is not very well managed. I remember that sometimes we attacked each other at the same time (talking about the oponent and the character we was controling) which seemed very strange to me. Among other things. Like the final battle against Sephiroth, which is also very cinematic and has the problems I mentioned earlier. I personally don't like it.
But what I would most like to see changed or modified in the following parts of the Remake concerning with this section of the game, is that the developers add aerial combos for certain characters. Also, that they enable a button to jump or propel us up freely in case we want to start directly with air attacks. Thus being able to combine them with the terrestrial ones in order to making longer and more attractive chains. With the level of precision, harmony and agility that is seen in the best games of KH (That in my opinion are 2 and 3).
Even as we go through the adventure, we can learn different types of basic or regular combos, not only specials and limits.
In fact, when I saw that Cloud had 2 fighting stances. I thinked that would be great if he learned regular combos for each one, in order to expand and also give them more variety.
I even thought that he might have a new one where he performs very fast attacks. Allowing him to even move much faster around the stage.
Covering in this way 3 fighting styles:
1. One for normal attacks.
2. Another for heaviers.
3. And the last one for the fastest.
- - -
Finally, regarding the interaction with the stage I definitely wish it will be much more organic and natural. Indeed, I think that the option to jump freely should also be enabled when we travel around the game world.
In one of the last Intergrade gameplay trailer, Yuffie is on a cliff, and in front of her there is another with some boxes. There should be the option that if we want to, we can either break those boxes from afar as shown there. But also jump towards the rock and break them melee so to speak.
In other words, that they give us the option to move much more freely. Without so many restrictions.
Curiously they have done very well in other games, but not in this one. And it seems that they do not realize it yet. I really don't get it.
I wish that all these things could improve greatly in the next episodes!. But we will have to wait and see what happens. :)
**And all of this I've said is about the base game, because I haven't played the DLC yet. But from what I've seen in the gameplay videos, I get the feeling that it has improved a bit, although I'm not sure.
The thing that is a real bummer is if Part 2 ends up being a masterpiece it'll still be tied to this game 😔
This is probably the most comprehensive explanation of the issues with the remake I've ever seen. I have to say, I agree whole heartedly with most of what you were saying. I think personally I can at least forgive some of the level design for the sake of updating the games feel to a more modern take. That being said the full on anime power cutscenes starting so early in the story was a huge issue for me. As a fan of the story that they wrote for crisis core I have a very specific view of Cloud's abilities in the beginning of the game. He's not that strong, in any way. That's the whole point. Zack had to drag him away from the Shinra troops half dead because Cloud couldn't fight them. It's the whole reason his death had impact. He couldn't go all out because he was protecting Cloud which meant that he took hits he should have been able to avoid which compounded and inevitably killed him. It's a crushing moment. Am I glad that he's alive and I might be able to play a game where he's around again somewhat yes. Would I prefer the heart wrenching moment to have been immortalized properly? Fucking definitely.
Yes exactly. If this was the end of the game and we would see our heroes get stronger and stronger (as they level up), one could argue it makes sense that they become so powerful at some point. But this is after like 7-10% of the story 😅 And as said if you make them so powerful, make some changes to the level design. Let my fly around through levels like in Sekiro.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I've heard the argument that because of the events of crisis core and how Cloud was given Jenova's cells it explains the power jump and I agree with that too. But I no way is he going to come out of a coma at the end of that game and have any sort of control over that strength. He would have come off as uncontrolled and dangerous rather than skilled like they show him. Those cutscenes are mid level Cloud around when he gets proper use of cross slash, but they show him closer to omni slash levels of control which is silly.
To further your point, it makes no sense for cloud to be jumping around like a maniac in the Midgar section. In his own head, he was the soldier guy who didn’t hold a candle to Seph. He believed he was weak.
It wasn’t until later, when you found out the actual truth. That cloud was never in soldier. But he still had the massive strength to confront seph when tifa was in danger. protecting people gave him the strength he needed to defeat seph. This need to protect tifa turned into a need to protect the planet, and thus, gave cloud the ability to fully use his strength. It’s after that, at least in my head canon, that cloud unlocked his true strength, and was able to do things like Omni strike and all of the other crazy feats he pulls off in combat.
@@rsk3286 to a certain extent this is true yeah. The crisis core story clarifies some things like technically he was a soldier but he was basically a non-com recruit because he hadn't been through the process yet. By the time he does it's the end of the game when he would have been official but ahit goes south fast. It's that weird Flux state he was in combined with the fact that he idolized Zack and basically copied what he remembered of Zack's fighting style only poorly. Which is why Zack always feels like he's significantly stronger and cloud always looks like he's flailing around unless he's using omni. It's pretty amusing actually.
I admit and agree that the FF7Remake did some things REALLY well. Most of the audio-visual translation from the original game to the remake is done marvelously, and in my opinion I absolutely adore 99% of the updated combat system. I were VERY skeptical when initial combat trailers showed real-time action combat, but I honestly thing they've done an amazing job respecting the old ATB system while modernizing it by injecting real-time action into the combat as well. It's a mix that I'm honestly surprised how well it works.
..BUT. What the remake does poorly.. frustratingly so.. goes against WHY I wanted an FF7 remake in the first place... and therefore have made me lose interest in the remake. It's not a remake of the original game, it's just yet another spin-off that is milking more money out of the massive success that the original ff7 was.. I'd honestly rather just replay the original game again.
*"If a character falls down an abyss somewhere and we don't see the corpse, we know 100% he is still alive."*
Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine: **
I can imagine a ton of people disagree or just really like the game. It has its strengths too, but ultimately I didn't like it myself. And as mentioned this was once part of a different video and supposed to be a short section in it, bu blew up to a 206 minute long section, so i made it its own video. As a result it is a bit like a rant and focusses a lot on the negatives. Only half a review in that sense, but still it's my critique of the game.
PS: there seems to be a lot of need to talk. I think though that the reception of FF/ Remake was mostly positive, there are definitely some points people don't agree on, which I can understand.
Links:
Half-Life in 60 Seconds (Remaster) by Jakob Rompkowski - ruclips.net/video/3VaGsoL9Nuk/видео.html (Bla bla bla Mr. Freeman 😂)
Jenova Theory video - ruclips.net/video/cXUFZtWagZ4/видео.html
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People are finally beginning to realize that SE are simply living on their past reputation.
When was the last time they made a truly top tier rpg/action game?
This critique is SO on point because it clearly addresses just how many aspects of game design FF7 remake utterly fails at. It's a remake made by a studio that is simply way past it best.
That they think invisible walls from FFX will be acceptable fifteen years later is just hilarious to me. Let me not even talk about the anime characterisations.
I don't think that's totally true. They do put out some good stuff still. Mainline FF and Kindgom Hearts are a mess though.
@@skippertheeyechild6621Nahh SE is trash
@@KenjiSatoTakashi Don't agree. They still put out decent games.
Thank you for expressing the part about death and in the exact same way I have tried to tell others. Most people simply do not understand the distrust of death because of the whisperers and constant bait of death and survival. People find retconned head canons, tries to rationalize away it as symbolism and what not. It simply does not connect for them that it is about the writers' conveyance of death on a narrative level and perhaps that is generally why stories get away with fake death-outs. I mean... it works. People give so much praise for the meta messages in this game yet avoid this specific (well one of the things they ignore). I can forgive Cloud for jumping high once or twice because of cutscenes, but the ending was way over the top, regardless of pocket dimension time compression power level or being a symbolic fight in some kind of lifestream space, corrupted or not.
For some reason everything is supposed to be okay if you read, watch and play all FF VII media, choose and pick what and when and accept fan theories. Not like people can simply dislike time-travel/time-shenanigans within or outside the lifestream, fate as a manifested being and concept of the worlds divine workings and death fake-outs as a narrative tool in general and especially FF VII. If others think it is okay and are intrigued by assumptions and fan theories that is one okay for them but I, for one, did not like it and I also do not like seeing so many not understanding that yet argue from their own point of view based on feelings of like and want. I have a hard time seeing how people do not consider altering the past as a big no-no regarding Zack. It should bother everyone except hard core Zack fanatics. Then again I do understand that theories is supposed to be a gospel and solution for getting more content, being excited and have favorite characters survive and matter. But then people are not allowed to judge the things happening in the remake as of now with criticism but allowed to adore all of it (so judge it positively...). It does not matter if it is a sequel as most seem to adapt as of now. It is still sad story telling and not want I wanted, especially not in FF VII. And I liked most of the compilation.
Anyway take care as well in these times and have a like and sub from me.
It's as if they tried their best to disappoint even their most easy-to-please FFvii fans. All it needed was to be treated like a classic and given proper respect, like how Lord of the Rings is the same classic story even though there are completely different versions that are adapted in different ways. This "remake" isn't FFvii in spirit at all, it's mainstream bait-and-switch nostalgic fanfic trash.
yep top tier trash
@Aaron9 the "fans" are usually brand-obsessed weebs whose input shouldn't even be considered since they WILL immediately buy these products and defend it like it's their job. Capitalized weeb/otaku culture ruined one of the only stories that managed to transcend the common stereotypes that bogs down a lot of Japanese media. It's a travesty.
Same as King Lear or Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Sherlock Holmes etc, Agatha Christie.
Rian Johnson would be proud. It did "subvert expectations", therefore it automatically means clever storytelling. 🤦
Squenix just can't help themselves. It is like the massacre of FFX all over again.
I cant believe we waited 20 years for this...
And its amazing how most people loved it hu? Don't like it? Ok..go make a better game. Yeah I get it "remake" means something else. Story padding, weird shit that doesn't make any sense, alt timelines, ..i get it...but A LOT OF PEOPLE LOVED IT. "Oh we waited 20 years for this"...yeah we did and its great. Final boss was amazing. Millions love it. Get over it. You don't have to like anything...but for the love of FF7 fucken chill.
Great video and very valid points. Was so disappointed with this game as this is my 3rd favorite RPG game of all time (Just a tad behind Suikoden II and FF6). And so agree with the over the topness of this game. I cringe every time I watch a cutscene. I miss the original Squaresoft.
I don't get the near-universal love for this game. While I think that some of the points you make here are a tad nit picky, I definitely agree that this remake felt lacking. I never played the original and was excited to see what people liked about it now that it had updated visuals and gameplay, but I walked away thinking that I was pranked or something. I was getting into it during the wall market bit and the part where you invade shinra, but by the end I had no idea what was going on since I intentionally stayed mostly spoiler free about the original
I don't get it either 😅
For sure I'm a bit nitpicky, but I noticed some of that during my first playthrough and found it immersion breaking or annoying + I hate the story changes (not because they did changes at all, but because they are bad).
The end of the Remake (and the fate stuff) is also not in the original game at all xD The death of President Shinra is very different, Sephiroth does not appear, the Wall Market section is also a bit different (outcome the same) and the Collapsing Pillar stuff is also shorter and done better imo.
In the original you just leave Midgar after the Shinra HQ and are chased by Shinra Motor cycle soldiers + the boss, then you leave and enter the overworld (the whole Midgar section is basically just an 5-8 hour section and can be seen as tutorial and intro).
What is going on with Zack (also completely different in the original) you learn much later in the game in a seceret sequence that most people will miss on their first playthrough.
I can still recommend playing the original game, because the Remake is very different so far even implying time travel and parallel universe stuff, which was also not in the original. No idea what they were thinking.
@@ThePhilosophersGames Sorry for another comment in another thread. I just wanted to say that The ultimania plus has Toriyama confirming 2 things. That whatever visions Aerith infects people with are caused by "sensitivity" and are visions that transcend space and time. So they are actually themselves ground Zero for a multiverse because this would mean that the visions are true even if they do not happen. It could all be a "deterministic" time loop except that the OG exist, and we know that the whisperers want to preserve that one. Their mere intervention proves that there is at least some version out there that they did not have to change things in. Anyway, this is time travel information so that fact alone confirms that this is now a time travel story. The other thing is that the edge of creation is indeed 7 seconds before the planet actually dies. Whatever that means when we know that meteor is actually not the end (or if it still is before prevented), it still means that they "travelled" there and back. So even if the singularity is not some warped time, going to the edge of creation is full-fledged time travel as you come back to exit Midgar. And now people think that OG had same time travel because the scene is similar.
It all baffles me. And I am so angry with the fanbase for accepting this kind of writing and how it will go down in history as "a masterpiece". I understand developers saying whatever, as Toriyama has also gone out saying (but this is old I think):
"However, there were times when we were restricted by the original game. For the staff who had a lot of attachments to FF VII, we had to make sure that we did not stray too much away from the source material. For those who made the original FF VII, these restrictions did not exist as it was a completely new story, and whatever we thought was interesting to put in we just added to the story. We wanted to be able to do that this time around too, though, so we tried to lessen the restriction and do what we wanted to while also keeping the original in mind."
They made the remake but wanted to be free. Kitase has also said he wants to continue "the positive" subversion. And both say it will not deviate too much but still be new, the theme of loss is important, yet the game itself literally plays with death in the worst way a TV drama could do. Apparently they saw the OG as a limitation. (Toriyama is new to the project) Edit: No he is not that was bad on my part, so I guess that is fine, but it saddens me to see Kitase allowing this destruction of FF VII OG being the director of that. Even worse is that the fandom embrace this so openly. I try to think of more than "but I just want to see the characters on new adventure" but I cannot understand how little people actually cared about the story. It baffles me and fuels anger inside of me. I just had a dude trying to explain to me in many words (although I wrote far more back) that it is so cool that Aerith and Sephiroth knows things that they aren't letting people know, and it is worth sacrifice everything of the OG for this excitement. It does not matter that this was supposed to be a remake, it still destroys FF VII in every way possible and the developers are blind towards that for some reason and people believe in their "grand plan" and many even commenting that it is better by default of being new and refuse to admit it is simply because they like the characters and just want to see more of them. Story be damned.
When you are on the hype train it's hard to see clearly
@@aarononeill3 well said. “there ain’t no getting offa this (hype) train”
man i played this game(old ff7) around 10 yrs old. granted i didn't understand much of the story back then. so decided to replay it when i was 16 yrs old and got fully blown away again by the story. i've loved and cherish the game even ff8/9. since 2020 pandemic hits i never got around to play it and also didn't have much money to blow on a game since i got sick last 2020. my god it was so good yes the padding is kinda bad but i love it cause its ff7 right? up until the tower/pillar thing where Wedge survived and i remember he is supposed to die there, and if the damn Whispers is preventing stuff diverging from the original game then why did they ignored Wedge surviving in that area? then i finished the game i'm 50/50 on it because of the shock, after a few days i realized they butchered one of the greatest game and my childhood memories in just one game. i watched alot of criticsm and it was so bad i saw alot of 1 hour videos going around criticizing ff7 remake, and alot of those share my sentiments. we can only hope Naoki Hamaguchi can fix what Tetsuya Nomura brought upon us.
I just wanna ask you what videos you have watched? I have watched many, but I am always trying to get more :S. And I do not mean those that praise the game blindly but those that have criticism and analysis. Hating also gets overboard :/. My personal wish would be that people simply understand that the whisperers is not a good idea, but taste is subjective :S.
@@vincentgraymore taste may be subjective but quality certainly isn't. And the biggest problem is the fanboys ( not calling you a fanboy to be clear) will not take any critisism whatsoever.
Personal opinion, don't get mad. That said...the remake is great but the story is weak now. ...no one dies....theres no gravity or consequences for it. Part of the city crushes the slums and it looks like no one died from it.
Fake out barret death lasting all of 1 fight...
Tifa is an emotional waffle, who only seems strong if cloud isn't there. Both Tifa and to a lesser extent aerith seem more helpless when he's in the party, needing him to save them more.
They took out choices...you can't not buy a flower, you can't choose to give it to Marlene.
Zack is dead...died before cloud came to the city. In another timeline he made it...but...why? Why can't there be tragedy in the story? The bad guys, and main charaters are using lethal force, unless the sword cutting through a building can't kill a person....It's supposed to be a fight to survive. At no point am I worried for any of them, because this is just fan service. The story had no teeth to it.
In the original game yuffie was an obnoxious pain in the ass but her side story made her a little bit of a better charater and worth it in the end.
I like barret a lot battle in the remake,
Aeriths magic and abilities should be more potent or less slow since her hp is awful. Tifa is fast but the lack of reach I tend to pick aerith over her going with cloud melee, barret as melee or range depending and her range.
The fact the last fights are so epic, if my charaters are stopped by a fence in part 2 at this point itll be ridiculous. It's like they made the game thinking they wouldn't have a part 2, how can they top part 1 now? It'll just get so much more over the top...they're God lvl at this point already....
Ppl go bonkers over sephiroth....why is he a good villain?...he kills a main charater, no way to bring her back. It changed the tone, you couldn't be sure if you'd lose more ppl....he was a real threat. They blew their load so early with him....to please fans? He's a joke now. Defeated in battle already....and jenova....these were end game fights..... now what? They're just 2 low lvl sub bosses? In the first...half?...first 3rd of the remake?
I want aeith to live, but the only 2 deaths that would impact the game are hers, and cloud. He's the link to sephiroth, shes the link to holy, and the life stream, saving the planet from meteor.
If they go all happy.....great, fulfill some ppls fan fiction fantasies. But over all it hurts what was such a strong story that it hung in there for over 20 years. It wasn't perfect, but it should leave you wanting more not less. And it did, ppl wanted more of those charaters.
Time travel, crossing dimensions, ....just feels to over used. A cheap trick at this point and I hope it doesn't go that way.
Looks great, fun to play, but I'm not invested in the charaters now.
....sorry...long rant.
This is just me reposting a comment from another post I made on the game so I didn't need to retype it all. You've got great points. They went way over the top, and will abandon good story to please fans that just love the charaters.
Thank you ^^ Yes that sums up some of my points from the video too. I'm a bit baffled by the positive reception of the Remake. I get that some people really enjoy the combat (I think combat works great for the most part for a "mainstream" single player game or a Final Fantasy in general), but the changes to maybe one of the most important things about Final Fantasy VII, the story, are really not that great in the Remake. They could have created a "what if character X survives and Y dies instead" spin off story, but they ruined that with introducing this stupid meta narrative element. Not sure if you have seen the end of the Yuffie DLC 😅
@@ThePhilosophersGames I didn't even see her dlc yet. I loved cid, he was a cranky bastard but had a good heart snd great limit breaks. What they need to do is not fear killing chacters, or npcs. If they're gonna go full happy I'd rather see multiple endings so I could at least try and pretend I got the empty husk of a good story.
I was pretty bummed out, midgar wasn't made with more exploratory. Just seems like a wasted opportunity. I think they should had put characters in different areas of the city to expand how huge the city really is and imported a cell phone system , as in GTA 4 to where you have to call then drive your motorcycle to the character. A buddy system, where you can relax with the characters, also. Motorcycle upgrades, gear upgrades being physically shown on characters and being able to swim. A jump bottom, also. Give me the option to climb fences. Everything is flash over substance now.
I'm not saying make FF7, GTA4. I'm just saying, where was the immersion? Why not nail it right the 1st time.
Hey Chris! Just stopping by to say hello! I still don't play games but like to hear you talk! Lol ...and find out new stuff the kids might be interested in. Have a beautiful day!
haha ^^ Have a great day too! The original FF7 looks sadly very dated, so not sure if kids these days would ever touch it, but I think it's still great. The Remake can be fun, but I didn't enjoy it =/
with no deaths there is no stakes. And if there is death but alternative timelines to bring characters back, then it undermines their death. Either way it is a fail
yes the decision did not help the story and the weirdest thing is: the original had none of this fate ghost nonsense and handled characters dying very impactful and well. Such a great game and story and a true classic of video game history. I'm not against some changes, but then you have to improve the source, which I felt was not the case here.
@@ThePhilosophersGames Totally agreed. I am a massive fan of the original and played it multiple times on the PS1, PS3 and PC. I finally got to play FF7R just a week ago on PC. And to me it felt like Nomura wanted to rush through the highlights of the original story overall but do it within Midgar. Use the fate ghost to then open the story to any and all of his ideas for the future of the game. He should have just did his own FF game instead of Kingdom Hearts in the world of FF7.
haha yes the comparison to kingdom hearts comes to mind fast 😅 That is also a pretty good explanation.
My theory is that at some point after the party finally defeated Sephiroth at the end of the original game, some part of him was still able to survive and regrouped. Aeris in the lifestream has somehow altered the past to now redirect the party's fate (original game's events) towards helping the party finish Sephiroth off for good. That's why whenever a key character is about to die, fate intervenes to keep them alive so that they can finally defeat Sephiroth. Sephiroth then somehow hijacked the fates and forced a fight between the party and fate. After killing fate, the party is now no longer destined to follow the events of the original game. They might even become aware of this in the second game and realise they have to do things differently this time around to completely destroy Sephiroth. That means that the idea of Final Fantasy VII will be completely remade whilst also freeing them up to take the story in any direction they please.
Never again will I touch a Nomura game.
😄
i cant agree more! especially about how Sephiroth seemed so damn POWERFUL in original game, i too remember fighting those monsters that he literally one shotted! there were a lot of moments when we could 1st hand witness how insanely powerful he is and it made you feel like he is unbeatable, as it SHOULD BE cuz its original intention! he is supposed to be a mega uber ultra ultimate villain. But in remake he looks like some loser, a pushover.. what a shame💀to me, the story was all over the place and my focus wasnt even on Sephiroth, while in original game i waited his encounter with bated breath.
Also, Aerith's death was a pillar to the story, its such a memorable and impactful moment.. and here, everyone is fine and dandy, as if nothing happened. even all the enemies! it made me feel like there was literally no impact in any event of the story. And they added a lot of new things to the story, even threw in Nero and Weiss from Dirge of Cerberus! which i was very happy to see, of course, but they could add more content from original ff7 instead.. i didnt get enough content about Cloud and Tifa relationships/past, for example. There is such a huge gap in the story, we just jump to the ending and thats it..
Stretching the gameplay was also so frustrating for me that honestly i couldnt wait to finish the game and be done with it.
I couldn’t agree more on the possibility of a new story. And it makes you wonder why. If they wanted to change the story this much, why not just make another final fantasy? Makes no sense to me.
To capitalize on the name FF7
@@RIELSG Yea I get it. But this isn’t ff7. It’s characters masquerading as ff7.
@@rsk3286 when assassin's Creed has a better openworld than FF7R you know it's embarassing. They could easily expanded Midgar like Odyssey did with major cities in small sections. They could made Midgar even more interesting to explore.
But you got the typical fan boys saying they did expanded. Ah yes exploring corridors of junk ward sure was interesting.
@@RIELSG Yup. That’s what I was expecting, along with more bits like learning about Jessie’s parents.
Not corridor “city” and killing off characters like Barrett and then being like, nahhh we are just kidding. Fate ghosts kept that from happening.
WHAT??? BARRETT NEVER DIED IN THE ORIGINAL GAME. 😂
And don’t even get me started on fighting seph. Took all the wonder and mystery out of his character by doing that. Not only that, but actually showing that he could be fought. This ruins the soon to be flash back with seph and zack, where seph is made to look invincible.
@@rsk3286 exactly after a year now I can't say I don't like it and I don't care anymore about future parts. They sort of lie about not changing the story if they wanted to do a sequel or retelling should've been honest.
Now I'll be boycotting all products from square Enix or just wait cheap sales.
They lost a loyal customer that used to buy collectors edition from them.
FF7 Remake was not made with newcomers in mind.
When I saw this random dude with the Buster Sword and black hair, of course I wanted to know who he was!
I’m currently playing through the OG, and while I’m definitely having fun, I’m also very sad that I can’t truly experience the plot for myself
I don't think much thought was put into it really for newcomers or original fans. I am surprised at how much they destroyed a good story, and how inept they were. I can't explain why they did it, because non of it makes sense lol. I'm going to try the original on PC, I played the old game 3 times on ps1 and love it. I do feel robbed of the money a bit, but I just kind of enjoyed it and just told myself to ignore and imagine out the whispers, but the end of the game I really lost any enjoyment. It was really terrible to be honest.
I don't think it's made for old timers either. In short, it's a mess.
I thought I was the only one. Thank you for saying it
Game is a disaster. So many things done right, but so many more done abysmally bad! Not a purist, I don't lament the old combat system, making characters look less anime, expanding on some supporting characters' flavor and stories (gotta love Jessee and Charlie She... I mean Biggs)... But... Combat is awful (good idea, but terrible realization), story is mutilated beyond redemption (and don't get me started on the deus ex machina of deus ex machina, the cancer of plotlines, the septic tank of writing that is altarnate reality twists!). Characters have so much plot armor I literally started giving my screen the middle finger after the 37th time something collapsed under them and they survived... And then, the characters look more realistic, but still behave like anime characters. Cloud on a motorcycle downing a helicopter!? That's just... I dunno, I think that's kinda much even for a Vin Diesel movie! And the entire project being split into parts is the stupidest decision ever! Ok, I understand that old FF7 might be too big for to remake in one go, but 35-40 hours of MIDGAR!? That is beyond insulting! If they wanted to split it, why not make it up to Costa Del Sol!? Have Sephiroth appear at the time he did in the original, make JENOVA Birth the final boss... NO! Instead, we get the Angel of the Slums and Jonny questlines. We get the insanely tedious Corneo questline and then... MORE of the insanely tedious Corneo content repeated! Choices that Square made in this game are beyond redemption and have literally condemned any and all possibility for the remake to be good!
EDIT: I LOVE how well you explained the power creep! Finally someone said it!
As you said, some of these elements could work if the story and gameplay were structured around them. But it wasn't. The Whispers, for example, could have worked on at least a gameplay level if they had simply given the player more of a choice in the direction the story went. Give the player the choice of whether to stick with the original plot or go a different way, and if the player chooses a different route, THEN the fate ghosts show up and you have to deal with them. That has potential to actually be a pretty groundbreaking and unique element for a remake, while also pleasing the fans that still wanted a faithful remake. But the player doesn't have a choice in where the plot goes, the story just shoves this abstract fate ghost stuff at the player with a ham-fisted message about "destiny". To a player who is unfamiliar with the original, that is not going to make any sense. To a player who is familiar with the original and loves it, it just feels like the game is giving them the middle finger.
Textures are a issue. And it shows, during the daytime scenes. Especially in sector7 and 5. Somehow, they look less artistic then they do in the original. Also. It's a basic as dumpyard and steelyard, with linear paths. Wallmarket is the only area you want to actually roam around. Just seemed like wasted opportunity. FF7 could be soo much more. I think people would had been more forgiving and willing to be okay with them milking this project, if it was open world. Why show me how big the city is, when I can't even explore it. The intro to this game is a major tease. Level design was tacky and dragged out linear pathways with some alleys and rooftops. That area where you jump rope onto the top plate was hideously done. This game won't age well.
Nomura - death? What's that , I do my own FF whit 7 skin
The darkness in Sephiroth heart is the real enemy
@@RIELSG wanst Sep Clouds darkness ...or how ther sayit in that one cutscene XD
Thank you for this. I was very in the minority when it came to my opinions on this game. I was excited and was ready for it. I didn’t mind most of the level design and combat but when it came to the over the top end and the jumping out of no where and the floating “ghosts” it took me out of the moment each time and the game played super safe with death when the original had it present and was used as an overall theme with passing and “death doesn’t mean the end”. I’m still excited for the next one but it’s on a thinner line than the linear design of it keeps me for the rest. Sigh, here’s to hoping they can land this one.
I actually quit in frustration from the crane that was honestly the last straw for me though visuals are good the story is basically a fanfic
yes the story and the changes really have a fanfic feeling at times 😅
@@ThePhilosophersGames I wasn't fond of the low mp system which made it useless compared to physical attacks and just midgar for a 60 dollar game feels like a ripoff
The pacing in remake sucks and also the Disneyfied redesign of the world- Subterranean slums that have glaring sunlight over every inch of surface just arent as cool looking and also make no sense. If the plates dont mostly restrict sun light, what is really the difference between the bottom layer and the top??
Another example is the train tracks level- It's lit like an outlet store; why are they this well lit? Its like everything dark and gloomy about the old one just doesnt fit into the Disney Kingdom Hearts aesthetic, so they scrapped it. But the run down grittiness, the desparation of the old game was a large part of its charm. Characters in Midgar were seedy, beaten down, questionable, and desperate. They were too "mature" for the little kids they want to play these games, so they just scrapped it
what makes you think the whispers of fate are defeated..theyre agents of the planet...the planet could spawn some more.
I don't really think they are defeated, but one could make the argument (because we defeated the big one). But at the same time you could just come up with an explanation why they are still there. They are imo not great as a "device" for the story.
Those ghosts ruined it for me
I found it funny that cloud forgot about cure materia when he finds biggs and jessie int the tower before the plate collapse
If they had cut out everything to do with the dementors (including Barrett’s nonsensical non-death) and chop off all gameplay after Chapter 17, the Remake would have been satisfying for everyone. Sephiroth can stay around as a lingering force-of-nature presence, but he was not the villain of this game.
*Dragonball + Final Fantasy = HUGE MESS*
Thanks Square
😄 true
Dragon ball it's wayy more entertaining than this Frankestein of a Remake
*been playing it game and it's worst then when I had my nostalgia glasses on*
The NPCs was another problem. They look bland in a cyberpunk world. Aerith's combat went from her hitting with her pole to her doing dances and shooting magic? Is this a barbie game now?
*Idk what it is with Japanese video game studios. BUT it seems like making actual today's standard side quests and NPCS that don't seem lifeless or out of place* ...just seems like rocket science to them. It didn't even seem like they tried. You can tell, which parts they got lazy with...or gave no crap about at all.
The game has a really unbalanced vibe of getting things right and making things 100% worst. Making you want to just fire up the 1997 game and die knowing you least experienced that. Yuffie DLC? 🤡 sounds like something I won't be playing... 2 reasons, it doesn't add new content and that short azz DLC should be free....seeing it's yuffie in midgar.
This game is an insult to its fans. It may take more time for others to see it as well. In this day and age, i guess it wasn't so surprising
I would not go as far, but I didn't like the changes to story. I have no problem changing the story, but than it should be marketed as a spin-off and the changes should be good. In my opinion they are not good and handled pretty inconsistently (ludo narrative dissonance).
@@ThePhilosophersGames dude the fate ghosts represent the old fans holding back the story. This game has a lot of contempt toward classic ff fans, they hate us because we get in the way of them making money off weebs and little kids.
@@seanmills7586 I honestly don't care what the fate ghosts represent. I think it's just a meta commentary on "we remake a story that already exists". They simply don't work for the story and are destructive for how the story works. There is nothing "fans can hold back" when it comes to story telling. Just tell a good story that makes sense.
@@ThePhilosophersGames lol yeah but nomura's stories are so profound don't you know? He can do it better so he can't help himself lmao. In all seriousness he is very pompous with his crappy fate story he keeps trying to force us to like. We didnt like it in 13 or kh3 so just stop. But unfortunately he has done it with a legendary game and slaughtered it.
@@seanmills7586 You say that now, but you'll be a changed man in 2037 when you see everything come full circle in Final Fantasy VII 2, Dirge of Advent Birth by Sleep 420/69, where you'll discover that this new story is what ultimately leads to Cloud working for Hades in Kingdom Hearts, not to mention Ansem is secretly Genesis fused with Mog from the Gold Saucer arcade game (the arcade game of course being a symbolic representation of Mog's perception of his existence within Final Fantasy, a sort of CHIM attainment that allows him to break away from the Time God of Fate who he sets up the party to kill at the end of FF7R).
*pacing and level designs* are awful.
*No real exploration. No real reason to want to drown yourself in this game* .... it's boss fight after boss fight.... *after finding some switches and holding down triangle* ... walk and talk gameplay is 40% of the game .... ladders .... *making the worst types dungeons, the main ones* ... that train graveyard, made me turn the game off just now.
No jump botton, YET I just watched a cutscene with Cloud doesn't know what gravity is. *part 2 needs to shut the critics up or it's a wrap for this remake*
Oh, don't worry. They're working on shutting the critics up.
By silencing us.
I just dont like the direction they took after the original. Its so over the top and feels like its just there to show how cool Cloud and the rest of the gang are. The bike chase sums it up well. Cloud jumps from a driving motorcycle to another one while doing flip-flops. If my brother (who isnt gaming) saw this, he would probably ask me: "Who is this aimed for? 12 year olds?"
This way it feels like there are barely any stakes at all. Like when Aerith and Barret try to flee from Shinra HQ they get surrounded by Heidegger and his troops, everyone pointing their guns on those two. In real-life anyone would fear for their life. But not in this game. Aerith and Barret start insulting Heidegger. Why? Because its a videogame and we know nothing can happen to them. Then Cloud shows up on his motorcycle and the game displays how cool Cloud is and how incompetent our enemies are. Although they all have guns with them, they decide to let themselves get run over by Cloud one after another (in the 'coolest' way possible ofc) without even trying to shoot at him (after a long while they do.. but why not before?).
I am baffled that people love this.. feels like style over substance to me. I find it hard to take it seriously.
They nailed a lot of the character interactions in calm moments, but with their changes in the narrative, I feel like nothing makes sense anymore. The whole Wall Market section is the prime example. Is it entertaining? Absolutely. Does it make sense? Less so. I mean the premise is that we want to rescue Tifa by infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion. And how do we do that? By signing up to a tournament which is held by the don. So we are actually drawing all the attention onto us although we actually want to achieve the opposite. But not only that.. where is the urgency? Time is kinda important when you want to rescue someone, isnt it? But such a tournament would normally at least take hours with all the regenaration and the other fights in between.
Also.. whats up with the lack of urgency when trying to prevent the Turks from blowing up the pillar? We get these drawn out melodramatic 'death' scenes of Biggs and Jessie. I would understand if Cloud wouldnt think rationally if it was Tifa dying. But not the other two.. in the narrative it makes no sense to waste our time when every single second could decide if the whole sector dies (himself and Tifa included) or not.
Lots(!) of other scenes/changes that bugged me a lot. Having the basic structure of the original, this game felt like wasted potential to me.
Yes you make a good point about the urgency (and secrecy) of the Wall market section. I noticed that too while playing and found it not so great. They do a lot of things quite well, but the story, plot and structure of all of this (plus the absolute "over the top"-ness) do a lot of damage. No idea if they can fix that in the later sequels.
Someone argued that Cloud ability to jump so high, etc was only in this dimension where they fight fate and Sephiroth at the end, but as you said it also happens in the regular world (like the motorcycle chase). Can't remember if I pointed that out in the video (could have added many more points, but it was supposed to be a relatively short section of another video and then got far too long so i made it its own video).
After seeing the end of the Yuffie DLC it also really seems they will be going down the different timeline/parallel universe routes (it's not just a little implication at the end of FF7R). No words for this ... Very worried about it too
I’m from the background of a child who learned how to read playing the original game and thought Advent Children was the coolest thing ever. I’ve understood that anime fantasy is not really the best direction for Final Fantasy VII, but Square has been going in this direction since Kingdom Hearts and I’m just having fun with it since I still fuckin’ love AC.
Yes true. Square Enix pushed into this Anime direction in the past 2 decades. i don't mind it too much when they would do it for their newer releases and design them appropriately, but - as mentioned in the video - for my beloved FFVII I think it generates too many problems and does not really fit.
I can’t stand the boss fights. Why do my hero’s suddenly go from badass to little weaklings? It’s like the fights are stretched out to take up time or try to feel epic ? I don’t like dark souls, something hard just to be hard, not skill, memorization beats those games. Stupid and not fun.
dude most dark souls bosses aren't even spongey, they are super spongey in this crap game. I think dark souls has tons of skill involved, dark souls is nothing like this.
Sorry for the late answer (didn't see your comment =/). I found the bosses in FF7R ok, some fights were kind of lame though and overall I found it quite easy on normal, but difficulty can be very subjective. I agree though that some fight felt really stretched.
I would not agree on Dark Souls though. Ofc learning patterns and attacks and what to do is part of it, but combat for casual playthroughs has many nuances and imo require some sort of skill (judging the situation, keeping your resources in mind, timing your dodges right, decide when to attack, etc). I would argue learning patterns is in a ton of games. Some parts are frustrating for the sake of being frustrating though. I just completed my Demon's Souls replay (PS3 version) on stream and yes some stuff is actively wasting your time for the sake of being annoying (e.g. Valle of Defilement). It got less in the successor Dark Souls though, but it's still present here and there. i don't mind, but cn see why people would criticise it. But keep in mind I'm a huge Souls fan ^^
i love this rant . this game feels like a trailer or demo to a ff game.
1 100% respect your opinion and you have every right to have it. I personally respectfully disagree because growing up I loved FF7 and to this day it's my favorite FF game in the series. However the remake also put the characters in positions and scenarios that gave them a fresh look on who they are or could be in the game. I also enjoyed the unique setting of the original but call me simple minded but I wasn't a big fan on some of the aspects that took way to long to explain or just to traverse a level. I feel the remake made the game more action based which is my favorite type of game but also mixed in aspects of Crisis Core in regards to story and lore but I also think that the new twists are great. I say that because while the original did have its EPIC takes, I do think that the characters in the game are capable of a lot more so giving them some new quests of scenes that weren't in the original just expands on them as heroes or villians. I personally REALLY liked Aerith in the game and I REALLY liked Sephiroth. They were fun to watch and had enough mystical aspects to warrent a part 2 or even a Crisis Core Remake. This was a great aspect in my opinion. I don't like the compare the remake to original (even though I have) but its because nostolgic factors may effect my judgment in regards of the potential that new takes may have in the game's universe. Did I originally want a point by point Remake? yeah. Did I get it? Nah, but did I enjoy it? Hell yeah. But we all have our opinions so I can't say I am the ultimate judge. Great respect towards you.
I’m halfway through the video and so far your are so, so right, that the problems of this game and my gripes with it seems obvious, but I think that the public for this game are delusional og fans and gen z players who know no better.
Anyway it is unbelievable how we agree about the same aspects, this video reflects many of my comments about this game.
Remake is all style with no substance. The fact none of us can't openly admit this fact w/o the fandom mob or FF7 grifters calling us 'purists' or 'haters' points to a bigger issue that extends beyond FF7 Remake.
Hey man, I used about 1 minute from this video in an essay I posted to my channel, discussing FF7R's story problems. I hope that's OK (I cited you). The clip is at 2:08:35.
No problem. Nice you found it worth quoting discussing the game ^^ Also very impressive work you put together there. I wish you much success with it!
PS: also thank you for asking/contacting me 👍
I wondered about this, because I heard they made massive changes with the end having a lot of 'friendship and love'...and it's not even the full game or something. I never got into the series aside from VI, but I did like your analysis and I'm sorry that you were disappointed. Those Genoa theory videos made me hope that you would have a positive analysis, but hopefully something better comes along at a later date.
I'm - maybe - a bit of a FF7 fan boy. Some might look at this more relaxed. But some of the elements I disliked immensely. Nice that you enjoyed the Jenova Theory video ^^ Yes we will see where the story goes. There's still hope and even if they go with the alternative universe approach, I would be fine with it, as long as they remove their supernatural Deus Ex Machina.
well it's definitely no remake now is it, just a sequel whose best parts were when it followed the original's plot without kingdom hearting it
This was a disgraceful attempt at remaking the original which was a masterpiece
The ending was *unnecessary* and dragged the game out even longer. Towards the end, the game got painfully dragged out. Especially when it's boss battle after another. Your just like "SE, c'mon the hell on...end it already"
It's a *7/10*
Terrible pacing, no open-world (to give you room to breath from the overly dark/creepy story) and the story changes are awful.
*sorry for the spam comments, I just booted up Remake and I still cannot get over how they spit in the fans faces with that game*
And even worst, are charging ppl now to unlock crap. As if milking the game into how many parts, they feel like making while playing on our nostalgia ?😑 wasn't bad enough.
I guess my personal main problem is marketing the game as a remake showing scenes that recreates scenes of the original 1:1 we know from the original game (e.g. intro with the train arriving) before release and then altering the game so much. Ofc some fans are then disappointed. I would not have mind a alternative reality spin off or some even some changes, but a lot of the changes are imo not good. Also the pacing of the game is not great, some levels are absolutely terrible, the side quests are also often not great and there is too much "ludo-narrative dissonance" as explained in the video. So overall I did not like it. I think the combat system is decent, I liked the section where we visit Jessie's parents, etc, but also there is so much stuff I did not like.
*Don't get me started on how they ruined
Aerith or are trying to*
She's my favorite female in FF7 for the PS1. I HATE her in the remake with a passion 😑 the voice acting... she comes off as some naive powerful girl now. *who doesn't wanna accept her position, as being one of the greatest deaths in video game history* .... they are going to try and make you seem like you can save her.... watch. ZACK too... idk why the hell he even in Remake.
Willst du vielleicht irgendwann mal bei einen Podcast zum Remake mitmachen?
Bin aktuell nicht so im Thema drin 😅 (sorry dass ich erst so spät antworte)
The more I played the Remake, the more I hated it. I wanted to go back to the original ASAP. Honestly the only thing I like its the presentation. Nothing else is good (Battle system sucks, pacing sucks, side quests sucks, the fact that its just Midgar sucks, etc etc)
It's easier to conceptualize this game as a sequel to FF7, not a remake.
yes there truth in that, but it's a huge spoiler I guess and the said they want to retell the original story. Depending on where they are going calling it a remake is imo a bit misleading. Still the game has the problems discussed in the video.
The only thing I like about FF7R is waifu Tifa.
So you don't have it 100% here. The fate ghosts (whispers) are actually not the enemy here. They are actually the personification of people like us, fans of the original game who want to preserve the original story as closely as possible. They prevent Barrett from dying because that would be a stupid fucking decision, while allowing the death of President Shinra, who dies according to canon. Also, that is foreshadowing, in that the whispers would not prevent Aerith's death; the only way she lives is if the whispers are not around. This would not need to exist if the damn writers weren't trying to destroy the original story, but they did, because it becomes clear that Aerith and Sephiroth both already know the events of the first game and are both trying to change them, Sephiroth because he doesn't want to fail to become a god and Aerith because she doesn't want to die. Then, the devs have you MURDER the whispers/Arbiter, therefore putting to death the embodiment of your desire to keep faithful to the original story, now freeing the devs to completely fuck up the story for the next two installments. Nobody dies, Cloud now is irrelevant...welcome to Nomura's Multiverse of Madness
Remember, remake is not a remake, it's a sequel. I don't like how they duped us.
yes this sequel impression you get from it is really weird, but they marketed as Sequel and said in an interview:
"We’re not drastically changing the story and making it into something completely different than the original. Even though it’s a Remake, please assume the story of FF7 will continue as FF7 always has." - Final Fantasy 7 Remake Ultimania (Translation)
No, it is both at the same time. It still has everything the wishy washy term remake needs.
@ThePhilosophersGames also saw in another article where they then said that somethings will drastically change. Then, the Rebirth trailer, where Aerith says, focus on the future, not the past, while showing Meteor hit. Yeah, I'm not gonna trust or support them until I see how it all plays out on RUclips playthtoughs.
MugenLord , if you see my comment, you'll dig this awesome video.
Is a mediocre JRPG, very limited, you fight or “explore” when the directors wants it, not freedom at all, the level design is bad and the pacing atrocious.
Graphics, sound and combat, the only things that matters to this developers team.
They can have part 2 all for themselves, i hope XVI team can make a proper FF game, come on, the last good of the series was released like 15 - 20 years ago, it’s sad.
yes it's a very linear experience. When I first heard of the remake I imagined you could go top teh trainstation and explore other areas of Midgard as you please, maybe even find new little stories. I think art style, music, etc are well done. Also the Combat has options and many nuances, though most of that you only truly use during an "NG+" play through, while the normal one lacks this here and there,though it's still solid. But the story changes an most additions etc are just not great. For sure the section where you visit Jesse's parents is great, but this chapter also some really weird additions. In general a lot of ludo-narrative dissonance that makes you question: what were they thinking and destroys the immersion for me. Level design is also abysmal. So yes I would agree, it's not a great (J)RPG.
You seem like you really don't want to say "ludo-narrative dissonance". I can understand not wanting to jump on bandwagons, but sometimes the bandwagon goes in the same direction you're going.
haha yes I tried to avoid it, but it's exactly this and i think I could make clear what I mean (and showing examples) without saying it all the time. There is often a lot of debate when this is brought up and i think I could bring my my point across without it anyway, because it is so obvious in this game.
This review is SPOT ON. Perfect, thank you!
It's almost as if the crate is the real enemy.
😄
I feel like these whisper or ghost represents as the new players or first time playing FF7 who wants to ruin the storyline from the original
Just finished the game, I agree with basically everything you said
I have to admit that I expected at least some of my criticisms to be more common 😅 I'm a bit surprised that so many people really enjoyed the game (which is totally fine; good for them). I guess everyone weights certain aspects differently and can maybe look over some flaws easier. But glad to see some people agree with me ^^ Also thank you for commenting!
@@ThePhilosophersGames I appreciate you making this tho, i was sitting here in the middle of the sephiroth fight confused asf. I genuinely thought I missed something, so with this wave of confusion hitting me I looked up “FF7 criticism” and here I was. It was like you were reading my mind dead serious no joke. Then again I didn’t really waste any money, I’m only 14 so I got it when it came out on ps+ in March. But seriously tho I was so hyped and after 3 chapters I was just bored for the rest of the game (excluding some cutscenes). I just genuinely didn’t want to play the game anymore. Then after 3 days of forcing myself to play praying that it would all get explained, BAM! We’re at the edge of creation??? Like what were sephiroths motives? What is this dog named red? Who is zack? How did cloud get the buster sword? Those are some questions I had at the end of the game, and tons more that would stretch this comment out to the point where I just look weird if I don’t already, sorry if I’m just rambling it’s just I genuinely think I missed something.
Damn this was longer than I thought
@@ThePhilosophersGames I just gotta ask: have your opinion got worse or not with time? Mine have. Even now 1½ years later and with additional scene that Zack indeed is alive most people are still not understanding basic criticism. Anything can be rationalized with feelings, but it is a shame that people did not want better writing, but worse just for the subversion and addition of excitement for the unknown with fan theories.
@@vincentgraymore no still don't like these multiverse time travel stuff. I don't mind some changes or a new spin or an alternate history setting, but this is not what I hoped for. I'm also a bit surprised that the fan base likes it so much, though the criticism of the ending and the implied changes are often discussed and not like but some people. I guess most hope it won't go overboard too much, but imo it already has and the Yuffie DLC Ending also had some implications. Really not a fan of adding a time travel story that was never there.
sephiroth wasn’t really a villain in ff7 until the temple of the ancients
he was better described as a myth
even when you see the dead snake
there is no implication of “wow i’m in terror” its more like “well that thing is strong i wish it doesn’t take me as an enemy”
plus FF7 r is trying to continue on the story rather than remaking it which is a good enough answer for the change
there is an explanation for the deus ex machina
and that is sephiroth doesn’t do anything just out of a wimp or anger
he is contortive and has more understanding about what is happening
but the party doesn’t
that is true that the party learns that the planet wants only one path
but they don’t understand the implications of that
so
when sephiroth killed barret
and the whispers did heal him the characters now understood that these things are more of an enemy to stop rather than a friend to accept if they want to continue in their journey
this is obvious to see when they talk on the bridge
and the characters purpose is clear with that
for example cloud chooses to change fate because he already got memories of the future leading to him having to feel the pain that he felt when he lost aerith so he doesn’t want to lose her again
barret is just a big hero who wants to protect the planet
and if sephiroth continues he might harm the planet greatly and be yet again close to destroying it
aerith is a complicated character in the sense that she wants to go to change fate and go with the party
but she is hesitant because if she does she migh harm cloud even greatly more than her death in the OG
this is just simply her old conflict
but cranked up to the limit
which leads me to the ultimate point which is
the remake has a great story that has alot of potential to challenge the narrative of the OG to the limits which might leads into a very well written story
The remake is a mess story wise. And it will likely get even more messier as it goes on.
Never played the original Final Fantasy 7 so not knowing anything about the game I found this game pretty fun.
I've been going through a lot of depression and I didn't want to like play a really huge open world RPG like Dragon Quest 11 or something because it's too overwhelming but this game was really linear and I was able to beat it without thinking about it really so it was perfect for my frame of mind at the moment dealing with depression.
I'm not picky though I never really think about the content while I'm playing it. It's just like with a movie review when you watch something for the first time you don't have any problems with it and then you here about a review and then you start piecing it together and then you notice the negative things. But if you never saw the review you wouldn't even think about it you would just think it's good. Like that saying ignorance is bliss.
People just think too much sometimes and overcomplicated. sometimes things are just an easy hack and slash.
It's ofc different for every player. I know that players don't weight the problems of a game differently. Or don't notice. I personally notice stuff like this constantly (that is just how/who I am), but also have seen it better done in other games. In this case we also have an original game, which is a really important game for me personally and seeing its Remake changing so much and handling important topics not as well or not at all, disappointed me greatly. But ofc others can enjoy the game, even if it's criticised by others and I'm happy that you liked it (and had the right length for you) and that it helped you in hard times. I wish you all the best. I know living with depression is tough.
@@ThePhilosophersGames yeah I've seen a lot of other videos now and I see the problems on how they're not being faithful to their original story. They're making some kind of weird Multiverse story that has to do with Advent Children and an alternate timeline like what they did with Kingdom Hearts. I'm not emotionally attached because I never played the game growing up but it is disrespectful to the fans. And thanks it's getting a little better everyday with the depression
Amazing video as always, man! It's unfortunate that I have to agree with you on these points... The original was so much better :(. Oh well, let's see where the story goes from now
Dude give it time! Why would you want to pay 60-80.00 for the same game with better graphics and frame rates? Play ever crisis in 2022 then. That’s what it is there for
Thank you ^^ Yes it seems the fan base is quite divided on this one. Even though I think the overall reception was more positive. My comment section is not representative, but I get comments that agree and some that disagree. Yes we have to see where the story goes, but ofc FF7 remake is still a full price game and some flaws or controversial changes will not vanish.
I'm gonna say it
I'm just gonna say it
All we asked for was them to take the story of FFVII and remake it in a modern style.
They did that for 1 - 6 on the DS and updated everything about the look.
But this.
they just wanted to make a new story and slap on the name FFVII, its an insult to the fans who have been asking for in for 24 years now.
Yes they advertised it by showing 1:1 translations of scenes from the original. I don't mind an alternative timeline spin off (what if X survived), just communicate that you are doing it and leave this stupid meta narrative ghost thing out of it. Just tell a good story and have some budget for level design left.
@@ThePhilosophersGames If I'd been told "Final Fantasy VII: RE-Start" or something similar I wouldn't have an issue with this. I'd know what I'm getting, something that looks similar but is different.
But you're right, they marketed this as a 1:1 remake and they just wanted to do a new story.
I won't be getting any more of the FF brand and I'm 99% turned off of Square as a whole now they're done this.
(y'know what the funny thing is, I loved your argument about ADDING things, if they wanted to take it in a new direction, have Biggs Wedge and Jessie survive and have things expand from there. I liked Jessie's character in this game it was one of the few things I really enjoyed. But nah, they just want to thumb their noses at us and say "you'll buy what we tell you to buy" which is annoying)
@@Dave-sk9mn As i remember the writer of the original FFVII stated that the first one was like the worst ending route of a visual novel and this time they want to explore different posioble outcomes.
I honestly don't think it was possible.
@@tiamath3755 okay gonna be as blunt as I can here Tiamath.
What piont are you getting at? Have you spent 24 years asking Square to remake a game and then have them deliver a shit for you instead?
Because if you've not then kindly don't argue to me about "bad endings"
We didn't ask for this, we wanted the game we enjoyed upscaled to modern graphics and given tender love and care, not an insult in our faces.
Wow you really hated on this game lol I loved it personally and I played ff7 original when I was 12 and loved it then but people have own opinions on things I love the jenova theory video btw
Yes I didn't like the FF7 Remake at all 😅 I hope it was not too much ranting. I at least tried to explain why I didn't like it that much.
This is just practice for ff8 remake.
It would be interesting to see a FFVIII Remake and how they approach to make it, but I think there might be quite a few changes. FF8 is quite unusual in many ways.
Oh no, I hope they don't dare to mock another old FF
@@aoao3340 lmao true.
this is the best rant going , im 2 thirds in and agree with all points.
Glad you liked my critique so far ^^ I often feel a bit alone not liking FF7R, but I expressed my honest opinion and also tried to explain why I didn't like it.
Keep your kingdom hearts BULLSHIT out of my Final Fantasy 7!
Nope this game is trash 😂😂😂
Hey thanks for your video. Some points:
1) the last chapter was a type of spiritual realm within the Lifestream. The devs have confirmed this. That is perhaps why characters were jumping 50 meters high or whatever. The event was spiritual, symbolic, not physical or grounded. The environments changing and the intense images were a mix of memories of the Lifestream and the power of Jenova. Recall that during the Jenova battle, the entire environment “changed” via the illusion powers of Jenova.
No problem ^^ I know some people will disagree with me. And that is totally fair.
There's the motor cycle chase scene, where Cloud jumps from one motor cycle to another doing 5 backlflips and spins while doing so. The game pretty clearly establishes them being able to jump really high early on. Also the section seems to have gravity and rubble could hurt them (why would it be used if not?) as a result I think it's a reflection of what the characters can do and it's in line with the battles from the other FFVII related games (AC, Crysis Core, etc).
@@ThePhilosophersGames Sure. I think like many Japanese (and sometimes even western) there isn't 100% consistency. But I think if you can appreciate chapter 18 for what it is, the game stays more grounded. Afterall, there are different rules for the mundane world vs the spiritual Lifestream world. If you want to look more into it, google "World of Meteor vs World of Lifestream" where the Material Ultimania had more to say about it. I do agree though, that if you aren't super grounded in the lore, it would be easy to be confused. The game didn't spell things out well, perhaps on purpose to create intrigue for the next game.
@@ultima7865 lol it lost all my intrigue that I had for the remakes. I wanted FF7, not a purposely convoluted waste of time.
@@悪臭-p9p I have a strong feeling, if you play it again, you'll appreciate it more, now that your expectations won't be subverted.
@@ultima7865 you would have to pay me pretty decent money to ever play that polished turd again lmao
There's so much disappointing elements in Remake...the materia system and combat overall..looks great ..but is as shallow as a puddle..very little depth to combat...no depth to materia customization.....this game is the epitome of style over substance.
Also, I disagree that “death” in this story is arbitrary. They established a narrative rule that the Whispers are creatures (literally, voices) of the planet that try to influence a future it thinks is best for itself. They did not “revive” a dead Barret. They simply healed him with healing magic as you can literally see in the scene. Therefore, the whispers resemble WEAPONs like in the original game, whereby the planet take steps to protect itself by means of these creatures. Now that the Whisper Harbinger is gone, that WEAPON is no longer there and can’t use the whispers to influence history.
Yes they heal him, but if healing was so simple, why do Aeris, Tifa or Cloud not heal him up? Before Barret awakes again, a whisper comes out of him and all are surprised. That does not look like he just got a scratch and got healed. he was legit killed by Sephiroth and brought back to life by the whispers - that is what this scene communicates.
In a narrative there are practically no "limits". They can pull out elements like these anytime in the future again, it's part of the story now.
Here asimple made up example:
the heroes (or any other group) finds an ancient apparatus of the Cetra in an old ruin that can with the right item (e.g. a crystal) piece the "fractured fate" back together and as such can reconstruct the Arbiter of Fate again -> Boom Whispers are back on the menu, boys. It's that simple.
And it can even be a cool quest line or a well written section. The problem is the fundamental concept of these "fate ghosts" that they established and what they can do in the story. The writer is omnipotent in his universe and only his fantasy (and maybe some conventions of story telling) are the boundaries.
They might not use them ever again, but we don't know. After FFXIII and freinds my confidence in Square is not the best anymore if it comes to singleplayer Final Fantasy games and their stories.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I think there is a fundamental difference between the healing abilities of our party (small materia) vs healing abilities of the planet, with direct access to the Lifestream. I think that head canon explains it enough for me. The point is, the planet can pick and choose who it wants to save, with powers that are beyond what our party has available.
I agree the game was TRASH.... Im soooo sick of everything trying to be DBZ FFS!!!
The game literally has floating trash bags in it to clean up the mess.
I played the original when I was a kid I beat it I loved it however ff7 remake I tried it and out around 13 hours, I didn't really like it the visuals are nice the sounds are good and cinematic scenes too, my main issues are the combat and camera it's do hectic I can barely see what's going on half the time the dodge button seems pointless, this game just doesn't feel like a strategy game they ate trying to make it a hack and slash but wit turn based when it's not, it just seems like they're trying to do too many things at once and was likenok were done let the players figure it out and of course there's always a bunch of ppl calling it the best combat system because it requires little to no skill. I know a lot of sheep's are calling it the best cuz they feel like it's so dynamic when it's not I'm disappointed but exactly what I expected most games are disappointing nowadays because they gotta make games to satisfy the woke generation. I actually enjoyed ffxv more than this game and I didn't even really like ffxv.
You can try the new classic mode, it's not bad, just make sure you observe what the enemies are doing and only issue commands right after they finish their attacks so you don't get interrupted. Or actually no, just don't play the game or get disappointed by the ending like I did.
So.. Remake is BUSTA!!! than Original huh..