Anyone played Final Fantasy 7 Remake yet? Living up to the hype?

Retr0gamer

Daily ff7 rant number 24:

So did all the side missions. I should be climbing up to reach the shinra building now? Nope. I'm back in a reused sewer dungeon of all levels looking for don corneo. It's gotten ridiculous at this stage how much padding there is. So much adds absolutely nothing to the experience.

nix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119998816#Comment_119998816

haha i think thats the exact point where i lost the will to live also, though the descent to madness started with the mechanical hand cranes prior to wallmarket.

It blows my mind how people can sit through the same experience i had and have nothing but praise for the game, i didnt even do all the side stuff either 🤯

Oh and retro, its going to get worse.. much much.....MUCH... worse

😆😆😆

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120003716#Comment_120003716

Well I'm in the Shinra building now. Actually enjoyed the climb, the stairs bit was amusing and liking the laid back vibe of the shinra building. Didn't appreciate the filler car park section.

However I did get to the combat simulator and know I've got Hojo's lab next which Johnny Ultimate has been.... very vocal about it's design flaws.

johnny_ultimate

I did also hate the second sewer sojourn - that’s one of those moments when the game went from ‘alright but flawed’ to ‘just bad’ for me.

Zero-Cool

Yeah some bits dragged but I never found myself rolling my eyes at how padded it was. Maybe I was just enjoying the combat so much, I welcomed the battles. Didn't mind the side stuff either. Yeah, the platinum became a bit of a drag to get over the side stuff but I loved wandering around the world.

Interesting though, I wonder if it wasn't a Final Fantasy 7 game, would I have loved it as much, maybe the nostalgia carried me along.

nix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120005030#Comment_120005030

The OG FF7 is one of my most favourite games ever, played the game to death when it was released, the "nostalgia" had the complete opposite effct for me, mainly because they butchered and mutilated or removed any of the great stuff from the original. The only thing i can give them credit for, nostalgia wise is the music, they really did a great job on that, and the characters looked great but everything that fell out of their mouth was mostly cringe. :(

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006202#Comment_120006202

Despite the dramatic improvement in graphics/gameplay, I also feel there was something, "the magic", missing that was in the original.

So far I'm up to that "ghost" phantom monster after the train-scrap-yard.

I'm still a little undecided.

I definitely enjoy the setup where you don't get into random battles, you can see the monsters and the interaction is better...... for the most part.

I just feel like the "magic" from the original got lost in translation.

The wall market area was a total pain in my ass this time around, where I loved the original version, this was like "trying to hard".

one armed dwarf

Hojo's lab is maybe the worst thing they've put in a FF title since Giruvegan in FFXII

Anyway, Remake is carried by its combat and how right they get those characters (for the first time since FFVII original). I'm hopeful for Rebirth cause presumably they're not just slavishly following the original and trying to stretch things out with that game, it can only be a massive improvement if it just builds off the good parts of this one.

Retr0gamer

The original midgar is the perfect slice of jrpg. It has everything in it and is a blast for the 5 hours it last. Just perfectly paced and I felt the original ff7 never reached those heights again once you left midgar, although not a whole lot else can match that section. Stretching it thin is what really hurts it.

The start of the midgar building probably feels the most like the original game and I actually really enjoyed it.

Retr0gamer

Hojo's Lab and beyond are basically everything wrong with FF7. It's a whole dungeon based on a bit in the original when they looking a container and find Jenova. Then the completely ruin the atmosphere of you walking through an empty shinra building following a trail of blood by making it way less creepy and having the blood be purple luminous goo. Then the whole reveal of the fate of the shinra president is ruined with that sill bit with just so they can show sephiroth when in the original it was a total mystery of who this person was and how powerful they are.

Retr0gamer

Forgot how dumb the end part was when it goes full kingdom hearts.

nix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120008381#Comment_120008381

EXACTLY! I knew when they had Seph in it from the get go, that it would pretty much ruin that whole section, and it did! Pretty much all the mystery running up to Nibelheim is pretty much DOA now, they will replace it with new sh!t..

People always responded to my objections about him being in it from the start with the likes of "its no big deal, everybody knows who Seph is" And im like, the teenager in me would have loved to see that whole section played out in great graphical detail, and countless other scenes that have yet to follow.. And those that never played the OG FF7 could still follow the mystery trail.. People may have recognised Seph but they wouldnt know much else about him, heck those that played the OG FF7 back in the day got to see his character in the manual that comes with the game.. Most assumed he was just a another playable character to join the party later in the game..

But yeah, major bummer, no interest in revisiting it or playing the rest of it, ill just watch them butcher it even more from the side lines, like some reoccuring train crash event that will just repeat until they get to the end in a decade or so..

Sugar_Rush

One thing about this game.

As most who played the original can related to (especially those of us who played it during our youth), the death of one of the main protagonists was a serious kick in the bread basket.

A whole lot of build up went into that though, as much of the game revolved around the before/after of that scene.

With the remake, even some of the minor deaths are pretty gut-wrenching.

.....

When Jessie died on the pillar?

Pfffff, I was getting a little misty.

Because of the depth of character, investment the designers obviously put into the mood/atmosphere and attention to detail of each personality, having to watch them get iced definitely sucks.

All that being said, I'm still kind of on the fence but based on it being a remake and it following the storyline of the original, in combination with the graphics/gameplay, I'm definitely enjoying it for sure and would have to say it was worth the investment.

Sugar_Rush

Completed this earlier (except the Yuffie side-quest).

Excellent game.

The end was so damn well done, definitely not an easy final boss.

Love the gameplay evolution, so fun compared to conventional turn-waiting.

.....

And, I freakin' LOVE the story evolution, the flashbacks to the original game, leaves the possibility for a twist in the future.

I skipped the majority of the random side-quests like bird finding (except the boss battle in the underground subway), kind of tedious.

There definitely could have been more lewdity in Wall Market, that was the only real let down for me.

The bizarre metro-sexual dancing was, not the worst but, not particularly satisfying. More sexual innuendo with the hotties etc, more of Tifa in that blue dress. I suppose they didn't want to go full X-rated but they could have offered more here, without doubt.

.....

All in took me about 41 hours, more than the original game.

Really looking forward to the next release.

GLaDOS

Just finished this, agree with a lot of what's said here. The good: general aesthetics, music, characters (with the exception of Sephiroth, who came across more cartoonish than genuinely evil). The bad: way too much fluff.

I'm surprised to see so much praise for the battle system though, I wasn't a fan at all. Its incredibly chaotic, with so many numbers flashing up on screen at once it can be hard to keep track of what attacks are doing what sort of damage, especially if you swap characters while waiting for a spell to be cast. Having to attack to fill the atb gauge was a pain in certain boss fights where attacking physically is a bad idea, just ended up blocking/dodging for ages while the atb gauge crawled. Lack of MP was a pain too, I didn't really focus on increasing MP though so that could be my own fault.

It's a good game, not a great one. I do love how they they captured the atmosphere of the original and I did love seeing the characters come to life (Barrett was everything I imagined from the orginal), but a lot of it stinks of a trying to drag as much money out of this as possible. Could easily have cut so much of this and extended the game far beyond Midgar.

Sugar_Rush

Kind of agree.

I completed it a while ago and it was enjoyable, but I'm not compelled to replay.

I tried the Yuffie bonus feature - diabolical.

The original I've replayed too many times to count.

It was a nice'ish game, but yeah some of the hyperbole was over and above.

Kind of made you lose track of the primary plot.

Midgar was so iconic in the original I think they wanted to extend and exploit it more but in doing so, they made it kind of monotonous.

That being said, the Tifa character, especially in the brothel? Designers made you appreciate modern graphics there.

Sugar_Rush

I'm replaying this.

It is FAR better second time around, simply cause there being so much technicality to the controls - I couldn't really play it effectively the first time.

It eventually feels like a real remake of the original.

I can actually enjoy battle mode now I know what buttons to press and can manage the commands, instead of just mashing "attack" non-stop.

brady12

First 2/3 was great last 1/3 was painful to finish rehashed game filler s***e . Hope next one is shorter .

Sugar_Rush

Got done replaying.

It's a solid game for sure.

Some of the dialogue went a little quirky, I think that reduced the interest in it or the quality of how it felt.

I'm thinking, Wall Market scenes were an impressive modernization on the original, but the dialogues were kind of creepy in some places, and they didn't exploit Tifa's appearance there as we only caught a couple glimpses of her.

Having Cloud do the homo erotic dance was also bizarre (although the music is quite groovy, kind of Japanese techno).

I enjoyed it even more on the replay, knowing how to handle the controls that much better.

.......

The actual ending line was also incredibly boss: "The steel sky........ I miss it".

Classic Final Fantasy.

Midgar was so iconic in the original but also much shorter and sweeter, I guess it's hard to draw the comparison until the rest of the game has been released and played.

Sugar_Rush

I only realized also, designers included this feature where you acquire skills from each weapon.

That's a totally new feature the original didn't have.

It actually makes a serious difference to the game play, battle mode in particular of course.

I can see why it would get a little monotonous with the various new scenarios, sewer systems etc., but it seems developers wanted to focus more on the battle mode as well as the actual narrative (which is what made the original so good).

First time playing it, not understanding battle controls and the technicality of that, it does drag.

But becoming more familiar with the detail, it really becomes a technical balancing act.

........

Latest evaluation would be - great game, but largely misunderstood.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121357649#Comment_121357649

Oh the narrative in FF7 Remake isn’t ‘misunderstood’ - it’s just convoluted gibberish.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121357649#Comment_121357649

Battle system really comes into its own when you start using those abilities. They're extremely powerful.

Pity the rest of the game is such a slog and I can't forgive any game that decides you need to return to a sewer level.

Sugar_Rush

Anyone try the "Hard" mode?

Developers weren't kidding around when they said "Hard".

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121360288#Comment_121360288

Straight after my first playthrough, went into my 2nd on hard mode and it was awesome. It really makes you master the combat, extremely satisfying playing through on that. The end boss was mental though.

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121360424#Comment_121360424

How long did the last scenario take?

On normal it takes forever.

On Hard-mode, must take a couple hours at least?

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121380038#Comment_121380038

It went on quite a bit alright but you end up getting in a zone of fight, die, reload, repeat, still absolutely loved it.

Sugar_Rush

Anyone get that Limit break add on, defeating the ??? in the combat simulator?

That seems to be like the more far gone objective in the game.

......

Gotta say, they went over and above with limit breaks here.

They were good in the original, but they actually give me chills in the remake.

The voice overs are perfection, especially Tifa (though I've heard the Japanese voice overs in their version and they sound horrible).

Sugar_Rush

I completed the second last chapter series of boss fights.

Jenova, the Shinra boss and that battle tank.

Great experience, quite gruelling.

Sugar_Rush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121380868#Comment_121380868

I can't believe I eventually figured out how to beat the big winged dragon that drops a nuclear bomb from its mouth.

I checked out some reports on strategies and apparently there's a lot of "rage quitting" at this point.

Sugar_Rush

I actually did it.

Completed the entire game on "hard" mode.

Once the strategy was down it wasn't actually that difficult.

I expected the ultimate end boss to be more obscene, but I guess he was kind of "ceremonial" after the glow-in-the-dark creatures got dealt with.

What to do now?

I guess I could go back and ice all the simulator battles.

Anyone complete that much?