Final Fantasy VII Remaster/Remake

Padre_Pio

goon_magee wrote: »

Don Corneo feels especially relevant in 2020; he's like a creepy, weird blend of Harvey Weinstein, Trump and Joe Exotic.

He was weird in the original, but getting to hear him and see that belly and hair bounce around in 4K gives him a whole new aura!

The Eco warrior thing is very relevant too. Far more so that it was in 97

brianregan09

Probably a stupid question but I'm not used to these kind of games , Just reached Wallmarket and absolutely love this game , never properly played the original as I could never get to grips properly with the turn based stuff , But I'm at level 19 is that high or low , I'm just afraid in case I hit a wall and come up against an enemy I'm not able for

Calhoun

brianregan09 wrote: »

Probably a stupid question but I'm not used to these kind of games , Just reached Wallmarket and absolutely love this game , never properly played the original as I could never get to grips properly with the turn based stuff , But I'm at level 19 is that high or low , I'm just afraid in case I hit a wall and come up against an enemy I'm not able for

You wont hit a wall the game kinda plays itself there are tactics you need to be aware of but allot of the time its like block or run away from damage and wait to start hitting.

Sephiroth_dude

Xenji wrote: »

Sounds more like Seiken Densetsu 3, it was a very memorable part of the game.

I presume that will be in the remake as well.

Zero-Cool

brianregan09 wrote: »

Probably a stupid question but I'm not used to these kind of games , Just reached Wallmarket and absolutely love this game , never properly played the original as I could never get to grips properly with the turn based stuff , But I'm at level 19 is that high or low , I'm just afraid in case I hit a wall and come up against an enemy I'm not able for

Make sure you have someone equip assess materia ( if you don't have it, a quick Google will explain how to easily get it). I use it at the start of every battle of enemies i haven't fought before. Then if you get stuck, it will let you know the weakness like fire, ice, etc and then use that. Also side quests are handy ways of bumping up xp. Remember to upgrade your weapons, they all get points equally so use the points whenever you can. You can also change to easy mode and from videos I've seen, it's really handy.

Unearthly

Finished it this morning and loved it. It was the first Final Fantasy game since the 10th that I really got into. The battle system the best part of the game.

Looking forward to part 2

Shanotheslayer

Are people using guides for Hard Mode? Fcking hell I am struggggling

ahnowbrowncow

Shanotheslayer wrote: »

Are people using guides for Hard Mode? Fcking hell I am struggggling

I was level 50 before I attempted it. Try exploit their weaknesses and Aerith's double magic spell ability. Even still some of the bosses are very tough.

Shanotheslayer

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

I was level 50 before I attempted it. Try exploit their weaknesses and Aerith's double magic spell ability. Even still the bosses are very tough.

First boss is ruining me. I got him really low then he self heals at stage no mana etc

johnny_ultimate

Some of the non-combat gameplay design in this game really transports me back to the late 90s... in a bad way :pac: The level design in chapters five and six is really shocking at times - the tedious and repetitive linear dungeon design of JRPGs of yore. The unnecessary pauses when doing things like pulling levers or taking a rest at a bench just feel like the game has missed a few passes of polishing and refinement - as said before, it simply sees the game feeling and looking cheaper than it actually is.

Combat is fun enough to keep me engaged, but maybe it’s just playing through this at the same time as playing an absolute masterpiece of level and gameplay design in Half-Life: Alyx that highlights this game’s weaknesses in those regards.

one armed dwarf

Honestly I think the level design was better in the original FFVII.

Retr0gamer

That's not a ringing endorsement either. FFVII has very poor with dungeon design but at least the dungeons never outstayed their welcome. They were a few screens big and last 20 minutes at most. I'd take that over the mutli hour slogs the remake seems to have.

Comparing a VR experience to an rpg

Seriously

johnny_ultimate

Yeah one of the things about the original game is that it moves you from bit to bit swiftly so even the annoying levels - of which there absolutely are some - are over reasonably quickly. I’ve always felt FFVII’s variety was one of its greatest strengths. It’s something you inevitably but jarringly lose here as sections are tripled in length in some cases. Spending an hour running through a series of bland industrial platforms flipping switches is the worst kind of level design, but especially when there’s a bunch of similar repetition on either side of it. I have no problems with linear level design, but it has to be interesting: some of the stuff here is just straight-up crap.

I’m happy to say some of my initial fears about the game - primarily the combat system - didn’t come to pass! But others absolutely have come to pass: it’s a frustratingly bloated game that has made some really bad decisions in how certain sections are handled or expanded (especially since some expansions - primarily in the portrayals of the wider AVALANCHE crew - are handled well).

one armed dwarf

It wasn't a ringing endorsement, but I just find the Remake's approach to level design shocking. Johnnyultimate is only in the early game, there is a long section on chapter 17

Hojo's lab

which gave me Dirge of Cerberus flashbacks.

This game sort of feels like a DMC5 situation to me, which is a game I love but it's clear a lot of work went into one thing (combat) at expense of a lot of other things. FFVIIR has a lot more money behind it than that game but it feels oddly rushed and budget at parts. A podcast I listen to deduced that maybe the designers felt under pressure from Naughty Dog and felt they had to cram as many novel interactions into each level as possible, leading to weird things like the grabby hand puzzles. That whole section was better as a single screen in the original imo.

It sounds like I hate the game but I don't, I'm just frustrated at the cramming in of low quality content to squeeze out a full length runtime out of it. For future parts I hope they make the games a bit shorter. When it is just about figuring out all these combat puzzles and finding the best party and materia mix up FFVIIR is an immense game, genuinely a generational standout and another one of those FF combat systems that's really doing something fresh and cool (maybe not innovative as such because it's built off parts of FFXIII).

A 25~ish hour sequel where we get Vincent, Cid, playable Red XIII without all the filler and hopefully more consistent graphics* would be fine. Not that I'm a big Vincent fan but ever since seeing him fight the Bahamut in Advent Children I've always wanted to know what a competent take on his style of combat would look like and we will probably get that this time. I was pretty excited for DoC at the time

*(some of the shots of the plate use static pre-rendeded backgrounds which actually make the plate look warped and blurry at certain angles. Can be seen in chapters 11 and 15. Hard to see how this got past QA but it's possible COVID19 and other things led to this being rushed out a bit)


Ironically the best parts of this game seem to be the VR battles. They really teach you how to use your party in sync with each other, and also what their strengths/weaknesses are when they are alone

johnny_ultimate

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Comparing a VR experience to an rpg

Seriously

Yep. I don’t consider good level design to be something relegated to particular genres. They’re both largely linear, blockbuster, long-form titles in major series. One has me frequently laughing with delight at the ideas the designers have come up with and dish out with giddy abandon. The other has me frequently wishing it would speed the **** up and get to the good bits.

Absolutely they’re different types of games. Just interesting to me to be playing two games where one gets level design so very right and the other gets it so very wrong, even within their unique styles.

Calhoun

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yep. I don’t consider good level design to be something relegated to particular genres. They’re both largely linear, blockbuster, long-form titles in major series. One has me frequently laughing with delight at the ideas the designers have come up with and dish out with giddy abandon. The other has me frequently wishing it would speed the **** up and get to the good bits.

Absolutely they’re different types of games. Just interesting to me to be playing two games where one gets level design so very right and the other gets it so very wrong, even within their unique styles.

I think its still a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. FF7 had allot more restrictions in place than Alyx because there was a set route it needed to go. Additionally its being used as a vehicle to push more VR play so it had to be spot on with level design.

I would argue square are fairly bad at level design (FF13) and its the combination of level design and story that gets it by. Your not wrong though in allot of respects its like they wanted to expand the story and while they did it great in someplaces it just feels like bloat in others.

Overall though its still a great game, i cannot comment on Alyx as im not buying VR to play one game.

johnny_ultimate

Square do have form when it comes to this sort of thing, for sure: Final Fantasy XIII remains a low point in that regard.

Calhoun

I will also point out that there is an element of flaws being overlooked because of being a fan of the series. I know i am biased on the game, it does have flaws but i can forgiven them as i loved it overall.

Just the

expanding of the characters of Wedge, Biggs and Jessie alone has me hooked.

I am going to purchase the first class edition, i want the bike and model for my collection of figures.

Retr0gamer

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Comparing a VR experience to an rpg

Seriously

Level design isn't something that is exclusive to certain genres.

one armed dwarf

So what are people's thoughts on that ending anyway?

massive spoilers

Remake not being a video game remake but a literal universe remake. My read of it is that both Aerith and Sephiroth must have found a secret in the lifestream post FFVII/Advent Children which allows time travel as both characters know a lot that they shouldn't at this point in the story.


I'm guessing Seph went back to re-litigate his defeat by Cloud and Aerith went after him to stop his new plan. The remnants of fate where born out of trying to stop both parties from fecking up the timeline.

BTW there is apparently a compilation novel which tells us that Aerith apparently considered doing the whole 'remnant' thing that Sephiroth does in Advent Children, so there's reason to believe that whatever Seph is doing that Aerith can do too.

Are people disappointed by the fact that they don't appear to be actually remaking the rest of the FFVII story?

goon_magee

Agree with a lot of what is being said from both sides of the fence. I love it, it's probably my GotY so far as I've mentioned before, but level design absolutely feels like an issue, especially from around chapter 9 onwards.

It's a game of huge highs and crushing lows at times, chapter 11 being the worst culprit for this so far IMO. The chapter contains my two favourite boss battles so far in the game, but the gameplay in between them is an absolute exercise in frustration. The game seems all too keen to interrupt it's own momentum, whether that's through forcing you to climb ladder after ladder, pull lever after lever or squeeze through gap after gap. Much of the dialogue is throwaway at this stage of the game as well. Whereas it felt meaningful earlier on, the longer the game goes on it seems as though I'm constantly being pulled into a cutscene to listen in on some bit of banter that adds absolutely nothing. Someone mentioned Naughty Dog up above and it absolutely at times feels like SE were massively influenced by Uncharted and other similar linear action games.

I'm able to forgive all that though, because when the game is good, and your allowed to actually play it without interruptions for a while, it's as good as Final Fantasy has been since 9 IMO and it gives me huge hope for the next couple of chapters.

one armed dwarf

Yea it undercuts the urgency in that moment of the game. It's the worst part they could have put big dungeons in.

By the time I got to sector 7 I hardly cared anymore, which is sad because it's a good version of that point of the story.

Zero-Cool

I'm still on chapter 14, 30 hours in, all side stuff done except for 2 quests which i haven't gotten far enough to complete yet, still absolutely love it and didn't feel any slog so far. I'm so glad as well, kind of like Death Stranding, i didn't feel any of the monotony or disappointment others felt with gameplay or story. That game came as a shock to me as i had zero expectation for it. With this, i was really hoping i would get the same enjoyment as the original still stands as my favourite game of all time.

Also, it's extremely photogenic.

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1251983270990041089?s=19

ShaneU

5 hours in and only disappointment so far is that Roche guy, what were they thinking.

Sephiroth_dude

Seeing cloud dance was..........surreal.

Sephiroth_dude

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I'm still on chapter 14, 30 hours in, all side stuff done except for 2 quests which i haven't gotten far enough to complete yet, still absolutely love it and didn't feel any slog so far. I'm so glad as well, kind of like Death Stranding, i didn't feel any of the monotony or disappointment others felt with gameplay or story. That game came as a shock to me as i had zero expectation for it. With this, i was really hoping i would get the same enjoyment as the original still stands as my favourite game of all time.

Also, it's extremely photogenic.

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1251983270990041089?s=19

Agreed, I think they did a fantastic job with it and I'm loving every minute of it as well, the combat especially.

Retr0gamer

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Level design isn't something that is exclusive to certain genres.

Half you played or completed half life alyx?
I have and completed it. It's GOTY imo

Majority of its mechanics are based on VR Experience in mind to note

If people were expecting valve level design in a FF7 remake rpg they are looking at the wrong game imo

Kiith

Any word on when part 2 (and 3?) will be released? I know it'll be a long while, but have they talked about how much work has been done on it yet?

Luap

Where is the best place to pick this up? Is it in the store?