Final Fantasy VII Remaster/Remake

Zero-Cool

shaveAbullock wrote: »

My copy just arrived in the post a few days ago and I have not started it yet.

Is the very low quality textures in some are fixed yet or should I wait a bit longer to start playing and this issue is patched?

Don't wait, just play it, it's noticeable in areas but never once made me think of waiting until they were patched, even if they will be. Usually a gorgeous not of scenery or cutscene is just around the corner.

shaveAbullock

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Don't wait, just play it, it's noticeable in areas but never once made me think of waiting until they were patched, even if they will be. Usually a gorgeous not of scenery or cutscene is just around the corner.

Ok will do

I do wonder how this happened. Usually games textures are created at much higher resolutions than needed and then only scaled back based on hardware limitations. You would think they have very high res versions of these texture available that would be easy to patch in.

Gamer Bhoy 89

shaveAbullock wrote: »

If I remember correctly back in the 90s many Japanese games included a cross dressing character. This would usually be removed for the western version of the story as it was considered a very taboo subject. FF7 was on of the few games at the time to leave the cross dressing element of the story in untouched.

Obviously over 20 years on such a topic is not considered taboo in any way.

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Don't wait, just play it, it's noticeable in areas but never once made me think of waiting until they were patched, even if they will be. Usually a gorgeous not of scenery or cutscene is just around the corner.

Agree with zero-cool. You'll get over it almost as quick as you noticed it. It's an annoyance for like, 20% of the game. It doesn't take it away. Aside from the little texture issues, the game is very polished. I'm surprised it runs as well as it does with having no Day-1 patch

Zero-Cool

shaveAbullock wrote: »

Ok will do

I do wonder how this happened. Usually games textures are created at much higher resolutions than needed and then only scaled back based on hardware limitations. You would think they have very high res versions of these texture available that would be easy to patch in.

I'd say the delay and the covid-19 led to the rushed sense to it and lack of day 1 patch, just my guess.

nix

shaveAbullock wrote: »

If I remember correctly back in the 90s many Japanese games included a cross dressing character. This would usually be removed for the western version of the story as it was considered a very taboo subject. FF7 was on of the few games at the time to leave the cross dressing element of the story in untouched.

Yeah story telling in games wasnt really a big thing prior to the 32 bit machines, it was all basic gameplay up until then really, in our part of the world anyway. So to 15 year old me, cross dressing to infiltrate a brothel was just hilarious. Pretty sure thats how everybody else saw it at the time also, so leaving it in is a must for comedic value and nostalgia.

shaveAbullock

Yes I remember finding it very funny too. So it was a combo of comedy and a taboo subject that made it interesting.

quokula

nix wrote: »

Yeah story telling in games wasnt really a big thing prior to the 32 bit machines, it was all basic gameplay up until then really, in our part of the world anyway. So to 15 year old me, cross dressing to infiltrate a brothel was just hilarious. Pretty sure thats how everybody else saw it at the time also, so leaving it in is a must for comedic value and nostalgia.

Yeah there were all those little touches with Cloud being uncomfortable while Aeris has fun pushing his boundaries and the reactions of different characters. It was very basic stuff but at the same time it added depth to the characters and grounded the world in a way that was pretty much unheard of in video games at that time. It was less about cross dressing as such, but more about taking these characters out of their comfort zone and giving you a view into a world that was pretty unique at the time.

And it was probably the first point in the game where a lot of people started to think this is something special, I know it was for me at least, and that goes a long way to explain its nostalgia value.

shaveAbullock

nix wrote: »

Yeah story telling in games wasnt really a big thing prior to the 32 bit machines

This isn't really true as FF6 had a story that many considered superior to FF7

The real difference is more people played FF7

quokula

shaveAbullock wrote: »

This isn't really true as FF6 had a story that many considered superior to FF7

The real difference is more people played FF7

It is true though, they didn’t say every single game. There were some exceptions like FF6 but it was much less well known, and the vast vast majority of games had next to no story telling. Most earlier JRPGs as you went from town to town every NPC that you spoke to would give one liner dialog that was usually tutorialising some game mechanic or giving you some info about how to progress the main quest. The Pokemon games are a perfect example of that to this day.

For me and no doubt a great many other people Wall Market was the first place in a game where they encountered a whole town of people going about their lives who had no interest in your heroes quest or any of that and it was up to you to get involved in their world and it was fascinating at the time.

Retr0gamer

quokula wrote: »

It is true though, they didn’t say every single game. There were some exceptions like FF6 but it was much less well known, and the vast vast majority of games had next to no story telling. Most earlier JRPGs as you went from town to town every NPC that you spoke to would give one liner dialog that was usually tutorialising some game mechanic or giving you some info about how to progress the main quest. The Pokemon games are a perfect example of that to this day.

For me and no doubt a great many other people Wall Market was the first place in a game where they encountered a whole town of people going about their lives who had no interest in your heroes quest or any of that and it was up to you to get involved in their world and it was fascinating at the time.

Console gaming maybe.

PC gaming was way ahead at the time in terms of narrative.

I think the issue with the cross dressing segment was that it's a fan favourite section, I really enjoyed it, and people were worried it would be censored for a modern audience.

quokula

I've now completed the remake. Some great elements to it but it felt like they made a brilliant 15 hour game, then turned it into an average 40 hour game. For example I loaded up my original FFVII save and did the second reactor - from leaping off the train to defeating the air buster took less than 10 minutes. The same section in the remake took me two whole evenings, without a single second of extra exposition or character development or any extra enjoyment.

Some additions were better.

A highlight was the mission to get explosives with Jessie. It really helped develop her character along with Biggs and Wedge, and it introduced a new part of Midgar with a little bit more insight into a neighbourhood on the top plate, something that we've never seen enough of. I also loved the expansion of the section where the plate fell, with Aeris picking up Marlene and seeing the panic and devastation grip sector 7 in a way the original never captured.

But then there were so many needless additions. Aside from making every existing dungeon about 10 times longer they also added a bunch of new ones, almost always made up of the same boring dreary industrial catwalks.

I thought I'd seen the back of the industrial catwalks once I was in Shinra HQ but even there they felt the need to add Hojo's dungeon. Speaking of Shinra, it was so dark and dreary inside compared to the original, and I was sad it lacked a lot of the fun from that one with the different puzzles on each floor. It seemed lacking in life too, I seem to remember lots more staff milling about going about their daily business in the original that you could talk to but here there is really nothing but the critical path to the lab, though I did enjoy the museum on the first floor a lot.

As for the ending

I sort of like the slightly fourth wall breaking twist, and I see how it can help going forward, but it didn't seem to be handled very well, it just came out of nowhere without a proper explanation and the characters kinda shrugged their shoulders and went along with it. The whisper things had annoyed me throughout the game and seemed unnecessary, knowing what they represent now it might be interesting to go back and see what they were influencing, but on the whole I do think it was a bit of a convoluted way to say something they could have just left to the marketing material for the sequels

Overall I enjoyed it, I haven't mentioned some of the highlights like the music and the atmosphere of places like the Wall Market in particular. But it did suffer in many ways that I feared by stretching a small part of the original into a full game by adding lots of filler. Some of the additional content was great, but so much was unnecessary. I'd have been happy with a much shorter game tbh, it works for the likes of Naughty Dog, because the parts where it came together really were excellent.

nix

shaveAbullock wrote: »

This isn't really true as FF6 had a story that many considered superior to FF7

The real difference is more people played FF7

FF6 wasnt released in Europe on the Snes, so it not being a big thing until 7 is pretty accurate..

The only way to have played it over here is if you had a NTSC copy, with a NTSC Snes and a NTSC compatible Television, which ill take a wild and likely accurate guess that feck all people or nobody had.. save maybe someone migrating from the USA..

I still havent played FF6 myself, despite actually owning an NTSC copy on the PSX and likely able to play it on a ROM. I hoped for a long time they would release a copy of it on a handheld system or done remake.. But they never did... but did with IV for some reason

Retr0gamer

nix wrote: »

FF6 wasnt released in Europe on the Snes, so it not being a big thing until 7 is pretty accurate..

The only way to have played it over here is if you had a NTSC copy, with a NTSC Snes and a NTSC compatible Television, which ill take a wild and likely accurate guess that feck all people or nobody had.. save maybe someone migrating from the USA..

I still havent played FF6 myself, despite actually owning an NTSC copy on the PSX and likely able to play it on a ROM. I hoped for a long time they would release a copy of it on a handheld system or done remake.. But they never did... but did with IV for some reason

To counter that Phantasy Star 4 was released on the Megadrive in Europe and is arguably as good as anything on the SNES.

Also Europe got Terranigma, Lufia 2 and Illusion of Time (as well as Secret of Mana). All three of those games have narrative chops that rival or even surpass FFVI and FFVII.

Also if you are going to play FF6 for the love of god don't play the PS1 version. The PS1 versions of the SNES FF games (and chrono Trigger) are totally butchered in terms of loading times and the music.

There's also a fine version of FF6 on the GBA, even if the music is weak but can be fixed with a fan patch.

joe123

Got more to grips with the combat in that it feels more tactical now and not as chaotic.

One thing though, this game is way way to easy for the toughest starting difficulty available. There has been 0 need to grind / train. I don't get why hard mode couldn't be made available from the offset.

Just defeated the

Hell house

without any issue whatsoever. Have to say though, I love that music before the

coliseum when you are in the locker room area before each fight.

Vicxas

Grinding my way through hard mode at the minute. Very eye opening for some standard enemies to wipe the floor with you if you're not careful

Atlas_IRL

I'll be finished in the next day or two, its a mixture of epic and meh. A lot of areas are just the exact same and i think it will get better when its more free roaming. If out in the open would be like Horizon Zero Dawn it would be cool. I'm glad they didnt make it random enemy spawns like the original.

fixXxer

Just finished Chapter 12.

Relieved

they resisted the urge to save Jessie, Biggs and Wedge. Barrett at Cosmo Canyon wouldn't have been the same if they lived. Can't believe they showed Wedge dying trying to save his cats though, that was ****ing monstrous. The Save Marlene mission was really nice do to. Really nails what the Aerith character is about. here's definitely something up though, the conversation with Tifa hints strongly (imo) that Aerith had a feeling of what was coming up.

The train graveyard was a bit of a drag imo.

Didn't really need to kill the momentum of the rush to the pillar with two ghost boss fights, even if they were very visually appealing.

Liberal use of spoilers even though I'm probably going to be one of the last to finish his. :pac:

goon_magee

quokula wrote: »

I've now completed the remake. Some great elements to it but it felt like they made a brilliant 15 hour game, then turned it into an average 40 hour game. For example I loaded up my original FFVII save and did the second reactor - from leaping off the train to defeating the air buster took less than 10 minutes. The same section in the remake took me two whole evenings, without a single second of extra exposition or character development or any extra enjoyment.

Some additions were better.

A highlight was the mission to get explosives with Jessie. It really helped develop her character along with Biggs and Wedge, and it introduced a new part of Midgar with a little bit more insight into a neighbourhood on the top plate, something that we've never seen enough of. I also loved the expansion of the section where the plate fell, with Aeris picking up Marlene and seeing the panic and devastation grip sector 7 in a way the original never captured.

But then there were so many needless additions. Aside from making every existing dungeon about 10 times longer they also added a bunch of new ones, almost always made up of the same boring dreary industrial catwalks.

I thought I'd seen the back of the industrial catwalks once I was in Shinra HQ but even there they felt the need to add Hojo's dungeon. Speaking of Shinra, it was so dark and dreary inside compared to the original, and I was sad it lacked a lot of the fun from that one with the different puzzles on each floor. It seemed lacking in life too, I seem to remember lots more staff milling about going about their daily business in the original that you could talk to but here there is really nothing but the critical path to the lab, though I did enjoy the museum on the first floor a lot.

As for the ending

I sort of like the slightly fourth wall breaking twist, and I see how it can help going forward, but it didn't seem to be handled very well, it just came out of nowhere without a proper explanation and the characters kinda shrugged their shoulders and went along with it. The whisper things had annoyed me throughout the game and seemed unnecessary, knowing what they represent now it might be interesting to go back and see what they were influencing, but on the whole I do think it was a bit of a convoluted way to say something they could have just left to the marketing material for the sequels

Overall I enjoyed it, I haven't mentioned some of the highlights like the music and the atmosphere of places like the Wall Market in particular. But it did suffer in many ways that I feared by stretching a small part of the original into a full game by adding lots of filler. Some of the additional content was great, but so much was unnecessary. I'd have been happy with a much shorter game tbh, it works for the likes of Naughty Dog, because the parts where it came together really were excellent.

I think your remarks here about the ending are spot on. Conceptually it's a good idea, but it feels shoehorned in.

The writing feels like pure amateur hour stuff. As though they decided last minute that they didn't want to adhere to the rules and parameters of the original, which is fine in principle, but felt the need to give some ham fisted over the top, bottom level Anime style justification for it. They should have just let the game be its own thing; if they want to deviate that's fine, but the way it's handled is almost insulting to fans of the original who bought into the remake concept wanting an actual remake of the story they love.

Not only is the ending handled poorly for fans of the original, but I think it also turns this from a game which people with no prior knowledge of the original can enjoy to the fullest, to something which I think makes knowledge of the original game a necessity to get the most out of this. With no context as to how the original plays out, Sephiroth's motives, meteor wiping out the planet etc. I can't even imagine how much of an inconclusive and unclear cluster**** that entire ending must have appeared as.

Underground

I actually loved the train graveyard. Between the music and the fog, I was getting some nice Silent Hill vibes.

johnny_ultimate

Enjoying the first extended stretch with Aerieth. Another character who the creators have done right by, and the reimaginings of the musical themes are particularly strong.

But alongside the aforementioned issues with the dungeon design (plenty more tedium in chapter 8), I wish the more story-focused bits felt better to play. The enforced walking speed, less than fluid interactions (holding triangle arbitrarily) and invisible barriers give a lot of that stuff a rather unpolished, constrained feeling. Would almost rather just more cutscenes rather than this limited, clunky, sub Naughty Dog interactivity.

Sephiroth_dude

Finished it last night, I loved the game, side quest were weak and I think they could have put more effort into doing a smaller amount that were better quality, they reminded of the ones in FF15, pointless fetch quests.

Zero-Cool

About to pick up 2 quick trophies in my current chapter and then 4 left for the platinum. Loving my hard playthrough.

Sephiroth_dude

Zero-Cool wrote: »

About to pick up 2 quick trophies in my current chapter and then 4 left for the platinum. Loving my hard playthrough.

What are the last 4 ?

Zero-Cool

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

What are the last 4 ?

Pull up minigame which i should get in my current chapter, 2 secret bosses and finish hard mode. I heard one of the bosses is an absolute Bollox though where you have to go through 4 rounds of bosses before him on hard mode (no items). MP management is hard enough for one boss.

Sephiroth_dude

Pull up game sucks!

sniper_samurai

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Pull up minigame which i should get in my current chapter, 2 secret bosses and finish hard mode. I heard one of the bosses is an absolute Bollox though where you have to go through 4 rounds of bosses before him on hard mode (no items). MP management is hard enough for one boss.

You have the enemy skill trophy? You need to get the last skill off one of the secret bosses.

Zero-Cool

sniper_samurai wrote: »

You have the enemy skill trophy? You need to get the last skill off one of the secret bosses.

Oh forgot that, yeah gave the other 3 skills, that should come with beating him.

Creamy Goodness

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Pull up game sucks!

Yup it’s super hard for pro mode. I turned off the music/voice in the sound settings and makes it slightly easier to concentrate but still nearly throwing the controller into the tv levels of rage.

Zero-Cool

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Yup it’s super hard for pro mode. I turned off the music/voice in the sound settings and makes it slightly easier to concentrate but still nearly throwing the controller into the tv levels of rage.

Is it worse than the squat game or the same? That was shouting but didn't take me too long to beat pro.

Sephiroth_dude

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Yup it’s super hard for pro mode. I turned off the music/voice in the sound settings and makes it slightly easier to concentrate but still nearly throwing the controller into the tv levels of rage.

Did you beat him on pro mode?

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Is it worse than the squat game or the same? That was shouting but didn't take me too long to beat pro.

Worse imo