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It's back again. and even the classic FF7 board is active again. Hah.
Haven't beaten the game yet, but so far all i can say is - SquareEnix definitely put their all into this. Voice acting, active combat, classic combat, Materia system, tons of new stuff the original didn't have (most of it good!) and keeping everything tongue and cheek. It has an awesome blend of nostalgia and new stuff added to make it interesting. highly recommend trying it.
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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As a remake of FF7, it's extremely disappointing and it's disingenuous calling it one because it's not a remake in the way that modern gaming has defined remakes. I don't mind the extra stuff they added to the story as far as going further in-depth to side character backstories like Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. That stuff was nice additions and I enjoyed it. I even enjoyed Roche though it seems a lot of people absolutely fucking hate him for some reason.
I don't want to put spoilers or anything, but the last hour or so of the story (last two chapters mostly) really turned me off to everything I had been enjoying up to that point. I'd had theories since the beginning of the game of what was actually going on and the last hour made me basically right on every single count and it pissed me off being right. Now I'll freely say I do encourage people to play the game. As a game, it's good. It's probably one of the best Square games of the last decade, absolutely. But it's not a remake and shouldn't be marketed as one even though it does still fly as a remake under a dictionary definition, it isn't one in terms of modern gaming use.
It's pretty bothersome I can't explain myself better without venturing into spoiler territory, it's one of the more upsetting things about the issues I have with the game that to explain myself literally means I have to drop at least one spoiler.
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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"Immortality is basically free now, except you still die."
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HOWEVER... at the same time I like to see them try since I like seeing Playstation 1 era games remade in today's engines visually. I can never see them making the story %100 like the original, but so far i like what Final Fantasy 7 remake has been giving me lately as for story content compared to Capcom's side of things. I didn't get that so much with the Resident Evil remakes, but at least the gameplay - which both companies are doing - done phenomenally. It's gotten me so hyped i gone back to play Final Fantasy 7 on the PSX again just to compare.
Edit: On a side note - despite all the praise i'm giving it, ever since the introduction of Aerith has given me a bad vibe towards the story ending. Have to see where this plays out.
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
Honestly, without the deviations that have bothered me with the story, I would have accepted this as a stellar remake. I know the switch from turn based to RPG Action combat isn't for everyone but to me it really does fit for the absurdity of combat in FF7. I'd even go as far to say I'd really like to see 8 redone in this style of combat and even though most people don't agree 8 is always going to be my holy grail of the series in that I don't want anything done to it. I'll admit from a non bias standpoint it isn't the greatest in the series, but with my bias thrown in it is up there to me and I'd love to see this combat system applied to it.
The biggest issue putting aside the story changes I have is breaking the game into parts. I was skeptical of that from the very start, but I saw ways it could work and things they could do to make it work. And then that last hour of story happens and now I don't see any conceivable way they can continue the game into another 40 hours let alone two more games like they want to do unless we go wildly off the rails into even more absurd shit.
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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[Spoiler for final Fantasy 7 Remake, click to show]very disappointed that they don't have Sephiroth break you out by accident like before, or at least hinted it [/spoiler]
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FF7R, click to show]You're in for some real disappointment. [/spoiler]
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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[Spoiler for Final Fantasy 7 remake, click to show]The game was great. I loved the voice acting, animation, art work and the cool graphics and eye candy. Won't deny that was the best part of the game. They clearly were going for a cinematic experience with this game with the great music and cutscenes, which i'm fine with. (Andrea Rhodea was hilarious with Cloud and Tifa) My biggest gripe with the game, though, is two things: I don't like the way the battle system's action bars are restricted to just the person you are controlling. It's actually fun switching between the characters mid-battle and managing that bar, but it makes me feel like it's a poor battle system to have the bar fill up with whomever you are controlling. Probably to offset the balance of how screwed the monsters are, but still annoying.
The second thing is that of the whisperers and Sephiroth's sudden appearance at the end of the game. I knew he was coming,but i figured it was just going to be one massive tease for the sequel and we'd just fight him (which i honestly liked better than safer sephiroth) only for him to laugh at our low level Disk 1 butts and fight us another day. Instead, we get him trying to 'remake' the game. It's in the blasted title. Uuuuuuuuuuuugh.
I had a blast with the game, nonetheless. Pretty much got me pulling out my PS1 FF7 again just to love it all over again. It feels more like a Marvel movie made into Final Fantasy 7, but with the top notch voice acting, awesome music and the cool battles, i enjoyed it deeply, but not enough that it overwrote my initial love for Final Fantasy 7 in the first place. only time will tell if the sequels will accomplish that. I'm looking forward to the Golden Saucer. [/spoiler]
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
And that brings me to the second issue I have with the story. It's very obvious that Sephiroth and to a lesser extent Aerith are themselves or have the full knowledge of themselves from the original timeline future post Advent Children which is a future this timeline now will no longer have based on how things have already changed and based on AC Sephiroth already being present. Both of them have full knowledge of the events that are supposed to happen up to that point, Aerith is just being secretive about it apart from somehow infusing Nanaki with cherry picked knowledge of the Ancients/Arbiters of Fate. The really clear showing of this being the case and Sephiroth being himself from the future was that entire cutscene at the Edge of Creation. If you actually watch closely in that scene, Cloud tries to use the Omnislash on him like the end of the Original FF7 but Sephiroth parries every single slash because he knew it was coming. Not only that, but Sephiroth's entire personality towards Cloud from the start of the game is his Advent Children personality, not his original one where he was simply dismissive and overconfident against Cloud. He very personally and with precise intent provokes Cloud every step of the way like he does in AC and it really shows when he taunts him with how easy it was to cut down his mother after the Reactor bombing, that was when I first picked up on it.
It's just stupid to call it a remake when the game is very clearly an AU sequel and the whole set up of another third timeline where Zack lives and walks Cloud into Midgar is very clearly going to lead to Zack somehow ending up in this second timeline and probably joining the party down the line. There's no other reason to have that scene as a simple throwaway to showcase a third timeline with varying differences like the very different depiction of Stamp on that wrapper if it has no payoff in the future. That whole scene was almost a shot-for-shot remake of the end of Crisis Core just without Zack dying once he finished off the soldiers so it has to have a future payoff.
But really, my biggest issue going forward is the severe lack of any real present threat other than Sephiroth to stretch out the journey. Shinra is absolutely not even on the level of a threat now, Cloud could single-handedly take out an entire platoon after fighting Fate and Sephiroth. I'd even go as far to say the original Weapons aren't even a considerable threat already unless changed drastically. If they really want the game to go through two more iterations, they're going to have to write an entirely new story from here on and pull some incredible levels of shit out of their ass to make it believable as a threat to the party. They really never should have split the games into parts or they should have saved fighting Fate for the end of Part 2 at the very least so you'd have the rest of the party to make such a feat more reasonable. [/spoiler]
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FF7R Gameplay, click to show]The reason the bar fills up that way is to maintain the tactical semblance of the original gameplay. It's to prevent the party members from wasting the ATB on moves they shouldn't use at a certain time so you can prioritize them to build stagger along with you. It's also why the Auto Cure materias and stuff exist so you can allow them to do their own thing that way if you need to. I just don't like how Auto Cure will only ever use Cure even when you have the materia mastered, that really needs to be reworked in the next parts so that it has it's own level system to determine the level of magic it uses on it's own. Rank 2 = Cura, etc. That said, even just using basic Cure was still a help at end game on Normal, but I don't see it being enough on Hard which I still haven't started yet. [/spoiler]
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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[Spoiler for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, click to show]The problem I have with the title being called a "Remake" is that i realized it at the end is that they worded the game "Final Fantasy 7 Remake"... as in "this is the game where everybody tries remaking everything" ~ not "Let's keep it as close to the original as possible - with added stuff, better graphics and music, and possibly mess with the audience with Sephiroth.
Now the theorycrafting kicks in. Like you mentioned, and i did pick that up as well, Sephiroth seems to be fully aware of what's been going on to this point and kicked Cloud's ass ~ but another thing that came across my mind is that he's not only trying to coax Cloud to being an ally, but he seems to be teasing him with Aerith big time. I'm wondering if he's going to try getting him to kill her this time...
I'm also curious with the return of Zack if Lucrecia will return.
REgarding the ATB - they can interrupt some of your moves, too. Healing or casting a spell and getting interrupted and losing MP is such bull. I do find it makes it a 'bit' tactical, but it instead feels like the new system is trying hard to make sure you stay on one character rather than the party - despite how great it is when everyone has their ATB Bars up and you all unleash them at once on a staggered opponent. Feels less tactical and more like they don't want you harassing the poor staggered opponent, but if that were the case, i would figure the monsters would have counters incase the party goes Rambo too much [/spoiler]
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
My personal opinion is that this time around Aerith isn't going to die. In fact, I'll even go so far as to believe that you can have someone else die instead and your choices will play into that. You've already done exactly what Sephiroth wanted, the God of Fate is dead. So what happened before has no push to make it happen now. I'll even go so far as to say the absolute end reason Sephiroth wanted this outcome was to make it so Aerith WOULDN'T die. Ever since Advent Children really shoved it in the audience's face the fact of the matter is the only person who ever really beats Sephiroth is dead Aerith using the lifestream not Cloud. Therefore, seeing as Sephiroth knows the outcomes of everything, the last thing he wants to do is kill her to give her the ability to use the lifestream how she did in the future. There's no real guarantee Holy even works without Aerith being dead to use the lifestream to back it, she assumed what she was doing would activate it but there's no proof that's true unless her intent was really to lure him out and die on purpose which has been speculated before too.
As for the ATB, I found it quite the opposite. The system was trying to get you not to stay on one character considering the other characters can't do 90% of their actions without your input or using a materia slot to force them to do something you want them doing. It was actively trying to get you to use everyone to their fullest by swapping back and forth between combos. That's actually part of the reason Tifa is so much fun to use because you can allow the others to use their basic attacks to build up ATB while you swap around between comboing and chaining skills like Chi Trap to quickly stagger the enemy and then coordinate attacks. Tifa is probably my favorite character to actively play as because of that. [/spoiler]
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
Skype: neenerpuss | PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/3DS FC: 0490-9138-1442 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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Aerith not dying is something i suspected since I heard this game coming out, but I love how Square teases this fact with Sephiroth in the game. The tap on her shoulder, the teleportations he does infront of her in his boss fight... lots of teasing and mind messing. [/spoiler]
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An Original Cape Breton Canadian has posted on your board.
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Liberal Arts Major
I will say I'm approaching the game as a whole a little differently this time around and I'm enjoying it a little more than I did initially. The gameplay feels so much better at above 60 FPS too, it makes a world of difference when it comes to using Cloud and chaining off Punisher Mode counters and Dodge Roll counters.
As for the game itself, I've already grown to appreciate some aspects of what the story can lead into out of curiosity going forward. I still feel I'm going to be immensely disappointed by the next outing, but I'm hopeful I won't be more than I was before. I'm still very fond of the story building up the background characters more, that still is very much a thing as I make my way back through Chapter 4 again and into Chapter 5.
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/Switch FC: SW-2558-9322-5899 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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"Hey! I'm a nerd!" - Fenneko, Aggretsuko
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I left off on Chapter 9 several days ago. I intend to get back into it probably today, I just got majorly distracted by a dozen different things.
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"I'm gonna make like a tree and fuck you!" - Deadite Cheryl Williams Ash vs Evil Dead
PSN (Vita/PS4): Neroveras | Pokemon/Switch FC: SW-2558-9322-5899 | BattleTag: Indignation#1506
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I still consider it a worthy purchase, but part of me still goes nuts thinking that I might've been too impatient, but nah - I think it was worth it the more I think about it.
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"Hey! I'm a nerd!" - Fenneko, Aggretsuko