Final Fantasy VII Remake

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rob25X
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by rob25X »

I just finished playing the demo again tonight (well, until it crashed on the boss fight and reset the game).

Playing it again made me think about a few things.

There aren't any random battles in the demo which makes me think difficulty might be set throughout the game with only shop items and pick ups, maybe to keep the game challenging and limit farming XP to make battles easier. Maybe the overworld map you fly around (can't remember the name, it's been about 20 years since I played the original) will be the place for random battles and leveling up or that battle arena at the Gold(en?) Saucer.

In the demo Barrett (the party) runs around with Cloud but what will happen when the party builds up? Surely all characters won't be on screen at the same time.

I kind of miss that swirling screen and hearing the victory theme every few minutes. I might grab the original on PS4 now while it's on sale.
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Mr Ixolite
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

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Regardless of how this part shakes out, seeing how they handle the next one is the moment of truth.
Because doing a standalone Midgar is the “”easy”” part. It’s the biggest and most iconic location in the game, you spend the most time there, it has plenty of action setpieces and is relatively self-contained…and it is also completely unrepresentative of the rest of the game. Final fantasy 7 is a game of globe-trotting through a slew of colorful locations, not of exploring one dystopian metropolis.

Beyond release schedule and pricing, I wonder: how are they going to handle the overworld? Will they retain optional areas like fort Condor, and will exploration be possible in general? If they nix the overworld, what are they going to do about combat in all the smaller locations? Like, as large as Junon was, there was only a single combat encounter, but that’s okay because you did plenty of battle on the way there. Omit the overworld and you need to find excuses to have combat elsewhere, which will impact the narrative. Same with the scale of other locations; is everything going to get magnified by a factor 10 like Midgar, regardless of whether it fits the location (some places were intended as just quick breathers in the narrative), which will again require recalibration of the games pacing and combat encounters? Or will Midgar be a weird outlier with everything else seeming bare-bones by comparison?

And yeah, where do you cut the narrative? In terms of raw playtime, if we subdivide the game in “Midgar units” of ~5 hours, the next cutoff point would be Cosmo Canyon, which is a great sequence, but doesn’t seem appropriate narratively. Add another “Midgar” and we’re at Temple of The ancients, which seems more fitting, but that would make part 2 twice as long in terms of covered original game/narrative as the first. Also, the city of the ancient sequence is in spitting distance and seems a no-brainer for a chapter ending, and would certainly be weird as a chapter opener, but then we’d be at 2½ Midgars compared to part 1…
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

Square tweeted today, saying the game isn't delayed but with the supply lines obviously prioritising other items over video games right now and the shops being closed, getting physical copies might be quite difficult.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by DomsBeard »

chase210 wrote: March 18th, 2020, 10:22 pm Square tweeted today, saying the game isn't delayed but with the supply lines obviously prioritising other items over video games right now and the shops being closed, getting physical copies might be quite difficult.
Just read this, already fully paid up for the digital version so I'll be ok. RIGHT..
rob25X
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by rob25X »

Mr Ixolite wrote: March 10th, 2020, 7:57 pm Regardless of how this part shakes out, seeing how they handle the next one is the moment of truth.
Because doing a standalone Midgar is the “”easy”” part. It’s the biggest and most iconic location in the game, you spend the most time there, it has plenty of action setpieces and is relatively self-contained…and it is also completely unrepresentative of the rest of the game. Final fantasy 7 is a game of globe-trotting through a slew of colorful locations, not of exploring one dystopian metropolis.

Beyond release schedule and pricing, I wonder: how are they going to handle the overworld? Will they retain optional areas like fort Condor, and will exploration be possible in general? If they nix the overworld, what are they going to do about combat in all the smaller locations? Like, as large as Junon was, there was only a single combat encounter, but that’s okay because you did plenty of battle on the way there. Omit the overworld and you need to find excuses to have combat elsewhere, which will impact the narrative. Same with the scale of other locations; is everything going to get magnified by a factor 10 like Midgar, regardless of whether it fits the location (some places were intended as just quick breathers in the narrative), which will again require recalibration of the games pacing and combat encounters? Or will Midgar be a weird outlier with everything else seeming bare-bones by comparison?

And yeah, where do you cut the narrative? In terms of raw playtime, if we subdivide the game in “Midgar units” of ~5 hours, the next cutoff point would be Cosmo Canyon, which is a great sequence, but doesn’t seem appropriate narratively. Add another “Midgar” and we’re at Temple of The ancients, which seems more fitting, but that would make part 2 twice as long in terms of covered original game/narrative as the first. Also, the city of the ancient sequence is in spitting distance and seems a no-brainer for a chapter ending, and would certainly be weird as a chapter opener, but then we’d be at 2½ Midgars compared to part 1…
It's been so many years since I played FF7 on PS1 but I do remember the huge scale of the game. That was something which hit me about 5 minutes into the remake demo, I was thinking about all the locations and overworld map and if the whole game could possibly be as big and stunningly detailed as the bombing sequence intro. The download for the demo came in at 7GB, it's being reorted the full game will be 100GB+ so it's possible.
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

Someone on gumtree is selling the game early for £200! Bit steep.
rob25X
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by rob25X »

chase210 wrote: March 28th, 2020, 9:35 pm Someone on gumtree is selling the game early for £200! Bit steep.
Really? So it's already printed and ready for sales in the UK then.

Has the Japanese version been released already or is it a worldwide release this time? I didn't think about this.
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

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My copy arrived today! It's being released early due to the current state of the world.
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Stanshall
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by Stanshall »

Great news. I am very happy for you.

Narrator: He wasn't.
Spoiler: show
:D
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Flabyo
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by Flabyo »

chase210 wrote: April 2nd, 2020, 11:45 am My copy arrived today! It's being released early due to the current state of the world.
Still not officially though, so expect bans if you decide to stream it on twitch :)

I’m happy to wait for Digital next weekend, I’ve got plenty of games on the go already.
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

I don't think I've ever streamed in my life!

I've also bought the modern warfare 2 remaster and persona 5 royal this week so I don't think I'll start this.
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Stanshall
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by Stanshall »

:I

...

This guy are sick.
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

No spoilers but... square are bold, I'll give them that.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by DomsBeard »

chase210 wrote: April 4th, 2020, 9:40 pm No spoilers but... square are bold, I'll give them that.
Does Cloud die instead? :lol:

I've got it digital and glad to do so as I've got Resi 3 on the go
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Flabyo
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by Flabyo »

Should be able to get to the end of Yakuza 0 in time to go straight into this. I’m not even going to look at reviews, and I’ve avoided the ‘launch’ trailer which is apparently pretty spoiler (in that it spoils some of the things that are different from the original game)
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

The big change is.... I will put in a spoiler, so beware of a huge spoiler
Spoiler: show
So, it’s not a remake. It’s more of a reimagining. In another timeline, the original final fantasy 7 already happened, along with advent children, crisis core, etc. The whispers of fate are ghost things that are attempting to keep the events in line with what happened in the original final fantasy 7. The party defeat them at the end of the game, thus freeing themselves from the original games story. Also, Zack lives.
rob25X
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by rob25X »

There have been are a number of 10/10 reviews from Gamespot and others but generally it seems to be getting an 8/10 or a 4/5. I haven't had time to read the reviews in full but it sounds like FF7: R has the quality but not the quantity us fans expected. I'm curious what is there and what is missing.

Either way I'm sure it's a fantastic game.
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chase210
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by chase210 »

I like it a lot, played past the demo now. Trophies aren't syncing yet.
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Nupraptor
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by Nupraptor »

Here is my review. Sorry it’s so long.
Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake.

I finished my play-through of the Final Fantasy VII Remake this morning. Clocked in at about 46hrs. I didn’t spend any time just grinding, but I did do every side quest I could find.

tl;dr upfront: I had an incredible time playing through this game. It honours the original game whilst bringing it up to stunning modern standards and expanding on the story details.

Longer version follows. (And it’s pretty long)

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of the original Final Fantasy VII, so I am very far from being impartial on this. I played the original after getting a loan of a mate’s PlayStation back in 1997 and have played through many times. I got everyone’s ultimate limit breaks (even Aerith), bred a gold chocobo and took on Ruby and Emerald Weapon. You should be able to see pictured my original copy of the game alongside my Deluxe Edition of the Remake. This is the first time that I have *ever* preordered a game or paid for a special edition. I am wearing my “SOLDIER: First Class” T-shirt while I write this and I drink my coffee from a “Shinra Employee Cafeteria” mug in the mornings. I listen to the soundtrack and have “One Winged Angel” and the Black Mages version of “JENOVA” on my running playlist. I’ve even watched the Advent Children movie several times, and that’s something that I wouldn’t ever want to subject a non-fan to. I’ve been wishing for this game since roughly the release of the PS2 in 2001.

I am very far from being impartial, but that can cut both ways. Superfans can be extremely critical of remakes and sequels, particularly if they go against their preconceptions of what a remake *should* be like. If things had gone the other way for me, I might have been camped outside the Square Enix offices, brandishing a cardboard replica Buster Sword with “Not MY FF7! Remake the Remake!” written on the side. It would have materia slots too.

So bear in mind my intrinsic bias, but I loved this game. I have a few minor complaints. The side quests are relatively dull. They effectively give you an opportunity to do some grinding, but with a bit of world development and a reward at the end of it before you get back to the main quest. One section with mechanical arms is fairly tedious. Tifa Lockhart spends most of the gameplay and cutscenes demonstrating her superhuman athleticism, but suddenly becomes a klutz during a dull and drawn-out traversal section.

That’s it though. I loved the rest. I didn’t even *really* dislike the dull bits. I just didn’t want this review to be ALL praise.

I found the combat to be thrilling and was constantly engaging from start to finish. In the original, you can autopilot through a lot of encounters by simply pressing “attack” repeatedly and occasionally healing. The combat here is challenging though and requires constant attention. You need to switch between different characters and choose attacks to efficiently build the enemy “stagger” gauges. The party members are all fun to control and all have different strengths to bring to bear. Using their special abilities never gets old and each of them holds a function in your battle strategy. The weapon levelling system adds further nuance to your setup and - excitingly for me - means that the iconic Buster Sword is still a viable weapon in the latter stages of the game.

Boss encounters in particular are completely thrilling. They usually represent a solid challenge to your abilities. Several of them took me more than one attempt and forced me to change my equipment and materia set-up and strategy to get past. Even the ones I beat first time didn’t feel like easy victories. The ridiculously over the top animations, cinematics and special attacks bring classic encounters with enemies like Rude and Reno to amazing new life.

The plot follows all the major story beats that I have known and loved for 23 years, but throws in a few twists along the way. This is primarily a remix of the Midgar section of the original game, but events are expanded upon. The city itself is given more detail as are the characters in it, both major and minor. The sections where it deviates from the original story are thrilling to me and the events of this game make it clear that they are intending further deviations in future games.

Playing this game was an incredible treat for me. It is the most fun that I have had playing a video game all year. I would also say that it is the best Final Fantasy game that we have seen for many years. I am delighted that it not only met, but surpassed the expectations that I had for it. I wholeheartedly recommend it to newcomers as well as to fans of the original. This Reunion is for you.
rob25X
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Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Post by rob25X »

Thank you for sharing your review and opinions on the game with us. It made an interesting read for someone like myself, a huge fan of the original still waiting to experience the remake in full.

I was pleased to read your opinion of the game upon completion was not one of disappointment. I'm glad you really enjoyed it.

I think the decision to change up the battle system was kind of necessary. The original game's combat would not have sat very well with the rest of the new game in my opinion. Using the battle system from FFXIII would have been my personal choice.

The game ends in Midgar then? I find this somewhat disappointing to be honest and it's making me consider not getting the game until a later date. I understand a lot of depth has been added to the story and characters but does it really mean there's no open world to explore beyond Midgar? The varied locations made FF7 what it was. I don't want part 2, 3 etc. in years to come. They've had 23 years to remake this game! Everything was already there, it just needed remodeling and a lick of paint. I expected a Resident Evil remake, not a kind of tech demo if you know what I mean.

I really need to play it to understand what they've done. The demo blew me away but the full game sounds like they've chopped too much off.
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