Final Fantasy

[Jinsai]

that trailer is amazing.

It inspired me to finally pick FFVII Remake back up and finish it, three years or so later... and holy shit, that final battle is unexpectedly difficult. I did not expect the game to get that crazy. I almost rage quit.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

that trailer is amazing.

It inspired me to finally pick FFVII Remake back up and finish it, three years or so later... and holy shit, that final battle is unexpectedly difficult. I did not expect the game to get that crazy. I almost rage quit.

I'm currently replaying it, with the PS5 upgrade, and all the little particles, and effects are even sharper.

100+ hours they're estimating for Rebirth, and I cannot wait to 100% the entire thing. I'm very interested in what they added for Red XIII, and Cait Sith as far as battle moves are concerned. I'm geeking over this so hard atm.

I'm keeping an open mind with what they're doing with the story. Funny that the word "REMAKE" glossed over a lot of fans expectations, for it is not only a remake of the game, but the Remake of the timeline, in general.

[Kodiak33]

I loved FF7R, can't wait for this.

[Jinsai]

I'm currently replaying it, with the PS5 upgrade, and all the little particles, and effects are even sharper.

Yeah, I played the PS5 version and it's beautiful. I'm currently doing the INTERmission bit w/ Yuffie, and it's cute. Her battle controls are great and flashy too. She flips around more and throws her weapon around, and it's all really satisfying. Also, the graphics and everything in the Yuffie content is all beautiful stuff.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

Yeah, I played the PS5 version and it's beautiful. I'm currently doing the INTERmission bit w/ Yuffie, and it's cute. Her battle controls are great and flashy too. She flips around more and throws her weapon around, and it's all really satisfying. Also, the graphics and everything in the Yuffie content is all beautiful stuff.

Inter was so refreshing, and loved that they gave Yuffie more time to shine. Seems like they're continuing the flashiness with the new Synergy Abilities in Rebirth.

Also, the soundtracks cannot be overlooked. I grabbed the box set for FF7R, along with the Inter OST, and there is so much love that went into them. Looking out for a Pre-order for Rebirth!

[poinoup]

Finally time to dive into the I-VI Pixel Remasters!

[Wretchedest]

Played the rebirth demo, and I think I'm gonna come out with the same feelings about the first part. The gameplay is good. It's fun to see some of these areas from a different perspective and with better graphics, but ultimately I think these remakes are underserved by their creative teams. The town feels totally lifeless from a combination of the animations, the character models, and the voice acting. Almost no one feels like they could be a real, whole person. For cloud in particular, I'm shocked at how bad the voice acting is. It's all underwritten and under performed. This actor was given the role of one of the most iconic characters in all of gaming and did nothing with it... And the director didn't demand anything more of him. Sephiroth is an exception though! And I was pleasantly surprised to find him a little bit relatable and dimensional.

I just can't help but imagine this franchise in the hands of better writers, at least.

[Jinsai]

have to disagree @Wretchedest... really, the only thing that annoyed me in the demo at all was the stupid repeat "puzzle" where you have to siphon the gas out of the room, and it all moves in slow motion... they don't even squeeze in any exposition. Maybe it would have been ok to do that one time, but twice?

I don't mind the English voice acting really. It's better than a lot of dubs. Barrett's voice bugs me in English... but I plan on playing it w/ Japanese audio probably, or maybe I'll swap between. It isn't a deal breaker for me. If you want to hear some atrocious voice acting, listen to the English dub for Star Ocean 2 R... it's amazing. Really does sound like somebody making fun of bad acting.

While I'm here, has anyone else played Theatrhythm? I just bought this on a whim when it was on sale, and I've been addicted to it. The original Uematsu music is awesome, and it's really fun to play along when it goes into the tricky time signature stuff. I like rhythm games a lot as a concept, but generally the music that's available for them is bullshit. Playing this I can feel like it's training the part of my brain that sight reads sheet music while I play piano, and possibly improving my timing. I just wish you could invert the scroll so it reads left to right.

[Wretchedest]

have to disagree @Wretchedest... really, the only thing that annoyed me in the demo at all was the stupid repeat "puzzle" where you have to siphon the gas out of the room, and it all moves in slow motion... they don't even squeeze in any exposition. Maybe it would have been ok to do that one time, but twice?

Early reviews make it sound like the game is absolutely loaded with that stuff. Coming off of Persona 3 Reload, and Baldurs Gate 3 last year, just wish the writing had more maturity to it. Persona 3 Reload, perhaps not the definitive version of the game, but used excellent discretion when adding things to the game. The new stuff in that game for the most part embellishes characters, gives them more dimension, makes them more believable. So far FF7 rebirth is like... Ok what if picking up items was harder.

[Jinsai]

I want to get Persona 3 remake, but I still haven't done Persona 5. I really don't know why it never clicked with me when I tried to pick it up. I did like the dark tone of Persona 3 when I first played it though. The whole "shoot yourself in the head to use abilities" was awesome and weird.

I'm not having a tough time picking things up in FF7 though... did you try the newly expanded demo? The reviews coming in are really good on a whole (last I looked it had a 93 avg on Metacritic), and I guess I'm already locked in because I pre-ordered it. We'll see soon when it comes out on the 29th.

[Kodiak33]

Tried the Rebirth demo and liked it quite a bit. I LOVED FF7R so I'm sure this will be even better.

[Wretchedest]

I want to get Persona 3 remake, but I still haven't done Persona 5. I really don't know why it never clicked with me when I tried to pick it up. I did like the dark tone of Persona 3 when I first played it though. The whole "shoot yourself in the head to use abilities" was awesome and weird.

I'm not having a tough time picking things up in FF7 though... did you try the newly expanded demo? The reviews coming in are really good on a whole (last I looked it had a 93 avg on Metacritic), and I guess I'm already locked in because I pre-ordered it. We'll see soon when it comes out on the 29th.

I think 3 and 4 are much better than 5... 5 has a great premise and philosophy to it, but its overwritten and the characters are too archetypical. I think on this playthrough I've settled on 3 being the best. It is definitely the darkest one by a long shot. I'm in the final stretch now and its a real downer, but it is so on its own terms.

I'm putting off the demo mainly to finish persona 3, which is absurdly long, and also because the second part of the demo doesn't carry over. I'll be devouring it the moment it comes out, I'm sure.

[Jinsai]

So far, 7 Rebirth is better in every way than Remake. It’s a little early for me to call it incredible, but it’s ticking all the boxes… just, some of those “let’s walk REALLY slow for just a little toooooo long” segments really could have been cut shorter. Like the part where you have to shut down the steam valve… ok, hold L2 and R2 together to turn the valve… then do it again… then again… then (really) do it again… then (seriously) one more time… just why?

But so far that sort of thing is really my only complaint. I even like the card game, and the side quests actually are kinda fun so far.

[Kodiak33]

So far, 7 Rebirth is better in every way than Remake. It’s a little early for me to call it incredible, but it’s ticking all the boxes… just, some of those “let’s walk REALLY slow for just a little toooooo long” segments really could have been cut shorter. Like the part where you have to shut down the steam valve… ok, hold L2 and R2 together to turn the valve… then do it again… then again… then (really) do it again… then (seriously) one more time… just why?

But so far that sort of thing is really my only complaint. I even like the card game, and the side quests actually are kinda fun so far.

Haha totally agree about the pacing. I do not like mini-games in video games (usually) so some of it was annoying. Luckily most of it is optional.

I also really like it...I thought they did a great job with the "open world" aspect...and the collectables actually mean something in this game unlike most.

[Wretchedest]

I'm most of the way through, and it kind of feels like there's three different games going on:

the story driven game, which is phenomenal. My impressions from the demo were wrong. This game does a lot to bring it's story to life and makes it's characters dimensional and easy to understand. The world really feels alive after all. Maybe it's just those recycled animations from FFXIV. Get some mo cap, square!

The Ubisoft open world version of ff7, which is also very good. The combat is stellar, again. All of the characters have a unique way to play, the weapon system returns and that also encouraged playing differently and creatively and building your own way. A lot of the side quests are fun and build character, but another group of them are the third aspect of this game which is:

Final Fantasy Mario Party. The real Achilles heal of this game is all of the goddamn mini-games. Only some of them are optional, especially if you are like me and you want to do some of the end game combat and weapon and summon stuff. A few exceptional ones are great. Queen's Blood is perfect. The Chocobo racing, that motorcycle mini-games, those are good too. But what I've listed so far is *literally* like a *tenth* of the mini-games in ff7 rebirth. Every town is the golden saucer now, which kind of undermines what makes the golden saucer special in the first place. So many mini game y'all. And I think the sad part is it crowds out the story, especially when combined with the explorer stuff and the incessant Chadley of it all. There's even some good storytelling in the mini-games that probably... You don't want to miss, but its stapled to these stupid mini games.

The biggest highlight of the game has to be the score, though. This has got to be the greatest video game score of all time. It's so... Thorough! There's multiple versions of every ff7 piece, slow orchestral versions, piano versions, versions where yuffie makes up lyrics during travel. There's got to be, at least, 20 versions of just the Chocobo song. It's very impressive.

I'm 80 hours in, on chapter 11/13 so there's a light at the end of the tunnel now, I guess.

[Kodiak33]

Yeah the music is absolutely incredible. FF16 also had some incredible music (if you haven't played that yet), and maybe the best since FF7.

It's jarring going from this to something like Mortal Kombat 1 which has the most generic sounding music ever...the old titles had great soundtracks and now they sound just so fucking awful. It's so lazy, I assume they did it for online where they want people to play it over and over.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

I have the 7 disc boxset for Remake, and it's absolutely incredible. Wish some tracks were longer than 2:30 seconds, so I just audacity it, and make them longer.

Waiting for some extra funds to get this soundtrack. I have yet to even play the game yet!

[Jinsai]

Agreed on the soundtrack.

I’ve been playing it on that adaptive difficulty mode, and I’m loving the combat. I guess in this mode it adjusts the difficulty depending on how well you’re playing? I have no way to know how it’s working, but so far the difficulty feels perfect; it’s not too easy and it’s not a pain. Conceptually that’s a great idea… every game should have that option. With advanced AI it could get really interesting

I’m still pretty early on though. I just got to chapter four.

EDIT: Strongly recommend going into the SYSTEM/OPTIONS menu and changing some things…

Change graphics to performance just to see if you prefer it. I definitely did.

Under Gameplay, try changing
Minimap -> Static
World Navigation Display -> Minimap

[Wretchedest]

Welp I finished it. Story plus all the sidequests and stuff outside of the post game clocking in at 127 hours.

Mostly loved the hell out of it. The story is served well by this game and some of these parts of the story really needed help. I've always thought the Cloud back story stuff was kind of the worst part of the original, ultimately uncompelling and convoluted and distracting. But they did a good job with it here. Cloud going bonkers is portrayed pretty convincingly and watching him struggle with it I genuinely felt pretty bad for the guy. It helps that the other characters are depicted working together to deal with Cloud, by telling him white lies or trying to get him to snap out of it. They all seem concerned in a way that'l feels surprisingly real. The ending has some very emotional material that with one important exception, is all handled really well, too. One portion of the game was Pixar levels of sad, they did a good job all around telling this story.


With the exception of all the goddamn mini-game and shit, the story is a lot tighter than the first part. The first part expanded sewer levels and tower climbs into whole chapters, I'm surprised to find almost nothing like that in this game. But it is really disappointing that the creators decided to bloat this thing the fuck up with so much side crap. Worse, the side stuff that has substance (character side quests, battle challenges, queens blood, Chocobo racing) is all inextricably tied to the myriad of incessant little side games that Square Enix shat all over the world of FF7. For everything like queens blood theres 5 tedious, obtuse little games where you slowly follow a group of people doing nothing else for like ten minutes, or two overwrought tower defense games, a game where you pick a mushroom by testing which sides of it are the most tense (which never made sense to me). There's a game where you lead a chicken down the street by dragging a can on a string in front of it... And that's one of the *better ones!* all that and all the quick time events and the multiverse stuff, it just feels of corporate interference, a desire to meet some engagement goal or length of game goal or something. Without all that crap you're still looking at an 80-90 hour game with some of the best combat any where... So... Why?!


Still I kept thinking to myself as I played it, that the major beats of this story are just so strong and now they really get to shine. I'm eager to see what they do with the final portion of the game. The remaining part of the original game is easily the most forgettable... I can't remember much of what happens, but I'm sure that it will be interesting, and hopefully the developers listen to the feedback about the games bloat. I was really looking forward to doing a playthrough of all three when the last one comes out... But I might put this second one on easy mode or something when I do because all that extra shit is just too much. Im hopeful they'll do some kind of ultimate edition thing for PS6 or something that Unifies the three parts into a single game... That would be pretty epic!

[Jinsai]

latest FF7 Rebirth patch has apparently improved the graphics? There are now two options for Graphic mode in Performance Mode now, Sharp and Smooth.

[Kodiak33]

Spoiler:

Parts of Act 11-12 are fucking awful. That Cait Sith mission? The Saucer? The Red Dragon glitching? Really bad and surprising to come close to the end with this.