Source
r/giantbomb•
y2kbug77

How's everyone feeling about FF7 remake?

I am absolutely loving the game so far about 6 hours in. I've played other FF games, but never played 7. The writing, characters, combat, visuals, etc; all top notch. I had seen people complaining about filler and padding which had me worried. I feel like those people must consider character development and world building the same as filler. Always a dumb thing to say this early in the year, but this definitely seems like it will be heavy in the GOTY discussions.

Posted Apr 12, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

1457
snerdsnerdCOPDAD MOMWIFE•

I'm being pandered to and I absolutely love it. As someone who has played the original over 5 times and marks it as a very personally important game, I think Square has done an amazing job. I think the highest praise I can give it is that I hope everyone gets to have this experience with their favourite games.

FF7 is perhaps the most memed on game in the medium, and in the first few hours I kept waiting for the game to make fun of its legacy, to tap into the kind of irony that pervades so much of our culture today. Instead I can feel the enthusiasm that the developers have in the design choices for this game.

Tifa leans sideways at Cloud when she teases him. Cloud shrugs and shakes his head in the same rapid way that he did as a bunch of blocks. The music sprinkles motifs from iconic songs while still making something new. It's the best kind of showing and not telling in regards to references I've seen in a game in a long time.

I could go on but yeah, so far I love it. Not everything is perfect, but I'm so happy every time I play this damn game.

19
PerdomoHabanoFuck, Ryan Davis•

They play it straight. This is what I like about it. They don't wink-wink-nudge-nudge you with the "hey, remember this part? Huh, huh?!" The only part I feel like they do that is some foreshadowing when Cloud gets his headaches, but it's been like 10 seconds so far.

It's just... here's Tifa. No long shot as she wanders into the frame to do something like a "Tadaaaaaaaaaaa! I'm here! Remember me from the last 90s?!" Just her, sitting on the steps, and the story keeps going forward. That's her introduction.

I feel like it's hard to explain, but the developers know what they have, they know how much fans love the game, and they didn't want to make it 30 hours of over-the-top fan service.

6
snerdsnerdCOPDAD MOMWIFE•

Yeah, exactly. This game has the kind of confidence you get when your game is as beloved as it is. There's plenty here for long time fans, it's just not spoon fed to them.

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PerdomoHabanoFuck, Ryan Davis•

I've been a harsh critic of Squaresoft's games for a long time. I felt like they lost their magic awhile ago, so I was very nervous about this remake.

So far, I think this is the "good" Squaresoft. Not the ones that made the (imo) trash that is FF13 and 15.

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snerdsnerdCOPDAD MOMWIFE•

I liked 15, but FF7R is sharper and more cohesive in a way that 15 never was.

2
Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

Thats mostly because as far as Im aware, this isnt the same team who made 13 and 15. This is a younger, hungrier team with a clear love for the original being lead by the original leads. I liked 15 for what is was worth, but I get what you mean for sure. 15 was a good RPG generally, but a not so good Final Fantasy.

1
dougtulane•

The rare occasion where they just go in on the silliest aspects feel earned. I lost my shit for >!HELL HOUSE!<

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paint_it_crimson:AlexPersona:•

As someone who never played the original. I am loving it. It's fun and goofy and the combat is fantastic.

10
faithdies•

I am very very much enjoying it. I do have some small nitpicks(These are nitpicks, I love the game:

  • The stun/sleep/etc animation is too long, especially early on when you don't have a full party yet. Just standing there watching your character get fucking crushed and you can't do anything is really annoying
  • I understand why they are there, but the sheer amount of "slip through this tight crevice so we can stream in the new environment" is too much. Especially with how much you are running back and forth to do fetch quests
  • The amount of forced walking sections are really really annoying. Note to developers NO ONE LIKES BEING FORCED TO WALK AROUND. If you HAVE to put these in your game, keep it to a minimum. But, so far, it seems like 5 forced walking sections per zone.
  • Too. Many. Fetch. Quests. Seriously
  • Just a bunch of small QoL things. For example, there is a puzzle where you need to move some canisters/Aerith around using robot arms. Unfortunately, if you leave Aerith standing in a place you want to put a canister, you need to go put the canister back down, then go pick Aerith up, move her, then go pick the canister back up and put it where you want it. It was a 2-minute distraction, but it just annoyed me.

But, I do truly really enjoy this game.

  • I really like how much character they gave to Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge. In the original game, the plate collapses and you just, kind of, don't care? You just didn't spend enough time with them or with the section in general to give a crap.
  • The inclusion of all the goofy stuff is great. All the thumbs ups, high fives, Jessie explaining how the plates work on the train, Don Corneo, they really nailed it.
  • The combat is really good and get's a lot better as you get more tools in the belt.
6
ZeroV2•

7 hours in and I love it. I’m not sure how much of it is nostalgia love vs appreciating it on its own merits, but I feel the love either way. The gameplay is a lot of fun and engaging, I’m just starting to get to a point where battles are getting tough and I need to regularly switch around my characters. It feels like a tighter version of FFXV which is perfect because that games combat felt extremely floaty to me, although FF7R does still have the issue of frantic attacks making it feel like I’m stuck in an animation when I try to dodge or not sure exactly what’s happening.

Story wise I’m digging the more in-depth look at the events. As far as I can tell it seems to be canonically consistent while still adding tons of character moments, and giving these big moments time to breathe that they didn’t in the original.

5
mclairy:AlexPersona:•

I haven’t played yet but listened to Waypoint deep dive on Monday and I’ve gone from zero interest at all to wanting to play Crisis Core again and then jumping into FF7. It just sounds and looks so good.

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Ellimem•

I’ve never played Crisis Core, my only touchstone to that part of the canon is Last Order. I should get a PSP emulator up and running and check it out.

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mclairy:AlexPersona:•

I haven’t played it since release so I’m sure it’s not as good as I remember, but how it fleshes out the world and Cloud’s backstory pre FFVII I found genuinely interesting.

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ZeroV2•

It’s insane that square can’t release Crisis Core on anything besides PSP, maybe they will try to capitalize on FF7R and release it soon on modern consoles. I guess it’s because the South Korean pop star Gakt plays a pretty major character in the game and they can’t/won’t license his likeness again

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Ellimem•

I’d heard it was either Gackt being in it, or Iida doing the end song. Japanese music rights are fucking a whole thing so that always seemed more plausible to me but who really knows. Either way, they should make the effort to port that game elsewhere.

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

Honestly, I wouldnt recommend playing CC before this, the remake is kind of it own thing and fleshes out characters in its own way. And I mean that in a good way.

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mclairy:AlexPersona:•

Yeah I’m watching a let’s play of CC instead that game aged like shit lmao

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

I find that the entire compilation of FF7 has aged more poorly than the original game haha

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[deleted]•

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yuriaoflondor•

I’m about 8 hours in. I’m enjoying it.

I’m still a little mixed on the combat. Cloud is so incredibly powerful that he can win a good chunk of the encounters in seconds by just using Triple Strike. And even when I control Tifa, most of the encounters don’t last long enough for me to use stuff like her self buffing ability. Ditto for Aerith. I’ve done maybe 10 fights with her so far and haven’t had an opportunity to use any of her fun stuff.

I am enjoying the boss fights and the encounters versus tougher enemies, when you really have to pay attention to weaknesses, pressured, and staggered. The boss fights are really cool - so far they’ve all been multi stage fights with a lot of new attacks being added. And they’re just super cool to experience.

I’m still getting used to the combat, though. You can’t animation cancel out of most attacks, so I’ve definitely eaten a lot of damage that could’ve been avoided. Strangely, I think I played the best during that solo boss fight against >!Shiva for Chadley’s side quest.!<

Overall, though, I’m digging it and can’t wait to play more.

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

Game gets way tougher later on so dont worry about the combat in the early chapters. Cloud certainly stops feeling invincible.

1
Beanz122•

30 hours in and really loving it. As other commenters have said, it's a LOT of fan service. The plot changes so far I have enjoyed or didn't mind. This may be the first Final Fantasy game where I can really appreciate how good the voice acting and writing is and how well they work together. Not to mention, this game is really funny.

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mergedkestrel•

My feelings are pretty well reflected in this thread, I just wanna add a few things.

The (first?) Soldier Roche is the encapsulation of my favorite anime trope: a dude that only cares about the fun of the fight and will actively work against his overarching or employers goals just to fuck around in a fight for a minute. The bike fight was as anime as I hoped it would be.

The waifu wars are gonna be fucking REAL this time around. Jessie, Tifa, and Aerith are all amazing characters being both endearing but also shirking the damsel in distress trope that most anime ladies get forced into.

Aerith gently roasting Cloud has been some of my favorite dialogue, and her super soft "shit" when the ladder broke for some reason just hammered her character home better than just a goody pure girl.

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PerdomoHabanoFuck, Ryan Davis•

It's the only game I've played where I feel like the voice actors are perfect. When I've heard everyone talk for the first time, it was what I thought they sounded like back when I played the PS1 version. Aeris is playful yet quiet, Barret is overconfident and loud, Cloud is a dick and somber, and Tifa is someone that knows she is the hot chick in town but obviously doesn't take any shit.

I've not met Red XIII yet, but when I get to him I feel like he'll be a gruff old man but in a lion's body.

1
mergedkestrel•

Tbh some of the voice acting is a little distracting to me. Biggs is video game Charlie Sheen. Wedge is badger from breaking bad. Barrett is overly macho but still doesn't sound like a real person besides the times when he slips on his act. All the female actors are chefs kiss though.

It's absolutely not affecting my enjoyment and I think if I didn't follow voice actors and actors in general as much it wouldn't affect me, but there are still a few moments where Biggs is talking to the camera and I have to question if they legit got young Charlie sheen for the game

2
PerdomoHabanoFuck, Ryan Davis•

I can appreciate that. My fiance legitimately thought that voice was Charlie Sheen before she looked it up. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the game though.

1
Nodima•

I'm with you for slightly different reasons. I totally have the Badger problem, especially because they're forcing the actor to play Wedge like he's either 12 or 25 years old seemingly at random so his line reads aren't that consistent. Plus, they either really dropped the ball on the translation or didn't let Matt have enough fun in the recording booth because they have his character very pointedly say, "S'all good, bro!" when it clearly should've been "S'all good, man!"

With Biggs, it's more that it's the same actor as Devrim Kay from Destiny 2 and that was the first time his performance stood out to me, but now that it's clearly just his voice it's just not generic enough to where I can accept if it's just Troy Baker or Nolan North doing themselves. He has a very...regal quality to his voice IMO that makes him a weird choice for this role.

I totally hated the Roche character in Chapter 4 and hope the rest of his role in this game is limited. So I guess I'm off the mark from PerdomoHabano right off the bat there. I agree with you that all the female voice actors are doing a tremendous job, though. Cloud's not bad either...but they are being fed some super ham-fisted and straight up incoherent dialogue at times. It's a real feat that this aspect of the game can be looked past because the performances are so genuine, even still-problematic Barrett.

I am thinking of changing it over to Japanese, though. I could put up with Yakuza's nonsense conversation logic since it was spoken in a different language, but hearing these ridiculous lines getting read out loud with a straight face might be too overboard for me.

1
Chitalian8These birds are attackin' us, fam!•

It's certainly not perfect (the side content is oftentimes janky/unpolished to a noticeable degree), but man does the game capture the heart of the original so well. They've got the humor, they nailed how despite how dour Advent Children was, FF7 has a distinctive spirit of fun. I'm so happy they remembered that Cloud is a bit of a dork trying to affect the image of a cool guy, rather than the emo guy that was present in some of his more recent portrayals (Advent Children, Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts).

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

I find that the side content later on is much bettter than what comes in the early chapters. But i guess thats subjective.

1
royrules22•

It seems like this is a game that people either love or hate for nostalgic reasons.

I've never played FF7 (I was a Nintendo kid growing up). In fact, other than a couple of hours of FF3 on the DS I've never played the series.

I really want to play, but I'm debating between just playing the original vs this.

And honestly for JRPGs the story matters a lot more than gameplay for me most times. Is FF7's remake story butchered as I've seen others say? And will I as a newbie to the series even realize it?

1
pokey9513:Two:•

If you have near-zero knowledge of the OG, then you'll have no idea what's new, what's old, or what's a new take on an old bit, so I'd recommend just going for the remake since the main story beats are carried across really well.

However, since the remake is essentially the opening act of the entire OG game (albeit one that's gone from about 3.5 hours to about 40 in the process), YMMV on whether or not that's worth it to you.

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royrules22•

Yea that's my other concern. Who knows when this will finish. But I'm in no rush as I'm a patient gamer these days. So I'll probably wait for the whole thing to finish unless it takes more than a couple of years

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

Ive played the original to death, I can see why certain fans of the original are hating the changes to the story, but at the same time, personally, I think it justifies it by the end. And when i finished it I was extremely intriuged to see where it goes next... some people just hate change.

95% of the story is the same, but way more fleshed out, if youve never played the original dont worry about it, its a really good arc for the first part of this new series.

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royrules22•

Thanks for this! It actually helps to know because some of the impressions I read made it sound like they entirely rewrote it to the point where it's a different game.

I still would like to wait for most of the game to come out but at some point I'll have to dive in I guess

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Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

Yeah no worries. It really did feel like a full game and a lot of the online is the loud minority. They are entitled to their opinion but a lot of it it’s that typical dismissive online outrage. There is a lot of misinformation going round about the ending aswell. People being disingenuous, standard internet crap really.

Everyone I know whose played it loved it. The combat system was my favourite part of it, they really outdid themselves with it and I can’t wait to jump back in on hard mode. You won’t regret it if you get it soon.

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royrules22•

I'm glad to get a second opinion on this. Really appreciate it!

I need to finish Disco Elysium, Greedfall, Death Stranding and probably Yakuza Kiwami 2 first but I definitely don't feel bad about having the Remake on my list.

1
sloty321•

Tried playing the original 3 times but hated the visuals and thought the writing was garbage but I really enjoyed the remake demo (particularly the combat) and after hearing from both fans and multiple reviewers that the remake hit a different tone I decided to pre-order the night of release and I could not be happier.

I'm about 15 hours in and the only time I thought this might not be my thing was a major character at the beginning of the second "open" chapter but than almost immediately something really charming happened that completely brought me onboard.

The game still has tons of anime in its blood but its the sort of anime I can either get behind or just overlook because everything around it is so stellar.

And I can't overstate just how good the combat is. Fast and tight while being flexible enough to let you drastically change your strategy if you want.

1
Nodima•

One thing about this game that really sticks out, and I don't know if it bugs me or I find it oddly charming, but the music and the cutscenes are not really in sync at all. At least early on. I ran around and did a bunch of side quests in Chapter 3 and no matter who I was talking to or what the context was, that huge, beautiful orchestral score was just blasting through my headphones at the same volume or louder than the vocals.

In quieter moments, the voices sound super clean too - there doesn't seem to have been a lot of work done on the ambiance side of things. On the other hand, because I'd played the PS1 games as they came out, it feels comfortably nostalgic and due to all the ambient dialogue I find myself reading all the subtitles (which I almost always turn off but had to leave on due to the aforementioned soundtrack blaring) and kind of getting taken back to that time.

To that end, one of the things I'm finding endlessly funny, at least in a "what hubris!" kind of way, are all the 10-second dialogue exchanges that are nothing but gasps and grunts. I'm enjoying how some of the side quests seem written as if the writer was challenged to take an average Yakuza exchange and cut all the nuance from it. I love how earnest this game can be at times, and at others how everyone involved with a cutscene from the animators to the writers to the actors seem to be in on this slick joke, winking at the audience and muttering, "you said you wanted these cutscenes fully animated and spoken aloud..."

All of this stuff could be really bad, but for some reason it's really charming the pants off me right now. I even love the weird low-effort polygon stuff: there's something really human feeling about looking up at this hugely detailed skybox of metal piping and sunrays, then angling the camera back down to your apartment which looks like a garbled mess of N64 textures, or watching a cutscene with hugely detailed foreground art married to a ton of dive bar kitsch that might as well have been ripped from a Medal of Honor Underground level.

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mergedkestrel•

I also noticed a lot of scenes in chapter 6 (I think? The reactor 5 mission) where I can barely hear characters over the music. Barrett sounds like he's trying to tell me something in the middle of a movie theater.

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[deleted]•

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PerdomoHabanoFuck, Ryan Davis•

Fucking love it. I've teared up a couple times, and I don't even love FF7 like most people. Hell, I'd say less than half of the Final Fantasy games are what I would classify as good. The last one I think that was great was FF10.

But they really made you remember what great PS1 games felt like, and while they pull on your memory quite a bit, they did it really, really well.

The first time they played those first couple notes of Aeris' theme I mentally said to myself, "Yes. I'm ready."

The battle theme is still really, really good, and when they ramp it up to another octave during the boss fights I literally said outloud, "Let's fucking go, game."

1
ITAstallion13•

I've never played a FF game in my life, but that quick look was super intriguing to me. I think after I finish nier automata I'm going to get this.

1
TrilledCheeze•

I never played the original but was always interested but hesitant to play bc of its dated look. I'm 10 hrs in right now. I think the presentation is off the chain this game looks and sounds incredible. I'm still 50/50 on the combat but the story and world keep me coming back. Only "filler" ive experienced is the side quest stuff in the first town, but I think its worth since you get a little extra cutscene if you finish all the tasks

1
EvilMonkeySlayer•

Enjoying it so far. My only complaint is a very small section of the game where the game really doesn't have fine movement control so it isn't that fun.

Also, I wonder why they no longer do the materia split thing when you max out materia from the original? It was a good incentive to put investment into using materia.

1
theblackfool•

I think because the old system was broken and there's ways they can balance things better by only letting you have a certain numbers of copies of specific materia. There's ways around that, but I'm thinking that was the thought process

1
EvilMonkeySlayer•

I think being able to break it was part of the fun. Knights of the round and mime were good times.

1
Scruffy_Nerfhearder•

It feels like the team behind it went inside my 11 year old selfs brain and pulled out how i imagined the game back in the late 90s. There are things they nod to or touch on ever so slightly that I thought only I had noticed / remembered... Apparently not.

The original is very important to me, just like alot of people who are in their late 20s - mid 30s. And they seem to know that.

One of the best new combat systems ever Ive played. One of the best soundtrack in any medium ive ever heard... only now its even better. Some of the most enjoyable character work ive experienced too.

If theyve made huge changes to the story later on as Ive heard they have, honestly, I have so much good will right now for this game, (just got to chapter 16) that Im willing to give them a chance and even a pass if it doesnt quite hit the landing completely, Im more than happy to let them see where it goes in future installments.

Its a special game. Ive not felt like this since Witcher 3. Other RPGs need to take note of the combat system, seriously. The fact theres 5 more characters to be added to this system in future installments too is mouth watering.

The fact that Giantbomb are this positive on it too, blows my mind. Square enix did good in my eyes and Ive not been this excited about the future of the franchise maybe ever.

My only gripe is some of the side quests, at least early on, are abit meh, but the later side quests I really enjoyed alot more, especially the chapter 9 and 14 ones.

its not a perfect game ofc, but it sure is my cup of tea. (please excuse my britishness there)

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chet-rocket-steadmanMONSTER DUMP•

I'm in my early 30s and you've pretty much summed up my experience with it so far as well.

1
Frogpuppet•

Good game reminds me of the hunt.

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[deleted]•

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1