[Megathread] FF7 Remake

[hellhamster]

I consider myself a purist, I loved the remake, I don't mind if the story gets changed but there is legit concern that the changes are completely off the wall insane. I don't expect the story to keep in the same vein as the ending of part 1, but I am concerned nonetheless.

[Kumorii]

I consider myself a purist, I loved the remake, I don't mind if the story gets changed but there is legit concern that the changes are completely off the wall insane. I don't expect the story to keep in the same vein as the ending of part 1, but I am concerned nonetheless.

Statements from the devs shows that the game will largely follow the same flow. Visit the same places etc etc, we will probably see changes to story just like we did in Part 1 on the way, but sounds like overall it'll be the same.

[Great Destiny Man]

Either way, enough of that, what really bothers me is all the arrogant people who diss on "purists". Like, can you piss off and get off your high horse? You literally have wanted for years the same exact thing these "purists" have wanted too, it doesn't mean you're more right than they are and it doesn't mean they dont have the right to be upset.

Has anyone really been dissing on purists? I'll admit I'm probably the most vocal against the argument "x shouldn't change, y shouldn't change" but in no way have I ever stated someone isn't entitled to their opinion. Likewise though I'm entitled to my opinion that the developers should feel they have the wiggle room to change things as they see fit. They have to make things because they WANT to make it, not because they feel pressured by fans (purist or not).

[Greevir]

Aerith will end up living. Tifa will die.

[Kumorii]

I don't think anyone had an issue with this and it was kinda to be expected, no? But I don't see why we needed a whole giant sub plot to achieve it.

How else can they do it to justify the changes?
Think people will be more mad if changes are made just because. Now it's a reason and I sorta like it depending on how far they go with it obviously since it gives me some mystery compared to straight retelling.

[Great Destiny Man]

Soooo question ... I've been going through the game on Hard and just got to Chapter 17 and have been getting all the manuscripts as I go. (Still missing 6). So I thought hey I'll do the battle simulator and check out these hard mode only fights. I've read they're they hardest fights in the game. I uh .... one shot Beasts of Legend and Top Secrets. I didn't find them difficult at all... Are they not the hardest fights? I was a little confused. I didn't even change my materia setup from Beasts of Legend when I went into Top Secrets. I just wanted to see what was what. I didn't think Pride and Joy was even remotely difficult. Did anyone else have this same experience?

I think that would suggest you'd already pretty much had the gear and knowledge to maximise damage on those encounters.

[Great Destiny Man]

The only thing I looked up was Beasts of Legend just to see what the fights were. I don't have all the manuscripts yet. My characters are level 50 and materia is maxxed of course. I assume anyone playing hard would be. I went in completely blind to Top Secrets. I dunno. I was expecting something much tougher.

I'm not necessarily saying that you looked up the fights for the other one, what I'm asking is if you had a loadout that was fully nuke focused and knew exactly how to pump out max damage? That makes a big difference as some parts of that encounters were pretty much "kill it before you have to worry about these mechanics".

[Dead Moose Fandango]

So uh, the other FF game they sorta lifted the battle system from, how was overworld traveling handled in that? Kinda curious as to how the remake will do it, so I figure, probably be similar.

[segara82]

So uh, the other FF game they sorta lifted the battle system from, how was overworld traveling handled in that? Kinda curious as to how the remake will do it, so I figure, probably be similar.

I kinda expect them to give us the good old corridor treatment, since the alternatives of a Map with a figure running on it is so out-of-date, and a FFXV-like semi-open map is not what this engine has shown so far to be capable of. While i would LOVE to have an old school world to run around like the original, they will tighten the flow of the story much more and corridors are just better for that.

[Great Destiny Man]

Ah. I don't know, I think it was more well rounded? Umm, I had Aerith with first strike materia so she could instantly Haste Cloud. She had no attack materia whatsoever. She also had Healing paired with Magnify for easy group healing. Cloud and Barret had Fire paired with Elemental on armor cause Bombs like fire so hey free heals. I didn't know Ifrit came out during Bahamut but it worked really well because any attack he did just healed me. Same with Pride and Joy, he had some fire attacks too that I got to completely ignore. So yeah it was mostly Cloud just Triple Slashing quite a bit. I always switch to Barret at the start of a fight to unload Overcharge and then follow up with an ATB move. /shrug

Yea the elemental + fire on armour is damn good on that portion of the fight. I'm surprised to hear you used Barret though, most people swap him out for Tifa because the burst potential is way higher with Tifa. Always interesting when people don't end up using meta comps.

[Kumorii]

So uh, the other FF game they sorta lifted the battle system from, how was overworld traveling handled in that? Kinda curious as to how the remake will do it, so I figure, probably be similar.

If so then it would be like FF15, which is just a regular seamless world. Don't think they can do that because overworld would be HUGE. But maybe.

[Wondercrab]

I finished up the game tonight and thought it was pretty good. My big takeaway is that "Remake" is a pretty misleading part of the title. Everything about the game is just way too different from the original for it to fall into that category. It's more akin to taking a movie script and giving it to a completely different director and production team. The same basic story is there, but all the details, the style, the thematic focus etc. is different.

I think the biggest strength overall is the combat. It does a really fantastic job of splitting the difference between satisfying action gameplay and the more tactical style of the old games. The materia system works well in letting you customise your strategy, and the stagger bar creates a great ebb and flow to the longer fights. My only real criticism of the combat would be that some elements feel like they're only there because they were in the original. Summons and limit breaks feel pretty tacked on, especially given how seldom they're used. They don't harm the experience, though, so they provide some fun flavour all the same.

Unfortunately FF7R does suffer a lot from trying to turn the first ~15% of a much longer story into its own self-contained game. The ending in particular is a glaring example of this. It felt incredibly arbitrary and tacked-on to me. I all but rolled my eyes when I realised that they weren't going to be able to resist the temptation of making Sephiroth the final boss, despite the fact that he's barely relevant to the story at this stage and hasn't been properly set up as the villain at all. I feel bad for all the people who came into this as their first experience with FF7, because so much of the ending is entirely for the benefit of those who already know everything about the story. All of those unearned fanservice moments really took me out of it whenever they happened. They felt shallow and hollow compared to the central Midgar plot, which was executed pretty well by comparison. I'm not sure how to feel about the idea of the main characters "altering fate" in this version of the story. Wedge's survival and Barret's death made me sit up and pay attention, but the ultimate lack of consequence to those moments (and the devs' insistence that they're still going to continue remaking the original story in subsequent instalments) makes me wonder why they bothered with it. If the plan is still just to remake FF7 but with a plot excuse to change a few bits and pieces then it seems like kind of a waste. Either go with a faithful remake, or make a clear split from the original and do your own thing. I can't help but feel like they're trying to ride the line between the two, which feels like it'll result in the worst of both worlds. While I didn't hate the ending like some people seem to, it felt unnecessary and bland to me, and the attempt to create an epic finale fell totally flat. I was way more excited to fight Rufus than for anything that came afterwards. If he'd been the final boss I would've been totally happy.

Those gripes aside, I think the game's biggest problem is the pacing. They really had to stretch all of those original Midgar moments to hit the arbitrary AAA hour count on this one. While the game is fantastic when it's hopping briskly from story beat to story beat, stopping to deal with some of the most mind-numbingly generic sidequests imaginable only serves to harm the game in my mind. There were a number of areas that just re-used the same rooms multiple times as well, which only made the experience longer rather than more interesting. If you're comparing this remake directly to the Midgar of the original, then the obvious padding is a pretty glaring downgrade. There's also an inevitable feeling that you're playing through 35 hours of setup, given that none of the characters get explored in that much depth or get to resolve their arcs this early on in the story. It's hard for anything to get resolved in a satisfying way when you split up the original script like this. Had they diverged more from the original to give everyone their own little Midgar arc then this might've worked out a lot better. There's a little bit of character progression between Cloud and Barret as they go from disliking each other to becoming buddies, but it's really underdeveloped. Had they spent more time fleshing out that sort of stuff then they really could've made this feel like a proper self-contained story without needing so much obvious padding.

So yeah, I think it's a good game with a whole lot of "buts", mostly based on the weirdness of how they went about approaching the idea of remaking FF7. Fortunately the combat is stellar, and Cloud's crossdressing sequence might just be the best thing I've seen in a AAA game in years. In fact, the whole Wall Market section is a blast. They did a fantastic job of taking a lot of the iconic, goofy, and well-loved stuff from the original and cranking it up to eleven. It's just a shame that the attempts to add in brand new content mostly fall flat.

[beanman12345]

If so then it would be like FF15, which is just a regular seamless world. Don't think they can do that because overworld would be HUGE. But maybe.

Pure speculation on my mind, but I can see them taking a similar approach as they did with DQ11 with how they deal with areas that are not towns, in semi open small hub maps with some exploration but still contained. DQ11 like FF7 is pretty linear affair till half way when it opens up a lot more with more side activities and backtracking to certain areas, so in later remake installments maybe they can make a bigger map like with DQ11 by incorporating all those areas again, but I can only imagine the size of the game with all the 4k assets if they go that route to make the later/last installment that big.

[everydaygamer]

Unfortunately FF7R does suffer a lot from trying to turn the first ~15% of a much longer story into its own self-contained game. The ending in particular is a glaring example of this. It felt incredibly arbitrary and tacked-on to me. I all but rolled my eyes when I realised that they weren't going to be able to resist the temptation of making Sephiroth the final boss, despite the fact that he's barely relevant to the story at this stage and hasn't been properly set up as the villain at all. I feel bad for all the people who came into this as their first experience with FF7, because so much of the ending is entirely for the benefit of those who already know everything about the story. All of those unearned fanservice moments really took me out of it whenever they happened. They felt shallow and hollow compared to the central Midgar plot, which was executed pretty well by comparison. I'm not sure how to feel about the idea of the main characters "altering fate" in this version of the story. Wedge's survival and Barret's death made me sit up and pay attention, but the ultimate lack of consequence to those moments (and the devs' insistence that they're still going to continue remaking the original story in subsequent instalments) makes me wonder why they bothered with it. If the plan is still just to remake FF7 but with a plot excuse to change a few bits and pieces then it seems like kind of a waste. Either go with a faithful remake, or make a clear split from the original and do your own thing. I can't help but feel like they're trying to ride the line between the two, which feels like it'll result in the worst of both worlds. While I didn't hate the ending like some people seem to, it felt unnecessary and bland to me, and the attempt to create an epic finale fell totally flat. I was way more excited to fight Rufus than for anything that came afterwards. If he'd been the final boss I would've been totally happy.

I disagree about Sephiroth, I'd say he does more than enough to justify why they go to fight him in the end (I mean just stabbing Barret at least establishes him as an enemy everyone wants to fight). Heck, they do more than in the original where they barely justify the group chasing after Sephiroth, they don't really have a reason to leave Midgar and go after him other than it might save the world maybe. I'd say they do a much better job of justifying the team's reason to chase after him at the end at the very least.

[kenn9530]

snip

It would be done in 3 parts most likely with biggest part being middle up until end of city of the ancients, last part of the story is fairly small and was mostly just farming in the origional.

[Wondercrab]

I disagree about Sephiroth, I'd say he does more than enough to justify why they go to fight him in the end (I mean just stabbing Barret at least establishes him as an enemy everyone wants to fight). Heck, they do more than in the original where they barely justify the group chasing after Sephiroth, they don't really have a reason to leave Midgar and go after him other than it might save the world maybe. I'd say they do a much better job of justifying the team's reason to chase after him at the end at the very least.

They establish him more than they did in the original by the end of Midgar, but not to the degree of justifying a climactic, reality-bending final boss fight that acts as the capstone to the entire game. Honestly, the main reason he's there is because twenty years of his reputation preceed him. In FF7R Sephiroth is just a spooky man who Cloud has some ambiguous past trauma with, who shows up and causes some chaos near the end, and then stabs Barret. There's no clear explanation as to who he really is, what exactly he did, or why he's such a great threat that needs dealing with. The Midgar section of the story really isn't about him at all, it's about Shinra. Making such a dramatic boss fight out of Sephiroth relies pretty heavily on the player already being familiar with him beforehand. I think pretty much any of the other villains would've worked better to close out the game with. A final showdown with the Turks would've been an exciting escalation of that whole thread. Rufus, despite also coming out of nowhere at the end of Midgar, at least works as the figurehead of the evil corporation you've spent the entire game fighting. Even characters like Hojo and Heidegger are nasty scumbags who've done a bunch of clearly illustrated bad stuff they deserve comeuppance for. At this point in the story Sephiroth is still mostly an enigma by comparison. I wouldn't have minded having a showdown with him at some point (though I still would've preferred they build it up for later), but the fact that he's the final boss with so much dramatic weight heaped on top of the encounter felt totally unearned to me.

[Eapoe]

They establish him more than they did in the original by the end of Midgar, but not to the degree of justifying a climactic, reality-bending final boss fight that acts as the capstone to the entire game. Honestly, the main reason he's there is because twenty years of his reputation preceed him. In FF7R Sephiroth is just a spooky man who Cloud has some ambiguous past trauma with, who shows up and causes some chaos near the end, and then stabs Barret. There's no clear explanation as to who he really is, what exactly he did, or why he's such a great threat that needs dealing with. The Midgar section of the story really isn't about him at all, it's about Shinra. Making such a dramatic boss fight out of Sephiroth relies pretty heavily on the player already being familiar with him beforehand. I think pretty much any of the other villains would've worked better to close out the game with. A final showdown with the Turks would've been an exciting escalation of that whole thread. Rufus, despite also coming out of nowhere at the end of Midgar, at least works as the figurehead of the evil corporation you've spent the entire game fighting. Even characters like Hojo and Heidegger are nasty scumbags who've done a bunch of clearly illustrated bad stuff they deserve comeuppance for. At this point in the story Sephiroth is still mostly an enigma by comparison. I wouldn't have minded having a showdown with him at some point (though I still would've preferred they build it up for later), but the fact that he's the final boss with so much dramatic weight heaped on top of the encounter felt totally unearned to me.

Not only that, but this also completely revealed parts about the tattoo people that wasn’t revealed until much later into the original story progression. Add on the fanservice that doesn’t do anything other than to exist to be “eh, eh,” and a lot of things just don’t really add up. Cait Sith reveal makes no sense, and the fact he’s been shown now means his story will have to changed. Zack has no reason to be in game yet.
My biggest gripe is just that Sephiroth is so prominent. He has absolutely no reason to be in there yet. That is definitely in the game for the old fans who know the story, as he lost all buildup. In a previous post of mine, I brought up how he is built up as a hero, someone Cloud looked up to, was protected by during a mission, and didn’t start becoming evil until he found the library with things about the ancients, Jenova, and who he really is.
Let’s assume people go into this remake with no idea who he is. All he is now is some random guy that pops up that Cloud stated he killed in the past. He’s briefly mentioned as a hero by Tifa, but it’s so throw away no one is long to remember that and just think Cloud is going insane and seeing him around, but then everyone knows he’s some evil guy the moment they see him later. There’s no build up and no reveal. It (a) makes no sense, or (b) exists only for those players that already know the backstory. It’s poor storytelling in either case to rely on previous knowledge of him.
With all that said, I really enjoyed it overall. I think I need to work on how I’m decorating chapters though as I’m apparently selecting some of the more difficult ones early on without having important Materia completely leveled up.

[everydaygamer]

Not only that, but this also completely revealed parts about the tattoo people that wasn’t revealed until much later into the original story progression. Add on the fanservice that doesn’t do anything other than to exist to be “eh, eh,” and a lot of things just don’t really add up. Cait Sith reveal makes no sense, and the fact he’s been shown now means his story will have to changed. Zack has no reason to be in game yet.
My biggest gripe is just that Sephiroth is so prominent. He has absolutely no reason to be in there yet. That is definitely in the game for the old fans who know the story, as he lost all buildup. In a previous post of mine, I brought up how he is built up as a hero, someone Cloud looked up to, was protected by during a mission, and didn’t start becoming evil until he found the library with things about the ancients, Jenova, and who he really is.
Let’s assume people go into this remake with no idea who he is. All he is now is some random guy that pops up that Cloud stated he killed in the past. He’s briefly mentioned as a hero by Tifa, but it’s so throw away no one is long to remember that and just think Cloud is going insane and seeing him around, but then everyone knows he’s some evil guy the moment they see him later. There’s no build up and no reveal. It (a) makes no sense, or (b) exists only for those players that already know the backstory. It’s poor storytelling in either case to rely on previous knowledge of him.
With all that said, I really enjoyed it overall. I think I need to work on how I’m decorating chapters though as I’m apparently selecting some of the more difficult ones early on without having important Materia completely leveled up.

Were the tattoo guys even in the original? I'm about 7 hours into the original right and have seen no trace of them yet.

As for Sephiroth's reason for being around so much, it's heavily implied that he knows the future and is attempting to change things. The problem is the whispers won't let him change things and keep getting in his way so he basically lures Cloud and friends into dealing with the whispers for him.

[segara82]

Were the tattoo guys even in the original? I'm about 7 hours into the original right and have seen no trace of them yet.

As for Sephiroth's reason for being around so much, it's heavily implied that he knows the future and is attempting to change things. The problem is the whispers won't let him change things and keep getting in his way so he basically lures Cloud and friends into dealing with the whispers for him.

The first one you see is in the market area of Sector 5, when you bring Aerith home. He is living in that sewer pipe right above the entrance. He has the number 2 tattooed on his arm.
Personally i don't mind the sooner bit with Sephiroth. He had no real buildup except for Clouds PTSD episodes and not really anything there, until we got to Kalm and Cloud told his version of history.
We will get to see that very soon in the story of the next installment, when Cloud will, again, retell his story. The new players will then get to see why Sephiroth is seen as such a powerhouse when he obliterates the enemies, then goes insane and burns down Nibelheim. Just like in the original. The creators don't have to change a single thing and it will still be a powerful moment.

[Phaelia]

Were the tattoo guys even in the original? I'm about 7 hours into the original right and have seen no trace of them yet.

Yes, they were in the original. In fact the earliest you can run into one is in Wall Market but it’s kind of glossed over. You really get to know about them much later.