ACTION BUTTON (a.k.a. Tim Rogers) REVIEWS: The Final Fantasy VII Remake

[cold_spirit]

Runtime is 3 hours and 18 minutes. This is the "Knights of the Round" of all FF7R reviews.

Tim has a lot of great insights. I'll share two that stuck with me. Tim explains that the OG's multiple aesthetics, for example the low-poly field models compared to the elongated models in FMVs, were jarring enough that people were envisioning a remake even in '97. He also builds a convincing argument that the developers wanted to create a pure action game, but felt obligated to include treasure chests and skill trees. This is especially evident when considering items are locked out of hard mode and weapon progression can be automated. But there's so much to unpack here. If I were to watch again I'd probably come away with all new insights.

Spoilers are clearly marked. Tim has also said he thinks the spoiler section is the best part.

This video consists of an intro, seven "discs," and an epilogue.
Intro: 00:00
Disc One: "Why Remake Final Fantasy VII?" 16:35
Disc Two: "How Remake Final Fantasy VII?" 37:32
Disc Three: "The Structure Atlas" - 1:07:07
Disc Four: "Those Who Fight" - 1:53:00
Disc Five: "The Trinket Ultimatum" - 2:22:34
Disc Six: "A Most Delicious Vacuum" - 2:40:12
Disc Seven: "The Forbidding New" - 2:52:22 (spoilers start at 2:52:52 and end at 3:00:29)
Epilogue: 3:07:36

 

[looneymoon]

His description of Tifa's kindergarten Uncharted really validates the pained yell when I got to that part. It's honestly probably my most hated gameplay moment as well.

Anyways, I watched a few of his streams so a lot of these insights aren't new to me. Still a nice thing to help the work day go by. Really looking forward to The Last of Us video, as that is a game thats been on my mind as of late as well

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

He has an old voice but a baby face.

 

[AllGoodInMyHood]

Tim is a bit ahead of himself with the "sponsor/send me money" calls. While I respect and enjoy what he was doing previously, this review was a pain to go through.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It was a bit repetitive and self-indulgent. Also, I can't believe he's forty. He's Peter Pan.

 

[ForceStealer]

Three and a quarter hours? Geez. He's nothing if not verbose, I guess, lol.

 

[ultima786]

Some of Ya'll are super negative. This was an absolutely wonderful analysis and hilarious.

 

[AllGoodInMyHood]

Some of Ya'll are super negative. This was an absolutely wonderful analysis and hilarious.

What's negative about giving an argument or disliking something?

 

[Kain424]

This has been, by FAR, my favorite of the Final Fantasy VII Remake reviews.

 

[Fangu]

I'm working my way through this behemoth. Really enjoying it so far. It's funny, well outlined and clever.

Tim is also a member of this forum by the way

 

[Kain424]

Well, he posted back when he was doing those translations. I don't think he's really involved himself in any sort of conversation since.

 

[Fangu]

No, but if he created an account to comment on the translation videos, odds are he'll see this thread too

 

[ForceStealer]

I was just commenting on the length, and how much time I'll have to set aside to watch it, I haven't seen it yet

 

[crazyrabbits23]

I'm about two-thirds of the way in, and it's been consistently enjoyable so far. Lots of little points and details I didn't catch originally.

 

[Ite]

I enjoyed the review! I don’t know if I can describe what he gave me as a “word-meal” because for several hours now, I have been unable to construct new thoughts without my brain’s habitually more straightforward penman doing grandiose flips off of a vocabularic halfpipe, so it’s maybe more accurate to say that he gave me a word-infection.

The trinket section was the most eye-opening part. I couldn’t understand why I hated exploration and discovery in this game, when that’s usually what I stan hardest for in an RPG’s game flow. He puts it perfectly.

Spoiler

I expected him to approve of the meta-commentary of the whispers, and I feel like the majority anecdotes of his “Disc 1” serve as a kind of invitation to get us on board with it as well. I am, as always, unmoved.

 

[Strangelove]

Also, I can't believe he's forty.

and yet i'm over here, younger yet looking like an old potato that's gone all wrinkly and sounding like air escaping a bike tire

 

[clowd]

Wish he didnt try to make his voice sound more raspy and mature then it really is. I admit Im guilty of that sometimes, but c'mon.

 

[looneymoon]

The Last of Us Review is live right now

 

[Strangelove]

clicking play to see if this is 3 hours long

did not disappoint

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That's hilarious since his FFVIIR review assures viewers that subsequent videos will be shorter. XD

Speaking of which, I started properly watching the FFVIIR analysis yesterday afternoon. I'm only an hour in, and it's been ... a thing that exists.

The first 16 minutes (the intro) were -- and I hate to say this -- an absolute snorefest that took me more than an hour to get through. Even if the whole of the past week hadn't been thoroughly exhausting for me, I think it's still possible I would have fallen asleep those six times and needed to keep dragging the progress bar back.

After that, things do pick up, at least in the sense that the material is engaging enough to keep me awake. The whole first 37 minutes aren't really about the remake, so I'm curious about how those segments are received by folks who have no familiarity with the original game.

A full hour in, we're starting to sink our teeth into some meat. It has been to a few interesting places already and I can tell it will be going to more, so I'm looking forward to all that. I genuinely am.

I guess I'm just not the biggest fan of something in Tim's approach, though, and I'm not sure what it is. It frustrates me to just offer a pretty surface level critique of unfavorability for what is clearly a well-outlined, sharply edited, inarguably thoughtful analysis.

I mean, it's me. The idea of swandiving into the deep end of an analysis pool on a subject I already love is titillating as fuck, especially when someone can bring this level of production quality to that party.

And again ... it's me. By which I mean the probable source of the problem. If I get to the end, still feel the same way, and can't offer anything more meaningful in critique of his critique, I'm going to say the problem is with me.

But hopefully I'll start to actually love it somewhere along the way instead.

 

[looneymoon]

Tres, I'm feeling a more in line with what you're saying with regards to his TLOU one. Maybe it's because for me, it's really easy to see what that game does right, so listening to expanded analysis of the how it does those things feels a bit dry. FF7R is a stranger beast, so I found that review very engaging. I'm a bigger fan of FF7 tho, so maybe listening someone go on about it for 3 hours is easier because of that. I'm only through half of the TLOU one, maybe it gets more interesting in the second half.

Also, I wanna mention, in TLOU review he brings up the point that no major news outlet mentioned No Country for Old Men when talking about it. Now, I'm no major news outlet, but I definitely did exactly that on post made about a month ago on http://thelifestream.net, Mr. Rogers that isnt salt, i just feel rly smart when my heads pace is in line with very smart ppl.

 

[Strangelove]

The whole first 37 minutes aren't really about the remake, so I'm curious about how those segments are received by folks who have no familiarity with the original game.

until he showed an image of it in the tlou video, i didn't know he had worked on a website previously. i guess i don't read enough games writing, because wikipedia talks about some of his work being core to 'new games journalism' in the mid-2000s.

it also makes several references to his writing style being 'verbose' or 'loquacious' lol

 

[looneymoon]

Yeah, online content creation is such a strange thing. I like Tim because I like his personality, which is the same reason I keep up with any other online creator. I find the verbosity charming as a spoken word format, but probably wouldn't be able to digest it in written form

Anyway the TLOU intro has long spiel on his physical/digital game collection and I'm not sure what I got out of it. But then, it's pretty befitting of the youtube/podcast format that helps me get through a work shift.

 

[Strangelove]

as someone who will absolutely sneak a look at people's game/book/film collections to see what they have when i get the chance, i did find some personal enjoyment in finding out what games were in that plastic box under the vacuum cleaner

a bit of editing probably wouldn't hurt. i don't mind long videos (it's often games i haven't managed to play yet but i will occasionally check out the long videos on this channel for ones i have played), using a review topic to talk about personal stuff in interesting to me, and i think he makes some funny turns of phrase.

also the end of the tlou video is not something i'd except from a review but you know what, i'll allow it. more weird stuff please

edit; also i should finally get around to reading 'the road'

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I find the verbosity charming as a spoken word format, but probably wouldn't be able to digest it in written form

I think I'm precisely the opposite.

For me personally, one of the great things about the written word is that it invites the verbage suggestive of a mouthful of raw potato that doesn't belong in what's spoken aloud.