Alright, the thing that frustrates me the most about the remake is how they completely abandoned the tried and true FF formula. Besides the combat (which I really enjoy) it feels like I'm playing a resident evil game half the time. It's just so linear compared to every other FF game that's ever been made. I feel trapped most of the time with little to no exploration in most chapters. And even in the "free roam" chapters it's so very limited. I would've gladly waited a year or two longer and been fine with lesser graphics etc. to have larger/more areas to explore and more freedom of choice. I mean it's fucking Midgar! It's gigantic! Even the slums. Yet the game feels like it takes place in a small town in the countryside. I wanted to do some god damn exploring.
Second thing. Hard mode. What the actual fuck? The laziest aspect of the game if you ask me. They should've just been real and called it half assed annoying mode. In my mind the meeting about it went something like this. "Hey you guys want to come up with some creative and interesting way to make the game more difficult for a harder mode in endgame?" "Nah! We'll just disable item use." "Like, in battle?" "Nope. We'll just disable items completely. Don't worry though, we'll still have them pick up items that they can't use throughout the entire play through as a nice lazy slap in the face".
Third thing. The episodic style and to a greater extent the linear direction the devs took. Going back to my earlier vent. I would've gladly waited longer and been satisfied with lesser graphics to have a complete game. Back in the day, between my brothers and I, we put literally thousands of hours into FF7! That was one of the big draws for us! Open world exploration with tons and tons of secrets and things to build towards. Not run down hallway A, fight scripted encounter 1, run down hallway B and C, fight scripted encounter 2, grab the treasure chest that's in plain sight, rinse and repeat until boss fight. And how you gonna have an FF7 game without chocobo racing!?
I mean, I get that it's very difficult to do a whole old school FF type game in modern graphics. And with how most people seem to want all their games to be nothing more than a dumbed down instant gratification simulator these days. I doubt most people will even read this whole rant unless I put out a fucking audio book of it narrated by Charles Dance lol. But I feel like they played it far to safe and inside the box on this one. Like they made this game using marketing charts and getting their direction from guys in suits who've never played a video game in their lives instead of actually putting some fucking heart into it.
Having said that, with the exception of everything I just lost my cool over, I'm enjoying getting to jump back into the world of FF7 again. Even if it is in such a limited fashion. The game itself is beautiful. The characters (especially the minor ones) have so much more personality and depth. Except for Sephiroth of course. If Sephiroth was in a boy band it'd be called One Dimension. Oh, and of course Roche, the mako infused metrosexual Joe Dirt.
And the story...... A lot of people are pissed about the new direction of the story. Personally, I couldn't care less if they change the story in this alternate timeline kind of way. As long as they keep the heart of the original in mind. Aerith dying in the original was one of the saddest moments of my childhood and I would be fine if they let her live in the remake (I can't go through that again, especially since they gave her so much more personality in this one). Maybe they could just have her die at the end of the game so you don't lose such a valuable party member in the middle of the game. Especially if you put some time into building her like I did on my first play through of the original. But I could be wrong. It could turn out to be horrible shit show that Square Enix will never live down in a hundred years for having such a blatant disregard for their fan base. Time will tell I suppose.
Whew, sorry for ranting your ears off. But I had to get this off my chest and out in the interwebs for public record lol.
Later taters.