Final Fantasy VII Remake, One Year Later

[Saven]

That year went by fast (when compared to the wait since State of Play 2019 lol). I still feel pretty much the same as I did after beating it - a solid 9/10 game. Some parts of the game were rough, mainly when the pacing comes to a complete halt in multiple areas of the game being the worst of it. However, this game met my expectations in many areas, even surpassing it in some like the music (I was one of those worried pre-release about it being way too orchestrated). This game actually reminded me of many reasons why I love Final Fantasy as a whole from a fun engaging plot, presentation, gameplay, etc. and a lot of these areas have been lacking for awhile in the offline mainline FF games. Despite my intense shilling campaign for this game before release, I deep down was really worried this game was gonna suck because of Square's recent FF titles, especially from the Kitase-side since I've honestly never been a big fan of FFVIII, XIII, and found X to just be okay. The only Nomura game I liked was KH1 as well and wasn't a big fan of the Compilation in general. After completing this and biting my nails worried about Chapter 18 after noticing the extreme negativity over it before I got to it, I was very happy to be wrong. This is the best game to come out from that team since FFVII IMO and Nomura's best game since KH1. It also has the greatest OST I've ever heard in any video game.

It sounds like all the main story beats will still be hit for the rest of the Remake. With that said, while I do have concerns about the Whisperers, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of this Remake series. After reaching the end of Chapter 18, I was like "there is no way that one hour at most can change my entire opinion about this game". It would've been nice to have a shot-for-shot remake of the series, but after seeing how the first part was able to Intergrade bits and pieces of the Compilation into the Remake nicely matched with writing that was better than the original's, I'm willing to give Square another chance with Compilation lore. I hated Weiss in DoC, but I'm not gonna lie when I say that I got excited seeing him in the last trailer.

Looking back, I think I would've been happy with just about anything they did with the FFVII franchise, even FFVII-2. I'm just happy to see these characters again!

I look forward to June 10th!

 

[LNK]

Played it 3 times already. Can't wait for part 2! Especially the soundtrack

oh yeah, bring on Genesis haha

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I usually don't either. But there's enough stuff from the Early Material files that keeps getting put back in in the Compilation (sometimes without any changes) that it seems Nomura, Kitase and Nojima don't mind going back to it for ideas. So given that we *do* know some of what that stuff is... it's worth paying attention to. Particuarly when it's stuff that hasn't been retconed by FFVII canon yet...

I feel like you can make any story a metaphor for our human experience if you push it... so to me... that was never what made the OG interesting. It's like how you can metaphorically frame almost any conflict in a story as the "trying to get out of purgatory" plot.

Instead the interesting stuff in FFVII *was* the fantastical stuff that intersected with the bio-chemistry and how that all came together in mess of terms. And how all the characters dealt with it... which mainly followed along the lines of a lot of anime tropes... if subversions of a lot of those tropes. (More like, FFVII *made* a lot of anime character tropes famous for the rest of the 2000s going forwards).

You've literally got a bunch of people saving the world by killing an alien-hybrid. With magic. That's what the plot of FFVII is. I don't really know how you can get "how people in real life" act from that unless you get deep into saying everything represents something that it isn't actually is in the story.

You don't get people really dealing with any trauma in a healthy way until... the "Case of" novellas at the earliest. Instead... they deal with their trauma by killing the thing causing them trauma. Which... really isn't the best message to send people about how to cope with bad stuff that happens to them... if your goal is to make characters that are supposed to act like "real people" do anyway...

IDK... it just feels like FFVII has to be warped quite a bit to make it feel like it applies to real life in a meaningful way.

I think the ongoing attachment to the cast speaks for itself as to how much the story and characters resonated with people -- whether in Cloud's story of learning self-acceptance, Barret's wish to be a good father (while thinking he sucks at it), or Red's reconciling what he believed about his own parent when he was younger with what he comes to understand as a burgeoning adult.

There's a lot there that spoke to people in 1997 and continues to offer something today -- especially if the remake continues providing characterization at the level it has so far. Whispers and time shenanigans be damned, if they nail those character arcs, that's going to matter more than whatever they do with the time ghost plot police.

 

[Ite]

“Final Fantasy VII Remake One Year Later” is yet another flashpoint thread for us bicker about the goddamn time travelling ghosts, and it has the extra laugh factor of starting off with the statement that they are “good” for the community.

I liked much of Final Fantasy VII Remake, particularly the battle system and music. It boasts less-frustrating menus than other modern RPGs (like Horizon Zero Dawn and Dragon Age: Inquisition). The HUD is just a bit shy of being perfect, with the ability to toggle the compass a nice surprise — such qol is usually the work of a modding community.

7R doesn’t waste our time with crafting materials or lore codexes, having restrained itself to an optional bestiary and a weapon upgrade system whose only fault is being so beautiful it needs a half second to load.

The game did not manage to restrain itself from boring sidequests and uninteresting townspeople that looked like they fell out of an Italian PS3 game. The game knows they are tedious so badly it implements a fast travel mechanic, and the player character has the good sense to whine about having to do them as well (which doesn’t make them any more fun, only reminds me of how tedious they are) but the game isn’t so self-aware as to make them optional: to get the platinum you have to complete the first 12 gopher jobs three fucking times.

I platinum’d the game when it came out, and I played through a new game just last month. My “one year later” conclusion is that it’s a fine-to-awful video game, with a few oases of jaw-dropping excellence that become fewer as the game progresses steadily towards, then fully up its own ass. I’d rank it among the more impressive of the console generation’s offerings, but the dogfood story and bloated, terribly paced Chapter system puts it far, far behind the original, which is still sitting pretty (well, not pretty) as one of the best all-time entries in interactive media.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

... and it has the extra laugh factor of starting off with the statement that they are “good” for the community.

The truth don't care who tells it, as the old folk say.

 

[oty]

I'd definitely say that, after an entire year, my focus on the "problems of FFVIIR" have almost entirely shifted from convoluted story elements to technical, system issues that they have to fix.

It's a mixture of "they were always going to do this" with "a creator deserves 100% of freedom to do whatever they want with their creations" kind of thoughts. Like @Odysseus, I became more sympathetic with that notion, so I don't think a creator has to "respond" to any meddling executive who only cares about numbers, and consequently, to any plight from any fanbase. My criticism of the Whispers and timely-wobbly shenanigans have all become criticism of their execution, that I still believe was inconsistent, and downright mad at the end. I partly blame the faulty development process of the game, which degraded the quality of overall all the last chapters (hence, inconsistent), but also at their own methods of story making, which have always been risky and full of ups-and-downs tbh.

I think the game has a lot of technical issues they had to fix, and their instance of pretty much forgetting the PS4 version is also a huge minus for them (though obviously, the higher ups have influence there). Stuff like the camera, Air combat, battle system QoL. Level design is also a huge hit or miss. It has never been amazing so to speak, but sometimes it goes a bit too far. You have the famous ones, you know, the Sewers and The Drum, but I think there are also more instances of that, ahem, padding. Chapter 6 has gone down for me. Chapter 9's Tunnel has kick-ass music, but really, 3 mechanical arms? It's not huge stuff, but it does sort of screw up the rythm of the game, makes it more inconsistent with it's impact moments. Again, side quests are also very hit or miss. Some greats one, a lot of mediocre ones. The graphical "bugs" (textures, lip syncing outside of cutscenes) also kind of hit you after some time.

Again, not huge stuff, that's why the game still sits at a confortable 7 or 8/10 for me, but they are definitely present, and absolutely need to be considered for the next part, which is where things get even more complicated...........

I am incredibly excited for Part 2, just because it feels like everything is aligned right now. Standard full development process; new, extra powerful hardware for your heart's content; a lot of improvements already being acknowledged and a lot of story stuff introduced and out of the way. And also, probably the best part of the OG FFVII for someone who wants to expand it's world.

If they want to absolutely kick-ass and demolish everyone's expectations for this Remake Series, this next part is absolutely the golden target. Of course there are a lot of obstacles. Some benefits are also disadvantages, like new hardware, completely different type of story progression, etc. But this is where things start to get tricky for them. They can absolutely sort of "flop" this part and get it right on the next one. But that's why this is the most important part, probably on par with the last one. Get this thing extra right, and you got the rest of your series surely bought. Which is absolutely what I hope they do.

 

[Eerie]

I feel strongly that part 2 will only be released on PS5/PC (after a long wait). This should free the dev team of a lot of troubles and extra hurdles they went through for part 1 - technically speaking - and make the game way smoother for players.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I feel strongly that part 2 will only be released on PS5 ...

I don't think that's even in question. Yuffie's DLC isn't even coming to the PS4.

 

[cold_spirit]

It took a while to build up the courage, but I've read through the replies. The reception isn't as bad as I thought it'd be!

I spent two months writing the original post, going back and making edits every week or so. Had lots of internal debate if I should even go through with it too. I knew I was being provocative. Ultimately, I said to myself “this is what I have to say, they can take it or leave it.”

I'll always be, 100%, absolutely on the side of creative freedom and innovation. That's the spirit of Final Fantasy to me. It's what gave us VII to begin with. To not want that now is... very un-Final Fantasy to me.

 

[Areega]

I hated the whispers and changes in the remake a year ago. So I didn't touch it for a very long time after I completed it the first time. Then, a few months ago I decided to give it another try. And I absolutely loved every minute of it.

Sure, there are moments which make me think "What the hell SE..." or "Why did you do that SE...?". But those moments no longer stop me from enjoying the game. Now, I'm really excited for part 2 and open for whatever changes it brings (final boss fight with Cloud, Aerith, Rufus and Sephiroth in the party against the evil super-villain Genesis who wants to turn the planet into a dumbapple).