Final Fantasy VII Remake

[Metroid66]

My last session on this was a mad escape from the wall market with loads of new enemies to fight and some spectral shenanigans going on.

 

Spoiler

Three bosses it took me to escape those sewers and train yard.

 

Hell of a trip that was. Haven't seen a game over screen yet, though. So while there's been a bit of frustration of the 'why can't I damage this sumbitch' variety, I seem to have things covered.

 

I'll be glad to get back to a more relaxed section. There's a fat chocobo I've got my eye on for my team.

[Metroid66]

I'm no longer frustrated by this game, and I fully expect to see it thru. It's perfectly playable and has a certain charm in the presentation.

 

As I go thru the game, though, I can easily nominate it (barring some insane upturn in the second half) as my least favourite final fantasy, and almost an insult to the original.

 

It just doesn't want to set me free. It has no desire to see me role play as I see fit, or stamp my personality on the world it's presented me with.

 

There are just some things a role player must furnish upon the player. I need to be able to build my character as I see fit, get powerful or overpowered if I desire, work on my technique in the world, so that I'm ready for the challenges ahead. If I want to, I need to be so good at playing the game that the final boss shits himself the moment I draw near.

 

I can't do any of this here. It's just a long narrow road of proscribed experiences. I can't practice the combat, I can't level up, there's madly limited combat to be had in the field, and their seems to be arbitrary prohibitions on other facets on the game's processes - for instance I've been unable to master the special move of this shite nail club I've been using despite it being my main weapon for about seven hours. I mastered the other 3 swords I've got in no time.

 

It just seems to me that the makers of this game want me to have a certain experience with it, see what they want me to see and do what I'm told without deviation. Since I left the Wall market it's just been bang, bang, bang for hours - long narrow roads leading to boss battles that I can win, but without the style I desire, without any art in my gameplay.

 

I'm required to see this game in the way I'd watch a film. Fair enough. Lots of great games are like that (I'm just wrapping up Uncharted 2, for example).

 

Just don't call your game an RPG.

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah, I'm with you on that criticism of its structure. If I had to summarise it myself, I'd say Remake is a somewhat lame attempt at aping a Sony style 'prestige' video game presentation and bolt on some fairly weak progression mechanics to the mix

 

There's things Remake does really well, with its synthesis of action combat and turn based mechanics that I feel are underrated by lots of people on here. When you play it less like an action game and more turn-based, its systems can open up and show how clever their integration really is. The nail bat move, 'disorder', is actually the best move in the game. I'll put it in a spoiler if you don't want the spoonfeeding as to why, but 

Spoiler

It's an offensive stance switch, returns half a bar of ATB on it, goes into a massive combo on hit and interacts with materia like ATB assist and skillmaster if you have them as well, which can build even more ATB.

It's my most used move with Cloud and I felt naked in Rebirth without it, until I unlocked it again where it's even better. 

 

But a lot of these other issues are things I think Rebirth is much better with, cause it does take the reigns off and lets you just 'exist' in a world and not feel compelled to just take everything in a narrow, constrained path and move onto the next chapter. The structure is more akin to Ubisoft, not a structure I love either but it's clearly a better fit here. You can put things off and come back to them later, what a novel concept for an RPG. You can master card games, chocobo racing, practice your FFXII knowledge in a minigame implementation of the gambit system, and there's much greater potential for build theorycrafting across the party, which you can finally swap in and out of unlike this Midgar chapter. The key thing being that while the game is a bit bloated in parts, it's also got enough variety and depth in its various activities to allow you to pace yourself better than Remake, which is a series of different flavours that go on too long and are dictated to you by its designers. Rebirth becomes like this later on as well, but that's after like 80 hours of being brilliantly diverse so I can forgive that

 

But I think the reason Remake is the way it is is purely that it's near impossible to make a modern game with an expansive scope. Rebirth gets to be that game with an expansive scope just cause it was iterated from this game. But you just can't expect games to be like that anymore, unless it's a Switch title maybe. 

[Metroid66]

1 hour ago, one-armed dwarf said:

 

But a lot of these other issues are things I think Rebirth is much better with, cause it does take the reigns off and lets you just 'exist' in a world and not feel compelled to just take everything in a narrow, constrained path

 

Well, since I'm playing remake only because of the good things I've heard about the new one, I'm very glad that you've been able to confirm that here.

[Metroid66]

Sure, it was another straight-as-a-die walk thru a sewer/factory but I didn't half enjoy having a solo moment with

Spoiler

Barrett, the gun crazy Muppet, shooting everything that moves, rescuing the girl, and giving the good news to an ugly mother going by the 'says it all' moniker of Failed Experiment.'

 

What's the matter with this Shinra? They're worse than Apple.

[Metroid66]

I've reached chapter 14 of this, and the game has finally loosened it's grip and allowed me to wonder around, grab side quests and talk to NPCs. There's even a big bunch of exp gathering fights to be had in the wall market colosseum. Why did it take so long for the game to become a solid and enjoyable RPG.

 

I'm now able to practice my combat and get good at the game, switching characters on the fly, linking stagger strategies with my team and building up my collection of mastered weapons. It's taken this long for me to realise that Tifa is a Kung Fu goddess, and easily my favourite character to use in a barney. I've mastered five or six of her weapons and the moves are all feckin awesome.

 

It could have been like this from the start.

[Metroid66]

Am I doing something wrong or are the summons in this not worth a carrot?

 

I pulled in Ifrit in a fight against a fire weak enemy and he did bugger all - while a simple fira off one of my team nearly devastated my flammable foe.

 

A don't get me started on fat chocobo.

[Nag]

Are you letting them do their own thing or are you spending your ATB bars on their moves? Also it's when their timer runs out they'll do their swanky ultimate attack... and most of the time you'll finish things before that ever happens. 

[one-armed dwarf]

They feel very random, you have to spend a bunch of ATB to summon them, more ATB to use their unique skills, then a random Hellfire or whatever happens at a point in the fight where an enemy is not staggered and they don't get interrupted or pressured either. Their moves can be good but they don't let you get on with your main character's gameplan. eg, Tifa can't be doing her combos if she's telling Ifrit to burp fire

 

imo, they sort of feel like a comeback mechanic rather than something you can use strategically. Rebirth is also like that unfortunately, except one character get a cool abiliity to use with them

 

(rebirth spoiler)

Spoiler

It's Cait Sith, he has a move which randomly picks a summon move, it's a pretty fun one, just randomly summoning a giant dragon out of nowhere and then they leave, like in the original game

 

If I was going to revamp this system I would give the summons their own ATB gauge, still have them be AI allies but also make it so summoning them costs lots of mana rather than being this weird timer thing that activates and have their abilities scale from the character who summoned them (so high magic === high fire damage). Something closer to FFX's system maybe. They've kinda been all over the place with summoning systems since FFXII, which also had a bad mechanic. XIII had a terrible system, and XV was the weirdest most stupid one of all. 

[Metroid66]

5 minutes ago, Nag said:

Are you letting them do their own thing or are you spending your ATB bars on their moves?

That seems a waste tbh. My team does far more damage in a controlled (stagger) situation.

 

5 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

They've kinda been all over the place with summoning systems since FFXII,

True. I do remember summoning Yojimbo in 10 and actually feeling sorry for the enemy, especially if I had a good few gil on me.

[Metroid66]

Glad I went back to this. Having a pretty good time since the game calmed down a bit in chapter 14. Having said that you then get a sort of point of no return, and a set of grappling hooks. I think once you've scaled the wall that's more or less it for making your own way. I'm in an end game now I reckon, not that I expect it to be over quickly. 

 

I have 

Spoiler

rescued Aerith and Red 13, and we're making our way out of the Shinra building.

 

Yeah, it's good. It's atmospheric and it's explaining itself better than I remember the original doing. It's fantasy hokum, but I've got a handle on what's going on with all the different little story threads - ancients, whispers, Shinra soldiers etc...

 

Still not sure who Sephiroth is though, and why everyone is shit scared of him.

[Metroid66]

The game is getting a bit relentless now, and not in a good way. I mean, can u have just too many bosses, too much action?

 

Final Fantasy games are usually rather relaxing. Not this fucker. And I was rather enjoying chapter 17 after the peaceful romp thru the previous hours.

 

It's good. I respect the creativity. But it's hectic as fuck, and for too long periods. Like I feel I've been doing high level bosses for the last 4 hours. It's punishing, not fun. It's just too much.

 

High end action games like bayonetta and DMC have better pacing than this.

 

I still like it, but it misfires too frequently to get anywhere near the top of my FF best of list. And those motorbike bits. Fuck me, I'll be waking up screaming thinking of those thumb breaking nightmares.

[Metroid66]

Done!

 

Beat the final boss first time on my normal difficulty playthru, which surprised me to be honest because I'd suffered my first game over not long before against the Shinra president's son, whatever his name is.

 

Yeah, I moaned a few times but overall I liked it. Just a few drawn out sections where the game became something other than what I was expecting or wanted it to be - I think it was @one-armed dwarfwho said sometimes it's more Sony first party actioner than Squeenix RPG. 

 

But it did more right than wrong for me and I'd definitely play it again, and, forewarned, probably have a better time.

 

Of course it can never match the giants of the franchise, FF X-2 and 15.

[mfnick]

2 hours ago, Metroid66 said:

I think it was @one-armed dwarfwho said sometimes it's more Sony first party actioner than Squeenix RPG. 

Maybe that’s why I loved it so much.