Final Fantasy VII Remake

[one-armed dwarf]

This review is so long its almost as long as the Midgar section from the original ?

 

 

[mfnick]

Started it on hard mode since I just felt lost on what to put on next. Not been too bad. Definitely noticeably harder but manageable. Until now!! I’ve just don’t chapter 9 again. The end boss of the Colosseum took me a hour... I died twice and on my successful run it literally took 40 minutes of just chipping away. I almost died at the very last bit too, think console would have gone out of the window if I did. 
 

Anyone else done it on hard? Although I managed that fight, I’m worried about later ones now, don’t know if I’ve got the patience for it. Are there any later ones which are much harder than that one?  

[Rikzilla]

Hell House was the beginning of the difficulty spike for me for sure.

 

Most of the bosses after that became a case of try it and see how far I can get, if I kill it move on, if not try again and work out pattern/weaknesses.

 

It sounds obvious/silly but every boss is super easy once you work out the pattern and weaknesses. Once you do that you wonder why you struggled with it.

 

Apart from a couple of the optional fights and the final boss nothing wanted me to smash my PS4 though so I think you'll be ok.

 

The feeling I got from smashing a boss in a couple of minutes after struggling for an hour or two was great.

[one-armed dwarf]

The VII remake soundtrack is on google play now

 

Now I don't have a great ear for mastering but listening to the Airbuster theme on google it kind of doesn't sound much better than the game version or what you get on youtube. I feel like the XV soundtrack release sounded better. 

[mfnick]

I fucking love the soundtrack to this, it’s one of my favourite game ones ever. The originals and mixes are all brilliant. Special shout out to HipHop De Chocobo. I’ve never wanted to listen to a game soundtrack out of the game though (apart from HotD Overkill but that’s was very short lived), I just dont think they really suit that type of listening. 
 

Thanks for the input @Rikzilla, I know what you mean about that satisfaction. Had 1 since, but I’m still worried about the 30min+ bosses and dieing meat the end of them. I’m at chapter 13 now though and done

Spoiler

Bahamut

so think I’ll be ok.  
 

Also fuck Reflect (11 end boss)!! And fuck those helicopter guys! Cunts!! 

Quote

[one-armed dwarf]

I often use FF soundtracks as work soundtracks, or any OST without vocals cause it tends to be minimally distracting. 

 

(Also other tracks on the OST sound fine, maybe it's the louder boss themes that are a bit lower quality).

[Rikzilla]

Spoiler

Wait until you fight Hard Mode Bahamut ?

 

[mfnick]

15 minutes ago, Rikzilla said:

  Hide contents

Wait until you fight Hard Mode Bahamut ?

 

What?! I have to fight him again?! Fuck this... I barely scraped through this time. That ultimate attack just ends everything, how the hell are you meant to fill his stagger before that timer runs out I’ll never know. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I wonder can you fight 

Spoiler

Bahamut with Bahamut

 

 

I actually never summoned him lol, I stopped summoning after getting Shiva for some reason.

 

One thing I'm surprised by looking at the OST is Uemetsa's name is on a lot of the tracks, not just the ones he composed for the original game. eg, 'Ignition Flame' (Roche boss track) is by him.

[mfnick]

22 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

I wonder can you fight 

  Reveal hidden contents

Bahamut with Bahamut

 

Nope. Unfortunately  Tried last night, I’d been using him as my go to since unlocking since his ultimate usually does 9999 damage and his usual attacks are strong too. 
 

Anyway, did the hard version of the fucker last night! Only took 3 attempts so not as bad as I thought it might be. Was more annoying having to beat the other 3 before him everytime. Almost did it on my first attempt too, couldn’t even see his health anymore it was that low but he just got that final attack out before I managed to chip that last bit off. Done him now though, so satisfying. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I was shitting it for the fight after, I definitely didn’t want to do it again. Needn’t have worried though, thank fuck. Last one was laughable.

 

That accessory you unlock is amazing! Wish I’d skipped to this chapter earlier & tried doing it, would make this playthrough a lot easier. Although not sure if my materia would have been high enough. Just got the last 2 chapters to finish on hard now.

 

[mfnick]

Hard and Platinum done. Stressful and difficult but satisfying and worth it! 

[one-armed dwarf]

Clemps spoiler thoughts on the story

 

 

 

Spoiler

One of his 'what if' thoughts I like is what if they decide to make Hojo more of a major villain, like making him a kind of Kefka figure.

 

I just figure if we already fought Sephiroth in part 1 then it's not going to be as cool if he is still the final boss at the end. Might as well go crazy with the new story

 

[one-armed dwarf]

1 hour ago, Maf said:

I can find the FF crowd hard to deal with in general but Max really did get to be the worst of it by a mile. I mean he isn’t the only person I’ve seen stand on their chair or start sobbing at gameplay trailers, and I get it. We all have games we drool over and get extra excited for, and I like to see people happy about video games. But his “Road to FF7” and the bit of the Let’s Play I saw when he starts crying at a skybox was too much. I don’t want to be that guy, I want people to be excited for video games, but there was something about all that which was OTT. I think he does one video where he spends most of the time talking about the jacket he was wearing when he went and played the E3 demo. Err....

 

Having said all of that, his reaction video to Cloud in Smash, put on or not, I think is a great video and makes me laugh and happy. 

 

 

I also got emotional while playing the Remake so I don't think it's that strange. But it's not that I think the reaction is faked or anything, more like I think some of these guys dial into a more exaggerated style of reaction than they would otherwise if they weren't sitting in front of a camera. It could be totally unconscious but it's kinda how Twitch streamers come across to me, like people want to share their hype which is cool. But there's an element of selling yourself which comes into it because it's literally what drives the exchange of money on these platforms. The reactions are a kind of product themselves which is a weird thing to think about when you step back from what Twitch basically is.

 

One thing I thought was wild was listening to the Easy Allies talk about FFVII remake. They had that incredible reaction at the announcement where they were standing on seats and stuff which definitely felt very real, especially as it was followed up by a Shenmue announcement which had one of them sobbing. But a lot of them seemed a little lukewarm on the final product except for Huber. Not that there's anything wrong with that or anything, I was also lukewarm on Remake.

 

It will be interesting when time passes and we can separate this game from the anticipation and emotions a bit and see how people still feel about it. Some games like FFXII are hated at release and see a huge re-evaluation decades after. I wonder what way VIIr will go.

[Maf]

In regards to streamers that’s just the name of the game. Nearly everyone who is sitting in front of a webcam and playing a game is just using the game as a launch pad to really show off their personality or entertainment presenter chops. And I like a few streamers so that isn’t a criticism of the practice. But yes they have to sell themselves and sometimes it’s so transparently fake it sucks but there are a lot of good ones that just genuinely love playing games and entertaining people. Even if sometimes they overact a bit it’s still fun to see. It just changes when you know the person is completely faking how much they like something. 
 

I love Giant Bomb for example and they pretty much built their whole style of this same thing with their quick looks so streamers using games to deliver personality first content is fine. 
 

In regard to Max and FF7 I don’t think it’s strange I just don’t relate to it. I’ve played FF7 original 3 times in my life and every time I’ve played it I’ve liked it less and less. Which is not to say I don’t like it because I do. But as you say time passes and you reevaluate, and as I’ve gone one way everyone else has gone the other until you reach the pinnacle of it like Max did and I’m just like...I understand the type of reaction I just don’t relate to it with this game and found it overbearing. Because I have done the same with other games, though, I try not to be critical of him for it. 
 

Back on topic I really am excited to play the Remake this week. I said for along time if they ever were going to remake FF7 they would have to properly remake it because - in my opinion and I get that I’m alone on this* - it’s a game that has seriously deteriorated over time so if they were ever to do it again they’d have to really go for it. Even to me though they went way above and beyond. I was thinking too small like re-write the story and give it a new battle system but they seem to have just gone as hard on remaking it as possible which I think is very exciting. If I like it or not, I don’t know yet. I’m aware of some crazy stuff they’re doing but I don’t know the full scope of it.
 

*Also FF7 is not the only old game I feel this way about. I think this new era of remakes with FF7R and a Resi 2 is amazing and hope it continues with others. They’ve raised the bar. 
 

EDIT: This post is all over the place and I tried to wrangle it in as much as I could but it still didn’t turn out very well. Sorry, mods. 

[DANGERMAN]

impressions threads for game impressions please lads, we really don't need another spaff of FF consciousness in every thread

[radiofloyd]

Tempted to get these:

 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ff7-remake-jigsaw-puzzles-are-here-to-occupy-your-/1100-6480405/

[Maf]

I finally played this game and it’s fucking awful

 

No, I’m fucking with you I really like it a lot. 
 

It is already my favourite FF game since FF9. Even if it goes down hill from here I’ve already had more of a thrill and fun out of this than every FF game since. I’ve only just reached the train after Mako 1 which according to the save was about an 1:40 play time. I know this game goes in some different directions, although I’ve managed to stay unspoiled for what they are exactly, but clearly right after Mako 1 things are drastically different and I like it a lot. 
 

They’ve done a good job at giving me moments I think FF7 original wishes it could do in terms of big, cinematic action, while also giving me brand new stuff that already has me intrigued to where this is going, while also clearly not replacing the original at all. That’s a really neat trick. How I will like where it goes I don’t know. From what I know it sounds iffy but sometimes things are different in practice. For now I can say it’s got me interested and I’m in to it. 

I’m not sure about the combat yet. I think I need to play with the camera options because I want the camera to focus on whoever the lock on is on. And for it to keep up when I change targets. I think it isn’t doing that. Also it would of been nice to know there was a roll button before the first boss. Man, that guy is an ass kicker. Cloud even went down at one point during the fight. 
 

I’ve watched people play the demo as well and I still didn’t do it very well. Maybe with practice it makes more sense but there was a lot going on visually. I couldn’t tell what to do or when to do it. Especially when he activates the force field. I know there’s a weak spot on the back but I didn’t know how to hit it. It just didn’t feel like it was working. It’s hard to underline just how scrappy and brute forced the fight was. Maybe 1 Phoenix down, 1 ether and about a dozen potions paints a good picture. 
 

The second part was just before the train and there is a small group of seemingly normal soldiers that attack. Soldiers who I had literally kicked up and down the street. Then I get to the final round and there’s 2 guys with shields and I swear it was like the second guy was glitched. Even when rolling behind him and using the Focused Thrust (?) skill he just shrugged that shit off. He was harder than the first boss, he almost put me down multiple times. 
 

I dunno. I need to practice it and get a better feel for it. I fought everybody else possible and all the other fights were fine and fun but those two were very difficult and I’m just not sure why. 
 

I’m really liking this game a lot, though. It’s doing everything I wanted it to do so far. Give me FF7 but give me it new. I said this before FF7R and RE2 are now my standard bearers for remakes. No more remakes. More reimaginings. Stop being lazy. Use the new technology to do the shit the old technology could only dream of. Not that the old games are bad just win or lose at least it’s way more interesting that just a new coat of paint. 

[Maf]

Because I didn’t think of it

[one-armed dwarf]

He's doing it right, can't use items on hard mode.

 

A good thing to watch out for are the tooltips above enemies. That's how enemy attacks are cued 90% of the time.

[Maf]

If I can’t use potions on hard mode I’m going to need to get a lot better lol