Gaming Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4, PS5) | Put discussion of chapters etc in labelled spoilers as people will be at different points

[Damien]

Spoiler: Spoiler Chapter 4

Geez, if Jessie gets any more touchy feely with Cloud it'd be bordering on assault. Hope I haven't blocked anything important by telling her there's no way I want to see her again tomorrow night. She didn't even seem to take the hint though.
Enjoyed the mission and I like that they're fleshing out these characters a bit more...it was a bit strange that there's a training centre right outside the main entrance where you can destroy Shinra robots but whatever

Spoiler: Chapter 4

Even stranger is it rewards you with gil - and more than you get for beating regular enemies. Probably a good place to grind to get rich.

Halfway through Chapter 6, liking the game so far apart from the third intel mission, staggering enemies and using unique abilities to power up the gauge. Only just worked out what it meant and managed to grind it out on the room before you get the summoning materia in Chapter 6.

 

[Gehrman]

I like Midgar and the look of what they've done with it in this. It looks great when it bothers rendering, but it's not like they've given you an open world there to explore. It's a series of corridors and the padding is fetch quests or story tangents that don't really add anything.

this really

 

[Irwin99]

I'm on chapter 9 and the argument about story padding has weight on both sides but I'm starting to think they did the right thing. Even if they subtracted the side quests they still have an open world to do and so much content to squeeze in that it would be impossible I think.

Any remakes of 6, 8, 9 or 10 wont be done in this style I'm pretty sure. Too long and costly to make in this style.

 

[MackRobinson]

This thread is thread has me on the verge on an impulse PS4/FFVII purchase. Feck this virus.

 

[esmufc07]

This thread is thread has me on the verge on an impulse PS4/FFVII purchase. Feck this virus.

Do it Mack!

 

[KirkDuyt]

I like Midgar and the look of what they've done with it in this. It looks great when it bothers rendering, but it's not like they've given you an open world there to explore. It's a series of corridors and the padding is fetch quests or story tangents that don't really add anything.

I think personally, a big part of why I like it is nostalgia, because there's definitely some wonky stuff I agree, but meh, it makes me feel like a kid again.

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler: Chapter 18

How many bosses do they want to give us Got upto the Sephiroth fight but I'd run through my items and Aeris was my healing character and she wasn't in my party for the Sephiroth fight, so I've had to go back to the beginning to reequip my characters, which is a tad annoying.

Not sure how I feel about Sephiroth being a boss? Anybody else upto this point and have any thoughts? I always liked the fact you fought Sephiroth after a long journey in search for him in the Northern Crater, so I was surprised we get to fight him in Part 1.

Fantastic game, mind. They've done a really good job. A couple of the chapters drag on a tad too long with needless filler but I don't think it detracts from what has been a brilliant experience.

Can't wait for part 2!

 

[esmufc07]

I'm on chapter 9 and the argument about story padding has weight on both sides but I'm starting to think they did the right thing. Even if they subtracted the side quests they still have an open world to do and so much content to squeeze in that it would be impossible I think.

Any remakes of 6, 8, 9 or 10 wont be done in this style I'm pretty sure. Too long and costly to make in this style.

Yeah I think they've gone for an extremely ambitious remake and I'm more than happy to go on the journey. As @Art Vandelay said a couple of the chapters go on a tad too long but that's only a minor issue for me. It's an utterly compelling and absorbing game.

I just hope we're not waiting too long for Part 2. I can understand the first part taking so long as everything has had to be redesigned from the bottom up but they now have a lot of the stuff in place and I'm assuming work on Part 2 has been underway for a while now anyway. I'm hoping it will be yearly instalments for however many parts there are (I think 4 perhaps? I don't think you can stretch it out anymore than that).

 

[Gehrman]

The game is doing a great job of making me care about my waifu's. They are all done brillianty.

 

[JohnZSmith27]

Spoiler: Chapter 18

How many bosses do they want to give us Got upto the Sephiroth fight but I'd run through my items and Aeris was my healing character and she wasn't in my party for the Sephiroth fight, so I've had to go back to the beginning to reequip my characters, which is a tad annoying.

Not sure how I feel about Sephiroth being a boss? Anybody else upto this point and have any thoughts? I always liked the fact you fought Sephiroth after a long journey in search for him in the Northern Crater, so I was surprised we get to fight him in Part 1.

Fantastic game, mind. They've done a really good job. A couple of the chapters drag on a tad too long with needless filler but I don't think it detracts from what has been a brilliant experience.

Can't wait for part 2!

Spoiler: End game

Yeah towards the end is brutal. Just when you think you're done, there's another boss.

I dont mind so much fighting Sephiroth. I guess anyone new to the game will prob be expecting to fight him seeing as he shows up a good few times. I had all my characters with max healing materia at that stage luckily. Some of the visuals towards the end there are amazing.

I hadn't played the game in like 20 years so there were some things I wasn't sure if they had added something in or not. Maybe that added to my enjoyment. A nice blend of nostalgia and something new. Overall I think they did a fantastic job except for the texture stuff which will hopefully be sorted in a patch

 

[esmufc07]

Finished it. What an incredible game.

Spoiler: End game spoiler!

The unknown Journey will continue - How do we think the ending sets up for the next part? Do we think they are going to deviate from the original?

 

[Damien]

Great job everybody with the consistent use of spoilers. Keep it up!

 

[esmufc07]

Hurry up and finish the game, Damo.

 

[Damien]

Hurry up and finish the game, Damo.

Spoiler: Chapter 7

I'm at the end/near the end of the Chapter (I assume) about to face the Air Cutter boss, so still a fair amount of the game to go.

 

[SuperiorXI]

Jesus some of you finishing the game, I can barely sneak a couple hours in before my other half starts whinging. About 11hrs in so far up to Chapter 8!

Aeris is a good option as party leader, her magic ATK is beastly.

 

[esmufc07]

Jesus some of you finishing the game, I can barely sneak a couple hours in before my other half starts whinging. About 11hrs in so far up to Chapter 8!

Aeris is a good option as party leader, her magic ATK is beastly.

I've put 35 hours in since Friday. Want to replay through the game on hard and get the platinum but I'll have to stick to an hour or two a day until I've finished Uni.

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler: Chapter 7

I'm at the end/near the end of the Chapter (I assume) about to face the Air Cutter boss, so still a fair amount of the game to go.

Spoiler

I enjoyed that boss.

 

[SuperiorXI]

I've put 35 hours in since Friday. Want to replay through the game on hard and get the platinum but I'll have to stick to an hour or two a day until I've finished Uni.

Might do the same, loving this game so far more so than any game in recent memory.

 

[Damien]

Spoiler

I enjoyed that boss.

Spoiler: Chapter 7

Looks interesting with the 'choose your own boss' type thing in the build up. Don't know whether it actually affects his loadout or whether it is purely for the drops you get in the delivery room beforehand but guess I'll see if he hardly uses the bomber shells on me when I resume the game.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Finished it. What an incredible game.

Spoiler: End game spoiler!

The unknown Journey will continue - How do we think the ending sets up for the next part? Do we think they are going to deviate from the original?

Spoiler

I stopped playing it and I will never ever give Square another penny of my money. The ending is them setting up to feck with the rest of the game, that's not what it was advertised as nor what I wanted. I wanted a remake of 7 with modern graphics, you can take a few liberties here and there, but you can't go adding other timelines or having Zack live.

My mate started hinting in a group chat that anyone that loves 7 is going to be pissed by the ending. So given what I'd seen and where I thought it was going I guessed at a worst case scenario and was surprisingly accurate. So I looked it up and I have no interest in what they are doing. I just want FF7, I don't want the people that wrote Kingdom Hearts or FF13 being given licence to rewrite it with alternate timelines or time travel. They had one job, tell the same story with modern graphics and they couldn't do it.

Nostalgia cuts both ways. I'll forgive a lot of stuff that I wouldn't in other games like the texture problems and those mini games and the combat not being great. Start fecking with what I loved though and I want no part of it. Nothing they've done in that universe since the original game has actually been good, I have no interest in this faux sequel or them messing with anything. I'll stick with the original.

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler

I stopped playing it and I will never ever give Square another penny of my money. The ending is them setting up to feck with the rest of the game, that's not what it was advertised as nor what I wanted. I wanted a remake of 7 with modern graphics, you can take a few liberties here and there, but you can't go adding other timelines or having Zack live.

My mate started hinting in a group chat that anyone that loves 7 is going to be pissed by the ending. So given what I'd seen and where I thought it was going I guessed at a worst case scenario and was surprisingly accurate. So I looked it up and I have no interest in what they are doing. I just want FF7, I don't want the people that wrote Kingdom Hearts or FF13 being given licence to rewrite it with alternate timelines or time travel. They had one job, tell the same story with modern graphics and they couldn't do it.

Nostalgia cuts both ways. I'll forgive a lot of stuff that I wouldn't in other games like the texture problems and those mini games and the combat not being great. Start fecking with what I loved though and I want no part of it. Nothing they've done in that universe since the original game has actually been good, I have no interest in this faux sequel or them messing with anything. I'll stick with the original.

Spoiler

I thought you'd be pissed. I'm still trying to digest it!

 

[Woodzy]

For all the praise I give the game so far, most of the side quests are terrible.

Some of the ones i'm doing at the moment in Wall Market are utter nonsense.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler

I thought you'd be pissed. I'm still trying to digest it!

Spoiler: Ending

I have been holding in a rant since yesterday. I didn't want to spoil it for anyone in case they liked the ending.

It's just not what I wanted and I feel they were disengenuine in the advertising of it. They haven't remade FF7, they've essentially made a sequel while advertising it as the thing people were begging them for. If they had said from the start this is what they were going to do then I at least could have saved my money.

I knew it was coming though, from that first Aerith scene where they pause her to shove Sephiroth and the whispers in instead I knew I wasn't going to like where it ends up and just enjoyed as much of the journey as I could considering I'd already paid for it. So I'm not as pissed as most people on the internet seem to be. Just deflated that I'm not getting an FF7 remake after all and I actually paid them money to not remake it.

 

[esmufc07]

Major game spoilers and ending talk.

Spoiler

I agree they can't keep Zack alive, just as much as they can't keep Aeris alive. It alters the story too much and there'd be a severe backlash. Zack dying basically allows the creation of the Cloud we see in the original FF7, so I'm not too sure how they could possibly keep him alive. I've no issue with them exploring his story some more as it wasn't done well in the original and if you missed the very missable optional cutscene explaining Zack's story then it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

As I understand it;

The whispers were, as RedXIII says, the arbiters of fate. Throughout the game we see them at certain points and we now know why. Sephiroth toward the end of the game opens up a portal and challenges the team to fight destiny as he knows his destiny ends with Cloud and his team stopping his plan to strike Meteor into the planet. But does this mean there's another Sephiroth in another timeline? What was the whole, 'You have 7 seconds' about? A part of me is a bit worried, another part of me incredibly excited to see where it could go. Or was it all just a red herring? Or could it all be a hallucination from Jenova?

I think the game will broadly remain the same. Wutai was mentioned several times in the Remake so I assume that is going to play a much bigger part than the original, which again I don't really have an issue with.

I think this game was always going to split opinion - I'd have had no issue with a remake with modern graphics where everything was kept largely the same. But I absolutely loved this remake. I can't see them ripping the original game up and going in a new direction, because there'd be serious backlash and why would they? I don't mind elements of the story and journey being changed, but fundamental aspects of the story need to remain the same. I'll be megapissed if Aeris doesn't die, because her death is the turning point in the game and what inspires Cloud to go after and kill Sephiroth. But who the feck knows!

 

[Art Vandelay]

Major game spoilers and ending talk.

Spoiler

I agree they can't keep Zack alive, just as much as they can't keep Aeris alive. It alters the story too much and there'd be a severe backlash. Zack dying basically allows the creation of the Cloud we see in the original FF7, so I'm not too sure how they could possibly keep him alive. I've no issue with them exploring his story some more as it wasn't done well in the original and if you missed the very missable optional cutscene explaining Zack's story then it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

As I understand it;

The whispers were, as RedXIII says, the arbiters of fate. Throughout the game we see them at certain points and we now know why. Sephiroth toward the end of the game opens up a portal and challenges the team to fight destiny as he knows his destiny ends with Cloud and his team stopping his plan to strike Meteor into the planet. But does this mean there's another Sephiroth in another timeline? What was the whole, 'You have 7 seconds' about? A part of me is a bit worried, another part of me incredibly excited to see where it could go. Or was it all just a red herring? Or could it all be a hallucination from Jenova?

I think the game will broadly remain the same. Wutai was mentioned several times in the Remake so I assume that is going to play a much bigger part than the original, which again I don't really have an issue with.

I think this game was always going to split opinion - I'd have had no issue with a remake with modern graphics where everything was kept largely the same. But I absolutely loved this remake. I can't see them ripping the original game up and going in a new direction, because there'd be serious backlash and why would they? I don't mind elements of the story and journey being changed, but fundamental aspects of the story need to remain the same. I'll be megapissed if Aeris doesn't die, because her death is the turning point in the game and what inspires Cloud to go after and kill Sephiroth. But who the feck knows!

More major ending talk and spoilers

Spoiler

That's the thing though, they've altered the very nature of the rest of the game and given themselves licence to do whatever the hell they want with it. They could bring Mickey Mouse in to kill Aerith if they felt like it now.

The story and the journey aren't the same now. Sephiroth can't be drip fed nor can Zack or the nature of Cloud being a bit of a mentalist. Everyone is self aware now. Instead of a journey that starts out small and gets grander and grander they've gone for time altering, alternate Sephiroth's from the future, fighting fate itself and Aerith seeing the future before you even get to Kalm. To top this they are going to have to get bigger and bigger and I fear it's going to lead to almost every key story point having this issue where it has to be bigger and better than fighting Sephiroth's from the future.

FF7 you're following a man and that gets bigger and bigger, the revelations are drip fed in. Now your following the god from the future you just fought and possibly having to fight fate and destiny along the way. It's no longer FF7, it's a sequel. It's a version of the story where the original story already happened. A completely needless sequel when all they were asked for was a remake. Ending spoilers or not it should have been advertised as a sequel.

 

[evil_geko]

For all the praise I give the game so far, most of the side quests are terrible.

Some of the ones i'm doing at the moment in Wall Market are utter nonsense.

That was inevitable to happen when they take one game and try to make 3 or 4 long games out of it, that is why I can't get excited about this remake, money milking at it's best. Lot's of filler content to justify split parts of the game. Quality over quantity for me.

Might wait for big sale to pick it up whenever that is, if they had the real classic combat in though, I would cash in right away, milking or not. But with it being hack and slash, I have no problem waiting for price drop whenever.

 

[esmufc07]

More major ending talk and spoilers

Spoiler

That's the thing though, they've altered the very nature of the rest of the game and given themselves licence to do whatever the hell they want with it. They could bring Mickey Mouse in to kill Aerith if they felt like it now.

The story and the journey aren't the same now. Sephiroth can't be drip fed nor can Zack or the nature of Cloud being a bit of a mentalist. Everyone is self aware now. Instead of a journey that starts out small and gets grander and grander they've gone for time altering, alternate Sephiroth's from the future, fighting fate itself and Aerith seeing the future before you even get to Kalm. To top this they are going to have to get bigger and bigger and I fear it's going to lead to almost every key story point having this issue where it has to be bigger and better than fighting Sephiroth's from the future.

FF7 you're following a man and that gets bigger and bigger, the revelations are drip fed in. Now your following the god from the future you just fought and possibly having to fight fate and destiny along the way. It's no longer FF7, it's a sequel. It's a version of the story where the original story already happened. A completely needless sequel when all they were asked for was a remake. Ending spoilers or not it should have been advertised as a sequel.

Spoiler: More talk

Yeah I agree that one of the best things about VII was the slow progression of the main antagonist. What starts of as a bombing mission against a huge conglomerate gradually becomes bigger and bigger as you discover more of who and what Sephiroth is.

I can understand you and others being pissed about the ending. I'm more curious though to see how they can take the story of VII and see where they go with it. Perhaps the original storywriters can do things now they couldn't back then (Most of the original team is working on this game I think). Regardless, I'll go with it. FFVII remains my favourite game of all time, and I can still remember playing it for hours as a 6/7 year old. Seeing those characters truly brought to life was special, and they've handled the main cast brilliantly. I'll reserve judgement for where they take the game until I've played all the parts as I think that's only fair, I'm just excited to go on the journey.

I really hope we're not waiting years for part 2 though!

 

[esmufc07]

That was inevitable to happen when they take one game and try to make 3 or 4 long games out of it, that is why I can't get excited about this remake, money milking at it's best. Lot's of filler content to justify split parts of the game. Quality over quantity for me.

Might wait for big sale to pick it up whenever that is, if they had the real classic combat in though, I would cash in right away, milking or not. But with it being hack and slash, I have no problem waiting for price drop whenever.

How well could turn based work in a game like this? I loved turn based back in the day, but essentially all you were doing for 99% of battles was pressing attack for every fight. With this game you can't do that as you can easily be wiped out. Boss battles are great fun and require your tactics and set up to be right otherwise you are going to struggle badly.

 

[Damien]

That damn wasted first day. Would probably be close to the ending by now

 

[Damien]

I'm on chapter 9 and the argument about story padding has weight on both sides but I'm starting to think they did the right thing. Even if they subtracted the side quests they still have an open world to do and so much content to squeeze in that it would be impossible I think.

Any remakes of 6, 8, 9 or 10 wont be done in this style I'm pretty sure. Too long and costly to make in this style.

I'll be surprised if the open world appears.

 

[evil_geko]

How well could turn based work in a game like this? I loved turn based back in the day, but essentially all you were doing for 99% of battles was pressing attack for every fight. With this game you can't do that as you can easily be wiped out. Boss battles are great fun and require your tactics and set up to be right otherwise you are going to struggle badly.

You are talking like "turn based" RPG are dated and thing of the past, while at the moment, new Persona games are selling like crazy. So yes, it can work, it really can. They are just lazy.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler: More talk

Yeah I agree that one of the best things about VII was the slow progression of the main antagonist. What starts of as a bombing mission against a huge conglomerate gradually becomes bigger and bigger as you discover more of who and what Sephiroth is.

I can understand you and others being pissed about the ending. I'm more curious though to see how they can take the story of VII and see where they go with it. Perhaps the original storywriters can do things now they couldn't back then (Most of the original team is working on this game I think). Regardless, I'll go with it. FFVII remains my favourite game of all time, and I can still remember playing it for hours as a 6/7 year old. Seeing those characters truly brought to life was special, and they've handled the main cast brilliantly. I'll reserve judgement for where they take the game until I've played all the parts as I think that's only fair, I'm just excited to go on the journey.

I really hope we're not waiting years for part 2 though!

Spoiler: Even More Ending Talk

They can't do that story though. The story is no longer stopping Sephiroth from calling Meteor to destroy the planet. It's stopping Sephiroth from the future and doing it against the original timeline. You fight fate to stop the original game from playing out again.

FF7 is in my top 3 games of all time. I just wanted a remake I don't want nor need a sequel. Aerith died to save the world. Cloud got his sanity back and discovered his true self while fighting the demons of his past. Barrett saved the planet from Shinra and made a world where Marlene can grow up. Tifa got fingered under an airship. I have no interest in them changing all that to the point you're fighting alternate timelines.

I think what would have been fair was them never advertising this as a remake at all and being honest from the start. It's not a remake, it's a sequel. I think it will be one more game and vast quantities will be cut out as they are too overpowered to fight regular monsters now and they have to stop Meteor quicker than before. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop Vincent and Yuffie but bring in Zack and even an alternate timeline Sephiroth or something as party members. They've left it that far departed from the original.

I think the sequel might be closer than you think you know.

I'm in the quandry of wanting to warn people thinking about buying it that it's not what they think it is, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I've been outmaneuvered by some crazy old Japanese men.

 

[Raw]

Tell you what, the music is brilliant. I'm usually sceptical about remade music as they rarely capture what made the original good, but they've done a good job here.

Spoiler: Chapter 7

Initially I was disappointed the boss theme didn't sound as good when fighting the Scorpion boss in chapter 1, but god damn when it comes in against the Airbuster boss it's fecking amazing. It makes sense too, as in the original that theme is first played against that boss.

 

[Rooney1987]

Jesus some of you finishing the game, I can barely sneak a couple hours in before my other half starts whinging. About 11hrs in so far up to Chapter 8!

Aeris is a good option as party leader, her magic ATK is beastly.

I like what they did with Aerith in this, not just as a character but battling. In original I always found her annoying and hated having her in my team especially when it was forced. In terms of battle I think all characters have good strengths.

 

[Irwin99]

I'll be surprised if the open world appears.

It will be interesting to see how they do the world map in any case. It could just be a straight line corridor like those sections in FF13.

Again, I kind of sympathise with their choice to only do Midgar in this game as it looks a daunting task to give the rest of the world the same level of care.

 

[Ainu]

You are talking like "turn based" RPG are dated and thing of the past, while at the moment, new Persona games are selling like crazy. So yes, it can work, it really can. They are just lazy.

Why are they lazy? They've clearly put thought into this battle system. Just because it isn't what you personally wanted, doesn't make it lazy.

 

[Raw]

It will be interesting to see how they do the world map in any case. It could just be a straight line corridor like those sections in FF13.

Again, I kind of sympathise with their choice to only do Midgar in this game as it looks a daunting task to give the rest of the world the same level of care.

I could see them doing it like they did with FF12, huge open areas that are still somewhat linear but still felt like an open world due to all the connecting pathways.

Though I highly doubt we'll be getting boats/airships done the same way as the original, seems far too grand of a task.

 

[evil_geko]

Why are they lazy? They've clearly put thought into this battle system. Just because it isn't what you personally wanted, doesn't make it lazy.

It is lazy, because they added "classic combat" to appease to classic FF gamers but it is classic only in name, either have one combat, or if you want to have "classic combat" you do it right and put some effort in or not at all, so yeah, lazy.

Classic my arse.

 

[Art Vandelay]

It is lazy, because they added "classic combat" to appease to classic FF gamers but it is classic only in name, either have one combat, or if you want to have "classic combat" you do it right and put some effort in or not at all, so yeah, lazy.

Classic my arse.

If only lazy was the biggest complaint you could level at the game.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Wall market is brilliant. Liking this more and more really.