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

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler

All fair points and I really do understand where you are coming from, I suppose I am just a bit more forgiving and willing to see where they go with it. The original will always be there and whatever they do with this doesn't change the fact that that is a timeless game. Perhaps this will go all Lost on us, who knows

I can understand people being miffed into thinking it was a Remake only for them to drop that ending now. It's clear what they now mean by Remake. Sort of reminds me of MGS2 where they never advertised Raiden but half an hour into the game you stop playing as Snake and start playing as a whiny bitch

Man, I love that game. I wish they'd look to do a remake of MGS

Spoiler: More ending jibba jabber

There in are the problems with what they did. I'm not in the slightest bit forgiving as I only paid them £70 because they advertised this as a remake of 7 and that is not what they delivered. Had they said from the start it's a sequel or they had no intention of doing a faithful remake I could have saved my money, but instead they marketed it all along as a faithful remake knowing that's what would sell it, when they had no intention of making that. The reviewers all played along with it too like they are an arm of marketing and that happens all too often, they cover up broken games and things that are just not acceptable in £60 products but will put up articles about how Jill is objectified by lusty zombies or only 26% of CDPR's employees are female and that's just not good enough. Yet where's the outrage at Square flat out selling a lie? It's actually put me off gaming completely. I'd been getting increasingly annoyed with broken games and dodgy practices the last few years and this just feels like the final straw for me. Selling lies based on nostalgia so a cretin can tell his whacky anime stories about fate. It might be clear now what they mean by Remake, but they knew fine rightly they needed to keep that shit out of marketing and reviews.

Even the stuff they added to replace the original story makes no fecking sense at all. These fates are here to stop anyone tampering with destiny, so why do they turn up when no one is tampering with destiny? It's just random bollocks. It's genuinely left me embarrassed that I paid money for it. I feel like an utter fool for trusting them and am questioning why I even bother with gaming at all given the amount of shitty practices we put up with.

The MGS2 analogy doesn't quite work either as that was just sold as an MGS game where people assumed you'd play as snake, switching characters isn't unheard of. Whereas this is sold as a remake of a game people loved. Stopping it 30 hours in to play a different game is entirely is very different to switching characters.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Yeah her ATB was a bit slow but I tend to switch between characters when fighting anyway so it didn't really bother me too much.

I think that's why I didn't get along with her at first. Up until then I'd mostly been controlling Tifa and issuing orders or occasionally switching to the other two and tried to do the same when Aerith came along by controlling Cloud and issuing orders to her, because her basic attacks aren't exactly fun to use. Which left her ATB gauge going up way too slow, it was only when I started controlling her directly more that it would charge faster and she would come into her own.

 

[Hammerfell]

Agreed. Said it a few pages back I always hated having to put Aerith in my team, especially when it was forced. Didn't mind it at all this game. I liked her as a character too, she is kind of annoying in original (might be down to fact we had to use her when we didn't want to rather then her actual character) but not in this.

I did like what they did with Jessie too

Spoiler

Makes her scene so much more emotional. In original when all 3 kick it, it's not that big of a deal your more emotional about Barrett and Marlene at that point. Maybe that was just me. Speaking of the other 2, so Biggs is alive and I wonder if Wedge is too. Wedge got a speech in a way before Shinra turned up but we don't see him die. I wonder how much of a part they'll play or will they both be forgotten.

I really wish I hadn't read that spoiler, you just kinda threw it in there!

 

[sullydnl]

@Art Vandelay

Spoiler: Ending talk

Was it really that much of a surprise to you that this wasn't a faithful remake?

Back on page 2 of the thread this quote was posted:

"And unfortunately, we can't say anything more about the future games after that, because we don't know ourselves, really. We really are still fleshing out that process and fleshing out what we're going to do for the second game in the project, and what kind of story is going to be in that, so we really can't tell you."

To which on that page alone you responded with:

They will end up calling it a "re-imagining".

Yip, they are going to feck the story up and go so much deeper into the world and characters that they change them.

I hope I'm wrong, but the more I think about this the more disastrous it seems like it's going to be

It was their own decision to go balls deep in a remake and they've turned it into a project that's worrying as a fan of the original and possibly beyond their ability to ever complete. I'll still buy it and in a lot of ways I'm looking forward to it, I'm just massively sceptical and I don't see it ending well at all. By the end of it I don't think it will be FF7 any more, it will end up a game with characters that look like Cloud and co but have dramatically changed due to how much of the content they've altered.

So I'm surprised that their advertising since then convinced you that it was going to be the sort of faithful remake you'd enjoy as at that point at least it seemed apparent to everyone (including you) that there was the potential for a lot of changes. I haven't seen how they advertised this, mind, so maybe they did repeatedly emphasise that it would be extremely faithful.

Personally I wasn't going to bother with this remake series if it was just going involve repeatedly paying €70 to get the exact same thing with the sort of snazzier graphics that still won't stop me much preferring the original. A different game set in the same world with the same characters is way more interesting from my POV, so I might buy it now. Nothing they do is going to change the original FF7 so as far as I'm concerned they should absolutely try to do something different. So you've actually sold me on it.

 

[esmufc07]

@Art Vandelay

Spoiler: Ending talk

Was it really that much of a surprise to you that this wasn't a faithful remake?

Back on page 2 of the thread this quote was posted:

"And unfortunately, we can't say anything more about the future games after that, because we don't know ourselves, really. We really are still fleshing out that process and fleshing out what we're going to do for the second game in the project, and what kind of story is going to be in that, so we really can't tell you."

To which on that page alone you responded with:









So I'm surprised that their advertising since then convinced you that it was going to be the sort of faithful remake you'd enjoy as at that point at least it seemed apparent to everyone (including you) that there was the potential for a lot of changes. I haven't seen how they advertised this, mind, so maybe they did repeatedly emphasise that it would be extremely faithful.

Personally I wasn't going to bother with this remake series if it was just going involve repeatedly paying €70 to get the exact same thing with the sort of snazzier graphics that still won't stop me much preferring the original. A different game set in the same world with the same characters is way more interesting from my POV, so I might buy it now. Nothing they do is going to change the original FF7 so as far as I'm concerned they should absolutely try to do something different. So you've actually sold me on it.

Spoiler: End game stuff. Love you Damien.

Yeah I think I'm the same as you in a way. I'd have had no issue with a faithful remake as I think that would have been excellent in its own right. Them changing the story however has me somewhat excited. It may turn out to be a complete sack of shit and ruin it in many ways, but we'll just have to wait and see. They reference Wutai a lot in this game which leads me to think there may well be a Shinra/Wutai war with Yuffie playing a more prominent role which I think could be great. Would also be nice to see a more prominent Vincent as his role with the Turks, Lucrecia, Professor Gast, Hojo and Sephiroth is also a very interesting story which is again easily missable in the original.

 

[Damien]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

I'm at the colosseum. Will take me forever to get to the end of the game at this rate

 

[Art Vandelay]

@Art Vandelay

Spoiler: Ending talk

Was it really that much of a surprise to you that this wasn't a faithful remake?

Back on page 2 of the thread this quote was posted:

"And unfortunately, we can't say anything more about the future games after that, because we don't know ourselves, really. We really are still fleshing out that process and fleshing out what we're going to do for the second game in the project, and what kind of story is going to be in that, so we really can't tell you."

To which on that page alone you responded with:









So I'm surprised that their advertising since then convinced you that it was going to be the sort of faithful remake you'd enjoy as at that point at least it seemed apparent to everyone (including you) that there was the potential for a lot of changes. I haven't seen how they advertised this, mind, so maybe they did repeatedly emphasise that it would be extremely faithful.

Personally I wasn't going to bother with this remake series if it was just going involve repeatedly paying €70 to get the exact same thing with the sort of snazzier graphics that still won't stop me much preferring the original. A different game set in the same world with the same characters is way more interesting from my POV, so I might buy it now. Nothing they do is going to change the original FF7 so as far as I'm concerned they should absolutely try to do something different. So you've actually sold me on it.

Spoiler: Ending

Short version of what's below: You're right, but it's also not at all the remake they marketed it as. I'm annoyed at myself that I'm still investing in these things more than anything.

I don't know how much you've read/seen of the ending, but I do have to go into spoilers to elaborate on the issue. As the sheer scope of the rewrite at the end is where the problem lies, it's now an entirely different game which just happens to have the same characters(but not really). So you can stop reading now and just assume I went into a crazed rant if you want to save your sanity.

I will say though if you do like the sound of the changes and are ok with the ending and have some nostalgia for the original, then yeah it's not a bad game and you might like it. Although some of the minigames are genuinely awful they aren't necessary mostly. I'd maybe wait for a patch to fix some graphical bugs. I'd have given it probably an 8.5 up until the ending. Having said that...

SPOILERS

You do have a point and I have been possibly the most vocal person saying this is going to go horribly in here, to the point I bit my tongue a lot to avoid annoying people who were excited. Which is one of the reasons I'm so embarassed now. I feel like a right dickhead. However, I wanted the original remade with modern graphics but also realised that changing anything would annoy me. I knew this going in and nostalgia is a double edged sword.

My main concern was they would add more Sephiroth, too early and too much ruining the flow and pacing of the original. All the marketing pointed to it actually being a remake, with extra Sephiroth and weird ghost things added. The demo, the previews and even the reviews all go along with it mostly being faithful. I did not like the look of the changes but could tolerate them in exchange for an actual remake of the original. Some of the additions are nice in the first 30 hours, some of them are obvious padding, one of them is horrendous shite and an omen of what was to come. Almost everything shown was either from the original or probably a minor addition.

To dive right in it's not even the actual characters from the original any more. You literally fight the original games story in order to have a new story. That's not tampering with it that's flat out just not doing a remake. It's Terminator Genysis levels of fecking about with it and is a giant middle finger to people wanting a remake. How could I have predicted that? No one predicted that. My whole thing was please don't feck with it too much only to have them fighting the final boss of FF7 and fate itself before they even leave Midgar. Cloud can now literally cut buildings in half. Aerith knows what's coming, Zack is alive, Sephiroth talked about teaming up and there may be two Sephiroths or infinite everyone. There has to be at least two Clouds. Sephiroth has come back in time and the original ending has already played out and it's now trying to stop FF7 from happening. People had soppy overly long death scenes midway through the game only to come back at the end. Even at my most sceptical how was I supposed to predict changes on that scope? I'm not mental enough to come up with that shite.

As sceptical as I and others were, how could anyone predict they'd throw the whole thing out the window at the end of the game? Changes on this scope should never have been marketed as a remake and they should have been honest from the start saying they are ONLY doing the story as far as the Shinra building and then it's a sequel/retelling in a different time line. But of course that can't be marketed as a remake and is also spoilers. Although I'd argue that the stuff they added cannot be spoilt because it's random nonsense that makes no sense. It's just scenes and bollocks about fate. It's jarringly inconsistent and goes completely against the tone the game spends 30 hours building up. It isn't even consistent story telling within the game and sticks to no rules, not even the ones they themselves added. It's not just that they changed it to such a level, but they botched that change too. It makes no sense and renders the whole thing pointless.

The rest of the game can't play out now, they made that abundantly clear and people talking about Wutai wars etc. don't seem to realise that nothing matters. They reversed deaths so why would any plot point matter going forward? It could be about Cait Sith trying to feck a tonberry from now on. None of the plot matters when you're fighting fate itself and demi gods from the future. FF7 was at times outlandish nonsense, but it atleast grounded the plot before it got ridiculous....mostly. It worked as a plot, the plot wasn't some meta commentary on the nature of remakes and being constrained to the original story which this now is and they've gone so far with it that they now have to make drastic changes and their idea of drastic changes is the nonsensice masturbatory shite we got.

I have issues with reviews and what the industry as a whole has become that are feeding into my annoyance with this, but that's a whole other issue.

I keep writing these stupid walls of text then spending about 10 minutes longer trying to figure out how I've fecked up my spoiler tags this time.

 

[Gehrman]

I'm being broken on the wastewater pump puzzle, I can't get right on the third try. My stick just feels unresponsive. Is this the glitch that someone is talking about?

 

[Art Vandelay]

I'm being broken on the wastewater pump puzzle, I can't get right on the third try. My stick just feels unresponsive. Is this the glitch that someone is talking about?

You have to raise it with left stick then hit X as fast as possible to make the red area bigger then lower it so the arrow lands in the red area. It's not very well explained. Your ultimate goal is basically stopping the arrow in the red zone by lowering it at the right time. It's awkward, not very responsive and I have no idea how it made the final game. It's so random.

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler: Ending

The rest of the game can't play out now, they made that abundantly clear and people talking about Wutai wars etc. don't seem to realise that nothing matters. They reversed deaths so why would any plot point matter going forward?

Spoiler: Ending

Spoiler: Ending

I'm not sure why you don't think any plot point matters going forward? Do you mean from the original game or from whatever they decide to do from here on in?

Fate wanted the original events of FF7 to play out and were trying to ensure that happens (as we see in parts of the game), now that the Whispers have been destroyed the story can deviate from the original. The core story though is still about Cloud and the others' journey to find and destroy Sephiroth. Also it was Aerith who convinced the others to fight destiny, and I don't think she is doing that out of a selfish conviction to avert her own death (which I still think will happen, but now at a different point and perhaps under different circumstances).

It's been so long since I've completed the original, watched AC or read up on the plot of the DoC and CC games so my memory is extremely hazy. But we know two years after the events of FF7 Sephiroth is back and so their efforts in the original game are essentially in vain and fail. Perhaps Aeris knows this and so this is why she wants to change course so Sephiroth can be stopped for good? Quite how you stop a space God at the edge of creation I don't know but that's a job for the writers I suppose It's also perhaps why RedXIII, after seeing his flash forward 500 years later with his cubs, sees this as a bad thing and says that is destiny if fate isn't changed, hence why it must be.

I'm sort of just thinking out loud. There's a good chance this goes tits up as most stories involving timelines and the ability to change past/future events become very messy and convoluted. I never played the XIII trilogy and apparently they tried this in that game and it didn't work out great. They also did similar stuff in VIII and that got messy at times, but equally as I've said I'm quite excited to see where it could go and how they try and explain what's happened when the next game is released.

 

[esmufc07]

You have to raise it with left stick then hit X as fast as possible to make the red area bigger then lower it so the arrow lands in the red area. It's not very well explained. Your ultimate goal is basically stopping the arrow in the red zone by lowering it at the right time. It's awkward, not very responsive and I have no idea how it made the final game. It's so random.

Spoiler: Ending

I suppose I just have such a strong love for the first game that I desperately want to see this succeed, so apologies if I seem too positive about where it could go and too forgiving of what they've done!

 

[evil_geko]

Spoiler: Ending

I suppose I just have such a strong love for the first game that I desperately want to see this succeed, so apologies if I seem too positive about where it could go and too forgiving of what they've done!

This is what I hate about situations like this. Not talking about you in particular but people are being positive just for the sake of being positive regardless of how the game really is, they decided it will be a "perfect" remake for them before even playing. I mean, when IGN reviewed and gave it 8/10 which is still great, they got so many dislikes just because of angry fanboys with everyone wanting it to get a perfect 10 or something, even though they haven't even played it themselves yet.
Nothing wrong with being positive, but plenty wrong with "tunnel vision positive".

For example RE3 original is the RE game I played the most and loved it to bits. And I had tons of fun with RE3 Remake but I wouldn't give it more than 7/10, and that is pushing it. Nostalgia or not, I can see the flaws. So there you go, you can be positive while being objective and ciritical. Being critical doesn't automatically mean "hating on it".

They better not touch FF8 and FF9 with this hack and slash crap.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler: Ending

Spoiler: Ending

I'm not sure why you don't think any plot point matters going forward? Do you mean from the original game or from whatever they decide to do from here on in?

Fate wanted the original events of FF7 to play out and were trying to ensure that happens (as we see in parts of the game), now that the Whispers have been destroyed the story can deviate from the original. The core story though is still about Cloud and the others' journey to find and destroy Sephiroth. Also it was Aerith who convinced the others to fight destiny, and I don't think she is doing that out of a selfish conviction to avert her own death (which I still think will happen, but now at a different point and perhaps under different circumstances).

It's been so long since I've completed the original, watched AC or read up on the plot of the DoC and CC games so my memory is extremely hazy. But we know two years after the events of FF7 Sephiroth is back and so their efforts in the original game are essentially in vain and fail. Perhaps Aeris knows this and so this is why she wants to change course so Sephiroth can be stopped for good? Quite how you stop a space God at the edge of creation I don't know but that's a job for the writers I suppose It's also perhaps why RedXIII, after seeing his flash forward 500 years later with his cubs, sees this as a bad thing and says that is destiny if fate isn't changed, hence why it must be.

I'm sort of just thinking out loud. There's a good chance this goes tits up as most stories involving timelines and the ability to change past/future events become very messy and convoluted. I never played the XIII trilogy and apparently they tried this in that game and it didn't work out great. They also did similar stuff in VIII and that got messy at times, but equally as I've said I'm quite excited to see where it could go and how they try and explain what's happened when the next game is released.

Spoiler: Ending

Because they've literally rewritten everything, Biggs is alive, Wedge is alive, Zack is alive. No plot point matters, nothing they said or hinted at can be used as speculation because they literally spent 30 hours building up a story and then threw it out the window in the last couple of hours. They might be on the road to stop Sephiroth but there's no real reason there to do it. There was no real reason given to fight fate, Aerith is the only one who saw a bad future for herself and fate had just saved Barrett so why's he fighting? I'm just saying there is no story, there is literally none. They've not given any explanations for anything it's just random events. Cloud can slice buildings now so how is any monster or the Midgar Zolum a threat? You can't do a standard FF plot with this level of power already there. It's like the ridiculousness of AC got somehow sucked into the game and they felt they needed to go bigger again.

They haven't even gotten to the point of explaining anything about Sephiroth, they just fired him in there and now he's the enemy. In the original they showed what he could do, humanized him and then turned him into a monster. In this he is just there. They've given no suggestion at all that they know where this is going or that they will follow up on anything in the previous 30 hours or original as they actively had you fight against it at the end. They took away the story and replaced it with big flashy boss battles that mean nothing.

In the original you could trace Aerith saving the world way back in a chain of events set in motion by Tifa as a kid reacting badly to her mother dying. Which set everything in motion for Cloud to join Shinra, meet Zack, go nuts, meet Aerith, drag her into it all and her to save the world. Now Zack is alive again so Cloud can't really be Cloud and the whispers you fought were the original Cloud, Tifa and Barrett which means this isn't even the same people from the original game just alternate timeline versions.

Ah don't be silly, mate. You've no reason at all to apologise, if you liked it you liked it and I hope you enjoy the rest. I'm just salty I bought into something that I once loved only to be basically kicked out after 30 hours because this is no longer for me it's for a mental Japanese man that is really shit at controlling himself and his stories.

 

[Raw]

Spoiler: Ending

Because they've literally rewritten everything, Biggs is alive, Wedge is alive, Zack is alive. No plot point matters, nothing they said or hinted at can be used as speculation because they literally spent 30 hours building up a story and then threw it out the window in the last couple of hours. They might be on the road to stop Sephiroth but there's no real reason there to do it. There was no real reason given to fight fate, Aerith is the only one who saw a bad future for herself and fate had just saved Barrett so why's he fighting? I'm just saying there is no story, there is literally none. They've not given any explanations for anything it's just random events. Cloud can slice buildings now so how is any monster or the Midgar Zolum a threat? You can't do a standard FF plot with this level of power already there. It's like the ridiculousness of AC got somehow sucked into the game and they felt they needed to go bigger again.

They haven't even gotten to the point of explaining anything about Sephiroth, they just fired him in there and now he's the enemy. In the original they showed what he could do, humanized him and then turned him into a monster. In this he is just there. They've given no suggestion at all that they know where this is going or that they will follow up on anything in the previous 30 hours or original as they actively had you fight against it at the end. They took away the story and replaced it with big flashy boss battles that mean nothing.

In the original you could trace Aerith saving the world way back in a chain of events set in motion by Tifa as a kid reacting badly to her mother dying. Which set everything in motion for Cloud to join Shinra, meet Zack, go nuts, meet Aerith, drag her into it all and her to save the world. Now Zack is alive again so Cloud can't really be Cloud and the whispers you fought were the original Cloud, Tifa and Barrett which means this isn't even the same people from the original game just alternate timeline versions.

Ah don't be silly, mate. You've no reason at all to apologise, if you liked it you liked it and I hope you enjoy the rest. I'm just salty I bought into something that I once loved only to be basically kicked out after 30 hours because this is no longer for me it's for a mental Japanese man that is really shit at controlling himself and his stories.

Spoiler: Ending

I totally agree with the last point, Nomura is a child trapped in a man's body. He thinks epic anime fights with swords slashing buildings in half are super awesome and vauge nonsense about fate and destiny is super deep. He has no idea what subtlety is. He needs someone to tell him to reign it in and unfortunately he didn't get that with this game.

I've not played the Kingdom Hearts games but from what I hear from it's fans, they're sick of Nomura's bullshit too.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler: Ending

I totally agree with the last point, Nomura is a child trapped in a man's body. He thinks epic anime fights with swords slashing buildings in half are super awesome and vauge nonsense about fate and destiny is super deep. He has no idea what subtlety is. He needs someone to tell him to reign it in and unfortunately he didn't get that with this game.

I've not played the Kingdom Hearts games but from what I hear from it's fans, they're sick of Nomura's bullshit too.

Spoiler: Ending

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've picked up too and that seems like a perfect description. It sounds like he never gets told to reign it in and throws tantrums if they cancel his failing projects. This ending is like someone transcribed the mad ramblings of a child that had consumed a mountain of sugar. Not one bit of it holds up to any scrutiny at all, it's just things that happen from out of nowhere. It's not story telling, it's deciding on a theme of fighting your destiny and then going absolutely fecking mental. It just jumps from FF7 remake to mad unrelated anime and incredibly vague nonsense about destiny that manages to both be vague and contradict itself on several levels at the same time. It's almost impressive. FF13 was similar badly told vague nonsense that required you to read a codex and it still didn't manage to tell a good story. I've not played Kingdom Hearts either but people seem to hate the third game for pulling this same nonsense. So I don't know why they are doing it again and in FF7 of all places.

What did you think of the ending?

 

[Raw]

Spoiler: Ending

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've picked up too and that seems like a perfect description. It sounds like he never gets told to reign it in and throws tantrums if they cancel his failing projects. This ending is like someone transcribed the mad ramblings of a child that had consumed a mountain of sugar. Not one bit of it holds up to any scrutiny at all, it's just things that happen from out of nowhere. It's not story telling, it's deciding on a theme of fighting your destiny and then going absolutely fecking mental. It just jumps from FF7 remake to mad unrelated anime and incredibly vague nonsense about destiny that manages to both be vague and contradict itself on several levels at the same time. It's almost impressive. FF13 was similar badly told vague nonsense that required you to read a codex and it still didn't manage to tell a good story. I've not played Kingdom Hearts either but people seem to hate the third game for pulling this same nonsense. So I don't know why they are doing it again and in FF7 of all places.

What did you think of the ending?

Spoiler: Ending

Oh man don't get me started on FF13, a trilogy of games made because Nomura had a boner for Lightning.

I disliked the ending honestly. Before then I was having a decent experience with the game, it does have its flaws but I did enjoy it. Then that ending comes up that ruins everything about the FF7 story. The original story is so good but now with the addition of time travel shenanigans it's going to become a complete mess. They've could have expanded on so much of the hidden lore that isn't explained as much in the original, but instead we get time ghosts. I have no faith that it'll ever be as good as the original, no matter how hard they try.

Even if you see this game as it's own separate universe, the ending is still style over substance bonkers. When you replay the game and look at certain obstacles, you think back to that ending and wonder why Cloud doesn't just slash the obstacle in two and save a lot of time (looking at you, Train Graveyard). We've seen him slash a fecking building in half. I'd expect to see that level of power at the end of the FF7 story, not just as they leave Midgar!

I'm still morbidly curious where they're gonna go with it, but my level of excitement has gone waaaay down. It's no longer excitement for a FF7 remake, just a spin off set in the same universe. Disappointing that we'll probably never get a faithful remake of the original but oh well. I'm still going to replay the original many times in the future, not sure I'd say the same about this remake.

 

[Damien]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

While you're all discussing the ending I'm doing fecking squats.

 

[Raw]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

While you're all discussing the ending I'm doing fecking squats.

Spoiler: Chapter 9

Pro squats is quite the challenge, you can't afford to miss one button.

 

[Art Vandelay]

At one point I was up to 41 squats then missed a button and fell over. I nearly cried when the bastard came back and beat me.

 

[esmufc07]

I found pull ups a lot more difficult than squats.

 

[Damien]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

Pro squats is quite the challenge, you can't afford to miss one button.

Spoiler

Took me three/four attempts. Takes a lot out of your thumb. I'm definitely not looking forward to the pull-ups but at my rate of progress I won't get to that stage until the weekend.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler: Ending

Oh man don't get me started on FF13, a trilogy of games made because Nomura had a boner for Lightning.

I disliked the ending honestly. Before then I was having a decent experience with the game, it does have its flaws but I did enjoy it. Then that ending comes up that ruins everything about the FF7 story. The original story is so good but now with the addition of time travel shenanigans it's going to become a complete mess. They've could have expanded on so much of the hidden lore that isn't explained as much in the original, but instead we get time ghosts. I have no faith that it'll ever be as good as the original, no matter how hard they try.

Even if you see this game as it's own separate universe, the ending is still style over substance bonkers. When you replay the game and look at certain obstacles, you think back to that ending and wonder why Cloud doesn't just slash the obstacle in two and save a lot of time (looking at you, Train Graveyard). We've seen him slash a fecking building in half. I'd expect to see that level of power at the end of the FF7 story, not just as they leave Midgar!

I'm still morbidly curious where they're gonna go with it, but my level of excitement has gone waaaay down. It's no longer excitement for a FF7 remake, just a spin off set in the same universe. Disappointing that we'll probably never get a faithful remake of the original but oh well. I'm still going to replay the original many times in the future, not sure I'd say the same about this remake.

Spoiler: Ending

Good point. There's a gif with Cloud and Barrett being unable to get through a metal door then 5 minutes later he's cutting buildings in half while flying. If you start asking questions about the logic then you will be here all night. Like if the fates are trying to stop things from changing then why were they hassling Aerith at the start? They turn up when things are going the same way anyway. Why are you fighting a ghostly horse and cart? That's a change, shouldn't they have stopped that instead of stopping the characters going where they were supposed to be anyway right afterwards? What was the point of Roche? If they killed the timeline where Aerith saves the planet are they now the villains? There are so many questions and no answers because they thought none of it through and just did what they thought was cool. It's Game of Thrones all over again.

Yeah it was a good if slightly flawed game until the end. That's the saddest part, they showed you they could remake it and gave a glimpse of what they could build on for the rest of it and then BAM! Go feck yourself, you're getting no remake, you're getting Nomura turned loose on FF7.

Imagine Aerith's later scenes with that fully realised Aerith. What Shinra HQ could have been after Sephiroth/Jenova had wrecked up the place. Although there's no blood because they wanted to sell this game from 23 years ago to today's teens. Tifa and Scarlet's bizarre slap fight on the Junon Canon could have been the best thing ever with these graphics. All with that new soundtrack. It's all gone now. No chance of a remake and we are stuck with blocks of polygons from 23 years ago after being tantalized with what could be. In a way they've kind of shit on the original too.

I haven't even got morbid curiousity, I just feel robbed and there's no chance of me ever giving them another penny after that slap in the face. They slapped me harder than Tifa slapped Scarlet.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Spoiler: More ending jibba jabber

There in are the problems with what they did. I'm not in the slightest bit forgiving as I only paid them £70 because they advertised this as a remake of 7 and that is not what they delivered. Had they said from the start it's a sequel or they had no intention of doing a faithful remake I could have saved my money, but instead they marketed it all along as a faithful remake knowing that's what would sell it, when they had no intention of making that. The reviewers all played along with it too like they are an arm of marketing and that happens all too often, they cover up broken games and things that are just not acceptable in £60 products but will put up articles about how Jill is objectified by lusty zombies or only 26% of CDPR's employees are female and that's just not good enough. Yet where's the outrage at Square flat out selling a lie? It's actually put me off gaming completely. I'd been getting increasingly annoyed with broken games and dodgy practices the last few years and this just feels like the final straw for me. Selling lies based on nostalgia so a cretin can tell his whacky anime stories about fate. It might be clear now what they mean by Remake, but they knew fine rightly they needed to keep that shit out of marketing and reviews.

Even the stuff they added to replace the original story makes no fecking sense at all. These fates are here to stop anyone tampering with destiny, so why do they turn up when no one is tampering with destiny? It's just random bollocks. It's genuinely left me embarrassed that I paid money for it. I feel like an utter fool for trusting them and am questioning why I even bother with gaming at all given the amount of shitty practices we put up with.

The MGS2 analogy doesn't quite work either as that was just sold as an MGS game where people assumed you'd play as snake, switching characters isn't unheard of. Whereas this is sold as a remake of a game people loved. Stopping it 30 hours in to play a different game is entirely is very different to switching characters.

Spoiler

I agree with you regarding the misrepresentation of the game being a remake. Nothing in the advertising showed this to be anything other than a remake of the original. Up to the launch of the game everything that was shown or demoed was the almost like for like first hour of the original game. Seems shitty that they'd completely turn the story on its arse and just reeks of money hungry execs doing their best to wring as much money from nostalgia using a product from a Dev team that really didn't want to just update a classic game.

Advent Children's shit story should have been a warning that Enix are not the Square that made the original classic and that this was going to be style over substance through gimicky anime guffage like every FF game since Sakaguchi fecked off.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler

I agree with you regarding the misrepresentation of the game being a remake. Nothing in the advertising showed this to be anything other than a remake of the original. Up to the launch of the game everything that was shown or demoed was the almost like for like first hour of the original game. Seems shitty that they'd completely turn the story on its arse and just reeks of money hungry execs doing their best to wring as much money from nostalgia using a product from a Dev team that really didn't want to just update a classic game.

Advent Children's shit story should have been a warning that Enix are not the Square that made the original classic and that this was going to be style over substance through gimicky anime guffage.

Spoiler

Yeah the warnings were there and have been for a long time like I said in one of my other ridiculous rants; at the end of the day it's my own fault for falling for it. I know what modern Square are like and I was very clearly quite wary of trusting them in this thread all along. Then I fell for it anyway because I wanted to believe what I was seeing was what I was getting. It's the gaming industry though and you don't have the rights to say "This isn't what I was sold for £70." It's your own fault for having any faith at all.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Spoiler

Yeah the warnings were there and have been for a long time like I said in one of my other ridiculous rants; at the end of the day it's my own fault for falling for it. I know what modern Square are like and I was very clearly quite wary of trusting them in this thread all along. Then I fell for it anyway because I wanted to believe what I was seeing was what I was getting. It's the gaming industry though and you don't have the rights to say "This isn't what I was sold for £70." It's your own fault for having any faith at all.

Spoiler

They've come up to us and said "wanna meet Scarlett Johansson?" And we've said "hell yes, I wanna meet Scarlett Johansson!". And then they've taken you to a room with Scarlett Johansson in it, and she's wearing that red dress from the Oscars from years back and her diddies are almost hanging out of it, and they say "wanna pump Scarlett Johansson?" And we've said "hell yes, I wanna pump Scarlett Johansson!". Then they've taken our money, and Scarlett Johansson says in a gruff voice "look at ma massive diddies" and we've said "hell yes, I love those massive diddies!". And then she's said "gimme a minute I'm away tae take ma clothes aff so you can see more than just ma massive diddies" and as she's away we look through her purse and find out that she isn't actually called Scarlett Johansson. She's called Dave. And then she comes back in the room and - BOOM - giant cock and balls.

That's what it's like to me, anyway. If you like cock and balls then fair enough, enjoy your cock and balls. And maybe the signs were there earlier that Scarlett was actually a guy called Dave with cock and balls. But it still doesn't get away from the fact that a lot of people are going to feel that they were sold a lie and all they've got to show for it is an empty pocket and a sore ring.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler

They've come up to us and said "wanna meet Scarlett Johansson?" And we've said "hell yes, I wanna meet Scarlett Johansson!". And then they've taken you to a room with Scarlett Johansson in it, and she's wearing that red dress from the Oscars from years back and her diddies are almost hanging out of it, and they say "wanna pump Scarlett Johansson?" And we've said "hell yes, I wanna pump Scarlett Johansson!". Then they've taken our money, and Scarlett Johansson says in a gruff voice "look at ma massive diddies" and we've said "hell yes, I love those massive diddies!". And then she's said "gimme a minute I'm away tae take ma clothes aff so you can see more than just ma massive diddies" and as she's away we look through her purse and find out that she isn't actually called Scarlett Johansson. She's called Dave. And then she comes back in the room and - BOOM - giant cock and balls.

That's what it's like to me, anyway. If you like cock and balls then fair enough, enjoy your cock and balls. And maybe the signs were there earlier that Scarlett was actually a guy called Dave with cock and balls. But it still doesn't get away from the fact that a lot if people are going to feel that they were sold a lie and all they've got to show for it is an empty pocket and a sore ring.

Spoiler

That was beautiful, poetic, harrowing and summed up the situation perfectly. I could have been knuckle deep in ScarJo getting ready for the next step, but instead I now have to sit sideways and I somehow paid for this.

 

[Hammerfell]

Spoiler: Ending

I'm only here to say I can't wait to see the new story. I'm all in on it, and I'm kinda glad it's not just the original but modern.

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler: Ending

I'm only here to say I can't wait to see the new story. I'm all in on it, and I'm kinda glad it's not just the original but modern.

Spoiler: Ending

I’m with you man!

 

[Damien]

You have to raise it with left stick then hit X as fast as possible to make the red area bigger then lower it so the arrow lands in the red area. It's not very well explained. Your ultimate goal is basically stopping the arrow in the red zone by lowering it at the right time. It's awkward, not very responsive and I have no idea how it made the final game. It's so random.

Spoiler

At least the red area doesn't go back to its original size if you fail. That third attempt was awkward for me to do so just waited until the red area was quite large.

 

[Irwin99]

The pull ups are just maddening. I've spent an hour just trying to get the championship belt and the PS4 trophy that comes with it but....

 

[Art Vandelay]

Spoiler

At least the red area doesn't go back to its original size if you fail. That third attempt was awkward for me to do so just waited until the red area was quite large.

I basically had to do the same and must have spent a good 5 minutes at the start with no clue what I was supposed to be doing.

 

[Damien]

The pull ups are just maddening. I've spent an hour just trying to get the championship belt and the PS4 trophy that comes with it but....

Spoiler: Chapter 9

I was gutted when I didn't get the dancer trophy first try (was something like 24x Great, 2x Good, 7x Bad). Didn't make a save just before it so I'm going to have to wait for the chapter select and to go alllll the way back through that chapter just to get it. I'm guessing the chapter difficulty has no effect on the moves for the dance?

 

[esmufc07]

The pull ups are just maddening. I've spent an hour just trying to get the championship belt and the PS4 trophy that comes with it but....

I left it, you can chapter select when you’ve finished the game so it’s easy enough to go back to. I tried for about 20 minutes before giving up

 

[Irwin99]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

I was gutted when I didn't get the dancer trophy first try (was something like 24x Great, 2x Good, 7x Bad). Didn't make a save just before it so I'm going to have to wait for the chapter select and to go alllll the way back through that chapter just to get it. I'm guessing the chapter difficulty has no effect on the moves for the dance?

I didn't get it the first time either but I did a save beforehand and went back for it. I guess you might have to do the chapter select

I left it, you can chapter select when you’ve finished the game so it’s easy enough to go back to. I tried for about 20 minutes before giving up

Thanks for the info. I didn't get the biker trophy in one of the earliest chapters so hopefully I can get that with the chapter select. I'm only on chapter 14 but I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be an enjoyable second run for the platinum trophy.

 

[Damien]

I didn't get it the first time either but I did a save beforehand and went back for it. I guess you might have to do the chapter select


Thanks for the info. I didn't get the biker trophy in one of the earliest chapters so hopefully I can get that with the chapter select. I'm only on chapter 14 but I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be an enjoyable second run for the platinum trophy.

I was the same with the biker trophy. Getting the trophy for doing all chapters on hard sounds a bit of a slog though, needing maxed out characters with perfect materia setup.

 

[esmufc07]

Hadn’t seen this before

 

[BristolRuss]

Spoiler: ENDING

Spoiler: Ending

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've picked up too and that seems like a perfect description. It sounds like he never gets told to reign it in and throws tantrums if they cancel his failing projects.

As far as I am aware the only game they 'cancelled' was removing him from FFXV towards the end. There was no bad blood or anything as they started development of FFVIIR almost immediately afterwards with him as director, and him also working on KH3 at the same time.

Spoiler: Ending

Oh man don't get me started on FF13, a trilogy of games made because Nomura had a boner for Lightning.

Nomuras only duties on FFXIII was as character designer. The fact they made three games out of FFXIII was nothing to do with him.

Spoiler: Ending

Why are you fighting a ghostly horse and cart?

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Eligor_(Final_Fantasy_VII)

Spoiler: Ending

you're getting Nomura turned loose on FF7.

Nomura was involved in some aspects of the originals story, including Aerith's death. If he wants to change some aspects of the story that he helped write then good for him.

 

[BlackShark_80]

Important reminder of what Yoshinori Kitase said about FF7R:

 

[esmufc07]

Spoiler: Chapter 9

Hell House on hard is fun!

 

[Gehrman]

Anyone know how to selectively delete the save files?