Final Fantasy 7 Remake *SPOILERS*

[kamikazekeeg]

So with the game out, a lot of folks having beaten it or are still going through it, and because it is a pretty important game for gaming in particular, figured we could have a thread to just talk about whatever.  What we liked, what we didn't, the controversial ending, what we hope to see in the future, etc...

I already wrote about my view in the challenge thread, but the short version is that I absolutely adored the game, it's fantastic, best Final Fantasy game I've played in many years (Since at least FFX), and as a JRPG, probably one of the better ones I've played in awhile alongside Xenoblade Chronicles 2 back in 2017.  Visually great even with some of the minor texture issues, they greatly expanded the dialogue and character interaction, making them better than they ever were, the gameplay is probably the best Square has done when looking at Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, and I think the story is very faithful, even with the new additions and changes that show up by the end.

For me, in terms of my status with FF7 in general, I consider myself a fan, just not a serious one, I've not played the spin off games and I haven't replayed the original game much since the PS1 days, but I still remember a lot about the story and characters and watched Advent Children, so I'm not hardcore "FF7 is the best game ever!", but I have a reasonable grasp on the game and I love the setting and characters, even more so now than then.

And to get to right to the point, I loved the games ending.  I'm not someone that could probably ever be called a "purist" about anything (Game wise that is, I think it's abhorrent what Disney is doing with their remakes lol), I love seeing new takes on old things.  It doesn't always work, but to me they took something that could have just been a standard beat for beat remake, and are seemingly turning it into something that is both remake and sequel at the same time.  I think the point of what they did was so they had the freedom to bring in more of the expanded canon they've built up for FF7 and to do brand new stuff with the world.  It's a lot of the original creators getting a second chance to do something far bigger than what they originally made and to me that is absolutely exciting.  Like now rather than just waiting for the next part I know every turn and twist for or the story already being done in just the one game, things could be so different now that we are dealing with stuff like alternate timelines.

I still feel like the next part will still hit all the base notes the story is supposed to hit, it'll just possibly have different paths and maybe some different endings.  Heck, the stuff with Zack makes me feel like in one timeline we'll do stuff with the regular cast, and then at points we'll get time playing Zack in his new scenario and we see how that goes and how it possibly leads up to the timelines interconnecting towards the end perhaps.  Not knowing what is gonna happen is again very exciting.  It could certainly fail, it could lean far too hard into crazy Kingdom Hearts level nonsense (I don't think this ending is on that level, it makes way more sense than most of KH does, and it's honestly not that crazily far-fetched with what happens in FF7 normally in regards to like the connection of characters, all the magical life stream stuff, etc...)

So what are your folks takes on it? What were your favorite moments? I'll just say, the Honey Bee Inn scene, my jaw was on the floor, it was so ridiculously wondrous and crazy that it was actually happening lol

[bikingjahuty]

I absolutely loved the game as well.


The original FF7 was a top 5 games of mine up until about a year ago when I beat it again for the first time in about 15-years. Sadly my opinion of the original had declined in that time, but I still thought it was a pretty good game. Perhaps the most valuable thing I gained from replaying that game was realizing how much room for improvement there was, and how the remake could make an already classic game way better. And I'm not referring to the obvious like the graphics, but actually the story and characters which I felt like were a bit tropey in the original. It really gave me a more open mind going into the remake though.


By far my favorite thing about the remake was how in gave the characters and the story so much more depth. All the characters in the remake, including characters that were pretty minor were fleshed out and developed in ways not possible in the original game. It really made me invested in what happened to them and how they made their way through their respective journey. SPOILER....it tore me up when Jessie and Biggs supposedly died on the Sector 7 pillar, and realizing that at least Biggs survived during the end scene of the game made me literally cheer out loud. Likewise I loved the relationship dynamics between the characters, and was quite amused how seemingly everyone wanted to bone Cloud lol.


Regarding the story I loved how it was familiar, yet very new. I felt like I was playing the same game, but for the first time given how much they fleshed certain parts of the game out, added new parts, and altered other parts, especially towards the end. I was genuinely shocked at the end, and very curious after the Shinra President's office scene where Barrett gets killed by Sephiroth, only to come back to life right after the battle with Jenova. When it was said it wasn't his time yet, and that the whispers were the arbiters of fate, my interest piqued considerably in where the story was going. This brings me to the ending.


Holy shit! However excited I was for part 2 of the remake before getting to the end of part 1, could not even compare to how badly I want part 2 after beating part 1. The fact that the game pretty much gave fate the middle finger and said that the story is going to go in whatever direction it wants now has me very intrigued and excited. I have no doubt that Square will tread on a lot of old ground on part 2 of the remake, however it will undoubtedly be breaking new ground with entirely different plot points, story lines, areas, and maybe even characters. My fiancee whom is a huge fan of Crisis Core was flipping out at the prospect of Zack being a potential playable character in the next game. More than that however, the idea that Aerith might not have to die now makes me incredibly happy. After how much I fell in love with the new Aerith in the remake, knowing that she was doomed to die halfway in the game crushed me inside. Now, knowing that this might not have to happen has me giddy and excited as well at the prospect of being able to potentially save her.


I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this game, but those were the main things that really stuck with me. Perhaps my least favorite thing about the game was the actual gameplay, specifically the combat system. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great either. It was simply serviceable and pretty unremarkable. But it was enough to keep me going and wanting to find out what happened next in the story and to the characters. But as far as I'm concerned, FF7 Remake is just as much a classic as the original, if not more so. I know we still have another 2 or 3 games in the remake series to conclude the entire story, which leaves a lot of room for Square to drop the ball, but if part 1 is any indication we're in for an excellent time in the coming years!

[shawndude82]

I enjoyed it as well.  It's definitely meant for fans, though, and not people new to the story.  Spoilers are abundant.

I thought I was going to hate Roche when we saw him in the trailer, but I fell in love with the Speed Demon right away.

[kamikazekeeg]

Roche was great, he was an injection of wild and crazy that made Jessie's section such a blast and I can't wait to fight him again in the next parts.

And while I like the gameplay of FF7R, I do hope in the next part they can add some slight improvements to it, mostly with stuff related to like blocking and dodging, and maybe casting time.  I think the gameplay is the best Square has done in many years, sorta the finalization of their action turn where Kingdom Hearts is kinda spammy and unrefined, but not so clunky like what they've been trying to do with Final Fantasy over the past however many years when they started changing things with like FF12.

[soera]

I do hope in the next part they can add some slight improvements to it, mostly with stuff related to like blocking and dodging, and maybe casting time.

While I loved the game from start to finish (especially when Barret would sing the end fight song from time to time) This was my one down swing. I cant recall how many times I died cause of the slow casting time on heal. Also one thing I would like to see fixed is a part on limit breaks. When a summon would fire off, everything paused. Limit breaks should do the same. I literally died a few times in the middle of a limit break or missed. Frustrating.

But the game is amazing. Im shocked at the amount of people willing to "wait for the complete release" to play. This game can be played by itself and enjoyed exactly like it is!

[kamikazekeeg]

I do hope in the next part they can add some slight improvements to it, mostly with stuff related to like blocking and dodging, and maybe casting time.

While I loved the game from start to finish (especially when Barret would sing the end fight song from time to time) This was my one down swing. I cant recall how many times I died cause of the slow casting time on heal. Also one thing I would like to see fixed is a part on limit breaks. When a summon would fire off, everything paused. Limit breaks should do the same. I literally died a few times in the middle of a limit break or missed. Frustrating.

But the game is amazing. Im shocked at the amount of people willing to "wait for the complete release" to play. This game can be played by itself and enjoyed exactly like it is!

Yeah the game is totally great in its own part here and totally justifies it's time and price tag outside of a few parts that dragged slightly.  I've put about 40 hours into it and I'll put abit more time in finishing up what I have left and there's still VR stuff to do and I might go and do hard stuff.

[NickAwesome]

Loved the game up until Chapter 17. I was pretty much fine with all the changes up until then, but then it lost me completely. This will just be Kingdom Hearts all over again where nothing makes sense and things will change that shouldn't have been messed with. Nomura just has to ruin everything... At least it will be easier to wait for the sequel as I have lost most of my interest on seeing what happens next.  Too bad too because I really enjoyed everything up until that point...

[ignition365]

I finished the game last night.  I've never played the original and know nothing of it.  I really enjoyed the game.  The ending didn't leave off on a frustrating cliffhanger which pleased me.  I've seen a lot of people praise the game who had previously berated XV, this game plays so much like XV, just take away the driving, open world, and the me and my boys of it all.  I get the complaints against those XV aspects, but that aside, if you enjoyed 7R, I would think you'd enjoy XV if you gave it a chance.

All that said, I'm planning on playing 7 on the Switch once I'm done with my current game I'm playing.  I might only play as far as 7R goes, I might play through the whole game, I haven't quite decided yet.  The fact that I know nothing about 7, I kind of don't want to spoil the rest of the game.  On the other hand, having played 7R first, I get to see 7 from a different perspective than everyone else, and if I finish 7 before the rest of 7R comes out, I get to see both sides of the perspective just on different sections of the game.  But on that same note, I've done well to go 20 something years with no spoilers about the game, which tbf is insane, and I don't expect that to continue because people are assholes and love to spoil things in general, but especially when you managed to go as long as I have with next to no spoilers.

[kamikazekeeg]

I finished the game last night.  I've never played the original and know nothing of it.  I really enjoyed the game.  The ending didn't leave off on a frustrating cliffhanger which pleased me.  I've seen a lot of people praise the game who had previously berated XV, this game plays so much like XV, just take away the driving, open world, and the me and my boys of it all.  I get the complaints against those XV aspects, but that aside, if you enjoyed 7R, I would think you'd enjoy XV if you gave it a chance.

All that said, I'm planning on playing 7 on the Switch once I'm done with my current game I'm playing.  I might only play as far as 7R goes, I might play through the whole game, I haven't quite decided yet.  The fact that I know nothing about 7, I kind of don't want to spoil the rest of the game.  On the other hand, having played 7R first, I get to see 7 from a different perspective than everyone else, and if I finish 7 before the rest of 7R comes out, I get to see both sides of the perspective just on different sections of the game.  But on that same note, I've done well to go 20 something years with no spoilers about the game, which tbf is insane, and I don't expect that to continue because people are assholes and love to spoil things in general, but especially when you managed to go as long as I have with next to no spoilers.

It's interesting to see a positive view on the game from someone who isn't an FF7 fan. I've seen people say that the game is terrible for unfamiliar players, but I slightly disagree with that.  Sure they shove Sephiroth in peoples faces too much, but he'll clearly be expanded upon through the next parts, they didn't need to explain him more, and same for other stuff going on.  Sure, the game is geared more towards those who know what is going on and how it teases future parts, but anyone playing this game, knowing it's a remake, can assume the short visions of things to come and what not is a part of the rest of the story and will show up later on.

While it's better to know FF7 beforehand going into the remake, I'd recommend it to folks who haven't.  It still has good gameplay, good story, the dialogue and interactions are kinda some of the best I've seen when it comes to JRPG's.

I'm also someone that really enjoyed Final Fantasy XV.  It's a disaster of a game, the episodes they released sorta soured the game for me, and I never played the Royal Edition, but I put over 100+ hours into the game before all of that released.  FF7R definitely has some of that feel, but way better than what XV was doing and I can't wait to see how they handle the overworld in the next part of FF7R where it becomes open world.

[ignition365]

I finished the game last night.  I've never played the original and know nothing of it.  I really enjoyed the game.  The ending didn't leave off on a frustrating cliffhanger which pleased me.  I've seen a lot of people praise the game who had previously berated XV, this game plays so much like XV, just take away the driving, open world, and the me and my boys of it all.  I get the complaints against those XV aspects, but that aside, if you enjoyed 7R, I would think you'd enjoy XV if you gave it a chance.

All that said, I'm planning on playing 7 on the Switch once I'm done with my current game I'm playing.  I might only play as far as 7R goes, I might play through the whole game, I haven't quite decided yet.  The fact that I know nothing about 7, I kind of don't want to spoil the rest of the game.  On the other hand, having played 7R first, I get to see 7 from a different perspective than everyone else, and if I finish 7 before the rest of 7R comes out, I get to see both sides of the perspective just on different sections of the game.  But on that same note, I've done well to go 20 something years with no spoilers about the game, which tbf is insane, and I don't expect that to continue because people are assholes and love to spoil things in general, but especially when you managed to go as long as I have with next to no spoilers.

It's interesting to see a positive view on the game from someone who isn't an FF7 fan. I've seen people say that the game is terrible for unfamiliar players, but I slightly disagree with that.  Sure they shove Sephiroth in peoples faces too much, but he'll clearly be expanded upon through the next parts, they didn't need to explain him more, and same for other stuff going on.  Sure, the game is geared more towards those who know what is going on and how it teases future parts, but anyone playing this game, knowing it's a remake, can assume the short visions of things to come and what not is a part of the rest of the story and will show up later on.

While it's better to know FF7 beforehand going into the remake, I'd recommend it to folks who haven't.  It still has good gameplay, good story, the dialogue and interactions are kinda some of the best I've seen when it comes to JRPG's.

I'm also someone that really enjoyed Final Fantasy XV.  It's a disaster of a game, the episodes they released sorta soured the game for me, and I never played the Royal Edition, but I put over 100+ hours into the game before all of that released.  FF7R definitely has some of that feel, but way better than what XV was doing and I can't wait to see how they handle the overworld in the next part of FF7R where it becomes open world.

Oh, I will say that throughout the whole game Sephiroth confused me.  Everybody talked like he's a war hero and that he died.  But he's alive, but everyone thinks he's dead.  Shinra seemed terrified of him.  Cloud obviously has some sort of history with him, not explained.  Aerith can tell he's no good, hardly a justification, but ok.  He did a couple of bad things towards the end of the game, definitely not a good guy, but I just didn't follow anything to do with Sephiroth.  There were a couple of other things that I just didn't follow as someone who never played the original, but that's the big one.

[kashell]

I just finished the remake. As someone who went through the original multiple times, I look at this remake with mixed feelings.

Obviously, the game is gorgeous. A fully realized, fleshed out Midgar that shows everything from the dirty slums to the magnificence of the Shinra Building is something I always craved when I went through the OG (at least after my first playthrough). Seeing, and hearing, the characters was neat. I think everyone was cast perfectly. Naturally, the movie are over the top and a blast.

Now, the new characters are hit or miss. Roche is ridiculous. Madam M is fun. Sam is entertaining. Johnny fails as comic relief. Leslie is neat. It just depends. But, I realize why they're all there. One of the purposes of this remake was to give more life to Midgar, and new personalities are needed for that.

Pacing was a major issue. Chapters 3, 4, 16, and 17 would just not end. Chapter 9 was the biggest culprit. Not all scenes can be skipped, either. The game really enjoys wasting the player's time. Even if it wasn't an unskippable scene, it was having to go through another narrow corridor or putting up with another mini-game. I felt like I was playing Heavy Rain. Oh, and why was it that EVERYONE wanted to get in front of Cloud? There should have been a trophy for running into people.

Customization was super fun. I really enjoyed powering up Materia, weapons, and combining the two to build a powerful army of four. I was bummed that Red XIII was unplayable, but he joins so late in the original (from a Midgar perspective) that I guess it makes sense.

Then we get to the combat. If I had to describe combat in one word, it'd be this: exhausting. Now, if you play on Easy, then the game can be completed with zero trouble. Normal (and I'm assuming Hard) are entirely different matters. Enemies and your team aren't on the same level. It's like the enemies are playing Devil May Cry, and we're playing Bad Dudes. I can't think of one boss fight where I thought to myself, "Wow. This is unfair." Many of said bosses have cut scenes that cant't be skipped, either. So, if you get a game over then you have to watch them again. It's 2020 and Square STILL hasn't learned that this is not cool.

And, that's not to say I dislike difficult games. I enjoy them as much as the next person: Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Shinobi, etc. I've played my share of toughies. With FFVIIR, there's not only a constant disadvantage, but there's also too damn much going on most times. There ARE times when the combat is fun. Arena battles and VR missions are the most fun because there usually isn't stuff flying at you in every direction.

I plan on getting the platinum trophy, so I'll have to put up with the Hard mode shenanigans: no items, benches only restoring HP, the works. But, I'm taking a break before I dive back into that.

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. But, who knows. That might go up or done when my thoughts are more collected on it.

[ignition365]

3 hours into FF7 and I have already reached the end of ff7r's plotline.  I see why people feel like 7r just drags on.  Having not played the original, I didnt have that.  Dont know if I want to finish 7 knowing that.

[kamikazekeeg]

3 hours into FF7 and I have already reached the end of ff7r's plotline.  I see why people feel like 7r just drags on.  Having not played the original, I didnt have that.  Dont know if I want to finish 7 knowing that.

That's what I like about the Remake, it really expands on the setting and character interactions that you mostly burn through real fast in the original and then never see again.  Not that the Remake doesn't have spots that drag there's absolutely some trimming from a few chapters they should've done, but this game doesn't drag nearly as bad as some others do, like Persona 5 was way worst for it and that's a 100 hour game minimum.

[soera]

Imagine if the game didnt somewhat drag out everything ... already enough people out there complaining that the game isnt complete when technically it is a complete game as it is. If nothing was completely hashed out the way it is, it would be finished in about 12 hours.

[pzeke]

I liked it – gotta hand it to them with the use of the word "remake", it was clever, and certainly took many purists by surprise; it almost feels like Nomura and co. pulled off a Sakurai. That said, time travel stories are iffy for me, so we'll see how things go from here. The last chapter overstayed its welcome, if I'm being honest, but I got what they were trying to do with it. Quite frankly, though, the whole chapter felt like I was trapped in some kind of Kingdom Hearts loop what with the boss and all the events peppered throughout. Actually, come to think of it, the game had some KH vibes here and there... But speaking of loops, they went full-force with the time travel shtick given the chapter selection and the fact you have to go through hard mode if you want to go for 100%.

On a different, but related note, it was quite a milestone for me given the first game for the original PlayStation that I played was Final Fantasy VII, and I procrastinated so much getting my PS4 hooked up and stuff that Final Fantasy VII Remake ended up being my first PS4 game. This game was a big part of my childhood, so I must admit I shed a tear or two while playing it reminiscing and what have you. Sounds corny, but hey...