Playthrough thoughts thread

[Aulayna]

Figure we can do what the internet is so good at hosting, and use this thread to provide some thoughts as we playthrough for the first time.

I guess in the interests of spoilers we could say what chapter we're on, and hide anything really spoilery behind spoiler tags.

Me:

Just started Chapter 3

Pros

• Combat feels great
• Judging by the trophy list there is a Hard difficulty which I guess acts as a NG+
• Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie are so much more fleshed out as characters
• Generally the game looks fantastic
• Boss fights have been pretty fun so far
• It was really staggering getting to see the destruction caused in Sector 8 by the explosion from the Mako Reaction 1
• The Senior Guard and New Recruit in the Sector 7 slums are fantastically voice acted lol
• (SPOILER)I knew from interviews that Sephiroth was going to be featured a lot more, but I did not expect to be seeing so much of him so early on.

Cons

• Some quite low-res textures at times that take ages to load in higher res versions.
• Some of the music choices for locations are... interesting, not sure if this is a con but there's some locations I feel could've benefited from a brand new track rather than re purposing an existing one.
• Not sure how I feel currently about Weapons having their own crystarium like skill point system on top of Materia.

Overall so far it feels like a brand new game but still maintains the distinct essence of FFVII.

[Aulayna]

Just started chapter 7 now, around 10 hours in and just entering Mako Reactor 5 (which would be like 90 minutes in in the OG).

Pros:

• Can use summons more often than I imagined from the interviews, and they actually feel useful rather than XV's random ones.
• The storyline with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie that involves (SPOILER)a dinner at Jessie's house was great. I love these characters so much in this game, I'm not ready for them to die...
• The sidequests I've done so far have all been ok, nothing groundbreaking, but at least they feel more connected with the world than XV's inconsequential hunts.
• Cloud, Tifa, and Barrett all feel different in the way they play.
• Tifa already has had more character development than she did in nearly all of Disc One in the original.

Cons:

• Couldn't choose whether to give the flower to Tifa or Marlene. It gets given to Tifa.
  
  • (Haven't had much time with Aerith yet but right now it feels like the game is really setting up Cloud x Tifa as the pairing. Not really a con, just an observation)
  
  
• Still not sure what I think of the Weapon Upgrade system, on the one had it allows more flexibility on customizing each characters stats, but on the other hand it removes a lot of the optional depth of the materia system from the original.
• During story segments it can get a bit frustrating when the game bars you from exploring the area you're in. For example near the end of chapter 6 there's a section where once you hit a certain point the game won't let you backtrack until you've traversed a specific bit of terrain for no other reason than it's forcing you to move forward to see a dialogue scene.
• The game still feels a tad on the easy side, and throws consumables at you. But again, looking at the trophy list there's a "complete the game on Hard" achievement, and Hard isn't available yet - so I assume it's NG+
• (SPOILER)Roche, the 3rd Class Soldier, is annoying and feels completely worthless to the story right now.

Storywise it feels very much like the RE2 Remake, the core key beats are still there - but the who/why/what/how has been changed in some cases, but still feels generally true to the spirit of the original.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I’m on chapter 5 right now and really enjoying it so far. I’m really digging how they expanded on Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie (particularly the latter two). I also like that Wedge is voiced by Badger from Breaking Bad even though it distracted me at first. They are all very loveable and a bit goofy, and it’s great. I also like that it seems to humanize Shinra a little more while dwelling a little more on how questionable Avalanche’s actions are. I also like how Cloud is portrayed so far. The game is also very pretty, and I like the scope of being able to look up and see the pizza in the sky up above.

I’m neutral about the new ghost looking things. I don’t really like them, but it hasn’t been offensive enough to bother me too much. It all depends on where they go with it, but I don’t have high hopes. I also find the new (SPOILER) SOLDIER antagonist to have a pretty annoying personality, but I’m still mostly neutral. I also find the battle system mostly neutral. Doesn’t wow me, but I’m still having fun with it.

I don’t really like the appearances of (SPOILER) Sephiroth. Could grow on me over time, but the scenes were kind of weird. Something just felt kind of off with those scenes.

[Mr Gashtacular]

I'm only a couple hours in, at the Sector 7 slums.

I'm enjoying the world-building. The one thing I wanted to see was more of Midgar above the plate and I certainly got that. I like how they've stayed pretty true to the original, down to the style of advertisements and posters, etc.

I liked little easter eggs, such as arriving at the train station and seeing the horny couple under the streetlight. I like recognizing "bits" from the original game.

The voice acting isn't....terrible?

(SPOILER) Nibelheim appears to be some kind of desert town, which I never caught in the original

It's nice to hear some of the NPC dialogue, which often adds context. It's a bit weird walking past a group and hearing 3 or 4 different conversations. I suppose it's realistic, but I often find myself doubling back to find out who said what and if the conversation is actually interesting or not.

My only real con so far is that the job-based side-quests exist at all. I'm kind of bored of these in gaming in general. I've only done one so far but I hope it's not going to be a lot of "go to location, and kill X enemies, and come back".

[Psychotic]

I've only just got my copy and just started Chapter 3. Wow. The panic and the horror of the bomb attack, listening to terrified people wondering where their family and friends are and just how they're going to get home felt more real, more human, than any Final Fantasy game location has yet.

I only wish that the revelation from the Demo Chapter 1/Demothat Shinra made it worse was revealed a little later or didn't happen at all, as it would've felt like even more of an emotional gutpunch. As an audience we get a free pass that our characters don't.

They've done a great job with the dialogue, and even potentially dorky scenes like the &^#$# 'pizza' have been handled really, really well. The aesthetics of Midgar are smurfing superb, honestly tremendous, and Shinra feels even more corporate than ever with their bulltrout slogans and posters, I love it.

And that soundtrack. Wow.

[Aulayna]

• Airbuster fight was super cool. Also had an interesting setup mechanic inside the Sector 5 reactor before you fought it.
• (SPOILER)No dropping barrels on Shinra grunts in the church
• (SPOILER)You actually get to control the cranes in the collapsed tunnel between Sector 5 and 6!
• Aerith's house and the surrounding area looks stunning.
• Wall Market looks incredible.
• Haven't got to Corneo's mansion yet but it seems that (SPOILER)the option you choose for what Tifa should wear for Cloud and Tifa's proposed night out way back in Chapter 3 affects what she wears to Corneo's

One slightly negative thing I've noticed about the Battle System as I get later into the game and don't just destroy everything with no strategy:

(SPOILER)This generally applies in all cases but is most noticeable in fights against single stronger monsters (so boss fights, and quest objectives) is that the AI has a habit of switching to focus on whatever character you happen to be controlling. This can be somewhat mitigated with the Provoke materia and in the boss fights isn't super noticeable due to more narrow areas and a lot of AoE damage etc.

But for some of the side quest objectives, you're fighting in a big open area and you can "cheese" them by just kiting something around in a circle with either Barret or Aerith and then just imputing abilities for other characters as their ATB bars fill. Then if for any reason your kiting goes a bit awry you just switch characters for 5 seconds so the AI switches to that character instead.

Also there's more and more "Kingdom Hearts" style abilities from boss enemies coming in where if you mistime something you then get pounded by a barrage of abilities that you can't guard against due to your character being animation locked.

Incidentally out of curiosity I looked up how to unlock hard mode and what it actually changes, and I'm putting this behind spoilers even though it has no spoilers but anyway:

(SPOILER)Once you beat the story you unlock the ability to go back and replay chapters keeping all you current gear etc. Hard difficulty is available for this, and what Hard mode means is:

• Items cannot be used (no items of any kind, including healing items).
• HP is only restored at Rest Spots (however, you can still use Spells and Abilities to regenerate health during combat).
• Certain Manuscript Collectibles are only available on Hard.
• Certain Bosses, Combat Simulator Missions, Item Rewards, Enemy Skills are only available on Hard Difficulty. This means you cannot 100% complete or platinum the game without finishing hard difficulty.
• Enemies become even stronger.
• You get to keep all of your equipment (it’s basically New Game Plus). All your Items, Materia, Character Level etc. carry over into Hard Difficulty.
• You earn twice as much XP and three times as much AP.
• Level 50 is the Level Cap.

[Shiva95]

I'm currently in chapter 7, probably toward the end. I'm really enjoying the game so far.

Pros

• Avalanche characters are much more interesting than in the OG. I really liked (SPOILER)the mission with them in chapter 4 when we go to Jessie's house and learn more about her backstory, and we see more of Biggs and Wedge too. I think my favorite of the group is Biggs, but they're great.
• I love how they fleshed out pretty much all the characters.
• The interactions between Cloud and Tifa are beautiful.
• I love how Cloud has (SPOILER)both parts of the "fake" Cloud and the "real Cloud". He's really well nuanced.
• The music is beautiful and the graphics are amazing too.
• I really love the gameplay and the possibilities of each character. I haven't played as Aerith yet, but for now, I really love playing as Cloud and Tifa and Barret isn't really my type. It's fun how different they all feel though, and they are useful at some moments.
• Not too much sidequests; they just gave more opportunities of banters between the characters, which is great.

Cons

• As much as I like Jessie with Avalanche, I don't like (SPOILER)how she acts with Cloud. It made me uncomfortable when she wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheek and asks him to come the next night even if he was clearly not interested
• It's not really a con, but I'm still surprised of how early we see (SPOILER)Sephiroth.

[Aulayna]

Ok the entire Wall Market section was fantastically well done. Maintained all the campness and gaudiness of the original, took it to the next level and added modern twist on parts of it. There were also some subtle, and not so subtle, easter eggs to the original game.

They definitely didn't chicken out on it as some people thought they might, they owned it and ran with it.

(SPOILER)And my earlier gut feeling was right, your actions with Tifa in Chapter 3, Aerith in Chapter 8, and what you do in Wall Market itself all affect the dresses Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith wear.

Make sure to talk to Chadley when Cloud is "en femme"

[Psychotic]

I actually don't mind a certain new antagonist that people in this thread have commented on. (SPOILER)Roche. It's Final Fantasy VII, home to hammed up and wild enemies like Palmer, Don Corneo, the comedy Turks, and so on. Strange man who apparently is in a sexual relationship with his motorcycle? Why not! Welcome to the club. He's a junior member of the club of course, but he's still a member.

Like Scotty, I also really like that Badger plays Wedge. I also realised Biggs' voice actor also played Balthier which is kind of random, Jessie is Kaori from Your Lie in April and yeah, basically the same voice and oh god

Chapter 4Like everyone else, I greatly enjoyed the expanded depth to her character and backstory. It was really surprising! I don't quite know why they made the change of her being this shy quiet girl into the megathirsty epitome of wanting the d, but hey, it's spiced things up.

smurfing LOVED Wedge and his cats. Oh my feels. That boy.

Hoping to see a bit more of Wedge as he's been a wee generic so far but we'll see.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

in response to Psy I don’t mind Roche, I can just potentially see his personality become grating. I had fun with his fight and appearance though. He does fit in with some of the sillier aspects of the original.

And I loved how Wedge was characterized by stopping to play with all of the cats. I want more Wedge.

I’m now in chapter 8 I think? I’ve heard some people complain about linearity and feeling like the hallway simulator of XIII, and I can kind of see it. At the same time, it feels better here to me than it did in XIII. With the chapter format and linearity though, it feels more like a weird mix of Final Fantasy and something more like Uncharted or new Tomb Raider.

[tony123]

Ok I just finished watching a playthrough that someone put up on youtube. Since I watched it and didn't play it I won't comment at all about the gameplay and instead just focus on the story and how it relates to the original game.


Oh and if you havn't finished the game or played it yet at all probably won't want to read.

(SPOILER)
All in all the FF7 remake just has a weird story. They took a section of the first game that only took about five to eight hours to get through and turned it into about a thirty hour long game. I'll get to the characters later and I did somewhat enjoy the added depth they gave the characters because it was a longer game however unfortunately the main way they were able to turn this beginning section of the original FF7 into as long as game as they did is largely through extra long dungeons and way too many sidequests.

The pacing is just absolutely terrible. You will be introduced to some of the major characters and then all of a sudden they will vanish for about 10+ hours of playing the game because you will have to trudge your way through dungeons that are far too long and sidequests that really take the momentum away from the main story. The original game had sidequests as well but most of them were in the second cd where the story was moving slower and was affording you time to go around and explore the world. In this game they try to cram all those sidequests and extras right in the middle of the bombing missions plot. It really makes the game feel like it doesn't have much focus and it often feels like you are playing an Elder Scrolls game where it is all about taking missions from NPC's instead of a game that is supposed to have a serious and timely story going on.

I liked how they expanded the character of Jessie. They expanded the characters of Biggs and Wedge as well but of the three Jessie definitely saw the most additional development. However at the same time the problem with that is they practically just dropped her and she saw virtually no screen time again after having that initial development. Other than Cloud Jessie was probably the most developed character during the first five or so hours of the game but then you don't see her again for probably about fifteen hours and then probably around the twenty hour mark or so she appears for her death sequence.

Though they toned it down in the second portion of the game for the first half however the flirting was just really in your face. There was a bit of flirting in the original as well but it was often subtle flirting. Not in this game. Jessie was acting like she was constantly wanting to jump Cloud's bones right then and there and Tifa was far more flirtatious with Cloud as well than she was in the original game. It was getting to the point to where I really wouldn't have been all that surprised if Jessie or Tifa asked Cloud to go to bed with them. During the first five to ten hours of the game members of Avalanche seemed more like a group of horny college kids who had Friday night orgies with each other than an underground group trying to overthrow a government.

The ending just seems really out there. It was clear that they were trying to make the ending of the game seem like a finality when the ending of the Midgar arc was just getting the game started. The simpler version works better in my opinion.

All in all it was very obvious they were trying to adapt a video game story that was over twenty years old. The FF7 story was groundbreaking when it was released in the late '90's however at the same time games were only beginning to have detailed stories back then. The bar for video game stories is much higher now where some games truly feel like cinematic movies. Even though this game has ps4 graphics I still feel like that if someone wants to experience this story for the first time they need to play the ps1 version. I think you need to have sense of nostalgia for these characters to feel like the story in FF7 remake is all that good. The story in the remake just doesn't flow that well by todays standards.

[Aulayna]

TIL that Chadley's VR battles use whoever is in your party at the time of entering.

So needless to say I unwittingly made Shiva a harder for myself by doing that battle back when only Cloud was in my party xD

[Scotty_ffgamer]

So I definitely made Shiva harder for myself too. Once I got the pattern down though, she was pretty easy. Took me several tries thanks to my dog though, haha.

Edit: So, I’m really liking how each person is different in combat, and it really makes me want to switch between characters. Going around with Aerith, she was just sipping through enemies that Cloud was chipping away more slowly. Something seems a little off to me with guarding and dodging, but I’m starting to get the hang of it more. Only character I don’t care for is Barret so far. I just let him do his thing until I want to use his abilities.

In any case, I’ve been thinking about what could have been with XV. It would have been more fun having this level of control over the entire party.

[Mr Gashtacular]

TIL that Chadley's VR battles use whoever is in your party at the time of entering.

So needless to say I unwittingly made Shiva a harder for myself by doing that battle back when only Cloud was in my party xD

awww bugger. that's something to look forward to then

[Psychotic]

It took one ass beating from Shiva for me to figure that out! I thought I had a good plan, with Ice-Elemental in my armour, but nope. She didn't smurf around. Brought Aerith along a bit later and it went a lot more smoothly.