Is it worth it?

[Raistlin]

Shockingly, I still haven't played FF7:R. I have enough games on my backlog to last for a dozen pandemics, and my initial thought was to wait until Part 2 is about to come out to play them at once, because I was skeptical that it'd be good enough to make me want to replay if Part 2 takes forever.

So I'm curious as to overall thoughts about the game from fellow nerds. I browsed through this forum a bit and didn't see a consolidated reviews thread, and I didn't want to look through threads that would contain spoilers. What did you think about the game? Is it worth it to play now? Would you replay it?

[Lord Golbez]

It's actually kind of a difficult question for me to answer. Why? Well, because it's definitely a quality game the majority of which is good and is fun to play throughout most of the game. Sounds like it should be any easy worth it right? Yeah, except there's some troutty plot decisions that leave a sour taste and that affect the whole course of the game enough that they trouttily color the 90 percent of the game that is in and of itself good.

[Wolf Kanno]

It was okay. I never was in love with it, and I feel the most honest criticism I can give is that the overall experience was just not tailored for someone like me who doesn't like ARPG combat, overblown cinematics, and obviously FFVII in general.

I feel my biggest criticism is that VIIR just overstays it's welcome. It tales a six hour experience and tries to stretch it out to a thirty plus hour experience and that's just not an easy thing to do. Maybe if I never played the original, I wouldn't get that feeling. Yet being familiar with the source material makes it painfully obvious how much they stretched this game, and I honestly would have preferred if they hadn't since I feel the level design and overall pacing suffered for it.

Combat isn't bad. Not my cup of tea, but not so boring that it's easy to dislike. I find the biggest issue is that boss fights are all overblown except for the ones against the Turks and Rufus. The rest are boring because they're mostly annoying HP sponges that force the fight to go on forever. They're constantly being interrupted by cinematics whenever they go to new phases and every boss in this game has at least three phases in their fight. I mean in the time it takes down the Scorpion Tank boss in the remake, you could have started VII and probably be at Tifa's Seventh Heaven bar. Regular battles are often better, with a nicer balance and more challenging experience. Materia is a mixed bag as only the conventional elemental spells and healing materia will probably get a lot of use on regular mode. The rest are designed to get more mileage on Hard Mode.

The plot is... well I'll just say the whispers are a dumb idea that feels like something out of Kingdom Hearts, but ignoring that, the rest of the story changes are not too bad. Some sections have been better thought out, more character interactions, and minor characters get some serious lip service in the game. Wall Market does get overhauled to be more culturally friendly and I honestly feel they did a good job with it considering it's one of the bigger departures from the original in terms of details. Honestly, the whispers are the only major story issue I have with the game. Many of the other story changes I felt were for the better or were at least respectful of the original. Though I do feel the Shin-Ra building was less interesting in the remake than in the original.

Overall, if you're a big fan of the original, I don't think it would hurt you to check it out. If you were someone who could take or leave the original VII, maybe hold off for awhile. If you're someone who liked and appreciated the Compilation of VII, you'll probably dig it.

[ham]

I feel like its more catered towards FF7 fans even if the reception of it is somewhat polarizing. I'm a pretty big FF7 fan boy and I felt like it was a good game but I'm a bit chaffed at the multi-segmented releases. Mainly because I feel like it'd be better just to release an entire game then release them episodically. My enjoyment stems from the plot choices they made during the remake but I feel like I am one of the few that's okay with it.

As a game in itself, I think the battle system is pretty fun, there were some challenging fights. There's definitely some things they can improve on like the camera work and the AI's decision making in battles. It sort of forces you to cycle through your characters to make a strong impact as the battle progresses. Another mechanic that I didn't appreciate was the cinematic breaks in combat.

[Aulayna]

If you like FFVII: Yes. How you feel about the battle system, how faithful the plot is/isn't to the original game, and other changes, will purely be personal preference.

If you don't like FFVII: No, this is still FFVII at heart and if you didn't like the OG this isn't going to suddenly win you over.

[WarZidane]

If you like FFVII: Yes. How you feel about the battle system, how faithful the plot is/isn't to the original game, and other changes, will purely be personal preference.

If you don't like FFVII: No, this is still FFVII at heart and if you didn't like the OG this isn't going to suddenly win you over.

But I didn't like the original, yet love the remake.

[CimminyCricket]

Yeah dude, it's pretty good so far. My favorite parts so far are getting to explore things I only saw from one angle or to really see how massive Midgar is.

[Psychotic]

I really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun, and it produced comfortably the best battle system from a Final Fantasy game since X-2. It's a beautiful game and made me have ~feels~.

My biggest criticism is the same as WK - a lot of places feel stretched and drawn out, so the pacing is a little off and it messed with my head a little. If the game says to you OH MY GOD WE GOTTA DO THIS THING, don't worry, it's not urgent, the thing is likely two long dungeon crawls away from you.

[Del Murder]

I'm about 80% through it and like it a lot. If you just accept it for what it is, an update/expansion of the first 10% of FFVII, it's really enjoyable. The battles, characters, events, are all very fun to watch and play.

[Shiva95]

I personally love the OG, but I think the remake is gonna be better in the end. The first part is just Midgar, but I still love how they expand the characters and their relationships much more in the remake, and when I compare og!Midgar to r!Midgar, I already prefer the remake.

[Vyk]

I'm a stupidly huge fan, and I'm trying to only play the game when I'm in the right headspace to be completely absorbed, but I don't find a lot of oportunities for that when I'm not just tired. Let alone adulting and giving attention to my fiancee or cat. But when I do find those moments, I feel like a kid again. FF7 wasn't my first, but it was probably my most formative FF experience. And so far this game is more than I could have hoped for. But I'm only about 13 hours into a 35'ish hour game. It could take a couple of turns later that leave a bad taste. But so far, everything it's done is just extrapolate on what was already there. Explore places and scenarios more deeply like what would happen in a book. It's almost like if FF7R were a novel, and FF7 itself were the movie. When I finally got to play as TIfa in my party, I teared up. She's ludicrously fun to play as. It just felt so right. And honestly, you're stuck with Cloud most of the time, but even he feels more right than he should. And I've said it before, if this game wasn't FF7 and they were just making an action RPG set in some industrial punk future, it would still be a fantastic game. The only gripes I could see would be creative decisions, but they pulled out all the stops. My only real complaint so far that I've personally experienced is some of the difficulty spikes for certain quests. Mostly side quests, actually. I feel like maybe they're supposed to be done in spurts, but I'm afraid of taking the story too far and losing access to them so I complete them all in one go, and usually the last one in an area is quite a step up from everything else and generally takes me a few tries to beat whatever amped up enemies are in those fights. That can get frustrating, but it pales in comparison to how much fun I'm having every other moment. Falling in love with the characters all over again and in some surprisingly new ways. Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge are a treat to be around now

[Raistlin]

Thank you all for your perspectives. I'm glad to see the largely-if-qualified favorable reviews, as I have been cautiously optimistic about the remake. Like Vyk, FF7 wasn't my first RPG, but it was an early and very formative one. And as much as I've criticized the original (especially for basically everything that happens after disc 1), it's a fun game that I played multiple times as a teenager.

[CimminyCricket]

Just give into the peer pressure and get the game

[JJ Strife]

Yes absolutely worth it. It's my game of the year so far. (although based on everything I've seen about Cyberpunk, I think that will take the crown by year's end).

It's far from perfect but they really nailed the core parts of the game for me. Characters are absolutely perfect, environments are excellent, storytelling and pacing is excellent (except for the dodgy ending), gameplay is great.

I don't think waiting for part 2 makes sense really. I mean first of all I think it's gonna be a 4-part thing, not a 3-part thing. So you'll end up waiting quite a bit anyway. We also have no idea how long it'll take. It frankly could be 3 years between games.

[Example]

It's a game you'll have a blast playing through the first time but struggle to enjoy replaying.