General Minigame Conversation
Avoiding plot points, this is just to talk about the gameplay of the many, many minigames and how they were worked into FFVII.
I'm a big fan of minigames in general, but even I feel like they may have overdone it on this game. Honestly, it wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the fact that the high grade rewards are so, so incredibly tough to get, and my head is so determined to do them which is my own failing.
Generally, though, and in order of appearance:
Piano
8/10 - I really want to rate this worse because of how must rage it puts me through trying to get an A on this... but it's actually a really good minigame. The biggest criticisms I have are the ones we all have - some notes feel off, and the use of the analogue sticks leaves a lot to be desired, because sometimes it screws up like four notes when you move a stick once. I'd like the option to switch between missed notes being muted or not, and while it was cool to hear the music sound better as I played better, I'd still like the option to hear the track in full regardless of how well I play, so I don't get 'lost'. Because these options don't exist, I found it easier to play the game with sound off entirely, and no rhythm game should be that way.
Queen's Blood / Card Carnival
9/10, I love this. I find it generally a very fair game and low stress. Sometimes I have to play a game a few times to really get a feel for the tactics but for the most part it just hits all the right notes for me (see what I did there, Piano game?). They do force it on me a lot in the story which I wouldn't expect of good minigame management, but since I really like it, I'll let that slide.
Wrangle de Chocobo
8/10 - Not an official minigame title, of course. It was a fun little stealth mission that didn't take me too long. The only time I struggled was in Condor, every other chocobo felt simple and straight forward. Generally happy and it didn't break immersion or anything.
Hustle de Chocobo
6/10 - I admittedly didn't reattempt this yet after my first go at it edged me through as I was pretty keen to crack on with story.
Moogle Mischief
7/10 - It's not that bad, really. Moments of absolute frustration but generally I've only had to reattempt a 2-3 times at most the entire game. Honestly the worst thing about this minigame is the aesthetic they chose to go with for moogles in Rebirth, because they are blasphemic.
Fort Condor
7/10 - A good minigame that was great in Integrade, but they set the bar a little high - and I've not yet touched the hard mode variant. I think it's fun but just a tiny bit overkill on difficulty, personally. I loved the way they integrated it into the game, though, a lot.
Jumpfrog
7/10 - Took me a fair number of attempts before I could get all the rewards for this one, but it wasn't terrible. I'm just bad at this kinda game. It isn't so constant that it detracts from the overall game, unlike some other minigames.
Dolphin Show
4/10 - I didn't enjoy this that much, but did it once and dropped it. I believe it opens up again at some point so I can reattempt it and I'll worry about genuine feel at that point.
Junon Parade
5/10 - I am so bad at this kind of thing, I don't even know why. I really wanted to do well because I happen to know it impacts relationship points so I kept doing it until I nailed it, which meant reloading saves over and over and over. If it was just a case of getting a cheap item I can get any time, sure, but my completionist head knew he 'had' to do this.
Pirate's Rampage
5/10 - As a minigame, it's fine, I guess. I don't like the controls or the feel for it. I'm too used to keyboard and mouse for shooters. I never did like this kind of duck-shooter minigame style in any game, to be honest. Never feels fun for me.
Run Wild
7/10 - Wasn't bad, really. Didn't overdo it and when it did get brought back for a sidequest, it was a different variant to the first one, and I liked that it wasn't just me doing the same thing twice as a result.
Cactuar Caper
8/10 - Super easy and generally unintrusive and doesn't force you to do anything intense. See, this is how to do a solid minigame - it's a thing you go "oh, right, that's in the game too. Yeah, not bad." I guess I could have included this earlier because Snaps existed in Junon but this seemed a more minigame-focused version.
Wheelie Rendezvous
7/10 - This was such a tiny part of the game but it's on the list I'm copying from so here it will remain. This was a thing that happened and I'm not upset about it at all but it barely scratches the requirements of being mentioned. It gets a 7 because it gets exactly the amount of airtime it warrants, it doesn't gate anything, and it's a fun little exercise.
Crunch-Off
4/10 - Much like with Piano, this game was easier when I muted it. Way too hard for such a simple/boring minigame, but I did it for the relationship points.
Minecart Adventure
6/10 - I wasn't any good at this but it happened and I don't feel bad about doing it and then being done with it. A forgettable experience.
3D Brawler
3/10 - I hated this game in FF7 OG and I don't like it any better now. At least it looks fancier but it's just as bullcrap and it now has a completionist tick (ie, graded / trophy) behind it.
G-Bike
7/10 - Got the top grade in two attempts which I feel is the right kind of difficulty for a game like this. I bet the hard mode one will stink but it wasn't intrusive to the overall game and it was pretty fun. Better than OG and better than remake, in my opinion.
Galactic Saviors
7/10 - I think this took a few attempts for me to get top grade but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Much better than the other shooting minigames in the game, and like G-Bike, completely unintrusive to the overall plot.
Desert Rush
6/10 - Ehhh I never cared for this kind of thing but it's not awful either. It gets a pass because I didn't feel it was too tough.
Chocobo Racing
9/10 - This was done very nicely, far better than I expected given FFXIV's trash variant. Pleasantly surprised.
Musclehead Colosseum
7/10 - Yoooo, this was harder than I anticipated for a battle game! Less RNG than the OG and I've not yet revisited it since the first time I could play it, but generally, yeah, seems good and it's using the actual battle system which most minigames aren't doing, and I almost didn't count this as a minigame because of that.
Cactuar Crush
7/10 - Like with Musclehead, this uses the battle system, but in this case it has a points based twist to it so it feels more suited to the title of minigame overall. It was interesting and really helped me learn about how to utilised the characters it used.
Glide de Chocobo
7/10 - Difficulty/Gated Rewards aside, this was actually a really good version of a flight simulator minigame. I've seen it done a lot worse, and it was actually really fun and satisfying to pull off some of the moves. The camera in general was pretty trash - they should have had one stick for camera, one for flight, not both for flight-and-camera. But I had fun doing this, even if the last course took me about 30 or more attempts to really nail on the head, even after watching a guide. I still enjoyed it despite all those attempts so they must have been doing something right.
Gears and Gambits
6/10 - I debated giving this a 4 or a 5 but then reminded myself that it's just because I'm impatient and at this stage of the game I didn't want to have to learn yet another minigame, especially one that requires so much thinking and planning. It's like Fort Condor but they give you far too many additional options that honestly were never needed. Quite frankly, with Fort Condor already existing, it's debateable this was warranted at all. The worst part? If you don't do it, it blocks you from seeing one of the best sidequest narratives in the game. I guess at least that means it has payoff, but yeah... maybe I'll appreciate it more after I'm done with the main story and am considering platinum.
Box Throwing
2/10 - This isn't on the list I'm copying it from but I'm adding it in here anyway. The character that has to throw boxes onto things in chapter... 10? or 11? Yeah, smurf that trout, it was the worst. It's awfully designed, the camera is genuinely terrible and the movement is so slow on the character... this minigame genuinely annoyed me to the point that I had to mentally calm myself down and remember that this was just a thing I have to get through. It has potential in some ways but it's poorly explained and the character should move faster and we shouldn't have to be penalised by slowly walking to get our next box and it shouldn't exist and
~~//~~
All of the above is not considering any 'hard mode' versions there might be, so for things like Fort Condor I've not attempted them in hard mode... yet. I've only just unlocked Chapter 12 at the moment.
Now, all of the above were being rated on how fun they were, how well they were presented, how they worked mechanically, how difficult they were for me. But how do I think minigames were presented as a whole?
Quality
8/10. Honestly, they minigames were generally great, and may be the best grouping of minigames in the entirety of the FF series. None of them were the 10/10 that Triple Triad is, but as an ensemble they were fantastic.
Quantity
6/10 - I never thought I'd say this as a minigame lover, but... there were too many minigames. The time put into a few of these could have been put into a card game and fishing game for FFXVI which had no minigames whatsoever and it would have benefited both games immensely.
Intrusiveness
6/10 - The main story shouldn't have required us to play minigames as often as it did. Sometimes they got it right, but they got it wrong too often.
Difficulty / Gated Rewards
3/10 - This was what irked me the most, the amount you have to do for all the gated rewards (and achievements if that's your thing) to get your completionist fix is absurd. It's a bit of gated rewards existing, but mostly it's how difficult it is to get all of them. I think they dropped the ball on this one, and the problem is exacerbated by the pre-mentioned quantity.
Reply With Quote
