Final Fantasy VII Remake

[Moonface]

I'm happy next gen will, in theory, alleviate that hefty asset load and have games not need to duplicate assets and fill up the disc space. I'm sure that's what's happening here with all the Midgar assets, like store front picture replication and NPC model textures.

It makes me wonder if the game size will be dropped down for next generation or not considering that. Although that may come down to the systems themselves to resolve, since I doubt Sony are going to want nor expect all their first party titles to be patched for PS5 installs when something in the system could just locate duplicated items and just pluck out the one and discard the rest.

[Moonface]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo Available Now
A free demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake is available now, and lets you experience the first chapter of the game, the iconic Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission!

[queenzelda]

I downloaded the demo & played some of it for a bit. I was impressed; I just have to get used to the new battle system & I'm used to how the old battle system used to work. xD

[Moonface]

I didn't play it, but watched Shira play it, and I have to say the amount of care put into this game is astounding. If the demo is a sign of the level of detail and attention this remake is being given across the board, I can understand how it had to be split into parts.
Also, the dialogue between Cloud and Barret inside the elevator is top tier bants.

[Dragon Lord]

Downloaded the demo last night, but haven't played it yet. Gonna give it a run when I get home from work tonight. Not holding my breath on the combat being anything worthwhile (SE hasn't made a good Action RPG in a good 15+ years), but we'll see. Demo is free so no harm in trying it out despite having lower than low expectations for the game.

[ShiraNoMai]

According to people I watch that have played quite a few of Square's ARPG of modern times, it doesn't quite play like those; I've found it more similar to Type-Zero and FFXII x FFXV cross-type combat.

It was quite worth while to play I found. Gorgeous game, I absolutely love the voice actor they chose for Garret. I found the camera lock-on to be a little wonky at times, swapping between clusters of close enemies wasn't the smoothest, but I hope that'll smooth out on launch.

[Moonface]

I found the camera lock-on to be a little wonky at times, swapping between clusters of close enemies wasn't the smoothest, but I hope that'll smooth out on launch.

I think the game already went gold so that might be the same in the full release.

[Dragon Lord]

After playing the demo, it confirmed my stance on that there really isn't much good to be said about this game.

This first thing to make itself very apparent was the combat. While playing the demo, I was like, "Why is this combat so bad?" Afterwards, I saw around that people were calling it a mix of FFXV's combat with some FFXIII mechanics thrown in and it was very clear why the combat sucked as much as it did. Square Enix is really bad at taking horrid battle systems (XV) and trying to spitshine them a little bit to make them look better. It doesn't work SE, stop.

Square Enix is also the only company I know that is stupid enough to make an action-oriented RPG and give you a "dodge" roll that doesn't actually have any i-frames so you can't actually dodge with it. They try so hard to bottleneck you into a "block > attack > block" battle style that it's not even funny. It's basically a turn-based battle system, which is funny since that's the thing they said the game was "too pretty" to be.

I have to greatly disagree with Shira's opinion on Barret. Between his stereotypical angry/loud/trying to appear tough black guy voice and his sunglasses to complete the stereotype, I don't know if he's Barret from Final Fantasy VII or supposed to be Mr. T (I won't be surprised if he says the famous 'I pity the fool!' at some point in the game). You can't even use his gameplay to save him because his play style is absolute garbage. The one good thing I can say about this game's combat is Cloud's comboing between his two fighting styles. Then you have Barret who is literally "hold square until thing you are shooting is dead." Between that and how slow he is to move, he's just pure garbage. The fact that they made the game to force you to switch to him and play as him at times just makes the game that much worse.

Another thing I really noticed about the demo and it really made me hate my time playing it, is the fact that you're forced to take damage. There's no way around it. I was wondering why they were giving the player so many damn Potions through the area, and you find out quickly why. It's because, as I mentioned above, they only want you playing their block > attack > block gameplay. It's not fun, it slows down the action (which is already a little clunky to begin with), and it's just annoying.

I'm also not a huge fan of what they did with magic in this game. Especially considering how small the MP pool in this game is. Tying magic into an important mechanic (Staggering) and then giving you a tiny ass MP pool is just idiotic. If they wanted to make magic a system specifically for triggering Staggers, they should have given the characters a lot more MP and just made damage to very little damage. Don't make it so that magic does a lot of damage (in turn giving small MP Pools so it's not abusable) and it also required to trigger one of the game's more important mechanics (or just do the smart thing and don't utilize anything from trashy FFXIII to begin with).

This one isn't a criticism, but more of something I had to laugh at: People complain about the encounter rate in OG FFVII, but I'm pretty sure they force you into more encounters in this demo than you would face going down the Reactor in the OG. Every time you turned the corner there's just another forced battle. At least in the original you can run from them so you don't have to spend the time fighting if you don't want. In this one they're like, "Nope! We had to make sure you'd spend an hour going through this area that took 15 minutes in the original so we could pad this game, you are fighting these battles whether you like it or not!"



So in the end, yeah, it's about as bad as I expected. Square Enix still fails to realize why their "action combat" is absolute trash. Should have taken a page out of how amazing NieR: Automata was and hired Platinum Games (or another highly regarded developer known for action combat) to handle the combat side of things. If this game was a true action game, with a dodge roll that actually let you dodge attacks, it actually could have been pretty good. Instead we get this weird mesh of mechanics from bad FF games like XII, XIII and XV and they expect it not to be ass. Looks like they are just going to once again bank on people going "oohhhhhh pwetty gwaphics!" while ignoring the numerous and blatant faults of the game.

This is a build from late 2018/early 2019 though (the same demo they've been using at events the last almost 1.5 years), so there's a small chance that perhaps they pulled their heads out of their butts and realized that their combat sucks, but I highly doubt it.

There's only one thing that can save this "series" now, and she won't appear until Part 2. RIP.

[Moonface]

Well, this won't improve the combat for DL, but there will be a DLC campaign for this game and a free upgrade to the PS5 version as well:





From what I can tell, the Intergrade DLC is only going to be on PS5, which is odd if that's the case.
All these upgrades though are making me wonder whether to wait until I get a PS5 to play this game, especially if I ended up getting the DLC. Can't see much point playing the PS4 version and then having to play the DLC on PS5.

[Dragon Lord]

Oh, good ol' Square Enix. Instead of just actually making part 2, they release an "enhanced" PS5 version of part 1 with exclusive DLC. I can't wait for about 8-10 other "enhanced" versions of this game before they actually release Part 2.

This is what happens when you let an idiot like Nomura into your development. FFVII Remake is about to get the Kingdom Hearts treatment. For those who don't get it, on PS4 alone you can get: Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.8, Kingdom Hearts III, Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far (1.5 + 2.5 + 2.8 in one) and finally Kingdom Hearts All In One (1.5 + 2.5 + 2.8 + III).

[Moonface]

For anyone who has PS+ and doesn't have this game, it's going to be free next month:

As for the DLC, I think what bugs me the most is that overall this game costs at least $120 if it's only two $60 parts. But adding in DLC that costs who knows what is going to push the whole game cost even higher. I won't be surprised to see the entire game cost nearly $200 if you do it a la carte instead of waiting for them to maybe put the whole thing in one release. Although I can't see a single release being put out at $70.

[Karo]

Yeah I honestly question whether the remake will be worth it on release like I'm sure it'll eventually come together in a nice little package like Kingdom Hearts.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah I honestly question whether the remake will be worth it on release like I'm sure it'll eventually come together in a nice little package like Kingdom Hearts.

At the rate Square Enix releases these games, plus the fact that they're going to KH this remake (make three side-story games in between every major release kek), we'll see an "All In One" package on the PlayStation 10 in 2099.

Also slightly off topic: Remnants: From The Ashes would be a quality pick-up from that PS+ lineup.

[Mr EliteL]

Ugh darn I really wish the remake doesn't go like what Kingdom Hearts has done, damn just get on the second part already. Watching the releases for KH over the years killed my interest in it, why would you start .5'ing your games and then oh, not quite KH3 yet but shouldn't look that close to 2.5 so let's go with .8. Then bundle them together, NOO. FF7 itself already had multiple games and such surrounding it but was kinda handled better, but doing multiple versions/updates of a single game and it's part one for that matter. Ehh I probably wasn't going to invest into the FF7 Remake anyway, even if I was leaving it really late.

[Moonface]

Ehh I probably wasn't going to invest into the FF7 Remake anyway, even if I was leaving it really late.

Grab it for free next month and then at least you don't have to feel you wasted money on it if however they handle the rest of the experience is enough to not make you want to continue it.