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[Mista]

Welp, I'm glad you're happy with your purchase.

I wish I was.

EDIT: Like don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game, the ending just soured my experience. The combat is great and the characterization is on point.

I don’t understand. You say that you enjoyed the game and the combat is great yet you’re not happy with your purchase because of the ending? Yes the ending is garbage because we’re getting more games. So why just the ending is taking away everything you enjoyed??

 

[Dacon]

I don’t understand. You say that you enjoyed the game and the combat is great yet you’re not happy with your purchase because of the ending?

Because the game spent 35 hours telling me that it could be a fun and entertaining retelling of the original game that keeps the core of the story intact while simultaneously doing new things to keep it fresh, to completely jump ship in the last 3-4 hours to give Square-Enix a free in universe pass to completely untell the original story of the game if they so choose(which it looks like they are going to).

Yes the ending is garbage because we’re getting more games.

That's not why I think the ending was bad. It was a tone deaf collage of nonsense that was totally in conflict with the theme of FF7. I made my peace with the multipart nature of the game. It was the kind of stuff on part with a DC comics crossover event.

So why just the ending is taking away everything you enjoyed??

It doesn't, it just sours the experience on the whole, and makes me wish I had waited for a sale.

 

[Mista]

Because the game spent 35 hours telling me that it could be a fun and entertaining retelling of the original game that keeps the core of the story intact while simultaneously doing new things to keep it fresh, to completely jump ship in the last 3-4 hours to give Square-Enix a free in universe pass to completely untell the original story of the game if they so choose(which it looks like they are going to).



That's not why I think the ending was bad. It was a tone deaf collage of nonsense that was totally in conflict with the theme of FF7. I made my peace with the multipart nature of the game. It was the kind of stuff on part with a DC comics crossover event.



It doesn't, it just sours the experience on the whole, and makes me wish I had waited for a sale.

Fair enough but still, you enjoyed your whole time with the game. This alone should make you happy about your purchase. How many games do we have today that we literally enjoy from beginning to end without feeling bored at some point? I understand the frustration, I was frustrated myself. But did that make me feel that the whole hours I spent in the game were not very fun? Of course not. They made a new approach that I was the biggest enemy of at the beginning. But after playing and finishing it, I’ll gladly pay full price for the rest they’ll release because the content was great.

 

[Dacon]

Fair enough but still, you enjoyed your whole time with the game. This alone should make you happy about your purchase. How many games do we have today that we literally enjoy from beginning to end without feeling bored at some point? I understand the frustration, I was frustrated myself. But did that make me feel that the whole hours I spent in the game were not very fun? Of course not. They made a new approach that I was the biggest enemy of at the beginning. But after playing and finishing it, I’ll gladly pay full price for the rest they’ll release because the content was great.

Hey man I'm glad for you. The ending just puts so much of a pall over the whole experience that it just puts me in such a foul mood. I suppose it's in part bc I'm a broody type of person, but I felt like it was such a kick in the balls that it just devalued a lot of what came before. They sold me on the idea of a faithful remake that would breathe new life into my favorite scenes, and the ending doesn't seem to respect that idea. That's just my opinion, I'm not going to act like it's the standard or talk down to anyone who felt different, I hope people would do me the same courtesy.

At the very least I can go back and replay my fav bossfights and make new materia builds.

 

[Mista]

Hey man I'm glad for you. The ending just puts so much of a pall over the whole experience that it just puts me in such a foul mood. I suppose it's in part bc I'm a broody type of person, but I felt like it was such a kick in the balls that it just devalued a lot of what came before. They sold me on the idea of a faithful remake that would breathe new life into my favorite scenes, and the ending doesn't seem to respect that idea. That's just my opinion, I'm not going to act like it's the standard or talk down to anyone who felt different, I hope people would do me the same courtesy.

At the very least I can go back and replay my fav bossfights and make new materia builds.

And that’s why I said I understand your frustration mate. I read somewhere that someone wanted to suicide because of the ending which I find absurd. But in your case I 100% understand as I said. Hopefully they’ll make it up for you in part 2

 

[PanzerAzel]

Fair enough but still, you enjoyed your whole time with the game. This alone should make you happy about your purchase. How many games do we have today that we literally enjoy from beginning to end without feeling bored at some point? I understand the frustration, I was frustrated myself. But did that make me feel that the whole hours I spent in the game were not very fun? Of course not. They made a new approach that I was the biggest enemy of at the beginning. But after playing and finishing it, I’ll gladly pay full price for the rest they’ll release because the content was great.

I can’t speak for Dacon here, but personally I feel somewhat robbed and deceived as despite the hours of enjoyment I got until the game travelled into bizarroworld, this is (or at least was promised to be) the first part of a much larger already known story that appears will now turn out unrecognizable. I didn’t purchase this on its own merits alone, part of my money was spent under the understanding it was to hold faithful to what it was honoring.

Sure, I get some enjoyment out of this, but ultimately it’s a wasted investment because I see no recovery from this disaster of an ending, and have absolutely no interest in Nomura/Nojima/etcs awful brain farts henceforth that are going to do nothing but disrespect the source material.

 

[Dacon]

And that’s why I said I understand your frustration mate. I read somewhere that someone wanted to suicide because of the ending which I find absurd. But in your case I 100% understand as I said. Hopefully they’ll make it up for you in part 2

Ngl man, this did depress me quite a bit bc it was the one thing I'd been looking forward to in a long time, and the original was such an amazingly important part of my life that I had worked myself up a bit over it.

Which is why I can understand why some people had such an over the top reaction to it, we live in depressing times. There's so little to look forward to that it's easy for people to really invest in things that seem insignificant to other people. Some people really wanted something they could put their all into for the next 5-10 years, and I guess they were crushed that they found this to not be that thing. I'm sure most will calm down and move on, or just cope by tearing the ending apart in internet essays.

Hell it's the reason why I felt I just had to vent.

 

[base]

New patch is available? DId they address the texture problems?

 

[martino]

Because the game spent 35 hours telling me that it could be a fun and entertaining retelling of the original game that keeps the core of the story intact while simultaneously doing new things to keep it fresh, to completely jump ship in the last 3-4 hours to give Square-Enix a free in universe pass to completely untell the original story of the game if they so choose(which it looks like they are going to).

The original was probably not fresh then....

Aerith encounter and her staying to fight
Be ban of avanlanche because Barret don't like you and only come back because Jessie is wounded
How the scene after the fall to the church is staged.
FIghting Reno then Rude sonner.
Don Corneo choosing Cloud.
Reno and Rude defeated at sector pillar.
Discovering one shinra lab
i could continue and those are the big changes and they kept becoming bigger and bigger with the story advancement.
the climax is sadly too quick. it lacks 2,3 bigger changes with one not prevented before it.

 

[Psykodad]

I don’t understand. You say that you enjoyed the game and the combat is great yet you’re not happy with your purchase because of the ending? Yes the ending is garbage because we’re getting more games. So why just the ending is taking away everything you enjoyed??

I feel the same way and it's the overall experience that ultimately counts.
They nailed almost every aspect of the game, just went overboard with the ending.

 

[Aranea]

I completed the game yesterday. Really interesting for what route they go for part 2 as the game looks to be taking a different route and not exactly a retelling of the original game.

 

[Revolutionary]

Finished the game last night and spent an additional hour or two to beat the Morbol on Hard. Pretty fun fight, I must say.. but I'm not sure if I'll play through the game again on Hard. I got the gist of Hard difficulty from the aforementioned trial/challenge.

As for my thoughts on the game... I enjoyed going through it very much, but once I sit back and think on all that's happened it's like 50% of the game was padding. Some might call it "fleshing out", but in most cases it genuinely isn't. I appreciate some of the things they decided to flesh out (like Jessie's personality), but they felt unnecessary. I felt for Jessie's death 20 years ago, even without the overly dramatic scene or her backstory.

Also, yeah, the final act was kinda terrible. It felt like Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children suddenly invaded the game at the very end lol

So yeah, it's a wonderful and beautiful reimagining of the first 30% of VII... but the original is still king, for a multitude of reasons.

And on that note, it's time to boot up the original on Steam.

 

[PanzerAzel]

I feel the same way and it's the overall experience that ultimately counts.
They nailed almost every aspect of the game, just went overboard with the ending.

The overall experience is Final Fantasy VII in its entirety. And the ending “going overboard” is putting it mildly. It’s looking to vastly alter the overall experience into something no one was asking for or had been (mis)led to believe was coming.

Overall, the whole thing just feels extremely scummy and duplicitous. SE banked their marketing and lead-up, hell, 90% of the game’s design up to the end, on what they KNEW gamers were expecting and wanted, then in the final 10% basically went, “Ahaha sucker, we got your money based on your dream we indicated was coming, now here’s the bird and free creative license we grant ourselves in this IP to now do as we please!”. I’d honestly hold a lot more respect for them if they just came out and told us to fuck off and that they didn’t want to retread old ground, yet recognized a commercial opportunity so they’d design a game in a way that appealed to the nostalgic while ultimately shitting over our expectations all at the same time.

I don’t care if they do as they please with their property, it’s their property. But don’t sell me on something that is, in micro context, mostly what was expected and understood for years to be, yet then take a massive divergence in the last 5-10% of the product to creatively absolve themselves of its obligation in the macro for the rest. It’s very clear now why they “needed” this to be episodic. Not so that they could flesh out the world that had oh-so much content (right, because god knows how much we missed out on how much killing rats and hunting cats in the original really fleshed out this universe), but only so they could afford themselves the ability to demarcate it to a launching off point to sell something predicated upon nostalgia, but that in actuality, will end up being other than they had initially led us on to believe. Seriously, fuck them. The more I think about this the more it pisses me off.

Had they committed themselves to manifesting a FFVII Remake into only one product (which they were perfectly capable of doing) they'd then be beholden to it, and this would not be possible. This very much feels like they banked on and leveraged nostalgia to their own creative ends at the betrayal of a promise they made to gamers.

 

[Psykodad]

The overall experience is Final Fantasy VII in its entirety. And the ending “going overboard” is putting it mildly. It’s looking to vastly alter the overall experience into something no one was asking for or had been (mis)led to believe was coming.

Overall, the whole thing just feels extremely scummy and duplicitous. SE banked their marketing and lead-up, hell, 90% of the game’s design up to the end, on what they KNEW gamers were expecting and wanted, then in the final 10% basically went, “Ahaha sucker, we got your money based on your dream we indicated was coming, now here’s the bird and free creative license we grant ourselves in this IP to now do as we please!”. I’d honestly hold a lot more respect for them if they just came out and told us to fuck off and that they didn’t want to retread old ground, yet recognized a commercial opportunity so they’d design a game in a way that appealed to the nostalgic while ultimately shitting over our expectations all at the same time.

I don’t care if they do as they please with their property, it’s their property. But don’t sell me on something that is, in micro context, mostly what was expected and understood for years to be, yet then take a massive divergence in the last 5-10% of the product to creatively absolve themselves of its obligation in the macro. It’s very clear now why they “needed” this to be episodic. Not so that they could flesh out the world that had oh-so much content (right, because god knows how much we missed out on how much killing rats and hunting cats in the original really fleshed out this universe), but only so they could afford themselves the ability to demarcate it to a launching off point to sell something predicated upon nostalgia, but that in actuality, will end up being other than they had initially led us on to believe. Seriously, fuck them. The more I think about this the more it pisses me off.

Had they committed themselves to manifesting a FFVII Remake into only one product (which they were perfectly capable of doing) they'd then be beholden to it, and this would not be possible. This very much feels like they banked on and leveraged nostalgia to their own creative ends at the betrayal of a promise they made to gamers.

If that's how you feel, that's perfectly fine.
Personally I judge Remake on it's own merits.
I prefer this over replaying the original mainly because it's just up-to-date in every aspect and I'll take the short-comings as a trade-off.

The last time I played the original was 20 years ago and that's where I'll keep it.

 

[SegaShack]

Regardless of whether it legally qualifies for it or not, this certainly is false advertising. It does feel like a slap in the face for fans.

 

[Eevee86]

I thought they were trying to make the characters seem a bit more toned down in power for the first game by having chain link fences block their way, then Cloud started cutting fucking buildings in half at the end like he walked in straight out of Advent Children.

 

[Dynasty8]

I was loving everything up until the ending. It was such as nice reimagining of the original with some welcome extras to some of the other characters. They nailed the look and feel of Midgar... I went through the whole game with "wow, they are sticking with the original and it's amazing how they're doing right by it". "I can't wait to see the Aerith storyline unfold, the Zack storyline explained...Cosmo Canyon, Junon, Cid, etc..." But Nope...

See...I didn't care too much about the shitty side quests. I didn't care too much about the linearity (Original Midgar was pretty linear too) or even the texture problems. The combat was amazing, the music was epic, and IMO they did right with the weapon and materia system...the characters were almost all great.

But then the final chapter comes along and they decided to go full Nomaru Nonsense. His cringey, teenage mentality, anime obsessed methods took over the Remake in a completely unnecessary way. The original's story was well structured and told an amazing story about sacrifice, loss, revenge, etc. It was complete with a proper and satisfying conclusion that unfolded very well. This new storyline throws ALL that away.

I'll be honest, I'm not even excited for the next part. Modern day Square Enix is not compentant.

Sakaguchi is and will forever be Final Fantasy. Nomaru is a disaster. During the development of the original, Sakaguchi lost his mother. He talked about how much the death of the person closest to him influenced into the original's storyline and where the origins of Aerith's death came from.

It's such a shame man. The only thing I wish they didn't deviate from what the original's story. They went full Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Shouta]

Jim Sterling just put out a video on the game. It basically mirrors my thoughts on the game as well. He compares it to an adaptation of a comic book which is a pretty apt description now that we've finished it and seen what's going on.

 

[JMZ555]

Finished the game last night.

Enjoyed the game and will play rest on release....BUT.....

Fleshing out the characters Like Wedge,Biggs, Jessie but then ruin it by fake out deaths was a terrible choice.

The new story direction in final chapter?....Well this GIF somes my face up....

 

[PanzerAzel]

Jim Sterling just put out a video on the game. It basically mirrors my thoughts on the game as well. He compares it to an adaptation of a comic book which is a pretty apt description now that we've finished it and seen what's going on.

"History will look kindly of Final Fantasy VII Remake"

I don't think that's true at all, and Jim is saying that in the context of only one game that is beholden to a narrative before it's been largely perverted by Nomura and Nojima's worst instincts and grade-school tier writing acumen. Let's re-examine that statement after all episodes have dropped, at which time I think a train wreck of what once was greatness will be in full effect.

 

[Lethal01]

Quite clever of SE if I say so myself, that they believe people are actually dumb enough to see the first game and buy that its successors are going to stick to what SE seemingly promised and advertised up until after release. It appears that they get to have their cake and eat it too.

They have been saying that there would be big changes to the story for years. Also, that despite wanting to keep things fresh they also wanted to stay faithful the the original. They got their cake and ate it too by doing both.

 

[Shouta]

"History will look kindly of Final Fantasy VII Remake"

I don't think that's true at all, and Jim is saying that in the context of only one game that is beholden to a narrative before it's been largely perverted by Nomura and Nojima worst instincts and grade school tier writing. Let's re-examine that statement after all episodes have dropped, at which time I think a train wreck will be in full effect.

It's a prediction so It'll definitely remain to be seen later on just like assuming it'll be a train wreck all the way through. Considering Nomura's track record it's not an unfair assumption but considering how well Remake turned out and straightforward, even the zany shit, so there's room for optimism. I mean the real problem with Kingdom Hearts and the later compilation of FF7 stuff was that it was incomprehensible.

 

[LordKasual]

It's such a shame man. The only thing I wish they didn't deviate from what the original's story. They went full Kingdom Hearts.

I was thinking this way, but honestly i feel like it's a bit irrational. The ending of this game was a meta-commentary, an almost 4th wall-breaking chapter where the game literally makes you fight your own future expectations and kill them.

I think the point is less about how crazy the game got, and more about the result.


The ACTUAL canon ending of FF7R puts them exactly where they were left off in the original. The only difference is that now we KNOW that the future titles will not follow the EVENT flowchart of the last.

Cosmo Canyon, Fort Condor, Costa de Sol, Temple of the Ancients, Jenova, WEAPON, all of those things/places still exist. The only difference is that the actual storyline surrounding them is now open to be completely different.

 

[JORMBO]

I just beat the game. Not sure how I feel about the next games possibly not following in the path of the original. It's going to suck if they start cutting a lot of the locations and story to get things done quicker. Especially when they sold us on the idea of this being an actual remake and not FF alternate universe. I'll wait to see how things play out.

 

[Paracelsus]

They have been saying that there would be big changes to the story for years. Also, that despite wanting to keep things fresh they also wanted to stay faithful the the original. They got their cake and ate it too by doing both.

Once again, you're only able to say this because they lulled you into a false sense of security by hiding their fanfiction under the original.
What happens when they don't? Will you own up to this and reject it or say "it's ok because it's a timeline" when it's a poor excuse for two different reasons?
To me the whole diatribe sounds like
What did you like of the remake?
This
What about that?
It sucked
Cool, the next part is all about that
Great, I'll buy it because the first had so much of this and very little of that and I like this but not that.

 

[Shouta]

I just beat the game. Not sure how I feel about the next games possibly not following in the path of the original. It's going to suck if they start cutting a lot of the locations and story to get things done quicker. Especially when they sold us on the idea of this being an actual remake and not FF alternate universe. I'll wait to see how things play out.

That's my big concern actually. If they use it as an excuse to start cutting content. I'd be most happy if they kept all or most of it and then adjusted the story as they want but I'd be mad if they just got rid of stuff.

 

[LordKasual]

"History will look kindly of Final Fantasy VII Remake"

I don't think that's true at all, and Jim is saying that in the context of only one game that is beholden to a narrative before it's been largely perverted by Nomura and Nojima's worst instincts and grade-school tier writing acumen. Let's re-examine that statement after all episodes have dropped, at which time I think a train wreck of what once was greatness will be in full effect.

This is us speculating though on a worst-case scenario.

There was none of that typical "KH/FFXII" tier-writing in 99% of the game, and Nomura and Nojima were responsible for that as well.

It's really hard to tell whether or not the ENDING of FF7R will be indicative of the rest of FF7R because the ending was very as crazy as it was for a very specific reason.


Aside from the ending, there is ALOT of 100% original content in FF7R that does not suffer the same ridiculousness that the ending suffers.

So not to retroactively just call all of the writing in FF7R bad (it absolutely was not), i don't think the future episodes are going to be KH/FFXIII-tier terrible as far as narrative goes.


All of the heavy lifting of quelling expectations of the Remake was already done....it's silly to worry about cut sections/narrative portions because we just played a 40 hour retelling of Midgar and for 99% of the ride, people thought it was amazing.

 

[Ikutachi]

SE got away with this one.

We have a faithful fan demake of the original for the NES. (No, it doesn't have Advent Children stuff.)

ROM Hacks: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children RELEASED!

ROM Hacks: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children RELEASED!

www.romhacking.net

 

[Lethal01]

Once again, you're only able to say this because they lulled you into a false sense of security by hiding their fanfiction under the original.
What happens when they don't? Will you own up to this and reject it or say "it's ok because it's a timeline" when it's a poor excuse for two different reasons?
To me the whole diatribe sounds like
What did you like of the remake?
This
What about that?
It sucked
Cool, the next part is all about that
Great, I'll buy it because the first had so much of this and very little of that and I like this but not that.

There is no false sense of security, I personally like both "this" and "that". If the sequel is tons of that then I just get to enjoy something different that I only got a small taste of from this game

I'm talking about other people who are acting as though big changes are something they were hiding or acting like this game wasn't extremely faithful to the characters and world.. They put the fact that avalanche weren't the ones who blew up the reactor right in the demo.

 

[Fret Runner]

So I'll admit something super dorky, last night I re-read The Maiden Who Travels The Planet, to see if there was any mentions of possible plot points mentioned. I know it's not canon but at this point does canon matter? There is a moment towards the end where Aerith is talking to Hojo in the lifestream and Hojo mentions that it's impossible to stop Jenova now she/it/whateveritwantstobe has infected the lifestream.

Basically got me thinking that they might be expanding upon just how powerful/dangerous Jenova really is and that moment where Cloud threw Sephiroth and Jenova in to the Lifestream with his Anime moment actually gave way to Jenova infecting the lifestream and can now fuck with time an stuff, the Jenova you fight at the Shinra HG is called "Dreamweaver" after all.

Weirdest ass pull theory that popped in to my head while reading it was, you know that weird little moment when Aerith saves Marlene and she hugs Aerith and is shocked by something an Aerith gives her a "Keep it secret" hush? Well the Aerith in this game is either talking to Past timeline dead Aerith as she floats about in the Lifestream, or flat out is a Aerith from another Timeline. Marlene saw something that calmed her down when she hugged her. How does she smell like flowers when 1 minute ago she was rolling about in the slums shitmud and being surrounded by fires. Truly, the real biggest mystery lol.

It's the odd little moments that have got me thinking the most.
I personally love the whole package. The ending in my eyes is just a over the top Nomura way of saying "we are gonna do things differant". I think Characters that die in the original will still die, just at new parts to fit in to the longer narative that they seemingly have "planned" out or are atleast gunning for.

I have always loved the Characters of FF7 the most, so this saying they are willing to go a differant route and get more time with them and new parts maybe, as long the Charcters remain the same I say bring it the fuck on.

Enough babble from me. It's just fun to be able to discuss and speculate about ff7 again.

 

[Paracelsus]

There is no false sense of security, I personally like both "this" and "that". If the sequel is tons of that then I just get to enjoy something different that I only got a small taste of from this game

I'm talking about other people who are acting as though big changes are something they were hiding or acting like this game wasn't extremely faithful to the characters and world.. They put the fact that avalanche weren't the ones who blew up the reactor right in the demo.

Find me here where it's hinted FFVII retcons the canon into a multiverse,

Spoiler

keeps Aerith alive, kills Cloud after it turns him into a bad guy, replaces him with Zack and Sephiroth after he turned good against a bigger evil coming out of nowhere or another version of himself that's still evil.

You think I'm reaching, well that's exactly the scope of the changes I'm expecting. Those are neither good nor something they hinted let alone something anybody asked for. If they had outright said so, we would have had Occupy Square Enix.

 

[Dark Oni]

they need to bring Hironobu Sakaguchi, back to oversee this whole project and rein in nomura and the gang these guys are obviously clueless and confused about it being kingdom hearts or ff (thus the questionable additions)
Sakaguchi will definitely do the game justice and get them on the same page about how to expand/remake it properly

 

[Dacon]

It's really hard to tell whether or not the ENDING of FF7R will be indicative of the rest of FF7R because the ending was very as crazy as it was for a very specific reason.

What was the point of the last 2 hours of the game if not to commit to fans the idea that the rest will be very different. Sephiroth and Aerith both mention that from this point on no one knows what will happen, hell the game ends with the tagline "The unknown journey will continue".

Aside from the ending, there is ALOT of 100% original content in FF7R that does not suffer the same ridiculousness that the ending suffers.

Which is why the ending is so bad.

So not to retroactively just call all of the writing in FF7R bad (it absolutely was not), i don't think the future episodes are going to be KH/FFXIII-tier terrible as far as narrative goes.

Your optimism is truly inspiring.

All of the heavy lifting of quelling expectations of the Remake was already done....it's silly to worry about cut sections/narrative portions because we just played a 40 hour retelling of Midgar and for 99% of the ride, people thought it was amazing.

And in the last 3 hours they totally destroyed all our expectations to show us that now they are no longer tied to the original plotline and can do w/e they want with the characters and plot now. The story is already different as of now thanks to this Whispers and Sephiroth bullshit.

I want to be optimistic about the future, but as of now I have no reason to be. I want to see just what SE has to say for themselves in the future outside of Kitase's absolutely nothing burger statement.[/QUOTE]

 

[Sub_Level]

One thing is for sure wherever you stand on this.

Square has got us by the balls when it comes to seeing what will happen in part 2. Those motherfuckers.

 

[Lethal01]

What was the point of the last 2 hours of the game if not to commit to fans the idea that the rest will be very different. Sephiroth and Aerith both mention that from this point on no one knows what will happen, hell the game ends with the tagline "The unknown journey will continue".
Kitase's absolutely nothing burger statement.

To tell us that it's going to be different in the same way this game is different. To say definitively "No we aren't gonna kill Aerith just because it happened in the original"

Someone unexpected could live while someone else could die. you may meet a character you never heard of like Roche. You may get something that never happened but fits in like chapter 4.

I think you need to be pretty pessimistic to think that you are gonna go through the next game and have every single major plot point totally changed.
There will be changes, some could be big. But more will stay the same than what changes is the smartest bet.

 

[Alfen Dave]

Final Fantasy peaked at FF X. It was the last game that was hailed as a masterpiece in the series.

That does not make the following sequels bad, not at all. They were always great game but they were never as acclaimed or love.

I'm not sure it due to Sakaguchi/ Uematsu's departure but the storytelling has awlays been lacking since then, starting from X-2, and characters never felt as poignant and vibrant, starting from 12.

13 was a hot mess.
The first iteration of 14 was terrible and 15 is not pretty much seen as an unfinished disappointment.

And in terms of A-RPG, I'd say Square-Enix gameplay wise has never made anything as good Kingdom Hearts 2 FInal Mix.
2006 is the year SQX peaked, after it was dissapointement after dissapointment.

They used to be my number one go to Japanese company when I was a kid.

FF7 was my second FF following 9.
Unlike 9 which was extremely charming at the time, it took me years to finish 7 but I have fond memeories of it.

People stating Nomura might be right but remember, although limited, he already had some form of involvment in the original game and we must thank him for designing the original character as well.

I think after KH2, they started giving the guy too much power.
I do not regret Versus 13 at all seeing the guy cant make a basic script.

I did not play this remake but I've pretty much spoiled myself the whole game now; looking at the dumb down hack<nNslash gameplay and the cringy voice acting as well as the forgettable soundtrack, I have no desire to play this.

 

[PanzerAzel]

Cosmo Canyon, Fort Condor, Costa de Sol, Temple of the Ancients, Jenova, WEAPON, all of those things/places still exist. The only difference is that the actual storyline surrounding them is now open to be completely different.

Given their track record, I don't trust that modern Square is capable of storytelling on the level of what FFVII did. This episode, all the way up until the very end, adhered to a fairly strict structure, writing and characterization laid down decades ago and that's the only reason I think it, for the most part, worked. We played a game based on classic Square 90% of the time, we got to play new Square 10% of it. That ending wasn't just bad, it was a complete tonal shift and was jarring, something that had absolutely no place anywhere near FFVII. And I'm supposed to trust the remaining episodes, possibly encompassing a hundred+ more hours, to a developer that doesn't seem to grasp something so fundamental as tone, much less even get into new writing?

The only assurance this story would've succeeded in Square Enix's hands today was to desperately cling for dear life to its source material stemming from a company long gone who was actually competent. And as long as SE makes it possible that they can tear themselves away from narrative specificity so as to be able to create a new story that simply resides in the IP's universe (as they've done with this ending), I think the results are going to be very predictable, and very disastrous.

One thing is for sure wherever you stand on this.

Square has got us by the balls when it comes to seeing what will happen in part 2. Those motherfuckers.

They may have me by the balls in being morbidly interested in seeing where this train wreck will go from here on out, but have consequently completely lost their grip on my wallet. I hope it was worth it.

 

[Dynasty8]

Fuckin A...I need to vent.

I went through all the of chapters thinking how amazing is part 2 going to be when they continue this epic journey. How they'll recreate those epic, emotional moments.... Now, all I'm thinking is how bad they're going to fuck this up.

I recommended the "Remake" to friends who never played the original and have no idea what's going to happen in the story. This "Remake" left them more confused and questioning why everyone said so many good things about the story of this game.

And don't get me wrong....FFVIIR nails the gameplay, it nails the music, it nails the look and feel of Midgar....but that ending turned the entire story into convuluted mess and extremely confusing to many newcomers. It's total disrespect to Sakaguchi's vision.

Sephiroth was not supposed to be shown a thousand times. He was only mentioned through the Midgar scenes. So much of the mystery behind his character is gone. I would've been perfectly fine if he was just hallucinations for Cloud for the time being.

Zack showing up at the end was a total cluster fuck. The game ends without explanation and only fans who played the original game(s) will somewhat have an understanding. Most of the newcomers are scratching their head and thinking who is this guy and why should I care. From what it looks and sounds like, they are trying to keep him alive... Why!? His death made Cloud who he is. Why deviate from the story so much? That's like Obi Wan never dying because parallel universe and time travel reasons. And don't get me started with Aerith. If this "Remake" has her not dying or they try to alter "Destiny" to keep her alive, then that's total disrespect to the original.

And wtf was up with Barret dying and coming back to life? Like how the fuck did president Shinra even end up hanging from the ledge? It was all just poorly done Nomura teenage writing... I still remember in the original where you see President Shinra dead...the mystery, the wow moment. It was pretty awesome. They traded that for..... "Destiny"....and "Fate". Just more Kingdom Hearts Bullshit. God I hate Nomura.

I'll leave on this note. I had fun playing the game. A LOT OF FUN..... up until the last chapter. Expanding Midgar was a welcome addition. One of my FAVORITE things they added was that projection video showing more about the Ancients. That's an awesome way to expand on the story and be faithful to the original. Not fighting a giant heartless enemy while going super sayain and cutting through buildings and bridges when the crew was barely able to open a metal door a couple hours before in HoJo's lab.

I just feel like they betrayed a lot of their fans with that last chapter and my excitement for part 2 is basically gone because I know Nomura, I know his style. He butchers everything he touches as a game director with over the top nonsense. All he had to do was stick to the script and not deviate from it too much. This franchise will never get back to its glory days as long as he is leading director. Just my two cents.

Given their track record, I don't trust that modern Square is capable of storytelling on the level of what FFVII did. This episode, all the way up until the very end, adhered to a fairly strict structure, writing and characterization laid down decades ago and that's the only reason I think it, for the most part, worked. We played a game based on classic Square 90% of the time, we got to play new Square 10% of it. That ending wasn't just bad, it was a complete tonal shift and was jarring, something that had absolutely no place anywhere near FFVII. And I'm supposed to trust the remaining episodes, possibly encompassing a hundred+ more hours, to a developer that doesn't seem to grasp something so fundamental as tone, much less even get into new writing?

The only assurance this story would've succeeded in Square Enix's hands today was to desperately cling for dear life to its source material stemming from a company long gone who was actually competent. And as long as SE makes it possible that they can tear themselves away from being beholden to narrative specificity so as to be able to create a new story that simply resides in the IP's universe (as they've done with this ending), I think the results are going to be very predictable, and very disastrous.

They may have me by the balls in being morbidly interested in seeing where this train wreck will go from here on out, but have consequently completely lost their grip on my wallet. I hope it was worth it.

I am right there with you man. Modern Square is clueless and incompetent.

 

[Vawn]

I just finished it. Before the last two hours or so, this was an unquestioned 10/10 for me.

It was exactly what I wanted in the Remake. Then... they pull the rug and apparently told us they won't be remaking FF7. Instead, we will get an alternate timeline sequel that looks to literally undo the story of the original.

Maybe it could be interesting, but I don't think I like it. I wanted the whole experience to play out like the first 35 hours for me (I finished in 37, doing mostly everything blind).

Maybe they will get the story "back on track", but that seems like a long shot with how it ended and the fact the characters have already seen their future and decided to change it.

 

[LemmingWithaParachute]

Fuckin A...I need to vent.

.....

I am right there with you man. Modern Square is clueless and incompetent.

This is what i dont get.

Its left a large portion of fans pissed off and a large portion of new comers confused. New comers dnot have the attachment to these characters or why theyre so important and old time fans are asking "Who the fuck invited you?"

I am absolutely convinced that fan fiction Nomura is going to tie this version of FFVIIs world and characters into the FFVII characters/story in Kingdom Hearts (Aeris/Aerith is also alive in that world)

 

[Vawn]

This is what i dont get.

Its left a large portion of fans pissed off and a large portion of new comers confused. New comers dnot have the attachment to these characters or why theyre so important and old time fans are asking "Who the fuck invited you?"

I am absolutely convinced that fan fiction Nomura is going to tie this version of FFVIIs world and characters into the FFVII characters/story in Kingdom Hearts (Aeris/Aerith is also alive in that world)

Well one thing is clear, this game is presented with the expectation you've played the original. People who held off playing the original for the Remake made a mistake. I would have gotten a lot less out of the experience without being a fan of the original.

This game was SO good until the end. I hope they drop this "undecided future" nonsense and use the whisperers or whatever to put the story back on track with more, much more subtle surprises, like 95% of this otherwise great game.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I shit on all the hardcore fanboys in the review thread and don't regret it, to all the people who like FF VII with a realistic expectation and understanding what made it good in the first place (The talent behind it) I'm so fucking sorry you had to take a sixty dollar L. You all deserved better, I tried to warn people by being a prick but no one would listen.

 

[Vawn]

I shit on all the hardcore fanboys in the review thread and don't regret it, to all the people who like FF VII with a realistic expectation and understanding what made it good in the first place (The talent behind it) I'm so fucking sorry you had to take a sixty dollar L. You all deserved better, I tried to warn people by being a prick but no one would listen.

This game is absolutely worth $60. It's a fantastic game. Music, gameplay, graphics, atmosphere - all fantastic. It's just the fact they made the ending change the entire story going forward.

 

[DonJorginho]

Easily a 9/10 game. Ain't gonna listen to a salty fan telling me I can't enjoy the game because ThEy ChAnGeD tHiNgS!!!!!!

Tough luck. They did it now and won't go back, just suck it up or shut up, your moaning isn't going to contribute to anything useful.

 

[Arkage]

Hey man I'm glad for you. The ending just puts so much of a pall over the whole experience that it just puts me in such a foul mood. I suppose it's in part bc I'm a broody type of person, but I felt like it was such a kick in the balls that it just devalued a lot of what came before. They sold me on the idea of a faithful remake that would breathe new life into my favorite scenes, and the ending doesn't seem to respect that idea. That's just my opinion, I'm not going to act like it's the standard or talk down to anyone who felt different, I hope people would do me the same courtesy.

At the very least I can go back and replay my fav bossfights and make new materia builds.

That's another change I didn't like. They basically did a "but everyone you thought was dead actually survived!" at the end. Biggs, maybe Jessie, probably Wedge. Fake death for Barret. Sector was evacuated before the plate fell. Makes me think they're just going to keep Aerith alive because fuck it, in this version nobody has to die and the good guys always win!

 

[Dacon]

Easily a 9/10 game. Ain't gonna listen to a salty fan telling me I can't enjoy the game because ThEy ChAnGeD tHiNgS!!!!!!

Who here is telling you that you can't enjoy the game? Hell many of us with misgiving about the ending have them because we enjoyed the game.

Tough luck. They did it now and won't go back, just suck it up or shut up, your moaning isn't going to contribute to anything useful.

Neither will you insulting people and complaining that people didn't like some changes, but here we are. You don't have to read it. I'm not telling anyone that liked it to shut up bc theyre wrong or anything equally asinine as this take. You're no better or worse than anyone else for liking things other people didn't. That mindset is incredibly childish.

There is nothing wrong with criticism.

 

[Grandmaster Hash]

I shit on all the hardcore fanboys in the review thread and don't regret it, to all the people who like FF VII with a realistic expectation and understanding what made it good in the first place (The talent behind it) I'm so fucking sorry you had to take a sixty dollar L. You all deserved better, I tried to warn people by being a prick but no one would listen.

a good amount of the people who worked on the og ffvii were involved in the remake though.

 

[LordKasual]

And in the last 3 hours they totally destroyed all our expectations to show us that now they are no longer tied to the original plotline and can do w/e they want with the characters and plot now. The story is already different as of now thanks to this Whispers and Sephiroth bullshit.

But that's the whole reason i'm starting to care about it less as time goes on.

The story has BEEN different from the start of the game....the ending just goes to ridiculous lengths to drive the point home.

At the very END of the game......they're leaving midgar, Cloud is looking for Sephiroth, and Rufus owns Shinra.....with the one big difference of Zack being alive.

If you ignore all the ghost shit (Which we should now be FINISHED with, because we killed them), then what we're left with is the same setup for the remainder of the game as the original, the big difference is that we now KNOW it's not going to end the same as the original.



I see the ending as Square basically force-rebooting the series. I really wish they didn't do it this way (they could have just silently made all these changes without shoehorning the KH shit in specifically for the twist ending) but as long as Pt.II isn't OBNOXIOUSLY abstract, we should be good.

Given their track record, I don't trust that modern Square is capable of storytelling on the level of what FFVII did. This episode, all the way up until the very end, adhered to a fairly strict structure, writing and characterization laid down decades ago and that's the only reason I think it, for the most part, worked.

We played a game based on classic Square 90% of the time, we got to play new Square 10% of it.

The funny thing about this though is that the amount of original FF7 that was in this game is actually SURPRISINGLY little. The "padding" of the major points of this game was the actual meat of it.

Every memorable part of FF7R to me was NOT in the original game. Yes, it followed the skeleton of the original, but so much of it was crafted WITHOUT a clear rubric to copy and it all turned out fucking amazing.


You're basically saying "Nojima and Nomura gave us Squaresoft-level amazing writing for an entire game, and then gave us Nojima and Nomura-level trash for the ending." That doesn't make sense.

The same people who wrote this ending wrote not only the rest of the game before it.....but the original game they're remaking.


I share the same fears of what FF7R could become, but honestly, playing through what i played through in this remake........there's honestly no reason to be afraid.

I'm terrified of FFXIII/KH level writing going forward, but what they've given us for 99% of this game was enough to keep me on board.

 

[Dacon]

But that's the whole reason i'm starting to care about it less as time goes on.

The story has BEEN different from the start of the game....the ending just goes to ridiculous lengths to drive the point home.

At the very END of the game......they're leaving midgar, Cloud is looking for Sephiroth, and Rufus owns Shinra.....with the one big difference of Zack being alive.

If you ignore all the ghost shit (Which we should now be FINISHED with, because we killed them), then what we're left with is the same setup for the remainder of the game as the original, the big difference is that we now KNOW it's not going to end the same as the original.

Which, if SE had been honest about that from the go, I doubt people would be upset with this. However, that's not what they marketed.

I see the ending as Square basically force-rebooting the series. I really wish they didn't do it this way (they could have just silently made all these changes without shoehorning the KH shit in specifically for the twist ending) but as long as Pt.II isn't OBNOXIOUSLY abstract, we should be good.

How can anything be the same after that ending? Hell the characters themselves say this at several points. Not to mention how can it be the same based off just the crazy power levels the heroes have at the end.

You're basically saying "Nojima and Nomura gave us Squaresoft-level amazing writing for an entire game, and then gave us Nojima and Nomura-level trash for the ending." That doesn't make sense.

Of course it does, the story was fine even with the Whispers before going full retard at the end. The same people can do good writing and terrible writing at the same time.

The same people who wrote this ending wrote not only the rest of the game before it.....but the original game they're remaking.

Which makes this all the more baffling. Also, Nomura had way less to do with FF7 og being amazing than Sakaguchi did. Sakaguchi is the heart and soul behind the theme of spiritualism in FF7.

I share the same fears of what FF7R could become, but honestly, playing through what i played through in this remake........there's honestly no reason to be afraid.

I'm terrified of FFXIII/KH level writing going forward, but what they've given us for 99% of this game was enough to keep me on board.

Dude you literally just said there's no reason to be afraid then say youre afraid lol. You sound a bit mixed up.

 

[PanzerAzel]

The funny thing about this though is that the amount of original FF7 that was in this game is actually SURPRISINGLY little. The "padding" of the major points of this game was the actual meat of it.

Every memorable part of FF7R to me was NOT in the original game. Yes, it followed the skeleton of the original, but so much of it was crafted WITHOUT a clear rubric to copy and it all turned out fucking amazing.

You're basically saying "Nojima and Nomura gave us Squaresoft-level amazing writing for an entire game, and then gave us Nojima and Nomura-level trash for the ending." That doesn't make sense.

It makes perfect sense and isn't incompatible.

When I said "90% old Square and 10% new Square", what I mean to say is what you allude to: that it followed a basic structure, a catalyst that had been laid down that they could follow. Sure the new content was created by them, but it was contingent upon a basic narrative flow and characterization previously established they could refer back to at any given moment for reference when needed. There absolutely was a rubric that held them within constraint that we saw the result of in the last 10% when they wholeheartedly decided to abandon it to their own creative predilections, predilections that appear are going to run rampant in Episode 2.

I made a post in the OT thread that I don't think the new content is necessarily all that either, and that it didn't improve anything. Much of it is boring, tedious chore work that adds little to what made the original amazing, only extended its playtime from four hours to forty which helped destroy the pacing. The new content was only tolerable precisely because it existed within a framework that, while minimal from moment to moment, was in its over-arching foundation strong enough to bear the burden of the lesser. And as that framework looks to be going out the window for a story that's looking at this point to very loosely adhere to tenets of the original instead of following them strictly, my hopes are non-existent. Well, they became non-existent the moment the credits rolled. Frankly, I don't believe the new content is nearly strong enough from a narrative and gameplay perspective to justify itself outside of a context of past competence into one of future incompetence.