DJ Spinoza
Registered User
- Aug 7, 2003
- 25,349
- 3,874
I finished playing the Yuffie chapter of FF7 Intergrade and was surprised with how much I really enjoyed it. I'll save anything about story stuff for spoiler tags just in case. I think the combat really took another step forward, as Yuffie provides a distinctive way to play that addresses the issues with aerial combat in the OG remake, while the tag team attacks provide another level of strategy to things.
Like everyone else, I'm curious to see whether they'll utilize the tag team attacks going forward or not, since the way they sort of got around this in the original was by weaving the characters in and out of the story, but now presumably the full party will be together from the start of the next game.
This seems to be a commonly held sentiment from what I've seen briefly looking around, but I thought the side quest stuff was handled a fair bit better this time around. Fort Condor was addicting, and even the more fetch questy poster mission was enjoyable. On the whole, I think they did well to round out the DLC in this way without overstuffing it with filler. If I have a qualm, it's that they might have woven slightly more into the chapters themselves, but I think the strengths of the new combat helped outweigh any of that.
Not sure if anyone else has played it, so I'll put a pin in it there. I hope we don't have to wait 4-5 more years for the next part.
Like everyone else, I'm curious to see whether they'll utilize the tag team attacks going forward or not, since the way they sort of got around this in the original was by weaving the characters in and out of the story, but now presumably the full party will be together from the start of the next game.
This seems to be a commonly held sentiment from what I've seen briefly looking around, but I thought the side quest stuff was handled a fair bit better this time around. Fort Condor was addicting, and even the more fetch questy poster mission was enjoyable. On the whole, I think they did well to round out the DLC in this way without overstuffing it with filler. If I have a qualm, it's that they might have woven slightly more into the chapters themselves, but I think the strengths of the new combat helped outweigh any of that.
Storywise, I was actually pleased with the relatively light hand they showed. I think like a lot of people, I see the Deepground stuff as inherently cringeworthy and dumb, so I definitely see why some would rather not have it be there at all, but with that said, I think they managed to incorporate it in a way that downplayed some of the really negative traits and didn't center them all too much.
The substance of the story was a little bit nebulous, but in ways that I think will probably get cleared up as we meet Yuffie again in the next game. It gives you enough to put together some of the rift between Avalance and the OG remake party, but it still seemed to be a little bit suspect in terms of how Avalance is supposed to help them get into Shinra and then in the end, there's no materia to steal.
Then there's also the surprising amount of postgame scenes, which set up the sequel well but do not address anything about the Zack stuff. It seems like it might be misdirection to me, but I didn't go into the DLC expecting much would be shown concretely. I think the biggest question right now that I have is how the next game will unfold -- will it be similar to the original remake, only showing minor differences, or are we going to get playable Zack sequences and more and more new stuff? My initial speculation right now is that we won't get much in the way of playable Zack sequences, but that what might be "different" from OG FF7 is that there's more thorough integration of Wutai.
I could be way off base here, but I think the nature of some aspects in OG FF7 leave some space for them to retell major story beats similar to this game, but not necessarily in a linear path. For example, I doubt that it's just going to be left up to the player whether or not they seek out Yuffie, and similarly Vincent later on, and so how they bring these parts in could affect the progression of the new game(s). I've seen people speculate that maybe there will be a split party situation down the line, though I'm not so sure about that yet.
The substance of the story was a little bit nebulous, but in ways that I think will probably get cleared up as we meet Yuffie again in the next game. It gives you enough to put together some of the rift between Avalance and the OG remake party, but it still seemed to be a little bit suspect in terms of how Avalance is supposed to help them get into Shinra and then in the end, there's no materia to steal.
Then there's also the surprising amount of postgame scenes, which set up the sequel well but do not address anything about the Zack stuff. It seems like it might be misdirection to me, but I didn't go into the DLC expecting much would be shown concretely. I think the biggest question right now that I have is how the next game will unfold -- will it be similar to the original remake, only showing minor differences, or are we going to get playable Zack sequences and more and more new stuff? My initial speculation right now is that we won't get much in the way of playable Zack sequences, but that what might be "different" from OG FF7 is that there's more thorough integration of Wutai.
I could be way off base here, but I think the nature of some aspects in OG FF7 leave some space for them to retell major story beats similar to this game, but not necessarily in a linear path. For example, I doubt that it's just going to be left up to the player whether or not they seek out Yuffie, and similarly Vincent later on, and so how they bring these parts in could affect the progression of the new game(s). I've seen people speculate that maybe there will be a split party situation down the line, though I'm not so sure about that yet.
Not sure if anyone else has played it, so I'll put a pin in it there. I hope we don't have to wait 4-5 more years for the next part.
