I did a play through and beat it again a few months ago. Crazy how after 10+ years I could still remember the story and what was going to happen next. That just states how awesome of the game and story was.
My only issue with this, as others have said is the fact it’s not turn based. I can’t play any new FF games and I don’t see the strategy in the games, you just mash buttons.
A little OT, the game(s) may be different but we all did this as kids, and decades later I've become convinced that we more or less ruined JRPG's with that behaviour. The adults making the game design a carefully balanced challenge to the encounters. Us children playing the game respond by spending hours "grinding" it out where things are easy and you can't possibly die until you can just blow throw the challenge: Oh no, the Magician just cast hurt and wiped out a third of my HP, better go back and fight a 100 more Slimes and Drakee's till I'm ready for this! Eventually game devs adjusted and just stopped putting any challenge in the games, making it an leisurely even difficulty pretty much from start to finish.
So in terms of FF and FFVII where they actually moved the challenge was to the end game 'optional' grinding, which if you did it made messes up the actual final level by making it ridiculously easy. FFVI inadvertent started this trend where with the World of Ruin's open nature so many of us just grinded out level 99 characters in the Dinosaur forest until we could blow throw Kefka's tower. Square learned from this and turned it into a feature starting with FFVII.
I'll never forget how f***ing excited I was when this was first announced.
At this point I see no reason to expect this to be the game I want it to be. Square has made dreadfully few decisions I agree with since the 90s, especially with FFVII-related stuff.
I also can't get over them calling it Remake when it's clearly not a remake. That name brings my hype to 10 and seeing a different battle system brings it down to about a 2.
I'm super pumped. As much as I wanted a turned based system, I've moved past it. Maybe it is the fanboy in me, I dunno and frankly, I don't care. Even though I have moved past it, I still understand some haven't. I get it. Honestly though? I don't feel that an old school (although much adored) battle system will be necessary to recapture the magic from the original FF7. For me, the magic will be in the details: how will materia work, will there be a world map, what are they going to do with the music, how are they going to present critical story arc's, etc. I actually think the last question is really going to make or break the game. For example
We all know Cait Sith is a spy. They can't change it. It was such an interesting plot twist. How will they present it as to not change the story itself but still manage to create an element of surprise? Maybe introduce Reeve as Cait Sith? It was always speculated but never confirmed. That would be neat.
The only real question/concern I have at this point is being episodic. I just don't understand how that will work. I know all episodes will be equal to full length FF games, but how will continuity work? Take leveling for example. If you have 60 hours of game play but you're 1/3rd of the way through the story, will they have a slow level progression where you end the first episode at 20-25? Will you end the first episode at level 40-50?
How do you stop people from being over leveled (accidentally) and ruining the challenge of the second episode? How will permanently missable items work. I mean, it isn't like we are talking about a 40 hour game. This is a game where if you miss something in the first episode that is critical for late/end game, do you really need to go back and replay 100+ hours worth of content?
I'm super pumped. As much as I wanted a turned based system, I've moved past it. Maybe it is the fanboy in me, I dunno and frankly, I don't care. Even though I have moved past it, I still understand some haven't. I get it. Honestly though? I don't feel that an old school (although much adored) battle system will be necessary to recapture the magic from the original FF7. For me, the magic will be in the details: how will materia work, will there be a world map, what are they going to do with the music, how are they going to present critical story arc's, etc. I actually think the last question is really going to make or break the game. For example
We all know Cait Sith is a spy. They can't change it. It was such an interesting plot twist. How will they present it as to not change the story itself but still manage to create an element of surprise? Maybe introduce Reeve as Cait Sith? It was always speculated but never confirmed. That would be neat.
The only real question/concern I have at this point is being episodic. I just don't understand how that will work. I know all episodes will be equal to full length FF games, but how will continuity work? Take leveling for example. If you have 60 hours of game play but you're 1/3rd of the way through the story, will they have a slow level progression where you end the first episode at 20-25? Will you end the first episode at level 40-50?
How do you stop people from being over leveled (accidentally) and ruining the challenge of the second episode? How will permanently missable items work. I mean, it isn't like we are talking about a 40 hour game. This is a game where if you miss something in the first episode that is critical for late/end game, do you really need to go back and replay 100+ hours worth of content?
Personally, I hate when remakes realize that their target demo knows the story already and tries to artificially change things to keep that element of surprise/freshness. It's not something that needs to be fixed, IMO, and that surprise/freshness is worth nothing. Just do it in whatever way works best for the story and forget about the meta.
There's no way that they're actually going to make the game 180 hours long.... is there? I know they implied that format a long time ago, but I have a hard time believing that they'll actually do that. That would be so stupid. If anything, the game can stand to be made shorter and more streamlined than the original.
Personally, I hate when remakes realize that their target demo knows the story already and tries to artificially change things to keep that element of surprise/freshness. It's not something that needs to be fixed, IMO, and that surprise/freshness is worth nothing. Just do it in whatever way works best for the story and forget about the meta.
There's no way that they're actually going to make the game 180 hours long.... is there? I know they implied that format a long time ago, but I have a hard time believing that they'll actually do that. That would be so stupid. If anything, the game can stand to be made shorter and more streamlined than the original.
Well, I completely disagree. I don't think it is worth nothing and I don't believe I am suggesting to artificially change things or saying to add to the story for the sake of change. I think there is an opportunity to present certain parts differently or not leave so much ambiguity. However, I do feel your concerns and address it in the next paragraph.
I also disagree that the game can be made shorter. I think the length of the original was actually pretty good. While I do agree that it shouldn't be 180 hours long, I have hard time believing it won't be a 100+ hour game between both episodes. They seem intent on making it a much longer experience and I don't know that is a good thing. If they does end up being a 100+ hour game, I can certainly understand your concerns about the game being artificially changed. I don't know how they extract another 50+ hours of gameplay without doing just that.
Well, I completely disagree. I don't think it is worth nothing and I don't believe I am suggesting to artificially change things or saying to add to the story for the sake of change. I think there is an opportunity to present certain parts differently or not leave so much ambiguity. However, I do feel your concerns and address it in the next paragraph.
I also disagree that the game can be made shorter. I think the length of the original was actually pretty good. While I do agree that it shouldn't be 180 hours long, I have hard time believing it won't be a 100+ hour game between both episodes. They seem intent on making it a much longer experience and I don't know that is a good thing. If they does end up being a 100+ hour game, I can certainly understand your concerns about the game being artificially changed. I don't know how they extract another 50+ hours of gameplay without doing just that.
I think there's an opportunity to change things for the better as well, but I would hope that "surprising players who know the story" wouldn't be the reason for those changes-- That would raise major red flags for me, personally. I just want it done tastefully/appropriately, and surprise/shock value has always been a rather superficial/overrated draw to me, personally.
I don't think the original game's length was bad, but I'd lean closer to trimming it than I would extending it. It isn't strictly necessary for that story to be told over a 40 hour span, especially for a game where it looks like the battle is the less involving part of it. Hell, very few stories should require 80+ hours, and most AAA RPGs tend to milk things unnecessarily, IMO. I like a tight experience with just the good stuff and dislike a densely bloated one (I realize I'm not the type of player they're marketing this towards, though).
Personally, I hate when remakes realize that their target demo knows the story already and tries to artificially change things to keep that element of surprise/freshness. It's not something that needs to be fixed, IMO, and that surprise/freshness is worth nothing. Just do it in whatever way works best for the story and forget about the meta.
There's no way that they're actually going to make the game 180 hours long.... is there? I know they implied that format a long time ago, but I have a hard time believing that they'll actually do that. That would be so stupid. If anything, the game can stand to be made shorter and more streamlined than the original.
What exactly is the target demo in Japan anyways? The obvious one in the West is the 30+year old nostalgia addicts, but with the work/life balance in Japan does that same group exist? It's just that the way Square always talks about the 'market' not being open to old battle systems is giving me the impression that they're continuously focusing on the Japanese teenager.
What exactly is the target demo in Japan anyways? The obvious one in the West is the 30+year old nostalgia addicts, but with the work/life balance in Japan does that same group exist? It's just that the way Square always talks about the 'market' not being open to old battle systems is giving me the impression that they're continuously focusing on the Japanese teenager.
I'm not sure I would even agree with that, personally. They're obviously piggybacking off of reputation/nostalgia to get people talking about it and to generate buzz, but I bet the actual target demographic for this game will be no different than the target demographic for something like FFXV. They just want to appeal to the masses/casual audiences and their sensibilities as much as they can in general to maximize their profits, while being weary about not pissing off the nostalgia crowd too much, which would drag down word of mouth.
It's the same with any remakes we've gotten. The Sonic movie doesn't ACTUALLY fully cater to 30-something Sonic fans who grew up with it or care about the actual charms of the game-- It's just there for automatic name recognition and goodwill.
Square Enix has not fully clarified what “multiple parts” mean. In one scenario, Final Fantasy VII Remake will launch as separate games focusing on different arcs of the RPG’s story. In another, it will be released like Final Fantasy XV, with a base game that focuses on a main story and the rest of the content to be added as DLCs.
I'd love to see the base game being FF7 and getting episodes that include the Crisis Core (pretty good game), Dirge of Cerberus (terrible game, nearly unplayable) and Advent Children (meh) story arcs, along with some other character episodes for back story stuff (Cid, Red XIII, Yuffie).
I'd love to see the base game being FF7 and getting episodes that include the Crisis Core (pretty good game), Dirge of Cerberus (terrible game, nearly unplayable) and Advent Children (meh) story arcs, along with some other character episodes for back story stuff (Cid, Red XIII, Yuffie).
I doubt it. From my understanding the biggest longstanding issue with 'remaking' FFVII was that to turn all the static 2.5D locations into fully rendered 3D locations (because of course they can't just do the 2.5D thing again) would be too costly and time consuming. 2.5D has the illusion of being "3D", but the camera is static what you're actually seeing is just a 2D image - making it far easier to produce and allowing them to make a much bigger and more richly detailed world than they could in later games.
So personally I've had the assumption that the way they chose to solve this 'problem' was by releasing the game in piecemeal. Even if it wasn't necessary they can make a lot more money this way so cynically speaking of course that's how they'll do it.
FF8 came out when I was giving up on video games as a 14 year old and it introduced to the wonderful world of JRPGs (and Anime which FF8 pretty much was lol).
I want 3 things from this FF7, I'll probably end up with 1.
1.Turn based battle (not happening, youth doesn't get it and that's the main target demo). I'm over it and don't want to discuss further lol
2.Same spirit of minigaming fun at the arcade. That was special and as annoying as the chocobo breeding and racing was, it was also immensely satisfying and opened up the world to further exploration. Which brings me to....
3. WORLD MAP. The spirit of the JRPGs imo lies in the feeling of exploration, having an entire world open to your finger tips. Sure, there's linearity added (going out of order leads to death due to OP bad guys, most of town can be 'under construction' come back later etc.) but the feeling of traveling the world with your buddies, not sure what awaits you or what monsters will come at you, that's what gave me the magical feeling. Screw realism, upon leaving a town zoom out, make Cloud bigger relative to the world so traveling doesn't take a month, and that's it. It's a fantasy game for crying out loud, sacrificing a drop of realism for the magical feeling is worthwhile. Not sure they have the budget though and the game will be bought and hyped regardless so I'm not holding my breath. I hated FF13's walk this winding path which has 3 branches to explore, but they all end up meeting anyway.
In my opinion, making a game in 3D without a world map can't convey equivalent scale unless you use real world proportions that are too large to reasonably design as well as too tedious to actually explore and travel. And fast travel doesn't fix this because you are dispassionately skipping the journey altogether.
This is one of the biggest issues I have with modern 3D open world games in general. Games that are technically colossal in size actually feel very small in scale because everything is directly proportioned.
You can make something literally the size of a city and make it vivid and full of charm and detail, but that only has the scale of a tiny city. Or you can make something literally the size of the world, which would have that massive scale, but it couldn't be densely/intricately designed and there wouldn't be a reasonable way to explore that space.
Games today are generally missing the use of symbols and abstractions that allow games to communicate broader ideas in a practical way, in my opinion (like how a world map communicates scale)-- It's traded that away in favor of realism. This is why Final Fantasy XV feels very tiny compared to Final Fantasy VII despite technically being so much larger that the comparison should be laughable.
I agree with romba that world maps should come back-- 3D games can actually stand to learn some things from the past that have been abandoned.
In my opinion, making a game in 3D without a world map can't convey equivalent scale unless you use real world proportions that are too large to reasonably design as well as too tedious to actually explore and travel. And fast travel doesn't fix this because you are dispassionately skipping the journey altogether.
This is one of the biggest issues I have with modern 3D open world games in general. Games that are technically colossal in size actually feel very small in scale because everything is directly proportioned.
You can make something literally the size of a city and make it vivid and full of charm and detail, but that only has the scale of a tiny city. Or you can make something literally the size of the world, which would have that massive scale, but it couldn't be densely/intricately designed and there wouldn't be a reasonable way to explore that space.
Games today are generally missing the use of symbols and abstractions that allow games to communicate broader ideas in a practical way, in my opinion (like how a world map communicates scale)-- It's traded that away in favor of realism. This is why Final Fantasy XV feels very tiny compared to Final Fantasy VII despite technically being so much larger that the comparison should be laughable.
I agree with romba that world maps should come back-- 3D games can actually stand to learn some things from the past that have been abandoned.
It's great and huge and rich and dense, and one of the better examples of open worlds, but even that doesn't convey the scale of an entire world. No Zelda game does, nor are Zelda maps ever meant to feel as big as a world.
If you made an open world version of the Final Fantasy VII map where everything was scaled to real proportions and also made traversing through it equally snappy and manageable, and did so without helping convey that scale with symbols and abstractions, it would likely convey a much smaller size story-wise than the original game even if it's technically much larger, IMO. It would feel like you're traveling back and forth between a few islands, most likely, rather than doing anything on a global scale.
It's great and huge and rich and dense, and one of the better examples of open worlds, but even that doesn't convey the scale of an entire world. No Zelda game does, nor are Zelda maps ever meant to feel as big as a world.
If you made an open world version of the Final Fantasy VII map where everything was scaled to real proportions and also made traversing through it equally snappy and manageable, and did so without helping convey that scale with symbols and abstractions, it would likely convey a much smaller size story-wise than the original game even if it's technically much larger, IMO. It would feel like you're traveling back and forth between a few islands, most likely, rather than doing anything on a global scale.
I mean, sure, at the end of the day these are video games, not virtual worlds. I'm not sure what you are arguing: I just said that having a world map ala 2D JRPGs doesn't make sense since we now have much better ways to show scale.
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