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Spoiler-Free Impressions of Final Fantasy 7:Remake for those who got it early?
- Thread starter ultima786
- Start date
The final chapter was one of my favorites honestly and yeah the ending felt satisfying like it was a complete game but obviously some stuff is left open for the sequels.
Also a quick warning don't watch the final trailer if you haven't already you'll be thankful you didn't.
Did you encounter weapons that allowed Barret or Aerith to melee? Wasn't a fan of Barret's playstyle in the demo, and I worry Aerith's ranged playstyle may be similarly unappealing.
They never said that. They only said that its equivalent would be a complete game of the FF saga and that on average is from 30 to 40h.
Yeah Barret still has melee weapons like the original but none for Aerith.
I don't think that there is going to be a day one patch that fix this shit. Let's see when the embargo lifts if outlets have a different version for reviewing, but I don't think it will be the case.
The first hours of the game I was totally amazed, and now I just don't want to play any longer, I'm all the time distracted with how ugly all looks and thinking how could square fuck this up so much.
Even if there were a patch, this is the game that comes in the disc, the one that people with no internet will play. I think many people are going to be very disappointed...
The first hours of the game I was totally amazed, and now I just don't want to play any longer, I'm all the time distracted with how ugly all looks and thinking how could square fuck this up so much.
Even if there were a patch, this is the game that comes in the disc, the one that people with no internet will play. I think many people are going to be very disappointed...
I watched a bit of the Chapter 8 feed online and I was indeed surprised by many assets that looks like an unfinished PS3 game. It's indeed very very very weird and jarring.
I know this is not a UE4 thing, because Gears 5 and some others are pretty consistent visually, but Jedi Fallen Order was exactly like this as well. At least this seems to have many ups as well as downs. That game took a step down straight after the intro and in my opinion never recovered visually.
What seems to be the problem? These are quality references to the OG.I am at chapter 8 right now and I have a question. Are you seeing these kind of things? I don't know if this is a bug or what but is making the experience worse by moments...
I'm reinstalling just now. I hope it is just a glitch...
Checked version before and it's still on version 1.00, guessing they'll have the day one patch on release date that will fix the texture issues (hopefully), since they can get a bit distracting.
No there's a lot of gating and you're confined to the area that the chapter takes place in.
you have to zoom a little bit. They are bad... but I'm sure they will patch it.
the big problem is the map. Look at it... corridors all the time.
the Ars Technica review, going live in exactly 12 hours in our feature slot, is very careful about avoiding spoilers. see y'all tomorrow, kupo!
Aerith has really meaningful abilities that makes fights more interesting but her regular attacks are just atb fillers (but most attacks are really). The party is way more fun with her than Barret.
In Sector 7 there are multiple cutscenes that take place in front of sub PS2 level textures. I sincerely hope it's just a LOD issue they have a day 1 fix for.
Yeah - I figured that since we're going episodic they'd expand Midgar and take advantage of the unique atmosphere of the setting. It's a step back in many places unfortunately - the worst offender so far is Sector 7 which feels like a Gears of War level, complete with dull colour palette and charmless art direction.
The combat wants you to use Tactical mode more often, when you slow things down you can chose what you want to attack in the mess and you will play better that way.
see I guess depends on your play style. I am halfway through the game chapter wise, and am already at the first number. I have done every side quests available to me though.
I'm in love with the game. It's basically what I wished KH 3 would have been last year.
Pros:
* Looks incredible (except for some super low textures for unimportant objects, but honestly doesn't bother me much)
* combat is fast, fluid, deep (especially with how different each main character is). Personally love how Tifa plays, and Aerith's skills are super useful
* music is great.
* I think the dialog is great. Honestly not sure what all the commentson the bad translated banter is, I think itall makes sense in context. Is some NPC dialog cringed? Sure, but it comes with the JRPG territory.
* love the summoning and materia system
* major cutscenes are anime af
* level design is pretty good. Some parts are really linear but it only makes you appreciate the more open parts. Don't wanna mention anything that might go into spoilers.
not good nor bad:
* side quests. Cool concept, some cooler than others. Some major duds.
* collectibles. They're kinda just around. Not that many important ones to find, and not particularly hard to see.
* mini games. They're just OK
Cons:
* the low quality textures. Again, I personally don't mind but it's hard to not notice them, especially with how high quality the character models are.
* the AMOUNT of mini games.The games themselves are ok, but they kinda come attimes that break up the pace for me.
Overall this game is exceeding my expectations. It's so much fun for me; and if you already think you'll like it (and enjoyed the demo) it's about 35 hours of that! Said this earlier but I played (and enjoyed) KH3 last year after waiting for so long, kind of like this game. But unlike KH 3, I didn't feel disappointed at all. Can't wait for part 2.
Pros:
* Looks incredible (except for some super low textures for unimportant objects, but honestly doesn't bother me much)
* combat is fast, fluid, deep (especially with how different each main character is). Personally love how Tifa plays, and Aerith's skills are super useful
* music is great.
* I think the dialog is great. Honestly not sure what all the commentson the bad translated banter is, I think itall makes sense in context. Is some NPC dialog cringed? Sure, but it comes with the JRPG territory.
* love the summoning and materia system
* major cutscenes are anime af
* level design is pretty good. Some parts are really linear but it only makes you appreciate the more open parts. Don't wanna mention anything that might go into spoilers.
not good nor bad:
* side quests. Cool concept, some cooler than others. Some major duds.
* collectibles. They're kinda just around. Not that many important ones to find, and not particularly hard to see.
* mini games. They're just OK
Cons:
* the low quality textures. Again, I personally don't mind but it's hard to not notice them, especially with how high quality the character models are.
* the AMOUNT of mini games.The games themselves are ok, but they kinda come attimes that break up the pace for me.
Overall this game is exceeding my expectations. It's so much fun for me; and if you already think you'll like it (and enjoyed the demo) it's about 35 hours of that! Said this earlier but I played (and enjoyed) KH3 last year after waiting for so long, kind of like this game. But unlike KH 3, I didn't feel disappointed at all. Can't wait for part 2.
I didn't finish it yet, I guess I'm just halfway through. I'm enjoying it so far however it really reminds of FF13 when it comes to map navigation and layout etc. Also this game is really really different than the original one hence why it's a remake. Maybe people wanted a proper remaster to stay true to the original?
I can also imagine reviews coming out soon maybe both up and down.
I can also imagine reviews coming out soon maybe both up and down.
No I'm not playing the game wrong, the combat simply isn't very good.
I use the tactical mode constantly, the issue is that you can only lock on target during tactical mode when issuing orders which means if you want one character to use an ability on a particular part of the enemy when you switch back to another character you will still be locked on to that enemy/part which makes fights light the Airbuster boss an exercise in frustration where you're constantly locking on, switching, locking off, also you switch targets with your camera control. So instead of a nice independent camera that you can rotate around the enemy you're locked on to (while cycling between enemies with the d-pad) you lose all camera control so you can stay targetting an enemy. Inexplicably up and down on the dpad are also used to cycle through characters along with left and right. This is just poor system design.
What makes it even worse is that you can't issue auto attack in tactical mode - for instance I want Barret to auto attack a flying enemy so I can keep an eye on his ATB and issue abilities as it fills. Nope can't do that, that would make too much sense.
Having played about 20 hours I definitely would have preferred a more faithful remake. Some of the new stuff is legitimately good but a lot really misses the mark and feels tonally out of place from the original. I would have preferred a turn-based battle system but the system here, whilst it works okay eventually, makes some really strange decisions. I get that they want you to physically perform all the key parts of a fight but it just becomes annoying having to constantly switch characters. A simple option to tell characters what to focus on would go a long way. And the targeting is awful.
It's definitely worth playing if you are a fan of the original. It's never going to be remembered in the same regard though. I enjoyed XV more and that was only an 8/10 at best for me.
(Original VII is in my top 5 of all time)
It's definitely worth playing if you are a fan of the original. It's never going to be remembered in the same regard though. I enjoyed XV more and that was only an 8/10 at best for me.
(Original VII is in my top 5 of all time)
After 20 hours, in still in love. The combat is amazing, especially taking control of Tifa and the speed of her combat. Using all of your party is the best part.
Only one chapter felt like padding to extend the game, the other couple of extended chapters really help with the characters and making a lot more people more rounded, as well as bringing in some new characters that are a lot of fun.
My only issue is some enemies communicating the current immunity, but it's few and far between.
Only one chapter felt like padding to extend the game, the other couple of extended chapters really help with the characters and making a lot more people more rounded, as well as bringing in some new characters that are a lot of fun.
My only issue is some enemies communicating the current immunity, but it's few and far between.
The original is a very linear game, there's no way to get around that. Even a remake that expands & adds lots of connective tissue isn't going to give you an open world Midgar or anything close to it. There's quite a lot to go through even in Midgar as far as unique locales go and all of those need to feel more realistic in scale than in the original and like they are somewhat connected to a bigger whole (even if you don't have access to most of that bigger whole). They can't do that without pushing you through more linear segments that are meant to give at least a half-decent impression that you are travelling somewhat longer distances between different parts of the city and that Aerith's house isn't, like, 50 meters away from Shinra's HQ.
What the game lacks in openness it wins in variety. You're just never in the same location for too long before you get to some completely different part of Midgar and it DOES switch up the style enough to not get too tedious. Just when hyper-linearity is getting a bit old you get to a "dungeon" that has some branching paths/optional stuff to do, and then it goes back to a more linear approach and then you get to some slum settlement that you can take in more leisurely, listen to what the NPCs are commenting about Avalanche/happenings, tackle some side-quests and have some nice, slower moments between the party members to build up their relationships.
It's basically structured much like the original game, except more seamless/connected. I'd say people going into this should prepare to have more of a Uncharted-type experience with some old-school-ish JRPG dungeons (some branching paths that lead to optional challenges/treasures) and segments where you get a little bit of freedom to do some side-quests than some FFVII x FFXV type game with (almost) total openness for a majority of the game. A lot of the linearity is also used for storytelling. They want you to listen to these characters getting to know each other or commenting on what you are doing through the banter they'll have while you are infiltrating some Shinra location, so it's clear that some places have been made fairly straightforward just to accommodate that.
The positive is that most of the game feels extremely hand-crafted. There's no/very little copy-pasting going on. Every nook & cranny is placed deliberately and that gives the world the kind of personality open world games are missing a lot of the time, even if you are pretty limited in how you can traverse it. It also keeps up the pace of storytelling. You don't dilly-dally in any one given location for too long doing repetetive tasks and aren't getting lost on endless meaningless side-quests traversing back & forth samey environments, but the story advances at a fairly brisk pace and constantly pushes you forward to new locales, the next story beat or the next big, epic fight.
14 hours into the game, the only time so far when linearity felt kinda bleh gameplay-wise was when we meet Aerith and head to her house. It does give us a whole lot of banter between the two that sows the seeds of Aerith & Cloud's friendship, but that segment was really long without much in the way of straying from that path or even a tiny bit of exploration.
- Gameplay is amazing. I love it how it feels like action-turn-based because of the time stopping while you activate command menu. There is a challenge when you fight more than just standard enemies, you have to switch characters often etc.
- I love how the game looks and sounds.
- I love the character interactions.
- I LOVE that it's linear.
- Some story additions seem weird at first but no way I feel they're horrible as I've seen some fans of the original saying. I remember how stupid original was at some points :P
- I love how the game looks and sounds.
- I love the character interactions.
- I LOVE that it's linear.
- Some story additions seem weird at first but no way I feel they're horrible as I've seen some fans of the original saying. I remember how stupid original was at some points :P
It's normal battle mode but with the real-time actions (regular attacks, moving, dodging and blocking) being automated on all characters rather than just the ones you aren't controlling at that moment. The only thing you control is the inputs from the command menu so it plays a little more like the original.
It wasnt open-world in the original either. It's still expanded a lot. I'm in chapter 6 now and enjoying it a lot. Presentation has been great (up till now anyways); and I don't mind the additions to the game so far. I do have to say its really 'anime' at and over the top at times so you either love or hate that. I do agree that the battlesystem gets a bit confusing with multiple ground and air-based enemies; but I also have to say that I'm not really using it as it was designed I think.
I played about 2 minute's of the demo on my base PS4 and, just like Bloodborne bedore4it, immediately had to stop playing be cause it's frame pacing/juddering was just broken.
Think I'll wait until it comes out on either my One X or the XSX which can probably handle it better.
Think I'll wait until it comes out on either my One X or the XSX which can probably handle it better.
This is all good and I definitely will play the game, but the thing is even at this linear state, does the game offer anything to explore? Secret locations, secret dialogues, something? Or does it just through everything at you in plain sight and there is nothing for you to look around for (apart from chests...) ?
There is no such thing as frame pacing in this game. It runs at 30 fps very smoothly. Check DF analysis of the demo.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo: PS4/Pro First Look! - A Classic Upgraded on Unreal Engine 4
The demo we've all been waiting for. Final Fantasy 7 fans worldwide now get their first chance to play the remake at home - showcasing Unreal Engine 4's prow...
www.youtube.com
Not sure what you are experiencing, but it is certainly not frame pacing issues. Enjoy the wait tho. :)
Number one advice to people when starting the game. Turn the camera fov to the highest in combat and turn on free aim in combat. It gives you so much more control it should have been the default imo. Although that means you have to manually make sure long ranged characters are targeting enemies with the use of the camera.
I love the combat system in this game and think its light years beyond what I've played in ffxv and KH. The game is challenging but I have yet to have my team wipe. Came very close with one fight but that's it so far.
I love the combat system in this game and think its light years beyond what I've played in ffxv and KH. The game is challenging but I have yet to have my team wipe. Came very close with one fight but that's it so far.
^ I did it before starting the game as I also did it in the demo. FOV to 3 and free aim are mandatory to me. Do it.
I'm about 16 hours in and I think its a really fun game with some issues already laid out in this thread. There are some parts that are clearly dragged out for reasons none other than that Midgar is a full game here.
The performance is incredibly smooth. It runs about the same as vanilla FFXIII on PS3. A far cry from XV. This is on Pro and 4K HDR setup.
I will say though, that the combat is more tactical than I dared to expect. Especially compared to the braindead original game (lets be honest, that game was easy with whatever setup you used). I like how much of a must different materia setups for certain fights are, and how important Sense now is. You absolutely want to exploit those weaknesses. The downside is that its not possible to save and switch to different builds mid battle. The AI is nothing to write home about, the devs obviously want you to take the helm and build their bar.
I'm about 16 hours in and I think its a really fun game with some issues already laid out in this thread. There are some parts that are clearly dragged out for reasons none other than that Midgar is a full game here.
The performance is incredibly smooth. It runs about the same as vanilla FFXIII on PS3. A far cry from XV. This is on Pro and 4K HDR setup.
I will say though, that the combat is more tactical than I dared to expect. Especially compared to the braindead original game (lets be honest, that game was easy with whatever setup you used). I like how much of a must different materia setups for certain fights are, and how important Sense now is. You absolutely want to exploit those weaknesses. The downside is that its not possible to save and switch to different builds mid battle. The AI is nothing to write home about, the devs obviously want you to take the helm and build their bar.
here are mine, spoilered due to length of post:
tl/dr -
34 ish hours
24/26 sidequests completed
normal difficulty for about 2/3rds then down to easy
thought it was fine, though felt compelled to complete it in 3 or so days
i think vast majority will enjoy it
graphics - a mix between really, really good (main cast are very well modeled) and disappointing. hopefully a patch or series of patches will improve the LOD/texture issue but there's no guarantee as i don't think anything has been stated yet. i'd say that the art direction is the bigger problem as it vast majority of NPCs look like regular folk, similar to FFXV for example, and then the main cast stand out a bit too much. it feels sort of like someone's modded some other game to include some beautiful FF7 character models. the new, named NPCs stand out poorly too as they clash against the faithful designs of the original cast and the other more mundane character models.
the game doesn't look too hot when you're in daylight locations. feels like the lighting is very flat. colours being muted almost entirely through the whole thing doesn't help either and most locations are kinda grey brown or blue. i guess sticking to midgar has caused this.
animation is very good during combat and generally really good outside, especially during the AAA main story cutscenes. i found tifa to be weirdly stiff or doll like compared to others. because the game is Very Anime you do get the feeling that nothing has any weight and that comes across in a lot of the animations during the wilder cutscenes but that's clearly an artistic decision.
i will say the performance, at least on the Pro, is rock solid.
gameplay - i didn't like the combat to be honest. i think it never gelled with me and it felt like something in between a character action game and a turn based RPG, just not quite good enough at either. it really annoyed me that other characters couldn't be programmed to do stuff automatically, whether in detail ala FFXII or vaguely like 'focus on using magic'. unless i missed something, they won't even use items by themselves. hmm.
you need sense/assess materia, and you can't swap materia mid fight, so if you end up against something with a particular weakness you can't exploit then you're in for a tough or at least long, fight.
it's very linear as you would expect considering the part of the story it's adapted but they do try to open the game up a few times throughout. the problem there is that sidequests are bland and forgettable with direction during dialogue being basically non existent, just cutting between two emoting characters.
story wise is a weird one. i'm trying desperately to figure out how someone would feel playing this with no prior FF7 experience and i'm not sure it does well. i don't think the climax really works as a whole.
characterisation - jessie, tifa and aerith are almost interchangeable. the waifu harem thing over cloud is weird, especially as cloud's an utter bore through pretty much the entire game. biggs, wedge and jessie are of course given more screen time and yet i feel we don't learn anything more about biggs or wedge at all. the new characters are whatever, minus standing out like sore thumbs aesthetic wise.
but despite all this i kept playing from thursday until sunday so clearly something kept me going. i think its flaws were, to me, not enough to put me off completely but its highs weren't all there either. the appeal of seeing locations i had first visited in 1997 was fine, marred by graphic issues and game design but the thrill of seeing each weird FF7 monster rendered in great detail was actually much more compelling. i think it had the problem of great expectation, marred by years and years of self induced hype and morbid curiosity as to how they'll wrap up part one of a story who's length is currently unknown. with that in mind it was more than likely going to disappoint.
i honestly think the vast majority will really enjoy it.
the game doesn't look too hot when you're in daylight locations. feels like the lighting is very flat. colours being muted almost entirely through the whole thing doesn't help either and most locations are kinda grey brown or blue. i guess sticking to midgar has caused this.
animation is very good during combat and generally really good outside, especially during the AAA main story cutscenes. i found tifa to be weirdly stiff or doll like compared to others. because the game is Very Anime you do get the feeling that nothing has any weight and that comes across in a lot of the animations during the wilder cutscenes but that's clearly an artistic decision.
i will say the performance, at least on the Pro, is rock solid.
gameplay - i didn't like the combat to be honest. i think it never gelled with me and it felt like something in between a character action game and a turn based RPG, just not quite good enough at either. it really annoyed me that other characters couldn't be programmed to do stuff automatically, whether in detail ala FFXII or vaguely like 'focus on using magic'. unless i missed something, they won't even use items by themselves. hmm.
you need sense/assess materia, and you can't swap materia mid fight, so if you end up against something with a particular weakness you can't exploit then you're in for a tough or at least long, fight.
it's very linear as you would expect considering the part of the story it's adapted but they do try to open the game up a few times throughout. the problem there is that sidequests are bland and forgettable with direction during dialogue being basically non existent, just cutting between two emoting characters.
story wise is a weird one. i'm trying desperately to figure out how someone would feel playing this with no prior FF7 experience and i'm not sure it does well. i don't think the climax really works as a whole.
characterisation - jessie, tifa and aerith are almost interchangeable. the waifu harem thing over cloud is weird, especially as cloud's an utter bore through pretty much the entire game. biggs, wedge and jessie are of course given more screen time and yet i feel we don't learn anything more about biggs or wedge at all. the new characters are whatever, minus standing out like sore thumbs aesthetic wise.
but despite all this i kept playing from thursday until sunday so clearly something kept me going. i think its flaws were, to me, not enough to put me off completely but its highs weren't all there either. the appeal of seeing locations i had first visited in 1997 was fine, marred by graphic issues and game design but the thrill of seeing each weird FF7 monster rendered in great detail was actually much more compelling. i think it had the problem of great expectation, marred by years and years of self induced hype and morbid curiosity as to how they'll wrap up part one of a story who's length is currently unknown. with that in mind it was more than likely going to disappoint.
i honestly think the vast majority will really enjoy it.
tl/dr -
34 ish hours
24/26 sidequests completed
normal difficulty for about 2/3rds then down to easy
thought it was fine, though felt compelled to complete it in 3 or so days
i think vast majority will enjoy it
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I'm not using it, no. I'm playing with the proper combat and it's very fun and challenging - looking forward to Hard Mode.
Midgar overall is linear it's more of the fault of keeping faithful to the original.
Sure the original is linear I get it. I did not want this to become open world but offering some time to explore a few expanded areas like Uncharted 4 for example which is also a linear game, should definitely be possible. Midgar is huge.
There's definitely opportunities to explore. I did a lot of backtracking at one point because there was an item I couldn't access immediately. Dungeons have branching paths that can lead to additional items. E.g. see an item, not sure how to get it immediately but if you go off path you can obtain it with a bit of thought. One of the hubs had me just exploring the area for a while before going to the next objective. The majority of the game is linear but there are opportunities here and there to go at your own pace and look around.
So how's the post game? Is it as lackluster as kh3?
There are explorable expanded areas. More corridor-y than something like Libertalia, but you do get to look around, trust me.
Thanks for these. Quite reassuring comments :)