Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)

Just found out you can't get the achievement for doing all the quests in a single playthrough because of the way they split one set of quests around the game's halfway point into two paths. :)

I've been doing all of them because I wanted the achievement, but I don't think I want to replay an entire half of the game just for that. Just a bummer, because I think I'm on the last one now anyway.

About to start the second reactor mission and been enjoying the game so far. Overall I'm pleased with how the Sector 7 Slums have been expanded on, as well as the way they've made AVALANCHE come off as more of a potential threat to the general populace.

I think the opening sequence was pretty heavy handed where it dealt with Cloud's trauma. It feels like almost everything anyone says triggers some kind of head-clutching flashback episode. The original game was far more subtle with it. But since getting to the slums it's calmed down, which is good.

Some games just grab you and at this point in my life with everything going on - this game has become my new obsession. Especially the storyline between Cloud and Aerith. I may or may not have delved back into fanfic too ;) I know it's a manic-pixie-dreamgirl/brooding emotionless guy trope but I don't care. I need this distraction, okay??

I didn't really care that much for the original FF7 and actually found it overhyped. But this game I can actually - mostly - follow the story. The combat is streamlined. The graphics are gorgeous (except for the weird looking flowers). The voice acting is pretty good. It's just a really awesome game and I don't want it to end... especially since I know what might be coming.

I am about 4 hours into this, and feeling very underwhelmed.

The visuals are gorgeous, the music stunning, and I think the voice acting (minus barret) is sharp.

However, I am finding the game play incredibly dull. Press or hold square a lot, occasionally dodge and block, until you can do something worth while. At least so far, there is none of the depth that turn based battles bring. In addition, while the story has had some great moments (the bike chase, fleshing out some characters, and the parachute moment) there are also a LOT of moments that just feel unnecessary or slowing the pacing down to a crawl.

We just blew up a reactor... cool lets do... side jobs? What...

I am going to continue to play, I want to give it at least 10 hours before writing it off, but as it is, the moments of joy at seeing characters or interactions is just weighed down by the pacing and combat.

I know this may seem a sensitive topic, but many accuse Barret Wallace from Final Fantasy 7 to be a racist stereotype, I personally find this to be silly, as he is an extremely complex and sympathetic character (and much more than a petty stereotype only based on skin colour alone)/ Case in point, this shitty FF7 hate article riding the remake's coattails: It reads: In some ways, Barret represents a real step forward in the Final Fantasy series. He is the first black character to appear in the series, and is a pivotal part of the story, with a fully fleshed out, dynamic, and interesting back story. Counterpoint, he looks like he is based on Mr. T from The A-Team, swears constantly, and speaks in what seems to be some kind of Japanese impression of African American slang.

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I would like to see the opinions of people actually from the black community (I am not black) on this common hot take.

I got almost to the air buster boss fight and just lost motivation to keep going. I only played the first 8 hours or so of the original a little over a decade ago now on my PSP, but for one, I just didn't have the same nostalgia I'm sure many players had. I can tell if this was a game I had played when I was younger and fondly remembered, I would be elated to see and hear the music, characters and art from my youth brought back better than ever, but instead I was trying to coast on other peoples warm feelings for the title. None of this is a tremendous criticism, more just a personal evaluation of why this didn't hit me the way it appears to have impacted others.

My second and largest criticism with the game has been my experience with the combat. While most reviewers appear to laud the games blend of old and new with the real time ATB system, I ended up feeling like I would have preferred the developers to choose one or the other. I like fluidity and action in my real time combat games, and I like strategy and intentionality in my tactical games. In FF7 Remake, I felt like on the normal difficulty the real time combat felt like I was intended to spam punch, occasionally holding an untimed block, and rinse and repeat. Then when switching to the tactical abilities and spells mode, I felt like most abilities were too similar with one another, just being different colored versions of "hurt enemy X". I also couldn't get into a smooth rhythm for switching between characters to build their ATB, and always felt like I was playing inefficiently and flailing a bit, even though I never got even close to dying. It's obviously a very different experience, but I was left fondly remembering my time with Mass Effect as a blend of real time and strategy that felt great to me, and my time with Kingdom Hearts being a frantic action based RPG with satisfying real time combat.

I just needed to get this all off my chest. I know its perfectly fine to just not like things that some other people enjoy, but I also know that sometimes it's simply about trying to view or experience a game from a different lens with a different mindset, and for FF& Remake, I just couldn't seem to find the right combination to make this worth my time.

I've started this game multiple times, and everytime i stopped around chapter 3 because i did not want to ruin my memories of the original FF7, playing through it when i was a 14 year old boy. It still stands as one of the best game i've played to this day.

Last week i finally caved and started playing the remake again, i'm now in chapter 8 and WOW, just wow. I am quite speechless by how good this is so far! I'm quite speechless really, it's a wild mixed ride of nostalgia and jawdropping awesomeness from the moment the intro starts rolling. I'm frequently just standing still for minutes at a time, just listening to the really well done music remasters and dreaming back to little old me playing this and how different my life was back then...

This is pinnacle gaming right here, i think i'm not even halfway through but i can already confidently say that Square made a timeless masterpiece in this remake.