Board 8 > anyone else here kind of disappointed with FF7R so far?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Upgrading weapons and getting different weapon skills from each of them was genius and should be the gold standard from now on.

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I actually like the materia system a lot more with the new combat system. It's been a while, but in the original it always felt...I dunno, too samey and easy? It was fine to just slap damaging abilities and some heals on people and go. And this is still largely that, but it feels like there is more depth and ways to change how you approach combat if you want.

Oh and the Abilities being separate from materia and different action movesets give each character a unique feel beyond being slightly different piles of stats where the biggest difference was LBs, so that's also great.

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Polycosm posted...

I agree on the clunky movement and hit-or-miss dialogue, although OG FFVII was much, much worse in both departments. The poor localization of the original was charming in a way, but let's be honest, it's objectively bad.

Well shit fellas I hope we can hold a 2020 game to higher standards than 97 in some respects.

Bad writing now is way more unacceptable than a poor localization in the 90s.

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Yeah I like actually feeling limited with the materia. It makes it challenging and I have to think about who has what before bigger battles.

Before the air bomber I switched my lightning and elemental materia over to cloud. I wanna level that up so I can have multiples.

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I love everything about og FF7s script and dialogue. The errors are part of the charm.

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ExThaNemesis posted...

I love everything about og FF7s script and dialogue. The errors are part of the charm.

I mean I get this but that's part of having intense familiarity with the game.

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Roche was a complete miss, but otherwise I don't have any problem with the dialogue. It's goofy and cheesy but that's what FF7 is. Good thing they didn't go with more something more serious like the compilation stuff. Plus the voice actors for main characters all do an excellent job.

Triangle prompts could use some work, I agree. But it's not as infuriating as jumping when trying to pick up stuff in XV.

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And Jessie RASBERRY is so much fun.

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Good thing they didn't go with more something more serious like the compilation stuff. Plus the voice actors for main characters all do an excellent job.

But they still went with the gritty character designs so it's still jarring. The original game actually looks goofy too.

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metaIslug posted...

Incomplete game and changed the plot into a Nomura daydream so I passed

We gonna get that connection to 7 and 10. Sin new final boss.

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Polycosm posted...

I agree on the clunky movement and hit-or-miss dialogue, although OG FFVII was much, much worse in both departments. The poor localization of the original was charming in a way, but let's be honest, it's objectively bad.

I think it's a very low bar to compare it to a 20+-year-old game.

And imo hit-or-miss dialogue is much more egregious when there's voice acting.

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pjbasis posted...

But they still went with the gritty character designs so it's still jarring. The original game actually looks goofy too.

Have you even played the game? It's incredibly goofy. Your party hanging out with regular people in the train look like weirdos going to an anime convention. It's so good.

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Lightning+elemental materia on Tifa's gloves made fighting Air Buster sooooo fun. That, combined with the remastered boss theme, has been my highlight so far (in chapter 8 currently).

I've beaten OG FF7 more times than I can count, so I kept telling myself this would be different and to not compare things to the OG if I could. Battle system is awesome, and Tifa is definitely my favourite to manually control. Only issues I have with it are that the camera can get locked in an annoying spot when fighting enemies against a wall, and the other party members' ATB gauges charge so slowly in comparison. Also, I changed target lock switching to the dpad, as I kept accidentally switching targets when I really just wanted to move the camera.

Definitely agree with those loving the weapon upgrade system. Definitely not enough slots for all the materia they throw at you, but I'm okay with that. Makes you actually have to think and decide what works best. Cloud is mainly a mage hybrid currently, as I mostly main Tifa as a physical powerhouse (with thundara if necessary), and Barret as a healer/range fighter. Aeris is going to be that when she's with me, mostly out of necessity.

But yeah, loving this game so far. I'm a little annoyed with the ghosts and whatever significance they pose, but I don't hate it. Who are your favourites to manually battle with so far?

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Just saying cloud's smash design is more colorful and faithful to the original and probably would have worked better too.

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I have been playing too many Tales games recently because I just wanna go pay $1.99 for additional Materia slots.

mccheyne posted...

Also, I changed target lock switching to the dpad, as I kept accidentally switching targets when I really just wanted to move the camera.

Yeaaaaah same. Life got a lot better afterward. I kinda wish it had the Tales-esque targeting where I could kind of pause the action in order to just toggle through targets and get on the one I want without necessarily trying to use an ability or cast a spell. Sometimes when there's a lot of action on screen it can be difficult when I'm frantically trying to locate a certain enemy.

Being able to switch characters while in tactical mode would make this game significantly better.

It's pretty tight and a lot of fun, but there are a few quality of life things preventing it from achieving the action RPG gameplay quality of a better Tales game.

On that same comparison, for example, really wish there were AI routine setups that would allow your other party members to be able to act more effeciently on their own. As it stands they are basically worthless if not micromanaged, and are just there to draw some agro.

I'm confused by the "It's unfair to compare it to a 20+ year old game" comments when

1. That's exactly what this topic was doing in the first place
2. It's natural since it's a remake of said game, and why would you not compare a remake to the original?
3. The cases most people are comparing have to do with stuff like localization/writing, anyway. Like, nobody's comparing graphics, here. Comparing writing is completely fine.

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Another minor gripe. There are a lot of pointless pathways to go down with no reward, that I feel like we're only added because of the often misguided lesson square has taken of "people bitched about FFXIII being a hallway, we need to make these areas bigger so you can walk anywhere", but then not actually having content there.

There are several parts of the train tunnels where I just wish there was an invisible wall.

Trains your mind to look down those dead ends for items.

90% of the time there is one.

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HashtagSEP posted...

Comparing writing is completely fine.

I think the key here is localization. The translator's were just not good back then or had little budget, but the writing done by SE's writing staff might not have been to blame. Here, we're probably getting a lot closer to the "intended" script.

Furthermore if a game was a landmark title back in the day, it should still try to feel the same or else it's not really worth remaking. If it feels like a game that doesn't stand up to its contemporaries now, then that is different than what it used to be like.

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The dialogue and voice acting seems fine to me. Honestly considering it's Nomura I was expecting it to be waaaaay closer to Kingdom Hearts than it already is, so it's significantly better than my expectations! Barret and the rest of Avalanche are great, Tifa and Aerith are good. Cloud and Sephiroth are incredibly stilted but that's fine because they're both supposed to be weirdos.

I also am cool with Roche, at least based on his first appearance. He feels a bit out of place, like he's from Jojo or Yakuza or something, but I can see what they're going for. Especially in Wall Street with its seediness and minigames, it feels like they really took inspiration from Yakuza and just went all-in on the ridiculous melodrama presented with a totally straight face. And considering everyone's biggest fear before release was that they were going to excise all the goofiest shit, I think that's the right call.

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Roche is just FF Dante by way of Yakuza and he's great.



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ShatteredElysium posted...

The rate that teammates generate ATB gauge is also pretty crappy. It's so slow compared to the character you play as.

I've started to understand the combat a lot more after this. At first I thought it was like Xenoblade where you have a lead + 2 AI characters, and it matters who is lead because you can optimize your attacks and such, but in general there are 3 characters fighting at once. Maybe 50% lead, 25% each AI.

But it's really different here. The 3 characters are more like options available to the player, and the AI isn't really meant to do much other than survive. The proportion is more like 80/10/10. So the moment-to-moment choice ends up being a tension between whose ATB you want to charge up, and who you want to be doing damage. Sometimes that's the same character, so it feels more like Kingdom Hearts mashing, but usually for bosses it's different characters, so it gets way more tactical and complex.

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ExThaNemesis posted...

Upgrading weapons and getting different weapon skills from each of them was genius and should be the gold standard from now on.

Agreed. It's a great way to open up the gameplay, since different weapons have different benefits/drawbacks and its almost fully configurable how you use them. I'm still using the Buster Blade for boss fights since it has the highest attack damage at the moment, while I grind out Triple Slash

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Agreed. It's a great way to open up the gameplay, since different weapons have different benefits/drawbacks and its almost fully configurable how you use them. I'm still using the Buster Blade for boss fights since it has the highest attack damage at the moment, while I grind out Triple Slash

And one of my least favorite things about RPGs in general is having a weapon become completely obsolete not long after getting it because you get a brand new one. Being able to customize the Buster Sword and make it still worthwhile 10 hours into the game is so nice.

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Yes I love RPGs where all of the weapons are useful or sidegrades instead of a new weapon automatically being the best. That being said I wish the animation to get into the weapon upgrade system was a little quicker. It's a bit of a pain having to go into each weapon 1 at a time to upgrade.

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Weapons being different options and not just a linear upgrade path is something more games should strive to have.

That said yes, the actual weapon upgrading menu is way to clunky and complicated for how simple it actually is.

skullbone posted...

It's a bit of a pain having to go into each weapon 1 at a time to upgrade.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

yes, the actual weapon upgrading menu is way to clunky and complicated for how simple it actually is.

I quickly switched to the auto-leveling options for the weapons because F that menu

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You're never gonna recreate the Sphere Grid, stop trying Square

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It feels like they had higher aspirations for the weapon upgrade screen and then settled on something below their mark and as a result didn't realize that what they rolled out would've been better off as just a plain Jane text based list/menu as opposed to the whole animation stuff they did

foolm0r0n posted...

I quickly switched to the auto-leveling options for the weapons because F that menu

Yeah. I was frustrated when I only realized like 25 hours in that this was a thing.

Not only that it's clunky but I'd straight up forget about it for 2 or 3 levels at a time

foolm0r0n posted...

You're never gonna recreate the Sphere Grid, stop trying Square

Namco already made a better one in Xillia!

turbopuns3 posted...

It feels like they had higher aspirations for the weapon upgrade screen and then settled on something below their mark and as a result didn't realize that what they rolled out would've been better off as just a plain Jane text based list/menu as opposed to the whole animation stuff they did

That's 97% the case

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Is this long enough to be worth $60? Because Im going back and forth between buying it and Persona 5 royal and Im leaning towards this

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Like 35-40 hours, more if you then do hard mode.

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Ok pretty good then, thanks!

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Sorry, I can't be disappointed with any game where (minor spoilers) Barrett sings the victory theme.

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Square has a bad habit of dropping their games in price after like 3-6 months so if you're not put off by waiting I think I'd just grab Royal instead. This game will probably be $30 by July (even though I think it's worth $60 anyway).

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FFDragon posted...

Like 35-40 hours, more if you then do hard mode.

Is hard mode not available out of the gate? If not, is it actually balanced around NG+ stuff or something to make it more interesting?

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Hard mode and chapter select is unlocked after finishing the game

I'm not sure about the actual difficulty of hard mode, but I do know you can't use Items at all

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ninkendo posted...

I'm not sure about the actual difficulty of hard mode, but I do know you can't use Items at all

o_o

skullbone posted...

Square has a bad habit of dropping their games in price after like 3-6 months so if you're not put off by waiting I think I'd just grab Royal instead. This game will probably be $30 by July (even though I think it's worth $60 anyway).

a FF7 game dropping in price in a few months? Dont think so.

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ninkendo posted...

Hard mode and chapter select is unlocked after finishing the game

I'm not sure about the actual difficulty of hard mode, but I do know you can't use Items at all

The link I just saw says it's limited use on items.

I wish they didn't restrict Classic mode to just easy setting, not everyone is into real-time action, but if you want it to not be a cakewalk, you have to adapt to the new battle system

Not sure if anyone in this topic is a newcomer to the game, but would it be obvious they padded the game out or does it actually feel cohesive?

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I just finished my initial run.

Imma need a minute. Maybe several minutes.

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FFDragon posted...

Imma need a minute. Maybe several minutes.

Take as long as you need. Sit down.

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The ending was.... a thing

also Hard mode is HARD like... punishingly so

silly me thought I would just stroll into the hard battle simulator ... HA

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