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[Windom Earle]

I don't really understand how this game was so positively received on release. Is it the nostalgia?

- Insanely cringe voice acting and characters lacking the charm of the original by a mile
- FF7R takes what was once a 5 hour segment from the original game and stretches it to a ridiculous 35-50 hours. This takes padding to a whole new extreme. There’s just an absurd amount of fluff in this game. Yes, some of the extended cutscenes and missions, especially early on, are great. But most of the time, FF7R adds hours upon hours of tedious, repetitive gameplay sections for no other reason than to pad out the game’s length. As a result, there’s no real sense of urgency or flow.
- Bland, boring filler side quests with terrible looking NPCs
- Literal corridor simulator. Game is made up of repetitive, linear, narrow corridors. Makes exploring a total chore.
- Maps are littered with invisible walls and spaces in which characters must slowly crouch or squeeze their way through. Finding the way forward is almost never rewarding either, since the maps have hand holding neon arrows embedded into their surfaces.

And I wish I could say story and combat save it in the end, but the story goes from the plot never moving to suddenly being nonsense. The combat is not a total trainwreck but to me there is no real flow to it. Just like the rest of the game. Modern Square Enix is garbage.

 

[RCU005]

It’s great that people are able to stop doing something when they don’t like it.

Not everybody likes the same things

Game still great

I covered the top answers

 

[TexMex]

I wouldn’t call it “terrible” but I agree with most of what you said, namely the side quests.

The pacing is just awful. When it’s on, it’s fantastic. The music, the entire presentation really. Parts had me so hype and right around the corner the game would come full stop to have me find some cats or play hide and seek with some orphans or some dumb shit.

The overall presentation is incredible and I think there battle system is the most perfect hybrid of real time and ATB possible, but I found so many parts of it painfully boring so I don’t have a great impression overall.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I agree with you about the corridors. Hate when games have miles of ugly metal hallways to trek through. Everything else seems like personal issues. Seems like you just wanted a 1:1 remake where this is a re-imagining of the story.

Some liked it, some didn't. I liked it.

 

[Vlodril]

Fantastic game. Best ff in more than a decade. Looked really good too.

 

[delfrickintree]

FF7R should have been the Gacha game and Ever Crisis should have been the true remake

 

[Reckheim]

yeh, I tried 3 times to get into it, one time making it to the 10hour mark but I found it to be incredibly bad as well.

Nice graphics and all but you couldn't go 10 minutes without a cutscene about something completely meaningless. Just let me play the fucking game.

Also cloud is a moody bitch, one of the worst main characters in gaming.

 

[Yoshichan]

FF7R should have been the Gacha game and Ever Crisis should have been the true remake

Wow, couldn't have said it any better.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Loved my time with it tremendously. Played through it twice and will play it again before Rebirth.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Agreed. The combat is the only thing the game has going for it but everything else brings it down considerably.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

FFR was great.

The only thing that annoyed me was the story which I agree went to shit because they've now decided not to follow the original and instead make their own shit up.... which begs the question... WTF was the point of remaking it if you're just gonna deviate and make shit up? You might as well make a new FF game.

 

[rofif]

I found it extremally charming and youthful.
It is linear corridor simulator but I don't mind that. In fact, I prefer that to open world bloat

 

[Minsc]

If you think FFVIIR had linear corridors and bad side quests, you better never play FFXVI.

Also did you just entirely skip the maze-like section where you cut the power from the three generators? That's what I want more of in modern FF games, large open areas with puzzles and the ability to get lost a bit.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Is it the nostalgia?

Yes. People that praise these low effort remakes are seeking validation for their past experiences.
Same thing happened with Demons Souls Remake. The original is miles better than the newer version.

- Insanely cringe voice acting and characters lacking the charm of the original by a mile

Yes. Making things realistic ruined the characters. In the original they were more expressive and interesting.

FF7R takes what was once a 5 hour segment from the original game and stretches it to a ridiculous 35-50 hours

This is the sign of a troubled development.
Rumor is, the original remake project was scrapped and they started over again.
As such, to save time they got this idea of not making a high fidelity remake, but something else that they could sell in parts of $70 each.
Since they couldn't sell a $70 5-hour game, they had to pad the hell out of it.

- Bland, boring filler side quests with terrible looking NPCs

- Literal corridor simulator. Game is made up of repetitive, linear, narrow corridors. Makes exploring a total chore.

- Maps are littered with invisible walls and spaces in which characters must slowly crouch or squeeze their way through. Finding the way forward is almost never rewarding either, since the maps have hand holding neon arrows embedded into their surfaces.

Yes. These are also symptoms of horrible modern game design practices.
Again, this game was not made to be fun, but to prolong it as much as they could to sell it for $70.

And I wish I could say story and combat save it in the end, but the story goes from the plot never moving to suddenly being nonsense. The combat is not a total trainwreck but to me there is no real flow to it. Just like the rest of the game. Modern Square Enix is garbage.

The pacing is horrible. The original was amazing at that.
And yes, modern Squeenix is garbage.

 

[Hestar69]

it was good and a bit of a let down.. they REALLY stretched stuff out to make the game seem longer. now the second game I feel is gonna be alot more amazing and cant wait... I just hope we get everything in 3 games and not 4

 

[LordCBH]

Dreadful fucking take.

 

[BossLackey]

I fucking loved it and I never even played the original at the time. So zero nostalgia there.

Your complaints are sound, but to me these are very tiny compared to the strengths of the game and none of those bothered me really outside of the NPC faces.

 

[Rentahamster]

I thought it was pretty good. Amazing battle system.

 

[Lupin3]

or play hide and seek with some orphans or some dumb shit.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I found it extremally charming and youthful.
It is linear corridor simulator but I don't mind that. In fact, I prefer that to open world bloat

Think that sums it up quite well. The game had a lot of energy and charm in its characters and interpretation of the FF7 world that I really loved.

Not to forget the awesome music and battle system.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

The only thing I disliked, were those whisperers or whatever they were.
Outside of that, it was everything I had hoped for.

In regards to the "corridors", people seem to forget that it's almost exactly how the Midgar section was in the original game.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Im about to be done with the original this or next week, ill start the remake after and report back.

 

[Danjin44]

I personally loved it and I played 3 - 4 times and planning replay it again before Rebirth comes out.

 

[FoxMcChief]

It’s way better than FF16, but that’s not saying much.

 

[MiguelItUp]

I loved the original, and for me it was enjoyable enough to complete IMO. Which I think says a lot for me, as if I was super bored, or didn't like it, I'd put it down. Did I think some things were odd or strange? Sure. But terrible? Nah, not at all.

 

[rickybooby87]

 

[MagiusNecros]

I like FFVII-2 though. Especially with Yuffie and Sonon with Synergy attacks.

 

[Fbh]

I actually agree with most of your criticism but I still really enjoyed the game.
Combat was great, easily my favorite combat system in the franchise, the music and visuals were also really nice and overall the main quest was solid. Part 2 is easily one of my most anticipated games of next year.

It's a modern AAA Square game though, so like almost all of their other games it really struggles with consistency. Just like FFXVI it's 20 hours of awesome content mixed with 20 hours of student project tier stuff because Square doesn't actually have the skill to make long RPG's with high production values.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It does indeed have way too much padding, and after playing FFXVI going back to the kinda shitty combat in VIIR was kind of a let down.

I still have to finish it up before Rebirth, because the fundamental story of VII is as good as it has ever been.

 

[Mung]

It's one of my favourite games of all time, so yes, I completely disagree.

 

[existensmaximum]

I agree, I couldn't play more than a couple of hours before uninstalling and selling my copy. The characters and the voice acting made me cringe constantly. Not my cup.

 

[ANDS]

I've tried playing it multiple times and I can't get into it for all the OP's reasons, despite feeling like the combat and progression boards were actually interesting.

. . .though if I'm being fair it was mostly the story which was really, really quite all over the place in terms of quality. Like some were cool and then you get to cringe (in the same scene even) and you get tone whiplash.

 

[Heisenberg007]

 

[Edellus]

I agree with most of what you said, although not near with the same level of disdain you wrote your opinion.

I did like the story and the way it was exposed. That and the combat "saved" the game twice over for me, since I ended up platinuming and enjoyed it a lot. DLC too.

I do hope they improve the other things you mentioned with Rebirth, though.

 

[Cornbread78]

 

[near]

Hated the demo, didn't look back.

 

[Little Chicken]

Yes I was really looking forward to it but it's just absolute garbage. The low standards of SE fans baffles me.

 

[Brock2621]

"Terrible?"

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure......

Next thread.

 

[Dacvak]

I bought FF7R hoping for the best, even though I think the original is an overrated bore. My favorite Final Fantasy is FF15 and I think FF7[R] kinda sucks.

Spoiler

So, my opinion is probably invalid.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Yeah, it stinks. FF is a dead franchise to me.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I really enjoyed it and I was a fan of the original.....

I like the cheese :/

 

[Kenneth Haight]

I loved it but it’s pacing lets it down at times. The combat is simply sublime. Graphics are incredible. Beautiful soundtrack. I enjoyed my time with it.

 

[RagnarokIV]

Fucken trash game. Agree with all your points.

 

[Whitecrow]

Design wise is pretty terrible. Anyone saying other wise is lying to himself. Pace is very very awful.

But the game has its moments, and Aeris.

 

[Crayon]

You need to call a poison control center immediatly.

7R is aggresively dope. Now, like botw, it has major, glaring flaws but they can't hold back what's good about it. I'm about to start mashing out bullet points in multiple categories so I appologize in advance.

Things this game knocks out of the park:

- The battle system is sublime. They made the unfortunate mistake of making the hard mode a variation of new game+ and that's too bad. Like many games with *excellent* gameplay, the hard mode truly brings out the flavor. It is OUTSTANDING.

- The characters are every bit as good as the original AND MORE. Cloud's extremely subtle expressions can now convey his insecurity. Everyone looks at least as good as any of us imagined all these years. Baret goes from basically a hot headed doofus in the orginal to a convincingly dedicated and inspiring leader. Aerith softens cloud's heart in a beleivable way. Tifa can sit on my face.

- We should all thank god that the soundtrack didn't punch a hole in space-time from slapping so fucking hard. Hi Five and Rip Em Smash Em make we want to drop ectasty and get cold sores from strangers under flashing lights.

- Besides the four protagonists, many of the characters are fleshed out in incredibly satisfying ways. Reno and Rude become conflicted men but only slightly. Still 90% cold blooded. Rude is sharp and proffesional. Reno can sit on my face.

- Some sort of scheme is being laid to save Aerith. We know for who - for the fans. But we don't know who's perpetrating it in game and none of us know if it's going to work. So they have managed to cast doubt on biggest spoiler in all of gaming.

- Midgar was a big section of the original game. You can't skip shit to blow through it in five hours (admittedly, it's not like 5 hours is a speedrun or anything) then complain about the sidequests in 7R as if they are mandatory. This significant section of the original game successfully gets you forget that the rest of the world is out there and 7R does it all over again.

- I find it crystal clear that this 7R is not lazy, it's not cynical, it's not a cash grab. They knew that fucking this up would go down in history as the most shameful disaster in gaming. They really tried and succeded making a sincere love letter.

Now, here are some aaa games I played that 7R kicks the fuck out of.

- Actually never mind. Almost all of them. Horizon, spiderman, witcher 3, persona, etc. There are a handful that are legitamately better. Zelda, Elden, Demons' remake. And just for more context, I'd rate it equal to Nier and Death Stranding, God of War. And I suppose GT7 is you are a car person and can bear the apples to oranges comparison.

tldr:

 

[Corian33]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but there are many valid criticisms here. Especially the fluff quests about two thirds through the game. That was just so pointless especially how a few hours later you’re fighting some kind of gods or whatever.

I liked the idea of being the hero of the town, but that could have been accomplished with 2-3 fluff quests and not 12.

Baldur’s Gate 3 manages to be a game that’s 2-3 times as long and has absolutely zero fluff. Won’t stop me from continuing to play FF games, but I won’t pretend they’re the pinnacle of RPG’s.

 

[Muffdraul]

I thought it was fine, because I had no dog in that race. FFVII had always been on my short list of favorite games of all time, but I never wanted a remake. The most I ever hoped for was a complete retranslation of the original JP script from scratch. I knew if they remade it in the modern era, it would be an action game. When it got announced, I shrugged. I had no particular expectations when it released. I assumed they would butcher the story, but I didn't give two shits. I played it, I finished, I thought it was fine. I've played worse. Especially recently i.e. XVI. Blech.

 

[Griffon]

The gameplay and the graphics were good, but the story should've been an actual remake, not whatever the fuck it was.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I can't wait for 40 hours in Balamb Garden personally.

 

[Kataploom]

I'm yet to play it but something I hate about that final fantasy game is character design... they try to "look" western so English voices make sense, but are not quite because facial expressions and dialogs are sooooooo japanese it makes more sense to use Japanese voices, but because of faces design it also feels wrong, ffs square Enix is making my inner autism to cry lol