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[Collin]

My thoughts, chapter by chapter:

Chapter 1

- Wow, it's the first mission again!
- Barret's kind of annoying!
- Surprisingly difficult first boss, that's promising.

Chapter 2

- Fuck, is that Sephiorith? You assholes.
- Fuck are those dementors now?
- This combats getting a little dull, been fighting dudes for like 90 straight min now.

Chapter 3

- OMG that music and those graphics, fuck me, it's beautiful.
- Holy shit look up!!! Looks sick!!!
- Wow, script and performances are seemingly better than expected? It's not Paul Thomas Anderson or anything but the main characters actually talk like human beings in a Square JRPG? Wow, did not expect that. Even Barret has become more tolerable now.
- I was so wrong during chapter 2, I'm in love now.

Chapter 4

- Combat is actually decently complex, I'm impressed. A hybrid of XIII and XV, taking the best parts and removing the shit from both.
- lol Roche is fucking cornball straight outta a Kingdom Hearts game. Whatever, I'll take it.
- Still impressed at difficulty, did every side-quest and came close to dying a few times. Happy about that.
- Jesus Christ, Jessie's the horniest FF character I've ever seen and that's saying something.

Chapter 5

- Tunnels followed by fun boss fight ok, fine.

Chapter 6

- Most meh chapter thus far.

Chapter 7

- Wow is the padding so blatantly annoyingly clear here, holy shit.
- Don't do this, please make this dungeon end. What a pace killer.
- Fuck make it stop.

Chpater 8

- I'm back in love, that rooftop section.
- Aerith's house!!! fuck me man, that music!!
- This is life-affirmatively beautiful.
- Sidequests are whatev but I'm glad they exist atlesat.
- Rude boss fight is A+

 

[KiNeMz]

Now that the world looks much more photorealistic, it is very hilarious how Cloud walks around with a sword as big as he is strapped to his back and literally no one in the civilian populace around you seems to notice or care. Also no one seems to notice Barret has a gatling gun for a hand either. All the civilians looks like normal people and here we are just walking around armed to the teeth and everyone doesn't blink an eye. Okay.

"That sword is massive!!!"

 

[Eevee86]

Mild Spoiler: I beat the Airbuster and all of Midgar should know what Cloud looks like since they were airing it, and yet no one in Sector 5 seems to notice he's walking around with them.

 

[KiNeMz]

Hip Hop De Chocobo

 

[Zog]

The original was linear

The original was turn based.

 

[chitzy]

Mild Spoiler: I beat the Airbuster and all of Midgar should know what Cloud looks like since they were airing it, and yet no one in Sector 5 seems to notice he's walking around with them.

Yeah this didn't make sense. They apparently broadcast the whole deal at the reactor and then afterwards all they have is crappy security footage of the first bombing? Not to mention, President Shinra says they want to use Avalanche to beat the drum of war and stir up citizens to their cause and start another war with Wutai... so why would they want to drop the plate on them?

Nomura should really try to think through these retarded changes he makes to the plot.

 

[Eevee86]

Yeah this didn't make sense. They apparently broadcast the whole deal at the reactor and then afterwards all they have is crappy security footage of the first bombing? Not to mention, President Shinra says they want to use Avalanche to beat the drum of war and stir up citizens to their cause and start another war with Wutai... so why would they want to drop the plate on them?

Nomura should really try to think through these retarded changes he makes to the plot.

Yeah, just feels like they're trapped to the script of the original game, and some of the things they're trying to add don't fit in very well.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Yeah, just feels like they're trapped to the script of the original game, and some of the things they're trying to add don't fit in very well.

Peter Jackson's King Kong and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy are shining examples of this. Big budget video game remakes have the same problems as big budget Hollywood remakes.

The Hobbit trilogy is particularly egregious because Warner straight up wanted a trilogy, and The Hobbit is a single not particularly long book that could easily have fit in a single movie. The result is an unbelievable amount of padding, pointless side characters and subplots, and also really shitty CGI because it's obvious no one gave a fuck unlike LOTR.

 

[LordKasual]

They're combining two different systems antithetical to one another. One that's twitch based opposed to a more tactical and measured approach.

They are demanding attention be paid to attacking, evading, and blocking, identifying and attacking weak spots, what each enemy is doing at any given time, paying attention to HP/MP management of not only yourself but that of your allies, and menu management and respective skill utilization that can vary for enemy to enemy. It's a lot to place on the player's plate under pressure, and yes, the game pauses to consider this when ATBs fill and the command menu is called up, which just goes to show to me how incompatible these system they've tried to combine really are. When the devs shoulder me with action game considerations in the heat of the moment in battles with many enemies and variables to consider, it can be trying to keep track of them all to their most effective and efficient implementations. Is it workable? Yes, but I don't think it's enjoyable, nor lends itself to the fullest potential of what adhering to a true turn-based system could afford.

Classic mitigates the aforementioned somewhat by lifting the superficial actiony nature of the game out of the player's hands which I appreciate, but there's still issues apparent after some play put in. Not to mention the default to easy difficulty, the AI leaves something greatly to be desired not only in how it conducts the player's character in a dynamic situation, but especially that of the NPCs whose ATBs take forever to fill unless you switch to them and take over......which defeats the entire purpose of being in Classic to begin with. What they should've done if they insisted upon this direction was to allow the player some nuance and micromanagement in how the AI controlled NPCs during battle, and re-balanced the ATB so that equal opportunity could be afforded to each character regardless of who is hammering the attack button at any given moment.

To be perfectly honest, this is one of the poorest battle systems I've seen in a game, not in execution but in general design philosophy. It's unbalanced, it's chaotic, and I always feel like every time I triumph, it's never due to a measured or skillful execution of tactics on my part but one of brute forcing my way through it, and one further that I could've accomplished alone, aided by potions and spells.

Nope. This battle system is THE best designed system i've seen from Square....you can tell they've been doing their homework on the triumphs/failures of the previous few games.

Let me just explain how well-designed and self-aware this game's battle system clearly was, based on design choices alone, because i'm sort of in love with this shit:

RPG mechanics:
The balance between action game offense and RPG defense is extremely deliberate in one major distinction --if an attack is coming your way there is little you can do to AVOID damage. This is the key difference between combat systems that are more action-oriented vs more "traditional" RPG combat systems where damage is more or less unavoidable. This is very important, because it's the difference between the player's INPUT being the biggest aspect in the flow of battle (action games) vs. the spread of STATS between characters and enemies being the biggest influence (RPG games).

And you can tell this was deliberate in FF7R because of one very noticeable design choice -- the complete lack of I-frames on dodging/blocking options. And THIS is significant for 2 main reasons -- one, It forces the expectation on the player that you're going to take damage at some point no matter what you do (an integral part of RPGs because this is basically the entire gear aspect), and two, it places a ceiling on damage mitigation in a way that keeps incoming damage from your AI-controlled characters within fair and respectable levels.

You're going to take damage. The most effective (and reliable) method of avoiding damage is generally to just defend. Thus, your teammates taking damage out of your control will never be egregiously bad because they can only ever do so much worse than you. Unlike in FF15, where the AI choosing not to avoid a simple attack is literally the difference between you having to revive them or not. The reason the game was designed like that is because Noctis (the main character) technically NEVER has to take damage from ANY attack, and the game was balanced around this.

Action mechanics:
As far as action mechanics go, the most the game REALLY asks of you is to choose between committing to attacking or defending.....that's basically it. See, because dodge rolling has no i-frames, the ability to cancel into dodge doesn't allow you to engage enemies and avoid damage at the same time like most ACTION games would (see FFXV or Kingdom Hearts). So outside of the telegraphed moves you actually CAN avoid with positioning/out manuvering opponents, over-extending to attack will generally result in you getting damaged.

But that's not to say that you can't AVOID damage in this game, because.....:

Strategy-based components and flexibility:
....The real genius of FF7R to me is that the concept of "avoiding damage" (an integral part of action games) was actually removed from the "ACTION" parts of the game and instead given to the RPG mechanics in the ATB system. Specifically speaking, the most efficient way to avoid damage from enemy/boss moves in FF7 is to interrupt them...and that generally can only be done with ATB options, which feature basically all of the typical RPG elements of the game.

It reminds me of the Kingdom Hearts 1 "Tech" system, where you could stun/negate enemy attack animations using specific magics, and the game would reward you with a larger opening than if you had just dodged or blocked it. And I call this "genius" because doing this in a game where you ALWAYS have access to your teammates/their movesets allows you to execute some very nice strategies, as long as you are successful in managing ATB usage (which literally just equates to "You aren't taking so much damage that you are unnecessarily using ATB on healing instead of attacking").

The game gives you skillful options during this risk/reward ATB phase in the form of character abilities to take more control of the flow of the game. Cloud literally has a stance that completely removes mobility and blocking and replaces it with more attacks. Barrett literally just gives you free ATB for playing safe, Tifa's burst potential becomes explosive the longer you're able to keep her in the heat of combat while she builds up her stacking mechanic. Aerith's moveset is all about positioning and strategy -- she has long attack animations, delayed-effect specials, she puts enhancing runes on the ground, ect. (It's no coincidence she joins the party with Ice materia, the only magic in the game that requires the enemy to stay still after being hit.....just like her charged Triangle move.)

This game was excellently fucking designed. Kudos to the KH2 battle director.....if only they hired him for KH3 -_-;



Now, as for your post PanzerAzel ....the main problem you seem to have is that you seem to be expecting FF7R to try to be more of an action game than it actually is. But the biggest thing Easy mode does is trivialize the "action" portion of the game where you build ATB and balance survival.....and in Classic you don't need to interact with it at all, essentially turning the game into Turn Based FF7 again.


Honestly, the Action-RPG this game reminds me most of is Phantasy Star Online (Ep.I, II, & IV, not PSO2 or PSU), a game with a very deliberate blend between action elements and traditional RPG elements.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

I really love that hip hop chocobo song.

 

[ClanOfNone]

Wall Market looks badass, the 3d reconstructions of those old pre-rendered backgrounds are pretty cool. Especially when you combine it with the music, it really is the perfect storm of nostalgia.
Can't freakin wait to see Cosmo Canyon, Wutai, Shinra mansion, the Gold Saucer in particular should be crazy.

 

[HotPocket69]

My thoughts, chapter by chapter:

Chapter 1

- Wow, it's the first mission again!
- Barret's kind of annoying!
- Surprisingly difficult first boss, that's promising.

Chapter 2

- Fuck, is that Sephiorith? You assholes.
- Fuck are those dementors now?
- This combats getting a little dull, been fighting dudes for like 90 straight min now.

Chapter 3

- OMG that music and those graphics, fuck me, it's beautiful.
- Holy shit look up!!! Looks sick!!!
- Wow, script and performances are seemingly better than expected? It's not Paul Thomas Anderson or anything but the main characters actually talk like human beings in a Square JRPG? Wow, did not expect that. Even Barret has become more tolerable now.
- I was so wrong during chapter 2, I'm in love now.

Chapter 4

- Combat is actually decently complex, I'm impressed. A hybrid of XIII and XV, taking the best parts and removing the shit from both.
- lol Roche is fucking cornball straight outta a Kingdom Hearts game. Whatever, I'll take it.
- Still impressed at difficulty, did every side-quest and came close to dying a few times. Happy about that.
- Jesus Christ, Jessie's the horniest FF character I've ever seen and that's saying something.

Chapter 5

- Tunnels followed by fun boss fight ok, fine.

Chapter 6

- Most meh chapter thus far.

Chapter 7

- Wow is the padding so blatantly annoyingly clear here, holy shit.
- Don't do this, please make this dungeon end. What a pace killer.
- Fuck make it stop.

Chpater 8

- I'm back in love, that rooftop section.
- Aerith's house!!! fuck me man, that music!!
- This is life-affirmatively beautiful.
- Sidequests are whatev but I'm glad they exist atlesat.
- Rude boss fight is A+

Wow this is great man. Thanks.

 

[LordKasual]

I wont use spoilers for this:

But Holy shit, that Bonus Round boss was a motherfucker without the right materia equipped.

 

[Punished Miku]

Some random NPCs talking and the music kicking in moved Max to tears. These are the kinds of videos I hope the devs see.

 

[BorntoPlay]

Oh man, i would love to play this game right now... i know it's worth the price but hope get discounted soon...

 

[bronk]

Damn....this game gives me motion sickness. Had a gnarly headache after two hours of play. I pulled camera all the way back and turned off any auto camera stuff along with screen shake and nothing. Maybe the narrow fov and way camera whips between characters and enemies. I'm bummed out but oh well. Have fun guys.

 

[YukiOnna]

Airbuster fight was fucking epic. Really like how fights push me to use every single character. Dungeons are long, but they don't feel long at all for me with all the fun dialogue sprinkled in and sense of adventure so I'm learning something new. Barret and Cloud's dynamic in particular is really good.

 

[chitzy]

Some random NPCs talking and the music kicking in moved Max to tears. These are the kinds of videos I hope the devs see.

It is not healthy to have that kind of attachment to a video game.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm still amused by Tifa's appearance being inspired by her original FFVII costume, especially after seeing the much better outfit she sports in Advent Children. I really wish they would let me put her in the AC outfit.

 

[Great Hair]

Here is the game running on PS2

I´m so happy not to have bought it. Based on a "movie playthrough?", here my thoughts :

TLDR: this is bouncer PS2 remade for PS4, but with FF7 characters

Spoiler

- Barret is an arse! I´d prefer to go through some hemorrhoids, than listen to this guy
- Tifa´s constant "TITTY SHOW"
- Jessie´s dad apparently is a Shinra worker ... they have to steal his ID
- the gameplay is dumb AF! If you have played the demo, expect the same for 49h more
- the visuals are among the best, during night fall. During the day, avg. at best
- Tifa is a yakuza? and collects money in exchange for some filter ...
- I REALLY WANNA KILL WEDGIE ... holy fuck. a comedic sidekick, nothing more ... "dog bites him in the arse" AAAH funny, humor for 5 year olds
- it´s so boring, repetitive so far ...
- someone tell ROCHE, that he is the gayest character ive ever seen ... more flamboyance and he could jump even higher with his weird jump-bike "CRINGE of the fin... dumbest sort"
- the summons have lost all their purpose, since the combat is made by dummies for dumbos .. are there even any in the game? Remember 97? When Ifrit or Behemoth saved our butts from a fatal blow?!
- gameplay consists of smashing buttons and strife left or right ...
- i wonder how they´re going to address the dragon fights, big battles? prolly removed from the game
- the new enemies floating around the flower girl (lifa?, tuna?, mafusa? .. darn forgot the name, cant be bothered to google) ... what´s with that?!

maybe it gets better, but i highly doubt that. gameplay just sucks balls, the story is dumb af and suddenly EVERYONE has a background story to tell. The landlord lady, the junk dealer, the weapon dealer, the bar dealer ... all of them swearing like those sailors in shenmue 1.

Visuals 3 out 5 (during night, it looks awesome ... during the day, not so much)
Content 5 out 5 of repeating the same task over and over again ... PRESS&HOLD TRIANGLE to interact, many cutscenes, 3D brawler gameplay, utter shit story-sub-plots, dumb character (wedgie) ...
Gameplay 2 out 5 (always the same + riding a bike)

Final Score (and i dont have to play it, to know how boring the gameplay, barret never ending yelling, story...) .. i have no idea, how theyre going to accomplish the next part? open world? farming chocobos? dragon-big-battle fights WHERE summon play a big role ...
10 out 15 = 66% out of 100%

IF FF7RE is the future of videogames, im done.

FF7 1997 = light to medium JRPG, open world, exploration, grinding skills* ...
FF7RE 2020 = action-brawler a la Bouncer (PS2), no exploration, no open world?, no summons?, no RPG anymore, just "follow this line please" in your theme parks .. for $20? ok, not worht $40+

 

[Pallas]

Still pretty early in the game, just got on the train station(busy day) but from what I’m understanding, you can only summon when the summon gauge is filled and it only starts filling during really difficult battles?

Are these like mini boss/boss battles or just Random fights you ended up having issues with for whatever reason?

 

[chitzy]

Still pretty early in the game, just got on the train station(busy day) but from what I’m understanding, you can only summon when the summon gauge is filled and it only starts filling during really difficult battles?

Are these like mini boss/boss battles or just Random fights you ended up having issues with for whatever reason?

Just boss fights

 

[Pallas]

Just boss fights

Kind of disappointed with that, was hoping you could summon them in any battle.

 

[chitzy]

Here is the game running on PS2

I´m so happy not to have bought it. Based on a "movie playthrough?", here my thoughts :

TLDR: this is bouncer PS2 remade for PS4, but with FF7 characters

Spoiler

- Barret is an arse! I´d prefer to go through some hemorrhoids, than listen to this guy
- Tifa´s constant "TITTY SHOW"
- Jessie´s dad apparently is a Shinra worker ... they have to steal his ID
- the gameplay is dumb AF! If you have played the demo, expect the same for 49h more
- the visuals are among the best, during night fall. During the day, avg. at best
- Tifa is a yakuza? and collects money in exchange for some filter ...
- I REALLY WANNA KILL WEDGIE ... holy fuck. a comedic sidekick, nothing more ... "dog bites him in the arse" AAAH funny, humor for 5 year olds
- it´s so boring, repetitive so far ...
- someone tell ROCHE, that he is the gayest character ive ever seen ... more flamboyance and he could jump even higher with his weird jump-bike "CRINGE of the fin... dumbest sort"
- the summons have lost all their purpose, since the combat is made by dummies for dumbos .. are there even any in the game? Remember 97? When Ifrit or Behemoth saved our butts from a fatal blow?!
- gameplay consists of smashing buttons and strife left or right ...
- i wonder how they´re going to address the dragon fights, big battles? prolly removed from the game
- the new enemies floating around the flower girl (lifa?, tuna?, mafusa? .. darn forgot the name, cant be bothered to google) ... what´s with that?!

maybe it gets better, but i highly doubt that. gameplay just sucks balls, the story is dumb af and suddenly EVERYONE has a background story to tell. The landlord lady, the junk dealer, the weapon dealer, the bar dealer ... all of them swearing like those sailors in shenmue 1.

Visuals 3 out 5 (during night, it looks awesome ... during the day, not so much)
Content 5 out 5 of repeating the same task over and over again ... PRESS&HOLD TRIANGLE to interact, many cutscenes, 3D brawler gameplay, utter shit story-sub-plots, dumb character (wedgie) ...
Gameplay 2 out 5 (always the same + riding a bike)

Final Score (and i dont have to play it, to know how boring the gameplay, barret never ending yelling, story...) .. i have no idea, how theyre going to accomplish the next part? open world? farming chocobos? dragon-big-battle fights WHERE summon play a big role ...
10 out 15 = 66% out of 100%

IF FF7RE is the future of videogames, im done.

FF7 1997 = light to medium JRPG, open world, exploration, grinding skills* ...
FF7RE 2020 = action-brawler a la Bouncer (PS2), no exploration, no open world?, no summons?, no RPG anymore, just "follow this line please" in your theme parks .. for $20? ok, not worht $40+

I was thinking Dynasty Warriors is a good analogy for the combat. Never played The Bouncer though.

Aeris's section was legit miserable. From the painful walk from the church to the slum, to the stupid fetch quests for the kids, to the boring and tedious walk through the tunnel to sector 7. I was considering just giving up on the game. I made it to Wall Market though and things picked up. It's pretty obvious Wall Market got a lot more attention than other areas of the game.

 

[chitzy]

So that 3000 Gil I paid def got me a hand job right?

 

[Punished Miku]

It is not healthy to have that kind of attachment to a video game.

It's just feels. Nothing wrong with being moved by art.

 

[wzy]

Literally every minute of this game that isn't part of the original story is just unfathomably bad. There are multiple extended sequences between the main beats of the original that stop the game dead in its tracks and the stuff that isn't just pure filler is miserable and dumb beyond understanding.

When the game sticks close to the original it's good and often great, but from what I can tell so far that's only going to be a quarter of the game at most. This sucks.

 

[Paracelsus]

It's just feels. Nothing wrong with being moved by art.

He's like the star wars crying nerd, it's unhealthy for different reasons.

 

[Arkage]

It's hilarious that the moment I select a spell to cast, all the enemies stop and stand there and wait for you to finish animating the spell before continuing with the battle.

I've gotten knocked out of spells and special attacks plenty of times. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Also seeing Sephiroth every 15 minutes right from the start is a baffling design decision, he doesn't even appear until far into the original for a reason.

Sephiroth has had maybe 5 very brief appearances in the 30 hours I've played so far. Again, I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's one thing to dislike certain elements of the game. It's another to straight up bullshit how the game operates.

Kind of disappointed with that, was hoping you could summon them in any battle.

It's not really just boss fights. There are some mid-tier enemy fights you can use them for as well, but it typically won't proc unless you're having a hard time with a fight.

 

[YukiOnna]

I've gotten knocked out of spells and special attacks plenty of times. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Same. It's happened several times to me today.

 

[888]

Game is amazing and so well done.

My Son only played a bit of the original FF7 a few years back. He said to me today, “Is the Camera focusing on Tifa’s boobs or is it just my eyes”. A bit of both Son, a bit of both.

Tifa is by default the best Girl for Cloud, but that Jessie I bet is a freak in the sheets.

 

[Arkage]

Nope. This battle system is THE best designed system i've seen from Square....you can tell they've been doing their homework on the triumphs/failures of the previous few games.

Let me just explain how well-designed and self-aware this game's battle system clearly was, based on design choices alone, because i'm sort of in love with this shit:

RPG mechanics:
The balance between action game offense and RPG defense is extremely deliberate in one major distinction --if an attack is coming your way there is little you can do to AVOID damage. This is the key difference between combat systems that are more action-oriented vs more "traditional" RPG combat systems where damage is more or less unavoidable. This is very important, because it's the difference between the player's INPUT being the biggest aspect in the flow of battle (action games) vs. the spread of STATS between characters and enemies being the biggest influence (RPG games).

And you can tell this was deliberate in FF7R because of one very noticeable design choice -- the complete lack of I-frames on dodging/blocking options. And THIS is significant for 2 main reasons -- one, It forces the expectation on the player that you're going to take damage at some point no matter what you do (an integral part of RPGs because this is basically the entire gear aspect), and two, it places a ceiling on damage mitigation in a way that keeps incoming damage from your AI-controlled characters within fair and respectable levels.

You're going to take damage. The most effective (and reliable) method of avoiding damage is generally to just defend. Thus, your teammates taking damage out of your control will never be egregiously bad because they can only ever do so much worse than you. Unlike in FF15, where the AI choosing not to avoid a simple attack is literally the difference between you having to revive them or not. The reason the game was designed like that is because Noctis (the main character) technically NEVER has to take damage from ANY attack, and the game was balanced around this.

Action mechanics:
As far as action mechanics go, the most the game REALLY asks of you is to choose between committing to attacking or defending.....that's basically it. See, because dodge rolling has no i-frames, the ability to cancel into dodge doesn't allow you to engage enemies and avoid damage at the same time like most ACTION games would (see FFXV or Kingdom Hearts). So outside of the telegraphed moves you actually CAN avoid with positioning/out manuvering opponents, over-extending to attack will generally result in you getting damaged.

But that's not to say that you can't AVOID damage in this game, because.....:

Strategy-based components and flexibility:
....The real genius of FF7R to me is that the concept of "avoiding damage" (an integral part of action games) was actually removed from the "ACTION" parts of the game and instead given to the RPG mechanics in the ATB system. Specifically speaking, the most efficient way to avoid damage from enemy/boss moves in FF7 is to interrupt them...and that generally can only be done with ATB options, which feature basically all of the typical RPG elements of the game.

It reminds me of the Kingdom Hearts 1 "Tech" system, where you could stun/negate enemy attack animations using specific magics, and the game would reward you with a larger opening than if you had just dodged or blocked it. And I call this "genius" because doing this in a game where you ALWAYS have access to your teammates/their movesets allows you to execute some very nice strategies, as long as you are successful in managing ATB usage (which literally just equates to "You aren't taking so much damage that you are unnecessarily using ATB on healing instead of attacking").

The game gives you skillful options during this risk/reward ATB phase in the form of character abilities to take more control of the flow of the game. Cloud literally has a stance that completely removes mobility and blocking and replaces it with more attacks. Barrett literally just gives you free ATB for playing safe, Tifa's burst potential becomes explosive the longer you're able to keep her in the heat of combat while she builds up her stacking mechanic. Aerith's moveset is all about positioning and strategy -- she has long attack animations, delayed-effect specials, she puts enhancing runes on the ground, ect. (It's no coincidence she joins the party with Ice materia, the only magic in the game that requires the enemy to stay still after being hit.....just like her charged Triangle move.)

This game was excellently fucking designed. Kudos to the KH2 battle director.....if only they hired him for KH3 -_-;



Now, as for your post PanzerAzel ....the main problem you seem to have is that you seem to be expecting FF7R to try to be more of an action game than it actually is. But the biggest thing Easy mode does is trivialize the "action" portion of the game where you build ATB and balance survival.....and in Classic you don't need to interact with it at all, essentially turning the game into Turn Based FF7 again.


Honestly, the Action-RPG this game reminds me most of is Phantasy Star Online (Ep.I, II, & IV, not PSO2 or PSU), a game with a very deliberate blend between action elements and traditional RPG elements.

I agree with much of your post. However, what is the point of the roll mechanic then? I've essentially given up using it beyond its apparently one single use of having the roll materia equipped, but even that doesn't seem particularly worth it. While it's fine to say damage mitigation has to be through ATB, blocking, and buffs, giving the player the ability to roll is fairly deceptive if it serves no real purpose. They could've changed this into maybe making a roll materia that increases roll distance. No i-frames but it actually makes it viable for one of your party members to be able to dodge attacks or create distance quickly (but only when controlling them, and only 1 materia in the game with this ability, something like that). Or make it a weapon perk for a specific character. As it stands the ability is nearly completely worthless, as running is faster than rolling when trying to get some distance from enemies.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I wonder how they'll handle leveling and materia in the follow ups. I'm level 20 at the train graveyard with a handful of materia maxed out already.

 

[Rentahamster]

If anyone's having trouble getting staggers on early game enemies try this:

Regular soldier, rats, bugs: hit until pressured and almost dead, then firaga him.

Hoodlum (this was a pain in the ass): attack till they are pressured, do a focus thrust to build stagger gauge, then hold back. Eventually their buddies will heal them. Once they have enough HP to not die too quickly, build up two ATB gauges, do blizzard to freeze them (this puts them into pressured) and then focus attack.

 

[Grinchy]

I was just thinking about how weird this is going to be as an episodic experience. Let's say it takes them 2 years to get the next one out. It'll be on PS5/XSX. So, theoretically, people could use their last-gen copy or buy one to play the first episode on those systems.

But they want to sell a ton of these and have to expect new players. Is there going to be a cross-over save for those of us already into it, but a "new game with presets" option for people just starting on episode 2? How are they going to expect people to buy a last-gen game a couple years into the new generation and play it for 40+ hours before starting the brand new game they want to sell instead?

Will each new episode come with the last one bundled in? Maybe that's a better route.

 

[Pallas]

I was just thinking about how weird this is going to be as an episodic experience. Let's say it takes them 2 years to get the next one out. It'll be on PS5/XSX. So, theoretically, people could use their last-gen copy or buy one to play the first episode on those systems.

But they want to sell a ton of these and have to expect new players. Is there going to be a cross-over save for those of us already into it, but a "new game with presets" option for people just starting on episode 2? How are they going to expect people to buy a last-gen game a couple years into the new generation and play it for 40+ hours before starting the brand new game they want to sell instead?

Will each new episode come with the last one bundled in? Maybe that's a better route.

I imagine it’ll have to be that way, after all what’s the point of splitting it up episodically if we can’t transfer our complete save data? If you never we played it, then yeah I can see it being a default preset character. Mass Effect handled it a bit like that.

 

[YukiOnna]

I was just thinking about how weird this is going to be as an episodic experience. Let's say it takes them 2 years to get the next one out. It'll be on PS5/XSX. So, theoretically, people could use their last-gen copy or buy one to play the first episode on those systems.

But they want to sell a ton of these and have to expect new players. Is there going to be a cross-over save for those of us already into it, but a "new game with presets" option for people just starting on episode 2? How are they going to expect people to buy a last-gen game a couple years into the new generation and play it for 40+ hours before starting the brand new game they want to sell instead?

Will each new episode come with the last one bundled in? Maybe that's a better route.

Probably won't be that short of a development period to begin with. People seem to look at it as literally episodic when it's more each game is a full game continuation rather than something like Hitman. I do expect cross saves though.

 

[NYR]

It is not healthy to have that kind of attachment to a video game.

....he said, posting on a video game message board.

 

[bender]

Is Jessie going to let me eat her pizza?

 

[Collin]

I was just thinking about how weird this is going to be as an episodic experience. Let's say it takes them 2 years to get the next one out. It'll be on PS5/XSX. So, theoretically, people could use their last-gen copy or buy one to play the first episode on those systems.

But they want to sell a ton of these and have to expect new players. Is there going to be a cross-over save for those of us already into it, but a "new game with presets" option for people just starting on episode 2? How are they going to expect people to buy a last-gen game a couple years into the new generation and play it for 40+ hours before starting the brand new game they want to sell instead?

Will each new episode come with the last one bundled in? Maybe that's a better route.

Here’s my best guess:

Part II has 2 modes to play as when you boot it up a new game, Newcomer Mode and Legacy Mode.

Newcomer mode starts your party at Level 1 and all enemies and bosses scale lower to match a Level 1 party. This mode starts your party with decent Materia / Equipment that you would have otherwise collected in Part I.

Legacy Mode loads a Part I save file and scales all eniemes and boss at much higher levels to match your characters experience. All your Materia / Equipment carries over.

 

[PanzerAzel]

Now, as for your post PanzerAzel ....the main problem you seem to have is that you seem to be expecting FF7R to try to be more of an action game than it actually is. But the biggest thing Easy mode does is trivialize the "action" portion of the game where you build ATB and balance survival.....and in Classic you don't need to interact with it at all, essentially turning the game into Turn Based FF7 again.

The main problem I have is not that I'm expecting FF7R to try to be more of an action game than it actually is, but due to its attention on actiony elements, it's less of an RPG than it deserves (and I'd argue needs) to be.

Thank you for taking the effort to elaborate upon the intricacies of the battle system at such length, I appreciate that, but all this really isn't incompatible with my overall point. This game attempts to combine two fundamentally different approaches to game encounter design, and I find that it ends up serving neither to their fullest potential, but instead waters down both into some half-breed hybrid. The action elements being beholden to RPG considerations, and the RPG elements being beholden to action considerations. For instance, I don't agree with the decision to be playing an action game with three different controllable characters, with their own specialties that I must switch between on the fly to utilize to their fullest, because if I leave them to their own devices, hell if the AI is capable. If I'm to play an action game, I want to control ONE character. NOT have to micro-manage three simultaneously in a dynamic and chaotic environment, with particles flying everywhere, with the camera oftentimes in the wall, with enemies moving this way and that.

It's just.....ugh. As someone else put it perfectly.....it's a mess. As I said (and you elaborate upon) it's certainly workable, but I don't think it'd be nearly as enjoyable as if the game decided exactly what it wanted to be and stuck with it. When I'm in control of a party, it's crucial that I'm overseeing that party's operation and conduct from a command perspective, not one where I'm getting my hands dirty dealing with my own shit. That's just sloppy and inefficient, and necessitates my attention from the overall picture into the specific.....unfortunately at the cost of the former.

I just wish the game would slow the fuck down and let me enjoy the battles while considering my moves, and those of my allies. Classic somewhat allows for this, but there are flaws to this mode which negate it.

 

[Paulxo87]

Enjoyed the demo and loving the game! Grabbed a physical copy for only 50 dollars from Walmart today. Taking my time doing all quests, etc as they come up.

 

[Boneless]

Here is the game running on PS2

I´m so happy not to have bought it. Based on a "movie playthrough?", here my thoughts :

TLDR: this is bouncer PS2 remade for PS4, but with FF7 characters

Spoiler

- Barret is an arse! I´d prefer to go through some hemorrhoids, than listen to this guy
- Tifa´s constant "TITTY SHOW"
- Jessie´s dad apparently is a Shinra worker ... they have to steal his ID
- the gameplay is dumb AF! If you have played the demo, expect the same for 49h more
- the visuals are among the best, during night fall. During the day, avg. at best
- Tifa is a yakuza? and collects money in exchange for some filter ...
- I REALLY WANNA KILL WEDGIE ... holy fuck. a comedic sidekick, nothing more ... "dog bites him in the arse" AAAH funny, humor for 5 year olds
- it´s so boring, repetitive so far ...
- someone tell ROCHE, that he is the gayest character ive ever seen ... more flamboyance and he could jump even higher with his weird jump-bike "CRINGE of the fin... dumbest sort"
- the summons have lost all their purpose, since the combat is made by dummies for dumbos .. are there even any in the game? Remember 97? When Ifrit or Behemoth saved our butts from a fatal blow?!
- gameplay consists of smashing buttons and strife left or right ...
- i wonder how they´re going to address the dragon fights, big battles? prolly removed from the game
- the new enemies floating around the flower girl (lifa?, tuna?, mafusa? .. darn forgot the name, cant be bothered to google) ... what´s with that?!

maybe it gets better, but i highly doubt that. gameplay just sucks balls, the story is dumb af and suddenly EVERYONE has a background story to tell. The landlord lady, the junk dealer, the weapon dealer, the bar dealer ... all of them swearing like those sailors in shenmue 1.

Visuals 3 out 5 (during night, it looks awesome ... during the day, not so much)
Content 5 out 5 of repeating the same task over and over again ... PRESS&HOLD TRIANGLE to interact, many cutscenes, 3D brawler gameplay, utter shit story-sub-plots, dumb character (wedgie) ...
Gameplay 2 out 5 (always the same + riding a bike)

Final Score (and i dont have to play it, to know how boring the gameplay, barret never ending yelling, story...) .. i have no idea, how theyre going to accomplish the next part? open world? farming chocobos? dragon-big-battle fights WHERE summon play a big role ...
10 out 15 = 66% out of 100%

IF FF7RE is the future of videogames, im done.

FF7 1997 = light to medium JRPG, open world, exploration, grinding skills* ...
FF7RE 2020 = action-brawler a la Bouncer (PS2), no exploration, no open world?, no summons?, no RPG anymore, just "follow this line please" in your theme parks .. for $20? ok, not worht $40+

I'd be concerned to have visual or mental impairment if I thought this game looked or played anything like bouncer. But hey you can save yourself some hard earned money, good for you lad!

 

[Boneless]

I just wish the game would slow the fuck down and let me enjoy the battles while considering my moves, and those of my allies.

Protip: press R2, it does exactly what you want. Surprising you haven't used it yet!

 

[chitzy]

....he said, posting on a video game message board.

I see I struck a nerve...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I've gotten knocked out of spells and special attacks plenty of times. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Watch the sequence of events in a fight and then get back to me. If an enemy has started an attack on you, it will not stop because you chose a skill or spell. If the enemy is not attacking right when you open the menu and select a skill or spell, it will not attack again until your animation has resolved. Go ahead, try it and see for yourself.

Sephiroth has had maybe 5 very brief appearances in the 30 hours I've played so far. Again, I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's one thing to dislike certain elements of the game. It's another to straight up bullshit how the game operates.

I'm being told by other people that after appearing a bunch of times early on, his appearances become less frequent. He appears 4 times in the first 2 hours or so, and yes I counted. If he goes away after that then that's great because he was already annoying after the first 2 hours I played.

 

[Lethal01]

The main problem I have is not that I'm expecting FF7R to try to be more of an action game than it actually is, but due to its attention on actiony elements, it's less of an RPG than it deserves (and I'd argue needs) to be.

Thank you for taking the effort to elaborate upon the intricacies of the battle system at such length, I appreciate that, but all this really isn't incompatible with my overall point. This game attempts to combine two fundamentally different approaches to game encounter design, and I find that it ends up serving neither to their fullest potential, but instead waters down both into some half-breed hybrid. The action elements being beholden to RPG considerations, and the RPG elements being beholden to action considerations. For instance, I don't agree with the decision to be playing an action game with three different controllable characters, with their own specialties that I must switch between on the fly to utilize to their fullest, because if I leave them to their own devices, hell if the AI is capable. If I'm to play an action game, I want to control ONE character. NOT have to micro-manage three simultaneously in a dynamic and chaotic environment, with particles flying everywhere, with the camera oftentimes in the wall, with enemies moving this way and that.

It's just.....ugh. As someone else put it perfectly.....it's a mess. As I said (and you elaborate upon) it's certainly workable, but I don't think it'd be nearly as enjoyable as if the game decided exactly what it wanted to be and stuck with it. When I'm in control of a party, it's crucial that I'm overseeing that party's operation and conduct from a command perspective, not one where I'm getting my hands dirty dealing with my own shit. That's just sloppy and inefficient, and necessitates my attention from the overall picture into the specific.....unfortunately at the cost of the former.

I just wish the game would slow the fuck down and let me enjoy the battles while considering my moves, and those of my allies. Classic somewhat allows for this, but there are flaws to this mode which negate it.

I totally disagree that the two things they are putting together are fundamentally opposed or at all negative combo. The rpg elements are exactly what makes this such a fun and unique action game.

In fact, it immediately reminded me of one of my favourite action games of all time "astral Chain" when I started playing it.

Switching between characters is super engaging and I like that you need to be the one controlling them for them to be useful. You say it's a mess but I always feel in control. For me thinking "I'm going to switch to cloud now which mean Barrett may not be defending so I need to stagger these guy quick then switch to Aerith to heal Barrett then go back and have Barrett cast thunder on the stunned enemy.

If you hate it fine. But I don't think there is anything objective about calling it bad.

The fact that this game doesn't let me set more shortcuts is one of my big nitpicks since I Don't need the game to slow down and actively avoid letting myself rely on the slow down from using the menu.

I also can agree that the game doesn't utilize the action component to it's fullest potential but it's not because they don't go well with the tactical mechanics. It's because there are people like you that would just say it's to difficult and too fast.

 

[Pantz]

Can't seem to get past this part in Ch.3. Tifa is leading me further and further from the objective

Spoiler

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Hearing Aerith say "Shit." was amazing. Top ten gaming moment.

 

[Hostile_18]

Some texture lacking issues I have mentioned yesterday.

I noticed that last night. I'll take your door and raise you a fence.