DonJorginho
Banned
Section of Article extracted from Playstation News Site/Fan forum "PushSquare".
Unfortunately, while the release has taken great strides in combat, the level design from the sections we played leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the environments are frighteningly linear, meaning even an extended trip through the city of Midgar feels restricted and one-dimensional. There are small detours you can take, and these are often rewarded with chests harbouring key items and materials, but generally you’re funnelled through the world like you’re riding a roller-coaster. A second Mako Reactor assault is so samey that it feels like the area has been constructed out of the kind of tiles you’d expect to find in a procedurally generated world.
In fact, it’s this mission that left us with some concerns. While the opening is as bombastic as humanly possible, the slick cut-scenes are replaced here for much cheaper, in-game story sequences. To make matters worse, objectives include finding keycards hidden in plain sight, and an embarrassingly anticlimactic side-quest where you must push and pull levers in a weirdly imprecise minigame that grates within seconds. It may not be representative of the final product at all, but we can’t help but wonder why Square Enix opted to showcase it if not.
To be fair, the publisher appears to be pinning everything on the combat, and once you’ve got Aerith and Tifa in your squad, you can really feel the differences between each hero. Aerith sits back and uses magic to both deal damage and buff teammates, while 7th Heaven’s bustiest barmaid utilises some extraordinary martial arts moves to deal devastating damage. It’s chaotic in the same way as Final Fantasy XV, but the addition of tactical elements adds some order to the frenetic fighting unfolding on screen.
Ultimately, we’re both excited and concerned. The combat seems excellent, but will it be enough to carry a largely linear campaign that’s been padded out with some tedious objectives? Square Enix was very specific about the sections that we saw, so maybe it’s saving the most exciting parts for fans to discover on launch day in a couple of months. But why wouldn’t it want to put its best foot forward? Maybe the enormous expectations resting on this remake’s colossal shoulders need to be re-calibrated just a little bit.
FULL ARTICLE: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202...ills_but_level_design_feels_stuck_in_the_past
Unfortunately, while the release has taken great strides in combat, the level design from the sections we played leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the environments are frighteningly linear, meaning even an extended trip through the city of Midgar feels restricted and one-dimensional. There are small detours you can take, and these are often rewarded with chests harbouring key items and materials, but generally you’re funnelled through the world like you’re riding a roller-coaster. A second Mako Reactor assault is so samey that it feels like the area has been constructed out of the kind of tiles you’d expect to find in a procedurally generated world.
In fact, it’s this mission that left us with some concerns. While the opening is as bombastic as humanly possible, the slick cut-scenes are replaced here for much cheaper, in-game story sequences. To make matters worse, objectives include finding keycards hidden in plain sight, and an embarrassingly anticlimactic side-quest where you must push and pull levers in a weirdly imprecise minigame that grates within seconds. It may not be representative of the final product at all, but we can’t help but wonder why Square Enix opted to showcase it if not.
To be fair, the publisher appears to be pinning everything on the combat, and once you’ve got Aerith and Tifa in your squad, you can really feel the differences between each hero. Aerith sits back and uses magic to both deal damage and buff teammates, while 7th Heaven’s bustiest barmaid utilises some extraordinary martial arts moves to deal devastating damage. It’s chaotic in the same way as Final Fantasy XV, but the addition of tactical elements adds some order to the frenetic fighting unfolding on screen.
Ultimately, we’re both excited and concerned. The combat seems excellent, but will it be enough to carry a largely linear campaign that’s been padded out with some tedious objectives? Square Enix was very specific about the sections that we saw, so maybe it’s saving the most exciting parts for fans to discover on launch day in a couple of months. But why wouldn’t it want to put its best foot forward? Maybe the enormous expectations resting on this remake’s colossal shoulders need to be re-calibrated just a little bit.
FULL ARTICLE: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202...ills_but_level_design_feels_stuck_in_the_past
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