Final Fantasy VII REMAKE Catch All

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Point is, I don't think even people who know the original game and its spin-offs well could really tell you everything that's going to be in this game because there's either going to be a lot of new material by necessity, or it's going to be a much shorter game than people are anticipating.

They've stated many times that it's equivalent in size to other mainline FF games, so I'm not expecting it to be shorter. If they were misleading about that and it ends up as a 10-15 hour experience with little new from the original, then I'd probably be on board the disappointment train.

I played the demo the other day and came away excited for the retail release in April. The 3D environments look great, the re-orchestrated soundtrack sounds really fresh and familiar, and I'm interested in more twists and tweaks to the story. I also like that combat felt really engaging and interactive.

ccesarano wrote:
This version really take the time to show, not tell, why Cloud was brought along.

I dunno man, they literally say that Cloud was specifically hired to handle the combat.

It was the "Show, don't tell" aspect that really stuck out to me.

Grenn wrote:
ccesarano wrote:
This version really take the time to show, not tell, why Cloud was brought along.

I dunno man, they literally say that Cloud was specifically hired to handle the combat.

It was the "Show, don't tell" aspect that really stuck out to me.

I think that aspect is present in other spots, too. For example, in the original release, Cloud was hopping along the rooftops, followed by Aeris. One of them comments on how Aeris has a much harder time with it, and you see her delay a bit by comparison, which is meant to convey that Cloud is a badass.

Cloud being a badass needs little explanation in the remake demo, you can see it in his combat animations and out of battle acrobatics (though they did feel the need for Jessie to point it out, which wasn’t really needed). Having characters and environments that are exponentially more detailed just allows for richer visual storytelling.

I did think of one complaint while working today, though. The boss music seemed lacking compared to the original!

Some of Cloud's facial reactions were pretty good, and I got the impression Jessie reacted to Cloud's crazy anime jump because that wasn't something normal people can do.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I think that aspect is present in other spots, too. For example, in the original release, Cloud was hopping along the rooftops, followed by Aeris. One of them comments on how Aeris has a much harder time with it, and you see her delay a bit by comparison, which is meant to convey that Cloud is a badass.

Puts on his curmudgeon cap.

She asks him to wait up, and he makes a joke about her having said she could take care of herself. I dunno if it conveys Cloud as a "bad ass" so much as he's more physically capable than she is. Which, considering strength is not her strong stat, isn't exactly a big leap to make. She's strong of spirit, but not of muscle.

Cloud being a badass needs little explanation in the remake demo, you can see it in his combat animations and out of battle acrobatics (though they did feel the need for Jessie to point it out, which wasn’t really needed). Having characters and environments that are exponentially more detailed just allows for richer visual storytelling.

Eh, I feel like they're just anime'ing it up further than the original release. Plus...

Spoiler:

This level six punk that was never actually good enough to make SOLDIER is somehow capable of making ten foot leaps with ease. Uh huh. That makes sense.

I'm just resigning myself to that, though. I just think "Stylish Anime Everything" is Nomura's style so we're going to have Turks doing super fast shonen fighting moves instead of... y'know... standing there and swinging stun rods around like regular guys do.

I did think of one complaint while working today, though. The boss music seemed lacking compared to the original!

That's mostly modern music mixing, I think. It's one of the reasons music stopped standing out so well around the Xbox to Xbox 360 and coinciding generations (the other being "Hey, let's see how generically Hollywood our soundtrack can sound"). You have dialogue that needs to be heard, so you make sure the music isn't loud enough to overpower it. Plus there's all the other sound-effects and explosions and character commentary. Additionally, let's be honest, the combat is probably intense enough you're focusing a lot less on it than you might in a turn-based combat system.

I largely liked what I heard when I heard it, but otherwise it suffers like most modern games do where the soundtrack just kind of adds atmospheric decoration but fails to draw attention so easily.

ccesarano wrote:

Plus...

Spoiler:

This level six punk that was never actually good enough to make SOLDIER is somehow capable of making ten foot leaps with ease. Uh huh. That makes sense.

I'm pretty sure

Spoiler:

the "somehow" might have something to do with the unknown length of time he was experimented on which resulted in him believing he was in SOLDIER. It worked well enough that no one, especially Shinra, saw any reason to doubt it.

I don't recall which thread I said it in, but it really does feel to me that jabbing at some of the story stuff is not exactly unlike comparing DeMille's 1923 silent The Ten Commandments with his 1956 Ten Commandments. Things have developed so much, and so many of the tricks and techniques were inconceivable to one. Along the lines of what you're talking about, Blind, I really liked the little beat of Barrett clenching his fist. In 1997, that same moment required some very cartoonish (but charming) movements, it's much more subtle and effective now. The gulf between then and now is so vast, I think that's a big part of why I've felt very zen about this game (also because I consider my experience with the original pretty unassailable).

*deep sigh*

Guess I'm going to have to take a look at this, huh?

Prederick wrote:

*deep sigh*

Guess I'm going to have to take a look at this, huh?

Its worth taking a look at. I enjoyed it. It hit a good nostalgia button.

That said, I'm not willing to pay the entry price. I'm sure I'll pick it up on sale eventually.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Plus...

Spoiler:

This level six punk that was never actually good enough to make SOLDIER is somehow capable of making ten foot leaps with ease. Uh huh. That makes sense.

I'm pretty sure

Spoiler:

the "somehow" might have something to do with the unknown length of time he was experimented on which resulted in him believing he was in SOLDIER. It worked well enough that no one, especially Shinra, saw any reason to doubt it.

Spoiler:

After the events of Nibelheim, all the survivors except Tifa are experimented on by Hojo. The townspeople are the black cloaked figures you see all throughout the original game. Zack's previous SOLDIER mako conditioning let's him resist the effects of the experiment, but Cloud has no such protection.
As such, he is injected with Jenova Cells and flooded with mako. Once he has a chance to shrug off hte mako poisoning and adopt Zack's persona, he gains the amazing abilities of a 1st Class SOLDIER, and more seeing as he is a match for Sephiroth in the end.

I imagine not many of you follow Professional Wrestling, but I'm not at all surprised to find that Kenny Omega, currently Executive Vice President of All Elite Wrestling, has done an interview with Yoshinori Kitase, director of the original game, VIII and X, and Final Fantasy franchise producer since X-2.

Kenny Omega began to rise in notoriety wrestling in Japan. He's basically a giant dweeb whose signature move is the One Winged Angel. In a recent promo he wore a shirt titled "Video Game Music is Music". He commissioned heavy metal game music cover artist to make his entry music.

So yeah, this just seems appropriate and enjoyable to me, while likely being rather "meh" in significance to others.

The demo was really good. They have nailed the atmosphere of the original brilliantly. Combat seems very good on first impressions. Graphics are CG quality, Cloud's bap looks especially good.

The intro was fantastic. The camera panning out over Midgar, eventually showing Shinra Tower before the 'Final Fantasy 7 Remake' comes across the screen. The bombastic orchestral like updated music of the original playing, its genius. The music overall was such a highlight of FF7 & so far I think they've updated that classic soundtrack to make it hit even sweeter.

The only thing I'm iffy on is the dialogue, some parts decent, others a little dumb. Barrett's voice actor is another gripe. He does seem a bit too Mr T with "I pity the fool" style lines.

Stoked in general though, roll on April!

Spikeout wrote:

Barrett's voice actor is another gripe. He does seem a bit too Mr T with "I pity the fool" style lines.

Well, yeah, that's exactly what they went for in the original. Par for the course that they stayed true to that. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but it's faithful to the source material.

Different strokes and what not.

brokenclavicle wrote:
Spikeout wrote:

Barrett's voice actor is another gripe. He does seem a bit too Mr T with "I pity the fool" style lines.

Well, yeah, that's exactly what they went for in the original. Par for the course that they stayed true to that. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but it's faithful to the source material.

Different strokes and what not. :)

Hearing it acted out though vs reading lines is tough to get used to. It just seems a bit over the top. I'll maybe warm to that style over a longer period of time once I play the full game.

Someone noted that the other characters don’t take him seriously. They roll their eyes a bit at his OTT proclamations. If they can to that an maybe tone the Mr T aspects down even a fraction it’ll be good.

Last week, I watched my wife play about 30 minutes of this. One thing I loved: how up-front and clear the game was in foreshadowing some of Cloud's memory problems. I recall in the original, some of those moments were inscrutable until you were given context, much later -- but by the time you got the context, you'd probably have forgotten about them. Here, the game gives you a sense right away that something's wrong with Cloud.

LastSurprise wrote:

Last week, I watched my wife play about 30 minutes of this. One thing I loved: how up-front and clear the game was in foreshadowing some of Cloud's memory problems. I recall in the original, some of those moments were inscrutable until you were given context, much later -- but by the time you got the context, you'd probably have forgotten about them. Here, the game gives you a sense right away that something's wrong with Cloud.

I like and dislike this.

Part of what was wonderful about my initial FF7 experience was the bafflement and then thrill of realizing Cloud was broken and confused. Seeing his facade and persona crumble was special for me, whatever that may say about me, then his subsequent climb to redemption.

Cloud's story has made the deepest, most lasting impact on me of any video game, and changing how it is presented will inevitably change the impact that story will have.

LastSurprise wrote:

Last week, I watched my wife play about 30 minutes of this. One thing I loved: how up-front and clear the game was in foreshadowing some of Cloud's memory problems. I recall in the original, some of those moments were inscrutable until you were given context, much later -- but by the time you got the context, you'd probably have forgotten about them. Here, the game gives you a sense right away that something's wrong with Cloud.

In the original, when you get to the Mako reactor, Cloud falls to the ground and clutches his head while the voice that talks to him regularly throughout the game says things to him. I'm not sure how much more up-front and clear they could have been.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
LastSurprise wrote:

Last week, I watched my wife play about 30 minutes of this. One thing I loved: how up-front and clear the game was in foreshadowing some of Cloud's memory problems. I recall in the original, some of those moments were inscrutable until you were given context, much later -- but by the time you got the context, you'd probably have forgotten about them. Here, the game gives you a sense right away that something's wrong with Cloud.

In the original, when you get to the Mako reactor, Cloud falls to the ground and clutches his head while the voice that talks to him regularly throughout the game says things to him. I'm not sure how much more up-front and clear they could have been. :)

True, but for me that didn't really make me think there was something wrong with Cloud himself, it came across as a premonition or something. They way they have done it in the remake is more pointed at Cloud himself. I'm not dismissing the potential for my own knowledge informing how it feels, but I don't know how to be objective about that completely.

I'm with Clock on this one. While his symptoms get worse as the game progresses, I feel like it's pretty clear by the second reactor that there's something going on with him. I can't recall if the first time his hands go to his shaking head is in Midgar or not, but the game doesn't exactly leave it too ambiguous that something is up.

Again, though, I imagine we'll be getting all the information from the Kalm flashback delivered throughout this game instead, consolidating some of that story-telling, meaning we'll likely see his symptoms reach a far worse point earlier than they had in the original game. That's my guess at least.

For anyone hoping to get a physical copy, SE put out a statement about retail availability. They're still (for now) planning to release on April 10, but it may be hard to get the game for some people. It's not clear to me from the statement that this is because of so many retail closures, or if they think disk manufacturing or supply chain issues will cause shortages.

I believe they are mostly referencing people who bought physical copies through Amazon.

And the Square Enix store. I'll probably go digital in hopes that Sony will follow suit on upgrading game for next generation

I haven’t been paying close attention to the game scene, especially the PS4, for 18 months or so. Do PS4 games preload as soon as you preorder? Is there a certain time preloads unlock? If so, can someone post here when this preload is available?

PS4 games will preload, but they may not be available to do so when the preorder begins. It is often a few days before launch. The game usually unlocks in the US at midnight Eastern time on the release date.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I haven’t been paying close attention to the game scene, especially the PS4, for 18 months or so. Do PS4 games preload as soon as you preorder? Is there a certain time preloads unlock? If so, can someone post here when this preload is available?

So Persona 5 Royal couldn't preload until the 29th and I made the mistake of assuming it would do so automatically. It did not. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is set to auto download on the 8th but I will be double checking to make sure.

The many, many, many times they mention that mainstream players expect real-time action feels overly defensive to me.

But, the more I see of the game, the more I'm looking forward to playing. I keep meaning to play through the demo again with regular mode turned on. In videos at least, I just like how flashy it all looks. Obviously don't know how good it'll feel 20 hours in or whatever.

There's a "secret" ending to the demo if you set the bomb to 20 min instead of 30.

Tried the demo out today. On first blush I'm inclined to say that the combat is overly convoluted and janky; in the Guard Scorpion fight, for example, it wants you to target specific subsections of the boss at specific points, but there's so much crap flying around the screen that it can be difficult to tell what part you're targeting, and it seems to retarget whenever it feels like it.

It is entirely possible that I just don't know what I'm doing yet or that I would enjoy Classic or Easy mode better than Normal. Reserving final judgment. It's purty and I want to like it, and I don't DISlike it, but I don't actively like it yet either.