Final Fantasy VII REMAKE Catch All

I'm working on the Platinum. Finishing on Hard Mode was an interesting challenge in equipping just the right materia for each boss fight and using thoughtful tactics to manage your precious ATB gauge and MP. And although I put some thought into equipping materia to level it, I never felt a need to "grind" easy battles even once.

Unfortunately, a couple of the trophies I have left are pure tedium. One ("Dressed to the Nines") requires playing through long unchallenging sections of the game three or more times, probably consulting a FAQ/walkthrough. One involves a brutal but tedious minigame. So although the post-game can be fun, you should strap yourself in for a few hours of boredom if you're going to try to get all the trophies.

beeporama wrote:

I'm working on the Platinum. Finishing on Hard Mode was an interesting challenge in equipping just the right materia for each boss fight and using thoughtful tactics to manage your precious ATB gauge and MP. And although I put some thought into equipping materia to level it, I never felt a need to "grind" easy battles even once.

Unfortunately, a couple of the trophies I have left are pure tedium. One ("Dressed to the Nines") requires playing through long unchallenging sections of the game three or more times, probably consulting a FAQ/walkthrough. One involves a brutal but tedious minigame. So although the post-game can be fun, you should strap yourself in for a few hours of boredom if you're going to try to get all the trophies.

It's funny, to me, that the requirements for Platinum have to do with the parts of the game I didn't enjoy as much, in many cases. Much as I loved the remake, I don't see myself attempting the Platinum any time soon.

I quite enjoyed the platinum, except for the mini games and Dressed to nine. It certainly does require that you already like the combat.
Hard difficulty is way more forgiving than it sounds though.

Still, making a game more difficult by removing gameplay options is the wrong way to do it tbh (in this case restricting spell usage).

Shadout wrote:

I quite enjoyed the platinum, except for the mini games and Dressed to nine. It certainly does require that you already like the combat.
Hard difficulty is way more forgiving than it sounds though.

Still, making a game more difficult by removing gameplay options is the wrong way to do it tbh (in this case restricting spell usage).

I'd agree that Hard was, mostly, not as bad as I expected. It forces you to conserve as much MP as possible for bosses, but most people do that anyway. Your increased power compensates for a fair amount of the increased difficulty. It was challenging but fair if viewed as a puzzle rather than an action game. On the other hand, I think it would have been more fun if instead of adding the restrictions they did, you were instead required to do a better job exploiting elemental weaknesses.

It sounds like you hit the same walls as me on platinum.

Spoiler:

Jules is the Emerald Weapon of Remake. ;)

Oh hey, this video might make you appreciate the game more:

Minor general spoilers about themes and setting. Talks about allegories for real world issues, so not recommended if you're the kind of person who just wants games to be games without thinking about the real world. (But, frankly, I doubt anyone could miss FF7's not-so-subtle allegories... this just maybe kind of helps you appreciate them.)

Just finished FF7 Remake last night. I hated it. And I loved it. I don't know how I feel. Agh.

This will be very spoilery below, so I'll do a quick summary and then mark spoilers for the rest.

Positives:
+ All the nostalgias. This nailed it so hard at times that I had to take breaks because it was bringing back so many feels from my childhood.
+ Music was brilliant, coming from somebody who listened to the OST & piano renditions for decades, and has had Aeris' Theme as their morning alarm clock sound for >15 years. I loved the in-level remixes, and then the extra bonus collectible remixes were just brilliant icing.
+ Gameplay was mostly excellent. I loved the feeling of each character's unique style.
+ Voice acting was surprisingly great for the entire main cast. Surprisingly, my favorite was Barret. I lol'd every time he sung the iconic fight win song after a battle. (:
+ Remaking iconic locations was picture perfect, yet fleshed out entire regions in believable and awesome ways. I spent hours exploring locations just for the sake of it.
+ Overall, graphics were incredible, especially character design. One caveat is several of the textures were strangely low-res and felt a bit jarring.

Negatives:
- ...Discussed below in spoilers.
- Some of the earlier changes/modernization didn't quite land with me. Looking at you, Honeybee Inn.
- While I liked how epic a lot of the bosses felt, they verged on the side of tediously long several times.
- Way too much padded dungeon length.
- Padded quests were painfully obvious and unnecessary.
- Fights frequently felt like frustrating heal-fights instead of epic damage dealing.
- Getting interrupted while putting out a critical spell was rage-inducing. GREAT I'm interrupted for the 4th damn time while trying to put out critical heals/raises/whatever and now we're dead. It was frequently way too difficult to figure out when it was safe to cast, because there could be 3-4 enemies circling around and good luck managing to find a camera view to keep it in perspective.
- Dodging didn't feel as effective as I thought it should be. I ended up using block 10x more by the end, especially once you get the guard-buffing materia.

Spoilery everything else:

Spoiler:

Holy hell that ending. I mean, on one hand, claps all around for being gutsy. Literally turning the rabid fanbase into dementors for you to slay so the developers aren't shackled by the past and can make whatever they want? Wow.

Things I love about it:
+ It's bold as hell.
+ They can tell whatever story they want now and it's very exciting to see where they go.
+ It's actually a cool idea. Sephiroth somehow has obtained knowledge of the fated destiny (from original FF7) and now is meddling to change things. He manipulates you into slaying the demons of fate, and thus releases an unknown future.

Things I hate about it:
- It was unnecessary and self-centered. The story ended up being more about the developers feeling constrained than about the actual characters in the story. They could have just changed it, or put these plot devices into a handful of "visions" or something instead of making it The Big Bad.
- It ruined the flow of plot. Sephiroth is already set up as the primary antagonist who's nigh-omnipotent and we're only like 1/4 through the original plot.
- It makes almost no sense if you aren't intimately familiar with the original FF7 story (and partially Crisis Core and Advent Children).
- Why were the Whispers going absolutely crazy swirling around Shinra HQ at the end of Chapter 17 into Chapter 18? Every other time they had a specific goal (injure Jessie, protect Aerith, save Barret, prevent Hojo from revealing info, etc), but this time I don't see what they were doing except being a big scary plot device.

Other frustrating points:
- Sephiroth randomly appearing throughout and being super duper unclear if he was real at any point.
- I disliked many of the earlier fighty additions because they felt unnecessary. The colosseum in Wall Market, the Shinra VR fights, the materia research quests & fights, etc.
- I'm not sure the extra stuff added throughout the game actually makes the game better. The overall flow of the original game was just better. There's a reason we blaze through most of Midgar and move on to the overworld much faster in the original: there's a helluva lot more story to discover out there. Now we've spent dozens of hours gumming up that flow for no good reason. I repeatedly was thinking to myself as I'd get to a new section: well, that was kinda neat, but I don't think it actually made the game better (*cough*Roche*cough*).
- Way too long areas that could have been cut by 50% or more: Train Graveyard, The Drum, Sewers, several sector paths, the entirety of the research facility below sector 7.
- I didn't get to pick a dress that feels "soft" and "shimmers" or "smells good". ): Also no relaxing bath time with the squatting team.

Final miscellaneous thoughts:
- Will any of our progress from this carry over to part 2?? Is there any point in grinding materia/levels/manuscripts besides completionism??
- About that ending... I'm personally on the side that there are two timelines now. I think the Whispers were eradicated from all of history, and now we're seeing path 1 with no Whispers (Zack survives, the sector 7 plate is prevented from falling so Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse all survive) and path 2 with our own characters' playthrough (Zack dead, Cloud's mind broken, sector 7 dead so Biggs, Wedge, Jessie dead).
- Mild predictions of where it goes from here: I think the story will end up rehashing the same story and themes of the original game, about death/sacrifice and the inevitability of fate, but that we get to make the choices ourself instead of being forced to. I'm predicting Aeris will survive initially (against her will), and then later willingly sacrifices herself to preserve the original future.

Overall, this is a hard game to recommend. I'd honestly recommend playing the original FF7 on the expedited version like the Switch so you can experience the story as it was originally told without the outdated grindiness/random encounters. And if you liked that, then try this Remake out. It'll be a lot more meaningful in that order.

Whew. I'm glad there'll be a long break before FF7 Remake Part 2, to let all that percolate and mentally prepare for the next step.

Side note: this was the longest story-focused game I've played in a very long time. Fallout 4 in 2016 is probably the most recent, and my last JRPG I actually wrapped was in 2012. It took some serious perseverance to finish this thing, and that's from somebody who loved the heck out of FF7. It's fascinating how different a gamer I've become. It took serious motivation to just turn the game on sometimes, yet I'd usually have a good time playing once I got going. Time for a break and blast through some great smaller indies for a while. (:

I share a lot of your same opinions about the ending.

Filthy skimmer alert.

I played FFVII back when it originally came out. A few times, including all of the Weapon fights and the stupid lightning dodges. Suffice it to say, I loved the heck out of that game; I tried to play it once a few years ago via the Steam release, but I just couldn't get into it. Too much time had passed, and user interface sensibilities had changed in the decades (omg) since.

I intentionally ignored as much as I could about the Remake, hoping I'd be able to hold out for a PC release... but I couldn't. I caved yesterday. I'm only in chapter 3, running around the Slums, and I think I've fallen in love with the game. Again. I was afraid the move from ATB to more of an action-style combat was going to bother me a lot, but I'm kinda digging it. The fight with the Scorpion Sentinel Boss at the end of chapter 1 was suitably intense and caused me to use a lot of consumables (multiple Phoenix Downs omg), and I think even after all of the trash mob fights leading up to that, I still didn't (maybe still don't) fully understand how to be effective in extended fights -- but I'm eager to learn.

merphle wrote:

I played FFVII back when it originally came out. A few times, including all of the Weapon fights and the stupid lightning dodges.

Wasn't that FFX?

That was FFX or FFXIII if you read the sentence differently.

ccesarano wrote:
merphle wrote:

I played FFVII back when it originally came out. A few times, including all of the Weapon fights and the stupid lightning dodges.

Wasn't that FFX?

Wait, was it? Just goes to show how long it's been - they've started to blend together.

You had to dodge 500 lightning strikes in a row to get Lulu’s final weapon in FFX. It sucked and I never was able to do it. FFVII’s main frustrations were getting the Knights of the Round summon and fighting in the Weapons.

Vector wrote:

You had to dodge 200 lightning strikes in a row to get Lulu’s final weapon in FFX. It sucked and I never was able to do it. FFVII’s main frustrations were getting the Knights of the Round summon and fighting in the Weapons.

There's a trick to it I discovered on my second playthrough that has been put up on youtube by others if you want to check it out. I'm more concerned about FFX-2's tower calibration. Those sucked hard. Similarly, getting the Lu Shang badge from fishing in FFXII also blows.

Vector wrote:

FFVII’s main frustrations were getting the Knights of the Round summon and fighting in the Weapons.

I am terrible at video games mostly and I remember getting the Knights of the Round was more a matter of being willing to spend time rather than being hard. Still a kind of frustration but one I could handle when I was younger. I had far more time than skill so running the races and breeding the Chocobo was easy.

Grenn wrote:
Vector wrote:

You had to dodge 200 lightning strikes in a row to get Lulu’s final weapon in FFX. It sucked and I never was able to do it. FFVII’s main frustrations were getting the Knights of the Round summon and fighting in the Weapons.

There's a trick to it I discovered on my second playthrough that has been put up on youtube by others if you want to check it out. I'm more concerned about FFX-2's tower calibration. Those sucked hard. Similarly, getting the Lu Shang badge from fishing in FFXII also blows.

Yeah, that video's method is how I got that trophy. Tedious, but one of the less time consuming ways to get one of the final weapons.

Is it more difficult in the HD Remaster than in the original PS2 release? I know I didn't use any tricks like that back in the day - just reflexes that I probably don't have any more.

merphle wrote:

Is it more difficult in the HD Remaster than in the original PS2 release? I know I didn't use any tricks like that back in the day - just reflexes that I probably don't have any more.

Ya, same. I remember it being very annoying, but doable. This was one of the last ultimates I grinded out in games before I realized what the heck was the point in obtaining the ultimate weapons if there was nothing to use it on afterwards. I think I'd already cleared everything else in the game.

I never could do it. I think I only ended up getting half of the ultimate weapons. I think the main point of them was to fight the ultra hard enemies in the arena.

The remaster includes the Dark Aeon fights, and you definitely want the weapons for those. But you're also looking at hours and hours of grinding the sphere grid to max as well.

beanman101283 wrote:

The remaster includes the Dark Aeon fights, and you definitely want the weapons for those. But you're also looking at hours and hours of grinding the sphere grid to max as well.

This, however, is made much easier with 4x mode that increases in-game speed of everything 4 times faster. Since it's all turn based, you don't have to worry about not being able to prevent dying. Also, utilizing the monster arena in the Calm Lands helps a ton.

How cute is it that the five kids in the Slums all have little wooden Buster Swords on their back?

Between DQXI, Ys VIII, wife, kids and pandemic i HAVENT been able to advance in this game. I also am hesitant to play it during the day since I keep getting constant interruptions. hopefully I will give it a shot tonight

Don’t ever feel guilty about not playing a game. Just enjoy whatever you’re doing, if you’re having fun doing it.

I was just mindin' my own business, wanderin' around Wall Market, when I stumbled upon a Schoolteacher-Honeybee, and now I have a new fetish. Damn. Daaaaaaaamn.

merphle wrote:

I was just mindin' my own business, wanderin' around Wall Market, when I stumbled upon a Schoolteacher-Honeybee, and now I have a new fetish. Damn. Daaaaaaaamn.

I read this as Wal-Mart and had to take a moment to remember what thread I clicked on and why.

merphle wrote:

I was just mindin' my own business, wanderin' around Wall Market, when I stumbled upon a Schoolteacher-Honeybee, and now I have a new fetish. Damn. Daaaaaaaamn.

She is looker, for sure.

merphle wrote:

How cute is it that the five kids in the Slums all have little wooden Buster Swords on their back?

Even cuter, I think they only get them up after Cloud impresses them.

Finished the pro pullup challenge!!! That was tough for me! Really enjoyed it, though.

Finished! I want more. I think it was pretty impressive. I eventually got a handle on the combat and materia doing all the combat challenges in the simulator towards the end. Last cutscenes were weirdly hitchy on my PS4 Pro. Other than that, it ran beautifully, and my Pro was quiet after I replaced the thermal paste even on super hot days. I need to watch a video comparing it to the original because I kinda forgot where that one went.

Today, I thought, maybe I'll try out Chapter Select, and prepare for a hard mode run! I fired up the game, and found that ... apparently, I hadn't made a save after finishing, so I can't access Chapter Select unless I re-do the final battle(s). Grr....