This was a very conflicting game. I have never beaten all of FF7 but had finished the parts covered here, so I was very interested based on the changes it was showing as time went on. This is largely what kept me going, the nature of fate playing a role and the characters resisting and challenging that. An interesting idea for a remake, confronting the direct path the original follows in-narrative. The game around that though is a bit messier.
I feel like of the action rpg battle systems I’ve seen in FF games so far, this one is probably the best designed, though moment to moment I enjoyed ff15 better. But this connects you to the characters more closely and opens up for some interesting strategies and mechanics in fights. I think it does become a little difficult to work with when youre strapped for ATB and it’s going a little slowly to reload, putting you in unwinnable situations rather than being able to skill your way out of it. Which to be fair to it is pretty in line with an RPG like 7. Other gameplay things that were odd were the traversal. It felt bad to control sometimes when moving in the environment, which could be a hindrance transitioning into a battle, or doing a boring puzzle or trying to find something obscure.
I thought it looked fairly beautiful, capturing the scenery and atmosphere of the original well with some obvious upgrades and reinterpretations. It was a little uneven here, even with the ps5 upgrades, there were plenty of spots where the graphics were hiding a bit of jank in design.
The game also was very padded. I found myself loving the shit out of maybe every 3 fights, with the rest in between feeling like a chore. Which is weird as they wouldn’t change that much between them, though when there was a cleverly designed mechanical challenge, I had a lot of fun with those and felt fully engaged. Most side quests and other optional tasks were fully boring. Nothing really of interest in these.
Some story padding too, inconsequential moments that neither help service the original plot, the new thread it’s laying, or building the characters. And the characters didn’t feel too interesting. I liked the avalanche three, and I adored Barrett. He is by far the best character in this. Big tough guy with a gun arm was always cool, but they executed on his character extremely well. And he had the best motivations and emotional depth of anyone. I felt like the others had the same kind of weird stilted vibe that a lot of anime and game characters have. It was still fine, nothing horrible from any of them but they were largely uninteresting save for a couple moments here and there.
I’m excited to see where they take it, and perhaps being able to stretch their legs even further will make the next game have fewer of the problems in this one. I didn’t like it like I hoped, but there’s still enough good here I don’t really regret playing it, and had fun with it altogether, just with some deeper lows than expected.
Also I pray that red 13 is playable in ff7r2 because it’s honestly unforgivable if they do him dirty again.
I feel like of the action rpg battle systems I’ve seen in FF games so far, this one is probably the best designed, though moment to moment I enjoyed ff15 better. But this connects you to the characters more closely and opens up for some interesting strategies and mechanics in fights. I think it does become a little difficult to work with when youre strapped for ATB and it’s going a little slowly to reload, putting you in unwinnable situations rather than being able to skill your way out of it. Which to be fair to it is pretty in line with an RPG like 7. Other gameplay things that were odd were the traversal. It felt bad to control sometimes when moving in the environment, which could be a hindrance transitioning into a battle, or doing a boring puzzle or trying to find something obscure.
I thought it looked fairly beautiful, capturing the scenery and atmosphere of the original well with some obvious upgrades and reinterpretations. It was a little uneven here, even with the ps5 upgrades, there were plenty of spots where the graphics were hiding a bit of jank in design.
The game also was very padded. I found myself loving the shit out of maybe every 3 fights, with the rest in between feeling like a chore. Which is weird as they wouldn’t change that much between them, though when there was a cleverly designed mechanical challenge, I had a lot of fun with those and felt fully engaged. Most side quests and other optional tasks were fully boring. Nothing really of interest in these.
Some story padding too, inconsequential moments that neither help service the original plot, the new thread it’s laying, or building the characters. And the characters didn’t feel too interesting. I liked the avalanche three, and I adored Barrett. He is by far the best character in this. Big tough guy with a gun arm was always cool, but they executed on his character extremely well. And he had the best motivations and emotional depth of anyone. I felt like the others had the same kind of weird stilted vibe that a lot of anime and game characters have. It was still fine, nothing horrible from any of them but they were largely uninteresting save for a couple moments here and there.
I’m excited to see where they take it, and perhaps being able to stretch their legs even further will make the next game have fewer of the problems in this one. I didn’t like it like I hoped, but there’s still enough good here I don’t really regret playing it, and had fun with it altogether, just with some deeper lows than expected.
Also I pray that red 13 is playable in ff7r2 because it’s honestly unforgivable if they do him dirty again.