My copy only arrived yesterday and apparently my next few weekends are overbooked with family events. Sad times.
Hah, I feel you. I only got about 8 hours in, thanks to work and all our hobbies.
This weekend is the first in months where I have absolutely nothing to do. Hope it stays that way.
1 Like
I feel like Iâm going against the grain here, but I think thereâs quite a bit of Ubisoft-ification here. The world is beautiful, but the myriad of map markers and busywork here is a little bit disheartening.
2 Likes
Yeah. I don´t mind a lot of side quests, I love that. Just a bit too many markers, haha.
I´ve clocked 22 hours now. Not that many. And storywise in chapter 4.
Nate, you mentioned something last time about the Midgar Zolom. It was done differently, but I think in a good way. Kinda got the same vibe.
Absolutely despise Chadley and Kyrie btw.
3 Likes
As it should be! Insufferable much like the newbie alongside Chadley. Why they gave them so much dialogue and all delivered through the controller Iâll never know.
3 Likes
Heâs actively a detriment to my enjoyment of the game. Every non-main story activity involves him pecking Cloudâs head with his inane, nondescript dialogue every 10 seconds, and itâs affecting the pacing when heâs ringing you every time you find something interesting on the world map. Then he has the audacity to give me a performance review when I ignore him. âSorry Cloud, I notice that intel gathering has slowed downâ. What you gonna do, fire me from doing you favours? Fuck off.
I do like this game a lot but thereâs a fair amount of Ubisoft-ification here. A shit load of map markers and busywork, most of which doesnât feel particularly rewarding upon completion. Scanning 4 crystals to make a VR summon fight easier? Scanning a lifestream fountain to get lore on the area? You could get by on just doing the protorelic quests, dangerous fiend encounters and excavating for treasure.
Not trying to be a hater but I dunno; this doesnât need to be a 100 hour game. Remove half the annoying mini-games (Tifaâs crunches can absolutely get in the bin), condense the amount of busywork on the world map and reduce the amount of pointless dialogue, and youâd have a genuine GOTY contender and possible all-timer. Square are clearly very good at expanding spaces that are actually lived in; Kalm, Junon and Costa Del Sol are all absolutely phenomenal locales and Iâve enjoyed spending times at these locations more than I have the actual open world.
3 Likes
Totally agree on the Chadley⌠I was fine with him being in a few spots like in Remake. Way too much of him now and getting extremely annoyed by him.
I get why they´ve done it. There´s a lot more to do in open world now. Young people who play this and have never played the original won´t mind. In the original you had the Weapons and that was it for extra´s or side stories.
Not really true-you also had all of the individual party memberâs Ultimate Materia and weapons, Chocobo breeding, Wutai, GongagaâŚheck Vincent himself lmao
I do take your point that itâs a lot more though. Iâm excited to see how the Weapons are handled eventually.
Yeah. You could finish the game without even getting Vincent or Yuffie. And summons like Knights of the Round.
I was saying on the world map there was nothing to do except for the random fights and travelling to the next town.
Oh I see your point now, sorry I misread.
I didnât really dig the changes to the Midgar ZolomâŚ
Grasslands Spoilers
I didnât appreciate that the game wouldnât let you even attempt to cross without a Chocobo, nor the fact that when you DO have a Chocobo you just sort of bump into it rather than that feeling of outrunning it (makes the whole getting Chocobo pointless really but thatâs fine in and of itself)
I also donât likeâŚwhatever happened with Sephiroth? Did he kill the one we encountered? Or is Cloud seeing something he did (the classic Cloud static before he witnesses Sephiroth in that way was there but yet the Zolom we fought was gone)? Was he there? I know that certain moments are meant to be confusing but with this it muddies the impact imo.
Again itâs this thing of feeling as if we have to be directly shown âlook, you just fought this thing and yet it survived in cutscenes but Sephiroth killed it in cutscenes!â It was much better when IF you fought the zolom by trying to cross the swamp it would wreck your shit, forcing you to change your strategy to outrun it, but then you see that Sephiroth managed to absolutely massacre it. In Rebirth itâs still a formidable beast but it being an unavoidable encounter cheapens the feel of that moment. It was supposed to be SO strong the only way you live is by avoiding it.
I donât really feel like the gameplay of the Zolom conveys it as that strong anymore-itâs all sort of done in the cutscenes. This is why I think they gave us control of Sephiroth in the Nibelheim section btw @ippikitako , because unlike in the original they canât guarantee that weâd witness his strength through gameplay with the evolution in the battle system. Do I agree with it? Not necessarily. But I thought I understood the logic, but any lack of attempt to use the battle system to show the strength of the zolom here has me questioning whether it really was just fanservice in the end.
3 Likes
Think I agree having gone past this bit yesterday. Didnât really like it, plus I always liked the impact of having the view of the area while crossing that area of the world map from a distance. Here itâs stuck away in the middle of an area in which you can only see it if you go right in towards it.
I prefer the way it was in the original, but I can´t say the new version âsucksâ. I try to be a bit open minded about it all. Otherwise it would be too easy for me to say the only positive about the remakes is Tifa in bikinis. Can´t be openminded about Chadley though.
⌠waiting for someone to come back and say he prefers the pixeltitties
1 Like
Well with polygons you see the boobs actuallyâŚ
Iâm just around Junon now, I decided to explore the area first before venturing in but goodness it is huge. There are definitely a lot of improvements/features that make exploring better than in other games. Being able to choose whether to land after some fast travel on foot or chocobo, collecting items on chocobos, having markers appear from a decent distance, etc. But there really is a lot of bloat in all honesty, also Iâm not quite sure why they input the owl that leads you to one of those things when you already have a marker for it on the map. I donât hate the sidequests though even though theyâre mostly fetch quests, at least so far theyâve introduced them with some OK background stories.
1 Like
Same. Waiting to jump on the dolphin until I have most of everything else done.
Yeah about the owl. I´ve been ignoring the last towers to get a feel of exploring again. Or does the icon actually pop up after you´ve spotted the owl? Didn´t notice.
Speaking of story beats that I think are actually better
Corel Prison spoilers
Dyneâs story and consequent death are a lot better here I would say. Not super emotional or anything, but I didnât really think much of Dyne in the original whereas heâs a bit much fleshed out here. Some great work from Barrettâs and Dyneâs voice actors really help.
That´s something I was much looking forward to. Barret´s relationship with
Dyne and that background story.
When I started replaying FF7 shortly after Remake, I quit there right before the fight.
Should pick it up again. All these nostalgic emotions makes me want to keep my NTSC copies. Was actually selling them, making advantage of the hype, LOL.
Fuck the Gongaga region. Fuck it so hard.
1 Like
Yes. I hope cards go over to the next playthrough ´cause I might have to
forfait the tournament on the Shinra-8. Can´t beat Regina with my crappy cards and can´t go back to Thorin.
Edit: nevermind. I read the rules of the cardgame and got past her in 3 or 4 tries.
Theyâre cooking with the FF16 DLC very excited for that