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Final Fantasy 7 - Remake

Started by Capt.Midnight, June 16, 2015, 11:23:34 PM

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Cloud

XII is marmite.  I hated it.  A lot of people I know loved it and said I was just thick for not following the story and reading between the lines and appreciating the subtle facets of the complex characters.

To me it was bland with unlikeable boring characters and a forgettable story
YMMV

popcorn

XII is the only FF I've really enjoyed. Can't remember the story but I fancied Fran.

Sin Agog

It sounds to me like FFXII might be set in a similar militarised universe to FF Tactics.  Slight tick in its favour for me 'cause I love those games- they had some of the best cut-scenes out of the whole series.

Thursday

For the first two thirds the cut-scenes that are there are actually really good for Final Fantasy, well localised, much sharper, subtler writing. More morally complex and human villain.

Then suddenly all these weird ghostly god-like things show up with very little introduction or explanation. I felt like I'd missed a huge chunk of story in the middle because I had no idea what what was happening by the end. I mean it's not unusual for them to take a turn towards the higher fantasy stuff in the final act, but it felt so undeveloped here, and all the more jarring in a game that had a much more grounded and believable world.

Although I only played it at original release when I guess I would have been 19, so maybe I was just thick and missed it all somehow.

But there's usually a fairly even balance of story and grinding battles in Final Fantasy games, in this one it's so weighed so much more heavily towards the grind. Even if I did like the battle system I'd still want a lot less of it, because story and characters are the main draw for me when it comes to JRPG's.


Cloud

I think to be fair a lot of my impression was affected by the massive departure from FFX backwards.  Even X was a stepping stone between the style of VII-VIII-IX and the current generation off FF games but happened to have characters and story I loved (and that others hated, in true FF tradition)

But those who wanted "A FFXII that acts as more of a compromise between PS1 and PS2 eras" could do well by giving Lost Odyssey a try.  It's by Sakaguchi and Uematsu after they left Square-Enix, and it shows.

NoSleep

Quote from: Sin Agog on August 18, 2020, 08:40:28 PM
Is FFXII any good?  Had no idea there was another offline FF game on the PS2 at the time other than X and X2: the J-Pop years.  The artwork looks pretty cool, but that auto-attack style sounds a bit Clickery.  I almost never hear anyone talk about it, good or bad.

I think FFXII has ended up being my favourite of all the games. The original director, Yasumi Matsuno, is responsible for some of my favourite games of all time; Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle. Unfortunately he didn't stay to complete the game, but his influence is all over it. In his version one of the other members of the team was the main character (Basch) which would have been a change for the series in having an older character at its centre. The main character (Vaan) is a bit of an add-on, inasmuch as he only seems to be along for the ride, compared to some of the others, who have far more interesting background stories and motives, but that's OK.

I like the battle system and the increasing opportunities to tweak it as the game develops. You have control over all the characters with a kind of AI, so you can walk into a battle with a plan. You can intervene manually during battle or take manual control of one character who takes the lead and gets support from all the others (basically follow the leader), prioritise certain actions (like reviving KO'd members, or making use of enhanced abilities when HP is low). You can change it mid battle, too.

Quote from: Thursday on August 19, 2020, 12:43:46 AM
For the first two thirds the cut-scenes that are there are actually really good for Final Fantasy, well localised, much sharper, subtler writing. More morally complex and human villain.

Then suddenly all these weird ghostly god-like things show up with very little introduction or explanation. I felt like I'd missed a huge chunk of story in the middle because I had no idea what what was happening by the end. I mean it's not unusual for them to take a turn towards the higher fantasy stuff in the final act, but it felt so undeveloped here, and all the more jarring in a game that had a much more grounded and believable world.

I think that's an indication of the point where Yasumi Matsuno left the project. The story has the same dynamics and depth as all his previous games, but he is at his best when he is given full reign, and with the departure of Hironobu Sakaguchi and twelve of the people who had been at work on FFXII (to Sakaguchi's new company), he found his vision of the game was getting swamped in the new team dynamic.

Consignia

I finished this the other day, after getting on discount of course. I guess I'm happy to admit I was actually wrong about it, with my initial cynicism. I really enjoyed it in the end.

Although, there are some small caveats. The thread of Kingdom Hearts bullshit around destiny and stuff feels really at odds with what is otherwise a straightforward story. There's also tons of filler to pad out what was a short segment of the original game. Hojo's lab being a particularly egregious part. It seems this is the somewhat easy section of game to adapt into this style as well, because the world tour, multi-party members aspect doesn't seem to jive well with the liner city bound Midgar.

But otherwise it was pretty great, once I got into the battle system of course. The demo didn't leave a great impression, but it was alright once it got going although I could have done without have to manage blocking and dodging. The town roam section are pretty good and felt very much to be a Yakuza/FF cross over. The characterisation of characters is the best yet after all the complication did to mangle them from the original, and minors from the originals are well fleshed out. The monster design was also pretty spot on as well, being great modern updates of the original designs.

It does feel good to be wrong about this stuff, similar to my inital feelings about THPS 1+2. I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this will go, and as long as they keep the destiny stuff to a minimum I honestly don't mind if it diverges significantly to the original from here or sticks to it.

bgmnts

Quote from: Cloud on August 19, 2020, 12:52:49 AM
But those who wanted "A FFXII that acts as more of a compromise between PS1 and PS2 eras" could do well by giving Lost Odyssey a try.  It's by Sakaguchi and Uematsu after they left Square-Enix, and it shows.

Yup.

Thursday

How do you play that now? Never had a 360, I know it'll probably be backwards compatible with a new Xbox, but is it on a digital store?

bgmnts

I had it in my library of games on xbone sans disc. So I must have bought it from the digital store on that.

Cloud

Yeah I have it on xbone as well, I think it might have been cheap/free at one point

C_Larence

Got this in a recent sale. I'm only on chapter 6 or 7, but so far I have very few complaints. The combat camera sometimes goes a bit wonky, and I don't like how townspeople just shout shit when you walk past them, especially when you're walking with a main character who's also talking. I find it extremely hard to focus on what they're saying.

Apart from those two minor issues I'm loving it. Wish they'd give IX the same treatment.

The Culture Bunker

I also bought it in the sale, and got through it the week after Christmas. I did enjoy the story, it making enough changes to the original to keep me interested and I guess the ending was enough to make me wonder where it'll go next. Seemed like they're teasing a different fate for one particular character, but I expect that'll be subverted. I did wonder how far the next game would go - they could make another whole game out of them crossing the world and picking up the rest of the party, but presumably it'll take it up to the end of (what was) Disc 1?

The locations looked great, enjoyed the music and the voice acting was fine. Main dislike was the actual gameplay, during the fights especially, which were a bit "meh" a lot of the time.

Cerys

Still haven't got this in my life.   If patience is a virtue I'm going to one hell of a heaven.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Cerys on January 14, 2021, 04:24:55 AM
Still haven't got this in my life.   If patience is a virtue I'm going to one hell of a heaven.

Well, 7th Heaven at any rate.

Cerys


C_Larence

Quote from: Consignia on September 10, 2020, 08:45:38 AM
I finished this the other day, after getting on discount of course. I guess I'm happy to admit I was actually wrong about it, with my initial cynicism. I really enjoyed it in the end.

Although, there are some small caveats. The thread of Kingdom Hearts bullshit around destiny and stuff feels really at odds with what is otherwise a straightforward story. There's also tons of filler to pad out what was a short segment of the original game. Hojo's lab being a particularly egregious part. It seems this is the somewhat easy section of game to adapt into this style as well, because the world tour, multi-party members aspect doesn't seem to jive well with the liner city bound Midgar.

But otherwise it was pretty great, once I got into the battle system of course. The demo didn't leave a great impression, but it was alright once it got going although I could have done without have to manage blocking and dodging. The town roam section are pretty good and felt very much to be a Yakuza/FF cross over. The characterisation of characters is the best yet after all the complication did to mangle them from the original, and minors from the originals are well fleshed out. The monster design was also pretty spot on as well, being great modern updates of the original designs.

It does feel good to be wrong about this stuff, similar to my inital feelings about THPS 1+2. I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this will go, and as long as they keep the destiny stuff to a minimum I honestly don't mind if it diverges significantly to the original from here or sticks to it.

Just finished this and came here to give my thoughts, but pretty much everything you said is what I was going to. Up until Hojo's lab I felt this was something really special, but the last stretch is a real slog that it's really dampened my enthusiasm for the game as a whole. I was going to go back and play it all again on hard mode but I think I'm going to play Control instead as it's free this month.

The Culture Bunker

I did mean to say in my comment above, that I was let down by not being able to remember Aerith as the "slum drunk" when Cloud meets up with her again in the church.

Fry

Finished this last night.

My favourite game in a long, long time. It's not perfect, but the things they needed to get right they absolutely nailed. Characters, combat, world building. All brilliant. Pacing was a little off, it dragged at points and certain areas felt a bit overstuffed, but at no point do you feel like the developers tossed anything off with a "that'll do" attitude. It's a real labour of love. I feel every aspect of the original game had been studied closely and with scientific precision they've identified and extracted the essential parts as is, expanded on the areas that needed expanding upon, and everything else they've added feels like it was there in the original in some form. It's pure FF7.

Other parts I loved:

-Seeing the ruins of Sector 7 after Shinra dropped the plate was genuinely upsetting in a way that videogames rarely capture for me. When you're climbing up to the Shinra HQ, looking at the  tangled mountains of concrete and metal hinting at the unimaginable number of lives that have been devestated. A surprising amount of maturity for a video game, in that they didn't absolutely hit you over the head with it (too much).

-The trip up to the top to see Jessie's family was excellent. They captured the lifeless sterility of the bougie Shinra-Employee suburbs excellently. A technically attractive but dead, soulless neighbourhood that can only exist by being built literally on the backs of an oppressed underclass and by sucking the life out of a dying planet. A pointless endeavour that costs millions of lives and produces nothing.

-They've managed to stay away from the po-faced joylessness of Advent Children and most other latter-day Final Fantasy stuff. it's still goofy and silly in the ways it needs to be.

-That fucking Honeybee Inn sequence was immense.

-They've basically kept materia system the same- my favourite RPG magic system yet.

One significant issue I have with it is the ending. My partner was watching me play through it. She's never played Final Fantasy 7 before, and knew nothing about it. She enjoyed watching me as much as I enjoyed actually playing it. She fell in love with the characters, she was heartbroken when it looked like Biggs, Wedge and Jessie had gotten got. However, because she has no connection to the original the ending left her somewhat cold. A feeling shared by me to an extent, although I could appreciate what they are trying to do. But if you're going to change the story from the original, change the story. But don't make the changed story about how the story is being changed. that's very wanker sign.

But yeah, this got my other half to buy FF7 and play through it for the first time. She has no idea what happens to our girl. Tenner says she cries.

C_Larence

Would have agreed with all that yesterday before I spent hours fighting the hell house on hard mode with no MP. Now I hate the game

Chedney Honks

PS5 upgrade and Yuffie DLC live now. Heard they fixed the door textures and put 60fps in there.

brat-sampson

If I had a PS5.............

St_Eddie

Quote from: brat-sampson on June 10, 2021, 06:03:46 PM
If I had a PS5
I'd play games in the morning
I'd play games in the evening
All over this land

Thursday

Keep thinking about how brilliant and how shit this game is. I want to replay it, but they've really fucked me off with making Intergrade PS5 exclusive. I'm still not sure how it works with upgrading the PS4 version?

Chedney Honks

Quote from: Thursday on June 12, 2021, 09:06:12 AM
Keep thinking about how brilliant and how shit this game is. I want to replay it, but they've really fucked me off with making Intergrade PS5 exclusive. I'm still not sure how it works with upgrading the PS4 version?

It's free and easy.

The PS4 version was recently patched. Boot it up and upload your save data (new main menu option). Close game. Go to the game page, select PS5 version, download it. That's it.

For info, Intergrade is the name of the PS5 update. INTERmission is the name of the Yuffie DLC. Of course...

It really does look and play quite a lot better. Without the motion blur and 30fps, everything looks so much crisper and more 'physical'. The lighting and textures and effects are conspicuously great. I thought this game played really well and very smoothly on PS4 but this is proper shit off a shovel stuff.

Thursday

I'm not planning on getting a PS5 anytime soon though so that's the main issue.

Chedney Honks

Oh, apologies, I misread. It is shit that the DLC isn't also on PS4, typical anti-consumer shite.

Golden E. Pump

The PS5 version is the tits. INTERmission was a fantastic DLC and I'll be playing the whole thing again on hard mode to get that sweet, sweet platinum trophy.

peanutbutter

PC release next week, $70

I'll probably get it after Christmas at full price tbh. Contemplated getting a PS4 pretty much just for it earlier in the year

Glebe

No word on an Xbox version. :(