Please share any opinion or comment regarding Final Fantasy in general, the original Final Fantasy 7 and specially Final Fantasy 7 Remake in this thread.
(and avoid posting them as off-topic in other threads)
Below I just post something for a first post.
On the original FF7
Regarding the original FF7, I really believe FF6 is the best final fantasy followed by FF5, such an underrated gem, and after them probably comes FF9... or FF7.
My reaction back in 1997 when I first played FF7 was something along "what an impressive game, such a good soundtrack, and those FMV and graphics, wow!".... but that was the same reaction I had back in the day to FF8. Nowadays I would say FF8 was not really good, and FF7 was a way better game.
I think FF7 was a good game actually, the music was good, level design was... meh, characters were OKish+ (worse than FF6, way better than FF8), storytelling was all over the place and the plot in general was nothing quite original but it was good. That said there always was this feeling of mystery to the plot and the idea of "there's something hidden there to find out" that was quite interesting. To be honest the whole thing was very enjoyable, but I think it was more of a "shared experience" thing, as in everybody was playing it back in 1997.
The battle system was OK, but it felt too grindy (same with FF6 TBH). I really liked the concept of materia, and summons looked great but they completely broke the flow and made battle boring after a while (FF8 was worse in this aspect). Also the battle system was so easy to break with a combination of that materia that absorbed MP + last attack + phoenix summon.
In short, it was a very nice but also very overrated JPRG of the 90s, that was very enjoyable to experience in the 90s together with everybody else as a shared social experience. It had the a influence on further FFs of making the battle system slow with lots of overworked animations that took too much time only for show. It had some good and charming characters, but some of them specially NPC felt underdeveloped, and the all over-the-place storytelling got sometimes in the way. It was a good game.
On the remake of FF7
I bought this one a couple of weeks ago, but I only had time to get to play it two days ago, so I can't say much about it up to now.
Battle-system
One year ago or so I played a demo in Gamestop, then I played the demo from the PS4 eshop, in those cases I didn't get too well with the battle system, it felt too much like button mashing.
Now I've been playing it a little more and I am starting to get used to it... I think perhaps it is not a battle system problem but a me not getting used to the battle system problem.
I also like how materia came back, but I haven't played enough to see how well does it work in the game.
I have to say the battle system feels like there's a lot of micromanagement that has to take place, and perhaps one has to get used to this, I've also heard from many people that the AI of the characters you're not directly controlling is a mess, but I still haven't experienced that.
Exploration
It's okish, but it doesn't feel so good to me. I feel too constrained, with invisible obstacles or invisible walls, and too little flexibility on how to move around... It feels outdated.
I don't know how to explain this, but perhaps I've played to much Xenoblade, Zelda BOTW, ... (put here almost any modern game) ... or I was just playing YS VIII last week, and changing from that (where I felt free to move and jump around wherever I wanted full speed) into something where I just can't jump from say a sidewalk that is a bit elevated into the streets, it feels a bit limiting, of course IMHO.
Graphics and Music
It looks awesome, and it sounds awesome. 10 out of 10. Let's move on. Oh wait, some textures are too low-res I guess (I wanted to read the details on the Loveless poster, can't do).
Storytelling and character development
I really feel the storytelling is way better than the original (up to where I have played), and the character development has improved a lot. I love how much attention many NPCs are getting.
That said I am not too much into the game yet, so probably these talks about "pacing getting awful" a tad later with many samey quests are true, but I still haven't experienced that.
In short, I still haven't played enough and although I find some flaws I the game improves quite over the original (up to now). I am enjoying it.
(and avoid posting them as off-topic in other threads)
Below I just post something for a first post.
On the original FF7
Regarding the original FF7, I really believe FF6 is the best final fantasy followed by FF5, such an underrated gem, and after them probably comes FF9... or FF7.
My reaction back in 1997 when I first played FF7 was something along "what an impressive game, such a good soundtrack, and those FMV and graphics, wow!".... but that was the same reaction I had back in the day to FF8. Nowadays I would say FF8 was not really good, and FF7 was a way better game.
I think FF7 was a good game actually, the music was good, level design was... meh, characters were OKish+ (worse than FF6, way better than FF8), storytelling was all over the place and the plot in general was nothing quite original but it was good. That said there always was this feeling of mystery to the plot and the idea of "there's something hidden there to find out" that was quite interesting. To be honest the whole thing was very enjoyable, but I think it was more of a "shared experience" thing, as in everybody was playing it back in 1997.
The battle system was OK, but it felt too grindy (same with FF6 TBH). I really liked the concept of materia, and summons looked great but they completely broke the flow and made battle boring after a while (FF8 was worse in this aspect). Also the battle system was so easy to break with a combination of that materia that absorbed MP + last attack + phoenix summon.
In short, it was a very nice but also very overrated JPRG of the 90s, that was very enjoyable to experience in the 90s together with everybody else as a shared social experience. It had the a influence on further FFs of making the battle system slow with lots of overworked animations that took too much time only for show. It had some good and charming characters, but some of them specially NPC felt underdeveloped, and the all over-the-place storytelling got sometimes in the way. It was a good game.
On the remake of FF7
I bought this one a couple of weeks ago, but I only had time to get to play it two days ago, so I can't say much about it up to now.
Battle-system
One year ago or so I played a demo in Gamestop, then I played the demo from the PS4 eshop, in those cases I didn't get too well with the battle system, it felt too much like button mashing.
Now I've been playing it a little more and I am starting to get used to it... I think perhaps it is not a battle system problem but a me not getting used to the battle system problem.
I also like how materia came back, but I haven't played enough to see how well does it work in the game.
I have to say the battle system feels like there's a lot of micromanagement that has to take place, and perhaps one has to get used to this, I've also heard from many people that the AI of the characters you're not directly controlling is a mess, but I still haven't experienced that.
Exploration
It's okish, but it doesn't feel so good to me. I feel too constrained, with invisible obstacles or invisible walls, and too little flexibility on how to move around... It feels outdated.
I don't know how to explain this, but perhaps I've played to much Xenoblade, Zelda BOTW, ... (put here almost any modern game) ... or I was just playing YS VIII last week, and changing from that (where I felt free to move and jump around wherever I wanted full speed) into something where I just can't jump from say a sidewalk that is a bit elevated into the streets, it feels a bit limiting, of course IMHO.
Graphics and Music
It looks awesome, and it sounds awesome. 10 out of 10. Let's move on. Oh wait, some textures are too low-res I guess (I wanted to read the details on the Loveless poster, can't do).
Storytelling and character development
I really feel the storytelling is way better than the original (up to where I have played), and the character development has improved a lot. I love how much attention many NPCs are getting.
That said I am not too much into the game yet, so probably these talks about "pacing getting awful" a tad later with many samey quests are true, but I still haven't experienced that.
In short, I still haven't played enough and although I find some flaws I the game improves quite over the original (up to now). I am enjoying it.
Last edited by sarkwalvein,