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[Power Pro]

As i continue my journey through FF7 rebirth, I'm up to the

Spoiler

Coral Region

, yeah, there are totally things to nitpick about it, and omg Chadley needs to shut the fuck up...but as a game, it just seems so impressive from a design perspective. they took what was basically a hallway RPG with remake, and made it so much more expansive with Rebirth. And added a lot of that levity that a lot of players of the original remember with those sidequests and minigames.

The scale of it is just really cool, even if other games have probably done bigger in scope, the world and environments just look so great in this. the setting of FF7 is still a testament to the design of the world, and all the unique locations.

its still not the same game as the original by any means, but it does exactly what I think they set out to do, and that's recreate the world, and story beats with modern tech, to make it look better than ever.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Any tips on gear? I haven’t looked at that at all…saved up my plumes

Well, let's start with my set-up:

All of the gear you can get early on, the Nibel Chocobo is the most important factor. Why? Because it's special attack is essentially a homing missile that will stop whoever is in front of you. Two of these attacks can be stored up, only use when necessary.

Going in completely blind the first lap was all about learning the track, it's various sharp turns, obstacles and shortcuts. By the middle/end of lap two you want to be in pole position making the third lap simply about maintaining/extending your lead. Should you fuck up and hit an obstacle in the final lap (I never did) you've got those two attacks in the chamber, good to have a dash ready too.

Beyond that, obstacle avoidance and hard drifts are key. Whenever you see a cactuar door in the distance for example keep your eyes fixed on where it's opening/closing, dashes can let you thread the needle on a closing door but it's a gamble. Avoid bombs at all costs, don't worry too much about collisions with other Chocobos and loosing speed, it ultimately wasn't a factor for me. Good luck!

Edit: I will add that this is the set-up I used for ALL the Silver/Gold challenges, haven't attempted Legend yet, will wrap those up today

 

[DragoonKain]

I'm at the end of chapter 11 and I checked my affinities and it says my highest are Aerith and Red XIII. It was Tifa a few chapters ago, but I started adjusting to try to get Aerith for the date. Funny, I thought blue smilie was the best affinity, but apparently it's the light green ones.

I can't tell who's higher though. I've done all the side quests for everyone, but the last few chapters I started answering the least favorable answers for everyone but Aerith, yet somehow Red XIII's affinity is still up there tied with her's. I'd assume Aerith is in the lead, but I just don't know. What would you say about this?

 

[Doomtrain]

What would you say about this?

Do you see that bear dog? You can fuck it.

 

[Nankatsu]

How in the flying fuck did these guys managed to pull an amazing piano minigame in a game like this? I must have spent like 1h+ just on the first music sheet until I decided to change to Tifa and aced it first try.

Also watched some insane covers on Youtube with the piano minigame. Really surprised by what you can do with this.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Been busy so it's been 48 hours since I've last played it but gonna have a 3-5 hour session tonight. Can't wait.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

So I wanted to go back and do side content I skipped at the beginning of the game, and tried to go back to the Grasslands.

Turns out you can't fast travel to previous regions. After initially being a bit bummed, I decided I really like this as a game mechanic and more 'open world' games should implement it.

The game is absolutely massive, but keeping you locked to a single region really helps prevent that open world overwhelming feeling that so many games have. The regions are large, but a single region is still a very manageable slice of the game that you can get through in a reasonable amount of time, and the main campaign is never so far from the forefront of your mind.

I think this is a really smart feature that more games should look into. It is rare for an open world checklist game to still feel so heavily pushed forward by the main narrative. And I think this feature has a lot to do with that. It also just helps the logic of the world that Cloud and the gang don't randomly backtrack to a different continent in the middle of their questing.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

So I wanted to go back and do side content I skipped at the beginning of the game, and tried to go back to the Grasslands.

Turns out you can't fast travel to previous regions. After initially being a bit bummed, I decided I really like this as a game mechanic and more 'open world' games should implement it.

The game is absolutely massive, but keeping you locked to a single region really helps prevent that open world overwhelming feeling that so many games have. The regions are large, but a single region is still a very manageable slice of the game that you can get through in a reasonable amount of time, and the main campaign is never so far from the forefront of your mind.

I think this is a really smart feature that more games should look into. It is rare for an open world checklist game to still feel so heavily pushed forward by the main narrative. And I think this feature has a lot to do with that. It also just helps the logic of the world that Cloud and the gang don't randomly backtrack to a different continent in the middle of their questing.

I thought you had to travel by Chocobo? Like a taxi service kind of thing.

EDIT: fast travel does get locked down for sometime in certain sections - is that what you mean?

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

I thought you had to travel by Chocobo? Like a taxi service kind of thing.

Oh shit, you can do that to different regions? If so I could not have been more wrong with everything.

Weird they would go out of their way to put a "Fast travel to different regions is locked" message on the map if you actually just need to go to a Chocobo stop.

 

[FoxMcChief]

How does Chadley even get to places? I can accept for the first half of the game he's more or less following the party around I guess, but how did he get to Cosmo Canyon and Nibel? He didn't fly on the Bronco with the party and it's like a whole continent flight away. I know, I know, video games, it's just funny it's never thought about or explained, lol.

Don’t question the dumb design choices!

 

[Nankatsu]

Don’t question the dumb design choices!

He is basically an AI. Different places, different bodies, same shared consciousness.

If someone from Square Enix reads this, you're welcome

 

[Madflavor]

I believe there's multiple Chads.

 

[FoxMcChief]

He is basically an AI. Different places, different bodies, same shared consciousness.

If someone from Square Enix reads this, you're welcome

He’s Agent Smith taking over the robed guys. We just tag teamed this shit for them.

When do we get our checks?

 

[Maitre_Piccolo]

So I wanted to go back and do side content I skipped at the beginning of the game, and tried to go back to the Grasslands.

Turns out you can't fast travel to previous regions. After initially being a bit bummed, I decided I really like this as a game mechanic and more 'open world' games should implement it.

The game is absolutely massive, but keeping you locked to a single region really helps prevent that open world overwhelming feeling that so many games have. The regions are large, but a single region is still a very manageable slice of the game that you can get through in a reasonable amount of time, and the main campaign is never so far from the forefront of your mind.

I think this is a really smart feature that more games should look into. It is rare for an open world checklist game to still feel so heavily pushed forward by the main narrative. And I think this feature has a lot to do with that. It also just helps the logic of the world that Cloud and the gang don't randomly backtrack to a different continent in the middle of their questing.

This changes at some point, near the end of the game. The limitation is lifted and you can travel anywhere. But then it doesn't impede the logic of the story because 1 / the story is basically over and 2 /

Spoiler

you have the Bronco so it kinda makes sense

 

[ebevan91]

Chapter 10

Spoiler

RED’S VOICE

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

FUCKING STUPID GAMES locking progression.

Greens for the Chocobo - locked behind stupid fucking mini games.

Cannot progress the story. Dont care if it is easy or not. Should not happen.

 

[Nankatsu]

Ayo, there's a story quest behind Queens Blood?

Didn't saw that coming.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

So I wanted to go back and do side content I skipped at the beginning of the game, and tried to go back to the Grasslands.

Turns out you can't fast travel to previous regions. After initially being a bit bummed, I decided I really like this as a game mechanic and more 'open world' games should implement it.

The game is absolutely massive, but keeping you locked to a single region really helps prevent that open world overwhelming feeling that so many games have. The regions are large, but a single region is still a very manageable slice of the game that you can get through in a reasonable amount of time, and the main campaign is never so far from the forefront of your mind.

I think this is a really smart feature that more games should look into. It is rare for an open world checklist game to still feel so heavily pushed forward by the main narrative. And I think this feature has a lot to do with that. It also just helps the logic of the world that Cloud and the gang don't randomly backtrack to a different continent in the middle of their questing.

Yes, certain sections and for periods of time will block you from fast traveling regardless of method. Usually if you are involved in some kind of narrative or like you say it's pushing you forward but then it will open up intermittently again.

I think it's a good balance.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Just got to chapter 12. I decided to do a bit of backtracking before moving on with the story. Went back to the grasslands, Kalm and the midgar region and thought what a ridiculous world they've created. It's so big and filled with small details, feels lively and coupled with the ridiculous art direction.

I've probably said this 5 times now but still can't believe they made this in 4 years of development. What a feat!

 

[Luipadre]

Chapter 10

Spoiler

RED’S VOICE

I just played that part. Wtf happened?

Cosmo canyon is gorgeous, especially the town

 

[ebevan91]

I just played that part. Wtf happened?

Cosmo canyon is gorgeous, especially the town

Spoiler

Dude it caught me off guard SO BADLY and now he's going back and forth between his original voice and the new one.

 

[Luipadre]

Spoiler

Dude it caught me off guard SO BADLY and now he's going back and forth between his original voice and the new one.

But why it changed? Its so werid

 

[SidViscous]

But why it changed? Its so werid

It's in the original but somewhat got lost in translation (just being text and all), but it's a real shame as the original was so perfect.

Finished the game finally today and not sure what to make of the final chapter, probably down there with the Manor chapter as my least favourites. The penultimate chapter is so good too, so was a bit sad they didn't stick the landing. Having said that, my biggest complaint is that I have no fucking idea what any of it means, so maybe after Reunion comes out I'll retroactively appreciate it. Plus it isn't any worse than Remakes, and that was still followed up by this masterpiece.

Did every side quest too, so I have that horrible empty void feeling that not many games can leave you with, at least I still have the OST release to look forward to.

 

[NeoLed]

FUCKING STUPID GAMES locking progression.

Greens for the Chocobo - locked behind stupid fucking mini games.

Cannot progress the story. Dont care if it is easy or not. Should not happen.

It's been forever like that in Final Fantasy series. Other games do it too. Gameplay variation

 

[paolo11]

Guys, are you able to pass the “can’t stop won’t stop “ quest? I heard it is bugged

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Guys, are you able to pass the “can’t stop won’t stop “ quest? I heard it is bugged

Hey guys I ran into a quest breaking glitch for the "ultimate party animal" quest.

It was fixable after some research but unpleasant to do so. It's possible to get stuck in the VR bike challenge part of the quest with the current patch. Maybe make a few different saves if you are near that part of the game. The issue is the quest will not update when you beat your opponent's score and the solution is to uninstall the game, disconnect from the internet, reinstall the game (takes forever) and then the quest will work properly and update. Then you can get the latest patch again.

 

[The artful mincer]

Chapter 10

Spoiler

RED’S VOICE

But why it changed? Its so werid

I'am not a fan of the change either but it's from the OG FFVII.

His dialogue is written differently in the OG game up to that point then changes afterwards.

There are clues earlier in the game foreshadowing it.

 

[Kings Field]

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Just finished it today...

Spoiler: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Extreme Spoilers

For me, the game peaked around Chapter 4. I was loving the hell out of it, until they introduced Glenn Lodbrock. From that point on, the game just became a mess in a lot of ways. There are things for sure I like about the game. World Design of course is great. It was great seeing character interactions. The battle system finally won me over (after hating it in Remake). But I have some major complaints. For one, the soundtrack. They drowned out one of the greatest soundtracks ever made with less than memorable generic shit for a lot of it. Some of remixes, such as Temple of the Ancients REALLY suck. It's a downgrade, even from Remake. The menus are really bad too. How come I can't change my party from PARTY. How come I can't upgrade my Weapons from UPGRADE WEAPONS. Some very shit design work there. Anyway, it's probably best to give my opinion chapter per chapter

Chapter 1: Pretty good retelling of the Nibelheim incident. I hated the part where Cloud's mobility got reduced though. And there is something to be said for Sephiroth not talking about how Cloud and the other non-Ancients were "traitors". It felt like a key part of him Othering the world in the original. A key part of his motivation

Chapter 2: Loved it. At this point, I felt the potential for what I was going to be playing. Loved Kalm. Loved exploring the Grasslands and outside Midgar. Was pretty stoked and full hype mode

Chapter 3: Pretty straight forward chapter. I liked it well enough. Enjoyed the Mithril Mines theme quite a bit.

Chapter 4: Was enjoying it until they introduced Glenn... Parade was great. But then of course they have to make everything so over the top with the escape from Upper Junon, rather than them sneaking onto the ship.

Chapter 5: They turned the cargo ship into a cruise ship, which okay that's fine. I enjoyed the tournament quite a bit. But the lead up to the Jenova fight wasn't very cool. Lacked any tension or punctuation.

Chapter 6: Pretty chill. I enjoyed going around Costa Del Sol. However, I didn't like they turned Hojo being on the beach into a "thing". It was fun just having him chill there in the original. Probably shouldn't have been a chapter.

Chapter 7: Decent enough Chapter. Exploring Corel was nice, as was the climb up the mountain. Splitting the party kinda sucked on the mountain, but overall it wasn't bad

Chapter 8: Gold Saucer was hype... but why is it Silver? Felt like an odd change. The Dyne section was handled terribly. They ruined it by having his death go from being a suicide to a sacrifice. And then the Palmer fight and chase afterwards killed any sort of moment for reflection the scene could have had.

Chapter 9: God awful. Low point of the game. The reactor dungeon was fun but having to do it basically twice felt like a time waste. Gongaga sucks to explore. Story sequence towards the end was stupid. By this point they were starting to lose me pretty hard

Chapter 10: Pretty good. The Cosmo Canyon stuff was well handled. Enjoyed the Gi dungeon, though pairing red with barrett felt... arbitrary. The Gi village afterwards wasn't too bad. Sort of like the idea of it.

Chapter 11: They completely botched the Shinra Mansion. Any sort of tension that location had was destroyed by placing Dexter's Lab in the basement. And having Cait Sith be the party leader killed any tension. The whole reason for going in there was kinda dumb too, since they needed a computer was kinda silly, especially since they don't even use that information.

Chapter 12: Mostly okay. The date was pretty great (I got Tifa). However, the arena stuff was WAY too much. If it had ended with just Don Corneo it would have been whatever. But then having Turks and Rufus, it just became exhausting. And lacked any sort of subtly in the betrayal that happens there.

Chapter 13: Too long. Too exhausting. Lacked atmosphere. The Tseng scene sucked. The end of it was sanitized. The wheels started to come off.

Chapter 14: A big fucking mess. Besides the Aerith death stuff (or not death stuff? who fucking knows) it was just way too noisy and confusing. The final boss fights were waaaaay too exhausting. You have a multi-phase Jenova fight followed by a multi-phase Sephiroth fight followed by another Sephiroth fight. It was too much. Complimented by some really confusing and opaque storytelling that was non-commital as fuck and you get something unsatisfying.

There is not a single moment from the original game that was handled better in this game. Which is a problem. Everything was for the worse. They've turned FF7 into The Hobbit film trilogy of video games. There might have been a good game somewhere inside this, but it got lost along the way by noise. The new plot elements were not needed and are detrimental to the emotional core of FF7, without adding anything new or doing anything meaningful different. None of the Unknown Journey content really amounts to anything of value, other than setting up probably some last minute copout happy ending at the end of Part 3 a la Kingdom Hearts 3.

I think really the saddest thing about this is that FF7 was already a complex confusing game. They had an opportunity to elaborate on plot details that were vague or confusing from the original game but instead chose to double down by dropping another super complicated layer while pussyfooting around by being as vague as possible.

I sound like I'm being negative, and I probably am. I did enjoy myself. But this game is not a masterpiece, and if anything it is just more proof to me that I do not enjoy modern game design. Things were better in the 90s when design was more focused and restrained. No doubt when Part 3 comes out, I'll play it and then be done with the Remake trilogy. And in the future, when I want to experience FF7, I'll go back and play the '97 and not this. If anything, I think I'd like a fan retranslation of the original game.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Just finished it today...

Spoiler: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Extreme Spoilers

For me, the game peaked around Chapter 4. I was loving the hell out of it, until they introduced Glenn Lodbrock. From that point on, the game just became a mess in a lot of ways. There are things for sure I like about the game. World Design of course is great. It was great seeing character interactions. The battle system finally won me over (after hating it in Remake). But I have some major complaints. For one, the soundtrack. They drowned out one of the greatest soundtracks ever made with less than memorable generic shit for a lot of it. Some of remixes, such as Temple of the Ancients REALLY suck. It's a downgrade, even from Remake. The menus are really bad too. How come I can't change my party from PARTY. How come I can't upgrade my Weapons from UPGRADE WEAPONS. Some very shit design work there. Anyway, it's probably best to give my opinion chapter per chapter

Chapter 1: Pretty good retelling of the Nibelheim incident. I hated the part where Cloud's mobility got reduced though. And there is something to be said for Sephiroth not talking about how Cloud and the other non-Ancients were "traitors". It felt like a key part of him Othering the world in the original. A key part of his motivation

Chapter 2: Loved it. At this point, I felt the potential for what I was going to be playing. Loved Kalm. Loved exploring the Grasslands and outside Midgar. Was pretty stoked and full hype mode

Chapter 3: Pretty straight forward chapter. I liked it well enough. Enjoyed the Mithril Mines theme quite a bit.

Chapter 4: Was enjoying it until they introduced Glenn... Parade was great. But then of course they have to make everything so over the top with the escape from Upper Junon, rather than them sneaking onto the ship.

Chapter 5: They turned the cargo ship into a cruise ship, which okay that's fine. I enjoyed the tournament quite a bit. But the lead up to the Jenova fight wasn't very cool. Lacked any tension or punctuation.

Chapter 6: Pretty chill. I enjoyed going around Costa Del Sol. However, I didn't like they turned Hojo being on the beach into a "thing". It was fun just having him chill there in the original. Probably shouldn't have been a chapter.

Chapter 7: Decent enough Chapter. Exploring Corel was nice, as was the climb up the mountain. Splitting the party kinda sucked on the mountain, but overall it wasn't bad

Chapter 8: Gold Saucer was hype... but why is it Silver? Felt like an odd change. The Dyne section was handled terribly. They ruined it by having his death go from being a suicide to a sacrifice. And then the Palmer fight and chase afterwards killed any sort of moment for reflection the scene could have had.

Chapter 9: God awful. Low point of the game. The reactor dungeon was fun but having to do it basically twice felt like a time waste. Gongaga sucks to explore. Story sequence towards the end was stupid. By this point they were starting to lose me pretty hard

Chapter 10: Pretty good. The Cosmo Canyon stuff was well handled. Enjoyed the Gi dungeon, though pairing red with barrett felt... arbitrary. The Gi village afterwards wasn't too bad. Sort of like the idea of it.

Chapter 11: They completely botched the Shinra Mansion. Any sort of tension that location had was destroyed by placing Dexter's Lab in the basement. And having Cait Sith be the party leader killed any tension. The whole reason for going in there was kinda dumb too, since they needed a computer was kinda silly, especially since they don't even use that information.

Chapter 12: Mostly okay. The date was pretty great (I got Tifa). However, the arena stuff was WAY too much. If it had ended with just Don Corneo it would have been whatever. But then having Turks and Rufus, it just became exhausting. And lacked any sort of subtly in the betrayal that happens there.

Chapter 13: Too long. Too exhausting. Lacked atmosphere. The Tseng scene sucked. The end of it was sanitized. The wheels started to come off.

Chapter 14: A big fucking mess. Besides the Aerith death stuff (or not death stuff? who fucking knows) it was just way too noisy and confusing. The final boss fights were waaaaay too exhausting. You have a multi-phase Jenova fight followed by a multi-phase Sephiroth fight followed by another Sephiroth fight. It was too much. Complimented by some really confusing and opaque storytelling that was non-commital as fuck and you get something unsatisfying.

There is not a single moment from the original game that was handled better in this game. Which is a problem. Everything was for the worse. They've turned FF7 into The Hobbit film trilogy of video games. There might have been a good game somewhere inside this, but it got lost along the way by noise. The new plot elements were not needed and are detrimental to the emotional core of FF7, without adding anything new or doing anything meaningful different. None of the Unknown Journey content really amounts to anything of value, other than setting up probably some last minute copout happy ending at the end of Part 3 a la Kingdom Hearts 3.

I think really the saddest thing about this is that FF7 was already a complex confusing game. They had an opportunity to elaborate on plot details that were vague or confusing from the original game but instead chose to double down by dropping another super complicated layer while pussyfooting around by being as vague as possible.

I sound like I'm being negative, and I probably am. I did enjoy myself. But this game is not a masterpiece, and if anything it is just more proof to me that I do not enjoy modern game design. Things were better in the 90s when design was more focused and restrained. No doubt when Part 3 comes out, I'll play it and then be done with the Remake trilogy. And in the future, when I want to experience FF7, I'll go back and play the '97 and not this. If anything, I think I'd like a fan retranslation of the original game.

Yep.. lot of reality in this post.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Just finished it today...

Spoiler: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Extreme Spoilers

For me, the game peaked around Chapter 4. I was loving the hell out of it, until they introduced Glenn Lodbrock. From that point on, the game just became a mess in a lot of ways. There are things for sure I like about the game. World Design of course is great. It was great seeing character interactions. The battle system finally won me over (after hating it in Remake). But I have some major complaints. For one, the soundtrack. They drowned out one of the greatest soundtracks ever made with less than memorable generic shit for a lot of it. Some of remixes, such as Temple of the Ancients REALLY suck. It's a downgrade, even from Remake. The menus are really bad too. How come I can't change my party from PARTY. How come I can't upgrade my Weapons from UPGRADE WEAPONS. Some very shit design work there. Anyway, it's probably best to give my opinion chapter per chapter

Chapter 1: Pretty good retelling of the Nibelheim incident. I hated the part where Cloud's mobility got reduced though. And there is something to be said for Sephiroth not talking about how Cloud and the other non-Ancients were "traitors". It felt like a key part of him Othering the world in the original. A key part of his motivation

Chapter 2: Loved it. At this point, I felt the potential for what I was going to be playing. Loved Kalm. Loved exploring the Grasslands and outside Midgar. Was pretty stoked and full hype mode

Chapter 3: Pretty straight forward chapter. I liked it well enough. Enjoyed the Mithril Mines theme quite a bit.

Chapter 4: Was enjoying it until they introduced Glenn... Parade was great. But then of course they have to make everything so over the top with the escape from Upper Junon, rather than them sneaking onto the ship.

Chapter 5: They turned the cargo ship into a cruise ship, which okay that's fine. I enjoyed the tournament quite a bit. But the lead up to the Jenova fight wasn't very cool. Lacked any tension or punctuation.

Chapter 6: Pretty chill. I enjoyed going around Costa Del Sol. However, I didn't like they turned Hojo being on the beach into a "thing". It was fun just having him chill there in the original. Probably shouldn't have been a chapter.

Chapter 7: Decent enough Chapter. Exploring Corel was nice, as was the climb up the mountain. Splitting the party kinda sucked on the mountain, but overall it wasn't bad

Chapter 8: Gold Saucer was hype... but why is it Silver? Felt like an odd change. The Dyne section was handled terribly. They ruined it by having his death go from being a suicide to a sacrifice. And then the Palmer fight and chase afterwards killed any sort of moment for reflection the scene could have had.

Chapter 9: God awful. Low point of the game. The reactor dungeon was fun but having to do it basically twice felt like a time waste. Gongaga sucks to explore. Story sequence towards the end was stupid. By this point they were starting to lose me pretty hard

Chapter 10: Pretty good. The Cosmo Canyon stuff was well handled. Enjoyed the Gi dungeon, though pairing red with barrett felt... arbitrary. The Gi village afterwards wasn't too bad. Sort of like the idea of it.

Chapter 11: They completely botched the Shinra Mansion. Any sort of tension that location had was destroyed by placing Dexter's Lab in the basement. And having Cait Sith be the party leader killed any tension. The whole reason for going in there was kinda dumb too, since they needed a computer was kinda silly, especially since they don't even use that information.

Chapter 12: Mostly okay. The date was pretty great (I got Tifa). However, the arena stuff was WAY too much. If it had ended with just Don Corneo it would have been whatever. But then having Turks and Rufus, it just became exhausting. And lacked any sort of subtly in the betrayal that happens there.

Chapter 13: Too long. Too exhausting. Lacked atmosphere. The Tseng scene sucked. The end of it was sanitized. The wheels started to come off.

Chapter 14: A big fucking mess. Besides the Aerith death stuff (or not death stuff? who fucking knows) it was just way too noisy and confusing. The final boss fights were waaaaay too exhausting. You have a multi-phase Jenova fight followed by a multi-phase Sephiroth fight followed by another Sephiroth fight. It was too much. Complimented by some really confusing and opaque storytelling that was non-commital as fuck and you get something unsatisfying.

There is not a single moment from the original game that was handled better in this game. Which is a problem. Everything was for the worse. They've turned FF7 into The Hobbit film trilogy of video games. There might have been a good game somewhere inside this, but it got lost along the way by noise. The new plot elements were not needed and are detrimental to the emotional core of FF7, without adding anything new or doing anything meaningful different. None of the Unknown Journey content really amounts to anything of value, other than setting up probably some last minute copout happy ending at the end of Part 3 a la Kingdom Hearts 3.

I think really the saddest thing about this is that FF7 was already a complex confusing game. They had an opportunity to elaborate on plot details that were vague or confusing from the original game but instead chose to double down by dropping another super complicated layer while pussyfooting around by being as vague as possible.

I sound like I'm being negative, and I probably am. I did enjoy myself. But this game is not a masterpiece, and if anything it is just more proof to me that I do not enjoy modern game design. Things were better in the 90s when design was more focused and restrained. No doubt when Part 3 comes out, I'll play it and then be done with the Remake trilogy. And in the future, when I want to experience FF7, I'll go back and play the '97 and not this. If anything, I think I'd like a fan retranslation of the original game.

Still haven't played FF7 to this point, think I'll give that a go first before even thinking of coming near the "remakes".

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Woooo I did it! I freaking did it!

Not the platinum. no no no. No, I beat cactuar crush on hard mode. What a friggin' pain in the ass that hard mode was. Now I've maxed all quests minigames so I can focus on hard mode and vr battles.

I think it will be pretty easy. Hard mode is all about being stingy with mp since you can't use items, so I'm gonna try having Aerith as a support in the party and use the "swap hp with mp materia" so she has 4000mp and then just open every fight with a swifted/magnified "aga" spell. Even if she dies since her health will be 100, she'll come back in the next fight with 1 hp anyways, she dies in one hit either way so she'll just keep opening with a massive cast. That should trivialize and speed up the regular battles so I can forget about them and get tactical with my party for the boss battles.

 

[Madflavor]

Why is it that every time I see this guy get brought up, he’s just shitting on the latest game?

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Why is it that every time I see this guy get brought up, he’s just shitting on the latest game?

I tried watching one his vids, I think it was a spiderman one, and he had a bunch of bad takes in the preamble before getting to the actual content so I just dipped and never tried watching him again

 

[The artful mincer]

Finished the main quest yesterday at 120 hours with still a ton of side stuff to do.

Got to be one of if not the most impressive game ever made. The amount of unique GOOD content is second to none I can't believe I will likely have a longer first playtime than Elden ring and when you consider how much dying inflates Elden Rings playtime...

Yep it's flawed, bloated etc but I think it's an all time classic. The Highs and Strengths are absolutely worth it and this should absolutely be the template for all future FF going forward.

Bravo Square best FF since the ps1 era. I will have to do a multipost review of the game about the things that I find interesting!

 

[Madflavor]

I tried watching one his vids, I think it was a spiderman one, and he had a bunch of bad takes in the preamble before getting to the actual content so I just dipped and never tried watching him again

If you look at his post history his entire schtick is dooming about the game industry and shitting on games, good or bad. He’s /v/ incarnate. There’s a reason why his channel stagnated, and never grew.

 

[Nankatsu]

Trying to beat stage 4 of Fort Condor on hard...Yeah...I'm this close to hit the difficulty reduction and call it a day.

Is there any trophy locked behind Fort Condors hard mode?

 

[balls of snow]

Reached chapter 9, oh boy good thing I played Crisis Core because the callback is just perfect. Also QB is soo good im rechallenging some of these noobs using different decks.

 

[wvnative]

Anybody got tips/builds for the end game brutal/legendary VR battles?

I have completely melted down at my first attempt and I don't even know how to begin to approach these lol. This seems way above the end game challenges in Remake.

 

[Dis]

Have to disagree with you here.

If you had experience with FF7 you wouldn't buy into the negative hype train " Oh this is just another multiverse bla bla bla"

Watch Advent Children and pay attention to the lifestream/aerith related moments then rethink about the ending you saw in part 2 and tell me that it doesn't fit in.

They are not straying from the source material. The lifestream has always worked this way, it's just been expanded upon.

I think that for people who are going in blind, yes it can feel like a cop out is ensuing since you don't have the full story to play through yet. I have a strong feeling that part 3 will rectify that.

For people like me that have dipped into the expanded universe, we are more accepting of what could be happening and happily theorizing.

It's entirely possible that we are being given something closer to the original but being shot from a different angle and we don't even know it. Cloud could be losing his mind as he did in OG with all the manipulation from Sephiroth/Jenova.

It's also entirely possible that the lifestream is giving us another chance at redemption. Sephiroth may not have liked how the previous events transpired and since he is tied to the Lifestream and able to influence it like Aerith, he is probably the reason behind why we are seeing alternate splits. The lifestream /planet is trying to protect itself.

They already did a great job at explaining the Gi and how they cannot be accepted into the world/lifestream as they are essentially considered a virus and not from it. Sephiroth transends this as he is a half-blood (one winged angel. Not entirely from the heavens) Cloud is of the earth but infected with cells that Sephiroth/Jenova can manipulate due to the gene therapy Hojo performed on him in Crisis Core.

Spoilers dont click

Spoiler: Spoiler

This!!! So bad!!! I was baffled in the spoilers thread the negativity some people have with the ending.

I LOVED this!!!
People talk about multiverse but my mind didnt go there it went to Advent Children. And when Aerith showed up during the final fight it actually felt like Aerith that has been killed for so long in OG7. That was masterfully done!
Also the whole empty white materia for full white materia switch it was so.. breathtaking.

Like FF7+Attack on Titan+Black Mirror
(Was a bit black mirror-y aswel) i loved it so much!

Edge of creation = PATHS from aot.
And multiverse is more afterlife-like how Aerith showed up in AC.

10/10 best game ever and its not a replacement for the OG either.

 

[Nankatsu]

Man this game... Always throwing something new at you. It's so fucking refreshing and good at what is doing.

I'm still only on chapter 4 but unless there's some unannounced Megaton AAA game dropping this year, this is my GOTY right here already.

I really liked Infinite Wealth, but this is on another level.

Poor Barret, wanted to whop my ass on QB lost 30-0

Man Red XIII dressed up as a Shinra soldier and doing the MJ dance had me cracking up.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The frog mini game is incredible and hilarious

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Finished chapter 12, wow, absolutely spectacular! from hunting the pirate treasure, finishing the Queen's Blood questline, finally getting the Gilgamesh summon (pt. 3 better have my Knights of the Round!) Loveless sequence to rival - no, let's keep it real - *surpass* FFVI's Opera House (Jessie..., God damn and that Aerith performance ), DJ Don on the 1's and 2's, THREE boss battles in a row, Cloud *finally* getting it in with Tifa complete with the hug fake out that had me going "kiss her you fuck!" and he does! Emotional, over-the-top, funny, action packed, this is what it looks like when FF is firing on all cylinders. So happy I got the date with Tifa, it was meant to be. I completed ALL quests/convos prior, had no idea how it all worked, 1st playthroughs are always blind/no guides, it must be destiny

I've passed the 100 hour mark, it has been quite the journey. Even if everything falls apart at the very end this is my GOTY but let's see how it all plays out. Whatever faults Rebirth has the fact is it's a JRPG masterpiece, I couldn't be happier with what Square blessed us with, Final Fantasy for life .

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Anybody got tips/builds for the end game brutal/legendary VR battles?

I have completely melted down at my first attempt and I don't even know how to begin to approach these lol. This seems way above the end game challenges in Remake.

I'm still just getting ready myself, maxing other things and levelling up materia and characters

One thing I will say that's also useful before endgame is that if you cast stop on an enemy and then stagger them, stop, as well as all other buffs and debuffs are removed. But if you wait until they are staggered and then cast stop, you can extend the stagger quite a bit and get a lot more damage. There's also ways to really stretch stop in addition to that. I was watching a video of a guy who had a build based around combining Quake and Stop to beat the VR challenges the other day actually, that might give you some ideas:

 

[Moriah20]

Just gonna drop in and say this was an incredible game. It's not perfect, but when you have over 100 hours of content with a huge amount of variety, that's to be expected. The scope and scale is amazing, it really felt like an expanded version of a PS1 JRPG, with the variety and all. No cut corners anywhere, well, besides the whole cutting into 3 parts thing... but still, I remember a lot of people thinking they were gonna cut/simplify certain things: they didn't. While I don't think it was a good idea to filter every open world activity through Chadley, the side quests, especially by JRPG standards were really good, as well as the protorelic questline was surprisingly enjoyable too.

The game having the confidence to have stretches where combat takes a backseat is nice to see as well. Wish FF16 had some of this energy. The ending was a little too busy, but I'm kinda liking the direction they're going. That being said, both this and Remake continue to excel when they're recreating the original moments with additions - the extra character interactions, chemistry, mini arcs are all amazing.

Easily one of the most soulful and purely entertaining games I've played in years.

 

[elbourreau]

My god, Costa del Sol is one of the most unsufferable piece of gaming of all time.

Cringe everywhere, boring AF... Nearly ragequitted the game.

 

[Reaseru]

Chapter 12 here.

I don't know if someone talked about this, but the world map ingame is very misleading and nowhere near as big as the actual world map represented in the game menu, especially the right continent (Junon, Grasslands). I mean, Junon and Grasslands that are located in the two opposite ends of the continent, are actually glued to each other ingame not to mention that Midgar area (not acessible) is like 80% of the continent.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the near-seamless transitions between regions and it works for this portion of the trilogy, but if Square wants to use Highwind as means of tranportation for the third game (as they already stated), and explore the entirety of Gaia, they are going to need to change how traveling works between playable regions.

Maybe something within MS flight simulator gameplay, where you can fly an actual 1:1 representation of the world map, letting the players approach and land only in the playable regions/sites, and as soon as the airship begins the landing procedure, then the map of the region loads. I don't think the interconnected transitions between regions is going to be feasible in the sequel.
The Tiny Bronco (Cid's airplane) flying segments could be a preview of that we can expect in part 3.

 

[wvnative]

I'm still just getting ready myself, maxing other things and levelling up materia and characters

One thing I will say that's also useful before endgame is that if you cast stop on an enemy and then stagger them, stop, as well as all other buffs and debuffs are removed. But if you wait until they are staggered and then cast stop, you can extend the stagger quite a bit and get a lot more damage. There's also ways to really stretch stop in addition to that. I was watching a video of a guy who had a build based around combining Quake and Stop to beat the VR challenges the other day actually, that might give you some ideas:

Thanks.

Kicked ass for most of the game, and even the protorelic end boss after a few tries. Then I got to the brutal/legendary challenges and then was immediately deflated. I did muscle through the first one, but everything else i just can't last, and i'm max level.

I still have side quests, so i'ma do those first. Then I will get back to these battles.

Part of my deflation is not having materia loadouts, for general play I like my current setup and don't wanna redo it all. If we had loadouts I'd be way more willing to toy around myself. Also maybe it's my imagination but the menus for swapping materia feel a bit sluggish, more than Part 1.

I might need to take a break and play some other games for awhile, I have amassed 130 hours in 4 weeks, this might be the biggest binge on a singe game in a long time. Might be burning out.

I do personally feel these end game challenges are a little bit much. Seems way more intense than Part 1 or 16.

 

[Nankatsu]

Anyone had issues with the push up minigame?

When you're supposed to constantly tap the triggers to fill the circle, the moment I start to press the button for the first time Tifa just misses completely and goes down.

What am I missing?

It's not my timing, because I hit the button on time pretty easy.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Anyone had issues with the push up minigame?

When you're supposed to constantly tap the triggers to fill the circle, the moment I start to press the button for the first time Tifa just misses completely and goes down.

What am I missing?

It's not my timing, because I hit the button on time pretty easy.

Are you sure it's the tap you're supposed to be doing and not the soft hold > press? What color is it?