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[PanzerAzel]

They should’ve kept the battles completely turn-based.

Wouldn’t have even needed to change it either. Be the same....running around with your party members and you see enemies. Run up to within aggro range, battle theme kicks in and everyone gets into position and fight commences (that way back/side surprise attacks are possible for the player and enemies). Not even in a straight line either, incorporate the environment into tactics of approach (high/low ground). Introduce formations. Evolve that shit.

This hybrid system they use now is a mess. Having the ATB fill contingent on action and not time passed means my character’s gauge fills up far faster than my AI controlled NPCs do, so I end up getting off three to four ATB moves per their one, essentially nullifying their abilities unless I continually switch, which I suspect was what the devs intended.

Man how I crave the old battle system, they really could’ve made an amazing one here. Too bad.

 

[Secret_Lover]

I´ve seen a lot of people claiming that there is/was supposed to be a day 1 patch for textures but I haven´t actually seen an official confirmation from square. Anybody got a link?

 

[base]

They should’ve kept the battles completely turn-based.

Wouldn’t have even needed to change it either. Be the same....running around with your party members and you see enemies. Run up to within aggro range, battle theme kicks in and everyone gets into position and fight commences (that way back/side surprise attacks are possible for the player and enemies). Not even in a straight line either, incorporate the environment into tactics of approach (high/low ground). Introduce formations. Evolve that shit.

This hybrid system they use now is a mess. Having the ATB fill contingent on action and not time passed means my character’s gauge fills up far faster than my AI controlled NPCs do, so I end up getting off three to four ATB moves per their one. Unless I continually switch, which I suspect was what the devs intended.

Man how I crave the old battle system, they really could’ve made an amazing one here. Too bad.

But why? The new system feels good.

 

[Grinchy]

I just started and did 2.5 hours straight. I played the demo, so nothing from that beginning section was new to me, but going through the city was new and I thought it was pretty sweet.

I see some negative impressions going on on this page, so maybe I'm just not far enough in yet, but I'm enjoying it so far. I even like the battle system, though I could point out some camera and timing flaws. I also kept wondering why your apartment door seemed like it was missing its texture. I can see I'm not alone in noticing that.

 

[Lethal01]

Lol Cloud is literally standing on blurry textures.

Exactly, my point was you can point out the blurry textures or you can actually look at the game and see how fantastic it is with the art and graphics working together.

I'm just bothered by a post acting like people must be lying about the game looking amazing because it has some minor flaws.

 

[SantaC]

This is the video game equivalent of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.

Pretty spot on.

I dont see any replay value for this game. Too many sections they force you to walk slowly.

 

[base]

What I really disliked in the remake is that most of the action takes place during the day. The original was mostly in the night. Doesn't feel steampunk anymore.

 

[Lethal01]

Just gotta say that although since I'm a Bayonetta/dmc fan there are some decisions the combat makes the are different to what I'm accustomed to, but this is some of if not the best Action RPG combat to this day. I can see why some people call it chaotic if they aren't used to action games but I really wish they would make it even harder.

The pacing of the game in general is almost flawless but it's hurt a bit by the smalls but common sections where they are clearly hiding loading screens.
The portion where the characters just walk and talk are an absolute gift.

 

[GymWolf]

played for 2 hours:

-graphics are very good, same for cutscene, not top 3 of the gen like some people said tho, but still pretty good.
-the combat seems much better than ff15 except for opening menus with X, kinda unintuitive for now, overall it strike an odd balance between strategic and action.
-banters during combat are pretty funny.
-camera and lock on are pretty finnicky sometimes, especially camera, but still a bit better than ff15
-music are pretty faithfull compared to the original game, but original battle theme and victory fanfare are still unmatched for now.
-multy-phase boss fight was fun although pretty easy.
-i don't know what to think about barret, sometimes is cringe as fuck, sometimes he is funny, jessie is just thirst personified, wedge is unsecure fatboy with god heart anime troupe and biggs is pretty unremarkable for now, cloud is very good, the right kind of cold asshole.
-jap VA is pretty good except for barret, i almost prefer the english va for him, maybe because i'm still conflicted with his chara for now.
-there is something strange about new sephirot aspect, can't exactly put my finger on why, maybe the eyes...
-aerith is pretty good too.
-you have some strange new plot change 2 hours in, don't know what to think about it tbh.

for now it's pretty good but to be perfectly honest, this 2 hours only make me want to replay the original one again, i think some of the magic was lost on this remake even if they tried hard to translate the old game on a modern one, it's the same sensation i had with re2 remake.

 

[Lethal01]

played for 2 hours:
-jap VA is pretty good except for barret, i almost prefer the english va for him, maybe because i'm still conflicted with his chara for now.

I thought the exact same thing when I heard Barrets Japanese voice, it was enough to make me stay with english for the first playthough,
I may have said this before, but if you aren't getting enough challenge try selling all your items/just not using them.

Tons of the magic of the original is lost, but for me it's all replace by brand new spells.

 

[GymWolf]

I thought the exact same thing when I heard Barrets Japanese voice, it was enough to make me stay with english for the first playthough,
I may have said this before, but if you aren't getting enough challenge try selling all your items/just not using them.

Tons of the magic of the original is lost, but for me it's all replace by brand new spells.

i mean, i'm only 2 hours in, it's soon to say that i need to sell al the objects to make the game harder, i'm not faimiliar enough with the combat to have a final judgement.
barret is the only one that i find slightly better in english, for the others i prefer the jap va, wedge in particular is pretty distracting with badger from BD voice and not in a good way, at least for me, he sound even more of a loser with that voice.
strangely enough, playing in eng with eng subs or in jap with ita subs change a lot of the writing for the characters, like when jessie falls on the ground and cloud help her she says 2 completely different things and for now i'm liking more the italian subbed version, never understood why they make 2 different scripts, it was the same with judgement that i played days ago.

 

[GenericUser]

Tons of the magic of the original is lost, but for me it's all replace by brand new spells.

yeah it really is, but it's ok. I never truly believed they would be able to recapture that magic. The remake is good, even with all the flaws. My biggest fear now is, that it will never be completed though. How many parts would they need to make, if they stretch everything from the original this far? I imagine 5 or more parts, no way this is going to be profitable or keep peoples interest. Would take decade or more to be complete.

 

[CrysisFreak]

Game's nice but more linear than Toriyama's XIII (I brought this rose).
Part II better have TONS of exploration tbh. Nomura if you're reading this I ain't joking step up kiddo.

 

[GymWolf]

yeah it really is, but it's ok. I never truly believed they would be able to recapture that magic. The remake is good, even with all the flaws. My biggest fear now is, that it will never be completed though. How many parts would they need to make, if they stretch everything from the original this far? I imagine 5 or more parts, no way this is going to be profitable or keep peoples interest. Would take decade or more to be complete.

this is a tricky question, if they expand any main chara like they expanded 3rd rate character like the avalanche team, and a location that you complete in 4-6 hours in the original game in a 40 hours game, i really can't see how they can finish this project with only 3 chapters.
if they want to maintain this scope, they have to cut a lot of things to finish with only 3 games, or making the 2 remaining games 80-100 hours long without much padding at all.

 

[Lethal01]

yeah it really is, but it's ok. I never truly believed they would be able to recapture that magic. The remake is good, even with all the flaws. My biggest fear now is, that it will never be completed though. How many parts would they need to make, if they stretch everything from the original this far? I imagine 5 or more parts, no way this is going to be profitable or keep peoples interest. Would take decade or more to be complete.

They already state that Midgar is a special case because they always felt like it was a HUGE part of the world/story but a tiny portion of the orginal game. It totally agree with them there. Point being they probably won't be expanding on every thing as much as they did this. I never believed they would recapture the magic either but I will say I like this version of midgar way more than the original.

i mean, i'm only 2 hours in, it's soon to say that i need to sell al the objects to make the game harder, i'm not faimiliar enough with the combat to have a final judgement.

Yeah I'm constantly hating how they change the translation so much between japanese and english for tons of different things. often for just nor reason at all.
And I know it's too early, just giving you a heads up if it becomes an issue like it was to me.

 

[TTOOLL]

They should’ve kept the battles completely turn-based.

Wouldn’t have even needed to change it either. Be the same....running around with your party members and you see enemies. Run up to within aggro range, battle theme kicks in and everyone gets into position and fight commences (that way back/side surprise attacks are possible for the player and enemies). Not even in a straight line either, incorporate the environment into tactics of approach (high/low ground). Introduce formations. Evolve that shit.

This hybrid system they use now is a mess. Having the ATB fill contingent on action and not time passed means my character’s gauge fills up far faster than my AI controlled NPCs do, so I end up getting off three to four ATB moves per their one, essentially nullifying their abilities unless I continually switch, which I suspect was what the devs intended.

Man how I crave the old battle system, they really could’ve made an amazing one here. Too bad.

I like how ATB depends on action and not time. It forces me to switch to other party members. At first I had the same opinion as you, pure classic should've been the way to go. After playing the demo and 4 hours of the game I think it would have been a 'disaster'. They've found the perfect balance imo.

 

[Boneless]

If it's not a bug and that's how it's supposed to be, what a giant slap in the face of every player. The whole point of the episodic nature of Remake was that they needed the extra time and resources to recreate a game as huge as FF7. And then it has N64 textures?

I'm willing to give them that it's a bug, and maybe the crisis is making it difficult to get a patch out, but if that's by design then I will not be buying episode 2 until it's $10 during a black Friday sale.l

I am sure SE will miss you as a customer. I'd like to see it patched too but overall the concensus is, and rightfuly so that this game is graphically amazing bar a couple of textures

Spoiler: My thoughts of Chapters 1-4

My thoughts, chapter by chapter:

Chapter 1

- Wow, it's the first mission again!
- The graphics and music rule!
- Barret's kind of annoying!
- Surprisingly difficult first boss, that's promising.

Chapter 2

- Fuck, is that Sephiorith? You assholes.
- Fuck are those dementors now?
- Oh no, this is gonna suck isn't it?
- This combats getting a little dull, been fighting dudes for like 90 straight min now.
- Preparing myself for disappointment.

Chapter 3

- OMG that music and those graphics, fuck me, it's beautiful.
- Holy shit look up!!! Looks sick!!!
- Wow, script and performances are seemingly better than expected? It's not Paul Thomas Anderson or anything but the main characters actually talk like human beings in a Square JRPG? Wow, did not expect that. Even Barret has become more tolerable now.
- I was so wrong during chapter 2, I'm in love now.
- Is the combat a little too simple? Maybe.

Chapter 4

- Nah, Combat is actually decently complex, I'm impressed. A hybrid of XIII and XV, taking the best parts and removing the shit from both.
- lol Roche is fucking cornball straight outta a Kingdom Hearts game. Whatever, I'll take it.
- Still impressed at difficulty, did every side-quest and came close to dying a few times. Happy about that.
- Still unsure about these dementors but with everything else this good, I'll let it slide.
- Jesus Christ, Jessie's the horniest FF character I've ever seen and that's saying something.

Excited to keep going!!

 

[Boneless]

Can someone help with chapter 9?

Spoiler

Doing the additional fights in Corneo's colosseum shows a number of stars out of 7 after finishing the fight. What does this mean? I have 2 out of 7 stars for the third fight, 1 out of 7 for the first two. Though I finish the fights pretty much instantly so I am not sure what the star rating means, maybe it's difficulty of the challenge?

 

[Malakhov]

Exactly, my point was you can point out the blurry textures or you can actually look at the game and see how fantastic it is with the art and graphics working together.

I'm just bothered by a post acting like people must be lying about the game looking amazing because it has some minor flaws.

I haven't seen any of these texture problems and I'm in chapter 6 now. I'm the type of player who focus on his main character and the general surroundings. I just can't understand why you'd be focusing on doors etc... That must be really annoying playing games this way.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

Uh it sure does. I set mine.

When HDR is on there's no brightness slider, on SDR there is, what do you have yours set on? I mean the brightness level, i have mine on 5.

 

[Nattan]

Can someone help with chapter 9?

Spoiler

Doing the additional fights in Corneo's colosseum shows a number of stars out of 7 after finishing the fight. What does this mean? I have 2 out of 7 stars for the third fight, 1 out of 7 for the first two. Though I finish the fights pretty much instantly so I am not sure what the star rating means, maybe it's difficulty of the challenge?

Spoiler

The stars are the difficulty rating for the fights. Maximum difficulty is 7 stars. You encounter those fights later in the game.

 

[Boneless]

The minigames in this are so much fun. Though I wish they had an even more challenging level to beat, so far I beat all of them in one or two tries.

 

[Ten_Fold]

I'm at ch 7 and so far I like the game, It's better than kh3 and ff15 in terms of fun for me, the textures look kinda bad, game is almost as linear as ff13 which is ok, also not sure how I feel about the story changes too much, I do like the expanded midgar but the daemon things or whatever idk. Will give my final say once I finish the game.

 

[Exentryk]

TFW you turn super saiyan during the Squatting minigame:

 

[Dacon]

Exactly, my point was you can point out the blurry textures or you can actually look at the game and see how fantastic it is with the art and graphics working together.

I'm just bothered by a post acting like people must be lying about the game looking amazing because it has some minor flaws.

Yet you can't acknowledge other folk's points about how these random, bland undetailed spots scattered all over the environments throughout the game are hurting the game's presentation. They stand out like a sore thumb in these large environments with good lighting. To top it off, not all of the areas look good to begin with. Outside of specific story locations, the environments are bland, boring and uninteresting to look at in several spots in the slums, which become even less good looking when the textures don't load in.

While you may be bothered by that, there's other people out there who are bothered by people refusing to acknowledge that this game has flaws, that much of the media refused to acknowledge. I think both points of view are valid.

Digital foundry had an entire section in the video about the texture problem, it's not people nitpicking or making shit up, it looks bad and it hurts the game's otherwise good graphics, when almost all of a part of an area has missing textures.

 

[GymWolf]

The minigames in this are so much fun. Though I wish they had an even more challenging level to beat, so far I beat all of them in one or two tries.

what are the price for beating them?
absolutely not interested in minigames for the most part but if they give you some big price maybe i can change idea.

 

[Exentryk]

what are the price for beating them?
absolutely not interested in minigames for the most part but if they give you some big price maybe i can change idea.

The Darts one gives you Luck Up Materia, while the Squats one gives you Champion Belt (HP and Str up).

 

[GymWolf]

The Darts one gives you Luck Up Materia, while the Squats one gives you Champion Belt (HP and Str up).

i hope they are really easy, i usually dislike minigames

 

[base]

Squats with that trans guy. Omg gonna puke.

 

[JORMBO]

Yet you can't acknowledge other folk's points about how these random, bland undetailed spots scattered all over the environments throughout the game are hurting the game's presentation. They stand out like a sore thumb in these large environments with good lighting. To top it off, not all of the areas look good to begin with. Outside of specific story locations, the environments are bland, boring and uninteresting to look at in several spots in the slums, which become even less good looking when the textures don't load in.

While you may be bothered by that, there's other people out there who are bothered by people refusing to acknowledge that this game has flaws, that much of the media refused to acknowledge. I think both points of view are valid.

Digital foundry had an entire section in the video about the texture problem, it's not people nitpicking or making shit up, it looks bad and it hurts the game's otherwise good graphics, when almost all of a part of an area has missing textures.

Agreed with this. The really bad texture work and some of the enviroments being bland drag the graphics down for me. In the slums there's a lot of texture pop in too. And when the textures do pop in they go from a flat blurry mess to a PS2 quality texture. It is really strange since there are plenty of games that look better that don't have this issue.

On another note - Aside from that I am loving the game. I'm 5 hours in so far. I like that they are adding a lot more detail to the story and characters. The Aerith encounter is a bit strange, but I'll see where they end up going with that before judging.

 

[Grinchy]

Ok now I'm 4.5 hours in. It's crazy how they give you some info on how to play with Tifa, but it takes so much time to build up to the cool stuff that every fight you are in with her for a decent amount of time ends before you can really do any of it.

A couple bigger fights later on finally let me use some of the build up abilities, at least. I'm just kinda looking forward to an elevation in the difficulty.

 

[TacosNSalsa]

Holy padded out game Batman!! There are hold button prompts for switches where he just stands there with his hand on the lever while the meter fills up and then just flips it . Why? Is it a loading thing? It seems like certain things are put in just to slow down your progress . If this persists , and I believe it will, I'll be cussin and carrying on before the end

 

[Boneless]

Holy padded out game Batman!! There are hold button prompts for switches where he just stands there with his hand on the lever while the meter fills up and then just flips it . Why? Is it a loading thing? It seems like certain things are put in just to slow down your progress . If this persists , and I believe it will, I'll be cussin and carrying on before the end

It's more likely to make sure you do not interact with something that you did not intend to, that could get annoying as well. You might have a hard time if you already get annoyed by holding square for a full second.

 

[SantaC]

You can see that SE tried to pad this game to get extra hours of it. Chapter 8 slow walking for 30 minutes was pretty terrible.

Reminds me a bit of Skyward sword padding.

I have no idea when they started this game in production, but I think they realized that they had to get this game out now.

I am kinda baffled, because UE4 is easy to work with right?

 

[LordKasual]

If it's not a bug and that's how it's supposed to be, what a giant slap in the face of every player. The whole point of the episodic nature of Remake was that they needed the extra time and resources to recreate a game as huge as FF7. And then it has N64 textures?

I'm willing to give them that it's a bug, and maybe the crisis is making it difficult to get a patch out, but if that's by design then I will not be buying episode 2 until it's $10 during a black Friday sale.

....it doesn't matter how much time and money they throw into the game. The PS4 can only manage so many assets at once. Ofc i don't know if that's the case, but what i was saying is that while playing the game, it doesn't feel like the world you're running through is low-quality, despite the fact that it's got a few low-quality textures rolling around.

The barrel is not only blurry, but low poly. This is absolutely awful for a current gen game and looks more like a remastered PS3 game. The wall, door and ground textures are also last gen. Looks terrible on a big screen 4K TV. Night areas only look better because the lighting and darkness covers it all up.

yeah....no, you're out of your damn mind if you seriously think that.

Not even the most rabidly angry reviewer has the audacity to call this game ugly.

this is a tricky question, if they expand any main chara like they expanded 3rd rate character like the avalanche team, and a location that you complete in 4-6 hours in the original game in a 40 hours game, i really can't see how they can finish this project with only 3 chapters.
if they want to maintain this scope, they have to cut a lot of things to finish with only 3 games, or making the 2 remaining games 80-100 hours long without much padding at all.

Well nobody needs to worry about this, because there are farrrrrrrr fewer important side characters in the FF7 storyline after you leave midgar anyway. Midgar was the only large city in the game.

The only places that would be candidates for being fleshed out IMO are Cid's village, Cosmo Canyon, Barrett's village (can't remember) and Wutai, and Wutai was a completely optional area in FF7.

I thought the exact same thing when I heard Barrets Japanese voice, it was enough to make me stay with english for the first playthough,
I may have said this before, but if you aren't getting enough challenge try selling all your items/just not using them.

Tons of the magic of the original is lost, but for me it's all replace by brand new spells.

This is my favorite thing about the game, really. I keep slowly getting disappointed, only to get hit with what i was looking for (in a completely different place) or getting something new entirely.

 

[Boneless]

You can see that SE tried to pad this game to get extra hours of it. Chapter 8 slow walking for 30 minutes was pretty terrible.

Reminds me a bit of Skyward sword padding.

I have no idea when they started this game in production, but I think they realized that they had to get this game out now.

I am kinda baffled, because UE4 is easy to work with right?

You really think the reason forced walking is in for padding, I mean really?

 

[TacosNSalsa]

It's more likely to make sure you do not interact with something that you did not intend to, that could get annoying as well. You might have a hard time if you already get annoyed by holding square for a full second.

The triangle button does nothing but interact so if you're pressing it you meant to interact with something . It also is more than 1 second ..more like 2 or 3 . Not a lot at all but over the course of a game it just irks . me . Also it only happens with switches , talking to people and opening chests are instant .

 

[Zog]

It's more likely to make sure you do not interact with something that you did not intend to, that could get annoying as well. You might have a hard time if you already get annoyed by holding square for a full second.

If moving the lever is the only way forward then you would intend to interact with it. Why make the player hold it if it's required anyway?

 

[LordKasual]

The triangle button does nothing but interact so if you're pressing it you meant to interact with something . It also is more than 1 second ..more like 2 or 3 . Not a lot at all but over the course of a game it just irks . me . Also it only happens with switches , talking to people and opening chests are instant .

Talking to people is not always instant though, at times you can get clear pauses of upwards of 3-4 seconds (at its worst) of the game loading the cutscene/interaction when you talk. I think the game just has alot of assets to manage, i can imagine that outside of "immersion walking", alot of slow movement is to aid with loading assets.

Some of it is just annoying design ("balance walking") but that was annoying even in FFXV and that game did absolutely nothing to pad its dungeons. (Ch13 excluded ofc)

That said, the only time i think i've been bothered by it was the very beginning of the game in that one sequence. Since then it's felt natural imo

 

[SantaC]

You really think the reason forced walking is in for padding, I mean really?

Yes. Forced walking sucks. What purpose does it serve?

 

[Boneless]

Yes. Forced walking sucks. What purpose does it serve?

If you allow a player to sprint around a house while you are supposed to sneak through the back that kinda ruins it doesn't it? Whether or not you like forced walking, saying it was done for padding is just plain silly.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[TacosNSalsa]

Talking to people is not always instant though, at times you can get clear pauses of upwards of 3-4 seconds (at its worst) of the game loading the cutscene/interaction when you talk. I think the game just has alot of assets to manage, i can imagine that outside of "immersion walking", alot of slow movement is to aid with loading assets.

Some of it is just annoying design ("balance walking") but that was annoying even in FFXV and that game did absolutely nothing to pad its dungeons. (Ch13 excluded ofc)

That said, the only time i think i've been bothered by it was the very beginning of the game in that one sequence. Since then it's felt natural imo

Outside of my cynical thinking this was the second thing that came to mind . Reminds me of the older God of War games where Kratos could stop a titan from crushing him between his fingers but struggled to open a door.

 

[plasmawave]

Game's nice but more linear than Toriyama's XIII (I brought this rose).

This is just not true at all.

 

[Neff]

Game's nice but more linear than Toriyama's XIII.

This is not true.

 

[Psykodad]

about 10 hrs in - don't really like it that much. Besides the technical issues (blurry textures) and questionable art design (world and its citizens looks waaay less steampunky then in the original), certain scenarios within the game just overstay their welcome WAAAY too much. Like the Reactor 5 bombing mission. Maybe I'm spoiled because I use the original as a reference here, but they took a 30 minute section of the game and turned it into a 3 hour section, it feels boring - especially if you already know what will happen.

I really wish they would have made the complete game and not split it into parts and kept the tight pacing of the original. Would have been a better game imo.

If they would've kept the tight pacing of the original, the Remake wouldn't have worked and would feel rushed to hell.
I think people are comparing it to the original way too much.

They could've trimmed some stuff though, like Reactor 5 and those dumbass Roche parts.
Roche is easily one of the lamest and gay characters in FF ever.

 

[Carna]

Linearity is made up for me in games, if the environment around it is lively and full of thought/care put into it, and the slums feels alive

 

[wvnative]

Overall I don't think I could be happier. This is a magnificent recreation of the og game with added depth to the characters I already loved. English writing and acting is ace, combat is spectacular, and oh do they play on your nostalgia.

It is not without faults though, Roche feels tonally out of place, some parts seem wayyy to expanded like the Reactor 5 dungeon, but these are small blemishes on an otherwise amazing game...


...I do wish the AI was more aggressive with faster ATB filling, i know they want you to switch characters manually but it gets to be overload.

 

[CrysisFreak]

This is just not true at all.

This is not true.

Can you elaborate? Because that is my genuine impression.

FF7R has super linear sections with select few branching parts, like the reactor missions.
And it has those free roam areas like the slums. Here you cannot enter any building, so it's also not that sprawling. Some paths lead away from the slums to a few fighting areas. Not that large either.

In FF13 you have mostly ultra linear sections, they are about as linear as FF7R, probably a bit more linear.
BUT you also have some free roam areas like the Archylte steppe that has actual free roam. Again even the slums and Aerith's village are quite constrained, come on.

Now I do get that you can feel that 13 is more linear than 7R. But come on you can't tell me gulf is that big overall. FF7R is very linear overall and I already long for part II with real exploration...

 

[wvnative]

Can you elaborate? Because that is my genuine impression.

FF7R has super linear sections with select few branching parts, like the reactor missions.
And it has those free roam areas like the slums. Here you cannot enter any building, so it's also not that sprawling. Some paths lead away from the slums to a few fighting areas. Not that large either.

In FF13 you have mostly ultra linear sections, they are about as linear as FF7R, probably a bit more linear.
BUT you also have some free roam areas like the Archylte steppe that has actual free roam. Again even the slums and Aerith's village are quite constrained, come on.

Now I do get that you can feel that 13 is more linear than 7R. But come on you can't tell me gulf is that big overall. FF7R is very linear overall and I already long for part II with real exploration...

The dungeon i did last night was literally a maze with many side paths and hidden treasure, that dungeon alone had more exploration than all of 13. the open area at the end of 13 still just pivots off to straight areas.