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Final Fantasy VII Remake |OT| - The Reunion is coming

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Beat Hellhouse on hard difficulty last night. They were kind of evil with it!

The tonberry's and the mechs made me scramble a bit. Cloud got one shot a couple of times when I was trying to cast fire into the middle of them w/ Aerith.
 

Lethal01

Member
Guys, as someone who intends to max out all characters and most essential materia, how do you think SE will handle this in part 2?

I'm assuming:

- Part 2 will start with the characters/materia at the level you finish part 1 (thus the level 50 limitation)
- It will be release on PS5, which means it will need some cross saving mechanic

Or do you think they'll go the easy way, in part 2 you will start from level 0 all over again?


I'm praying they start everyone at the same level.
designing around progress in a previous game is asking for unnecessary trouble and would do nothing but hurt the experience.
 
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Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I'm praying they start everyone at the same level.
designing around progress in a previous game is asking for unnecessary trouble and would do nothing but hurt the experience.
It reminds me of the issues MMOs face with every new expansion. Everyone's been running around at level caps for months or even years and then all of a sudden there's progression again. It takes a lot of balancing to get it right.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Beat Hellhouse on hard difficulty last night. They were kind of evil with it!

The tonberry's and the mechs made me scramble a bit. Cloud got one shot a couple of times when I was trying to cast fire into the middle of them w/ Aerith.
Subversion + warding materia is a nice way to be immune from that stupid instant death attack
 

Lethal01

Member
I'm fine with the grab attacks but there's no point in make them last as long as they do when you are the only one in the party or if everyone else is dead.
Shorten the animation and make em do the same amount of damage
 

gela94

Member
I pretty much love everything, just not the horrible blurry textures. The biggest letdown is that we don't have a clue when the next part will arrive :messenger_loudly_crying:
There is only one complaint, as other people said already and that is the art design, everything the environment of the slums, npc designs just looks so ordinary, they could be out of a Yakuza game or watch dogs, it just looks kinda uninspired.
 
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Nankatsu

Gold Member
Equip assess materia, use it on him right away. During any time in the fight you can press the touchpad to call up the info screen, and it will tell you his current weakness if you're confused.

Shit, I've been using assess over and over again depending on the phase. Thought you had to do it to know it's weakness :messenger_tears_of_joy: .

Dumb me. Thanks mate!
 

Nymphae

Banned
I'm fine with the grab attacks but there's no point in make them last as long as they do when you are the only one in the party or if everyone else is dead.
Shorten the animation and make em do the same amount of damage

It wouldn't be so bad if you could mash to make it go by a little faster, but yeah holy shit those are super annoying.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
ok im convinced this has the best FF combat since FFX. i love it so much. its the perfect blend of Fast Paced Action Game Button Masher and Turn Based Menu Based RPG Combat.

the Matrix style slowdown is great. such a brilliant idea. successfully attacking & blocking gains you ATB, which builds on it's own anyways. you don't have to do anything but wait to use items and the special moves. but if you play good, you don't have to wait so long, you are rewarded with faster access to moves with good play. the slow motion effect is well done and adds to the tension of the experience. there is that in-built timer, usually there is only a brief window before the enemy will hit you, even in slow motion. it provides that tension.

then there is the option to quickly hop to another teammate, in under a second, and run whatever Cura spell you need, or use a Phoenix Down, or anything you ever needed to do in combat during the old FF games. so quickly and easily to do this. 💚 it.

it may be the perfect FF combat.
 
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Nymphae

Banned
I've been fighting with the targeting system a lot, but it's not hampering my experience too much and overall it's a goddamn blast.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
ok im convinced this has the best FF combat since FFX. i love it so much. its the perfect blend of Fast Paced Action Game Button Masher and Turn Based Menu Based RPG Combat.

the Matrix style slowdown is great. such a brilliant idea. successfully attacking & blocking gains you ATB, which builds on it's own anyways. you don't have to do anything but wait to use items and the special moves. but if you play good, you don't have to wait so long, you are rewarded with faster access to moves with good play. the slow motion effect is well done and adds to the tension of the experience. there is that in-built timer, usually there is only a brief window before the enemy will hit you, even in slow motion. it provides that tension.

then there is the option to quickly hop to another teammate, in under a second, and run whatever Cura spell you need, or use a Phoenix Down, or anything you ever needed to do in combat during the old FF games. so quickly and easily to do this. 💚 it.

it may be the perfect FF combat.
Yup, it's a good balance of risk vs reward. Bullet time is also great both visually and in gameplay.

Something I wish I had is the ability to control the AI of the teammates better. Sorta like FF12 gambits.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I've been fighting with the targeting system a lot, but it's not hampering my experience too much and overall it's a goddamn blast.
Have you tried the different targeting options in the game settings?

If you're having trouble selecting your lockon target quickly, you can also try pressing X, selecting an ability, selecting the target you want, lockon, then exit out.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Have you tried the different targeting options in the game settings?

If you're having trouble selecting your lockon target quickly, you can also try pressing X, selecting an ability, selecting the target you want, lockon, then exit out.

Not sure, I'll have to take a look. I just always want camera control so I tend to go without lock ons, but then I'll whiff some attacks so I'll switch to lock on and then the camera is less than ideal so I unlock again, maybe I'm missing something.
 

Nymphae

Banned
I don't understand these options, can someone explain this to me?

Lock on controls - stick or dpad (says lock on with R3, and your options are either switch targets with stick or dpad)
Lock on Switching - switch in order or direction input (says switch targets by pushing stick left or right, or in direction of target)

So it inset the first option to dpad switches targets, the second option still references stick target switching?
 

Hostile_18

Banned
I'm on chapter 8, 20 hours in and loving it

The original was great despite the random combat, this time fighting is actually fun.

I do hope they patch the blurry textures. Its strange one game having the best graphics ever and also some of the worst lol.
 

Boneless

Member
Chapter 17. Though the
whole Shinra section is cool, I'd preferred if they kept some of it more similar. The original scene where you're in the cell, the door is suddenly unlocked and everyone is dead, leading up to one of the most epic scenes in the OG, finding Shinra's president with a masamune in his back. This scene is so powerful that I am not sure how they thought they would top this. And if you don't think you can top it, why would you change it? It would've been epic with the new graphics..
 
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sublimit

Banned
What???

Soulsborne (especially Bloodborne) bosses very typically consist of enemies who are relentlessly aggressive and will literally one-shot/combo you to death the first time you misjudge a dodge timing or attack window. You're telling me the first time you played bloodborne, you didn't get combo'd to death by Gascogoine because you didn't dodge a combo, or one-shot by Amelia because you didn't have enough health?

The difference with Souls/Borne games and this one is that in the former the game doesn't force you to retry a battle just because you happen to have the wrong build or equipment for the battle. The choices on how you will tackle a situation are almost infinite. You want to try melee no problem. You want to try magic no problem. You want to try items no problem. With very few exceptions in the series the game lets you find what is the optimal way during the fight itself with whatever you have at your disposal. And yes even during the first time you fight most bosses. The Father Gascoigne battle gave you many options on how to tackle it and that was the best part of the fight. I happen to be good at parries in Souls and Bloodborne so that was the method that i choose. But you could also fight him and beat him normally without even try to parry him once. And then there was also the option of the music box and molotov coctails.

In all Souls games if you don't rush like a fool mashing buttons and take the time and patience to observe the attack patterns of bosses most chances are you are going to beat them on first try. I really don't want to brag but i have beaten even bosses that are considered incredibly hard by the community (like Artorias,Lady Maria and Orphan of Kos) on my first try because i always like to observe their movements and react accordingly.

In the fight with Hell House i also did that and i avoided easily most of its attacks and i also understood what i had to do but the problem was that the game was punishing me due to having only one elemental with me so i had to wait an eternity until i could get the right opportunity to hit it and stagger it. And no the "you should have had the Access Materia equipped" still proves my point how the game forces you to have certain materia equipped at all times while giving you a very limited amount of equipment slots.

The original also gave you a limited amount of equipment slots but it never felt that you had to have all materia equiped that early in the game. It was only AFTER you left Midgar that you felt the need to have more elemental materia with you and by that time the game also gave you the option of either to find or to buy equipment with enough materia slots in order to experiment more. In that way the original was much more balanced than this Re-imagining.

Was it "BAD DESIGN" then when Blood-Starved Beast starts spewing poison everywhere and you have no Antidotes? Or you have to pass through a section of Winter Lanterns with no sedatives?

Again you only prove how much superior the design of Bloodborne is when compared to FFVIIR.
With Blood Starved beast you are exploring a level that is full of enemies that inflict poison on you and that is the game telling you that it will be most likely that the boss of the level will also inflict poison. And not only that but in the same level the game gives you a ton of antidotes (it even has some inside the boss room) so it was never a matter of having to start over again because the game "tricked" you into thinking that antidotes weren't necessary.
And your example does not compare with the Hell House situation because we're talking items (that in both games you ALWAYS have them equiped) and not specific spells. Same goes for the sedatives.

But again you don't need the antidotes in order to beat the Bloodstarved beast. Someone can beat it even without antidotes or fire paper just by playing regularly. Or you also have the option to parry it. Or if you want to play it more safe you can use Pungent Blood Coctails and destroy it.

Bottom line is Bloodborne gives you various options to tackle a situation on your first try while this game does not.

In fact, if you load your characters out in FF7R based on defense (cure, barrier, steadfast, parry, defense/MR) then you can beat pretty much every boss in the game through attrition. If anything, the Hellhouse fight encouraged me to equip a wider gauntlet of elemental spells for situations where i might get caught with my pants down.
I also had healing materia as well as defensive like barrier but like i said the slots are not enough to let you experiment too much if you always have to have all elemental materia with you just to be on the safe side and be cought with your pants down as you said. Especially is sections when you only control Cloud (like where i'm currently at) the choices are becoming even more limited and restricted.

That means I had to sacrifice other materia, yes, but the ability to CHOOSE my angle for battle is the heart of what makes RPG mechanics fun. How on earth is that "bad design" when you have multiple angles? Bloodborne is a JRPG that works the exact same way, only difference is that it doesn't have blocking and instead has I-frames so you technically don't NEED "defense" for anything.

But that is exactly the point. In that fight (and a few others before it) the game does not want you to choose how you tackle a boss fight. For example can you imagine entering the fight without having not even one elemental materia. Oh yeah that must have been a lot of fun!

you can not like the fight, but it's really annoying when people cite "BAD GAME DESIGN" for everything they don't agree with.
And you can also like the fight as much as you want but you cannot say to people that they are not allowed to have an opinion when you don't agree with them.

"just a matter of trial and error". That's a funny complaint coming from a dark souls lover. ;)
See my post above.

Hmm, I didn't think it was clear to be honest. Maybe I missed something then.
Just equip all elemental materia before the fight and look at its windows in order to use the right elemental. Of course you would have no clue on whether to equip all elementals before the fight so don't worry it's just the game messing with you.
 
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Doom85

Member
I guess I'm just confused why someone wouldn't have elemental materia on Cloud or Aerith. Basic JRPG knowledge should have one realize that having magic attacks available is important against certain foes. And by that point in the game Cloud and Aerith should be able to hold 5-6 materia each. So it's not like you don't have plenty of options left if you throw on at least one elemental materia on each of them.

I guess I could see more of an argument being made for not assuming everyone uses Assess, but again it's clearly the best way to know how to deal with an enemy and it's pretty clear the Colosseum would have a boss fight.
 

sublimit

Banned
There's a difference not having elemental materia and being forced to have ALL elementals with you at all times. Especially when the slots are very limited.

You basically sacrifice experimentation.
 

Doom85

Member
I only had Fire on Cloud and Wind and Blizzard on Aerith so I didn't have every elemental either (not to mention sometimes the character I needed to use the attack magic had to prioritize healing). In spite of that, the boss fight was hard but didn't seem unreasonable to me. Never even had a character KO'd. And no, I didn't do much grinding beforehand since it's kind of hard to do in this game from where I'm at so far, I did a little in Sector 7 but probably barely enough to gain a single level.

Then in the next phase, as soon as I saw the arms I knew exactly what to do even without being told based on prior boss fights.

I don't think JRPGs should feel obligated that every encounter can be solved a whole bunch of ways. Nobody played FF X and said, "oh, only Wakka is truly viable against that bird, that's some bullshit!" And seriously, again you only had one element? Then yeah, I would have predicted from the start that an eventual boss would punish you for that. You wouldn't expect Pokemon to take it easy on you because you went with only 1-3 types, now would you? JRPGs generally are always more designed that parties that have as many bases covered do far better. If you're focusing purely on physical attacks and defense, then yeah eventually you're going to face something tough. FF VII Remake is just being a JRPG and I'm not going to fault it for that.

Seriously, it's a tough boss in a JRPG, hardly something new to the genre. But I can't agree that it's bad game design that the game punishes you for not being ready to face as many possible types of threats as possible. If it was Cloud solo or earlier in the game where characters could only equip so many materia, I'd be more likely to agree, but at that point nah, seemed totally reasonable to me.
 

Lethal01

Member
One thign i personally want is higher difficult on the "action" side of thing, or for the least more engagement.
I wish they would throw in some attacks theat would really test you movement skils and your attack timing every now and then to mix things up.

Don't turn it into Bayonetta but make more use of the action mechanics that are already there.

As an example, for the scorpion Sentinel instead of just hiding between cover have him also do 3 or 4 quick blasts to dodge. Just something to keep you engaged .
 
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Dacon

Banned
I don't get how soo many people keeps getting annoyed at the episodic approach after seeing how this first part is. Come on, no gaming company would be capable of remaking all the content of the original FFVII in this level of quality on a single game. I really prefer that they go all out with the scope of the project and they do it in parts instead of limiting the scope of the remake just to have it on one game.


I'm sorry, but based on the game world, and side quests I'm not too impressed with this level of quality. Midgar is not really a huge game world and isn't very fleshed out. Hell there's some consistency issues in the game world, esp after the plate falls. The amount of optional content is pretty paltry, and none of it is really meaningful or rewarding. It took them 5 years to build this game world and it feels like they used most of that time on the cutscenes and combat. Granted, I think the combat is absolutely fantastic, and the story was great up to the ending.

Other developers have done much more with similar amounts of dev time. I feel like nostalgia might be blinding people a bit on the actual state of content in this game.
 

Lethal01

Member
I'm sorry, but based on the game world, and side quests I'm not too impressed with this level of quality. Midgar is not really a huge game world and isn't very fleshed out. Hell there's some consistency issues in the game world, esp after the plate falls. The amount of optional content is pretty paltry, and none of it is really meaningful or rewarding. It took them 5 years to build this game world and it feels like they used most of that time on the cutscenes and combat. Granted, I think the combat is absolutely fantastic, and the story was great up to the ending.

Other developers have done much more with similar amounts of dev time. I feel like nostalgia might be blinding people a bit on the actual state of content in this game.

Nothing to do with nostalgia. I feel that it's got less put into it than something like uncharted but not enough less that asking for 4x more isn't insanity. I'm not saying it's the absolute peak but is definitely not a slouch just because you don't think the cutscenes are enough.
 
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Dacon

Banned
Possibly, but when I calculate my personal dollars spent divided by enjoyable hours of entertainment from this game, I get a good number that meets my threshold of value.

Oh I'm not impugning anyone's purchase or saying it's not worth the money. I just find statements about the grandiose nature of the project and how it's impossible to have remade the original game in high fidelity in one game to be a bit disingenuous.
 

Lethal01

Member
Oh I'm not impugning anyone's purchase or saying it's not worth the money. I just find statements about the grandiose nature of the project and how it's impossible to have remade the original game in high fidelity in one game to be a bit disingenuous.
It's not impossible to make a high fidelity version of the original. But it's insane to think it's reasonable to get one that improves and expand on everything even half as much as this one did even if you take away some sidequests and a return to the sewers.
 

TTOOLL

Member
Man, I can't stop thinking about this game. A dream come true indeed. However...

I am trying to get some things I left behind but I can't enjoy it as I thought I would. The exploration factor is terrible. They should have gone the God of War route with this, the perfect blend of storytelling and an "open world" that allows will go go anywhere.
 

Lethal01

Member
Man, I can't stop thinking about this game. A dream come true indeed. However...

I am trying to get some things I left behind but I can't enjoy it as I thought I would. The exploration factor is terrible. They should have gone the God of War route with this, the perfect blend of storytelling and an "open world" that allows will go go anywhere.
They really shouldn't have, God of war had a story and a world designed around blending the open and the linear. The Linear nature of this game is perfect for retelling the story of midgar.

Would make sense for the sequel though.
 
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Moogle11

Banned
Saw a tip earlier about chasing the minimal to dynamic from the default static so it spins when you move the camera. That is way more useful and has me opening the full map less often. It’s in system—>gameplay in the main menu for anyone else that didn’t know it was an option.
 

Pallas

Member
That Shiva boss fight was a lot of fun, really beautiful environment and I loved the boss theme. Also fuck Reno but thank god for parrying and Rude looks 1000 times more a badass than his polygon sprite version.
 

Moogle11

Banned
Shiva fight was the hardest one so far for me. I’m a bit into chapter 10. Hell House took a while, but got through it first time. In games where elemental weakness is a big thing I tend to focus on keeping a lot of elemental spells equipped. So I was set up ok, just took a bit to figure out when to use what.
 

Kumomeme

Member
Something I wish I had is the ability to control the AI of the teammates better. Sorta like FF12 gambits.

there something bit similliar to that like Auto-Cure and synergy materia...wish there more to these type of materia in next part...the materia system indeed presented lot of possibillites
 

Arkage

Banned
I'm sorry, but based on the game world, and side quests I'm not too impressed with this level of quality. Midgar is not really a huge game world and isn't very fleshed out. Hell there's some consistency issues in the game world, esp after the plate falls. The amount of optional content is pretty paltry, and none of it is really meaningful or rewarding. It took them 5 years to build this game world and it feels like they used most of that time on the cutscenes and combat. Granted, I think the combat is absolutely fantastic, and the story was great up to the ending.

Other developers have done much more with similar amounts of dev time. I feel like nostalgia might be blinding people a bit on the actual state of content in this game.

The Gotterdammerung is pretty sweet, and the fight leading up to it is insane to get through.

But yea the rest of the end game content and rewards is lame.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
The fact that they've turned one of the stupidest looking monsters into an epic boss fight proves how much superior this game is to the original in every single way. So far - I'm on chapter 9.

The shitty textures is now my only single beef with this one.
 

GenericUser

Member
Finished the game yesterday. I really liked it overall.

But there are things they need to address in the next title.

- able to change materia/equipment mid battle. So lame to start over an encounter, because you had the "wrong" materia combination equipped.
- qol improvements for materia management (switch materia directly between characters, switch all equipped weapon materia between party members etc.)

The graphics get better and better as you play and there are truly some jaw dropping moments near the end. I would even go as far and say square set a new benchmark in some technical aspects. Some of the cutscenes, animations and other stuff is beyond everything else in the industry.

For the next installment, I hope square will tighten the pacing a little bit. There are definitely parts of the remake that feel as if there are there, just too lengthen the game (sewers/train graveyard). These are the low points of the remake for me, but even they are fun, because the combat system is simply the best rpg battle system I ever had the joy to experience in any jrpg.

All in all a really good game, much better then I would have expected it to be honestly. Really, I had little to no faith in nu-square with the remake and - compared to my expectations - I can safely say they far exceeded them. Would give it a 4/5 and - more importantly - it restored my faith in nu-square and in the fate of the remake.

I just really hope they are going to finish the whole project, i somehow doubt it. Please let the next part "only" be 2 years away.
 

Kumomeme

Member
man, if that’s what wall market looked like (fucking amazing!), just imagine what the golden saucer is going to look like 🤩🤩🤩
that cloud dancing scene with cool QTE at honey been...imagine how the theatre scene at gold saucer is like
hope they keep original stuff like when she end up slap everyone on stage
 

LordKasual

Banned
The difference with Souls/Borne games and this one is that in the former the game doesn't force you to retry a battle just because you happen to have the wrong build or equipment for the battle. The choices on how you will tackle a situation are almost infinite. You want to try melee no problem. You want to try magic no problem. You want to try items no problem. With very few exceptions in the series the game lets you find what is the optimal way during the fight itself with whatever you have at your disposal.

I'm calling bullshit on this entire post because it sounds suspiciously like you're trying to suggest that Bloodborne is a game that expects you to one-try bosses and environments, or that it gives you ample room to experiment DURING first encounters. Which is a complete and total ridiculous god damn lie.

Bosses are absolutely designed to stomp you out the first time you fight them, some more than others, even if you play as careful as possible the more aggressive ones will ABSOLUTELY bait and punish you for sidestepping incorrectly and the worst ones will outright kill you for it. Building your strategy in Bloodborne happens after you lose, not while you're fighting. You're calling Bloodborne "FAIR" for the same thing you're accusing FF7R of.


And the most bullshit part of this argument is you bringing up Lady Maria and ESPECIALLY Orphan of fuckin Kos, who was very clearly designed to KILL you for natural reactions that work on almost every other boss in the game. The boss literally puts you in 50/50 frame traps like a damn fighting game and then kills you for it.


Bloodborne is my favorite game of this generation. If you're telling me you "observed" Kos and killed him or Maria in one shot, you were either grossly overleveled or you're just lying to me. And even if by some silly chance you're being 100% honest, it's completely moot point because your accounts don't reflect 99.9% of the people who play Bloodborne.


Again you only prove how much superior the design of Bloodborne is when compared to FFVIIR.
With Blood Starved beast you are exploring a level that is full of enemies that inflict poison on you and that is the game telling you that it will be most likely that the boss of the level will also inflict poison. And not only that but in the same level the game gives you a ton of antidotes (it even has some inside the boss room) so it was never a matter of having to start over again because the game "tricked" you into thinking that antidotes weren't necessary.
And your example does not compare with the Hell House situation because we're talking items (that in both games you ALWAYS have them equiped) and not specific spells. Same goes for the sedatives.

But again you don't need the antidotes in order to beat the Bloodstarved beast. Someone can beat it even without antidotes or fire paper just by playing regularly. Or you also have the option to parry it. Or if you want to play it more safe you can use Pungent Blood Coctails and destroy it.

Bottom line is Bloodborne gives you various options to tackle a situation on your first try while this game does not.

You don't need all 3 materia to defeat hellhouse. The game does not prevent you from winning because you weren't perfectly prepared.

Dude I can't believe you're praising a game like Bloodborne that relentlessly makes you restart bosses and areas with traps and mechanics you'd only see coming after being killed by them the first time, but you're crying about FF7R's hellhouse because you didn't have more than 1 elemental materia equipped.

The funny shit about this is that if you really wanted to, you could go treat Hellhouse just like a typical boss in Bloodborne, and just go farm EXP and level up.

Then you'd have points for more materia slots, higher defense, attack power, pretty much all the shit you're complaining about in one game but shilling for in another.
 

LordKasual

Banned
man, if that’s what wall market looked like (fucking amazing!), just imagine what the golden saucer is going to look like 🤩🤩🤩

Something i'm surprised people aren't talking about is the sewer level.

Was I the only one mesmerized by the water physics in this game????

I couldn't really tell if it was baked or not, but they very clearly used some form of fluid dynamics for 90% of the flowing water in this game. It's beautiful.
 
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