Three years ago I played my first FF, it was XIII (I stopped playing right after this cutscene), and I would like to say that a majority of the cast in XIII are completely shit tier. Wow.
Any other relation I have had with FF prior was playing FFXIV for a few months and then dropping it because I am tired of the old school MMO formula.
Come E3 2015 and GAF exploded with FF7 remake hype. I was interested in picking up the PS4 version whenever it dropped, the game was never spoiled for me up until I came across this post. lol
I then ignored any FF7Re related threads and news except the episodic announcement back in December. On to my impressions:
I finished the game this morning and I have to say that this is one of the most charming games I've played yet. The music is god tier, and the 2D background art that the characters traverse in, simply gorgeous. Along with a cast that is the polar opposite of XIII's, memorable and are not shallow. The combat, albeit somewhat simple, is really enjoyable and is fun. The whole timer for each character turn mechanic was odd at first but really grew on me. The limit mechanic is great as well, but it took me 24 hours and halfway being into disc 2 to realize that I had to set the limit level once you learned new skills. LOL Grinding out the rest of the limit skills and hunting down the ultimate weapons was fun too.
The story:
JRPGs of today, a lot of the time, have average stories and can be forgettable (imo). FF7 story is so heavily layered that I had lost myself a few times and had to hit up the wiki to get back on track. Picking up the game after a six month break didn't help either, thanks university. Anyway, I loved how the plot started so simple: a merc group fighting against "the machine", rebels rah rah rah. Then goes on to unfold itself piece by piece revealing that their is more to plot than the rebellion with a pacing that was spot on. The plot twists, the plot twists! Sephiroth's true identity, Jenova not being an ancient, Sephiroth's real parents, Cloud's psychological abnormalities plus his identity issues, Tifa's ruse, Gast's and Hojo's fuckery with science, Vincent's passed involvement with shinra, Cait Sith's identity, and so on.
Aerith's Death: Obviously the impact of this event was robbed from me so I don't have much to say on this. When "Sephiroth" plunges his sword into her, she just dies with a smile to her face. I thought nothing else than "that's it?" I expected it to happen out of nowhere and be more discrete with some build up instead of seeing her killer fall from the sky at random. Which looked high enough to have enough time to get in the way to intercept his blade. Eh Whatever. To be fair, Cloud probably stayed in place and watched it happen due to being under Sephiroth's control. I will say though, the music that sets off during her death and continues into the next boss fight really makes the death more impactful. Along with eliciting an emotion of, "it's time to go fuck Sephiroth up", that sets the tone for the rest of the game. Bigger plot developments that happen after her death really makes her death less significant in the grand scheme of things since she had already completed her duty prior to being killed, I'm so glad that nothing else was spoiled.
My outlandish opinions:
#TeamTifa all the wayyyy!!
It's quite obvious that the game sets up Aeirth to be Cloud's one and only, at least in the beginning. Knowing that she was going to die, I decided to make her Cloud's love interest in this playthrough wondering if I their relationship would make me elicit an emotional response to her death once it came. In the end, it made me realize that Tifa is the better girl. Aerith, while having an innocent and cute personality, is too much of a softy while being a goody two shoe. She is a flower girl for a church, I guess I should have expected as much lol Kind of odd for someone to end up that way after being experimented on as a child in captivity. Her adult self showed no significant aftermath, she probably repressed it all. Also, how could she totally be cool with Cloud after he beat her? Yeah she probably knew it wasn't really him that did that, but come on. That was pretty weak writing in that regard.
Tifa's a brawler, much more grounded in reality because she's seen some shit, and much more of a badass. She's more relate-able in terms of character than Aerith's overtly "everything is going to be okay!
))" mentality. A better match for Cloud in my opinion, of course.
Vincent: Such a cool character! Awesome character design and I really liked his calm/collective demeanor. However, his limit abilities SUCK! I wanted to use him so bad but after about an hour using him I could not deal with is limit skills due not to having any control over him in his alternate forms. I reallllyyy hope they change his combat mechanics in the remake.
One final note, THIS GAME IS HUGE! There is soooooo much to do in this game with the amount of side quests and activities. The world map alone is justification enough to see why Square is going to make FF7Re episodic. Prior to playing the game I thought it was a way to milk the series. Now, anyone who is complaining about it being episodic is out of their minds and wants a half-assed game. The original game is big in scope, if you seriously believe that Square could pull this off in a single release without going bankrupt and completely failing to recapture the original game with modern tech. Wake up!
This game has nuclear power-esque tech, magic, aliens, rockets, guns, big ass swords, ancient civilizations, gods (summon materia), A TALKING LION?! etc. Square put the Fantasy in Final Fantasy with this one. I AM SO HYPED FOR THE REMAKE GAF!
Any other relation I have had with FF prior was playing FFXIV for a few months and then dropping it because I am tired of the old school MMO formula.
Come E3 2015 and GAF exploded with FF7 remake hype. I was interested in picking up the PS4 version whenever it dropped, the game was never spoiled for me up until I came across this post. lol
I then ignored any FF7Re related threads and news except the episodic announcement back in December. On to my impressions:
I finished the game this morning and I have to say that this is one of the most charming games I've played yet. The music is god tier, and the 2D background art that the characters traverse in, simply gorgeous. Along with a cast that is the polar opposite of XIII's, memorable and are not shallow. The combat, albeit somewhat simple, is really enjoyable and is fun. The whole timer for each character turn mechanic was odd at first but really grew on me. The limit mechanic is great as well, but it took me 24 hours and halfway being into disc 2 to realize that I had to set the limit level once you learned new skills. LOL Grinding out the rest of the limit skills and hunting down the ultimate weapons was fun too.
The story:
JRPGs of today, a lot of the time, have average stories and can be forgettable (imo). FF7 story is so heavily layered that I had lost myself a few times and had to hit up the wiki to get back on track. Picking up the game after a six month break didn't help either, thanks university. Anyway, I loved how the plot started so simple: a merc group fighting against "the machine", rebels rah rah rah. Then goes on to unfold itself piece by piece revealing that their is more to plot than the rebellion with a pacing that was spot on. The plot twists, the plot twists! Sephiroth's true identity, Jenova not being an ancient, Sephiroth's real parents, Cloud's psychological abnormalities plus his identity issues, Tifa's ruse, Gast's and Hojo's fuckery with science, Vincent's passed involvement with shinra, Cait Sith's identity, and so on.
Aerith's Death: Obviously the impact of this event was robbed from me so I don't have much to say on this. When "Sephiroth" plunges his sword into her, she just dies with a smile to her face. I thought nothing else than "that's it?" I expected it to happen out of nowhere and be more discrete with some build up instead of seeing her killer fall from the sky at random. Which looked high enough to have enough time to get in the way to intercept his blade. Eh Whatever. To be fair, Cloud probably stayed in place and watched it happen due to being under Sephiroth's control. I will say though, the music that sets off during her death and continues into the next boss fight really makes the death more impactful. Along with eliciting an emotion of, "it's time to go fuck Sephiroth up", that sets the tone for the rest of the game. Bigger plot developments that happen after her death really makes her death less significant in the grand scheme of things since she had already completed her duty prior to being killed, I'm so glad that nothing else was spoiled.
My outlandish opinions:
#TeamTifa all the wayyyy!!
It's quite obvious that the game sets up Aeirth to be Cloud's one and only, at least in the beginning. Knowing that she was going to die, I decided to make her Cloud's love interest in this playthrough wondering if I their relationship would make me elicit an emotional response to her death once it came. In the end, it made me realize that Tifa is the better girl. Aerith, while having an innocent and cute personality, is too much of a softy while being a goody two shoe. She is a flower girl for a church, I guess I should have expected as much lol Kind of odd for someone to end up that way after being experimented on as a child in captivity. Her adult self showed no significant aftermath, she probably repressed it all. Also, how could she totally be cool with Cloud after he beat her? Yeah she probably knew it wasn't really him that did that, but come on. That was pretty weak writing in that regard.
Tifa's a brawler, much more grounded in reality because she's seen some shit, and much more of a badass. She's more relate-able in terms of character than Aerith's overtly "everything is going to be okay!
))" mentality. A better match for Cloud in my opinion, of course.Vincent: Such a cool character! Awesome character design and I really liked his calm/collective demeanor. However, his limit abilities SUCK! I wanted to use him so bad but after about an hour using him I could not deal with is limit skills due not to having any control over him in his alternate forms. I reallllyyy hope they change his combat mechanics in the remake.
One final note, THIS GAME IS HUGE! There is soooooo much to do in this game with the amount of side quests and activities. The world map alone is justification enough to see why Square is going to make FF7Re episodic. Prior to playing the game I thought it was a way to milk the series. Now, anyone who is complaining about it being episodic is out of their minds and wants a half-assed game. The original game is big in scope, if you seriously believe that Square could pull this off in a single release without going bankrupt and completely failing to recapture the original game with modern tech. Wake up!
This game has nuclear power-esque tech, magic, aliens, rockets, guns, big ass swords, ancient civilizations, gods (summon materia), A TALKING LION?! etc. Square put the Fantasy in Final Fantasy with this one. I AM SO HYPED FOR THE REMAKE GAF!
