Final Fantasy VII: Kind Of REDACTED In Retrospect

I don't know if your clam holds up to inspection when considering their entire line of stuff since FF7 (b/c the only Square game I've played to completion since that came out is Parasite Eve), but the lack of quality control sure pissed me off during my initial playthrough of the game after it came out. It seemed to me obvious that I was playing an unfinished game once I got past being totally enthralled by the early city stuff. All of a sudden, little touches started disappearing, like the branching dialogue boxes for the relationship subplots. I suppose that that Earthbound review duder would claim that that was just a brilliant bit of misdirection on Square's part, but the way it was handled was really sloppy. Moving on from the first part of the game, the overworld seemed nowhere near as interesting or well-formed an environment as the city was. Is that comparing apples and oranges a bit? Maybe, but why did the characters have to leave that environment at all? All the characters in the party that weren't part of the terrorist group just felt superfluous (especially Cait Sith-- WTF Japanese kawaii bullshit). And why did the third CD basically just contain the final boss?

I can't remember what I changed cait sith's name to, but I'm sure it was better than cait sith.

yeh, and after all that it causes only 200 damage or something.
i have very fond memories of ff vii, as i was very ill at the time i played it & the only thing i could cope with was switching on my console & then lying in bed pressing x and o repeatedly.

hell, even Planescape and Anachronax had them, and both games made explicit where they cribbed it from

this is sort of adorable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKq9iJMXs8Y

this thread makes me so sad because its mostly kind of right. i used to have a poster of cloud--this whole game was my life for like 6 months.

What is wrong w/ you people Yuffie is so obviously the best followed closely by Cait Sith.

Ugh, that video has horrible sound quality. I will go FULLBORE NOSTALGIA and say those pop-midi soundtracks of IV-VI were vastly superior the more film-like scores to VIII and later.

i stand by my comments upthread.

I think the quality is fine in the Youtube video, it's just the actual performance itself that has problems. I demand perfection in my RPG battle themes, and the younger the performers are, the more perfection I demand! 110%.

"Still More Fighting" is the best song in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTqX9IKmZtQ

A+ performance. Drum machine set to 'pummel', where it's been the past 4 months. I hate the fact that this 13-year-old kid has more facial hair than I do

This guy sucks at life, but he does include hot clips of FF7 action to keep the action-o-meter maxed out. Poignant conclusion + fade

The FF7 battle theme is once again pounded out, this time on a computer keyboard, as some kids decide that DDR clone games are much more fun without the floor pad, or moving of the body. Performer mutters 'look at my fingers sometimes' to the cameraman - spot on advice.

This is actually pretty awesome

The chocobo theme performed on dual guitars by Zack Kim, the goto hangout buddy in 6th grade, who also performs the Simpsons theme and Super Mario Bros. song upon request.

ha, that last kid is sick!

An early ILG classick

I've softened on FFVII quite a lot but overlong cut-scenes can still fuck right off.

probably my favourite gaming memory, but yeah i wouldn't go back to it.

I realise there might be something wrong with me but i still go back to it. recently to finish of the emerald weapon, and i certainly will give ruby a try sometime in the future

ugh I hate that I titled this thread this

find it kind of retarded, in retrospect?

i still love this game, and also hate it

i had the orchestral score

SEPHIROTH! dun dun dun dun dun dundun SEPHIROTH!!

sephiroth will never lose his awesomeness though.

ya that one-winged angel track is tha hotness

i wish i could find CD1 so i could sell this

See, I've played other PC RPGs that people have madly repped for (particularly Arcanum and the Fallout series) and been seriously "eh" about them. The thing that made the Black Isle/Bioware games so outstanding was that they managed to get the seamless actionesque interface properly on top of the turn-based combat system; that revolution in and of itself completely flipped expectations from RPGs to another level, whereas FFVII basically made console RPGs focus on cutscenes and stat-fiddling.

I will not deny that the storyline to FFVII is great. It's some seriously excellent narrative. I found the actual game mechanics irritating, though; even when it came out for the PC, I had absolutely no desire to pick it up (I'd played it on my roommate's PS and I was moving out due to getting married.)

― Dan (But Yeah, Cait Sith Is Retardo) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:18 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hah, i'm playin BG1 right now and those 2 games (fallout[awesome], arcanum[sux]) are my main points of comparison. i have a lot of problems with it, mostly gameplay related - just a lot of dumb design decisions. like, if you're implementing a regimented, RTS-style group formation movement system that makes it impossible to maneuver in tight spaces, make sure that half the game's environments (ie. all the interiors) aren't comprised of ventilation duct-sized corridors and matchbox houses. and the fact that enemies respawn WHILE YOU'RE IN an area drives me nuts, it's basically the same as random battles and possibly is worse. it's got some things going for it tho, like great strategic depth to the fighting and it's pretty immersive. i think it's just that everything lives in the shadow of fallout for me now.

Honestly, BG2 kicks all kinds of shit out of BG1. It's seriously amazing.

(there are still some pathing issues but MAN the story is about a bazillion times better)

yeah, i actually started off w/BG2, but when it threw me in the middle of this story i didnt know wtf about, i just said fuckit and DLed (420 pirate pc games every day peace) BG1.

i hated arcanum and bg1 but i dont have a clear recollection of why - arcanum i remember being just ugly not as part of any aesthetic but just ugly and cheap-looking. bg1 was frustrating but idk why

FFVII basically made console RPGs focus on cutscenes and stat-fiddling.

i think theres a really good thread in this - i think this is still partially true and it might be interesting to talk about "games that have had changed the other games in their genre are made" but less wordy and awful

the latter being what i was referring to upthread that made me interested in it

Game is very horny
Aerith is very annoying
Chadley is a little fucking weirdo and I wish I could smack him

Music is great

In the middle of a strangely sequenced bit where Cloud just sort of chills out for hours after a major catastrophe

no PS4/didn't play but watched the entire game online m/l start to finish on a cpl twitch streams. pretty amazing! def a surplus of drawn out parts and a little melodramatic but overall beautiful, they did really great things with all of the characters and the soundtrack is about as good as you could hope for. And after a cpl days thinking about the ending and how they remixed + restructured the game... pretttty fuckin smart!

have they nailed the psychedelia of the origibal game? sooo trippy in places

It's less trippy, I think. You lose a bit by having expensive orchestras playing everything instead of cheap but extremely evocative ps1 electronic noises. Like the mako reactor music does not chill me to my core any more for example

Also lots of gaps that your imagination filled in the original game are now filled by realistic character models and voice acting

Every time I think I'm going to finish this game I get north of midnight and get attacked by 300 robots in a labyrinthine facility that didn't look like it could be that big from the outside

Reserving judgment on the ending til I see it but I am fairly up for them pruning/abridging the less iconic bits from the middle bit of the original game. I won't be disappointed if I don't get to fight for my life for eight hours while traversing the network of sewers beneath the Costa del fuckin Sol

ILG: the gaming board where no one has time for Final Fantasy VII Remake, really

It's really good! But when are we going to get to the fuckin fireworks factory!!

I was going to download this but I'd have to delete some games off my PS4 to make space for it and I don't actually care enough to do that

I'm to the point where I've almost finished fighting my way up the stairs as the Turks are hovering in a helicopter getting ready to drop the plate. Taking my time, I guess

I won't be disappointed if I don't get to fight for my life for eight hours while traversing the network of sewers beneath the Costa del fuckin Sol

i haven't played the game, only read about it, but correct me if i'm wrong in thinking that it is more likely that you will instead have to fight for 16-24 hours in the sewers beneath the Costa del fucking Sol, with a bunch of expanded scenes and mini-bosses

man I have played a lot of ff7 and yet I'd completely erased that whole section from my memory. almost tempted to invest in a ps4 on lockdown but not sure it's really what i need in my life

At this point, Costa del Sol is probably going to be in like... part 3 or something

Not a spoiler at this point, but the released remake thus far only covers Midgar, from what I've read

the name 'costa del sol' is a sleeper hit for one of the wackiest real-world-appropriated name choices in all japanese video game development

and man i hope there's someone out there who's really really hyped for this and somehow hadn't learned it only covers midgar, and after their 60-hour midgar experience they're furious that the game ends there

Woulda been me eventually

I’m glad the kind-of-spoiler I read is actually something that becomes clear as you’re playing, regarding the weird spectres

Big fan of Cloud's mom being called Claudia

The late game bit where some toughs sic a monster on you in a junkyard with great fanfare is also good clean mischief

This game is very very pretty on ps5 and I have having a great time playing it. I think after 15 years of trying final fantasy games, it’s finally starting to click why they are so well loved

Initial (~8-12 hours, rmde) impressions:

This game is long! I'm still pnly bombing Shinra buildings?
After reading some guides, I think I'm finally understanding the combat, but man, it's complicated and the game doesn't do much to ease you into it. (It does make me long for simple nice turn-based action.)
I really don't like Barrett's voice actor. :(
I guess it's been a while since I played an FF (lol I think 9 was the last one) but I've forgotten how campy it could be.

Pretty much everyone who played the first part of the remake said the only thing it was really missing was having constant interruptions from that weird little cunt in the sailor outfit