Finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with 77 hours on the clock. I have plenty of thoughts. They're mostly positive, though I wish they'd toned down the number of and difficulty of a lot of the minigames, it really is quite kitchen sink design. Very lavish but not quite necessary. The last three chapters are excellent though, the combat system really shines and it gets very difficult. Sometimes too difficult, like it's asking you to solve a puzzle that it won't give you the guidelines for until after you've failed so you have start from scratch. That said, when it clicks it's absolutely electric and the audio visual stuff is great. Having all six team members around at nearly all times is great fun.

I came out of Remake fairly enthused about the game, but extremely suspect of where they could go with this story, and not really liking the changes to the story. This time around I am quite positive on where they can go with the third instalment, and I think they've improved on what was a good gameplay core in Remake.

The presentation is fantastic, the music especially is remix and reshaping Uematsu's work into something expansive and engrossing. Any time the game adapts musical motifs to do with Jenova, the Ancients, or the Planet/Lifestream, it does really interesting things with a broad instrumental palette that do more than just build up the original themes with bluster and fireworks - something Remake did a little too much of for my taste. 

As well as some absolutely soaring highs, there are some quite crushing lows, mainly around poorly judged minigames or combat sequences where the Assess text doesn't quite mesh with your combat objective, but these are largely minor missteps in a very grand and incredibly generous game. The final chapter kinda sums it up fantastically, a quiet little moment of character expansion that builds on the work done to turn these characters into real three dimensional portraits, followed by some utterly head scratching narrative stuff, rounded out out by an absolutely breathless sequences of battles that is a loveletter to the original game, recontextualised for a modern console and all the graphical horesepower it can harness.

Crucially, it's not a 1:1 replacement of the original FInal Fantasy VII, a game I maintain holds up well to this day, especially in its quieter and more atmospheric moments. The Nibelheim flashback is handled better in a 30 year old game than in its modern counterpart, the gaps in its presentation allow you to fill in so much more and it all drips with dread. But the times when Rebirth really excels is when it takes moments that need to be grander and dramatic, and it elevates them through the fucking stratosphere. I am glad this part of the journey is done, and that it's been handled so confidently. Onto the next part. Let's mosey.

PS Fuck Chadley and MAI they belong in the crashed Gelinka with all the horrible high level fiends. Loser shit. The worst hangs imaginable.

I for one wish to pay homage to our new god, Chadley.

regmcfly wrote:

I for one wish to pay homage to our new god, Chadley.

I hate that little prick so much, and they had to go and double-double down.

Don’t forget to update your PS5 firmware so you can experience Chadley and MAI on your DualSense controller in higher quality.

EvilRedEye wrote:

Don’t forget to update your PS5 firmware so you can experience Chadley and MAI on your DualSense controller in higher quality.

If I never actually meet MAI I'm going to assume that she doesn't exist and it's just Chadley in a wig.

FF15 got binned off.
I did two weapon caves then realised it's just going to be weapon caves, petrol stations and plateau for umpteen hours.

Started FFX. This is better.

I'm a fair bit in and it's alright. Not as good as 7/8/9 but fine.
It beats endless traipsing in 15.

Fun fact: it’s the only FF I’ve played more than once. I finished it in like 60 hours or so. Then immediately replayed it trying to get everything. Spent 120 hours and gave up on a couple of late side bosses.

Ok, it’s not just good. I do think it’s great. As always, story and characters are where opinions will differ, but the main game(play) is super solid.

Just doing that bit now.
Haven't managed to dodge a single lightning bolt.

Edit: you might be talking about something else.

Only thing I've not liked was the Blitz ball introduction. Tutorial, then fuck off to fight a boss, then the actual game is just 10 minutes of getting dunked on. Really poor way to introduce a side game. I've read it's better after that.

Yeah, I'm alright with having to lose, it's the full 10 minute gameplay you have to sit through to do so. Just doesn't feel good.
Should have been tutorial, then let me play in the first match as a stupidly easy, unfailable thing, then get beaten in the final.
Something like that, something better than learning the rules, spending time on something else then getting owned.

I did all that. On my second playthrough though. Was that what you needed for Anima? Some secret anyway.

Man, I’ve forgotten so much about the game. That’s a good thing if I want to replay it sometime soon.

I thought it might be increased frame rate or something. There is 0 time to react. Sometimes I'd come out of a battle and get hit instantly.

As far as I can tell there were no consequences anyway.

I’ve started FF VII remake, having never played a FF game to completion. I think the first I tried was X back on PS2. Anyway, I’m really early on; I’ve only just met Tifa who is wearing a particularly practical outfit. I’m trying to assign materia to the slots in the blade, however all it seems to allow me to do is swap the one assigned materia to the other slot. I have four materia in inventory, but I can’t see them when I go to assign materia to the slots. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong please? I’m also very aware, that this doesn’t bode well for the future.

Press triangle to change materia.