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Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was released one year ago today(technically speaking, no Feb 29th this year)

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
And I loved the game. Credit to Square for delivering. Do I think it was perfect? No. Some things story-wise I'm still a little skeptical on going forward, but I remember after FFVII Remake I was very concerned how they'd handle the open world and if they'd make it a cheap screen to screen fake open world adventure and they delivered way better than I ever had hoped. Final Fantasy is my favorite all-time video game series and it has pained me over the years to see what the series has turned into gradually since Final Fantasy IX(I know people will disagree with that, but I digress). And Rebirth was my favorite FF game I've played since Final Fantasy IX. So basically almost 25 years worth of Final Fantasies until they created a Final Fantasy I liked that much. I put around 220 hours into it and didn't tire of it until the veeery end with the virtual battles and such.

But anyway, just wanted to give respect to this game, to Square for how nice of a job they did with it, and here's hoping Part 3 is even better. They really brought that game world and characters to life in Rebirth.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
Great game, can't wait for the final part. It has its low points and its high points, and I completely understand the people who think it was unnecessarily bloated. I accept it for its flaws because frankly, its good points far outweigh the bad.

I literally started a NG+ on Remake then will proceed on Rebirth once I am done.
 

Gonzito

Gold Member
Its a very good game but I hate how inconsistent is graphically speaking. Some areas look great, others look awful and break very much the immersion when playing, for me at least.

But its a great game and I think that even with those inconsistencies, they did put a lot of heart into it and it has very memorable moments

I am looking forward to play the last game of the trilogy
 

Nickolaidas

Member
Its a very good game but I hate how inconsistent is graphically speaking. Some areas look great, others look awful and break very much the immersion when playing, for me at least.

But its a great game and I think that even with those inconsistencies, they did put a lot of heart into it and it has very memorable moments

I am looking forward to play the last game of the trilogy
You the guy who was hyping that 4K textures mod?
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Yep this project is amazing and I can't wait to see how it ends.
I'm secretly hoping after part 3 ends, right before the credits the screen says "Sephiroth will return in Advent Children: The Game"
 
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Katajx

Member
Just means we are closer to the last part. Hoping it pulls everything together nicely. I haven’t been disappointed in this series yet. The waiting is the hardest part.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I still haven't played it. FF7 Remake's story was too confusing for someone like me who never finished the original (I tried it a few times, but couldn't get past constant random encounters and character designs, sorry).

Not to mention it's supposed to be a 100 hour game. I can play maybe 1-2 giants like that in a year.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
I still haven't played it. FF7 Remake's story was too confusing for someone like me who never finished the original (I tried it a few times, but couldn't get past constant random encounters and character designs, sorry).

Not to mention it's supposed to be a 100 hour game. I can play maybe 1-2 giants like that in a year.
There are no random encounters in the remake - if anything, one of my complaints is that there are TOO few encounters now, instead of too many. Also, combat is a LOT more satisfying and enjoyable than the slog it was in the original.

It's a 100 hr game if you go for the completionist route. I am replaying FF7 Remake (NG+) and I've basically finished 75% of the game in the weekend. If you want to go for the main story and not feel like grinding, set the difficulty to easy and enjoy a 20 hour game.
 
My Goty 2024

Great enhancements to combat like synergy skills

The dramatic story stuff is kinda nonsense tbh, but the "fun characters on a crazy adventure" part is perfect and there are so many fun/funny moments, like Junon marching bit and Red XIII's queen's blood disguise

Can't wait for part 3

4fQ9b4p.jpg
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
Grasslands is great, and then it fell off for me. I did finish it but I wouldn't play it again.

Its way too bloated and its only one of 3 parts. I had the same issue with Remake. I don't like this approach and if you watch the sales versus development I think Square won't do it again.
 

TheAssist

Member
Man this game. I was thinking about it alot lately, it being the time of year I played it last year. So I had time to let it settle and think about it.

And I came to the conclusion that this game was the best gaming experience I have ever had. The gameplay, the music, the world, the characters, the story, the minigames. This is game is a freaking masterpiece and I am having trouble really enjoying others games as much. I mean I played good games after that like the current Like a Dragon or Metaphor. Currently trying Cyberpunk. And while I like these games and they are decent, its nothing like Rebirth, which just hit on so many levels at once and not just one or two.

I can see some of the criticism leveraged against it and I am not saying its perfect, nothing ever is, but it just hits all the right chords for me personally. And the bad things are so minor (and mostly things you can just ignore anyway) that yeah, I have come around to accepting this is the best game I have ever played, or at least its the most fun I have ever had with a game. Says something for a 120 hours game.
 

Oberstein

Member
I wonder if, over time, we've become a little too nitpicky. We'd never have imagined such a remake in 1997, or imagined such a level of graphics for the time. I'm not defending the title just for that, and I understand that it has its flaws, some filler, kinda bloated, a little typically Japanese silliness, and so on.

It could have been much worse as a remake, but I still remember playing it like it was yesterday, and it's fascinating to see how far we've come. It's just that the pre-rendered backgrounds allowed for more incredible fantasies, the fixed angle gave incredible moments thanks to the composition and I kind of miss that. And in that sense, FF7 OG brought something unique and almost revolutionary to the PSX.

So now I'm looking forward to the third installment, and I'm not going to hold back my pleasure. I'm also happy to see that the game has ended up selling well over the long term, as the latest PC numbers show. Now it'll be interesting to see whether they'll do more remakes like this, or just go HD-2D to offset the costs.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
There are no random encounters in the remake - if anything, one of my complaints is that there are TOO few encounters now, instead of too many. Also, combat is a LOT more satisfying and enjoyable than the slog it was in the original.

It's a 100 hr game if you go for the completionist route. I am replaying FF7 Remake (NG+) and I've basically finished 75% of the game in the weekend. If you want to go for the main story and not feel like grinding, set the difficulty to easy and enjoy a 20 hour game.
I played and finished Remake, I was talking mainly about Rebirth and how it's supposed to be a much bigger game with lots more optional stuff to do.

From my perspective the story in FF7 Remake was okay, but I definitely felt like I should've known the original to understand the story changes they've introduced.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
From my perspective the story in FF7 Remake was okay, but I definitely felt like I should've known the original to understand the story changes they've introduced.
I disagree - there are numerous nudge nudge wink wink moments for fans of the original, but the story is perfectly fine if you focus on it as a story about Cloud meeting Avalanche with Aerith being the story seed of the sequel.

If I have one major complaint about the story in Remake, is that they do a piss poor job incorporating Sephiroth in it. Him being the final boss makes zero sense if you are not a veteran of the original. You literally know nothing about him (if you are 'noob' in FF7 lore) by the time the game ends. Rebirth rectifies that from the get-go.
 

brenobnfm

Member
Game is mid, they spent too much time padding the game with thousands of mini games instead of focusing on a solid gameplay loop, the open world is just dreadful. Metaphor was not amazing, but it's still far and away the better JRPG.
 

Oberstein

Member
Game is mid, they spent too much time padding the game with thousands of mini games instead of focusing on a solid gameplay loop, the open world is just dreadful. Metaphor was not amazing, but it's still far and away the better JRPG.

Oh, for me, it's the opposite: the recycled dungeons and the disastrous pacing of the story killed it for me. Honestly, I feel like it was overhyped—I just couldn't get into it...
 

brenobnfm

Member
Oh, for me, it's the opposite: the recycled dungeons and the disastrous pacing of the story killed it for me. Honestly, I feel like it was overhyped—I just couldn't get into it...

As bad as the dungeons were in Metaphor, most are optional and you can do them pretty quickly aside from a couple long ones. Rebirth dungeons are equally as bad, very linear with crap level design, and a the open world is even worse, just ugly and filled with 2012 Ubisoft garbage.
 

NovaSe7en

Member
Didn't start playing until the PC release. I'm still at Mt. Corel. So far my favorite series outside of Xenoblade.

Taking the original world map from FF7 and turning it into an open world with engaging things to do (without it going off the rails) was not going to be an easy task. I think they did well overall. The pacing was not particularly great in the original either, but we are very blinded by nostalgia.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
Didn't start playing until the PC release. I'm still at Mt. Corel. So far my favorite series outside of Xenoblade.

Taking the original world map from FF7 and turning it into an open world with engaging things to do (without it going off the rails) was not going to be an easy task. I think they did well overall. The pacing was not particularly great in the original either, but we are very blinded by nostalgia.
Square basically created around five different gimmicks: Towers, Fiends, Chocobo hunts, Summon Shrines and companion quests. And then had every single one of those gimmicks in every area. By the time I reached Corel, I knew exactly how the open-world elements were going to play out. It became formulaic and that worked against the game.

I would've preferred it if every region had its own gimmick: Grasslands would be all about activating towers, Corel would be all about travelling with the Buggy, Nibbelheim would be all about hunting fiends which escaped Hojo's lab, Gold Saucer would be all about optional mini-games, Junon would be all about Queen's blood, Cosmo Canyon would be all about finding Summons ... I would do it like that. Give each area its own gimmick so that in every area you would arrive, you would be like, 'wow - I wonder what gimmick that area will have', instead of now where you are like, 'ok, time to start the Towers, then I have the chocobo, then I have the fiends, then I have the summons ...'
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I disagree - there are numerous nudge nudge wink wink moments for fans of the original, but the story is perfectly fine if you focus on it as a story about Cloud meeting Avalanche with Aerith being the story seed of the sequel.

If I have one major complaint about the story in Remake, is that they do a piss poor job incorporating Sephiroth in it. Him being the final boss makes zero sense if you are not a veteran of the original. You literally know nothing about him (if you are 'noob' in FF7 lore) by the time the game ends. Rebirth rectifies that from the get-go.
That's just it, I rate it as a whole. While the main plot initially isn't super complex, there are characters or scenes where I feel like I should know more about them and the game isn't giving me that info.

Anyway I'm still planning to play Rebirth. Maybe during the summer to have plenty of free time and less new games coming out.
 
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If I have one major complaint about the story in Remake, is that they do a piss poor job incorporating Sephiroth in it. Him being the final boss makes zero sense if you are not a veteran of the original.

I still don't think that was lore reasons. Instead, Square wanted the option of ending at 1 game, if that makes sense. And it's Final Fantasy 7, the final boss has to be Sephiroth, right?
 

Fbh

Member
Played it earlier this year and loved it.
This and Remake Part 1 are some of the few AAA games from Square that didn't let me down in the las decade (the lower budget stuff though has been good at times, like Triangle Strategy).

Yeah it's very Ubisoft-style in the way the world is designed, except the combat, music, bosses and linear story sequences are way better than any Ubisoft game, and I liked the way even the side content consistently added new mechanics, minigames, gimmicks and enemies to keep it from feeling like you are just doing the same thing again and again (which the one of the big issues of Ubisoft games).

As for the story, the ending kinda sucked and leaned too heavily into Nomura bullshit. But aside from that I actually enjoyed how it embraced the fun and wackiness you could often find in older JRPGs.

The OST is also absolutely incredible.
The way they remixed the Overworld theme into the battle theme, just perfect. It's the first time an RPG has had me pause to enjoy the standard battle music since like Lost Odyssey
 
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Boneless

Member
I put about 40 hours in but then got burned out. Both due to side questing too much but also because I did not feel enough reason to play as the story changes are like they changed a classic Chopin into a Rebecca Black popsong.

I did watch the end on youtube. It was bad.
 

Sentenza

Member
I keep forgetting that I bought this one few weeks ago because I've been playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 non-stop every time I had the free time and will to play something.
 
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