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[BennyBlanco]

I like OG FF7 a lot. My 2nd favorite PS1 RPG. I played Remake for a bit a few years ago when it launched on EGS and dropped it pretty early in. I remember getting to the part where you have to find cats and uninstalled it shortly after.

I completely wrote it off but one of my Steam friends graciously gifted me Rebirth so I decided to go back to Remake and finish it because I heard it’s pretty short.

First thing I’ll say, great character models. The game looks and runs great. There are ugly textures here and there but overall they did a nice job. Didn’t notice any stuttering or any of the other complaints I saw about the PC ports. Also didn’t use DLSS because it ran well at native 4k.

Combat….. not great. I only died a few times in the whole game. Didn’t bother going out of my way for materia and weapons because it felt pointless as combat is so easy. I played on extra normal and maybe I should’ve played on hard because the game is a cakewalk. They tried something unique with the combat but honestly they should’ve just kept it turn based. I like the combat better than FFXVI and FFXV but it’s not good. The AI stands around doing jack shit unless you take control. Cloud is incredibly OP. Mash X until ATB fills up then cast braver, repeat until dead. Just wasn’t very engaging and they subtract party members constantly for the story. The way they handle summons is neat.

Side content…. Dogshit. Unreal how bad it is. Just incredibly bland and the payoff was never worth boring yourself. These little side characters are so poorly written. I knew that old hag was THE ANGEL OF THE SLUMS the moment I looked at her. Find the kids with swords on their backs. Find the cats. Fight the maguffins. Zzz. Very obvious filler content to pad out the length of the game, but if you skip it like I started doing the pace is much better. I doubt anyone would’ve cared if none of this existed and the game was shorter because of it.

Writing/ voice acting….. inconsistent. Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa all had great voice acting. I enjoyed all 3 of them and they did a great job making them likable through the writing. Barrett VO stinks on ice. So grating. Nobody talks like that. But that’s not the worst part. The worst is the villains. I understand they wanted to stretch the beginning of a long game into a long game, so they had to expand on some of these little characters. But jesus christ, Heidegger is terrible.

Nobody:…..
Heidegger: Dude, I’m evil.
Nobody: why?
Heidegger: Because…… because I just am!

This VO was hamming it up and put out a fuckin miserable performance IMO. Literal mustache twirling villain straight of a shitty 80s Saturday morning cartoon. This is a 100M+ dollar game. Why are standards so low for writing and voice acting? If this was in a big budget movie it would be endlessly mocked.



I thought the cutscenes overall were pretty well done. Getting into some Bollywood action movie shit climbing the plates and shooting grappling guns. The stuff with the grey spirit things is pretty confusing but I guess it is their mechanism to explain the changes from the OG. I’m on ch 18 now so I am almost finished. Should I play the DLC or go straight into Rebirth?

Overall I would give it a C. Not as bad as I initially thought, but not great either. I’ve heard Rebirth is better so I’m looking forward to getting into it.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Yeah, I'm a big OG fan, but the Remake left me cold. Rebirth iis quite a bit worse sadly. Blander side quests, weaker writing, more repetitive design - the whole thing feels like a branded amusement park filled with with mascots and trivial diversions spread across a bunch of themed zones. Everything is artificial and over the top - it's got all the heart and soul of a branded lunchbox

 

[Illyria]

I loved it but yea the side stuff is totally weak in Remake. I chalked up the dialogue as cheesy FF dialogue.

The Yuffie DLC is solid. I loved the boss fights but felt the last one was way harder than anything in the main game. I had to think on it.

Rebirth to me is a near perfect idea of what I've always envisioned a RPG and a FF world should be. The ending brought it down a bit for me with Nomura-esque crap.

Can't wait for Part 3.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

The whole thing is a shame in light of the original game - truly some kind of off rail fanfiction. There are things to like about the set of games, though. As much as I don't like the "direction" they've taken the "story", I do like aspects of the work. Like you say, the character models are pretty damn good. Love the visuals and musical score - some areas look awesome and the sound can be phenomenal. I, personally, love the combat and it's my favorite out of Square in a long time. But I can see how some wouldn't jive with it. It's even better on hard as you must use elemental weaknesses and be a lot more strategic with MP, etc. Better, anyway.

It is what it is though - I've come to terms (mostly) with this bastardization and just try to enjoy the parts I can in it, because those parts are executed well.

 

[bender]

I ended up hate finishing it last year after my initial playthrough fizzled out around chapter 9. Even if it isn't my cup of tea, I can understand why some people enjoy the combat. What they did with the story however...

 

[Loomy]

Didn’t bother going out of my way for materia and weapons because it felt pointless as combat is so easy.

Even more pointless when you realize you have to start over in the next game.

They tried something unique with the combat but honestly they should’ve just kept it turn based. I like the combat better than FFXVI and FFXV but it’s not good.

This is my reaction when people like Skillup say things like "why have this combat system(FF16) when you can have the FF7R system?".

The combat system in Remake and Rebirth is fine, but it's not that amazing. It looks flashy, it's not distracting or a chore, but it's nothing special.

Nothing they've added to the new games adds anything of substance to the original story. I don't hate those games. They're fun and mostly enjoyable, but yeah. Lots of missed opportunities to do nothing. Instead they tried to add too much.

Also, splitting this into 3 is dragging it out way too long and keeping one of SE's best teams locked into this one series that apparently is not the money printing machine an FF7 remake should have been. Could have been an amazing remake, instead we get a dragged out fever dream.

 

[Kacho]

I noped out after the motorcycle guy. Just looked him up — Roche. Nah I’m good.

 

[HRK69]

Yeah, the side-content is terrible. Especially when you get to Aerith's town. It's such a slog.

 

[StereoVsn]

Yeah, the side quests were pretty weak and some of the voice acting was inconsistent. But I kind of liked where they went with the story here and Rebirth in general, minus the ending.

I actually liked Combat quite a bit if you turn on the “wait” option which makes it a mix of action and turned-based. I thought it played pretty well, especially on Hard. Still, Party AI could use some help.

Rebirth expanded on Remake and I liked it even better (again, some side content aside and that ending).

Edit: We already played FFVII and you can even mod it to the point it’s like a well done remaster. Something different wasn’t a bad thing to do, but I feel like they just dragged out things too much.

 

[Zuzu]

I think you should play the Yuffie DLC before playing Rebirth because Rebirth’s story has parts that refer back to that DLC.

 

[Sooner]

Yeah, it and Rebirth a mixed bag. The games are partly extremely awesome and partly completely badass.

 

[Retrofluxed]

I literally just finished FF7 Remake tonight. I liked it and hated it at the same time. Parts of it would grab a hold of me, then I'd realize I'm walking down yet another linear corridor. I read someone summarize the game as: Cutscene, corridor, scripted boss fight, rinse and repeat. I wanted to finally finish it since Rebirth released on Steam. I'm glad I did, but I'm not sure I'll ever play it again.

 

[od-chan]

Lots of your complaints seem to come from the voice work (and the effect it has on characterization and such) and I agree: That's a big deal and can definitely make or break a game, especially one that is so heavily focused around the story and its characters.

I'm guessing you played with english voices, going by your description of it sounding like an 80s saturday morning cartoon. That's really how EVERY piece of english dubbed japanese media turns out.

Your only choice is to play with the original dub, as intended.

And inb4 "Square should have the money to come up with a better dub", yeah, I agree. That's not what the (american) people want, and this brainrot has very much spread internationally in the last few decades. And no, the brits aren't better at it (Xenoblade), they're just doing what the americans do but with a silly accent and some funny words instead. I have no idea why they're so dead set on this cartoon network kinda vibe when they're otherwise perfectly capable of producing quality VO work (Horizon, Mass Effect...).

 

[riko]

I have enjoyed Remake and Rebirth despite not like a lot of the mechanics. However I think it would be a tragedy if it were someones first exposure to the story and they hadn't finished the OG game first. The original story really unravels expertly, lets new facts breath, and sells this hopeless atmosphere really well. The current games are... busy. Busy visuals, busy work, busy story pacing. Little flashes of scenes later in the story, using music from much later in the game, you name it.

I strongly believe games, art, movies, whatever often benefits strongly from constraints: technical, budget, by medium, etc. Not to start a a tangental debate but my wife and I recently rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy (the original cinema release scans that are out there) and if you compare it to the new trilogy its very similar. The shots have negative spacing, the pacing is slow and intentional. The new movies are busy visually and narrative wise.

Having said all that, I am looking forward to the third and final FF7 remake trilogy game. I just strongly hope nobody plays these first.