Final Fantasy VII Remake

Merrith said:

If I get 20+ hours out of it, I'll be okay with it. Less would be pretty disappointing. I still think the idea of "well this chapter is 45 minutes so all the rest will be" is reaching pretty far.

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20 hours (if you are lucky) in an RPG remake sold to you 3 times at full price to finish it is absurd no matter which way you want to skin this.

It's not like we are starving for games at this time either. Cyberpunk 2077, Last of Us 2, etc and even if we were, this entire approach is fucking ludicrous.

I get the fact there are people fired up to play this thing, huge nostalgia, FF, the disappointment of 15, etc - I also get the fact CC2 stalled development to the point it had to be completely restarted and SE is trying to recoup lost costs and just ship something - but it isn't like these guys are story boarding a spec from an original game; the treatment this is getting from SE is an insult to anyone inside or outside of this industry. The bullshit silent treatment it is getting speaks volumes to their "care" of the consumer - and just when you think it can't get any lower and maybe some in this business are starting to learn, you get some asshole company trying to lower the bar even further.

Sorry, this shit just pisses me off to no end.

Valderen said:

Episodic content sucks.

That said the outrage about paying full price for a game the length of 15-20 hours is ridiculous and a bit hypocritical.

Compare this to Uncharted series. Times come from howlongtobeat.

Uncharted 1: 8.5 hours main story, 17 hours completionist.
Uncharted 2: 10.5 hours main story, 21 hours completionist.
Uncharted 3: 9 hours main story, 20 hours completionist.
Uncharted 4: 15 hours main story, 28 hours completionist.

I never heard anyone complaining about paying full price for any of these games.

Sure we expect JRPG to be longer than 15 hours, but it's not like we haven't paid full price for 15 hours game before without complaining.

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Those are all original titles - not a remake of an RPG slashed into 3-4 segments to cost over $200 to complete the ONE game.

Your analogy is completely flawed.

We aren't talking how long it takes to beat a game. We are talking about a remake of a classic RPG over 60 hours in length from start to finish being slashed into 15 hour segments charging $59.99 PER segment. So that analogy isn't in the same ballpark.

Lenas said:

You guys are acting like grinding shit isn't what padded out 80% of the original game.

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Well, you can't do that either because the first "Episode" is completely linear.

Merrith said:

I actually never played XV, hear very mixed things about it. I'm sure at some point I'll play it but it's not something I have feelings about one way or the other. I'm thinking 20 hours just main story stuff. While it's not ideal at all, it's comparable to other games these days, and this is something I've been waiting for a long time. If I end up getting 30+ hours out of it including side stuff, it's more than worth my money for me personally. From all the interviews I've seen the people actually making the game do care quite a bit about what they're putting out, and that is what matters the most to me.

Believe me, if it comes out at only like 15 hours for main story, I'll say your fears were proved right, even if personally I won't care that much about it if those 15 hours were done well.

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Thing is those 15-20 hours (Even if it was FF15 - which took me about 35) have a progression. Start, Middle, End. This doesn't. You are getting 20 hours and to complete the actual game you are going to be buying the episodes to finish FF7 game itself. 2, possibly 3 more times, at 59 bucks bucks a pop. You are paying $200+ to finish ONE remake of an FF7 game.

I mean I have no problem paying 59 for a well thought out game. Uncharted 4 for instance - Took me about 13 hours. It has a start, a middle, an end. I wait for a sequel. Last of us, same deal. Then comes a sequel, an entirely new game.

These episodes are not new games. It's taking a full RPG by any normal standard and slicing it into 3-4 parts and charging full retail, 3-4 times, to finish a game that should be launched in it's entirety - ONCE - for $59.

I mean basically you are saying it's ok CDPR, everything in the Witcher 3 for $59, you can slice that into 4 segments and charge me $240 to play the game to completion, and that's fine, because I am getting 20 hours out of the first 59 bucks.

Also, for the record, I would have no problem paying $59 for the TOTALITY of the FF7 remake if they telltale'd games the thing but released that content. (I'd wait for all of it to come out and buy it then however). But this? Lets take a game, slice it in 4, and charge you $59 for each segment of the same game from 20 years ago? Come on.

Merrith said:

I'll withhold judgement until actually playing through the first episode. Because there are many ways they could expand that story and the Midgar area where it'll feel satisfying to me as a complete story, even as a larger part of what I knew as the previous game. I think it's a little odd to just stick to the "this isn't the end, I know there's more" and discount any possibility of an expanded Midgar tale within the framework of the original game's story not being enough for a "full game" (not saying this is definitely what will happen, just that the idea there isn't any possibility of it seems off).

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So I want to point this out:

"discount any possibility of an expanded Midgar tale within the framework of the original game's story"

That's the entire point. There isn't. The dialogue was sliced and they found a few minor side twists but nothing that warrants anyone did anything other than just recreate the original with a few side missions. Maybe that was the plan originally? CC2 was in charge of it then. Once SE scrapped everything in 2017, they had 30 months to get from new concept to retail.

Valderen said:

Episodic content sucks.

That said the outrage about paying full price for a game the length of 15-20 hours is ridiculous and a bit hypocritical.

Compare this to Uncharted series. Times come from howlongtobeat.

Uncharted 1: 8.5 hours main story, 17 hours completionist.
Uncharted 2: 10.5 hours main story, 21 hours completionist.
Uncharted 3: 9 hours main story, 20 hours completionist.
Uncharted 4: 15 hours main story, 28 hours completionist.

I never heard anyone complaining about paying full price for any of these games.

Sure we expect JRPG to be longer than 15 hours, but it's not like we haven't paid full price for 15 hours game before without complaining.

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Uncharted is not a remake of a 100+ hour loved JRPG now is it?

Apples to Kangaroos dude.

Valderen said:

I totally agree, and understand that splitting up the game is very predatory business on SE's part knowing full well the nostalgia and feeling people have for this game and aggressively preying on this by releasing the game in an episodic format. Episodic games just sucks.

My point was just that full price for 15 hours is perfectly acceptable for a game. The last few posts before mine complaining about the length rather then the episodic nature of the game.

That said, while I'm very excited for this...I will most likely wait until all parts are release and play it as a complete game. Hopefully there will be a better price at that time since the first few episodes will be a few years old.

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Knowing that this is the path SE is taking, but also knowing their history of not following through even on the DLC concepts for expanding FF15 and just dropping it, a GOTY (Hilarious considering it's one game) would be the best approach, Wait for all episodes to release, buy a combo edition on sale for $49 if they ever even finish it.

There is a good chance this first one will sell with people not knowing any better. They won't get burned the second time - and if the first one doesn't sell after the news gets out on the channels after full launch, they'll just drop the project.

I fully expect people like me buying the game day one and being shocked when credits roll after they kill the mechanical scorpion.

Malakriss said:

Nitpicky gamers: Complain about people pre-ordering games without knowing the details.
Same gamers: Make up details to complain about before the game is out.

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Nothing is made up.

Valderen said:

There's also a few issue I'm wondering about, mainly how progression will be handled between episodes. Does it transfer your progress to the next episode or do you start with stock characters in each episodes. If the progress transfer, how will it handle the transition between PS4 and PS5.

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Good point.