Final Fantasy VII Remake

Droigan · May 23, 2020

Merrith said:
I do feel bad for the "turn based combat or bust" crowd. Mainly because you wait this long, it gets announced, but they didn't make that type of game those people wanted, and it's not like they will make another.

Still think the new combat is pretty great, though.

Think the worst part about it was that their marketing was that "classic" was nearly a turn based mode.

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE turn-based Classic Mode detailed | Square Enix

We take a closer look at the Classic Mode for FINAL FANTASY VII, which lets you play the game as a command-based RPG, similar to the original game. Plus - how do Summons work?

square-enix-games.com

The new feature will thrill fans who prefer the original FINAL FANTASY turn-based battle systems to real-time combat.

The original FINAL FANTASY VII used the classic Active Time Battle (ATB) system. In that game, you would wait until an ATB gauge fills up, then initiate a command. Classic Mode recreates this style of gameplay for FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE.

It’s a different way to play to FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE’s standard combat modes - which see you attacking, dodging and blocking in real-time to charge up the ATB bar and initiate a special action.

In Classic Mode, characters fight automatically, so the player can instead focus on selecting commands. It essentially turns the game into a classic menu-based RPG!

We’ve talked before about how FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE’s combat system is all about giving players a choice in how to play, and this new mode adds even more options.

Won't call having you to put the game on easy mode, with the same combat, but just automating it so that you only have to put in atb commands is a "classic menu-based RPG*exclamation point*"

I enjoyed the game, but the marketing was not good. Like not saying "part one" / "episode one" or something similar. Actually makes me curious as to what they're going to call the next part.

Merrith · May 24, 2020

Droigan said:
Think the worst part about it was that their marketing was that "classic" was nearly a turn based mode.

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE turn-based Classic Mode detailed | Square Enix

We take a closer look at the Classic Mode for FINAL FANTASY VII, which lets you play the game as a command-based RPG, similar to the original game. Plus - how do Summons work?

square-enix-games.com

Won't call having you to put the game on easy mode, with the same combat, but just automating it so that you only have to put in atb commands is a "classic menu-based RPG*exclamation point*"

I enjoyed the game, but the marketing was not good. Like not saying "part one" / "episode one" or something similar. Actually makes me curious as to what they're going to call the next part.

The episode 1 stuff I think is overblown, mainly just because that info has been out there for almost 5 years (and especially just because of how they obviously are now meaning "remake"), but if the classic mode is that bad (haven't actually tried it), that would not be good to hard advertise it as "this is the option for those that want the old turn based combat!" but have it just be a pale shadow.

bigmark268 · May 24, 2020

Yeh if classic mode was turn based. I'd be jinxing my pants for this. But now its a dropped game for me. Which kinda makes me feel sad and old? Oh well.

Hateyou · May 24, 2020

Merrith said:
The episode 1 stuff I think is overblown, mainly just because that info has been out there for almost 5 years (and especially just because of how they obviously are now meaning "remake"), but if the classic mode is that bad (haven't actually tried it), that would not be good to hard advertise it as "this is the option for those that want the old turn based combat!" but have it just be a pale shadow.

I was not thrilled with the episodic approach but whatever, three great games can be better than one. Then the announced action combat and I was bummed. Then they announced classic turn based mode and I was bonered back up. Then I played the demo, hated the action combat, and the turn based stuff can’t even be called easy, it’s auto play ultra easy story mode. The marketing was indeed awful and deceptive.

Merrith · May 24, 2020

Hateyou said:
I was not thrilled with the episodic approach but whatever, three great games can be better than one. Then the announced action combat and I was bummed. Then they announced classic turn based mode and I was bonered back up. Then I played the demo, hated the action combat, and the turn based stuff can’t even be called easy, it’s auto play ultra easy story mode. The marketing was indeed awful and deceptive.

I can agree the marketing for classic mode being the "answer" for turn based people was bad. It's funny, when the rumored action combat was announced I too was really concerned about it (mostly because of XV), but after the E3 presentation last year all the fears were gone, it looked fun. To each their own on that, though.

I wouldn't say I was happy about the episodic approach (I mean why wouldn't we want the entire game all at once?), but they made zero secrets about it, even back in 2015. We've known it would just be Midgar since E3 last year or a little before for the first part. And as long as your 3 (or maybe 4) great games can be better than one holds up, I'll be okay with it all. So far for me they're 1 for 1, but I understand for some complaints if you were someone who was die hard for turn based or completely the exact same story with minor additions that made no changes.

Malakriss · May 24, 2020

Interview: Final Fantasy VII Remake Producer and Co-Director on Development, Launch, and Being Grateful for the Fans

Returning to Midgar

www.pushsquare.com

Final Fantasy VII Remake expands on the Midgar story arc significantly. When developing the game, how did you decide on the parts that you wanted to expand?

Kitase: I personally envisioned quite a dramatic change overall, but our director; Tetsuya Nomura and co-director; Naoki Hamaguchi, wanted to keep the beloved aspects in the original as much as possible. Eventually the development team decided to focus on respecting the original while adding in new elements, ensuring a delicate balance between the two.

Merrith · May 25, 2020

Malakriss said:
Interview: Final Fantasy VII Remake Producer and Co-Director on Development, Launch, and Being Grateful for the Fans

Returning to Midgar

www.pushsquare.com

Funny that kind of follows the story about Kitase and Nojima wanting to kill off the whole party except for 3 that the player chose when they returned to Midgar late in the original game, and you would just play with those 3 characters the rest of the way. Nomura thought that was too much and they changed it so just Aeris/Aerith dies.

Even more ironic for the whole "NOMURA'D!!" crowd.

Ritley · May 25, 2020

Found my first bug, apparently it gets stuck when you look down through the vents into the conference room and the only thing you can do is exit the game. And of course the last auto save is before you spend 45 minutes doing the VR battles. Thing fucking sucks

Merrith · May 25, 2020

Ritley said:
Found my first bug, apparently it gets stuck when you look down through the vents into the conference room and the only thing you can do is exit the game. And of course the last auto save is before you spend 45 minutes doing the VR battles. Thing fucking sucks

Is there a certain thing that will make it stick? Didn't run into it

Ritley · May 25, 2020

Merrith said:
Is there a certain thing that will make it stick? Didn't run into it

No idea. Just had the prompt for the circle button to back out but it didn’t do anything. Looked it up and apparently it’s pretty common

Tarisk · May 26, 2020

Ritley said:
No idea. Just had the prompt for the circle button to back out but it didn’t do anything. Looked it up and apparently it’s pretty common

Yeah happened to me too. Only actual bug I ever recall running into during my playthrough. I was annoyed at first and took a break because I thought I lost a lot of time between my last autosave and there but it wasn't that far other than the simulation fights having to be recleared

Ritley · May 26, 2020

Tarisk said:
Yeah happened to me too. Only actual bug I ever recall running into during my playthrough. I was annoyed at first and took a break because I thought I lost a lot of time between my last autosave and there but it wasn't that far other than the simulation fights having to be recleared

Yeah it’s not as bad as it could have been, but sucks that this has been around since release and looking around it’s not really uncommon and it still hasn’t been fixed. Waste of 30-45 minutes, isnt the end of the world or anything.

Chimney · May 26, 2020

You want a waste of time. I hit load instead of save after completing a bunch of hard mode stuff and vr summons.

I just deleted the game off my drive after that since I don't care about achievements and was tilted++.

Aside from a few parts I loved this game both as a standalone RPG and nostalgia wise for the fact they didn't just do a typical money grab relist/reloaded/mastered or whatever garbage 99% of games are doing these days and made an entire living world out of such a small part of the original.

Excited to see what they do with the next one in 2042.

Lumi · May 26, 2020

Just finished. The game is amazing. Anyone hating on the combat is an actual moron. It's well done all around. Also, Tifa is a boss, just spam star shower. The story was great. The gameplay was great. The voice acting was great. The combat is refreshing and while not perfect, was really easy to adjust to. The main thing that annoyed me were interrupts right after I entered a command. One other thing that's kind of annoying is I never had to use almost any of my items. Would be cool if the game gave you more of a reason to actually need to use shit like antidotes and all the other curative items besides hp pots. Rather than making hard mode not use items, it should make it so that those debuffs really wreck you and you need to cure them more often or something.

All in all I'd say this is an easy 9-9.5/10 and I don't mind at all that they broke the game up into segments and are charging full price for each one. This part of the game easily rivals most "complete" games so I don't see the big deal. They put a shitload of effort into this and it shows.

Merrith · May 26, 2020

Lumi said:
Also, Tifa is a boss, just spam star shower.

While i mostly did this in my normal play through, should check out some videos on what some people can do with Tifa in combat. It's insanity.

Ritley · May 26, 2020

Tifa was probably my least favorite to play, but I never really played as her enough to get good. Barrett was easy to use but a bit boring. I liked cloud’s mix of maneuverability, range, and sweeping attacks the best.

Half of the fights I ended up defaulting to Barrett anyways since a lot of enemies like to just fucking run around or fly all over the place

Chimney · May 26, 2020

Tifa is a god. As soon as I hit 50 on all I swapped to her as lead whenever I could.

I do wish there was some there was a bit of variety for hard mode though. You pretty much have to build fairly specific to beat things without a headache and the amount of micromanaging you have to do it may as well be turn based with how often I was "pausing".

Ritley said:
Half of the fights I ended up defaulting to Barrett anyways since a lot of enemies like to just fucking run around or fly all over the place

I mean you get a point where mobs are either dying right away in normal via first strike materia and basically instantly staggering. Barrett melee is pretty fun though.

Merrith · May 26, 2020

Ritley said:
Tifa was probably my least favorite to play, but I never really played as her enough to get good. Barrett was easy to use but a bit boring. I liked cloud’s mix of maneuverability, range, and sweeping attacks the best.

Half of the fights I ended up defaulting to Barrett anyways since a lot of enemies like to just fucking run around or fly all over the place

"Air combat" was pretty shit if you didn't have Barret or Aerith in the party. That's one thing they really need to work on for future parts, fighting flying mobs with just Cloud/Tifa was just annoying and not fun.

k^M · May 26, 2020

With no actual manual jump button, aerial combat was pure aids if you didn't have first strike / the right magic. Fuck sake -.-

Lumi · May 26, 2020

Merrith said:
"Air combat" was pretty shit if you didn't have Barret or Aerith in the party. That's one thing they really need to work on for future parts, fighting flying mobs with just Cloud/Tifa was just annoying and not fun.

Eh, could just give Tifa wind materia like I did, makes it a lot easier.

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