Final Fantasy VII Remake - Thoughts?

[Green Dragoon]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:48 PM, Green Dragoon said:

FF7 Rebirth

WEEEEEEEE OUT HEEEEERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zemekis]

I didn't get the game on release day because I was in Japan visiting family (and without my PS5), but I've picked it up since returning home. The game is...pretty good? I haven't quite finished it yet but this is a "thoughts" thread instead of a review thread. I'll spoiler the rest in case the folks reading this want to go in purely blind.

 

Spoiler

The cutscenes and character moments are my favorite. While I disagree with them changing the story, lowering stakes to near-zero & making Avalanche to be pure goodie-two-shoes...the moment to moment of seeing these characters interact is great. In Advent Children we got to see them look like humans instead of LEGOs, but they didn't match their in-game personalities. Remake & Rebirth is the first time I feel that the characters have been brought into HD 3D in a way I resonate with. The plot jannies, retconning character deaths, making Shinra more comically evil than in the original game, all that I can do without. I'm also firmly in the camp of turn-based or ATB combat. This button mashing crap is braindead, I'm sorry, it just is. I'm not a Zoomer with burnt out patience, I don't need to mash Square every 0.1 second during combat. Likewise, the open world aspect of the game is very poorly implemented. It feels like generic Ubisoft open world slop. It's the same 4 or 5 tasks in every map. FF7 isn't about climbing towers to unlock the map...nor is it about having little collectible crafting materials on the ground everywhere. It looks pretty, but the gameplay design of the open world is the definition of slop.

 

[Koby]

I'll be dodging and avoiding spoilers until Rebirth hits PC because Square-Enix likes to take Sony's money for console exclusivity on the mainline FF titles because they think it's still 2005 and fail to understand how it drastically hurts sales numbers all the while crying that sales are under-performing their expectations.

[Zemekis]

13 hours ago, Koby said:

I'll be dodging and avoiding spoilers until Rebirth hits PC because Square-Enix likes to take Sony's money for console exclusivity on the mainline FF titles because they think it's still 2005 and fail to understand how it drastically hurts sales numbers all the while crying that sales are under-performing their expectations.

I'd do the same if it were available physically on PC. I guess I could acquire it elsewhere for free on PC but I want to support the game, and my only option to own it on a disc is PS5. Squeenix's sales expectations on PS5 alone are dumb. They say this about almost all of their AAA releases, but it seems like they were serious this time with all the cancellations announced.

[Koby]

9 hours ago, Zemekis said:

I'd do the same if it were available physically on PC. I guess I could acquire it elsewhere for free on PC but I want to support the game, and my only option to own it on a disc is PS5. Squeenix's sales expectations on PS5 alone are dumb. They say this about almost all of their AAA releases, but it seems like they were serious this time with all the cancellations announced.

I haven't collected physical media since 2012. Having your entire archive stolen by an ex-girlfriend kind of kills your desire to archive physically. Besides now days I simply don't have the space for it and what few things I still have on Blu-ray and DVD have been stored in boxes unseen since 2017. What're you going to do next gen as it's pretty clear they're working on phasing out physical games as a whole? This gen had the digital-only option as a start, but next gen that might be the only option. When it comes to movies and television shows, Hollywood says discs only make up like 8% of their profits these days. It's all about the digital distribution and streaming.

[Zemekis]

1 hour ago, Koby said:

I haven't collected physical media since 2012. Having your entire archive stolen by an ex-girlfriend kind of kills your desire to archive physically. Besides now days I simply don't have the space for it and what few things I still have on Blu-ray and DVD have been stored in boxes unseen since 2017. 

Part of my willingness to stick with physical is that I have abundant space, never had a negative experience like yours in losing my archive & still make frequent use of my physical discs. I was playing my Saturn just the other day. SEGA Bass Fishing on DC a few days before that. I play 50/50 new and old stuff, it doesn't phase me, thus my bookshelves of games see a pretty decent rotation. I'm pretty active in lending my games out to friends/coworkers & still play a fair bit of couch co-op too. I have more use cases than the average gamer and probably revisit older titles more than most people. I suppose while I'm at it, I'll mention that I've never paid a subscription service either. All that Hulu/Netflix/PSPlus type stuff.

 

1 hour ago, Koby said:

What're you going to do next gen as it's pretty clear they're working on phasing out physical games as a whole? This gen had the digital-only option as a start, but next gen that might be the only option. When it comes to movies and television shows, Hollywood says discs only make up like 8% of their profits these days. It's all about the digital distribution and streaming.

This gave me deja-vu because I had this exact conversation in 2018 with a forum admin  I'm under no delusions that physical will be an option forever. I'm fully aware that the battle is practically lost already and console manufacturers are salivating at the idea of going digital only, and 90%+ of gamers don't care one way or the other. I'll stop buying games, I guess that's my only option. I don't watch movies/shows in the first place so I don't have much commentary on those. I've heard that physical game sales account for between 6-10% at this point, it's SO over. I don't have an expansive Steam library by any stretch of the imagination, but I think I only bought like 2 of those, the rest were gifted or bought with Steam giftcards I didn't ask for. I'm doing what little I can to not play into the live-service, always-online, digital, DRM, etc. hell that we're heading into (and already in, honestly).

It boggles my mind that a game can cost the same physical & digital. When I started seeing the download cards for 3DS games I couldn't make sense of it. In Tokyo, they were $5 more than the physical copy! Haha. Space comes at a premium for many people and I respect that. For me, ownership is most important with games. It began for me as a thing I did on principle...then Steam removed ~500 games from my Library and will no longer reply to my support tickets. That solidified me as a physical extremist, if there is such a thing. Haven't given them money since & I don't think I ever can again. Give any company selling digital games an inch and they'll take a mile. For as much whining as people tend to do about the state of the gaming industry (Youtube video essayists and the like) they all support it financially. It doesn't have to be this way, but I'm well aware that I can't win against 10's of millions of people on Xbox/Steam/PSN/Nintendo eShop.

[Lonewolfe187]

decent really thats bout it.

[Koby]

 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on PC on January 23, 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2909400/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH/

[Koby]

Rebirth hit PC today.

 

Kupo Charm and Survival Kit DLC (was bonus for playing demo on PS5) is now a Twitch Drop exclusive: https://ffvii-rebirth.twitch.rewards.square-enix.com/

 

 

In an interview, Square Enix confirmed today that FF7 Part 3 has been in development for about 9 months now and is progressing smoothly.

 

They also confirmed that exclusivity is dead and with Part 3 it will likely release on PS5 and PC same day.

 

Part 3 will be at least a few years out... so perhaps 2027 at the earliest.

 

They suggested there may be another FF7 project in the works in the meantime... fans are suggesting/rumoring that its some kind of port or remaster of Dirge of Cerberus.