Soapbox: My Colleagues Bet on How Far I'd Make It Through Final Fantasy VII Remake

the game is crashing like crazy..is it only me? i can count 3-4 crashes in 2 hours of gameplay.

@zebric21 I played it last year when it launched but I don't think I had a single crash and I played it for like 120 hours, according to that PS year review thingy

The arm moving shipping containers thing is pretty amazing for managing to be almost universally hated. I also hated the voice casting (seriously, what’s with all the random nngh noises??) and the dialogue does feel like a teenager trying to write something serious and grownup.

But the combat is just so good and it wasn’t really until my second run where it clicked. It’s quite easy to stick to one character you prefer on normal difficulty but you really have to mix it up on hard.

At least you didn’t have to try and make sense of that ending..

I was in the same boat to start the game. My first experience with FF was about 15 years ago (I couldn't even tell you the name of it at this point). My sister worked next to a GameStop and they threw out a bunch of old games that weren't selling and FF was one of them.

I remember looking at the case and thinking, “Well this is... different” and tried it out. I made it maybe 10 minutes before I decided it wasn't for me. So I completely gave up on the series and had no plans of going back.

Then FF7R was announced and i thought it looked pretty cool but remember my experience with the previous game and figured I’d give it a shot if I could get it for cheap.

Then there is was. Free in the PS+ collection. Of course i had to give it another shot. And man was I surprised. I was very thrown off at first like you were with the dialog and the gameplay mechanics and I was very overwhelmed with it all. But I pushed through and loved it.

I agree some of the game really felt like a grind. The side missions (like finding all the cats), the tunnels, trying to figure out materia and what they all meant/did. But after figuring it all out i really enjoyed my time with it (about 50 hours).

Right after beating it I went strait to IGN to read what the ending means for the story and I’m so excited for the next game (FF7R part 2 or what ever its called), Integrade, and FF16. Once I have more time I’d love to sit down and play FF15.

@zebric21 How is it crashing at all? Never encountered a crash of any kind for Ff7r

i played trough the game right up untill the final boss fight against "you know who" than died so i stopped.

decided to come back 2 days later to retry but saw i had to redo the other big boss fight just before "you know who" and remembering how much of a slog it was the first time,i just shut of the game and deleted it.

still not proud of this one and sort of regret it since i had a realy good time with the game as a whole. but the last chapters just being bossfights was to much for me in the end.

@Nepp67 i use an external drive it may be the culprit...i have a base ps4 and it doesn't seem to overheat.

Sounds about right for somebody w/ no rose colored glasses nostalgia clouding things. 😎

The original was my favorite game for years, played it twice. Watching my son play through this and there are a lot of unnecessary and bad parts. It drags. He's about 30 hours in, we stopped after getting Red the other night b/c it was midnight and we needed some sleep. Game is almost over but my wife and I like sitting and relaxing watching credits for 20-30 minutes afterwards, which I'm assuming this game will have.

I think it was mostly fine - gameplay, voice acting, the 24 side missions - but so much walking. It probably could have been 12 hours, and then they could finish it all some day. I will give the game credit, running up the 59 flights of stairs in Shinra tower was 1 of the highlights of the game. Much better than most other locations actually.

I do think you're pretty close to the end @Quintumply so you might as well finish it. I'm sure you have about 12 hours to spare. I think it's pretty much smooth sailing after the ghosts in the train station. Skip the record side quest though, that's just truly stupid. My son looked it up. 🤷‍♀️

Beat the original on the PlayStation, but I’m waiting on the PS5 upgrade to try the remake. I don’t play JRPGs much anymore, so I’m wondering how I’ll like it, given its modernization.

I loved ff7 back in the day, not as much as my brother who unlocked all the mega weapons etc but I loved it nonetheless.
I can't be arsed to play the remake and neither can my brother, we both tried but I quit after the first mission and he quit before reaching the first boss.
It just wasn't for me, which is fine. I'm glad loads of people loved it but I've moved on and so has final fantasy, it's not the same game I played all those years ago and I'm not the same bright eyed boy either.

I have the same impression from both the original (when it first came out) and the remake... Overrated. They are by no means bad games, but they are not "the best" either. Higher average at best.

The remake, while visually good (mostly, many parts dropped down very noticeable low-res on a 75" TV), it was long and drawn out trying to make the original's first disc feel like a full 50+ hour game. Not to mention the story line changes that were unnecessary and will have impacts to future events when future "chapters" come out.

Adding new content I would have no problems with, expanding on what was already there. But to introduce new characters and/or elements earlier than when they should have ruins it for me.

I finished and enjoyed the first playthrough, but, after two tries, the last VR section (where you are meant to get an item to make hard playthrough easier) just became boring and annoying. Wasn’t helped as I so nearly did it first time but will have to grind some materia to make it easier and can’t be bothered. I might give it another go and try the second playthrough before the sequel released. Or maybe not.

I enjoyed it mostly but it all went to s**t at the end. I just tutted my way through the final chapters.

I never played the original (I only had a N64 back then). I just tried the remake after finishing Death Stranding this week. Liked the intro, I think the cutscene does a great job grabbing your attention. But as I progressed I realized it wasn't clicking with me. Don't like the fighting system with the menu for commands and switching characters, and got very annoyed with it by the first boss. Still, I escaped and made it to the sewers, but I doubt I'll be getting back to it any time soon. Just not my type of game.

Barring the forced walking sequences and the very end, it was a really enjoyable experience for me. It feels like the first time Square-Enix has stumbled on a good battle system for a 3D FF game since XII. And, in general, I loved how the game reinvented highlights from the Midgar arc in the original.

With that said, everyone has a few series that they're just not interested in. For me, that would be Assassin's Creed. Never played a full game. I've tried a few demos, and the controls and gameplay in general just... doesn't sit right with me. I was also an Xbox 360 owner and still have never played a Halo game.

I enjoyed the game the dialog was so 1960's and I did not like the upgrade system. I picked up a couple of the past FF games on deep discount never got more then a couple hours into any of them. Over all this one was good enough that I will purchase the and next game if combat is the same.

The world's a contradiction

Also, love "Absolutely cream-crackered..!"🤣🤣🤣
From California, never heard that before.

I have also yet to finish this. It’s rare for me not to finish a game. I have no particular love for the original but I was enjoying playing this remake and should go back to it at some point, however I don’t feel very compelled to do so. It’s a strange situation.

Just started playing it this week after going through the original 2 or 3 times over the years. I'm not all that far in at the moment, but I'm currently in a love/hate kind of place. I love seeing this world and characters with a new lick of paint, but I hate the unnecessary filler I'm being forced through, which is clearly only there to justify selling a fraction of a game at full price. If I'm not won over soon I'll probably quit. And even that depends on how many more times I have to hear Cloud bang on about how it was never in doubt. Crumbs!

I love the original, that's why i don't like the remake.

I absolutely loved Remake, just wanted it to never end. That said, I agree with a lot of what people don't like about the game. I think the excellent combat system and heavy nostalgia round off a lot of the rough edges though, at least for me. And I mean, who plays a Final Fantasy game for well-told stories? Just like Resident Evil, it's legit just dumb fun. Until someone gets "cream-cracked" with a sword lol

Fantastic soapbox, this. Remake is a strange game, especially now that we can look back on it. There are some things I love about it, and some things I hate. For me, it's a game of surprising extremes.

That said. I'm looking forward to another playthrough with Intergrade on PS5.

Some fair criticism, the arm cranes were indeed rubbish and I would remove about 90% of the train yard, takes way too long, what a faff. There's a lot to love if you can ignore some areas that last far longer than they should. Wasn't super keen on the ending either but it is what it is.

I’m at the stage of my life where my free time is simply too valuable to waste with something I am not enjoying. I have yet to finish this myself, and have similar complaints. I feel like I want to like it as much as many others, but I am simply missing something. The dialogue makes me cringe and the characters are annoying. That said, the combat is fun.

I have similar thoughts about this as I did with XV. There are good elements there, but the characters are just silly.

This was also my first forage into the world of final fantasy and i must admit i loved FFvii more than i ever could have expected.
This is why i love ps+ so much, it gives you a chance to play games that otherwise you'd never try.
So as soon as i finished the game i decided to play FFxv which is on the ps+ collection on ps5, got to admit it's nowhere near as good as Ffvii remake but I'll stick it out to the end (on chapter 9 atm)
Looking forward to remake pt 2 though

Oh thank heavens, it's not just me. Haha!!
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good RPG (not too long ago I finished Ni No Kuni and loved it), but I cannot for the life of me bring myself to get into the FF series, especially with the remake. I've heard so many people talk about how much they love the series and the memories they have with FF, but I group it into the same category of memories that I had with the Pokémon games that I played on the N64. Great memories, but going back and playing those games or remakes of those games without the nostalgia is a slog, to say the least.

Played it for nostalgia's sake, enjoyed it for what it is, finished it, won't ever play it again.

I'm amazed at the rave reviews now I'm finally playing the game. With no nostalgia to fall back on, I have to agree with most of the points.

The characters are annoying. Gameplay is ok, but there's a lot of doing nothing but walking about aimlessly. Textures can be awful quality on occasion. It's not a good game. Puzzles if you can call them that are dull.

The bit with Don Cornflakes or whatever his name is, is cringey and even if that's in the original game (I can only assume it is) is just too rapey for me.

I'm going to finish it just because I feel I should, but as a fan of JRPGs that somehow missed this first time around this is disappointing and if it didn't have the name would not have been so well received. Terrible, dull, clunky.

TL DR but I was quite letdown by remake (demo). When I put aside dull talkings like from C movie (for example Barret raging in elevator) I cannot take revamped fighting system, where I found myself just watching corner, waiting for ATB (or what is that) to fill. I have it from PS Plus so I'll give it a try, but it feels like sacrilege of original.

Its kinda funny when I deleted the game after encountering the first boss. Turn based games are not my thing (like majority of gamers). Then came this bullet reflecting, attacks spongy mechanical robo boss. After continuously attacking and failing, it just got too tedious for me and less fun due lack of strategies for defense/ attack.

@PhhhCough It's used.....wrong.

"Cream crackered" is rhyming slang for tired out.

Cream crackered = knackered.

Never heard it used in this context before.

It’s such an odd game. I was hyped for years but for every brilliant section, there were about 5 naff voice lines or pointless filler sections. And that ending is a car crash. The game could have been a lot shorter and perhaps adapted the Kalm flashback as well.

I played it after FF15, and in comparison, it's a masterpiece.
Visually I loved those door textures and backgrounds that were full of PSOne nostalgia (disclaimer: sarcasm)

I didn't really play very many 2020 games, but itd probably still be my goty. The forced walking is one of my criticisms, and there were definitely some lines they could have toned down the cringe and the weird grunts/sighs. But i don't see it any worse than something like Spiderman's dialogue

Ultimately, the characters felt more human here than ever before, they conveyed the right emotions when they needed to except maybe Jessie whose a bit of a hit and miss. And their interactions with each other were almost perfect and had me smiling throughout. This only covers the early portions of a longer game, so obviously it's going to miss a lot of the later development and changes these characters go thru

I'm with you, Stephen.
I actually had FF7 way back in '97 as it was being raved about.
I got to the end of disc 2 but by then, enough was enough.
Just wasn't for me....I can't stand RTS games either.
When I play games I wanna be excited and entertained and thrilled....neither of these genres do this to me.

I agree with what most of you are saying. When I started reading these posts, I expected to find an army of fanboys outraged that someone could express an opinion that didn't put Cloud in the clouds.

Kudos to Stephen Tailby for having the courage to write what he really felt about the game instead of creating a mindless fluff-piece to appease the fans of this train-wreck.

For years I'd heard the praise for Final Fantasy, but I'd never jumped in until this game came out. The pre-game hype was so huge, I thought, why not now?

Then, I played it. I found both the story and the dialog to be like one big bad joke. I don't understand the attraction. Combat was interesting, a little, but not great. I ended up quitting at what must have been about half way through, though it felt longer. Life's too short to be a masochist.

I can't imagine anyone who hasn't played original wanting to play the remake.

And after playing, I don't see how it would help introduce new players to it.

@kyleforrester87 I’d agree with that sentiment. It’s not a bad game, it’s probably a good one. It just made a lot of very very silly decisions in terms of artificial padding and narrative.

Got to the Don Corneo dance off and decided life was too short. Some parts were genuinely thrilling when they hit that nostalgia button just right but it was just in amongst too much badly written anime cringe.

@jdv95 I think he's called Sephiroth

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, I really enjoyed the little side-quests and they made perfect sense. The problem was more the horrible crane puzzle and areas like the whole route to the reactor with the fans and moving platforms. It felt like the sort of area you’d find annoying in a top down RPG, never mind having to navigate it in a full blown third person perspective. It’s strange though, you’d think that given they’ve made the effort to make Midgar look a lot bigger than the original, you’d go to more areas. You still only really go to a few sectors other than that brilliant section with motorbike dude. They clearly weren’t fussed about staying faithful to the original so they might as well have come up with something a bit more original to pad it out with.

@kyleforrester87

ok....bike wreck?

I just really hated the dialog, from the grunting, to the sighing, even the voice acting itself. I thought the whole game would be, I don't know, more....grown up? Train wreck might have been too strong. Just not my cup of malt liquor.

I actually just started this today. I've only previously played 10 or so hours of VII, and that was in the last year - I'm thinking about resuming that playthrough on the side of Remake.

So far Remake is the kind of weird I expect from Square and JRPGs in general. Square loves their lavish graphics and cut scenes, but they are usually in service of pretty hallways with minimal interactivity. I like the combat though and as much as I enjoy classic turn-based games I think this hybrid works well and is a definite improvement over XV, which I maintain is the worst AAA game I played on PS4

I think I may tire of the game being a 5 hour section of the og turned to 11, but I'm also happy to have essentially a linear action adventure game to play - something of a dying breed these days.

I'll just add my opinion to all the others.
I loved it. It's definitely not perfect but the good heavily outweighs the bad for me.
Big fan and I'll play it again in June.

Cream-Crackered and utterly minced, you must be British, good to hear from a Brit stranded in yank land thanks to covid.

I got to the exact same bit of the game as you, the train yard and gave in. Interesting to see how many others gave up at that point. I absolutely loved the Wall Market sections and many of the boss fights also, but yeah, the tedious sections eventually got to me I guess.

I’ll complete it one day, probably when part 2 comes out or when the ps5 upgrade releases.

I want to like JRPGs, but there always seems to be a lot of ‘padding’, pointless tasks just to space the game out or bump up the hour count.

I thought it was a masterpiece, but to each his own I guess. I GUESS.

I’ve decided to wait until they all come out and play the definitive collection. I want to make sure they finish all the remakes before committing. I also think 7 is a bit overrated in general. 6 is my favorite, then 9, 4, 12, 8, then 7 for me. I thought 10 wasn’t very good. 15 was okay. I couldn’t even get through 13, but I hear I should’ve stuck with it as it opens up 20 hours in.

@Hypnotoad107 13 opens up slower than Mother Theresa’s legs. Not worth it.

@kyleforrester87

You really know how to hit a man in the sack.

Edit: You seem smart enough that I don't have to add it, but just in case, here you go:

@PhhhCough @PhhhCough the thing is, he used it wrong. lol cream crackered rhymes with a word called knackered which means very tired. lol

@ZoSo was going to comment that too. lol

I’ve never played it either and had thought about giving it a try but I just can’t get past the ridiculous swords. I know lots of games have daft aspects to them but I can’t and never could, even in PS1 days, get past the swords

TBH the original FF7 did not have a huge initial Midgar section. Not having that open world and non linear choice really makes the game difficult and unfriendly to newcomers.

I’d suggest waiting or playing the first one. The exploration part of FF7 was where things really picked up. Most of what people liked about the original was the lack of urgency. You could break off and do anything else.

Really the remake is just fan service, taking an intro and not only throwing a wrench in the gears, but also lengthening the initial section to a ridiculous chore was probably not the best choice.

Still, I’d urge you to stick with it, as the last third of the game gets up and running with some epic fights. Motorcycle section, craziest boss battle ever and breaking the rules. It’s a great ending that plunges beginners and fans in the same boat for part 2.

With as many s****y games this gen getting good reviews while this gets a mostly bad review is bull.

It’s sat looking at me in my library because of psplus. The original was the first game I got with my ps1. I never got off CD 1. Not my type of game back then. Not sure if it would be now.

@kyleforrester87

How thick is my file?

Dude please don't let this experience with FF7 sour you on FF on the whole. I was pretty opposed to FF for many years bc it all seemed edgy and, well, made for 12 year olds.

However! I tried out FFXIV (an original story, not a sequel), and it became easily one of my favorite games ever and one of my favorite pieces of media ever.

Please try it. Please please please. Pay attention to the science of magic/summoning, get to know the Scions and the leaders of the city-states. And for the love of god, stick around until you start Heavensward. You will not regret it!

It’s like I wrote this article. Same thing... never played before, didn’t understand the history or storyline up to that point. Hated it for 5 hours until I realized... it’s not so much a game, as an anime with cut scene action fighting sprinkled in. The pacing took me out of the game several times. The cut scenes could be way shorter and walking and talking is a thing... right? At 14 hours I almost quit... but, after a few hours, went back. Ended up finishing the game, or at least part 1 of the Remake. The combat was fun, but it takes a long time to get used to switching characters and popping their spells and building up ATB (and why wouldn’t you go into battle fully charged???) and doing special moves etc. All in all, solid game, enjoyed it. I’d give it 85/100, will buy part 2 when it comes and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of XV that I already purchased.