Final Fantasy VII is Back

Yeah they did reduce her cup size from Z to…D?

This isn’t just a videogame thing. Japanese people do it in real life too. I was constantly tired of the “ehhhhhhh!?” expression on Japanese TV every 10 seconds when I lived there.

I notice these things.

So you’ve kept abreast of developments.

Oh, good grief!

=D

Don’t put words in my mouth!

Also, I don’t get the hate for blur - I think it looks great, particularly in that shot. It’s such a fast swipe of the sword, you only get a sense of motion - that’s the entire point of blur.

I thought it was to hide dodgy frame rates.

I believe that’s the case for some games, yeah - especially on console.

FFVIIR specifically stays at a locked 30fps and runs great, though. (EDIT: At least on the Pro).

Thanks Scott, those images look great. I have the game sitting on my PS4 but I’m in the middle of a Battletech campaign on my PC and I’m taking a stab at Persona 4 on the PS4 before getting into FF VII. The screenshots help sustain me through the wait.

The screenshots look pretty, but quick question (the answer to which I’ll have to file away until it arrives on PC): does the length of combat become tedious, or do you find it consistently engaging? I watched some gameplay, and the enemy health bars deplete so slowly that I worry that I’d become frustrated eventually unless the combat is really fun, which can’t really come across in gameplay footage. I’m especially curious about how fun fighting non-boss (trash) mobs is after the dozenth time.

Definitely the latter - in fact, I like the moments when I get to wander an area and fight enemies quite a lot because between skills/abilities, limit breaks, spells and materia there are a lot of fun tools in the toolbox to break out, and many enemies have particular weakness and strengths that make them stand out. I’m playing on Normal, and the enemies are generally very quick fights, particularly if you’ve taken the time and care to build up your Materia, and spend your skill points and use your abilities and spells efficiently. Hell, I still use the menus, but whenever I watch people play on YouTube they are using the shortcuts for various abilities, making the combat seemless. I really like interacting with menus in a game like this, so I am constantly issuing commands and the like, though.

There are some exceptions, but even most boss fights last just long enough to be satisfying and require you to play well, though there are of course some exceptions.

I will also add that a few boss fights have been very challenging, to the point where I went down to Easy on my third attempts - and then they were WAY too easy. Normal is just about perfect for 98% of the game so far.

Then I guess into my future backlog it goes.

I just wrapped this up, just a bit more than 39 hours played and almost all of it on Normal. This is hands down one of my favorite Final Fantasy games - I loved it from the combat to the amazing story and characters. Early on you get some edgelord vibes from Cloud and some crazy over the top from Barret but as the game goes on these characters really mature and it’s super well done. By the end of the game I was a little sad to see my time with them come to an end, like finishing a really good book.

Some of the best visuals I’ve seen on the PS4 - I’m sure when it comes to PC in 4 months (I bet), it will look even better, but don’t wait for the PC version if you have a PS4 and are interested in playing - it’s amazing. Also, it was nice to have a reason to own a PS4 again.

The RPG mechanics, the systems in play that form the combat model, were really interesting and a lot of fun to dig into - from equipping the right accessories and leveling up/spending skill points on your weapons to having synergy with the Materia you have equipped, and leveling up said Materia to have more powerful toys to play with, I found everything compelling all the way to the end. I am starting to think the energetic/reactive combat was better served here than flat turn-based would have been. I don’t know when the shifted for me, and I still like turn-based game quite a lot of course, but at least this was a case where what they executed worked for me really well.

And there is more game coming! Honestly, if I get something like this, and another 40 hours of it, I’ll pre-order at full price. And I’ll do it for as long as they want to keep telling this tale!

I love TIm Rogers, here is his 3 hours video review of FFVII Remake. Enjoy! (bias: I am backing him on patreon).

Thank you so much for linking that. That was a glorious three hours, 18 minutes, 55 seconds and unknown number of frames.

I am still watching ;) Disc 4

I made my way through it doing a ‘disc’ or two a day for about a week. The extra impressive thing about it is that a 3+ hour video only has a ten-minute section of spoilers (for the Remake itself, it assumes some familiarity with FFVII, but even then there is not anything I’d consider major).

His next video is going to be about The Last of Us, which I have no interest in or experience with, but I’ll watch it anyway.