For what it’s worth, this is pretty close to my own feelings about the original FF7. I have a moderate degree of nostalgia for it because it was a big cultural phenomenon at the time. But for me it will always firmly be a tier below the peak Squaresoft stuff (FF6, Chrono Trigger).
Free item pack in the PS store:
https://store.playstation.com/product/UP0082-PPSA01903_00-0178847627322413
PS5 version only.
This is out Thursday for PC via Epic. It doesn’t look like it’s available on Steam, so presumably there’s an exclusivity period for Epic? Also, it’s $70 USD which I gather caused a backlash and now Epic is hiding its price until release (I was mostly offline for a few days so I missed the outrage). But, it includes the Yuffie DLC in the base game.
Digital Foundry disappointed with the PC port.
But watching their video, it’s got an interesting twist at the end. The game runs great on PC if you run it in DirectX 11, it gets rid of the frame-hitching and it runs as smooth as the PS5 version, but with tearing because VSYNC gets turned off in DX11. BUT, you can turn on VSYNC on a driver level, and everything is fixed.
So, sounds like a successful port to me, except you have to jump through a couple of hoops. Plus I’m sure there will be fan patches and mods on the PC version that will make it even better.
I’m still waiting for them to finish the game before I played this first part of the remake.
Yeah, I have no idea when/if this will ever cover the entirety of FF7, but given that I never managed to finish the original, I figure this is the best way to eventually do so, when I am old and gray and the finale is released on PS12 and iOS Infinity2
Folks deserve a PC port that gives at least as good of an experience as I had playing this on the console. I found FFVII Remake to be the best game of the series. The characters, models, music, scenery, story, and combat were fresh and engaging. Even without being a complete form of the original game, it stands on its own as an experience.
Once I pick up Intergrade, I hope it can import the save file so I can do a play through on the hard mode. There’s a purity to its eschewing of its that garnered my interest.
Not really. Don’t want to spoil stuff, so wont say much more than that.
If there’s a good spoiler post or you want to DM me, I’d love to hear it.
Mind you I haven’t played it, but I’ve seen plenty of discussions and play of it.
Spoiler stuff:
As I understand it, Remake breaks off into another timeline. One where Aeris doesn’t die and a bunch of other stuff will likely happen that never happens in the original game (and vice versa). Instead of making a pure remake, they made a game that’s a divergent timeline where no one knows exactly how everything will turn out. The characters are all basically the same, but the story stops being the same story fairly early on and how it ends and important plot points are completely unknown because of it.
Whoa this is a $70 game? And it’s 1/3 of the original game?
It plays like a complete game, and it might be my favorite from the franchise (having played about seven of them). $70 seems fair. You should enjoy actiony combat and JRPG linearity to appreciate it the most.
Yeah, they’ve added a lot of game to the Midgar section compared to the original.
I really don’t like the real-time combat the newer FF games like this one have. I much prefer the turn-based combat of the older games. Real-time combat is less challenging, it’s hard to follow what’s going on, and you lose the often tough, nail-biting decisions that occur during turn-based combat. It sucks all future games will have action combat.
Try the demo - this is a legit fun combat, and I am also more a turn based guy.
It’s also a huge game with a lot of content- I think I put over 40 hours into it when it came out, let alone now with the new/extra content. I need to play this again…
I’ve put a lot of time into it, I’m on Chapter 14. I didn’t like the combat in Zodiac Age either.
Oh no, is it similar to Zodiac Age? I didn’t like that combat at all.
FFXIi was slower, more measured and had the scripted/gambit system. FF7r is more like Dragon’s Dogma.
$70? Is that a first? Aren’t new games still at $59.99 or did I miss something?
(Well, not technically a first, I remember paying $70 for Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System in 1987 but obviously that wasn’t the norm.)
It’s standard now for AAA console games on PS5/XBox. I still bristle buying Switch games at full price, but as (presuming here) PC gamers we have been quite spoiled with pricing for at least 15 years or so.
This game was how I learned about $70 being the new normal as well. At least the PC version has the Yuffie DLC included.
Though, to your point about Phantasy Star, I definitely remember SNES/Genesis games being like $80 in the early/mid ‘90s.
I also prefer turn-based combat, but I think it’s fair to say that Squenix have much more mainstream ambitions with Final Fantasy than with, say, Dragon Quest (from a global perspective as DQ is famously huge in Japan) and their assorted retro clones. So, action combat it is. Plus, it’s like a dry run for the solo action combat of FFXVI, with how borderline non-existent your AI-controlled companions are.
For me the combat is merely okay, but it really needs variety to shine. I’m hoping it gets polished quite a bit for FFXVI. What keeps the combat somewhat fresh here is being able to switch characters. Not sure I could handle 50 hours of hack-and-slash with Cloud. Especially since some (okay, most) of the boss fights have carried over the HP sponginess from classic JRPGs.