The Final Fantasy Thread

[Berrakh]

Most of the interesting dialgoue was in the scenes prior to going on the rooftops, afterwards it's primarily the same "I'm a tough but fun girl to be with". It's been forever since I played ff7 but I remember Aerith to be more... dignified and serious. Her current character feels very generic modern woman writing.

That is possible.

She was always like this but because of the overall brevity of the original it could feel less on the nose. And her serious feelings were always around but tucked away. When she acts she acts with dignity, even against Cloud’s nominal wishes, but her words are light. Sort of sad figure who would put on a happy face.

I think they got so many complaints that she was given a frontal lobotomy in AC and CC that they wanted Midgar to be lighthearted, spunky Aerith and let things gradually get more serious as fate approaches. Which will also creep into Midgar as things go on.

I really don’t agree it’s Modern Woman writing though. Maybe Modern Anime writing to establish le quirky girl but modern woman writing would never let her be a little foolish.

But technically all I meant was the stuff prior to this was way more padded and not in the original, with more blatant characterization changes to “justify” it. With Aerith’s stuff it’s more a question of proportion. With everyone else, even Tifa, they’ve had qualitative overhauls.

Really Barrett is the most consistently translated.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

That is possible.

She was always like this but because of the overall brevity of the original it could feel less on the nose. And her serious feelings were always around but tucked away. When she acts she acts with dignity, even against Cloud’s nominal wishes, but her words are light. Sort of sad figure who would put on a happy face.

I think they got so many complaints that she was given a frontal lobotomy in AC and CC that they wanted Midgar to be lighthearted, spunky Aerith and let things gradually get more serious as fate approaches. Which will also creep into Midgar as things go on.

I really don’t agree it’s Modern Woman writing though. Maybe Modern Anime writing to establish le quirky girl but modern woman writing would never let her be a little foolish.

But technically all I meant was the stuff prior to this was way more padded and not in the original, with more blatant characterization changes to “justify” it. With Aerith’s stuff it’s more a question of proportion. With everyone else, even Tifa, they’ve had qualitative overhauls.

Really Barrett is the most consistently translated.

Right now I just got to the Haunted Trainyard. The whole Don Corneo thing was taking a fun half hour from the original and padding it to a slogging two hours. Like holy shit, we really needed a dancing minigame, colloseum, a diverging quest line and a whole weird materia side quest thing that has never been brought up (and I doubt will return)?
And in general the game is horribly paced, like driving a car that will randomly smash the brakes every several minutes. For example the robotic arms in the dungeon preceeding this section. They aren't a puzzle, just a thing to waste your time that take forever because how long animations are. Or inserting a minigame of fixing a broken pipe in the sewer that just ruin the sense of progress.
I really hope after the Sector 7 Shoah the game will actually have a decent pacing.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

I really hope after the Sector 7 Shoah the game will actually have a decent pacing.

Considering how long these things are in development it's probably going to be more of the same "we added some shit. Okay, a lot of shit"

Can't wait for the minigame with Cloud going full domestic violence against Aerith after the Temple of Ancients though. Assuming they even bother including that scene (though it's important.)

 

[Berrakh]

Right now I just got to the Haunted Trainyard. The whole Don Corneo thing was taking a fun half hour from the original and padding it to a slogging two hours. Like holy shit, we really needed a dancing minigame, colloseum, a diverging quest line and a whole weird materia side quest thing that has never been brought up (and I doubt will return)?
And in general the game is horribly paced, like driving a car that will randomly smash the brakes every several minutes. For example the robotic arms in the dungeon preceeding this section. They aren't a puzzle, just a thing to waste your time that take forever because how long animations are. Or inserting a minigame of fixing a broken pipe in the sewer that just ruin the sense of progress.
I really hope after the Sector 7 Shoah the game will actually have a decent pacing.

Well like I said, I agree but the business from Sector 5 to the Wall Market felt the least padded and made up for its own sake of anything of everything.

Sector 7, Reactor 5, the avalanche crew are all more egregious

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Okay, two chapters to go. Sector 7 Shoah was just bad, taking a key moment and lengthening it to 2 hours made me just wish for the plates to fall and kill everyone, and the combat system really dies when you only have a single party member.
Then the next chapter was actually fun, like an actual game. You have a relatively big map, you have side quests, side activities. Yeah it's entirely reused assets but it's not an eternal hallway.
Then you climb up the rubble to Shinra HQ, hey that's also fun, it's vertical dungeon rather than the eternal hallway. The flying enemies suck but it's overall alright.
Then we get to Shinra HQ and it's fun battling the guard at the entrance. Ok the Tifa platforming section sucks balled because it's slow, linear and you can't even fail, but wait what's that "guided tour" shit? No Squenix, I was having actual fun here. Why do I need to listen to "It's a wonderful world"? Why does it take several times as long as the Disney attraction?

Yeah, the game is hell-bent on not letting you play it. And having few hours of uninterrupted actual gameplay, you quickly realise there are massive issues to the combat. Basically it's repetitive (get stagger to proc, then go to town on enemy, using the same skills each time), spells sucks balls for anything but stagger, using physical attack skills doesn't work if enemies slightly move by the time the animation finishes (which is extra annoying when enemy attacks will sometimes hit you irregardless of dodging or being far away from the attack itself) and most of the battle is spent waiting for the ATB to charge, made worse by the game pretty much forces you to switch characters just to have anyone ready with full ATB bars.
The combat also has utterly retarded aggro system where enemies will ONLY target the player controlled character, which makes low hp characters like Aerith a chore to play since you need to attack with her to be able to use skills, but starting to attack immediately gets enemies ganging up on her and killing her near instantly (or wasting the acquired ATB just to heal).
Basically the combat needs a massive rework to make the player switch out tactics and using spells.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

The Wall Market segment in Remake is not nearly as scuzzy as it should be. I wanted the Red Light district, and Honey Bee Inn in particular, to be disgusting and illegitimate. I get there and it has legitimate entertainment like dancing. Not only that, Andreas isn't even weird enough. He's just a gay guy when he should go full drag queen or even Divine.

 

[PuffyGroundCloud]

The Wall Market segment in Remake is not nearly as scuzzy as it should be. I wanted the Red Light district, and Honey Bee Inn in particular, to be disgusting and illegitimate. I get there and it has legitimate entertainment like dancing. Not only that, Andreas isn't even weird enough. He's just a gay guy when he should go full drag queen or even Divine.

The hand massage segment is fucking stupid

 

[Captain Syrup]

The hand massage segment is fucking stupid

Seems tame compared to the original: man-on-man action and having to squat battle with Big Bro.

Nomura's role in the original was minimal. He's just one of Disney's employees.

 

[Berrakh]

Seems tame compared to the original: man-on-man action and having to squat battle with Big Bro.

Nomura's role in the original was minimal. He's just one of Disney's employees.

it bothers me as an early 2019 naysayer because everyone would deny it when I said the pacing would be all kinds of screwed up. Because they would have to overblow and exaggerate elements that were originally brisk or subdued, or get a jump on elements that were originally spaced further out.

It's not just that they have to blow up an originally short section; they also have to make do without set-ups and pay-offs that normally arrive a little later. Because what was a little later in 1997 is going to take years to hit the public in Parts 2 and 3.

An easy example is how Cloud's dubious memory is barely even a mystery this time. While this did tentatively begin in OG Midgar, it was so small and without context that a new player would easily dismiss it as setting a pensive atmosphere

 

[Captain Syrup]

An easy example is how Cloud's dubious memory is barely even a mystery

He does have that internal struggle when he's alone in the bath house. He may not show it outwardly, but a voice is resounding in Cloud's head. We think it's the Jenova cells inside his mind, but it's actually a third personality, which is masked.

I was surprised by how f*cked up it gets in the other rooms of the Honeybee Inn (where Cloud starts freaking out). You hear some thunder and lightning next door... Dunno how they scripted it in Japanese, but in the one I played, it seems the President is into dirty roleplaying.

Doesn't mean anything to the story: Jenova is a fallen angel, and the sleeping Queen is the Planet/WEAPON, or maybe it's just a coincidence, You hear some Shinra employees gossiping during this scene, Existential horror of the soul and raunchy sex comedy are all meshed.

I didn't recall such episodes in FF7R. They seem to be pulling their punches; even Sephiroth's smoky impalings are pretty underwhelming.

 

[Berrakh]

New player would probably not find the bathhouse. And would be consumed by many questions.

I do agree with an above poster they made the Wall Market too quirky. When everyone is sex trafficking girls to Corneo. And he ostensibly kills them when they displease him.

 

[Urbanmech]

Okay, two chapters to go. Sector 7 Shoah was just bad, taking a key moment and lengthening it to 2 hours made me just wish for the plates to fall and kill everyone, and the combat system really dies when you only have a single party member.
Then the next chapter was actually fun, like an actual game. You have a relatively big map, you have side quests, side activities. Yeah it's entirely reused assets but it's not an eternal hallway.
Then you climb up the rubble to Shinra HQ, hey that's also fun, it's vertical dungeon rather than the eternal hallway. The flying enemies suck but it's overall alright.
Then we get to Shinra HQ and it's fun battling the guard at the entrance. Ok the Tifa platforming section sucks balled because it's slow, linear and you can't even fail, but wait what's that "guided tour" shit? No Squenix, I was having actual fun here. Why do I need to listen to "It's a wonderful world"? Why does it take several times as long as the Disney attraction?

Yeah, the game is hell-bent on not letting you play it. And having few hours of uninterrupted actual gameplay, you quickly realise there are massive issues to the combat. Basically it's repetitive (get stagger to proc, then go to town on enemy, using the same skills each time), spells sucks balls for anything but stagger, using physical attack skills doesn't work if enemies slightly move by the time the animation finishes (which is extra annoying when enemy attacks will sometimes hit you irregardless of dodging or being far away from the attack itself) and most of the battle is spent waiting for the ATB to charge, made worse by the game pretty much forces you to switch characters just to have anyone ready with full ATB bars.
The combat also has utterly retarded aggro system where enemies will ONLY target the player controlled character, which makes low hp characters like Aerith a chore to play since you need to attack with her to be able to use skills, but starting to attack immediately gets enemies ganging up on her and killing her near instantly (or wasting the acquired ATB just to heal).
Basically the combat needs a massive rework to make the player switch out tactics and using spells.

The combat sounds like an off shoot of FF13 Staggerfest of combat.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Finished the game last night. It was overall disappointing.
The game really feels like the creators took ff7 and transplanted into it the worse aspects of Kingdom Hearts and the MCU. The former has a "no die" policy (literally the entire final part is now about killing the god Destiny so that everyone who died in the original, including Zack, now lives). The latter has no blood (replaced with shiny goo), boring overlong CG fight scenes, quips and annoying side characters.
The biggest problem is that the whole power level system is now broken. Our party managed to kill a god but Sephiroph is somehow stronger. And there are a billion Sephiroph clones now running around and wanting to fuck around with Cloud for some reason.
Really the only way the plot makes sense is if Sephiroph managed to go back in time and that's causing the whole disturbance in the timeline, and he decided to fuck around with Cloud on the way. The party killing Destiny is also retarded because that it shouldn't matter regardless, if they are fated to lose then they'll lose. If anything, it seems throughout the game that they would have died several times without Destiny's minions saving them. So good job guys, you might have doomed the planet.

I already bitched a lot about the combat, but it is really summed up in the quote:

I think in the 25 hours I played, I had maybe 6 hours of actual gameplay in. The rest are cutscenes, walking in straight line and waiting through slow animations. I feel like I've not even watched the game, just waited for it to give me control only to take itaway midbattle. Like a late boss fight is Rufus and his dog, most of the fight I spent blocking (which is superior to dodging) and by the time I had the ability to hit his mutt, more than half the time I get cancelled out of the animation by either of their attacks (which aren't synchronized) or the dog moves slightly, which causes me to miss. It was just tiring, and that final part of the game is a pure boss rush.
Also for some reason, rather than let you choose your party members for the last part, the game bends itself over to force your party. And of course Red XIII is not a playable character yet.

The combat sounds like an off shoot of FF13 Staggerfest of combat.

In some ways it's worse, staggering is usually only feasible if the enemy is "pressured" and a lot of times it's by doing a specific thing that's not too intuitive or wasting time killing mooks or targeting specific boss parts. Some bosses are a slog until you get their "solution" and then they die pretty quickly. There's very little strategy involved, just trying to find what's the single method the devs intended for you to play.

 

[Marissa Moira]

In some ways it's worse, staggering is usually only feasible if the enemy is "pressured" and a lot of times it's by doing a specific thing that's not too intuitive or wasting time killing mooks or targeting specific boss parts. Some bosses are a slog until you get their "solution" and then they die pretty quickly. There's very little strategy involved, just trying to find what's the single method the devs intended for you to play.

This really depends on what optional bosses you did. The Optional bosses are much harder than the norm and do require strategy and grinding. Once you have multiple Gotterdammerungs you can then faceroll shit with ease on any difficulty(some of the optional fights will disable this item mostly, but the bar growth will be partially active when you take hits). But then you also have the DLC bosses which are definitely harder than the main game and you need to have a good bit of defense materia to do any of the long boss fights like either version of Pride and Joy.

The arena exists just for building your characters and materia up to endgame levels. So you have to spend a few hours there. If you're just going through the story it's going to pass over a good amount of side content.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

This really depends on what optional bosses you did. The Optional bosses are much harder than the norm and do require strategy and grinding. Once you have multiple Gotterdammerungs you can then faceroll shit with ease on any difficulty(some of the optional fights will disable this item mostly, but the bar growth will be partially active when you take hits). But then you also have the DLC bosses which are definitely harder than the main game and you need to have a good bit of defense materia to do any of the long boss fights like either version of Pride and Joy.

The arena exists just for building your characters and materia up to endgame levels. So you have to spend a few hours there. If you're just going through the story it's going to pass over a good amount of side content.

I can't even imagine replaying the game. Going through the environment is so awful, and the dungeons themselves are so boring, I'd rather just play a new game.

 

[Berrakh]

Really the only way the plot makes sense is if Sephiroph managed to go back in time and that's causing the whole disturbance in the timeline, and he decided to fuck around with Cloud on the way. The party killing Destiny is also retarded because that it shouldn't matter regardless, if they are fated to lose then they'll lose. If anything, it seems throughout the game that they would have died several times without Destiny's minions saving them. So good job guys, you might have doomed the planet.

I think I was more lenient on this aspect because I predicted Sephiroth had gone through time before release and before the bulk of the leaks. So I let my ego get in the way.

I really did call the shit out of that though

 

[ThatGuyFromPortugal]

Update on the save transfers between PC and Switch, they do exist!

https://github.com/EuanFH/ff9SaveLib

Hey I know this is coming from nowhere, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I was wondering if you (or anyone) could share a FFIX save file for Nintendo Switch. I tried using the converter on my PC save file, but I had no success (probably because I'm too stupid to correctly use cmd/terminal). I'm not worried about the progress, it can even be the start of the game right after we start controlling Vivi for the first time. I want to test something. Would really appreciate if someone can help me with it!

 

[Soycast Guy]

FF7-2 news is coming next month.

Doesn’t mean it’ll release anytime soon knowing squeenix though, but it would be nice to see what it’ll be like.

Also as everyone knows, another FFXVI trailer is coming either this month or next month.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Don't know if Triangle Strategy goes here since it is like a spin-off of FF Tactics. I started playing it and it kinda feels mediocre. Like the gameplay is slightly more interesting than usual with classes having unique abilities, but every battle until now is ganking enemy one at a time. The plot also has the annoying trope of entire armies appearing from the ether, despite the game trying to appear relatively grounded in reality.

The most bizarre gameplay feature is the voting system, like every few chapters you vote for a decision the protagonist takes, and you dissuade them to decide in a certain way. Until now it seemed like it's always a draw where you tell the one neutral character what to do, I kind of dread the game locking the good ending behind this mechanic, since convincing allies is dependent on social connection points gained from deciding what to say in dialogue, which the game hides, so good luck knowing what you are lacking. Why not just go full Radiant Historia and let you skip around those decisions with awesome bad ends? If the game always gives you a free vote why even have this in the first place?

The whole voting sequences are also pretty retarded by themselves. The hero gets a scale that's a divine relic, and the party treats casting lots as some massive ritual with unknown results, when they could have used any scale with random rocks. Another thing that really annoys me is the character portraits, where every bad guy looks like he was take from a children's cartoon.

 

[Captain Syrup]

FF7-2 news is coming next month

10-2, 13-2, 7R-2....

Wake me when they announce Final Fantasy 2-2.