Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PC/PS4) - March 3rd, 2020

[TheDirtyHobo]

Junctioning was a great concept let down by godawful balancing, materia is a bland concept bolstered up by superb balancing.

[Ayn]

I think we can all agree that Mr. Dolphin was great.

[Gokulo]

The first time I had to do that jump... Ugh, too annoying!

[Niiro]

Junctioning was a great concept let down by godawful balancing, materia is a bland concept bolstered up by superb balancing.

I'd hardly call the Materia system or 7 in general balanced, from start to finish the game is entirely too easy.

I did a no-materia run through of the game ages ago thinking it would be a challenge, it was not.

Giving each character a Cure-All means you've pretty much beat the game already, never mind something as absurdly powerful as Enemy Skill.

[Classikmage]

I'd hardly call the Materia system or 7 in general balanced, from start to finish the game is entirely too easy.

I did a no-materia run through of the game ages ago thinking it would be a challenge, it was not.

Giving each character a Cure-All means you've pretty much beat the game already, never mind something as absurdly powerful as Enemy Skill.

Did you attempt Emerald/Ruby Weapon on that "No-Materia run"?

[Waraji]

The first time I had to do that jump... Ugh, too annoying!

hehe, I just did a run on Steam to get it to 100%, and you literally just stay where you spawn and blow the whistle twice.

[Gokulo]

hehe, I just did a run on Steam to get it to 100%, and you literally just stay where you spawn and blow the whistle twice.

Yep, I learned about that on my subsequent walkthroughs, but if you didn't know that...

[Niiro]

Did you attempt Emerald/Ruby Weapon on that "No-Materia run"?

No, but those 2 bosses are hardly indicative of the game's overall difficulty.

[Niiro]

I wonder if Emerald might be possible if you cheated and used an Underwater materia with super strategic use of LBs, but I'm thinking no.

I'd try it but I don't actually have a copy of FF7 that I can actually play atm (PS3 died long ago and no PS1/PS2 because it was a backwards compatible one) so I'd have to buy the Steam version and start up a whole new file, but tbh I don't even want to buy it because of what I've heard about the DRM they added in.

[Waraji]

but tbh I don't even want to buy it because of what I've heard about the DRM they added in.

There really isn't any, except if you consider the SE Splash screen DRM, where it lets you adjust game options. The only trouble I had was trying to use the (practically useless) Cloud Storage system (local saves would delete themselves on launch if you activated it. I kept it off throughout my whole play through and it was fine.) The only benefit is using the stat booster on their website to boost your HP/MP/Gil (still doesn't affect actual stats.) The thing is practically garbage.

[TheDirtyHobo]

I'd hardly call the Materia system or 7 in general balanced, from start to finish the game is entirely too easy.

Balance for a single player game doesn't have as much to do with creating difficulty as it does with creating flexibility, at least for me. A balanced game has tons of options for what's viable. Materia allows for that. Junctions kind of do but not really; it's just a matter of having stocks of the right spells, which stat you put each spell on doesn't really matter.

[Alkar]

Both systems offer flexibility and both systems are broken as hell once you figure them out. FFVIII is simply much faster to break because they've removed most of the grind and added shortcuts to endgame spells.
VIII feels like a combination of VI and VII actually with GFs granting you new abilities and being able to equip magic spells.

[Elcura]

If you don't use materia correctly (or rather, if you do) then it's a good system with some nice options. But once you know the system you can start doing some crazy combos.

Like Quad-Magic + Comet, MP Steal + Comet, HP Steal + Comet makes you cast comet a bunch and steal HP/MP when you do it. FFVII I played a lot so grinding out materia wasn't an issue. Or having a bunch of counter attacks with added effect materia. Even without that, you can set up some great combos with single materia.

My only issue with this is the grinding needed, if the game required some of that shit it would've been amazing.

[Niiro]

Balance for a single player game doesn't have as much to do with creating difficulty as it does with creating flexibility, at least for me. A balanced game has tons of options for what's viable. Materia allows for that. Junctions kind of do but not really; it's just a matter of having stocks of the right spells, which stat you put each spell on doesn't really matter.

I get what you mean but when I think of a balanced system it generally means the various methods and mechanics at your disposal are 'balanced' against the challenges of the game.

If you can beat the game relatively easily without any need to utilize these core mechanics then I'd say they were poorly balanced, doesn't mean they can't be interesting or fun on their own though.

[TheDirtyHobo]

I get what you mean but when I think of a balanced system it generally means the various methods and mechanics at your disposal are 'balanced' against the challenges of the game.

I have a hard time reconciling that idea with JRPGs in particular, since most games don't have any way of hard-limiting your level for a specific portion of the game.

[Uzor]

The game would have been a lot more balanced if the Materia system didn't allow you to slot a Materia more than once per character.

Then again, that would have taken a lot of the fun out of it.

[Francisco]

I think we can all agree that Mr. Dolphin was great.

I'm personally looking forward to fighting a fat middle aged man, moments before he runs off and gets hit by a truck.

With lotsa honey, sugar, and oh, don't forget the LARD!

[BWYuko]

If you can beat the game relatively easily without any need to utilize these core mechanics then I'd say they were poorly balanced, doesn't mean they can't be interesting or fun on their own though.

Well at least they tried. FF7 is really the only title in the series I can think of where they take measures to buff the stats of the final boss gauntlet in the event you capped your PCs' levels and used KoR to kill Jenova-Synth. No such luxury was afforded in any of the series titles before or following.

I have a hard time reconciling that idea with JRPGs in particular, since most games don't have any way of hard-limiting your level for a specific portion of the game.

Lost Odyssey was brilliant for this. In each dungeon exp gain plateaued to 1 exp/kill once a certain level ceiling was attained. Prevented players from over-leveling to roll bosses, forced them to really take their time and think before in putting commands during boss fights. Failing to cast things like all-barricade/all-shield on turn 1 could result in full wipe by turn 2. Good game. Need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or 10 so I can emulate it since my 360 bricked.

[Krandor]

Need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or 10 so I can emulate it since my 360 bricked.

What does upgrading to Windows 10 have to do with a game that is completely unplayable with current emulators?

[BWYuko]

Is it? I never read the wiki after I found out the emulator team was offering no Windows 7 support. Shame on me, that sucks.