Final Fantasy VII: Remake (III) | Rebirth | Revelation (PC/PS5/XSX/NSW2) - 2027

[Gredival]

Going through on hard mode was really quick for me, even with having to re-do quests (so that I could get the Ultimate Party Animal quest done on Hard for Cait Sith's last manuscript). But I had already done all region intel, which is an enormous chunk of the game I think.

[Tyrath]

It's a lot but, to me anyway, it didn't feel anywhere near as tedious and a mostly pointless pain in the ass as all the FF16 sidequests padding

I think FF7 sidequests benefit from dopamine goes yay because there are checklists for everything. FF16 still had sidequests that mattered and were far more interesting by the end of the game. I havent finished FF7R so I can't say they won't do that in this game, but they don't see as related so I am guessing they will mostly be standalone.

[Vaspinne]

I agree with the story payoff at the end for 16's sidequests. But it was just felt like a constant flow of generic sidequests like FF14 does to pad their MSQ in expansions (given Yoshi-P was in charge, not surprising). Maybe a unique type of side quest on occasion, but otherwise, go here, kill that, collect this, talk to that person, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And while things like the potion upgrades were useful, crafting new weapons and armor just felt so... bland and unsatisfying to upgrade. You upgrade your weapon, it looks different but aside from a generic and mostly unnoticeable stat boost, there wasn't any "oh shit that's awesome" to any of the swords Clive uses. The accessories were a nice touch though.

At least Rebirth has a thousand different minigames and quest styles and open world mini-boss fights that have different challenges to them and each weapon gives you a new ability and has stats and choose-able traits that can let you have different play styles. Which, admittedly with all the Region Intel stuff, can be a bit of a slog at times but didn't feel nearly as tedious for me

16 just felt so 'safe' as a game with some of the gameplay choices it made, which just made it so bland for me at times

[Ayn]

I haven't finished FF16 yet, but you nailed something that bugs me about the game I'm otherwise enjoying; it just felt like it was playing it way too safe and the upgrades didn't really excite me.

I should get back to it now that the DLC's out.

[BWYuko]

I haven't finished FF16 yet, but you nailed something that bugs me about the game I'm otherwise enjoying; it just felt like it was playing it way too safe and the upgrades didn't really excite me.

I should get back to it now that the DLC's out.

I'm about 60% through Rebirth and this is my plan of action with FF16 too, but what you and Vasp mention are my detractors.

FF16 has two types of sidequests: fetch quests with fighting, and fetch quests without fighting. That's it. Rebirth has you doing all sorts of zany, fun shit -- Queen's Blood tourney, Chocobo Mario Kart, Red XIII Rocket League, Condor fights, Cactuar shit, shooting gallery, piano, situps, etc. I'm excited to return after a year hiatus to tackle all FF16 DLC at once (and finally use the ultima weapon, and beyond, for actual shit), but am concerned with the slog, now tainted further by Rebirth's insanely diverse offerings.

Hopefully the combat hooks me again, and there's more to use your hoards of gil on in the DLC than god damned music rolls. But Rebirth has figured out dynamics of party interaction, party combat, character progression, etc., that I wish FF16 had incorporated. May not have bumped it through the 90% review ceiling into GoTY considerations with BG3 and ToTK last year, but Rebirth is spoiling us with another thing-that-could-have-been with FF16.

And...

16 just felt so 'safe' as a game with some of the gameplay choices it made, which just made it so bland for me at times

... not to be this guy...

Spoiler: show

... but you're right. When we fell in love with this franchise, Square was trailblazing. They had new, pioneering ideas that changed the industry, experimented with what the genre could become -- characters, concepts, art that defined cool and defied tired game conventions. Cinema-as-games that hooked you with materia, gunblades, blitzball, summons, etc.

FF16 is a solid game and a wonderful entry in the series, but outside some of the eikonic fights did not offer anything as seismic as what Square was doing 20-30 years ago. It was "safe", reactionary by design, borrowing heavily from successes of Western pop culture (GoT). It's exactly the broad appeal SE thought the brand needed. After the very public, hellish dev disasters that were FF13, 14v1, and 15, they'd sewn fifteen years of distrust with their older demo (and recovered some with the 14 success that followed). But they still needed to deliver something sound, leveled, polished, organized for the next main entry. Something to communicate to the old fans, "See? We drew this one up in just a few years, and it's great! Right?! We can still do this pretty well. Wait til you see what we do with the next one!"

And so we got FF16, but it's not the the product I think a lot of us were hoping for. Final Fantasy is supposed to take risks. Versus 13/15 had some incredible new ideas that, oh my god, were executed horrendously. Rebirth and 14's revival have shown us that SE's still very capable of fun, remains a group of silly dipshits at its core, and has some of that fun magic left. But I'm also confident that I am simply not their target demographic or audience anymore, and that future Final Fantasy is not meant for me. And that's okay! FF17 will probably be something like FF16: metered, polished, fine, but not revolutionary.

[Vaspinne]

Don't get me wrong, I love the action-RPG direction SE games are going in. KH is one of my favourite series for that reason, and if I want turn based I have DQ and Bravely Default and Octopath and Triangle Strategy and etc, etc. And the gameplay of 16 itself was fun enough, but it just lacked a LOT of depth that both old turn based games and even new action RPG's have. That's pretty much my big gripe. It had a mostly great story to its credit

It's not a perfect game, but I LOVE what they did with Rebirth. And if part 3 is more of the same, and especially if the rumoured 9 remake is real and does something similar, I will be absolutely ecstatic

[Mertron]

the best part of ff16 was the titan move where you wind up and deliver a huge fist punch

[Anoat]

the best part of ff16 was the titan move where you wind up and deliver a huge fist punch

Reminded me of those HULK SMASH gloves from back in the day that everybody played with in the store and nobody ever bought

[Gredival]

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but I felt like I had more problems dealing with combat in this one than the other because of the camera thing I mentioned. Constantly got railroaded by mobs I couldn't see on screen.

I also feel like the Brutal and Legendary challenges were overtuned to necessitate cheesing. I feel like more varied fight strategies would have been better than how they simply made some of these fights impossible without a hyper specific materia load out for magic spam. Like if there was some better way to deliver strategy other than the sometimes flawed assessment info and/or tool tips, I'd have appreciated more fights like the Dragon that required responding to different phases with different tactics.

However other than that, I enjoyed the combat system itself. The synergy defensive system for iframes and reactionary guarding was a massive improvement. That being said I haven't played 16, but I liked this so much better than 15 and other RPG combat systems I've played recently.

For part 3, I think offensive synergy triggers (not the commands issued by building gauges) need some refinement. And I think the controls are awkward sometimes (holding guard then trying to go into the menu sometimes triggered a synergy command instead for me).

I think the storytelling was a lot better this time around. Maybe it was because we simply understood more of what Sephiroth was trying to do and such, but the changed storyline stuff didn't bother me and the expansions were all great. Like explaining the origin of the Black Materia with the Gi and why they would make such a thing was great. Fleshing out some of the smaller details on Barret and Red's stories was good. There was much better build up to Cloud being controlled, to SOLDIER degradation, etc.



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[Ayn]

Nah, not just yet Gred; I enjoyed the game, but it felt like combat was rougher than it was in Remake for me.

With you regarding the change with Black Materia -- it actually made a lot of sense.

Yuko; you nailed a lot of what I felt. Like you, I understood why 16 had to be what it was and I still enjoy it. But damn, I hope if they do another game in that style or that world they take some notes from that and the FF7 trilogy.

[Gredival]

Actually one thing I distinctly didn't like was the Red XIII reverse balls drop on the voice. I get him dropping the pretense of acting older, but the voice adjustment was waaaaaay too extreme.

[Kaslo]

Actually one thing I distinctly didn't like was the Red XIII reverse balls drop on the voice. I get him dropping the pretense of acting older, but the voice adjustment was waaaaaay too extreme.

Spoiler: show

However, it made him speaking with Aerith in private earlier in the game harder to decipher

[Gredival]

Spoiler: show

However, it made him speaking with Aerith in private earlier in the game harder to decipher

Yeah but there's no narrative payoff for that lol.

[Tyrath]

I agree with the story payoff at the end for 16's sidequests. But it was just felt like a constant flow of generic sidequests like FF14 does to pad their MSQ in expansions (given Yoshi-P was in charge, not surprising). Maybe a unique type of side quest on occasion, but otherwise, go here, kill that, collect this, talk to that person, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And while things like the potion upgrades were useful, crafting new weapons and armor just felt so... bland and unsatisfying to upgrade. You upgrade your weapon, it looks different but aside from a generic and mostly unnoticeable stat boost, there wasn't any "oh shit that's awesome" to any of the swords Clive uses. The accessories were a nice touch though.

At least Rebirth has a thousand different minigames and quest styles and open world mini-boss fights that have different challenges to them and each weapon gives you a new ability and has stats and choose-able traits that can let you have different play styles. Which, admittedly with all the Region Intel stuff, can be a bit of a slog at times but didn't feel nearly as tedious for me

16 just felt so 'safe' as a game with some of the gameplay choices it made, which just made it so bland for me at times

I mean, 16 does so many things that are definitely not safe choices in a historically rated T turn based JRPG lol. You can't blame them on taking safer options in other parts

[Vaspinne]

I'm talking about the gameplay. I've been talking about the gameplay the whole time. In the quote you're quoting, I specifically wrote gameplay choices =/

[The Stig]

Took me nearly 4 months but I finally beat the game.
Time to devour this thread whole!

bbl

i took long because sidequests and unnmotivation, took me days to work the motivation to play a few hours and progress lol. Towards Gongaga I just said fuck it and beelined to the end (still slowly)

[Ayn]

I was playing through the game with someone and when I hit Gongaga I'm like "Yeah I see why Zack left this place".

[Salodin]

I was playing through the game with someone and when I hit Gongaga I'm like "Yeah I see why Zack left this place".

This place is next after I complete this corel map, and lmfaooo

Man, glad I'm not the only one burned out on this side stuff and just want more plot and less grizzle. I'd hate to beeline it, but this is cray

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[Gredival]

The quests were fine imo, but the open world "content" (hunt the fountains, activate the towers, fight the monsters) was fluff. Especially the Gilgamesh quest. Each region was 3 parts or more when it could have easily been one quest a region.

[Odesseiron]

No no no. Games can't deviate from The Rule of Three, didn't you know?