Story: I dropped the original FF7 like 3 times due to it being kinda dated and not being interesting enough during the beginning to hook me, but this one added nice padding during the city arc which fleshed out things better than the original imo, nice so far, the only nitpick I have, is a random introduction to "Destiny" the will of destiny specters which tbh I don't like that much as a concept in a game (I at least found it kinda forced here, but it can work well in other settings and more fleshed out)
Gameplay: Possibly the highlight of the game, specially compared to the old Random Encounter that is insanely dated for me (it's not bad, but it was very slow and just not that engaging, it was another reason why I had dropped the original many times) I had my fun mastering the combat, it's not hard by any means, some combats were tough tho, which required some careful thinking, moving outside of combat is a bit of a slog sometimes, specially when the game forces you to walk at times, which is kinda annoying, specially if you're going from one place to another. Fortunately, this didn't get in the way of completing missions, as when you finish a mission, you can instantly teleport to the NPC, which is nice.
Music: Uematsu score is good, as usual, However, I liked more the newly added original songs, like the Valkyrie ost, composed by the genius behind Ace Combat music. Old ost being remade is nice, but not something to write home about.
Characters: Just as I said then, this time around they're more fleshed out and I really like that we get to see more of them, which made them more appealing to me than the OG counterparts, they feel more organic and they have layers, which is nice. And I liked using all of them during gameplay, (which is what I meant about careful thinking during combat)
Misc: I liked customizing Materia, It felt good trying to customize characters roles by giving them unique abilities or spells that will level up the more you use them, which is neat. The weapon level up thingy is very trivial and basic and can be automated, however, I don't really saw a point on it other than making you have more Materia slots lol, although I do like that weapons gave unique abilities that can be permanent if you use them enough.
Don't know where to add this, but the damn bike sections were a chore, (cutscenes with it were cool tho), and there's also a couple of horrible minigames (which you're also forced to perform) like Squats minigame, and the cringe dance minigame, I wouldn't have minded this if they were optional, but they're required to move the plot forward, which sucks.
All in all, it was a solid experience, I would have rated higher, but damn, some things really hindered that enjoyment unfortunately, can't wait for Rebirth.
Gameplay: Possibly the highlight of the game, specially compared to the old Random Encounter that is insanely dated for me (it's not bad, but it was very slow and just not that engaging, it was another reason why I had dropped the original many times) I had my fun mastering the combat, it's not hard by any means, some combats were tough tho, which required some careful thinking, moving outside of combat is a bit of a slog sometimes, specially when the game forces you to walk at times, which is kinda annoying, specially if you're going from one place to another. Fortunately, this didn't get in the way of completing missions, as when you finish a mission, you can instantly teleport to the NPC, which is nice.
Music: Uematsu score is good, as usual, However, I liked more the newly added original songs, like the Valkyrie ost, composed by the genius behind Ace Combat music. Old ost being remade is nice, but not something to write home about.
Characters: Just as I said then, this time around they're more fleshed out and I really like that we get to see more of them, which made them more appealing to me than the OG counterparts, they feel more organic and they have layers, which is nice. And I liked using all of them during gameplay, (which is what I meant about careful thinking during combat)
Misc: I liked customizing Materia, It felt good trying to customize characters roles by giving them unique abilities or spells that will level up the more you use them, which is neat. The weapon level up thingy is very trivial and basic and can be automated, however, I don't really saw a point on it other than making you have more Materia slots lol, although I do like that weapons gave unique abilities that can be permanent if you use them enough.
Don't know where to add this, but the damn bike sections were a chore, (cutscenes with it were cool tho), and there's also a couple of horrible minigames (which you're also forced to perform) like Squats minigame, and the cringe dance minigame, I wouldn't have minded this if they were optional, but they're required to move the plot forward, which sucks.
All in all, it was a solid experience, I would have rated higher, but damn, some things really hindered that enjoyment unfortunately, can't wait for Rebirth.