Replayed the game in preparation for Rebirth. This time on PS5 for the first time and finally got to play the DLC.
My overall opinion on the game hasn't really changed. I love the foundation they built. The ingredients are all amazing: The way it looks, the character models, the voices, the characterization, the battle system, the materia system, the music ... It's utterly amazing.
The unthankful thing about the first part of the Remake trilogy is having such a small part of the original game to adapt. Stretching out the Midgar portion to an entire game is bound to lead to some filler content and while they really did their best to include meaningful content, there is plenty of downtime where you're squeezing through tight spaces, balancing over bars, slowly climbing around and having some unnecessary detours that are fun on a gameplay level but pretty bad for the pacing of the story.
I still think it's the best thing they could have done, because judging from the original there isn't really a better way to stop the first part for quite some time.
Nevertheless, the linear structure of the game, the lack of freedom and the amount of times you're left with only a few party members takes away lots of freedom in player agency. It only really opens up in the last stretch of the game and at that point you don't really have much content left to explore.
This might sound negative, but what I'm really trying to say is that it's sequel has ridiculous potential as far as I'm concerned. If they take what's in Part 1, add more to it and give the player some real freedom it could turn out to be a real masterpiece. I can't wait to explore Gaia, level my materia and experiment with all the characters.
The story of the remake is intriguing. I still find it fascinating how they're handling this remaking of FF7 and so far it hasn't disappointed. I really hope it won't blow up in our faces, but considering how on point the writing is so far I got no reason to be worried.
The Intermission DLC was a really great addition. Yuffie controls wonderfully, making aerial combat actually fun and her toolkit is pretty fun to play around with. I also really liked the Sector 7 bit with it's Fort Condor minigame, little cameos and turtle shop sidequest.
The additional bosses (which include one for the base game!) turned out to be a bit frustrating for me, but I ended up feeling rewarded after overcoming them. I think superbosses should be handled a bit better, but I'm glad they're here in the first place.
As for Yuffies characterization ... I love that they're giving her a serious side and that she ceases to be a comic relief character exclusively. Her backstory adds a nice layer to her behaviour and I'm even more curious about the Wutai part of the game. It's great how they're taking the optional parts of the original and expand them in a meaningful way.
The ending cutscenes just added to my hypelevel and at this point I really can't wait to play the sequel. It's so close!
My overall opinion on the game hasn't really changed. I love the foundation they built. The ingredients are all amazing: The way it looks, the character models, the voices, the characterization, the battle system, the materia system, the music ... It's utterly amazing.
The unthankful thing about the first part of the Remake trilogy is having such a small part of the original game to adapt. Stretching out the Midgar portion to an entire game is bound to lead to some filler content and while they really did their best to include meaningful content, there is plenty of downtime where you're squeezing through tight spaces, balancing over bars, slowly climbing around and having some unnecessary detours that are fun on a gameplay level but pretty bad for the pacing of the story.
I still think it's the best thing they could have done, because judging from the original there isn't really a better way to stop the first part for quite some time.
Nevertheless, the linear structure of the game, the lack of freedom and the amount of times you're left with only a few party members takes away lots of freedom in player agency. It only really opens up in the last stretch of the game and at that point you don't really have much content left to explore.
This might sound negative, but what I'm really trying to say is that it's sequel has ridiculous potential as far as I'm concerned. If they take what's in Part 1, add more to it and give the player some real freedom it could turn out to be a real masterpiece. I can't wait to explore Gaia, level my materia and experiment with all the characters.
The story of the remake is intriguing. I still find it fascinating how they're handling this remaking of FF7 and so far it hasn't disappointed. I really hope it won't blow up in our faces, but considering how on point the writing is so far I got no reason to be worried.
The Intermission DLC was a really great addition. Yuffie controls wonderfully, making aerial combat actually fun and her toolkit is pretty fun to play around with. I also really liked the Sector 7 bit with it's Fort Condor minigame, little cameos and turtle shop sidequest.
The additional bosses (which include one for the base game!) turned out to be a bit frustrating for me, but I ended up feeling rewarded after overcoming them. I think superbosses should be handled a bit better, but I'm glad they're here in the first place.
As for Yuffies characterization ... I love that they're giving her a serious side and that she ceases to be a comic relief character exclusively. Her backstory adds a nice layer to her behaviour and I'm even more curious about the Wutai part of the game. It's great how they're taking the optional parts of the original and expand them in a meaningful way.
The ending cutscenes just added to my hypelevel and at this point I really can't wait to play the sequel. It's so close!