Final Fantasy VII Remake sure was an interesting time. While I did enjoy the game as a whole, it has some really big issues. There's a TL;DR at the bottom as usual. So before I start griping, I want to talk about the things I loved:
1. Characters
Final Fantasy VII Remake does an AMAZING job of giving every character from the original game a lot more heart and soul. It is not as though they felt one-note before, but they've added so much more life to these characters and I love it. From the way they'll chit-chat and banter, to the way they come to really rely on one another and cooperate, it's all handled so well. They all feel like real people, and you really feel for them all. Even Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, who were pretty quickly tossed-aside in the original, are now fully fleshed out and I love every one of them.
2. Visuals
This game is quite pretty. The absolute seamlessness when it transitions from an in-game cutscene to an actual cutscene still amazes me, because the in-engine visuals already just look that damn good. The refreshed designs of all the characters are great. The in-game weapons they use, while also all looking really interesting and unique, will show up IN-CUTSCENE when they're equipped! It's such a nice touch. Speaking more on the cutscenes, the level of crazy action that happens in some of them are kind of reminiscent of Advent Children. I love every single one of these absurd action sequences, they're so cool!
3. Music
This was quite possibly my favorite aspect of the entire game. The rearranged tracks for this game are absolutely stunning. This is a soundtrack I really wish I could buy and own as a part of my collection (also the Advent Children arrangement of One-Winged Angel is still the best).
4. Story
I don't want to say a lot for the sake of spoilers, but I really liked the new direction they went with it. I'm pretty stoked to see how this all unfolds in the sequel.
That's about all the good I can say for the game. You might have noticed I didn't include the Gameplay as a section, and that's because every issue I have with this game revolves around the gameplay. This is nothing but a list of grievances, and I hate that it turned out this way. Here are my issues:
1. Blatant padding
Chapters 6, 11, and 17 (yes, the second to last chapter) are all incredibly padded out for no reason. Chapter 6 has this entire frustrating bit where you're walking along scaffolds and have to divert power from Sun Lamps, so you're running all over the entire area for a good hour or so, fighting some not-too-bothersome bug enemies and flipping switches so you can divert power to this cargo lift to get across a gap. Chapter 11 is the Train Graveyard segment and it is the absolute guiltiest offender in my opinion. Because not only is this entire section more padding, but they introduce a big difficulty spike by throwing the worst enemies in the entire game at you, as well as the two worst bosses in the game (I'll gripe more on combat later). Chapter 17, the second-to-last chapter of the game, has a lengthy section where your party is split-up and you're fighting room after room of monsters, switching from one half of the party or the other to, you guessed it, flip switches and go through doorways. There's no point to any of it and the fact that they put it at nearly the very end of their game is even worse.
2. Combat Issues
The padding is bad enough, but these issues that crop up during fights made me mad enough to almost give up on the game entirely:
a) Basic enemies become too spongy about halfway through the game
b) When you use a Limit Break, not only can enemies just avoid it and make you feel like a complete chump, but you can ACTUALLY BE KILLED DURING YOUR LIMIT BREAK ANIMATION. You can also be easily interrupted when using Abilities, but more times than not, NOT while casting magic, at least in my experience. So it's either inconsistent or I was just lucky.
c) When fighting bosses (many of whom are also a bit too spongy), almost every single one of them has a short scripted cutscene during the battle after you deplete their health to a certain point. Further compounding this issue is the fact that their Stagger Gauge also RESETS TO ZERO after the cutscene. Furthermore, when you use a Limit Break or Ability, and the first hit or two forces that boss to reach that threshold for the scripted sequence to start, all other damage you might have inflicted with the rest of your attack is completely nil.
d) Certain bosses are absolutely atrocious to fight. In particular, there are three: HellHouse, Ghoul, and Eligor. HellHouse is incredibly tedious and takes forever to deal with due to its Barrier mechanic. Ghoul and Eligor are both encountered during Chapter 11, and they're the absolute worst. Ghoul, like the common ghost enemies, can make itself immune to physical attacks, forcing you to use magic. That on its own isn't too bad, but Ghoul is also incredibly damage-spongy for a mid-boss, as well as having some attacks you outright can't avoid (like his grab attack) or his scream attack which stuns and has a range I feel is too large. Eligor, while not having the physical immunity of Ghosts or Ghoul, has some other frustrating quirks, such as seemingly never sitting still long enough to get any real damage in. He'll also fly around in the air fast enough that you can't reliably pelt him with magic, so you just kind of have to wait for him to come back down. He has one attack where he sucks you in some, rendering you unable to move for a moment, and then immediately fires a powerful beam, and it's completely undodgeable. These two are the absolute worst.
d) The differences between Normal and Easy mode are incredibly drastic. This was made apparent to me when I switched to Easy mode after my failures to defeat Eligor on Normal mode. The fight on Easy mode was almost revolting with how easy it became. I barely sneezed on the boss and it was already over. After hearing from a friend that there was even more annoying bullshit later, I opted to just keep it on Easy mode, for the sake of my sanity. But the fact that their only options were "suffer with our bad gameplay designs and spongy enemies" on Normal or "sleep through the game" for Easy. I know it's Easy mode but I've never played an Easy mode in ANY game that was this Easy. This isn't just Easy, it's brain-dead.
Final Thoughts/TL;DR:
Final Fantasy VII Remake looks and sounds amazing. The characters are even more lovable than before, and the story has some great new twists on the original game's events. Unfortunately, it feels like it's an action game that isn't fully committed to being a proper action game. This atypical action/RPG fusion they did feels really good sometimes, but it becomes more frustrating the longer you play. It has a lot of kinks to be worked out. Here's to hoping they get things smoothed out in the sequel.
1. Characters
Final Fantasy VII Remake does an AMAZING job of giving every character from the original game a lot more heart and soul. It is not as though they felt one-note before, but they've added so much more life to these characters and I love it. From the way they'll chit-chat and banter, to the way they come to really rely on one another and cooperate, it's all handled so well. They all feel like real people, and you really feel for them all. Even Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, who were pretty quickly tossed-aside in the original, are now fully fleshed out and I love every one of them.
2. Visuals
This game is quite pretty. The absolute seamlessness when it transitions from an in-game cutscene to an actual cutscene still amazes me, because the in-engine visuals already just look that damn good. The refreshed designs of all the characters are great. The in-game weapons they use, while also all looking really interesting and unique, will show up IN-CUTSCENE when they're equipped! It's such a nice touch. Speaking more on the cutscenes, the level of crazy action that happens in some of them are kind of reminiscent of Advent Children. I love every single one of these absurd action sequences, they're so cool!
3. Music
This was quite possibly my favorite aspect of the entire game. The rearranged tracks for this game are absolutely stunning. This is a soundtrack I really wish I could buy and own as a part of my collection (also the Advent Children arrangement of One-Winged Angel is still the best).
4. Story
I don't want to say a lot for the sake of spoilers, but I really liked the new direction they went with it. I'm pretty stoked to see how this all unfolds in the sequel.
That's about all the good I can say for the game. You might have noticed I didn't include the Gameplay as a section, and that's because every issue I have with this game revolves around the gameplay. This is nothing but a list of grievances, and I hate that it turned out this way. Here are my issues:
1. Blatant padding
Chapters 6, 11, and 17 (yes, the second to last chapter) are all incredibly padded out for no reason. Chapter 6 has this entire frustrating bit where you're walking along scaffolds and have to divert power from Sun Lamps, so you're running all over the entire area for a good hour or so, fighting some not-too-bothersome bug enemies and flipping switches so you can divert power to this cargo lift to get across a gap. Chapter 11 is the Train Graveyard segment and it is the absolute guiltiest offender in my opinion. Because not only is this entire section more padding, but they introduce a big difficulty spike by throwing the worst enemies in the entire game at you, as well as the two worst bosses in the game (I'll gripe more on combat later). Chapter 17, the second-to-last chapter of the game, has a lengthy section where your party is split-up and you're fighting room after room of monsters, switching from one half of the party or the other to, you guessed it, flip switches and go through doorways. There's no point to any of it and the fact that they put it at nearly the very end of their game is even worse.
2. Combat Issues
The padding is bad enough, but these issues that crop up during fights made me mad enough to almost give up on the game entirely:
a) Basic enemies become too spongy about halfway through the game
b) When you use a Limit Break, not only can enemies just avoid it and make you feel like a complete chump, but you can ACTUALLY BE KILLED DURING YOUR LIMIT BREAK ANIMATION. You can also be easily interrupted when using Abilities, but more times than not, NOT while casting magic, at least in my experience. So it's either inconsistent or I was just lucky.
c) When fighting bosses (many of whom are also a bit too spongy), almost every single one of them has a short scripted cutscene during the battle after you deplete their health to a certain point. Further compounding this issue is the fact that their Stagger Gauge also RESETS TO ZERO after the cutscene. Furthermore, when you use a Limit Break or Ability, and the first hit or two forces that boss to reach that threshold for the scripted sequence to start, all other damage you might have inflicted with the rest of your attack is completely nil.
d) Certain bosses are absolutely atrocious to fight. In particular, there are three: HellHouse, Ghoul, and Eligor. HellHouse is incredibly tedious and takes forever to deal with due to its Barrier mechanic. Ghoul and Eligor are both encountered during Chapter 11, and they're the absolute worst. Ghoul, like the common ghost enemies, can make itself immune to physical attacks, forcing you to use magic. That on its own isn't too bad, but Ghoul is also incredibly damage-spongy for a mid-boss, as well as having some attacks you outright can't avoid (like his grab attack) or his scream attack which stuns and has a range I feel is too large. Eligor, while not having the physical immunity of Ghosts or Ghoul, has some other frustrating quirks, such as seemingly never sitting still long enough to get any real damage in. He'll also fly around in the air fast enough that you can't reliably pelt him with magic, so you just kind of have to wait for him to come back down. He has one attack where he sucks you in some, rendering you unable to move for a moment, and then immediately fires a powerful beam, and it's completely undodgeable. These two are the absolute worst.
d) The differences between Normal and Easy mode are incredibly drastic. This was made apparent to me when I switched to Easy mode after my failures to defeat Eligor on Normal mode. The fight on Easy mode was almost revolting with how easy it became. I barely sneezed on the boss and it was already over. After hearing from a friend that there was even more annoying bullshit later, I opted to just keep it on Easy mode, for the sake of my sanity. But the fact that their only options were "suffer with our bad gameplay designs and spongy enemies" on Normal or "sleep through the game" for Easy. I know it's Easy mode but I've never played an Easy mode in ANY game that was this Easy. This isn't just Easy, it's brain-dead.
Final Thoughts/TL;DR:
Final Fantasy VII Remake looks and sounds amazing. The characters are even more lovable than before, and the story has some great new twists on the original game's events. Unfortunately, it feels like it's an action game that isn't fully committed to being a proper action game. This atypical action/RPG fusion they did feels really good sometimes, but it becomes more frustrating the longer you play. It has a lot of kinks to be worked out. Here's to hoping they get things smoothed out in the sequel.
3 Comments
I suppose I shouldn't have said "enemies" as a whole when Chapter 11 was really where I was keeping my thoughts as I wrote that section. Most of the basic enemies WERE fine. However, I hated the ghosts, the little bugs that could stunlock you into a corner, the Ghoul, Eligor, and that entire chapter as well since it solely exists for padding.
Funny enough, I had no issues with Ghoul and Eligor. Eligor in particular was pretty easy as I didn't even die once. There are a good handful of bosses throughout the game that are pretty crazy, though. I agree with Hell House being one of them.
chandler
3 years ago