I play the original FF7 once a year, ever since it released in 97. This game holds a special place in my heart and the remake series has been a joy for me. I genuinely can't wait for the final part
I do the same. To me i think the truly hardcore fans replay the original RE, FF7, and other classics every year, because something magical happens when you replay the original FF7 and original RE games at least once a year. You realize the world has changed around you, and you realize how far the companies and target audience has changed (for the worst, imo) you also realize youll never get the same game, same music, same story, and same directing as well. also, you realize how special the original FF7 was as it is, without all the bullshit fillers that was changed and retconned in later games.... ive seen so many fake fans "claim to play ff7 since 1997" when many of them probably only played the game once, and never touched it again. the game is definitely worth replaying every year, because the game is so well made for its time. unlike games today, most games are not worth replaying. most people never replay the original ff7, and just go based off of memory, and then cling onto the fake ff7r games like theyre OGs of both
@@KT-rq9id I'm 64 years old and have played it over and over again, the materia combinations are endless and I've finally figured out how to use the magic pots to steal weapons and armor from me, and using the W-ITEM glitch I now have 99 of almost every weapon and armor available. I love this game.
The worst thing for me was as a kid playing this when it came out and named Cloud after my name, which is Zack. Yeah, the amount of confusion in the lore was insane.
Definitely one of the best and influential games for me personally. Top 3, easily (Elden Ring and OG TIE Fighter would be the other two competitors). I constantly come back to it and play it on nearly any device. It will always be worth (re)okaying it, because it's just pure, great fun from it's very core.
I’m a 2001 kid, I grew up playing the ps2 and Wii generation so this era completely missed me. I played it in 2021 and it immediately went into my top5.
Aerith is absolutely the strongest magic user and her magic stat is always the highest stat in my party. Unfortunately you’re not able to do things like cast Quadra comet 2 with her to take full advantage of that. I think she’d be one of the strongest characters if that were the case.
Another great video and like many FF7 holds a special place in my video game memory. I had no idea of Aeris' pending demise and that still is the most memorable video game moment of all time to me (right up there with the original psycho mantis controller switch and reading your memory card). I picked up FF7 real time (hard to believe about 27 years ago) just by chance and still have all 4 discs somewhere in my collection. I did virtually all side quests including levelling mimic materia and knights of the round to try and kill the 2 optional mega bosses - Ruby and Emerald Weapons - but I do not think I ever finished them. All of that said, and as much as I loved FF7, I do not think I could replay it today. I put A LOT of time into that game!
I loved how Rebirth kept the 3 party members for combat but actually gave you everybody for the story sequences. I hated how the original hamstrung itself by forcing you to miss out on a large chunk of the dialogue because the character wasn’t in your party.
On one side I liked it cause it makes me switch character aroundon subsequent playthroughs, to see how differently characters react, on the other hand it sucks on some moment a specific character should've definitly be there, worst offender being the Hojo fight, given it's the very reason he joins you at first Vincent should definitly have been a mandatory character for that moment.
I’ve been replaying it atm after Rebirth and it just makes me appreciate the remakes that much more. The OG is still a great game and was certainly a masterpiece for its time, but it’s definitely aged and feels barebones compared to the remakes. They’ve done a phenomenal job expanding on the original and fixing its shortcomings.
I think remake and Rebirth suck. The new story is nowhere near as good as the originals story and pacing, plus they changes the themes and characters so much and for the worse. I won't play or buy the third remake
My cousin came over one weekend with FF7 to play at my house and i was so mesmerized i used my VCR to tape in ep mode an 8 hour playthrough and i watch that for 2 weeks until i bought my own copy of FF7 and replaying the parts I taped i was still blown away. Good times
Awesome of you to play FF7 first, before playing Rebirth. It is very sad to see so many new fans of FF7 treat the original game like it is toxic to play before Remake and Rebirth, and thus they vow to never play because the newer games replace it.
This is part of the reason I'm so frustrated with the "remake but actually a sequel" direction they are taking the remake trilogy. The remake trilogy borderline asks you to have already played the original to understand the significance of the differences they are making to the plot. But because it's been marketed as a remake many MANY new players are coming in thinking they are getting the same story and experience as the original.
@@theopeneyesI mean its a 95% Remake with 5% changes and it was marketed as that they said before release of Remake that the name Remake has 2 Meanings that they didn't want to just re-do the game because OG VII is still incredible. What annoys me is when streamers are told they should go into the Remake trilogy without playing the original by their viewers. Square has made the OG VII super easy to play they put it on every system. It's on the individual if they want play the original before Remake. Square couldn't make it more easy for people to play the OG other than giving it away for free. I mean I'm with you I wish people would play the OG first but I don't think Square has been selling this game as a replacement for the OG I mean they marketed it as the unknown journey continues with Rebirth and they didn't want to spoil the surprises in Remake.
@@Strife93 I think fans of the OG game would be more receptive to the changes in the remake trilogy if Square Enix went full in with making changes and not in this weird "eat the cake and still have it" way they have gone about it. The Whispers are also a very poor story element and kinda just come off as "we want to tell the story differently but these ghosts we invented won't let us".
You made the right call deciding to play the original first. Rebirth while I think is probably Square enix's best mainline title although very flawed is a completely different beast compared to the original. Looking forward to your thoughts after hitting the credits of rebirth.
All this was on PS1 if you let that sink in, amount of graphics and content put into this was unreal in its time. This was before text messaging was even a thing.
Ive watched a few of your vids, and I think I assumed you'd played some of older title's! I think they are all worth playing especially with all the remastered versions giving quality of life features!
@@thechance-lore4711 Your vids on 13 and 15 are the reason I played them! My favourite is FF8, which is basically the 13 of ps1 era, and as much as I would pay you good money to play that game, I think playing 12 (zodiac age) is an absalute must it along with FF5 is severally underrated!
I tried to like FF7 but it just didn't hook me at all. The story and characters were meh (except for maybe Aeris and Cloud), the pacing was a mess so i have no reason to try Remake or Rebirth. FF6 and FF9 were way more enjoyable imo.
32 years old and just played finished playing FF7 for the first time last month. 100% worth playing in 2024. I grew up with a N64, but not a PS1, so never got the opportunity to play FF7 as a kid. Since then life happened and got away from gaming from a bit, but got a Switch last year and purchased FF7 earlier in the year. It fully encapsulates that era of gaming and made me feel exactly how I felt playing my favorite games on the N64 in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. It’s a must play for any oldhead gamers like myself.
What's even greater about it now, you can get the steam version and with the years the modding community has put into it, you can just mod it to make it look and sound a lot better or if you already play the OG you can put mod that bring fresh to the gameplay and add new content like the New Threat mod.
Hojo is the real villain of the story. Jenova is portrayed as like an intergalactic virus, crashing into the planet and spreading its influence to survive and grow stronger. Sort of a twisted force of nature. If you think of it that way, it only acts on instinct, and is more of an antagonist than a true villain. It’s acting in its nature. Sephiroth, you could argue, has become twisted by learning about his creation… which only made him more susceptible to Jenova’s influence. You could argue, then, that while Sephiroth and Jenova are both the major threat, they are more antagonistic than straight up villains. For arguments sake. Hojo, on the other hand, is a literal mad scientist with an inferiority complex, who belittles everyone around him, and pushes professor Gast’s experiments well beyond any sort of ethical limits. He didn’t create Sephiroth (except for his literal contribution), but he directly contributed to everything bad that happened thereafter. Including (spoilers) Sephiroth being sent to nibelheim to ‘discover’ the ‘truth’ of his ‘creation’. God that’s a lot of air quotes, but they’re all necessary 😂
You do know that you can swap part members in and out of your party at any time right? Thats what the PHS does in your menu. I think its at the bottom of the list in your menu, near Save. You thought you couldnt change your party members unless the game's story did it for you?
No I knew you could, but what I'm trying to say is that I would go into areas not knowing that a cutscene with characters would be playing soon and then I would miss specific scenes because I didn't have the appropriate characters
Great video, Chance. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the original Final Fantasy VII. But now that you've played it, you might find yourself in one of two camps: (absolutely) loving the current Final Fantasy VII games or (absolutely) disliking them. I won't say why you're likely to feel such polar extremes for what's supposed to be a remake. I just hope you find yourself in the positive camp, or at least in the middle. It's not fun to hate things, right? I have to ask: will you play any of the Final Fantasy VII compilation titles, like Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus? And will you watch Advent Children? These additions may affect your overall outlook on Final Fantasy VII. For better or for worse. I say they're worth a try if you want a wider view of the entire Final Fantasy VII brand, including the current games.
Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed! And I’m playing through FF7R right now and I do really like it so far! But I’m also early in. I have crisis core so I’ll definitely play that and I’ll watch advent children as well but I don’t have dirge of Cerberus yet. So I’ll have to get that first and then give it a shot!
The original is always gonna be one of my favorites, but it is very simplified when compared to the remake games. The remakes have their own flaws, but rebirth is definitely in my top 10 games of all time. May even consider it my number 1, but that would depend on how they handle the PC port. The criticisms at the moment are understandable from a certain perspective, but after the final game, I believe those criticisms will end up being a non-issue.
It all if you want to find about the story in the original or the remake series. People might have regrets if the play the remake series and wished the found out everything in the og.
I think a lot of people (myself included) see FFX as the best. 7 is great, so is 8, 9 and 12 but FFX is the hightlight for me. I think after 12 the franchise started to slide and Square Enix changed.
In defense of the graphics: the field art style is the 3D equivalent of the previous games' sprites, and the ports absolutely butcher the presentation. The backgrounds are 240p images so the 3D characters stick out like a sore thumb when rendered at higher resolutions, while the natural softness of composite video combined with the shadow mask/aperture grille of the CRT screen hid the pixelation while adding more "texture" to the final image. The ports are the video game equivalent of photoshopping all the film grain out of an old movie and then wondering why it looks like ass.
Hell yes it is. I'm a replay it again and 100% it. Get it on emulator and use cheats if you already beat it lol it's fun mastering materia in one fight xD Yea it's a great game and mostly timeless I think.
Nope. Not at all. In fact, it's illegal. If you play ff7 original the FBI shows up at your door (regardless of what country you're in. they get interpol involved) and they all point at you and have a big laugh and say haha look at the nerd who can't adapt to the times and then they leave. Don't ask how I know that. That, or Will Smith shows up at your door and points at a copy of Rebirth and goes "New Hotness" and then points at your FF7 copy and goes "Old n' busted"
A coincidence i finished the OG version like a week ago and almost done with remake now. I haven't played much final fantasy and 7 is the first i finished and well.... I don't love it enough to finish it but that's it. If this is the best final fantasy has to offer should i try others? I would rate the OG version a 6/10 or 7/10 not really sure. It's pretty great but that's it. I feel the OG fails at characters imo like i never switch my team around did't see a reason for it at all. Did like all the side quests and there good developed i guess but never clicked with any of them.( remake does it a bit better so far more backstory more parts to play as them, but remake feels a bit drawn out) Don't really like the combat in remake it's good looks amazing and doesn't play bad but it feels like it's no reactive. All i can do is bring weakness materia for the enemies i fight and during the fight just use it. I want to dodge more stuff but things home on you so hard and have aoe that it doesn't really happen much. I feel i cannot just only really button mash X to attack and not parry or blocks really. Some enemies will stagger a bit from a block but the timings are just so quick i never am able to do i don't bother.
38:22 I mean… they did drop a plate on an entire village… But I guess they did feel REALLY torn up about it so 🤷♂️ I guess they’re anti-heroes? All joking aside, I can’t help but loving the Turks, despite some suuuuuper shitty things they did. I chalk that up to amazing characterization.
Great analysis. Glad people will check out the originals because of the 'remakes'. 9 and X are great but that was pretty much the end for me. I didn't like FF13. For such a rich idea it played out so tediously. The script was awful the characters erratic and acting out of character, resolution has no consequences - angst over ever lasts a few hours, then there's the Barthendelus villain they set up and then RUINED. They don't know how to tell stories any more.
