I remember a gaming magazine from that time saying FF7 did for RPGs what Blade Runner did to science-fiction. And while I don't know how completely accurate that is now, my previous experience with RPGs before FF7 was Zelda. FF7 was so completely beyond anything I knew an RPG even could be.
Same here ! I was a Zelda, Mana and Chrono fan as a kid and I didn't like scifi. FF7 not only made me realize what an rpg could be, it opened me up to scifi and Blade Runner was in fact one of the first scifi movies I watched during my playthrough, along with Ghost in The Shell, Akira and the Alien movies.
AS A young (13yro) European, FF7 was my first step into JRPG and RPg's in general. While the North Americans had the pleasure to play FF4-5-6 (renamed atthe time FF1-2-3), in EU we simply did NOT have those , there never was an European release of these games until YEARS later and due to FF7 popularity. The Joy's of different World Zones and releases... But when FF7 hit the market, for me it was the first time i've played anything like it, and it spured a love for JRPG in general. 30years later and EVEN now when i see the game's opening scene when the title card appears with the little "twinkling" keyboard sound, i still get teary eyed And i've beaten the game dozens of times ever since then, and still the emotions it gives me are still very present as it was back when i was a teenager. For Us Europeans, FF7 was the first, the best, the King, and to this day it still is. And the Remake while not absolutly perfect was an absolute joy for me to play.
I was in my early 20's when it released, and as a fan of the first game and the Super Nes port, I was astounded to see this nerd property suddenly being broadcasted on the mainstream. There were commercials for it on evening television, which was *extremely* rare.
Watch some other videos on RU-vid about ff7. There's one called "The importance of FF7. Essentially it forced the entire entertainment industry to take a leap in technology and skill.
I remember when the original came out, I wasn't allowed to play video games on school nights. The game came out the final Friday of summer, but I managed to snag it two days early on Wednesday morning. The local Microplay owners knew me by name since I was constantly in there renting everything off the shelf. This gave me 5 days to finish the game before school started, and I went full on with it; the first of many playthroughs. I'm looking forward to the Rebirth review!
I really liked it and sunk 80 hours into it until I got to that end fucking boss. Oh, his 1.5 hour 10 phase boss with unskippable cut scenes and unique strats for each phase and if you die, which you will because you can't know the strats without experiencing them so can't prepare beforehand, you've got to start again.
@Khronnus I sped to the end trying to outrun spoilers. That end boss(es) was a huge hurdle, being pretty underpowered and most of my materia was on other characters.
I literally took all of aeriths materia and equipment off because SPOILERS she fkn died so i was like bet. Then she fkn shows up in the last phase and i had to hard carry her vs sephiroth. Still got it first try.
@@turbo8628 That people have wanted a remake of 7 for longer than remakes have been mainstream, let alone worn out. Side note, people want remakes because new stuff is woke garbage.
@@St4rTr3v1Ut10n making sure we was on same page with ff7 being an exception. Agreed. Issue is that they keep putting that stuff into remakes as well. I miss the times where games and movies were entertainment and not poisoned with political messages (unless being political was the point).
There are a lot of ways to get your teammates more involved without giving them direct orders. Materia can be used to make your party members use auto-cure, synergy magic attacks or become a priority target to your enemies. Also, if you don‘t want to switch between characters to give them commands you can always use R2. All in all I enjoy combat in this game how it mixes real time positioning, attacks, skills, guarding, and counters all while retaining tactical depth with its Materia equipment, ATB gauge, Stagger system and direct command inputs. To me it‘s the best of both worlds. And it is the reason I enjoy all the side-quests, trying to Analyse different enemy types, coming up with the most effective materia builds and combat strategies to dismantle their defenses.
@@dirtyfishmadeclean3995 To be fair, it is a lot to take in. During my first playthrough I also didn't fully grasp all the systems, and was mainly following the story.
With the new channel and the subject matter therein, I think changing your tagline at the end to "Go and play now" would be a cool little update. Cheers Will!
For anyone who wants to play the original FF7, but feel like it looks way too old, I highly recommend you check out the modding community for the Steam Version. You can easily make this game look and sound like something that was professionally remastered.
@xSilentZeroXx not sure where you're reading that. He openly stated in an interview after Rebirth that he, Nojima and Kitase were involved in the writing process. Even if he wasn't as involved, the story elements reek to high hell of him. Not to mention his trash directing abilities.
Just started playing the original on my switch and I’m loving it. The characters are able to be so likeable despite the limitations, the combat is more interesting than I expected and the music and atmosphere is perfection.
I don't see non controlled party members not using their ATB meters as a negative, because it encourages you to swap between all of your party members and gives you more control over your strategy. Think about it this way: it would be way more annoying if they waste ATB charges on an attack move when you could need them using Cure, or right when you need them all using abilities on a staggered boss. Loving this channel by the way. You seem way more positive about video games than movies, and your positivity and nuanced takes are pretty refreshing.
It would be like Sheva all over again. Rebirth has materia to allow non-controlled characters to use abilities and stuff, and I'm not that keen, though will give them a go at some stage.
@@CaptainTitforce I believe rebirth has auto-cast materia, that you can place on your teammates so that they use their abilities even when you’re not controlling them. That wasn’t available in remake, if I remember correctly
@@Alkadius1993 I remember auto-cure being in Remake at least. And even with the auto-cast materia, you can only use it on a few commands before you run out of linked materia slots or auto-cast materias. So I wouldn't say that completely negates switching characters. No doubt it helps a little.
I personally didnt care for the Whispers of Fate. Felt like i was being reminded that i played the original game, and that it was just a soft reboot of one of my all-time favorite games. Sephiroth arguably popped up too early as well. The fact that we don't actually see him until later in the original game because all we see is an impaled Shinra CEO after we followed a blood trail after 'escaping' from our cells. I otherwise liked it a lot, they nailed the characters, Jessie was fantastic, i wanted characters to be expanded upon. Cloud, and the cast are definitely great and i'll eventually be playing Rebirth, just not anytime soon.
Yes it was much more impactful in the original because Sephiroth was an ominous figure. Like an unavoidable foreboding threat. The whispers just make the game even more convoluted. But it's still amazing
Thats how i felt at first too, most people probably did, but when you think about the ending and the whole game for a bit more, it starts to make sense. Its not really a remake or a reboot, its a sequel. The original game canonically happened "before" Remake. (Advent Children too) There are many hints toward that fact. As for Sephiroth showing up early and often - again i thought the same, but the thing is - hes not a mystery anymore, keeping him a mystery wouldnt work like it did in the original. Even people who havent played the OG know him. Plus of course, him fucking with Cloud makes sense with the new story.
@MrDezokokotar you're welcome to have that opinion. I bought the game hoping for a remake of the game. The game was titled "Remake." I wasn't asking for a sequel. Even if some of the twists might not have the same effect for me, they would still have that effect on a new audience. Especially given how many people I personally know that won't, and seemingly can't pick up a game that doesn't have modern day graphics, they're largely missing out on a fantastic original game that could have been expanded upon. Again, I still enjoyed Remake a lot, but I don't like being somewhat lied to about a Remake being done for a game
@@HeavyMetalJesus02 you're thinking of a remaster. Remaster just takes an existing game and creates better graphics, framerate and controls. Like Metroid Prime "Remastered" but remake means to completely overhaul a game with new assets and/or story elements, additional content etc. This game is quite a bit different but it's still a remake
@darth_hylian it's definitely a sequel, and remaster/Remake is arguing semantics. We all know that when we watch a movie be remade today, we all expect a movie with modern day effects, with minor changes maybe here and there thay flesh out characters. If characters appear to have prior knowledge of events, that implies some level of time travel and hints of being a sequel. Example: if Empire Strikes Back were remade today, I wouldn't want them to have Vader completely change his approach to revealing he's Luke's father, or changing the line back to it being "Obi-Wan killed your father."
Drinker is REALLY gonna love Rebirth. It fixes literally every complaint he had for Remake. Also, the ps5 version of Remake fixes all the graphical issues. You get it for FREE if you own the ps4 version of the game (and you have a ps5 of course)
Doesn't fix the arbitrary time-wasting activities that screw up the pacing. It quadruples down on that. I'm interested to see his take on the multiverse issue and convoluted ending.
@@stenzel27 do you know what arbitrary means? There is definitely a purpose to Rebirth's side quest content. It builds on the world and characters. If you don't value that, it's all skippable and you won't lose out on the overall story. As for the multiverse stuff, yeah I'm interested in what he has to say about that. I usually hate the multiverse stuff, but I didn't mind how they go about it in this game. It also isn't really done telling the story. The third installment will either bring it all together in a satisfying way, or poop the bed. Too early to tell
@@JamestheKilljoy I used the word arbitrary because that's the word Drinker used when he complained. While you can skip some of the side content, a lot of it is part of the main story. You can't skip chocobo stealth, you can't skip the dolphin swim, you can't skip the parade, you can't skip Queen's Blood tourney, you can't skip chocobo racing, you can't skip Cait Sith horrible box tossing, and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting in the 100 hours I played. Also, you miss out on experience, weapons, ability points, and relationship points with the party if you don't do them - which in my book makes them mandatory.
@@stenzel27 imagine playing a video game, a time wasting activity, and complaining your game has too much time wasting activities 😂 you know the original had a LOT of mini game activities too, right? I think Drinker will be just fine with that. Not every mini game is a banger, but the majority of people find them fun. There are always gonna be the grumps who find something to complain about, tho
@@JamestheKilljoy Drinker is the reason I brought this up in the first place. I was quoting him from this video. I don't think he will be fine with it if he's already complaining about it in the first game.
@RealEvilLordExdeath why does anyone care what Japan think. What? Are you gonna say the same thing about anime. Japanese people don't even like anime or even watch it and us as ("Westerners") Americans is making anime popular.
I'm glad people enjoyed it, but the time ghosts were a big turn off for me. It felt like they were a mockery of fans who just wanted the story to be maintained normally. If they wanted to do a reboot, they should have called it one. When you call something a remake, it has certain implications there. I'm glad it was enjoyable for most of the fans. But for myself, it's a hard pass.
Rebirth was an absolute mess and after playing it, I sort of feel like the ending to Remake was pointless. Rebirth wants to be both a Remake and a Reimagining of FF7 and it suffers because of it.
@@ValtheJean I do still like and enjoy Remake. Rebirth has changed how I view Remake now. I no longer expect part 3 to be any good and I know it is just going to be more of what Rebirth did. Remake setup interesting concepts like the whispers that could have been done well but weren't. It really is unfortunate though. I wanted this to be good and I wanted to love it. But now, I am no longer invested in this as a remake of FF7. I am sort of in it now to see where this insanity goes if nothing else.
@@dkirby9052I’m still gonna play the 3rd one, hoping it’s “redemption” since rebirth was kind of a shit show story wise. Because like you said it kind of rendered the whole whisper thing meaningless. Like what was the point of the whisper fight if we end up in the same situation.
@@daesong1378 My biggest concern with Remake was the whispers. We literally fought and beat fate. So okay, if this is the road you want to go down Square, then lets go all the way with it. They fact that they don't want to fully commit to that makes Remake's story worse. It might be a little too late to salvage this. We are talking about the last game in a trilogy. I don't see how they can possibly bring this back. I might be wrong. I would like to see them prove me wrong in part 3. I don't think they will though.
To be fair, the Midgar section is linear in the original. And most of the original FFVII is linear until you unlock the Highwind. Sure it opens up when you get to the world map, but there's not really many side places to go besides Fort Condor, Gongaga, and later trips to Gold Saucer, and the Chocobo Farm for side quests in late game.
Yeah, it is a linear storytelling game at its core, and the only "freedom" it offers is the area you choose for grinding up materia and character levels and what to steal. FF7 Rebirth is similar, as it offers the open world early but it is actually the weakest part of it with very few battles and just running around looting herbs and boxes until you finally reach some npcs to continue the story. It looks fantastic and emersive though so it is not a big gripe for me.
@@ThwipThwipBoom rebirth turned cait sith from a boring character with an awful playstyle to one of the most charming characters in the game with very fun mechanics. Yuffie and red got huge upgrades too.
I don't want to sound like I'm completely craping on the game, especially since its way better than most modern reimagining that we are getting, but it will probably sound that way anyway. One of the major problems (another being the absolutely awful pacing of the game) is that, as mentioned, you really need to play the original game for context on what is happening, due to the fact that the story is literally about the timeline diverging. So, if you play it without having played the original, then you aren't getting the full experience. However, if you did play the original (recently enough to have detailed memories of it, not just like a "I played it as a kid 20 years ago" sort of thing.) so that you can be aware of those details, then the downgrade in story telling quality slaps you in the face. Its a real shame. Don't get me wrong, though I would have been completely happy with a modern remake of the exact story fleshed out, with a reimagined combat system, I have no issues with them making their own version of it. The issue that I have is when they changed it enough that its not actually telling the same story anymore (it gets even more obvious with Rebirth), but the fact that they are taking fantastic scenes and moments from the original game and neutering them. IE, in the original game, when Jenova escapes, you get the eerie music, the only things left are mechanical security systems and SOLDIERs, and you are literally following a trail of blood through the building that you had to desperately fight and sneak through, yet still failed to make it all the way. All of this leading up to the fact that this thing slaughtered its way through without slowing down, leaving you with this terrifying phantom that you never actually see, only being able to see the death and destruction left in its wake. Remake then comes around and Sephiroth is like a needy ex girlfriend who won't leave Cloud alone, and as far as you are aware, no one is even inconvenienced by Jenova, as you follow its purple goop considering how someone should call the janitor to mop it up. And that is just one of many instances.
But that isnt true. I never played the original. Loved remake. Loving rebirth. They give enough context that adults can understand these whispers have something to do with the fate of the world and keeping it in line with how it should go. So it became obvious at the end of the game that you are fighting against how the og went down. I loved the story and characters. Theres no perfect game out there. Yes it has repeated areas and pacing issues but so does every rpg out there. They did an excellent job with what they were trying to do
@@Vartazian360 Then answer me this question, what is the time line in Remake/Rebirth diverging from? Not like "the original timeline" type of answer. What specifically in that timeline is being diverged from, and why is it important that they are diverging form it. You completed an entire multi dozen hour game, where the climax was forcing that divergence, so that should be easily answered, if they did it well.
the game feels like it wasn't really made for fans, honestly. in addition to the multiverse stuff, it changes a bunch of the original story for no reason, like what you mentioned and having Shinra be the one to blow up the reactor during the bombing mission, etc. it feels like they're sanitizing things to make the MCs the good guys unlike the original, which had most of the characters operating in pretty grey areas.
@@Vartazian360If you didn’t play the original and memorize every single story beat and plot point to the extent that you were unable to make anything of yourself and move out of your parents’ basement, you’re not allowed to enjoy, much less even play, the remake. If you continue to play and enjoy these games, the gatekeepers in the RU-vid comment sections WILL say mean and derogatory things to you and about you! You have been warned. Think twice before finishing that Rebirth playthrough and enjoying it.
@@dalec9545 "shame, shame, shame, FOR SHAME, HOW DARE YOU HAVE A DIFFERING OPINION, LET ME SHAME YOU FOR DARING TO EXPRESS AN OPINION THAT DIFFERS FROM MINE OWN"
For me, I think the developers shat the bed in terms of its story. I didnt mind the way they expanded the cast of characters. Those are welcome additions along with rather solid voice acting that brings it home. But the moment they pull the rug from underneath you and incorporating elements of a multiverse/timelines? It not only retcons the original FF7, but also the compilation as a whole. To top it off, it also dilutes Sakaguchi's vision about the themes of "life." When its faithful with some welcome additions? Its great. But when it completely goes off the rails especially in the final chapters? It sours everything experienced beforehand. I dont know or care who was in charge of these major story changes, but its clear to me there was no sense of restraint, let alone respect.
Same. I'm happy that so many people are ok with exploring new possibilities within what the story could be or where it could go. That's fine. I'm actually surprised that so many OG fans are ok with it. It makes me wonder if most folks playing remake didn't actually play the original game and are only claiming they did. For me I would've been perfectly happy with a beat for beat retelling of the story with some character expansion. Final Fantasy VII's strongest attribute was the story.
@HallowedKhaos91 Oh I know right!That guy is such a goof ass! I feel fortunate enough to be old enough to say I was able to play the final fantasy 7 in its purest form before all this nonsense. I feel bad for the folks that didn't get to experience that. Now look what they have.
@@link5629 I also think Kitase is also majorly involved too. If I remember right, Nomura wanted to keep the story intact, but I don't know who to believe at this rate.
@@Auster9376 Me neither really. I hear so many things. I'm just a dissatisfied customer I guess. I was really hoping for something different. I was really shocked with where the story went.
@@HallowedKhaos91Normura didn't write the story. Kazushige Nojima wrote the original game and Remake and Rebirth. In fact Nomura was in favor of making the Remake closer to the og. People really need to stop blaming him for everything they don't like.
I’m SO looking forward to your Rebirth Review. It’s a LONG game but has been every bit an improvement on Remake. And it’s just OOZING with the passion you just spoke about
I am 50 Hours into rebirth and I feel it does away with a lot of Remakes issues. Better set plays and more fleshed out writing of loved characters. I am rat arsed as I write this comment. Hope everyone else has had a good Saturday night.
I disagree entirely, I think it compounds on everything that was bad about the remake and only retains the good combat. There's too much side bullshit that feels way too much like busywork including the new ABUNDANT minigames, with a half baked gathering and crafting system and a Ubisoft checklist open world and FUCKING CHADLEY AND MAI. Every single time Chadley makes me open up the damn cell phone gun so he can tell me he got whatever bullshit data he wanted from me, I want to uninstall the game and chuck my PS5 out my window. That goes double for MAI jabbering on ENDLESSLY while I fight whatever monsters she's making me fight. I'm sad to say that I'm not really enjoying my time with Rebirth so far but I fucking LOVED Remake.
@@SaveMeXenu I enjoyed rebirth but I agree with every thing you just said (aside from the minigames, I liked most of them except the flying chocobo one that can go get fucked). This game could have been a lot better with some serious cutting.
I liked remake better than rebirth to be honest. Rebirth main plot felt like it barely moved for me, most of the story revolved around exposé of your party characters. Because of that, you know more about them, but they don’t actually develop or move the plot forward much, the worst part is that at the end, I feel like I’m pretty much just as lost as I was at the beginning. Yeah you can put some clues together and extrapolate some conjectures, but that’s pretty much it for the elephant in the room. Rebirth lacked pay off moment imo. Even the stakes in rebirth are less clear. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed rebirth, but I definitely liked remake better as far is story goes.
@@fecal_position6412I don’t think cutting is necessarily the answer. IMO it’s because most of the story is exposé. Which does not move the plot forward. You could cut out all the other stuff, the game would be shorter but you still wouldn’t have made anymore progress. The other issue I think is the character goal and stakes aren’t as clear in rebirth. In the original during this part, as you were doing whatever, you felt like you were physically on sephiroths tail. But this time it feels like you’re just following the clones.
Wanna know what was the best combat system for A.I. for a FF game? Final Fantasy 12’s Gambit System. That system was so good that you don’t have to switch at all. More than 10 lines to give them an order to do whatever you want them to do.
@@nathank2289 the PS1 days did had limitations. Now that the tech has advanced so much and things becomes more complex. It made sense that the FF12 system was better off. I can now see why you’re constantly switching just to get your party members out of things for dumb reasons. If they have a similar FF12 system, on top of their own. It’ll make the player’s job much more feasible to deal with.
@@MasterOssy I've read that the uncontrolled character ai was actually nerfed at one point because they wanted people to have to switch characters more frequently. I'm not sure it was the right choice, but I can kinda get the argument for doing it.
Im struggling to complete this game - and I have played the original (many times, in fact). While SE has greatly expanded the Midgar section, I'm finding most of the new content to be nothing but filler. The main story beats are all there, but between them is often so much needless padding that I'd rather do without. And that's on top of the greatly expanded length of battles as well, particularly boss battles. Bosses just seem to have way, way too much health and take forever to put down, even when exploiting weaknesses/staggering. I'm tempted to put combat on easy in the hopes it will go faster, but that feels dirty and wrong.
I really don't want to be that guy, but if the bosses are taking THAT long for you, you're doing something wrong. On hard mode the fights still lasted only a couple minutes each.
Yeah honestly I'm not a die hard build person but the bosses aren't too bad. You might need to see what you're doing. Not using your techniques or materia appropriately. Granted I have heard some people found it too easy. But I do find normal a healthy balance besides Hell house being the toughest. Hard mode is a different animal but honestly see some game help perhaps you'll see you might be messing up
Yeah although it's been heavily suggested that the third game is gonna have the multiple timelines all converge back into the main one. So hopefully it ends as just 1 timeline.
@@Jim-pq9pm A multiverse implies there are multiple main timelines. In this case there is only one main timeline, the rest were created by a freak accident and exist as temporary fragments.
You've convinced me. It's currently on offer & i'm about the same age to have played the original at a formative age & being blown away by the plot twists, characters, story & epic size of the world. It was the first time a game had been more than the fun of the game mechanics. This was like playing the starring role in a movie! Will be getting tonight & then will make a point of playing through it with my teenage daughter. Looking forward to seeing if it's as magical & impactful for her as it was for me at roughly the same age
Unfortunately the story is butchered. However, everything else is pretty magical and a master class. Although, if we're talking magical, Rebirth is much more so
Yawnnn, go play the original if that's what you want. They always said Remake wasn't a beat-for-beat remake. And considering all the weirdness that Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core got into, Remake is crazy grounded.
My only REAL issue with Remake/Rebirth is the fact that none of your progress carries over from one game to the next. Given how Remake ends, its not as bog of a deal, but if the final installment follows the same pattern, it could REALLY suck.
I think that'll depend on the platform the final installment releases on. Since og remake was a ps4 game (with intergrade being ps5 and pc), isn't Rebirth ps5 only? Since more people played remake on ps4, there probably wasn't a need or a reason to have save importing. If the last game releases on say ps6, it'll probably go the same way as Rebirth. This all assumes there is no ps4 version of rebirth.
@@RaifSeverence No… SEnix aren’t great at making a polished game to begin with and having to program in previous unlocks and decisions would lead to a broken game with Final Fantasy being polished is the exception… not the rule lol Has nothing to do with the platform… the game is one the same engine and could easily be programmed to read a PS4 save file. With that being said… they made the right call. Having a lvl carry over would be a nightmare. Some players would start off maxed out… some would be way to underpowered.
My father and I loved Final Fantasy 2 and VII.. haven't been able to play the remake, as my Dad passed away in 2015.. I miss the ol man. Maybe I'll check it out someday. Much love brother.
6:48 I would argue that it's just as stupid as the TVA from Loki. I really liked seeing the characters fleshed out a bit more in FF7 Remake, but I dislike the direction they took. One of the the things that FF7 did better than any other franchise was properly build up their villain with a lot of subtle hints, culminating with your first REAL look at him being controlling him in a flashback and seeing exactly how much more powerful he was than your current character. All of that has been robbed now in remake with Sephiroth constantly making hokey cameos - whispering in Cloud's ear like some psycho ex-lover who can't help but continually stalk you.
This is maybe the first time I disagreed with Drinker. You don't soft reboot the video game equivalent of Macbeth -- especially if you've marketed it as a "Remake"
Nah. They're changing the plot. That's dishonest. Remake implies something like what the did with the RE Remakes. This ghost of fate shit is also retarded, so is having Sephiroth in every single scene.
I loved the Remake. Like you said, it's not perfect but I still find it wonderful. Did 2 playthroughs. One normal and another on hard mode. Personally, playing just the main scenario for the second run thru helps with the pacing issue a good amount. But I don't think there is any saving the hand lift thing or the second adventure thru the sewers chasing Corneo. Personally, I think they should have made us hunt him down in a new portion of the Undercity scrapyards rather than return to the sewers. I loved how they somehow managed to weave mystery and intrigue back into a game that has already shown it's hand. The voice acting, music and designs are wonderful. It kept me thinking about it all the way until Rebirth which personally I think improves on good amount of the critisms from the first game. Remake might have needed more time but I think they couldn't give it more after the 7 year development hell it went thru. Having the project scrapped and then taken in house to be done as best as they wanted it to their own vision. I hope if and when you play Rebirth, you'll enjoy it a lot like myself!
I said something similar as what you commented on my reply above. I mentioned that I’m not a purist for adaptations, remakes/reimagining of any IP. Have mixed feelings about certain changes. Changes like recasting all of the old VAs, but some do very well. I also mentioned it seems very expensive to make and has a lot of ❤️ on bringing them back to next Gen. I praised Rebirth for improving even more in reimagining. I wish I could just have more in-depth discussion with anyone reading this. The Sewers was bit annoying compared to the giant mechanical hands section which was a teeny tiny section of the original, dragged and only thing I liked was the items found, but shoulda been cut shorter. OMG the infiltration in either the SHINRA building had excessively long segments. One example of mixed feelings is as much as I love Zack as a character and I loved Crisis Core for the PSP and I do have the Console Remaster. Zack’s main purpose was to be a minor role to show why Cloud had emotional conflict and struggled with PTSD and borderline disassociated personality disorder. He wasn’t really going to exist from what I heard but during writing the story they needed a way to be presented clearly. Sephiroth’s earlier and frequent reveals I’m mixed about it. I like & dislike simultaneously, even though the OG he was in shown in Midgar. His presence felt more subtle yet still present without being seen. Yet I like it because we get to see him with the updated graphics. I ❤️ the expansion of story regarding that SHINRA was behind the destruction of reactors and AVALANCHE was just trying to do minimal detonations to disable it for a time, I ❤️ that we got to know and spend more time with the minor characters of Jesse, Biggs & Wedge, the Turks I don’t remember much besides the couple of fights I liked. Loved 🥰 that they fleshed out more of Midgar as if it was a main character itself, as well as the party members. Last example, I ❤️ the tease of the battle theme music after exploding the 1st reactor and and the notes 🎶 keep playing repeatedly without heating that single note until you confront the guards and jump of onto the train.
@@RichardHunke The constant teasing of Sephiroth completely ruins all mystique surrounding him that was in the OG. And his entire personality is frisking Cloud while whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Awful. And, yeah, having Zack die not only ruins his sacrifice but ruins Cloud's development. Especially since they claim that these reboots will lead inot Advent Children. But, I don't see how that will be since Zack being alive completely erases Advent Children.
@@jase276 👍🏽 Yeah! I’m a little split on how they are handling the presentation for Sephiroth’s story. Specially since I see No-No-Nomura Tetsuya’s involvement and not so handy work all over it and I dislike many of his ideas, creative choices and direction he takes. He is notorious for being ambiguous throughout his work. I ❤️ to see Sephiroth and all his glory with the new graphics updated. I miss his old Voice Over Actor George Newbern, when Tyler Hoechlin took over I couldn’t really tell he had replaced Newbern. He does decent at doing the voice take for the character. The only thing that gave it away and set them apart for me was the emotional weight in the dialogue delivery. With Nomura being involved I’m left with so many questions. When he uses ambiguity as a method to write ✍️ & direct a story, it is puzzling 🤨. It comes off as sloppy, reckless, disorienting, disappointing. and takes away from what FF VII OG is & it offered in moral lessons. He not only applies it to the FF VII Remake Series, but any involvement in projects of creative development show many strong signs of ambiguity as if he owned it and was clever or revolutionary. It’s his only little main source of influence style, uses it as his creative signature. He uses it in just about everything. When I was fighting the Harbinger of Fate it was something out Kingdom Hearts, and the 3 unnamed aberrations where the characters straight from Advent Children, and in FFVII Rebirth, I disliked the scene of Sephiroth as he killed the Giant Serpent Boss. The OG had more impact when you stumble upon what he was capable of it in a WTF 😳 story moment.
totally agree dude, one of my all time favourites too. Now i'm 52yrs old, i still game & will be grabbing a copy of the remake after hearing your review. Cheers for ya content Drinker!
Yeah I waited for the PC release on steam and fully modded it before playing it. Took a very long time. Wasn't until early 2023 that I finally got my hands on it. I agree that the world felt to limited. When I heard they were going to do Midgar I thought it would be a fully open and explorable city. Or at least there would be large open areas for parts of the game that could be explored. Pacing was also an issue. As there are numerous scenes that felt incredibly dragged out. The whole ghost subplot in the train graveyard and Hojo's laboratory. It actually took me out of the game it was so "gamed". Overall I liked it. Though I loved the original FF7, so rose tinted glasses and nostalgia probably helped with my enjoyment. I'll be waiting for a PC released of Rebirth before I play that one. But early reviews seem promising for it.
It had some filler and stretched some portions out way longer than they needed to be, but overall I was surprised that they put so much effort into creating a new experience out of it. I spent the majority of Advent Children just lost on why they made it and I'm glad they kind of course-corrected some of the issues that movie caused.
Regarding Advent Children as the director said it was made to have battles that look cool everyone was blown away by that when it released back in 2005 and he did admit that the story took a back seat.
literally all his complaints on remake are addressed so we shall see. And I mean all of them so far. Remake's graphics aren't even it's fault, it's pushing Unreal Engine 4 beyond it's technological limits, and the same with the playstation. but now that he finished his part of the criticisms, it's literally ALL addressed in the next game.
You criticism of the AI seems to miss the point that it behaves that way by design. You are SUPPOSED to switch between characters. You control the party, not one character, like in the old game. I do think they didn't emphasize it enough though.
Yes. In the original ps1 version she dies. Which pissed me off as i spent the entire game having her as 1 of my main characters to fight with (shes great for healing) so spent loada of resources building her stats up, only for her to die! So restarted the game and chose someone else to build up stats
I appreciate you doing these reviews they are a nice touch away from the movies and a great chance for fresh eyes and opinions on modern gaming. Look forward to more!
My first FF was FF8, but I new the story of FF7. When the remake came out I was excited and I loved it. I did not feel I had to play the original for me to enjoy the remake. Now I am playing FF7 rebirth and still enjoying it. I can't wait for the 3rd part to come in 4 year maybe. I have played FF15 and FF16 and enjoy them. I only play the ones I am more interested in Final Fantasy.
I was waiting for that one! I have no issue with the remake. Remake or Rebirth and I suppose that it'll be the case with the third R. I feel like a lot of old heads went in there with the idea that it was gonna be a carbon copy of the original. I don't know why because : 1) Square Enix clearly said that it was gonna be a retelling to allow old players to enjoy their nostalgia and new players to join in without feeling lost or left behind ; 2) Nomura is behind that shit. What did you think was gonna happen with him directing everything..... There's a lot of padding, the english dub irritates me and some characters that were barely a bleep in the original have way too many lines now just to be annoying.... but I enjoy both games thoroughly because they are actually good. The 1997 version is an international treasure, but the remake is far from being bad. People should waste their energy to continue trashing Dirge of Cerberus. Now, THAT was some bs.
To this day I wonder why they did certain things with Dirge...why bring in a never before heard of or referenced faction? Why bring in Genesis, why make Genesis a new "hero" in the post credits? Why is it such a bad third person shooter? There is some genuine gold in Dirge its just covered in shit.
just to clarify, no it's Kitase, not Nomura who bought all of this changes. Nomura had to fight for the game's story, without him everything would be entirely different
@frostieschocopop False, Nomura has no say in the story, he actually wanted a 1:1 Remake, the one who wanted the changes is Yoshinori Kitase the OG director of FF7/8, with him being the producer now and producers always have a say in things.. unless your name is James Cameron.
Looks like you were playing the ps4 version (65gb) and didn't download the free PS5 intergrade upgrade version (95gb) All of the textures were upgraded, new lighting, 60fps mode and a lot of visual fixes like new background/skyboxes.
I have never heard anyone said "Final fantasy vii remake needed more time In the oven". I think it's logical for drinker to think that, the textures in the slums were rough in PS4, and the PS5 version helped but bot enough... Still, I don't blame him for not knowing unreal engine 4 architecture, it's just not possible to solve the texture problem and is not a matter of time, it's the engine itself.
This was beautiful, and they did such a good job. But...I agree it was too padded, linear, and should have been more than just midgar. Solid 9 tho. I'm about to start rebirth😊
@@loveinthevalley3 Parts actually. And agree, it's massive. I feel overwhelmed (in a good way) with every new open area. 42 Hours in, and I'm just now on my way to Corel. I see Remake as the game laying the technical and narrative fundamentals for the complete series. I don't care about the filler too much... It drags sometime, but it sure does define Midgar as a very big city, unlike in the original.
@@JobeStroudtrue but the game can be played without doing the mini games and most of the side filler. Well the game does force you to play a few mini games but nothing more is needed
Man it did so many things well that I absolutely adored it - but the original will always remain GOAT - soundtrack sparks memory's every time I hear it😊
13:06 - There are materia you can equip to fix that problem. Also, I only played the first few hours of the original FFVII (and not for the first time until it was released for the Switch decades later) and yet Remake was the very first game I downloaded once I had a PS5 and was subscribed to PS+. There are some things that confuse me, but my God, this was one of the most fantastic gaming experiences of my life. I am a thoroughly converted Final Fantasy fan after playing it. So even for a newcomer, this game is still a must-play.
Thats really interesting. I thought, like Drinker, that new players wouldnt like it as much as fans, but ive seen this opinion a lot since Remake came out from people who never played OG - i guess we as fans cant really imagine what its like to see it with completely fresh eyes.
Never played the original the first time I picked this up. I ended up playing the OG just because of how much I enjoyed the characters. Absolute treasure of a game.
FFVII Remake was a nice little Prologue. FFVII Rebirth is the game we've all been waiting for. The whole Zack side story might make or break the game for a lot of people, but I still say the game as a whole is the best Final Fantasy has been in a long while. (Though I haven't played XVI or XIV which I hear are good.)
I only played through about 1/2-2/3 of the original, but I am familiar with the entire plot. Having played this remake recently OH MY GOSH is this game good! It is absolutely nuts how much modern game engines have allowed squre to more fully realize such an iconic game to the point that the original feels like a fairy tale by comparison. Yes there are some graphical oddities, but who cares when this game is an absolute roller coaster to begin with. I've been playing on PC, so I don't have access to rebirth yet, but I don't even know if I can imagine how they take the ideas for only covering midgar and expand it to more open world. The game is a constant adrenaline rush and is very hard to put down because you just want to keep going with the plot being what it is.
It's such a refreshing game, never played the OG version as I didnt have a ps1 but probably going to go back and play it. I am in love with this game, its much better when the company respects and admires the source material and doesn't give us a LOU 2 bullshit storyline
I loved everything except the ending tbh. I hate this whole multiverse trope being injected into modern media, especially gaming. The whole whispers thing is just unnecessary imo.
@@SaveMeXenu I've only played the first KH game and I liked it. I just don't want that in my FF7R game. OG FF7 storyline was good enough. They should've just stuck with that. New comers and older fans would've been happy.
@@amit_patel654nah a lot of people would have been meh with the original. Not that it’s bad (well the original ending was pretty shitty) but have you seen all the theory crafting videos, and people guessing what would happen next. None of that would have existed, it would have just been another remaster that was “cool” and then disappeared because everyone knew what was going to happen so no one had to guess or think about it. I do think they went overboard with the guessing games with rebirth though, but I almost didn’t play remake because I figured I already knew what was going to happen. Plus technically there’s no reason why they still can’t do a “remaster” of the original if they thought it would sell. Since the remake acknowledges the original it technically doesn’t retcon any of it and leaves the original story intact.
@@daesong1378 Hmm, that’s a good point actually. I guess I’m just tired of multiverse stuff being in so many things these days, but I suppose they couldn’t do it any other way if they wanted to add/change things to the story. I actually never beat OG FF7 lol. I borrowed it from a classmate in high school and by the time I was headed towards the final area in the map, I had to give it back because it was the end of the school year. I haven’t played Rebirth yet, so I’ll have to see how the story goes. I suppose the Whispers aren’t so bad in that case, plus it sorta makes sense that since the world itself is considered a living entity, that it would have a will of it’s own hence the whispers. I’ll have to see how it all plays out when the trilogy is complete.
@@amit_patel654 dude, I was 11 years old, played all the way to the final fight save pointed there, then didn’t fight the boss, I think the main reason was because I loved the game so much that I didn’t want it to come to an end. 6 in real life years later I finally fight Sephiroth, and I killed him with one knights of the round summon. 🤦♀️ and then the ending of Bs, you omnislash seph’s have naked ass at the edge of creation, then you see meteor hit with the white material swirling around, then it cuts to 500 years layers later, and yeah I guess the “planet” is saved now because there’s a bunch of trees everywhere, they don’t show any humans, but there’s redxiii and his kids, like wtf kind of ending is that, if the planet was destroyed 500 years after everyone else is already dead, I wouldn’t even care. Anyhow I don’t think think you’re gonna like rebirth much, I mean I enjoyed the game, but story wise. You know what’s worse than a multiverse that changes everything? A multiverse that doesn’t seem to change anything. I just hope part 3 redeems the story a bit, I don’t really care if they change it a lot or barely at all, just make it make sense and tell the story well.
Working my way through Rebirth right now and hard agree - I genuinely enjoyed Remake despite its flaws. Any plans to plug this channel on your main? I vaguely remember this being mentioned on EFAP; it showed up on my reccs and I thought it was fake..
The culture war has created a divergence in gaming where one side hates a game because it doesn't contain all the woke things they want, and the opposing side that hates a game because it contains anything woke, or worse, isn't the perfect iteration of exactly what they want. Games like FF7 Remake are a breath of fresh air where it's a game you can just play and enjoy it for what it is and both extreme sides can stfu because it's just a fun game to play and escape the culture war for a few hours
I think I can almost 100% agree with this review. Well said! Despite its flaws it’s one of the most endearing experiences I ever had with a game (and continue to have with Rebirth). Maybe the most important achievement is how well they transformed the characters from the OG. It’s incredible how well they nailed them - and the interactions and relationships just become more fleshed out it Rebirth. I am so happy to be alive to experience the reboot of this franchise.
Funny, I know so many freaking fans that hate this with a passion because it does what you praised, changed things. I loved it like you did, maybe even more cause my ps5 version of the game absolutely does not have that textures and low poly stuff.
There are definitely a lot of OG fans who hate it but i think its a loud minority - the majority of OG fans ive seen play it like it a lot and appreciate some new mystery while waiting for the next parts.
Glad you are liking Remake Drinker! I think I am in the camp where they took too many steps away from original FF7 to get into it and enjoy it. Kind of wish we had a world where there was a FF7 "Re-fresh", where Square simply did a good visual and sound upgrade, polished off any old issues from 7 and let that stand on its own for a bit. Then years later they could decided to do something closer to Remake to imagine a new story and new twists with the old characters. Each to their own though. For now i still have a working PS2, my old 99+ hour save, and a beloved wife who has not experienced the game yet. Need to sit down and do it all over again and see how the memory lives up to reality.
The biggest problems are, Sephiroth is basically a fanboy for over half the game. And all the times we let people live just so they can annoying the crap out of us later for the sake of the game.
@@tech-heck3155 yes, throughout remake, he has no business being in the game other than to tease Cloud. He's basically obsessed with cloud. He has a role later in the game, of course, but there's no plot-reason to be seeing him now. It gets so much worse in Rebirth until he actually matters in Aerith part.
No plot reason? It’s the entire plot all the sepiroths clones being driven by visions in their heads. They just expanded on it. Almost like if they showed all the inner demons Frodo struggled with.
The plot is clouds inner struggle and fighting off sephiroth’s destructive gene. And using sephiroths power against himself. The whole plot is sephiroth wanting his perfect version which is cloud. Clouds whole power basis is sephiroth they are the same person.
Cheers to you mate, FFVII is in my heart just like yours. There are more of us than you will ever know -- they are absolutely demolishing its memory with this current shite.
Did you play the PS4 or PS5 version? Because the PS5 version fixes a lot of the graphical issues that the PS4 version had. Best way to play the game, for sure. Plus you also have the Intermission story with Yuffie.
I disliked the remake so much that I haven't even finished it. It looks like FFVII, but it's not it. It felt like a company wearing a skin suit of the original. The combat is really and truly terrible and the dungeon areas are such a slog compared to the remastered version. Ill try it again and change the battle mode.
The biggest upgrade for me is Cloud himself. The portrayal of him as a person who lost years of their youth development trying to pretend to be completely put together (if you know, you know). They NAILED it.
I'm glad you liked it Drinker. I too came from that era of the original having started my Final fantasy journey with part 6 and played Chrono trigger all on the SNES back in the day. Now there's 2 games that both deserve a remake. I have just started playing FF7 Rebirth and so far , im enjoying it, there is so much to do in this one. Hope you'll like it.
Yeah, a Chrono Trigger remake would be absolutely fantastic. It is definately one of the best games that Squaresoft ever made, next to FF7+9. I would rather see FF9 remade first though, but if they ever do a Chrono Trigger remake, I will rejoice.
I didn't have a Playstation back in 1997, so I missed out on FF7. I finally got a PS5 and got the FF7 Remake and gave it a go. I was so happy! It is an amazing game! The characters, story, and gameplay are amazing! I understand now!
Remakes would be better as a whole if they focused on revitalizing the graphics and other useful quality of life updates. But instead they are polluted with inspirations of the original game and smudge the original game. *LOOKING AT YOU RESIDENT EVIL 3.*
I finished Remake in 2020 and I finished Rebirth a few days ago. They have really nailed it out the park. Hope you play Rebirth and give that a Review too Drinker. I actually didn't know you had a gaming channel. Thanks RU-vid for recommending me it. Subbed.
The OG FF7 was reflecting the authentic japanase talent and culture, unlike Remake and Rebirth. Devs. themselves said that they are "A Bit Embarrassed” By the Original Game’s Portrayal Of “Social Problems, Social Issues, And Cultural Depictions” and that they "needed to update the story content being shown in line with modern sensibilities.” How can people ignore that?
07:20 "..Easier enough to just rehash the original story.." It's like saying:- "...there's no much change in story for 'The Lord of the Rings' movie from the books / radio / stage.. so I guess it's just a rehash of the original story without doing anything new or original and accomplishes nothing except to do the same thing again but with nicer visuals...because anyone that read / watched the story decades ago will all ready know the unexpected moments that made the original so memorable..."
The difference is that for LOTR you are changing medium. Presenting a work in a new medium while faithfully adapting is a different challenge. A lot of FFVII story arcs revolve around mystery, a mystery that is 20 years old. People who have never played an FF game know who Sephiroth is. The challenge for any Remake would be to capture that sense of the unknown for both new and old players.
@@ThatCatholicGamerDude For me, Final Fantasy VII Remake comes across like fan fiction introducing 'Multi-World / Universe' and 'What Ifs?' comic book non-sense that's only destroys stakes / sacrifice of the original story like in the Marvels Multi-Verse. Also, many movie / TV adaptions of 'The Batman' doesn't require a new alternate time line where Bruce doesn't end up an orphan just to do something new. It's just sounds like amateur writers who are trying to stand on the shoulders of giants.
@@ThatCatholicGamerDude That's an irrelevant difference to his analogy. The medium has evolved so much, it's basically something entirely new. People don't know who Sephiroth is, they know his name and what he looks like. They don't know Aerith, they don't know Cloud. This also ignores the relevance of his analogy, because people knew about Gandalf and Frodo before the LOTR movies. FF7 Remake could have been the LOTR trilogy of gaming, now it's just another game in a sea of games made for fanboys
@@Jim-pq9pm "The medium has evolved so much, it's basically something entirely new" Have to disagree there. While the tech has evolved the challenges of creating narratives in interactive mediums are still present. Hence the "I don't want to watch a movie I want to play a game" critique. " People don't know who Sephiroth is, they know his name and what he looks like. They don't know Aerith, they don't know Cloud." Yes and no. They know Cloud and Sephiroth by appearance, thus weakening the mysterious nature of Sephiroth. But Aerith's death is so ubiquitous in the gaming space that the surprise/shock is simply not going to be replicated. In short the issue is with FFVII's mystery structure. You are simply not going to get the same impact of the original game because key elements of the story are already well known. The LOTR analogy is incorrect because 1. the narrative for LOTR relies less on mystery and more on drama. 2. The medium change IS important because stories in books are fundamentally different structurally than stories in movies. This is why so many book-to-movie adaptations fail.
@@ThatCatholicGamerDude I got my friend to play FF7 about 4 years ago, he had no idea about Aerith's death and was totally shocked, so no, it's not as ubiquitous as you think
While I really love this game and was pleased to see Square not shy away from making changes to the story, I'm not sure the whole 'fate/Multiverse' thing was the way to do it. For me at least, it utterly kills any stakes or any satisfaction that can be found in a character overcoming difficulties. They narrowly avoid death? It's not skill, it's just their fate to survive! It was FATED that they would defeat that hard boss. Someone died? Well, there's another universe where that event wasn't fated to happen and those universes can interact so it may as well not have, at least to the audience. I just personally find all that stuff anathema to caring about characters, where every action they take doesn't matter because it was a fated outcome or there is a multiverse dimension in which it didn't. Even 'punching fate in the face' matters little when the fate ghosts return in the next game, unimpeded.
I could barely finish the remake once I realized what Nomura was doing with the whispers, with all the elements of the lazy writing like an MCU alternate timeline just to butcher the original source material. Who were these changes for? "Modern gamers"? Updated graphics and combat is a no brainer, but why mess with the story? Not to mention the inexcusable PC Port that took years to release while waiting for endless exclusivity deals to expire just to play on your chosen platform. I won't be buying Rebirth, it's just not worth the years of waiting for the inevitable disappointment.
I know purists are upset with multiverse and other changes to the story, and I somewhat agree, but as a huge fan of the original I think SE did pretty good considering the history, expectations, and limitations they were dealing with (how do you add things to a game where you explore literally the entire world in the original?) It will never be the lightning in a bottle that the original was, and yes there is some obvious padding, but when I reflect on it I realize it delivered a lot of what I always hoped a remake would do: expand the character moments, the lore, and modernize the battle system. Rebirth has improved on basically everything (except maybe the story) so I think they deserve a shot at wrapping this trilogy up in a satisfying way.
Greetings Drinker, glad to hear that you is a fan of the original. Is my favorite FF too. I'm playing the rebirth right now and i love it so far. But i'm here to suggest you a game: Is called SIGNALIS, and is an indie survival horror inspired by the classicale Resident Evil series, with an amazing sci fi setting and a story worth to uncover. I think it may deserve one of yours review. From an italian fan, thanx for your job
