LTTP LTTP: Final Fantasy VII Remake 😥

[MomoVideo]

I want to start this post by saying that I liked the original FF VII. I don't love the OG FF VII, I'm not a super fan like many other people, but I like it. I don't want people to mistake my opinion of the Remake with nostalgia, because I played FF VII about two years ago on my Switch. Now, with that out of the way...

FF VII Remake is not great. It's too linear, the combat is frustrating and I would even call it boring unless you're fighting boss, and there is too much padding. When I went into the second reactor, the endless tunnels and corridors just never ended, it was too damn long. I liked some of the new content, like visiting Jessie's house, because it was actually interesting and it served a purpose to develop characters. Padding the game by adding never-ending corridors? No thanks, this is not the way. Sometimes it almost feels like playing FF XIII again and it's not a good thing. Combat wise, the ATB system feels too restrictive, but I don't like it for several reasons:
1. It's mostly a square/X button masher until you fill your ATB bar
2. Dodging is useless because there are no I-frames.
3. The ATB bar for AI companions takes way too long to fill
4. The AI in general is super dumb
5. Normal mobs are way too easy while most bosses are surprisingly hard, the balance here seems off.
6. One of the reasons why bosses are hard is because 90% of the time they target the character you're playing and they constantly stun you.

There is a lot to like in the Remake, mainly gorgeous graphics, amazing soundtrack, and fleshed-out characters like Jessie but I think that's it. I wish playing this game was more interesting. I'm on chapter 8 and I struggle to keep playing it. It kinda sucks because I waited a few years to finally be able to play it.

 

[Line]

The game is thrice longer than it needed to be, it's padding incarnate.

For combat, you really want ATB boost on all characters, so that you can spam ATB charges relatively fast while switching your chars.
But yes, it does mean that normal fights are effectively pointless and don't make use of most of the game's mechanics, while bosses are really, REALLY long, even doing that.
And that the AI is useless.

The game feels surprisingly close to the old school ATB since as you said, you can't avoid much, and it's mostly about waiting around while doing almost nothing but chip damage. Doesn't feel much like action combat.

I like a lot in the game, especially the side activities (beside the arena stuff), the music and expanding on memorable moments in a great way, but the gameplay... it's not terrible, but it's oh-so-unrefined and badly balanced that it ruins a lot of the enjoyment.

 

[Valdien]

Unfortunately, there are things I'm going to have to disagree with regarding the points you've made about the combat. You seem to approach it thinking it's like any other traditional action game, which it isn't.

It's mostly a square/X button masher until you fill your ATB bar

For the most part, sure. However, if you really want to challenge yourself and get the most out of the combat mechanics, I suggest you try doing the Shinra Combat Simulator + the DLC boss. You can take on some of the bosses solo, if you're up for it. You can also do a second run of the game on Hard mode and see how far mashing the Attack button will get you. (Not very far, I'll tell you this right now.)

And for anyone that believes the boss fights are too long, then that's because you haven't fully grasped the game's core mechanics. Staggering enemies by exploiting their weaknesses, building up the stagger bar percentage with Tifa (plus Aerith's Ray), and dealing damaging in quick succession is the best way to take down everything quickly in the game. It's very similar to FF 13 in that regard. The hardest boss in the game, Weiss, can be taken down in under a minute with the proper strategy and setup. And I'm in no way implying that everyone is capable of doing that. I'm most certainly not. The fastest I've managed is just under 3 minutes. However, everything you need to take him down quickly is still there in the game.

2. Dodging is useless because there are no I-frames.

Yes, regualr dodge not having I-frames is deliberate by design. And this is made very clear during the beginning of the game. Unblockable attacks are meant to be dodged, while everything else can and should be blocked. Nearly every attack in the game is designed around this. The Parry Materia makes this process a whole lot easier (it's a combination of block+dodge+attack plus it has i-frames), and I'd argue is an absolute must on Cloud & Tifa. With Tifa, you can parry spam dodge out of many attacks in the game + is excellent for animation cancelling and will keep Cloud's punisher mode active. It's also the fastest way to move around during combat. (Would be the fastest way to move about outside of combat, too, but alas, that's not possible. )

The ATB bar for AI companions takes way too long to fill

Again, with the proper Materia setup, you can fill the ATB gauge a lot faster for the AI. Also, the main reason why it doesn't fill as fast is that the game expects you to switch characters during combat (just like the OG!). The active character will be filling the gauge a lot faster because you're performing actions with them. The Haste spell can also help speed up the ATB gauge for everyone.

The AI in general is super dumb

Yes, it is, unfortunately. Most of the time they're just doing nothing or casting spells here and there. The Synergy Materia does help a bit, but it's still not the best solution to the problem. The game could've added some simple AI tactics to play around with. Hopefully, this is something they implement in Part 2. They somewhat address this issue in the DLC, though; and I quite like what they did there. I'd honestly prefer the DLC's Synergize system over AI strategies.

Normal mobs are way too easy while most bosses are surprisingly hard, the balance here seems off

I made this point earlier regarding bosses, but this opinion seems to stem from a lacking of understanding of the game's combat mechanics. All the tools are there for a player to take down bosses very quickly. The bosses were the best part of the game for me, and I had a lot of fun soloing them with Tifa/Cloud on my second playthrough. Pro tip: Cloud's counterstance is very OP.

One of the reasons why bosses are hard is because 90% of the time they target the character you're playing and they constantly stun you.

Yep, this is so that the active character can fill up the ATB gauge quickly. I can understand why this is annoying. I felt the same way during the first few hours, but again, the tools/mechanics are already there for a player to use so they can de-aggro enemies. Also, I'm not sure how being constantly stunned by an enemy that is attacking the player is an issue. You're meant to dodge and block attacks, and if you do that, you won't stunned. AI arggo can also be mitigated in a few ways. You can switch to a different character if you see an enemy/boss targeting you. You can use Barret's Lifesaver ability. Setup Barret as a tank, use his steelskin ability + barrier/manaward, and have him soak damage. You can also make use of the provoke Materia instead of Lifesaver.

Personally, the biggest issue that I have with the game's combat is the way the healing spell works. Nearly more than half of the animation plays off first before the "healing" actually takes effect!

 

[MomoVideo]

Appreciate the comment, but the issue with a lot of your counterpoints is that you want me to play additional content, but I have trouble to even play the core game. In your points, you also suggest that I need to have proper material to make combat fun and you don't get those easily. I'm already almost 10 hours in and I don't have the ones you specified ( I bought every I could). The promise of this combat getting better later on sounds like those FF XIV fans saying that the game gets better after the first campaign which is 80 hours. I don't want to wait for the game to be fun.

Regarding the bosses and the stagger mechanic, I really tried to utilize it but I often got punished for it. For example, when I fought that robot at the end of the second reactor and I finally filled the pressure bar with dedicated stagger skills to stagger the boss, it would either immediately change the battle phase and reset the bar or simply show me crossmark on top of his health bar while I could not do any damage for no apparent reason other than that I did enough damage for it to change phase again but it was stunned from stagger and couldn't do it yet. Same thing with the red headed Shinra Turk. When I finally staggered him, it would show me crossmark on top of his health bar while I couldn't do any damage and after he was up he changed phases ( he rushed to the spot where the flower patch was and said something to Aerith).

 

[Crayon]

Midgar being stretched into a 45 hour game is definitely an issue. It works out well enough at first but gets worse and reaches a crescendo at the final run to the end of the game. How well they did with the characters, writing, and voice acting somewhat makes up for it. I have a suspicion that it was a choice of neccesity, though. As if midgar and 4 characters is all they could manage to get done. I don't expect the open world map in the next episode. I just don't see how they can get it done.

I hear all of your issues with the fighting. I was convinced by action button's "review" (its huge, but broken into chapters. Go to "disc 4" to hear about the battle system and "disc 5" to expound on the balance and compromises) to start the game again on the hard mode. I don't particularly want to play a long game again right after I finish it, but he made a strong argument that the hard mode makes it shine and I was curious. So far, I have to agree that they hard mode makes fighting much more interesting as you are basically forced into using the system more thouroughly. In the normal mode, it's too easy to claw your way through with tactics that are tantamount to beating your head against a wall. I don't know if I love it yet, but I've put in about an hour a night for a week now and I'm definitely warming up to it. The main issue now is how hard it is to keep track of whats going on with multiple enemies and their abilities. It's a clusterfuck.

 

[MomoVideo]

Midgar being stretched into a 45 hour game is definitely an issue. It works out well enough at first but gets worse and reaches a crescendo at the final run to the end of the game. How well they did with the characters, writing, and voice acting somewhat makes up for it. I have a suspicion that it was a choice of neccesity, though. As if midgar and 4 characters is all they could manage to get done. I don't expect the open world map in the next episode. I just don't see how they can get it done.

I hear all of your issues with the fighting. I was convinced by action button's "review" (its huge, but broken into chapters. Go to "disc 4" to hear about the battle system and "disc 5" to expound on the balance and compromises) to start the game again on the hard mode. I don't particularly want to play a long game again right after I finish it, but he made a strong argument that the hard mode makes it shine and I was curious. So far, I have to agree that they hard mode makes fighting much more interesting as you are basically forced into using the system more thouroughly. In the normal mode, it's too easy to claw your way through with tactics that are tantamount to beating your head against a wall. I don't know if I love it yet, but I've put in about an hour a night for a week now and I'm definitely warming up to it. The main issue now is how hard it is to keep track of whats going on with multiple enemies and their abilities. It's a clusterfuck.

The problem is that when you play FF VII Remake for the first time, normal difficulty is the hardest one you can pick

 

[Crayon]

The problem is that when you play FF VII Remake for the first time, normal difficulty is the hardest one you can pick

Oh it's worse than that. The hard difficulty is balanced around new game plus. Starting fresh on it would be practically impossible. Besides the enemies being higher level, there are two main changes to hard: First, you cannot use items at all. Not in battle, not out of battle. Secondly, benches/resting does not restore mp. Sounds like crazy limitations, but imo the gameplay actually does come together a little better like that once I got used to it. Still not good enough to get me through a full second playthrough, but it's definitely more interesting than the first time around where the tension would sort of end up being over how many items I wanted to use to win a given battle. Without items or mp top-ups, you've no choice but to get crafty.