April 25th, 2020 at 9:51 PM
gonna have to update my thoughts on the remake
first of all: aerith rly is best girl. this is an objective truth. shes actually the perfect blend of being cute and witty without being obnoxious and annoying. honestly they scripted her character perfectly to the point where she's not a little bitch like tifa sometimes is, but no hesitation to talk back with a sarcastic remark.
but i'm at chapter 14 now. there are 18 chapters total apparently. i've played for about 23hrs now, so realistically i'll beat it around the 30hr mark based on other estimates. i might replay chapters based on completion, but i think i've been pretty thorough with scouring all items in each map so far, so I wouldn't put my replayability past 10hrs. which leaves me with about 40hrs of playtime, or 2$/hr is what I paid
i like to gauge value by the benchmark of 1$/hr, generally speaking, based on other games ive played, but with new releases and AAA titles that will eventually have their price dropped to something more reasonable, it can be hit or miss. i mean, i spent 120hrs+ in persona 5, and only paid around 50$ for that (and it's 15$ on PSN now because of the P5R release), so you do the math there. maybe not worth, but i need to actually finish the game and do some replaying to actually gauge it properly.
the game is beautiful and they really focused on the story and making sure it didnt deviate from the original.
unfortunately, that's also a problem in and of itself.
too many cutscenes.
and i need to hold triangle down for 5 seconds to skip them sometimes, even if they last 6 seconds, so essentially unskippable.
the game just takes control away from you in later chapters like twice a minute to force another cutscene because it needs to focus on emotion and character development and story and all that, but around those chapters, it really does start to feel like a visual novel almost. i feel like it could have done better a a movie than a game, albeit a long f*** movie lol. some parts feel like walking simulators. some of the, feel like it's just forcing a million fights down your throat (trainyard) to try and build up suspense, but looking back on those parts, it really feels like it added absolutely NOTHING to the story whatsoever, and the game could have been fine if that little segment was five minutes long instead of the two hours it took me to clear it because of running around unlocking doors and paths while having a million fights (where i cant use normal attacks, mind you) ongoing.
the followers system is sort of like ffxv where ignis/gladio/prompto follow you around, chat, point stuff out, suggest things to do, fight in combat and otherwise just be themselves, but in ffxv they feel a million times more useful. gladio runs over to pick up items. prompto takes cool photos. all of them actually fight and you can synergize your attacks. in ffvii, i can watch tifa in a fight just sit still for 5 seconds before punching the enemy three times, then sit still for another five seconds. none do any cool combos or anything, none have any special abilities or anything like ffxv. i get that it's a remake and trying to stay as close to the original as possible, but honestly why go through the effort of making the follower system so similar to ffxv but just water it down so much that it serves no purpose?
the combat is beautiful and feels streamlined with commands. pretty good.
the story is amazing, of course.
the soundtrack is mostly okay, i do like the soundtrack for the expressway, trainyard, and the battle theme in ch8 where you're not in a fight but keeping the suspense up again while you're rescuing kids. but overall the music collection feature feels kinda useless and those songs are mediocre. the rest is more or less standard.
but rpg elements are also lacking. sure, there are some side quests you can do in certain chapters, but you can't go back to them. when they become available, you absolutely cannot under any circumstances continue the storyline until you complete them, else you just won't be able to do them later, and the game even warns you about this if you do try to continue the story. so again, it really just feels lacking. there are a total of like five side quests every time i've encountered them, which makes for a total of ten. they don't really build to anything, though, no fancy unlocks, just some XP, potions, and money as rewards.
right now i can only give it a max of 6/10. too many features that were added for the sake of calling it NEW AND IMPROVED but without really improving anything because they wanted to stay close to the OG. the only really innovative feature was combat, but even then, your followers suck a** unless you control them yourself, but you can only control one at a time, making the others a**.
gonna finish this shit up tonight i reckon.
first of all: aerith rly is best girl. this is an objective truth. shes actually the perfect blend of being cute and witty without being obnoxious and annoying. honestly they scripted her character perfectly to the point where she's not a little bitch like tifa sometimes is, but no hesitation to talk back with a sarcastic remark.
but i'm at chapter 14 now. there are 18 chapters total apparently. i've played for about 23hrs now, so realistically i'll beat it around the 30hr mark based on other estimates. i might replay chapters based on completion, but i think i've been pretty thorough with scouring all items in each map so far, so I wouldn't put my replayability past 10hrs. which leaves me with about 40hrs of playtime, or 2$/hr is what I paid
i like to gauge value by the benchmark of 1$/hr, generally speaking, based on other games ive played, but with new releases and AAA titles that will eventually have their price dropped to something more reasonable, it can be hit or miss. i mean, i spent 120hrs+ in persona 5, and only paid around 50$ for that (and it's 15$ on PSN now because of the P5R release), so you do the math there. maybe not worth, but i need to actually finish the game and do some replaying to actually gauge it properly.
the game is beautiful and they really focused on the story and making sure it didnt deviate from the original.
unfortunately, that's also a problem in and of itself.
too many cutscenes.
and i need to hold triangle down for 5 seconds to skip them sometimes, even if they last 6 seconds, so essentially unskippable.
the game just takes control away from you in later chapters like twice a minute to force another cutscene because it needs to focus on emotion and character development and story and all that, but around those chapters, it really does start to feel like a visual novel almost. i feel like it could have done better a a movie than a game, albeit a long f*** movie lol. some parts feel like walking simulators. some of the, feel like it's just forcing a million fights down your throat (trainyard) to try and build up suspense, but looking back on those parts, it really feels like it added absolutely NOTHING to the story whatsoever, and the game could have been fine if that little segment was five minutes long instead of the two hours it took me to clear it because of running around unlocking doors and paths while having a million fights (where i cant use normal attacks, mind you) ongoing.
the followers system is sort of like ffxv where ignis/gladio/prompto follow you around, chat, point stuff out, suggest things to do, fight in combat and otherwise just be themselves, but in ffxv they feel a million times more useful. gladio runs over to pick up items. prompto takes cool photos. all of them actually fight and you can synergize your attacks. in ffvii, i can watch tifa in a fight just sit still for 5 seconds before punching the enemy three times, then sit still for another five seconds. none do any cool combos or anything, none have any special abilities or anything like ffxv. i get that it's a remake and trying to stay as close to the original as possible, but honestly why go through the effort of making the follower system so similar to ffxv but just water it down so much that it serves no purpose?
the combat is beautiful and feels streamlined with commands. pretty good.
the story is amazing, of course.
the soundtrack is mostly okay, i do like the soundtrack for the expressway, trainyard, and the battle theme in ch8 where you're not in a fight but keeping the suspense up again while you're rescuing kids. but overall the music collection feature feels kinda useless and those songs are mediocre. the rest is more or less standard.
but rpg elements are also lacking. sure, there are some side quests you can do in certain chapters, but you can't go back to them. when they become available, you absolutely cannot under any circumstances continue the storyline until you complete them, else you just won't be able to do them later, and the game even warns you about this if you do try to continue the story. so again, it really just feels lacking. there are a total of like five side quests every time i've encountered them, which makes for a total of ten. they don't really build to anything, though, no fancy unlocks, just some XP, potions, and money as rewards.
right now i can only give it a max of 6/10. too many features that were added for the sake of calling it NEW AND IMPROVED but without really improving anything because they wanted to stay close to the OG. the only really innovative feature was combat, but even then, your followers suck a** unless you control them yourself, but you can only control one at a time, making the others a**.
gonna finish this shit up tonight i reckon.
