#FFVIIR game review

[crisiscutie]

Damn... the chapter names for rebirth have already been leaked. 😭

Yup, so were the achievements and the order of major locations appearing too. Not only that, many reviewers are getting their hands on the full version of the game as we speak now. This is only the beginning lads, brace yourselves for the oncoming SPOILER storm...

I will be marking my postings concerning Rebirth spoilers as "FFVIIR Spoilers or Rebirth Spoilers". This is including any info received from the upcoming State Of The Play on Tuesday which probably will contain some Spoiler content. Spoilers will also be put under a read more as well!

Stay safe out there, guys.

Not gonna lie, one of the chapter titles really fucking makes my head hurt and I'm praying that it's not what I really think.. I'm so tired of this multiverse bullshit so many franchises are doing as an excuse to keep milking the franchise and flanderizing so many beloved characters.

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy 7R review

I finished the game this morning and I already have regrets that there’s nothing left for me to do besides replay and anxiously wait for news of the next installment. I want more. I want to not have finished it yet. I need to know what happens next, not just in the updated story, but with the game mechanics, too. I’m happy the team is taking their time to make the game as good as it deserves to be, but on the other hand I wanna throw a toddler tantrum demanding the rest of my game! 

Beware, spoilers.

The bad stuff

To be fair, not a lot from where I’m sitting. I’ve seen people bitch about textures and how the scrap yards don’t look dynamic enough and some stuff is flat, but seriously, why are yall looking at the walls? They’re the least interesting thing about the game and you’re just nitpicking. The graphics overall were amazing and I stopped multiple times just to rotate the camera and take in this massive city we actually get to really explore for the first time ever!

I have to admit a slight disappointment in the amount of space, verbally, that was happening. There were times where I expected characters to make comments and they said nothing. Things were overlooked or just not addressed and it wasn’t even anything plot related, just a point where there could have been dialogue and it didn’t happen. It wasn’t often, but those few times the air was left dead I noticed it. The most notable time was in chapter 17, right after Sephiroth appeared on the gangway. Now, I get them being too shocked to say anything when he’s right in front of them, but after, when they separate and fall into two groups? Nothing? No comment? Tifa, I definitely expected to say something in a shocked tone, but even after they found Cloud again, she didn’t mention it. It was like the moment didn’t happen. I know the other times nobody else but Cloud saw him, but this time they saw him, and he’s linked to Tifa’s past too, so she definitely should’ve had some kind of comment in that empty space.

That was the only major point, but other small ones were when people were talking and one character remains silent. The only one I expect to never speak if he doesn’t have to is Cloud. Because it’s Cloud. Everyone else should have something to say. Like when they climbed the stairs. If you took the stairs - I was all done in from so many fights and just wanted a break - then you got hilarious commentary from Barret, Cloud and Tifa. It showed how close they’ve become. Cloud made a joke! His second one of the game! If you missed the first, it’s likely because you obsessed over him going on about money all the time and saying that’s all he cares about when he’s with Tifa. So, yeah, after being shown how the group can talk to each other and banter I’m hoping Square adds more chatter to the next game. I know some people prefer less chatter, but this is a group of people who are supposed to be shown as friends, so conversation is important.

The other thing that got on my nerves was the mechanics of the weapons upgrade. Unless I missed a shortcut, having to go out of each one and then into the next one instead of just switching over to the next weapon’s skill tree. It took a long time to level things up and I wish there was an option in the auto to just unlock every skill one at a time, so they’d do it on auto without me having to go in there. And the ATB. That got on my nerves. I’m lazy af, so I’d like for action to just pause whenever someone’s atb fills so I can give them a command and then go back to the battle instead of having one eye on all the atbs. It’s probably more classic than Square wants to go with it, but having that as a battle option would be nice and a further throwback to the old style of gameplay.

The good

Everything from chapter 3 onwards. The intro chapters were good, too, but I really just wanted to dig into the game and that didn’t happen until chapter 3. The VAs killed it! Graphics were amazing! The weapon abilities were fun and added something different to the regular gameplay style of just grabbing the next strongest weapon. Side quests were enjoyable and I wish there was more of them, especially a save the citizens for after the plate fell. That really would've hammered home the tragedy.

The story

I’ve seen people - mostly OG fans - bashing the new elements. Sure, the whispers are a weird angle to come at it from, but the explanation for them, that they’re trying to maintain the OG storyline, made for an interesting twist on a 25 year old story. Sephiroth’s early appearance was just something that had to happen, along with a Jenova fight, because, come on, this section of the OG was like 3hrs worth of content and this is 40hrs, so ofc they had to include new things and it matches with the new storyline and I think people need to release their death grip on the OG storyline and enjoy this game for what it is. 

I found the ripple effect(?) interesting too. From what we learned, the OG happened in the future. If things hadn’t changed that’s the future everyone was heading towards. Ok, cool, pretty simple. 

This timeline had small changes. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie survived!? Or did Wedge finally get shoved off a building at the end, I really couldn’t tell if he bought it that time, but if he did I’m mad cause he was adorable. The plate falling didn’t have as big a casualty number as originally, either. And Hojo almost spilled the beans to Cloud early, but was cut off, and that’s the other thing Cloud ignored in dialogue afterwards, but it’s Cloud, so we’ll give him a security pass for that. The others ignoring his Ptsd induced freak outs isn't cool though and I expect Square to fix that level of callousness towards him from the others.

Those are the only two changes from the OG. Sephiroth showing up early instead of in Nibelheim doesn’t really matter. He’s his usual cryptic asshole self and his goal is unchanged. The team just knows he’s the big bad earlier now and have a solid goal instead of just randomly wandering after they leave Midgar. So, yeah, does Biggs, Wedge and Jessie living make a big difference overall? Will that ripple from them being alive make further changes?

We also saw that Zack survived because of our team, but the Zack in their timeline is still dead. I think we saw it this way because the planet is trying to find a way to prevent being hit with Meteor and ending up with geostigma, so the OG timeline, everything was still bad. Our timeline gives possibilities for a slightly better future and then the timeline behind it - the one with Zack - offers even better odds, not that we’ll see that. That’s the timeline I think Aerith will live through, so that way Square can say Aerith lives, just not in the game we play now.

Shipping

I’m not into wars, so if you love Aerith, cool good for you, I was focused on building affinity with Tifa and Square didn’t disappoint! There were so many romantic moments between them! And damn do they have chemistry! I squeed at such a high pitch the dog next door started howling! All the small touches, longing looks, affection, support, trust and OMGOSH IT WAS JUST THE BEST!!! They were so damn cute!!

I have no idea how the game changes if you focus on Aerith and to be honest I don’t want to. I think that’s what I love about the options for that. You can choose and no one can say your choice isn’t valid. 

One thing though, I would like an end to it because it’s 25 years of people arguing and it’s made the entire fandom toxic af and it’s actually the reason I avoid most of the final fantasy discourse because people can’t be civil to each other. Square should finally say once and for all that Cloud/ is canon and the other isn’t, instead of throwing a bone to them and being all “maybe if things were like this”, like no, pull on your big boy pants, Square, man tf up like Barret on a mission, and tell people who is the canon pairing in this damn game so people can just stfu and enjoy playing it without getting flamed.

This is why I want a FF8R because at least there’s no doubt who the couple is in that one.

Smol stuff

I’ve seen complaints about new characters being 1 dimensional, but they’re new characters in a game series that’s a trilogy, so they’re likely gonna appear again. Roche seemed added not just to give Cloud a boss to fight in the bike event, but also to show there’s other SOLDIERs beyond Cloud and Zack and the ones from Crisis Core, which not everyone has played.

Same goes for Leslie. I liked that dude and I’m interested to see him pop up again. His design wasn’t the typical bad guy henchman, easily disposed, thank you very much for playing. He has a story and I’m betting that’s not the last we see of him.

Again, same goes for Cloud’s infantry buddies. I’ve not played CC, but I get they’re from that, so will we see them again at some point? What about other CC characters?

Best Bits

Cloud in a dress. “Nailed it, thank you, moving on.”

Cloud dancing. Boy got moves and I wanna see him dance again!

Cloud/Tifa. Complimenting her like a smooth mutherfucker.

Cloud/Tifa Battle couple. They were my absolute favourite fighting combo and definitely kicked all the ass!

Cloud/Tifa. All the shipping bits, but especially jumping off the train and then trusting her to go kick Corneo’s ass. That’s how you show you know your girl

Wedge. Kitty momma

Biggs death. Damn you, Square, you got me all choked up.

Red. Specifically the bit where he highfived Barret with his tail lool

Barret. “Damn it, Red.”

Reno. Just Reno in general killed me. Love his conscience though and that he’s not a 1 trick pony.

Tifa/Aerith. Had more chemistry than Aerith/Cloud. Yeah, I said it. 

Barret and Marlene. Such a good daddy! His expression with her was like a whole different person!

Aerith bitchslapping a would-be rapist with a chair.

Cloud/Tifa/Aerith teamup to threaten Don Corneo’s balls - though I only include Aerith since she was there and she was about as threatening as a cupcake.

Conclusion

I want moar! I really hope the next one comes out soon! It’s not the same as OG, but has the best bits of OG along with something new to bring in a new generation of fans. The alt timeline angle feels fresh and open to possibilities and I’m excited to play this game for what it is, instead of comparing it and demanding for the OG like a crusty whisper lool

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

My thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake

I should preface this with saying that I’m not a game reviewer and this is going to be my subjective opinion on the game and I’m writing this because I’m feeling the urge to just ramble about my experience.

So to start with: I love this game so freaking much.

It gave me what I expected: great characters, it took me on an emotional roller coaster, it made me smile, it made me cry, it made me bounce in my seat in excitement.

The graphics are phenomenal. As is the environmeltal storytelling. I walked through Midgar and thought “This is a real place” and that happens so rarely for me in games. For all that I love FFXV, that one didn’t manage to convince me it’s world could be real. This game however, did, and that’s a big part of why I love it so much.

Characterisations have been spot on. Barrett’s willingness to go in guns blazing, his bluster, but also the care he has for Marlene and the members of his Avalanche cell.

Jesse, Biggs and Wedge are finally real characters and we learn at last of Jesse’s motivation to have joined a band of eco-terrorists. The inclusion of her backstory was spot on imo. I find it sad that Biggs got the least screan time of the three.

Aerith was perfect in this game. She was quirky, she was flirty, she had personality that went beyond this holier-than-though thing she had going on in most of the compilation. And by Yevon does she have cheek. I love her.

Now Tifa, I have one gripe with, and it’s really more a pacing and tonal issue during the train graveyard. Tifa was really close to a panic attack thinking about what Corneo said and then there comes this hour long ghost dungeon where she’s a scared damsel. I feel there‘s a disconnect here and that’s literally the only ‘negative’ thing I have to say on her character. I like her confidence, her moral dilemma on how Avalanche is doing things, how her motivations are very close to Barrett’s, but she manages to (mostly) keep a level head.

Now for Cloud I was kind of sceptical in the beginning, but I feel they did him so well. He’s got this cool and collected facade of being a SOLDIER 1st Class, but it’s just that: a facade. Beneath it he has a deep willingness to help other people, and also an insecurity that I can appreciate.

Non of this would have really worked, if the voice acting hadn’t been as good as it is. I can only really speak for the German voice acting, but it’s phenomenal. Cloud, Aerith, Reeve and, funnily enough, Roche are my favourites. All others are really good as well, Barrett just threw me off for a bit because the same voice actor does Gladio in FFXV and for the first hour every time Barrett opened his mouth I was seeing Gladio. The only voice I don’t really agree with is Rufus’. I don’t know, the voice actor does a good job, it’s just not what he sounds like in my head.

On the game play side, overall I really liked it. It’s fluent, the materia is spot on and the technical RPG elements are there. The only gripes I really have concern the spell casting, the AI of the characters you don’t control at the moment, and the ATB.

I have nothing against that my spell casting can be interrupted. What I didn’t like that the ATB bar used was gone and also the MP, even if the spell hadn’t been cast. This made it really difficult to judge when ti use level 3 spells because you could potentially loose a large amount of MP with no spell cast. The AI is kinda dumb in a lot of places, which I think is partly to force you to switch characters often, but I don’t like how they’re doing it. I would have really liked something like the Gambit system in FFXII (if less complex) or something like what Kingdom Hearts does. Just... some amount of control would have been nice. Also I would have liked if the ATB bar filled just a bit faster.

Sometimes it was hard to judge which enemy attacks could be blocked and which couldn’t so I hope in the next game they can do something with that. And improve on the dodge roll. Because right now it has no iframes whatsoever.

I’ll tackle the story (and the ending) in another post because this is already getting long enough, but safe to say I loved it.

So. Dungeons. They’re not bad. And they really sat down and thought them through. In many of them are little game play quirks to make things more interesting like the hand crane-thing and the pump in the sewers. But I feel like the train graveyard and the dungeon in chapter 17 (the secret lab, got no idea what its name is in English) slightly overstay their welcome. Especially, like I said earlier, the train graveyard threw the pacing off which is sad because the original game had such great pacing.

Which is why I’m so ambivalent on how they used Sephiroth in this game. New players who never played the original or any FF ever, won’t ever experience the same tense build-up on who that character is and the truly iconic horror scene in the tower after you escape the prison-cells. I’m sad for new players missing out on that. (But I can see that the bloodbath would have pushed the rating, so I can see why they didn’t keep it in. Still sad about it though.)

The music in this game is great, and when you really listen it can spoil the hell out of the story (for people familiar with the compilation). Most tracks are so well redone and the production value and quality is insane. Not sure what more I can add since I’m practically tone deaf on my best days, so I’ll leave that here.

Lastly, I don’t mind the linearity. I think the closest I can compare it to are FFX and FFXII. Yes, those games are also full of ‘corridors’, they just trick you into thinking they aren’t. And while the Remake cannot fully trick me, since it is taking place in a city, the places we can go to are so large, I did not feel it even being remotely close to approaching claustrophobic. (That sentence sounds wrong for some reason, but I cannot see why. English wrangling is exhausting.)

So that’s it for now. Feel free to message me or reblog or whatever. I would love to hear other people’s opinions on this game and discuss it.

[shawnthewonder]

It took a while, but my review of Final Fantasy VII Remake is here!

[breezeinmonochromenight]

Okay so I know that Dirge of Cerberus was poorly received and one of the reasons was because of Weiss. Do you have any idea why?

I’ve honestly never heard that criticism in my life. Like. Ever. Lol.

DoC is a mess because it’s not an RPG but also not a shooter and it ultimately satisfies no one. It plays a bit like Devil May Cry, but also lacks the refined combat that makes that series popular like Devil May Cry 2. The story itself just feels kind of all over the place and tries to cover a lot of ground to relate back to the original game, but it is also simultaneously really boring and feels like a total ass pull in different places.

The only criticism I can personally recall about Weiss (and the Tsviets tbh) specifically is that the game goes through allllll this trouble to set up Deepground + so much other shit, yet fails to really develop its highest ranking members (who serve as your bosses and ally) into memorable characters that are on par with the OG cast. So you spend the game waiting for a glimpse of literally anyone else from the OG game. Weiss is already far more interesting in FFVIIR than he ever was in DoC.

A good example of this kind of shit in action is Genesis’ appearance in this game in the secret ending. You keep finding the tiniest of breadcrumbs that eventually lead to unlocking the secret ending (the bit with Genesis waking up and picking up Weiss), which is obviously supposed to be taken as a Big Deal, but like... Crisis Core came out a year and some change after DoC. So with no real character development you’re just sitting there like ‘uh. okay. what the fuck was his deal?’ That kind of thing.

Also DoC got mixed reviews from critics (somewhere around 50-60% on your typical 100% scale) — not poor ones. That’s important to note because Square-Enix had pretty much been turning out (mostly) bangers in the series that scored like 90% with critics (or higher) until like the mid-late 2000’s. It sort of caused this mentality that any entry into the series that’s not a flawless masterpiece is worthless — it’s why you hear shit like ‘Final Fantasy X-2/XV/XIII/etc. are fucking garbage!!!11!!!’, and yet critically each of these these games sit at around ~85% positive reviews. So like, while DoC is by no means a great game, it’s not quite the pile of shit people (who more often than not were toddlers when the game came out) frequently exaggerate it to be.

[simnes]

I posted 150 times in 2021

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#i used the nibelheim sky from the promise in the background <3

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

HIGH FIVE

2079 notes • Posted 2021-09-07 15:40:11 GMT

#4

AERITH'S RED DRESS

2219 notes • Posted 2021-07-18 16:10:09 GMT

#3

RED & PINK DRESSES | @aerith-week

3064 notes • Posted 2021-02-09 16:05:36 GMT

#2

CLOUD IN CGI SCENES

3278 notes • Posted 2021-03-03 16:04:06 GMT

#1

NAILED IT, I KNOW.

4267 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 15:39:36 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[agentperezbian]

Why do video game reviewers as a collective suck at games? If you give them a game that requires them to do anything but hold R2 to shoot, suddenly the game is too hard and therefore trash.

It's especially hilarious since people were complaining that a lack of turn based would mean that Remake would just be mash X to win. But now that it turns out that's not the case, it's too hard.

Pretty soon someone is going to call FFVIIR "the Dark Souls of FF"

[dundunny]

FFVIIR Review: Whispers

I just beat it, and it somehow was worse than I expected. Let me preface this by saying I play through the original 1997 game once every year or two, so I’m one of those hardcore fans that probably never would’ve been satisfied. I still tried to enter with an open mind, but Square still somehow fucked it up.

Here’s the biggest problem: the Whispers.

Did the developers look at the most beloved entry in the Final Fantasy series and think the story wasn’t interesting enough? Everything was going fine with the reactor mission, and then suddenly these wraith-like creatures showed up with Aeris and Cloud’s first encounter, and I could immediately tell someone--probably Nomura--thought no, no, it wasn’t a good plot and I need to rub my balls all over this.

Here’re the problems:

Was “destiny” ever a theme of Final Fantasy VII? By throwing this in, and putting so much emphasis on it, it takes away from other themes: identity, capitalism, environmentalism, memory, mental illness...

Destiny doesn’t add anything beneficial and if anything contradicts what’s there. You’re telling me the planet creates these Whispers to ensure the fate that the planet has determined is carried out. Great. I’m certain it didn’t predict Jenova. Why not have those things fight her then because surely she’s fucking up the planet’s script.

I want you to imagine your favorite moments from Final Fantasy VII, and now I want you to imagine it with these wraiths floating around in circles all over the place. They’re visually very distracting. Someone’s dying? Oops, there goes a wraith flying over their face. Showdown with Rufus? There they are circling like demented crows.

A huge part of the fun of Final Fantasy VII was trying to figure out Sephiroth’s intentions. If you start having these flashes of the future, then that detective work is taken away. We’re literally seeing meteor and Aeris’ death. Great.

You can tell these wraiths aren’t important because at some point the characters just straight up ignore them even though they’re floating right next to them. It’s so obvious the developers were shoehorning them in and watching it is beyond painful.

It all culminates in that fiasco of a final chapter. It’s impossible for anyone to finish playing that and think that was a good chapter and ending to the game. I’m still confused what was going on. So all the Whispers fused together to form a giant one... and why are we fighting it? We’re fighting destiny? Or we’re working alongside the planet’s destiny? What is happening? I thought I’d walk to the end of that highway, see the dawn approaching or something, and all the characters give their two cents about the upcoming journey. Instead I’m floating in space fighting... Whisper Bahamut... to accomplish... what?

Honestly, even with all the complaints I’m about to follow up with in the next couple of posts, I’m gonna say I would’ve been fine with the remake if not for the Whispers. I would’ve stilled bitched about some things, but overall I would’ve said it was a nice game to play. Now I say if you’re a fan, don’t play it because you’re gonna get pissed off. If you’ve never played this before, don’t because it just gets so fucking confusing at the end.

I don’t know why I’m surprised after the fiasco that is Final Fantasy XV. Square, you need either fire Nomura or lock him in a room, tell him to work for ten years on the most epic installment of Final Fantasy, and then throw that shit away when he’s done.

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

[avoutput]

Final Fantasy VII Legacy || Nomura, Complex?

This is the 3rd out of 3 articles. Find the second here.

It’s time to get down to mythril tacks. At this point, I have talked about what this game meant to me when it was released and how it’s newest installment fared as a game. Finally, it’s time to talk about the impact the Remake has on what has unexpectedly become a robust and diverse universe. What does this mean for us at large, the players? This is a no-holds-barred SPOILER frenzy about anything and everything in the Squaresoft/Square-Enix pantheon. This means not just the games in the orbit of Final Fantasy VII, but the entire catalog at Square-Enix. To be honest, this is just the introduction, I don’t know if I even have an intent of going so far beyond the purview of the Remake, but in the spirit of the Final Fantasy gatekeeper, Tetsuya Nomura, I refuse to limit myself.

It’s been almost exactly a month since I started writing this article. It took so long to come back to this because I kept finding more and more content related to Final Fantasy 7 that I either forgot about or didn’t even know existed. On my own shelf sits Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. I decided to watch Advent Children immediately after beating Remake. As a movie fan and amateur critic, the film is littered with terrible film decisions and was clearly the work of people who spend much of their time penning and creating video game stories. It’s a series of cutscenes without a controller attached and at a certain point, you realize Advent Children was never meant for film fans, but for fans of the game. Specifically for fans desiring an epilogue and more directly fans of Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth. The story is almost unintelligible because there is tons of connective tissue left to be assumed by the viewer. It is at once too far removed from FF7 in both linear real time and in-game universe time to be recognizable, and simultaneously inexplicable in what has transpired and why. It takes a crack at explaining it from moment to moment, but largely, it looks like they were looking for excuses to push the characters to act. I am not trying to review the film but rather my intent is to create a modus opendai for the gatekeeper, Mr. Nomura. The more I learned about the world of FF7 that was being created over the years, the more it seemed to lean on the stylings of this one man. In a way, Nomura launched Squaresoft and himself into a whole new stratosphere of fame and broke all expectations. In my first article, I mentioned that for a certain generation of fans, it was the perfect storm, but I would later find out the cause of the storm was Nomura breaking open lightning in a bottle, releasing his brand of design on the world with a multi-million dollar international company backing him.

If I may, let me take a parallel series by the same creator infested by the meta of his own other original creations, namely Kingdom Hearts. In its inception, it looks like two producers at Square were trying to make a 3-D adventure platformer game with characters as popular as Mario, but only the biggest brand on earth, Disney, could possibly beat the king of platformers. Nomura was… walking by and pushed himself into the conversation, and they decided if they could do it, they would let him direct. (Read more here) Yada yada yada, Kingdom Hearts was created. While I can’t seem to find (and didn’t look too hard to find) proof, I can only imagine that with KH having a tenuous new relationship with big-corp Disney, they focused more on a simple game that was straightforward. KH is very much a disney product with a little bit of artificial Nomura sweetener. With its unbridled success, Nomura was unleashed. Kingdom Hearts 2 would go on to be, in my opinion, one of the most unintelligible video game stories ever inscribed to plastic discs. But the power of Nomura’s story-telling is that we all understand it differently. He creates bedrocks, little story islands of unshakable facts that are connected via a salty sea of undefinable liquid moments. Cast out to sea, rudderless and deprived, you try to bring to your mouth this brine only to be dehydrated faster than if you had just sailed the sea and died in the sun between fact islands or lived long enough to tell the tale. And that metaphor is my tribute to Nomura. Long, winding, hard to remember, and just clear enough that you think you got it, but you still have problems with its construction.

It has now been over two months since I have last visited this article. What is keeping me from continuing? The incomplete nature of my knowledge of Final Fantasy VII lore. Unlike the Kingdom Hearts sea, VII is like a series of interconnected caves, and the more you unearth the more you learn. And therein lies the problem. The Nomura-verse is composed of both his methods and his circumstances. His methods, we have discussed, but his circumstance is game development. Unlike movies or books, games obviously have an interactive capability, but they also have a variable development cycle. Some titles come out quickly, others span decades. They also consist of different teams, story writers, directors, and a myriad of producers. This in turn can make it much harder to make a solid universe, especially when new additions start off in a place where a continuous story was never meant to exist. Nomura is at once hindered and strengthened by his circumstances. He can’t tell a better story because the development cycle of his vision is variable, and success is based on sales and popularity. Without success, he can’t create a new addition, and often in games, the end is meant to tie the whole thing up. Were there to be a sequel, a whole new story is thought up and tacked on wherever it fits. Gamers are pretty forgiving of this concept. Still, at the same time, Nomura probably wouldn’t make a concise story because it's not his style. For comparison, see the Dark Souls series. A game that both has deep lore and an involving story, but at the same time, the game doesn’t require you to know a single point to continue moving forward. This is almost the antithesis of Nomura’s style. In Souls, they let the player decide to explore its story caves, but doesn’t confront them with it to continue advancing. This is a strength of  video games. A strength that Nomura keeps using to his disadvantage.

Yet, Final Fantasy VII still excelled to unparalleled heights. It engages you in the same way all of the previous games in the series have, but with a slight departure on the strict fantasy theme, instead a merger with steampunk or semi-future. The series was changed forever, and so was gaming. Instead of doing the Dragon Quest method, expanding on the same universe design with different stories, Final Fantasy was emboldened to try completely random approaches with vector entries like VIII and X. For longtime fans, or fans of their original design, Every future title, MMO or Single Player, would go on to be successful, but not fully realized in their original context. Even the return to form in IX was much more playful than any of the original six entries. Gaming franchises have since become playgrounds for developers. Once they are accepted by fans, developers are emboldened and experiment with what would normally be a new IP, but instead use the financial shield of the famous namesake to move forward with new ideas. And in the case of Final Fantasy, when this concept of change works, it means that every numbered game becomes a wildcard. It’s a double edged sword for a gaming franchise that dates back to the 8-bit era. It has fans over 40 years old by this point and they may be willing to buy anything new. But this isn’t new to you and it isn’t a revelation for me. Final Fantasy VII Remake causes me to reckon with these demons I had buried years ago. It rips off a scab I thought had healed. I had given up on the past, a past where I was excited for a singular story, contained in a single universe, in a single title. I had given up on the glory years of Final Fantasy, but the Remake took me back and said, what if we told you everything you remember about the original was true, and everything we added after that was also true, even though you probably didn’t play it or even know it existed. Even if you do your very best, you probably won’t be able to track the story or interconnected characters if you aren’t in the know. It’s like joining a group of long time friends that are constantly referencing inside jokes, all of them just winking at each other, nudging you in the ribs and asking, “Do ya get it?” Truly, the Remake series thus far makes me feel lost at sea when what I wanted to feel like was coming home.

This retrospective has left me feeling broken. Based on the end of the FFVIIR, I sought out to reconcile all of the loose ends to all the connected media. However, spending time with the prequel Crisis Core for over around 40 hours, I realized this was a crapshoot. None of it mattered. It didn’t enrich the characters, it only made the story longer. It just added wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey “facts” to an otherwise complete(ish) origin point. The FFVII universe can’t handle the weight that is put on it. It’s a faulty bridge over a treacherous pass. On the other hand, that same bridge for some is a point of excitement. You tread the boards, one by one, testing your weight, hoping to get to the other side intact. And I think that is why we keep trying these games and why they keep getting made. We don’t want the fun to end, despite the fact that it has nothing left for us to be excited by. It’s a closed loop that we keep looking for something new in. By the end of the Remake, we are somewhere between ⅓ or ½ way across the faulty bridge, dangling between where we have been and where it is taking us. At this point, I am too mentally exhausted from trying to make sense of it all. Yet I am incapable of not enjoying it, the mental somersaults one does to understand the interconnected mess that is Final Fantasy VII. It’s too dear to me. I got on the bridge for so many reasons, but the biggest one is to be on the other side with all of the other fans who dared to play and dared to complete the game. To be in the know, to wink across the room. I want to be in that hyper-critical utopia where we all have one thing in common: We played Final Fantasy VII in 1997. And we all have something to say about it.

[theoreticalconstruct]

2020 Fic Review

I wrote slightly more than I thought last year.

Posted works (not counting reposts from earlier years that I hadn’t put on AO3:)

The Obvious Choice (2320 words) - SWTOR, Corso/M!Smuggler fluff. Someday I will write more about these two - I don’t like Corso with a lady Smuggler but I really enjoyed his relationship with the male Smuggler.

A Dangerous Gift (2566 words) - SWTOR. A version of the Rehanna/Nomar reunion that felt more like what my LS Sith would do than the version in the game.

Changing the Subject (2045 words, Explicit) - FFVIII, Quistis/Rinoa for an exchange, Smut 4 Smut 2020 - I think this was my actual request. I was going to do a longer version but had some trouble and decided to keep it relatively short.

Only The Pain You Want (5829 words, Explicit) - SWTOR, Mostly-LS Sith Warrior/Theron Shan. Pinch hit for a very specific request that sort of developed a mind of its own. Not one of my “canon” characters but I did enjoy the dynamic.

Every Part (1056 words, Explicit) - Star Wars original trilogy. Creepy Force-enabled sexplay between the Emperor and old man Darth Vader, because I saw the request and for some reason I just had to try it. 

Lace (416 words, briefly explicit) - FFVI, Setzer/Daryl/Maria, Daryl loving lace. I didn’t say it explicitly in the fic but it follows the other Setzer/Daryl works I wrote with Daryl as a trans woman, because I really like that idea and the idea that she’d be in love with symbols of a thing she couldn’t have until she was an adult.

A Cacophony of Self (850 words) - FFVIIr, written immediately after I finished the game. The idea that Aerith had died in alternate timelines because of various choices she had made, only to be brought back by Fate, and could remember all of that... it appealed to me as an explanation for why she seems to know more than the others.

Dramatic Liberties (1189 words) - FFVIIr. Missing scene set when the group is doing side missions before going for the Shinra tower. The coliseum went completely insane with the “battle couple” commentary for Cloud and Aerith and I figured that they’d do the same to Barret and Tifa, and it would be funny. I feel like it was funnier in my head.

Siderophobia (512 words) - FFVIIr set immediately after the game. If Aerith is afraid of the sky, imagine how she must feel about the stars. This was Aerith/Tifa fluff plus a fair bit of fear of the unknown. 

The Only Choice (2014 words) - FFVIIr, Barret/Tifa. The game doesn’t show Tifa making the decision to go and try to question Corneo in either version. But the impression I got from the remake is that she would’ve had to have laid the groundwork for it prior to actually going, and I went with the idea that Barret didn’t actually know ahead of time and accidentally found out.

[cosmiciaria]

It’s heartbreaking for me to see Tabata leaving Square Enix and at the same time I believe it’s the only good choice for this poor man who went through hell for FFXV and received only hatred in response. People need to learn about the history of FFXV’s development and try to understand what it takes to undergo such hardships in order to bring a full game to life within deadlines. I was really looking forward to a Type-0′s sequel (if you follow me, you know it’s one of my favorite games, as I stated in my review) and it saddens me because I know it’s never going to happen, not without Tabata in the company. And it also breaks my heart to know that, despite him creating his own games now, he’ll never receive the recognition he deserves, as it already happened with Sakaguchi and his games, like ‘The Last Story’ or ‘Lost Odyssey’. I can’t believe Tabata went through all this only to be thrown away like rubbish at the end. SE, you should look yourself in the mirror for a change! 

I’m the first one to admit that FFXV isn’t perfect - hell, I’ve played like five times and platinumed it, and each time I encountered more and more plot holes and mistakes. And don’t even get me started on the dlc thing. But I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the chemistry between the bros, and I cried too much for my own good with the ending. There are worse FF’s out there, there were too many dlc’s already for many games, there were too long development cycles for many games too, and I don’t see anyone complaining about those - except for poor Tabata man who did all he could. 

I do hope FFVIIR saves the franchise and the company - but judging from what we little know about it (episodic, some changes are confirmed and so on so on) I don’t think it’s going to work. But I hope I’m wrong, I hope SE proves me wrong, and I hope Tabata gets to live a simpler and happier life now that he doesn’t have any deadline or pressure from the higher ups. 

I’m sadder than I should be? Why??? Really, I really wanted a Type-0′s sequel. I really wanted to see Tabata working on another FF title. And now that’s never going to happen. Ever. The end. 

[thaithanhbinh]

Nhận xét nhanh Final Fantasy VII Remake: Ngôi vị game nhập vai hay nhất 2020 đã có chủ?

Như vậy là kể từ lần đầu tiên có mặt trên thị trường tại E3 2019 vào tháng 9 năm ngoái, đến hôm nay thì fan hâm mộ cuối cùng cũng được chạm tay vào bản demo của Final Fantasy VII Remake sau khi Square Enix bất ngờ thông báo trên các tài khoản mạng xã hội chính thức của mình. Sau đây, mời các bạn đến với bài nhận xét nhanh về tựa game này do Final Fantasy Fan Club VN thực hiện.

Về gameplay: Rất đã tay. Những đòn đánh của nhân vật cảm giác cực kỳ có lực, kèm theo hiệu ứng đẹp mắt. Cơ chế của game khá phức tạp và không dễ để làm quen trong một vài phút. Bạn cần phải để ý từng chi tiết từ cách phối hợp các nhân vật, đòn đánh của kẻ địch đến tình trạng của nhân vật.

ATB cũng là một yếu tố người chơi luôn phải dành mối quan hệ khi không có ATB thì nghỉ item, nghỉ Ability. FFVIIR cho phép ra lệnh cho nhân vật còn lại của nhóm trong các trường hợp bạn không muốn switch qua lại giữa các thành viên quá nhiều. Việc có nhiều thành phần tham gia khiến ban đầu bạn khá lúng túng và bị boss hành mặc dù độ khó không phải quá cao.

Điểm trừ rõ ràng nhất trong gameplay là camera làm việc không thực sự hiệu quả, gây nhiều khó khăn trong các trận đánh mà đối thủ có kích cỡ lớn. Mẹo nhỏ cho các bạn là hãy chỉnh camera ở chế độ xa nhất, sẽ giảm bớt sự khó chịu.

Màn chơi đầu tiên Bombing Mission khá tuyến tính nên đang có ít bí mật hay ngõ ngách để khám phá. Những ai đã chơi qua Final Fantasy XIII thì có thể nhận ra nhiều nét tương đồng về cách thiết kế bản đồ. Cách nhân vật nhảy qua chướng ngại vật khi chạy lên một “biểu tượng” nào đó cũng rất XIII.

Về đồ hoạ: Cơ bản là đẹp. Mô hình nhân vật và môi trường được làm rất chi tiết, việc chuyển đổi qua lại giữa CG và in-game rất mượt, gần như không thể nhận ra. Hiệu ứng đòn đánh đẹp mắt, nhiều màu sắc, đây là thứ mình vô cùng hài lòng dù cho có thể nhiều anh em nhận xét là bị rối. Phim CG thì khỏi phải bàn vì trình độ của Square Enix quá thượng thừa rồi. Tuy nhiên cử động của nhân vật đôi chỗ còn cứng, nếu chú ý một chút là nhận ra được ngay.

3. Về âm thanh: Chỉ có thể miêu tả bằng từ “hoàn hảo”. Tiếng của các loại vũ khí, của những đòn đánh hay của các vật dụng va vào nhau đều nghe rõ mồn một, rất đã tai. Nhạc nền không có điểm gì để chê khi những giai điệu quen thuộc đều đã được đưa lên tầm cao mới.

Vì mới chỉ là demo dài chưa đến 40 phút nên mình cũng không nhận xét quá sâu mà xin hẹn các bạn ở bài review chi tiết khi game phát hành. Demo này là bản được sử dụng từ cách đây khá lâu nên không có gì đảm bảo game chính thức sẽ như vậy. Hi vọng Square Enix có những thay đổi, điều chỉnh để loại bỏ các vấn đề còn có thêm.

KẾT LUẬN: Final Fantasy VII Remake là sản phẩm cực kỳ đáng mong chờ. Mình tin rằng lần này Square Enix sẽ không làm fan hâm mộ thất vọng.

Tiểu sử các nhân vật trong Final Fantasy VII Remake, game nhập vai đỉnh nhất 2020 (P1)

Theo Nhịp Sống Việt

Link bài gốcCopy link

Nguồn: GameK

Bài viết Nhận xét nhanh Final Fantasy VII Remake: Ngôi vị game nhập vai hay nhất 2020 đã có chủ? đã xuất hiện đầu tiên vào ngày Đồ Chơi Công Nghệ.

source https://dochoicongnghe.com.vn/danh-gia-nhanh-final-fantasy-vii-remake-ngoi-vi-game-nhap-vai-hay-nhat-2020-da-co-chu-12901.html

[ggsgamer]

Review: Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy VII Remake is finally here and let's just say Jay loved it! Click the link to check it out! #FF7R #FFVIIR

A touching reunion.

Title: Final Fantasy VII Remake Platform: PlayStation 4 (reviewed) Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Square Enix Release date: Out now. Tl;dr: The JRPG that blew you away in 1997 is about to do it all over again using just the Midgar portion of the game in this fantastic reimagining. Price: £50/$60 Family Focus?: Click here for more information

In 1997, I was introduced to a…

[ramadityaknight]

E3 2019 - YANG MENGGEDOR DADA GUE MINGGU INI

"No, I am not forgetting my dorkiness! This blog, I mean, and here's the reason!"

Minggu ini gelaran E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2019 baru aja kelar. FYI, E3 adalah ajang di mana segala hal kekinian tentang video game diumumin ke publik.

I'll make it short. For a retro gamer like me, ada dua momen yang bikin dada ini bener-bener kayak digedor-gedor. Air mata ngucur, badan gemeteran, dan mulut teriak "F*D%^%#86&##$%%P&#^@&%!" In a good way, tentu saja! :)

So, yang gue tulis di bawah ini bukan review lengkap bin akurat apalagi ulasan profesional yang disokong data akademis (what the?). This is just my dorky opinion, kay?

----------

* Nintendo Direct E3 2019

NOTE: Tonton tayangan lengkapnya di sini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr9eAtwcYlo

Nintendo and me. Kayaknya nggak usah diceritain lagi deh, about how we grow up together and become great lover to each other. So, ini beberapa hal yang menurut gue keren dari Nintendo Direct E3 2019.

Banyak game baru bakal diluncurin, seperti Luigi's Mansion 3, Pokemon Sword and Shield, de el el. Tapi gue cuma bahas apa yang menurut gue menarik. Selebihnya nonton aja di video direct-nya, ya!

1. Rilis ulang dan remake game klasik

Beberapa game klasik diluncurin ulang dan dibuatin remake-nya. Collection of Mana (kumpulan game Final Fantasy Adventure yang sekarang diluncurin versi globalnya), game Contra terbaru (gue lupa namanya, tapi asli gameplay ama musiknya keren), dan Panzer Dragoon adalah tiga di antaranya. Hmmm, sebenernya ada juga The Witcher 3, dan katanya game ini emang bagus. Sayang, gue nggak punya kenangan sama yang satu ini, but I am happy it will come back to Nintendo Switch!

Buat fans Nintendo, game yang di-remake dan bakal jadi spesial banget adalah The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Animasinya cute dan musiknya keren banget! Kayaknya bakal ada mode untuk bikin dungeon sendiri deh, but we'll wait and see. As for me, game ini emang nggak terlalu ngasih nostalgia, tapi soundtracknya asli bikin meleleh!

Tapi yang paling menarik perhatian gue adalah Trials of Mana. Ini adalah remake dari Seiken Densetsu 3 RPG bikinan Squaresoft (sekarang Square Enix) yang pernah diluncurin di Super Nintendo 24 tahun silam. Dulu game ini cuma ada dalam bahasa Jepang mengingat kompleksnya dialog kalo harus diterjemahin. But, now it will be globally launched, dan dibuat dalam format remake pula!

Did I say Contra? Game tembak-tembakan jadul yang dulu selalu nemenin liburan SD dan hari-hari di bulan Ramadhan gue itu bakal dirilis ulang di konsol-konsol game terkini. Kalo nggak salah, bakal ada 10 game, termasuk versi Nintendo, ding dong alias arcade, dan Sega Mega Drive bakal disertain dalam bundle-nya.

2. Kelanjutan The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Tahun 2017 lalu, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild berhasil bikin fans Nintendo melayang dalam petualangan menakjubkan tanpa batas (Chairil Anwar mana Chairil Anwar?). Nah, di akhir Nintendo Direct, diputer deh tuh trailer super dark nan misterius, yang ternyata kelanjutan dari game tersebut! Sekarang memang masih dalam tahap pengembangan, so mari kita tunggu saja!

Btw, gue juga nonton beberapa video reaksi dari Nintendo Direct. Salah satunya adalah streaming MissClickGaming, gamer cewek yang jadi salah satu channel YouTube favorit gue.

Check her reaction out over here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwjNaIX737g

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* Final Fantasy VII Remake - Square Enix E3 2019 Presentation

NOTE: Tonton trailer gamenya (full 2019) di sini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3xSGv3Hfio&t=12s

NOTE 2: Tonton presentasi lengkapnya di sini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvzzivkK28

It's impossible. Nggak mungkin gue bisa ngegambarin isi hati gue, atau segala hal spesial yang dirasain gamer seluruh dunia terhadap game ini. Final Fantasy VII yang berhasil merebut hati banyak gamer, bahkan sebagian menganggapnya sebagai game sakral. So, dengan segala kerendahan hati (lebih tepatnya merengek untuk tidak dihujat), let me put my humble opinion here...

Waktu gue denger suara pointer khas FFVII di video presentasinya, jujur gue nggak bisa napas. Apalagi waktu musik pembuka presentasinya menggelegar, air mata gue langsung meleleh gitu aja.

Untung gue dapet kesempatan bernapas waktu sang produser Yoshinori Kitase dipanggil naik panggung. Doski bilang, Final Fantasy VII Remake (selebihnya gue tulis FFVIIR aja ya) bakal dibundling dalam dua disc Blu-Ray dan akan dirilis dalam beberapa part. Artinya, ini game bakal gede banget dan...dan wow! Nggak kebayang berapa lama gamer butuh waktu untuk menikmati konten-kontennya.

Selanjutnya demo gameplay FFVIIR. Dua tokoh utama, Cloud dan Barret bertarung melawan beberapa musuh. Di sini, didemokan bagaimana cara main FFVIIR, yaitu gabungan dari action RPG dan turn-based RPG.

"You are selling me!" jerit gue tanpa malu ketika mendengarkan musik dan dialog Cloud Barret. Musiknya bro, EPIC ABIS! Berasa nonton film di bioskop! And what's that? Dialog antar karakter sangat harmonis dan luwes? Percakapan mereka natural banget, kayak bukan game but...but but wow! Asli gue nggak bisa ngomong!

"Penonton ingin tahu. Kapan Tifa akan muncul?" tanya announcer. Yap, secara Tifa itu tokoh utama cewek yang paling digandrungi gamer FFVII. Gue pribadi emang lebih suka sama Aerith, tapi gara-gara antusiasme penonton, gue juga jadi deg-degan nungguin kemunculan Tifa.

...dan trailer FFVIIR diputer, dan musiknya keren, dan adegannya keren, dan gue nangis, dan TIFA!!!!!!

I cant' say more about my feelings nor the others toward this game. Gue percaya, jutaan gamer bakal nunggu peluncuran FFVIIR perdananya 3 Maret 2020 mendatang.

Setelah Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII adalah game yang menyimpan banyak kenangan buat gue. Again; can't say more, so....until we meet again!