#I offer you some Chadley materia!

[shuttershocky]

have you thought about final fantasy 7 rebirth since you finished it?

Oh yeah I certainly have!

Huge turnaround from 7Remake where I finished it and went "Alrighty it wasn't great but it was still FF7" and then I got more and more sore about it and realized I really didn't like what I played, to the point where I had no interest in 7Rebirth until the demo came out and I saw how improved it felt.

7Remake kept actively introducing new bullshit that sucked like a fairly hefty loading screen every 5 minutes of walking (that's why you had to keep squeezing yourself through narrow gaps) or getting pinballed around by 20 tiny guys attacking you from behind while you all move like glaciers.

On the other hand, most of the annoying flaws of 7Rebirth come from it actually being more like FF7. Tons of minigames that keep breaking the flow of the main game, a new character every ten minutes, being stuck inside the Gold Saucer forever, all stuff I made peace with years ago.

That distinction between the kinds of flaws they have is important to me, because I thought 7Remake was at its strongest when it was physically being the experience of FF7 that existed in your imagination/memories.

The Shinra building is a great example. You take the stairs again in 7Remake because it's funny, and you see Tifa easily jogging up the steps while Barret and even Cloud start fucking dying. She has to encourage the guys to keep pace with her, Cloud is silently wondering how the hell is she fitter than a SOLDIER, and Barret almost loses hope when they're two floors away. It's just like how you remembered it as a kid, which is good AND slightly different from what the original actually was, because in the original FF7 Tifa calls Barret a slur when she tells him to shut up and climb.

7Rebirth is a game that realizes that particular strength of 7Remake, where you don't have to be faithful to the original's events, but to its spirit. Yuffie for example was encountered outside of Junon and was missable, so she didn't have too much of a character beyond getting motion sickness and stealing materia. Her role AND character is greatly expounded on in 7Rebirth, where she encounters Avalanche repeatedly after Junon and instead begs to join them after realizing they're the best chance Wutai has at defeating Shinra, while becoming something of a bratty little sister to Cloud and even like a (very annoying) second daughter to Barret, since she's the only one in the group as hardcore anti-Shinra as Barret is.

It doesn't feel like they're being mixing things up for the sake of being new, but rather "this is how much more we could have done with Yuffie". She'll do the same spinning victory animation as the original, still vomits within 5 minutes of getting into any kind of vehicle, but now she loudly argues with Aerith "Shinra are not the real enemy!" Gainsborough, saying the same things Barret tells Tifa in 7Remake about the problem of good people working under evil masters, in her own, less mature and less eloquent Yuffie way.

They do this with everybody in the cast (barring Sephiroth, as it's becoming more clear after 7Remake that Sephiroth is in some time loop shenanigans where he's already been through FF7 once and thus he's real different) where 7Rebirth rethinks and rebuilds the cast's quirks, traits, and relationships with each other and with the world in ways that just make sense. Cid's not the same tough grouch when you meet him that he was in the original, but why would he be? You don't go to Rocket town yet in 7Rebirth, you meet Cid when he's still pulling his best customer service face! But when Barret mentions how their group aren't friends with anybody that works with Shinra (Chadley's a double agent it doesn't count), Cid easily, verbally, pushes him back in a way that lets you know Cid the leader from the original is still in there.

7Rebirth's just great, I liked it very much. Probably the best title the PS5 has got to offer, and I'm counting all the PS4 games ported to the PS5 in there just so it's got to deal with actual competition. The locations and characters are so alive and vivid, and even the most mind-numbing chores in the game are just so different from each other (there's a fucking minigame for picking mushrooms rather than just letting you press A to snatch some) that you really can't say Square didn't give their 110% in making Gaia an interactive place, even if the only minigame I really enjoyed was Queen's Blood.

Oh and the combat kicks so much ass. The best, maybe the only truly great ARPG battle system Square has made since Kingdom Hearts. That's a very important factor in considering how much I loved 7Rebirth compared to 7Remake, but I've talked too much about it already.

[meltykarasu]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Advent Calendar — Dec. 2

I think that FFVII Remake's commitment to expanding out the story of Final Fantasy VII starts after the Mako Reactor and showing more of the horrified reactions to the event, but it really picks up once you get back down into the Sector 7 Slums.

The slums are a living, breathing environment, and Chapter 3 is dedicated to showing you that by opening with a quick tour of the area and then filling your plate with a litany of side quests that take place over a day not covered by the original game — a brief span of time between Mako Reactor bombings that simply did not exist originally.

This is mostly further gameplay tutorial — going over the ancillary systems that weren't covered in the opening, primarily shops, resting, and weapons. Actually, let's talk about weapons.

Every weapon has a particular niche. The starting weapon is an all-rounder, and each one after that is tuned to a particular playstyle. But each also comes with their own weapon skill. Only by using that given weapon for a time will your character learn that skill permanently, creating incentive to rotate your weapons as you get them. For instance, the new sword Cloud gets, the Iron Blade, is defense-focused and comes with the powerful Triple Slash skill, which is much better than one or even two slashes.

You can also upgrade your weapons with SP, earned on level up. These are powerful and important to keeping early game weapons relevant — no longer does it become a situation where you may as well give up your Mithril Saber for the brand new Hardedge because one of these has better damage. Instead all weapons can be relevant through upgrades and playstyle.

Okay, back to the actual plot.

Tifa showed Cloud around and there was plenty of romantic tension to go around as they worked on getting Cloud a reputation for mercenary work with the neighborhood watch. Chadley, an intern for Shinra who wants to take it down from the inside, enlisted Cloud to help him develop new Materia (a worthwhile gameplay reward). Johnny, a strange side character from the original game, showed up and was rescued by Cloud and Tifa from Shinra troops before he could blab about his suspicions. Cloud fought and scrapped through the day against increasingly dangerous foes.

He also rescued some cats.

Barret called an AVALANCHE meeting and determined that Cloud would not be part of the next bombing before proving him with the remainder of his pay. While waiting for the meeting to conclude, Cloud became a darts pro and shot up the leaderboard to number 1.

Cloud was approached by hoodlums looking for Barret. Evidently, they were not hired by Shinra, creating the question of who exactly had hired them. Jessie appeared at Cloud's apartment to offer him a Summon materia — and another job that night, leading to the next chapter.

See you tomorrow!

[monasatlantis]

My Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Review

People I have to be honest with you. I am so tired of this game. Tired of the new Final Fantasy 7 games. Of the fandom. Of the shipping war, of the fact that the only thing that I truly care about in this game, which is the ship I like, has been ruined for me by now and all that Kingdom-Hearts-Like bullshit with Sidegames and different timelines and all that stuff. So my Review is really just a lazy "I hate this game and its fandom and its characters and now even my shippiness is ruined" - kind of review. Not in Interview Style. Just random thoughts that are all over the place, like the ending of this freaking game.

Overall, I can say Gameplay-Vise and Pacing-Vise this game was definitively better than Remake. Tho this pacing has been almost ruined by the immense amount of bullshit Minigames that weren't exactly placed in the game in a well balanced way. Storywise tho, I have to say that Remake was more intriguing and more interesting. With this game, it felt to me like the only "Plot-Relevant" reason to play it, the only thing people really cared about were Aeriths death, Zack and Shippings. Which should not be the only good or interesting reason to play a 120 hours game. But the game had not much else interesting to offer - at least not for me - while I found that Remakes story, despite the fact that I hated the game as whole, was much more interesting and motivating than this one. It was basically 12 chapters of watching Clouds sanity falling apart while NO ONE does anything against it. Boring shit, I tell you. I guess the most interesting thing was Baretts Past. Even tho that story had some holes and wasn't something I was actively waiting for. But it was the most intriguing part of the story, besides waiting for the bullshit answer of why Zack and Biggs are still freaking alive.

I did think the balance between Plot, exploring and and Dungeons was really well done tho. And I also found the way the game was made was really intended to fit for all kind of players. Completionists had LOTS of stuff to do. People who loved the possibility of exploring a relatively open world also had lots to do and lots to look at and to fight and found and find out - tho I do agree with some people that they could have made it feel more natural BUT in the end, fulfilling Chadleys "missions" still ended up having a satisfying conclusion - or so I've heard since I only rush through the main story and the most necessary Sidemissions to get through the game as fast as possible - and not just because it sucks, but also because that is just the way I like to play. (Especially when I play a game for the very first time.) Once again the Minigames and how they were placed in the game kind of ruined this Balance. Like... A LOT. My two friends who completed the game like 100% and do usually like to do Minigames said that even they found that at some point it was really too much and almost getting ridiculous. For me personally, who HATES Minigames, this was a freaking nightmare and a big reason for A LOT of Anger and frustration. So theoretically, if it weren't for the Minimissions, this was a well-balanced game with a good pacing.

The Team of characters is a wild mix which usually isn't a bad thing. But somehow I just can't see them being a good and caring Team at all. Some random people who work together for more or less a common goal. But they do not really feel like a family or anything most of the time. If Aerith felt like, she should tell a lie about how Sephiroth got the black Materia from Cloud, because otherwise they might turn their backs on him instead of realizing that he actually needs help, then that says a lot about the team. Not that I have much good to say about the team, even without the whole Clouds-Sanity-Problem. It just didn't feel like a good team to me at all. Like I didn't feel good between them, if you get my drift. For me a good team is one, were I as a Player feel good among. Its hard to describe the feeling that I am missing with that bunch but I can certainly say that this feeling IS missing. Tho I guess you have to see that they do not know each other for so long and that their reasons and motives differ. The characters in itself weren't bad. Its not like I truly dislike any of them. In fact, I care enough to be angry at them for being stupid or assholes. And I have to say, Barett, who I disliked the most in the first game, has become one of the most sympathetic characters to me in the game. That really surprised me. But I feel like its because while the first game mostly showed him as a terrorists who spits bullshit as excuse for killing people or their jobs or taking their lights or anything, this time you can see a lot more of the softer, human and caring side of this man. He is probably not my favorite but... honestly? At this point, no one is!

Grafik was amazing as usual. The 4K scenes looked like they were right out of a movie. Absolut eye-candy. And I can not help but say that it looked A LOT better than Final Fantasy 16 did. The Soundtrack, as usual, was also amazing. Songs were also all well placed and no song was overused. They outdid themselves with this amazing Title-Song too. I can not stress enough how much more impact a song has on a game and you as a player if a song is "made and sung" by a character from the game about something the the players understand. That is why "Eyes on me" and "1000 Words" were such amazing songs. Because you could feel them and you could somewhat relate to the people singing it because you knew their situation and feelings. So like 100 out of 10 points for no Promises to keep. Battlesystem was doable. Nothing to argue about there. But as long as it is doable even for someone like me, I do not put it high on my priority list. Tho I think I should mention it. I did like the new Synergy-Attacks, tho. Nice idea. )Barett and Aerith looked "like a boss", if you get me XD)

Aside from the horror amount of non-optional minigames left, right and center, there were like 2 or 3 other things that really bothered me. First it was the explanation for how Biggs and Zack survived and that was basically a "it was a miracle" - thing that Zack believes was Aeriths doing. Its basically a "A Wizard did it" - kind of explanation. Like... Aerith create a new timeline by cheating or what? Biggs just magically appeared in the Orphanage? WTF?! How is that even a way to create a new timeline? I thought changes and choices would do that? What if the guy who shot the final bullet at Zack got a weapon-malfunction and the thing exploded and knocked out some of the soldiers and then Zack managed to beat the rest and that is how he was saved? It is at least an explanation! And what if Wedge instead of going for his cats, went to save Biggs first, but then gave him to some random guy from sector 7 and only then went for his cats? SOMETHING. ANYTHING that would make freaking sense instead of being a magical deus ex machina. Not to mention that Biggs purpose is absolutely unclear to begin with. Right to the point were he just got shot to death in one of the timelines. Like... why did Aerith save him if his purpose was to never find his purpose and after he though he found it, he just got shot like some random NPC that only survived to make Zack look for his purpose, which is something that actually any random NPC could have done, in fact. The next thing that bothered me is how no one, not even Tifa and Aerith who care so much about Cloud didn't say or do anything about Cloud slowly but surely losing it. He almost killed Tifa, but just because she suddenly remembered him saving her when she was a child, he was suddenly a hero and everything was great. And then she promised him to save him only to let him go on and on and on while his sanity and self-control was obviously fading more and more. When he says he is not like Sephiroth Tifa says that "They know." and "Its okay." But NOTHING is okay and they also do not really KNOW anything, because instead of facing that Cloud has a problem that they need to find a solution for, they just let him almost kill them all and become Sephirots puppet that throws Tifa away and chases Aerith down like a maniac. And Aerith herself isn't any better than Tifa. The harder this problem became, the more she let Tifa handle it until Tifas methods didn't work anymore either. And at the end, she decided into fooling Cloud to believing she is still alive even tho in the end the realization what really happened will crush him even more on top of everything else. These are the two girls that are supposed to care about him the most and they just allow him to first go insane and then keep him in the most instable state he ever was in, instead of allowing him to finally crush so they can work on helping him to get better and get his self-control back. The third thing, is that sometimes the characters didn't feel like themselves. Like... they did things that I would have not thought they would do or say or that made their relationships with each other look bad, even tho it shouldn't be that way. Like Aerith in Kalm. When she was holding on to Cloud after saying they were "kind of" on a date and she kept doing that even tho both he and Tifa felt obviously uncomfortable about it. Yes, she is a tease, but this was going on for just too long and felt absolutely stupid AFTER she told Cloud to fix things with Tifa. Not to mention that the two girls are obviously friends who do not which to argue about Cloud. That just didn't feel like something she would do to this extent. For a few seconds as a tease? Sure! But even holding on after Cloud was trying to push her off? No! (We could also talk about how it was not right of the Devs to position Aerith and Cloud on that stupid Watertower that was supposed to be Cloud and Tifas spot. It was respectless regarding both ships, if you ask me.)

The ending was absolutely stupid! Aeriths death scene was ruined by the confusing jumping between "dead" "saved" "dead" "saved" "dead?" "saved?" "not dead?" "not saved?" - scenes. Even with Cloud crying there was no emotional impact here because as the player the confusion won over the sadness. Getting this stupid "Cloud thinks Aerith is still alive" - kind of goodbye instead of the actual water-burial scene was also so damn frustrating. Neither he nor we managed to get a satisfying kind of "closure" - moment thanks to all that timeline bullshit. I also do not like that the whole theme of that Remake-Bullshit-Idea was to "defy fate" and yet in one of the timelines, Aerith died exactly the same way she did before, despite the fact that Sephiroth might actually sabotage himself by killing her. So why exactly did we play this game? Why did we go though all the changes just to end up the same way as before + all that timeline bullshit? I am not one of those "Remake the game 1:1" - kind of people but I agree with them at this one point. At least kill the girl of a bit later and in a different way instead of repeating the one thing that REALLY would be an impactful change.

I need to talk about shipping here, but I really don't want to. The Clerith-Game was so darn strong in Remake, just to be ruined in Rebirth for whatever stupid reason. I mean, why did I get a date in which Aerith said she loved Cloud for Cloud and not for the parts that remind her of Zack just to end up with a date that basically mirrors her date with Zack, but went totally wrong in the end? How can we go from Cloud almost kissing Tifa in a canon scene to this heartbreaking moment of Cloud cradling Aerith in his Arms when he "thought" she was dead and then "woke her up" again? WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT? Why do we get Marlene telling Zack that Aerith has feeling for Cloud, just for Zack to go find help for Cloud with Aeriths Hairband wrapped around his hand like a lucky charm? And why does someone write the Lyrics of "No Promises to keep" in that way just to say it is not a lovesong? What is wrong with the people in this franchise? I am so sick of this.

This game is NOT a Masterpiece that deserves 10 out of 10 points. Its a walking boring disappointment, full of stupid minigames, timeline bullshit and a Dating-mechanic that doesn't even allow completionists to choose which person they want to go on a date with and on top of all that they do NOT defy fate and yet still managed to ruin THE most iconic freaking scene of any Final Fantasy game! This can only come from a company censoring Tifas big boobs in the first just to showcase them as a selling point in one of their second game. What the hell is wrong with you SE?! And how can you allow the freak that ruined Kingdom Hearts and caused you so much trouble with what should NOT have been Final Fantasy 15 take over such an important project? I can not get all those people loving this game. It sucks! In a totally different way than the first game, but it still freaking sucks!

I give it barely 7 out of 10 points. Its Sin-Counter would be like 300 or so tho, if I would have put it through Game-Sins, just saying.

URG! I really should not play the next installment. Reunion is going to make my crack my PlayStation in anger and frustration. And for what? For people to ruin me 3 shipping-scenes and more timeline bullshit?

I think I am also so disappointed because Remake was that game that had the potential but ruined it and when the second game came out and got those amazing reviews I though, I hoped and I wished for the fact that I would enjoy playing it but I did not. There were barely any moments where I even wanted to open the game for any other reason then finishing it as fast as possible to get rid of it. I just... can not bring myself to love Final Fantasy games anymore. Maybe the Trails-Series has ruined me for other games or maybe everyone else's taste in games has developed with the games over the years and I am still stuck with how thing were with Final Fantasy X. I don't know! But I can not tell you how frustrating it is to - now for the freaking second time - hate a game and do not find it that great why everyone else is all so amazed by it.

And then forcing myself through this freaking toxic fandom and its stupid shipping war.

Just for your information: THERE IS NO CANON SHIP IN THIS GAME! LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT!

And now I need to get the fuck away from the franchise.

[cinderella-gurei]

“I have all of the materia you could ever need!” 

[cloudyfenrir]

@cinderella-gurei​ || [x]

It was like nothing he had experienced before. One second he felt perfectly fine, the other he could barely stand. Noise, unbearable noise filled his ears, or rather his whole being. Was it the shriek of a monster? Or maybe the crash of a building? No, though he could hear it loud and clear, the noise belonged to his insides, whatever they were. He wondered, desperately trying to fix it, but quickly succumbing to the noise. His hands went to his ears as he struggled to even crouch, in an attempt to get rid of it.

At that moment, he even forgot he had been offering some materia to his candidate a few seconds ago. Hands trembling, he lowered his guard once he heard a familiar voice and then, the touch of something warm. He wasn’t slow to hold on to Cloud as tightly as he could, head resting on his chest, just as the other had suggested.

“I...” he muttered shakily, trying to reply to the other if even for a second. Yet, there it was... The steady rhythm, as if it were calling out for him. As if it wanted to comfort him. Yes, that sound, familiar and constant, it diminished the loud noise, replacing it with arriving comfort.

“C-Cloud?” he asked, hands gripping tight to his back as he remained attached to the heartbeats. “Is it... gone? Is the noise... finally gone?”

Cloud wasn’t sure what happened, Chadley seemed just fine earlier; he was pleased with the battle intel submissions, he even had a new materia for the soldier, so to see the boy double over as hands flew up to his ears came as a shock to the blond. He knew exactly what was going on, he had experienced the same feeling many times -- It was panic. Cloud knew how awful it felt but he was an adult, he couldn’t imagine going through that feeling at Chadley’s age... However old he is.

While he wasn’t the best at comforting others, and he didn’t even know if this would work, Cloud simply held the boy and advised him to listen closely -- To listen to his heartbeat.

Cloud found comfort in whittling due to the repetitive action and the sound of carving wood, it allowed his brain to focus on that rather than the crippling fear; Chadley needed something like that and what else was more repetitive than the sound of his heartbeat -- The teen was rather focused on it in the past, so perhaps this was something that would help. His heart was beating a bit faster than normal due to the worry, hopefully that won’t up Chadley’s worry. As a scared voice asked him if the noise was gone, Cloud simply offered a soft but firm pat on the teen’s back.

“Don’t worry about the noise, just keep listening...” Cloud spoke, not about to let go just yet. “Describe what you’re hearing if you have to.”