#i love ff7 but the world building and everything kinda sucks

[fauzhee10069]

TL;DR the event is so one-noted and this Yuffie scene ruins the grim vibe it supposedly has.

Why Wutai War is a JOKE?

Because as adorable as this Yuffie’s scene is, this completely ruins the meaning of Wutai war for me.

As awesome as Sephiroth is as the war hero, it’s very hard to me to take seriously of this infamous, the one and only war in FF7′s world.

First, it was about a dispute of a mako reactor. Shinra wished to place a reactor at Wutai, and thus economically dominate the nation like the rest of the world. Wutai refused to surrender to Shinra authority, starting a long conflict.

The war was already so one-sided with Shinra held the world's most advanced technology, having planes, machine guns, robots, and the genetically enhanced special forces unit, SOLDIER + Sephiroth.

The background history which caused this war actually sometimes happens in some regions in my country too, albeit in much smaller scale when a company wants to exploit some area and evict the original residents.

Sometimes, riots happen and with background similar like this, what could happen is a deathly riot like Sampit conflict which happened back in 2001, though it was not about company vs residents, more like racial war at the time, but the riot scale will be likely more or less similar to this.

But FF7 treated this dispute with full scale militaristic war, instead of riots. It was soldiers against soldiers and the war lasted around 8 years.

What is Wutai? A nation or a region? Why would a war of this magnitude be needed to resolve this?

Perhaps Shinra needed a reason to make use of its technology and super SOLDIERs or that the narrative needed a background reason of how awesome Sephiroth is.

FF7 portrayed this war as tragic thing, by implying the misery of the people affected by this war, they suffered, they needed to flee, they became refugees to survive, bla bla bla, some known causalities of Elmyra’s husband and Sonon’s sister Melphie.

But then we had the last stage to end this war in Fort Tamblin, where Zack being the one-man-army single-handledly eliminated the remaining Wutai soldiers there and when it was almost over... came this little Wutai princess,  Yuffie... having fun with f*ckin’ soldier who just finished off the soldiers who defended her territory???

It ruined the horror of the war which supposedly exists (the narrative really pushed me to believe in that).

I think at the very least, Yuffie and Zack shouldn't have met there.

War in real life, if the enemy is about to capture the very last castle, or defense, they either will execute... or capture the family trapped in there.

That’s why Oichi and her 2nd husband, Shibata Katsuie let themselves burn inside the castle rather than getting caught by the enemy.

Perhaps because I'm already very used to studying the war histories, it's very difficult for me to take any battle seriously in fantasy genre.

first, espionaging,

then comes assassinating of some important figures,

sabotaging military supplies and food rations,

taking advantage of the terrain and weather,

oh... we need tactical battle formation too...,

how many commanders we need to lead our armies?

All of them gets jossed by one super overpowered character.

Perhaps my expectation is too high, or that comparing war in FF7 to historical wars is like apple to orange, it’s not fair.

F: “oh shut up, just suspend your disbelief, it’s a fiction for God’s sake!”

M: “of course we have to suspend disbelief in every fictions, but can I have a decent story that at least makes me ‘that’s bullshit but I believe it’ “?

Okay, so let’s be more fair here, I will compare the war in FF7 with FF15 instead.

Although FF15 also has quite a lot of flaws, I think the depiction of the war there is still better than FF7. At least, it felt that we are really at war.

Now what is the major flaw in Wutai war? It’s actually because the lack of representative characters in Wutai’s side!!

We only have Kisaragi Godo and Yuffie!! (Sonon and Melphie, etc.in the remake) And we don’t even see what they were doing during the war.

When the war already so one-sided, we only know the relevant soldiers on  Shinra‘s side, but none on Wutai’s side.

Compared to FF15, we have Noctis’ gang, Nyx, The Kinglaives, Crownguards, then on the other hand there are Glauca, Aranea and Ravus, etc.

Although Niflheim had eventually overwhelmed Lucis, it was still more balanced with the concept of “technology vs magic”.

Even more strangely, with the lack of relevant figures, how could Wutai survive for over 8 years against Shinra's overwhelming power?

This is a problem the fanfic writers have to deal with if they want to explore the Wutai war, because in reality nothing can be explored from this supposedly great event.

It’s so one-noted, it’s only purpose is only to give an awesome background for  the war hero, Sephiroth.

Sephiroth is the most powerful being in FF7, being a hero in Wutai war proved it. However, with a very one-sided power in favor to Shinra and zero enemy officer who can challenge him, it actually makes his achievement sounds like a 'joke'.

Even more amusing, the known character who might have challenged him (and impressed him) is Elfe from Avalanche???

Is there any Wutaian veteran worthy to him??

Come on Square Enix, there are still many ways to milk this FF7 franchise, but stop with the sequel for a moment (unless your goal is to permanently end Sephiroth because his AC ending is bullshit). Focus on the prequel, fix its world-building, tell me more about the rise of Shinra and tell me a more believable writing for Wutai war, teach me the life system in Gaia, how civilization develops with education and social life. I want to know what exactly the law and education system work there.

Therefore, Wutai war is a joke, not even a funny one, it’s a sad and terrible joke. It can only be fixed if Square Enix wants to do a prequel exploring on that event. A light novel is nice too, but having a prequel spin-off game that takes place in Wutai war with Sephiroth as playable protagonist will be a gold experience. Then a confirmation whether Tseng is Wutaian or not and how he ends up in Shinra.

At least, I’ve finally found a decent fic that portrayed the war pretty well.

[retphienix]

Maybe I’ll go OFF at some point and really doll out what this game makes me think but I just wanted to touch base on the FF7 remake.

The short of it?

I Am Enjoying It But The Game Simultaneously Infuriates Me.

For pretty much all the reasons I suspected before release. This format sucks and since I’m looking to touch base on my worries more than my praise it’ll SEEM tilted to the negative, which it is, please don’t assume that’s all there is to this but here-

Pros:

(mostly good) FAN SERVICE TO DEATH’S DOOR AND BACK. Gorgeous because it’s square and that’s what they do (read as: Waste money on and push away from RPG gameplay) Fun gameplay.... mostly. And I mean that. Mostly, as in like 90-95% fun gameplay. This game is less final fantasy and more Yakuza in Midgar. I’m serious. And that’s good.

Cons:

Because fanservice- THIS GAME IS MILKING THE EVER LOVING CRAP OUT OF FF7. I mean it when I say it’s genuinely slow paced and dragging its feet because it wants to milk every living second of time from what FF7 concisely told decades ago. You likely won’t HATE how slow it goes, but as you think on it it really bothers me how much this is just dragging Midgar along because they arbitrarily decided it had to be a full 30+ hour experience, IN FRIGGIN MIDGAR.

Gameplay has problems! Dumb ones! Namely in order to more optimally play you will likely be switching characters every THREE SECONDS because AI controlled partners have terrible AI! They don’t use spells outside of Auto- spells (auto cure being the only one I’ve seen in this entry) and MAYBE cure outside of that? But I was likely imagining things. Them not using spells or abilities wouldn’t be a deal breaker (since commanding them is easy) but the problem is this and I mean it: The AI refuses to build bar. That’s it. That’s the man issue. You need bar to cast anything, the AI sticks their thumb as far up their ATB as possible and spend combat blocking for 6 seconds, swing for 2, block for 6, repeat. It’s extremely annoying when you see ranged characters like Barrett or Aerith just standing there when they should be building and spending bar like crazy. ONLY THE PLAYER CHARACTER WILL EVER EFFECTIVELY BUILD BAR, WHICH MEANS ONLY THE PLAYER CHARACTER WILL BE ABLE TO CAST ANYTHING EVER, So you must switch frantically in combat if you want to be effective, or just say screw it and put near everything on PC and switch when you want someone to build bar to cast cure once or for Barrett to FRIGGING USE HIS OVERCHARGE FREE CAST ABILITY, it’s infuriating and honestly makes other gameplay decisions pointless- Oh sick I can have them cast a spell when I do? Oh wait they will never have bar ever so it’s just another level of micromanaging needed.

The industry practice of taking a finished game and splitting it into multiple entries, stroking your ego as hard as possible to milk it dry for a 30 hour experience, and selling it multiple times thanks to multiple parts- is pretty gross and I can already feel myself being annoyed that if I want to beat FF7 I’ll have to buy who knows how many games. I’m down for the fan service, I’m annoyed that I already beat this game decades ago for the price of one game, now I have to do who knows how many. Fun.

Other stuff. Camera is too darn close even a max range, it’s a literal headache in close corridors and guess what Midgar is made of since it’s a tight knit city/trash city? Yep. Running around Wall Market is both breath taking and vomit inducing thanks to that.

While most of the fanservice is handled very well, wonderfully even, some is just kinda dumb. Or rather, it’s repetition makes it feel kinda dumb, like Barrett doing the FF victory fanfare? Cool! Him doing it during multiple cutscenes as well as a random proc during combat finishing as well as just because sometimes? Okay guys we get it, it’s FF. Please stop, it’s actually downplaying Barrett as a character and instead using him as a vehicle for reference stroking.

Stop taking control from the player to focus the camera on something we clearly already saw for 12 seconds longer than literally any human brain would need to see what is going on. It happens a LOT in this game. Not a TON, but a LOT.

Moogle Medals are a waste of potential. They initially appear to be a collectible kinda like TinyMedals in DQ but instead of being a set number in the world (like a good amount of DQ games) they randomly spawn (like some DQ games that usually incorporate randomly generated maps). That’s not a deal breaker, but it does make them lose a ton of meaning very. Very. Very quickly. You have to go out of your way to get some of them and then find out they spawn infinitely in boxes or can be farmed with a minigame you literally don’t have to play as they are a participation reward. Coulda been a fun collectible with nice rewards like (stretch but bare with me) the coins in RE7 but instead you just farm them up and get the rewards and move on with no reason to look back.

Plenty of other stuff. On both ends honestly. Clearly I wanted to rant about it a bit, but I’m 30 hours in and having fun? So? There’s that? I clearly LIKE it, but I can’t say I love it since that’s, well, not why I came here in the first place I guess? Maybe I’ll change my tune soon. I probably will. Multiple times. But more or less what I’m saying is: Before launch this struck me as a cash grab. It’s not, really. It also struck me as an ego stroking game that will milk the heck out of FF7 to a degree that might devalue FF7 in general. It. Feels like I was right about that.

It’s not bad. I won’t say that. I thought it would be. I really thought it’d be all glitz and graphics and terrible “We hate RPGs because we’re modern Square” gameplay but no. It’s great gameplay with some faults, great sights and fanservice with some faults.

It’s, well. Imperfect, but pretty great, and nothing really is perfect anyway?

I just still hold a lot of misgivings. The AI being a small one, and the financial practice of milking your golden goose to death to make, what? 300 hours of gameplay when RUSHING because you make 10 friggin “Full games” and call them each a part of FF7?

That part bothers me plenty. I love FF7, I don’t really like seeing it milked this hard to charge multiple times for stretched thin, but fun and pretty versions of what the original offered.

It’s conflicting. Good game. Has me hopeful and worried that they don’t milk it to death before they finish the stretched out narrative.

[unattainabledreams]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥

Mun note: I’m gonna put this below the cut cause it’s a biiiig tag. But if you do read it, hmu honestly cause I’ve love to chatting.

And if you do it? Let me know! I love learning about people’s connection to their muses, new or old.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK (Mixed impressions depending on who you ask and how you ask it I reckon.)

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?

OG Canon, By default, up until Zack’s canonical death, I follow canon very muchly. (That doesn’t mean I’m not open to earlier plotted divergence though!) If the overall plot ends with death, then I’m alright with that, I love the handing on of the torch from Angeal to Zack to Cloud. My goal is to never minimize that. But for interactions beyond the end of Crisis Core, I have two particular verses that I absolutely adore based on already established lore and my own head-canons for how Zack would continue.

OG Canon Remake Canon, while it’s nice for options and I don’t mind it, on a technical front I think it weakens the ongoing plot for other characters who then wouldn’t have been forced to grow so much themselves. I enjoyed the remake, but regarding Zack it’s not my cup of tea. I’ll write remake by request, but it’s not my default.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.

His genuine care for those around him with unrelenting selflessness is both heartwarming -and heart-wrenching.

Zack’s journey from naivety about the world and events around him to recognizing the harm of the organization he’s been directly a part of. He grows in both substance and maturity as he’s increasingly forced to reckon with reality.

Chasing after an idea which is realized but not how he once imagined it. 

While Zack is strong, he’s most certainly not the strongest. I enjoy playing with weakness.

Almost relentless optimism. How he pushes onward to continue trying to pick up the pieces. Additionally as such a genuine character and I hope that love comes through in my portrayal.

Look. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But on a personal my muse front, despite my love for him I love putting him in situations where I get to break him down to build back up again because that’s his strength as a character.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  

His early naivety and blind loyalty to ShinRa. (IMO tho, you gotta have a ‘from’ in order to have a ‘to’)

Puppy goofy himbo dummy. (At least, that’s how some people see him.)

Almost relentless optimism.

Some feel he draws away from Cloud’s story.

Just- 

Look again.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  

Have you ever had a time when you’re watching or playing something and there’s just a character you really identify with like, not just ‘oh, me’ - but beyond that in an almost scary way? For where I was in life and what I was going through, Zack was exactly that for me, and I fell in love with how kept pushing through.

So that was four years ago, and I RP’d him privately within friend groups. Said friends of course moved on from the fandom and I just quietly always wanted to come back to him, there were so many things I’d come up with that I hadn’t gotten to using yet in writing.

So late last year when a friend decided to get into FF7 I made my blog(s) to join them. :3 I did go on hiatus when 7R came out to avoid spoilers as I didn’t have access to a console through the lockdown in my country to play, but I’ve finally returned. (And now you have like a million blogs shgjfjkasghfd.)

What keeps your inspiration going?

On a personal note, Zack’s been an intrinsic part of my life for the past four years. Even when friend groups moved on from the fandom in waves coming and going, he’s never really gone from my life because I live in a fairly small country and he’s one of two cosplays I’m known for here in con/geek circles. (I’ve even Cosplayed him for an official event! <3)

On a writing front, honestly, as I said before, I love the way he keeps on keeping on no matter what’s thrown at him. I don’t want his journey to end. I want him to fall again and again but also to conquer those shortcomings and rise stronger.

That doesn’t have to make him the strongest in body, but in mind that makes him a personal hero for me at least so he’s forever an inspiration. Despite the labels applied to his dream, (See my URL) the pursuit as such defines him admirably.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. (I have a terrible habit of keeping most of em in my head, but they do exist. I’m trying to get better at posting them casually. I know they're good at helping prospective RP partners work out openings for interactions. ;; )

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO. (Honestly this is usually what happens when I do try to do a HC post, It becomes a drabble incorporating it instead. Whoops?)

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

Criticism and Critique. Boy oh boy. That’s gonna be a pass, please.

Unsolicited criticism sucks. That’s not what I’m here for, nor many of us I expect. Miss me with that anxiety spike. I’ve done study in writing for films. I know a lot of technical stuff. But I also enjoy switching that off and allowing things to happen. I’m also a performer, and the the improvisational and spontaneous reactionary side is just as important as the plotted. I’m here for fun to explore what I want with other like minded people. Not for criticism.

‘Hey have you thought about ___’ - that’s okay. If we grow together, cool, that’s great! In fact, it kinda leads into the next question.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  

Yeeee! Please. Just be aware I’m sometimes slow with my inbox though I am getting better at this!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? 

Unless it’s something that clashes between our two muses like a death or lack-thereof, or important shared-background things that needs discussing, I don’t think there’s much reason for it to be brought up. My headcanons exist for the general purpose of ‘without outside influence, this is my default.’ - that’s it. Sometimes they just aren’t relevant.

If it’s simply ‘I don’t like this this idea’ see the next answer.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

If someone does, please don’t tell me. You can go write him yourself or find another closer to how you perceive him. My portrayal is my own, and I don’t need to conform to your idea of what Zack would do or say. Neither of us need to waste energy on this.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?

If it’s my muse, fine. But don’t get aggressive at me about it. I’m also a Genesis mun, so I get the rivalry. But cool your jets.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  

Sure. In fact please. Honestly, @ RP partners, I don’t mind if you quietly fix em yourself. Dyslexia’s an uphill battle. I’ll often edit posts after the fact if I notice my own mistakes, so sure. But @ Readers, please don’t get at my RP partners grammar. This is consent for my writing, not theirs. Though also don’t be a pick-apart grammar police just to get to me. Have some sense about it. ;)

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?

I can be very talkative. Honestly if that surprises you despite my choice of muses with Zack and Gen then gaia help you. So uh, heads up on that. If I haven’t talked to you yet, the key word is ‘yet’ - I’m just working out where to start or for something to react to.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by:  @lifedxbt​ tagged me for returning from hiatus so I should probably do this. :p Tagging: Uhhhhh, it big. Do if want? Yay. (It took me two hours)

[less-than-three-3]

lots of thoughts on ff7 remake (base game + intermission)

I played this a while ago and I’m just copying and pasting a writeup I had- I promise as I get through games it’ll be fully original content lol

obviously spoilers I should start with that I do overall like the game, but I don't like love it and I don't really think it's a best of all time or anything, maybe when the whole trilogy comes out it'll end up like that but for now it's just pretty good. Speaking of the trilogy, I'll just address that first - I don't really think this game is badly paced... storywise at least. It's badly paced in other ways but let's put a pin in that. I think that yeah it's a 30 hour game that covers like barely the first disk of the original ff7 but like I think this argument is pretty disingenuous and misses a lot of huge differences just between generations. Being fully 3D, fully voice acted, and more in-depth (for better or worse) just generally makes the scale much larger and theatrical and that's a good thing for immersion and experience, but having to run around in a fully 3D space as opposed to a 2.5D space means you're spending a lot of time just running around and you're spending a lot of time doing those theatrical things and it just builds up. Overall the story I felt was fairly engaging, at least once it got going, and I can't in good faith say that the story was badly paced, it is about as well paced as the original ff7 just in a much grander medium that deserves more attention to detail (rightfully). So I liked the story, right? Well... I do but I also wished a lot of the characters didn't suck. Ok honestly in the last like 30% of the game the character writing did get a lot lot better but that does not mean I liked the characters and dialogue for the other 70%. Jessie literally has no character she is the biggest offender (doesnt mean her death wasn't sad lol until pizza time). Aerith is sort of annoying and feels stiffly written but at least has decent rapport with Tifa. Aerith just suddenly talking about how sephiroth is gonna fuck up the world and stuff is like a weird sudden exposition dump at the end of the game. I get that Cloud is supposed to be edgy boy merc guy who's been hardened by war but like.... the bit only works for so long. Wedge is like the thin line between annoying and "a character I liked", his arc is neat and despite everything the plot ghosts killed him (?). Tifa is the most normal girl in the main cast and she has a good internal conflict and isn't endlessly horny for Cloud so she's fine. Barret and Biggs are fucking chads I love them, I was genuinely devastated at Biggs' death scene and popped off when he was alive (which is bullshit but hey plot ghosts or whatever). Barret I feel like people probably find annoying but I love his conviction, call it one-note but dude stands by his message and loves his daughter, absolute king shit. I hate the triangle with Tifa/Aerith/Jessie. I imagine it's why a lot of people like this game (they won't admit it) but like no it doesn't work stop lmao. Keep it to persona I should mention that I do kinda like the plot ghosts like yeah they are pretty much just plot armor but you know no one's gonna die until the funny spoiler moment anyways lmao and even then with the events at the end of this game who knows maybe the funny spoiler moment won't happen. I think it is cool that you don't know what will happen in this remake of perhaps the most spoiled game in history. It reminds me of like the ticktockers from DQXI (even though I hated the time travel of that game). Besides characters the writing at least in the first half just feels so off sometimes, like I genuinely don't understand sometimes if people thought this is how people talk. Obviously funny "you owe me a pizza" which... honestly I think it was the voice actor's delivery and really odd sound mixing. But also just a few back and forths between various main characters throughout the "exposition" just felt sorta stunted but idk it definitely got better over time. On the other hand there's a lot of parts that I did find funny like people do shit on the "Mayor." part of the game but I thought that shit was hilarious. Big shoutouts to the cameos of Cait Sith, the timing of which felt like a complete shitpost, and zack crisis core, who felt like a DC cameo. Not a Marvel cameo, but like you know the cameos from BvS foreshadowing the justice league or whatever lmao. More of that shitpost energy and less of the serious shit please. Though I guess they do want people to take it seriously so idk Music I have to admit is incredible. Nobuo Uematsu is a pretty good composer. Same with visuals.  Gameplay I did genuinely enjoy the combat. It has good mashy energy but it didn't overstay its welcome or get tedious like I felt Tales of Arise did. Materia management and skill trees were fun to manage even if ultimately I do not really think it mattered much lmao. But my GOD the start of this game is slow, not story-wise but LITERALLY slow. There are so many sections where you just hold forwards and WALK SLOWLY and talk to people and then watch cutscenes and you do not fight many things in the early game between reactor missions and then the battles early game are piss easy too (for more or less tutorial purposes I get it). I just want to beat people up, can you tell me the exposition while I beat people up thanks Which is where I go back to that pin about pacing- I really don't think the story or world was introduced at a slow pace, even by jrpg standards. But when you account for the amount of "downtime" it is so much time that I just feel bored. Like I don't think things really pick up action-wise until like 10 hours in and in a 30 hour game I think that is just literally inexcusable. Why does crawling/shimmying take so long why am I not allowed to run all the time why does the game force me to walk to follow this npc i just want to run around please let me run my god Not being able to like click through dialogue also kinda sucks, I get why they didn't want to let you because they paid good money for voice over but like Tales did it and like yeah the cutscenes sounded stilted when you "mash" through dialogue but like I am reading the text at double the pace that they say it I could save so much time lmao idk. With the main game I can see the hype but I think it really needs the next 2 installments to really be considered a modern classic. I am genuinely intrigued by it though and I'm looking forward to where the story goes.

all that said intermission is way better lmao yuffie is fun and fun to play as, there’s a ton of goofy shit and the serious parts still hit hard. granted the world has been built from main story but still a banger compared to main game you get to play clash royale!! CLASH ROYALE!!!  the fact that literally all the hold forward to parkour stuff is actually not slow and makes you feel sorta cool is just a cherry on top lol

if intermission is a sign of the direction of the next games I’m all on board. 

petition to just replace cloud with yuffie going forwards 

and let sephiroth kill aerith still