#so my commander can get whatever quest ties into that during ch. 5

[freshcut-chetney]

ngl I'm so glad I didn't finish wotr when it first came out, rediscovering it this month and finding out the final DLC that will be released in a few days is the commander hanging out/fighting evil with their companions has been the best

[bearpillowmonster]

FF7 Remake Review (Characters)

Next are characters, which I more or less already knew before this but have more context now: (only minor spoilers for this part)

Cloud-

He’s like Finn from Star Wars, Ex Shinra, Ex Stormtrooper, they know the ins and outs of the enemies. He really takes it serious about his money though, in a way I could see why with the slums and all as well as it being an excuse to hide his feelings but I just didn’t expect it. It sounds like one of his battle quotes is “It’s time” and I say out loud “Time to de-evilize!” He has a few similar to Sora too that I like. But I have a bit of a pet peeve...LET ME PLAY AS YOUNG CLOUD AND TIFA $%^*&#@!

Villains-

Is Sephiroth a cross between Palpatine and Scar? “Let the hate consume you.” The other villains such as Heidigger (who is voiced by John DiMaggio of all people) are kind of annoying to be honest, I was bored every scene he was in, I like John DiMaggio, it made me think we were fighting Dr. Drakken, scar and all but I just don’t think we need to see him deploy the enemies every time, it just seems pointless. It’s not a hamper on the story or anything, I mean there are tons of villains in games that are just there and it’s fine all the same, plus we have better villains in the game so it evens out.

Barrett-

He’s cool and gosh dang Marlene is adorable. But Barrett plays pretty nicely, it’d be kind of cool if he was the exception to gameplay type and went full on 3rd person shooter and you could just aim all over the place but he’s still really fun to play.

Tifa-

is a sweetheart. When I first saw her character, it was in KH2 and she was tearing apart this room, punching walls, and kicking down doors to find Cloud. While she keeps the strength, maybe she acted like that in the original but not here. I hear that personalities between her and Aerith have changed over time? Like there are different versions and they act different since there’s FF7, Advent Children, Crisis Core and this remake, maybe it’s just the fan perception, I’m not sure. Oh and I played Tifa’s theme on the jukebox and she started bobbing her head, so they respond to the music you play.

I know doing some of the mundane sounding side quests with Tifa, made them a whole lot better, when I said it helps the world building, I wasn’t kidding, she made me feel motivated like “Yeah this is a life in the slums but she’s making the best of it and I’m comfortable.” I’d say her play style (in Smash terms) would be similar to Sonic, she’s fast (there’s even a speed upgrade you can get) but carries a punch if you have the right equipment.

Red XIII-

They call him a ‘lab rat dog’ but he’s a lion...right? He’s not in it a whole lot so I don’t have much to say about him other than him having a killer design and he and Barrett make the best joke of the game (the car one). You don’t play as him which I believe you could in the original, he still helps out with damage though which brings me to another topic, I know I finished gameplay but this would’ve been a great opportunity to use more reaction commands, you don’t really see them in much of any game any more, they’re like the Star Wars prequels, you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone, there are a good bit of moments like that.

Aerith-

Trust me, I loved climbing rooftops with her. One thing I see pointed out is that she’s a bit more sassy in this version, it’s kind of funny at times. Her dodge could use a little work though I could say that she’s not an experienced fighter like the others yet her magic came in clutch for me time and time again. Both her and Tifa are cool with kids but Aerith and that scene in Chapter 12 was the first part I got chills.

I didn’t do all of the Chapter 8 (Sector 5, where Aerith is) side quests because I did the first few and hated them, those hedgehog pies and smoggers are really annoying, I figured whoever I choose, I’ll make up for it later. Now I’m going to put this is in a context so people who played understand and those who haven’t won’t since I’m not technically into the story section. The whole secret with Aerith is just weird in my opinion, I mean it ties in with the story and is in the original but I had to look that up, I actually thought that that would’ve been one of the big changes they made but no.

What route did I take? I knew beforehand that I would have to kind of sway towards one character or another, whether that be Tifa or Aerith and so on but I never knew who I was going to pick pre-game. I kind of tried to stay mindful of what exactly I was choosing while at the same time just doing it “my way” and see what happens, who I’ll like better. What I hate is that you have to choose before you give both girls a fair shot and get proper introduction because you have to do all the quests in chapter 3 to get Tifa and skip it to get Aerith (you could probably still save it because of the date points but still). It said you have to pick someone regardless whether you do the quests or not so I thought maybe do all the quests in Ch.3 and 8 then go from there, it got to the point where I decided to pick Barrett just so I wouldn’t have to decide but at that point the “point” system was already too high for each of the girls, Barrett’s route was already disabled. The big decision between the two was the sewers which I kind of have to appreciate how that was done. I even made a comparison list because of how much I was thinking about it and whoever got more...you think I’m joking? 

Yeah bad handwriting but I couldn’t come up with any bad things for Tifa other than her trying to be mature, only a few for Aerith as you can see however I actually ended up looking up something that put things in a certain perspective, Aerith saw Zack in Cloud when he was messed up, that might be why she likes him while Tifa likes the real him hence the scene afterwards in the original (plus I think I even heard her call him Zack during combat (unless I misheard, I can’t find any evidence online)). So that means I picked the dress for Tifa, Exotic. Also look at this and tell me that doesn’t fit Aerith.

So those are my ships, I’ll update what happened with them in the story section.

The others in Avalanche, I’ll just lodge together. Wedge, I don’t see why they got Matt L Jones to play him but he also doesn’t do anything so whatever. Biggs is kind of cool I guess, just another hot shot. I’m surprised Jessie got the part she did after playing through the first section, I expected her to be forgotten about after that but no, apparently the remake gave them bigger roles, in the original they were very limited. But Jessie’s pretty cool, my favorite of the bunch and I helped her out when I could but I didn’t choose the “no promises” date option or anything (does that mean I led her on? Is that bad in a video game?) You don’t play as them though, I get that they tried to vary gameplay types with each person and these guys had very similar styles to others already (and you can’t just play as every character you see).

Quick graphics section, you already know they look good, I mean it’s even better than Advent Children (which I haven’t saw much of other than models and screenshots) and that was obviously prerendered CGI but I couldn’t imagine being a fan of the original and seeing these updated designs, not even of the characters but enemies. I was looking at why you can use cure on ghosts and it brought me to the original FF7 wiki and I saw what they used to look like (granted they look cool) but I just never expected such a upscale. It’s something fans can appreciate, and also goes the other way around, I could tell some scenes were from the original and were really improved on, it almost gave me a sense of nostalgia and I never even played the game, this was made with love.

(PART 1)

(PART 3)