LHS' Blog of a Sailor

[Lord High Summoner]

First look at Titan Souls

[Lord High Summoner]

Let me start by saying that Final Fantasy VII is not my favorite Final Fantasy game. That honor goes to X, and it might not even by my second favorite. However, it is an amazing game for a myriad of reasons.



When Square first announced that the remake was finally in the works and that we would get to experience the world of Final Fantasy VII all over again in amazing detail, it was like opening the best gift on Christmas morning. It wasn't expected and caught us all off guard. Square was finally going to listen to the fans and give us the game that we had been clamoring for. I'll be the first one to admit that I approached this news with less caution that I should have. The game was going to be a full remake and it was going to be its own experience. Things were going to change about the game, but I thought surely they would not deviate too much. In my head I was simply thinking about levels being more flushed out and the translation getting an upgrade. But I was blinded. I was blinded by the new coat of pain the game got, the amazing graphics we were treated to. The instant nostalgia bomb that was the opening Midgar scene. From the very beginning I was excited for this game. I thought that it was just such a surefire thing that they couldn't possible muck it up. That they KNEW the fans wanted this in such a way that messing it up would irreparably impact their status among the fan base. But perhaps I was too naive.



We have now seen more of the game, and we have a better grasp by what they meant when they told us it would be it's own game and that it would differ from the original in certain ways. They're changing the combat system from ATB to something much more like Kingdom Hearts and FFXV. That alone is a huge shift for the game, it affects the pacing and the tone of the game. How are boss battles going to be handled? How are random encounters being done? Will there even be random encounters? I understand the need to change the game up and to make it different and unique from the original. I understand that times have changed and the turn based combat system of the original could be too slow for a younger audience, or that it might feel weird among the modern graphics. But at least give me the option to play in a turn based style. I know it's some extra work, but I really feel like if you're making this game for the fans that this is something that should be included.



I feel like the community of Final Fantasy has wanted a game that was closer to it's roots than the recent editions. Ever since XII we've had a shift in play style that hasn't exactly been met with open arms. With the gambit system in XII it felt like setting the game on autopilot and you could breeze through the world without ever having to interact with it. You could disable gambits and manage everyone but that just felt inefficient. Then XIII came in and it felt like you were as far removed from the combat as could be, while still being in it. I know that this style of combat is hugely popular in Kingdom Hearts, but that doesn't mean it works the same way in Final Fantasy. I just want Square to acknowledge the player base that has been with them since the beginning and do another game like IX where it hearkened back to simpler times. Turn based combat, a story with serious points but that also knew when to be humorous. The RPG genre as a whole just seems to be going through this lackluster period right now, and it sucks because that is the genre that I grew up with.



Moving on from gameplay, the second biggest piece of news about the remake just came out. That the game is likely going to be episodic because the game just has too much content for a single release. I shouldn't be as surprised by this as I am. If you take a look at another game that Square is releasing soon, Hitman, it also follows that formula. The game will be released in stages. This just irks me to the bone. It gets under my skin in the worst way because it just sounds like an abhorrent cash grab. It's been nearly 20 years since FFVII originally came out, and I'm sure if you have to push the release date out in order to ship a full unbroken game, the fan base will understand. In the report, Square says, to paraphrase, the game has too much content for a single release. Does such a thing even exist? TOO much content? I can only imagine that they are referring to disc space, and even that doesn't make sense. If you are worried about the game having to span multiple discs; don't. I can't imagine this being a deterrent for anyone interested in this game, we played the original across multiple discs and it was one of the greatest games to be made.



It's things like this that really make me worry about this release. It makes me wonder what else they are going to do to change the game from the original. As most fans of the game know, there is some suspicion that Aeris wasn't supposed to stay dead in the original game. Could you see Square offering dlc to bring her back to your party? How far will they deviate from the original? What other changes are we going to see? Who knows; but I sincerely hope that Square manages to pull it all together to deliver the game that we have all been waiting for. Otherwise they might be looking at a very disgruntled and alienated fanbase.

[DarkToph]

I'm not huge into the FF series, though I do enjoy it a lot. FFIX is my personal favorite. As for the remake, I am really disappointed that we won't get ATB or turn based combat. Despite the changes in recent years, that system always seemed like it was Final Fantasy to me. Without it, it feels kinda wrong to me, especially for a remake of a classic game. They've remade the games before, 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 were remade for the Game Boy Advanced while 3 was remade for the DS, and while the graphics were obviously upgraded significantly and the gameplay needed to be altered a bit, in comparison with their NES and SNES counterparts, they seemed to stay true to their roots. If Square is purposely trying to remodel the gameplay for whatever reason, it can greatly impact how it feels like a true remake instead of just feeling like an entirely different game with FFVII's story plastered on it.

As for being released in stages, I just feel like that's a cash grab. It's been eons since FFVII's original release, there's no rush to get it it out as soon as possible and, as you stated, the original had just as much content and was released in its complete form. It took numerous discs, but it was released as a whole. Games may now take up a lot more space, but our storage methods have increased just as well. I would much rather wait longer for a completed game than play it a piece at a time. Despite loving the The Walking Dead games from Telltale, I really can't stand waiting for the episode releases of that and usually wait until the entire game is complete to purchase it. In addition, that game feels like it has a purpose coming out in episodes.

Like anything, we won't know how bad or good it is until it's released. I just hope they haven't put their foot in the 'better graphics = good remake' pool.

[Picard]

I'm rather worried about this multi-part series thing, and SE did claim that each part is the equivalent size of a full game. I get the feeling SE is doing this multi-part series as a way to keep the costs down for FF7, which I have little doubt that it's going to be immensely costly, considering even the smaller parts of the game which used to cost little, such as Jessie fighting alongside Cloud and Barret, are being turned into a fully animated thing. You're even going to be able to enter areas not accessible before in the original FF7, according to them. I don't think they'll do some silly DLC with Aerith being revived either, since her death is pretty much mandatory for the events in the future to happen, unless it's some non-canon thing. Anyway, I feel that it's too early to be outraged about speculative DLC, and we should wait some more before judging the episodic content.

I don't have an issue with the combat mechanics. Most JRPGs these days have moved on to an action-oriented combat, and while I miss the old turn-based style, I am okay with a faster-paced FF7. SE has also stated that ATB will be in there, just that it's going to be different from the original FF7. I like action-oriented combat, and I like turn-based combat. I enjoyed Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts and FF15 Demo, so I can live with it. In any case, wait some more before judging.

[Lord High Summoner]

that system always seemed like it was Final Fantasy to me. Without it, it feels kinda wrong to me, especially for a remake of a classic game. They've remade the games before, 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 were remade for the Game Boy Advanced while 3 was remade for the DS, and while the graphics were obviously upgraded significantly and the gameplay needed to be altered a bit, in comparison with their NES and SNES counterparts, they seemed to stay true to their roots.

Yeah It's gonna be weird, they did say ATB is going to be there in SOME fashion, but I just don't see how it'll actually be implemented with that. I mean, I suppose maybe like FFXII but even that's a stretch i think

I'm rather worried about this multi-part series thing, and SE did claim that each part is the equivalent size of a full game. I get the feeling SE is doing this multi-part series as a way to keep the costs down for FF7, which I have little doubt that it's going to be immensely costly, considering even the smaller parts of the game which used to cost little, such as Jessie fighting alongside Cloud and Barret, are being turned into a fully animated thing. You're even going to be able to enter areas not accessible before in the original FF7, according to them

I don't have an issue with the combat mechanics. Most JRPGs these days have moved on to an action-oriented combat, and while I miss the old turn-based style, I am okay with a faster-paced FF7. SE has also stated that ATB will be in there, just that it's going to be different from the original FF7. I like action-oriented combat, and I like turn-based combat. I enjoyed Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts and FF15 Demo, so I can live with it. In any case, wait some more before judging.

They recently just came back and clarified that each part will be a full fledge game. So what that makes me believe is that they are going to be releasing the parts of the FFVII universe. Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, etc... Which would be really cool and could be awesome if they actually executed that way. But we'll have to wait and see what they actually do.


I'm still hesitant with the combat, I do like KH but the FF game combat systems have been lacking since FFXII to me, so I really hope this one starts to turn that around maybe. I'm skeptical about the game at this point, Not being led by blind optimism and hype as I was before, I AM going to play this game but that might not be upon immediate release depending

[Picard]

There's a post on Reddit that succinctly explains what I feel:

As a gamer, I've learned to just accept the vision of developers and the experience they want to provide. The game is either fun and enjoyable, or its not. It's a pretty fruitless endeavor to build up expectations in your mind or to expect the developers' vision to reflect your own. You'll never be satisfied. FFVII was a defining aspect of my teen years, and I've been looking forward to this as long as anyone. And yet, I don't care if it plays differently or if they make it more episodic and cut out things like the world map. Of course I want the game to be true to the spirit of the original, and I think it will be, but if it's a very different game, that's fine by me as long as it's fun to play and delivered well.

In any case, I'm rather happy that they're being this open with us about the game instead of like in the past, where they just dumped something and we were supposed to like it. Probably something they learned from FFXIV.

[Doru]

So I'm not a big Final Fantasy fan mostly because I haven't played many (I do now own 1 - 10 so I'll correct that soon.) but, the ones I have played are tactics, dissidia, dirge of Cerberus and my favorite, Crisis Core. So now that the gameplay is gonna be like Crisis Core I'm really excited for that. The whole releasing in separate parts sounds.... I mean cool we'll be able to play some of the game earlier but, it's gonna be way more expensive this way if each part is $60. If I had to guess they're gonna use the profits from each release to fund the next part or whatever.

I never thought of them remaking the whole compilation of FFVII which I'm all for and then finally continue with what happens after dirge but, I doubt that'll happen. All the footage we've seen so far is from the opening of the main game. From all the chatter I've heard I'm guessing it'll be broken down into three parts, midgar, whatever happens after that and then the weapons being activated.

[Lord High Summoner]

So I just started a long Lets Play series of Final Fantasy X and I think it's some of the best stuff I've done yet. Replaying this game is just so much fun and I'm loving every second of it, let me know what you guys think of the style and the format. I really love this game and I know it inside and out, so I'll be doing a lot of discussion about what's going on with the story and I think a few of you would really be into that

[CM]

sin is jecht

[CM]

sin is jecht

[CM]

sin is jecht

[Lord High Summoner]

Oh Em Gee, spoilers

[CM]

that was my auron impression hope u like it

[Doru]

*cough*demwhiteborderstho*cough*

sin is jecht

You dick, I haven't gotten that far in the game yet!

[Kenji]

aaaaaaaa its cm