Board 8 > Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Zone 2 (mark spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I loved Remake as well!

Theyre masterworks all, you cant go wrong

Zigzagoon posted...

Shame you can't see that though.

Why a shame?

GANON1025 posted...

Theyre masterworks all, you cant go wrong

Lmao damn that actually got me

So I gotta say, the water in the game sucks. I'm on this beautiful twilight beach scene and watching the water rise and fall super fast with no actual animation to it rolling up the beach is taking me out. And also when you interact or swim in the water it has no reaction or animation to it. It's a real shame when the rest is so well realized and beautiful.

My instinct is that FF7R1 is better because I liked the setting so much, the focus, and it kind of delivers on moment after moment (and makes a few of its own like the Jenova fight). But it's also padded out a lot, like the drum section. I still have a long way to go on this one though.

Waluigi1 posted...

So I gotta say, the water in the game sucks.

What games nowadays have good water? I'm genuinely asking because I wish game devs hadn't just given up on water levels. ABZU and Subnautica prove that they can be fantastic.

And most games don't even try to reach the quality of Uncharted 4 water.

Speaking of the water, the environmental textures dropping to barely textures during cutscenes is either a poor decision or a protest against having to develop this for PS5.

CassandraCain posted...

What games nowadays have good water?

A bunch of games. But it is expensive. Makes sense they would skip it for an open world game.

Anyone else remember the one tile of fancy water in the museum in Ratchet & Clank 2?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MzmXo7kJtI&t=6m45s

Sea of Thieves is always my go-to for nice looking water.

Slacking on water to make sure game budgets are less ridiculous and dev times are shorter sounds good to me. Do it in every game, honestly

I've not looked at sales, but people claimed the timing of the pandemic helped Nintendo win huge with both game and system sales for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That came out 3/20/2020.

FF7R1 came out 4/10/2020. I don't know how much it benefitted in a similar way as AC:NH, but it could be considered when comparing it with Rebirth's current sales.

There's also the fact that sales of a direct sequel can only really come from people who bought and finished its predecessor.

Imagine promotions for FF7 R3 going full Mass Effect, and claiming it's the best place to start playing.

I mean they low key tried that this time.

MacArrowny posted...

Slacking on water to make sure game budgets are less ridiculous and dev times are shorter sounds good to me. Do it in every game, honestly

Not necessary since it's very easy to implement, especially in Unreal. It's just too runtime expensive for open world games.

Open world design is also the #1 cause of bloated budget and timelines, but this topic proves how much gamers think it's worth the financial and physical cost.

foolm0r0n posted...

Not necessary since it's very easy to implement, especially in Unreal. It's just too runtime expensive for open world games.

Open world design is also the #1 cause of bloated budget and timelines, but this topic proves how much gamers think it's worth the financial and physical cost.

Does this count as full open world since it's the same style as Xenoblade?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Imagine promotions for FF7 R3 going full Mass Effect, and claiming it's the best place to start playing.

100%

Okay this shooting minigame is the best so far.

Almost 60 hours in and I just realised you can fix Chocobo Stops without getting off your chocobo...

JackMan posted...

Almost 60 hours in and I just realised you can fix Chocobo Stops without getting off your chocobo...

It's twice as fast when you do it on your chocobo too!

Don't worry it took me about the same amount of time to figure that out too.

It was a huge relief when I went back to collect the stops I missed.

"HeY gUyS i'M nOt GuNnA dO aNy MoRe MiNoR sIdE sTuFf UnTiL i BeAt ThE gAmE"

Aaaaaaaaaand then I proceeded to do all the minor side stuff in Cosmo Canyon because I had a hard time trying to find the paths to the photo spots for Aerith's quest >_>

JackMan posted...

Almost 60 hours in and I just realised you can fix Chocobo Stops without getting off your chocobo...

Wtf. Today I learned... Lol

I felt wrong not doing it on chocobo in Corel lol.

JackMan posted...

Almost 60 hours in and I just realised you can fix Chocobo Stops without getting off your chocobo...

About half that in, and I just realized you can fix Chocobo stops

MacArrowny posted...

Does this count as full open world since it's the same style as Xenoblade?

No Xenoblade is also semi open world

I reached Chapter 13, which I presume is the endgame. I was determined to accomplish EVERYTHING leading up to any points of no return, but some of the late-game goals are clearly meant for a second playthrough. Regardless, I completed all the Normal VR missions and all the Chocobo races, so I'm content with that.

Also, I probably missed it, but did we have any discussions about the Gold Saucer date? I'm not sure how the end differs depending on Cloud's date, but I got Tifa, and I have to admit getting misty eyed at the end. Just one of the most genuinely sweet and heartwarming cutscenes I've ever seen.

Now I see why Graphics mode was default. There's a pre-rendered scene at the Gold Saucer which is 30fps. I imagine if you had Graphics mode on the whole time, you might not have noticed.

Kinda fun to see it switch from realtime to pre-rendered like that though. Super nostalgic for the old FFs.

foolm0r0n posted...

Now I see why Graphics mode was default.

Again

For like the 3rd time lol

This is a system level setting in your PS5

Do I need to do any of the minigames the first time I reach Gold Saucer in Chapter 6, or can I just go ahead and keep advancing the main story? I don't know if there's anything that happens in that section, or if it's just more minigame stuff.

The main story makes you do each of the minigames once, doesn't it? Or maybe it just makes you go to those areas, I dunno.

Yeah, you'll play almost all the minigames once. Only Queen's Blood is not forced.

Crap. I was afraid of that. Thanks!

You might be able to skip the mini games if you go straight to Event Square I think? Where the main mission commences. I was able to skip them on NG+ so it might only be an option after beating the game.

Ah, that makes sense. There's not really any dialogue related to the minigames.

NG+ let's you go straight to the Skywheel after checking in at the hotel. Not on NG though. You gotta go everywhere. And the 3D Brawler with Dio at the entrance and the Chocobo race are unavoidable.

NG+ also skips Corel Prison missions to go straight to the race.

Relieved to see that Tifa was my pseudo-date hangout. Theres hope!!

Prefer Chocobo Racing from original, but in Rebirth one of the more run activities so far.
Think XIII-2 had good Chocobo Racing too?

Chocobo Racing suuuucks in the original. I like it a lot here. One of the best minigames.

Found an additional optional scene in Chapter 11 that I managed to miss first time through. If you talk to Aerith again after the water tower scene, she'll say that she's annoyed she didn't have any childhood friends and wants to be left alone (read in context with the previous scene, it's arguably implied she's jealous of Cloud and Tifa's close relationship).

Slowly progressing towards the platinum - one boss left in chapter 11 on Hard, but still have most brutal and legendary fights to do too...

starting to panic a little because I just spent (wasted) the past 5 hours trying to get through a brutal challenge with nothing to show for it. Only made it to the last round one time... and it's not even the toughest of the challenges!!!

Kind of panicking a little because I never had anywhere near this trouble in Remake and my team is maxed out, my materia loadout is optimal, feels like the only solution is to git gud. not great, not great at all.

Well, going to give it another dozen or two cracks tomorrow and if I can't then it'll wait until after I've completed all other platinum requirements I guess.

I managed to get through the first brutal challenge somehow. The next one I couldn't even get to the final round.

I usually love when games have a parry system, but I feel this one was implemented somewhat poorly. It doesn't feel fluid enough since you can't cancel attack animations.

On top of that you're usually dealing with multiple enemies at once who can spam attacks. It's the opposite of fun when I enter a combat challenge and immediately get stunlocked to death.

Maybe the Yuffie plasma build would yield better results. Set a teammate up with synergy+heal so you get constant healing? I haven't tried it myself yet so not sure how effective it would be.

I was watching someone play yesterday and they were using sleep pretty often in those combat trials where you're getting spammed by lots of enemies. Your allies won't attack sleeping enemies so it looked pretty useful.

CassandraCain posted...

I usually love when games have a parry system, but I feel this one was implemented somewhat poorly. It doesn't feel fluid enough since you can't cancel attack animations.

You can cancel attack animations with dodge though so what I'll usually do if I'm trying to get a parry off is if I see an attack about to happen, I'll cancel my own attack with a dodge and block immediately. It's not perfect obviously, but I did find it better in that sense.

skullbone posted...

I was watching someone play yesterday and they were using sleep pretty often in those combat trials where you're getting spammed by lots of enemies. Your allies won't attack sleeping enemies so it looked pretty useful.

Yeah I just got through mine with Stop spamming on the last guy (well, one of the last guys), whew. What a relief. Still more to go including allegedly the most difficult but yeah going to put those off until the very end.

CassandraCain posted...

Maybe the Yuffie plasma build would yield better results. Set a teammate up with synergy+heal so you get constant healing? I haven't tried it myself yet so not sure how effective it would be.

....is Synergy+Heal a thing, I thought it was just certain attack magic and the synergy attack is against whatever enemy you used your technique against??? going to investigate this but I like the idea of free heals...

MartinFF7 posted...

starting to panic a little because I just spent (wasted) the past 5 hours trying to get through a brutal challenge with nothing to show for it. Only made it to the last round one time... and it's not even the toughest of the challenges!!!

Kind of panicking a little because I never had anywhere near this trouble in Remake and my team is maxed out, my materia loadout is optimal, feels like the only solution is to git gud. not great, not great at all.

Well, going to give it another dozen or two cracks tomorrow and if I can't then it'll wait until after I've completed all other platinum requirements I guess.

The brutal/legendary challenges are pretty rough as some just have annoying stuff that can screw you like petrification or that worm swallowing 2/3rds of your party if you don't know what to do. Plus some moves just having bs timings like death from above which feels like a crapshoot whether you can dodge it personally while the ai can either be perfect or stupid.

MartinFF7 posted...

is Synergy+Heal a thing

Well apparently not. I read somewhere that it would be a good setup but I just checked for myself and it does indeed only work for attack spells. Sad.

Connecting it to Comet or Quake is usually good though. Aerith can setup an Arcane and Radiant Ward in order to double cast while also staying invincible during the casting animation.

For the worm swallowing you, you gotta dodge toward the worm.

But stuff that requires tight timing for a parry you can use ATB counters like Yuffie's Brumal Mode, or whatever Cloud's ATB counter stance is. I'm pretty sure Red has one too

I've been going through Hard Mode getting all manuscripts and leveling up as much materia as possible before trying Brutal cus yeah, I am worried how much time they'll waste. Won't bother me as much if everything else in the game is done.