Poll of the Day > Playing FF7 for the first time

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bought it on the online switch store. Just booted it up. Lets see what all the hype is aboot

Omg lucky

It's a good game. Have fun

I hope you like it! I didn't play it until 2020 and despite knowing the two major spoilers, I still loved it!
:D

Remember to save before a boss ;)

I guess I kept misreading the in-battle text because that robot scorpion killed me three times lmao

Just escaped the reactor. That was a super solid game intro. Music was on point, action was solid, good character work and world building.

For some reason its a famous glitch / typowhere it tells you to attack when the scorpions tail is up, but thats when youre NOT supposed to attackbecause when its tail is up is when it counter attacks

the game didnt do that on purpose, its the only time I can remember when it does this. Have fun! Its a great game

MrMelodramatic posted...

Music was on point, action was solid, good character work and world building.

if youre liking that already youre in for a treat. The music particularly is one of the best soundtracks ever

Everyone makes the same mistake their first time, I think LOL

MrMelodramatic posted...

That was a super solid game intro

One of, if not THE best, yes! The music almost always hits the right notes, even with the old bleepy midis. The characters/plot/etc remain strong. The gameplay has pros and cons, but we'll see what you think.

Buut...if you can already accept the graphics (the most difficult to accept part of the game today) you'll enjoy it. Have fun!

I think N64/PS1 graphics are pretty endearing lol. I love the background art and really appreciate how I can have icons telling me where doors and ladders are.

the worst parts imo are the slow walking pace and that I cant save anywhere I want. idk if this was is in the original release, but the switch version lets you speed up walking by 3x, and obviously putting the console on idle means I dont always have to find a save point to stop playing (unless I want to play something else). So thats nice.

my only other issue is the isometric (I think thats what its called) POV. Why cant I just walk up down left right

MrMelodramatic posted...

my only other issue is the isometric (I think thats what its called) POV. Why cant I just walk up down left right

My son is playing it now and that's his main complaint. I can only walk in 8 directions and they're skewed different on every screen!

The first time I played it it took me months to finish the first disc. I was like 12 and doing it with no guides, but I finally did it. It finally said enter disc two.

then I did and went to load the game up and it said file corrupted

and there was just nothing I could do. After that point I started saving in three spots

MrMelodramatic posted...

I guess I kept misreading the in-battle text because that robot scorpion killed me three times lmao

Ah, I remember when games had first bosses that could kill you. Those were the days.

Gaawa_chan posted...

Ah, I remember when games had first bosses that could kill you. Those were the days.

Now they do a lot of the thing where the first boss is an unbeatable battle that always kills you

abuse the enemy skill materia <3

Gaawa_chan posted...

Ah, I remember when games had first bosses that could kill you.

To be fair, most of the battles immediately following the Scorpion are very easy for a few hours. :)

Nade Duck posted...

abuse the enemy skill materia <3

Yeah, don't do that. Actually, stop listening to us in entirety and just enjoy it!

I actually bought and played this for the first time during a PS store sale. It was only 4. I got tired of waiting for Final Fantasy Remake parts so thought I'd take the plunge. Good game and I enjoyed it.

wpot posted...

To be fair, most of the battles immediately following the Scorpion are very easy for a few hours. :)

Yeah, don't do that. Actually, stop listening to us in entirety and just enjoy it!

DO IT. that's all i'm gonna say.

Is it a metal gear kinda thing where the more enemy skills I use the more the skills souls will haunt me during a boss fight lmao

no, it's just really fun and there's some really strong for their level spells you can get if you know where to look. probably shouldn't spoil any more than that though. :]

Playing the original FF7 makes me upset at how much better they could have handled the remake.

darkknight109 posted...

Playing the original FF7 makes me upset at how much better they could have handled the remake.

Kind of like too little butter spread over too much toast.

hungrymike posted...

Kind of like too little butter spread over too much toast.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/4/AAcYbGAAC-7m.jpg

I expect a writeup about your analysis on the story.

darkknight109 posted...

Playing the original FF7 makes me upset at how much better they could have handled the remake.

I really enjoyed the remake

Jen0125 posted...

I really enjoyed the remake

I liked it quite a bit...in every section that didn't involve ghosts or unnecessary Sephiroth appearances. Which is to say I liked 80% of the game, but 20% (including the ending) bummed me out about what could have been.

Jen0125 posted...

I really enjoyed the remake

I didn't.

I was playing it at the same time as another Square remake that was released at roughly the same time - specifically, Trials of Mana, which was a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3 for the SNES. And despite the fact that Trials had a shoestring budget compared to FF7R, I felt it was the much better remake (and, honestly, the better game overall). Trials stayed true to its roots and basically faithfully translated the base game to 3D, while also adding a few new features that enhanced and expanded the game. It wasn't perfect and it had its flaws (especially the voice acting, which ranged from "just OK" to "atrocious"), but it did an excellent job of basically taking an old game and adapting it to modern gaming conventions.

FF7R more or less completely rewrote the plot of FF7 and committed the same sin that the Hobbit movies did 10 years ago by taking an old, perfectly paced story and stretching it out far, far too thin. All the new story parts that they added were boring, nonsensical, added nothing to the overarching plot and felt clumsily stitched on, never connecting back to anything. As an example, you spend an entire chapter turning off gigantic "sun lamps" on the Midgar plate in order to open some doors (which is a major "Wait, what the fuck?" moment in the plot, but let's ignore that for now). Tifa points out that they're creating great suffering for the people below (how, exactly, turning the lights off for a spell does that is never satisfactorily explained) while Barrett insists that it's for the greater good. I expected to see this plot point expounded on at some point, maybe during a future visit to the slums where you actually see or hear about the effects of what you did... but it never happens. Literally the entire episode is never referenced again after you finish that dungeon. The game wastes an hour of your time running this errand and delivers zero payoff for it.

And the game does this over and over. You meet this new biker SOLDIER and get in a fight with him, followed by a rematch a little while later... then he just disappears and never has any real influence on the plot. Don Corneo's bodyguard is given this tragic backstory that we have to waste time learning about, despite the fact that he's completely unimportant and the game never gives us any real reason to care about him. In FF7, the three ancillary members of AVALANCHE are basically just named NPC extras; FF7R has you spend hours with them, yet *still* never gets around to actually giving them decent characterization. I can literally sum up all three of them in one sentence each - Wedge is the overweight, "kind-hearted" goofball cat lover that is the butt of everyone's jokes; Biggs is the "cool guy" who helps out an orphanage in his spare time; Jessie is the former stage actress whose entire character arc is basically her wanting to furiously hump Cloud's face whenever he so much as breathes.

It's not all bad - the graphics are superb, the soundtrack is gorgeous, and the game has tremendous ambience, absolutely nailing the world of FF7. When the game stops fucking around and gets out of its own way, it actually gives a reasonably solid performance (though I felt the battle system was overdone and could have used some streamlining). If the game had cut out all the extraneous bullshit it felt like it had to tack on to pad out the runtime and had instead just followed the plot and pacing of the original FF7, I'd probably think a lot more favourably of it. As it is, I platinumed it, put it down, and have no desire to ever play it again.

My name is darkknight109, thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

My favorite part was chocobo gambling

FrozenBananas posted...

For some reason its a famous glitch / typowhere it tells you to attack when the scorpions tail is up, but thats when youre NOT supposed to attackbecause when its tail is up is when it counter attacks

It's mostly just awkward phrasing from poor translation.

"Attack while it's tail's up! Its gonna counter attack with its laser!"

What it's actually saying is "IF you attack while it's tail is up, it's going to counterattack with its laser." Which you're supposed to interpret as "Okay, so I shouldn't attack." But the way it's translated/written, it kind of makes it sound like you're supposed to attack to prevent the counterattack (which itself doesn't really make sense either, because that's not really how counterattacks work).

FFVII was kind of full of a lot of Engrish problems, though. It was definitely worse than FFIV and FFVI in that respect (probably because they'd dropped Ted Woolsey by that point, and were going for a more literal translation).



darkknight109 posted...

FF7R more or less completely rewrote the plot of FF7 and committed the same sin that the Hobbit movies did 10 years ago by taking an old, perfectly paced story and stretching it out far, far too thin.

I basically described it as a game almost entirely sold on nostalgia, that spends most of its time completely shitting on the entire concept of nostalgia.

If I was a new player who'd never played FFVII before I might have enjoyed it, as is the combination of needless retconning and breaking it into an episodic franchise (which I hate as a concept) kind of turned it into a massive festering turd for me.

I guess the graphics look pretty, though. That's just about the only thing Squeenix gets right in games these days.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

If I was a new player who'd never played FFVII before I might have enjoyed it, as is the combination of needless retconning and breaking it into an episodic franchise (which I hate as a concept) kind of turned it into a massive festering turd for me.

The weird thing is, I think you kind of *have* to have played FF7 before in order for the remake to make sense, which is kind of bizarre. Squeenix seems to be expecting all of its players to have played the original, or else a big chunk of the plot just falls apart.

Like... a new player would have no fucking clue what the significance of Zack showing up at the end of the game is, nor about the random Cait Sith cameo halfway through the game. And everything to do with those annoying ghost things that just completely took over the plot is all predicated on knowledge of the original game.

One of the most succinct descriptions of the game I ever heard was:
Final Fantasy 7 is a game about a ragtag group of adventurers fighting an evil corporation and going on to save the world while dealing with their own personal problems.
Final Fantasy 7: Remake is a game about Final Fantasy 7.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is not a Remake in your understanding of the term Remake.
The game is an Isekai plot where Sephiroth is the Protagonist. It's "Remake" in the same phrasing as "Remake our Life" (this is an anime/manga about someone who goes back in time (and forward, it's complicated) to try and fix his life. The Japanese would probably understand the phrasing "Final Fantasy VII no Remake" better than the west does. Sephiroth is literally remaking the plot of Final Fantasy VII.
But this is totally par for the course with this game. Like I said, I'm expecting a full plot analysis here because so much of it is lost in translation. Actually, for those who have played and for when TC later on:
Who kills the Midgar Zolom?
Even small things like that, people largely misunderstand the plot because it's purposeful. Seriously TC don't read this one until you finish the game probably: Remember, that the Sephiroth you're chasing in Disk 1 is not actually Sephiroth who is currently asleep in the Northern Cave. One could expect that it was Jenova as it was Jenova who actually kills President Shinra.

TC, I'm sorry if you actually read any of this, but FFVII is too "high brow" for westerners to understand. They barely grasp basic plot elements of a 25 year old game. It doesn't help that when you google something, it gives you the wrong answer.

I havent had a lot of time to play (work week and all), but I met Aeris and escaped the church together, and now were going to her place. Obviously the bad guys are after her for her moms materia that doesnt do anything right lol

also blew up the second reactor and ran into the Shinra President. Bolt magic easily dealt with the robo-soldier boss, but it still managed to kill Tifa. Lots of talking about Sephiroth in this part - tifa flashback, clouds dream/hallucination(?), the president. I dont know much about the guy outside of what we get in Kingdom Hearts (so basically that hes evil with a killer soundtrack) but I guess hes a top SOLDIER who people love but tifa hates?

I played maybe an hour on the psp years ago, ive thought about buying the remake at some point but never got around to it.

MrMelodramatic posted...

I guess hes a top SOLDIER who people love but tifa hates?

You'll be getting a loong flashback soon that explains who he is (and a bunch of other stuff). But you've got some fun stuff coming up before that...

Gaawa_chan posted...

Ah, I remember when games had first bosses that could kill you. Those were the days.

Im reminded of FF8 as well, the attack on Dollet can be brutal if you dont know what you youre doing

Lots of stuff in the last 40 minutes I played. Went to Aeris house, met her mom, went to the shops, dressed as a lady, lost a squatting contest, etc.

wedge was just thrown off the plate above sector 7 so Im going up to save Garrett and stop the president from killing everyone in S7 and blaming it on AVALANCHE

Poor Wedge - he was a good dude. Good luck saving the sector.

That remains the only video game squatting contest I am aware of to date.

lol big bro

MrMelodramatic posted...

Garrett

Nice

Just left Midgar

Please stay Kalm

Save Garrett!

Oop barrett

Ain't no getting off of this train we're on.

I beat it for the first time 2 years ago in preparation for Remake, and really enjoyed it. I was also genuinely surprised by a plot point & sequence that somehow hadn't been spoiled for me in all those years.

You can tell the game is very special to people and gaming in just the first 20 minutes.

The Materia system holds up very well too.

Its definitely a game that holds up. I dont think I fully understand the materia system, and I think I might be under leveled but its keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Im currently in the sephiroth/cloud flashback sequence

The narrative loses steam for a while after Kalm so it's a return to old school RPG gameplay (plus a really weird minigame) but it picks back up.

There's not a whole lot to understand about materia, really. Equip it and the character gets the skill/stat boost/whatever. If you have a blue materia you can link it to something else to get an effect. Materia level up after a while to be stronger.

MrMelodramatic posted...

I dont think I fully understand the materia system

It's pretty simple if you break it down into parts.
There are:

1. Materia that give you abilities (green = magic, red = summon, yellow = command). Some of these change stats. As a general rule, magic materia will improve your MP/Magic and decrease your HP/Strength, but don't overthink it; it's not a big deal. Finally, as a rule the differences between these are- green = single target and consumes MP, red = multi-target and consumes MP, yellow varies wildly but most do not consume MP.
2. (Purple) Independent Materia that give you passive boosts. These materia can sometimes stack up to a point, including Counterattack, btw.
3. (Blue) Support Materia that can be paired up with other materia to cause additional effects (with some restrictions; you can check what can be linked here, but beware location spoilers https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Support_Materia_(Final_Fantasy_VII) ). You can stack support effects onto one ability; if you have 2 Shiva materia and you link one to HP Absorb and one to Magic Counter, you will counterattack with Shiva AND will drain HP at the same time... but it takes four paired slots to do this.

Finally, don't bother trying to link blue materia to the Enemy Skill materia. Enemy Skill Materia has some unique mechanics that don't perfectly synergize with the various blue materia, and so it doesn't work with any of them at all in order to avoid issues.

These are the basics and pretty much all you need to know to do well with the materia system.

I first played the PC version of the game late last century. The computer I used was kind of old, so the game, especially the graphics, didn't move very smoothly. After beating it, I started over, but never finished my 2nd play-through mostly due to being too busy with school. It took a few minutes for me to understand the materia system.

WARNING: VERY UNPOPULAR OPINION AND SPOILERS
Unlike everyone, out of all the FF games I've played, FFVII was my least favorite... yes, you read that correctly. There are several reasons, but one of the biggest reason was the scary sneak up and stabbing. Yes, I've long resigned to the fact that I'm a wimp. I can't handle being shocked and startled, because it takes a long time for me to calm down. That's why I don't like surprises. Then, when characters were stabbed, I felt as if I was stabbed in the area myself.

I was glad to finally get out of Midgar. That place was just too dark and creepy, and I couldn't stand most of the songs they played in that area. That is another reason I didn't like FFVII: starting out and being stuck in a dark and gloomy area with battles almost everywhere for a long time.