Unfinished: Final Fantasy VII Remake (03/02/20)

I AM wondering how we got here. Been waiting for this.

Nani?

I guess ff7 crisis core never had a western release so the crew got surprised by the combat mode of this. but this also felt simplified so no pressure switching skill panicking. I am in. I still wish they made the CC after this XD

Anyone else getting a real Robert Downey Jr. as Lincoln Osiris vibe from Barret?

@brad the shinra corp stuff was absolutely in the original, to a lesser extent

Brad describes it as "knowingly contemporary," but that's been FF7's story all along. In fact, Shinra engaging in truly bonkers levels of public manipulation and propaganda is pretty integral to key moments in the story. It was just weirdly prescient. I feel like with a polished translation and a bit more care, there's going to be a deluge of "The FF7 story was much better than we remembered" think pieces coming out.

A lot of the derision that game gets stems from the fandom derping out over the most superficial aspects of it -- XxSepiroth69xX -- and not totally grasping the narrative because they played it at 15 with its busted ass translation. The game's story itself was bleak and sleazy and strange, focused on poverty, the power disparity between the haves and have nots especially in the context of massive corporations, all manner of trauma, looming environmental disaster, corporatism, and having failure as one of its major themes with nearly every protagonist being some sort of fuck up.

Then oozing beneath it all is an undercurrent of literal Lovecraftian horror. Those things don't really resonate with a teenager, but a big ass samurai sword does, so a lot of people just forget the bleaker, more disconcerting aspects of the narrative.

The game was so ahead of its time in terms of themes and use of storytelling devices in games, so gritty and grimey, and with such a richly textured cast of characters, that it can't help but feel modern. When you actually think about it, some of the ideas and topics FF7 delved into are mind boggling for a major console release in the 90s.

Hell, a lot of the issues it tackles are somehow even more relevant today.

Edit: Unless of course they sterilize everything in the remake.

Really good banter from the jump with this one. Looking forward to watching it all.

Man, I really like the way this game looks. I can't put my finger on it. The characters kinda look like action figures come to life and put in a grimy environment. The lighting is doing a lot of work here to juxtapose the cartoonish characters in a realistic world, I think. I dig it.

Brad is 100% wrong about the combat you hit the button to do attacks. Holding the button does a specific spinning attack that's good for hitting a group of enemies, which is why he does that one spin over and over and over again in this footage. This is in like the first tutorial prompt.

Cloud always had the cool/dumb bolts sticking out of his pauldron. Nomura loves his greebles.

He is also concerned about them padding the story by sending him to a second reactor, even though that is exactly what happens in the original story.

Story stuff is excusable since it has been 174 years since the original came out but yeah the basic combat thing is baffling. Granted I think Square has messaged about your basic attack being more of a filler thing to build up ATB gauge for actual attacks but that is still a wild thing to miss / assume about basic controls.

Also, Jeff's memory is really selling Cloud's arc short. He's not a reluctant hero in any traditional sense:

He's completely insane. He's a psychologically broken amnesiac, shot full of Cthulhu cells, walking around wearing the identity and clothing of a dead man. The only reason he's doing mercenary work is because he heard Zack talk about becoming a mercenary while Hojo was experimenting on them. The derpy little exchange with Barret in the video where Cloud doesn't seem to know his own age is pretty subtle foreshadowing.

This video seems kinda pointless considering they just play through the demo that's (as of now) freely available for anyone to play. I'm assuming they weren't allowed to show anything else that Brad played from further on, but it still makes this video rather nonessential.

oh man the music is so good, giving me the feels

I try to avoid media for this game, but it's not like I finished the old game multiple times

Looks good. Not exceptional nor terrible so far. Definitely keeping my interest. The voice acting of the support cast is better here than in trailer...Barret on the other hand however seem to have taken a step back, although they are probably hamming him up on purpose with his preachy talks.

Giving Jessie a lot of lines and screen time here; it is going to be interesting to see if that will work into later story bits.

The length of the combat concerns me a little, the camera also. A lot of heavy hits seems to be taken when player is blind sighted, also wonder how checkpointing works especially for boss fights. The thing with staggering mechanic in FF is that it is both time consuming and a race against time. I can see scenario where fights get tedious especially in repeated tries.

There's a LOT to unpack in FF7's world and story. The original localization didn't do it justice, along with limited time spent on each event. I think a longer and more expanded pass over it will be just what it needs to really showcase what the game is/was all about. Although I do wonder if they are dropping too many hints and doing too many foreshadow this early on, there's a certain realization on what exactly is going on and what exactly the game is about in the original that made it impactful.

still not as good as ff9

@wemibelle: Except it's completely useful for folks who don't want to or can't play the demo and are interested in seeing what this thing is like, while also getting GB commentary and reactions.

As someone who has played through the demo, I cannot believe Brad thought holding the attack button and doing the AoE spin attack was all you could do. There are even air combos on enemies in the air if you actually hit the button multiple times like you're suppose to.

It's wild he never questioned it after seeing that same spin animation repeat for 3.5 hours.

I haven't played this game but wasn't it pretty political? Curious how people are gonna react to this :D

@cheesepaper: hey. It's gonna be okay. I know someone not liking a thing you like seems like the worst thing ever. But you'll survive. you'll survive.

@snider301: This person is a genius.

Actually, Crisis Core very definitely had a western release! It's not a perfect game by any means, and one or two of the new plot elements are preeeetty un-necessary, but it was great to be in that world again and soak in the little details... kind of an appetiser for this, I guess. Plus, Zack's story is pretty melancholy...

I'm excited by the combat having more stuff going on/multiple characters and so on. The combat in 15 was ok for a while but also lacked variety and seemingly had no tactical depth. Hoping this will at least stay interesting the whole way through.

I hate to pile on, but holding attack is a different type of attack than mashing. That's a pretty significant piece of info.

@sideburnt: "Peek a boo! I see you!"

@cheesepaper: Im pretty sure turn based RPGS are much slower and easier than COD and retro stuff lol.

I know some of us come here for their sense of humor but this video misses fundamental aspects of the game and the rest of the commentary feels off.

Most everything said about the combat is now throwaway because Brad didn't catch on to the basics. Basic attacks build ATB. He was only doing the big AoE swings.

It's clear Brad remembers some things about the story when he comments about them surfacing Cloud and Tifa's past earlier than in the original. Shinra changing the narrative and being corporate/political greed turned up to 11 was in the original too.

But in fairness not remembering Barret losing his arm trying to save Dyne is a pretty deep pull. That gun is full prosthetic, boys.

Other journalists that went to see the demo seem to be reporting that this game will be 2 Blu-Ray discs and be 50-60 hours main story.

This side of Jeff is why I'm not renewing premium.

It’s exactly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

the game, or the video? :^)

I think a nice little detail for Barret would be for him to wear velcro shoes since it's probably pretty tough for him to tie laces.

This may be a UK/US thing, but I've said 'may-ko' this whole time and will not be able to take this switch to 'mah-ko'.

This is probably the first time in GB history where Brad got to play a pre-release big game, fundamentally misunderstand one of the mechanics, and then the embargo breaks and the people in the comments can play a demo of that same game and explain why brad fucked up.

ah yes, very much looking forward to the constructive DISCOURSE surrounding this game.

love it or hate it- i feel like anyone with an Online Opinion vis-a-vis this game is going to end up getting into it with someone.

I don't understand why anything in this video is under embargo when there is a goddamn playable demo available. The hell?

From the little bit that I've played, it seems fantastic. I'm pretty excited to see how the story is changed/expanded upon because I really really love FF7's plot and all of the cases of "mistaken identity" surrounding it.

@wallrod: the game looks awful

@stanek1: And be douches while doing so, as per norm.

@ripelivejam: true

Barret is still embarrassing...

I remember that Sephiroth was only talked about and not even seen before leaving Midgar.

I know the guys haven't played the original in a long time, but the amount of misinformation they seem to have latched on to is kind of off-putting when they talk about aspects of the game dismissively. Things like visiting a second reactor, the extent of how sinister/evil Shinra Corp. is, even the top of the video rant about Cloud's bolted pauldron - all of which were in the original game. On top of that, Brad seems to have missed some basic tutorial stuff right up front that kind of sours the whole video.

I'd encourage them to forget everything they know about the original - because a lot of it is misremembered anyway, and try to go in with fresh eyes.

@garr123: I really like this take on the game. I feel like I wasn't quite paying attention to the story when I played through it way back when, and my opinion about the game was mostly a criticism of how the mechanics hasn't aged well (random encounters plus the character differences in combat are relatively shallow, leading to not much customization). I've been feeling hyped about the remake, and I don't normally feel hyped about FF games. My main purchasing decision is if they are able to tell a complete story, without obligating me to buy three or more sequels. I'm fine with FFVII being split into two with this level of polish.

It is them giving their commentary over the demo, something you won't get by only playing the demo yourself.

It looks more interesting than I thought it would. I played FFVII on the PS a long time ago and it was a bit of a "slog", so them breaking up the game in smaller section with each more fleshed out in story details might just be the best 'so-called' new idea they have. This quick took me from "Why would I ever want to play this" to "oh, okay I might check this out." It is still a melodramatic eye-roller, but it look interesting to play and adds something (seemly changing what we knew of the story while filling out the story).