Final Fantasy 7 Remake - Reviews & Discussion

@someoneproud: The time-ghosts as you call them are the only real issue I have with the story. And they don't affect the game too much up to this point. Up until the very end, when shit just starts going off the rails.

..what if they are aiming to call it FFVII-2? lol Do I sound cynical?

@efesell: Haha, yeah I figured :) Good god I hope you're wrong though. I can't think of a single decent, complete story Nomura's ever been at the helm of. 30-60 hours of Roche, Chadley & the Ghosts does nothing for me.

Probably bring Genesis back too... and now I'm sad...

@someoneproud: I know it's oddly fashionable to get on his case for everything but Nomura's not even on story here. That's still Nojima.

@efesell: Yeah I know but he's leading the project and that has a history of leading to incomplete and/or bad stories, guess I'm mostly using his name as shorthand for the decline in quality for FF stories generally. Not entirely his fault I'm sure but there's an unmistakable pattern and he really should be on top of that shit imo.

@seikenfreak : Yup, that's pretty much how I see this thing going. Not what I would have preferred but I can live with it, I'll play it and maybe they do some interesting things with it. At this point it's either that or full OC which I don't have faith in them to deliver, they've done some good stuff around the framework of FFVII but without it... I'm just not convinced.

@someoneproud: And that framework is likely why the game hasn't gone completely off the rails. Yet.

I figured the whispers were a tool to handwave plot / things that a game could easily get away in 1997 but can't in 2020.

So far I am loving it. The setting / art direction (aside from some textures), the music, the goofiness, the fleshed-out characters.

My only gripes are a couple of the fights (so far, I hear there's more) where they don't feel so much difficult as they do cheap. The Game Informer podcast put it in a good way: in these fights, it feels like the combat is asking more from you than the combat system can provide. Damage sponges are one thing, but offscreen enemies constantly putting you to sleep when you're getting tore up by two other enemies you're fighting, while not being able to create enough distance to get a spell off. Yeah, that is infuriating.

I do wonder if they'll tackle open-world, or do it moreso like what they've done in this first part of the remake. But saying this isn't a full game is like saying The Fellowship of the Ring isn't a whole book.

@mikewhy said:

That's what I initially thought as well so it wasn't hard for me to brush it off until later events.

For the combat, there were fights later on that were fairly annoying even on classic/easy. Your party members don't seem to do much on their own, and enemies specifically target whomever you're using a lot. This means you're fighting six things and all they want to do is knock you over, coming from all directions, on and off-screen.

It feels a bit far fetched for me to say it but, if you're going to do action these days, then you're system better be as tight and balanced as Sekiro or why even bother. The fact that I couldn't cancel out of whatever I was doing into a block was constantly annoying. And they give you a dodge except there is tons of attacks that you can't actually dodge? So you'll watch damage just get piled on you, all the little numbers flying off, and get this feeling like.. wtf am I doing wrong? You're just supposed to take it though and dodge if can for certain big moves.

It's whatever. I was able to clear the game and enjoy the rest of it.

@seikenfreak: The dodge is prety confusing. Like, it has no invincibility frames, that's ok. But there's just so many attacks that seem like you should be able to avoid them by dodging or running, but that doesn't work? Shiva had a number of these, where I gave up on dodging / running, and just held block whenever it looked like she was gonna do some bullshit.

It would be great if you could do anything to customize your parties AI: Prefer healing; Treat the shortcuts I've set as an order of importance; Anything. Them not prioritizing an enemy that has you bound, or Barret attacking some ground enemies when there's MULTIPLE turrets attacking the party, just makes them seem dumb.

I'm totally cool with getting trumped in a fight that I was underprepared for / didn't have enough info going in. That tracks back to the original. The fight in the scrapyard graveyard was just some new level of hell for me.

Again, loving the game, I just need to vent, and get better at switching characters in fights.

Also agree, Biggs = Charlie Sheen.

@efesell: @nodima: in the words of Abby Russell “hmm interesting!” I’ve since watched a 45 minute video summarizing the story of the original game with some hilariously outdated original footage to go along with it. The story seems to have about 6 layers too many but I think if you’re exposed to all the concepts and story threads over the course of dozens of hours it’s probably a bit easier to digest. That said after having watched that and knowing the full scope of the original game it is shocking how little they actually “remade.” Not to say that’s a bad thing since obviously plenty of people are more than satisfied but yah that seems to be a small chunk of this grandiose tale of globetrotting and hallucinations. It has definitely made me a lot more interested in playing it now just to see where the remake goes.

@mikewhy:

I also realised a few hours in that blocking is much more effective than dodging. Although there are still attacks you need dodge it just becomes a thing of trying discern which thing you need to do.

Ya'll I'm just glad that my boy Zach's alive. And I am all the way bought in, I am here for whatever direction they decide to go in for the future games.

So just my take on the combat is that it makes a lot more sense when viewed as a take on the turn-based jrpg rather than a straight action game like a Sekiro or even a Kingdom Hearts. There's a lot of animation priority and you really can't avoid taking some sort of damage, but that's fine because it's not a twitch reflexes action game. It's a game about resource management, where the resources are HP, MP, items and ATB.

This game has been, in my book, my favorite ATB system in the Final Fantasy games to this point, and is a contender for my favorite JRPG combat system period. I got frustrated at points but for whatever reason I didn't feel that way about the last stretch of fights. And really the harder fights were when it all really clicked into place for me, like against Leviathan.

Yea, I basically don't dodge other than to close distance on targets. This game really captures that old SNES/PS1 feel of constantly juggling offense and defense, it's been so long since I've felt the rush of spending five minutes just trying to stay above water with Phoenix Downs, Ethers and Cure spells until that one glorious moment when Healing Wind becomes available or the enemy whiffs on a big hit and I get back in the game. Probably since FFX.

I really wish the AI could more effectively build meter, it's what really drags the combat down for me.

@efesell: Its especially aggravating because they are fully capable of doing so. Any time you stagger an enemy all your teammates actually start to attack for real instead of pacing around and blocking. Maybe they thought it would be too easy if the unused party members were that active all the time? I suppose you would be firing off abilities and spells way more often in that case.

My advice would be to just not ever focus on a single character. With Cloud, I mostly build a single meter, Assess the situation if needed or do a Triple Slash if not, then flip to Tifa where I work up to her strength boost, then pummel some more until I can stack two skills back to back or unleash some magic followed by a skill, then switch to Aerith who is equipped with an ATB boost to start at basically 1 full ATB at this point, do a little attack combo to get to two ATBs then either Pray if we're messed up or drop a combo of magic / Sorcoress' Storm if I don't need. Rinse, repeat. Outside the real tough tactical battles that come around every couple hours, I find myself operating a different character every 15 seconds or so, and I have to say I really don't feel like the gauges take all that long.

Enemies also remain aggro'd to the character you switched away from until the pain starts coming from somewhere else so depending on the battle arena they can remain pretty confused on what they're really trying to do.

Sometimes I think I'd like to give this game's Hard Mode a shot on a replay, but then I remember it doesn't allow items and all my characters are basically addicted to phoenix down and hi-potion at this point.

So, somewhat surprising even myself, I actually put some real time into the original. As I mentioned, I wasn't feeling it at first but I must've had some kinda mindset flip overnight. Rolled my awesome little 24" RGB modded TV out next to my desk, got my Brady guide, might've put something on the computer to watch in the background and then settled in. Once I got into a groove, maybe after I got through the Don Corneo dress junk, I started to feel like I was enjoying myself.

Just cleared Midgar. Took about 7.5 hours I'd say? Rather fascinating to play after the Remake. It's like 95% of the events and even dialogue are exactly the same between the games. There are some small alterations they made to minor things that don't really matter. And it's also cool to see how they've taken very brief, small areas, for example getting to the top plate or going in the sewers or whatever, areas that were like 30 seconds or a few minutes of gameplay, maybe 2-3 background screens, and turned them into these whole lengthy areas of more traditional Final Fantasy exploration. It's really amazing how well they built out the story and environments off the original. But also stayed true to certain things, like the HQ stairwell, that while playing the remake I was thinking like.. "I have no memory of this.. Did the original really have this? Because this is crazy and kinda dumb.." and yet there it is in the original and it's probably easier faster than the new one! And I'm so proud of them for keeping something sort've stupid and pointless like that in and not focus testing it out.

So then it really is a shame to see them tack on this other weird new story stuff. Or dumb anime stuff like Roche. Johnny's character is anime and dumb, but after seeing that he is an actual NPC in the old one, albeit with like one line of dialogue, and his parents as characters exist etc etc, it's a neat throwback. I also much prefer how Sephiroth is handled in the original up to this point. He isn't really addressed or a factor, so then when you're in the HQ and it suddenly takes a mysterious creepy, more graphic turn than anything you've seen in the game up til then, it feels more impactful.

It's cool. I'm glad I pushed myself over that mental hurdle and I'm kinda excited to play it some more. There are so many details I have no memory of from when I first played this. And I love this note in the guide that gives some insight into why this particular point in the game is significant and exciting or potentially frustrating for old fans and the future of the remake:

"Note: The game takes a huge turn here. Up to this point, the quest has been fairly linear. From now on, you'll have large areas to explore with lots of things to discover. Have fun and take your time when travelling from place to place. After all, half the fun of an RPG is discovery!"

Brady Guide (1997) At the end of Midgar section

Yeah. There's a lot of dumb anime in REMAKE that's all Square Enix. There's one character I do like and that's Madam M. She's a lot of fun. In the Japanese dub, when she's cursing up a storm they actually bleep out the curses, which makes that scene a hell of a lot funnier.

Also the moment where the game temporarily gives you control of Aries just so you can watch Cloud numbly walk out of Madam M's shop just staring at his hands was hilarious.

Okay this Too Much Anime thing is starting to get to me. You folks are overlooking a lot of realities of the original release to make that leap.

@kemuri07: Madam M is great. Also, am I crazy or is Sam Elliot doing the voice for Sam the chocobo guy? Haven't looked it up.

I'd love it if they patched in or added an optional download for japanese VO. I thought the english VO was good for the most part, aside from certain characters. Like, I don't think I'm a fan of Sephiroth's voice.. Just doesn't fit IMO.

Another thing that I'm realizing is how much I like the "old" character designs. As in, their characters appear more plain i.e. normal vs all the newer FF stuff has all this weird, gaudy fashion elements. I guess this is a Nomura thing? Because it started with 10. Why I bring it up here is because you have a mix of new characters in here, like Leslie (who I actually liked and thought his voice and demeanor were refreshingly different in the game) who has the kinda dumb looking new-age-FF look to him.

@efesell: Sure. But the original gets a pass because, well, it was made in '97.

@seikenfreak: Pretty sure you can change to the Japanese VO in the option settings.

My PS4 is in japanese so it automatically started the game with the japanese dub.

@kemuri07: ...Why?

@efesell: Can't say I saw or felt much anime-esque stuff in my run through Midgar yesterday. Curious if you have some examples? Or maybe this was gone over earlier in the thread. Not trying to put you on the spot.

If I could think of anything anime about the old one.. its the guy with a big sword and like his broody attitude. Kinda barely comes across in the old text-only dialogue though. But it's like, more subtle stuff I guess? Like a good 90s anime. Trigun or something. I do like me some anime. But the bad anime parts I think are like.. flying motorcycles/physics not being a thing. Or Roche's super over the top/weird outta nowhere homoerotic dialogue. I mean.. of course there is an audience for that. Entire genre. Just not my cup of tea.

@kemuri07: ..Is it really an option in the game already? haha ahhh I'm an idiot.

@seikenfreak: Let’s have a quick thought experiment. Let’s take Roche and assume he’s just 97 original and have the remake have added.. Cait Sith.

@efesell: Hah yes I forget Cait Sith even exists. That is kinda anime for sure. I'll have to refresh my memory in the old one but I still can't imagine it feeling very anime in the game itself. I mean, Red XIII is a talking dog wolf thing as well, but that somehow doesn't feel uniquely anime to me. That's just more general cartoon than anything? I guess it comes down to how much the old game can even convey via text and the prerendered cutscenes didn't have any voice. I would say the way the girls act and gesture in Remake is very japanese and anime. Wasn't possible in the old one. Didn't really bother me though.

Feel like I'm just seeing a sliding scale level of opinion on the anime-ish parts. It's the problem with trying to appeal to a wider audience. I think the people who are more used to western RPGs will look at it and think the whole thing is anime from top to bottom. I'd slot myself somewhere in the middle: I like some anime, but you won't catch me watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure or whatever. I'm cool with most everything in the Remake. And then maybe the audience with more experience, more discerning tastes in eastern content.. Maybe they want Cloud and Sephiroth to make out or they love seeing Cloud dress up and dance? Very expressive visuals, gestures, voices, scenes etc. More over the top.

I honestly don't think it's that big a deal in the grand scheme of the Remake so far. It hasn't taken anything away from the original work. We'll see how they handle Cait Sith with the new stuff. Could indeed be very grating.

Meanwhile, the ghosts. Fuck off ghosts.

@efesell: But that's kinda pointless isn't it? Maybe I'd feel differently about it, maybe I won't.

This is where context comes into play when we're talking about stuff like this. Granted, I think what seiken is saying is more in line with what I mean when I say "dumb anime" especially in the context of how Square Enix has been developing their RPGs post Final Fantasy X. With the move to more realistic character models, comes the tendency to take tropes found in more modern-day anime which is especially true of Advent Children or Kingdom Hearts. Yeah, VII is over-the-top, but it's strange and trippy in a way that was revolutionary for its time.

I think subtle is a good word for it.

I played the original for the first time back in 2016 at the age of 24, and ended up really enjoying. So I was in a sweet-zone for enjoying the callbacks this game has, while not feeling betrayed by the changes.

In fact, I love this game and am excited for the next installment. But I certainly didn't expect my reaction upon finishing this game to be: "I wonder what's going to happen next?".

@efesell: Yea I don't know what people expect of a game that brought japan to the united states.

And for those who don't remember how "anime" the original was you can read it here

What an interesting thing this turned out to be. It's like a history of SE's last decade of console games rolled into one. I can see parts of a bunch of different things here, only on chapter 4:

- 13's weird level design, some interesting music choices when deviating from the original arrangements, major seeming characters that come and go in the span of a few hours, never to return again.

- 15's bad open world and quests, poor NPC designs, some truly weird movement, incredibly high graphical quality mixed with incredibly low moments (I skipped all the side quests in the slums because I could not stand the look of it). The weird jumpiness between chapters is also very present here too.

- You can see the seams of a game that went through a troubled development in like 70% of this so far. Most of the time it looks like a beautiful update to a PS3 game, but a PS3 game still the same.

But when its good its REALLY BLOODY GOOD! The battle system is the best they've done in 15 years (12 is still the best imo), there's some really excellent character work and the story is told confidently and well.

Saying all this, I am not convinced SE are a studio who should be making AAA console games. They've clearly struggled to make a consistently good product, end to end, for almost 2 decades now. And as much good there is here, FF7R still follows the shoddy trend.

Edit: I'm just going to put this down to easy, try and get through the terrible side quest hub areas to get to the bits SE clearly felt were worth spending time on too. The original 7 is my GOAT and you'd think I would be disappointed by this but I've learned since 13 SE are now a company controlled by egotistical directors, making bad games with big budgets.

@mikachops: I think I agree with you on pretty much of all this. And I'd be a lot more excited about the future prospects of FF7 if it weren't in the hands of Square Enix--because they're not good at this stuff. And Chapter's 17 and (especially) 18 have all the hall marks of modern-day Square Enix storytelling. Part of the reason why FFVII remains such a staple, and why REMAKE works as well as it does, is because it tells a relatively simple and relatable story: you're fighting capitalists who want to use up the world's resources for their own gains, and also their's native Americans who are the rightful owners of the world.

Yeah, FFVII goes bug nuts as it goes on, but it makes sure to make the emotional core of its story (the protecting of the planet) works so that you give a shit when it starts bringing up clones and mistaken identities. The problem with Kingdom Hearts and the newer Final Fantasys is that they throw a lot of high concepts at the gamer without bothering to make any of it stick. It's why both XIII and XV go in full exposition mode, expecting you to give a shit about the game's sociail commentary and politics simply because a bunch of Bishounen dude bros say it, but like really serious.

And I think that's why people are anxious about this new direction FF7 is taking: taking a beloved story and turning it into an overwrought story about FATE AND DESTINY!!!! Maybe I'm wrong, maybe SE will prove me wrong and they'll actually make something that can stand on its own legs. But I doubt it.

@kemuri07: I don't even mind all the story changes. Nothing they do here can ruin the original but as long as they don't go full on obnoxious with the KH stuff, I'm in for it. What I cannot stand is SE continuing to act like a premium development studio but filling their games with absolute dreck re graphics, animation and quest design. I'd be really interested to know what Cyberconnect2 did on this game originally, and what SE remixed from their time on it because right now, it's like I'm playing something made by 3 different studios.

Which is to say it's making it a really interesting experience, at the least.

@mikachops: This combat feels like it has a lot of Cyberconnect bones in it, to be honest.

https://powerup-gaming.com/2018/04/26/final-fantasy-7-remake-development-delays/

They supposedly scrapped everything Cyberconnect did and started over (very in character for Square Enix so I believe it). If the game feels messy it's likely just because Square is a messy company.

They may have scrapped the work, but I feel they retained a lot of ideas and workflow from previous iterations. It at times looks and plays like a PS2, PS3 and modern game. Messy is for sure the right word here.

Edit: Chapter 6 down. Absolutely dreadful.

I finished the game last night. As someone who's never really played a final fantasy game, I have a few thoughts:

I found the battle system engaging and fun for roughly the first half of the game. Like others have said it has it's quirks but for the most part, I thought it mixed strategy and action well. I'd run into a fight that would wreck me and knew it meant I needed to reoutfit my party and rethink the encounter.

But I hit a point where it felt like I could mostly ignore the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies and just wail on them and heal when necessary. It felt like I had out scaled the game and the balance broke a bit. Overall I like the system and being able to completely rework my comp and almost any moment.

I think everything up until the Don Conero encounter is pretty fantastic. After that, the game really falls apart in my opinion. The game feels like a slog from that point. the great pacing of the early sections of the game grid to a halt. Everything inside the Shinra building for example feels like it takes way longer than it should. Especially the part in Hojo's lab. So much time spent waiting for switch flipping animations to play out...

As for the story...

I never played the original but I had friends who were obsessed with it so I knew a fair bit through osmosis and I know the major beats of the story. I was very much looking forward to experiencing this story in a modern game. Especially when the gameplay felt so mechanically sound. The game starts off really strong. The world-building, the pacing, the characters. I thought it all worked well.

Once again, the back half of the game falls apart.

I can't remember ever playing something where I started so high on it and turned this hard. I do think the front half of the game stands up, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth by the end. At this point, I don't see myself playing whatever comes after this.

Right. And I think the fear is that what we're gonna see is a Kingdom Hearts scenario where there's multiple versions of these characters running around.

Not gonna lie the more I see people just broadly use Kingdom Hearts as a synonym for bad the more I hope this goes in that direction.

@efesell: wouldn’t that mean the game is going to get worse through convoluted storytelling? I mean I think there is good and bad convoluted. I’d argue the way Metal Gear starts getting convoluted is absurd but fun because it is so dumb. Kingdom Hearts I don’t have personal experience with but everything I’ve ever read on it just makes it seem complicated in a really bad way.

I watched someone finish up a playthrough last night; this offered another mental go at it and let me see someone else's reaction.

[Redacted] Eh, nevermind. I sat here writing some thoughts up on it more, trying to process it.. But none of it was going anywhere when I read it back. The mental gymnastics of trying to understand wtf they are doing.

I'm continuing my original playthrough. About 20 hours now and just hit Gold Saucer. I would love to see just the original game recreated on the new hardware. I'm dying to see Rufus tell Heidegger to stfu with his stupid, annoying laugh, because that's exactly how I felt while playing the Remake. Perhaps they had the foresight to deliberately make it over-the-top and annoying so these events pay off in the future of whatever sequel this gets. The Chocobo Ranch, the marshes with MIdgar Zolom, through the Mythril Mines, then emerging on the other side to a sprawling countryside and seeing Fort Condor on the horizon. Ugh, the potential! How could they reintegrate or reinterpret the mini-game? Then Junon (that gun!), the haunting cargo ship ride, Costa Del Sol, back up into the mountains and North Corel for Barrets back story..

All of this would make for awesome variety in visuals, towns, set pieces, pacing etc. They should absolutely do justice to the original world on par with Midgar. I think three games would do great. Build the entire underlying foundation and programming of the game, then you're art and asset creation team(s) is pumping out work, meanwhile your design and programming team is left with a lightened load to take on the many unique gameplay elements (what kept the original game somewhat fresh and surprising over so many hours) like the mini-games. Design the whole character/gear/materia progression arch from the beginning so that people can carry over their old saves and so that it all feels progressive and natural (where as now I don't understand how they'll do the next game.. Do we start at level 1 again? Meh) Release it as a trilogy with each one coming out maaaybe each holiday season? Every other would be more likely. And then you have this epic journey that people move along with during a console generation. It's a large investment upfront that pays off in the long term.

As is, I imagine they'll cut out tons of the original game because they don't want to spend the time or money on it. They'll have your characters just cinematically transition from one location to another because they can't be bothered to build and program the world map, thus losing the sense of adventure and scale, that non-linearity and sense of freedom the old games were known for.

*Sigh* To bring up Lord of the Rings again.. This is like if the movie came out, and then Gandalf could suddenly see the future and was like.. Nah, lets not go through the Mines of Moria.. because, I don't know why.. Or maybe I do..? You know what, lemme just call up my eagle bros and then we'll fly straight to Mt. Doom. Meanwhile we're seeing ghosts.. or not ghosts.. ? and/or alternate time line versions of Frodo and Sam walking around.. Just a disaster.

Again, they could still salvage this, albeit weirdly. It would mean going through the whole original story except the entire time, people keep having visions and shit but we still hit all the beats.. Not just the major ones. Still hearing people around talk about "you have the old one if you want that.." No.. The old one doesn't have good modern visuals, great voice acting, battles that aren't random, tons of quality of life improvements, a stellar orchestral soundtrack, and a far more indepth exploration of the world and it's characters. And this is how I feel as someone not being particularly attached to this game! I can't imagine how someone who truly is feels.

Ahh went on another rant. Started writing one thing and then went somewhere different. The "Remake" of my post.

@seikenfreak: I think the LoTR analogy falls right apart because that is more explicitly an adaptation. It wasn't made with any intent to deviate (broadly) from its source.

This, despite having remake in there being a little confusing, has always directly said this was going to be a re imagining of FF7.

@efesell: Yea, I guess. They should've put a different subtitle on this. Then again, if they did, and made this same game, I probably still would've been annoyed. The [great] problem is they did the transition of the original Midgar content over so damn well. So I want more of that. If they were going to do something different, then they should've just made the whole thing different instead of a scene for scene, word for word retelling. Instead they went with this middle ground to try and appease both audiences I guess.

I watched some retrospective stuff on FF13 and FF15 yesterday, to try and understand more of the potential here. Way back when, I made it to nearly the end of the 13 before giving up. I begrudgingly made it that far more than anything. FF15 I had zero interest in from the start; one because of my experience with 13 and two, just the look, the protagonists, the product placement and brand deals etc in 15. Oh and ancillary to this, everything I've seen and heard about Kingdom Hearts. After being reminded of all this.. It further cements the achievement that Remake is for SE, and also why I expect everything is downhill from here.

@seikenfreak: I couldn't agree more. A good, modern adaptation of FFVII would be something special and I'd really love to see it.

This whole project could turn out pretty great or really terrible... I'm still hopeful for the former, they did a great job with the first part aside from the extraneous, clumsy meta nonsense.

@humanity: Metal Gear often gets away with its nonsense (most of the time) because it "knows" it's kind of dumb. So while it's pretty sincere about its anti-war message, it also knows its a dumb video game and has fun fucking around with the gamers.

Kingdom Hearts is the equivalent of a 13 year old writing a Final Fantasy fanfic who really, really thinks its the coolest shit ever. And it takes itself too goddamn serious that it's hard for me to enjoy. I get that people like that ridiculousness, but it always feels like inspite of the games' narrative, not because of it.

@kemuri07: Kingdom Hearts knows that its the dumbest shit in the entire world though. Whether you are on board for a variant of that in MGS and not another is fine but don't pretend KH doesn't understand what it's doing.

I always find it funny when people try excuse MGS's stupid nonsense and then hate on KH's stupid nonsense when they are basically the exact same thing. The only real difference in my book is that KH fully embraces its anime nonsense while MGS tries to paint itself as more western. But it's still largely anime nonsense too.

You can like or hate it, but they are equal levels of dumb. Granted, MGS does get more meta at times, so maybe that's enough for people to overlook everything else, but after MGS4 I feel like that's just an excuse.

As someone who has only had exposure to the Kingdom Hearts stories through trailers and second hand discussions, but has played every Metal Gear game to completion, the story surrounding the whispers in this game was easier to comprehend than both of those series.

@lajiaya: Hey..this is only the first part.

Give it time.

Chapter ~10 light spoilers:

finished the Train Graveyard yesterday and holy fuck that is the most boring and stretched out piece of gaming I've played in years. I can't remember what the original was like but I'm gonna assume they took the section that had a few House-monsters and turned it into... that. TWO bosses, too. That first one is just not fun, either (love to have a boss that's only susceptible to magic half the time but my magic is hitting invisible colliders). Oh, right, and I missed a weapon on the second boss because I didn't just happen to have Steal materia equipped on someone; great. By the time I finished this section it felt like the devs actually tried their hardest to sap all my good will toward the game.

Chapter ~13 spoiler (look at your own risk!!!):

Thankfully I just finished Barret's section and, even though my favorite character was just killed off, my enjoyment has been rejuvenated for the moment after firing a gatling gun for 30 minutes.

@development For what it's worth, hiding cool weapons and summons behind bosses is a time-honored Final Fantasy tradition. The two that come immediately to mind are Final Fantasy IX, whose main character was a thief so Steal was sometimes the most important skill in your arsenal. Before that, Final Fantasy VIII hid maybe a quarter of its summons behind boss battles.

That said, I'm no longer the sort of person that plays JRPGs all day and night so I had forgotten that until just now and have completely ignored the Steal materia in favor of combat skills. Now I wonder what all I've missed...

@development: Same thing happened to me but I just reloaded my last save and redid the fight.

It's a fun easter egg. Just going through the original one to learn that that boss is actually a (uncommon?) random battle in that area and he has a good weapon for her you can steal. These are the details I love. I do agree that area was a bit too long though.

@nodima I don't think you missed much. I was accessing everything I could remember to through the game and there was maybe two things to steal from bosses? Maybe not even? For the most part they know people will not want to miss things. I think this one was done deliberately as a reference to the original.