Seeing a lot of people asking about song names so: Outro song: FF7 Remake OST: Smash 'Em, Rip 'Em - th-cam.com/video/gbhdzf2NwaY/w-d-xo.html Other song used in end section: FF7 Remake OST: Home Away from Home - th-cam.com/video/6Nl3_SxpwdA/w-d-xo.html
I actually really like this, you did a great job explaining what we're supposed to know at this point of the game. Its left open for change and I like that. But it kinda bugs me how most people are leaning on time travel theories. I've basically figured it out, love the original, and really cant wait for the next one.. but there's no time travel garbage lol
Well said: Few OG Fans post the Compilation wanted this attempted again. But here we are: 5/10. No Gambits (14 years later lol): Stagger and HP Buffing is back: Self Indulgent Xenosaga Style cutscenes that develop corpses: and Pacing thats utterly a joke: plus story elements borrowed from Xenosaga. Aka: this is Xenosaga: V2.0. Also: if you're doing multi part: This had to go to minimum Junon...but: *This is 6 parts: as it's Xenosaga V2.0. Making Sephiroth: Windhelm.* And psst: The Gnosis, aka Whispers: already MADE the OG Game...only ONE World: in many and suggesting its FAKE...compared to this "NEW" story which will... "Fix everything"...aka: Xenosaga. Edge of Time = The Zohar paradox. Oh and BTW: you *DO Realize: the point for the Arbiters is to kill Aerith: and BLAME IT on "Fans demanding the story stay the same." Pro Tip fellow fans: Kill Aerith Voluntarily: I WANT SE's Player Data to SHOW 99.9% of fans killed that 1D Square of a Virgin Healer Archetype.* But...the ONE WAY this COLD work: is to have Player Choice determine if the Game remains the same but... You'd have to trust SE to do the work to Program in 2 scenario's hahahahahahaha: and with THIS GAMES LAZINESS!? Yeah: nope. Part 2: To Cargo Ship. Part 3: To Nibelhiem. Part 4: To Nothern Crater. Part 5: Rest of Disc 2. Part 6: Disc 3 + Side QUests. *I'll take any bets for any amounts: this is the layout with the exception of Part 4 stopping at either the Northern Crater or at City of Ancients with A.*
Mod game: and you can at least get off the train for 60$...vs 350-400$. *That's one easy solution to...emotional based purchases...sigh...the Post 2010 Gamer: and We thought: the Gamer of the 2000s: was emotionally vulnerable to advertising based nostalgia lol. The Post 2010 Gamer: hold my Culture's Relevance lol.*
Hello NeverKnowsBest - I stumbled upon this video, and I was surprised at how I feel the same way with everything u said about Remake, especially the ending - I know Remake is going to be bad, but I'm excited at the same time of the known, unknown; meaning that I can't wait to see the known parts of later in the game come to life, while seeing what new they add to see if it may or may not make the game better. I didn't like at all how they ruined the mystery of Sephiroth AND Zack. Zack, especially, bc his plot is revealed much later in the game. They should have only showed silhouettes of both that strongly represented who they are, as to still have the full of their looks and story remain a mystery for later. Honestly, I already had feelings of doubt about Remake, as after ff10, I have disagreed with their every direction of FF. Ff12 wasn't even its own FF - it had some sort of connection to an outside ff title, Tactics, I believe. As long as the current ppl working on ff is doing it, I dont believe we will see another unique, long-standing ff. Hate to say it. I appreciate the same things you do about Remake. The fluff that takes away the impact of the core story that u mentioned, like what happened with the team's reflection after Sector 7, desperately needs to go. I'm on this train, but I won't be buying the extra snacks and beverages; I'll just be sharing it with my fellow passengers who did here on TH-cam, just like how I did with Remake no.1. Oh - and seriously? You're spanning this game across 4-5 other installments over x amount of years? I can't even....
nomura changed in the original ff7 the story premis of almost all party members dying except 3 to aeriths death. he saved ff7 back in the day. on to clarify: he is not the secnario writer for the remake.
@@moeloehoe Who are you to say that that ending wouldn't have been better? That doesn't mean he "saved" anything. He was also not alone back then. And since then Nomura has gotten much worse and mad with power. He didn't "write" the remake, but he sure had his fingerprints all over it.
@@moeloehoe Nomura recent track record when it comes to storytelling has been pretty awful. Just look at kingdom hearts franchise and his concept for FFVXIII. He is a great character designer and can occasionally have cool concepts for game mechanics and story. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to tell or write a good story. I don't really trust the other involved in this project either (Kitase, Nojima, Toriyama) as their recent works demonstrate they really lost the touch and can’t tell a good story anymore. I think this remake project is doomed.
@@yoursonisold8743 who are you to say the next pert of the remake can not be good because Nomura directed it? A director in Japan is NOT THE Same as a director in the US. I'm looking forward to what will come in the second part. Then we'll know for sure if it is messed up. But all evidence seen in the first part of the remake suggests they know what the hell they're doing.
@@farikalines1169 He is the director not the writer of the scenario. The writer is the one from the original ff7. You vastly overstate Nomuras freedom from the KH franchise in a numbered remade main franchise title. He certainly doesn't have the freedom as in KH-franchise.
The concept of battling against fate and mysterious creatures that intervene in the events of the story to keep it on track would've worked better if it happened in a story that was written around it, rather than inserted into a story that worked fine enough on its own.
Lacintag square enix needs to leave well enough alone and focus on making ff16 greater than ff7 but they know they are incapable. They should've honestly just swallowed their pride and used their budget for ff7 remake to bring sakaguchi on as a producer for ff16.
If the story revolved around battling the fate that awaits you, that would be too cliche. I've seen my fair share of stories like that. However, inserting this concept in an already written story opens up the mystery of what happens next, opens up certain characters to more screen time, and opens up the story to the idea of timelines (if they decide to include it heavily in the next game).
Meh. Time travel/fighting destiny has been done before and it is not only saturated at this point, it actually sucks if you step back for a second. What do those ideas mean when you realise the whole plot is written around them? Essentially you are dealing with a puzzle that some writer designed. It fits neatly, sure, but it was designed to fit neatly. It was always meant to be what it is. Now comes FF7R. The story was written already. The puzzle was designed and resolved. But fuck Destiny. Fuck what the plan was. No, this time things are different. This is not just a time travel story, it's THE time travel story. It's probably been done before, where sequels come in and try to rewrite the story of a previous entry to try to take the franchise in a new direction but I can't think of one, and certainly not one as high profile as FF7R. This is a story that has a lot of meaning and value to a lot of people. Shattering expectations by inserting this sort of plot twist into it is very exciting and one of the few times where it can have a substancial impact beyond the story. Who cares that it doesn't fit super neatly? It isn't finished therefore it's a silly position to take but furthermore time travel and defy destiny plots have always sucked. Either they too are inconsistent or they are meaningless by their very nature. At least now it has a meaning.
@@matthewwells5098 That criticism is wrong. He's the director and it's a sourced fact that he was responsible for the main writing decisions in terms of where the narrative went, the writers conformed to his intent for how the plot was going to go. He came up with the key ideas like destiny whispers, changing fate, sephiroth time traveling somehow, etc, and everything else was distorted around his ideas. It should be clear if you have any intuitive grasp of Nomura's writing style.
This is the biggest point I have for insisting that this isn't an actual remake, Sepiroth's role in the story. In the original all you heard was whispers of him, the name of a legend. Characters knew who he was, but the player was kept mostly in the dark. He was a mystery until Cloud's flashback. If this "remake" had done the same thing, with maybe some visions of Sepiroth out of the corner of Cloud's eyes, just enough for the player to think "who the hell is this guy and why does he seem to be so important to Cloud" then it would have maintained the same level of story telling. This game very clearly assumes that the player knows exactly who this character is. It's just one example of how this game could be the objectively best game ever made, but from a narrative/theme point of view, fails horrendously in it's goal to be a remake.
I completely agree that the pacing of the plate collapse is completely deflated by all the filler in between. They just stretch out too much, including the story drama. The feeling or urgency from the original is lost in the process.
The fact that they decided that the game was going to end with Midgar ruined it. I'm surprised nobody really talks about the lack of real content as well, or how the materia doesn't do more like change your stats, so you have to balance a little bit better like the original game. It's like they put all the effort into making the game pretty and bloating it instead of adding more to it. I felt like the game lacked real diverging side quests, as the area you can explore freely feels very limited. When they first announced this, I was hoping for a very open feeling midgar, but I think Crisis Core has a lot more to it than this by far.
@@Zero-xl2ef I wouldn't personally say the game is bad, but Dunkey has had the most honest review of the game thus far. There's a lot of elements I like from the game, but there was a shit ton weighing this game down and the fact that it took like 5 years from announcement to release is fucking pathetic. There have been better and much more substantive games announced and released within that time.
@@Zero-xl2ef Ambitious to think you'll make it to the gold saucer in the next game. I bet the next game fucking ends in Junon with the rate the story is going. My biggest gripe of this game was drawing everything out just to make the game end with Midgar.
Nomura is obsessed with the idea of destiny... It ruins all his games. It takes away the reality of sometimes life just sucks for no reason, learn and grow from it.
@@swype7046 its a sacrifice og seven was a tale of events linked together by chance nothing was destined it was all a coincidence. Ff7 og narrative wouldnt make sense and at several points of the game do they imply that every was by chance. These character are symbolic of our struggles threw like. Introducing fate undermines that theme making it shallow and forced like a blacknwhite disney tale. Life isn't some fairytale things happen that will be out of your control but despite that you work with what you got. By betraying the theme no one can say this is why I loved the original. Its a shallow 1:1 remake despite it new narrative and plot device. Instead of fleshing out the original they barrow the character. Setting. And name but with the story telling of every spinoff. Ff7r isn't a reboot or remake its a spinoff. (i have a bad auto correct.)
It's only destiny if you know it's going to happen and either can't change course or choose not to. You can call them fans, but the game straight up tells you they're spirits of people who lived and died in the future, some of whom might have their entire existances blinked out because some jerkface wants to literally change history. "Arbiter of Fate" is just a grandiose name for one of Gaia's defense mechanisms. The same Gaia that spawned massive weapons to defend itself against Jenova. She's not real subtle. Gaia isn't all-powerful, one planet can't control the events of an entire universe. It can't even stop one Jenova infused ex-SOLDIER/ex-living-human-being from swimming back to the past through the lifestream and casually doing just whatever he feels like doing. Tldr there's nothing in this game that invalidates anything that happened in the previous story. And people who think the whispers are representaitions of the fans are just mad that Square-Enix dared to not faithfully retell an old story in a new game, and think it's Squenix's way of shitting in their mouths. Actually, that part might have a little truth to it.
@@Posichronic No amount of mental gymnastics can account for the fact that this game was labeled "remake". They knew what people were expecting...you guessed it; a remake. And they simply decided to not give us one...after saying they were going to give us one. If Square was truly "daring", they would have labeled it "Final Fantasy VII Reboot" or another more honest title. But no. They drew us in with half-dishonest business practices, and then pulled the carpet from us at the last minute. Many old fans know that this game doesn't invalidate the original. But thats not the point. The fact is that they simply did not remake a game that they said they were going to remake. People are mad, and understandably so.
Fans: Please remake FF7 Nomura: How would you like a mash up of the FFXIII trilogy with Kingdom Hearts but have the cast of FF7 play the parts! Brilliant!
It seems more like a crisis of false advertisement. What was advertised and marketed was a "remake" and not a loose *sequel* within a alternate timeline. I would not have been dissapointed if I knew I was getting a sequel, rather than a bait and switch. Bait me with the first 3/4's being a fairly faithful retelling of the original FF7 with some jarring whisper ghosts that pop up now and again. But then pull a switcheroo with the last couple chapters being a sequel! However I did enjoy the characters, the character's personalities were still faithful to the original VII. And most of them were wonderfully voice acted... Most of them.
@@chrisprusinowski5287 Totally agree on this one. The development team probably thought they were doing something cool or revolutionary. It boggles the mind to think about how much they managed to miss the point of the fans wishing for a remake. If only we could sue them for false advertisment lmao. Instead of disappointing half of the fanbase, they could have gone for the most logical route of serving everyone what everyone was expecting: a proper remake. If they didn't add those ridiculous ghost whispers and that absurd twist ending, I bet even those defending FF7R won't be complaining about how faithful the remake was to the original. But no. They had to go and disappoint a lot of fans because what? They thought the controversy would help market FF7R? That sounds insulting.
@@ifritrivera315 I mean... Let's be blunt here. Remakes make money off of being cheap to make, because you can reuse several assets. This had a full AAA budget and couldn't recycle anything. They've also been bastardizing and retconning this game for about 20 years of side games and movies. So, there was basically no way something fucky WASN'T going to happen to encourage more profit and decrease risk. People were just assuming the breaking it down into episodic content was the only thing they were going to try.
@@chrisprusinowski5287 that does make it a remake, remakes dont follow the exact plan the original game laid out, thats what a remaster is. and I dont get how you say its a sequel. its a retelling/alternate timeline
They are somewhat doing that with evercrisis. Also, if i have to play devil's advocate, isn't it better for a final fantasy 7 fan to have a sequel to the original while keeping the original intact in all of it's glory. Especially for the fact tha FF 7 is very easy to get, it's on every plaform right now. We may have different look on this, but how i see a perfect remake (depending on the game) is a version that doesn't make the original useless and create a new experience with the original idea. For exemple, RE 2 remake, RE 2 is one of my favorite game of all time, and the remake makes it better because both are different. I could play both games back to back and feel like this is the same game but also feeling like i live two different experiences. Of course, if what you really wanted was just a graphical update, i understand your disapointment but i wanted to show maybe another way to look at it.
@@Shadow-gm9ct I feel like both outcome is good. I understand what johnathan is saying, i mean, i am also an FF 7 fan, it just that i think there are positive and negative for both ideas of a remake. I like what they are doing, but if people don’t I can’t change anything about that. No one is wrong, it’s just a question of preference.
I think there's a lot that wouldn't translate well to higher resolution, both graphically and in the story/dialogue. It was a great game but built in a very different time when you could leave much more to the imagination of the player, which is part of what made the original experience so powerful.
"Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius part." - I loled so hard at this :-D And you, sir, are like a mad genius without the mad part! Seriously, I love how you offer constructive criticism. When you criticize something, you take the effort to offer your own solution (or multiple solutions). That's so rare in video game journalism and one of the reasons why I like your channel so much.
most people are so brainwashed and weird these days they think nomura is a genius. i just don't get it, i feel like in a sane world they would have had to fire him or at the very least limit him to character design again. every game he has influence over all aspects in is garbage, ff15, kh3, and now this shitty remake. people say ff15 was not him but from what i hear he spent years making a mess of it and then they brought in someone else and gave them a very limited amount of time to turn that mess into a game. if nomura had never been involved in the game, it probably would have been a much different, much better game.
I never liked Tetsuya Nomura. His heart is in fashion design, not games. 20 years ago, when he really came into his own and started being a bigshot at Square, he even said he didn’t care for video games much. That all he ever wanted was to design clothes. He was “edgy” that way. “Look at me, I’m a groomed video game genius, but I don’t like it. Our fans are game nerds, but I’m better, cooler, and more edgy. I hate video games. Here, have FF10-2 a game all about designing outfits for your characters. Cause that’s what FF is now.” The FF7 ensemble of characters are his only successful work, and he made them while still on a tight leash, low on the totempole. I actually loved the remake, but now my greatest worry is that Mr Nomura will attempt to reshape FF7 in his own image. In other words more travesty like the Honey Bee Inn dance number is to be expected. I still have faith in Kitase’s writing though. I attribute all the FF7 greatness to him and previous director H. Sakaguchi.
@Jack Man FF15 was original Versus 13, and was gonna be much different than what we got with FF15, the reason why it was is cause they had limited time to change a lot of things. From what I know, I’d say Nomura’s story would of been quite better, especially with the role of the Noctis’s love interest since she was suppose to have a bigger, more prominent role in Versus 13. I get not like some of his work, but most of it is great and what happened with FF15 was definitely not his fault. Personally I find what they did with the remake of 7 is great, I love that while they will be mostly telling the same story, things now have the possibility of changing, and that perhaps certain events just won’t happen the way they originally would of like Aerith’s death. With this we could think we can save her and maybe we do with how she original dies but still dies later on, that aspect alone makes me and a large number of others more excited for the next parts.
I'll sign the petition to fire or demote nomura if FF7R gets a smartphone game sequel where you need to spend money to progress the story which is forcibly set to be relevant to the plot.
The whole ''house'' enemy actually makes sense if you think about it, it's a house designed as a trap for people, and people living in the slums of Midgar probably want nothing more than a house to stay in, considering most of them live in broken down cargo crates, tubes, rubble and debree. So, as wierd as it may seem, it's actually quite brilliant if you think about it.
Yeah, it's really one of the most messed up enemies if you think about it. A bunch of people without proper homes taken advantage of by a monster disguising itself as a house so they'll walk inside where it'd eat them...
I don't think you fully grasped the drama of the sewer parts. Those bridges collapsing were tense situations. Underneath them is doodoo water. If you get even a drop of that on you, you're as good as dead! Leper colonies won't let you in. Those ninja turtles you fight? They were normal people once. They used to live on the surface. What happened to them? That's right, they fell in poo.
The things are. If you played the old one, you kind of get the drama I guess. For me, who just played this one, and only this one, I never even suspected that drama because FFVII doesn't talk about it. That, the whisper and others, tt's really given me the feeling FFVIIR was more a product made for fan rather than a game who's supposed to work alone, as a self-sufficient game.
I can acknowledge that the sewer scene was intended to give drama or develop their bonds but the execution was a hit or miss. It was the latter for me. I mean have you tried counting how many times a character almost fell to their death only to be grabbed by another character to safety at the last minute? I swear it was so redundant it already lost its impact by the time you got to the sewers. Also worth noting how some of them already fell from ridiculous heights (like how they ended up in the sewers to begin with) and lived without so much as a scratch on them, the choice of using the "almost falling to their deaths/vile goop" is a clash in tone. It's just not a good device anymore to establish tension/drama.
I wish Nomura and Kitase would watch this, in the company of an interpreter. The padding in this game is ridiculously tedious and the level design of dungeons and puzzles therein doesn't help.
Sewers x 2... Times two... I didn't like the sewers in FF 8 or Xenogears, even in Chrono Cross, I get that they are an RPG bit... But maybe they can be less of a bit someday
@Ram M. Ory Ehhh, they were okay aside from the materia swapping. Part 2 desperately needs to have materia presets to slap onto characters, or just a full-on swap from one to the other. Pretty lazy that it doesn't.
@Ram M. Ory that's a brilliant leap mate! Play the game, it had menus the 20 hrs before that chapter. That chapter just hemorrhages menus and slows down the momentum that was building at Shinra HQ. You weren't out on Earth to defend poor pacing in videogames, be better
When writing a script for a story properly (something huge that has to connect and be coherent through and through), it is quite important to have themes in mind. In the case of FFVII the original themes were always the triangle of coping with loss + environmentalism + finding identity (the three main plots resolved at disc 3 are the planet fighting against meteor, Cloud and some of the others finding their place in the world and the entire party dealing with their individual losses and the loss of Aerith). Changing the theme to 'fate and destiny' means a huge shift in narrative, to the point that even reproducing every single event from the original game might result in a completely different feel to the story, because the emphasis and direction are other beasts entirely. So I'm not sure how to feel about this explicit change in theme. They still have time to recover in the next parts, but if they keep going for this kingdom hearts-esque stuff it's quite a risky take. Again, this has no bearing on whether or not they reuse events from the original game, they can play everything out the same, but now they have clearly established the theme is something else. Several bits might end up seeing "off" if they are not careful to put the pieces together in a way that fits the newly established theme, and character development can go wrong in many different ways because metacommentary is ultimately extremely difficult to come through. Forcing fate into us all the time through introducing the whispers during changes from the original will get cheap very fast like mentioned in the video. I can only hope they thought everything out already at least. This critique has really articulated why I felt strange about several parts of the game, and I think the ending definitely made me the most uncomfortable, and the reason for this I now believe to be this inconsistency in how they carefully set up the themes to be the same as the original game but then immediately broke into another theme without decent setup for it.
Exactly how I felt about Chapter 18. I'm really hoping the next part distances itself from the themes set in the first part. Literally 95% of Remake felt so good and it felt in the universe of FF7, but then Chapter 18 happens and you're sat there like "W-what? Zack's alive? The timeline is changed? What the fuck is this shit?". They could've done much more while still changing how the game plays out in a way that wasn't linked to destiny and fate.
Apparently Biggs and Wedge survived the plate false-flag which does not happen in the original game as far as I can remember but to be honest the whole remake is a trip. Also they emphasize and even overemphazise Jessie not being quite a terrorist. I played the game over and over as a kid and there was no doubt you did it (you are terrorists, diabolical but well-intentioned), I mean you blew up the reactors with all the consequences. In the remake it is kid gloves and shinra apparently dd it.
That is my main issue with the changes as well. They don't line up with the games themes and narrative at all. And I personally think that's a really bad thing... Especially considering the whole "fate/destiny" trope isn't even original or creative, so it's like they tried to fix what wasn't broken by slapping cliches over it.
I don't mind that the story is going in a different direction but would have rather they just....did it and not forced in the whispers as a plot device to justify it.
I dont disagree with that. My biggest problem is that the way the whsipers are presented is so jarring that it takes away from the good parts of the story.
@@MalzraAirwynn Yep. Although I do think the travel to sector 6 is absolutely amazing which makes up for it. My biggest problem with the scenes is the ending. In the original that scene had this feeling of finally having escaped shinra and then seeing the outdoors. But with the whisper ending, you don't really feel the impact of the group deciding to travel because of the zack scene. I also think Sephiroths introduction and build up was botched too. It's like we got the final battle with him without even getting to know who he is and what part he plays in the story. It just felt weird to me.
@Gameboy224 They are ass pulling 4th wall breaking destiny ghosts, give it up man the plot is cooked. Nomura may as well be jumping up and down in front of the camera telling you the game is about avoiding the sad part of the original, its speaking directly to the audience. The end of remake does not make sense to anyone but fans of the original, especially the horrid Zack reveal. It is a disaster, alternate realities as a premise is the hack writers way of justifying anything; its the equivalent of a student writing a story about a student procrastinating about writing a story. You could change the story without the convenient plot ghosts but that would require thinking about the story you want to tell. Instead the devs at Square since Sakaguchi left are driven by the fastest way to tie their game levels and assets to a plot; any dumb thing will do. They don't have a message or any vision.
I actually started getting really excited during the Shinra Building parts of the game, and it's still one of the more fun parts to me, but between the ridiculous bloat to Hojo's lab and the lack of mystery and suspense of following the blood trail after you wake up, it was pretty disappointing.
Shinra building was all sparkle and no content. Just a glorified tour and no interaction except the glee I felt running all those chairs over. Whoever thought uncharted physics were a good idea gets a bonus from me, I think that's the most fun I had in the entire game. I just felt it was super disappointing. Hojo's lab felt like all the other places purely made to stretch out the runtime felt, boring and annoying as hell, adding absolutely nothing except gametime and frustration. I got so tired of all the hallways in this game I actually think it deserves more shit than ff13. At least that one had inventive art direction and more diversity in areas.
@@tehmiyash Yeah, I don't get why FF13 gets shit on so much when this felt a lot like that. The whole story felt so linear here and I thought that they were going to make Midgar more open. Also, the chairs were fun, my wife can attest to my ridiculousness with making it my goal to knock them over only to be massively disappointed when they all were upright again after saving and loading back up later. Also, the graphics of FF13 is very comparable to this, so I really don't know why on the climb up to upper Midgar on a PS4 we have to look at some shitty PS2 era backdrop low res picture. Overall, the game should have had more meaningful content, more open areas and more polish.
"Yeah, I don't get why FF13 gets shit on so much when this felt a lot like that." That's because FF13 was bad, so this being like FF13 is not a good thing.
@@systemafunk Well, that's exactly my point. FF7 is being fawned over by both critics and fans alike. The fans, I get to a point, but this is another corridor walking simulator with some fighting. That said, I think I liked FF13's battling a bit more. FF7 remake just feels disastrous and like I am just waiting most of the time to spend my atb on healing instead of doing something useful. From added fluff to a huge lack in an open environment and actual fun things to do every now and again, the game just didn't feel great. It felt like a mediocre experience, which would have been good if they stuck to a lot of the original story beats and didn't try to do a whispers of fate thing. I get it, but I'm personally not into it.
i would love cutscenes over the walking.... every game, if i can run dont make me walk :o thats just dumb and is why i took 250 hours to platinum this game.. and since i have platinumed it i dont have reason to play it again unless i want to revisit the beginning of the *cough*moneygrab*cough*.... i mean story
I honestly don't mind the pacing, not that it isn't terrible, but the combat is just so good. What holds me from a 2nd go on hard is having to see the story again. The whispers just make me miserable, it's pretty overt and apparent what they are and what the writers are trying to get at.
To your paint illustration, I would add that low-fi graphics and text dialog greatly increase the amount of interpretation that takes place, and therefore the “length” of those red arrows (and the resulting distance between your interpretation of the original and the remake).
Best analisys of FF7 Remake I've seen. I had the same about the parts where the game is faithful to the original are excelent, but all the filler content destroyed the pace of the game.
I think it makes sense that Aerith was so weird in Crisis Core. She was younger and hadn't built up her confidence yet. Losing Zack must have been hard on her, just like it would be losing someone you love in real life. You'll go through a period of sadness and then you become stronger for it and grow as a person. The result being the Aerith we see in FF7.
thats4thebirds you may need to take a serious introspective look at yourself if having a different opinion than the majority made you feel crazy. Even more so if hearing a person share your opinions revitalized you.
SH1NK1R01 I think that’s a bold presumption lmao I think it’s been VERY clear how nostalgia has blinded people when reviewing this game. Some reviewers don’t even talk about the padding and when they do they say “yeah they stretched the game, but I like the padding” I think people are entitled to their opinions. You too. I just think the amount of non critical reviews is wild. But sure. Take a serious introspective look at myself and stuff.
Except this review is mostly positive and gives the game high praise? It only points out the obvious criticism of the padding and the strange, uncertain ending which everyone and their mother has, but other than that the game is phenomenal.
@@thats4thebirds I've got 0 nostalgia. Hell the game came out before I was out the womb. I quite thoroughly have enjoyed it, aside from the gd pull-up mini game..
Pink Socks I think this is the best review because while he clearly has an overall positive Impression, he has fair criticism plenty of other reviewers are just skating right over.
@Manannan anam yes they do count, all the good MMOs have a bunch of minigames. and the bad ones have fishing at least. and VNs count too, like Danganronpa. that one has a bunch of things to do. then again if you paid like 1 buck for it I guess it get a pass, you get what you paid for.
Your take on this lines up almost point-for-point of mine, as a longtime fan myself. I -just- finished today and I appreciate your critical response. I'm trying to be optimistic, but you know... that whole "logic, and evidence, and years of experience" thing. 💀
This is such a good video. You praise the good parts and criticise the bad ones. I feel like you could go on for so much longer but keeping your videos in this length speaks so highly of you as a writer. Whenever you make a video it usually ends up being my favorite video on that game. Great job and keep it up!
Nomura's comment about story: "Making it surprising... if things seem that you can predict the outcome... then I will think of a different, unexpected development" just proves how bad of a writer he really is. Being predictable isn't bad, being unpredictable isn't bad either, but to forcefully pull the rug out from the audience's feet in order to keep them "surprised" is stupid and terrible writing. A great story always has elements that are predictable and that allow the audience to piece together the clues to predict what will happen next in order to keep them engaged. If you're constantly pulling the rug out from beneath your audience you're only going to bore them, stress them out and leave them bewildered; this is why Kingdom Hearts is such a terrible game series, none of the story elements make sense or connect together properly and all of the things you can predict (like Sora's stupidity) are just infuriating. Why did they give this game, *the* game that has defined the FF series, to Nomura? It just doesn't make any sense.
Agreed. Even the most cliche of story beats can be great if written well. Take "The Last of Us" for example, which is a game people praise up and down. By all rights, it's just another generic zombie apocalypse with family drama story on paper, but due to the presentation and writing, it still ends up being amazing. (Always subjective, but you get my drift.) Just adding weird or shocking stuff for the sake of it, without any regard for the narrative value, is just lazy shock value and honestly the biggest critiques you always hear about Nomura's writing is "it's overcomplicated and makes no sense." Because it really shows that he just adds twists for the sake of it rather than keeping a cohesive narrative that can actually give its plot and characters time to shine like they need.
@@littlekitsune1 Yea, I'm of the belief that a property or title HAS to have the merit of being able to stand fully on it's own. That was one of the biggest problems for me with like...Halo 4, because half the narrative was in the books and not IN the game itself. With what they're doing now, if you're new to the game/story of FF7, it must be confusing as fuck why things were happening the way they are, whereas in the original any sort of questions you had were part of the intended intrigue and mystery. You learned plot points when they were intended to be learned, in a crafted narrative.
@@Rowdy422 I agree. That seems to be a big problem in general nowadays, but to see it happen in a remake where the story is already finished and they just have to recreate it is... baffling.
@Jordan Ghill Nojima is a hack as well he wrote advent children,ffx-2, and co-wrote kingdom hearts 1,2 and 3...Remember that FFX-2.5 novel where Tidus explodes because he kicked a bomb thinking it was a blitzball? Killing him instantly and sending his head flying? Well guess who wrote that? Nojima. Enjoy the trainwreck friend. Enjoy.
Yep. The first time he shows up he throws the entire timeline out of wack. He delayed cloud, the whispers had to hold aerith in place, thier whole meeting goes and feels differently and the butterfly effect is now in place.
@@airborne19j While that may be true, it feels kind of flimsy to me. It's not obvious that Sephiroth delays Cloud from meeting Aerith (especially for a new player). The whispers also chase off Aerith for talking to Cloud too long - but there are plenty of convos in the game that have been expanded on and they don't affect destiny. Also, I'd argue that butterfly effects are not very interesting. Saying the reason Cloud was going to kill Reno is because Sephiroth talked to him in Ch 2 doesn't feel good from a narrative perspective. I think this is what the reviewer meant by the whispers not being "executed" all that well. You are describing the developer's intentions with the story, but that doesn't mean it was effective.
@@gregmc621 I would argue that it doesn't matter that it's obvious. And, this may sound arrogant, but I'm glad it's more confusing for new players because so many companies try to throw the largest net they can cast rather than doubling down for long term fans. It's refreshing, for me at least. Back to it not being obvious, the point is that it ISN'T obvious. We still didn't know at that moment that this game is a sequel to the first game and not a recreation of the first game. Where it feels brilliant is during the 2nd play through where we now have that information, and all of those "inconsistencies" suddenly have a purpose. We're led to believe that Aerith had just received a vision of the events of the original ff7, so the whispers have to drive her away so that she does not join Cloud too soon. Cloud almost killing Reno is a result of Cloud being more heavily manipulated by Sephiroth this early in the story so he is more on-edge and paranoid than he was in the original. It's easy for "because butterfly effect" to be a bad mechanism for story telling, but I do think it worked in this case, because like a butterfly effect should be it goes from subtle ripples to massive waves by the end. I still haven't decided if the manifestation of fate as a creature that can be defeated was the best way to tell the story, the harbinger and the whispers, but I think if you accept what they are the story makes enough sense.
Your writing is superb. You say all the right things in the right way. Your delivery is excellent, letting the text what it needs to be said without unnecessary vocal tricks. A word you've used be fore is "immersive." Your videos are like that. I never finished FF VII, though I tried to play it when it came out. Now I understand a lot better which made is so great for so many people. Thank you.
I think they really dropped the ball with how prevalent Sephiroth was in the remake. How can they escalate his presence in the story when you've literally fought and beat him, or at least a version of him.
They don’t seem to understand pacing at all, the Kalm sequence and the Junon boat scenes are going to feel odd thanks to that, unless they completely rewrite or divert.
Also with how sephiroth kills the giant snake…. Like okay? Who cares? We literally beat fate ITSELF. How is sephiroth killing a giant snake gonna effect the party at all
Roger X still will not be better than ff7 1997. Just play remake for what it is. A decent action rpg. But ff7 is probably the best game ever made so no game will ever top it. It's essentially the videogame equivalent of thriller and this remake is dangerous
@Caio Coelho The original was one reality with one outcome, this retcons that truth with multiple timelines. If thatstory happenED, it's the past. If Zack and Aerith live and Cloud dies, that's how FFVII 1997+2020 ends, and that would ruin the original, yes.
@Caio Coelho the catalyst for the plot is the events of the original FF7, therefore it's a sequel regardless of if they change history. Just like Back to the Future 2.
@Caio Coelho This is a sequel, it takes place after Advent Children with AC Sephiroth sending his consciousness back to the past to try and prevent himself from being stopped. This has all been pretty much confirmed in the Ultimania guide.
With the way the remake ends, the original is already a better game BY FAR. The remake botched all of the storytelling with Chapter 18, and the nuisance of those stupid whispers.
I was playing the remake and I stopped playing at the part where you have to do side quests before the Shinra building, I started playing the original again, I haven't played the remake since lol. The original stands the test of time, its a really good game, the graphics are terrible though, but damn is everything else about it great. Cannot recommend it enough.
@Jordan Ghill that's what an opinion is. having an opinion makes you arrogant? i don't see how the original writer is working on this, nothing in the original game's dialogue never made me cringe as much as several lines of dialogue in the demo of the remake alone. that could be largely due to the aweful voice acting though.
Jordan Ghill his stating of “my final fantasy” is saying that this is his perception of the media. A perception he holds very dear to himself. He states that in the video. He’s not saying he’s right about his opinions, he’s looking at the objective reality of things and giving his subjective thoughts on it. My comment is saying that I think he has some pretty clear minded subjectivity
Lol dude is just a hipster trying to be cool and edgy. When you based everything on emotional points you've lost the debate. Furthermore it's way too soon to even compare Final Fantasy 7 remake to the original at this time. However remakes are always going to be vastly more superior to the original that's why they are called remakes. Plus FF 7 remake has already been paying tribute to the original and gaved it respect 1997 was a good year 2020 is an even greater year.
I think the one comfort we can all take is that once this is all complete and ported to PC, modders can use the given resources (and maybe a little help from neural network fakery of the near future) to make this into the Final Fantasy Remake VII that was asked for. And then everyone can be happy.
Thanks for providing awesome content. The video honestly brought back feelings of my teenage years. Both as an artist and as a fan of final fantasy. It's refreshing and genuinely gives me a ton of inspiration. Thank you again.
"or by embracing the modern action rpg trend" proceeds to show a tales game...a game from a series that was always action based ever since its first game "tales of phantasia" on the SNES :P
@@gibbsj195 ok then ? what does he mean ? because if he means that jprg having action elements is a "modern trend" then that's just factually incorrect...
@@poopoo-dk4hu because max breaks this whole thing down into 4 levels of understanding and will blow your mind. Uses evidence within the game itself to support his theory and explains it in a manner that makes complete sense. Starting with 1st and foremost that this sephiroth is post advent children sephiroth thats come back to "remake" his fate.
@@rockertothecore I personally feel like Max's theories in that video are just far too speculative to be taken seriously. We don't know if any of it is even true because part 2 could be nothing like he anticipates
Amazing vid. I agree 100% with you - not sure i have ever had that experience in any review/critique. I'm really grateful for your time spent on this, Thank you!
I think part of the issue is how different a lot of the cutscenes and set pieces are, and trying to sync up the moments of the remake to the original ost would've been difficult. I really prefer the original ost, but this specific situation is a bit different than, say, the Eternal Punishment psp port where the game is essentially the same
When I found out that Kitase relegated major duties to Nomura in terms of story and direction, I already knew to lower my expectations. The music, hands down, is awesome! Always was and I wouldn't expect anything less. Gamewise, it is visually stunning and fun to play, yet it somehow feels hollow. Pacing was inconsistent at times. There was also quite an amount of filler and certain areas were stretched out too long. I guess this was done in order for them to justify the Midgar chapter to be a full length first installment of which who knows how long and how many more episosic releases to come. However, the painful "barefoot stepping on a Lego" sensation is, is that it seems that Nomura is subtly manipulating the narrative and themes of the original. I see this "Remake" as basically Final Fantasy XVI with a FFVII skin on it. Under the guise of the beloved 1997 game, Nomura capitalizes on nostalgia and thus automatically sucking in those OG players, myself included. I wasn't expecting a beat for beat copy, and as technology has advanced since 1997, adding fresh gameplay elements, expanding certain areas for exploration and discovery, and fleshing out some minor characters is all fine and dandy. Jolly good! But hinting at and adding the unnecessary factors of possible alternative time lines and altering fate and destiny, which will then shift key events, themes, and the narrative, then it loses the spirit and essence of what made the original FFVII so memorable and epic and the impact is lost even as Nomura wows you with flashy visuals and graphics. And this will likely continue. So, just prepare for expectations to be subverted in the next installments as the narrative elements will most likely deviate and go in wild tangents. Square-Enix should have called it Final Fantasy VII : Alternate (or Parallel Universe) instead. It would have been more fitting and fans of the original probably, probably wouldn't have been as perturbed when they got to the end of this Midgar installment and with future releases. Maybe. For now, we got "Nomura'd". Not thrashing this remake, as I liked playing it...to a certain degree, but I just didn't love it. We'll see what happens in the next release.
it actually hurts how pretentious this comment is while saying nothing. it genuinely sounds like you read a handful of forums posts then decided that means you played the game. Also maybe speak for yourself? There are “fans of the original” that have widely varying feelings regarding ff7r. As soon as one starts basing arguments on imaginary “X group of people universally feel Y way about Z thing” you stop discussing reality, rendering your point moot. At the end of the day with a project as large and complex as ff7r it’s not as simple as “X key person is the reason for every problem I have”. That’s just wishful thinking
Best review/critique i have seen so far for the remake, especially the conclusion at the end. Being excited for what's to come while feeling that it won't end well.
@@anatoliykodebsky7488 I meant you cared about his comment, and no one says you cant like the game and like the original too. I think the game sucks but if you like it that's your opinion.
The Whispers could never be consistent or make sense. Destiny and fate were never thematically part of FFVII. You can't just shoehorn a new theme into an existing narrative.
@@rabadeuce814 this isnt some contortion. In the original they do state that the planet is guiding the party and that it has a purpose to guide all living things to their ultimate destiny. That can be taken as literal destiny or death but the fact is fate and destiny are themes of the game and are expanded upon through all the extra content put out
@@idbuddy2184 The Planet is pretty agnostic about individual actors and really seems only to care about the preservation of the Lifestream. The Planet wouldn't have created the Weapons if Cloud and friends were destined to save it. If you want to go into Compilation territory, Chaos is meant to kill all life and Omega is meant to carry the Lifestream to a new planet. The whole plot of DoC was that DG tricked the Planet into thinking it was the apocalypse. Sorry, it's just not there. The theme of the original was life, death, and how to cope with it. If you throw fate and destiny in there, then you're replacing the whole "coping" part.
Idbuddy fate and destiny are broadly speaking central to human storytelling To have characters talking about these themes as if they are the slightest bit revelatory comes across as vapid and presumptuous. FFVII was, at its core, about how different types of people respond in the face of tyranny.
I've been having this thought for a while now. I've been a fan of Nomura's art since I was a kid. But who's bright idea was it to give him a director's role instead of just art director? Looking at this guys track records and his portfolio in the industry, as a director I can say with confidence that he has won every battle, but lost every war. Anyways, I do agree about the character difference, but the whole thing about CC Aerith is that was 4 years ago pre Zack Aerith. Her charcter back then, a quitter, an orphan, grew up in the slums. It makes sense she's reserved, and I think she took a lot after Zack with her outgoing personality. Also, she's been selling flowers in various sectors, and if you played Crisis Core, you know initially it didn't sell well. And as a person with sales background I can tell you with confidence, if you are selling an unwanted product, you are not selling the product itself, you are selling your presentation. So being outgoing and clever comes naturally with the profession as she gets better at it.
I’m shocked you didn’t like the pre-rendered background in chapter 15. I felt like that was a beautiful homage to the original game because of how much the original relied on these types of backgrounds. I guess to each his own, but that was actually one of my favorite details
Will Lovendahl me too! I thought the visuals there were stunning. I took shit loads of screen shots. Maybe he doesn’t have the PS4 pro because they footage he showed look low quality compared to what I saw on my big tv with ps4 pro
It really is kind of surreal to look back on all those E3 reaction videos, now that the game is out. Seeing people enraptured at...what exactly? What were they so joyous to see? An unflinching monument to their nostalgia? Hell, *I* was excited, I was hyped, but now I look back at myself and wonder - would it have ever occurred to me, at the time, that what I really wanted to see was honestly closer to what we ultimately got?
@@SevenBlades After this video and with Nomura's direction, I think this first installment will probably be the high point. I'll be delighted to be proven wrong.
We thought it was gonna be a faithful remake. And it would have been a great one without all the padding, nonsensical changes and time traveling. Just a normal remake. Nothing weird about being hyped up over that.
To your points about the whispers not making sense: Sephiroth is changing things which brings the whispers. The whispers appear to only be interested in the main story line, Wedge being alive wasn't important until he tried to rejoin the party. I think they are unable to influence Sephiroth, which is how he's able to change things. Sometimes events are changed without Sephiroth intervening, but because there are smaller differences caused down the line, like the party not trusting cloud.
Just my two cents, I didn't feel like the game was padded at all. I was very happy throughout my entire playthrough that I was able to catch more insight about life in Midgar. Even stuff like finding the cats in Sector 7 Slums felt like it was a nice glimpse at Cloud's willingness to listen to Tifa's suggestions, despite thinking he was above the task. Obviously stuff like that was also put in to make things like the plate hit harder. In fact, as a long time fan, I felt like some lines were in there SPECIFICALLY to put a bad feeling in your stomach, like when Jessie yells out that 'together, we can take on the world!' when they're parachuting back from her mission. I nearly cried! No, Jessie, we can't take on the world, YOU FOOOOOL! Great video though, and I couldn't agree more that they did our boys and girls loads of justice. Personalities are spot freaking on, and performances from voice actors were perfect.
I’m so glad you mentioned red xiii in the sailor suit haha everyone all these years was wondering how they’d pull of the cross dressing and I was like ‘yo...a lion...dressed up as a sailor...walks on his hind legs...and no one notices...’ I forgot about the dolphin though 🤣
If I found out I won the lottery I would probably smile a bit and then end up somewhat energetic for 5 to 10 minutes... I don't know what it would take for me to be so excited about something that I would scream... it feels impossible
They have to show everyone around them they they are more of a fucking dork with their crying and screaming. It's embarrassing. It's like measuring dicks with how lame you are.
@@mfbjo6854 imagine being excited for things and showing emotion. Pretty cringe imo. Good lord you people sound miserable. Watch out! Someone might be weird and react to things differently than you do! Head for the hills!
@@mfbjo6854 Yeah I do. You are free to react how you want. Just let it be known if you think people being excited is cringey, you won't have an overly fun life.
and about that inconsistency in destiny changing by itself... We should also mention Barret that decides to NOT bring Cloud in the Reactor 5's mission. Why he does that?? Writers deliberatly changed the story on their will, so they could introduce Numens, created precisely to be killed, in order to change what they want from the original story... that's all
Regarding the last 5 minutes of the review. As someone that also has heavily mixed feelings regarding the ending and the "defying fate" plot line, i'm at the same time giddy with joy and excitement, yet filled with potential dread, You just cant turn your eyes away from a good train wreck, and with the way this is going, it will probably be the biggest train wreck possible, i am almost 100% expecting Genesis and the Sephiroth Brothers to show up during the next game, with Angel and Dirge of Cerberus Vincent in all of their post Kingdom Hearts Nomura Glory. I'm all in for Nomuras Wild ride, and I am expecting we will reach some Kingdom Hearts and Rebuild of Evangelion Shenanigans. Final Fantasy 7.77 YOU CAN(NOT) REMAKE will be one hell of a beautiful train wreck. The mere thought of it fills me with hope an despair
@CMDR Beamee they did nail almost all of the characters and interactions. But some cracks where showing before the ending. The entire racing showdown with the original nomura character reminded me of the worst parts of the compilation. And the entire game is already padded out, they could have focused all those man-hours into actually making more of the main story. I just hope the next game has less filler and we get a lot more of the main story.
The overall themes of the original game were based on fate, choice, and finality. These themes are now completely nullified and death now has zero consequence emotionally speaking. The concept of “No one’s ever really gone...” comes to mind, being an excuse to do whatever they want with the story because they’ve written themselves into a corner right out the gate. This is a calculated decision however, because now it allows for Square Enix to trot out FF7 as often as they want to as an IP and claim events are alternate realities and side stories. They’ve always wanted to do this with FF7 given how subsequent media, Crisis Core excluded, are sub-par and aren’t true to the original game. That doesn’t matter though because it sells on name recognition alone.
You are an amazing writer, and have a very good analysis of the Final Fantasy 7 world. Thank you, for such a great video! You have encouraged me to go back and finish the game. I have given up fairly early on as the fluff that was forced in has really put me off. But seeing the demon house, wowza!
They played me like a damn fiddle...I played the Demo and I saw an absolute LOVE and respect for the original. Then, while I played the game I couldn't stop having a weird sensation. It started with the NPCs that looked off regarding the main characters (like in FF XV) but I didn't matter, then the padding but it was ok. It was all bearable, the only thing they didn't have to mess with was with the story. I thought the remake applied only to the gameplay. I think I would preffer a remaster with modern graphics/models, but leaving the old structure intact. FFVII didn't age well :/. Comparing this 'destiny stuff' with MGS 2 is not entirely correct, MGS 2 was not 'MGS Remake'. I think I'll play the original and not buy the next chapters. Great analysis!
MGS2 is definitely not a remake but it's definitely Kojima's critique of various things, fans consuming the same thing over and over again being one of them. I'm willing to bet that FFVIIR will not age well unlike MGS2: divisive upon release but aged like fine wine. And yes, it's still better to play the original FFVII (playing the Switch port right now)
Nomura just has absolutely no concept of either pacing or grounding in his writing, and it is just totally deflates the stakes that could otherwise be present in the story. Going into some parallel dimension to fight a literal embodiment of fate this early in 7's overall narrative feels so cheap and unearned. He's like the JJ Abrams of video games. Sure, the spectacle is cool, but neither of them can write a real story worth a fuck.
@@danielnolan8848 except they didn't? It's the original writers of FFVII. Go look it up on Wikipedia. Or go watch the credits roll. He was less involved with writing Remake than he was the original.
Granted this is in the post release, "were not change much more" walkback, and deflecting blame onto Nomura alone is a fallback for Square at this point. The time traveling Sephiroth is straight from KH, but the bad decisions made in that serries were not all Nomura's alone either
@@JustinStrife We wanted a REMAKE. They told us they were giving us a REMAKE. We got some time-splitting new take on the story we wanted to see. They could've added some of the same filler that they did and still stayed true to the concept of recreating the game we loved for the modern age. Instead, they gave us something entirely different. This is not why we got so excited back at the 2015 announcement.
the demon house was fucking amazing. i remember during the development my brother mused about whether the house would be in the game and i voiced my doubts so when i finally got to this point i was so giddy for my brother to see it and indeed he loved it probably even more than he whould have thought
I think the force that's changing things, and causing the whispers to act is Advent Children Sephiroth. You talked about how he shows up entirely to often, and if you notice, when he shows up, things in the game change a little, which causes the whispers to try and course correct. And Cloud trying to kill Reno is the strongest counter to this theory, however I personally think his decision to kill Reno was brought about by the extra tension Sephiroths presence brought.
I won't support current-day squeenix but I always enjoy your analyses, NKB. Great videos. For everyone's sake who plans to pony up the 300+ dollars it will almost certainly cost to play the whole remake, here's hoping it doesn't go full Kingdom Hearts. I don't have much confidence that they'll be able to avoid it at this point, but you never know...
I don't have much hopes with Nomura on the writing team. People speaking about the weird time travel with sephiroth and how this is a sequel to advent children with multiple timelines is scaring me.
@@Kydino Nomura always brings great emotional character moments even if his plots are convoluted and haphazard, so even if it gets Kingdom Hearts level of stupid I think there's still a lot to look forward to.
@Sterman99 Because they haven't really done something worth supporting with your money. I definitely regret it. It's Final Fantasy 7: A Kingdom Hearts Reimagining.
@@tigerfestivals5137 Very much my takeaway. I'm not so much interested in where the overarching plot is going to go as much as I'm invested in how these well-written, expressive characters will react to them. I want to see more of this team writing Barrett and Aerith and Cloud in those situations. It's like people who play Danganronpa not caring much for the backstory stuff, but they're there because they love the string of whodunnits and murder mysteries and character drama.
@@tigerfestivals5137 That depends if you like melodrama or not. His flavor of story telling is very "anime", which is the best I can put it. It never extends beyond that, and never less. It sits between cheesy and fantastical.
I think one thing worth mentioning about the opening cutscene is the point where Aerith looks up and the camera zooms out to see the full midgar. In the original it zooms out and the music does its thing and then you get the title. In the remake however, since the city is so much larger, while the zoom out happens the music starts, then kinda takes a deep breath and THEN you are at the point where you get the title of the game.
Thank you for this video! Amazing in depth and heartfelt commentary on the remake. I lived the original and agree with much of your feelings on the remake. I think I was so happy to be replaying with how I felt it looked in my head that I didn't mind a lot of the things you didn't like. I enjoyed the 'filler' content in general as it felt like it built on what midgar was. All in all I loved the remake. Thanks for taking the time to make this.
The timeline changed when sephiroth showed up in the beginning ( in Cloud's head). That's why Cloud was late and the whispers had to keep aerith waiting because Cloud was late. Sephiroth fucked the whole timeline up in the beginning, that's why they always come back. I think sephiroth try to break cloud, more than in the OG, and that's why Cloud acting a bit different, but it's enough to change the OG timeline, they are always too late or too early. That's why the whispers always comes back.
I dont hear most people saying this but sephiroth is one of the worst villains in this game. Its like we got pay off with him without getting a backstory or set up. It feels awkward and badly structured/paced. The makers of this game have some balls to try and tell his own version of a story so many people love.
kbg12ila it’s the continuation of the original. I was mad as well when he first appeared because it didn’t make sense. But after some hard thinking, it does. The ending of the original ends with Aerith opening her eyes and the remake starts off the same way. Opening her eyes. Original was a vision, remake is current day. When Aerith touches anyone, Cloud, Marlene, Red, she reveals some of the future of what’s to happen. Cloud and sephiroth are connected right? Well whe Cloud was touched, established “future” sephiroth appears hence why sephiroth acts the way he acts and appears when he appears. Makes sense?
all the set up and build up was already done 23 years ago in the original game because the remake is basically a sequel so if you want to know the backstory you have to play the OG ff7
ngl its hilarious to hear them screaming like that. dont get me wrong i have plenty of favorite series, but you'll never get that reaction out of me unless im getting a million bucks bundled with the game, just being honest.
Totally get how you feel, but I was one of those people lol. I think it is a visceral reaction at the prospect of reliving moments that had a huge impact on us when we were teenagers. I got emotional at many points while playing the game.
So many things I loved about this review... Honest, vulnerable, uplifting... How is it a video game review can be so beautiful it amplifies the beauty of the thing it’s reviewing? I would say this video belongs in a museum if I thought that would elevate it
The mix between freeform fighting and scrolling through menus felt very incompatible to me like I was playing two different games at once. 😢 I agree with a lot of the points made in this video though, and it's greatly made! I just had to make one myself comparing the FF7 Remake to Yakuza Kiwami in regards of how you could remake a story. And this video was a great inspiration! Thanks for the entertainment! ❤
You're the GOAT man. I unironically think you're the best at what you do on this platform and I totally shill your content. Eat your heart out Joseph Anderson and Matthewmatosis.
Good grief, man. I kind of feel personally offended you listed Joseph alongside Matthew. What are you going to do next, drag MrBtongue down there as well?
@@dragan4324 lel, I know, I know. It was just a point of reference. Matthew still beats Joe any day. I'd say I rewatched his (Joe) content more but he outed himself a philistine with his Silent Hill 2 incident.
Thank you for putting this together! It really helps me come to terms with what I felt coming out of the FF7 remake. I think I have the opposite faith position. I came in with faith, but I'm walking away with none left. All the doubts I had and the new ones FF7 remake gave me are all I'm left with, and that's deeply unsatisfying.
They tried that with FNC, and well...look at how that turned out. Which makes this even more painful considering that the only way we can even remotely take their new stories seriously is to dress them up in nostalgia in an evil attempt to sell us a new story, because of how mediocre their last attempts were (XIII and XV/Versus XIII). Why bother making a complete new game if it's gonna be slammed for being too complex and lacking brevity, maybe if we put FF7 characters atop our bad, poorly executed plot ideas, maybe they'll shut the fuck up and eat our garbage this time?
I just want to thank you for making this video, you really have captured the essence of the story the fans and the problems, you hit every nail on he head from disk finishing the first part to padding, I have played every final fantasy except 12, even final fantasy tactics on a modded ps, I have 7,8,9,10,10-2 all saved in my play station and am currently slapping ff7r on hard mode, you did the best review I've saw and I grateful.
Amazing review as always! I feel like other reviewers tend to gloss over the necessary complexities that make a game both good and bad, but you definitely give credence to both sides of the story. More impressively, the fact that you're willing to go the extra mile by weaving a main theme of faith to the review itself is truly masterful and much appreciated!
Nothing has given me more pure nostalgic bliss and joy than the full music drop in the remake JENOVA fight. Holy fuck I died and came back to life in that moment.
"A true leader knows that destiny is beyond their control...and accepts that!"- Sora after the final battle in KH3. Square can't even follow their own philosophy.
Ya wanna know what part was missing from Remake that bothered me? I don't recall the famous scene when the party climbs the Avalanche wall all the way up into the top plate. It's been a few years now so, I don't recall what they did instead.
Seeing a lot of people asking about song names so:
Outro song: FF7 Remake OST: Smash 'Em, Rip 'Em - th-cam.com/video/gbhdzf2NwaY/w-d-xo.html
Other song used in end section: FF7 Remake OST: Home Away from Home - th-cam.com/video/6Nl3_SxpwdA/w-d-xo.html
I actually really like this, you did a great job explaining what we're supposed to know at this point of the game. Its left open for change and I like that. But it kinda bugs me how most people are leaning on time travel theories. I've basically figured it out, love the original, and really cant wait for the next one.. but there's no time travel garbage lol
Well said: Few OG Fans post the Compilation wanted this attempted again. But here we are: 5/10. No Gambits (14 years later lol): Stagger and HP Buffing is back: Self Indulgent Xenosaga Style cutscenes that develop corpses: and Pacing thats utterly a joke: plus story elements borrowed from Xenosaga. Aka: this is Xenosaga: V2.0.
Also: if you're doing multi part: This had to go to minimum Junon...but: *This is 6 parts: as it's Xenosaga V2.0. Making Sephiroth: Windhelm.* And psst: The Gnosis, aka Whispers: already MADE the OG Game...only ONE World: in many and suggesting its FAKE...compared to this "NEW" story which will...
"Fix everything"...aka: Xenosaga. Edge of Time = The Zohar paradox.
Oh and BTW: you *DO Realize: the point for the Arbiters is to kill Aerith: and BLAME IT on "Fans demanding the story stay the same." Pro Tip fellow fans: Kill Aerith Voluntarily: I WANT SE's Player Data to SHOW 99.9% of fans killed that 1D Square of a Virgin Healer Archetype.*
But...the ONE WAY this COLD work: is to have Player Choice determine if the Game remains the same but...
You'd have to trust SE to do the work to Program in 2 scenario's hahahahahahaha: and with THIS GAMES LAZINESS!?
Yeah: nope.
Part 2: To Cargo Ship.
Part 3: To Nibelhiem.
Part 4: To Nothern Crater.
Part 5: Rest of Disc 2.
Part 6: Disc 3 + Side QUests.
*I'll take any bets for any amounts: this is the layout with the exception of Part 4 stopping at either the Northern Crater or at City of Ancients with A.*
Mod game: and you can at least get off the train for 60$...vs 350-400$.
*That's one easy solution to...emotional based purchases...sigh...the Post 2010 Gamer: and We thought: the Gamer of the 2000s: was emotionally vulnerable to advertising based nostalgia lol. The Post 2010 Gamer: hold my Culture's Relevance lol.*
This is Kind of a Remake but were the story ends there going to be room for so much change
Hello NeverKnowsBest - I stumbled upon this video, and I was surprised at how I feel the same way with everything u said about Remake, especially the ending - I know Remake is going to be bad, but I'm excited at the same time of the known, unknown; meaning that I can't wait to see the known parts of later in the game come to life, while seeing what new they add to see if it may or may not make the game better.
I didn't like at all how they ruined the mystery of Sephiroth AND Zack. Zack, especially, bc his plot is revealed much later in the game. They should have only showed silhouettes of both that strongly represented who they are, as to still have the full of their looks and story remain a mystery for later.
Honestly, I already had feelings of doubt about Remake, as after ff10, I have disagreed with their every direction of FF. Ff12 wasn't even its own FF - it had some sort of connection to an outside ff title, Tactics, I believe. As long as the current ppl working on ff is doing it, I dont believe we will see another unique, long-standing ff. Hate to say it.
I appreciate the same things you do about Remake. The fluff that takes away the impact of the core story that u mentioned, like what happened with the team's reflection after Sector 7, desperately needs to go.
I'm on this train, but I won't be buying the extra snacks and beverages; I'll just be sharing it with my fellow passengers who did here on TH-cam, just like how I did with Remake no.1. Oh - and seriously? You're spanning this game across 4-5 other installments over x amount of years? I can't even....
“Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius parts.” LMAO
nomura changed in the original ff7 the story premis of almost all party members dying except 3 to aeriths death. he saved ff7 back in the day. on to clarify: he is not the secnario writer for the remake.
@@moeloehoe Who are you to say that that ending wouldn't have been better? That doesn't mean he "saved" anything. He was also not alone back then. And since then Nomura has gotten much worse and mad with power. He didn't "write" the remake, but he sure had his fingerprints all over it.
@@moeloehoe Nomura recent track record when it comes to storytelling has been pretty awful. Just look at kingdom hearts franchise and his concept for FFVXIII. He is a great character designer and can occasionally have cool concepts for game mechanics and story. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to tell or write a good story. I don't really trust the other involved in this project either (Kitase, Nojima, Toriyama) as their recent works demonstrate they really lost the touch and can’t tell a good story anymore. I think this remake project is doomed.
@@yoursonisold8743 who are you to say the next pert of the remake can not be good because Nomura directed it? A director in Japan is NOT THE Same as a director in the US. I'm looking forward to what will come in the second part.
Then we'll know for sure if it is messed up. But all evidence seen in the first part of the remake suggests they know what the hell they're doing.
@@farikalines1169 He is the director not the writer of the scenario. The writer is the one from the original ff7. You vastly overstate Nomuras freedom from the KH franchise in a numbered remade main franchise title. He certainly doesn't have the freedom as in KH-franchise.
The concept of battling against fate and mysterious creatures that intervene in the events of the story to keep it on track would've worked better if it happened in a story that was written around it, rather than inserted into a story that worked fine enough on its own.
Lacintag square enix needs to leave well enough alone and focus on making ff16 greater than ff7 but they know they are incapable. They should've honestly just swallowed their pride and used their budget for ff7 remake to bring sakaguchi on as a producer for ff16.
Spot on
If the story revolved around battling the fate that awaits you, that would be too cliche. I've seen my fair share of stories like that. However, inserting this concept in an already written story opens up the mystery of what happens next, opens up certain characters to more screen time, and opens up the story to the idea of timelines (if they decide to include it heavily in the next game).
FF7 is one of the only stories where this kind of twist can work. It's going to be interesting to see what will happen.
Meh. Time travel/fighting destiny has been done before and it is not only saturated at this point, it actually sucks if you step back for a second.
What do those ideas mean when you realise the whole plot is written around them? Essentially you are dealing with a puzzle that some writer designed. It fits neatly, sure, but it was designed to fit neatly. It was always meant to be what it is.
Now comes FF7R.
The story was written already. The puzzle was designed and resolved. But fuck Destiny. Fuck what the plan was. No, this time things are different.
This is not just a time travel story, it's THE time travel story. It's probably been done before, where sequels come in and try to rewrite the story of a previous entry to try to take the franchise in a new direction but I can't think of one, and certainly not one as high profile as FF7R.
This is a story that has a lot of meaning and value to a lot of people. Shattering expectations by inserting this sort of plot twist into it is very exciting and one of the few times where it can have a substancial impact beyond the story.
Who cares that it doesn't fit super neatly? It isn't finished therefore it's a silly position to take but furthermore time travel and defy destiny plots have always sucked. Either they too are inconsistent or they are meaningless by their very nature. At least now it has a meaning.
Whoever drew that picture of the whispers dragging Cloud to the bath was a genius, and that exact scene should have been in the game.
@@KevinJDildonik triggered
@@KevinJDildonik Lol aight man
@@KevinJDildonik shut up and go play my little pony you goof
@@KevinJDildonik yes.
@@KevinJDildonik huh
"Tetsu Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius parts"
Damn. No punches were pulled here.
Bruh shut the hell up comment stealer and stop hating ff7 is amazing
Dummy smh
@@borushiki6722 oh
@@borushiki6722 FFVII is amazing, FFVII remake and all the compilation are crap.
@@darkcloud5631 shut up bum
03:55 "When you love something you don't need it to be perfect."
My one problem with the remake is that I feel like it assumes you played the game already. Also Nomura is trying to too hard to be this artsy writer.
It's funny because in the interviews they say the remake is for old and new fans alike, in reality it's for neither.
In part 2 it will break the fourth wall and ask us, the player, to pray for their victory.
Nomura wasn't the writer tho
@@matthewwells5098 That criticism is wrong. He's the director and it's a sourced fact that he was responsible for the main writing decisions in terms of where the narrative went, the writers conformed to his intent for how the plot was going to go. He came up with the key ideas like destiny whispers, changing fate, sephiroth time traveling somehow, etc, and everything else was distorted around his ideas. It should be clear if you have any intuitive grasp of Nomura's writing style.
This is the biggest point I have for insisting that this isn't an actual remake, Sepiroth's role in the story. In the original all you heard was whispers of him, the name of a legend. Characters knew who he was, but the player was kept mostly in the dark. He was a mystery until Cloud's flashback. If this "remake" had done the same thing, with maybe some visions of Sepiroth out of the corner of Cloud's eyes, just enough for the player to think "who the hell is this guy and why does he seem to be so important to Cloud" then it would have maintained the same level of story telling. This game very clearly assumes that the player knows exactly who this character is. It's just one example of how this game could be the objectively best game ever made, but from a narrative/theme point of view, fails horrendously in it's goal to be a remake.
I completely agree that the pacing of the plate collapse is completely deflated by all the filler in between. They just stretch out too much, including the story drama. The feeling or urgency from the original is lost in the process.
The fact that they decided that the game was going to end with Midgar ruined it. I'm surprised nobody really talks about the lack of real content as well, or how the materia doesn't do more like change your stats, so you have to balance a little bit better like the original game. It's like they put all the effort into making the game pretty and bloating it instead of adding more to it. I felt like the game lacked real diverging side quests, as the area you can explore freely feels very limited. When they first announced this, I was hoping for a very open feeling midgar, but I think Crisis Core has a lot more to it than this by far.
@@KingYeg tell that to the morons who defend this game. Saying it's perfect lol. This game was bad
@@Zero-xl2ef I wouldn't personally say the game is bad, but Dunkey has had the most honest review of the game thus far. There's a lot of elements I like from the game, but there was a shit ton weighing this game down and the fact that it took like 5 years from announcement to release is fucking pathetic. There have been better and much more substantive games announced and released within that time.
@@KingYeg the second part will take another 5 years. Mark my words and it'll take place in the gold saucer
@@Zero-xl2ef Ambitious to think you'll make it to the gold saucer in the next game. I bet the next game fucking ends in Junon with the rate the story is going. My biggest gripe of this game was drawing everything out just to make the game end with Midgar.
Nomura is obsessed with the idea of destiny... It ruins all his games.
It takes away the reality of sometimes life just sucks for no reason, learn and grow from it.
This game plays really good but suffers from a lack of self-identity.
@@swype7046 its a sacrifice og seven was a tale of events linked together by chance nothing was destined it was all a coincidence. Ff7 og narrative wouldnt make sense and at several points of the game do they imply that every was by chance. These character are symbolic of our struggles threw like. Introducing fate undermines that theme making it shallow and forced like a blacknwhite disney tale. Life isn't some fairytale things happen that will be out of your control but despite that you work with what you got. By betraying the theme no one can say this is why I loved the original. Its a shallow 1:1 remake despite it new narrative and plot device. Instead of fleshing out the original they barrow the character. Setting. And name but with the story telling of every spinoff. Ff7r isn't a reboot or remake its a spinoff.
(i have a bad auto correct.)
It's only destiny if you know it's going to happen and either can't change course or choose not to.
You can call them fans, but the game straight up tells you they're spirits of people who lived and died in the future, some of whom might have their entire existances blinked out because some jerkface wants to literally change history.
"Arbiter of Fate" is just a grandiose name for one of Gaia's defense mechanisms. The same Gaia that spawned massive weapons to defend itself against Jenova. She's not real subtle.
Gaia isn't all-powerful, one planet can't control the events of an entire universe. It can't even stop one Jenova infused ex-SOLDIER/ex-living-human-being from swimming back to the past through the lifestream and casually doing just whatever he feels like doing.
Tldr there's nothing in this game that invalidates anything that happened in the previous story. And people who think the whispers are representaitions of the fans are just mad that Square-Enix dared to not faithfully retell an old story in a new game, and think it's Squenix's way of shitting in their mouths. Actually, that part might have a little truth to it.
@@Posichronic No amount of mental gymnastics can account for the fact that this game was labeled "remake". They knew what people were expecting...you guessed it; a remake. And they simply decided to not give us one...after saying they were going to give us one. If Square was truly "daring", they would have labeled it "Final Fantasy VII Reboot" or another more honest title. But no. They drew us in with half-dishonest business practices, and then pulled the carpet from us at the last minute.
Many old fans know that this game doesn't invalidate the original. But thats not the point. The fact is that they simply did not remake a game that they said they were going to remake. People are mad, and understandably so.
@@ifritrivera315 It's a fucking remake you dumb piece of shit.
"When you love something it doesn't need to be perfect" well said.
Fans: Please remake FF7
Nomura: How would you like a mash up of the FFXIII trilogy with Kingdom Hearts but have the cast of FF7 play the parts! Brilliant!
It seems more like a crisis of false advertisement. What was advertised and marketed was a "remake" and not a loose *sequel* within a alternate timeline. I would not have been dissapointed if I knew I was getting a sequel, rather than a bait and switch. Bait me with the first 3/4's being a fairly faithful retelling of the original FF7 with some jarring whisper ghosts that pop up now and again. But then pull a switcheroo with the last couple chapters being a sequel!
However I did enjoy the characters, the character's personalities were still faithful to the original VII. And most of them were wonderfully voice acted... Most of them.
@@chrisprusinowski5287 Totally agree on this one. The development team probably thought they were doing something cool or revolutionary. It boggles the mind to think about how much they managed to miss the point of the fans wishing for a remake.
If only we could sue them for false advertisment lmao. Instead of disappointing half of the fanbase, they could have gone for the most logical route of serving everyone what everyone was expecting: a proper remake. If they didn't add those ridiculous ghost whispers and that absurd twist ending, I bet even those defending FF7R won't be complaining about how faithful the remake was to the original.
But no. They had to go and disappoint a lot of fans because what? They thought the controversy would help market FF7R? That sounds insulting.
I haven't enjoyed a FF since 12 came out.
@@ifritrivera315 I mean... Let's be blunt here.
Remakes make money off of being cheap to make, because you can reuse several assets. This had a full AAA budget and couldn't recycle anything.
They've also been bastardizing and retconning this game for about 20 years of side games and movies. So, there was basically no way something fucky WASN'T going to happen to encourage more profit and decrease risk.
People were just assuming the breaking it down into episodic content was the only thing they were going to try.
@@chrisprusinowski5287 that does make it a remake, remakes dont follow the exact plan the original game laid out, thats what a remaster is. and I dont get how you say its a sequel. its a retelling/alternate timeline
All I ever wanted was the original game with a massive graphical overhaul, is that too much to ask for?
They are somewhat doing that with evercrisis. Also, if i have to play devil's advocate, isn't it better for a final fantasy 7 fan to have a sequel to the original while keeping the original intact in all of it's glory. Especially for the fact tha FF 7 is very easy to get, it's on every plaform right now. We may have different look on this, but how i see a perfect remake (depending on the game) is a version that doesn't make the original useless and create a new experience with the original idea. For exemple, RE 2 remake, RE 2 is one of my favorite game of all time, and the remake makes it better because both are different. I could play both games back to back and feel like this is the same game but also feeling like i live two different experiences. Of course, if what you really wanted was just a graphical update, i understand your disapointment but i wanted to show maybe another way to look at it.
It is as long as Nomura is in charge.
@@Shadow-gm9ct I feel like both outcome is good. I understand what johnathan is saying, i mean, i am also an FF 7 fan, it just that i think there are positive and negative for both ideas of a remake. I like what they are doing, but if people don’t I can’t change anything about that. No one is wrong, it’s just a question of preference.
I think there's a lot that wouldn't translate well to higher resolution, both graphically and in the story/dialogue. It was a great game but built in a very different time when you could leave much more to the imagination of the player, which is part of what made the original experience so powerful.
Nope because you can tell the high parts of this game the remake we deserved
"Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius part." - I loled so hard at this :-D
And you, sir, are like a mad genius without the mad part! Seriously, I love how you offer constructive criticism. When you criticize something, you take the effort to offer your own solution (or multiple solutions). That's so rare in video game journalism and one of the reasons why I like your channel so much.
most people are so brainwashed and weird these days they think nomura is a genius. i just don't get it, i feel like in a sane world they would have had to fire him or at the very least limit him to character design again. every game he has influence over all aspects in is garbage, ff15, kh3, and now this shitty remake. people say ff15 was not him but from what i hear he spent years making a mess of it and then they brought in someone else and gave them a very limited amount of time to turn that mess into a game. if nomura had never been involved in the game, it probably would have been a much different, much better game.
I never liked Tetsuya Nomura. His heart is in fashion design, not games. 20 years ago, when he really came into his own and started being a bigshot at Square, he even said he didn’t care for video games much. That all he ever wanted was to design clothes. He was “edgy” that way. “Look at me, I’m a groomed video game genius, but I don’t like it. Our fans are game nerds, but I’m better, cooler, and more edgy. I hate video games. Here, have FF10-2 a game all about designing outfits for your characters. Cause that’s what FF is now.”
The FF7 ensemble of characters are his only successful work, and he made them while still on a tight leash, low on the totempole.
I actually loved the remake, but now my greatest worry is that Mr Nomura will attempt to reshape FF7 in his own image. In other words more travesty like the Honey Bee Inn dance number is to be expected. I still have faith in Kitase’s writing though. I attribute all the FF7 greatness to him and previous director H. Sakaguchi.
@Jack Man FF15 was original Versus 13, and was gonna be much different than what we got with FF15, the reason why it was is cause they had limited time to change a lot of things. From what I know, I’d say Nomura’s story would of been quite better, especially with the role of the Noctis’s love interest since she was suppose to have a bigger, more prominent role in Versus 13. I get not like some of his work, but most of it is great and what happened with FF15 was definitely not his fault. Personally I find what they did with the remake of 7 is great, I love that while they will be mostly telling the same story, things now have the possibility of changing, and that perhaps certain events just won’t happen the way they originally would of like Aerith’s death. With this we could think we can save her and maybe we do with how she original dies but still dies later on, that aspect alone makes me and a large number of others more excited for the next parts.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I'll sign the petition to fire or demote nomura if FF7R gets a smartphone game sequel where you need to spend money to progress the story which is forcibly set to be relevant to the plot.
The whole ''house'' enemy actually makes sense if you think about it, it's a house designed as a trap for people, and people living in the slums of Midgar probably want nothing more than a house to stay in, considering most of them live in broken down cargo crates, tubes, rubble and debree. So, as wierd as it may seem, it's actually quite brilliant if you think about it.
Yeah, it's really one of the most messed up enemies if you think about it. A bunch of people without proper homes taken advantage of by a monster disguising itself as a house so they'll walk inside where it'd eat them...
*debris
I've never seen that explanation. I wonder if that was their thought process when making it. 200IQ explanation tho either way
So you're saying it's a traphouse?
@@brianjackson5258 You... you see between the lines of the world itself, don't you?
I don't think you fully grasped the drama of the sewer parts. Those bridges collapsing were tense situations. Underneath them is doodoo water. If you get even a drop of that on you, you're as good as dead! Leper colonies won't let you in.
Those ninja turtles you fight? They were normal people once. They used to live on the surface. What happened to them? That's right, they fell in poo.
Now we need a VaatiVidya-style lore video on the FF7 Poo Turtles
The things are. If you played the old one, you kind of get the drama I guess. For me, who just played this one, and only this one, I never even suspected that drama because FFVII doesn't talk about it. That, the whisper and others, tt's really given me the feeling FFVIIR was more a product made for fan rather than a game who's supposed to work alone, as a self-sufficient game.
Lol!! Awesome!
Not me. I had my resist materia maxed out!
I can acknowledge that the sewer scene was intended to give drama or develop their bonds but the execution was a hit or miss. It was the latter for me. I mean have you tried counting how many times a character almost fell to their death only to be grabbed by another character to safety at the last minute? I swear it was so redundant it already lost its impact by the time you got to the sewers.
Also worth noting how some of them already fell from ridiculous heights (like how they ended up in the sewers to begin with) and lived without so much as a scratch on them, the choice of using the "almost falling to their deaths/vile goop" is a clash in tone. It's just not a good device anymore to establish tension/drama.
I wish Nomura and Kitase would watch this, in the company of an interpreter. The padding in this game is ridiculously tedious and the level design of dungeons and puzzles therein doesn't help.
Sewers x 2... Times two... I didn't like the sewers in FF 8 or Xenogears, even in Chrono Cross, I get that they are an RPG bit... But maybe they can be less of a bit someday
@@GenghisWanghis I actually thought the sewers in Xenogears were kinda creepy and foreboding, being hunted by some mutant freak.
@Ram M. Ory Ehhh, they were okay aside from the materia swapping. Part 2 desperately needs to have materia presets to slap onto characters, or just a full-on swap from one to the other. Pretty lazy that it doesn't.
@Ram M. Ory way too long, and all the back and forth materia menu swapping killed the momentum
@Ram M. Ory that's a brilliant leap mate! Play the game, it had menus the 20 hrs before that chapter. That chapter just hemorrhages menus and slows down the momentum that was building at Shinra HQ. You weren't out on Earth to defend poor pacing in videogames, be better
When writing a script for a story properly (something huge that has to connect and be coherent through and through), it is quite important to have themes in mind. In the case of FFVII the original themes were always the triangle of coping with loss + environmentalism + finding identity (the three main plots resolved at disc 3 are the planet fighting against meteor, Cloud and some of the others finding their place in the world and the entire party dealing with their individual losses and the loss of Aerith). Changing the theme to 'fate and destiny' means a huge shift in narrative, to the point that even reproducing every single event from the original game might result in a completely different feel to the story, because the emphasis and direction are other beasts entirely.
So I'm not sure how to feel about this explicit change in theme. They still have time to recover in the next parts, but if they keep going for this kingdom hearts-esque stuff it's quite a risky take. Again, this has no bearing on whether or not they reuse events from the original game, they can play everything out the same, but now they have clearly established the theme is something else. Several bits might end up seeing "off" if they are not careful to put the pieces together in a way that fits the newly established theme, and character development can go wrong in many different ways because metacommentary is ultimately extremely difficult to come through. Forcing fate into us all the time through introducing the whispers during changes from the original will get cheap very fast like mentioned in the video. I can only hope they thought everything out already at least.
This critique has really articulated why I felt strange about several parts of the game, and I think the ending definitely made me the most uncomfortable, and the reason for this I now believe to be this inconsistency in how they carefully set up the themes to be the same as the original game but then immediately broke into another theme without decent setup for it.
Well put. Have you checked this out?
th-cam.com/video/A9JZrZ7VROs/w-d-xo.html
Exactly how I felt about Chapter 18. I'm really hoping the next part distances itself from the themes set in the first part. Literally 95% of Remake felt so good and it felt in the universe of FF7, but then Chapter 18 happens and you're sat there like "W-what? Zack's alive? The timeline is changed? What the fuck is this shit?". They could've done much more while still changing how the game plays out in a way that wasn't linked to destiny and fate.
@@M21cat The timeline change trope is getting old.
Apparently Biggs and Wedge survived the plate false-flag which does not happen in the original game as far as I can remember but to be honest the whole remake is a trip. Also they emphasize and even overemphazise Jessie not being quite a terrorist. I played the game over and over as a kid and there was no doubt you did it (you are terrorists, diabolical but well-intentioned), I mean you blew up the reactors with all the consequences. In the remake it is kid gloves and shinra apparently dd it.
That is my main issue with the changes as well. They don't line up with the games themes and narrative at all. And I personally think that's a really bad thing... Especially considering the whole "fate/destiny" trope isn't even original or creative, so it's like they tried to fix what wasn't broken by slapping cliches over it.
I don't mind that the story is going in a different direction but would have rather they just....did it and not forced in the whispers as a plot device to justify it.
@Gameboy224 You're deluded if you're still falling for that.
I dont disagree with that. My biggest problem is that the way the whsipers are presented is so jarring that it takes away from the good parts of the story.
@@kbg12ila Yeah. I really feel like they just ruin the first scene with Cloud and Aerith after the reactor 1 bombing for example.
@@MalzraAirwynn Yep. Although I do think the travel to sector 6 is absolutely amazing which makes up for it. My biggest problem with the scenes is the ending. In the original that scene had this feeling of finally having escaped shinra and then seeing the outdoors. But with the whisper ending, you don't really feel the impact of the group deciding to travel because of the zack scene. I also think Sephiroths introduction and build up was botched too. It's like we got the final battle with him without even getting to know who he is and what part he plays in the story. It just felt weird to me.
@Gameboy224 They are ass pulling 4th wall breaking destiny ghosts, give it up man the plot is cooked. Nomura may as well be jumping up and down in front of the camera telling you the game is about avoiding the sad part of the original, its speaking directly to the audience. The end of remake does not make sense to anyone but fans of the original, especially the horrid Zack reveal. It is a disaster, alternate realities as a premise is the hack writers way of justifying anything; its the equivalent of a student writing a story about a student procrastinating about writing a story.
You could change the story without the convenient plot ghosts but that would require thinking about the story you want to tell. Instead the devs at Square since Sakaguchi left are driven by the fastest way to tie their game levels and assets to a plot; any dumb thing will do. They don't have a message or any vision.
Yo, hojos lab is so padded it really adds to my distaste of the back half of the remake
I actually started getting really excited during the Shinra Building parts of the game, and it's still one of the more fun parts to me, but between the ridiculous bloat to Hojo's lab and the lack of mystery and suspense of following the blood trail after you wake up, it was pretty disappointing.
Shinra building was all sparkle and no content. Just a glorified tour and no interaction except the glee I felt running all those chairs over. Whoever thought uncharted physics were a good idea gets a bonus from me, I think that's the most fun I had in the entire game. I just felt it was super disappointing. Hojo's lab felt like all the other places purely made to stretch out the runtime felt, boring and annoying as hell, adding absolutely nothing except gametime and frustration. I got so tired of all the hallways in this game I actually think it deserves more shit than ff13. At least that one had inventive art direction and more diversity in areas.
@@tehmiyash Yeah, I don't get why FF13 gets shit on so much when this felt a lot like that. The whole story felt so linear here and I thought that they were going to make Midgar more open. Also, the chairs were fun, my wife can attest to my ridiculousness with making it my goal to knock them over only to be massively disappointed when they all were upright again after saving and loading back up later.
Also, the graphics of FF13 is very comparable to this, so I really don't know why on the climb up to upper Midgar on a PS4 we have to look at some shitty PS2 era backdrop low res picture. Overall, the game should have had more meaningful content, more open areas and more polish.
"Yeah, I don't get why FF13 gets shit on so much when this felt a lot like that."
That's because FF13 was bad, so this being like FF13 is not a good thing.
@@systemafunk Well, that's exactly my point. FF7 is being fawned over by both critics and fans alike. The fans, I get to a point, but this is another corridor walking simulator with some fighting. That said, I think I liked FF13's battling a bit more. FF7 remake just feels disastrous and like I am just waiting most of the time to spend my atb on healing instead of doing something useful. From added fluff to a huge lack in an open environment and actual fun things to do every now and again, the game just didn't feel great. It felt like a mediocre experience, which would have been good if they stuck to a lot of the original story beats and didn't try to do a whispers of fate thing. I get it, but I'm personally not into it.
The pacing in 7R is the reason I'm struggling to want to play it again.
i havent been able to play it twice its just sooo bad
I liked it over all - but there is no way I would admit to enjoying the pacing
You've still got 2 more (at least) $60 versions to go...
i would love cutscenes over the walking.... every game, if i can run dont make me walk :o thats just dumb and is why i took 250 hours to platinum this game.. and since i have platinumed it i dont have reason to play it again unless i want to revisit the beginning of the *cough*moneygrab*cough*.... i mean story
I honestly don't mind the pacing, not that it isn't terrible, but the combat is just so good.
What holds me from a 2nd go on hard is having to see the story again. The whispers just make me miserable, it's pretty overt and apparent what they are and what the writers are trying to get at.
upvoted for "we live in a society"
gamers rise up
HAHAH I LITERALLY CLAPPED WHEN I RECOGNIZED THE MEME
Gamers are the most oppressed minority change my mind
@@Dylan_Goodboy I killed the ghosts so now your mind is changed you just do not know it yet.
@@juliankiz
>I QUOTED REDDIT LETTER MEDIA
>LOOK AT HOW SMART I AM
To your paint illustration, I would add that low-fi graphics and text dialog greatly increase the amount of interpretation that takes place, and therefore the “length” of those red arrows (and the resulting distance between your interpretation of the original and the remake).
Best analisys of FF7 Remake I've seen.
I had the same about the parts where the game is faithful to the original are excelent, but all the filler content destroyed the pace of the game.
filler is money lolol
I think it makes sense that Aerith was so weird in Crisis Core. She was younger and hadn't built up her confidence yet.
Losing Zack must have been hard on her, just like it would be losing someone you love in real life. You'll go through a period of sadness and then you become stronger for it and grow as a person. The result being the Aerith we see in FF7.
except when she was a child in ff7 og she was energetic just like she is as an adult and crisis core is a retcon
I hate lazy retcon shit@@ZeldaFan0o0
Truly tho, this critique gives me life. I’ve been feeling like a crazy person surrounded by 9 and 10 scores.
thats4thebirds you may need to take a serious introspective look at yourself if having a different opinion than the majority made you feel crazy. Even more so if hearing a person share your opinions revitalized you.
SH1NK1R01 I think that’s a bold presumption lmao
I think it’s been VERY clear how nostalgia has blinded people when reviewing this game.
Some reviewers don’t even talk about the padding and when they do they say “yeah they stretched the game, but I like the padding”
I think people are entitled to their opinions. You too. I just think the amount of non critical reviews is wild.
But sure. Take a serious introspective look at myself and stuff.
Except this review is mostly positive and gives the game high praise? It only points out the obvious criticism of the padding and the strange, uncertain ending which everyone and their mother has, but other than that the game is phenomenal.
@@thats4thebirds I've got 0 nostalgia. Hell the game came out before I was out the womb. I quite thoroughly have enjoyed it, aside from the gd pull-up mini game..
Pink Socks I think this is the best review because while he clearly has an overall positive Impression, he has fair criticism plenty of other reviewers are just skating right over.
>mini games can't exist in modern gaming
Looks like someone hasn't heard of Yakuza
Or grand theft auto
or ff14, or tales of anything, or good games in general
@Manannan anam yes they do count, all the good MMOs have a bunch of minigames. and the bad ones have fishing at least.
and VNs count too, like Danganronpa. that one has a bunch of things to do.
then again if you paid like 1 buck for it I guess it get a pass, you get what you paid for.
Your take on this lines up almost point-for-point of mine, as a longtime fan myself. I -just- finished today and I appreciate your critical response. I'm trying to be optimistic, but you know... that whole "logic, and evidence, and years of experience" thing. 💀
This is such a good video. You praise the good parts and criticise the bad ones. I feel like you could go on for so much longer but keeping your videos in this length speaks so highly of you as a writer. Whenever you make a video it usually ends up being my favorite video on that game. Great job and keep it up!
Nomura's comment about story: "Making it surprising... if things seem that you can predict the outcome... then I will think of a different, unexpected development" just proves how bad of a writer he really is. Being predictable isn't bad, being unpredictable isn't bad either, but to forcefully pull the rug out from the audience's feet in order to keep them "surprised" is stupid and terrible writing. A great story always has elements that are predictable and that allow the audience to piece together the clues to predict what will happen next in order to keep them engaged. If you're constantly pulling the rug out from beneath your audience you're only going to bore them, stress them out and leave them bewildered; this is why Kingdom Hearts is such a terrible game series, none of the story elements make sense or connect together properly and all of the things you can predict (like Sora's stupidity) are just infuriating. Why did they give this game, *the* game that has defined the FF series, to Nomura? It just doesn't make any sense.
Agreed. Even the most cliche of story beats can be great if written well. Take "The Last of Us" for example, which is a game people praise up and down. By all rights, it's just another generic zombie apocalypse with family drama story on paper, but due to the presentation and writing, it still ends up being amazing. (Always subjective, but you get my drift.) Just adding weird or shocking stuff for the sake of it, without any regard for the narrative value, is just lazy shock value and honestly the biggest critiques you always hear about Nomura's writing is "it's overcomplicated and makes no sense." Because it really shows that he just adds twists for the sake of it rather than keeping a cohesive narrative that can actually give its plot and characters time to shine like they need.
@@littlekitsune1 Yea, I'm of the belief that a property or title HAS to have the merit of being able to stand fully on it's own. That was one of the biggest problems for me with like...Halo 4, because half the narrative was in the books and not IN the game itself. With what they're doing now, if you're new to the game/story of FF7, it must be confusing as fuck why things were happening the way they are, whereas in the original any sort of questions you had were part of the intended intrigue and mystery. You learned plot points when they were intended to be learned, in a crafted narrative.
@@Rowdy422 I agree. That seems to be a big problem in general nowadays, but to see it happen in a remake where the story is already finished and they just have to recreate it is... baffling.
Reminds me of Ryan Johnson who thinks subverting expectations for the sake of subverting them is what makes a good movie.
@Jordan Ghill Nojima is a hack as well he wrote advent children,ffx-2, and co-wrote kingdom hearts 1,2 and 3...Remember that FFX-2.5 novel where Tidus explodes because he kicked a bomb thinking it was a blitzball? Killing him instantly and sending his head flying? Well guess who wrote that? Nojima.
Enjoy the trainwreck friend. Enjoy.
The force that created a butterfly effect is Sephiroth. It's hinting at him being Advent Children Sephi. But who knows
That's the variable he's missing. Sephiroth is now a constant in the timeline.
Yep. The first time he shows up he throws the entire timeline out of wack. He delayed cloud, the whispers had to hold aerith in place, thier whole meeting goes and feels differently and the butterfly effect is now in place.
Yeah making an hour long video without this information is a bit pointless right now xD
@@airborne19j While that may be true, it feels kind of flimsy to me. It's not obvious that Sephiroth delays Cloud from meeting Aerith (especially for a new player). The whispers also chase off Aerith for talking to Cloud too long - but there are plenty of convos in the game that have been expanded on and they don't affect destiny. Also, I'd argue that butterfly effects are not very interesting. Saying the reason Cloud was going to kill Reno is because Sephiroth talked to him in Ch 2 doesn't feel good from a narrative perspective. I think this is what the reviewer meant by the whispers not being "executed" all that well. You are describing the developer's intentions with the story, but that doesn't mean it was effective.
@@gregmc621 I would argue that it doesn't matter that it's obvious. And, this may sound arrogant, but I'm glad it's more confusing for new players because so many companies try to throw the largest net they can cast rather than doubling down for long term fans. It's refreshing, for me at least. Back to it not being obvious, the point is that it ISN'T obvious. We still didn't know at that moment that this game is a sequel to the first game and not a recreation of the first game. Where it feels brilliant is during the 2nd play through where we now have that information, and all of those "inconsistencies" suddenly have a purpose. We're led to believe that Aerith had just received a vision of the events of the original ff7, so the whispers have to drive her away so that she does not join Cloud too soon. Cloud almost killing Reno is a result of Cloud being more heavily manipulated by Sephiroth this early in the story so he is more on-edge and paranoid than he was in the original. It's easy for "because butterfly effect" to be a bad mechanism for story telling, but I do think it worked in this case, because like a butterfly effect should be it goes from subtle ripples to massive waves by the end.
I still haven't decided if the manifestation of fate as a creature that can be defeated was the best way to tell the story, the harbinger and the whispers, but I think if you accept what they are the story makes enough sense.
Your writing is superb. You say all the right things in the right way. Your delivery is excellent, letting the text what it needs to be said without unnecessary vocal tricks. A word you've used be fore is "immersive." Your videos are like that. I never finished FF VII, though I tried to play it when it came out. Now I understand a lot better which made is so great for so many people. Thank you.
I think they really dropped the ball with how prevalent Sephiroth was in the remake. How can they escalate his presence in the story when you've literally fought and beat him, or at least a version of him.
They don’t seem to understand pacing at all, the Kalm sequence and the Junon boat scenes are going to feel odd thanks to that, unless they completely rewrite or divert.
Also with how sephiroth kills the giant snake…. Like okay? Who cares? We literally beat fate ITSELF. How is sephiroth killing a giant snake gonna effect the party at all
My guess the real big bad will be Jenova
The whispers are indeed the fans. What happened? They killed us. 😕
@Gameboy224 I side with sephy to blow this whole plot up.
team meteor FTW
@Gameboy224 So what you're saying is we've all been inside Sephiroth?
Actually they make us kill ourselves.. Lol
They literally gave us the finger and told us that we aren't around for the rest of the ride.
I certainly will not be around.
@@funkybuddhaInit I'd definitely stay somewhere close though, this dumpsterfire could make ff13 look like a shitty torch.
“Can be both faithful and fun”
When exactly did those stop being mutually inclusive?
I will play this in another 20 years when the parts have been shortened, cleaned up and put together.
Roger X still will not be better than ff7 1997. Just play remake for what it is. A decent action rpg. But ff7 is probably the best game ever made so no game will ever top it. It's essentially the videogame equivalent of thriller and this remake is dangerous
Prefersbly via mods made by sensible hard core fans
"the remake can't take that away from you"
Not when the remake is a sequel, though.
@Caio Coelho The original can be ruined by a sequel. It has happened to plenty of series.
@Caio Coelho The original was one reality with one outcome, this retcons that truth with multiple timelines. If thatstory happenED, it's the past. If Zack and Aerith live and Cloud dies, that's how FFVII 1997+2020 ends, and that would ruin the original, yes.
@Caio Coelho the catalyst for the plot is the events of the original FF7, therefore it's a sequel regardless of if they change history. Just like Back to the Future 2.
@Caio Coelho This is a sequel, it takes place after Advent Children with AC Sephiroth sending his consciousness back to the past to try and prevent himself from being stopped. This has all been pretty much confirmed in the Ultimania guide.
Leo Stenbuck Unless the original is deliberately designed to hinge on the sequel/continuation, then no, sequels don’t ruin the original.
I’ve never played to original, but after playing the remake I have thought of playing the original
I can't recommend the original game enough, perhaps the greatest game I've ever played. I'd suggest getting it on Nintendo Switch if you have one
It’s fantastic you just need to get used to the dated looks
Ok
With the way the remake ends, the original is already a better game BY FAR. The remake botched all of the storytelling with Chapter 18, and the nuisance of those stupid whispers.
I was playing the remake and I stopped playing at the part where you have to do side quests before the Shinra building, I started playing the original again, I haven't played the remake since lol. The original stands the test of time, its a really good game, the graphics are terrible though, but damn is everything else about it great. Cannot recommend it enough.
I’m happy to see this is a good middle ground between the people ignoring the faults and the people only seeing the faults. Great vid!
Some of his faults are just opinions based on taste.
furyberserk I mean... yeah, that goes for everyone, but what’s and example of that from the video
@Jordan Ghill that's what an opinion is. having an opinion makes you arrogant? i don't see how the original writer is working on this, nothing in the original game's dialogue never made me cringe as much as several lines of dialogue in the demo of the remake alone. that could be largely due to the aweful voice acting though.
Jordan Ghill his stating of “my final fantasy” is saying that this is his perception of the media. A perception he holds very dear to himself. He states that in the video. He’s not saying he’s right about his opinions, he’s looking at the objective reality of things and giving his subjective thoughts on it. My comment is saying that I think he has some pretty clear minded subjectivity
Lol dude is just a hipster trying to be cool and edgy. When you based everything on emotional points you've lost the debate. Furthermore it's way too soon to even compare Final Fantasy 7 remake to the original at this time. However remakes are always going to be vastly more superior to the original that's why they are called remakes. Plus FF 7 remake has already been paying tribute to the original and gaved it respect 1997 was a good year 2020 is an even greater year.
I think the one comfort we can all take is that once this is all complete and ported to PC, modders can use the given resources (and maybe a little help from neural network fakery of the near future) to make this into the Final Fantasy Remake VII that was asked for. And then everyone can be happy.
Thanks for providing awesome content. The video honestly brought back feelings of my teenage years. Both as an artist and as a fan of final fantasy. It's refreshing and genuinely gives me a ton of inspiration. Thank you again.
"or by embracing the modern action rpg trend" proceeds to show a tales game...a game from a series that was always action based ever since its first game "tales of phantasia" on the SNES :P
Yeah, that was a massive cringe moment
Square Enix is still low key mad about Wolf Team showing them up decades ago.
@@vonstraugg5963 there was no square enix decades ago..nice try :P
@@takianimation2189 you know what he means, stop trying to be a smart ass
@@gibbsj195 ok then ? what does he mean ? because if he means that jprg having action elements is a "modern trend" then that's just factually incorrect...
This is the most important video on Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
No. Easy allies interview with maximilian dood is the most important video on FFVIIR.
rockertothecore lol? why?
@@poopoo-dk4hu because max breaks this whole thing down into 4 levels of understanding and will blow your mind. Uses evidence within the game itself to support his theory and explains it in a manner that makes complete sense. Starting with 1st and foremost that this sephiroth is post advent children sephiroth thats come back to "remake" his fate.
@@rockertothecore neato, sounds interesting, I'll take a look!
@@rockertothecore I personally feel like Max's theories in that video are just far too speculative to be taken seriously. We don't know if any of it is even true because part 2 could be nothing like he anticipates
Amazing vid. I agree 100% with you - not sure i have ever had that experience in any review/critique. I'm really grateful for your time spent on this, Thank you!
Another thing, I REALLY wanted an Original Soundtrack option for the game. Gosh that would have really propelled this game!
I think part of the issue is how different a lot of the cutscenes and set pieces are, and trying to sync up the moments of the remake to the original ost would've been difficult. I really prefer the original ost, but this specific situation is a bit different than, say, the Eternal Punishment psp port where the game is essentially the same
Mods
When I found out that Kitase relegated major duties to Nomura in terms of story and direction, I already knew to lower my expectations.
The music, hands down, is awesome! Always was and I wouldn't expect anything less.
Gamewise, it is visually stunning and fun to play, yet it somehow feels hollow. Pacing was inconsistent at times. There was also quite an amount of filler and certain areas were stretched out too long. I guess this was done in order for them to justify the Midgar chapter to be a full length first installment of which who knows how long and how many more episosic releases to come.
However, the painful "barefoot stepping on a Lego" sensation is, is that it seems that Nomura is subtly manipulating the narrative and themes of the original.
I see this "Remake" as basically Final Fantasy XVI with a FFVII skin on it. Under the guise of the beloved 1997 game, Nomura capitalizes on nostalgia and thus automatically sucking in those OG players, myself included.
I wasn't expecting a beat for beat copy, and as technology has advanced since 1997, adding fresh gameplay elements, expanding certain areas for exploration and discovery, and fleshing out some minor characters is all fine and dandy. Jolly good!
But hinting at and adding the unnecessary factors of possible alternative time lines and altering fate and destiny, which will then shift key events, themes, and the narrative, then it loses the spirit and essence of what made the original FFVII so memorable and epic and the impact is lost even as Nomura wows you with flashy visuals and graphics.
And this will likely continue.
So, just prepare for expectations to be subverted in the next installments as the narrative elements will most likely deviate and go in wild tangents.
Square-Enix should have called it Final Fantasy VII : Alternate (or Parallel Universe) instead.
It would have been more fitting and fans of the original probably, probably wouldn't have been as perturbed when they got to the end of this Midgar installment and with future releases.
Maybe.
For now, we got "Nomura'd".
Not thrashing this remake, as I liked playing it...to a certain degree, but I just didn't love it. We'll see what happens in the next release.
it actually hurts how pretentious this comment is while saying nothing. it genuinely sounds like you read a handful of forums posts then decided that means you played the game.
Also maybe speak for yourself? There are “fans of the original” that have widely varying feelings regarding ff7r. As soon as one starts basing arguments on imaginary “X group of people universally feel Y way about Z thing” you stop discussing reality, rendering your point moot.
At the end of the day with a project as large and complex as ff7r it’s not as simple as “X key person is the reason for every problem I have”. That’s just wishful thinking
@@peen2804 hes spot on, but keep on dude.....
@@NERDOFUNK Precisely, what the fuck is he talking about? "while saying nothing", is he illiterate?
*Star Wars : No one is ever really gone*
*FF7R : Hold my mako !*
I DON'T WANNA LOOK FOR A CAT! I WANNA DESTROY SHINRA!!!!
Best review/critique i have seen so far for the remake, especially the conclusion at the end. Being excited for what's to come while feeling that it won't end well.
I'm getting off the train. See ya!
Yep me too, then again I never was on it. Didn't buy the game myself
Lol bye. No one cares.
@@anatoliykodebsky7488 you apparently do since you commented on it
sean mills nope, I’m game. I love the changes and I love the original.
@@anatoliykodebsky7488 I meant you cared about his comment, and no one says you cant like the game and like the original too. I think the game sucks but if you like it that's your opinion.
The Whispers could never be consistent or make sense. Destiny and fate were never thematically part of FFVII. You can't just shoehorn a new theme into an existing narrative.
It was always a theme. It just wasnt in your face because it was a subtle aspect.
@@idbuddy2184 Except it wasn't. The thing about fate and destiny is that you can contort any story or plot in a way to "subtly" make it a theme.
@@rabadeuce814 this isnt some contortion. In the original they do state that the planet is guiding the party and that it has a purpose to guide all living things to their ultimate destiny. That can be taken as literal destiny or death but the fact is fate and destiny are themes of the game and are expanded upon through all the extra content put out
@@idbuddy2184 The Planet is pretty agnostic about individual actors and really seems only to care about the preservation of the Lifestream.
The Planet wouldn't have created the Weapons if Cloud and friends were destined to save it. If you want to go into Compilation territory, Chaos is meant to kill all life and Omega is meant to carry the Lifestream to a new planet. The whole plot of DoC was that DG tricked the Planet into thinking it was the apocalypse.
Sorry, it's just not there. The theme of the original was life, death, and how to cope with it. If you throw fate and destiny in there, then you're replacing the whole "coping" part.
Idbuddy fate and destiny are broadly speaking central to human storytelling To have characters talking about these themes as if they are the slightest bit revelatory comes across as vapid and presumptuous. FFVII was, at its core, about how different types of people respond in the face of tyranny.
I've been having this thought for a while now. I've been a fan of Nomura's art since I was a kid. But who's bright idea was it to give him a director's role instead of just art director? Looking at this guys track records and his portfolio in the industry, as a director I can say with confidence that he has won every battle, but lost every war.
Anyways, I do agree about the character difference, but the whole thing about CC Aerith is that was 4 years ago pre Zack Aerith. Her charcter back then, a quitter, an orphan, grew up in the slums. It makes sense she's reserved, and I think she took a lot after Zack with her outgoing personality. Also, she's been selling flowers in various sectors, and if you played Crisis Core, you know initially it didn't sell well. And as a person with sales background I can tell you with confidence, if you are selling an unwanted product, you are not selling the product itself, you are selling your presentation. So being outgoing and clever comes naturally with the profession as she gets better at it.
I’m shocked you didn’t like the pre-rendered background in chapter 15. I felt like that was a beautiful homage to the original game because of how much the original relied on these types of backgrounds. I guess to each his own, but that was actually one of my favorite details
Will Lovendahl me too! I thought the visuals there were stunning. I took shit loads of screen shots. Maybe he doesn’t have the PS4 pro because they footage he showed look low quality compared to what I saw on my big tv with ps4 pro
Ironically the still background as went up high made me " wow we can really see the scale of this city, shame the story never goes those places"
lol you remake fans are a riot
It really is kind of surreal to look back on all those E3 reaction videos, now that the game is out. Seeing people enraptured at...what exactly? What were they so joyous to see? An unflinching monument to their nostalgia? Hell, *I* was excited, I was hyped, but now I look back at myself and wonder - would it have ever occurred to me, at the time, that what I really wanted to see was honestly closer to what we ultimately got?
It reminds me of the E3 crowd screaming and cheering at the fallout 76 announcement.
Thing is, it’s not done yet. So really there’s much more to be excited about.
@@SevenBlades After this video and with Nomura's direction, I think this first installment will probably be the high point. I'll be delighted to be proven wrong.
I thought we get a remake (more of a remaster) of Final Fantasy 7. As soon as multi-part was mentioned my joy evaporated.
We thought it was gonna be a faithful remake. And it would have been a great one without all the padding, nonsensical changes and time traveling. Just a normal remake. Nothing weird about being hyped up over that.
You were so spot on with just about every point in this critique, and the conclusion to it was so good. Well done.
To your points about the whispers not making sense:
Sephiroth is changing things which brings the whispers.
The whispers appear to only be interested in the main story line, Wedge being alive wasn't important until he tried to rejoin the party.
I think they are unable to influence Sephiroth, which is how he's able to change things.
Sometimes events are changed without Sephiroth intervening, but because there are smaller differences caused down the line, like the party not trusting cloud.
Great video: better to temper your expectations down the line, especially when the narrative may have gotten itself into an inescapable situation.
Just my two cents, I didn't feel like the game was padded at all. I was very happy throughout my entire playthrough that I was able to catch more insight about life in Midgar. Even stuff like finding the cats in Sector 7 Slums felt like it was a nice glimpse at Cloud's willingness to listen to Tifa's suggestions, despite thinking he was above the task. Obviously stuff like that was also put in to make things like the plate hit harder. In fact, as a long time fan, I felt like some lines were in there SPECIFICALLY to put a bad feeling in your stomach, like when Jessie yells out that 'together, we can take on the world!' when they're parachuting back from her mission. I nearly cried! No, Jessie, we can't take on the world, YOU FOOOOOL!
Great video though, and I couldn't agree more that they did our boys and girls loads of justice. Personalities are spot freaking on, and performances from voice actors were perfect.
I’m so glad you mentioned red xiii in the sailor suit haha everyone all these years was wondering how they’d pull of the cross dressing and I was like ‘yo...a lion...dressed up as a sailor...walks on his hind legs...and no one notices...’ I forgot about the dolphin though 🤣
Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII: You are (not) a SOLDIER
If I found out I won the lottery I would probably smile a bit and then end up somewhat energetic for 5 to 10 minutes... I don't know what it would take for me to be so excited about something that I would scream... it feels impossible
They have to show everyone around them they they are more of a fucking dork with their crying and screaming. It's embarrassing. It's like measuring dicks with how lame you are.
an adult acting that way for anything less than the birth of their child is just cringy.
@@mfbjo6854 imagine being excited for things and showing emotion. Pretty cringe imo. Good lord you people sound miserable. Watch out! Someone might be weird and react to things differently than you do! Head for the hills!
@@DemonLordSparda "Someone might be weird and react to things differently than you do"
I react by cringing. Why, how do you react? Differently?
@@mfbjo6854 Yeah I do. You are free to react how you want. Just let it be known if you think people being excited is cringey, you won't have an overly fun life.
and about that inconsistency in destiny changing by itself... We should also mention Barret that decides to NOT bring Cloud in the Reactor 5's mission. Why he does that?? Writers deliberatly changed the story on their will, so they could introduce Numens, created precisely to be killed, in order to change what they want from the original story... that's all
Regarding the last 5 minutes of the review.
As someone that also has heavily mixed feelings regarding the ending and the "defying fate" plot line, i'm at the same time giddy with joy and excitement, yet filled with potential dread,
You just cant turn your eyes away from a good train wreck, and with the way this is going, it will probably be the biggest train wreck possible, i am almost 100% expecting Genesis and the Sephiroth Brothers to show up during the next game, with Angel and Dirge of Cerberus Vincent in all of their post Kingdom Hearts Nomura Glory.
I'm all in for Nomuras Wild ride, and I am expecting we will reach some Kingdom Hearts and Rebuild of Evangelion Shenanigans.
Final Fantasy 7.77 YOU CAN(NOT) REMAKE will be one hell of a beautiful train wreck. The mere thought of it fills me with hope an despair
@CMDR Beamee they did nail almost all of the characters and interactions. But some cracks where showing before the ending. The entire racing showdown with the original nomura character reminded me of the worst parts of the compilation.
And the entire game is already padded out, they could have focused all those man-hours into actually making more of the main story.
I just hope the next game has less filler and we get a lot more of the main story.
Boundless, terrifying freedom.
The overall themes of the original game were based on fate, choice, and finality. These themes are now completely nullified and death now has zero consequence emotionally speaking. The concept of “No one’s ever really gone...” comes to mind, being an excuse to do whatever they want with the story because they’ve written themselves into a corner right out the gate. This is a calculated decision however, because now it allows for Square Enix to trot out FF7 as often as they want to as an IP and claim events are alternate realities and side stories. They’ve always wanted to do this with FF7 given how subsequent media, Crisis Core excluded, are sub-par and aren’t true to the original game. That doesn’t matter though because it sells on name recognition alone.
that's the best title ever
I think you meant to say "hope and dis pear"
I laughed way harder at "Murky and Advent Childreny" than I probably should have .
I have fallen in love with your channel. Keep up the good work! Your videos are so insightful and in depth I love it!
You are an amazing writer, and have a very good analysis of the Final Fantasy 7 world. Thank you, for such a great video! You have encouraged me to go back and finish the game. I have given up fairly early on as the fluff that was forced in has really put me off. But seeing the demon house, wowza!
18:40
"In the eyes of the one who matters the most . . ."
I half expected him to say "me".
lol
They played me like a damn fiddle...I played the Demo and I saw an absolute LOVE and respect for the original. Then, while I played the game I couldn't stop having a weird sensation. It started with the NPCs that looked off regarding the main characters (like in FF XV) but I didn't matter, then the padding but it was ok. It was all bearable, the only thing they didn't have to mess with was with the story. I thought the remake applied only to the gameplay. I think I would preffer a remaster with modern graphics/models, but leaving the old structure intact. FFVII didn't age well :/.
Comparing this 'destiny stuff' with MGS 2 is not entirely correct, MGS 2 was not 'MGS Remake'.
I think I'll play the original and not buy the next chapters.
Great analysis!
MGS2 is definitely not a remake but it's definitely Kojima's critique of various things, fans consuming the same thing over and over again being one of them. I'm willing to bet that FFVIIR will not age well unlike MGS2: divisive upon release but aged like fine wine.
And yes, it's still better to play the original FFVII (playing the Switch port right now)
Nomura just has absolutely no concept of either pacing or grounding in his writing, and it is just totally deflates the stakes that could otherwise be present in the story. Going into some parallel dimension to fight a literal embodiment of fate this early in 7's overall narrative feels so cheap and unearned. He's like the JJ Abrams of video games. Sure, the spectacle is cool, but neither of them can write a real story worth a fuck.
Nomura didn't write this though. Nojima and Toriyama, two of the original writers of FF7, did writing for this.
@@DoTheAstralPlane they then handed it off to Nomura, without input on the final product he produces
@@danielnolan8848 except they didn't? It's the original writers of FFVII. Go look it up on Wikipedia. Or go watch the credits roll. He was less involved with writing Remake than he was the original.
@@DoTheAstralPlane go read the interviews post release, they admit to all handling the story with Nomura getting final say
Granted this is in the post release, "were not change much more" walkback, and deflecting blame onto Nomura alone is a fallback for Square at this point. The time traveling Sephiroth is straight from KH, but the bad decisions made in that serries were not all Nomura's alone either
I was too excited for MGSV to not be cynical about video games
They even sold it in parts too with Ground Zeroes
"Ain't no gettin' off this train"? Nope, I'm definitely getting off.
I never got on cuz I'm poor as shit and am not gonna support having to buy the ticket in full priced pieces. I just watched the train on TH-cam.
Time your jump well its a long way down and the landings a bitch but the last thing you want to do is land back on when the train passes back round.
I feel insulted by Square and everyone who gave this product any rating above a 7😤.
@@XxxTheCoolKidxxX Really? How narcissistic do you have to be?
@@JustinStrife We wanted a REMAKE. They told us they were giving us a REMAKE. We got some time-splitting new take on the story we wanted to see. They could've added some of the same filler that they did and still stayed true to the concept of recreating the game we loved for the modern age. Instead, they gave us something entirely different. This is not why we got so excited back at the 2015 announcement.
the demon house was fucking amazing. i remember during the development my brother mused about whether the house would be in the game and i voiced my doubts so when i finally got to this point i was so giddy for my brother to see it and indeed he loved it probably even more than he whould have thought
This was sad to watch and heartfelt but you spoke the words of my sorrow. Thank you for this.
I think the force that's changing things, and causing the whispers to act is Advent Children Sephiroth. You talked about how he shows up entirely to often, and if you notice, when he shows up, things in the game change a little, which causes the whispers to try and course correct. And Cloud trying to kill Reno is the strongest counter to this theory, however I personally think his decision to kill Reno was brought about by the extra tension Sephiroths presence brought.
I won't support current-day squeenix but I always enjoy your analyses, NKB. Great videos. For everyone's sake who plans to pony up the 300+ dollars it will almost certainly cost to play the whole remake, here's hoping it doesn't go full Kingdom Hearts. I don't have much confidence that they'll be able to avoid it at this point, but you never know...
I don't have much hopes with Nomura on the writing team. People speaking about the weird time travel with sephiroth and how this is a sequel to advent children with multiple timelines is scaring me.
@@Kydino Nomura always brings great emotional character moments even if his plots are convoluted and haphazard, so even if it gets Kingdom Hearts level of stupid I think there's still a lot to look forward to.
@Sterman99 Because they haven't really done something worth supporting with your money. I definitely regret it. It's Final Fantasy 7: A Kingdom Hearts Reimagining.
@@tigerfestivals5137 Very much my takeaway. I'm not so much interested in where the overarching plot is going to go as much as I'm invested in how these well-written, expressive characters will react to them. I want to see more of this team writing Barrett and Aerith and Cloud in those situations.
It's like people who play Danganronpa not caring much for the backstory stuff, but they're there because they love the string of whodunnits and murder mysteries and character drama.
@@tigerfestivals5137 That depends if you like melodrama or not. His flavor of story telling is very "anime", which is the best I can put it. It never extends beyond that, and never less. It sits between cheesy and fantastical.
I think one thing worth mentioning about the opening cutscene is the point where Aerith looks up and the camera zooms out to see the full midgar. In the original it zooms out and the music does its thing and then you get the title. In the remake however, since the city is so much larger, while the zoom out happens the music starts, then kinda takes a deep breath and THEN you are at the point where you get the title of the game.
Thank you for this video! Amazing in depth and heartfelt commentary on the remake. I lived the original and agree with much of your feelings on the remake. I think I was so happy to be replaying with how I felt it looked in my head that I didn't mind a lot of the things you didn't like. I enjoyed the 'filler' content in general as it felt like it built on what midgar was. All in all I loved the remake. Thanks for taking the time to make this.
The timeline changed when sephiroth showed up in the beginning ( in Cloud's head). That's why Cloud was late and the whispers had to keep aerith waiting because Cloud was late. Sephiroth fucked the whole timeline up in the beginning, that's why they always come back. I think sephiroth try to break cloud, more than in the OG, and that's why Cloud acting a bit different, but it's enough to change the OG timeline, they are always too late or too early. That's why the whispers always comes back.
I dont hear most people saying this but sephiroth is one of the worst villains in this game. Its like we got pay off with him without getting a backstory or set up. It feels awkward and badly structured/paced.
The makers of this game have some balls to try and tell his own version of a story so many people love.
kbg12ila it’s the continuation of the original. I was mad as well when he first appeared because it didn’t make sense. But after some hard thinking, it does. The ending of the original ends with Aerith opening her eyes and the remake starts off the same way. Opening her eyes. Original was a vision, remake is current day. When Aerith touches anyone, Cloud, Marlene, Red, she reveals some of the future of what’s to happen. Cloud and sephiroth are connected right? Well whe Cloud was touched, established “future” sephiroth appears hence why sephiroth acts the way he acts and appears when he appears. Makes sense?
They screwed up Sephiroth and Tifa imo
@@XerosigmaZ oh it makes sense, but it's still bullshit
@@XerosigmaZ I like it, many people like it too, others are just upset.
all the set up and build up was already done 23 years ago in the original game because the remake is basically a sequel so if you want to know the backstory you have to play the OG ff7
What is cloud's shoulder pauldron secured to? Does his shoulder have anchor studs embedded in it?
Thumbnail change? I swear the thumbnail used to say "A crisis of faith"
This is the 'review' i've been waiting for, amazing job, see you at the crash site!
ngl its hilarious to hear them screaming like that. dont get me wrong i have plenty of favorite series, but you'll never get that reaction out of me unless im getting a million bucks bundled with the game, just being honest.
Yeah, there is no single form of media that could ever get a reaction like that out of me too.
A lot of people probably overreacted because the camera was rolling and they wanted TH-cam views.
People reacting in that manner cause me to immediately distrust them.
If a halo 3 remastered trailer just popped out of nowhere I would freak out like that too
Totally get how you feel, but I was one of those people lol. I think it is a visceral reaction at the prospect of reliving moments that had a huge impact on us when we were teenagers. I got emotional at many points while playing the game.
So many things I loved about this review... Honest, vulnerable, uplifting... How is it a video game review can be so beautiful it amplifies the beauty of the thing it’s reviewing? I would say this video belongs in a museum if I thought that would elevate it
The mix between freeform fighting and scrolling through menus felt very incompatible to me like I was playing two different games at once. 😢
I agree with a lot of the points made in this video though, and it's greatly made! I just had to make one myself comparing the FF7 Remake to Yakuza Kiwami in regards of how you could remake a story. And this video was a great inspiration! Thanks for the entertainment! ❤
You're the GOAT man. I unironically think you're the best at what you do on this platform and I totally shill your content. Eat your heart out Joseph Anderson and Matthewmatosis.
Good grief, man. I kind of feel personally offended you listed Joseph alongside Matthew. What are you going to do next, drag MrBtongue down there as well?
@@dragan4324 lel, I know, I know. It was just a point of reference. Matthew still beats Joe any day. I'd say I rewatched his (Joe) content more but he outed himself a philistine with his Silent Hill 2 incident.
@@nickbooze9766 the scary games rant was another unfortunate event. His fallout 4 video is amazing though.
@@dragan4324 im curious, could you elaborate a bit more?
Thank you for putting this together! It really helps me come to terms with what I felt coming out of the FF7 remake. I think I have the opposite faith position. I came in with faith, but I'm walking away with none left. All the doubts I had and the new ones FF7 remake gave me are all I'm left with, and that's deeply unsatisfying.
Same here man... it was a pretty underwhelming experience
The remake is a love letter to 7classic while at the same time being a declaration to the fans that they're going to do their own thing.
Yep that is true
Then why not do there own thing in the first place instead of putting out a rehash of a classic video game?
Right now we are in a nostalgia golden age.
hey square, i know a way to tell a new story: How about just making a new game?
BLASPHEMY!
Such a novel idea! I don't know if the world can handle it.
FF xvi??
They tried that with FNC, and well...look at how that turned out. Which makes this even more painful considering that the only way we can even remotely take their new stories seriously is to dress them up in nostalgia in an evil attempt to sell us a new story, because of how mediocre their last attempts were (XIII and XV/Versus XIII). Why bother making a complete new game if it's gonna be slammed for being too complex and lacking brevity, maybe if we put FF7 characters atop our bad, poorly executed plot ideas, maybe they'll shut the fuck up and eat our garbage this time?
They do
Let guess Nomura f.cked up again?
it's true
we really do live in a society
Whispers Rise Up
Have a thumbs up for Yukari.
Some of us do. Some of us live in the woods bottling our piss like Randy Quaid.
You get what you fucking deserve!
I just want to thank you for making this video, you really have captured the essence of the story the fans and the problems, you hit every nail on he head from disk finishing the first part to padding, I have played every final fantasy except 12, even final fantasy tactics on a modded ps, I have 7,8,9,10,10-2 all saved in my play station and am currently slapping ff7r on hard mode, you did the best review I've saw and I grateful.
This critique was put together good. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Keep up the good work.
"We live in an era of remakes" is my new "We live in a society"
39:09 “We live in a society.....of remakes.”
Iconic.
Amazing review as always! I feel like other reviewers tend to gloss over the necessary complexities that make a game both good and bad, but you definitely give credence to both sides of the story. More impressively, the fact that you're willing to go the extra mile by weaving a main theme of faith to the review itself is truly masterful and much appreciated!
Nothing has given me more pure nostalgic bliss and joy than the full music drop in the remake JENOVA fight. Holy fuck I died and came back to life in that moment.
Originality is important you're right. I just wish the ending had some, rather than the visual substitute for it.
"A true leader knows that destiny is beyond their control...and accepts that!"- Sora after the final battle in KH3.
Square can't even follow their own philosophy.
Its cuz square is the villian
@@Valentien23 I still believe that last talk with xehanort was a jab at square lol
the best honest and clear critique of the remake on youtube tbh
Ya wanna know what part was missing from Remake that bothered me?
I don't recall the famous scene when the party climbs the Avalanche wall all the way up into the top plate. It's been a few years now so, I don't recall what they did instead.