Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Pt. 2 Rebirth

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

They patched Aerith's final line from Remake? Just "I don't like this sky"?

Spoiler for FF7 Remake ending:

Yeah, they patched the game to change the line from "I miss it. The steel sky" to "This sky... I don't like it"

Given that the original japanese line was, I believe, "Sora... Kiraida ne" it's an improvement imho.

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

Replaying the first and I can almost guarantee the last game will be ff7 Reunion

Isn't Reunion what they named the Crisis Core remaster? My money's on Reckoning.

I pre-ordered the game after playing the Junon demo, here's what I got from it:

Spoiler for Junon demo impressions:

Holy shit, that's A LOT of flying enemies!!! Aerial combat may be improved, but wrapping my head around ATB, pressure, positioning and synergy timers is... well, a headache, at least at first. Also, not everyone deals with fliers as well - Tifa and Red seem to struggle a bit on that front.

The demo felt a bit on the hard side of things, although we're limited to specific weapons/accessories and Cloud has to be in the party... which is great for some battles, but bad for some others. Barret felt like the best party anchor, along with Aerith; these two have damage, defense and support all by themselves. Red is more of a counterstance character than a support (only his default materia goes that direction) and Tifa is probably the worst character for this part of the game. Her magic is low enough to not burst water cells, she's got the worst reach and I only really used her for reverse gale.

Having elemental abilities feels like a great call, it frees up materia space for the many, many possible combinations you can make. The crating/exploration system is pretty fun, same goes for the chocobo treasure hunting. The combat trials are a fine addition to the game, as well as the whole map recon thing.

I'm also playing Intergrade these days, it's a cakewalk compared to this demo.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Spoiler for FF7 Remake ending:

Yeah, they patched the game to change the line from "I miss it. The steel sky" to "This sky... I don't like it"

Given that the original japanese line was, I believe, "Sora... Kiraida ne" it's an improvement imho.

On that note, I really really hope they kept the same French translator. They received a lot of backlash from players because the subtitles didn't match the English dub and they assumed it was a bad translation as a result.... when the truth is that they simply accurately translated from Japanese (which is exactly what you'd want for a Japanese game) and the reason it didn't match the English script is because it's super liberal and full mistakes like the one you pointed out.

I would hate to be stuck with the English translation.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Kanon

On that note, I really really hope they kept the same French translator. They received a lot of backlash from players because the subtitles didn't match the English dub and they assumed it was a bad translation as a result.... when the truth is that they simply accurately translated from Japanese (which is exactly what you'd want for a Japanese game) and the reason it didn't match the English script is because it's super liberal and full mistakes like the one you pointed out.

I would hate to be stuck with the English translation.

Yeah. I've heard from other french folks that the French translation was actually much more faithful to the Japanese original. I was actually pretty shocked to see how liberal they had been with just this one line. (I haven't gotten this far in the game. It's one of those that's been on my backlog for far too long)

[Mad Pierrot]

In Crisis Core, Aerith did talk about the sky in regards to fears. Wonder if it's a reference to that.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

In Crisis Core, Aerith did talk about the sky in regards to fears. Wonder if it's a reference to that.

More like character development.

In CC she said she fears the sky because it felt like trying to suck her in, meanwhile in VII-R she said she hate the sky.
Nomura and Kitase explained it because the sky remind her of Zack and her deceased mother; both indeed post-OG addition to her characterization, referring to her connection with Lifestream.

At least now we know they're re-reading Remake to ensure nothing felt off.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Tactics

More like character development.

In CC she said she fears the sky because it felt like trying to suck her in, meanwhile in VII-R she said she hate the sky.
Nomura and Kitase explained it because the sky remind her of Zack and her deceased mother; both indeed post-OG addition to her characterization, referring to her connection with Lifestream.

At least now we know they're re-reading Remake to ensure nothing felt off.

Yeah. I kinda wondered if it's a coincidence they are using these words considering most of Nomura's protagonists are named after the weather or sky. Sora happened to mean sky which is often referenced by the famous letter in which even though there is are dozens of worlds, they all share the same sky.

[Mad Pierrot]

Rebirth is out but it seems Square's Japanese side messed up by how they released the two disks. It seems the affection meters are more notable in Rebirth than in Remake as it seems Cloud can have more caring scenes with Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie and Barret (!!!).

I don't know anything about the ending yet but the Goldensaucer

Spoiler for date:

seems to give more focus on Aerith's feelings if the player ends up with Tifa but unlike the 90s version, Rebirth makes Cloud and Tifa actually confess their love and even kiss.

[Tactics]

So far ....

> Costa Del Sol and Gold Saucer are very good, they really successful transforming it from "subjectively good" to "everyone will loves it"
> Characterization to Cloud, Red, Yuffie and Vincent are excellent, probably the best "show, don't tell" AFAIK for 2023-2024. Now you can get the feel of how Yuffie and Vincent eventually become their DoC self as well as Cloud became his AC self.

> Sephiroth confirms he's tampering with Lifestream.

Spoiler for Do not read unless you're fine with it:

The way I understand it, what once one big river (OG FF VII) now split into several small rivers (VII-R where Cloud lives, VII-R where Zack lives, etc; multiverses).
How? Think of a long-running manga, then you, assistant writer, rewrite some dialogue in one of volumes because you didn't like the ending. The original exist, but result of your rewrite won't fit with next volume; the world confused it's looking if any fanfic resembles original script. At least, Sephiroth can only manipulate events after Sephiroth Copies created so he can't rewrite history record before Zack death.

So this VII-R where Cloud lives is not entirely new world, simply branch closest to OG VII.

> Combat got upgrade to the point there are times AI can't catch up properly; either you toggle it to easy mode or start reading carefully skill and materia description.

[MeoTwister5]

Queen's Blade is hella fun...

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Queen's Blade is hella fun...

I hate it. But not as much as I hate the Fort Condor mini-game. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make you automatically lose if you run of time instead of simply comparing how much health the commanders have should get shot.

I have very mixed feelings about the game. I'm only on chapter 4 so hopefully it will improve, but it's looking like you're going to repeat the same boring and repetitive Chadley tasks in every regions. I miss the linearity of the first game, this is everything an open world shouldn't be. It's just bloat, really.

[Mad Pierrot]

Heard rumors about Vincent being the protagonist in DLC chapter similar to Yuffie in Integrade. About the open world, I heard it's as big as the old Square games Xeno

[Tactics]

Fair assumption since Yuffie and Sonon chapter in Intergrade pretty much testing area for Rebirth combat design, Yuffie and Cid also Dirge characters inclusion.
So if they do another append, Vincent is the way to sell it (LOL), especially in consideration to his popularity and Limit Break; clever way to tell audiences that Yuffie and Vincent are 'skippable' not to mention will allow them to finish everything by last installment under reasonable development time.

[Mad Pierrot]

Heard Vincent's characterization was also kinda different

Spoiler for content:

Barret calls him another loner like Cloud but when it comes to the Turks, Vincent becomes ridiculously informal as he is their upperclassman. Ironicaly, I remember Nomura casting Shogo Suzuki for Vincent cos it reminded him of Takahiro Sakurai's Cloud but with a different appeal.

Also... they named a character Dio?! Must avoid a reference

[Kanon]

On chapter 7 now and the game drastically improve when you get to Junon. I've loved everything that happened since. I even got into Queen's blood and managed to win the tournament without too much trouble (I only had to retry with Chadley). Story is mostly the same but the additions are fantastic. Costa Del Sol was great, I actually really liked the Red mini-games. And of course, Tifa's swimsuit!

I guess one thing that helped was getting spoiled about whether Aerith lives or dies. I was in a hurry to finish the game because I wanted to find out but now that I know, I can just enjoy the game and take my time. Sometimes spoilers are a blessing.

I also changed from the super blurry performance mode to graphics. Game looks a lot better now. I'll switch back if they patch it, but I don't expect that to happen any time soon.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I also changed from the super blurry performance mode to graphics. Game looks a lot better now. I'll switch back if they patch it, but I don't expect that to happen any time soon.

Just a frame rate thing?

[MeoTwister5]

Just made it to the Saucer at 26 hours as my compulsive open world tendencies always win in the end.

Gold Saucer in this game is exactly what I thought Disneyland would look like when I was a kid.

The art direction for every region in this game as been absolutely phenomenal so far.

[Tactics]

Vincent have little to no characterization in OG, Rebirth made him "This is the anti-social guy who appears in AC and will be MC of Dirge".
This decision is pretty good because it helps Yuffie and Cait Sith upcoming characterization, as they're Vincent "party members" for Dirge.

One thing I appreciated most is probably how they didn't make inclusion of append characters as something totally awesome.
Like Kunsel and Weiss in Remake, if you didn't know Cissnei, its fine. So do with with Zero Soldiers, no problem if you didn't play the mobile game, but its fairly rewarding to know who they are.

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

Just a frame rate thing?

Its overall fidelity. If Remake is "good", then Rebirth is "just enough".

Characters can't reach same details as Remake; obvious enough from how Cissnei hairs darker and less detailed compare to her portrayal in Crisis Core: Reunion.
Understandable drawback from having detailed, more colorful, spacious towns instead of monochrome town with steel and pipes. Junon and Gold Saucer are amazing.

[Mad Pierrot]

The ending touches

Spoiler for what the:

one of the OG's most emotional scenes complete with Cloud crying, Sephiroth's sword actually being covered in blood and then... what the heck is going on? It's like the ending has a paranormal ending from Tifa's point of view as she is scared while Cloud is suprisingly better despite not being aware that he is still Sephiroth's puppet due to wielding the Black Materia on the Buster Sword. I'm not sure how this whole timeline works but Zack appears to die again.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by JagdPanther

Just a frame rate thing?

They messed up the upscaling in performance mode so everything looks blurry. It does run at 60fps most of the time, but it looks really bad.

Not sure what the resolution of the graphics mode is but it's pretty crisp and runs at a steady 30fps. I got used to the 30fps after a few hours. Makes me wish I hadn't been stubborn and done the same with FFXVI.