Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Pt. 2 Rebirth

[NAJ P. Jackson]

Originally Posted by MonkeyDude

And as for story beats like Aerith dying not being impactful because it's so well known? Well how about rather than the usual Sephiroth impales Aerith, the party wasn't able to stop Cloud in time and he ends up doing the deed himself. Aerith still dies cause that's pretty important to the plot (depending on your interpretation of it anyway), but now people are like HOLY SHIT CLOUD KILLED AERITH!? Now in my opinion that seems like a good way of subverting expectations. Added bonus of messing Cloud up even more.

Please dont.
Subverting expectations for the sake of it is bad writing.
I'm getting Game of Thrones season 8 ptsd just hearing that term

[Shadow5YA]

Well.. at least someone's dream came true

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[Wandering Soul]

I just finished the story.

Spoiler for thoughts:

I like the additional content that fleshed out some of the characters and parts of Midgar, though I feel the part to it was in the beginning when the story was still set in Sector 7. Several quests and story parts in the middle and ending really started to feel like padding. Pretty much time the party had to head underground was when the padding became really obvious.

I don't mind the changes to the story and as some posters here have said it is really like Evangelion Rebuild. I guess they wanted to keep the story surprising and gripping to both newcomers and old fans.

Gameplay-wise my major gripes are that I wish there were better ways to control your AI allies. When you are not in control of them, they're pretty dumb and unhelpful.

I'll remain cautiously optimistic towards part 2 of this game.

[Kanon]

On chapter 14 now. I'm more of a Tifa fan and still am, but Aerith is just amazing in this remake, in no small part thanks to Maaya Sakamoto's performance. Breathed a lot of life into the character. The additions to the plot are still good except for chapter 11 that felt like complete filler. I didn't enjoy the first half of chapter 9 either. There are other places where you can feel they were trying to pad things out as much as they could. I'm not sure why they were so intent on making an entire game out of Midgar. Maybe my impressions will change as I progress more but Midgar really doesn't feel big. I'm impressed with what they did with the characters but not with the city.

Oh, and the side-quests suck.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Kanon

On chapter 14 now. I'm more of a Tifa fan and still am, but Aerith is just amazing in this remake, in no small part thanks to Maaya Sakamoto's performance. Breathed a lot of life into the character. The additions to the plot are still good except for chapter 11 that felt like complete filler. I didn't enjoy the first half of chapter 9 either. There are other places where you can feel they were trying to pad things out as much as they could. I'm not sure why they were so intent on making an entire game out of Midgar. Maybe my impressions will change as I progress more but Midgar really doesn't feel big. I'm impressed with what they did with the characters but not with the city.

Oh, and the side-quests suck.

Logistically it's because Midgar is mostly linear even in the original game, so they can develop it without having to accommodate open world mechanics that would inevitably take a lot more time, planning, and resources.

Leaving Midgar for Kalm is the first time you are presented with the overworld proper with the ability to free roam, so they can't present it in the same linear, cinematic format as Midgar.

[Tong]

After FFXV I highly doubt in Squeenix capacity to create a decent open world game. So I wouldnt be surprised if they decided to make things linear again.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Tong

After FFXV I highly doubt in Squeenix capacity to create a decent open world game. So I wouldnt be surprised if they decided to make things linear again.

FFXV is not exactly even "open". The story is minimal until you get to Lestallum, and after that point when the story kicks in, the game becomes completely linear all the way to the end.

[Klashikari]

Development and logistic issues aside, it also makes sense to stop the first game at Midgar regarding the plot and the pace of the story at large. The narrative points are established to introduce the core members of the party and the initial stakes of the game. Once you are outside of Midgar, there is very very few plot parts where you can end the game in a satisfaying fashion. And the closest one in my books is either the Golden Saucer or Nibelheim, which is a long trek after Midgar.

[Kanon]

I don't remember the original all that much, but is the end of disk one really that far from the end of Midgar?

And I'm really not expecting them to make an open world for the sequel either. I'm thinking they'll do something like FFX.

[Klashikari]

Original Midgar was basically 7-9 hours the first time, depending on your pace. Disc 1 overall was like 20-25 hours while disc 2 was like 15-20 and disc 3 was around 3-5 hours (I did an full list of the events of the game before), so Disc 1 is really the first half, and bulky at that. That's why people were really surprised when Midgar was announced as the first part before Kitase mentioned about expanding the narrative and stuff like that.

[NAJ P. Jackson]

Spoiler for Remake plot theory:

This video has some interesting points.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/gmDI0ascWdc

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Makes sense why Aerith would want to change the timeline if the OG FFVII ends with a bad end for humanity.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by NAJ P. Jackson

Spoiler for Remake plot theory:

This video has some interesting points.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/gmDI0ascWdc

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Makes sense why Aerith would want to change the timeline if the OG FFVII ends with a bad end for humanity.

I wouldn't go that far.

Spoiler for Aerith:

Sephiroth wants to change it. There are multiple occasions where he messes with Cloud in order to get him to do things differently. In Chapter 2, he leads Cloud into a dark alley to stall for time and tells him to "run away". This was so that Cloud could miss meeting Aerith, but the Whispers got in the way and kept her there before she could leave the Loveless street.



Aerith has shown to be aware of the future on multiple occasions, but she is reluctant to either follow it or change it. If you get to meet her during Chapter 14, she tells Cloud "don't fall in love with me". On multiple occasions, she also mentions she's afraid of the outside world and rather likes Midgar's plate ceiling.
Why? Because she is afraid of what happens when she leaves Midgar.

[MonkeyDude]

Originally Posted by NAJ P. Jackson

Please dont.
Subverting expectations for the sake of it = bad writing.
I'm getting Game of Thrones season 8 ptsd just hearing that term

So pretty much the culmination of this Remake when playing through Chapter 18 then.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Development and logistic issues aside, it also makes sense to stop the first game at Midgar regarding the plot and the pace of the story at large. The narrative points are established to introduce the core members of the party and the initial stakes of the game. Once you are outside of Midgar, there is very very few plot parts where you can end the game in a satisfaying fashion. And the closest one in my books is either the Golden Saucer or Nibelheim, which is a long trek after Midgar.

This is pretty much what I had in mind when Remake was announced to be in parts. End of Midgar would have made a great stopping point. Well maybe a short timeskip to Kalm (as a world map would have been unfeasible at this point) and we would have gotten more of Cloud's backstory while setting up anticipation for the actual big bad of the game.

Spoiler:

Of course this assumes FF7R wouldn't have gone all Anime Original Ending on us like that.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I don't remember the original all that much, but is the end of disk one really that far from the end of Midgar?

And I'm really not expecting them to make an open world for the sequel either. I'm thinking they'll do something like FFX.

Disc 1 ended with the legendary death;
Disc 2 ended with ability to access Sephiroth lair;
Disc 3 is Sephiroth fight with Weapons boss battle as bonus content.

The first installment of FF VII R already brought all the important point regarding Cloud during OG Disc 1 without need walking through world map, with some cut, then again his past is one of Remake plot now. Considering that next installment probably will be about Avalanche, Gold Saucer (as they already promised to bring it back with glory of HD) and Junon with Yuffie and Cid plot point moved there as IMO that would be the most sensible way to recruit them within space limitation together with Cait Sith.

Originally Posted by Tong

After FFXV I highly doubt in Squeenix capacity to create a decent open world game. So I wouldnt be surprised if they decided to make things linear again.

They already said it in interview that after the finalized product, they consider world map for XV is too ambitious that now they using XIII series as example to built map for Remake. Not surprising as nowadays making world map more difficult with open world in mind, maybe unless people sent letter to them saying "we're fine with old, random encounter map where the character looks small"

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Tactics

Disc 1 ended with the legendary death;
Disc 2 ended with ability to access Sephiroth lair;
Disc 3 is Sephiroth fight with Weapons boss battle as bonus content.

The first installment of FF VII R already brought all the important point regarding Cloud during OG Disc 1 without need walking through world map, with some cut, then again his past is one of Remake plot now. Considering that next installment probably will be about Avalanche, Gold Saucer (as they already promised to bring it back with glory of HD) and Junon with Yuffie and Cid plot point moved there as IMO that would be the most sensible way to recruit them within space limitation together with Cait Sith.



They already said it in interview that after the finalized product, they consider world map for XV is too ambitious that now they using XIII series as example to built map for Remake. Not surprising as nowadays making world map more difficult with open world in mind, maybe unless people sent letter to them saying "we're fine with old, random encounter map where the character looks small"

Assassins creed seems to do good with World maps for origins and odyssey

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

Assassins creed seems to do good with World maps for origins and odyssey

The world of FFVII is on a completely different scale though. I really wouldn't mind them bringing back the old school world map, but with their focus on "realism", I doubt they'll go for that.

[MeoTwister5]

Spoiler for Spoilers:

There's also the notion that by eliminating the Whispers in the end, the timeline is retroactively altered. This would explain why Biggs and maybe Jessie survived, and how Zack survives the Crisis Core gauntlet where he should have died.

I actually believe that they'll end part 2 either in the Temple of the Ancients, or City of the Ancients. Those are good places for cliffhangers.

[NAJ P. Jackson]

Originally Posted by MonkeyDude

So pretty much the culmination of this Remake when playing through Chapter 18 then.

No because it looks like Square Enix have a plan on where they are taking this new narrative. It's unlike what happened in GoT where the writers focused too much on throwing as much surprises to the viewers to subvert their expectations all the while ignoring the characters' development from past seasons.

[Kanon]

Finished it today.

Spoiler for Ending:

I wasn't particularly shocked by the ending, except the Zack stuff which is pretty confusing, but it's strongly implied it's an alternate timeline that got pruned. There were hints all throughout the game that Aerith knew bits of the future and could share her knowledge with others (when she touched Cloud, then Marlene, and finally Red which is when this was plainly explained). And Could was changing things because Sephiroth fucked with his mind.

The theory that Sephiroth time traveled and is trying to change his fate is most likely right on point. Aerith was made aware of it because of her connection to the planet, hence her knowledge about Fileurs (is there an official spelling? Sounds way too French to actually be it) and the future.

So yeah, this isn't a Remake. However, if they had advertised it as a sequel, the surprise would have been ruined.

Not sure what to think of this development, I'll have to sleep on it.

[NAJ P. Jackson]

New info for FF7 remake. SPOILER WARNING.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/dAuqztl7Hew

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Spoiler:

Quite interesting that they confirmed that the three Whispers sub bosses you fight in the ending are the Advent Children remnants Kadaj, Lox and Yazoo. Sephiroth being a time traveller from the OG timeline gets more and more likely now.