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Final Fantasy 7 Remake was well balanced

Psychostar

Member
Disclaimer: My favourite FF games are X/X2 (My entry point in the series, I played both of them many times over and they are in my top 5 best games list. X was a masterpiece at the time) , VII (all of them, dirge included) and now FF16.
I have also played 8 (liked it but didn't finish as my memory card corrupted ) and 9 (Liked it until I realized how hard it would be to complete since I play in a way that I have to collect everything and fully complete the game. I got burned out).
I never played FF6 in the hopes that it would have been remade or remastered, at this rate, I am more likely to play the classic one day when I retire :D as I know it is a well regarded masterpiece.

I played FF7R on release on a PS4 at the time while visiting my brother in another country, and back when I played it I remember Normal mode being well balanced. There were points due to some great boss mechanics that had you take pause and realize you need to adjust around that. I often had most of my best materia on display as I did not have time to max out everything - I was playing it on his PSN account at the time.

Last week I just replayed this on my own account on my PS5 and knowing that I will need the Materia all levelled up for hard mode, the Normal mode was more challenging but still extremely fair and hard mode truly felt rewarding in that all your learned knowledge and effort building Materia pays off. As far as video games go, I feel like this game really got the balancing right as your first playthrough is as good as your second. The combat in this game is really it's own thing, and it was a joy to master.

Having recently gotten the platinum on FF16, I can't help but compare.

FFXVI is a game in the franchise I really loved thanks to an interesting story and great cast and voice acting. I enjoyed the combat and hope they improve on this formula in future installments for the series as I would like to see how it evolves.

I love playing video games in general and never locked myself down to one style of game as being the only way to play it, so I am not in camp 'turn based is the only way'. As a reminder, my favorite game in the series was FFX and having mastered that game as a teenager with time on my hands, I can say the turn-based system there was truly epic and well made in it's own respect. With that out of the way, let's move into the grit of the issue!

During the first playthrough of FFXVI, I always felt like the game was too easy. It should definitely have been launched with hard mode available as that felt like the correct balancing for the game on it's first run. I feel like they did a good enough job with the EZ-mode rings to make up for any players experiencing difficulty. ( Sidenote: I am actually grateful for the EZ-mode rings, as trying to beat the Cronolith trials on hard mode for the trophy, for me at least, even with 3 playthroughs under my belt, felt impossible without them. It was the first time I thought to take advantage of them and I found they were well designed, as it was possible to keep the flow of combat interesting enough by using the one that let's you manage the dodge timing as opposed to auto dodging for example).

My biggest issue with FF16 was the boss checkpoints. They cheapened the feeling of reward whenever there was any challenge as they are too forgiving. You are given items, health and your rage meter refreshed upon death. The latter are all fine If they removed the boss checkpoints as it would have left the challenge and feeling of reward. This game really wanted you to complete it, and I feel like the extra handholding was not necessary.

The best challenges came from the DLC content, and in general I feel like they did such a good job with it for such a short DLC.

I enjoy the aspect of dying against a boss. It's nice to not know that you are not always going to beat something on your first attempt. I think that an option to disable the boss checkpoints would have fixed my issue with FFXVI.


I am really hoping that FF7 Rebirth follows on Remake's game design, and that the game balancing will be the same, but I am admittedly a little worried after FF16 that this may not be the case.

What are your thoughts on my wall of text? Do any of you agree?
 

GymWolf

Member
A well balanced turd.

Way too easy except like 2-3 fights in the whole game because the spastics at square don't wanna unlock all the difficulty modes for the first run, it was the same with ff16.


(I mean other than being an insult to the original game with that kh third level fanfiction plot to milk the franchise until tifa's tits are dried out)
 
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TheAssist

Member
Despite the above negative Nancy comments (people who will never accept that their opinion is just their own opinion and not an objective truth) I enjoy the positive of your post OP!

You voiced criticism in a very respectful way and didn't let it distract from your overall enjoyment of your hobby. I applaud you! We need more people in here like this. Its fine to not like a thing and tell people about it, but its not ok to act like a shitty little self entitled brad about it.

I feel similar to what you said. I really liked the mechanics of hard mode in FF7R. FF16 was too easy on normal, but I didn't have time to play it a second time on hard.

Regarding FF6, it kinda got remastered in the pixel remaster version. I played it at release and loved it! Especially the remastered OST is soooo good. And some good QoL improvements come with it. I would recommend you try it. Its also not super long (for and RPG) and the story and characters are amazing.
 

Aion002

Member
It was. I liked both approaches so I am fine either way.

However, judging by the demo and the previews, I think that the game will have the same difficulty of the Remake. XVI was indeed quite easy and they realized that after the release.
 

Shrap

Member
It was way too easy and you couldn't unlock the hard difficulty until you beat the whole thing. I brute forced that stupid house boss using the wrong elements because I didn't prepare for it and it was still easy. Also the aerial combat was broken for melee characters.

There is a lot of room for improvement.
 

Psychostar

Member
It was way too easy and you couldn't unlock the hard difficulty until you beat the whole thing. I brute forced that stupid house boss using the wrong elements because I didn't prepare for it and it was still easy. Also the aerial combat was broken for melee characters.

There is a lot of room for improvement.
I personally believe this was intentional. They definitely held back to have something to show off in the sequels. They clearly wanted you to take advantage of your team mates and this is not dissimilar to using Wakka and Lulu with FFX for example. Fighting drakes with cloud without spells to throw at them was annoying but it felt intended here as you got the wind materia to drop them and you've always got a member in the party that is specialized for handling them.

When I got to playing the Yuffie DLC , I could already notice small improvements to combat in air. She had moves that could be activated without being on land that helped keep her combat flow going and it left me feeling good about how they might improve on it in a sequel. I'd be surprised if we don't get more 'Advent children' style combat abilities that can be pulled off in aerial chains. I'm very excited for this side of things. :)


With a bigger cast this time around, unless there is live-swapping (if not, I'd bet my month's salary it's in part 3) they will probably re-tool the party to all be a little more effective to these situations.

I'll be playing the Rebirth demo today so maybe that will shine some light on it!
 

Griffon

Member
Agreed with you OP. Despite my disappointment in the story, the gameplay of FF7 Remake is nothing short of genius. It's a perfect modernizations of the atb system and it is indeed expertly balanced.

I wish square enix would just use that same base system for mainline FFs.
 
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Punished Miku

Gold Member
I may finally give it a go this year if I get bored. Been sitting on a copy of the 1st one for 4 years with virtually no interest in starting it.
 

Hudo

Member
I swear to fucking god, if Nomura is killing off Cloud in favor of fucking Zack in Rebirth, I am never going to buy anything touched by Nomura ever again.
 

Portugeezer

Member
Too bad that it was a mediocre game at best. Only the graphics were excellent. The quest and level design were reminiscent of the PS2 era. Bland filler mostly, super uninspired.
Constantly takes character control and camera controls away from the player, slow canned animations for anything which wasn't running or fighting. 7/10 game at best, but I can see why people who lives the original would have liked it. Nothing against that, just very old feeling game with top notch character models.
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
I swear to fucking god, if Nomura is killing off Cloud in favor of fucking Zack in Rebirth, I am never going to buy anything touched by Nomura ever again.

It's funny because I want that to happen, not because I like Zack, I find his voice actor and constant "good guy" attitude annoying. But I think it would be something actually impactful to a player, while also answering how you make a person play like Cloud and use Clouds equipment once Cloud is gone.

I honestly didn't enjoy remake that much until I unlocked Hardmode, the game feels leagues better due to the rebalanced combat that mode brings to the table. Locking off item usage, the extra boss fights. I really enjoyed the game after that.
 
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Hudo

Member
But I think it would be something actually impactful to a player, while also answering how you make a person play like Cloud and use Clouds equipment once Cloud is gone.
That's exactly why I think he'd pull something like that in Rebirth. I do hope I'm wrong, though.
 

Psychostar

Member
I wonder if they will have us swapping through different player groups. Those within Zack's timeline/group and those of our own and then have them converge somehow?

I could see Nomura killing off Cloud but not before the end of the series as some final joining of the lifestream related battle reason lol.

I quite liked Zack in the older games and animation but admittedly have not warmed up to his new voice yet. It doesn't feel right for the character.
 

poodaddy

Member
I swear to fucking god, if Nomura is killing off Cloud in favor of fucking Zack in Rebirth, I am never going to buy anything touched by Nomura ever again.
To be honest, avoiding Nomura products is a pretty decent initiative in general. One of the worst hacks of the industry, truly undeserving of his hallowed position. He should just open up a belt store for moody J Pop lads in Tokyo and stop fuckin up games with his god awful writing and art sensibility.
 
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hinch7

Member
Agreed with you OP. Despite my disappointment in the story, the gameplay of FF7 Remake is nothing short of genius. It's a perfect modernizations of the atb system and it is indeed expertly balanced.

I wish square enix would just use that same base system for mainline FFs.
Yep. The combat in the game is superbly well done for realtime combat, and ATB integration. Couldn't ask for more really.. Modern controls mixed in with selectable skills and items. Plus controllable party members and quick switching and easy access to party member skills. Maybe if the Ai was a bit more aggressive (without modding) but that's about it.

Hopefully they don't scuff it for XVII. I'd be happy if they built upon this one tbh.
 
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Buggy Loop

Member
I dragged myself to the finish line on that one. I loved the early part of the game but omg the late game sucked so bad.

Beautiful graphics on PC though.
 

Psychostar

Member
I enjoyed the game because it gave me what I wanted, Nostalgia and fun combat.
I felt the same. I enjoyed the game. It was exactly what I was hoping for. To me personally, I always wanted a continuation of the series as it never truly felt finished. We have a lot of story beats that till today remain open and having played all the related games and watched all the tie-in content, I was always hopeful for some kind of continuation for our friends. I'm sure I'm not alone here as people have gone on to discuss much of this in youtube content too.

The title 'Remake' was certainly cheeky and I understand it rubbing some people the wrong way as they may have just hoped for an exact replica with updated visuals but having played all the previous instalments and watched animations and movie tie-ins to the FF7 universe, I always felt this universe deserved closure and I wanted more than just a "remake". Going back in and continuing Cloud's adventure was always going to be a positive as I love the source material and I hope they pull more from Crisis core and Dirge of Cerberus and finally give us all our answers.
 
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