The Honeymoon is over. Here are the problems with FF7RE (spoilers)

[CritialGaming]

My own thoughts on the issues brought up:

1.) regarding length: You won't hear me defend the idea to make FF7 an episodic game. I hated it when it was announced and I hate it now. That said, length wasn't a downside here for me. I'm a slow player and a completionist, but it took me 55 hours to finish the game, doing all side quests/VR battles/colliseum rounds, on normal difficulty. That's not long for a JRPG by any stretch, but it's not short, either, even by FF standards. For in-series comparison, it took me only about 5 hours longer to get the platinum trophy in FF8, and it's only 10-15 hours less than it took me to complete all side content in FF9. There's a lot here, for what it is, even if I would have rather not had 1/3 of 1/3 of a game adapted into a full product.

The lack of ultimate weapons and lackluster summons can be explained by this still being disc one, which again isn't something I'm happy about, but is logical given what the product is. Exploration being limited is also somewhat of a bummer, but this point in the main game had very little exploration to be done, either. Things don't really start to open up for quite a while.

Perhaps I should clarify, I'm not upset about the length of the main story. I'm upset that there wasn't much side content that expanded on Midgar the way they implied they would. Nomura specifically spoke about us getting to see what life on the upper plates was like and we didn't. We see one plate in chaos after we bomb reactor 1, then see an empty neighborhood in chapter 4 with jessie. That's it.

Hell outside of the brief little underground lab section and chapter 4, there are no locations in this game that we don't see in the original. I expected more side missions to take us to areas of Midgar we never got to see in the original game. Upper plate sections, perhaps a mission in which we have to scout security or plant tools to prepare for the upcoming bombing run. Or trips to other sections of the slums to help people there with whatever.

The main story is fine and delivered what I wanted. It's the filler that sucked. I wanted it to matter more and elaborate more on the city around us. Side quests to show how people struggle living under Shinra, but really the whole game just makes Barrett and Avalanche look like shitty people (likable people, but shitty nontheless), because nobody seems to mind living under Shrina. Hell most of the slums NPC's don't even seem upset about living in the slums. They even panic about not being able to go to work, they express distain and worry about more bombings. Nobody is on Avalanche's side and it makes you feel like you are one of the baddies. When in the original game the NPC's definitely did not like the slum life. Here everyone's just cool with it I guess.

 

[stroopwafel]

The main story is fine and delivered what I wanted. It's the filler that sucked. I wanted it to matter more and elaborate more on the city around us. Side quests to show how people struggle living under Shinra, but really the whole game just makes Barrett and Avalanche look like shitty people (likable people, but shitty nontheless), because nobody seems to mind living under Shrina. Hell most of the slums NPC's don't even seem upset about living in the slums. They even panic about not being able to go to work, they express distain and worry about more bombings. Nobody is on Avalanche's side and it makes you feel like you are one of the baddies. When in the original game the NPC's definitely did not like the slum life. Here everyone's just cool with it I guess.

Ooohh that is what I really loved in remake. Even with the original there was lots of debate how Avalanche were basically terrorists and if the end justifies the means. In reality it is also almost impossible to pull people out of complacency with the powers that be. Safely behind a keyboard, sure, but very few would risk life and limb even if occupied by an invading army. It's just human nature I guess to adapt to the circumstances no matter how horrid and have self-preservation be prioritized above all else. This is also the life the people in Midgar have become accustomed to so if a group comes along that disturbs the peace with tremendous casualties(with Shinra obviously fanning the flames behind the scenes) then naturally Avalanche is seen as the bad guys even if their intentions of saving the planet are sincere.

 

[sXeth]

Ooohh that is what I really loved in remake. Even with the original there was lots of debate how Avalanche were basically terrorists and if the end justifies the means. .

This was one of my main quibbles with the remakes adjustments. In Remake, Avalanche is specifically portrayed as being particularly concerned about the collateral damage moreso then ever in the original (it is the main thrust of the largest added piece of content in the Avalanche side-crews mission and all). While we also have Shinra taking over as the guys actually blowing up the reactors (its even loosely implied that Avalanche's bombs wouldn't even have worked).

 

[stroopwafel]

Ooohh that is what I really loved in remake. Even with the original there was lots of debate how Avalanche were basically terrorists and if the end justifies the means. .

This was one of my main quibbles with the remakes adjustments. In Remake, Avalanche is specifically portrayed as being particularly concerned about the collateral damage moreso then ever in the original (it is the main thrust of the largest added piece of content in the Avalanche side-crews mission and all). While we also have Shinra taking over as the guys actually blowing up the reactors (its even loosely implied that Avalanche's bombs wouldn't even have worked).

It is still very mild concern though like the mention that they might have 'overdone it' with the destruction of the first reactor. The team was still unaware they were manipulated by Shinra. Ofcourse they try to prevent excessive casualties with their preparation for the next mission but only Tifa seems to really struggle. That moral ambiguity is still there and I also really liked how remake enabled you to see the aftermath of your actions and how the people responded to it. It added a lot of additional context to demonstrate the severity of the situation.