Among other things I'm playing is Epic Games "After Party". It is so odd. Not sure what it is ultimately gong to about but so far, taking a couple of partiers going through heck with demon escorts as they get drunk? I've had worse times.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Currently i'm playing "Armored Princess", which is second game from King's Bounty series, total of 5. Also started to play Duskers, which is basically based on luck, still not bad.
It's safe to say Death Stranding has got me in its clutches. I know the gameplay loop didn't click with everyone, but it completely clicked with me and I've fully embraced my new life as a mailman. The phrase "one more turn" is always thrown around with Civilization. I've thought to myself "one more delivery" multiple times, but next thing I know, two hours have gone by and I haven't really progressed the story. I enjoy planning out routes, figuring out weight limits, and the like. Plus, the game is amazing at giving you consistent new toys to play with, which is some really solid game design to make sure I don't get bored. I also find all of them have uses, which may be even more beneficial.
The story has me interested, though it certainly had a rough start. You get all these names, events, and things told to you in the span of half an hour and are expected to keep mental note of them long enough to remember what they are when you finally learn about them. I also hope these things are actually explained and not circled around for a sequel.
The story has me interested, though it certainly had a rough start. You get all these names, events, and things told to you in the span of half an hour and are expected to keep mental note of them long enough to remember what they are when you finally learn about them. I also hope these things are actually explained and not circled around for a sequel.
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I started it, but put it down after a little bit. I wanna go back, but it's a game you gotta play in short bursts to really enjoy. The gameplay loop really gets it right with the constant flow of calm and thrills. Can't decide if I want to keep playing on PS4, or wait till it comes to PC and play it on here instead with higher framerates and better visuals.
Persona 4: Arena: Ultimax.
I bought this a couple years ago for $10, it came with a little inflatable Teddie and a pack of tarot cards. I didn't realize that this was actually a sequel, I thought "Ultimax" just meant it was the 'ultimate edition' or something like that. I tried the story mode for around half an hour, but it seems to consist of an endless tidal wave of dialogue boxes and recaps from the last game. The writing seems kind of trash in this one compared to P4 as well and the plot appears to be an exact duplicate of the last game, judging by the recap. Anyway, I got bored and tried the arcade mode, which had a pretty decent style. Rise's commentary is far too quiet though, I can barely hear her over the sound effects, music, and Chie's battle cries. Anyway, apparently the difficulty I chose was far too low because I beat the whole thing mashing buttons.
First impressions are not great. Think I'm gonna drop it and move onto something else in my backlog. Either that or get sucked back into Nethack, despite my previous devastating failure.
I bought this a couple years ago for $10, it came with a little inflatable Teddie and a pack of tarot cards. I didn't realize that this was actually a sequel, I thought "Ultimax" just meant it was the 'ultimate edition' or something like that. I tried the story mode for around half an hour, but it seems to consist of an endless tidal wave of dialogue boxes and recaps from the last game. The writing seems kind of trash in this one compared to P4 as well and the plot appears to be an exact duplicate of the last game, judging by the recap. Anyway, I got bored and tried the arcade mode, which had a pretty decent style. Rise's commentary is far too quiet though, I can barely hear her over the sound effects, music, and Chie's battle cries. Anyway, apparently the difficulty I chose was far too low because I beat the whole thing mashing buttons.
First impressions are not great. Think I'm gonna drop it and move onto something else in my backlog. Either that or get sucked back into Nethack, despite my previous devastating failure.
I really think one of the big ways Kojima messed up is not letting you listen to music while walking. It'll play at scripted moments, but you cannot listen to music at your own whim. Which makes zero sense when your game has an amazing soundtrack featuring some amazing artists. You spend a lot of time walking in mostly silence, minus the grunts of Norman Reedus, for long periods of time. Why the hell would you not include music to listen to while walking? You did this in MGS V!!! Why go back from it?!?! I legit think this is how the game kills some momentum. You just sick of hearing nothing for twenty minutes at a time.
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I personally think it was a good design choice. Makes the music when it does enter for those scenic moments so much cooler and impactful.
I don't completely disagree. This kind of thing worked incredibly well in the Red Dead games. It just feels like for a game that's whole point is long treks, would want to do something to help make the trip a little more enjoyable. Game is still fine without it, just something I'd like to see.
Downloaded FF7 for me phone, due to kids taking up the biggsie tv throughout the day, the selfish little bastards, and feeling too tired to concentrate on console play by time they fucked off, so am gonna give it a proper good go while pretending to keep them away from the sharp object draw from now on, as apparently it enhances the remake experience or something. I promise not to be judging it from modern day standards! Teehee!
The thing is, Red Dead is a period piece and subtlety favors its amazing atmosphere and the big moments can be reserved for more of the soundtrack.
I really liked MGSV’s option to play music too, because it fit the theme of the game. You had a cassette player and it was perfect to listen to on missions. Seems like it could’ve applied to Death Stranding too. Would’ve been a cool angle if Norman reminisced over his favorite tracks.
Anyways, I got sidetracked a bit from Dark Souls 3 at the Twin Prince fight and settled into Uncharted 4 a bit. Doing a Crushing run and currently on chapter 13 in the first big jungle fight. Tried to get the trophy for not engaging any enemies at first, but it’s a PITA on Crushing. I’m just trying to get through it normally and those bastards in the third wave with grenade launchers are one-hit killers.
Having said that, I’ve always really liked how straightforward the gameplay is in this series, in that what you see is what you get. They know they’re cinematic action adventure games and it’s always been that way. There is no magic inventory bag; only onsite procurement and it’s represented in exceptional detail. Even the act of grabbing a goon’s rifle while you’re hanging off a ledge to smack him in the face with it before pulling him over the ledge and slinging the weapon over your shoulder is grin-worthy. The falling death punch after either jumping off a ledge yourself or swinging around like Tarzan also never gets old.
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Popped in RE2 Remake to reconfirm that is the better game, but RE3 Remake is still a great game too. Played RE2 on Hardcore. Been playing some arcade brawlers from Capcom's Beat'em Up Bundle to pass the time until Streets of Rage 4 comes out. I played Final Fight and Battle Circuit. I might pop Dragon's Crown back in as well as I need to finish that.
Zone of the Enders.
I got this several years ago because it was cheap and some people on the Escapist recommended it. It was dreadful! It started off promising by showing some children getting smooshed by a giant robot while our daring protagonist stood around and did nothing, but it was all downhill from there. I beat most enemy encounters mindlessly dash attacking, on normal difficulty.
The camera is abysmal and looks wherever it wants regardless of your petty desires to see where you are going. You can 'control it' with the right analog stick but it moves so slowly this is completely useless. If you stop moving it will swing wildly around to center your view behind your character, making sections where you need to manually aim at targets with no lock on dizzying. This is probably the worst part about the game, and that's saying something.
The game has a really bad habit of making you constantly making you go searching through every level you've been to find the one new enemy you need to kill to make progress. If it would just tell me where to go and save me all the loading screens that would be fantastic.
The story is impenetrable and the characters are barely defined apart from our protagonist who is insufferable. He spends the entire game whining that he doesn't want to do the mission and refusing to kill the terrorists who are destroying the city, leading to the completely intolerable scene where he is basically crying because the woman who just shot his friend girl is falling into Jupiter and is telling him that she is irredeemable and to let her die or she'll come back and kill everybody he loves. It's so stupid!
The only point in the game's favour is that it is mercifully short at a 5 hour completion time. You could probably do it in under an hour if you skipped all the cutscenes and knew what you were doing.
I got this several years ago because it was cheap and some people on the Escapist recommended it. It was dreadful! It started off promising by showing some children getting smooshed by a giant robot while our daring protagonist stood around and did nothing, but it was all downhill from there. I beat most enemy encounters mindlessly dash attacking, on normal difficulty.
The camera is abysmal and looks wherever it wants regardless of your petty desires to see where you are going. You can 'control it' with the right analog stick but it moves so slowly this is completely useless. If you stop moving it will swing wildly around to center your view behind your character, making sections where you need to manually aim at targets with no lock on dizzying. This is probably the worst part about the game, and that's saying something.
The game has a really bad habit of making you constantly making you go searching through every level you've been to find the one new enemy you need to kill to make progress. If it would just tell me where to go and save me all the loading screens that would be fantastic.
The story is impenetrable and the characters are barely defined apart from our protagonist who is insufferable. He spends the entire game whining that he doesn't want to do the mission and refusing to kill the terrorists who are destroying the city, leading to the completely intolerable scene where he is basically crying because the woman who just shot his friend girl is falling into Jupiter and is telling him that she is irredeemable and to let her die or she'll come back and kill everybody he loves. It's so stupid!
The only point in the game's favour is that it is mercifully short at a 5 hour completion time. You could probably do it in under an hour if you skipped all the cutscenes and knew what you were doing.
Im thinking when its not mechwarrior game night Im gonna replay either Battletech with Rogue tech or Fallout 4. Maybe alternate? Its not like we have a whole lot else going on...
I am still playing Persona5 Royal pretty much solidly and have been for the last couple of weeks. I still love this game, I'm about 60 hours in and am just about to finish Futaba's Palace. However, I will say that many of the changes made as an "improvement to life" have made this game ridiculously easy on Normal difficulty. The baton pass being available for everyone from the start makes combat stupidly easy. And it can now be powered up so that it can replenish HP and SP too. The fact that your guns reload between fights also makes things easier. In the vanilla game you had to ration your bullets, adding a tactical element to the battle. But now you can just waste your bullets and not worry about it, plus they do a ton of damage if the enemy isn't immune to gunfire. If you become friends with Kasumi, the enemies can never ambush you again.
And while that seems like a lot of complaining, I am still enjoying my time with what I consider to be one of the best JRPGs ever. I do like most of the changes. The Showtime attacks are fun, Ryuji and Yusuke's made me laugh out loud the first time I saw it. Morgana not nagging you to go to bed is a relief though he still stop you going out at certain points in the game. Darts is fun.
Next time I think I'll play on hard to give myself a challenge. Also, I got an email last week saying congratulations for beating Kamoshida and it had a DLC code for a bunch of themes and avatars. Nice touch considering the extortionate prices Atlas are asking for for DLC packs on the store.
And while that seems like a lot of complaining, I am still enjoying my time with what I consider to be one of the best JRPGs ever. I do like most of the changes. The Showtime attacks are fun, Ryuji and Yusuke's made me laugh out loud the first time I saw it. Morgana not nagging you to go to bed is a relief though he still stop you going out at certain points in the game. Darts is fun.
Next time I think I'll play on hard to give myself a challenge. Also, I got an email last week saying congratulations for beating Kamoshida and it had a DLC code for a bunch of themes and avatars. Nice touch considering the extortionate prices Atlas are asking for for DLC packs on the store.
Disco Elysium. It's a really great game so far. There's so much depth to the dialogue and the skill system. I'm a disco communist with unmatched powers of deduction and as soon as I can learn to be a bit more assertive I'll be golden. It's a bit irritating that you can hard lock the game on day two though.
It was my birthday yesterday, so I got gifted a couple of games.
DOOM Eternal is a lot of fun, and is definitely a lot more like a combat puzzle, compared to 2016. There are a few mechanics that I still need to get my head around, like constantly using the grenade launcher and the flame thrower, but overall its a lot of fun. At first I was pretty skeptical about the reduced ammo pool, but I guess it does make the player more active in combat, and forces the player to play around with the arsenal a lot more, whereas in 2016 I honestly mostly just used the Combat Shotgun with the grenade launcher, and the Assault Rifle for most of the game. Looking forward to playing it some more.
I have also been replaying Spider-Man PS4 with my girlfriend. I forgot how much fun swinging around the city was, and the combat is still an absolute blast, with so many options at any given moment. She seems to be getting a hang of it (she doesnt play all that many games, other than The Sims and Animal Crossing). We are about half way through the story right now, and we are having fun taking it in turns.
Other than that, getting a few rounds in on CoD Modern Warfare (2019) every now and again. Its a 2x XP weekend right now, so im just leveling up some guns to get some nice attachements. Im mostly just playing Hardcore at the moment, because I feel like the game is just a lot more balanced that way - or at least every gun is basically the same as each other, but at least I never feel punished for not using the M4 or MP7.
Still truding through Divinity Original Sin 2, and im on Act 3 at the moment. I can really feel the story coming to a head, and im enjoying all of the characters slowing wrapping up their plot lines. The combat continues to be fun, but I cant shake the feeling that my combo of Fire/Necromancy is pretty sub-optimal. Might mess around with it.
I also just got gifted Planet Zoo which I have yet to give a go, and the new XCOM Chimera Squad, which looks interesting... but I feel like I should probably get around to finishing XCOM 2, even though I have already sank about 100 or so hours into it. I might just stick it on easy and blast through it, as even though I do really enjoy the gameplay loop, I really dislike the RNG bullshit that the game throws at you, especially later in the game where the enemies just get crazier.
DOOM Eternal is a lot of fun, and is definitely a lot more like a combat puzzle, compared to 2016. There are a few mechanics that I still need to get my head around, like constantly using the grenade launcher and the flame thrower, but overall its a lot of fun. At first I was pretty skeptical about the reduced ammo pool, but I guess it does make the player more active in combat, and forces the player to play around with the arsenal a lot more, whereas in 2016 I honestly mostly just used the Combat Shotgun with the grenade launcher, and the Assault Rifle for most of the game. Looking forward to playing it some more.
I have also been replaying Spider-Man PS4 with my girlfriend. I forgot how much fun swinging around the city was, and the combat is still an absolute blast, with so many options at any given moment. She seems to be getting a hang of it (she doesnt play all that many games, other than The Sims and Animal Crossing). We are about half way through the story right now, and we are having fun taking it in turns.
Other than that, getting a few rounds in on CoD Modern Warfare (2019) every now and again. Its a 2x XP weekend right now, so im just leveling up some guns to get some nice attachements. Im mostly just playing Hardcore at the moment, because I feel like the game is just a lot more balanced that way - or at least every gun is basically the same as each other, but at least I never feel punished for not using the M4 or MP7.
Still truding through Divinity Original Sin 2, and im on Act 3 at the moment. I can really feel the story coming to a head, and im enjoying all of the characters slowing wrapping up their plot lines. The combat continues to be fun, but I cant shake the feeling that my combo of Fire/Necromancy is pretty sub-optimal. Might mess around with it.
I also just got gifted Planet Zoo which I have yet to give a go, and the new XCOM Chimera Squad, which looks interesting... but I feel like I should probably get around to finishing XCOM 2, even though I have already sank about 100 or so hours into it. I might just stick it on easy and blast through it, as even though I do really enjoy the gameplay loop, I really dislike the RNG bullshit that the game throws at you, especially later in the game where the enemies just get crazier.
Did you play Oxenfree? Made by the same Studio a couple years back and it looks like they're fairly similar. I rather liked oxenfree. For a "walking simulator" it was plenty enjoyable to wander about, explore and talk to people.
I haven't played After Party yet but that's only because I've been busy with other games....and partially because I was hoping for it reach GOG before I pick it up.
As for myself, I'm still working on Divinity Original Sin 2 and man, this is both a really long game and doesn't feel that way. I'm at 50+ hours, haven't finished Reapers Coast yet(but I think I'm getting near the end, having cleared a number of the areas and gotten the 3rd source slot from Ryker....before I killed his ass) but somehow it doesn't feel like I've been playing 50+ hours because I'm enjoying the exploring and all the side quests...and I feel like I'm making progress.
Also throwing myself at the final, final boss of Hollow Knight and I got close to beating her on my last try. Mostly it's been a matter of relearning the controls again because I stopped playing last summer when I hit the brick wall which is The Radiance and the rest has been a combination of learning the bullet hell moveset and figuring out which charms make the fight easier. It's tricky because what makes The Hollow Knight die quickly doesn't work as well on the radiance. Hoping to finish it this weekend.
After that, I got a couple short games I'm interested in playing once I'm done with Hollow Knight. Rime, Ori and the Blind Forest or Child of Light. All of which I could get through in like 10ish hours and have been in my backlog for a while.
Update: Finished Hollow Knights True ending(with the PITA Boss fight that entails). It's wierd that even though it's like Sekiro in that the Main event has a boss you always have to fight before it and both boss fights in HK have mutiple phases, HK still feels a lot less painful, probably because with the right planning and charms you can blow through phases in a matter of seconds rather then minutes so it doesn't feel like it takes forever to get to the fathest part of the fight.
So yeah, now just need to figure out which game I tackle next while plugging away at D:OS2.
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Well, everyone's migrated to these forums, so might as well migrate posts as well.
So I've started playing Sonic Forces.
I know, laugh it up, but once you're done laughing, feel free to see some actual thoughts.
Right? Okay, good.
Sonic Forces so far, is, "okay," but it's an okay that's in part in keeping with the general consensus, and part not. Of the three 3D boost gameplay games I've played in any meaningful manner (Colours, Generations, and now, Forces), Forces has the best story, but the weakest gameplay. Fittingly enough, Generations has the weakest story, but the best gameplay. Of that gameplay, I don't think the level design is quite as bad as people say, as every stage I've played so far with the Sonics has had at least two routes available to you. That said, there's the issue of the shortage of levels. A lot of people have commented on how short the levels are, and while that's true, I feel that they're kind of missing the point. Short levels, in of themselves, aren't an issue. I'm beating them in around 2 minutes each, and that's pretty similar to Colours. However, what I feel is causing it to be an issue here is that the levels are constantly shifting between locations. In Colours, I might play 5 short levels back to back, but those levels will all have the same theme, harkening back to the act system of earlier games. Forces? Level 1 will be in Green Hill, Level 2 in Chemical Plant, Level 3 in Death Egg, Level 4 in Sunset Heights, etc. It arguably keeps the story going, but it doesn't give levels time to leave an impression. Some of them particuarly suffer from this. I mean, the Death Egg started out as a games climax, here, it's one level I beat in 2 minutes, and the thing is never seen again (well, least from what I can tell).
Concerning gameplay though, Sonic's slippier than ever and Classic Sonic is indeed worse than the Genesis games and even Generations. Not game-breaking, but I've no idea what went wrong here. The Avatar is similarly okay, but just, okay. Like I said, weakest gameplay of the three boost games.
Now the story. Fine, I admit it, I like the story. It's a combination of cheese and drama that actually works...mostly. Every so often we get a line along the lines of "none of this is good Vector, it's why it's called WAR," and the pacing is really off - plot points come up in one scene (e.g. Sonic supposedly being dead) and are immediately negated in the next scene (nah, he's not dead, let's go get him), and the use of talking heads and walls of text feels like a shortcut - don't just "tell" us Eggman took over the world, "show" us. But, on the other hand, I do like the characters, and Infinite is...yeah, I admit it, I like him. I doubt this was intentional, but he comes off as every edgy OC anyone has ever made, so it's a combination of him being threatening in-universe, while endearingly cheesy to the viewer. And that we get our own OC, who's got a history with the new, edgy OC, and our OC isn't as "kewl," is there a theme here, that sometimes the more simple OC is more endearing than the one who monologues about how pathetic everyone is? Well, probably not, and I'm almost certainly overthinking this, but again, I like Infinite. Sometimes, cheese is nice. But is he a "good" character in the traditional sense? Well, since his motivation is that Shadow beat him that one time, so now he wants to show everyone how strong he is and yap his trap while doing so? Yeah, not really.
Also, another point - from a story standpoint, there's no reason for Classic Sonic to be here, at least so far. Everything he's done so far has been at the behest of Tails, so I'm left to ask why he's here. From a story standpoint, everything he does could be done by Tails, and that would be much better, since Tails is presented as being weak and meek, forgetting all about SA1/2/Heroes. So from a story standpoint, Tails could have something of an arc here, and from a gameplay standpoint, if they wanted a third gameplay style, just have Tails in it. Have him play like the Genesis games. But no, Classic Sonic is here, because hey, nostalgia sells.
Anyway, game is okay. It's average. Which means that I'm pretty much in consensus with everyone else.
So I've started playing Sonic Forces.
I know, laugh it up, but once you're done laughing, feel free to see some actual thoughts.
Right? Okay, good.
Sonic Forces so far, is, "okay," but it's an okay that's in part in keeping with the general consensus, and part not. Of the three 3D boost gameplay games I've played in any meaningful manner (Colours, Generations, and now, Forces), Forces has the best story, but the weakest gameplay. Fittingly enough, Generations has the weakest story, but the best gameplay. Of that gameplay, I don't think the level design is quite as bad as people say, as every stage I've played so far with the Sonics has had at least two routes available to you. That said, there's the issue of the shortage of levels. A lot of people have commented on how short the levels are, and while that's true, I feel that they're kind of missing the point. Short levels, in of themselves, aren't an issue. I'm beating them in around 2 minutes each, and that's pretty similar to Colours. However, what I feel is causing it to be an issue here is that the levels are constantly shifting between locations. In Colours, I might play 5 short levels back to back, but those levels will all have the same theme, harkening back to the act system of earlier games. Forces? Level 1 will be in Green Hill, Level 2 in Chemical Plant, Level 3 in Death Egg, Level 4 in Sunset Heights, etc. It arguably keeps the story going, but it doesn't give levels time to leave an impression. Some of them particuarly suffer from this. I mean, the Death Egg started out as a games climax, here, it's one level I beat in 2 minutes, and the thing is never seen again (well, least from what I can tell).
Concerning gameplay though, Sonic's slippier than ever and Classic Sonic is indeed worse than the Genesis games and even Generations. Not game-breaking, but I've no idea what went wrong here. The Avatar is similarly okay, but just, okay. Like I said, weakest gameplay of the three boost games.
Now the story. Fine, I admit it, I like the story. It's a combination of cheese and drama that actually works...mostly. Every so often we get a line along the lines of "none of this is good Vector, it's why it's called WAR," and the pacing is really off - plot points come up in one scene (e.g. Sonic supposedly being dead) and are immediately negated in the next scene (nah, he's not dead, let's go get him), and the use of talking heads and walls of text feels like a shortcut - don't just "tell" us Eggman took over the world, "show" us. But, on the other hand, I do like the characters, and Infinite is...yeah, I admit it, I like him. I doubt this was intentional, but he comes off as every edgy OC anyone has ever made, so it's a combination of him being threatening in-universe, while endearingly cheesy to the viewer. And that we get our own OC, who's got a history with the new, edgy OC, and our OC isn't as "kewl," is there a theme here, that sometimes the more simple OC is more endearing than the one who monologues about how pathetic everyone is? Well, probably not, and I'm almost certainly overthinking this, but again, I like Infinite. Sometimes, cheese is nice. But is he a "good" character in the traditional sense? Well, since his motivation is that Shadow beat him that one time, so now he wants to show everyone how strong he is and yap his trap while doing so? Yeah, not really.
Also, another point - from a story standpoint, there's no reason for Classic Sonic to be here, at least so far. Everything he's done so far has been at the behest of Tails, so I'm left to ask why he's here. From a story standpoint, everything he does could be done by Tails, and that would be much better, since Tails is presented as being weak and meek, forgetting all about SA1/2/Heroes. So from a story standpoint, Tails could have something of an arc here, and from a gameplay standpoint, if they wanted a third gameplay style, just have Tails in it. Have him play like the Genesis games. But no, Classic Sonic is here, because hey, nostalgia sells.
Anyway, game is okay. It's average. Which means that I'm pretty much in consensus with everyone else.
I've been doing the same for the last seven years, only in Word documents. Only I compel myself to finish what I start, even if I detest it.
So far, the list/rankings go:
Metroid II: Return of Samus (3/5)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode Metal (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (4/5)
Overwatch (3/5)
Doom Eternal (4/5)
Resident Evil 3 (4/5)
Resident Evil: Resistance (2/5)
Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour (1/5)
N.O.V.A.: Legacy (2/5)
Sonic Forces: Episode Shadow (3/5)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode Metal (3/5)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (4/5)
Overwatch (3/5)
Doom Eternal (4/5)
Resident Evil 3 (4/5)
Resident Evil: Resistance (2/5)
Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour (1/5)
N.O.V.A.: Legacy (2/5)
Sonic Forces: Episode Shadow (3/5)
Still playing Warframe on the regular.
I did finish out the FF7 Remake. While definitely not really a champion of the original to begin with, I would give its initial chapter a lot of praise for atmosphere and pacing, the latter of which is usually horribly off in JRPGs.
The remake, I struggle to think of what value its adds in the end. And it definitely does a lot of that at the expense of those qualities. Shoving 10-12 hours of optional sidequests (most of which are pretty dull grindfests tbh) definitely kills your pacing. Another big one is that they predominantly stick these in during the daytime. Original Midgar had little or no daytime at all, which contributed superbly to the dystopian atmosphere (and also set up the end chapter climax when they escape in the sudden daylight, which the remake tries to do about two chapters early and it doesn't work because daylight has been commonplace).
I did finish out the FF7 Remake. While definitely not really a champion of the original to begin with, I would give its initial chapter a lot of praise for atmosphere and pacing, the latter of which is usually horribly off in JRPGs.
The remake, I struggle to think of what value its adds in the end. And it definitely does a lot of that at the expense of those qualities. Shoving 10-12 hours of optional sidequests (most of which are pretty dull grindfests tbh) definitely kills your pacing. Another big one is that they predominantly stick these in during the daytime. Original Midgar had little or no daytime at all, which contributed superbly to the dystopian atmosphere (and also set up the end chapter climax when they escape in the sudden daylight, which the remake tries to do about two chapters early and it doesn't work because daylight has been commonplace).