I’m 10 hours into FF7 Remake. I have feelings. Most of them... not good. Did you ask for a thread? No. Are you getting one? Sure are! Let’s mosey~

(Let’s also forget that’s the mosey thing has already been referenced at least twice at this point in the game) Hi! The pacing of this game is fucking awful. Wow it’s just... wow, no. Dungeons can be log but they need to be interesting. Persona 5 was great at this. FF7R is not.

So far the dungeons have had drab interiors, and no interesting mechanics. A few simple platform and switch puzzles. They’ve also taken over an hour to complete in some sections. Hope you liked the demo tractor, because there is a LOT more of the same.

The new characterization is great, I’m liking learning about Jessie, and that new guy on the motorbike is amusing. I forgot his name though. But while the game gives space for these new plot elements, slowing down the overall plot to give them room, it sadly doesn’t do the same..

With Sector 7. It’s gorgeous, but empty, a handful of side quests, 3 stores and a darts mini game. There’s little free time to talk to your party a la FFXV, and I feel like they really missed something there. And talking of FFXV...

It’s shockingly similar. The battle system refined and improved but the party AI as bad if not worse. Often your other party members are just standing around, not attacking. I get the potential mechanics as to why, but to play, it’s frustrating. And speaking of frustrating...

... there are no surprises. The air buster fight was built up and up, and in the end was yet another mech boss snooze fest that took too long. FF7R isn’t a bad game, I’m enjoying it. But the narrative structure is unrecognizable, which is fine, but not if that narrative is bad.

(I’m not arguing that there should be surprises to me, someone who has played FF7 but rather that removing all surprises makes for a bad story. The set up of a surprise encounter is still interesting, even if it’s my second playthrouh and I know it’s coming.)

Anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk. Expect a video on the narrative structure of FF7R on YouTube in the near future by someone actually good at this stuff, like @MrClemps or @EyePatchWolf or something.

This thread includes plenty of typos. A tractor = reactor. You got this.