Hero-of-Time Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Picked my copy up whilst at work, got home, started to install data disc and have been met with an error at 57%. Tried it multiple times and it keeps happening. A quick Google and it seems that others have the same issue. Pretty sure this happened to another game as well...May have been Ragnarok. Gonna have to take it back and get it swapped. My mate also picked up a copy and so he's dropping his data disc off for me (his works) so I can at least possibly play it this evening. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Yeah, kept it stuck at 57%, popped his disc in and away it went. Must be faulty discs. 1
drahkon Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Just now, Hero-of-Time said: popped his disc in and away it went. Hope the play disc works, once it's installed Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this one And @Julius get on with INTERmission. Screw responsibilities. IT'S GAMING TIME, BABY. I don't know why I wrote that. 1 1
Ike Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Japanese copies of the disks were labelled wrong, sounds like they did a real botch job.
Julius Posted February 29 Author Posted February 29 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Yeah, kept it stuck at 57%, popped his disc in and away it went. Must be faulty discs. Man, that sucks. I was just reading earlier about copies in Japan I think it was where they'd mixed up some of the Play and Data disc printing, so you'd actually need to download data with the one labelled 'Play Disc' and play with the one labelled 'Data Disc'? Really weird that this game seems to be having multiple issues crop up on disc across different regions. (thanks @Ike for sharing the source ) I'll need to check but I also think Persona 3 Reload had some issues in SEA a few weeks back with the physical English language release just straight up not being the physical English language release? Something's up with the disc printer in Asia, that's for sure. Glad to hear it's been sorted at least 11 minutes ago, drahkon said: And @Julius get on with INTERmission. Screw responsibilities. IT'S GAMING TIME, BABY. I don't know why I wrote that. Just setting my out of office email and it's time to mosey Edited February 29 by Julius 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Spoiler Did they really just kill Aeris off again in the first cutscene of the game?!? Granted, its in the other timeline but still.
drahkon Posted February 29 Posted February 29 Have I played this for 5 1/2 hours straight today? Yes! Will I play more after a Helldivers session? YES! 1
drahkon Posted March 1 Posted March 1 Woke up early to play more One annoying thing I noticed: Party members you don't control attack way too infrequently...their ATB Gauge barely fills up during fights. I don't remember if it was the same in Remake but goodness me it's infuriating Aerith is my designated healer right now with Cure set as an Auto-Ability but it's useless when I have to keep watching HP and her ATB Gauge.
drahkon Posted March 1 Posted March 1 Pretty much done with Chapter 2. But not ready to move on. Currently fighting a certain enemy again and again to level up. Is it efficient? No. Is it necessary? Probably not. Am I enjoying it? Yes
drahkon Posted March 1 Posted March 1 It's ridiculous how much better this game's battle system is compared to FFXVI's! Currently making my way through Chapter 3. Can't stop playing. My weekend's definitely sorted
Hero-of-Time Posted March 1 Posted March 1 Back from work and got my new copy, which thankfully works. Just sitting listening to the title music now. One of the few cases where I can happily sit and wait a while before pressing start. Buster Sword is up for grabs on PS Rewards. 1
drahkon Posted March 1 Posted March 1 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Back from work and got my new copy, which thankfully works. Awesome! Happy gaming After 10 hours of playtime I've reached Chapter 4. It's so much fun Edit: Spoiler Fort Condor minigame is back? I was sucked into one match, at least Edited March 1 by drahkon
Hero-of-Time Posted March 2 Posted March 2 Not really feeling the game at all. I was hoping that the narrative would deviate a lot from the original but so far it's been pretty bog standard. Hate the open world sections. It feels like such a cookie cutter production. Towers, kill quests, fetch quests...its like Ubisoft made the thing. Also, where the hell are the monsters in these open areas? You can walk around for ages before you encounter one. Yeah, 10 hours in and I'm pretty disappointed by what I've played. Remake I couldn't put down but with Rebirth I've knocked it off a few times to do other stuff.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 4 Posted March 4 I was on and off this over the weekend, I've got the final 2 chapters left to do and unless something massive happens, then I can safely say that the game isn't a patch on the first part or the original. Production values are great, music is awesome but the open world sections and narrative leave a lot to be desired. It's taken 20+ hours for the narrative to start getting interesting and even then some of it just doesn't make any sense. Shame. 1
Julius Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 Bah, sorry to hear that @Hero-of-Time how many hours in are you at this point where you're nearing the end, and what's been your general approach to the game with it being open world vs the linear nature of Remake? I'm curious because I'm only 5 hours in (haven't played since Friday, apparently I book time off and then my life gets infinitely busier ), but after seeing the trophy guides saying it'd potentially take a couple hundred of hours to Plat (only checked out of curiosity after XVI's), I bailed and stuck to my original plan of just doing the story and mini-games, which is what I did for most of Remake. The mini-games I love by the way, Queen's Blood rules! I LOVED the first chapter, which was definitely more on the linear side (also: heroic Sephi theme ftw) and took the hardest knee I've ever taken in a game in Kalm (just let Cloud stand around for a couple of minutes while the music started to choke me up), but I got to the open world and...eh? I'll get into more once I'm further in the game but I'm a bit confused by it's design at times, in that I immediately ran into multiple instances where the terrain climbs up and I struggle to see over it, and it just seems a bit empty? I'll reserve judgement until I'm further on in but the linear sections so far have been the highlight for me, whereas I beelined story beats once out in the open world to pick up a Chocobo. There's weird lighting issue adjusting to the dark coming from the outside too in a lot of cases, I've found. Oh well, I'll get back to it today, but I definitely didn't feel as compelled to return to it over the weekend, but maybe that's just down to where I left it off
Hero-of-Time Posted March 4 Posted March 4 4 minutes ago, Julius said: Bah, sorry to hear that @Hero-of-Time how many hours in are you at this point where you're nearing the end, and what's been your general approach to the game with it being open world vs the linear nature of Remake? There's weird lighting issue adjusting to the dark coming from the outside too in a lot of cases, I've found. My approach has just been to concentrate on the main plot but do any side stuff that I happen to run into. I've not checked the trophies or anything like that. I'm about 25-28 hours into the game. As for the lighting issue, I thought it was just my TV and so I'm happy to see it's a common problem. It is pitch black in an inside area for a second or so and then the game brightens up and you can actually see again.
drahkon Posted March 5 Posted March 5 Haven't played as much after my first session because the weather was too nice Think I'm getting close to finishing Chapter 4 after 19h of total playtime. Absolutely loving it. I clear out all the open world stuff and side quests before moving on with the story and it's been a blast. Sadly, I won't have a lot of time for gaming these next few days so progress is coming to a halt
Hero-of-Time Posted March 5 Posted March 5 Reached the end of the game this morning. I fought what I assume was the final boss, which took nearly an hour to do. It took so long that I didn't have time to actually watch the end before going to work and so I've had to keep my PS5 in rest mode because there was no recent save point. One of the later dungeons in the game was an absolute slog. It took around 4 hours just to get through the thing. They really padded it out, especially when you consider the same dungeon in the original game was probably around half an hour long.
Julius Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 I got up to the start of Chapter 3 yesterday after around 9 hours yesterday. I'm very torn on this open world. For the most part it has been fairly barren with very little available to do, I'm mostly avoiding open world encounters and just focusing on completing the available quests and other activities before moving onto the next story beat. The activities available to do in the open world are fine, I guess? Not a big fan of the Ubisoft towers, much less activating them not clearing the mist coverage on the map but showing available activities. I touched on it before but the open world just doesn't feel like a well-designed open world, even if it's pretty easy on the eye at times (well, minus a lot of the textures looking like smudged Picasso paintings up close), and I feel like this is most apparent in how much Chocobos judder over the rough terrain, occasionally getting caught on a rock that's sort of out of place. This all ties into a lot of half-baked ideas being realised which seem fairly superfluous, like having "stealth" sections in certain quest lines, or even during the main story (such as early on in Kalm). Like in the first game, I think the gameplay shines most here during the bigger fight sequences, whether it be a boss battle or a mini-boss, or the linear and tighter setpieces. The music is amazing. So far I'm okay with just going through and making it a tick box exercise, but this is one of the weaker open worlds I've explored in a very long time. While there are rewards and activities aplenty, I feel like part of the purpose of this open world was to sell us on protecting this world and it's inhabitants just as much as it was a case of paying homage to how things were handled in the original, but it feels a bit too spread out at times and there's a lot of dead air between said activities. Some of the activities are pretty bizarre too, like pressing triangle a couple of times at life springs to register them, or the summon materia shrine things where you need to time your presses to synchronise feeling so basic. I see the purpose of these things being available as activities from a functional and rewards POV, but the act of completing them just feels so unrewarding. There's a lot of bloat and not very much of it feels good, I'm kind of itching to get back to the mini-games and story. I'll kick on with it today, but yeah, a valley of highs and lows already at this early point for me. I did really enjoy the first game (even if the ending got a bit wacko, I respected the divergence from the original) but looking back I can't help but wonder how much of that was down to it's linearity, and just how much of that linearity was actually down to the development of the game being a bit of a mess until it was brought in-house. Would Remake have potentially been as bloated as this if things went S-E's from the start, I wonder?
Hero-of-Time Posted March 5 Posted March 5 9 minutes ago, Julius said: I did really enjoy the first game (even if the ending got a bit wacko, I respected the divergence from the original) but looking back I can't help but wonder how much of that was down to it's linearity.... This is what I was thinking as well. Once I ditched the open world stuff and just played it as a more linear experience I found myself enjoying the game more. I think I just can't be chewed with open world games anymore. There have been so many in recent years that I'm pretty much burnt out on them. Plus, with this game, I'm really here for the narrative, not to explore giant maps.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 5 Posted March 5 Credits have rolled. Spoiler Yeah, absolutely confusing and utterly disappointing. The whole reveal of Zack in the first game and him being teased throughout the game, only for him to have pretty much nothing to do with the main narrative, was completely pointless. I was so looking forward for him to get a big role and it turned out to be nothing more than fan service. For them to tease him again for the next game...yeah, sod off. The whole final few chapters jumped the shark with the narrative. Are we the MCU now, trying to make multiple timelines and a multiverse. There were so many flashbacks and cutaways I didn't have a clue what timeline I was watching or playing in. Felt a complete mess. Glenn's inclusion in the game seemed like another pointless addition. You get the feeling it was leading to something but nope, just another Sephiroth clone. The Weapons in this version of the game are awful. In the PS1 version they were all unique creatures that were to be feared and they all had a presence about them. Here? Let's make them all look like giant fish. Why the hell did the Whispers show up? I thought we were done with them and had broke free from fate? Now we have good ones and bad ones but both seemed to be hindering the characters at certain points and also helping them. Oh and Sephiroth controls some of them. Is Aerith dead. No you saved her. No she's dead. Wait that's a different version of her. Oh, she's alive. Nope that's you talking to some kinda of force ghost of her. Because of this mess, her demise lacked any kind of impact. A few things I did enjoy were the opening to the Golden Saucer section (amazing musical number), Cissnei showing up and the music, which was phenomenal. The battle system was top notch as well. I especially loved the moves that you could pull off with other characters. As a whole, very disappointed with this confusing mess that didn't deliver at all what I wanted for the second part of the trilogy.
drahkon Posted March 6 Posted March 6 (edited) Chapters 4 and 5 done Enjoying it immensely. Had a lot of fun during the... Spoiler ...Queen's Blood Tournament. Red XIII's entrance was hilarious And the music during that chapter's boss fight... Edited March 6 by drahkon
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6 Posted March 6 Quote Securing the "Final Fantasy VII" trilogy as a console exclusive is a feather in the PlayStation cap. It's part of recognizing the original game's importance as a defining game for the PlayStation experience, said Christian Svensson, vice president of second- and third-party content ventures and strategic initiatives at Sony Interactive Entertainment. Trilogy is now console exclusive to PlayStation. Seemed pretty obvious at this point but this makes it official.
Hero-of-Time Posted March 7 Posted March 7 Game is having a rough time in Japan. Selling a lot less than the first part and even being outsold by FFXVI. That exclusivity deal ain't looking that hot right now... Gotta wonder how it would sell if it was on the Switch? It seems like if its not on that platform then you haven't got much hope of doing crazy numbers in Japan. The series as a whole has seen a big decline in recent years. I think some of this is down to S-E keeping the franchise exclusive. Problem is that Nintendo's hardware is never powerful enough to pull off what S-E want to do with new FF games.
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