u/Englishhedgehog13

https://preview.redd.it/08687rxi8tgh1.png?width=1389&format=png&auto=webp&s=43d07dceb09050046e6a5a13da1dc94afac0bd28

Forget music, voice acting, faithfullness, whatever point of contention you wanna debate about whether OG DBZ or Kai did it better. I can't stand the super bright redrawings that Kai has. Every time it switches from a drawing from the original version to a redrawing, I notice it immediately, the different in brightness and contrast is so immediately obvious to me. And I swear the more we see of the Frieza saga, the more frequent they become. Does this carry over to the Android Saga too and if so, are they as common?

idk if this is uncommon, but farrr back in the past by now, I was big into Hermione with Ron. I'm glad I saw the light when I did. Does anyone else have a similar story there?

Disclaimer: Remake spoilers everywhere, Rebirth spoilers nowhere, please refrain from talking about the latter, that's a post for a day far in the future.

FF7 Remake is an amazing game, which is annoying. If it were mediocre or even just decent, I wouldn't have to have complex feelings about it's bold (some might call it arrogant) story diversions. But here we are and I have things I want to say about the creative liberties the story took.

I know the final chapter is what spurs the most conversation, as it's when Square fully whips the rug from underneath and goes, “Ha! You thought the Final Fantasy 7 Remake would be a remake of Final Fantasy 7, but nay!” But there's a lot more I want to address prior to then. See, there are plenty of big writing changes all throughout the playtime, which I suppose is a good thing. While this game's story retelling throws one of the biggest curveballs ever, it's not out of nowhere. In fact it's much smarter about it than, for example a trailer for something that features a scene, not in the final product or features a character so much that you think they're going to have more than 2 minutes of screen time in the full story.

The first significant story change happens only in Chapter 2. Upon reflection, the first Chapter is most certainly the one that commits to the source material the most, which is good for subversiveness, assuming this doesn't make you, an OG FF7 lover feel ripped off. Anyway, in Chapter 2, when the mako reactor is bombed and Cloud's beginning to head back, he bumps into his arch lover, Sephiroth. Which is about 15 chapters sooner than he appeared in the original game. The only build up towards it is a brief hallucination in the prior chapter and unlike the original game, hearing the hallucination's voice makes it a mystery to borderline no one who it is.

Now; once you realise the full story of this remake is that Sephiroth remembers the original game and is trying to mess with things, yet simultaneously guard his sweetheart, his sudden appearances make sense. And it's also hard for me to criticise his hasty introduction here, because (in a somewhat literal sense), the presentation of the segment is absolutely fire. A pretty common theme among the new cutscenes of this game is that I want to critique them, but also the presentation is so divine that I can't shake my fist too energetically.

Though I'm also thinking about probably the biggest reason why Sephiroth shows up again and again to tease Cloud into thinking he's about to receive true love's kiss, only to then promptly vanish. Which is that he's simply too popular to restrict until the Kalm flashback. I might not mind that if it wasn't for how much they bugger up the terrifying reveal in Shinra HQ of nigh everyone being killed. Everyone remembers the scary music queue and the bloody mess you happen upon in the og. This time, it's a flash in the pan moment and the blood is censored with magic purple goo.

We're jumping ahead though. Generally, I'm okay with how much the game pads the runtime out. The added characterisation everyone gets is largely welcome and wonderful. Though I do have a bone to pick with Chapter 11, the chapter after the sewers and preceding the destruction of the main heroes' homes. The content of Chapter 11 isn't bad, but it's placement is pretty venomous. 'Ah, you're out of the sewers, you know what that means, everything is at stake, the destruction of all is inevitable, you better hurry, because maybe, just maybe you can prevent it, but also, fancy a drawn out ghost story, wooooooooo! Okay, congrats, you defeated the evil ghost, now time to carry on the story proper and save your friends except psyche, kill the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow, what's that, Tifa treated the Shinra invasion as the most pressing matter of her lifetime, no she didn't, now watch her stand there and stare at ghost particles!'

There's a similar dilemma in Chapter 14, where Aerith is being held captive and there's not a second to spare, unless you fancy filling out all the sidequests that may help you along the way. But at least those grievances are minor in comparison to what I love. Chapter 8 and 9, a.k.a Cloud and Aerith's wacky queer adventures were my big highlights. Maybe because they didn't have much of what I'm dubbing the Retcon Phantoms.

So the Retcon Phantoms are dementors that show up every couple of chapters to look mysterious and foreshadow that the story is in fact going to go places. I'm unsure if I like them. Again, I at least appreciate that the writing changes were built up; after all, for comparisons sake, Square's other mega hyped release, Kingdom Hearts 3 released the prior year and that game notoriously leaves everything that matters till the climax. It also helps that the phantoms are decently similar to the Sephiroth clones from the og.

But this post is longer than I hoped and I haven't got to the ending yet, so let's just get to it. The boss that closed off the original game's prologue is beaten, but then a portal shows up, Aerith acts all mysterious and then suddenly we're squaring off against the physical manifestation of destiny, followed by Sephiroth cos of course.

Again, it's a good thing the presentation is absolutely immaculate. I might have had more naughty words for it while I was playing, were it not for that. I also disagree with the people who say this makes the game's story confusing. I think it's pretty straightforward, original plot happens but Sephiroth is self aware of attempt 1, Aerith is starting to get an idea herself and also Zack is alive, done. I found the original far more perplexing, though the translation didn't help.

However, it's also very clear by this stage that this game is most certainly not for those brand new to FF7. In fact it's not even for me either, because fun fact, I don't like a lot of what came after the PS1 game. Crisis Core, I never finished because it's a flashy mess that made my index finger addicted to the emulator speed up button (I'll try the improved remaster one day), Advent Children is a boring, convoluted ball of nothing. And I've yet to hear enough positive words about Dirge Of Cerberus to compel me towards it. Yet this game pays at least a little homage to all of them. In fact, I may claim the main game isn't confusing, those feelings aren't shared for the Dirge Of Cerberus acknowledging DLC.

But in saying all of this, I haven't actually stated if I like the game's fanfic ending or not. So here I go, here's my answer. I'm pretty disappointed that the game didn't stick to the original's story. But I'm also kind of okay with it. Yeah, apparently those 2 things can both be true. I think what helps me is that I see FF7R for what it is. A high budget fanfic. I'm a source material junkie 5ever so storywise, the PS1 game is what matters most to me. Plus I haven't played Rebirth yet, so if the creative liberties are all downhill from here, at least I'm blissfully unaware for now.

But if you can't share my more positive outlook on it and still feel angry that you didn't get the faithful remake you wanted. I'll end this post with an optimistic look. And not a forced one, one I legitimately believe.

I don't think we need an official FF7 Remake when fans can do it themselves. The last time I played FF7 OG was on PC. I started my playthrough with no mods and ended with mods for 60fps, as well as added sound effects and ambience. It was delicious. And that's only a couple of quality of life options fans have made. You can find more modern character models, HD textures, idle animations. I bet a year from this post, there'll be at least one more QoL mod dropped that feels like a game changer.

Maybe it isn't the best case scenario, but between FF7 modded and FF7R, I'm so grateful for what we have. And who knows, maybe the reverse will happen and one day, after the remake trilogy is done, some coding wizards will take all the assets and modify it into a modern, properly accurate remake of Final Fantasy 7. But whether we get any of this or not, I don't take any of what we have now for granted.

Especially when the only reason people demanded a remake was to see HD Cloud wearing a dress, right?

Of course in a fairytale sense, rather than real life royalty, but still; Hermione has an animal sidekick, she has her Princess moment where she wears a beautiful gown and stuns everyone, Draco notably included. And Draco himself is from an upper class family, raised to be prim and proper, always extra well dressed and groomed. Whenever I see fan art of the two of them at a really fancy event, it just makes perfect sense. Any image I see of them, they're just so very royal and reminiscent of a Princess and Prince.