r/FF7Rebirth

Recently started it back up to prepare for the next one. Previously had stopped before gold saucer, now im running through yhe desert. This combat is so bad it makes me cry tears of blood. Every enemy just gets to stagger you as their basic attack. Every enemy attack can interrupt your abilities. People talk about how you shouldnt spam buttons but the oyher option is to just hold block which still does insane numbers of damage to you while you do negligible damage to enemies. How does cloud carry around a sword the size of a skyscaper and deal less damage than a papercut? Dodging never works, enemy attacks home in on you while your attacks miss because the enemy walked two steps to the left. If you manage to get a perfect block off on one enemy you still get knocked down by the other two before you can react.

AND THEN THEY GIVE YOU A COMBAT TRIAL WITH AERITH WHO DOESNT DO REAL COMBAT.

The combat is ass. The extra content is ass. Queens blood is dhiarrea ass.

Let me start by saying I ENJOY THE COMBAT. I've been in the Elden Ring subreddit, I know how rabid some people get when they the slightest whiff of criticism for their favorite game. There were just some parts of remake combat that felt kind of annoying and some pieces that felt outright useless. I found my playstyle though and enjoyed playing it my way. I just want to be able to engage with the full system and I'm wondering if those pieces were improved in any way in Rebirth.

The Big One: Basic Attacks/ARPG mechanics - My only major complaint is that the game tried to mix action elements with turn-based, but then seriously neutered the action parts. I understand the point is to switch characters often, but playing a character for more than two seconds felt detrimental. There is already an incentive to switch characters since they charge almost no ATB while not being played, so why did they make it so damning to hang out on one character for a bit? Essentially, are there improvements to the ARPG side of things that make playing a single character for longer than a couple seconds, more enjoyable?

Basic Attacks and Combo's - I was so disappointed with the state of basic combo's. They look cool as hell, but rarely does a full basic attack combo prove beneficial and more often than not is downright detrimental, especially considering the staggering low damage output compared to spells and abilities. One button press on cloud's punisher mode for multiple swings that can't be cancelled? I just don't even use punisher outside of countering. It felt like a completely irrelevant piece of his kit besides the counter. During enemy stagger doesn't count either because anything is valuable when an enemy is literally frozen in place. It felt like many pieces of the action elements of the game were high risk low reward. Why use basic attacks when an enemy can whip out quick skills and spells that will stun you before the animation of your skill or spell finishes? Why use low ATB generating, slow basic attacks on Barrett or Aerith at all when they leave you so vulnerable? There was no need to force players into this switching game where one or two presses of the attack button was all you really had time for. Imo, it made actually playing a character not feel good, expect for Tifa, who can fly around the map at mach fuck you, throwing basic attacks in as needed.

Standing with guard held down was the just the superior tactical choice for the majority of interactions. Little to no risk of being launched and comboed, reduces damage massively which is especially useful when pelted by multiple enemies, can immediately retaliate to interrupt enemy attacks without waiting for an animation to end. I understand it is a hybrid turn-based ARPG, and I don't mind the stand and block playstyle, it felt like turn-based+, but I was blocking A LOT due to the high volume of enemy attacks, which I'll get to. Basic attacks and other rudimentary gameplay elements should be really be universally adequate for each character.

The Dodge - Is dodging actually serviceable on all characters now? In remake it felt like the dodge button really only helped Tifa and Cloud. Those two were mobile enough to where it could be used as intended, a repositioning tool. I mainly used dodge to quickly move those characters to safe positions for big attacks. However, Barrett and Aerith felt like trying to move cement trucks by hand. They are ranged characters, so they shouldn't need a high distance dodge, but that doesn't work in practice. Both characters when not controlled feel the need to move in close to attack the enemy when they have INFINITE RANGE. Then, I would switch to them to move them away only for the enemy to aggro and move in closer to them anyway. Then I would have to switch to Cloud or Tifa and run to the other side of the arena to then create that distance I desired. It felt like a baby sitting simulator at times, trying to keep 3 year olds from sticking their heads into the oven. Do Aerith and Barrett have acceptable mobility at all in Rebirth? The lack of mobility in such high pace combat made them feel like liabilities more often than not.

Volume of Enemy Skills - Some enemies don't seem to adhere to the same rules as we do regarding the turn-based portion of the game. Most enemies have no need to use basic attacks or block before using another skill. Some enemies are worse than other's. It get's to a point where you spend a huge portion of your time blocking when multiple enemies are in play.

Magic Loss for Uncast Magic/Limit Loss - This is just a minor annoyance. If I'm interrupted while casting a spell, sure, I lose the ATB since I initiated the action. But why do I lose the MP if I never got the spell off? Doesn't make any sense to me. Also, my limit breaks being interruptible, unlike the enemy cut scene attacks, also just feels wrong. Limit breaks are few enough in number to where they really should be incapable of interruption like enemy supers. Losing limits during cutscene transitions that are entirely unpredictable the first playthrough is also annoying.

Aerial Combat - Straight ass. That's it.

Camera - Also ass. That's it.

Visual Effects - This goes along with the camera. Many times there was so much shit going on that it was hard to actually see what enemies were doing. The screen was flooded with smoke and sparks and flashes that made me blind to telegraphs. Is this toned down or is there at least a setting to reduce special effects?

That's about it. The graphical upgrades and fleshed out story compared to OG is well worth the play through.

Getting good at managing materia, and forcing yourself to get better by really stretching the limits of the combat system to beat the game on hard mode and also the harder VR combat simulations.

For those of you that got good with using Zack, you know ball. Zack is a monster. It’s unfortunate that there weren’t a lot of opportunities to really use his combat abilities which I hope is rectified in the final game.

Like I am stuck in stage 3 even with a guide oh my fuckign god

~20h in, currently in Junon and think this might be the best game I’ve ever played!

I did everything in grasslands because I’m having so much fun and usually I make a beeline for main story quests because otherwise I never finish video games

I didn’t play the original (I know I know but I never had ps1) but I understand the whole game opens up after midgar…but my GOSH is there a difference between remake and rebirth lol

Makes you wonder how many people miss out on the beauty of rebirth cos they got put off by sun lamps or the sewers lol

Reminds me of FFXIV without the MMO aspect which I love - like the towns, worlds and music!

I finally understand how combat works but it all moves so quickly I can’t appreciate it. I wish there was a way to slow it down. So I can see the interplay between characters or just admire the visuals a little more.

So I know I’ll love the game, and I’ve watched some videos showing on the deck and it looks pretty damn good but I’m scared this is like a sirens song and once I have it docked on my tv it’ll look like crap. If anyone has played it on deck recently can you tell me if it was an enjoyable experience, and if the graphics sacrificed greatly affected your experience.

No spoilers but I wanted to shout out this game for taking an annoying side character and generic Turk and giving them way more character depth.

Both characters are a massive glow up and improvement from the OG with better fleshed out personalities. This could be since it’s voice acted and the VAs do an amazing job.

Yuffie comes across a lot more as an annoying little sister who’s the comic relief with good cross party banter

Elena comes across like a bratty career driven corporate shill. The fact they gave her some feminine accessories to remind us she’s still a girl at heart like the bangle and her gun are a really nice design touch

Honestly seeing more of these 2 are one of my biggest hype things for next game

Is it just me, or have the graphics and lighting improved? The total file size is also a few GBs smaller now too.

I am up to the boxing match when entering the Golden Saucer. I am not in the actual match, but i the tutorial section. The controller does not let me Sway left and right. I am holding down the corredct buttons, but it does not always work. And it states I need to DODGE three times. How does one actually dodge? THanks in advance

https://preview.redd.it/nrcd75or83kh1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=56d3febb2adaed3bf4bff1667982d47a860eb541

Okay, that title is intentionally provocative. 😂

But I genuinely mean the second part.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the Remake project, and despite appreciating the incredible amount of work that has clearly gone into these games, I've come away feeling that FFVII Remake and Rebirth don't work for me as Final Fantasy VII games.

I don't mean they're technically bad games. The presentation is phenomenal, the voice acting is excellent, the combat is incredibly polished, and there are absolutely moments where I can understand why people love them.

But for me, there are fundamental creative decisions in the Remake project that make it difficult for me to connect with the story in the same way I connected with the original.

And that's where I'd genuinely like to be challenged.

If you absolutely love Remake and Rebirth, tell me why.

Not "you're nostalgic."

Not "just play the OG."

Not "you're wrong."

Actually tell me what you think these games do better.

What do you think the Remake project adds to Cloud, Aerith, Sephiroth, Tifa and the wider FFVII story?

Do you think the changes genuinely strengthen the original themes?

Do you think the Whispers, alternate realities and meta-narrative make the story more interesting?

Does Rebirth's approach to the characters and world justify the enormous expansion of the original?

And perhaps most importantly:

If someone genuinely dislikes the direction of the Remake trilogy, what do you think they're missing?

I'm perfectly happy to have my mind changed here.

I'd actually prefer someone to give me a thoughtful argument that makes me go:

"Okay... I hadn't considered that."

Because I think the FFVII community would benefit from being able to disagree about these games without immediately turning the discussion into OG vs Remake, nostalgia vs modern gaming, or accusing each other of being "real" fans.

So...

I think FFVII Remake and Rebirth are awful.

Change my mind. 😎

(If you're discussing major story details, please use the appropriate spoiler tag/flair.)

I’m only in the grasslands and I’m already sick of Chadley and his compatriot. But seeing Red ride a chocobo gets me every time.

Hey - I have Rebirth on steam deck but struggling with graphics. Characters / background seem fuzzy even when I’ve tweaked relentlessly with settings. I’m on 30 fps - everything on low except character model detail on high and texture on medium. TAAU anti-aliasing.

I’m considering buying a Switch 2 cos I heard it’s better graphics. Can anyone confirm if there really is a difference?

Before anyone asks - yes I know Ps5 is optimal but I only play when travelling so handheld is preferred. And yes I know getting switch 2 is insane when I have SD. But I love BOTW/TOTK so I’d probably make use of the Nintendo library.