- Joined
- Jan 30, 2018
I started replaying the original FF7, using the Steam version.
Anyway, I'm largely enjoying my current replay. To be honest, when I was younger I didn't much like the game -- which was partly because I was a retarded contrarian edgelord, partly because of the original translation (i.e. the whole 'clone' thing really muddles the story), and partly because FF7 is the Evangelion of JRPGs, which is to say its fanbase is largely retarded and annoying.
I particularly like the party members. They all have distinct personalities, have a decent role in the story, and feel like they actually continue to exist and speak up during story events, rather than becoming barely existing mutes like what happens in a lot of JRPGs. I also like how the party will sometimes split up during story areas, where you can then find them wandering around and talk to them, fleshing them a bit more (like Yuffie becoming a materia merchant's assistant in Costa del Sol, then later when you go back and talk to the merchant he'll have dialogue about how his 'assistant' vanished with his money). It's also a nice touch how your two optional party members will have different dialogue from each other during some scenes, like Aerith trying to ask Hojo about her past if she's in your active party when you talk to him. Unfortunately, from what I remember, this use of your party starts to fade the further you get into the game.
The pacing is pretty rough, however. At the start, in Midgar, everything flows really well, each story beat connects and leads to the next, giving the player a goal and a clear reason as to why they're going to the next area. After you leave, Midgar, though, the game's pacing devolves into typical JRPG stuff, where you're given little reason to go to the next area beyond the fact that it happens to be the next area on the world map. Heading to Corel is particularly bad because the only reason you have to go there is because you find Hojo chilling on a beach in Costa del Sol and he literally just goes "*cough, cough* go west *cough, cough*".
Another problem with the pacing is those fucking minigames. Sometimes I just wanna continue the story or get to the next dungeon, but, no, instead I'm forced to perform in a parade, race chocobos, snowboard, collect items to cross dress, or any number of dumb, time wasting filler crap before I can proceed in the game. I don't even mind some of them, but I do hate being forced to do them and not being able to progress in the game until I do them.
I like the Condor strategy battle minigame, but the placement of when the battles take place is diabolical and I hope whoever decided on them has already died a painful death. Some of them take place during story events that you have to break the flow of, run back to Condor, do the battle, then run back to the story event and proceed, even though you're given no warning about it. There's literally no way of knowing when these battles are taking place beyond looking at a guide. I recently missed one of the battles that takes place when you arrive at Cosmo Canyon. What's supposed to happen is that your buggy (a world map vehicle that lets you go over shallow waters) breaks down when you get close to Cosmo Canyon, giving you a reason to enter there. What you have to do in order to get to the Condor battle is not get close to Cosmo with your buggy so it doesn't break down, go into Cosmo Canyon on foot, do about half the story events, run back to your buggy, go do the Condor battle, then return to Cosmo Canyon and finish up the story there. There's no way for anyone to know about this unless they're reading a guide. Making it all the worse is that your rewards for winning the battles are pretty shit.
Anyway, yeah, I'm at Cosmo Canyon right now. I might post some more thoughts later if I get bored.
I'm using a couple of mods, the biggest being the Shinra Archaeology Cut mod, which re-translates the game and restores cut content. So far I'm liking the retranslated script a lot -- it keeps much of the official's translation's charm while fixing the various problems it had.
Beyond that mod, I'm also using Postscriptthree's Gameplay Tweaks, which adds in various QoL improvements (making Limit Break its own option rather than replacing Attack when the gauge is full), fixes some problems (damage overflow glitch), and some balance tweaks (like making Stealing easier -- even with this on it still sometimes takes me a half dozen tries before I can actually steal anything).
I'm using a music mod that replaces the PC version's low quality music with higher quality PSX tracks. I also went through the trouble to set up the Yamaha XG MIDI emulation for the game but I haven't really noticed any noticeable change in sound quality. The only graphic mods I'm using are ones by a modder named AxlRose, which fix various mesh and lighting issues in the battle maps.
I tried out the updated chibi and battle models by NinoStyle, but ultimately didn't like them. The mod's chibi models still maintain the charm of the original chibi ones but they're too hi-res and detailed, making them clash horribly with the pre-rendered backgrounds (there's no decent map replacement mods -- all the ones I've seen just upscale them using shitty blur filters; I'll always take crisp, detailed, pixelated graphics over smooth, soft, water-painted looking crap).
NinoStyle's battle models fare better, largely keeping the lo-fi look of the originals and I would've used them if not for one thing: the faces. A lot of the faces on the mod's models look like they just copied and pasted the official art work onto the model:
Beyond that mod, I'm also using Postscriptthree's Gameplay Tweaks, which adds in various QoL improvements (making Limit Break its own option rather than replacing Attack when the gauge is full), fixes some problems (damage overflow glitch), and some balance tweaks (like making Stealing easier -- even with this on it still sometimes takes me a half dozen tries before I can actually steal anything).
I'm using a music mod that replaces the PC version's low quality music with higher quality PSX tracks. I also went through the trouble to set up the Yamaha XG MIDI emulation for the game but I haven't really noticed any noticeable change in sound quality. The only graphic mods I'm using are ones by a modder named AxlRose, which fix various mesh and lighting issues in the battle maps.
I tried out the updated chibi and battle models by NinoStyle, but ultimately didn't like them. The mod's chibi models still maintain the charm of the original chibi ones but they're too hi-res and detailed, making them clash horribly with the pre-rendered backgrounds (there's no decent map replacement mods -- all the ones I've seen just upscale them using shitty blur filters; I'll always take crisp, detailed, pixelated graphics over smooth, soft, water-painted looking crap).
NinoStyle's battle models fare better, largely keeping the lo-fi look of the originals and I would've used them if not for one thing: the faces. A lot of the faces on the mod's models look like they just copied and pasted the official art work onto the model:
Anyway, I'm largely enjoying my current replay. To be honest, when I was younger I didn't much like the game -- which was partly because I was a retarded contrarian edgelord, partly because of the original translation (i.e. the whole 'clone' thing really muddles the story), and partly because FF7 is the Evangelion of JRPGs, which is to say its fanbase is largely retarded and annoying.
I particularly like the party members. They all have distinct personalities, have a decent role in the story, and feel like they actually continue to exist and speak up during story events, rather than becoming barely existing mutes like what happens in a lot of JRPGs. I also like how the party will sometimes split up during story areas, where you can then find them wandering around and talk to them, fleshing them a bit more (like Yuffie becoming a materia merchant's assistant in Costa del Sol, then later when you go back and talk to the merchant he'll have dialogue about how his 'assistant' vanished with his money). It's also a nice touch how your two optional party members will have different dialogue from each other during some scenes, like Aerith trying to ask Hojo about her past if she's in your active party when you talk to him. Unfortunately, from what I remember, this use of your party starts to fade the further you get into the game.
The pacing is pretty rough, however. At the start, in Midgar, everything flows really well, each story beat connects and leads to the next, giving the player a goal and a clear reason as to why they're going to the next area. After you leave, Midgar, though, the game's pacing devolves into typical JRPG stuff, where you're given little reason to go to the next area beyond the fact that it happens to be the next area on the world map. Heading to Corel is particularly bad because the only reason you have to go there is because you find Hojo chilling on a beach in Costa del Sol and he literally just goes "*cough, cough* go west *cough, cough*".
Another problem with the pacing is those fucking minigames. Sometimes I just wanna continue the story or get to the next dungeon, but, no, instead I'm forced to perform in a parade, race chocobos, snowboard, collect items to cross dress, or any number of dumb, time wasting filler crap before I can proceed in the game. I don't even mind some of them, but I do hate being forced to do them and not being able to progress in the game until I do them.
I like the Condor strategy battle minigame, but the placement of when the battles take place is diabolical and I hope whoever decided on them has already died a painful death. Some of them take place during story events that you have to break the flow of, run back to Condor, do the battle, then run back to the story event and proceed, even though you're given no warning about it. There's literally no way of knowing when these battles are taking place beyond looking at a guide. I recently missed one of the battles that takes place when you arrive at Cosmo Canyon. What's supposed to happen is that your buggy (a world map vehicle that lets you go over shallow waters) breaks down when you get close to Cosmo Canyon, giving you a reason to enter there. What you have to do in order to get to the Condor battle is not get close to Cosmo with your buggy so it doesn't break down, go into Cosmo Canyon on foot, do about half the story events, run back to your buggy, go do the Condor battle, then return to Cosmo Canyon and finish up the story there. There's no way for anyone to know about this unless they're reading a guide. Making it all the worse is that your rewards for winning the battles are pretty shit.
Anyway, yeah, I'm at Cosmo Canyon right now. I might post some more thoughts later if I get bored.
