VideoGame_Discussion

The Rebirth demo dropped today. I was planning on waiting until the main release to play, but there are bonuses if you import save data from the demo to the retail game, so I changed my plans.

Calling it now: there's going to be some nigh-impossible trophy based around the

as the spiritual successor to the squat challenge in the last game. Super happy to see an old Final Fantasy tradition/trope revived, though.

I’m already dreading the dancing trophy. They’re showing those gold saucer flamboyant dancers in all the demos.

Finally picked FF9 back up on Switch to continue my seemingly never-ending playthrough. Like I've said a million times -- the first disc alone places that game on my all-time favorites list but I've never beaten it. I just beat the Earth Guardian on what would be Disc 3 so I can enter Shimmering Island, which I hear is the point of no return for FF9. So it looks like I'm entering the endgame.

Anything I should make a point to do before entering Shimmering Island? And once the story is over, I imagine that's that, right? There's no way to continue exploring the world/collecting cards and whatnot post-game?

theJaw wrote:

There is no Point of No Return in FF9. You can turn your butt around and leave right before the two final bosses.

Source (spoiler warning, if you don't want to know who the final bosses are): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/197338-final-...

This jives with my memory. It's been decades since I've played FF9, so I don't remember if there's a big story turn that significantly messes with your access to the World Map, but I don't believe so.

Final Fantasy VII is going to be my first Final Fantasy. I just don't know which version to play first.

All the conversations I've heard about Remake and the upcoming Rebirth, make me want to play those, but I just ordered a physical copy of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII Remastered - Twin Pack on Amazon.

I'm curious what you guys think I should do? I'm considering playing Remake first, then the original, then Rebirth and eventually the 3rd entry. Without spoiling much, would I be foolish not the play the original first?

Id recommend play IV (2 US) and VI (3 us)


Then consider doing one of the recent remasters of 7- it has high speed, cheats etc so you can at least see it all quickly.

Then do the pretty new remakes. And finally work on all the rest starting with xii and IX.

FYI all ff stories are self contained so you do not need any prior knowledge to play any of them.

Final Fantasy VII Remake seems like it'd be a great game for a newcomer - it's gorgeous, has an incredible soundtrack, and the battle system is great - but the final chapter is going to seem at best weightless and at worst confusing if you haven't played through the original.

If you're going to play a version of the 1997 original, the advice I've heard repeated is to get the PC/Steam version and mod the crap out of it with 7th Heaven. The most recent console releases are all fine and aren't broken in any way, but the mods add a bunch of tech and graphical improvements. (There appear to be some that add new content as well, but I don't really care about playing someone's fan fiction.)

The big advantage the PS1 original has over the modern ports is that the menu half of the screen runs at 60 FPS. That's it. If you're not planning on playing on an analog screen, you won't be missing much if you play an unmodded port.

Stay away from the original disc-based PC release. It's trash. Buggy, ill-performing, and awful MIDI imitations of the soundtrack.

Finished the Rebirth demo this morning.

As I was playing, I kept thinking about how movie critics have complained about all the different versions of Batman we've had over the years, and how each filmrunner feels the need to re-tell the "parents get shot, Bruce falls down a well" story anew with their own flourish without actually adding anything to the story itself.

We've seen the Nibel Reactor survey told... how many times now? It's played out in the original game, Crisis Core, Ever Crisis, and now in Rebirth; it's called back to in Remake, Advent Children, and heck even cameo appearances like Ehrgeiz and Smash; and in some of those games

I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing - the whole point of a remake is to see a story painted in a new way - but having just replayed Crisis Core last year, I had a hard time silencing the annoying voice in my brain saying "Wait, this didn't happen... this didn't happen... this didn't happen..." every time we encountered a new story beat or a detour.

One more detail I noticed that's probably not a spoiler but I'm going to tag it as such anyway:

Feeb wrote:

I really want to start with 7. Why do you recommend starting with some of the older entries? You said it yourself that they're self contained. Just curious!

Renaissance2K wrote:

I already have a physical copy of the Switch version on its way to me. My plan for that one is to use the ability to turn off random encounters conservatively, and just try to enjoy the game.


I plan to play both, but I'm thinking the remake might be a better way to get more invested in the story and characters. Since it's a 1/3 of the story, and the ending will leave me confused, maybe it's best I play remake first?

Frank wrote:

It's really hard to follow up on this properly without spoiling anything. Just go for it. They're both great games, and you'll have fun.

Remake covers so little of the original's story that even if its ending doesn't make sense, you can spend an afternoon playing the original to catch up and understand why. It took me barely over five hours to do exactly that.

Edit: I take it back. You'll still have questions if you do that. But it'll still be fun, lol

Frank wrote:

IMO that is the real spirit of final fantasy- The old school pixel wizard style. And those are by far the best stories of the pixel versions and perhaps all around. You can’t miss them- then you can see how they changed it up with the pre render BGs etc in 7 for the psx.

Feeb wrote:

I mean, I've been following Final Fantasy since I was a kid, I've just never given it a fair chance. I've tried a few of the old school ones on PSP back in the day.

When I think “Final Fantasy,” I think PSX era, and especially the gorgeous hand-drawn matte painting backgrounds in FFIX. Something special about that style. I wish they’d do just one more that way.

The franchise lost me gradually after VII. And x was the low point for me. IX is one I need to revisit. I finished it at launch and never went back. I think if I had to pick one to get the “vii” rebuild treatment I’d pick IV. That one is just so all around great.

What bonuses exist for playing Rebirth demo? I really didn't want to touch it but if there's kickass dlc... Maybe.

Two accessories: Kupo Charm and Survival Kit. You'll also be able to skip the Kalm flashback sequence in the full game, if you want.

I ended up starting the original VII

The og FFVII is a beautiful game, visually. Even with the blockiness of the character models, the world itself is fantastic to take in. I think once I finish FFIX and FF7 Remake, I'll fill the time until Rebirth with some og FFVII too.

That said, I also foolishly restarted FF Tactics Advanced last night. I've played the tutorial of that game roughly a million times but never got much further past it. I have wild nostalgia for the snowball fight and the following scene of the kids reading their book in Doned's bedroom. I first played that part of the game via PSP emulation in ...the bathroom of my childhood home of all places... while a snowstorm took place outside. So I was watching snowflakes fall outside my window while the same thing was happening for the kids in the game. Just a memory that stuck with me.

ANYWAYS the story is a little wild for FF Tactics Advanced, at least the little that I saw. It seems that the characters are from the "real world," because they've now mentioned the "game series" Final Fantasy twice, and the main character mentions how it's his favorite game. A little bit meta before being meta was a common storytelling technique. Honestly don't know if I love that, and I'm not sure how it plays out over the rest of the story (if at all), but the game is gorgeous to look at and I dig the strategy/RPG battle mechanics, so I'm gonna try to plow through it finally.

Tactics games have the obligatory WTF is going on overblown political war and peace drama endless dialogue. The meat is usually great but I need meds to get through them.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Do you have to play through the whole demo to get these?

Shane12m wrote:

Good question. You may just need save data. Pretty sure you need to complete the Kalm segment to try the Junon segment later.

I just downloaded the demo, skipped all the cutscenes, and saved my game. Huge waste of bandwidth, but at least I get my bonus doodads.

Orlandu wrote:

oh nice, that's all you gotta do?

I did see somewhere that you can pickup in the game from the end of the demo. So it's not really a waste of time yeah? You're just getting 1-2 hours into the game ahead of time right?

MrBean wrote:

It will either start the retail game from where the demo ends, or at the point Cloud begins telling the story, you'll have the option to skip.

I think it's the latter because

Well, I downloaded it, gonna try to check it out this weekend.

MrBean wrote:

I honestly don't know the full restriction, but most save game bonuses I've seen in games just check to see if the save file is there. Shenmue 2 is the only one I can think of that more or less carried forward from the first game if you had a file present.

Rebirth CE from Square-Enix marked as shipped today, interesting.

Rebirths graphics mode plays like crap and performance feels off and odd.

I never looked into it until now, assuming well known, but kinda crapty nothing carries over from part 1 to part 2. Assuming it won't be a cohesive play through until it's done and we get the re-remastered remake deluxe phoenix down ported mobile edition on PS8.

Hrm, unique content to the demo? Seems odd.

----

The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo update launches tomorrow at 4am PST / 1pm CET.

This unlocks "Dawn of a New Era" where you'll be able to experience an open area near Junon and includes content unique to the demo. The update improves visual fidelity in Performance Mode.

New demo content is worth checking out! Didn't realize they were bringing Hunts into this.

Last chance to get the discounted twin pack

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/170250057597031...

MrBean wrote:

Is the unique content worth downloading the demo now, despite I won't be touching it until I finish Remake?

Frank wrote:

Doubtful. Can't hurt tho, doesn't ruin the experience to just install it and play till you can save.

MrBean wrote:

I'll probably just wait then. I don't care about cosmetics, and hardly care to 100% anything anymore. I think I'll be okay not having a demo-exclusive item.

Downloading Rebirth now, almost time!

Comcast VPs are rubbing their palms right now.

Was gonna stay up and play at midnight but instead, waking up at 4am. Stoked!

I’m going to finish powering through P3 reload before I jump in. Hopefully this weekend.

MrBean wrote:

Why not play at midnight?

I’m lucky being west coast and get to play at 9pm tonight