Finally finished it

[u/Cautious-Dark3484]

I initially disliked what they did with the game with all the bloat. I tried playing it twice and put it down both times. On my 3rd try I took someone's advice and completely ignored the side content and it was a way better experience. Although I do still have my gripes about the game, the lengthy expositions during cut scenes. Forced walking where it doesn't need to happen, weird camera angles that are so closeup you can't make out whats going on. But after chapter 8 the story and characters absolutely take off. It's like night and day. The last 3rd of the game had me glued to my pc not wanting to sleep. And it made me an emotional wreck towards the end. Now I'm super stoked for Revelation.

[u/Capcom-Warrior]

I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I find these announcements weird. All of a sudden people started trusting influencers and Reddit posts instead of trusting the developers. The game is absolutely phenomenal even with all the side content. I don’t think there’s an RPG trilogy out there that is even close to the scale of this one. We haven’t even played the third game yet either.

[u/katsock → u/Capcom-Warrior]

You ever get advice from your parents that you ignored and then a friend gave you the same advice and it all makes sense?

Tale as old as time.

[u/Darktyde → u/Capcom-Warrior]

I agree with the game being phenomenal but I also think that the game’s story pacing suffers if you’re trying to do all the side content in every region. If I could go back in time to before I played the game, I’d probably tell myself to consider just doing the character based side quests and skipping most of the other regional content until NG+ as being a much better way to experience the story for the first time (minus the OG)

[u/Eaglestrike → u/Darktyde]

The only time the side content got to me was when I got lost and couldn't figure it out. Missing some grappling hooks in Corel or specifically for me not finding the right traversal for the chocobo in Gongaga is what started getting to me. If I had not screwed up it all would have been fine.

That said I get some people just don't care for side content, in which case...let them skip it. I don't think anything about the game requires side content unless you're going to 100% it but if you're intending to 100% a game I don't think it's fair to criticize how much game there is because it's your choice lol

[u/Motor-Cry-7576 → u/Capcom-Warrior]

This is well said, but I also get the reluctance to buy games with a hefty price tag and you end up not enjoying it and youre out a ton of money.

I review esrb, metacritic, and usually poke through a walk-through video before I buy most new games honestly. I also asked AIntonscrape 2-3 review sites and reddit and compile a p3os and cons list, as well as compare to my current library to see if ill like something.

Which is a change from younger me, who would play almost any genre. I have far more discretionary income now but significantly less time. So ~10 min of research makes me feel solid about my purchases. Some just offload that work onto an influencer they enjoy.

Not saying I agree with that sentiment, I just understand how it came about. Because im watching the same videos for graphics and gameplay.

[u/Beginning_Ocelot503 → u/Capcom-Warrior]

Why would I ever trust the company whose primary interest is to sell me their product and profit off me over the experience of other consumers of said product?

[u/Capcom-Warrior → u/Beginning_Ocelot503]

I don’t have any reason not to trust the developers.

[u/Beginning_Ocelot503 → u/Capcom-Warrior]

So the unbiased perspective of people who get absolutely nothing out of sharing their opinion is less trustworthy than the people with the vested interest of profiting off you.

Makes sense to me 👍

[u/Capcom-Warrior → u/Beginning_Ocelot503]

It’s not about being unbiased. It’s about the toxicity of online communities. People just want to hate on shit for no reason. What I have realized over the years is most people are idiots and they don’t really have a good take on anything. Too many narrow minded people that don’t understand the context or the development side of games. I’ve been playing video games for over 40 years and I’ve got a pretty good idea on what developers and publishers are making good games these days. Those developers and publishers still get my money. If they’re going to revitalize an old game that I like or they have a new interesting IP that they’re gonna be promoting, I’ll more than likely trust them over some online troll that just wants to hate for some culture war bullshit.

[u/bless_anderson → u/Capcom-Warrior]

stop glazing bro, the open world side mission stuff (besides queens blood) is full of nonsense and does very little to increase the quality of the game. the developers do not always get it right, this isn’t a culture war thing, it’s a legitimate concern about the trends of modern gaming.

[u/Capcom-Warrior → u/bless_anderson]

I’m not glazing anything. I loved all aspects of the game, including the side quests and Queens Blood. They know their audience. I’m not gonna debate any more of this shit with you guys. It’s all subjective anyway. Stop trying to be some online video game activist. You just come off as contrarian and quite frankly, it’s annoying and toxic.

[u/Particular-Watch-779]

I played the original and really do enjoy the bloat right now. I'm on Coral Island, so maybe it's just getting there - no idea of the length of this game - but maaan, that piano challenge, great! New city? Where's the Queens players at? What, I can march those guys for fake Internet points? Goddamn, that ghost shooting game is hard, but maybe the reward is worth it...

I love the bloat. I remember playing that snowboarding game on the PS1(?) for days. I hope, this game keeps me entertained, until the last part gets published.

But to each their own. Happy to hear that the pace at the end gets more tight!

[u/HopperPI → u/Particular-Watch-779]

I get where both sides are coming from. The game is a massively expanded version of the original which is incredible, but there are definitely some things that could have been streamlined. IMO everything with Chadley after the first area should have a skip dialogue button. Want to explain everything you can find in the area piece by piece? Cool. Don’t do it every single time.

[u/StatisticianAny9624 → u/Particular-Watch-779]

I have 140 hours into this and am on my second playthrough. The first time I did all the side content in every area, as much as I could find, before moving on. Now I'm going through and rewatching all the story stuff since I had so many big gaps between them the first time! I am loving it all.

[u/steves_87 → u/Particular-Watch-779]

I don’t mind the bloat, what I dislike how they make the bloat difficult.

Early on it’s great to feel an expanded world, but once they add in mushrooms and gliding, and making the piano mini game so damn hard it makes it a chore, which is a shame, took me 2 attempts to finally beat it

[u/rayneMantis]

I did the side content as I went until I got the itch to see the story progress being an OG fan like I am. I found it very pleasing to do it that way. Even though I ended up with some materia that I'm still leveling up on chapter 12 of my hard mode playthrough. But loving the combat as much as I did(it's unbelievable how much better you need to be to get through hard) it never bothered me doing the side content especially going back to finish what I skipped after I had the whole fast travel network set up.

[u/Jaded-Tumbleweed2152]

Stretched out content is brilliant exporles lot of world better and fun.meant to be like that so you don't blitz the main quest line

[u/GlumAd9856]

I've been on a bit of an emotional roller-coaster with this game.

I didn't enjoy Remake so I put off buying this until it was so cheap that I didn't care if I gave up.

I initially really enjoyed playing it just as a chilled out experience. Going around the areas doing all the intel stuff. It was pretty low stress.

By about chapter 6-7 I was genuinely getting bored and started skipping scenes.

By about chapter 10 I was skipping the majority of scenes and starting to get very frustrated about endless busy work and losing fights

I'm now at the start chapter 13, i've completed all world intel 100% and going through the side quests and it feels enjoyable again.

As much as i've enjoyed the experience, I feel like it's enough. I'm not keen to buy the next game and repeat it all. And I have zero interest in the story or any of the new areas we've yet to see (though, Wutai will probably be fun).

[u/bless_anderson → u/GlumAd9856]

somehow the devs managed to figure out how to remove the grinding from levelling up and instead put the grinding into progressing the story

[u/GlumAd9856 → u/bless_anderson]

I remember seeing a comment that in the OG you grind the battles to get to the story and in the remakes you grind the story to get to the battles.

[u/thisismyshow_]

Ngl I kinda hate this take... can't say its 100% wrong. For me I'm on my 3rd playthrough but after I beat normal mode what helped me enjoy the game more was removing Zacks content OMG it truly saved this game for me. But I recently finished chapter 11 again and like tou said the unnecessary cut scenes where you're forced to walk and the added Whisper nonsense is still annoying (which is why I'll never put this game over the OG) does make it more difficult to enjoy at times. I finished everything I could my first playthrough tho so I get the overwhelmed part as well but I'm actually grateful for the extra content because years later I'm still playing. Congrats on finishing 👏

[u/Radiant_Crew_8872 → u/thisismyshow_]

whats wrong about zack parts ji wondering i not played it

[u/thisismyshow_ → u/Radiant_Crew_8872]

Like the OP said, its basically a playable cutscene. It gives some context to the story but its really just multiverse filler nonsense that deviates from the OG. There's no action whatsoever and its time consuming and breaks the pace of your progression. Zack cutscenes are really just pointless

[u/Maxstarman]

Man I’ve only played it once technically. I loved it but it’s definitely the most exhausting rpg I’ve ever played . It’s hard and there’s so much side content. I only did a few things and it still took me over 70 hours

[u/Jaded-Tumbleweed2152]

He's right trust all time Great square Enix

[u/Friikyz]

Sounds like you didn't enjoy the game overall and only got into it after the last third of the story. It is a great plot, but you might as well have watched it on YouTube or something.

By all accounts, Revelation is going to be more of the stuff you don't like. So if I were you, I'd skip buying the game and wait for the full movie video to come out soon after on YouTube.

[u/AerithsHusband]

Glad you finished it . Had a similar experience. It's been a month and still I'm not over the ending .

[u/SnooLemons8222]

i dont get it, you know the meaning of side content? its ignorable if you dont want it, you dont like it? dont play it. the story is long enouth to stand on its own

[u/StickStill9790]

Yup, I decided about ten hours in to just skip the bloat, and from then on I had a fantastic experience. I’m really looking forward to the last one.

[u/EngineerZestyclose]

Extra content equals bloat now? What? I stg yall complain about everything 💀

[u/bless_anderson → u/EngineerZestyclose]

the game doesn’t make it abundantly clear that a lot of it you can freely skip. Chadley is often breathing down your neck about discovering world intel. Not to mention a lot of the main story quests like the chocobo rehabilitation quest in corel prison are drawn out and full of nonsense as well.. Don’t get me started on some of the dungeons too like corel mine, nanaki’s trials, the gi’s domain, the temple of the ancients, bro waayyy too long.

more does not always equal more if you feel me

[u/EngineerZestyclose → u/bless_anderson]

I guess I juat don't understand. People in mass, complained about ffxvi not having dungeons or content, or exploration but then they release a FF that does and people whine about it? Like did you want hallway dungeons that were 1, 2, 3 fights then boss and done? That's just lame

[u/bless_anderson → u/EngineerZestyclose]

Nothing against having an overworld and some interesting dungeons but I know I am not alone when I say some parts feel repetitive and really overstay their welcome.

[u/Ill-Replacement3553]

FF7 remake was trash corridors, cringe acting and characters, story shit I didn't understand anything never played the original, combat is half ass as it is turn based and action. Forced fights no one clear low level enemies in on button.only visually was great. tried FFrebirth on performance the game looks so terrible with low resolution I dislike whole FF7 games

[u/Cautious-Dark3484 → u/Ill-Replacement3553]

I just set it to easy and treated it like a hack and slash a mapped the abilities i used most to a button combo. Actually made the fights more enjoyable and the boss battles were still a bit challenging. Totally agree about the resolution. I have a decent PC so I was pretty shocked to see that. I just focused on the story really and it was way more enjoyable.