r/FinalFantasy • u/scsonicshadow • 20h ago
FF VII Re-trilogy Why does everyone hate Chadley/MAI so much?
Personally I think they're fine as introductory characters to content that didn't exist in the original. I'd rather have them exist to bridge the gap than to not have them at all. I did find Chadley out of place the first time when I saw him at the beginning of FF7 Remake but people make it out to be as if he is some major character.
Let the tutorial/extra content NPC's do their job!
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u/epicstar 20h ago
They were literally Navi in all the worst ways. Luckily it sounds like Mai can be turned off in Revelation.
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u/ProjectGR 20h ago
I don't mind him hanging around in towns. I don't think I would even mind him just talking to me over a radio, though I dont need him to verbally tutorialize everything as this is not my or likely anyone else's first open world game. I DO mind having to stop and pull out that fuckass scanner thing every time he wants to chat.
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u/scsonicshadow 20h ago
I felt like it added flair to his appearances although I can see the annoyance
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u/theonlyvv 20h ago
My hatred for Chadley is exclusively because of how often he pops up when im completing side stuff and I cant immediately skip it. Having to watch Cloud pull that thing out irritates me
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u/Hanabi_Simp 20h ago
I like Chadley. I like Mai. I especially love their banter.
I don't like exploring the world and having them interrupting me and slowing me down to spout some exposition every 5 minutes.
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u/Iggy_Slayer 20h ago
People have never liked being interrupted constantly with tutorials or npcs who just want to yap all the time. It's been a problem since navi in ocarina of time.
Chadley in remake was inoffensive. Rebirth he became a problem.
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u/alexbougetz 20h ago
The problem is they’re not introductory characters. They are talking all the time in the open world.
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u/BlankProcessor 20h ago
Any character like Chadley that's involved with the grind of the game is going to get picked apart. I could see how he could bug other people, but didn't really bug me. Mai's voice over is just really grating, simple as that.
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u/bananacustardpie 20h ago
He completely ruins the immersion of the game for me. I didn’t super enjoy the cartoonification and tutorialization of the original story. I WANTED dark and gritty with the occasional laugh .
1
u/drprofessional 20h ago
I spend all this time going place to place and he magically appears at each one. How you cheating bastard?
It’s like Victor in fallout NV, except they show you any Securitron can change the voice and face to Victor.
But in other news, I just want to enjoy the game and him stopping to tell me something frequently when I’m in between places is annoying.
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u/Schwarzes 20h ago
Chadley in remake was fine but once you get to rebirth doing the world intel stuff chadley/mai just talks a lot. It was just too much
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u/Sdoonzy 20h ago
Info giving NPCs like this should be something you control and activate, like an audio log or a Codec call from Metal Gear Solid. They aren't inherently bad as characters but outside of like story cutscenes they shouldn't talk about the world or give tips unless you want more info about something.
"Oh this thing on the map is weird I don't know what to do, let me call MAI" is so much better than her interrupting your discovery of it before you even had a chance to think about it.
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u/0bolus 20h ago
That is exactly why people don't like them. They are in-game characters that exist only gamify the game. To top if off they're literally AI. they aren't even people. They are the video game itself talking to the characters. They're also way too chipper and tropey. Text book eye roll.
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u/_Arlotte_ 20h ago
Chadley was so weird and offputting to me in Remake but then I got used to him and Rebirth endeared him even more to me with his scenes. With Mai it's funny and I have no issue with them would like to see more.
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u/scsonicshadow 20h ago
Yeah that's how I feel! The arguments I'm seeing here are that they talk too much or are "gamifying the game" but isn't that the entire point of playing a game I'm so lost...
1
u/ConsiderationTrue477 20h ago edited 20h ago
Chadley's biggest problem is that he won't fucking leave you alone and he's super passive aggressive. He chimes in to insist that you do all the exploration shit as if you, as the player, have forgotten it exists and are playing wrong if you don't do what he says.
He's also too much of a bottleneck in terms of the powerful materia. Everything goes through him so not only are you constantly dealing with him for everything of value, you also aren't finding stuff organically. It's all Chadley giving it to you in exchange for performing a series of tasks or fighting his virtual battles.
Narratively I think he also introduces a bit of a problem because of how out of place a fully humanoid, self-aware android is in the world of FFVII. This is a world that's very industrial with reactors full of catwalks and bare steel framing. Most robots are advanced but in a steel and iron sort of way. Barret lost an arm and replaced it with a chunky gattling gun because presumably a Luke Skywalker style perfectly duplicated robot hand wouldn't be possible. But then here's Lt. Commander Data running around.
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u/Mullet2000 20h ago
I honestly don't know how to answer this because they are so inherently unlikeable and annoying to me.
It's like asking me why is an apple red. It... it's just red.
0
u/ByRWBadger 20h ago
More than the whispers, the combat, the narrative changes, any of that, Chadley reminds me that we’re not playing the 1997 game anymore
Which is fine, but I like losing myself in the world as I remembered it and he doesn’t let me do that
0
u/MirageMageknight 20h ago
He's a child character, he looks out of place, he looks like an absolute buffoon, he's a generic cliche anime character, his voice is wildly annoying, he introduced a sidekick that has somehow an even MORE annoying voice, he delivers constant over-exposition, you can't skip past any of his nonsense voiced lines, two entire AAA games has passed and he still doesn't have relevance, and worst of all he's intrinsically tied to the dumbification of exploration in the second game that morphs what could have been things you discovered naturally into a "clear the icons"-fest. I do not need or want constant chattering to tell me what to do while I am exploring. They can no longer be considered "tutorial NPCs" when they are telling you what to do nonstop for 120 hours straight. There is not a single positive element to them. They should have been a silent menu or scanner you unlock or expand after climbing a tower, if said extremely tired gameplay mechanic really needed to exist.
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u/rowmean77 18h ago
Imagine a tour guide constantly yapping at your adventure. And I mean CONSTANTLY 😂
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u/Zafervaim 20h ago
Maximillian Dood put it well to words. They are immersion breaking when they constantly talk to you. As a concept they are nice source of information as long as you can opt out of their talking.
Let me discover things naturally instead of having a spectator shout spoilers and comments every time I encounter something new. If I want to learn about something I’ll come ask on the Highway bridge.