• The Turks, and Reno in particular in the original, absolutely got off too easy canonically. Reno is directly responsible for dropping the plate, which killed more people than Rude did this time because nobody had time to evacuate, and he did so knowing that's exactly what dropping the plate would do. I love Reno's character outside of that moment, but to pretend it doesn't exist is kinda crazy, which the narrative itself does by turning him into Team Rocket/comic relief for the rest of Compilation. "Hey, remember this guy who did a 9/11? He's funny now!" maybe kinda worked in 1997, but today would have been EXTREMELY tone-deaf -- which is why I think that a) they made Rude do it instead of super-fan-favorite Reno, and b) gave the two main Turks explicit dialogue where they seem iffy on what they're doing. Humanizing Reno was one of the changes I called my shot on pre-release, and they essentially did that here.
• I don't know how many more ways it's possible to say that the Whispers are both not a thumb in the eye of the game's existing fanbase but also a metaphorical commentary on the pressures to leave the original more or less exactly intact with no changes; in an interview linked in this very thread the stated motivation of the team was to create a game that was as meaningful and moving to a new generation as FF7 was for them, and OG FF7 has ports on current gen consoles. To accomplish their goal they were always going to have to do something different. I don't think it was a hastily-made decision or that corporate suits had much if any input on the direction FF7R took. It is a passion project for a lot of these people, and it shows. "Cautious optimism about where it goes from here" is 100% the appropriate reaction in my mind.
• Seeing what each character's unique mechanic would be is part of why I'm so excited for a sequel, but materia is so flexible of a system I'm hesitant to think of the FF7 crew in terms of "classes." Like, I think during development Cloud was supposed to be a magic knight, or whatever. So instead I'll say I think the remainder of the cast will go like: Red XIII (melee, unique action is a pounce that puts normal enemies in Bound and just does flat damage to bosses instead); Yuffie (ranged/melee depending on equipped weapon, unique action is a ninja teleport with follow-ups); Cait Sith (ranged, unique action is a chargeable Shout that does different party-wide buffs the longer you hold the button); Cid (melee, unique action is a Final Fantasy jump); Vincent (ranged, unique action is a claw swipe that steals a small amount of HP and MP and slightly builds his Limit)

Klisejo fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Apr 17, 2020