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 What is... a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Final Fantasy VII Remake is a game made of dreams and wishful thinking. It's what everyone's been asking for or about since 1995, when people saw the game on the Nintendo 64 and were like "we need to remake this thing". It's what everyone kinda wanted once they saw Knights of the Round in FFXIV, and also Gold Saucer in FFXIV, and so on and so forth. If you're here, there are very high chances you've been waiting or following this thing at least since 2015. And here we are. First I thought of doing a straight non-comparative blind playthrough, but I don't think that would work. Truth is, if you're here you probably have played the original, or read my old LP, and you know the 97 game inside-out. Hell, you probably know more about the actual FF7R than me by the time this OP is up. So friends, let's skip the filler, and address the elephant in the room: We're starting from where we stopped - the '97 game. LP Rules * This thread expects you to know the original game to some extent, but not the new one, so pay attention: SPOILERS OF THE OLD GAME ARE ALLOWED. There's a reason for this: This game expects you to know FF7, Kitase has said publicly that by now everyone knows the original and thus the game was designed to a world where the original has been fully spoiled. If you are reading this, and you have never played or experienced the original in any manner, please consider reading my Let's Play of the original. * My first LP playthrough will be the live notes of my first blind play through the game. That means I might revisit the game after, and do an in-depth analysis of it, but first I'm going blind. By blind I mean I haven't been as of yet spoiled anything, not even the final trailer. As for the posting rules, there are currently three threads for FFVII, one in GBS, one in Games and a Spoiler thread in Games. Our thread is gonna play exactly like the original LP - We can only talk about content we've seen in the thread. So if Sephiroth dies at the end of Game 1 or something stupid like that happens, there are three other threads to discuss it. Don't worry I don't think it will take another 4 years to finish this. * NO NEW FF7R-EXCLUSIVE SPOILERS. Apparently there's a bunch of stuff in the Remake that's not present in the original. Don't talk about anything beyond what we've seen. There's a thread for FF7R Spoilers here. * Comparisons are unavoidable, but I'll play the game as is, for what it is. As much as we like to make fun of Nomura, everyone worked a lot on this, let's see what it's got with a positive mindset and laugh as I fail miserably at that! Thread Rules * As before, talking about other Final Fantasies or J-RPGs is allowed. You can go off-topic as much as you want. * As an addendum, do not talk about other posts. Like "People need to stop discussing X". As long as it's not a terrible nitpick debates, you can go crazy on tangents. * Again, NO SPOILERS. This includes fake spoilers, wink-winking about spoilers, or eliminating possibilities about which we can't draw a conclusion yet. Last time we did great with this folks, let's pull off an encore. Support the LP! If you like the FF7R LP or if you've enjoyed my writings in the past, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Every contribution really counts. https://www.patreon.com/elentorlp So without further ado, let's start shall we? Content: Opening: Update 1 - Photobombing Mission - [Bonus] Chapter 1: Update 2 - Breaking into the Reactor - [Bonus] Update 3 - "May-Ko" Update 4 - Exposition - [Bonus] Update 5 - Fire Hazard Update 6 - Reactor 1 was an Inside Job - [Bonus] Chapter 2: Update 7 - Cult of Personality Update 8 - Aftermath - [Bonus] Update 9 - Zé Farofa Update 10 - Flowers Update 11 - Filler - [Bonus] Update 12 - Moral High Ground Elentor fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 14:52
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Update 1 - Photobombing Mission Bonus Next Okay listen, we waited really long for this thing to come out, so we are gonna savor every moment of it, and that includes the opening. The opening for FF7R is a very extended version of the original, showing Midgar before crisis. There are three ways to see the opening. The one from the demo is just the original cut. The one in the official Youtube Channel looks amazing. Let's load up the game!  Why, that's certainly a gorgeous background. Unrelated to it, have you ever wanted to see every major company logo in the world paraded in a single page? Well there we go! https://www.world-creator.com/  I'm just saying, that company has a really impressive resume is all.  The clouds reveal Midgar's silhouette. Not gonna lie, that gave me goosebumps. Also, it's pretty funny how in order to preserve the scale from the original, Shinra Building just really has to become an Everest-sized behemoth. Seriously, look at the size of that thing compared to the mountains.  Oh, huh. That's an interesting choice, to add the credits to the opening. A bit old-school, but I figure all these people deserve recognition.  NOMURAAAA   Tag yourself. I am the GIGANTIC TUBE passing through the building to the right.  I know this is a weird comparison, but I've always wanted a Midgar SimCity skin pack ever since I played the thing. Remember how SimCity 2k had support for skins and mods?  So the thing about these credits is just how shiny they are. There's a huge flash of teal light every time they show up.  After a while I just gave up on rewatching the cinematic and just paid attention to the names, so in that regard mission accomplished.  Sometimes I have to believe Uematsu is just playing a character at this point. Everything about him is too friendly and nice. "Dog Ear" has got to be the most innocent-sounding name ever. Like, there's nothing evil about dog ears. Your memory of dog ears are either you petting them and seeing your buddy's reaction, or your poor thing getting sick and you taking care of it. There's no single soul who's ever been like "a dog ear cut me once".  So, the new opening is pretty on the nose, and that's fine by me. It's a tour through Midgar's decadence disguised as ascension.  We all know exactly what that hand is. I know you know it. You want the catharsis, right? Here:   Wheee!  The dying flower is a nice symbol, because while it shows how devastating Mako reactors are even in their infancy, it also contrasts with Aeris' ability to - in a far more dire future - grow them.  The first time I watched this cinematic I thought of just how much fan-service there was.  But honestly, as much as I typically don't like in-your-nose fan-service, this was more than fine. This is what we've been curious about, wasn't it? To see all this world rendered to glorious modern standards. Everything is there. Even the little square area with sand around the slide. It's clear that there was a huge attention to detail involved in this cinematic, and I'm going to shamelessly savor it.     Come on.  aaaaaaaaaaa  Seriously  Aerith, startled by the souls who keep shouting their name and kinda ruining the scene direction, turns her face away from the really bright Mako.  All jokes aside, I guess this is where the differences start. Throughout the entire opening we get to hear "Estuans Interius, Ira Vehementis". Aeris instead of just confidently walking out of the alley is startled by something.  Complete with her tripping and dropping the flowers.  Here we can see the business goes very well, as Aerith shows off her $170 bucks necklace. quote:Material: Leather, Gold Plated Silver, Freshwater Pearl If it's gold plated, did it have to be silver? Couldn't it be like, anything else? These are the questions that keep me awake at night, as I look at that price tag, the "WAITING LIST" button and cry.     Hell yeah. If you don't get goosebumps you have no soul. Wait, what is that huge building with a gigantic A and the tube doing at the left corner. Did people mass produce these things? Can you imagine how devalued those buildings at the edge of the city got? "You now have an exciting view to this iron wall".  Honestly, I hope they never fix the sheer absurdity of the Shinra Building size. I'm pretty sure this thing is the size of a few Star Destroyers back to back.  Photobomb this. It's hard not to be pumped. This intro is timeless.  I know I joked about this 10 years ago but it's still as relevant as ever: Midgar still retains its mystical size-changing properties. Just a few screenshots ago, the city looked huge before the reactors. From the original to FF7AC to this, I feel like adapting Midgar to the scale of the cartoonish, technology-limited, silhouette-defining original opening is a nightmare to the artists.  So yeah, this was an entire update about the opening. I'm not sorry, I had words to say.  And I'm gonna say 'em.  Let's do this. Bonus Next Elentor fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 14:53
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Update 1 Bonus - The Loud Elephant in the Room Oh, before we're done, we do need to have the talk. The one about Anime Grunt Noises.  Truth be told, the JP VA in this game is... surprisingly restrained. For real, let's compare the English and Japanese versions: ENGLISH JAPANESE This is held true for the rest of the game as far as I've seen. Y'all ask me, I just don't know what's going on. Maybe after working so long in the industry, I reckon the VAs got a serious case of the Dissidias. Maybe the VA Directors thought it'd be nice to give more work for their colleagues and get the VAs a nicer paycheck for all their troubles. I'm not judging. We all gotta pay our bills. And sometimes the only way to pay your bills is to make anime noises.
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Apr 11, 2020 15:22
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Doc M posted:Sounds great, where do I apply? Making anime noises probably pays a lot better than translation work. I'm not a fan of action games in general, so it was a huge surprise to find enjoyment in this game's combat. It's not perfect or everything I've ever wanted, but somehow I found it enjoyable, which was a huge surprise since I had no such luck with FFXV. Can't wait for the PC version where I can mod in a turn-based version. zenguitarman posted:S Q U A T S Q U A D Never stop squatting the squatting never ends even in quarantine always squat at home always squat. Mega64 posted:Can't wait to follow this LP for the next decade as SE drip-feeds the entire game.  Fedule posted:ain't never ever ever gettin' off this train we on Kitase posted:I think in order to be something that continues to be loved and followed by future generations we have to keep updating it as we're doing now. And in 10 years time, 20 years time, it may need to be done again! So even if this is the only thing that I do in the rest of my career, I won't be disappointed." Hahah... hah... hahah... 
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Apr 11, 2020 16:14
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Hi everyone. For your maximum enjoyment, please turn on the subtitles while watching these two videos.
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Apr 11, 2020 16:20
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Considering the episodic nature of the game, SE will release one episode a year or some poo poo Now who's being optimistic
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Apr 12, 2020 01:58
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Can I do it too friends GROUND FLOOOOR
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Apr 12, 2020 03:43
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Update 2 - Breaking into the Reactor Previous Bonus Next     Everything about this is essentially "holy carp, look at the graphics". We're at that point where real-time graphics are not only way past whatever pre-renders could achieve in 1997, but drat, this game can be so pretty.  The game starts with a perfect replica of the original. Everything is the same here, the two enemies -  The very camera angle, and so on:   And thus we uhh, have some battle. The battle system is... well, you either know how it is already, or you will not learn how it works through screenshots, that much I can tell you.  But it's an action RPG. You smash the button, Cloud attacks. Cloud now has two modes, "Punisher" which counter-attacks when you defend and has heavier attacks, and "Operator" which can do a Dark Souls dodge roll with no I-Frames. Cloud starts as Operator because he is Smooth.  And just like the original, we get to Level 7 with our first battle.  If you go back to the old game's screenshot, you'll see that there's a clock tower at the background. And the red light. Gosh the attention to detail is crazy.  Looking up we get to see the dark sky, and the Reactor. I just stood here for a few -  - admiring the details.  Right. So you'll probably see me talking a lot about the environment in this update because it's been by far one of the highlights of the game for me. Immediately out of the train we go through a train station, and nice urban level design is something that I like very much so.  In this case the station seems to add an excuse for more combat, as the game gives you constant tutorial messages on how to play it. It feels slow even though everything is frontloaded because it's just so much.  I do find pretty funny how the guards just ignore everyone and go straight for you at the back though. This whole invasion could be over in two seconds.  So yea, this entire area is a glorified tutorial. Which to be honest is kinda...weird because by the end of the first reactor I felt like the ramp up in difficulty for a first dungeon was a bit wild.  Oh, a nice little touch is that the clocks show it's about 21:13. The station times for the next trains match it, by showing the next takeoffs at 21:18 and 21:30.  I love all the little details. Don't mind the corpses.  Obligatory Video Game Mechanic: Chests. These are the ones we open.   This is just too cute.  And also, different chests that you can blow up to get you items.  Second floor of the station. You can still see the bodies down there.   One of the things that seem immediately obvious is that Jessie is way more of a main character in the remake. Don't spoil me on whether I'm wrong or not, but for the record: Elentor posted:I predict that Jessie survives or there's an alternative timeline where you can save her.  And also, that Jessie is uh, incredibly thirsty. By the time of this post I've only had the first encounter with Aeris, but I'm almost sure that they took a chunk out of her in the original and put it into Jessie instead. Or maybe I'm wrong and this game is just a bunch of very horny characters, who know. (At the time of this post I'm at early Chapter 3, just outside the train).   Biggs: "Cloud. Cloud Strife."Biggs: "And he isn't a SOLDIER anymore."Biggs: "Still, he's a professional - unlike the rest of us."  I feel sorry for Wedge, he's so positive.  Cloud, well, he is a huge douche. Props here. If you haven't played the original: One of the things feared the most was Cloud's characterization. The main character is... a bit of a very complex persona in the original, but since then was delegated to being a brooding depressed character with little self-esteem in the Expanded Universe and retroactively that notion worked its way back to the perception of the original. Cloud here, however, is exactly like he was in the original: A huge, dorky douche. This is our main character, folks.  And Barret really hates him.  I'm Barret. Look at well rendered everything about me is.  My favorite hobbies are facing away from people and pushing Cloud sideways.      Jessie works her magic, and we're in. Beat by beat.     Some iconic stuff folks. Previous Bonus Next 
Elentor fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 12, 2020 04:49
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Update 2 Bonus - Ads Tag yourself. I'm Elegance.
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Apr 12, 2020 05:01
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Pretty sure they're selling Minoxidil
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Apr 12, 2020 05:11
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Psycho Knight posted:I'm only five hours in on my game. Gonna have to do my best to try and stay ahead of the LP. Don't worry, given my current rate of progress maybe I was wrong and it'll take me another four years. It takes every hour of gameplay 8 hours to transfer files to my usb drive, who knows why! If the game takes 30 hours to beat, this gives you at least 11 days of real time to do whatever.
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Apr 12, 2020 14:42
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Psycho Knight posted:Are you using the screenshot/record feature on the PS4 itself? Sorry to hear about that dawg. Yeah, I'm recording as video because the screenshot button has a gigantic delay. So I'm recording using the ps4 feature then screenshotting it after it's in my PC.
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Apr 12, 2020 14:52
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VagueRant posted:Hey Elentor, it's great to see you back! I think I still associate your voice with Aps for some reason! Yeah uhhhm about that. I hope you don't think I was playing a con or something. I tried to make a friendly character that would cause as little debate as possible. So I let you people run with your imagination on how I am a tall nice giant lol. And some people in the original thread were just holding really hard not to spoil the joke. quote:All this how-Elentor-looks-like chat is making me giggle pretty much. Truth is I'm a skinny blasian who looks and sounds probably the opposite of how a lot of people here imagine me to. I talk fast and I can't shut up. But I was never a huge fan of how OTT Internet personalities are, especially on video, and I didn't want to be seen as that, so I made something else up. I thought it would make more sense to my readers to imagine me as they did than to picture me as I am.
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Apr 12, 2020 15:08
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Chillgamesh posted:Do you think the Shinra hair tonic has mako in it? Do you think people are rubbing human souls into their scalps to make their hair lustrous? Barret: "Can you hear the cry of the Planet, Cloud?" Cloud, hearing souls screaming in agony right on top of his head: "No lol, are you crazy"
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Apr 12, 2020 15:43
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Aumanor posted:What's your approach to soundtrack in this LP Elentor? I don't think I can realistically post about it right now, I don't even think the official OST is out. I considered manually recording the music that isn't available yet and posting on YT myself but the last thing I want is to get a strike. I will probably write about this twice especially since I know there is a Hard Mode. Right now this is the world's slowest live-blogging about a blind run. A bunch of things that I find stupid early on might turn out to be genius and vice-versa and I don't know yet. I know how much people wanted more attention to the music in my original LP and I intend to do it once it's more accessible.
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Apr 12, 2020 19:26
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I just want more Vagrant Story, is it too much to ask?
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Apr 13, 2020 00:21
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Xander77 posted:I've only ever read Azure's LP, which (like most of his LPs) made the game look dull and confusing af. VS is a really good candidate of a game for a love-letter LP - the game has many confusing mechanics and boring puzzles, and through a LP you can theoretically filter out all of it. I don't think it's any surprise going by my avatar that Vagrant Story is one of my favorite games. The Lone Badger posted:Is there a remake of I ? I heard the new releases have huge combat revamps to make it easier, but don't quote me on this.
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Apr 13, 2020 01:58
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I'll write the next update as soon as I can but I just want to say that my favorite Final Fantasy scene of all time so far, and I mean, every Final Fantasy, happens early on in Chapter 3.
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Apr 13, 2020 14:04
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ultrafilter posted:Has Square said how many episodes the remake will be? I'm assuming 3 or 4, probably 3.
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Apr 13, 2020 23:26
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Schwartzcough posted:Elentor, I appreciate you doing this, but you're going to need to post at least two updates a day to satiate my appetite. Thanks a bunch. Hey, sorry about that. My arm's been acting up. You know, we're gonna have an encore of 10 years ago. I have got everything for a few updates and I know exactly what I'm gonna write, just waiting for it to relax a bit.
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Apr 14, 2020 02:28
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Eshettar posted:About the prologue. The little girl who stops what she's doing and casts a solemn gaze into the distance...was that supposed to be Aerith or does the prologue take place long before she was born? I think it's a coincidence or at least should be. I haven't seen her flashback in the Remake yet, but in the original by the time Aeris escapes to Midgar, she is adopted in the slums and that opening scene happens in the upper plate. I'm assuming the reactors were already in place? I actually have no idea of that timeline.
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Apr 14, 2020 17:01
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I do want to ask you all a question going forward - I didn't expect people who didn't play the original. My goal was to do the first LP expecting everyone knows the gist. Do you folks want me to go through the motions with a recap of what's happening?
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Apr 14, 2020 20:57
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Update 3 - "May-Ko" Previous Next  So let's talk slightly more in-depth about the combat system, because it's not like I'm like, super totes amazing at it.  At any given time, as long as Cloud is not animation-locked (and this is really annoying because I'd like to queue actions), you can switch between Smooth Operator and The Punisher. In Operator Mode you get to do a no I-Frames roll and a low damage attack, while in Punisher Mode you're extremely slow, can counter upon defending, and deals more damage. The trash mobs so far have very little HP, so it... kinda doesn't matter much. At least early on there is quite the gap in HP and difficulty between the generic trash mob and something harder like a Mini-Boss.  You can fill up to two ATB bars per character. Each ATB bar allows you to use one action such as using items, materia etc. Braver is no longer a Limit, instead it's one of Cloud's "Abilities". Cloud starts with two abilities, Braver to deal a lot of damage, and Focused Thrust to greatly increase the stagger bar. Staggering works just like in FF13 etc.  Getting slightly ahead of myself, Cloud starts with Fire, and Barret with Lightning and Cure. While this really helps the early game dynamic and I think this combination is better game-design-wise, it is pretty weird not to have Cloud casting Lightning. You know.  Live Notes: drat everything is so pretty. First time I played through this area I spent so long just back-tracking and appreciating it.   Otherwise this area is mostly more of the same.  There is a very strong loop here, linear walk, someone mentions how we got company, and Cloud fights. To be honest I felt like every excuse for combat was needed. The first time I played this area I felt so lost with the controls that I desperately needed every opportunity to practice. Also, there's no such thing as random encounters like in the original, at least not that I could find. There seems to be a set amount of enemies to kill in the Reactor. So no leveling up to 99 I'm afraid.  By now I was kinda laughing at how everyone is on their merry way and the security officers really want a piece of Cloud.  Tubes have never looked better. So, back to mechanics - Limits are still in. Cloud's first Limit is Cross-Slash. I'm not gonna lie, each character having their own auto-attack mechanic, unique "Skill" for the lack of better word (Cloud switches Operator/Punisher modes, Barret alternates between releasing a big blast/charging his gun), unique "Abilities" and then Limits is kinda confusing. There are ~four character-specific mechanics.  Anyway we get to the iconic Reactor entrance.     I swear I tried, but the camera angles aren't fantastic here.     I don't think I'll ever fully get used to just how unnecessarily huge the Shinra HQ is, but other than that I love the sense of scale in this so much.  Shut up Barret. Barret is very much a dork. His "I don't like Cloud" has been amped up to eleven here.  I think we all know exactly what comes next.  By now I don't really expect the entire game to be like this, but I do find interesting that every obligatory encounter in the Shinra reactor is to some extent "handcrafted".  This right here is what we all asked for, isn't it? Mopey Cloud sucks.  This is also the order in which Biggs and Jessie hack the terminals in the original ok I'll shut up.  You know, this might be a case of me forgetting things of the original (and there's so much in that game I find myself rereading my own stuff and going "wait, I didn't know that and I didn't know I knew that"), but I don't remember if Jessie ever talks much about her contact, or if her contact is Reeve, or if her contact is the person who betrays us and reveals the location of AVALANCHE.  It's one of those things that really got me wondering in the Remake. Anyway -  I loving love that the last room before the elevator has these lockers with safety suits and warnings. I know, small details.  lol  Aaaaaaaaahahahaha  Wait, what the gently caress  This was not in the demo. Go back.  This is too soon Mr. Square-Enix, pull back  Can you imagine the people who has to conciliate Tifa being a cowgirl with a bar that contains a giant sign written TEXAS and the fact Nibelheim is the most Norse of all Norse references.  "Sooo, it's a reference to Niflheim, has some sort of European architecture..."  -Yes, go on. "But it has to look like a Sergio Leone movie..." -Yes, yes.  "So that Niflheim, containing creepy misty mountains and the home of a man named Cloud, can be the home of a cowgirl who's a fighter wearing gloves engraved with norse runes who becomes a bartender" -Perfect.  "Maybe I really am misremembering home."  "Tifa and I used to eat Korean BBQ back at Nibelheim."  Unfortunately we are interrupted by Barret's favorite activity.  So yeah this caught me off-guard. I was not expecting a Nibelheim flashback so soon. Previous Next Elentor fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Apr 17, 2020 |
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Apr 15, 2020 21:28
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In the real world Jessie and co. would be having panic attacks in that mission and be deafened and shaking from all the shooting. At best someone would be sweating and panically going "what if they find us oh my god we're gonna die they already know we're here". None of those people are remotely realistic in any sense. What I can tell you though is that if there's anyone as horny as Jessie in the middle of her first bombing mission, that person is certainly insane enough to be wearing boob plates for cosmetic reasons.
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Apr 16, 2020 02:26
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Med School posted:Isn’t there a long established history of metal boob plate armor in the fantasy genre? I feel like they’re just walking in the footsteps of their forefathers. I could swear at some point the canon was that Sword's holes were to attach it to his back and not materia slots. Someone please find the source and tell me I was not hallucinating this.
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Apr 16, 2020 02:30
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rbakervv posted:I think it's the Ce'Nedra effect. Alternatively one can read my poorly-illustrated CYOA, where there are no boob plates. The main character just wears a black suit and a femur as a weapon. Also, materias. I shamelessly stole materias.
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Apr 16, 2020 03:39
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LiefKatano posted:There is kind of a key difference between FF13 stagger and FF7R stagger. Hey, thanks for the info.
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Apr 16, 2020 16:16
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Speaking of funbucks, friendly reminder that the $2,500 Sephiroth and Cloud watches sold out almost immediately.
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Apr 16, 2020 21:17
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Dash Rendar posted:how many did you buy? I'm too poor for that stuff 
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Apr 17, 2020 00:16
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Oh you're right, everything from the official store is for sale on eBay with a considerable markup.
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Apr 17, 2020 00:30
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Update 4 - Exposition Previous Bonus Next Boy oh boy, that was a weird turn of events. But now that we've entered the elevator everything should be fi-  Uhhhhh  Mmmmm this is not the reactor I don't think.   Heidegger probably surprised a bunch of people that instead of being like an oversized Palmer, he looks like this. A lot closer to his concept art:   The president just looks profoundly bored. This is the basis behind most of my theories for this game.  Right, this is new to me. I'm almost sure in the original AVALANCHE didn't do anything like that, or at least there are no mentions of it. I wonder if this is gonna be Chekhov's Gunned later on.  I am, however, pondering at how much power Shinra has here. Could Shinra just kill us at will? Would Cloud survive regardless?  I really like the work they put into the body language. Cloud is extremely cool and collected. He finds a position to stay in, and waits. Jessie is relatively carefree and energetic. Barret is anxious, nervous. He keeps walking in circles. These body languages are more or less consistent throughout this Chapter. It's a pretty cool thing.    This is Barret's tirade from the original, trying to convert Cloud to his cause.   I laughed at Jessie's reactions in the remake. First they look at each other, then she shrugs, then -  She just covers her ears as Barret gets really loud. You know, this may be just me, but I never saw Jessie, Wedge and Biggs like uh, strong-willed people in the original. My interpretation wasn't as much "these people really want to follow this cause" as much as "Barret just convinced them". This is just how they play in my head.  In a weird way these characters seem even more out of place in the Remake. I like all of them but they just don't feel like they should be here. Don't take me wrong, I don't think this is an issue per se, people find themselves in places they regret all the time in the real world.  But compared to how exaggerated Barret is, Wedge, Biggs and Jessie just look like friends who really like wearing bandanas.     My first thoughts here were "holy poo poo, they actually wrote Cloud as a terrible douchebag".  Jessie just turns to him in disbelief. This scene is glorious.  I thing I got kinda stunned. My main worries at this point is how much they'd miss the point of the characterization, and while I still have my doubts about Aeris (don't spoil!) right now I was like "did they just OutCloud the OG Cloud?"   So yeah this was a pretty amusing exchange.  Speaking of the original, I can't believe they kept these goofy-rear end designs. You know, these:   We get it Barret.  Seriously, look at how goofy these things look compared to the rest of Shinra's equipment. And yes, yes, I know there is sillier. Still, they look kinda like toys. I had put this on the budget of "designs that are gonna change because they're too silly" and to my surprise they're here.   lol  This is straight up played as a comedy.  *Canned Laughter Track* And you know, I'm fine with it.  So as you guessed these things exist to give Barret his long-range role.  The Camera is not... amazing. It's one of the things I don't like so far. Right, Barret like I said has a long range attack and an overcharge ability. After that you can just hold Triangle to recharge that ability if you want, and roleplay Megaman.   We're in the area equivalent to this:   By the way if you've noticed these updates together are all considerably bigger than, you know, the first Mako Reactor in the original, that's because this whole thing is a lot bigger.  By skipping the dialogues and just rushing you can speedrun this entire chapter very, very quickly, but if you're paying attention to stuff the amount of new dialogue, cutscenes and voice acting pads the playtime a lot.  This right here is the videogamest thing.   Oh come on. Previous Bonus Next Elentor fucked around with this message at 12:44 on May 27, 2020 |
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Apr 17, 2020 14:42
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Update 4 Bonus - Jessie's Thirst Right, all you people who got the demo early warned the world about this, and the world did not believe. You are vindicated.  There is no way we're not gonna acknowledge this, especially since Jessie plays like a main character who totally isn't going to die (and I still have that theory, don't spoil it) and she gets a ton of exposition.  So yeah, Jessie is... a character. It almost feels like this game really wants to set the ground up for, I imagine, Honey Bee Inn. You know, get the player used right from the start.  "FF7 had a lot of sexual innuendos in it and the character models barely resembled human beings even in the abstract sense."    "No, seriously, the original is hosed up, just imagine what this game is gonna be like."  "You're gonna have to be desensitized to this kind of stuff if you want to have any hope of getting through Wall Market." Elentor fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Apr 17, 2020 |
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Apr 17, 2020 14:55
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M_Gargantua posted:I really enjoy the character work they did with Jesse Biggs and Wedge. They provide needed contrast between the broody Cloud and Barret being himself early on. The Jesse thirst is over the top, but I thought it works really well and fits with how excessive everything else is in the game. Chew that scenery! Yeah I essentially had to get used to it. My first reaction was "wow this is a bit too much" especially given the context.
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Apr 17, 2020 22:39
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Dr Pepper posted:Final Fantasy VII is not a subtle game. Yeah. I prefer changes that go in this direction than sanitizing the thing. Besides I think this is the first time we see some of these characters turbocharged instead of replaced with new personalities.
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Apr 18, 2020 00:33
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OddHaberdasher posted:In the expanded universe for the original game (most notably Before Crisis) there were two organizations that called themselves AVALANCHE at separate times. Both were anti-Shinra, anti-Mako ecoterrorist organizations, but the first incarnation was more extreme than the second, with kidnappings and assassinations used regularly, including attempts on President Shinra's life. Towards the end of Before Crisis, it got to the point where one of it's founding members seized control of the group with the aim of using a powerful summon to annihilate all life and return it to the Lifestream, though the Turks (who were the protagonists of that game) stopped him in time and scattered AVALANCHE. Thanks s lot for the write-up, I had no idea about some of these things!
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Apr 18, 2020 15:23
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魔晄使いTai!
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Apr 19, 2020 03:44
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Heir03 posted:Elentor, your FFVII LP is one of my top 5 all time favorite SSLPs. I also learned a lot about Brazilian culture, which always fascinated me anyways. I am extremely excited for this LP! Thank you 
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Apr 19, 2020 23:13
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so I have to wait a bit to play this anyways.
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I got the engine right 
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Apr 21, 2020 16:32
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Hi everyone. First of all I'm very sorry that this is something you're reading. Personal life issues are not fun. So out of respect for your time, I'll make it as short as possible. I'll be homeless in a few days. Being jobless + homophobia is not a great combo. This means my LP is on a very indefinite hiatus. Since I have no idea how I'll deal with Covid in that situation, normally I'd leave you with spoilers but... I only got to Chapter 3 in the FFVIIR. So there is not much to say. I was hoping to catch up on the LP before playing again for a more authentic blind play experience. * Thank you to the goon who donated a ps4 and ff7r for me to play this. * I thought the whole Aeris scene was super bizarre. * My theory so far is that the dementors look too much like langoliers and I think they're some reference to them. I think they're either souls of cetras or literal langoliers going mad because sephiroth changed time with some materia or something silly like that and this is why the remake is different. * My favorite scene so far is Cloud going back miserable to his apartment. The low camera angle is just perfect and the whole thing has a nice contrast of gritty realism with the super anime character. If any of you follow my CYOA, I left spoilers for it here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3894977&pagenumber=73#post504298330 I'm sorry that this is such a short lived LP and that it ends on such a down note. I really am. Thank you all for your love and support over the past 10 years. Never in my life would I have thought that writing a LP could have resulted in so much love and warmth from people from all around the globe. I have no words to express how much that meant for me. I really don't. Please stay safe during such hard times, and apologies once again for the disappointment. I know some of you have expecting this for a while. I have no words to how much I'm sorry. Best regards friends. Elentor fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 07:36
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Hey folks, thank you for your support. Honestly, I never expected to receive this much support. What could have been a life-threatening situation or at best a situation that would take months to deal with, I managed to brute force out of it and be safe. I don't think I can express my gratitude easily. I'm safe, back at my place, still sorting things out for a few days. Haven't played FF7R since, I'm still early in the game, just where I was before. Somehow, I'm still unspoiled of the FF7R stuff (all I know is that they exist). There's a certain poetry in that this time I'm the one avoiding spoilers. You are all the best. I thanked you for your patience multiple times in the original for my irregular updates (now you sorta know why :V) and the likes, and I thank you for your patience again. I read the comment in every donation, and I'm proud that some of the things I wrote had so much value to you. SA is the best community of which I've been part, and you're all the reason.
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Apr 28, 2020 21:48
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