I dunno, I loved the original and find the remake is so over produced it’s boring and tedious.
I haven’t played the remake. But I found the original boring and tedious. I don’t think I would have gotten past the tower defense mini game if I didn’t have speed up from the remaster.
It’s from a different time, when it was new it was amazing. But I’m old and was young when it came out.
I grew up on PS1 RPGs. VIII is in my top 5 favorite games. VII is just so chock full of janky, mandatory mini-games that don’t really work as well as they should.
Having said that, I didn’t get into RPGs until the PS1 and I didn’t start that generation with FFVII.
8 had amazing mechanics but the story was shit and I didn’t like or identify with any of the characters. 7 was much better in that regard.
Considering the controversial mechanics and the protagonist with trust issues, that opinion is pretty opposite of what I expect to hear generally speaking.
I love the mechanics too. But I found the cast to be pretty relatable either for myself or for people I deal with. I thought the story, particularly Squall’s evolution and internal conflict, to be fascinating and cause for self reflection.
In 7, Tifa and Aerith and interesting. Both anesthetics that are polar opposites of their personalities, and story appropriate too. Aerith in particular giving off major “preacher’s daughter” vibes. But outside of those two, I can’t imagine being able to identify with a single other cast member. I didn’t particularly like the story either after Cosmo Canyon.
My memory doesn’t serve me, I don’t remember the mini games. The FF I loved best was 9. My middle child (now an adult) is named after one of the characters.
Making one game a “saga” was pretty messed-up.
I still don’t like the combat system.
That fucked a lot of the game up, aside from the whole “releasing in parts across two console eras”
After 22 years and having finally played Kingdom Hearts, I can say that it feels like faster, less technical version of that.
In FF7 you just mash square (was it square?) against bosses and doge mid-attack, the ATB fills up while waiting and guarding, while in KH you have to wait for openings because the boss throws like 5 combos at you and gives you enough time to hit it with 4 hits and magic, which only fills up after being completely drained.
Edit: (Probably biased opinion because I finished all 13 Kingdom Hearts games for the first time over the past 8 weeks)
I’m absolutely in love with the remakes. Exactly what I wanted out of them and more.
I don’t know why so many people wanted a shot for shot remake. It being different enough allows me to be a kid again like I’m playing for the first time not knowing what’s going to happen. I wish more remakes took this route.
I’m still always going to play the original on a regular basis, and now I have more games in the remakes to do the same to, instead of the remake just replacing the original.
I’ve always loved every bit of FFVII media so I’m heavily biased, but even my girlfriend who hadn’t got into it prior to being with me has loved the remakes. She really enjoyed crisis core too (a personal favourite of mine as well) and almost attempted to 100% it, insane :') haha
