#HE. INTERGRADE. FF7 INTERGRADE

[noxtivagus]

AAAAAA GAMING ORG INTRO N I'M SO SHY BUT OMG 🥺🫶🏼

[emeraldblonde]

Zack Fair in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission

[andrewwtca]

something that's stuck with me in Intergrade is that they kept showing Wutaian culture through the da-chao beans, characterizing them by saying only Wutaian's can bite them. it's how Yuffie and Sonon bond, with her finally feeling like she's with a piece of her home, the place she's fighting for.

but when Sonon dies...

he can't chew the beans anymore. because he's not Wutaian anymore.

he's just an older brother now, finally reuniting with his sister.

[phantomyre]

following the train of thought that EC-vincent is a different timeline from rebirth-vincent, does that suggest that the entirety of EC could be just /one particular timeline's series of events/ instead of The History? or is this divergence just for vincent?

for example- does it make sense to consider EC-glenn to be different from rebirth-glenn & etc etc?

(wanted to get your thoughts if you had any)

Hey there, and thank you for the question! I do have a few thoughts on it, albeit I try to approach it based on what we've been given across all recent information so it might sound a tad generic. Long post... (sorry, I got carried away lol)

[Preface] As is already obvious, it would appear that of all the main party members, Vincent's the only odd-ball out in terms of his appearance. He doesn't 'belong' to any timeline in EC unlike all the other characters who are from Remake/Intergrade/Rebirth. And I think this is for a reason. I've seen the excuse of perhaps Vincent was just modeled a long time ago, but frankly I don't think the dev team are that shallow. They've had Vincent's model for about a couple years, give or take, or at the very least his design. And they know fans would pick apart character appearances and inconsistencies if something (like Vincent) was out of place. And yet they chose to go out of their way with a totally different take than what we see in Rebirth. It would have been a lot easier to port in Vincent's Rebirth design into EC, but Nomura decided to painstakingly create Vincent from scratch for EC. What's more, we also get a completely different Galian Beast, which is also another extensive process to create. Now granted-- perhaps what we see in EC was what we were going to get in Rebirth but got scrapped, and Nomura may have been so married to Vincent's EC design that he wanted to include it instead. However, if there's anything we have learned about the FF7 dev team (and Nomura), it's that there's always some nuanced reason behind it aside from 'I spent so much time on this; just add it already'. Anyone who has been in the FF7 fandom for some length of time will know you can't always trust what the devs say 100%. They are artists, and they like to be a bit mysterious. All this is to say... I just think there's a potential lore reason for why they decided to give Vincent this unique treatment of being time-line vague. Rebirth has shown us that there isn't a single timeline but multiple worlds that diverge and merge, depending on the choices being made by those who can affect fate. So at least within Rebirth's 'world', we know that multiple worlds can exist in tandem. This concept isn't exclusive to Rebirth, however. It is also indicated (by Sephiroth) at the very beginning of Ever Crisis...

During special story-based events where a portal is involved, you'll notice that they will always have something along the lines of 'another possibility' being repeated. So in essence, while there's nothing official that states EC is its own world or timeline, we are being told that the Lifestream is capable of weaving many 'possibilities', or alternative worlds. And this is front and center with Ever Crisis and Rebirth. What's more, EC just so happens to line up with the compilation lettering system... AC, BC, CC, DC, EC... Coincidence? For those of us who know OG's story and have played EC, there are a few differences when going through the OG's story. It isn't 1:1, and some things are taken from Rebirth. One might call it abridged. So... is Ever Crisis a separate world/timeline? Maybe. In terms of Glenn, I think it's a bit early to tell because Rebirth essentially gave us a spoiler for what happens to Glenn. But First Soldier's story has yet to conclude. So in terms of Glenn, he's a bit of an outlier. I think we'll have a better answer to that when we get part 3 as I'm sure we'll see him there in some form. Though back to Vincent... While it depends on how one looks at 'worlds' or multi-timelines, I think we can mostly all agree it's not a single world. What causes this to get very convoluted is that we got Vincent who is immortal... there are many ways they could handle him being both immortal and being a part of the Lifestream's system that creates multiple worlds from choices. However, the simplest thing I can think of is that Vincent simply exists outside of time. I feel as though Vincent is described as outside of time, but I could be wrong. All I know is that in BC, Vincent does say 'The passage of time has no meaning to me'. This is going deeper into some other territory but I'll just briefly say that I believe Vincent is incapable of merging with the Lifestream... but that's for a different discussion. And because I think he cannot merge with the Lifestream, he is thus 'outside' of time if that makes sense. TLDR: I think it's very possible EC is meant to be 'another possibility' of another world created by the choices of our protagonists (and by way of logic, the choices we make as gamers). Secondly, I think this curious lack of design cohesion is specifically for Vincent, only. This may have to do with him being immortal and existing (likely) outside of time itself. I think this is their way of communicating (as all artists do) Vincent's identity to us without really divulging it. I wouldn't doubt part 3 will uncover this side of Vincent so that we can come back to EC and see a connection.

[ceaselxss]

//As the credits roll I'll give my quick, overarching reaction to the game

I have the same line of thought regarding most remakes - they don't erase the original game. You can dislike all of this game, and you still have OG 7, untouched. It's not just a remaster, they're going to do things differently.

I love this game, its gorgeous and its interesting and its fun. I think its okay for a game to be confusing, i think its okay for things to be vague and not spoon fed - especially because this is very very much a middle piece. It's setting up the finale; its going to offer questions to be answered, its going to build up concepts to be explored in the next game. I tend to find middle segments to be the least satisfying of most trilogy setups; books, games, movie, ect.

That said, I do feel like it fell short in a few places. Something I liked about Remake was that it felt like it heavily acknowledged the side material for 7. Characters exclusively from the novels, connections to Crisis Core, to Dirge of Cerberus. That fell off heavily in Rebirth, at least for the main storyline. You can somewhat see it in the world building but after Remake and with the release of Ever Crisis and Crisis Core Reunion, I was expecting more connections. Putting Zack in the focus, acknowledging Crisis Core existing, I wish he just once mentioned Angeal. I had hoped for Genesis after Intergrade; but not even the Tsviets came up again outside of Yuffie's trauma. And yet they love their First SOLDIER...

Even Cissnei's existance felt quite lacking.

I think some of the characterisation of the party was rough, Aerith in particular which is hard when she's one of the ones you need to care about the most. Similarly, I agree with Moogle that Roche would hit a lot harder if he had more characterisation

I think a lot of the changes they made are based around common knowledge changing; all the things that were reveals in the original are known by the fandom now. FF7 is THE final fantasy. Even if you're barely in any nerd spaces, you know who Sephiroth is, you know who Cloud is. Cloud's memories being fucked, the fact that he isn't a SOLDIER, Jenova not being Cetra, a lot of the things they changed are just because these things aren't a twist anymore. They're just parts of a story most fans know.

It's not a perfect game and it feels very much like a middle part, which is all to be expected.

I love this game. I am disappointed by a few things, but overall, I will remain hopeful for the third one.

[foxingpeculiar]

FF7 R&R: I am currently hanging out in Rebirth chapter 9, in Gongana. Potential spoilers up to that point.

Okay, I think I left off in Costa del Sol. So picking up from there:

The minigames are fucking insane in this game. There are SO MANY. And some of them--Queen's Blood, for example--are great. Others are ridiculous, but still kind of engaging (the piano--fuck Cinco de Chocobo; I got A's on the three previous pieces but I dunno if I can do this one). But man, some of 'em. The whole pirate shooter thing? Nah, terrible at that. And fuck Run Wild so hard. Like, the base game isn't so bad, but the time-trial thing you have to do as part of the date with Aerith? That took SO MANY tries to get past.

On that note, the whole Johnny subplot took... an interesting turn. How there were 7 of them him for a while. That was a lot to take in. But I did that quest and got his hotel looking all nice and now he's back to being just one person. I think you can get a trophy for getting all the collectibles in the hotel now, but that means S-ranking all the minigames and fuck that. I'm already 48 hours into this thing. Ain't nobody got that kind of time.

In both the Mount Corel region and the Gongana Jungle, I remember being specifically impressed with the music in this game. Might have to crack out that soundtrack CD.

I really like the depiction of Elena here--her snottyness and everything. That she calls Rude when out looking for Dyne demanding ice cream and, the next time we see her in the helicopter, she has a popsicle? Love that for her. There's a point where she just yells "Ugh!" and like, that's her, that's the character.

So we finally get an encounter (not a fight, but an encounter) with a WEAPON, which is pretty cool. That's something I've been wondering--WTF are Emerald and Ruby WEAPONS gonna look like in game 3? Cos like... you can't not include them, right?

Learned a little more about the situation in Wutai from Yuffie here, which is nice. The provisional government for whom she works is a resistance against the leaders that capitulated to Shinra to achieve the ceasefire. That makes sense (and I bet her dad was one of those--they mentioned at some point either earlier in this game or in Intergrade that he's imprisoned, currently).

I get a more detailed sense, also, about the sickness that is slowly becoming more and more of a problem for Cloud as he gets closer to the reunion. It's interesting to me how everyone else--especially Tifa, but everyone--sees it happening too, but no one understands the problem enough to know what to do about it yet.

Find it interesting how they're gatekeeping party selection in different spots and generally managing that balance. There're 7 of us now, at the point I'm at, and I think at least one more is coming (Vincent is in this game, right? He'd have to be. Although I guess they could do like they did with Nanaki in the first one, where he's there but not playable. Cid, I dunno.) But then, for story reasons, they'll have to have to use certain characters in certain encounters and stuff. But even when you have full party selection, everyone's there, even if they're not actively part of the battle--they're still around, you can see and hear them. It's a nice touch.

So, the whole North Corel and Corel Prison sections--the Dyne storyline--was handled pretty well. Barrett's reception in the town worked well, Dyne's madness was both sympathetic and apparent (and that was a helluva boss fight, also--which I remember it being in the original too).

The Gold Saucer was... whoo. Basically what I'd hoped it'd be. Dio was spot-the-fuck-on, and the whole environment was glitzy and neon in exactly the way it was supposed to be. I like the updates they did to certain things--the Speed Square, notably, but also the Mario-Kart-ness of Chocobo racing, etc. I did NOT, however, trigger a play sequence in the Event Square. The date ended up being with Tifa (which I'm fine with--she is my OG, I suppose), and there was a whole scene where she reacts to a poster of Jessie. I wonder if the play is an Aerith-specific event? Or if there's some other way to trigger it? Or if it just doesn't happen in this one.

Cait Sith. Okay. Was really curious how they were gonna handle this character cos he's... weird. But, y'know, it works. I love that he's Scottish, and I'm intrigued that they're not really hiding the fact that he's a Shinra spy (he outright admits it in party dialogue at one point), and pointing pretty clearly at who's actually running him behind the scenes (his model appears on Reeve's desk, the depressed way he reacts to the loss of the dustbowl: "The place it could've been. Tears me up inside"--Reeve runs Urban Planning, remember). I remember that point of the plot being kind of underdeveloped in the original--curious to see how it plays out here. I also love Tifa's reaction on meeting him: "Is... that a cat?"

Palmer is also getting a lot more characterization in this one, and damn, he sucks. That boss fight on the back of the truck was pretty cool, though.

Some of the new/outside characters are interesting too. Glenn shows up again, and the way he's talking to Rufus... I also do not know what it is he truly wants here. Cisseni showing up in Gongana was interesting--never played her game either, but I generally know who she is. (And I like the touch that she and Cait clearly know each other, and she obviously mistakes Cloud for Zack, but she rolls with the cat's encouragement to play along). Gus was kind of fun--the gold teeth were a nice touch. Not sure what I think of "Kid G" yet, but also not done with that quest--he said he'd call me.

Ok, WTF is the deal with Queen's Blood and this Lindehl Balmon business? Who is the Shadow Queen? Why is she killing off card players and what is the game to her? I must know.

As a final note--driving the buggy around the desert, just kind of the physics of it, was giving me serious original Mass Effect vibes. And then I remembered that the buggy in that game was called the Mako, and I suddenly wonder if that's an intentional nod.

[beneaththeplanetofthebatmans]

New charcters in FF7 remake games, rated:

Chadley: 3/5, A Type of Alphinaud, I have much experience dealing with his type of insufferable preteen knowitall attitude.

MAI: 4/5, I hope she deletes Chadley

Broden: 4/5, get better soon :)

Roche: 0/5, I hate this motherfucker. Please leave me alone.

Rhonda: 3/5, she doesn’t have enough lines and her judgment is suspect but I like her style

Kyrie: 1/5. I only have room in my heart for one failson, and that’s Johnny.

Johnny: 5/5 I hope he’s found dead in Miami

Chocobo Sam: 1/5 I like making fun of this guys PS3 style but I also think he sucks and I don’t trust him. His monopoly on Chocobo rides in Midgar sucks.

Madam M: 4/5. What is this lady’s problem.

Andrea Rhodea: 10/5 no notes

Gen Z Pokemon Trainer Card Girl: 3/5 Cool design.

Bill: 1/5, I didn’t play Intergrade but I had to give him 1 point for being an old man with swooshy anime hair

Bill’s Grandchildren: 3/5. Pretty normal but I think the boy is going to sell my organs on the black market.

General Kevin or Garrett, I already forgot his name: 0/5. Some kind of backstory villain for Rufus?? Walks barefoot?? Died?? I feel like this game is going to try to flesh out Rufus given in the old game Rufus disappeared for 90% of the game before rescuing you in the last act. So I can see why they want to make sure he doesn’t just disappear from the plot. But I don’t like this guy and his motivation is ????

[terraxcloud]

All 'Bout Yuffie~

Took quite some time to figure this stuff out. I decided to check out a streamer who just played FF7, CC, and FF7R for the first time to make it easier. No one's going to talk about this, and it makes sense that I do.

When you see something that looks "similar", do you start asking why?

They even both have turtlenecks...wait, "turtle"...huh.

Isn't this exactly like that one time I showed Dissidia NT renders noting that Cloud and Terra's looked almost exactly similar while the other characters were different?

Well, that post is right here.

It's been a long time since then, and now we look and see what Yuffie's gonna be all about in FF7R. This won't take long.

To start, Square-Enix likes showing this scene:

I don't know the context of this dance number, but we do have Intergrade at least. Terra Branford's main symbol is moogles (anyone who's played any Dissidia would kinda know this). The female characters in FF7 were made after her. So, why did they show Yuffie wearing a moogle costume? Well...she loves saying why:

Yuffie will be (already is) the main heroine of FF7R for these reasons:

She already one of the two MAIN characters thanks to the DLC.

She's always been the most similar character to Cloud (look at the first image). This is more noticeable after Cloud regains his memories in OG FF7. Cloud can't say "I know how you feel" to Tifa and Aerith as much as he can with Yuffie (he does actually say that to her in the Highwind). Also, she blocks bullets with her shuriken in Intergrade...who else does that?

She is underdeveloped (a great trait to have in a remake). This is big considering what they did with the Avalanche crew and random characters they added because they felt like it.

Wutai will be far more important and have its own military. It'll only get more important in part 3, so Yuffie's importance won't just vanish.

She clearly wants to be the heroine...do the others want that? We don't know if Aerith is going to save the world as " simply" as last time, and you can well assume that they'll do what they want in FF7R to surprise you.

She wears the moogle costume for a reason. Cloud is compared to chocobos whenever possible. Put 2 and 2 together.

While Tifa's character is more based on the past and Aerith's character is more based on the future, Yuffie's character is more based on the present. I.E. she wants to be a hero just like Cloud, but she's flawed and needs support (image below)...and we can make fun of her and no people on Social Media will care.

Sonon died right in front of her and she witnessed Sector 7 fall...right in front of her. She already has the trauma to go along with it.

Artificial respiration...

There are likely more, but I have stuff to do.

Yes, I know, Aerith saves the world and Tifa helps Cloud regain his memories...but will those things be as important as they were in OG FF7? They'll do what they did in the OG, but FF7R is leading to a different end. Things aren't going to be the same. The "prize" at the end is different. I just have to say the word "Jessie" and you'll prob understand. Jessie...Yuffie, heh, similar looking names.

I'm not going to dedicate this post to say why it's different (already dedicated a whole blog on that), let's just go back to Yuffie. To be honest with you, I think an image works better than words.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making up things, but oddly enough I don't see it that way here. The "rock golem" thing that comes out here is Gilgamesh, who appears to be related to Wutai. This isn't the first time Yuffie is shown doing "this". The whole "reliance on Cloud" part is shown here.

FF7R likes showing Tifa and Aerith behind Cloud.

Another time it was shown like this was the train graveyard, and in both times Cloud "leaves" them behind. The Rebirth trailer shows a scene with this "pattern", except Yuffie is in it this time.

Of course, I don't know if this is always the case, but it's a pattern that you can notice. With Yuffie at the front it suddenly takes on a different "meaning". Sure, it's just trailer stuff, but how many times should it happen in just a trailer?

Yuffie is also at the front chair of the buggy that Cloud drives. It's a small detail, but it's her.

Likely she finds her motion sickness better at the front than the back, but even so...Cloud also has motion sickness. He's probably not going to notice it for a while.

After stealing the submarine in OG FF7, while Cloud and Yuffie (if you take her) are doing their motion sickness "dance", Cloud remembers that driving calms him down - "Hey, you're right...I DO feel a little better driving."

Here is something a bit different...

Yuffie and Aerith's synergy attack has Aerith make two puppets of Yuffie and an energy ball that Yuffie kicks just like Tidus. Why did they show this?

Tidus was made after Yuffie, specifically her hatred for her dad, and the early prototype version of FF7 Cloud (which became Zack, but Zack was not that much of a character at this point). I thought this kick was a reference to Rikku since I believe Priscilla and Yuffie were combined to make her (and that's all I knew)...but I can now say it's actually about Tidus.

So, they combined Yuffie and proto-Cloud to make Tidus (his strange appearance is their combined appearance). Zack in CC shares some poses that Tidus does despite Zack's story coming out much later. Not un-precented at all since they combined Terra and Cloud to make Lightning after that (back as a prototype in Before Crisis, which is why Lightning's hair is always draped over her left shoulder and why she has a gunblade as her original weapon was the shotgun.)

I think I've said enough. Have a good day. Were you expecting me to talk about romance? OK. Clearly Yuffie's scenes in the OG are the most romantic, I sometimes still hear the loud "slap" in my head and everyone chooses Yuffie at the end of disk 1.

What, do you want to know what was going on in my mind when making this? Well, this video may help. No, just messing with you...how 'bout one of my favorite video game songs?

No, I'm not about to say "Team <insert character name>". There's no "team" here. Don't make everything a competition, GAWD.

I don't know why this synergy attack reminds me of Rikku.

Y'know, one of the things people notice about Cloud and Terra is that they're similar. Also, Terra's prototype has almost the same hairstyle as Elena, who appears right before Yuffie and Priscilla. If Cloud really was cut from FF6, this is the Terra he would remember...I assume this is why the Loveless girl also has short hair.

I think Elena is named after Lenna (FFV), which is funny since that Aerith sprite from FF5 was from a place called the "Phoenix Tower" where Lenna's drake dies and you get Phoenix, and Fort Condor is a tower close to the characters I've just mentioned where you get Phoenix after the condor dies.

And Zack in CC gets Phoenix from the Nibelheim water tower. Also, early Terra looked like Lenna.

[fictionkinfessions]

for minor/background characters we think about a lot - zhijie from the intergrade dlc

legit i think i might be the only person that cares about him and it blows 😭 i've mentioned before that we were fwbs and also i was his squad's main inside informant on internal shinra business, but he was also genuinely one of the only people i felt close to, especially after zack disappeared. like, as far as people i went so far as to actually consider friends... it was pretty much just zack, cissnei, and zhijie. and of those three zhijie is the only one that didn't just up and vanish one day.

i... hope he knew how much he meant to me. i really don't know what i would've done without him. i remember him saying he'd like to take me back to wutai with him, once i cut ties with shinra and deserted. i remember thinking it'd be really nice to have a life with him there... we did really bad at the "no romantic feelings" part of the friends with benefits arrangement. i really love him. -kunsel, ff7

x

[lasclisrael]

Final fantasy 7 remake release date gameplay

#FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE RELEASE DATE GAMEPLAY ARCHIVE#

#FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE RELEASE DATE GAMEPLAY PLUS#

Switching control between characters can be done at any time during combat. Going into this mode slows down time, allowing for better strategic decisions in the thick of battle. It also gives them access to a temporary state called tactical mode. When full, the ATB gauge allows characters to unleash special attacks, cast spells, or use items. The ATB gauge can, however, be charged faster by landing regular attacks on enemies. Cloud and his party build their gauges gradually over time. In battle, each character’s actions, such as using abilities, magic, and items, depend on their ATB gauge. Avoiding and defending against enemy attacks will also be done manually with dodge and guard commands. Players will be able to move around freely and interact with various objects on the battlefield. New Combat System��inal Fantasy 7 Remake’s combat system draws similarities to the Kingdom Hearts series’ action-style gameplay. Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be released on Mafor the PlayStation 4. The game’s official release date was also announced at the end of the presentation. Among those shown in the event were the new combat system, story sections, and modern character renders. Key features of the upcoming game were finally revealed in Square Enix’s E3 2019 presentation. News of the upcoming game would die down until the game’s second major trailer released on PlayStation’s 2019 State of Play livestream. He joins a terrorist group called AVALANCHE which opposes Shinra’s questionable methods of harnessing power from the environment.Ī number of events set Cloud on a mission to save the planet from destruction while constantly haunted by his forgotten past.įinal Fantasy 7 Remake was first announced at E3 2015 during the PlayStation press conference. Since its launch in 1997, the critically-acclaimed masterpiece has spawned various spinoff games and animated films.įinal Fantasy 7 Remake retells the story of Cloud Strife, a former member of Shinra Electric Power Company’s elite military force called SOLDIER. Main Story Bosses ▼FF7 Remake Main Story BossesĮpisode INTERmission Bosses ▼FF7 Remake INTERmission Bossesįinal Fantasy 7 Remake Playable Demo Demo WalkthroughĪfter more than two decades since its original release on the PlayStation 1, Final Fantasy 7 has been completely re-imagined to harness the power of modern consoles. Main Story Walkthroughs Episode INTERmission Walkthroughs ▼FF7 Remake Episode INTERmission WalkthroughsĮpisode INTERmission Walkthroughs SidequestsĪll Mercenary Quests Chapter 3: Home Sweet Slum ▼FF7 Remake Chapter 3 Side QuestsĬhapter 8: Budding Bodyguard ▼FF7 Remake Chapter 8 Side QuestsĬhapter 9: The Town that Never Sleeps ▼FF7 Remake Chapter 9 Side QuestsĬhapter 14: In Search of Hope ▼FF7 Remake Chapter 14 Side Questsĭiscovery Requests ▼FF7 Remake Discovery Quests Main Story Walkthroughs ▼FF7 Remake Main Story WalkthroughsĬhapter 1: The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1

#FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE RELEASE DATE GAMEPLAY ARCHIVE#

News and Features Archive Intergrade Walkthrough and Guides Pre-release Information ▼FF7 Remake Intergrade Pre-release GuidesĮpisode INTERmission Walkthroughs ▼FF7 Remake Episode INTERmission WalkthroughsĮpisode INTERmission Characters ▼FF7 Remake Episode INTERmission Character GuidesĮpisode INTERmission Bosses ▼FF7 Remake Episode INTERmission BossesĮpisode INTERmission Strategy Guides ▼FF7 Remake Episode INTERmission Strategy Guidesįort Condor Unit Stats and Attributes Guide FF7 Remake Intergrade Game Editions (June 2, 2021).What Should We Expect from FF7 Remake Intergrade? (June 2, 2021).Get to Know Yuffie in Episode INTERmission (June 3, 2021).Bringing Back the Classic Mini Game Fort Condor (June 6, 2021).More New Characters in FF7 Remake Intergrade (June 7, 2021).Is Intergrade Coming to PS4? (June 8, 2021).FF7R Intergrade is a single-player, action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

#FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE RELEASE DATE GAMEPLAY PLUS#

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (FF7 Remake: Intergrade) Walkthrough and Strategy Guide Page containing main storyline walkthroughs, side quests, boss guides, character guides, materia list, summon list, best weapons, strategy guides, tips and tricks, post-game unlockables, new game plus guide, game databases, cheats, tips and tricks, news and updates, and more.

[bread--hood]

Sonon Kusakabe

[aeriscallanga]

Anyone here who appreciates this guy?

Though he only exist in Remake, he so criminally underrated ✨✨✨

[zxal]

“And while he boasts a very large sword, his first love is plainly his mount!”

[foxingpeculiar]

FF7: R&R

It's been a minute since I've posted about it, but I have been playing Rebirth. About 28 hours in--the party is about to depart Costa del Sol at (what I assume is) the end of Chapter 6. Spoilers up to that point (and for the original, I suppose).

First, just off the bat, I'm curious how much this game is going to cover. It seems like it will probably end at what was the end of disc 1 in the original--at Aerith's death. I still think that's inevitable--the story would be fundamentally different if that didn't happen, and there's so much in both these games that seems to be reminding us of that. Take, for example, the white materia becoming clear. Because I know the story, I understand the implications of that--for like, the whole planet. It has to happen, and the fact that the game is leaning so hard into the love-triangle story makes me feel like... that's what it's doing? It's making you FEEL it as much as possible when it necessarily happens? I dunno. I'm very curious.

That idea kind of justifies the whole "whispers" plot in the first one for me. That was a new part of the story, and felt weird and tacked on, but this game kind of retroactively seems to be making a point with it--it was going somewhere. Remake was good, Rebirth is great (at least, so far) and makes Remake better. That feels like a helluvan achievement.

Okay. I'm looking at my notes for the last few sessions and there's a lot going on. So this might be kind of scattershot. Bear with me.

I never really considered the idea of voice-acted moogles. Did they do that in like... 13-16? I don't even remember. But I'm vaguely disappointed the moogles just have like... normal voices. It doesn't seem like that should be. They're whole different animals.

On that note, I'm interested by how Nanaki speaks differently when it's just him and Aerith. They've done that twice now--once in the hotel in Junon and once in Johnny's place in CdS. If you don't know his backstory, I could see that being an interesting little mystery, but because I do, it's very endearing and in-character for him. And I do kind of wonder how Bugenhagen is going to be represented in this game, cos that dude is weird, so how are you going to sell that?

The chocobo costumes just make me think of "horse armor," which makes me laugh. IYKYK.

I have done 100% intel on both the Grasslands and Junon regions at this point. Haven't gotten out into the Corel region yet. I'm not bothering to do EVERYTHING, though. There's SO MUCH stuff in this game. In some of the rare fiend battles, I have not met all the objectives (I can kill enemies easier than I can stagger them, it turns out). Same with all the various minigames (turns out I'm no better at this piano than I am at real piano). Like, i could spend time getting good at these things for trophies or whatever, but I've got things to do. But I am trying to at least dip my toes into everything. And there've been a couple of fights that have tested my mettle a little--Quetzalcoatl, Mindflayer. Both battles weren't that hard, but were nonetheless very satisfying. Am curious what future regions will hold in that regard.

Chadley is a fun addition. He's very endearing. And the tension between him and MAI is kind of interesting too--I wonder where they're going with that. How did he get free of Hojo though? It's implied someone set him free--who was that, and why?

Ok, so the whole Fort Condor thing. I was prepped for that, because I played the Intergrade DLC. But there's some stuff going on there. First of all, what the fuck is Gilgamesh's deal? It's obviously him, but he's a weird presence in this one. I'm actually kind of impressed by the way they worked the tower-defense minigame into this, AND how we still have the actual condor, so if/when we need to get something from its nest later (I forget what, exactly--it's been a while--but I know that happens), it's there. Also, that last required battle? Fuck, that took forever. I could get to the point where it was obvious/inevitable I would win, but time would run out before that could actually happen (so many times, I was like "No! If I had 30 more seconds, I'd HAVE this!"). It took like 15 tries to beat, but I did it. (Also LMAO at "Why do we look like this?" when it's the original polygon models.)

The Midgarsormr moment was okay. It didn't hit me as hard as the original did when I was 13, but nothing was going to, and I do feel like it was a suitable display of Sephiroth's power.

Queensblood. Fuck, it's a good one. It might be my favorite of the FF card games, actually. I am owning that shit. Have all the cards, have beaten every player I've come across so far. The tournament was a pleasure, including seeing Nanaki in people-clothes, which I kind of missed during the Junon parade sequence (more on that in a minute). And the card puzzles in Costa del Sol? *chef's kiss* My brain had a LOT of fun with that.

So, the Junon sequence was great. Exactly what I wanted it to be. The parade went okay--I fucked a couple bits up and lost the first award to Roche's mobile unit, but whatever. (I love that he's back too, and I love Barrett's comment in Under Junon: "You've got some weird friends.") The whole bit with the Seventh Infantry was kind of fascinating--seeing Cloud as the hesitant leader, Aerith as the quick thinker. And I love how they wove Yuffie into the plot--cos she was missable in the original.

The whole dolphin thing was... still silly, but handled well, I felt. And I like the expansion of that section--the bit with the Crows and Rhonda and her son. That all feels... right.

Seeing the Highwind was kind of a moment. Curious if/how that'll work.

Glenn Lodbrook. I know he's from Ever Crisis and there's something going on there, but I don't really know that backstory. Rufus playing both sides--defying the ceasefire because he's secretly in league with the provisional Wutai government--is interesting. He's not a part of the story I remember super well, I'm not sure what his interests are, exactly.

I do like how they're following through on some of the characters and ideas from Remake. Kyrie, Madame M/Andrea, the Shinra Middle-Manager, but especially Johnny. Are we going to watch this doofus mature across this trilogy? Is that what's happening there? And he's not totally ancillary--they're weaving him into the main plot with what happens with Hojo in CdS (a bit of the original I forgot about, but yeah, that did happen--and it's even more jarring how out of place and creepy he feels in that environment in this one).

Regina is a fun addition. Are they gonna do anything with her, or is she one of those characters who's just kind of there? I wonder.

Oh man, okay. The Cloud/Aerith/Tifa dynamic. Rebirth is leaning HARD into that. I think I have them on about even footing at this point, but I'm not sure. Tifa is kind of my OG, the one 13 y/o me was into, but I dunno. But yeah. Aerith has to die. That has to happen, I'm convinced of that at this point.

Haven't dipped into the Zack timeline in a while. When will we get to that again?

Also, is Demon Wall going to be a thing in this game? Cos like... I love what they did to Jenova on the Shinra boat, but how are they going to design that? Am very curious.

[liketheinferno2]

Oh Nero my poorest meow meow

[serinigalini]

“Am I... a human being?”