I am at Aerith's mom's house.. is the game this Linear/guided?

[TheAwesomeBastard]

I noticed in the subway tunnels I wanted to explore, and then I get to where Tifa or Barret say that is the wrong way.. I know that... let me play.
Anyway does the rest of the game become this guided where the off-path is very limited?

[Zap]

Yes, the game is completely linear and has zero exploration. It gets even worse with back tracking and MMO fetch quests later.

A common theory is that development for this game started in the PS3/PS4 era, when their FF games were very linear in movement and exploration, was tabled, and then they later repurposed those assets to make this padded Midgar experience. This game both in its gameplay/presentation and its new "story" is remarkably similar to FF13, another corridor game. Looking at FF16's gameplay as well, though, you can see they still are not about exploration the way their games used to be.

A common defense of this game's linearity is that "Midgar was linear in FF7." That's a nonsense defense because the way to do a proper game that takes place just in Midgar is by making the Midgar fully explorable. Midgar was a limited 5-hour portion of the original game, and to make an entire one third of this "trilogy" taking place in that city alone, stretching it over 30 hours, is only justifiable if you actually make being in Midgar worth those 30 hours of time.

We can think about how cool an in-depth undercity and overcity could have been in an open style game rather than a corridor movie on rails with padding, forced walking, MMO fetch quests, etc. They could have strived to create the experience of what it would be like to actually be in Midgar. What they did instead is minimalist and lazy, striving just for impressive visuals, textures, and particles over substance and storytelling.

The game presents itself like a group of set pieces in a theme park. It basically feels like you are on a walking tour through a handful of FF7 backgrounds, and then the shoe-horned multi-verse, "metanarrative" story changes in the last two chapters make that "FF7 theme park" experience even more poignant.

The purpose of PSX Midgar's linearity was to create an oppressive experience for the gamer, wanting to get out into the open world as soon as possible. It lasted about five, at most maybe eight, hours. It had none of these padded fetch quests, pointless "puzzles," or extended sections like the train graveyard in "remake," because the original PSX developers knew that Midgar served a purpose in the narrative and storytelling, and they were careful not to overstay its welcome.

Just because Midgar was linear in 1997's FF7, that doesn't mean that you have to make it linear in a "remake." The creators of "remake" abandoned virtually everything else that defined FF7, so why stick to Midgar's linearity? No, that's just an excuse.

[Xengre]

The game is mostly linear for episode 1 Rebirth similar to this section of the original Final Fantasy VII's story. However, while I really wish they would have opened it up more beyond what the original did they ran into major technological limitations with developing the game to run on PS4 with the current graphical output.

We the People (also known as Ness until recent name change) is making random asinine comments. Midgar is massive and cannot be realistically made fully explorable as it would dwarf any existing open world game. They could make significant chunks in various areas explorable but not the whole thing. However, due to PS4 limits that wasn't feasible. The game does have some low quality side quests later but as you have seen they make up an extremely small amount of the game, like less than 10%. Some people like to use the false argument that its some immense padding and makes up the bulk of the remake but this is totally false without question and a straight up lie for narrative. The remake, itself, does not feature hardly any backtracking, either.

OP, where you are at it gets a bit more open but not a lot. The first few chapters were more linear than some of the later ones and some later ones will still be very linear. The chapter where you meet Aerith you will be able to explore her sector and you will make your way to Wallmarket. Wallmarket is a town that is open to exploration and various quests, another hub basically. Later you come back and can freely explore all the way from the church to Wallmarket without any disconnect at all and there will be a fast travel feature added. In the Shinra building later on you get a decent amount of freedom to explore and soak it in but it is still technically linear under the guise of freedom as you earn security clearance and stuff to access different floors and parts of the building. The final section will be extremely linear (once you end up escaping Shinra HQ set an hour or two aside, final segment of game is a long section without saves for some dumb reason).

Now, episode 2 will be significantly more open as it ditches the PS4 and becomes a PS5 & PC only title so it isn't hardware bound by last gen's limitations again. It will have huge regions that become available as you progress, not completely and fully accessible from the very start, and you will gain fast travel and so on to revisit prior regions like many open world games.
Here is some open world gameplay presentation of episode 2 if you are curious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcymP6O-tY

Note, if for any reason you just are like "blegh" about episode 1 remake and don't feel interested know that you can drop episode 1 unfinished and play episode 2 when it releases. It will apparently feature some type of recap to help get you up to speed to play it without needing episode 1 and you will still get the bonuses from your save, as far as what is understood based on their info given, just for having an episode 1 save even if it isn't completed.

[Zap]

Anyone who thinks Midgar is "just too big" to have been made into an open city has never played a CD Project Red or Rockstar game. That is just gaslighting to make this lazy game look good. SE was minimalist and padded with this Midgar. The next game called "rebirth" may be more open world. Who cares. The discussion is about this game, which called itself an FF7 "remake." "Rebirth" is its own story and is not a retelling of FF7. They even said that in an official release, calling it a "new journey." They already ruined the FF7 storyline with their fate ghost neo-sepiroth omniscient Aeris new "plotline," so if what you want is FF7, "rebirth" is not it.

At the end of the day, OP, you're going to have to decide for yourself what you think of this game. There are going to be an endless slew of excuses offered to you for how minimalist and padded this experience is, and you can make what you want of them. The one thing SE and its fans will ostensibly never do is admit how disappointing and deceptive this title was. That's something that could put an end to all this debate you see anywhere the game is discussed--if it were just acknowledged. But it looks like that is beyond their ken sadly.

This game is FF13 reskinned as FF7 with FF7 characters. It is not remotely FF7.

"Remake" was probably originally intended to be part of the failed "Fabula Nova Crystalis" FF13 multiverse, making some FF7/FF13 crossover. And then they didn't want to start over when calling it that was scratched, so what we got is basically FF13 pretending to be FF7 with a shoehorned FF13 fate plotline inserted into it.

[TheAwesomeBastard]

very agreed. I member playing the OG way back. I find this remake is really easy and when I try to make a mistake, oh don't do that. yawn
even the combat is making me yawn since what is the point of an interactive combat system with just 1-2 buttons? is there a homing missile in my sword?

[Zap]

Yes, the combat system is a great example of lots of options they give you and none of them mattering. Just attack with Cloud the whole game. FF16 is the same way.

And yeah that's how games have gone in general in terms of holding your hand. It's a new style that doesn't allow you to do anything the game doesn't want you to do. You can only go exactly where they want you to go, see exactly what they want you to see, do exactly what they want you to do. The options don't matter. Just do the same thing all game, enjoy the cutscenes and, by the last chapter, experience the nonexistent FF7 storyline.

[tallgeese]

It sucks because the combat actually has something going for it. Tifa is incredibly fun -- the wombo combos you can do with Tifa & Cloud together are quite awesome. However, unless you are playing on hard mode, the enemies die too fast for the "Strategy" part of the combat to ever be a factor. You can wail through most enemies as Cloud no problem in the normal difficulty. Just hit them with Braver or Blade Burst a few times... they dead.

[Zap]

The combat could have been good if they had made it just action with customizable party member behavior, or just turn-based/ATB. Combining action but having to constantly switch between party members if you actually want to use them, pausing for abilities and interrupting the flow of "action" combat, not well executed. And as you said, it's easy on purpose b/c otherwise your non-controlled characters will just get decked and you will get sick of managing them on an effect-saturated battlefield where you can only see a percentage of what's occurring at any given time.

The combat system trying to be both ATB/TB and action is a great illustration of this game trying to do two things at once and failing at both because of it.

This game tried to both retell FF7 and also make a "new" storyline, and in the end it accomplished neither.

That video demonstrates what we already knew, that Square Enix has exceptional visual artists who deserve much credit for how beautiful certain aspects of this project look. But isn't what matters the story? As Aeris says, "here we go for our new journey," set up by the last two chapters which made zero sense. If that's what you want, then go for it.

[Shock_&_Awe]

The funniest thing about people wanting a "fully explorable Midgar" and wanting a faithful recreation of the original story with no additional "padding" is that it isn't possible to have both. Midgar is an extremely limited space in the original. If you want it fully explorable, there needs to be things to do and a reason to do them. This would mean either create more side content or a major re-work of the story to facilitate the change. You were never going to be happy with what they did.

Combat's great once you lean into the systems they have. A normal difficulty playthrough truly doesn't do the combat justice sadly. It doesn't require much skill or learning.

Regardless, this game is linear, but the sequel appears to be more open.

[Zap]

So "fully explorable" isn't possible without padding? Have you played Witcher 3? It's sold over 50 million copies for a reason. And its marketing budget was likely a tiny fraction of what SE has spent trying to make "remake" and FF16 look better than they are.

You can add to the story as long as it doesn't contradict the core narrative. Fate ghosts, Roche, all the KH/FF13 nonsense--that's contradicting the core narrative.

Padding and expansion are not the same thing. Pointless fetch quests, corridors and robot hand "puzzles," extended train graveyard section during plate drop, bland NPCs, sewer backtracking, side characters that do nothing to advance the plot, forced walking and shimmying along walls--that's padding.

[Shock_&_Awe]

I put "padding" in quotes for a reason. The added content to FF7R has purpose, whether it is character building or world building. You just don't agree/see it that way.

I have played Witcher 3, you can check my account which isn't set to private *ahem* What is the Witcher 3's world comprised of? Side content and side stories. Things you obviously wouldn't approve of considering you have an issue with Roche of all things. THAT is the additional type of content you would get with a "fully exporable" Midgar. Cloud would need a reason to go to other parts of it. That means there needs to be a story to justify it. Otherwise you are just exploring an empty world which you would also complain about.

Your issue is for many things you don't like, you simply dismiss as padding when that's not what it is. Fwiw, I don't think FF7R has good side content. It mostly doesn't, but I wouldn't call it padding because there is a purpose for most of it.

[Zap]

Lol. The point is that the "side content" in "remake" is horrendous, and you're left with a nonsensical FF13 fate ghost plotline when you subtract all the padding. You can't just call it "expanded" because it has filler side content. Witcher's side content and world are phenomenal. The sales are self evident. Quality doesn't need marketing or gaslighting to defend it. Excellence speaks for itself.

Witcher 3 presented a massive world that is immersive and jaw-dropping in scope and depth. FF7 "remake" is basically a theme park ride through some FF7 backgrounds with a whole lot of stuff designed to waste your time. Whether spending so much time in a virtual world is worthwhile is a separate discussion, but the quality of the creation, intention, and artistry is incomparable.

[tallgeese]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von We the People:

Lol. The point is that the "side content" in "remake" is horrendous, and you're left with a nonsensical FF13 fate ghost plotline when you subtract all the padding. You can't just call it "expanded" because it has filler side content. Witcher's side content and world are phenomenal. The sales are self evident. Quality doesn't need marketing or gaslighting to defend it. Excellence speaks for itself.

Witcher 3 presented a massive world that is immersive and jaw-dropping in scope and depth. FF7 "remake" is basically a theme park ride through some FF7 backgrounds with a whole lot of stuff designed to waste your time. Whether spending so much time in a virtual world is worthwhile is a separate discussion, but the quality of the creation, intention, and artistry is incomparable.

What, you're telling me you weren't blown away by the secret identity of the "Angel of the Slums?"

That was fire storytelling, that character was a welcome addition.

[Zap]

Ha. Funny you mention that, cuz that specifically was the side quest where I realized I'm just going on to Shinra HQ ASAP and done with this nonsense in Sector 5. And then retconned Shinra HQ comin' atcha.

[Weltall8000]

I love how "it's so forced and handholdy unlike the original!" About the subway having the player being explicitly told not to go that way and forced not to... when the original did the very same thing in the very same part.

[Zap]

Hey, let's find arbitrary similarities between the two games likes some algorithm searching for two apples in a picture on the web, while ignoring the overarching differences between the two games. Exploration and hand-holding between "remake" and FF7 are not comparable. One is a proper classic JRPG. The other is weird half requel half retelling on rails from corridor after corridor, an FF13 staggering hallway experience.