FFVII Remake

So, having wandered away from Sector 6, we travel through the collapsed railway, gaining our introduction to Beck's Badasses. Approximately two minutes later, we continue past them.

I'm moderately amused at how relatively modest some fanart of Tifa's classic blue dress was compared to what the Remake does with it. That thing's just shy of being a swimsuit, and some fanartists tended to draw it a bit...longer? But no, Remake recreates the sprite accurately and it stops just above mid thigh.

The entirety of Wall Market I was aware was new, and certainly Corneo's whole thing could've used some reworking. The Colosseum segment was fun as hell, even if Hell House dragged out its welcome in the final segment by just going into its fucking invincibility mode So. Damn. Much. Made getting the ATB gauge to hit it with its elemental weaknesses tricky, since it loved lightning and wind, which were both on Aerith, and if I swapped to build ATB, it'd start divebombing her instantly. No actual KOs, but it took a bit of beating. Rather amusing given that I'd managed to use Elemental Materia to let Cloud hit the weakpoints of every fight up to that point and just trash them handily.

I ended up going along Madame M's set of subquests, and she's rather entertaining in her mood swings whenever she doesn't need to play up the Demure Lady act. Another Angel of the Slums quest had me cracking up because halfway through the leadup I'm like "Garden Angles? Oh no. It's not.... it IS." Hysterically, the 4th addition nearly KO'd me since Aerith wasn't available for healing, so he was collectively more badass than the entire rest of the team. Shears was something I expected to be simple "Oh, another Slicer. This'll be simp-<punted, juggle, juggle, juggle, dead> Whaaaahappen?" Rematch went much better, but that was the fastest anything's killed me in this game.

Also, I've started doing Chadley's summon unlocks, which are useful for maxing out weapon proficiencies with enemies that can take a beating in addition to unlocking the summons themselves. Shiva was pretty, but nearly murdered me when I accidentally let her get Diamond Dust off. My limit break afterwards finished her before she could cherry tap Cloud for the 350 HP he had left while Aerith was KO'd. Fat Chocobo was much easier by comparison, and I used him to max out the Nailbat, which gave me Disorder which is fucking amazing as an ATB skill for Cloud.

The new Honeybee was an amusing thing, even if some of those QTE prompts were flying by with camera angles that made me miss them entirely. Aerith was giving me pity congratulations by the end of the dance off mini-game, but it counted anyway. Andrea was entertaining but the real highlight was Aerith in the audience getting really into this. Her dress, by comparison, was a freaking knockout. I did all the Sector 6 sidequests, so the dress and do she got was the super-fancy one and the designers absolutely killed it.

Naturally the only thing Johnny does correctly is roll out the red carpet for her.

Leslie's reaction when you walk up to the door was just damn perfect. You can almost hear the needle scratch effect. You could expect exactly what happened next, but wow, Corneo is a really creepy slimebag. Also, Aerith going for the fucking chair was hilarious. By the time Corneo gets threatened with multiple-choice ball maiming, it's really cathartic.

I'm actually kind of amused at how Tifa immediately picks up on the fact Aerith has kind of bulldozed through Cloud's typical walls ("Don't try talking her out of it. It's a waste of time." "Cloud, you totally get me!") and the result is her getting a little jealous which is kind of adorable. After Jessie just got stonewalled, I don't think Tifa thought there was anyone else Cloud really opened up to besides her, and the fact she has competition gets some amusing reactions out of her.... at least when she and Aerith aren't immediately girl-bonding to the side. It's kind of funny that the new chemistry really could justify poor Cloud being dragged along by both of them if Aerith didn't have an unfortunate date coming up in Part 2.

This whole sequence really has made me appreciate the fact that Aerith and Tifa's personalities get totally switched around in a lot of later material (or if not switched, Aerith gets even more purity purified after she's dead). But Tifa, the sporty looking one, definitely has the more empathic, mothering everyone around her vibe, while Aerith is a bit more fickle (though she's a sucker for the orphans and her neighbors in the 6 Slums) and mischievous, compared to what you'd expect from the Tomboy and Girly Girl looks.

Abzu hit like a freaking freight train, and I had a full party wipe to him at one point when I thought I was out of the range of the sewer backflow pipe but wasn't far enough away, and Abzu managed to get a full on strike, hitting all three of my party at once with a triple KO. I was admittedly using Tifa here trying to build up stagger for the Intel Report, but eventually I just went for the kill (and got to use Cloud's new Ascension limit break to boot).

The sewers were pretty simple, though I never did find out how to get the materia in the Waterway bridge segment. I'm kind of amused at the fact Tifa gets the heroic catch Aerith as the bridge collapses under her moment. Aerith similarly is actually remarkably understanding of Tifa's mounting anxiety about the plate drop, which is good, because Cloud's all mission oriented and has no idea how to talk in a way to help Tifa with that.

Entering the train graveyard, I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised there are actual ghosts in the cosmology rather than just the ones we'd seen before. Notably, this was where I finally got that 200% stagger tactical achievement, which was a fucking bitch to find something with the durability to live long enough but not so strong they were trouncing me while I was messing around with tactics. Also, Cloud looked appropriately put out with both girls trying to hide behind him as they went inside, which is where I finished for the night.

A couple side notes, did Rude have that armor during the first fight? I did an assess, and it seemed to indicate he had a Mega Potion. I imagine we'll fight him again, but I haven't been having the Steal Materia on me lately when slots are kind of at a premium.

Also, I'm wondering if the cellular degeneration thing is a new addition. There were always problems with the G-types as seen in Crisis Core, but Cloud and Sephiroth always seemed fairly stable...not that Sephiroth lived to a ripe old age, and Cloud wouldn't have been that old by the time Advent Children rolled around and he was dealing with Geostigma instead. But both Aerith's mom and President Shinra seem convinced that it's a definite Thing for any SOLDIER.

Oh lord, the Frog status. I only ran into that in the last second run through waves of the Sahagins. I was just mid-fight and all of a sudden...I'm spitting bubbles? The hell? And then I realized Tifa was a frog and laughed my ass off.

Thankfully, Aerith had Esuna by then, so it was a quick fix, but damn if that wasn't a surprise.

That crunches game is a bit trickier than I expected once the guide vanishes, and I'm pretty sure they up the speed over time. Andrea's dance-off, I was screwed over a couple times by camera angles (there's one where they put the input in front of you and the little guide ball flies in from behind the camera, which was just...yeah) but apparently just participating seems to be enough to go with the plot.

Uni and I adored Kotch and Scotch as the arena announcers. They really played that up well and I had to laugh during Hell House because they actually do color commentary on you (at least twice commenting on my pulling out one of Aerith's limit breaks to keep us alive). When the girls bust out, I had to laugh at Scotch being like "do I remember you?" before Aerith LETS him have the couple of seconds to recognize her from the arena and know exactly what's coming before kneeing him in the groin.

So, Corneo was twenty different kinds of fucking creepy. Just disgusting in every way. But the impressive part for me was how they then contrast that with a cutscene involving the Shinra directors. Reeve is literally begging them not to murder thousands of innocent people, and they spout shit about how he's cowardly and needs to learn progress involves sacrifice. Because even if they do drop the plate to frame Avalance, they don't HAVE to murder fifty thousand innocent people in the process. That is a kind of evil far more dangerous and horrifying than a sleezy crime boss.

I really liked the train graveyard sequence. They took what was a short, but interesting mythology (and confusing only due to fixed camera angles) and turned it into a full on train depot, and built out the lore (they're not just older rail cars, this is how they built Midgar. Huh.

Monsterwise, Ghosts were always a giant pain in the ass, the disappearing trick is something they did in the original too. For the boss ghost I could see immediately that terrain was gonna be a big issue, so I headed to the bottom of the facility right out of the gate, and managed to (mostly) stay down there and avoid being boxed in much. I really didn't have any issue with the mines for the most part, but I could tell they were gonna ramp that vanish/invulnerability trick up so I tried to time popping Firas with Aerith as he'd shift back. My biggest boon here (aside from the sky-high resource cost!) is that she learned Firaga JUST before this encounter. Hitting him with that once near the start of the fight put me on good footing, but I ended up "eating" a cast of it which sucked from a resourcecost POV. I ended up switching back to Fira, and so long as I could get them off and stay in my ward, I was making good progress, but at one point he knocked her off base and pressured her to the point I had to switch to the defensive to heal up -- Ghoul had the dubious distinction of being the first boss in the remake to make me dip into my Ether stockpile, a huge "compliment" to any boss an a Final Fantasy game as I have hording disease something fierce. After a couple of cycles I got the pattern down and started prepping Tifa during the phys invuln phase, getting Rise and Fall ready, switching to Aerith, popping a Fira, switching back, dumping Tifa's megacombo and then whacking him with Cloud. I'm guessing as for his shriek it's probably RNG based if it "hits", that's how status effects in the original worked if it wasn't an automatic success.

This fight was the beginning of the "aha" moment for me when I realized that under the hood, you are *SUPPOSED* to play it like an traditional Final Fantasy game and actually be giving commands to everyone is, indeed, how you succeed. All the pieces would come fully together for me in an upcoming boss fight and once I beat that, I was effectively unstoppable for the rest of the playthru sans a couple of near endgame fights giving me a tougher time.

Eligor is another tougher random encounter given promotion to full on Boss status in the remake. Like the Hell House, he's originally just the "dangerous encounter" of the area. I *LOVED* the addition of a subtle detail that his lower half is comprised of TRAIN parts now, and not just chariot wheels. Maybe that was always the intention, and the low tex polys of the original just failed to convey that, but it was a really nice graphical touch. Further bonus kudos to the fact you can still steal a physically effective weapon for Aerith from him (now the Blade Staff, as opposed to the Striking Staff). After the Ghoul making me realize that "hey, bosses are actually dangerous in Midgar now", I went into this one a little more willing to spend resources. Went pretty well until he started FLYING (yeah, he doesn't do that in the original. )! After him running over Cloud and KOing him, I was able to eventually get back on my feet and switched to Tifa, who's normal attack is surprisingly effective against him due Zangan being a Super Saiyin school of martial arts. I'd leap up after him after boosting her 2x, pop him with a spell while I could, and opted to focus on a wheel he kept exposing to Cloud while he was on the ground. I figured if mobility was while he was dangerous, I was gonna try to take that away from him. After a cycle I was able to get a Limit for Tifa, which I scored a hit with right as he took off again, so I didn't score all the damage, but it put a dent in him. On the next go round Cloud got his and I aimed for the wheel -- it crippled him, dropped him, and then channeled the rest of the hits into the main body and ripped him apart. Not my aim, but certainly my goal, so I'll take it.

Ch 12: OMG Yes, Helitroopers are assholes. They're bastards in the original game, and this dials that up 2 more notches. Combined with the fact they move so quick hitting them with Aerora is tough, and 1) I'm cheap (see horders disease) and hate wasting magic on regular enemies, and 2)I'm slow, it took me awhile to get the handle on them. Eventually I realized plain Aero was usually enough to stagger/drop them, and furthermore I finally figured out how to air attack wit Cloud, which helped a lot. But I think I drank more potions climbing the Sector 7 Plate Support than I did in the entire combined rest of the game.


I did REALLY like them making a conscious decision to flesh Reno out and it helps giving him a bit more push towards how he acts towards you in later encounters. Also, that it is Rude, and not him, who actually issues the Plate Release command was a real surprise. Rude is still Rude, quiet, efficient and professional. Tseng seems to more or less be as he is in the original so far -- you don't really get much glimpse into him in that either.

As for that fight, I REALLY liked the changes to it, and I got my shoutout to Pyramid when he used it on Cloud. Was curious to see how/if they'd use that in the remake as it seemed like it would be super broken if they did. He never used it once he got company so I suspect they felt the same. But yeah, Rude showing up in a friggin chopper was a "holy shit!" moment. It was this fight I got the bracers from, and of Rude I stole no problem, Reno took me a few tries. I eventually tried what my brain insisted worked in the original game (getting them down to low health and THEN stealing, for a higher success chance), but after looking it up before posting this I learned my brain gets classic FFs confused, and that was true of the OTHER PS1 masterpiece, Tactics, not 7.
In either case, be it accurate to the remake, or just dumb luck, getting him to low health before stealing WORKED, so I got them both.

Fight itself was pretty easy though, Rude carried his hate on for Cloud into this fight and Cloud carried his Elemental Wind so again, Rude got an asswhipping. Unexpected bonus (since I wasn't expecting the rematch) of switching from lightning to wind for the Helitroopers and Reno (since he's always been ElemLit). Reno I could have beaten faster but he wouldn't cough up his loot. Far from the first time a boss has gotten extra turns in FF7 because steal is a finicky thing.

As an aside to the choppers, I was initially disappointed they ignored the original game's weird, chintzy little helicopters in favor of the Obviously-but-ever-so-slightly-changed-so-we-cant-get-sued Black Hawks they have in Advent Children. And then I turned the corner and saw they repurposed those as light attack helicopters.
And Jesse goes down swinging, taking one of them with her.

I too was a bit confused by the changes to the plate release, though it does make a bit more sense (something that big and heavy would break apart if the supporting structure failed, rather than just dislodging as one giant chunk of steel like it does int he original game). As for the reactors themselves, the original game really never manages to convey just how big a Mako reactor is. The remake does, but it's subtle. Head back to sector 6, by the train station. If you were confused as to why everyone was talking about the fire at reactor 5, but you couldn't see it, it's because that ENTIRE GIANT BLACK SKYSCRAPPER that looks like part of the plate wall is Reactor 5. They go from the base of the Midgar undercity slums, ALL the way up over the top of the plate. The "smokestack" that is the iconic bit of them is just that, a vent plume/smoke stack. The reactor building is enormous, and is why they can bury an entire weapons development facility inside one. In both the original game and the remake, in the cutscene where President Shinra watches it fall, reactors 7 and 8 (which are the two on the sides of Sector 7) are powered down (not actively venting whatever that Mako waste plume is). I've always presumed they deliberately shut them down to prevent any sort of failure from the platefall, and they're SO big I've always assumed that they're reinforced concrete and steel (given 1, a previous war with Wutai and they'd be obvious military targets and 2, it'd explain why Avalanche needed to get to the reactor core to harm one).

As to why the plate is designed like that, and other WTF questions about Midgar, the game does address those, though they left out much of the way as it's originally discussed at the Shinra Board meeting (I'll put this at the bottom so you can advoid it as potential spoiler if you choose to do so).

Was surprised to see Cait there. He isn't in the original, so feels like an appropriate place to intro him given the splitting of the game. He's every bit that animated in AC so I've always assumed he's less a toy, despite being described as such and more a small robot (and VR piloting does make sense). I hope he gets the Moogle though, and it's not like AC where they demote Red XIII to horsey.

The aftermath in this version is terrific. It hurt in the original, but here it's so much deeper. Wedge gets his moment in the sun! The troopers were there right up until the end in the original, if I remember correctly. Some of the lackies are crazy loyal, but it's believable considering what we see in real life.

I too was puzzled by the Aerith flash (I mentioned this in my Church scene commentary), but the game seems to be confirming something I have suspected for 23 years -- that Aerith KNOWS what awaits her, that meeting Cloud, following her path will lead to her death and has already made her peace with it. I was more perplexed by what Marlene says, the "You're..." (when Aerith playfully Shh'd her). They established little Marlene has a connection with the spiritual, she knew about the kid ghosts in the Train Graveyard. Does Marlene have Cetra blood? The original game gives exactly zero reference to her birth mother, so... But this entire scene is new, as in the original game Tifa still makes the request, but Aeirth's entire episode is "off camera" as you climb the tower.

The party switching thing is amusingly enough pretty much copied from the original, you don't actually get to make a choice at all until the very end of the Midgar arc there, as the same thing keeps happening.

*Spoilers for Midgar plotting: In the remake, President Shinra brushes Reeve off because they're going to put their focus on the Promised Land now that they have Aerith. In the original, he flat out tells Reeve they're not rebuilding, because they're going to restart the Neo-Midgar plan, and build a new Midgar IN the promised land. They DO hint at this much more vaguely in the remake, as the images in the Shinra exhibit are of a futuristic (Neo-)Midgar inside a bright green, full of life land rather than being near exposed rocky cliffs as actual Midgar is.