Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[Maxx]

Is this the rest of the story, or will there be a 3rd game as well?

[Bobfoc]

There will be a third game.

[Benji]

Yeah this is presumably ending at the Forgotten City. I'd imagine the third game starts with The Icicle Inn and the journey to Great Glacier given it would be a bit jarring to have that right after that scene.

[9 to 5]

On 07/02/2024 at 16:59, Bobfoc said:

There will be a third game.

What's the justification of splitting one game into three full priced parts?

[RazorsEdge]

9 minutes ago, 9 to 5 said:

What's the justification of splitting one game into three full priced parts?

$$$

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, 9 to 5 said:

What's the justification of splitting one game into three full priced parts?

Also expanding on the story and characters. The first game felt like a full game by itself, and I imagine this one will too. It's no different than Mass Effect 1-3. Full games, but the overall story isn't complete. 

[Benji]

2 hours ago, 9 to 5 said:

What's the justification of splitting one game into three full priced parts?

They're three full sized games. Stuff from the original has been greatly expanded.

[Captain Kirk]

On 07/02/2024 at 12:50, jrhodes said:

It looks amazing but the State of Play also looked like it was going to spoil most of the cool moments from the game so I switched it off after a few minutes.

Not sure if I'll bother with the demo or not as I'm deep into Persona 3 Reload at the moment.

 

If you get time I'd just go with the demo, as it won't spoil anything.

[apsham]

4 hours ago, 9 to 5 said:

What's the justification of splitting one game into three full priced parts?

In short - the head of the business unit and FF's current brand manager Yoshinori Kitase plays things veeeeeeeeery close to the chest with his vision for what Final Fantasy should be and his only justification for a remake is that it has to be leagues larger than what it is remaking. He's pretty obsessed with making FF7 something that is entirely in line with what a 'modern game' is from his perspective.

And that means three games worth of content (no matter how padded it is, but that's just my personal feelings about the remake) along with other phone games and the like branching off it.

[gunnar hendershow]

I'll say that most remakes are disappointing because they just take the old game, slap on new paint, throw in some meaningless extras, and charge full price. Remake took a 5 hour segment of the original game and managed to expand it into a full game that only in rare moments felt like it was meandering about in order to seem longer. I was very skeptical when they announced that as the plan for the game but there was so much to get out of Midgar that hadn't yet been tapped - and we're going to revisit it in game 3 where probably more can be added in.

Now we're entering the stage of the original game that narratively had an absurd amount happen and we're expected to go through all those locales that likely don't grow in scale too much from the original game (though I have expectations Junon is going to be a pretty involved chapter). But there's a ton of content to get in the game and I'm cautiously optimistic they give everywhere the same level of care as Midgar got. Worried this will feel more like a "traditional" remake where it's the old game with better graphics and performance. 

[Captain Kirk]

8 hours ago, gunnar hendershow said:

I'll say that most remakes are disappointing because they just take the old game, slap on new paint, throw in some meaningless extras, and charge full price. Remake took a 5 hour segment of the original game and managed to expand it into a full game that only in rare moments felt like it was meandering about in order to seem longer. I was very skeptical when they announced that as the plan for the game but there was so much to get out of Midgar that hadn't yet been tapped - and we're going to revisit it in game 3 where probably more can be added in.

Now we're entering the stage of the original game that narratively had an absurd amount happen and we're expected to go through all those locales that likely don't grow in scale too much from the original game (though I have expectations Junon is going to be a pretty involved chapter). But there's a ton of content to get in the game and I'm cautiously optimistic they give everywhere the same level of care as Midgar got. Worried this will feel more like a "traditional" remake where it's the old game with better graphics and performance. 

If the demo is anything to go by I’m not too worried, Nibelheim was a small, but certainly filled out with enough people to look like a busy village. All the talks of people who have played it seem to be saying it is huge.

[gunnar hendershow]

Interesting note is the review embargo for this game lifts a whole week early, which historically means there's a lot of confidence in it being a "GOTY contender". A whole week to generate pre-release buzz so that people who did preorder don't cancel and people who didn't decide that they want to play it.

We will know in a few days if this is Square Enix having a bit too much hubris or if their confidence is justified.

[Benji]

I can't imagine it being anything but a GOTY contender. The first was great, and this covers arguably the best entire section of the original. It's literally the reason I'll be getting a PS5

[Captain Kirk]

On 18/02/2024 at 22:16, Benji said:

I can't imagine it being anything but a GOTY contender. The first was great, and this covers arguably the best entire section of the original. It's literally the reason I'll be getting a PS5

As an adult, PS5(well any SSD based console/PC) have been the best purchases I have made. It's ridiculous the time saved overall on loading times being so quick, and the amount of distractions that crop up waiting for something to load. 😂

[jrhodes]

Is anyone else finding the Junon section of the demo ridiculously hard?

I don't know if I've just forgotten how the combat works or something but I tried one of the Monster Hunter-style quests and got killed. Then I tried the first boss and got absolutely wasted.

It was a level of difficulty that felt decidedly unfun.

Edited February 22 by jrhodes

[Benji]

PS5 arrived. I am so hyped for this!

Spoiler

I'm ready to have my heart broken all over again 😭

 

[Ruki]

To the surprise of no one, the game is reviewing really well. 

https://old.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1ax72if/final_fantasy_vii_rebirth_review_thread/

[Bobfoc]

It seems that the most common complaint is that the open world gameplay can be a bit tedious and pads things out more than is necessary. I found that Remake had a few sections that dragged, so I'm not surprised, and while it's a bit of an annoyance, it doesn't sound as though it will ruin the overall experience.

[gunnar hendershow]

I like that some of the criticisms are that the main story beats are all treated with some incredible level of pomp & circumstance, as if that's a bad thing. I want this game to treat Costa del Sol as the most important seaside town in video game history lol.

I've also seen that the open world maybe doesn't provide as much variation as you might get in other games, which is keeping with what we generally get from Square Enix. Apparently some repetitive side quests, again true to form. 

Was a little worried they'd throw too much into the game to pad it out unnecessarily but if the padded out stuff is mostly to make the open world feel bigger than it is likely stuff I can just breeze by.

[Bobfoc]

My biggest worry has always been that the story will fall into Kingdom Hearts levels of convoluted nonsense. Having one or two new twists and turns doesn't bother me, but excessive wibbly-wobbly timeline claptrap probably would.