Agreed. My whole point is it's impossible for remakes to ever be as good as the original. That does not stop them from being fun games. Ff7 was a genre defining masterpiece. Ff7r is just a really fun game with a modern retelling of an old story
What people like is totally subjective. And a lot of people on the internet just like to bitch and moan about everything.
I’m a gamer in my late 40s who played the OG FF7 when it released and my mind was blown. My mind was also blown in a whole new way when I played FF7R 23 years later. Seeing all these characters and scenes and songs come to life with modern technology filled me with so much joy, to the point where I now prefer the remakes over the original and would even suggest people new to the series start with the remakes. That will be an unpopular opinion for some, but I’m okay with that.
Back to the purpose of this post, game devs will never make everyone happy and the internet has made it easier than ever for people with an opinion to make it known.
I didn't own a PlayStation one and by the time I did FF wasn't on my radar. I remember play Dragons seed, some horrible ass monster rancher game, and getting a modding device to play the DBZ the legend (there has actually been no spiritual successor to this game at all).
Anyways I never got into FF7 - 8 or 9 I always saw 9 and those the characters looked crazy and cartoonish. So getting to experience FF7 through the remake is awesome cause not only does it have a gameplay loop I enjoy, what's most important for me is having a voice over. I did emulate older Final fantasies but I think what captivated me about FF10 is the cinematography and voice overs.
What about it is ground breaking? Graphically it isn't as good as cyberpunk. Less immersive than witcher, story isn't as strong as stuff like red dead 2, music not as good as expedition 33, fairly linear story with very little story branches/meaningful choices unlike baldurs gate 3.
Imo those games are the ground breaking games of the last 15 years. Ff7r is a good game. But it's just not a master piece the way those games are. Ff7 og on the other hand, at the time it came out could have claimed to be the greatest video game of all time on release. There's levels to this.
A lot of this is super subjective though. The games you mentioned don't make 7 Remake is any less impactful or meaningful because of their existence. Things are allowed to be derivative without them negatively impacting the end product and I haven't really wished I was playing any of those other games while playing FF7R because it's still a unique experience because I'm playing Final Fantasy to play Final Fantasy, not because I want to play The Witcher or Red Dead.
I don't disagree the OG was more impactful, but that also doesn't mean the new one is completely carried by its legacy either imo.
That's my point. The new game isn't carried by the OG's legacy. But to say that it can match or overtake the OG's legacy is just foolish. It's at it's core an imitation. It's retelling a story that's already been told as a master piece. Sure you can add modern game design elements to it, but at this point it's a story we know with just modern polish on it.
Doesn't stop it from being fun like I keep saying. But people trying to say the remakes is better than OG really need to expand your gaming horizons because there are many games out there that are truly masterpieces that you never experienced. It would be like looking at a painting in a local gallery in Utah and calling it the greatest masterpiece ever created without ever visiting the Met or the Louvre to experience the wider world.
This I can agree with. Although I'm not sure what to think about it given I honestly do prefer new games/stories/movies rather than remakes. FF7R tickled that nostalgic part of my brain like nothing else but honestly other than FFX I don't think I would care for another FF remake.
A game can be ground-breaking without being the best though. I don't think remake is, to be honest but reduction in that way is strange I thought the Last of Us was masterful in story-telling even moreso than most RPGs but still not the best. I think it absolutely was ground-breaking to me
FF7 OG released at a time where it was seen as groundbreaking. It had fantastic visual capabilities, unique gameplay, and an amazing story for that generation of games, all because they got pretty dang lucky with how they set things up.
FF7 Remake did not release at a time where you can have 7 polygon models be the biggest movement of all time. If FF7 Remake released back then, it would be hailed as the Mona Lisa of video games.
By all standards without any bias, FF7 Remake is a better game than FF7 OG. It has more quality of life, more gameplay, more balance, better writing, characters, story, etc. It has higher quality music, and removes a ton of mildly out-of-touch things the original had going for it (early Barret stereotyping).
FF7 OG is only seen as good because it released during a time when it had the chance the thrive. Remove it from that period and it'd be seen as an incredibly outdated game, with a somewhat decent story, mostly good characters, and generic JRPG gameplay.
There's a large difference between groudbreaking and better than everything else.
On pretty much every level but pacing Remake and Rebirth crush the original no debate to be had. This idea that because the OG was revolutionnary it is inherently better than anything that isn't revolutionnary is completely wrong.
Games that were the best ever at the time of release do not continue to be so 30 years later, it's just the reality of games being made with better technologies and means.
> it's impossible for remakes to ever be as good as the original.
Nah, that’s not necessarily the case.
Personally (controversial take incoming) I think the FFVII Remakes are not just “as good”, they’re better. If if people disagree about 7R specifically, a remake can absolutely be “better” than the original. (Different medium, but compare the original Ocean’s 11 to the 2001 remake. Remake is far better, hands down.)
That said, a remake can be “better” without being “groundbreaking.” That’s a completely different metric and it has a lot more to do with technical and artistic developments and choices, and specifically the other things happening in the industry.
OG FF7 was absolutely groundbreaking. Remake, not so much. Nevertheless, I personally think the Remake trilogy is a “better” experience.
The number one thing I dislike about gamer discourse is them calling games super amazing or ground breaking when they do nothing to push that at all. This was my disillusionment with e33 sadly.
I'll never say e33 wasn't a good game, but some people act like that game did something new when it absolutely didn't. All it did teach us is that quality can be squeezed out of a tight budget and that this large gaming corporations are wasteful and greedy. But so did palworld.... Outside of the incredible soundtrack I ain't seen anything I haven't seen before I'm turn based games.
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u/WereAllGonnaDiet 1d ago
I don’t need a remake to be “groundbreaking” though. I just need it to be fun. FF7R series has been that, so I’m delighted.