[yieldcrv]

yeah, one of my problems with Japanese properties in general is this obvious design by committee thing and budget issues that turn great pitches into incoherent nonsense by the end

you can basically count on one hand how many anime style or Japanese gaming properties don't go off the rails and finish the initial story.

Final Fantasy VII is a prime example, the world building at the beginning of the first game in the “VII” franchise is fantastic. In such an arduous funnel, most people see that. But then there’s vampires, dueling identities, ridiculous backstories that cause continuity issues and separate subsequently released games for each, pretty much just ignore the final boss in the first game and the resolution in the post cut scenes, because now there’s multiple universes for no reason with no foreshadowing whatsoever. like. stop. there was no cliffhanger or loose ends.

they even got fans jumping through mental hoops about the definition of “remake” to rationalize the unnecessary ridiculousness of breaking the story even further for no benefit, but in 4k. they could have just done the exact same story without the kingdom hearts nonsense but its like someone at Square can’t be fired for some dumb distinctly Japanese reason.

[dagmx]

It seems like you’re talking about the modern FF7 Remake, which is actually an alternate universe version of the original FF7 series.

The original didn’t have a lot of the bits you are calling out because it wasn’t trying to retcon in 20+ years worth of story buildup, and is a much simpler story.

That’s not to justify the complexity of the FF7 lore. I think it and Kingdom Hearts are both ridiculously over complex now, but that people delineate between Remake and the original because of that huge divergence in story.

The article and rest of the comments are about the original game.

[yieldcrv]

I was referring to the first game until I was referring to the remake. read it again?

I find the first game charming and evocative, while acknowledging there were some parts to expand upon, loose ends even, but the way they did that definitely jumped the shark.

[dagmx]

Ah my bad. I misunderstood what the subject was in the paragraph when you talked about the “first game” and the criticisms after, since they’re largely scoped to the remake rather than earlier games in the franchise.

[imbnwa]

The entire back half of disc 2 was a convoluted mess that added nothing personal to Cloud’s story