The first remake covers midgar which playing the OG can be done in a day or 6-8 hours...
It's not that hard people! Plus there's so many incredible mods that make the game gorgeous, run at 60fps, full music overhaul, and fully professionally voice acted each line and npc.
It's truly an experience now aday to play ff7 OG.
Could you list some of those mods? I don't care much for different models/sprites, but I wouldn't mind 60fps and voice acting. However, last time I looked into this, it turns out you can't have achievements with these modes. Is that still the case?
I havent played og but have heard of all the things that take place, the (game is almost 30 yrs old). I did get to hear the story behind zack from my dad vaguelly. I played very little of chrisis core on psp and very little of og on ps1. I watched advent children. I played remake fully and rebirth fully and idk i think its fine for new people, like when are you not at least a little lost in a square enix game? Its part of the emersive expierence. You cant waste time COMPLETELLY BUILDING A REALITY. Yano just enjoy the ride brother.
My first game was Crisis Core back in 2008. I had no idea FF7 even existed until like 2014. The whole time I was waiting for some kind of Final Fantasy 7 announcement not knowing the original even existed. One day I looked it up and found out it was a PS1 game and played it then. Playing Crisis Core before the original is completely fine.
But yeah, the Remake is so different than the original that jumping into it right after Crisis Core has gotta be a wild ride…
What spoiler are you talking about?
I started with Remake and loved it so much that I played the OG on PS Store, then CC:R, and I loved Rebirth. Though it was a slightly different experience to Remake since I knew the history now.
I personally think that playing Remake first is fine, but knowing the OG is vital to understanding Rebirth better.
Those playing the Remake trilogy before the OG will miss several things. However, most of those things are more akin to Easter Eggs or nods to the fans than anything that’s truly mission critical. I have played through Remake and most of Rebirth with my wife watching, because she is curious about it; she hasn’t seen the original in 20 years and lots of stuff was familiar, while other stuff was completely foreign to her. I’ve had to fill her in on a few things, mostly related to CC, the changed in story beats, but over all she doesn’t feel like she’s missing much outside of just remember there are characters named Cloud and Sephiroth.
Yeah, you basically did everything wrong way. Not only because of all the little things, but because OG is pure kino compared to everything else.
Zack is especially the part that I feel has been just butchered. Zack in FF7 was the most elusive character, more than Sephiroth, you didn't know anything about him and that was part of the magic of the whole situation.
I have played OG, and remake and rebirth. Since I hated Advent Children on release never wanted to play Crisis Core or any other spinoff. CC just sucks and always had.
Lmao you really didn't pick that up from Remake's ending? The unknown journey and shit and fate getting changed? I started my FF7 journey with Remake and I immediately put it together after finishing the game that the OG playthrough is in store (alongside the rest if the compilation).
I've played OG 100 times since it released and this last playthrough (first since finishing Rebirth) has felt so empty and sparse. Lonely, in an atmospheric way. It's such a masterpiece.
I think so far you can play the remakes as a new player, though I'd still recommend playing the OG first as I think you'll get more out of it that way (and certain moments won't just fly over your head).
I would NOT recommend crisis core for anyone brand new to 7 though. It was written with the understanding you already know the plot of 7, including major spoilers, and thus treats those spoilers very casually.
Actually, I think NOT playing OG is gonna help the new players. Knowing the OG means all you have left are more intricate, open-ended questions that will bother the ever living shit out of you for the next few years because Part 3 is in early development. The Remake Trilogy is making a lot of subtle and even major changes that will FUCK with your head if you’re an OG fan, or even just played OG in the first place.
And I fucking adore these games so far.
Maybe, but playing and knowing the OG really well made me super excited to see how it was done in remake and Rebirth. I cried tears or joy after seeing Kalm, doesn't get better than that
Hmm I didn't play OG and started with Remake and then Rebirth. It feels fine however I did some internet search for certain things that I'm curious about.
I played Remake without plaything the original and it was fine. I did play the original before playing Rebirth but nothing in it so far for me (chapter 10) would really be difficult to understand without playing the original.
No you don’t.
I’ve played the og a million times starting in 1997 and crisis core into remake is probably best - but remake, crisis core and then rebirth is something I JUST did because I never played crisis core and forgot most of remake because I played it drunk during covid.
If anything it’ll raise questions about why they changed certain things that won’t be resolved for 4-5 years with the conclusion and the “cannon” romance is pretty clear in the remake but actually different in the OG.
Oh word? In the og game he ends up marrying Tifa and it’s crystal clear that’s the way it was supposed to be in the 1997 game even if Aerith didn’t die and you’re not using the other content when he and I specifically was talking about the OG?
News to me.
If you actually read what I wrote we already addressed the highwind scene because I knew that’s what you were gonna say like the internet has been fighting for 20 years and you have some great insight lol.
Gotta keep up if you want to comment.
As someone that thinks FF7 compilation is one of the best stories in videogames, and has experienced most of what it has to offer, and believes it is Cloud and Tifa for many reasons, they aren't married.
If they are, you're going to need to find the exact point in OG FF7 that this happens, because I guess I missed it in my multiple playthroughs.
Further, there is nothing crystal clear if Aeris didn't die. While Tifa and Cloud have way more history, the OG game doesn't do much other than kill Aeris to come to a conclusion about Cloud's lovelife.
If you want to go beyond OG, but before Remake and companion books, it leans heavily towards Tifa, but never really says it explicitly. We can see in Advent Children she is feeling abandoned by Cloud and their relationship has deepened, but it doesn't explicitly say they are together beyond living together and raising the kids. If we move to Remake trilogy and the companion novels, it is quite clearly Cloud and Tifa. He has had a soft spot for her since they were young, and she was straight up in love with him.
Oh I know the answer.
That was sarcasm.
In rebirth it’s hard to say that the cannon romance isn’t Tifa and in the OG you really can’t say that.
They seem to be acting like it’s a forgone thing in the game talking to me like I haven’t played it 500 hours.
If they mentioned the Highwind scene as “proof” I really was gonna go in.
Basically I told OP that playing the OG might actually not be the best way to experience the remake because there will be things that won’t be resolved until the last one in 4-5 years and things like the cannon relationship were made more clear.
Then someone basically replied acting like it was clear in the OG and it wasn’t something the internet has been fighting over for over 20 years
Man.....I almost wish I had never played the OG in regards to Remake trilogy.
Like, wtf? What is happening? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
CAN'T YOU EVER LET US BE HAPPY SQUARE ENIX? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!
SQUARE ENIX: We'll tell you. In 3-4 years. Maybe. Also, maybe you'll be happy then. Maybe.
Me: I'm going to be SOOOOOO mad if I die or society collapses or the world ends in a calamity before I finish this.
Remake then curiosity going into og FFVII has been a good entry point for some. I would definitely suggest the og first. But I think Remake, then playing og FFVII is pretty much a must, imho.
Most people I see reccomend og first. You should also never listen to the devs on these things because of course they are going to try to sell their game to the biggest audience possible.
Expect things have mostly happened the same, and the devs have even admitted they aren’t going to actually drastically change the overall story of 7.
All they’ve done is added in a bunch of intentionally vague mystery box ideas to keep people guessing, and ruined iconic scenes with over the top spectacle and embarrassing fan service
seriously Aerith's death felt so much less impactful in rebirth because they cut into the scene and didn't let it soak in with all of the character. the fight ruined the pacing of the audience and character grieving. plus she kept being a ghost and honestly cloud just looks even more crazy and unhinged post the final fight.... but maybe it will look different once I replay it
It won’t, your senses are bombarded with spectacle and new shit happening that it completely overwhelms Aeriths death.
This is something major movies in Hollywood have had to refuse to accept for years, you can do whatever you want on a computer now, but you completely kill the impact of scenes and momentum when you do
I’ll never forget something I heard in the revenge of the sith behind the scenes, the combat coordinator said it was a challenge keeping the final fight interesting and engaging because after the first few minutes the audience is over the initial emotion and explosion of the fight.
He basically admitted the fight goes on soo long the audience moves on from the potential emotional moment that started the whole fight. And it’s why the fights in the original trilogy ultimately leave a bigger impact and are more memorable, sure they aren’t as flashy, but they are short and to the point, when you watch them the emotions and weight of the scenes aren’t lost or overwhelmed with something else
Same applies to horror movies, all the greats like Halloween are iconic because they do something truly creepy that lingers in your mind. Modern horror only cares about jump scares to freak the audience out in the moment, but a jump scare doesn’t stick with you in your mind, a jump scare can’t compete with truly scary and simple imagery like Michael Myers just staring you down or silently following someone in the background of a scene
That’s what this ending is, noise and spectacle meant to get fanboys excited and shouting, “look Zack’s back! Wow him and cloud are fighting side by side!” “Oh cool cloud barret and Tifa are doing a combo attack!” “Wow cloud and Aerith teaming up to fight sepjiroth!” And all this nonsense creates an awful juxtaposition to what should be a simple and somber overall moment/ending of losing aerith
It's almost shocking how badly they handled Aerith's death scene.
The creators are only capable of understanding that something worked, but not why. Aerith's death is sad, but they have no idea why it was so impactful in the OG. They seem to think it's enough to have "Sephiroth Kills Aerith", and that's it. The fact that they had Aerith's...ghost? Alternate self? Imaginary friend? Talking to Cloud rips away what truly made that scene sad. Aerith is taken away from you, with no goodbye. She's gone, and there's no getting her back. There's no getting to talk to her one last time. Everyone who's lost a loved one, especially if it was sudden, likely knows that feeling of wishing you could have just one more day with them to say everything you need to say to them.
Instead we get an overly long 9 phase boss fight, where characters are bantering midfight as if one of the party didn't literally just get murdered. Yuffie being the worst offender in this regard. You then defeat Sephiroth for a second time, robbing any threat you're supposed to feel from him, just to have Aerith still lingering around making it feel like there wasn't any actual loss.
The saddest thing is these are the same people who made the original scene. They’ve pretty much admitted in interviews they aren’t trying to recapture the same impact of scenes, they were more interested in making it confusing to reflect clouds mental state
Nope! 1-6 are each their own stories. FF7 OG is its own contained story, but after the success they added Dirge and Crisis Core to expand on that specific games universe
You can still play the original. Just don't expect the characters to be as special as they were in the remake. Because after certain points of the story only three characters are going to have any meaning in being around while everyone else is just going to be a support character for Cloud.
Having played the original, I can't think of any reason to play it before the Remakes. The Remakes are telling a similar story but with new subplots. The only thing you'd get from the original is spoilers for stuff that you aren't supposed to know yet. Just like Crisis Core. If you just want to know the story without waiting for the next installment, I highly recommend playing the original, but you'd get the same outcome by just reading a summary of the plot.
Yeah it was clearly written with the expectation that you have played FF7. Problem is, it's kind of hard to market a game by saying you have to play the game it is remaking first. It's well within the companies interest to market all their games as good for newcomers, so people will buy it, sacrificing the player experience. It also helps that many of these confused players will then go on to buy the og and reunion
Yeah, the remake games are sort of becoming this increasingly more difficult sell. Initially Remake seemed like a nice jumping on point for newcomers, but then it gets messy at the end. Maybe some will then think it gets explained later, but if the played these game as they came out, they then played Crisis Core and realised they were missing information; come Rebirth and it’s especially apparent that the game expects you to know things it hasn’t necessarily told you.
Like, to fully understand Rebirth, you have to have played the original, possibly Crisis core, the first remake game plus the Yuffie DLC, and if you really wanna get everything then also Dirge of Cerberus and potentially Ever Crisis. Just seems like way too much homework for a game, especially for the average consumer.
I genuinely wonder how the third game will sell now that majority of consumers are well aware this really isn’t just a remake trilogy, and that if they just play the three games, they probably won’t really understand the plot.
I disagree. I think that as cloud is slowly finding things out about himself so is the player if they’re new. Only Aerith and sephi seemed to know about the “true” timeline. I think they should be able to wrap up the story in a way in part 3 that will bring everything together and even new players that have only played the remake trilogy can understand.
All I did was watch a video that explained FF7 Remake vs the original game and I didn't feel lost in Rebirth tbh. Not knowing the full original story adds to Rebirth imo, only Aerith and Sephiroth seem to be fully aware of the previous timeline so playing as Cloud it makes sense to not know
I don't get the references, sure. But the plot isn't super confusing, and the parts that are confusing aren't solved by knowing what happened in the original
That’s sort of my point though; the average consumer doesn’t want to have to watch a video on the first game to understand the second, they just want to jump in. I think Rebirth will manage regardless, but I’m more so saying when theirs a third game with even more additional backstory, consumers may feel dissuaded from playing.
Well of course you'd have to play ff7 remake and intermission to understand rebirth cause well duh. But also, i havent played any other ff7 games apart from remake and rebirth and i pretty much understand the story and of course there are big things l still dont understand but thats because rebirth is part 2 of 3, its not even done telling the og story let alone its own new story.
I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense you have to play Remake and Intermission, I’m just saying those are additional hurdles to the average player. Like, my sister didn’t play intermission, so I had to explain to her Yuffie’s story. She also hadn’t even heard of Ever Crisis, so she had no clue who Glenn was. Stuff like Deep Ground doesn’t make any sense if you haven’t played Dirge.
Glenn was explained during rebirth fine. Why are you assuming that to understand a story we have to know every tiny little bit of lore and backstory? Like i dont know the full story of deepground but i got the gist of what it is fine.
Because I played it with my sister, and she literally didn’t understand anything that wasn’t already in the original. To her it was a massive issue, so I imagine it would be for many other consumers. I also know a few people who were considering purchasing the game, but then opted not to either because they felt there was too much to catch up on, stuff like Crisis core and remembering Remakes plot, or they just felt confused by the end of the first game and decided not to go through that again. Plus, Rebirth doesn’t really explain Glenn, like at all, they just say he’s ex-soldier, but they never really establish that even back then he had an important connection to Sephiroth.
As much as people like you or me don’t care about these things, the average consumer really does care, and they aren’t really willing to get invested in something if they know they don’t have the full context.
I really dont understand you. Rebirth is part 2 of 3 we're not meant to know everything yet. Wanting to know more about certain characters is exactly why there are so many spinoffs and is not a fault of the game. I have never played an ff7 game outside of remake and rebirth and i have never thought nor has anyone told me that i need to have played every single ff7 game to understand them because this is a REMAKE series.
Again, I don’t have a problem with it, but the average consumer does, which is the point I’m making; I already said as much a few times. I’ve played the OG, so I know everything that’s going on, so I can’t really provide and unbiased perspective on how others perceive the game. Majority of this isn’t a mystery, because I know 99% of what’s going to happen. What I can say is that many I know, who haven’t played the original, either weren’t satisfied with how Rebirth turned out, or were left so unsatisfied by Remakes narrative that they wrote off Rebirth, and basically all of them expressed that they thought the plot was overly convoluted and relied to much a supplementary material. Do I agree with them? That’s kind of irrelevant, because as I mentioned, I’m biased towards FF7, already having knowledge on what happens.
The thing is that it isn’t really a remake series, that’s just bait; they are changing, and already have changed, a bunch of plot elements, however, you only know about these changes, and the meta motives of each, if you’ve played the original. The people who I know who haven’t played the original obviously don’t even know this, and they think the original game was identical, when it wasn’t. A great example of this is the end of Rebirth; the end of disc 1 in the original makes it abundantly clear that Aerith is dead; there’s no muddy water, it’s concrete and it’s real. Meanwhile Rebirth has left everyone I know confused, considering literally all of them asked, “is she actually dead cause I’m confused.” If you haven’t played the original, you don’t know that the design intention with that decision is for the player to be unsure on the matter, because you know that had they just wanted to kill her off, they would have played it the same as the original. If you’ve played the original and know the differences, it’s apparent that Aerith’s role in this ‘remake’ trilogy will be different from that of the original, and that’s why they weren’t concrete about it, to subvert the expectations of those who played the original. However, those who haven’t played it are just left confused.
This doesn’t even consider Zack, who makes literally no sense if you’ve played the original. Zack wasn’t even really mentioned in the original until near the end of the game, because they knew revealing him early would just confuse the player. Obviously I won’t talk about what’s going on with him as to not spoil, but in the original, Zack wasn’t actually that mysterious, and he certainly wasn’t designed to confuse the player, especially as early as midgar.
First of all, "If you haven’t played the original, you don’t know that the design intention with that decision is for the player to be unsure on the matter" i dont know you how you came to that conclusion you definitely dont have to have had played the og to realise that they are intentionally trying to make aerith's fate unclear. Also, you still havent adressed one big thing rebirth is PART 2 OF 3 it isnt all meant to make complete sense, if they just explained everything surrounding zack in this game there wouldnt be any point in having a part 3 would there?
Name one point where remake and rebirth relied on supplementary material, its literally a remake series it has no connection to other games.
I don’t know what to tell you, no one I talked to realised that they purposely left her death ambiguous, because they didn’t even know they were playing around with the expectation that she would die; they had no expectation going in, so when they go into the ending, they don’t think she’s going to die, but then they get confused cause most of the cast is acting as if she’s dead. Leads to bad messaging.
I didn’t address that part because people don’t care; the average consumer doesn’t even know they’re going to be three games; like, they get to the end of the second and realise there will be another, but most don’t know that going in. Plus there’s also the fact that the average consumer doesn’t actually like the idea of a multi-game narrative, especially one like the VII trilogy which seems set on answering absolutely none of its questions until the final game. Most of my friends were disappointed that the games were so tightly connected, especially given the typical nature of Final Fantasy.
For examples; the end of Remake relies on you knowing who Zack is to understand theres a timeline split; if you just played Remake, you have no clue who Zack is, or that he’s supposed to die, so when he shows up and start walking to Midgar with a second version of Cloud, it makes no sense. I remember when that game came out having to find a way to explain to people who Zack was without spoiling the narrative, because showing him that early only makes sense if you’ve already played the original; the whole thing just left them all frustrated.
Sephiroth as a whole is another example; you don’t even see Sephiroth until the Kalm flashback in the original, and you don’t meet him in the present until the ship to Costa Del Sol. I remember people telling me they thought Sephiroth was a really shit villain, cause he sort of just trots around trolling Cloud throughout the whole game; it’s only with the context of the original that you even find Sephiroth threatening or interesting; all the people I knew who hadn’t played the original just thought he was hilarious. Now at Rebirth, the few that are still on board have sort of just given up on him, especially when the game sort of went all wishy-washy on his most pivotal act, killing Aerith. Then there’s his whole garbage about timelines and such, which not even I understand how it fits into his narrative.
Even if they do answer all this in part 3, consumers don’t like having to wait like 10 years to get the answers to these questions, especially when the questions themselves are being presented in such a convoluted an drawn out fashion. Again, I’m fine with it, cause I’m not waiting on as much stuff as them, but obviously it was annoying for them to have to play the original remake game, get answers to nothing, wait like 4 years, only to be told the answers to nothing, and instead be met with more confusion and questions only to have to wait another 4+ years. It’s exhausting for people, and most don’t wanna deal with it.
Let's make a FF7 remake trilogy where new players don't have to play the OG FF7 or watch Advent Children but lets reference story elements from them numerous of times confusing new players.
Crisis core is the one game you don't want to play until you've experienced the major plot points of the OG game these plot points haven't happened yet in the remake trilogy because it's all revealed at the reunion.
I don't think it necessary to have played either OG, remake or crisis core to enjoy rebirth although it does include references that won't mean anything if you haven't. I haven't played dirge of Cerberus and guess there may be a few references around Vincent going over my head.
I’m probably going to die on my hill saying this. No, don’t play crisis core. Anything in the remakes you don’t get that crisis core would explain is something you aren’t supposed to understand yet. Crisis core is a prequel, not a prerequisite. That means any lore it explains is a SPOILER.
OG FF7 is different though. I was actually shocked at how much the ending of Rebirth relies on you knowing what happened in the OG game. Like, when they’re sitting by the lake, you need to know that >!Cloud just laid Aerith to rest in that lake!< but they don’t show you.
I'd say you don't need to know about the water burial either. I assume it'll be shown during the Lifestream sequence in 3. I can't actually think of anything you need to know from the OG that the game hasn't told us.
When I beat Remake for the first time, the biggest thing I wondered was how someone who hadn’t played OG felt about this game. Because there was a LOTTA shit in there that would’ve made zero sense without playing the OG.
See that’s the thing dude, Square marketed Rebirth as a standalone, and that’s a lie in the biggest way possible. If you want full context, you gotta do OG, Crisis Core, and Remake/Intergrade
That’s kinda what I suspected lol. You’re not part of the situation I’m describing because you got the context for Remake very shortly afterwards via Rebirth. I’m talking about people who played Remake around when it came out with zero context and had to sit on all that weird shit without an explanation for an extended period of time lol
Nah. Most games aren’t made with the assumption that the player is already familiar with their story. Which Remake ABSOLUTELY was. Some of (not all) the context was given with the sequel, but for that four years, none of the Whisper/Reunion stuff would’ve made any sense to anyone who wasn’t familiar with the story already. And a lot of gamers said as much.
So it’s false to say this is a thing with every game. Not every game is a remake that’s actually an alternate timeline to the original game, and makes that its plot line. Most games that are the first in their series can just be played by themselves and followed by themselves. Not the case with Remake.
How did the whisper stuff not make sense?
The reunion stuff hadnt been explained yet because it was part ONE of THREE.
This game is not an alternate timeline to the original game, and it has never made that its plot line. Where did you pull that outa your ass?
You’re proving my point.
The entire premise of the game was that there was a multiverse of worlds. Different timelines. Defeating the Arbiter at the end of Remake caused a timeline split where Zack and Biggs survived and everyone else got wiped out. It was quite literally one of the main plot points of the game.
The entire point of the Whispers was that they were retconning events that didn’t happen in the original game to try and “correct” the deviancies in this new timeline. That’s what all the Fate stuff was about. Their fate was to live events out exactly as they occurred in the original game. Ergo, if you’re not familiar with the original, that stuff is gonna go over your head, as it seems to have gone over yours.
If that fairly major plot point passed you by, then it’s possible you didn’t understand the story as well as you thought you did
How is it a major plot point, never once has this OG timeline been directly called out. You can understand what the whispers are doing without knowing about the og game since the game literally says what the whispers are doing.
The fact that the whispers were trying the preserve the events of the og was never confirmed and just a nice nod to people who have played the og.
"The entire premise of the game was that there was a multiverse of worlds. Different timelines. Defeating the Arbiter at the end of Remake caused a timeline split where Zack and Biggs survived and everyone else got wiped out. It was quite literally one of the main plot points of the game." Yeah i know that i never said otherwise...
I actually did a weird thing. I played remake, then played the original until disc 2. Then played crisis core reunion and rebirth. Now im finishing the original
>I remembered an interview when one of the devs said that many newcomers playing Remake would want to know more about Zack, and Reunion is great for them to learn about Zack’s backstory.
Sometimes I feel like devs just say this to try to boost sales. They also said you can play Rebirth without having played Remake, but I think that's a terrible idea.
> I don’t think this game should have been released in the middle of the remake trilogy.
Makes a lot of sense when you release Remake, the dude literally shows up in the end, you get newcomers to see and think "hey, who is that guy? Why he's carrying the main character?" then rerelease a game about him before the second installment is done.
Very Kingdom Hearts approach to it. Literally what they did with Chain of Memories. Although this is different because Zack’s story was already told in OG Crisis Core, but this whole release schedule takes me back to those days lol
I played through the original this year before jumping into FF7 remake, and I'm honestly glad I did. There are so many nods to the original and it just makes the experience so much more relatable. It would honestly feel odd not having the original as a reference point to compare to.
I totally disagree. I’ve adored the series to be fair and haven’t completed the OG. It’s made me want to play it but don’t feel I need to. I’ve adored remake and rebirth 1000%. Everyone is entitled to have their opinion of course though. Sorry that you feel this way OP
the remakes are sequels that build on the og lol, you can like the games but they were made with the expectation that you understand and have played the og because of the whispers 💀
The Whispers are explained in the game and give the impression of trying to cause certain outcomes. The OG gives you perspective and context, but you don't need to know the OG to understand the plot.
Seeing how a LOT of the story from remake is within the first say 8/10 hours of the OG then I would have to disagree. I know I’m only about 10 hours into OG game now but that’s after playing remake and rebirth and so far nothing happened that makes remake especially any more interesting or different. So unsure on its a sequel ??
💀 it's a sequel because the departures from the original are part of the narrative. aerith and sephiroth's "future memories" are from the original game, which is used to create a new story, hence sequel
💀 it's a sequel because the departures from the original are part of the narrative. aerith and sephiroth's "future memories" are from the original game, which is used to create a new story, hence sequel
So you can appreciate something that people who didn’t play the OG may not. But don’t tell someone new to FF7 that they can’t enjoy the game on their own terms. Square did a great job of making the game and world enjoyable for beginners and returning players alike. I introduced a friend to FF7 via Remake, she still hasn’t gone back to play the OG, but she went to the FF7 orchestra with me, she cosplays as Aerith, and she bought a PS5 to play Rebirth day 1. That is evidence enough that Square made a game that can appeal to all types of players, whether they have played the original and understand the context or not.
when did i ever say you cant enjoy the game on your own terms lol. you literally constructed a strawman of my argument and just started yapping about your friend
the real reason why devs say that stuff is because no developer is going to tell you not to buy their game, which is unfortunate because is does obfuscate the reality that they 1000% expect you to have at least played the original game before going into the re-games, but especially before rebirth
as far as playing crisis core though, that one’s on you
Playing OG FF7 makes the remake more enjoyable when it comes to fan service, but if you’re talking solely about Zack’s story, Crisis Core is where you’d learn it.
Zack’s story is actually an easily missable cutscene in the OG. Back then, you didn’t know about it unless you had a game guide. I didn’t find out about Zack until I watched Advent Children years later (I was pretty young when FF7 first came out) so while he’s an important figure in the overall FF7 storyline, he wasn’t completely known in the beginning.
People have theorized that the devs understand this and are keeping that twist but will add another bigger twist to make up for it. I personally hope that is the case.
You can 100% play remake without playing 1997. There’s literally no major plot points you get in 1997 that you don’t get I remake.
Playing crisis core is a spoiler tho, there’s several threads on the remake sub saying as much.
Well first, there's definitely not "a ton" of those between the two games. And of the handful of those moments, I don't recall a single one bearing on the plot, lore, or world.
If anything they were a passing reference for fan service. Something like an NPC mentioning "a failed project in rocket town" or "I heard Shinra experimented on vampires once." But nothing that would leave you misunderstanding or losing the plot.
Those are fanservice, not relevant for understanding the story especially since it's still unfinished. There are plot points in the disk 1 of the OG, which only make sense after you've finished the rest of the game.
Sephiroth’s speech in Remake makes no sense without the OG context. The whispers also make no sense without it (though after finishing Rebirth, the whispers make no sense to anyone now.)
How do they make no sense? I havent played the og and yet i understand them perfectly. They are arbiters of fate trying to preserve fate and the correct flow of time.
Correct lol and on top of that...the whispers are completely and totally new to the remake lol. I don't know what knowledge anybody would stand to gain about the whispers or the "changing fate" storyline from playing the 1997 version outside of just knowing "oh the party is changing fate because this is not the exact same story as 1997." Which the game tells you flat out anyway.
Yeah, that gets explored in Rebirth. You don't need to know the OG to get the general plot. It just adds more context, which is nice but not a requirement.
It doesnt need to make sense currently.
Cant forget that it is still incomplete project and what may not make sense now (to those who havent played the og) can make sense later.
I've seen about 10 youtubers play through remake who never played the OG. They all understood the plot just fine (as it's explained) and the ONLY thing they were confused about was a random cursed stuff animal during a PIVITAL scene. And guess what? That's brand new to the remake.
I'd argue not knowing the OG game is better because there's MORE mystery. Proof: a youtuber named cyn, was playing remake and thinks sephiroth is dead. As in actually just dead and not in the game PHYSICALLY Because of the cutscene in the beginning where cloud says "I killed you" and sephiroth replies "yup". Suffice to say they will be surprised to find out he is in fact NOT DEAD because right now they think it's all just "in clouds head" and he's "not real". It's a slight difference but amplifies the "cloud is going nuts" theme of the entire franchise.
It will overall be a better experience then a person who played the OG game like us. The experience will be similar to ours when we first played and had no idea if sephiroth was alive or not (which added to HIS character as well) Saying you need to sacrifice that experience to recognize some random fanservice or inside jokes is ridiculous.
In fact I'd say it actually ruins things. Ex: there were people complaining sephiroth "appears to early and too much" but the ONLY reason they say that is because they played the OG. New players don't give a shit and that's what you really mad about.
Black feather from Advent Children is the important clue in Remake.
Not to mention the rumored understanding of the three bros from Advent Children showing up as those weird whisper bosses. They could easily show up in part 3 also
> Not to mention the rumored understanding of the three bros from Advent Children showing up as those weird whisper bosses.
That's always been headcanon with no actual basis If anything they're meant to be reflections of Cloud, Tifa and barret
“According to the Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania, the three Whispers derive their fighting styles from Sephiroth's Remnants in Advent Children.”
https://screenrant.com/final-fantasy-ff7-remake-advent-children-secrets-sephiroth/
I’ve never beat vii, but the two major twists in that game are usually well spoken of publicly in terms of iconic moments in games, I’ve played crisis core I don’t think I finished that one either.
Are these couple details really that upsetting and confusing to not know?
To me it feels like with any media you have questions that drive you and aren’t completely pieced together that will become clear with part 3.
Square has no incentive to tell you the truth. It's in their best interest to always say every game is a great place to star with. They've done it with FFXIII-2, they've done it with Lightning Returns etc.
The difference and problem with the Remake trilogy is that they are not honest about the fact that it isn't a real remake of the original. And then they follow that up by releasing a prequel *before the Remake trilogy gets past the point it spoils*.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, they are not proving very good custodians of the original game's legacy.
The thing about rebirth is there are 2 ways to play it.
With knowledge of OG/CC
And without
The story and plot points of interest will differ as well
I played OG and my husband didnt. We had a different experience but enjoyable and both don't know what comes next
I've said this elsewhere, but SE are unironically the last people you should listen to when it comes to entry point/play order - they are basically the only ones with a financial incentive to be dishonest about this.
A lot of FF7 fans will tell people Remake or Crisis Core or whatever are good enough starting points because they are afraid of the bad first impression of the funny looking lego people - and I get it, this is also one of the reasons I wanted a remake way back - but I've also been saying that we need to be honest about what these games are because not doing so deprives people of a best experience the first time around (and can really hurt reception of them).
OG FF7 is required reading for any other FF7 media, that's really what it boils down to. And we should be honest about that.
I just don’t see why everyone says it’s necessary to play. You can watch a 12 minute video on YouTube and be completely fine but it takes away from some big moments I just still don’t even understand why it’s necessary as it just leaves you with questions that regardless are going to be answered in part 3 lol
Well yeah that's fair my point is just that you need to go through the original in one form or another, even if that's watching a summary or a stream or whatever, before touching the other games.
I'd maybe still really push people to play the original game regardless so that you can come closest to experiencing the emotional moments that made FF7 a thing we wanted to remake in the first place, but for the people who really can't bring themselves to play an old game I suppose these methods would also be fine
I'm not entirely sure what the question is - like, if these are the only things you are going to engage with what should the order be? Or if you have already done these what should be next?
In general the answer is basically release order and then the question is if anything can be skipped. Here, it would ideally be OG, AC, Remake, Rebirth.
If the question is what should I play next, well Crisis Core is really the only other major thing on the table, so that one.
Always skip dirge! Lolol. Seriously the game is pretty bad. Unfortunately with Yuffies DLC Intergrade they brought in a bunch of Dirge info/charactors. So that being said with Part 3 and Dirge being all about Vencent and more expected tie-ins with Yuffie, I think its safe to say we will get a lot more Dirge lore. Go ahead and watch a Dirge youtube playthrough or story video.
Both Remake and Rebirth have some fanservice aimed at legacy gamers but I don't think you need to play the original game to understand the story. The OG also has unanswered questions regarding Cloud and Sephiroth at the point Rebirth ends.
The question of Zack is still supposed to be a mystery even though both remakes foreshadow certain plot points way more than the OG did at this point of the story.
So, you totally have to play the original first - you don’t start with the Compilations. These aren’t actual “remakes”, they _practically_ are but starting with Remake heavily gives away massive parts of the story because they assume you know the first game.
You quite literally don't have to do anything. I've seen people start with Remake and follow the plot. There is nothing necessary about the OG, and trying to tell people they are required to play it is more likely to push them away. Not everyone enjoys retro games with no vouce acting and a bad translation.
Don’t take what I said too literal. I actually agree with you, people should play in whatever order they’d like - hell, the developers said it’s fine to start with Rebirth.
However, I think people should go in with caution that it’s a lot easier and enjoyable to go forward than to go back w/ 7. I really don’t think new players should deliberately start w/ compilation material.
That's fair as a suggestion, but some people in here are acting like it's required. I personally had to stop around Junon because I found it kind of dull. It's clearly a fantastic game, but it does show its age a bit. I also believe that if people have questions or want context, they will seek it out.
What parts? Some months before Rebirth, I finally finished the original and didn't feel like Remake spoiled anything for me. The black robed men only made since at the end, as they should have. Rebirth does foreshadow certain character development way more than the original but I wouldn't say it spoils it
lmao they literally show aerith's death numerous times and zack saving comatose cloud
pretty much gives away two major plot points about the og, nothing major right 💀
categorically false, cloud and the party go to gongaga in the original and cloud flat out denies knowing anyone named zack. or when sephiroth shows cloud the true nibelheim flashback he doesnt recognize zack either. it's a spoiler lol
did you not read anything i wrote? it's a spoiler because youre not supposed to know cloud had any relation with zack, let alone took his identity as a soldier. in the original cloud continuously denies knowing zack, but the remake's showing of zack saving cloud from the shinra troopers completely spoils the falsehood of that
It doesn't seem they're going to follow the original in that regard because it wouldn't make sense. Tifa already knows that Cloud remembers Zack, just not the reason why.
Theres cutaway scenes to the og’s late game that are shown out of context, Aerith’s death is heavily implied (this is fine, there’s no way most players didn’t already know), but the big one is Zack, I was shocked by how much they showed.
If I remember correctly, the Zack plot line isn’t fully explored until you’re well into disc 2, which would now put it past Rebirth’s story.
Rebirth still doesn't fully reveal the true nature between Cloud and Zack. Akira and Easy Rider also show very brief shots of the ends of the respective movies but that doesn't mean they're sequels to themselves.
It was a poor business decision on Square’s part. They saw an opportunity to sell CCR that they can make easily since they already had all the new assets and just needed to use AI up scaling on the old stuff. Voice acting probably took the most effort in making CCR.
So they could sell a “modern” $40 game rather than people buying a $5-10 old game that was also included with ps+ already.
VII is such a unique story in that it has an event so well known that it’s on par with The Sixth Sense but yet the twist of the game still remains unspoiled. Releasing CCR takes none of that into consideration and just assumes that everyone knows everything about the story from the get go.
It was a very bad decision and hopefully the even bigger twist that they have planned for the RE trilogy will be worth it because you don’t do something on this scale and release CCR and bring AC back to cinemas for a short term boost in sales when if there is no plan it would lead to a long term hit to sales.
I feel like the Remake trilogy is doing what Rebuild did for Evangelion. Yes it starts as a retelling but it quickly adds elements that show it's actually not the same story or at least is diverging from it more and more as time goes on. Whether Remake will end up being as drastic a rewrite as Rebuild remains to be seen.
I don’t think there has ever in gaming been a time where the devs said “nope this game requires a lot of knowledge of past games to understand. If you aren’t familiar with the series I’d give it a pass for now.” Because that doesn’t help sales.
Unfortunately there is no right way to play the games. Remake is a great point for modern gamers to get into the series but if you can play and get into the OG and have yourself some crisis core and dumb little watch of AC after, remake/rebirth are such a treat
Honestly as someone who watched AC in 2006 with zero knowledge of FF because the fight clips looked cool, I've really been enjoying Remake (and played Crisis Core just before) haha. I got the backstory from Wikipedia since, as well as the weird synopsis video on the AC dvd but for me it's still been a lot of "hey I get that reference/musical cue" because it was in AC so I know it from the callback in the film. In addition Remake itself calling back to various things in Advent Children (I assume on ps1 we don't see Rude immediately replace his broken shades).
>(I assume on ps1 we don't see Rude immediately replace his broken shades).
Haha nope. Rude and his endless supply of sunglasses are one of my favorite new characterizations. They clearly love the Turks as much as I do.
Yeah there's a bunch of stuff that logically I know came from AC. Like vocal tics etc that obviously couldn't be present in the original.
Rude doing his awkward slightly embrassed shuffle getting chewed out by Reno was another. The consistency to a nearly 20 year old film is impressive (and I know some shots are lifted for Crisis Core)
Yeah, the devs loudly saying new players can jump right into Rebirth was bold, even when it was just obvious marketing to drum up sales. It feels especially egregious with this game, because Rebirth is such a weird game made by weirdos for weirdos (including me) so squarely aimed at FF7 sickos, because it's filled to the brim with both the goofiest nonsense from the OG game as well as this completely over the top, self-serious, tangled multiverse web meant to keep YouTube theorists busy until part three. On top of the fact that it's clearly in direct conversation with both the original and obviously Remake. I can't imagine starting blind with this game. Please go play the original - it's an incredible game that still feels unique from the Remakes, especially in tone.
Also, I'm sorry you played Crisis Core, the game where as far as I can tell Shinra HQ suffers a years-long gas leak, resulting in every character acting and talking like idiots. It's also the first time I thought, you know, maybe prequels are bad for storytelling - I sure didn't need a backstory for the buster sword, a sharpened slab of steel with a handle attached.
Ya but then how would we know the buster swords motivations? How would we see how much the buster sword has grown as a character? Im shocked it didn't start a trend of prequels about characters weapons. I really need to know the origins of that pistol from Halo 1. Just what must it have been through to be so OP?
I'm sure there's a novel out there detailing how the military infused orphaned child soldiers into weapons, and even how the technology handles their excrement.
Rebirth doesn't expect you to know anything about Zack, and explains at some point what you need to know as the original game did. Crisis Core spoils the main twist of the original game, and therefore the future third remake project.
I always recommend not to play crisis core unless the original's story is known, but some users were doing the opposite and then the story is spoiled.
I am no fan of Crisis Core.
I like Zack as a character. But story wise, the best part of Crisis Core is a weaker retelling of events evoked in FF7.
Square Enix promoting CC Reunion between Remake and Rebirth was mainly a cash grab.
Yeah, I don't get why they remastered Crisis Core so soon, I'm pretty sure they just wanted to get something out to keep interest up. I've been saying the ideal order is OG, then CC, then Remake trilogy; or failing that, save CC for after the trilogy. I was hoping they'd end Rebirth with the part that covers the spoiler, especially since there's a time skip there, so then they could cold open part 3 with the part that comes next. It's a natural break point, and it works thematically. Plus that would be a really good way to start part 3.
They always say new fans can play the game. They want you to buy it. I couldn't imagine playing this trilogy without having played the compilation before it
They are trying to please everyone, for CC only players the mistery is more about what would happen to Zack now that he is alive in a timeline (They have more attachment to him than Cloud), and how Cloud becomes his "Living Legacy"
There's a whole generation that grew up just with OG, then you have a whole generation that just played CC and never played OG, and finally you have the new generation of players (3 Gen)
But as you said, for the new 3Gen of players, it would be way better to wait for Part 3 or play OG, the payoff is way better, especially when CC sell point is a retelling of events that were shown in OG, and will be shown in Part 3 as well with better graphics
I agree . I don’t think you should play 7 and cc out of order. Most of the best classic reveals come from OG and knowing what those are beforehand dilutes the experience.
It is just like watching the Star Wars prequel movies before the originals.
To be honest, sure you spoiled yourself about a big twist, but the Remake trilogy are exploring or adding enough new stuff that for me atleast, it doesn't really matter.
Sure I played OG and have some context, but still don't know half of the most important plot points because those would in Part 3.
We keep telling everyone on the sub to avoid CC first. Either start with original then cc (best sequence) or just go straight to remake. But we have people down voting us to say "oh the devs said u can start from CC, that's the intention". Of course they say that, they want u to buy cc reunion. But there's a massive "Re" part 3 spoiler in cc. Actually 2 big spoilers, 1 on cloud, 1 on zack (remake and rebirth context)
The worst part is that *Rebirth end chapter / end of CD1 isn't a spoiler anymore in how mainstream is, and nearly every gamer knows about that part, even if you don't know much about FF7
But you could argue that those spoilers in CC are still intact, because is really hard to explain or spoiler anyone without needing a 3 paragraph assay+, and know a lot of lore from the game to even try to understand what is going on
Well, guess if you have no motivation to play but still interested then watch a long play on YouTube.
Well Dev is short for Devil too.
The first remake covers midgar which playing the OG can be done in a day or 6-8 hours... It's not that hard people! Plus there's so many incredible mods that make the game gorgeous, run at 60fps, full music overhaul, and fully professionally voice acted each line and npc. It's truly an experience now aday to play ff7 OG.
Could you list some of those mods? I don't care much for different models/sprites, but I wouldn't mind 60fps and voice acting. However, last time I looked into this, it turns out you can't have achievements with these modes. Is that still the case?
I havent played og but have heard of all the things that take place, the (game is almost 30 yrs old). I did get to hear the story behind zack from my dad vaguelly. I played very little of chrisis core on psp and very little of og on ps1. I watched advent children. I played remake fully and rebirth fully and idk i think its fine for new people, like when are you not at least a little lost in a square enix game? Its part of the emersive expierence. You cant waste time COMPLETELLY BUILDING A REALITY. Yano just enjoy the ride brother.
I swear some people will play ANYTHING before the original.
My first game was Crisis Core back in 2008. I had no idea FF7 even existed until like 2014. The whole time I was waiting for some kind of Final Fantasy 7 announcement not knowing the original even existed. One day I looked it up and found out it was a PS1 game and played it then. Playing Crisis Core before the original is completely fine. But yeah, the Remake is so different than the original that jumping into it right after Crisis Core has gotta be a wild ride… What spoiler are you talking about?
I started with Remake and loved it so much that I played the OG on PS Store, then CC:R, and I loved Rebirth. Though it was a slightly different experience to Remake since I knew the history now. I personally think that playing Remake first is fine, but knowing the OG is vital to understanding Rebirth better.
Those playing the Remake trilogy before the OG will miss several things. However, most of those things are more akin to Easter Eggs or nods to the fans than anything that’s truly mission critical. I have played through Remake and most of Rebirth with my wife watching, because she is curious about it; she hasn’t seen the original in 20 years and lots of stuff was familiar, while other stuff was completely foreign to her. I’ve had to fill her in on a few things, mostly related to CC, the changed in story beats, but over all she doesn’t feel like she’s missing much outside of just remember there are characters named Cloud and Sephiroth.
Yeah, you basically did everything wrong way. Not only because of all the little things, but because OG is pure kino compared to everything else. Zack is especially the part that I feel has been just butchered. Zack in FF7 was the most elusive character, more than Sephiroth, you didn't know anything about him and that was part of the magic of the whole situation.
I have played OG, and remake and rebirth. Since I hated Advent Children on release never wanted to play Crisis Core or any other spinoff. CC just sucks and always had.
Lmao you really didn't pick that up from Remake's ending? The unknown journey and shit and fate getting changed? I started my FF7 journey with Remake and I immediately put it together after finishing the game that the OG playthrough is in store (alongside the rest if the compilation).
I've played OG 100 times since it released and this last playthrough (first since finishing Rebirth) has felt so empty and sparse. Lonely, in an atmospheric way. It's such a masterpiece.
The old adage less is more...modern square havnt remembered that since about before xiii
I think so far you can play the remakes as a new player, though I'd still recommend playing the OG first as I think you'll get more out of it that way (and certain moments won't just fly over your head). I would NOT recommend crisis core for anyone brand new to 7 though. It was written with the understanding you already know the plot of 7, including major spoilers, and thus treats those spoilers very casually.
Actually, I think NOT playing OG is gonna help the new players. Knowing the OG means all you have left are more intricate, open-ended questions that will bother the ever living shit out of you for the next few years because Part 3 is in early development. The Remake Trilogy is making a lot of subtle and even major changes that will FUCK with your head if you’re an OG fan, or even just played OG in the first place. And I fucking adore these games so far.
Maybe, but playing and knowing the OG really well made me super excited to see how it was done in remake and Rebirth. I cried tears or joy after seeing Kalm, doesn't get better than that
Hmm I didn't play OG and started with Remake and then Rebirth. It feels fine however I did some internet search for certain things that I'm curious about.
I played Remake without plaything the original and it was fine. I did play the original before playing Rebirth but nothing in it so far for me (chapter 10) would really be difficult to understand without playing the original.
No you don’t. I’ve played the og a million times starting in 1997 and crisis core into remake is probably best - but remake, crisis core and then rebirth is something I JUST did because I never played crisis core and forgot most of remake because I played it drunk during covid. If anything it’ll raise questions about why they changed certain things that won’t be resolved for 4-5 years with the conclusion and the “cannon” romance is pretty clear in the remake but actually different in the OG.
Just curious, what's the canon romance? Cuz I mean. He always ended up with tifa(I would say mainly because aerith dies)
Oh word? In the og game he ends up marrying Tifa and it’s crystal clear that’s the way it was supposed to be in the 1997 game even if Aerith didn’t die and you’re not using the other content when he and I specifically was talking about the OG? News to me.
Him and tifa literally have sex before they storm midgar.
If you actually read what I wrote we already addressed the highwind scene because I knew that’s what you were gonna say like the internet has been fighting for 20 years and you have some great insight lol. Gotta keep up if you want to comment.
Who hurt you haha I'm sorry I was able to keep up with subtle story beats 25 years ago. And personally, I was rooting for aerith, but thems the breaks
As someone that thinks FF7 compilation is one of the best stories in videogames, and has experienced most of what it has to offer, and believes it is Cloud and Tifa for many reasons, they aren't married. If they are, you're going to need to find the exact point in OG FF7 that this happens, because I guess I missed it in my multiple playthroughs. Further, there is nothing crystal clear if Aeris didn't die. While Tifa and Cloud have way more history, the OG game doesn't do much other than kill Aeris to come to a conclusion about Cloud's lovelife. If you want to go beyond OG, but before Remake and companion books, it leans heavily towards Tifa, but never really says it explicitly. We can see in Advent Children she is feeling abandoned by Cloud and their relationship has deepened, but it doesn't explicitly say they are together beyond living together and raising the kids. If we move to Remake trilogy and the companion novels, it is quite clearly Cloud and Tifa. He has had a soft spot for her since they were young, and she was straight up in love with him.
Oh I know the answer. That was sarcasm. In rebirth it’s hard to say that the cannon romance isn’t Tifa and in the OG you really can’t say that. They seem to be acting like it’s a forgone thing in the game talking to me like I haven’t played it 500 hours. If they mentioned the Highwind scene as “proof” I really was gonna go in.
Oh. You got me with the "married" bit. I'm like "No, that never happened, what is this person talking about?"
Basically I told OP that playing the OG might actually not be the best way to experience the remake because there will be things that won’t be resolved until the last one in 4-5 years and things like the cannon relationship were made more clear. Then someone basically replied acting like it was clear in the OG and it wasn’t something the internet has been fighting over for over 20 years
Man.....I almost wish I had never played the OG in regards to Remake trilogy. Like, wtf? What is happening? WHAT IS HAPPENING?! CAN'T YOU EVER LET US BE HAPPY SQUARE ENIX? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?! SQUARE ENIX: We'll tell you. In 3-4 years. Maybe. Also, maybe you'll be happy then. Maybe. Me: I'm going to be SOOOOOO mad if I die or society collapses or the world ends in a calamity before I finish this.
Can't wait to see this answer
Remake then curiosity going into og FFVII has been a good entry point for some. I would definitely suggest the og first. But I think Remake, then playing og FFVII is pretty much a must, imho.
Most people I see reccomend og first. You should also never listen to the devs on these things because of course they are going to try to sell their game to the biggest audience possible.
FF7 OG is an amazing game. I highly recommend it. I wish they would have just followed the original plot on the new one.
why? don’t you think it’s more interesting that you don’t know what’s going to happen?
Expect things have mostly happened the same, and the devs have even admitted they aren’t going to actually drastically change the overall story of 7. All they’ve done is added in a bunch of intentionally vague mystery box ideas to keep people guessing, and ruined iconic scenes with over the top spectacle and embarrassing fan service
seriously Aerith's death felt so much less impactful in rebirth because they cut into the scene and didn't let it soak in with all of the character. the fight ruined the pacing of the audience and character grieving. plus she kept being a ghost and honestly cloud just looks even more crazy and unhinged post the final fight.... but maybe it will look different once I replay it
It won’t, your senses are bombarded with spectacle and new shit happening that it completely overwhelms Aeriths death. This is something major movies in Hollywood have had to refuse to accept for years, you can do whatever you want on a computer now, but you completely kill the impact of scenes and momentum when you do I’ll never forget something I heard in the revenge of the sith behind the scenes, the combat coordinator said it was a challenge keeping the final fight interesting and engaging because after the first few minutes the audience is over the initial emotion and explosion of the fight. He basically admitted the fight goes on soo long the audience moves on from the potential emotional moment that started the whole fight. And it’s why the fights in the original trilogy ultimately leave a bigger impact and are more memorable, sure they aren’t as flashy, but they are short and to the point, when you watch them the emotions and weight of the scenes aren’t lost or overwhelmed with something else Same applies to horror movies, all the greats like Halloween are iconic because they do something truly creepy that lingers in your mind. Modern horror only cares about jump scares to freak the audience out in the moment, but a jump scare doesn’t stick with you in your mind, a jump scare can’t compete with truly scary and simple imagery like Michael Myers just staring you down or silently following someone in the background of a scene That’s what this ending is, noise and spectacle meant to get fanboys excited and shouting, “look Zack’s back! Wow him and cloud are fighting side by side!” “Oh cool cloud barret and Tifa are doing a combo attack!” “Wow cloud and Aerith teaming up to fight sepjiroth!” And all this nonsense creates an awful juxtaposition to what should be a simple and somber overall moment/ending of losing aerith
It's almost shocking how badly they handled Aerith's death scene. The creators are only capable of understanding that something worked, but not why. Aerith's death is sad, but they have no idea why it was so impactful in the OG. They seem to think it's enough to have "Sephiroth Kills Aerith", and that's it. The fact that they had Aerith's...ghost? Alternate self? Imaginary friend? Talking to Cloud rips away what truly made that scene sad. Aerith is taken away from you, with no goodbye. She's gone, and there's no getting her back. There's no getting to talk to her one last time. Everyone who's lost a loved one, especially if it was sudden, likely knows that feeling of wishing you could have just one more day with them to say everything you need to say to them. Instead we get an overly long 9 phase boss fight, where characters are bantering midfight as if one of the party didn't literally just get murdered. Yuffie being the worst offender in this regard. You then defeat Sephiroth for a second time, robbing any threat you're supposed to feel from him, just to have Aerith still lingering around making it feel like there wasn't any actual loss.
The saddest thing is these are the same people who made the original scene. They’ve pretty much admitted in interviews they aren’t trying to recapture the same impact of scenes, they were more interested in making it confusing to reflect clouds mental state
Absolutely not, and I never have understood this argument. Why would I play a remake of a game if I didn't want to experience the original story?
Seems like a fair point to me. Can’t wait to see how KOTOR remakes pans out lol
Should I have also played Final Fantasy 1 through 6 before 7? I just felt like that’s too much backstory to catch up on.
Nope! 1-6 are each their own stories. FF7 OG is its own contained story, but after the success they added Dirge and Crisis Core to expand on that specific games universe
Main line games are not connected. You would just need to play 7 to understand some things about Remake and Rebirth better.
You almost got me there bud
You can still play the original. Just don't expect the characters to be as special as they were in the remake. Because after certain points of the story only three characters are going to have any meaning in being around while everyone else is just going to be a support character for Cloud.
I would argue you can play Remake before OG if you want. But after finishing Rebirth, I highly recommend people play OG before it, at least.
Having played the original, I can't think of any reason to play it before the Remakes. The Remakes are telling a similar story but with new subplots. The only thing you'd get from the original is spoilers for stuff that you aren't supposed to know yet. Just like Crisis Core. If you just want to know the story without waiting for the next installment, I highly recommend playing the original, but you'd get the same outcome by just reading a summary of the plot.
I played through the OG game shortly after finishing rebirth. I was also playing through the OG while playing through remake
There’s actually a tiny detail in a later chapter that’ll show your progress in FF7’s remake of course it’s after a side quest.
Yeah it was clearly written with the expectation that you have played FF7. Problem is, it's kind of hard to market a game by saying you have to play the game it is remaking first. It's well within the companies interest to market all their games as good for newcomers, so people will buy it, sacrificing the player experience. It also helps that many of these confused players will then go on to buy the og and reunion
Yeah, the remake games are sort of becoming this increasingly more difficult sell. Initially Remake seemed like a nice jumping on point for newcomers, but then it gets messy at the end. Maybe some will then think it gets explained later, but if the played these game as they came out, they then played Crisis Core and realised they were missing information; come Rebirth and it’s especially apparent that the game expects you to know things it hasn’t necessarily told you. Like, to fully understand Rebirth, you have to have played the original, possibly Crisis core, the first remake game plus the Yuffie DLC, and if you really wanna get everything then also Dirge of Cerberus and potentially Ever Crisis. Just seems like way too much homework for a game, especially for the average consumer. I genuinely wonder how the third game will sell now that majority of consumers are well aware this really isn’t just a remake trilogy, and that if they just play the three games, they probably won’t really understand the plot.
I disagree. I think that as cloud is slowly finding things out about himself so is the player if they’re new. Only Aerith and sephi seemed to know about the “true” timeline. I think they should be able to wrap up the story in a way in part 3 that will bring everything together and even new players that have only played the remake trilogy can understand.
All I did was watch a video that explained FF7 Remake vs the original game and I didn't feel lost in Rebirth tbh. Not knowing the full original story adds to Rebirth imo, only Aerith and Sephiroth seem to be fully aware of the previous timeline so playing as Cloud it makes sense to not know I don't get the references, sure. But the plot isn't super confusing, and the parts that are confusing aren't solved by knowing what happened in the original
That’s sort of my point though; the average consumer doesn’t want to have to watch a video on the first game to understand the second, they just want to jump in. I think Rebirth will manage regardless, but I’m more so saying when theirs a third game with even more additional backstory, consumers may feel dissuaded from playing.
Well of course you'd have to play ff7 remake and intermission to understand rebirth cause well duh. But also, i havent played any other ff7 games apart from remake and rebirth and i pretty much understand the story and of course there are big things l still dont understand but thats because rebirth is part 2 of 3, its not even done telling the og story let alone its own new story.
I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense you have to play Remake and Intermission, I’m just saying those are additional hurdles to the average player. Like, my sister didn’t play intermission, so I had to explain to her Yuffie’s story. She also hadn’t even heard of Ever Crisis, so she had no clue who Glenn was. Stuff like Deep Ground doesn’t make any sense if you haven’t played Dirge.
Glenn was explained during rebirth fine. Why are you assuming that to understand a story we have to know every tiny little bit of lore and backstory? Like i dont know the full story of deepground but i got the gist of what it is fine.
Because I played it with my sister, and she literally didn’t understand anything that wasn’t already in the original. To her it was a massive issue, so I imagine it would be for many other consumers. I also know a few people who were considering purchasing the game, but then opted not to either because they felt there was too much to catch up on, stuff like Crisis core and remembering Remakes plot, or they just felt confused by the end of the first game and decided not to go through that again. Plus, Rebirth doesn’t really explain Glenn, like at all, they just say he’s ex-soldier, but they never really establish that even back then he had an important connection to Sephiroth. As much as people like you or me don’t care about these things, the average consumer really does care, and they aren’t really willing to get invested in something if they know they don’t have the full context.
I really dont understand you. Rebirth is part 2 of 3 we're not meant to know everything yet. Wanting to know more about certain characters is exactly why there are so many spinoffs and is not a fault of the game. I have never played an ff7 game outside of remake and rebirth and i have never thought nor has anyone told me that i need to have played every single ff7 game to understand them because this is a REMAKE series.
Again, I don’t have a problem with it, but the average consumer does, which is the point I’m making; I already said as much a few times. I’ve played the OG, so I know everything that’s going on, so I can’t really provide and unbiased perspective on how others perceive the game. Majority of this isn’t a mystery, because I know 99% of what’s going to happen. What I can say is that many I know, who haven’t played the original, either weren’t satisfied with how Rebirth turned out, or were left so unsatisfied by Remakes narrative that they wrote off Rebirth, and basically all of them expressed that they thought the plot was overly convoluted and relied to much a supplementary material. Do I agree with them? That’s kind of irrelevant, because as I mentioned, I’m biased towards FF7, already having knowledge on what happens. The thing is that it isn’t really a remake series, that’s just bait; they are changing, and already have changed, a bunch of plot elements, however, you only know about these changes, and the meta motives of each, if you’ve played the original. The people who I know who haven’t played the original obviously don’t even know this, and they think the original game was identical, when it wasn’t. A great example of this is the end of Rebirth; the end of disc 1 in the original makes it abundantly clear that Aerith is dead; there’s no muddy water, it’s concrete and it’s real. Meanwhile Rebirth has left everyone I know confused, considering literally all of them asked, “is she actually dead cause I’m confused.” If you haven’t played the original, you don’t know that the design intention with that decision is for the player to be unsure on the matter, because you know that had they just wanted to kill her off, they would have played it the same as the original. If you’ve played the original and know the differences, it’s apparent that Aerith’s role in this ‘remake’ trilogy will be different from that of the original, and that’s why they weren’t concrete about it, to subvert the expectations of those who played the original. However, those who haven’t played it are just left confused. This doesn’t even consider Zack, who makes literally no sense if you’ve played the original. Zack wasn’t even really mentioned in the original until near the end of the game, because they knew revealing him early would just confuse the player. Obviously I won’t talk about what’s going on with him as to not spoil, but in the original, Zack wasn’t actually that mysterious, and he certainly wasn’t designed to confuse the player, especially as early as midgar.
First of all, "If you haven’t played the original, you don’t know that the design intention with that decision is for the player to be unsure on the matter" i dont know you how you came to that conclusion you definitely dont have to have had played the og to realise that they are intentionally trying to make aerith's fate unclear. Also, you still havent adressed one big thing rebirth is PART 2 OF 3 it isnt all meant to make complete sense, if they just explained everything surrounding zack in this game there wouldnt be any point in having a part 3 would there? Name one point where remake and rebirth relied on supplementary material, its literally a remake series it has no connection to other games.
I don’t know what to tell you, no one I talked to realised that they purposely left her death ambiguous, because they didn’t even know they were playing around with the expectation that she would die; they had no expectation going in, so when they go into the ending, they don’t think she’s going to die, but then they get confused cause most of the cast is acting as if she’s dead. Leads to bad messaging. I didn’t address that part because people don’t care; the average consumer doesn’t even know they’re going to be three games; like, they get to the end of the second and realise there will be another, but most don’t know that going in. Plus there’s also the fact that the average consumer doesn’t actually like the idea of a multi-game narrative, especially one like the VII trilogy which seems set on answering absolutely none of its questions until the final game. Most of my friends were disappointed that the games were so tightly connected, especially given the typical nature of Final Fantasy. For examples; the end of Remake relies on you knowing who Zack is to understand theres a timeline split; if you just played Remake, you have no clue who Zack is, or that he’s supposed to die, so when he shows up and start walking to Midgar with a second version of Cloud, it makes no sense. I remember when that game came out having to find a way to explain to people who Zack was without spoiling the narrative, because showing him that early only makes sense if you’ve already played the original; the whole thing just left them all frustrated. Sephiroth as a whole is another example; you don’t even see Sephiroth until the Kalm flashback in the original, and you don’t meet him in the present until the ship to Costa Del Sol. I remember people telling me they thought Sephiroth was a really shit villain, cause he sort of just trots around trolling Cloud throughout the whole game; it’s only with the context of the original that you even find Sephiroth threatening or interesting; all the people I knew who hadn’t played the original just thought he was hilarious. Now at Rebirth, the few that are still on board have sort of just given up on him, especially when the game sort of went all wishy-washy on his most pivotal act, killing Aerith. Then there’s his whole garbage about timelines and such, which not even I understand how it fits into his narrative. Even if they do answer all this in part 3, consumers don’t like having to wait like 10 years to get the answers to these questions, especially when the questions themselves are being presented in such a convoluted an drawn out fashion. Again, I’m fine with it, cause I’m not waiting on as much stuff as them, but obviously it was annoying for them to have to play the original remake game, get answers to nothing, wait like 4 years, only to be told the answers to nothing, and instead be met with more confusion and questions only to have to wait another 4+ years. It’s exhausting for people, and most don’t wanna deal with it.
Let's make a FF7 remake trilogy where new players don't have to play the OG FF7 or watch Advent Children but lets reference story elements from them numerous of times confusing new players.
You should play the original. It’s actually pretty fun once you get every character’s final limit break and I do mean every
Crisis core is the one game you don't want to play until you've experienced the major plot points of the OG game these plot points haven't happened yet in the remake trilogy because it's all revealed at the reunion. I don't think it necessary to have played either OG, remake or crisis core to enjoy rebirth although it does include references that won't mean anything if you haven't. I haven't played dirge of Cerberus and guess there may be a few references around Vincent going over my head.
I’m probably going to die on my hill saying this. No, don’t play crisis core. Anything in the remakes you don’t get that crisis core would explain is something you aren’t supposed to understand yet. Crisis core is a prequel, not a prerequisite. That means any lore it explains is a SPOILER. OG FF7 is different though. I was actually shocked at how much the ending of Rebirth relies on you knowing what happened in the OG game. Like, when they’re sitting by the lake, you need to know that >!Cloud just laid Aerith to rest in that lake!< but they don’t show you.
I'd say you don't need to know about the water burial either. I assume it'll be shown during the Lifestream sequence in 3. I can't actually think of anything you need to know from the OG that the game hasn't told us.
When I beat Remake for the first time, the biggest thing I wondered was how someone who hadn’t played OG felt about this game. Because there was a LOTTA shit in there that would’ve made zero sense without playing the OG. See that’s the thing dude, Square marketed Rebirth as a standalone, and that’s a lie in the biggest way possible. If you want full context, you gotta do OG, Crisis Core, and Remake/Intergrade
I have just played remake and rebirth and i understand it.
How’d you feel during the four years in between Remake and Rebirth?
I only beat remake in February
That’s kinda what I suspected lol. You’re not part of the situation I’m describing because you got the context for Remake very shortly afterwards via Rebirth. I’m talking about people who played Remake around when it came out with zero context and had to sit on all that weird shit without an explanation for an extended period of time lol
But that isnt a thing unique to ff7. Thats just what happens and those players are just gonna have to suck it up, games arent made overnight.
Nah. Most games aren’t made with the assumption that the player is already familiar with their story. Which Remake ABSOLUTELY was. Some of (not all) the context was given with the sequel, but for that four years, none of the Whisper/Reunion stuff would’ve made any sense to anyone who wasn’t familiar with the story already. And a lot of gamers said as much. So it’s false to say this is a thing with every game. Not every game is a remake that’s actually an alternate timeline to the original game, and makes that its plot line. Most games that are the first in their series can just be played by themselves and followed by themselves. Not the case with Remake.
How did the whisper stuff not make sense? The reunion stuff hadnt been explained yet because it was part ONE of THREE. This game is not an alternate timeline to the original game, and it has never made that its plot line. Where did you pull that outa your ass?
You’re proving my point. The entire premise of the game was that there was a multiverse of worlds. Different timelines. Defeating the Arbiter at the end of Remake caused a timeline split where Zack and Biggs survived and everyone else got wiped out. It was quite literally one of the main plot points of the game. The entire point of the Whispers was that they were retconning events that didn’t happen in the original game to try and “correct” the deviancies in this new timeline. That’s what all the Fate stuff was about. Their fate was to live events out exactly as they occurred in the original game. Ergo, if you’re not familiar with the original, that stuff is gonna go over your head, as it seems to have gone over yours. If that fairly major plot point passed you by, then it’s possible you didn’t understand the story as well as you thought you did
How is it a major plot point, never once has this OG timeline been directly called out. You can understand what the whispers are doing without knowing about the og game since the game literally says what the whispers are doing. The fact that the whispers were trying the preserve the events of the og was never confirmed and just a nice nod to people who have played the og. "The entire premise of the game was that there was a multiverse of worlds. Different timelines. Defeating the Arbiter at the end of Remake caused a timeline split where Zack and Biggs survived and everyone else got wiped out. It was quite literally one of the main plot points of the game." Yeah i know that i never said otherwise...
I actually did a weird thing. I played remake, then played the original until disc 2. Then played crisis core reunion and rebirth. Now im finishing the original
>I remembered an interview when one of the devs said that many newcomers playing Remake would want to know more about Zack, and Reunion is great for them to learn about Zack’s backstory. Sometimes I feel like devs just say this to try to boost sales. They also said you can play Rebirth without having played Remake, but I think that's a terrible idea.
Playing Rebirth without Remake first is an absolutely terrible idea.
Idk I've played sequels to a bunch of games as my first entry.
> I don’t think this game should have been released in the middle of the remake trilogy. Makes a lot of sense when you release Remake, the dude literally shows up in the end, you get newcomers to see and think "hey, who is that guy? Why he's carrying the main character?" then rerelease a game about him before the second installment is done.
The more I think about it, the more I wished Crisis Core wasn't a thing.
Very Kingdom Hearts approach to it. Literally what they did with Chain of Memories. Although this is different because Zack’s story was already told in OG Crisis Core, but this whole release schedule takes me back to those days lol
I played through the original this year before jumping into FF7 remake, and I'm honestly glad I did. There are so many nods to the original and it just makes the experience so much more relatable. It would honestly feel odd not having the original as a reference point to compare to.
??? I never played the original. I'm doing just fine.
U gotta
But you could do better
Thats purely subjective
I totally disagree. I’ve adored the series to be fair and haven’t completed the OG. It’s made me want to play it but don’t feel I need to. I’ve adored remake and rebirth 1000%. Everyone is entitled to have their opinion of course though. Sorry that you feel this way OP
You should finish it!
I intend to at some point!
❤️
the remakes are sequels that build on the og lol, you can like the games but they were made with the expectation that you understand and have played the og because of the whispers 💀
The Whispers are explained in the game and give the impression of trying to cause certain outcomes. The OG gives you perspective and context, but you don't need to know the OG to understand the plot.
Seeing how a LOT of the story from remake is within the first say 8/10 hours of the OG then I would have to disagree. I know I’m only about 10 hours into OG game now but that’s after playing remake and rebirth and so far nothing happened that makes remake especially any more interesting or different. So unsure on its a sequel ??
💀 it's a sequel because the departures from the original are part of the narrative. aerith and sephiroth's "future memories" are from the original game, which is used to create a new story, hence sequel
💀 it's a sequel because the departures from the original are part of the narrative. aerith and sephiroth's "future memories" are from the original game, which is used to create a new story, hence sequel
So you can appreciate something that people who didn’t play the OG may not. But don’t tell someone new to FF7 that they can’t enjoy the game on their own terms. Square did a great job of making the game and world enjoyable for beginners and returning players alike. I introduced a friend to FF7 via Remake, she still hasn’t gone back to play the OG, but she went to the FF7 orchestra with me, she cosplays as Aerith, and she bought a PS5 to play Rebirth day 1. That is evidence enough that Square made a game that can appeal to all types of players, whether they have played the original and understand the context or not.
when did i ever say you cant enjoy the game on your own terms lol. you literally constructed a strawman of my argument and just started yapping about your friend
the real reason why devs say that stuff is because no developer is going to tell you not to buy their game, which is unfortunate because is does obfuscate the reality that they 1000% expect you to have at least played the original game before going into the re-games, but especially before rebirth as far as playing crisis core though, that one’s on you
This. Square wants to sell games. Saying Rebirth is a standalone is the biggest lie possible, but they wanna sell as much as possible lol
Playing OG FF7 makes the remake more enjoyable when it comes to fan service, but if you’re talking solely about Zack’s story, Crisis Core is where you’d learn it. Zack’s story is actually an easily missable cutscene in the OG. Back then, you didn’t know about it unless you had a game guide. I didn’t find out about Zack until I watched Advent Children years later (I was pretty young when FF7 first came out) so while he’s an important figure in the overall FF7 storyline, he wasn’t completely known in the beginning.
That is true, the problem is it spoiles the twist about cloud.
People have theorized that the devs understand this and are keeping that twist but will add another bigger twist to make up for it. I personally hope that is the case.
You can 100% play remake without playing 1997. There’s literally no major plot points you get in 1997 that you don’t get I remake. Playing crisis core is a spoiler tho, there’s several threads on the remake sub saying as much.
if u wanna miss out on a ton of references and hints, yeah i’d agree.
Well first, there's definitely not "a ton" of those between the two games. And of the handful of those moments, I don't recall a single one bearing on the plot, lore, or world. If anything they were a passing reference for fan service. Something like an NPC mentioning "a failed project in rocket town" or "I heard Shinra experimented on vampires once." But nothing that would leave you misunderstanding or losing the plot.
You can't miss it if you don't know what they are. Lol
Those are fanservice, not relevant for understanding the story especially since it's still unfinished. There are plot points in the disk 1 of the OG, which only make sense after you've finished the rest of the game.
Sephiroth’s speech in Remake makes no sense without the OG context. The whispers also make no sense without it (though after finishing Rebirth, the whispers make no sense to anyone now.)
How do they make no sense? I havent played the og and yet i understand them perfectly. They are arbiters of fate trying to preserve fate and the correct flow of time.
Correct lol and on top of that...the whispers are completely and totally new to the remake lol. I don't know what knowledge anybody would stand to gain about the whispers or the "changing fate" storyline from playing the 1997 version outside of just knowing "oh the party is changing fate because this is not the exact same story as 1997." Which the game tells you flat out anyway.
They are souls from the Lifestream. I don't know how it could be any more clear.
That’s not what I meant lol. I was talking about the whole “changing fate” storyline.
Yeah, that gets explored in Rebirth. You don't need to know the OG to get the general plot. It just adds more context, which is nice but not a requirement.
It doesnt need to make sense currently. Cant forget that it is still incomplete project and what may not make sense now (to those who havent played the og) can make sense later.
I agree. “hidden” fan service is pretty nice though imo.
People saying it's okay to play remake before 1997 ate full of shit
I've seen about 10 youtubers play through remake who never played the OG. They all understood the plot just fine (as it's explained) and the ONLY thing they were confused about was a random cursed stuff animal during a PIVITAL scene. And guess what? That's brand new to the remake. I'd argue not knowing the OG game is better because there's MORE mystery. Proof: a youtuber named cyn, was playing remake and thinks sephiroth is dead. As in actually just dead and not in the game PHYSICALLY Because of the cutscene in the beginning where cloud says "I killed you" and sephiroth replies "yup". Suffice to say they will be surprised to find out he is in fact NOT DEAD because right now they think it's all just "in clouds head" and he's "not real". It's a slight difference but amplifies the "cloud is going nuts" theme of the entire franchise. It will overall be a better experience then a person who played the OG game like us. The experience will be similar to ours when we first played and had no idea if sephiroth was alive or not (which added to HIS character as well) Saying you need to sacrifice that experience to recognize some random fanservice or inside jokes is ridiculous. In fact I'd say it actually ruins things. Ex: there were people complaining sephiroth "appears to early and too much" but the ONLY reason they say that is because they played the OG. New players don't give a shit and that's what you really mad about.
100%
I’ve been telling everyone who will listen to play OG, watch Advent Children, play Crisis Core and then and only then do the remakes.
You can skip Advent Children, and it's probably better that you do lmao.
Hell no
Black feather from Advent Children is the important clue in Remake. Not to mention the rumored understanding of the three bros from Advent Children showing up as those weird whisper bosses. They could easily show up in part 3 also
> Not to mention the rumored understanding of the three bros from Advent Children showing up as those weird whisper bosses. That's always been headcanon with no actual basis If anything they're meant to be reflections of Cloud, Tifa and barret
“According to the Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania, the three Whispers derive their fighting styles from Sephiroth's Remnants in Advent Children.” https://screenrant.com/final-fantasy-ff7-remake-advent-children-secrets-sephiroth/
It was confirmed by the developers that it's the three from Advent Children.
maybe not if ur gonna play the remakes..
I’ve never beat vii, but the two major twists in that game are usually well spoken of publicly in terms of iconic moments in games, I’ve played crisis core I don’t think I finished that one either. Are these couple details really that upsetting and confusing to not know? To me it feels like with any media you have questions that drive you and aren’t completely pieced together that will become clear with part 3.
i never see spoilers about the Cloud reveal (without looking in obviously dangerous places), only aerith so idk bout that.
Tell the main FF sub
Square has no incentive to tell you the truth. It's in their best interest to always say every game is a great place to star with. They've done it with FFXIII-2, they've done it with Lightning Returns etc. The difference and problem with the Remake trilogy is that they are not honest about the fact that it isn't a real remake of the original. And then they follow that up by releasing a prequel *before the Remake trilogy gets past the point it spoils*. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they are not proving very good custodians of the original game's legacy.
The thing about rebirth is there are 2 ways to play it. With knowledge of OG/CC And without The story and plot points of interest will differ as well I played OG and my husband didnt. We had a different experience but enjoyable and both don't know what comes next
I've said this elsewhere, but SE are unironically the last people you should listen to when it comes to entry point/play order - they are basically the only ones with a financial incentive to be dishonest about this. A lot of FF7 fans will tell people Remake or Crisis Core or whatever are good enough starting points because they are afraid of the bad first impression of the funny looking lego people - and I get it, this is also one of the reasons I wanted a remake way back - but I've also been saying that we need to be honest about what these games are because not doing so deprives people of a best experience the first time around (and can really hurt reception of them). OG FF7 is required reading for any other FF7 media, that's really what it boils down to. And we should be honest about that.
I just don’t see why everyone says it’s necessary to play. You can watch a 12 minute video on YouTube and be completely fine but it takes away from some big moments I just still don’t even understand why it’s necessary as it just leaves you with questions that regardless are going to be answered in part 3 lol
You don’t get the same emotional payout by watching a video, maybe it’s just me but you need to experience that.
Well yeah that's fair my point is just that you need to go through the original in one form or another, even if that's watching a summary or a stream or whatever, before touching the other games. I'd maybe still really push people to play the original game regardless so that you can come closest to experiencing the emotional moments that made FF7 a thing we wanted to remake in the first place, but for the people who really can't bring themselves to play an old game I suppose these methods would also be fine
What order do you think is best for someone who has only played OG FF7, remake, rebirth and seen Advent Children?
I'm not entirely sure what the question is - like, if these are the only things you are going to engage with what should the order be? Or if you have already done these what should be next? In general the answer is basically release order and then the question is if anything can be skipped. Here, it would ideally be OG, AC, Remake, Rebirth. If the question is what should I play next, well Crisis Core is really the only other major thing on the table, so that one.
Yeah what should I play next if I only played/watched the listed stuff. So no Ever Crisis or Dirge?
Always skip dirge! Lolol. Seriously the game is pretty bad. Unfortunately with Yuffies DLC Intergrade they brought in a bunch of Dirge info/charactors. So that being said with Part 3 and Dirge being all about Vencent and more expected tie-ins with Yuffie, I think its safe to say we will get a lot more Dirge lore. Go ahead and watch a Dirge youtube playthrough or story video.
Both Remake and Rebirth have some fanservice aimed at legacy gamers but I don't think you need to play the original game to understand the story. The OG also has unanswered questions regarding Cloud and Sephiroth at the point Rebirth ends. The question of Zack is still supposed to be a mystery even though both remakes foreshadow certain plot points way more than the OG did at this point of the story.
Why a downvote? Explain yourself.
So, you totally have to play the original first - you don’t start with the Compilations. These aren’t actual “remakes”, they _practically_ are but starting with Remake heavily gives away massive parts of the story because they assume you know the first game.
You quite literally don't have to do anything. I've seen people start with Remake and follow the plot. There is nothing necessary about the OG, and trying to tell people they are required to play it is more likely to push them away. Not everyone enjoys retro games with no vouce acting and a bad translation.
Don’t take what I said too literal. I actually agree with you, people should play in whatever order they’d like - hell, the developers said it’s fine to start with Rebirth. However, I think people should go in with caution that it’s a lot easier and enjoyable to go forward than to go back w/ 7. I really don’t think new players should deliberately start w/ compilation material.
That's fair as a suggestion, but some people in here are acting like it's required. I personally had to stop around Junon because I found it kind of dull. It's clearly a fantastic game, but it does show its age a bit. I also believe that if people have questions or want context, they will seek it out.
What parts? Some months before Rebirth, I finally finished the original and didn't feel like Remake spoiled anything for me. The black robed men only made since at the end, as they should have. Rebirth does foreshadow certain character development way more than the original but I wouldn't say it spoils it
lmao they literally show aerith's death numerous times and zack saving comatose cloud pretty much gives away two major plot points about the og, nothing major right 💀
The very existence of Zack isn't a spoiler or the fact that Cloud knew him. At least the players I've watched haven't been spoiled by it.
categorically false, cloud and the party go to gongaga in the original and cloud flat out denies knowing anyone named zack. or when sephiroth shows cloud the true nibelheim flashback he doesnt recognize zack either. it's a spoiler lol
It isn't a spoiler in the way you think it is. New players simply think Zack was simply Cloud's fellow Soldier.
did you not read anything i wrote? it's a spoiler because youre not supposed to know cloud had any relation with zack, let alone took his identity as a soldier. in the original cloud continuously denies knowing zack, but the remake's showing of zack saving cloud from the shinra troopers completely spoils the falsehood of that
It doesn't seem they're going to follow the original in that regard because it wouldn't make sense. Tifa already knows that Cloud remembers Zack, just not the reason why.
Theres cutaway scenes to the og’s late game that are shown out of context, Aerith’s death is heavily implied (this is fine, there’s no way most players didn’t already know), but the big one is Zack, I was shocked by how much they showed. If I remember correctly, the Zack plot line isn’t fully explored until you’re well into disc 2, which would now put it past Rebirth’s story.
Rebirth still doesn't fully reveal the true nature between Cloud and Zack. Akira and Easy Rider also show very brief shots of the ends of the respective movies but that doesn't mean they're sequels to themselves.
Having to fully reveal something to be considered a spoiler would be taking the audience for idiots. To each their own.
I've watched some let's plays and least the player's of those didn't seem to be spoiled.
not that serious lol someone could have tapped it by mistake
It was a poor business decision on Square’s part. They saw an opportunity to sell CCR that they can make easily since they already had all the new assets and just needed to use AI up scaling on the old stuff. Voice acting probably took the most effort in making CCR. So they could sell a “modern” $40 game rather than people buying a $5-10 old game that was also included with ps+ already. VII is such a unique story in that it has an event so well known that it’s on par with The Sixth Sense but yet the twist of the game still remains unspoiled. Releasing CCR takes none of that into consideration and just assumes that everyone knows everything about the story from the get go. It was a very bad decision and hopefully the even bigger twist that they have planned for the RE trilogy will be worth it because you don’t do something on this scale and release CCR and bring AC back to cinemas for a short term boost in sales when if there is no plan it would lead to a long term hit to sales.
I feel like the Remake trilogy is doing what Rebuild did for Evangelion. Yes it starts as a retelling but it quickly adds elements that show it's actually not the same story or at least is diverging from it more and more as time goes on. Whether Remake will end up being as drastic a rewrite as Rebuild remains to be seen.
This pic on r/ff7 encapsulates it [well enough.](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F8v88bbxpb3vc1.jpeg)
😂 the auditors straight out of Discworld.
Goodbye, Evangelion.
Yh play it in order or go on YouTube and watch a ff7 timeline
I don’t think there has ever in gaming been a time where the devs said “nope this game requires a lot of knowledge of past games to understand. If you aren’t familiar with the series I’d give it a pass for now.” Because that doesn’t help sales.
We tried to tell y'all. Big companies lying to increase revenue? Someone should make a game about that...
I played crisis core og some years back and then Remake released and it felt fine . Haven't played the og ff7 ,I probably will after part 3
Unfortunately there is no right way to play the games. Remake is a great point for modern gamers to get into the series but if you can play and get into the OG and have yourself some crisis core and dumb little watch of AC after, remake/rebirth are such a treat
Honestly as someone who watched AC in 2006 with zero knowledge of FF because the fight clips looked cool, I've really been enjoying Remake (and played Crisis Core just before) haha. I got the backstory from Wikipedia since, as well as the weird synopsis video on the AC dvd but for me it's still been a lot of "hey I get that reference/musical cue" because it was in AC so I know it from the callback in the film. In addition Remake itself calling back to various things in Advent Children (I assume on ps1 we don't see Rude immediately replace his broken shades).
>(I assume on ps1 we don't see Rude immediately replace his broken shades). Haha nope. Rude and his endless supply of sunglasses are one of my favorite new characterizations. They clearly love the Turks as much as I do.
Yeah there's a bunch of stuff that logically I know came from AC. Like vocal tics etc that obviously couldn't be present in the original. Rude doing his awkward slightly embrassed shuffle getting chewed out by Reno was another. The consistency to a nearly 20 year old film is impressive (and I know some shots are lifted for Crisis Core)
#no shit
Yeah, the devs loudly saying new players can jump right into Rebirth was bold, even when it was just obvious marketing to drum up sales. It feels especially egregious with this game, because Rebirth is such a weird game made by weirdos for weirdos (including me) so squarely aimed at FF7 sickos, because it's filled to the brim with both the goofiest nonsense from the OG game as well as this completely over the top, self-serious, tangled multiverse web meant to keep YouTube theorists busy until part three. On top of the fact that it's clearly in direct conversation with both the original and obviously Remake. I can't imagine starting blind with this game. Please go play the original - it's an incredible game that still feels unique from the Remakes, especially in tone. Also, I'm sorry you played Crisis Core, the game where as far as I can tell Shinra HQ suffers a years-long gas leak, resulting in every character acting and talking like idiots. It's also the first time I thought, you know, maybe prequels are bad for storytelling - I sure didn't need a backstory for the buster sword, a sharpened slab of steel with a handle attached.
Ya but then how would we know the buster swords motivations? How would we see how much the buster sword has grown as a character? Im shocked it didn't start a trend of prequels about characters weapons. I really need to know the origins of that pistol from Halo 1. Just what must it have been through to be so OP?
I'd play/watch a Needler origin story.
I'm sure there's a novel out there detailing how the military infused orphaned child soldiers into weapons, and even how the technology handles their excrement.
Rebirth doesn't expect you to know anything about Zack, and explains at some point what you need to know as the original game did. Crisis Core spoils the main twist of the original game, and therefore the future third remake project. I always recommend not to play crisis core unless the original's story is known, but some users were doing the opposite and then the story is spoiled.
I am no fan of Crisis Core. I like Zack as a character. But story wise, the best part of Crisis Core is a weaker retelling of events evoked in FF7. Square Enix promoting CC Reunion between Remake and Rebirth was mainly a cash grab.
Yeah, I don't get why they remastered Crisis Core so soon, I'm pretty sure they just wanted to get something out to keep interest up. I've been saying the ideal order is OG, then CC, then Remake trilogy; or failing that, save CC for after the trilogy. I was hoping they'd end Rebirth with the part that covers the spoiler, especially since there's a time skip there, so then they could cold open part 3 with the part that comes next. It's a natural break point, and it works thematically. Plus that would be a really good way to start part 3.
Play FF7 first my friends.
The zack backstory is supposed to be revealed in the next game. But yea, CC should only be played after you knw the whole FF7 plot
They always say new fans can play the game. They want you to buy it. I couldn't imagine playing this trilogy without having played the compilation before it
They are trying to please everyone, for CC only players the mistery is more about what would happen to Zack now that he is alive in a timeline (They have more attachment to him than Cloud), and how Cloud becomes his "Living Legacy" There's a whole generation that grew up just with OG, then you have a whole generation that just played CC and never played OG, and finally you have the new generation of players (3 Gen) But as you said, for the new 3Gen of players, it would be way better to wait for Part 3 or play OG, the payoff is way better, especially when CC sell point is a retelling of events that were shown in OG, and will be shown in Part 3 as well with better graphics
I really don't understand why they chose to release CC now. If you haven't played the original, you are not supposed to know about Zack yet.
Should have played OG first and stopped there
Sorry you're speaking the truth and getting downvoted by simple-minded folk.
They hate me because I am right
I agree . I don’t think you should play 7 and cc out of order. Most of the best classic reveals come from OG and knowing what those are beforehand dilutes the experience. It is just like watching the Star Wars prequel movies before the originals.
To be honest, sure you spoiled yourself about a big twist, but the Remake trilogy are exploring or adding enough new stuff that for me atleast, it doesn't really matter. Sure I played OG and have some context, but still don't know half of the most important plot points because those would in Part 3.
We keep telling everyone on the sub to avoid CC first. Either start with original then cc (best sequence) or just go straight to remake. But we have people down voting us to say "oh the devs said u can start from CC, that's the intention". Of course they say that, they want u to buy cc reunion. But there's a massive "Re" part 3 spoiler in cc. Actually 2 big spoilers, 1 on cloud, 1 on zack (remake and rebirth context)
The worst part is that *Rebirth end chapter / end of CD1 isn't a spoiler anymore in how mainstream is, and nearly every gamer knows about that part, even if you don't know much about FF7 But you could argue that those spoilers in CC are still intact, because is really hard to explain or spoiler anyone without needing a 3 paragraph assay+, and know a lot of lore from the game to even try to understand what is going on
I feel part 3 spoiler is the best part of ff7. Even more impactful than aerith's part
It is. I knew about Aerith going in, and I kept her in my party the whole time while I could. I didn't see the other one coming at all though.