Comment on Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 1 week agoIf you’re just watching, you won’t get the main appeal of the modern FF combat systems.
And unfortunately, at lower difficulties, you can get by with button mashing. It’s really disappointing that the difficulty that actually requires thinking is locked behind ng+, but at that level, the system really shines.
It’s all strategy, dressed up as a hack and slash, but if you just button mash, don’t min-max your builds, utilize the entire party, their abilities, spells and synergies, you are dead.
And it’s all made more intense by the combat happening in real-time (though you can slow time to a crawl at any time). I really love the panic of the way you are forced to control any last surviving party member, waiting for your turn to be available so you can use a pheonix down.
loaf@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Yeah, I get what you’re saying about me not having actually experienced the full gameplay. I guess the lack of turn-based play is what made me not super interested to begin with, though.
I’m old (ha), and my favorite games are the old FF series, Baldur’s Gate, etc. that all have turn-based combat. Maybe I enjoy it because I’m slow 😂
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
I don’t know how much you know about the intricacies of the newer FF combat systems, but “turns” are still in there, but among a bunch of new stuff that may or may not jell with you.
If you want, you can set the combat to “classic” which makes it so that the AI controls all three charachters, rather than just the two you aren’t playing as.
This leaves you to deal with only the “turns”, and which abilities, spells, or items, to use them for. And you don’t need to be quick, the passage of time nearly pauses while you engage with the action menu to decide what to do with a turn.
Characters and enemies can only engage in basic attacks outside of their “turn”. To use abilities, spells or items, it must be your “turn”.
All the decisions that make turn based combat interesting are overlayed on top of the real-time action. At times they even overlap. When not using classic mode, it matters how you control a characters real time actions. The exact timing of when you use a turn can have consequences, you need to make sure you are standing in a good spot for a given ability, you need to make sure you’re not about to take an attack that might interrupt an action, etc.
You have to decide stuff like whether you need to use your turns to spam cure just to keep the party alive. Should Aerith spend one turn and the MP to use Cura on one party member, or wait two turns to use Pray on everyone. Should Cloud go for damage on this turn, or build stagger in case it leads to a stun and bonus damage next turn? Can Tifa keep herself alive with Chakra or do I need to have another charachter use heal on her? Do I remember the pressure conditions for this enemy or do I need to spend a turn on Assess to find out?
If all you want is turn based classic gameplay, then yeah, it isn’t here. But they have made something very interesting. It’s got hack slash style flashy action, but with an amount of strategy involved I don’t think any other games have achieved. It’s unique.