I think it’s a fair criticism. The combat/random encounters are generally the most tedious part of any jRPG but certainly FF in particular. There are some really unique and interesting random battles or areas where the constant battling is intense and exciting rather than annoying, but they are rare.
Overall though, I think the rest of FF7 more than makes up for it. I can certainly understand not being able to get past that though, although I’m curious how far you got. The game goes through a lot of different “stages”, which is one of the things I like about it, but it means the gameplay while you’re stuck in Midgar is quite distinct from the open world, and becomes distinct again once you get access to the Golden Saucer, or the airship, or into Midgar again.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours ago
I mean, no one’s saying the original FF7 looks good. The characters were blocky messes. It’s just, I’ve been gaming since the early 80s, and I still think FF7 looks good. But yes, the random battles were problematic, especially when you were lost. Fortunately the new version (of the OG) lets you turn them off, so if I’m lost, I turn off the random battles and I just get my bearings, then turn them right back on again.
One thing about Remake, it wasn’t just that the quests were filler (they were), but the way it would waste your time. Go here, go there, squeeze through this gap, do the animation every time you wanna talk to the moogle cosplayer… it was not great as far as the pacing. And some parts were just too long, like the part leading up to Sector 7, or the climb up to HQ.