I saw some storyboard for the next parts of the Remake this is what they had always intended to do. In 1997, the creators weren't able to make their original vision of Aerith's death due to technological limitations. I'm sure this will look amazing in 4K.
Almost 30 hours clocked. From Elmyra’s house, back to Sector 7, to the underground facility, then back to the house again.
They handled Tifa so disappointingly. I’m can only sigh and shrug.
All my Remake reactions are under #Danseru Review
I got Aerith’s dream scene so the thoughts under the cut has some LTD opinions:
So basically, in the span of more than 2 hours all I did is so check Sector 7, find Wedge and go back to Aerith’s house.
I’m getting tired of complaining about the amount of bloat. But why do I need to traverse the collapsed highway for this? Why put a boss fight difficulty obstacle (the machines) just for this?
Wedge is alive which is a deviation from the original. For what? So we will have an excuse to traverse through a dungeon for extra bloat? Yes I get it, we get to play Barret and Tifa without Cloud! But does that add anything to their characters? Did we hear the banter or talk about stuff we didn’t know before?
Can’t these friendship scenes between Barret and Tifa be accomplished within 5 minutes, more effectively?
The whole dungeon was so tedious. I died once fighting the unknown experiments and have to repeat everything. I did enjoy wrecking stuff as Tifa without Cloud around.
Yes, the underground experiment is redundant bloat when later on in Shinra HQ you can easily show Hojo’s lab.
To add to this, suddenly Cloud blurts Hojo is evil in front of Elmyra. Who the heck is this Hojo? If you’re a new player it’s like a new character introduced.
Oh okay they’re enticing me to do more sidequests before I go to the Shinra HQ. I’m so excited for those new fetchquests! I can’t wait for more bloat!
The Aerith dream scene
I’m pissed how I got it, because essentially it’s because I missed on Tifa sidequest and her apartment scene. A sidequest that doesn’t reveal anything and has no incentive to do except for extra gil.
But I felt Aerith’s sequence makes more sense in context: it’s her house, she needed rescue, she has superpowers that connects to the Lifestream and she isn’t there. In the morning Cloud also says that Aerith is calling for him.
I’m not sure what to feel about her saying, “don’t fall in love with me because it isn’t real.” Either Cloud proves that right or wrong which may end up pulling Clerith to more definitive directions. But it also makes no sense unless she knows Cloud has some kind of issues.
Overall, so far they handled Aerith so much better since when it’s about her, then the whole narrative is centered on her. When Tseng finally asked her to come with him, it’s focused on her decision to confront her destiny.
And sadly Tifa wasn’t given the same treatment.
My sentiments on Tifa
So she returns to her neighborhood and bar, a place she apparently lived in for a few years and... nothing! Why isn’t she calling out to neighbors! Wouldn’t she know people door to door? Shouldn’t she be counting which ones of the people she knew were still alive? It doesn’t feel that Tifa is part of the community at all! The scene and the narrative didn’t make it like Tifa should be the center of this scene. It made me feel the story doesn’t care about her, especially this is a repeat of her trauma in Nibelheim.
I watched the Tifa sequence to compare and I became more pissed. Not because I didn’t get it, but because it’s needed.
It shows Tifa mourning, crying and needing support. That’s perfectly okay. But why does it have to be unlockable? They’re right there! So are you saying to me, that I need to do 6 senseless sidequests just so I can see Tifa mourn for the tragedy? SE can suck its own ass.
It doesn’t even have to be romantic! Tifa can mourn and look for support as she does she Cloud as a friend.
But even if I do get this scene or not, it still has some problems regarding the fact that Nibelheim burned down 5 years ago where Cloud was supposed to be absent. Cloud and Tifa never discussed it yet. It’s a huge elephant in the room that they avoided to touch all the while putting all these Cloti fanservice.
Versus Aerith, when it’s about Tifa and her connection her community and Avalanche, it’s handled in a sloppy manner because they have to hold the truth to preserve the revelation in the future entries. It’s so unfair and infuriating that Tifa is held back because she’s a walking spoiler of Cloud’s past, but even if she was, they could have done better her connection with Avalanche and Sector 7.
So the FFVII Remake just fully animated an urban disaster of burning metal and explosions. Your companions in Avalanche went down with it, and possibly, thousands of other innocents too.
Then a cute, stuffed cat you have never seen before suddenly appears and cries amidst the flames and wreckage.
