Yes without a doubt. I haven't enjoyed game as much as FF7R in this entire generation, and I thought this generation was quite great.
It's not a perfect game obviously and there are flaws I wish the future games would address. But the feeling I had when I was playing this game for the first time was just so magical and unforgettable.
I enjoyed FFVII remake a lot. The combat is amazing and the dialogue/characters are way better in the remake than they were in the original.
The pacing of VII remake and the lack of interesting environments are what really hold it back.
I'd put it at #3 or #4 for best games of 2020 and I'm not sure it would crack my top 10 of the generation.
It exceeded my expectations from the baseline of the idea of a FFVII Remake made by Square Enix in the late 2010s, but despite that achievement, it was not a game of the generation. I think its bad sidequests and generally lackluster added elements, plus some odd use of music, artistic hiccups (those skyboxes wtf), and Sephiroth's presence dragged it down a fair bit. It did have a great battle system, good voice/character cast especially when compared to the compilation, and captured the spirit of the original.
Putting this game in the same tier as 15 is a personal attack. 15 is a nothing blob of putrid attempts at story and interactivity. For all its flaws, 7R rises above whatever that virus wreaked on my senses 20x over.
It honestly felt like a better version of Final Fantasy XIII to me. The way they set them up totally ruins any illusion of freedom that earlier Final Fantasy games had. Also, that basically all side quests just open up at a certain chapter (or chapters) was very XIIIish. I that you could choose to do them over the course of a few chapters, but that just isn't how my brain functions.
The ending was interesting, but overall I found the game to be pretty weak.
It has way too much stuff I didn't like at all and plenty that was way more annoying than it had to be. I didn't like the pacing, the added bits were worthless, and the battle system is great but it only shines in boss battles. It has great production for the most part and the music is exactly what you'd want for a remake of FFVII, but it's a down right chore at times.
I absolutely loved the combat. I know the story is a bit polarizing and the decision not to be more transparent about it only being part I should be criticized, but I enjoyed it a lot.
This bolded is such a rare take and, honestly, super accurate.
7R has a lot of shared DNA with 13 and 15. I actually love 13 and 15, so it's not a bad thing from my view, but hearing so many people describe this game as a "return to form" when it actually felt like an incredibly natural successor to its immediate predecessors still surprises me.
Definitely one of my top games of the generation, it was VERY good. The pacing is good, the reimagining is good, the boss battles are so great I have never seen this level of production in another JRPG. All around great, can't wait for VIIR-2.
"GOAT" ? Hell no. It's a solid, if not incredibly uneven game, featuring a world, characters, and [part of a] story I have tons of love & nostalgia for. But I fell off hard around Chapter 11 and haven't found the motivation to go back. The slogs in that game were crushing, in large part due to the blatantly padded level/encounter design, which are utterly abysmal for stretches at a time.
If I go back and finish over Christmas, the best it can hope for is a low spot on my 2020 Top 10. But even that might be too charitable.
More like one of my biggest disappointments this gen with that ending. Were it not for the great combat I wouldn't have been able to finish it either, I think. Piss poor pacing in some areas (particularly the newly added segments) and even worse level design. For me, this makes it pale in comparison to other titles in this gen alone.
Well, "GOAT of the Generation" doesn't make much sense but I get what you mean, OP. And yes, absolutely. Quickly shot up to be my favorite remake of all time and it is my current GOTY. Loved pretty much everything about it.
It's really hard for me to give FF7R a fair shake because I'm comparing it against FF7.
The story
is actually a sequel, not a true remake and as a result it misses the beats that I loved about FF7, which is very frustrating. It ruins a lot of the original scenario from a "remake" perspective. However, I'm excited to see a sequel to FF7, and I want to see where they take this.
Also, a lot of the beds and other interior areas that I loved from FF7 are missing from the remake. The tone of Midgar is defanged in the remake. In the original game, cigarette butts and empty liquor bottles litter the floor of people's homes. Removing the self-destructive and negative elements detracts from the humanity of the characters.
However, it forges its own path forward and I can't wait to see what comes next. The OST is definitely best soundtrack of the year. The graphics are hot. Cloud's character model is the best graphics I've ever seen in my life. I can't wait to see the game unleashed on PC/PS5/XSX to bring the same level of detail to the world, along with an uncapped framerate. The characters and their bonds are still beautiful, perfectly cast. There are so many positive relationships in this game.
The battle system is like a redemption for Square-Enix after so many poor action systems over the past decade. It really gives me hope for the future of the franchise because the combat is such a perfect mix of strategy and action, it feels like a very thoughtful step forward from ATB.
FF7R compelled me to complete a hard mode run, and now I'm going for a 3rd playthrough and the platinum.
So it's definitely one of my favorite games of the year, with competition from Yakuza 7 and Animal Crossing.
It was never Goat, at least for me. It's a pretty good game, one of my candidates for Goty, and one that brings back good memories, but nowhere as good as games like Bloodborne, God of War, Rdr2 or even Persona 5.
I wouldn't even consider it in my GOTY contenders tbh.
Mainly for the level design, it's so unforgivably trash that it drags down the entire experience. On subsequent playthroughs the game is unbelievably fucking painful. Up this ladder, down that, crawl through here, squeeze through there. There are entire chapters like the train yard that are just climbing and moving shit the entire time. It's all just padding. The entire game is a sequence of corridoors, and the open areas suck. It's big enough of a deal to drag the game off my top 5 of the year.
It's such a huge shame because pretty much everything else hits it out of the park. Combat is glorious and probably the best take on a "real time" system in a JRPG, characterisation is nailed, music excellent. Only other thing that lets it down is the ending, and that's mainly because Nomura is the director which is just very very worriesome.
Sorry, l meant to say game design. With this being a multi game project they had to limit locations/enemy/boss variety as well as hold back the battle system somewhat for the sequels.
Nope, though admittedly I haven't put much thought into what is so I can't say another game rn.
But yeah, I couldn't finish it because of how awful most of the voice acting was (Barrett especially), I know the Midgar section of the original pretty well after many attempts to get into it so for the remake so I found the remake to be bloated (most likely in order to justify the asset production), and I have no intention of going back after I learned how Nomura is gonna Nomura it up.
