I was looking at the PS4 version of FFVII for a while around its release. I really didn't want to to buy it as I thought it was a waste as I already had the PS Classics version on PS3 (and PSP/Vita), but I wanted that theme so much. I had pretty much forgotten about it since then but noticed it was on sale a few weeks ago and I had been itching to replay VII or VIII for a while at that point, so I went for VII, namely because I have little free time for gaming these days like I used to (or when I do have time, it's generally short bursts of about 20 mins to an hour at best which to me isn't enough to properly get into most story-driven games) and I had only found out about the 3x speed "cheat" option recently, so my choice was pretty easy.
My goodness does it make a difference though. I thought you could only speed up certain sections or battles but I didn't realise you could leave it on for practically the whole game excepting certain types of scenes. For me this is huge. I've managed to spend 11 hours on it in the past few days and have reached Nibelheim and have done practically everything I could have up to this point, and it works a charm on Remote Play on the Vita. I haven't used the full limits or no encounters cheats at all (apart from the latter once as when I was trying to recruit Vincent I had encounters practically every 3 seconds). I felt like this port seemed like a bit of a cheat at first because I was being ignorant and didn't even look into it, but now I really want to see more of the same for older FF titles so I can enjoy them again but without spending crazy amounts of time redoing battles or repetitive sections. Even disregarding the 3x speed cheat, load times are incredibly fast,at least in comparison to the PS Classics version. Character models were surprising too as they really are a lot better than I expected.
FFVII is a bit of a weird one for me as it was the first older FF title I played, but I played it directly after XIII, which was my first FF game. Naturally because of the nature of XIII compared to VII, I missed out on a lot the first time around. I never got to visit the Honeybee Inn, I never saw Corneo choose Cloud over the two girls, I never got Vincent, I missed a few locations and never did anything like get Knights of the Round or beat the most difficult of the Weapons.
I got off to a disastrous start. I spent 2.5 hours and got to Midgar's Sector 6 and didn't realise that I couldn't get the additional items I needed to get Corneo to choose Cloud after I had put on the dress. For some reason I thought it smart to save after I did that and I also thought it was a good idea to have only one save file. I ended up starting again and rectifying that. I was surprised at how long some of the scenes in the Honeybee Inn were since it's actually so small.
I also thought this time around I wouldn't use Aerith much as I did on my first playthrough but I can't help but always pop her in my party. I'm curious if most other people bother to level her up and use her a lot or if they don't since you lose her relatively early on. On my first try I ended up getting either her third or final Limit break basically right before she died which always irked me a little (plus I was so stupid that only at that point did I realise how to change your limit break to higher level ones, so I never got to use it).
This playthrough also made me realise that I barely took in anything regarding Jenova and Sephiroth the first time as most of the information and scenes involving them feel almost new to me (everything apart from Jenova's theme which I love). At other stages though I realised that I actually remember certain parts or segments or areas of the world much better than I thought.
At the moment I am consulting guides here and there in order to help with the more tricky things that I didn't do or get but have learned about over the years since I first played it (like KoTR, Tifa's final Limit break, etc.) but I'm sure there's still a fair few things I don't even know about. If anyone has any suggestions of things I might miss I'd appreciate it.
I'm not sure if I mainly wanted to replay VII because of the incoming remake or just to try enjoy it more now. Since playing XII I have gone on to play IV to IX and I have X and XII. Even after all of those and understanding the complaints about XIII, I still have a very soft spot for it and find memories of it, especially the OST. But re-experiencing VII definitely feels strange considering when I first played it it was essentially my first JRPG, yet there is a lot that I am struggling to remember seeing before. I still always suggest to anyone that wants to get into the series to start with it as I think it's the best starting point, and I think if I went straight to IX or VI after XIII that I might have not finished them, despite the fact that they are my favourites.
Apologies in advance for any errors as I'm on mobile.
My goodness does it make a difference though. I thought you could only speed up certain sections or battles but I didn't realise you could leave it on for practically the whole game excepting certain types of scenes. For me this is huge. I've managed to spend 11 hours on it in the past few days and have reached Nibelheim and have done practically everything I could have up to this point, and it works a charm on Remote Play on the Vita. I haven't used the full limits or no encounters cheats at all (apart from the latter once as when I was trying to recruit Vincent I had encounters practically every 3 seconds). I felt like this port seemed like a bit of a cheat at first because I was being ignorant and didn't even look into it, but now I really want to see more of the same for older FF titles so I can enjoy them again but without spending crazy amounts of time redoing battles or repetitive sections. Even disregarding the 3x speed cheat, load times are incredibly fast,at least in comparison to the PS Classics version. Character models were surprising too as they really are a lot better than I expected.
FFVII is a bit of a weird one for me as it was the first older FF title I played, but I played it directly after XIII, which was my first FF game. Naturally because of the nature of XIII compared to VII, I missed out on a lot the first time around. I never got to visit the Honeybee Inn, I never saw Corneo choose Cloud over the two girls, I never got Vincent, I missed a few locations and never did anything like get Knights of the Round or beat the most difficult of the Weapons.
I got off to a disastrous start. I spent 2.5 hours and got to Midgar's Sector 6 and didn't realise that I couldn't get the additional items I needed to get Corneo to choose Cloud after I had put on the dress. For some reason I thought it smart to save after I did that and I also thought it was a good idea to have only one save file. I ended up starting again and rectifying that. I was surprised at how long some of the scenes in the Honeybee Inn were since it's actually so small.
I also thought this time around I wouldn't use Aerith much as I did on my first playthrough but I can't help but always pop her in my party. I'm curious if most other people bother to level her up and use her a lot or if they don't since you lose her relatively early on. On my first try I ended up getting either her third or final Limit break basically right before she died which always irked me a little (plus I was so stupid that only at that point did I realise how to change your limit break to higher level ones, so I never got to use it).
This playthrough also made me realise that I barely took in anything regarding Jenova and Sephiroth the first time as most of the information and scenes involving them feel almost new to me (everything apart from Jenova's theme which I love). At other stages though I realised that I actually remember certain parts or segments or areas of the world much better than I thought.
At the moment I am consulting guides here and there in order to help with the more tricky things that I didn't do or get but have learned about over the years since I first played it (like KoTR, Tifa's final Limit break, etc.) but I'm sure there's still a fair few things I don't even know about. If anyone has any suggestions of things I might miss I'd appreciate it.
I'm not sure if I mainly wanted to replay VII because of the incoming remake or just to try enjoy it more now. Since playing XII I have gone on to play IV to IX and I have X and XII. Even after all of those and understanding the complaints about XIII, I still have a very soft spot for it and find memories of it, especially the OST. But re-experiencing VII definitely feels strange considering when I first played it it was essentially my first JRPG, yet there is a lot that I am struggling to remember seeing before. I still always suggest to anyone that wants to get into the series to start with it as I think it's the best starting point, and I think if I went straight to IX or VI after XIII that I might have not finished them, despite the fact that they are my favourites.
Apologies in advance for any errors as I'm on mobile.
