Another FFVIIR progress report: all that's left is the Shin-Ra Building.

Realizing that my time with FFVIIREMAKE is coming to an end, I forced myself to do the sidequests. This, of course, was after oassing the incredibly padded, yet enjoyable Sewer system and Train Graveyard. Having Eligor as a boss battle where you steal a bladed staff for Aerith, was a decent tribute to the original, but "Modernized". It made me forget the Bastardization of Wall Market. I might make a whole Rant out of that... some other time.

The expanded sewer has most of the tropes of a sewer dungeon. Activating sluice fates to raise and lower water levels, busted pump that require fixing, environmental hazards that force you to take a longer path, the works. Far more tedious than the original's 2 screens. At the same time, despite the cliches, it was an enjoyable adventure. It was GREAT PADDING. Heck, the following section, aka failing to stop Sector 7's destruction was padded in a mostly satisfying manner. We get to play Aerith's point of view while Cloud and Tifa go up the plate tower... (Cloud goes solo and Tifa catches up with him.)

The gameplay version of the events of the failed rescue attempt are fine and dandy... the story, well, here's where I have issues. Wedge isn't a  pancake after this.
Nearly everyone escapes Sector 7. So, no big tragedy there... and this bring me to one issue I have with the Remake:

Nomura doesn't understand FFVII. The biggest aspect of FFVII's is that Bad things happen in this unfair world, DEAL WITH THEM.
Cloud never made it to SOLDIER and he was unable to save his mom, his town,  his friend Zack... or Aeris. He had to learn to accept reality and move on because the Planet is not going to save itself.

Barret let Shin-Ra take over Corel, they destroyed his town. His wife was dead. His best friend Dyne was believed to be dead. He took on the responsibility of raising Dyne's kid as his own. Not only that, by attempting to save people from Shin-Ra, Barret is responsible for the deaths of thousands, since he's responsible for the terrorist attacls on the Midgar reactors.

Tifa lost her town, her father, and almost lost her life when her best friend didn't come to her rescue. (He did, but she didn't know that) she joined the Terrorist group, AVALANCHE,  and was indirectly respomsible for the deaths of thousands. She also lost Cloud to madness, when the Second case of Mako poisoning put Cloud in a delirious state. She accepted that her place was with Cloud and gave up on the fight to save the Planet from JENOVA... until being swallowed by the Lifestream and was able to restore Cloud to his real self.

Red XIII had to learn that his perception of the late SETO of Cosno Canyon was wrong. While he may be the last of his kind (he isn't), he has a duty to protect Cosmo Canyon like his father before him.

We could keep going with Cid and Vincent and  Cait Sith and Yuffie listing all day of their failures and how they struggle to make up to them. The point is that bad should happen to all these people and they had to face your demons in order to come afloat. The theme of faith is not a big theme in this game... well, the REAL Final Fantasy VII, I should say. But Nomura wants to make Fate a big deal. But the thing is that these so-called Arbiters of fate don't show up to correct all the weird changes from the original. which makes them useless as a plot device since they failed to do what they're intended to do. And all the forced Sephiroth appearances make no sense. In fact they weaken Sephiroth as a character.

The Climb to reach the Shinra building while longer in this game it's pretty crappy compared to the original. Sure here we have multiple enemy encounters we have even a boss battle compared to the two to three screens of the original... but for some reason the original version feels more Epic.

 I know that you're probably thinking that I'm crazy for saying that the original is better than the Remake in this sense but think about it:
In the remake all you do is run around dilapidated areas that kind of looks similar to the dilapidated areas from sector 6 but up in the sky. You have a couple of grappling hook cutscenes so manyenemy encounters and a boss battle. But in essence it's doing exactly the very same thing you've been doing already minus the grappling hook.

 On the original you're climbing ropes you are swinging from dangerous cables you have to pass through precarious surfaces to reach the top. To be honest I was expecting something like chapter 15 of Uncharted then running through another set of hallways.

Now tell me that something like this using the setting from FFVII wouldn't have been epic...