If Final Fantasy VII had been released like Final Fantasy XV

I'm torn on FFXV.

On one hand, I legitimately enjoyed the base game and understood everything that was going on. It felt unfinished, but not in a way that detracted from the overall game for me. It was just a fun, straightforward FF bro-fest, with lots of mini-games and the usual "Let's go crazy Japan-style" ending.

Did the cut content bother me? Of course. Having to watch a movie/anime to know what was happening was jarring. But for me, the gameplay made up for it, and I felt good with my purchase by the time I Platinum'd it.

On the other hand, every time they release "Bonus DLC," it feels like the developers are just waving all the content they didn't put in the main disk in players' faces. The more they add, the more "incomplete" the main game feels in my mind. All the things that were announced at launch - the multiplayer, the episodes - all coming in very late into the game's lifespan and costing extra just puts more and more of a bad taste in my mouth.

The development of FFXV was very strange - everyone knows that. It was announced a decade ago, and went through a lot of back-and-forth. If they had just released the game as-is and - if they really wanted to fill in the gaps - slowly release small-scale episodic missions for free, it would have been fine. But to cut so much and then ask people to pay for the pieces is no different than what Destiny 1 tricked players into doing not that long ago, and it's sad to see something as memorable as FF treating their fans that way.