Now we're here. We're finally going to talk about the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which feels strange. We remember the official announcement from Sony's E3 2015 press conference yesterday, and that trailer still chills us. But now that we've played it, is it the remake of a classic role-playing game we've always wanted?
The question doesn't have a clear answer, though. If you liked the original Final Fantasy VII, this remake would make you feel something. Seeing its most famous characters and the city of Midgar come to life in full 3D can give you chills, and it's clear that a lot of love went into this project overall.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Review
Related: FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE
Final Fantasy VII Remake, on the other hand, has a hard time living up to the huge expectations set for it. It's easy to say that any game would fall apart under that kind of pressure, but sometimes Remake doesn't help itself. Some parts feel like they're going in the wrong direction, like Final Fantasy XV. These parts hold back an otherwise exciting return to the world of Final Fantasy VII.
But first, let's look at the facts. Final Fantasy VII Remake is not a complete remake of Final Fantasy VII. It only covers the Midgar part of the story, about the first eight hours of the original game, but the whole story arc has been dramatically expanded. It's the first game in Square Enix's "series" of Final Fantasy VII Remake games, even though the name doesn't say so.
We don't know when the next part will come out, but Remake feels like a finished game. It doesn't even come close to telling the whole story of Final Fantasy VII, but Square Enix has made it feel like its own thing. It has a start, a middle, and an end, and it will take 25 to 30 hours to run through it. If you want to see and do everything the release offers, you'll need 35 to 40 hours.
Things start just like they did in the first one. Cloud Strife, a mercenary who doesn't care about other people, fights with the eco-warrior group Avalanche to bring down the corrupt power company Shinra, which rules with an iron fist. The central conflict between Avalanche and Shinra, which fans will remember, stays the same, but some plot points are looked at in much more depth, and some completely new events have been added to the existing story.
Many new ideas add welcome depth to a pretty straightforward story, but this is not an exact copy of the 1997 classic without giving anything away. Changes have been made, and while we agree it's more interesting for Remake to try something new, some choices will be the subject of heated debate in the coming weeks.
All of this leads to a retelling of the story that is obviously familiar but still manages to shock. The main story cutscenes are great, and even though the writing is cheesy, the dialogue is charming and well-written. The main characters, Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith, are perfect, even though there are a few too many grunts and sighs in an anime style for our taste.
The primary campaign's story is delightful, with some scenes blowing us away, and the extra parts only add to the fun. Square Enix could have easily messed up the whole thing, but as it is, the plot seems to have been treated with the respect it deserves. Still, if you've never played Final Fantasy VII, you might not get as much out of the story. Sometimes, the story heavily relies on nostalgia, showing characters, scenes, or ideas in ways that will seem downright strange if you don't know anything about them.
Still, it's a lot of fun. We sometimes wondered why the plot was moving so slowly, but the last few chapters of the game made up for any slow parts. The last third of the release is a clear step up, and it keeps improving.
Our spiky-haired hero doesn't have it all his way when it comes to beating Shinra. Cloud says, "This stinks," as he looks for lost cats in a Midgar slum. Cloud, you're right. It does stink. So why are we doing this? It's something you'll ask yourself more than once as you go through the side quests in Remake, which are mostly boring. These optional goals appear when Cloud and his friends arrive at a new settlement. Completing them gets you cool rewards, like rare materials or equipment. There are only about 20 tasks to do in the whole game, which is a relief, and most of them don't take long. However, most of them are boring unless they involve an excellent boss fight.
Final Fantasy VII Remake fails because it has a design that is hard to understand. For example, the number of times you have to squeeze through a hole in a wall, crawl under some rubble, or slowly, slowly make your way across a suspended plank of wood is almost funny. You climb so many identical ladders. Indeed, not all of these forced moves could be hiding a load screen.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is linear, so that you would hope not. Some outdoor places are just hallways that you run along. There are no fights, cutscenes, or other ways to interact. Just hold forward on your stick until something happens. To be clear, this doesn't happen very often in the game. Most of the time, there are branching paths with treasure chests and fights, but the difference in level design can be jarring.
Regarding quality, there is no doubt that Remake has some of the best graphics on PlayStation 4. Well, at least at some points in the main story. For example, the first bombing run right when the game starts is fantastic. Not so much for exploring the slums in Sector 5. Textures in the environment are horrible in Remake for some reason. You might not notice them when you're just jogging through an area, but it's hard to miss the problem when you're talking to NPCs or watching a cutscene.
Textures can sometimes look so bad that we think it is a bugs. But no, this is how the game is supposed to look. Even on a PS4 Pro and a 4K TV, surfaces can look terrible, like they haven't loaded properly. We're talking about fidelity on par with the PS2, and it blows my mind. Again, Remake is a linear adventure, so it's hard to imagine how it ended up looking like this when the PS4 has so many beautiful open-world games. We can only hope this problem gets fixed.
Many of Final Fantasy VII Remake's (primarily minor) flaws are easy to forget when you're in the middle of a fight. Its battle system combines time-stopping menus and tactical commands with free movement and one-button combos. At first, it can take a while to figure out how everything works, but once you do, it's like magic. Final Fantasy's famous Active Time Battle system seems like a natural progression. Players have more direct control over the party but still have the strategic edge that turn-based combat gives them.
You can only control one character at a time in Final Fantasy VII. The AI takes care of your other allies, and you can switch between them at any time using the D-pad. Each fighter has a different feel. Cloud is quick, but his vast sword feels heavy when he blocks and counters an attack. And Barret is slow, but his gun makes him very dangerous from afar. Also, Tifa is swift, but she must chain her unique moves together to do the most damage. Everyone is easy to understand, but there's a surprising amount of depth in figuring out how to use each party member to their fullest potential.
Combat is one of Remake's best features. It's very satisfying to hit your opponent's weaknesses with elemental spells, heal them at the last second, or knock them out with a perfectly timed attack. The best fights in the game show how well the system works when everything comes together. Boss fights are especially significant because they always give you a mind-blowing show and intensely tactical combat.
The Remake isn't always straightforward. In some situations, you must be careful and know how to use all your tools. but you can always switch to "easy" if you're having trouble. There is also a mode called "classic," which is a strange name for how your party moves. And attacks as you give commands. Strangely, "classic" doesn't stay at the easy level. Instead, it can lowers the difficulty settings to "easy." It seems like a shame for those who want a more turn-based feel. But don't want to make the challenge less difficult as a whole. We'd like to have more options.
Character growth, which is also a highlight, ties combat together. The masterful material system from Final Fantasy VII is still there, letting you fully customize the abilities of your party. They can boost your stats or let your character use magic when you put them in your gear. In Remake, some materials can even change actions that are already set. For example, the "Deadly Dodge" ability lets you make a sweeping melee attack after rolling. It's still a lot of fun to mess around with materials and figure out potent combinations.
And there's a brand-new way to improve weapons. In Remake, each character gets several weapons, each with strengths and weaknesses. Some weapons help you attack physically, and their upgrades make you stronger. Others focus on promotions that are based on materials and let you add more orb slots. In the end, this new system gives you the freedom to make your unique party. With the proper sword, you can make Cloud the primary magic user in the group, or you can speed up Tifa so much that it seems like she will never stop attacking. Even though the upgrade trees aren't giant, they still impact how you play, and exploring them can quickly become addicting.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake is held together by the combat and the systems that help it work. It's especially true when you're doing side quests and don't have the main story to keep you interested. But there is another part that holds everything together: the music. In short, the music on Remake is excellent. Many of the themes and tunes from the original are here. But they have all been reworked brilliantly and beautifully.
Final Fantasy VII Remake, no doubt, is one of the best games, but fans who have high hopes for it might be disappointed. Still, going through the Midgar story 23 years later feels very strange, And Final Fantasy VII does a great job of adding to the account while also introducing a surprising number of new ideas. Sometimes the level design is frustratingly bad, and the game looks all over the place, but when Remake is at its best, it's a brilliant game with a great combat system that makes it even better. It may not be the perfect Remake we've all been hoping for the past five years, but it is a fun, nostalgic ride that knows how to capture the magic of Final Fantasy VII.