Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)

Truth be told, my first experience with FF VII was on the PC. I had spent some allowance and or gift money on the trapezoid big box version. I didn't get more than an hour in before feeling like it wasn't for me, and I remember we talked a sales clerk at our local compter and game store, Futureshop, into exchanging it for something else.

Thinking back, it should have been my jam - I had recently played and loved Earthbound. But I had also recently played Fallout. I have a vague memory of feeling like I was somehow 'beyond' FF VII from my first impression. A shame it didn't stick - I wonder if I would be more of a FF die hard now.

Fast forward to last year - I start Remake and I'm having a pretty fun time with the realtime pause combo heavy combat, the wonderful visuals and particular emotionally distant ex-SOLIDER.

The downsides for me was how much time I felt I spent in menus. This might be a 'ME problem', but I was constantly switching out materia and across characters because I refused to buy multiple of some. There were entire battles in the last couple chapters where your party splits, where one half of the party had NO materia, haha.

Overall, a solid 3.5 game for me. I have a bit of jealousy towards the die hard OG fans and what their experience must have been with the game. I imagine seeing a new take on one of your favourites with modern sensibilities and stellar visuals would have been a real treat.

There's definitely some Nomuraisms happening here that kind of doesn't really make this a remake I like the inclusion of the whispers, but they sort of require you to have an attachment to the source material and lore that way you're more in tune with what the idea of their "destiny" is. same with any alternate timeline shenanigans and other worlds. and whatever sephiroth is yapping his ass about. it kind of makes it a hard game to reccomend over the original because by the end its an entirely different experience and a different story so you lose out on the OG FF7 ride.

But I'm a kingdom hearts fan so I guess I'm here for it.

The first thing to address about Final Fantasy VII Remake is that it is not a traditional remake. Without spoiling too much of the game’s biggest twists, I’d say that the best way to think of Final Fantasy VII Remake is to think of it as a mix of a reimagining & a pseudo-sequel to the original, rather than a traditional remake. This doesn’t mean that the subtitle Remake isn’t a suitable one, though (it is, but in a different way than initially expected & for reasons I can’t divulge without spoiling the climax) or that it isn’t faithful to the original (it is faithful for most of its runtime).

What this does mean is that while most of the game is accessible to newcomers, there are certain points in the narrative (especially during the climax & ending) where the game assumes a degree of familiarity with not just the original Final Fantasy VII, but also Crisis Core (a prequel to FFVII that received a remaster subtitled Reunion (which is a fairly ominous one if you’ve played Remake and fear for another rug pull) in December 2022 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch & PC, which feels intentional given how Remake ends & what the FFVII: Rebirth trailer implies) & possibly Advent Children (a movie that acts as a sequel to the original game) depending on how certain fan theories pan out.

Another thing to note is that, because of Square Enix’s decision to make this remake project a trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Remake (as in this first game in the trilogy) only covers the opening Midgar section of the original game. While at first glance the fact that what was 8 hours of the original FFVII has been expanded into 30+ hours for Remake may seem egregiously greedy and like Square is dragging this out for as long as possible, that 8 hours actually comprised a 1/3rd of the original game’s story, script & pre-rendered backgrounds. So it’s not that crazy for a trilogy remaking the original FFVII’s story like this to dedicate the entire first part to Midgar.

While we’re talking about FFVII Remake’s unconventional approach to video game remakes, let’s talk about the story. Remake sticks to the broad story beats of the original game, whilst expanding on background characters & story elements glossed over in the original. Jesse, for example, was just a member of Barrett’s Avalanche cell that was written out of the story (keeping things vague to avoid spoilers) by the time you left Midgar in the original. But in Remake, because that Midgar section of the story has been expanded into an entirely separate game, Jesse gets plenty of time to shine & reveal her backstory & personality. She’s even received her own leitmotif, something she’s never had before.

But not everything added in Remake feels like a worthy expansion of the original game. There are some segments (ie: the entire chapter spent turning lights on & off) that just feel like padding to make the game longer. Fortunately (in my opinion at least) most of these changes don’t feel like padding.

Now that we’ve gotten the can of worms that is the story out of the way, let’s move on to the gameplay. The original Final Fantasy VII used a not-quite turn-based ATB (Active Time Battle) combat system that was standard for Final Fantasy games at the time. This system has been changed to a real-time action-combat system that nevertheless retains elements of the old ATB system. The ATB bar itself is retained & your abilities (with the exception of the basic attack ability) & magic are tied to the ATB bar. While the ATB bar does naturally recharge over time, using your basic attack ability by pressing Square accelerates this process. While you generally play as Cloud outside of combat (with the exception of a couple of sequences), in combat, you switch between any of your three party members. Alternatively, you can simply open the commands menu by pressing the Cross button (or X if you don’t know that that’s supposed to be Cross, not X) or Circle if that’s your preference, to command the other two party members to use abilities and/or magic at any time. The result is a system that incorporates the strengths of classic ATB combat & modern action combat into a system that will engage both long-time FF fans & fans of action RPGs.

As for the music, it is as great as you’d expect from a Final Fantasy game. Whilst the original Final Fantasy VII’s music was composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, most of Remake’s music (both new music & rearrangements of tracks from the original) was composed by Masashi Hamauzu (who’d previously been the lead composer of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy), Uematsu’s only new contribution to Remake’s OST being Hollow, the song that plays over the game’s final moments & the end-credits.

Fortunately, Uematsu’s minimal involvement is not felt when playing Remake. Hamauzu & the other Square Enix composers tapped to work on this project have done an excellent job rearranging Uematsu’s iconic songs & motifs from the original whilst also creating new ones that fit within Final Fantasy VII’s musical identity.

As for the technical side of things, Remake is a solid effort in this regard. This is a gorgeous game regardless of if you’re playing on PS4, PS5 or PC. The only significant issues I saw in my playtime on PS4 Pro & PS5 were some low res textues (moreso on PS4 Pro than PS5) & the occasional loading stutter (which is more down to Remake’s choice to use Unreal Engine 4 than anything else).

The last thing I should talk about is Square Enix. Specifically their love of exclusivity deals. They signed one with Sony that made Remake exclusive to PS4 for a year, then signed another one with Sony that made the Intergrade re-release & associated Episode INTERmission DLC exclusive to PS5 for 6 months with no indication of the DLC getting ported to PS4 (this was during a time where PS5s were hard to come by, by the way). THEN when they finally decide to port Intergrade over to PC they signed a deal with Epic Games (creators of Fortnite & the Unreal Engine) to make it exclusive to their store for 6 months, damaging the initial sales potential of the port due to the high number of gamers who loath the Epic Games Store & refuse to even download its associated launcher, let alone buy a $90 CAD/$70 USD game like Intergrade off it (oh, and Square were also the first ones to bring the price increase from $80 CAD/$60 USD to $90/$70 for new AAA games to PC with Intergrade). And this isn’t dying down any time soon, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI & Forspoken (an action-RPG from the team that made Final Fantasy XV) are set to be timed PS5 exclusives. Although to be fair, Forspoken released on PC day & date with PS5… with the catch that it will only be on those two platforms for TWO YEARS, rather than the 6-12 months that’s common for these timed exclusivity deals. Did I mention that there’s no Xbox ports in sight for any of these games (even for Remake, a game whose time-exclusivity deals have long since ended)?

And that's not even getting into their NFT/Blockchain ambitions (even though the market for NFT & Crypto games is already dead).

Conclusion:

Final Fantasy VII Remake, whilst having a title that’s either very fitting or very misleading depending on your interpretation, is a tour de force of modern video game graphics and presentation (aside from a few minor hiccups) combined with solid action-RPG gameplay and a story that will compel and confuse newcomers and divide long-time fans with its ending and what it means for the rest of the FFVII Remake trilogy.

Ratings:

Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 9/10

Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 9/10 (on PS5), 8/10 (on PS4)

Business Practices score: 6.0/10 (not overtly anti-consumer, but points are deducted for the aformentioned timed exclusivity deals, not offering a free upgrade to those who claimed the PS4 version off PS Plus until December 2021 (around the same time as the PC version’s launch & 6 months after the PS5 version released), and for spoiling too much of the story in the trailers (ESPECIALLY IN THE FINAL TRAILER FROM BEFORE THE PS4 VERSION’S LAUNCH))

Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, does not consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience):

PS4 version: 8/10

PS5 version: 9/10 (extra points added for extra polish and solid optimization for the hardware)

The Music: Full of amazing reimaginings of the original FF7 soundtrack. A couple songs even do that Nier: Automata thing where the arrangement changes depending on where you are or what you're doing.

The Graphics: environments and main characters look sexy as hell. NPCs are decidedly lower quality, and often look like they could've come from a Bethesda RPG.

The Gameplay: Honestly, I'm not a fan of the new battle system. It's 70% hack & slash, and 30% spells/abilities when your ATB meter allows (and your ATB commands frequently go to waste if an enemy attacks you while the command's animation spins up). For the entire first half of the game, I never saw a Game Over screen or even needed to use a Phoenix Down -- until I fought the Hell House. I really only ever bought the handful of items in shops & vending machines that had "sale prices", and I didn't truly need most of those. Checkpointing is extremely generous, until you hit the final battle sequence, where it's extremely not-generous. Levelling up seems to have little effect on the game. Also, after 40-ish hours with some materia equipped for almost the entire game, those materia weren't even halfway levelled up to their full potential. And Summons, which had a major impact in the original game, feel mostly impotent here.

Perhaps the "Classic" mode I never tried would've been more to my traditional JRPG liking -- but I can't help but think that would make these particular battles draaaaaaaag foorrreeever. Also, all of the added open-world-esque padding not found in the original game falls extremely flat -- just a bunch of uninspired fetch quests.

The Story: Okay, it's been almost 20 years since I played the original FF7. For the most part, this feels like the original Midgar section I remember. Then they seem to have added some sort of not-entirely-clear multiverse / time-travel / something twist. Not having watched any "FF7 Remake Explained" videos or anything, I get the impression that Sephiroth knows how the original FF7 played out, and this is another attempt by him to win in an alternate universe.

The Voice Acting: Dear God, it's sooo bad!!!! And not because of the skills of the voice actors, but for how they were very clearly directed to speak in the most anime way possible. Who do I have to f%$k for Square-Enix to ditch the mentality that localization needs to be 100% literal translations of the original Japanese source -- right down to every out-of-place grunt, pant, and giggle. It's so incredibly awkward. For Yakuza Like a Dragon, Ryo ga Gotoku did their English localization so freakin' well. By comparison, FF7R is just embarrassing.

Playing through the demo a few months before the game came out was an incredible hour-long gaming session. The modern graphics and revamped city of Midgar were a beauty to behold. But somehow this didn't translate to the full version of the game for me.

Pros:

-Combat is fluid and challenging

-Graphics and environments are incredible

-If you played the original, the nostalgia is strong and it's wonderful to see these characters through a fresh, modern lens

Cons:

-Combat is also tedious and frustrating

-Voice acting itself is fine, but the script is cringe-worthy

-The game feels completely on-the-rails. Even if you play with the mini-map off, you can very easily tell which path is the "right" path and which one will have a hidden materia behind it.

-The majority of the materia will sit in your inventory and do nothing after you get the main composition for each character figured out.

Ultimately, what was about 4 hours of the original game has been stretched into 40 hours in the remake and it definitely shows. The first few hours were exciting and fresh but then the sheen started to wear off. By the time I hit hour 20 I felt like the game was becoming a chore and I didn't want to have that feeling with such an iconic property so I decided to shelve it.

I finished this a few months ago and can only remember highlights so I'm just going to do a quick pro/con bullet point review.

Pros:

• Graphics, design, and style are honestly breathtaking. This is a feature I don't particularly pay attention to but in this game it is really stunning, especially in comparison to the original.
• Combat is excellent. It's challenging but not frustrating. You can switch between characters, and each character feels distinct in their style but still powerful fun to play with. The whole experience flows really well. They kept the materia system which is one of the best FF systems in my opinion, so no complaints there. Also, no more random battles! Turn-based is classic and can be done really well sometimes, but this is definitely an upgrade from the original.
• A faithful retelling of the original story while at the same time adding some more meat to the backstory and lore. You feel super nostalgic but also feel like you're getting something a little new.
• A great case study in how to make maps feel big and interactive without an open world design.
• High replay value.

Cons:

• The addition of some extra story and side quests is great for reasons mentioned above, but some players will definitely feel that it drags.
• Similarly, some parts of the game are so bloated with cut scenes it can kind of slow the flow of the game down. At least they're skippable.

Neutral/Mixed:

• I appreciate that they are taking the time to give this remake justice by splitting it into several parts, and this first part is still a sizable campaign (30-40 hours without extras, if I remember correctly), but I really would have preferred to get the full game.
• Spoilers just in case: Although this first part is nearly 1:1 to the original, the game gives strong hints that this may not be the case for future additions. Part of me is interested in a new story and part of me really just wants to experience an upgrade of the original. Doesn't really affect this game but worth mentioning.

Clearly there are more pros than cons. I truly loved every minute of this game and even replayed most of it. The original FF7 is probably my favorite entry in the series so I'm very biased, but I think any RPG fan (especially an FF fan) would enjoy this game.

This game is good, don't get me wrong, but there are problems here that really become grating.

The combat system can be fun, it is fluid and the seamless transitions between characters makes for some real exciting moments. Stringing together combos and spells, jumping around the party, and unloading massive damage on staggered enemies is satisfying. Until you reach boss fights.

Boss fights, sadly, are often designed around a specific method of battle. There are some bosses with, seemingly, a single path to victory and you had better hope your party is already built to take advantage of it or else you're in for a marathon or a defeat. In a game that allows you to build your team with skills and spells as you see fit it seems counter-intuitive to build bosses in such a way. The sad part is, if you manage to win under these grueling circumstances it's not even satisfying, it just feels cheap and hollow.

And that's kind of the weakness in the game's systems. I can see people not minding suffering a loss and rebuilding their team to suit the situation, or people getting lucky and enjoying their team in builds that already happen to suit the most challenging bosses, but for people who play like me, who want to build their team and their materia in a way that they enjoy, these fights (and, it's not only bosses, some regular enemies are like this too) are nothing but a grating chore.

Furthermore, even if you are the adaptable type, you can't swap materia on the fly, so you can find yourself endlessly grinding out a victory against a boss or monster you didn't happen to predict it's weakness or see coming, or throwing the fight to prepare. It feels like a bad way to implement the system to me.

And then there's the story (~Spoiler alert!)~ . This is something people will love or hate, it seems to be the most contentious part of game. The remake aspect of the plot is fine, I enjoyed getting to know Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge better. I liked the bit where you play as Aerith and you're helping people evacuate before the plate falls on Sector 7. I really enjoyed fighting the horny motorcycle man. The whole Wall Market section was great (minus one, particular boss fight). But man, the Whispers are dumb. Like, really dumb. The best description I've seen for them and their whole plot point is "stupid, Kingdom Hearts bullshit" and honestly that hits the nail right on the head.

Personally, if Nomura wants to do something new with FF7, then by all means, wipe the slate clean and retell the story! I'm looking forward to seeing where the plot goes! But the last act's entirely nonsensical battle with fate nonsense and the ham fisted early Sephiroth fight was mediocre. I get what the Whispers are meant to represent, but I'm of the opinion that if you're going to break from the established cannon then just do it, there's no need to add this element to the plot.

All that said, it's still a good game, there is a lot to love about it. When things click together it really shines, this is a special project and I'm excited to see what the future holds for the remake series.