I've been finally getting around to playing this. Here are my thoughts on the game as of about 2/3 of the way through, in disorganized bullet points:

• It's cool to see this cast as something more specific than the blocky polygons that my mildly face-blind imagination was never good at mentally envisioning more like real people. The lip-synching animations are really hit or miss, though. With some characters it's so well done you don't even think about the fact that there was work done to sync the lips to the speech, and with others it's like you can see exactly where the line is between the animated mouth area and the static rest of the face, and the overall effect is like one of those ecard websites where you upload a person's photo and it turns it into a badly animated singing e-card.
• I was pronouncing mako wrong my whole life! I thought it was MAY-ko, but it's MAH-ko.
• There are a lot of mini-games, often required to progress, and I kept getting nervous going into them that I'd be bad at them, but I'm finding they're all so forgiving that it's almost impossible to fail them. There have been multiple mini-games where you had to successfully do something multiple times, and you could fail as many times as you wanted in between successes, instead of needing to succeed X times in a row. Some of them also dynamically adapt by getting easier automatically if you fail a time or two. I'm guessing the sweaty nerds probably hate when the game responds to failure by automatically lowering the difficulty, but getting stuck in one place throwing myself at the same challenge over and over again has always been a feature of certain games that I skipped or tolerated, not one I sought or enjoyed, so I'm happy.
• The...harem dynamic with Cloud seems way more pronounced than I remember it being in the original, especially now that Aerith and Tifa have met. I'm not sure if the writing is that different or if it's just the more realistic models and voice acting painting a more vivid picture than Duplo people and text boxes did. I'm always trying to be in a headspace while playing a game that I am e.g. Cloud, not "Emie controlling Cloud in a game." The way almost every woman and half the men we meet throw themselves at Cloud on sight is so excessive that it unfortunately takes me out of that headspace more often than I'd like, because it just feels so fake/forced... Which is why it surprised me to realize that, as Cloud, I really like Aerith! I never really shipped him with any of the girls when I played the original because again, with 1997 graphics I never really got past thinking of them as Duplo people (who are, of course, sexless). But man, I really like her for him in this game. (Maybe because she's one of the few who didn't fawn over him?)
• I really like the new weapon upgrade system. I especially like that every time a character earns SP, that many points can be spent on each/all of their weapons, so you don't feel discouraged from investing in early-game weapons to save the points for end-game weapons. And that when you get new weapons, they start off with the same total SP as the weapons you've had all game, so your starter weapon doesn't outclass everything in the game just because you leveled up with it more times than any other. You can also learn unique abilities from weapons, like in several other FF games... though I can't remember if the original FF7 had that mechanic. Overall, actually feel inclined to choose different weapons in different battles, instead of the more classic RPG situation where you're just always going to use the newest/strongest weapon. A+
• The new combat system is interesting. There's an option to bind frequently used commands to shortcut buttons instead of going into the command menu in battle, and I was using them a lot in the first chapter or two, but since you can only bind up to 4 shortcuts, once my characters had learned more than 4 abilities and collected a lot of materia that I was frequently swapping out from one fight to the next, it started to become more of a pain to choose which 4 commands were worth binding to shortcut and to have to keep redoing them every time I changed materia. Currently I have a 2-3 of each character's permanently-learned melee weapon skills bound to shortcuts, so I can mix them more fluidly with basic melee attacks, but I pretty much always use the menu for spells and non-combat abilities (Assess, Steal, Prayer) at this point. I like that you can use basic attacks without consuming ATB charge - so many formerly turn-based combat games that moved to ATB made the transition too 1:1 and just have the party members standing around doing literally nothing "between turns," so I'm really happy to see it done differently here.
• Deadly Dodge materia is low-key the ultimate weapon.

Sharing more thoughts the more I think about this game. Note that I'm only just past Chapter 12 so I know there is a lot more game to go.

The first half of this game is great. I really love the en media res beginning of the game, smack dab in the middle of an eco-terrorist mission to destroy a Shinra mako reactor. And then going to the slums, chumming around with Tifa and the Avalanche gang, Jessie who has stolen my heart, and so on. Then meeting Aerith, making your way down the labyrinthian favela from the church all the way to the dirty charm of Sector 6, and of course, the dazzling spectacle of boisterous clutter that is Wall Market. I couldn't get enough of the game in this part.

Everything changed with the sewers and the Train Graveyard, as I've mentioned before. It throws into sharp relief that which holds this game back, for me at least. Now, I've only played Final Fantasy XIII way back when I was in high school, and a handful of other JRPGs, but there is this trope, I feel, where you just have random monsters to fight and they're always chilling in an arena made just for them. Maybe that's just a thing! Like, you enter this really round spacious sewer arena, and there are three monsters positioned perfectly in the middle, like they're just waiting for you to do battle. I think I'm spoiled by From Software here, because the worlds feel 'correct' and the monster placement feels like it's part of the world, rather than an obstacle placed in the game by developers for you to fight. I just don't really like that. And granted, FFVII remake is not guilty of this all the time. It just becomes really evident in the sewers and train graveyard. It gets a lot better with the pillar defense, where it feels like enemies are trickling in because of the action going on there and whatnot.

The music for this game is... man. I don't even have the right words for it. I tend to get overly excited about things I like to the point of overstating them, but in this case, I don't think I'm doing that: the score for FFVII remake is probably some of the best produced, composed, arranged, and mixed music I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in a game. I will take notice of good music in a game but I very rarely go out of my way to listen to it on my own but that's what I've been doing with FFVII remake.

If I had to point to a particular highlight for my time thus far, then I'll list a few that will stick with me:

1. going to Jessie's parents' house in the laborer housing district
2. meandering through the vertical labyrinth of the slums from the church to Sector 6 with Aerith
3. exploring Wall Market

FFVII remake, so far, has been strongest when it's taking its time to be in the world it has so deftly created. I think it's at its worst when it's trying to be a video game.

And after a lot of typing and thinking, I think that's the best way I can articulate what I'm feeling about this game, this... almost masterpiece (so far?).

Finally took the plunge proper into Final Fantasy VII Remake. I tried it in I think 2020 or 2021, but I was really only playing for the trophies and was following along with a video guide, so there was very little joy to be had. I also didn't play FFVII as a kid and meandered my way through the port of the original game, which was really cool, but I ultimately left with little knowledge of the story itself.

Now I'm playing on PC, so it comes with the bells and whistles: 60+ FPS, ultrawide, QoL mods, and this is also the first game I'm playing on my newly purchased Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED monitor so it's a total delight.

I really can't handle less than 60 FPS. For the life of me, I just cannot bear it. Call me a snob but it's no fluke. There are many games that I bounced off of hard back when they were locked at 30 FPS, and when I had the chance to play them at a higher framerate, it clicked.

This is no exception. There was no real reason I got onto the FF7 remake. I just felt like trying it out now that there was a PS5 enhancement and I'm somewhat in between games. I'm nearly at the end of Baldur's Gate 3 but I don't feel like continuing, so I'll return to that when I'm ready; and I started playing Alone in the Dark but it's not the kind of game that holds my interest for more than 45 minutes at a time.

So I sifted through my list of previously 'attempted' games and took a plunge on this one. I bought the Remake for PC knowing I would be able to return it if I didn't like it, thanks to Steam's awesome refund policy - no sarcasm there, I wish the PlayStation store let you do that - and what can I say, it clicked. Buttery smooth performance and framerate just did the trick for me.

The combat is fine. I don't look forward to it but I don't avoid it. What I really like is the aesthetic and the sheer detail throughout the world. It's a serious achievement, what they did with this game. The character models are attractive, sure, but the lived in feeling of Midgar and how every square foot of the world feels fully realized and developed, it's impressive.

I'll probably play Rebirth after I finish this one, which comes out in 2-ish weeks, so I'll take my time with this one, but not too much - I'm not going for completion, just fun. Playing it close to the story missions and forgoing and side quests that strike me as even remotely chore-like.