Final Fantasy VII Remake

X is my favorite Final Fantasy but I do have enough fond memories of VII that I wanted to give the remake a look, and while it probably met my expectations for a remake of a nearly 25 year old game, it doesn't quite hold up to modern efforts. Not for lack of trying, though. The spectacle, the budget, the eye candy, the atmosphere are all through the roof and crazy levels of good, and the combat is one of the best mixtures of pure action and tactics seen in an RPG yet. Aside from some of the usual bugbears like status effects and certain materia being underutilized, it's a cracking system with just enough ways to exploit it without either side feeling cheap, and almost every boss fight was a delight; I always relished the chance to engage in combat.

But the combat carries the game, as everything else of substance is extremely shaky. The pacing can go from white hot to slow as molasses in the blink of an eye, but tends to lean towards lethargic with its underdeveloped side characters (this is only part of the original game's campaign, after all), meandering side quests and annoying anime melodrama with all the characters gasping every second line. The original story features some smart updates to its environmentalist core but, as in the original, can lose its focus and fail to keep the tension up when it needs to, as core objectives of the story are side-stepped in favour of what's right in Cloud's face in the moment. And while a good half of the side missions and minigames are good callbacks to the original, there are too many annoying moments for it to have been worth it. Any time I wasn't engaged in combat, I was probably annoyed or bored.

And then there's the actual narrative additions. The purpose of the Whispers starts as hard to define and doesn't appear any clearer by the end, even as the climax of the game becomes very different as a result, and while the possibility of a different Final Fantasy VII is tempting, fighting a literal incarnation of destiny is the worst possible way to have done it, to say nothing of the idea that they might have changed the past as well as the future in the ending. It all adds up to a jumbled and juvenile mess, the kind of which gives Kingdom Hearts its well-deserved reputation as an ass-pulling mess of a story, and criminally robs the story's villain of his motive and endgame, at least currently.

I'm harsher on FF7R just because I've seen most everything the game has to offer before; it's not much worse paced than most JRPGs, as I understand, but it's salt in the wound when twenty five years of innovation do nothing to save stereotypical side-characters, fetch quests, and underdeveloped lore, only hampered by the fact that this game is literally not finished yet. Both in the minutiae and the bigger moments, this game is both bloated and unfulfilling at the same time. But then you get to a really fun callback to the original, or an awesome setpiece or boss fight and it's all worth it. We'll just have to hope the game is a bit leaner from here on out if they're gonna be this revisionist about the rest of it.

Probably the worst story ever told in gaming.

Great gameplay, but its hard to overstate how much the story and pacing is butchered.

This is a game I was looking to playing for a long time, I was patiently waiting for a definitive Xbox port or something of the like but things were looking like Sony might have locked this one forever. So finally bit the bullet, decided to dust off my PS4 and signed up to PS+ to get access to the full game. Final Fantasy always has a special place in my heart, the original one being one of my first RPGs played circa 1990. The best ones are from the 16-bit era, but the PS1 games are also pretty much amazing, and definitely curious how revisiting this story and adapting to modern features would come out.

So here we are with the golden child FF7 getting a remake. Now like many gamers I'm getting tired of every game getting a remake and when most of the time it's just a nice new coat of painting and some QoL changes to make things more playable. However FF7R is not one like that, it's a real proper remake with everything changed from top to bottom outside of the main characters and the story. Well even the story is greatly expanded (my memory of some details of FF7 is a little blurry, because I played it about 23 years ago) and it's taken the first portion of the game and really stretching it to add more locations and stories. That's cool cause Midgar is very iconic and for it to get the grandiose treatment it's something really well deserved. Actually that's my main takeaway from the game is that the original has such great locations and then blowing them up like this but top of the line modern graphics is really well warranted and done with quite some excellence here.

The battle system is pretty ingenious and while initially I missed the classic turn based battles of the original, this one goes for a full blown 3D action RPG battle system however it pauses whenever you want to choose an ability of skill, giving you a best of both worlds between action and turn based. And these battles flow really well, perhaps the AI of your teammates could be a little bit more aggressive, but that does force you to switch between them to maximize their effectiveness. Just for the graphics and the battle system this game is an absolute winner from the start, the game is just a pure blast to play from watching the locations, the epic cutscenes or just the strong battles.

The game works on a "chapter" system which I do think has its fault (no backtracking to previous locations) and if you've missed something, well it's gone for that playthrough. That game however benefits from being linear like that, while they are some side quests for rewards in some chapters, you are mostly following the story straight and not getting lost into a big open world with endless tasks to do. Each chapter features a pretty unique portion of the storyline and while some are slower than others, the story is told in a very grandiose and epic way. There's a big Uncharted influence on the game in its presentation, like how you walk in dangerous locations and those James Bond-esque impossible cutscenes, kinda shows just how much that franchise has changed modern gaming like that. But works well in the context here, as Final Fantasies have always been pretty epic like that.

My main criticism is perhaps in the equipment and summons, I feel that these systems are extremely limited. The gear outside of weapons isn't very interesting and there's not much customization to do with any of your main characters when it comes to that ("armor" is essentially, magic defense, balanced, or defense) and the accessories have very minimal/minor impact. Weapons are cool and after you've used them for a while, you can carry on that ability for your next weapons. However with just a new weapon every 3-4 chapter, they don't really feel like it's anything you really have control of. The summons have been an essential part of Final Fantasy for a long time and here they are limited to boss fights only, and you can only summon one during the whole battle. I love how they are presented and all, but it would have been nice to be able to use them more than that. The materia system is nice as you can have any hero have the abilities they need but that's where decision making ends for the game.

However, all in all, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an amazing game. The graphics are absolutely stunning and some of the best I've ever seen, Midgar is an amazing place and they really blew up to super high standards and made it come to life even more. They've pulled off a great battle system that even I as a an old school FF head was greatly satisfied with, and playing the game was really an amazing experience. While yes I've pointed out some of its limitations (no game is truly perfect), these are minor points in the grand scheme of things. I hope they can work on fixing some of them and making the sequel an even better game that this one was. As far as PS4 exclusives, this is as good as it gets and one of the essential games for the system.

the end of this game is quite terrible, it feels like an evangelion rebuild, but i had so much fun playing it and i love jessie raspberry

This is truly one of the most perplexing games I have ever played. Going into this game, I wanted something that would update and modernize Final Fantasy VII, and let me see why it is one of the most cherished games ever made. After completing both this and going back and playing the original FFVII, I can safely say that this game fails to accomplish that.
That is not to say there is nothing to enjoy, however. The obvious best part of the game is its presentation. The world is realized with such vibrance and character, and the soundtrack is pristine. The combat is also really fun, swinging your sword has such a nice weight to it, and the bosses strike a good balance of being cinematic and mechanically satisfying.
What kills this game for me is the story and pacing. While the original's story is no masterpiece, there's a lot of appeal in the characters interacting and growing together. FFVII Remake forgoes this in favor or Tetsuya Nomura's signature style of crackpot writing. The content of this game comprises of the first 7-8 hours of the original game, but manages to stretch that across upwards of 40 hours. But instead of using this extra time to develop the existing characters, the game instead choses to introduce new ones that go nowhere, all while trying to shove in a new meta-commentary narrative that just serves as an excuse to have a flashy ending. My problem isn't with the fact that there's content that wasn't in the original, but with how poorly it's executed. It's obvious to tell what wasn't in the original while playing, it's just that out of place. The story can't even maintain a consistent tone. At multiple points the plot just grinds to a halt to give to give the player an opportunity to do side quests or introduce some completely new storyline. This is all capped of by one of the most confusing, unearned finales I've ever seen.
I'm unsure how I'll look back at this game. Maybe some plot threads will unfold into something meaningful, maybe this fan-fiction tier writing will improve, but for now the decision to only remake such a small chunk of the original leaves every part of this game worse off. We're left with something that is just a chore to get through, and I don't see this game aging well at all.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is nothing groundbreaking nor a game that will set new standards, but is at least the best Final Fantasy Square came up with after merging with Enix. Excellent source material aside, it's the first time in years the action RPG battle system is actually satisfying and the gameplay is well balanced. It's not as linear as XIII, yet not as dispersive and fragmented as XV. The city of Midgard has been beautifully recreated and expanded with high-detailed areas. It was also good to spend more time with the supporting characters which didn't get much attention in the original game. The main character models are superbly crafted, but sometimes clash with the low-resolution textures of the environmental elements around them. NPC's are a bit stiff, but at least you can tell them apart and engage in multiple dialogues with them.

Overall the pacing is pretty good, with the just-right amount of combat, a lot of dialogues and cutscenes, a decent amount of exploration, and some quick mini-games or different gameplay elements to spice things up. Narration, action, and exploration are well alternated throughout the 30-35 hours required to clear the game. Dungeons tend to be a bit too long and repetitive at times, but you will always want to find out what comes next. Subquests are far from being memorable or rewarding, but I wasn't bothered much as they are super quick and there is only a bunch of them.

The battle system merges action and tactical elements from past games. There is a lot of button mashing, dodging, and parrying, but unlike Final Fantasy XV, the game gives you the chance to suspend the action and take some time to plan your moves. Spells and special activities are easy to select, but have to be chosen with caution as each action, including the use of items, will cost one precious ATB point. For the first time, you can also swap between characters through battle instead of just giving orders to your teammates. Multi-character battle systems usually require sub-menus or tricky AI settings, but the interface is quick and intuitive. Switching between modes and characters makes the combat more dynamic and interesting, so that you won't get too bored during long dungeon sessions. Bosses and sub-bosses also offer a lot of epic battles like never before. It's sometimes hard to follow what's going on in a battle, though, as the camera moves pretty randomly and you will continuously need to fix it manually by tilting the right stick.

Character abilities and power-ups are managed through the upgrade of weapons and, like in the original game, the use of "materia."

The plot accurately follows the first quarter of the original Final Fantasy VII, while at the same time adding new locations and characters. There are some fillers and sections that felt unnecessary, but that's still nothing compared to the highly disposable quests of open-world games. Surely the original had much tighter pacing and visited many different locations in the same amount of time, but recreating all of them in one single game with a level of detail that is up to the modern standards would have been impossible.

The ending has been highly controversial, as it makes some risky choices that might have a significant impact on the plot of future installments. I am up for new things, but let's just hope any changes with the original story will be for the better, and not fanservice bullshit like in Kingdom Hearts. If they were planning on a reboot, they could have just marketed the game and such and change things from the beginning, without dealing with destiny and multiverse crap.