So, originally I had written part of this as a '7 days with Final Fantasy VII Remake' piece, because I had thoughts that I felt compelled to type and share with all 2 people who know of this wasteland of blog. But I was so close to the end and had heard 'whispers' about the ending to this game, so figured I should just complete the damn thing so I can talk about all the things. And now here I am. Ready to talk about it all.
This Review will be chock-a-block full of spoilers. So if you've not played the game yet, then read on at your own risk.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a strange beast, because unlike say the Resident Evil 2 remake, it feels very much like a game built on the assumption that whoever is playing it has played the original - which is a safe assumption to make. Therefore, much of this game is built on nostalgia. But it's also releasing in the wake of its own legacy. A legacy which Square Enix have pimped within an inch of its life with spin-off games, a film, having Final Fantasy VII characters pop up in other games and more besides. Those who played the original Final Fantasy VII adore it and treasure their experience of playing it deeply. And those that haven't played it are aware of the cultural impact the original game made, because there cannot be any conversation about J-RPG's, the most popular video games in history and the Final Fantasy series as a whole without mentioning Final Fantasy VII. So Final Fantasy VII Remake is in a tough position, because it has to please fans of the original who hold it in such high regard, but also show those who are jumping into it for the first time why FFVII is seen as the holy grail.
Final Fantasy VII Remake manages to do all of the above with varying levels of success.
BUT.
Because of what this game truly is, it manages to do something which is potentially quite brilliant, which is take those who played the original and those that haven't, and bring us all to a point where we're all on the same page. Because this game isn't what any of us thought it was. The word 'Remake' in the title isn't in reference to what this game is. 'Remake' is in reference to the story. In the final chapter and in its ending, it's revealed that this Final Fantasy VII exists with the original story in its own timeline - which makes the game title and Square Enix's insistence to not subtitle it with an episode name make complete sense now. Something which is genius and disingenuous in equal measure.
It's problematic and there's still potential for this to be a mess. But I have to give Square Enix props for the nerve. I never saw this shit coming.
I will get more into the final chapter of Final Hearts VII Remix and its ending later on. But I'll start by saying this right off the bat: I don't love Final Fantasy VII Remake. And the ending and the decision to do what it does with its story is not the reason why. It's because of the way Remake stumbles to get to that point, and then the wonky way in which it executes it.
My entire experience with Final Fantasy VII Remake was a case of 'That's really good, but'. 'Oh, I like that, but'. 'That's cool how they did that, but'. Final Fantasy VII Remake's progressiveness and audacity in what it chooses to do with its ending and premise doesn't extend to the gameplay and the pacing, which feels like they're stuck in this rut that Square Enix hasn't been able to get out of with their Final Fantasy games since XIII. Some would say since X.
Outside of battles there is zero growth from the gameplay that Square presented in their first PS2 Final Fantasy game almost 20 years ago. Some could argue that The Legend of Zelda provides the same gameplay with each game, which would be fair - except for the fact that there are revisions made to the gameplay each time to make it feel better than the game which came before. And at a point where Nintendo felt it was getting stale, they changed a whole lot with Skyward Sword and then changed it further with Breath of the Wild. Even if you didn't like Breath of the Wild, you couldn't argue that Nintendo didn't try something new.
Remake was the perfect game for Square to really experiment with the gameplay, whilst having the cushion of nostalgia to fall back on. But instead they did what they've become complacent with doing: dressing up really rigid and linear style gameplay in nice graphics, a great soundtrack, a solid battle system and hoping that it will detract everybody from noticing how dusty the gameplay is. And the fact that Square has made big revisions to the gameplay and structure with its direct sequels (Final Fantasy X-2, XIII-2 and the DLC for XV) shows that they are aware of how stale the gameplay in these main entry titles has gotten, and they indeed know how to mess with it.
Square Enix have a really skewed idea of what's fun and makes for interesting gameplay. They either introduce something really cool which should be more of a mainstay, but just give it to you once and then abandon it. Or they introduce some bullshit and decide that's what we're gonna get...multiple times. 'Yo, lets slow shit right down and make Cloud control a robot arm to take Aerith to the other side of an area to drop a ladder. And let's do that TWO MORE TIMES AND MAKE EACH TIME LONGER! Ooo. And let's take the motorcycle mini-game sequence which feels a bit ropey and extend it to make up A WHOLE THIRD OF THE CHAPTER WITH A BOSS BATTLE.'
Square continue to see gameplay outside of battles as a secondary thing which isn't worth doing something about, or trying to better. It was a problem with Final Fantasy XIII. It was a problem with Final Fantasy XV. It was also a problem with Kingdom Hearts III. And now here we are again. Square Enix take one step forward, but then two steps back. Every. Single. Time.
Square are entering new territory with the release of a Final Fantasy game on the premise that it is part of a story and will be the first in a series of instalments. Their promise was that Midgar would be greatly expanded. It really isn't. That lots of new stories would be told. They aren't. That this would be of a length of a standard Final Fantasy adventure. And it is, but it comes at a cost.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is full of unnecessary padding. And it's full of padding because Square clearly felt that a Final Fantasy game wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game unless it was at least X amount of hours long.
The Resident Evil 3 remake is sat with its fingers hovering over the Ctrl and X keys, laughing.
I finished Remake in around 40 - 45 hours, and that was with me meandering around, checking every nook and cranny of areas, listening to every conversation, going to every shop and every establishment, sitting on every bench, fighting every battle, assessing every enemy, doing all of the side quests and taking my sweet time. But you wouldn't be able to blitz through Remake even if you wanted to, because the game does its damndest to prevent you from doing so. Quite literally. At certain times and often for no reason, the game says 'NO RUNNING. YOU WALK ONLY'. One of the most annoying of these sections is when Shinra attack the Sector 7 pillar and Aerith has to go and fetch Barret's daughter. At one point you find a little girl who's scared and can't find her parents. Aerith picks her up and walks her to safety and you're controlling Aerith the entire time. You can only walk. No running. And it's a walk that feels like forever in that moment. The game pulls stunts like this constantly. It's ridiculous and makes zero sense from a purely gameplay perspective. And if we're looking at the context, why in the fuck is Aerith taking her time to walk with a child, when the whole sector is coming down and she's in desperate need to find somebody else? A bitch really put three lives in danger?! So many of these, 'Walk with me' moments could and should have been cut scenes. And in what I can't tell are either shameless efforts to drag shit out or mask loading, there are many sections where you have to shimmy into narrow spaces, and some of these sections are too damn long. Surely we could have gotten different methods of getting to another area whilst masking loading, just to mix it up a bit.
The padding eats up far too much of the game to the point where it's the most lasting impression of my experience of playing it. Running along train tracks forever, to then run along walkways forever to switch off sun lamps, to then run through corridor after corridor picking up keycards in Reactor 5. Running through hundreds of corridors in Hojo's lab to pull switches and get to a walkie-talkie, so I could switch party members to then run through another thousand corridors to pull more switches and get to another walkie-talkie, just so I could switch party members again to then run through the corridor of infinity until I got to President Shinra's office. It feels like all you do in this game is just run through corridors, climb ladders and push switches in the most mundane of ways. And what makes it worse, is that the length of some of these sections in Remake are not indicative of their lengths in Original. Every single one of them was shorter the first time around. So Square just decided to make us run through corridors to pad the game out and run up the play time. It's a mess.
In the midst of this padding, great things happen. But it's the padding I remember the most. It's such an issue for me that I can't even bring myself to replay certain chapters. Because there is no sub-chapter selector, it means that if a great moment occurred two thirds into a chapter, I have to walk along 6 pathways, run through 38 corridors, climb 13 ladders and pull 7 switches to get to it. And I just ain't doing that shit.
Had Square cut out a whole third of this game, it would have been short by regular Final Fantasy standards, but it would have been a better game, and STILL been unmistakably Final Fantasy. Square continue to cling to these old ideals of what a Final Fantasy game needs to be. It's been dragging the series down for years, and unfortunately, Remake doesn't avoid the pull.
It's wild to me that Square couldn't have thought of better ways to make this game longer, or that they didn't just keep it short 'n' sweet. We already had the expectation set that this wasn't going to be a full Final Fantasy story anyway. Square's insistence on stuffing Remake with padding is one of the worst things about it, because they do it in such obvious ways which suck the fun out of so many moments in this game. And it further highlights that the gameplay just isn't strong enough to facilitate such excessive and shameless attempts to draw out the playtime. The Yakuza games do a far better job of what Square attempted to do here.
Final Fantasy VII Remake's battle system at the very least is something good. It fixes one of the biggest issues I had with Final Fantasy XV's, which was that you had little control over other members of your party, and battles just felt repetitive and downright boring. Here, things are far more exciting and dynamic. Square do a great job of melding real-time action with something that still feels true to Final Fantasy. It's also nice to just be able to use magic again without that elemancy bullshit.
In Final Fantasy XV, you essentially just hammered the attack button until things died. That shit will not fly in Remake. You need to be on your toes or you WILL die. Quickly. You will need to use potions. You will need to guard. In previous Final Fantasy games you'd rarely use potions. And guarding was something you could do, but it never felt necessary. Here, you will run through potions until you've got high level healing materia to go around. And if you don't guard, you will fucking die. Spacial awareness matters far more here than it did in XV. Each character also feels unique, and you need to be smart about who you switch to and when. An unfortunate issue with party members in the likes of X and XIII was that their individuality in battles started to be stripped away once you levelled them up to a point. As the crystarium opened up in XIII, everyone became the same. As the sphere grid opened up in X, everyone became the same. At one point in my FFX playthrough, Yuna was able to run in and deal as much damage as Tidus and Auron. Everybody could become a great attacker, everybody could become a great black magic user, everybody could become a great white magic user. Remake handles things differently to ensure that party member individuality is always retained, even if your materia loadout for every character is exactly the same. Then there's the weapon levelling system which also plays a part in ring-fencing each party member. You can lean your characters to favour attacking, magic and defence as you choose. But no matter what you do, Cloud will always be the most balanced attacker. Barret will always be the tank. Tifa will always be the fastest attacker with the shittiest defence. Aerith will always be the best magic user. The balance in the party and levelling up is so spot on, and I hope they keep the same system for VII-2. It's going to be interesting seeing how they handle Red XIII, Cid, Yuffie and Vincent.
But whilst the battle system itself is tight. There are things that fuck it up.
The camera. It was a pain in my ass in Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III. Now here we are, with another Square Enix game with a trash camera. It's just awful. In an open space, it's trash. In confined spaces, it's a lost cause. As if battles in this game aren't involving enough, Square Enix decide that you're gonna play the camera-person too. The nerve. And when you switch to another party member, rather than the camera moving to position itself behind them, it just points itself at them. So if you're in a situation where all three members of your party are surrounding an enemy and beating it down, it's difficult to know who you switched to. And when you're fighting enemies who are small and can zip around really quick or teleport, it all becomes a mess.
The HUD. When gaming entered the age of high-definition, small text became a trend and it's one that's stuck ever since. Final Fantasy battles become an orgy of explosions, spell effects and sparks flying all about the place. Therefore, battle info isn't always clear - specifically, enemy attacks. Enemy attack names are tethered to the enemy; so if they are out of screen, you won't see it to know that an attack is coming. 'Just look at the fucking enemy then!?' I hear some of you say. Yes, if only it were always that easy. If only the camera actually stayed focused on the enemy I'm locked onto. If only there was a button to reset the position of the camera to place itself back behind me. And what is also of no help is there not being any on-screen indicators to display where enemies or party members are in relation to you when they're out of screen. So you have to keep moving the camera to get a beat on locations and placements, which is far more cumbersome than it sounds, because...the camera is trash. And by default, the camera is also mapped to the analog stick which you use to switch targets you are locked onto.
A mess.
All of the above becomes somewhat more tolerable once your characters hit that tipping point of being powerful enough to take a good beating before their HP hits critical and you can afford mishaps. But you shouldn't have to wait until you're at level 40 for these things to be lesser issues, and you shouldn't have to just 'tolerate' bad design. It can mean that when you end up dying in battles or lose the upper hand, it never always feels fair, because it wasn't due to an enemy out-smarting you or you not having a strategy. It was because of bad design that left you at a disadvantage.
Then there is the difficulty. I'mma just come out and say it. I found this game a real challenge, but not always particularly fair. The first Scorpion robot piece-of-shit boss was a struggle for me. It fucked me up in the demo and it fucked me up in the final game. I was not expecting to have to dip so frequently into the potion stash so early. And I found these instances of enemies just being problematic to be a re-occurrence, because the game has moments when the difficulty will just spike out of nowhere. And what makes this worse, is that the game gives you the bare bones of info that you need for battles, and then just throws all of the enemy types and battle situations at you. It never eases you into things, nor treats battles as means to teach and have you grasp everything. Once you finish the first bombing mission, the game pretty much dusts its hands and says 'All you bitch'. You just have to wing it and figure shit out as you go. There is a definite sense of achievement when you're in the thick of a battle and you finally figure out a means to turn the tide, or you discover a trick to an ability. But this can sometimes be dependant on your history with the Final Fantasy series, or having at least played Final Fantasy XIII or XV. It's very easy to be left floundering in battles and with no bandwidth to wing it; because you might be so far into a long-ass battle that you're struggling with, that you do not want to risk dying and having do the whole thing all over again. (Some of these battles really feel like they go on FOREVER). Key techniques to victory against certain enemy types aren't always shared, and there's not always much in the way of telegraphing to help you. So some may end up in situations where they're just being killed over and over, because they're missing a trick or a skill that the game didn't teach because it just assumed you'd figure it out. When the game does decide it's going to tell you something, it's your typical Square affair - you get a PowerPoint slide and that's it. But you don't always get that. The game doesn't even tell you how to use newly acquired limit breaks. It just throws them into 'System' on the menu, which isn't the most obvious place somebody would look.
There's no real curve in this game. Even for me, having played every Final Fantasy game from VI onward, battles felt like a lot to get to grips with so fast. 40+ hours into the game and on the final chapter and STILL I felt there were fundamental basics to battles that I wasn't aware of or doing in practise, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Me and Assess materia were real acquainted. But even so, I was still left a bit clueless in some battles. And when I came out on top, I'd be wondering if my way of winning was how I should of won, or if there was a more optimal way to have gone about it. I can definitely see the love of the challenge that this would present to some. But for me, it got frustrating at times.
Teaching gameplay through gameplay is something I will always commend Nintendo for. They're the masters at it. Square need to master the art of this. Their solution shouldn't JUST be allowing players to drop the difficulty on the fly so they can just square-tap their way through the game, because they won't learn the nuance of the battle system.
With the battle system being fundamentally decent, but being marred by technical issues, and the gameplay outside of that being a wonky padded out mess, let's just mosey onto something that the game does well all-round. It's characters.
A Final Fantasy game is as good as its characters, and Square's love and respect for the cast of Final Fantasy VII really does show in Remake. But it's what they do with the supporting characters from Original which manages to stand out above what they do with the main cast. And given Remake's ending, it's going to be interesting to see how some of these characters get fleshed out beyond their original canon.
But, anyway.
Whilst the Avalanche trio do get more screen-time and development than they got in Original, Jessie disproportionately gets more than Biggs and Wedge combined. She pretty much gets a whole chapter to herself, where you visit her home, see her family and get the lowdown on her whole damn life. It's like Oprah, but with swords and motorcycles. It's really touching and does a great job of contextualising how muddy the waters are in the world of this game, and the conflicts some of these characters frequently face in their lives. Barret is like 'FUCK SHINRA' and blowing up reactors, with no regard for the fallout or the consequences. Tifa knows that Shinra is a piece or shit, but also feels that Avalanche's actions are too extreme, and that they're hurting more than just Shinra as a company - they're hurting people. And then you have Jessie, who is complicit in fucking up Shinra because of what happened to her father, but she knows that there could be repercussions for her actions, and she doesn't take that lightly. So you have Barret and Tifa not always seeing eye-to-eye, and then Jessie and Tifa not always seeing eye-to-eye. But they all want Cloud on-side. Everyone wants the same thing, but to different degrees and for different reasons. It's a really cool dynamic that feels more front loaded here than it did originally, and Jessie's new backstory is kind of at the heart of it.
Then there is Jessie's thirst for Cloud.
Jessie had a thing for Cloud in Original, but it's full blown in Remake. Jessie is thirsty for Cloud's dick and is relentless in her pursuit of it. We get pick-up lines, double entendres, boastfulness - Jessie is a whole thirsty-ass mess and it's glorious. Even knowing deep down that there's possibly something between Cloud and Tifa, it doesn't stop her going after that dick. We could all learn something from Miss Jessie.
A character I could barely remember in Original is one of the best characters in Remake, which makes her death hit in a whole new way that it didn't the first time around.
It's really unfortunate that Biggs and Wedge aren't given the same treatment as Jessie, because they are well characterised and have far more relevance in Remake than they did in Original.
Wedge has a nice arc where he becomes a lifeline for the Avalanche crew more than once, in ways that he didn't in Original. And it completely contrasts with the initial perception of him being the dead-weight in the group who is a chickenshit and won't step up - which is basically what he was before. This is a great change to Wedge's character, because it helps shift away from the stereotype of the fat character being the laziest and basically doing what Avengers: Endgame did with Thor. But we don't get anything on Wedge's past, what made him join Avalanche, why he is so lonely to the point that his friends are a bunch of cats, and why he desperately seeks approval from Cloud. I feel there could have been a really beautiful story told here which could have resonated with those who always feel the need to seek acceptance because of something that happened to them in their past, or those that feel lesser than because of how they see themselves in comparison to their peers.
Biggs gets crumbs of what could have been a great backstory to explore, but we never get to delve into any of it. He has an exchange with Jessie at the start of the game which insinuates that he's gay or asexual. But nothing is touched on in regards to that again. Not that Biggs' sexuality needed to be a plot-line. But having a moment where he discusses Jessie's thirstiness with Cloud could have presented an opportunity for Biggs to address it albeit in a casual manner. 'Ugh. Boyfriends, girlfriends. I can't be bothered with any of it'. You also find out nonchalantly from a NPC that Biggs used to visit an orphanage in the Sector 5 slums, with possible implications that he may have possibly opened the damn thing. But nothing is really made of this. It would have been nice to see a moment where he bonds with Cloud, because it seems that they could potentially have more in common than they realise. It also would have made Biggs fake death with Cloud feel earned, because the monologue and level of drama that we get from Biggs in his faux-final moments is what you'd have between two people who were close. Giving both Biggs and Wedge a chapter moment as per Jessie would have done wonders, and not messed with the continuity of keeping this story close to Original, and is also an instance of something Square could have done to add something meaningful to the story and extended the game. Wedge's fate is unknown and Biggs actually survives and is seen at the orphanage. So hopefully we'll get more on the two of them in Final Hearts VII: Birth By Sleep.
All three characters are great though, and bring a lot to the adventure in really cool and unexpected ways. They feel like new characters.
We also get brand new characters who help build out familiar scenarios from Final Fantasy VII Original. Every area you visit in Midgar is pretty much defined by new a character or two. Or three.
Marle, is the matron of the Sector 7 slums who looks out for Tifa like her own granddaughter. When Tifa introduces Cloud to her, she's dubious, reads him down, and warns him to either step up for Tifa or step away. It's almost like she's the mind of the player who is coming into this having played Original, who was a Cloud and Tifa shipper, but was pissed at Cloud for leaving Tifa in thirstgatory and not reciprocating her feelings, nor assertively letting her down. It's a fun exchange and really channels into Marle being intuitive and seeing things for what they are; a character trait of hers which pops up when she makes an appearance later in the story. It's also nice to see an older character in this game who isn't some old biddy in a rocking chair. There's a real sense of Marle having been a bad bitch back in the day and having many a story that she could tell, but never would. It wouldn't surprise me if in Final Fantasy VII: Cloud Returns, we find out that Marle fought in the Wutai war.
Sector 5 has an orphange with a bunch of kids who all idolise Cloud. Most of the side quests in sector 5 involve them, and they in turn help Cloud by imparting useful information. One kid in particular is a Moogle fan who has some rare and useful items for you to purchase. And props to Square Enix for bothering to add some inclusivity; as you get little white kids, little Asian kids and little Black kids. It made my stone cold ass smile a little bit. One of the teachers at the orphanage is even a Black woman who humorously moonlights as a dancer at the Honey Bee Inn.
Speaking of the Honey Bee Inn...
Wall Market now introduces Chocobo Sam, Madam M and gives the Honey Bee Inn an owner, Andrea Rhodea. Each one of them are such distinct characters who share some great moments with Cloud, and they all have a history with one another. They make such an impact and define the Wall Street section of the game to a point where it'd feel like something was missing if I were to play Original now and experience it without them. I honestly forget that Don Corneo is even in this chapter, because of how these new characters just own the whole thing between them; particularly Madam M and Andrea.
All of these characters also contribute to what I'm sure most will agree on, is one of the best moments in the game, and that is the dance-off at the Honey Bee Inn.
This was such an odd section in Original. Having to run between seedy establishments and do crazy shit to acquire everything Cloud needed in order to go undercover as a woman. One of which involved getting into a Jacuzzi with a bunch of muscled gays. You can see how this would be problematic in 2020. And you'd think Square would have removed the cross-dressing too. But they not only kept it, they expanded on it in all manner of crazy ways, and manage to take a bat shit crazy moment and make it even MORE crazy. Cloud's makeover is now in the hands of the queer owner of the Honey Bee Inn, Andrea Rhodea. And he takes a liking to Cloud and agrees to help him if Cloud proves he can dance. So, yep. It's rhythm game time. This shit is so off putting to do, because you just want to sit and watch Cloud dance. I went from 'Oooof Cloud, this is so awkward' to 'YESSSSS BITCH!'.
Final Fantasy has always been a series which has balanced drama, humour and foolery in equal measure. But somewhere along the way, Square seemed to forget that, and insisted on giving us these wholly serious and depressing stories with no respite. I'm honestly wracking my brain trying to think of a moment in Final Fantasy XIII or XV that made me laugh. So it was nice to see that Square didn't shy away from this in Remake, because I was honestly expecting this section of the game to be watered down, but Square went in the complete opposite direction and made it even more fun and camp as hell.
The best thing about this scene is the acceptance of it. It would have been very easy to have had Aerith poke Cloud's ribs about his dancing, and for deep South looking ass Chocobo Sam to be disgusted; but instead, everybody is just impressed with Cloud being able to keep up with Andrea and in awe with how good he looks as a woman. And Cloud himself is never disgusted or fights any of it. He's just insanely shy and self conscious, as most hermit types would be. It's such a brilliantly handled section which very easily could have ended up a dumpster fire. Maybe some jibs from some fellas woulda been far more true to life. But I get why they went RuPaul with it all.
And just to put the cherry on top, before Cloud is sent click-clacking into the night, the Honey Bee Inn owner tells him that beauty has no gender, drops the mic and then sashays away.
Remake is at its best when it embraces the original games' weirdness and humour, and dives into that bitch head first. With VII-2 leaving the door wide open as to what will happen and how closely the story will stick to Original, I hope they manage to keep this balance of humour in mind and not let it get lost in the convolution of Nomura's new story.
Not every new character in Remake is quite as memorable as the aforementioned. Don Corneo's lackey Leslie is boring. He's not a bad character. But he's very much an anybody character, despite having this whole back story and tagging along with your party at one point. Then there's Roche, who is your typical Nomura looking-ass character. It's cool to see another ex-SOLDIER, as I don't recall the original game featuring any. You'd almost think that ex-SOLDIER's weren't a thing at all. Maybe they're a rarity. But the game building out its world and also showing that other once-upon-a-time SOLDIER's exist other than Cloud and Zack is cool. I can't imagine he'll be given any meaningful backstory, will probably be nothing more than a character who pops up at conveniently inconvenient times for a fight. Chadley is an interesting character, because his purpose is to serve a function as opposed to the story. He is how you acquire summons and special materia. Not matter which location or chapter you're at, he'll be stood on some corner somewhere, where you can buy shit. He's a Shinra employee and also a kid, which is just weird in and of itself. Even in a game with a guy who has a gun for an arm and a talking dog. Having one of the characters comment on how the hell he's able to just get around, how come Shinra don't realise he's gone all of the time, have Barret go from not trusting him to recruiting him into team #FuckShinra, or have Aerith comment what his underage self is doing in Wall Market would have been a cool thing to have thrown in to acknowledge the absurdity of it all. And having Chadley talk about rumblings in Shinra each time you meet him in a new location would have helped make him feel he's a part of the world of the game. As it stands, he feels like such an afterthought, and his character model looks like it was ported straight in from Final Fantasy X. He is a cool quirky character who ends up in a similar situation to you by the end of the game (providing you do all of the combat simulation missions). But so much more could be done with him to make him more than just a shop and an obvious last minute fix. Think Rodin from Bayonetta.
This said, there is no one new character in this game who I felt was so bad that they should have been cut. Each one of them at least bring something to the table and do a decent job or showing some form of parallel to Cloud, and that he isn't the only person on a journey. And all of these characters are connected to somebody else in some way, which helps build out the world of the game beyond this title.
Remake is very respectful to the original posse and characterise them perfectly, whilst also not being afraid to lean them in new directions. I actually like these characters for the most part far more in Remake than I ever did in Original. It's commendable, because these are beloved characters who have been fixed in my mind for 20 years, and yet they feel familiar, but also new. I'm thankful that Remake didn't go the Advent Children route and suck all of the joy and charm out of everybody. Particularly Cloud.
Cloud is hands-down one of the most memorable and iconic Final Fantasy characters. Square know it and have never really been able to let it go. Several Final Fantasy games that came after VII had some version of Cloud. Squall in VIII was Cloud. Lightning in XIII was Cloud. Noctis in XV is Cloud. But being cold and detached was what defined these characters for the most part. Squall was just miserable. Lightning was just a bitch. Noctis was just petulant. All of these characters were unlikable to begin with it. Cloud never is. And as the cold merc demeanour melts away, we realise that he's just an awkward goofball. Cloud softens far earlier in Remake than he did in the original. Partly because there's less of a window to show the ways in which Cloud opens up, but also because it makes sense given what happens in this version of events. Cloud feels like one of the few characters who actually has an arc in Remake unto itself, even if we don't know the who's, what's, where's and how's of everything.
Cloud and Aerith's relationship has a great dynamic in Remake. Far better than Original. So much so to the point that I really considered making choices in this game to grow Cloud's affection for Aerith, after being a staunch Cloud and Tifa shipper in Original. When Aerith died in the original game, Cloud's reaction didn't make that much sense to me, because the whole time Cloud is doing his R&B music video cry on his knees, I was like 'I didn't think y'all were THAT close'. But in Remake, if Aerith were to die and Cloud were to have a breakdown and cry, I would fully get it. The walls come down between Cloud and Aerith at a far more accelerated pace than they did in Original, but there is so much charm in how their pairing is handled, that it doesn't feel wrong and it's not hard to understand why Cloud would start to have feelings for her. Seeing what happens with their relationship and the dynamic it creates with Tifa is going to be really interesting. I hope it gets really messy, because I love drama. But it would give Tifa some agency in terms of confronting Cloud about how he truly feels about her and why he seems so much more open with Aerith than her despite their history. I want to see this tension baked into the story, and not just left up to some decisions about Tifa's outfit or who Cloud walks up to first in a sewer. Because going on Remake's depiction of Cloud's relationship with both of these women, it's geared heavily towards him having feelings for Aerith and friend-zoning Tifa.
Bottom line? Cloud is great. Aerith is great. Their relationship is great. Poor Tifa.
Barret is more of a cunt in the beginning than Cloud is. I found him generally unlikable until the second bombing mission, at which point his character really started to shift. I recall warming to Barret earlier on in Original, but whatever. Barret's dialogue is hammed to high heaven in the opening mission, because we now get to hear his planet speech. When Pastor Barret gives the whole 'Shinra is sucking the titty of the planet dry' sermon in the lift, I half expected him to whip out a handkerchief and start jiving. Square didn't even bother trying to change any of it. You can tell they were like 'Fuck it' and just left all that shit in, because they knew it wouldn't be Barret unless they did so. It also JUST works because of Marlene. You get the feeling that Barret's way of explaining things is partly because of how he's had to explain them to her. That's how I've chosen to rationalise it, fully knowing that Barret is just a damn caricature of a Black man, even though he doesn't look Black. But that's a whole other conversation for when the world isn't on fire.
Barret pretty much hits the same beats as he did in Original. A mess. But still a likeable character with a lot of heart and a different rapport with each character, which is fun to watch play out. What Remake serves up over Original is his relationship with Tifa. You get a real sense of closeness between the two of them and that Barret genuinely cares about Tifa's well-being. This was also the case in Original, but because of Remake's graphical fidelity being able to display emotion and body language in a way that just wasn't possible before, it comes through so much more this time around. Barret cares for Tifa. The scene of Barret taking Tifa's shaking hand after the plate comes down and hugging her was a beautifully touching moment. If you didn't like Barret prior, then this is the turning point for his character where there's no mistaking he's a good guy and that he is all heart. It's also an interesting moment for Cloud too, because he's realising that he should have been the one to hold her.
Then there is a triangle between her, Cloud and Aerith and her relationship with Aerith.
Aerith and Tifa becoming best friends almost immediately is strange and felt so typical of anime and Japanese dramas. Seeing their relationship grow over time would have made far more sense. They both have feelings for Cloud and are aware that the other does too, so there would definitely be an air of tension before they reach a point where they would just be homegirls. Tifa does shine and come off better as a character when her focus is Aerith though. There are moments where Tifa is earnest and Aerith genuinely seems grateful for it; almost like neither has had a girlfriend before and they're enjoying becoming good friends. But as soon as Cloud is in the mix, it just gets wonky - because it becomes less about them and more about a fight for Cloud's attention. It reduces two really good characters to just anime style tropes, and its the weakest point that both characters hit in the game.
The train graveyard chapter would have been a great moment to help build Tifa and Aerith as individual characters, but also as friends - as opposed to just perpetuation of this damn love triangle. It would have been nice to have seen this chapter flipped on its head and to have Cloud be separated from Tifa and Aerith, with you controlling the two of them to get back to him - forcing them to get to know one another. We could've had Tifa opening up to Aerith about spending her childhood with Cloud, but then drifting apart, and how she joined Avalanche. And then Aerith opening up somewhat about how she used to date an ex-Soldier and how she's been drifting through life ever since. And through this, building the foundations of a friendship which blossoms over the course of the adventure. This also would have made the point in the chapter where Aerith is snatched away by ghosts and breaks down over always being left alone just before being found by Tifa so much more powerful. In that moment, Aerith realising that she has a friend in Tifa. And Tifa coming to the realisation that saving somebody else isn't something that's reserved for the likes of Cloud, it's something she also has the power to do.
And then there is Red XIII. He's only introduced towards the end of the game, but manages to feel like he's always been a part of the gang. The way Aerith introduces him is a bit strange. As is the whole deal with Aerith touching him and suddenly giving him knowledge of Organization VII. An ability and a tell as to who she truly is, which is probably a far bigger deal than most would probably catch or realise. But he looks great, sounds great, and there's an immediate camaraderie and friendship which is struck with Barret, which provides some great moments. But, Red's inclusion veers into an instance of Remake serving those who have played the original, with no regard for those who are new to it. I say 'veers', because Red comes into the story exactly at the same point he did in Original, unlike Sephiroth (we'll get to him). But if you're new to this, then you're going to have questions, and you may not be all that intrigued by who Red is at all, because Remake doesn't really give you any reason to be. And this is a shame, because Red has a cool story. He is one of the last of his kind and there's a whole history he has with his father. A revelation of which was one of the most touching moments in Original; and the implications of both in Remake are potentially huge now that we're dealing with alternate timelines where people who died in one timeline could still be alive in another. But again, if you're new to this shit, you won't be asking these questions.
Red's introduction and inclusion is not bad by any means. But investment in his character is going to be weighted heavier on those who have played Original.
The one character who is completely ruined in Remake is the main bad guy, Sephiroth. Every single thing about him in this game aside from how he looks is a complete and utter mess. He is the one original character whose context within the story, that we're led to believe is the original story, is messed with the most, and for reasons that I just don't understand.
In the original Final Fantasy VII, you met Sephiroth far later in the story than you do in Remake. Timeline shit, set aside for a minute. In Remake, you meet Sephiroth in the first chapter of the game. Not just a glimpse y'all. We see his face, hear his name, hear his theme, and get a recreation of the iconic walking through the fire scene that he became synonymous with in the original. But Cloud only sees him in what we believe to be hallucinations or visions. Now. The problem I have with this is that Sephiroth appears to just be shown in these hallucinations for no other reason than to just show Sephiroth. It adds nothing to the story and it completely sucks all of the mystery out of who he is and his connection to Cloud.
Square Enix still do not understand that a villain is more than just some guy you fight at the end of a game. Remake does such a brilliant job of making President Shinra and his board such despicable pieces of shit and setting them up as the villains, just for it to suddenly be Sephiroth. You don't get any sense of what Sephiroth wants, what makes him 'evil' and why everybody collectively agrees that he's got to die. Aerith just says 'We have to kill him' and everybody is like 'Cool, okay'. They don't know Cloud's full history with Sephiroth, and that Tifa actually has one with him too. So there's no reason at this point for you as a player to really hate Sephiroth just yet, in comparison to Original where that point of 'HE NEEDS TO FUCKING DIE' was very clear and unanimous to the characters in-game and you as the player.
Nomura reduces Sephiroth to no more than the Sephiroth looking ass clone bad guys that we got in Kingdom Hearts. Guys who just do bad things, because.
Sephiroth is a big ol' blip in the retelling of the original story, and not because it's different to the original. It's because it's just bad and none of it makes any sense. Square basically included Sephiroth just to include Sephiroth. I get that because Sephiroth is an iconic villain that Square felt they had to plug him into this part of the story somehow, despite him not being introduced in Original at a point in the story after Remake ends. Square should have just played it as it was in the original. Palmer mentions somebody being in the building. Nobody believes him. You make your way to President Shinra's floor and see a wake of destruction as you head up. Then you walk into his office and you see the bitch is impaled on a Masamune. Tifa is like 'That can't be...'. Cloud is like 'Sephiroth'. Barret and Red are like 'Who the fuck is Sephiroth!?' And then Aerith turns to face the camera as 'TO BE CONTINUED' displays on the screen.
Remake remixes the above in the worst way. Not only does it just do nothing for Sephiroth's character, but they also throw Jenova into the mix too, because 'WHY THE FUCK NOT!?'. And then after taking a trip to Kingdom Hearts, you then fight Sephiroth to his classic theme "One Winged Angel". It all feels off, because none of it serves a purpose other than checking a box before the game closes out.
☑️ Jenova fight
☑️ j-e-n-o-v-a.mp3
☑️ Sephiroth appearance
☑️ Sephiroth fight
☑️ one-winged-angel.mp3
Square chose to give us some greatest hits from FFVII and KHII at point in the story where they felt they could best get away with it, and it wound up a mess. We shouldn't have fought Jenova. We shouldn't have fought Sephiroth. At this point we shouldn't have gotten as much of either of them as we did.
Remake also does another thing that Final Fantasy XII, XV and Kingdom Hearts II and III did, which is to throw stuff at you in no real meaningful way. A character. A place. A name. A thing. Just tossed at you, because throwing context-less things at somebody is how Square do plot devices. An example of which is the regular mentions of the Wutai war. Even at this early stage it's cool to know that Wutai is potentially going to play a bigger part in this version of VII's story than it did in the original. But in Remake, I can't see what purpose is being served here, beyond Wutai just being mentioned for Wutai's sake and to have those who played the original go 'OH! YUFFIE'S HOME TOWN!'. Getting a sense of the world and that there is actually a world beyond Midgar and that it has a history is cool. But again, it's something which won't mean much to anybody coming into this fresh.
This all leads up to one of the biggest issues with the narrative, which is that Tetsuya Nomura is in charge of it. The Nomura-isms really do jump out in this game. As soon as the Dementors showed up, I knew Nomura was back on his bullshit. But, I will say it's not THAT bad until the final chapter hits. Chapter 18 is a fucking mess, because it is literally Kingdom Hearts. The entire tone of the game shifts in the last chapter in the worst possible ways, because it no longer felt like I was playing the same game that I'd spent the past 40 odd hours playing. I went from riding a motorcycle on a highway and fighting a Shinra robot, to running through space and fighting the Heartless. The only transition into all of that was an expositional cut scene with some bullshit dialogue, where suddenly Aerith becomes the Oracle who can see timelines and open portals - because 'Cetra' and 'Promised land'. A lot happens very quickly. After a whole chapter of slogging slowly through a building, the game then bullet-trains you through stuff and then just ends. It just all feels so rushed and hits the same bum notes that the final moments of Kingdom Hearts III hit, which is that nothing is given a chance to breathe for you to really take in what is happening.
I am not precious over the direction that Remake takes. In fact, I really like it. It was an unexpected twist that I never saw coming. Final Fantasy games have always been about fighting fate and destiny, and we've had the concept of alternate timelines feature in Final Fantasy games before. But Nomura has this habit of taking simple premises and just having them get lost in nonsense. Kingdom Hearts should have been a simple story of love, life and death. Instead it became some bullshit about some old man who can time travel, and all of these other factions who do fuck knows what. Remake kinda ends up the same way. A story about classism, the environment and abuse of power is now just reduced to 'Multiverse, timelines, let's stop Sephiroth'.
When Final Hearts VII-2 Remix releases in 2032, it could absolutely still choose to stick to the original story with minor changes, essentially as this game did for the most part. But it might not. Not only because it would mean releasing games episodically for years on end, but because it'd be weird for the follow up not to go in a completely different direction given how Remake ends. The prospect of where Kingdom Fantasy VII-2 Re:Chain of Memories could go is exciting, but concerning because of Nomura's penchant for messy storytelling. It'd be a shame for everything to devolve into some shit about the Souless, the Loveless, the Anybodys and Cloud being the gateway to the realm of the dead because of his connection to Sephiroth, Zack and mako or some bullshit. For this reason, I hope FFVII retells the original story, but with new twists because it is an alternate timeline. But it won't be that simple. Because, Nomura.
Now let's talk technical shit.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a good looking game. But how good the game looks is inconsistent, just like every other aspect of it aside from the soundtrack. The main character models look amazing, far surpassing the quality of Advent Children. But the non-playable characters outside of cut-scenes all look a mess. They look like WWE create-a-character designs from a PlayStation 2 game. The disparity in quality is so noticeable because the level of detail in the main characters is so ridiculously insane. It's wild to me how a miscellaneous Shinra employee who features in two cut scenes can have this great looking character model, yet Chadley who is present during your whole adventure is left looking a character model from Final Fantasy X.
Environments? Same shit. Some areas are beautifully detailed, others just look ragged. Some environments also look too sharp and too still to the point of looking sterile. Fog stirring through the collapsed expressway would have added more atmosphere. Rain in the sections of the Sector 5 slums where there is no plate would have given it the distinction of a slum location which is affected by weather. Steam and mako particles permeating the air in the reactors would make them feel like they're alive. There are also some issues with textures not loading in properly, so you'll just get a low-as-hell-res texture just staring you in the face. The game also features some pre-rendered backdrops and image skyboxes which vary in quality throughout the game. When you're up in the rafters turning off sun lamps and look down, the skybox looks super flat, ragged and muddy. But when you're climbing the wreckage of Sector 7, the skybox detail is insane. Some of the character animations outside of battles and cut-scenes also look noticeably janky.
On the whole, Remake is a nice looking game. Lighting and spell effects in battles look as good as they always do in FF games. Even with with the size of some of the enemies and all manner of shit happening at the same time, the frame rate never dips. The cut scenes in this game look absolutely gorgeous, and it's crazy that we are at a point where Final Fantasy games have in-game graphics which look better than the series' once famed FMV sequences. But this finesse isn't evident in every corner of the game as it should've been. I wouldn't expect dips in quality and inconsistencies in graphics from a Square Enix game. Not with how many rodeos they've ridden and how their games are usually the ones to set the bar.
Final Fantasy VII is a landmark title for many reasons, one of which is its soundtrack, which was originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Remake's soundtrack is handled by a roster of composers, including Mashashi Hamauzu of Final Fantasy XIII fame handles Remake's soundtrack and it's glorious. All of them do a fantastic job of taking Uematsu's classic pieces and updating them, redefining them and deconstructing them. As Nomura did with the story, the composers weren't afraid to take classic themes and mess with the arrangements. The most notable examples being the famed "Let the Battles Begin!" and "J-E-N-O-V-A", both of which are composed in phases which change during battles. The classic battle theme will sound exactly as you remember it during the first phase of a fight, but will have a new arrangement as the boss encounter enters a new phase. And the implementation of "J-E-N-O-V-A" is genius in its subversion, because you get a different more subdue version of it when you first fight Jenova. So you're like 'Oh, okay. This is a new version of it. This is cute.' And you don't think anything more of it. You figure that maybe the version you remember will feature in Final Hearts II.5: New Days. But then you enter the final phase of the battle and the classic "J-E-N-O-V-A" theme kicks in. And when it does? Bitch. I had to pause the game and call a friend. They play with the expectations that many will have of hearing some of the more well known pieces from the FFVII soundtrack and he subverts them. You don't always hear a rendition of a theme when you expect to hear it, which makes certain pieces feel all the more special when you finally do hear them. It's like musical foreplay and it's amazing.
Remake also ups the ante on the leitmotifs. There are numerous versions of character themes and sometimes the melody from one will be subtly worked into another. It's like discovering Easter eggs in the music. The soundtrack feels grander and far more cinematic than any Final Fantasy soundtrack has ever done before. The game is scored almost like a movie.
The range of musical genres in this thing is also crazy. The original soundtrack was pretty varied, but it's pushed far further here. We get Pop, Dance, Rock, Electro and even Dubstep renditions of classic themes. At one point you hear a version of Tifa's theme which sounds like a cross between a song from Perfume's Future Pop and a Tekken soundtrack. It's wild and unexpected, but it suits the new world of Remake so well. We also get a whole bunch of brand new pieces and arrangements, which feel very different to Uematsu's style, but don't feel out of place because of the broadness of the sounds across the soundtrack as a whole. All in all, the soundtrack is fantastic. I know Square Enix want their physical sales, but they should definitely release the soundtrack to streaming sooner rather than later. It would make the most sense to do it now, given the pandemic and that air mail is probably still a mess now.
Comparing what is one part of a game which isn't even a full on remake of the game we thought it was is difficult. But looking at Remake as a stand alone thing, it's good, but it's not great, even though parts of it are great. What Remake does well, it does incredibly well. I admire its almost fearless approach of not trying to hit every single beat and mark that the original did, and allowing Remake to have its own memorable incomparable moments. But the final chapter is a mess, even if what it sets up is potentially amazing. And there is no getting around the fact that the gameplay outside of battles is boring and that there is far too much padding. Square need to switch up the gameplay, because this shit they gave me in Remake is beyond tired to the point where I was almost grateful I didn't have to play the entire VII story.
We can't just allow Remake a pass because of nostalgia for Final Fantasy VII. Love for the original shouldn't make Remake exempt from critiquing and highlighting its issues, especially when these are issues we had with Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV. It's just not good enough.
Speaking as somebody who has played the original Final Fantasy VII, I of course cannot speak for somebody playing Remake who hasn't. But so much of Remake is reliant on you having played the original game, that I could imagine certain moments not landing and others not making sense. 'Why was there a focus shot on a cat with a crown when the Sector 7 pplate came down!?'. Some may think that given the ending, none of this makes any difference, but it does. Because Remake's ending setting up an alternate timeline will have a lesser impact on somebody that doesn't even know what the original timeline is, in terms of what they experienced and what's to come. And having absolutely no knowledge of who Zack is also chops a whole chunk out of the understanding of the ending, and what that means for Cloud and Aerith. Square keeping the true meaning of 'Remake' a secret makes sense. But I'm sure there are those who would have appreciated a heads-up, so they could have played the original Final Fantasy VII prior and had a crack at Crisis Core.
Remake didn't do enough for me, and it honestly didn't have to do much. There is just a complacency about how Square approached aspects of the game, which just isn't acceptable in 2020, when they weren't acceptable in 2009 or 2016. This stings, because it's not like Square did nothing right in this game. They did good with many aspects of it. But there is a lot wrong with this game which holds it back from being great, and the things it does well do not eclipse the issues. The soundtrack is amazing, but that don't mean shit if the gameplay is bad. The battle system is solid, but if technical issues are scuppering it, then it's a problem. This is Final Fantasy VII Remake all over. For every good thing about it, there's something really bad and a bit broken to match it. And given how long this game was in development for, the entire package should have been far tighter than this. Especially after the responses to Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV. But given where we are now, I guess all Square respond to are sales. And given that VII Remake has broken records and become one of the PS4's best selling console exclusive titles, Square probably won't fix a damn thing in Kingdom Fantasy VII-2.
If you're an Final Fantas VII fan, you'll love this. Or at least think that you do. If you're new to it, you may have some mixed feelings. The promise of what the future holds for the sequel is exciting, but only if it's approached as a full game sequel, not just the next instalment of the story - which means gameplay improvements and a higher level of finesse across the board in everything, bar the soundtrack.
👍🏾 Battle system is good
👍🏾 The characters are as you remember them and then some
👍🏾 Soundtrack is great
👎🏾 The gameplay on the whole is weak
👎🏾 Far too much padding
👎🏾 Technical issues here and there
👎🏾 The inclusion of Sephiroth is egregious
Verdict: It does what it needs to