Final Fantasy VII Remake is an incredible achievement by Square Enix that, for the most part, succeeds in taking the Midgar introduction of the original into an ambitiously satisfying game. It captures the spirit of the characters, world, and even gameplay, and re-frames it to be perfectly impressionable for the newer audience that never played the original FFVII. However, it’s also a game whose story is expanded and fleshed out too much while somehow simultaneously being stretched way too thin to support a fully fledged modern AAA title.
I understand the extreme troubles and headaches that must’ve gone into trying to deliver the uneasy task of turning the first 4-6 hours of a 60+ hour game into its own game. This could even reasonably be the best that Square could’ve done under those circumstances. But the effort gone into trying to pad out what’s barely a real game to feel close enough to that often strikes me as tedious. You can make a drinking game based on the number of times the story starts to go into some minor yet lengthy detour for contrived reasons and I think you’ll end up suffering from alcohol poisoning.
The problem obviously comes from the fact that Midgar in the original FFVII is structured in such a way that it leaves very little room to add substantial content into it without sacrificing the momentum and pacing of the unfolding narrative. Granted, some of these little detours can be fun in getting to know Midgar in good enough detail, like almost all the missions with Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge who benefited greatly from a modern overhaul. But many other times it’s very obvious that the developers were desperately trying to find ways to justify the playtime and price tag of a 60 dollar current generation game to uneven results. I know you can just skip the side quests but have you ever thought about wanting to be enticed to do the extra content and feel rewarded by the game for willing to go that extra step in an RPG.
Ironically, the moment the game stops being so beholden to the blueprint/roadmap of the original and diverges into a very messy yet refreshingly bold direction for the next installments of the Remake Project to follow is where it peaks in what it promises.
Yuffie DLC is poggers just for making Fort Condor into a really fun minigame.
Cannot wait to see best OG party members Cid and Vincent come back.
I understand the extreme troubles and headaches that must’ve gone into trying to deliver the uneasy task of turning the first 4-6 hours of a 60+ hour game into its own game. This could even reasonably be the best that Square could’ve done under those circumstances. But the effort gone into trying to pad out what’s barely a real game to feel close enough to that often strikes me as tedious. You can make a drinking game based on the number of times the story starts to go into some minor yet lengthy detour for contrived reasons and I think you’ll end up suffering from alcohol poisoning.
The problem obviously comes from the fact that Midgar in the original FFVII is structured in such a way that it leaves very little room to add substantial content into it without sacrificing the momentum and pacing of the unfolding narrative. Granted, some of these little detours can be fun in getting to know Midgar in good enough detail, like almost all the missions with Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge who benefited greatly from a modern overhaul. But many other times it’s very obvious that the developers were desperately trying to find ways to justify the playtime and price tag of a 60 dollar current generation game to uneven results. I know you can just skip the side quests but have you ever thought about wanting to be enticed to do the extra content and feel rewarded by the game for willing to go that extra step in an RPG.
Ironically, the moment the game stops being so beholden to the blueprint/roadmap of the original and diverges into a very messy yet refreshingly bold direction for the next installments of the Remake Project to follow is where it peaks in what it promises.
Yuffie DLC is poggers just for making Fort Condor into a really fun minigame.
Cannot wait to see best OG party members Cid and Vincent come back.