This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy 7 is undoubtedly one of the most important experiences in my gaming history. My father bought it for me at a Best Buy when I was like 11 or 12, very very close to when I first played Baldur's Gate (as I mentioned in that review, these two were the one-two punch of turning me into a 100% full fledged gamer). I got the PC version and that caused me no end at all of annoyances in terms of crashes and glitches but eventually I was able to beat it on my own, one of the first games I can clearly remember finishing. To this day I still recall the collapse of Sector 7 and my legit tears I cried at the death of Jessie and Co.
So basically, this game is a big fuckin' deal for me okay?
Final Fantasy 7 (from here-on: FF7) tells a very gripping tale that feels more and more relevant today than even the time when it was written - a greedy company is set on drawing out the planets lifeblood in order to increase their wealth and power, and a scrappy group of do-gooders/terrorists are out to stop them: Avalanche. This is where we enter the story - the mercenary Soldier Cloud has left this evil company's employ and is now helping out his old childhood friend Tifa, now a member of Avalanche. And if I may start with the positives- this game fucking NAILED the characters in this game. Cloud is even more of an aloof douche who slowly warms up to others, Barret is a hothead who sees only in black and white, Tifa is a caring person deeply scarred by loss but happy to see Cloud again.... So you might see the resemblence to the real world at this point right? Climate change is becoming a more existential threat day by day and very few choose to take it seriously..
Writing this review I think should focus on the changes, both good and bad, and then my overall feelings on the game as a whole. Starting with the positives, I will reiterate again that they fucking nailed the characters. I mean absolutely nailed them. Everyone was a delight, from the companion characters, Avalanche guys, Don Corneo (I know how to say his name right! After all this time!) even the added characters are mostly pretty good. Corneo's lieutenants are solid, we get enough backstory and a bit of rivalry between them that they're fleshed out. The music is just god damn exceptional but I mean obviously it is, right? The combat is much more action focused, but still ATB in its own way. You can now control each character manually and the 4 main guys from the group all play quite differently - Cloud is a powerhouse, Tifa is a speedster who can lock down enemies, Barret blows shit up from afar, Aerith is a striaght up sorcerer now... I wouldn't say the combat is EXCELLENT or anyhting, but pretty good right?
To move to a more mixed bag - the added scenes. The original Midgar portion is only 10~ hours or so in the original, but more than 25 in the remake and that is on the easy mode! So what all did they add? Some of it is damn good - we get WAY more of Avalanche, not just Jessie & co. (who is cute as a fucking button + thirsty af for Cloud) but we also see Avalanche the GROUP - not just a group of 3 people + Tifa hahaha which is neat! It also gives WAY more context to what Avalanche v. Shinra are up to - Shinra is letting them get away with shit so they can excuse their extreme crackdowns plus restart the war with Wutai - who actually get a significant amount of foreshadowing in this! The expanded Wall Market is quite good as well, there's a neat battle arena + Aerith and Cloud get even more bonding time together. The missed double High Five with her and Cloud was precious and hurt my hearrrt.. Also there's a decent amount of unlockable scenes in this - there's 3 different dresses for you/Tifa/Aerith to see as well as extra scenes on who you will speak to in a nighttime scene - I got Tifa but I watched the Aerith one online and DAMN! So good... "You can't fall in love with me no matter what, okay?" "Don't I get a say in this?!"
Which leads us too the bad... A lot of the added scenes are just damn busywork. The sewer section pt. 2 where you have to chase Corneo's pig thing..? Boring. Mako Reactor 5 adding 6 levels of the exact same fight over and over just to change the boss that's coming up? Neat idea, still boring. The added side quest hubs? I barely did any of them but honestly they sucked from what I did see so fuck it. Gameplay wise the changes are overall good but ... there's not a lot to it, honestly? The materia system seems a lot simpler and the gameplay for each character is REAL same-y. It's nice to have other characters to swap to when you get bored, but you always have to swap out from Cloud anyway to make it happen. And then there's the ending to this story...
So the big thing about this remake - it isn't really 100% a remake? The final boss is essentially the force of Destiny? Capital D destiny, to quote a dumb line from Tifa. Throughout the story there are these weird ghost things preventing our characters from doing shit at various points - we have almost no idea if other people can even see them, and when they do, they spend almost no time at all wondering what the fuck these things are about or trying to figure that out. Like, this seems pretty fucking important guys, they seem to be blocking your way pretty frequently? We learn much later on that these are the forces of fate - preventing our heroes, and occasionally villains, from changing the way things will turn out. We see Barret stabbed by Sephiroth... but he survives, because he's not meant to die! But wait, why the hell are Wedge and Biggs still alive then?? We learn that we are essentially trying to fight fate... a stupid Japanese trope, but we never learn WHY? The characters see that there is a future - even a distant one. They win! Why the hell are they trying to change things???
So ultimately what they're trying to say - the future episodes of Final Fantasy 7 remake will not 100% play by the rules of what the original game has to say. This raises the HUGE question - is Aerith going to survive?!?!?!? I would be pretty shocked if no one ends up dying buuuuut... still, interesting. And its not so much that I think this is bad - I now get to replay FF7 again but this time not actually know what will happen! Kinda awesome right? At the same time I sorta hate how it was done.. There's a crap load of gibberish being tossed around by every character and no one has a straight damn answer about what is happening here - even at the very end. We see Zak and Aerith from two different times recognize each other but.. what does that even mean??? Is Zak still alive now? Does Aerith already know what will happen? Are her and Sephiroth in NG+ mode and not telling anyone???
Find out next time, on Dragonball Z!
No wait a minute...
So basically, this game is a big fuckin' deal for me okay?
Final Fantasy 7 (from here-on: FF7) tells a very gripping tale that feels more and more relevant today than even the time when it was written - a greedy company is set on drawing out the planets lifeblood in order to increase their wealth and power, and a scrappy group of do-gooders/terrorists are out to stop them: Avalanche. This is where we enter the story - the mercenary Soldier Cloud has left this evil company's employ and is now helping out his old childhood friend Tifa, now a member of Avalanche. And if I may start with the positives- this game fucking NAILED the characters in this game. Cloud is even more of an aloof douche who slowly warms up to others, Barret is a hothead who sees only in black and white, Tifa is a caring person deeply scarred by loss but happy to see Cloud again.... So you might see the resemblence to the real world at this point right? Climate change is becoming a more existential threat day by day and very few choose to take it seriously..
Writing this review I think should focus on the changes, both good and bad, and then my overall feelings on the game as a whole. Starting with the positives, I will reiterate again that they fucking nailed the characters. I mean absolutely nailed them. Everyone was a delight, from the companion characters, Avalanche guys, Don Corneo (I know how to say his name right! After all this time!) even the added characters are mostly pretty good. Corneo's lieutenants are solid, we get enough backstory and a bit of rivalry between them that they're fleshed out. The music is just god damn exceptional but I mean obviously it is, right? The combat is much more action focused, but still ATB in its own way. You can now control each character manually and the 4 main guys from the group all play quite differently - Cloud is a powerhouse, Tifa is a speedster who can lock down enemies, Barret blows shit up from afar, Aerith is a striaght up sorcerer now... I wouldn't say the combat is EXCELLENT or anyhting, but pretty good right?
To move to a more mixed bag - the added scenes. The original Midgar portion is only 10~ hours or so in the original, but more than 25 in the remake and that is on the easy mode! So what all did they add? Some of it is damn good - we get WAY more of Avalanche, not just Jessie & co. (who is cute as a fucking button + thirsty af for Cloud) but we also see Avalanche the GROUP - not just a group of 3 people + Tifa hahaha which is neat! It also gives WAY more context to what Avalanche v. Shinra are up to - Shinra is letting them get away with shit so they can excuse their extreme crackdowns plus restart the war with Wutai - who actually get a significant amount of foreshadowing in this! The expanded Wall Market is quite good as well, there's a neat battle arena + Aerith and Cloud get even more bonding time together. The missed double High Five with her and Cloud was precious and hurt my hearrrt.. Also there's a decent amount of unlockable scenes in this - there's 3 different dresses for you/Tifa/Aerith to see as well as extra scenes on who you will speak to in a nighttime scene - I got Tifa but I watched the Aerith one online and DAMN! So good... "You can't fall in love with me no matter what, okay?" "Don't I get a say in this?!"
Which leads us too the bad... A lot of the added scenes are just damn busywork. The sewer section pt. 2 where you have to chase Corneo's pig thing..? Boring. Mako Reactor 5 adding 6 levels of the exact same fight over and over just to change the boss that's coming up? Neat idea, still boring. The added side quest hubs? I barely did any of them but honestly they sucked from what I did see so fuck it. Gameplay wise the changes are overall good but ... there's not a lot to it, honestly? The materia system seems a lot simpler and the gameplay for each character is REAL same-y. It's nice to have other characters to swap to when you get bored, but you always have to swap out from Cloud anyway to make it happen. And then there's the ending to this story...
So the big thing about this remake - it isn't really 100% a remake? The final boss is essentially the force of Destiny? Capital D destiny, to quote a dumb line from Tifa. Throughout the story there are these weird ghost things preventing our characters from doing shit at various points - we have almost no idea if other people can even see them, and when they do, they spend almost no time at all wondering what the fuck these things are about or trying to figure that out. Like, this seems pretty fucking important guys, they seem to be blocking your way pretty frequently? We learn much later on that these are the forces of fate - preventing our heroes, and occasionally villains, from changing the way things will turn out. We see Barret stabbed by Sephiroth... but he survives, because he's not meant to die! But wait, why the hell are Wedge and Biggs still alive then?? We learn that we are essentially trying to fight fate... a stupid Japanese trope, but we never learn WHY? The characters see that there is a future - even a distant one. They win! Why the hell are they trying to change things???
So ultimately what they're trying to say - the future episodes of Final Fantasy 7 remake will not 100% play by the rules of what the original game has to say. This raises the HUGE question - is Aerith going to survive?!?!?!? I would be pretty shocked if no one ends up dying buuuuut... still, interesting. And its not so much that I think this is bad - I now get to replay FF7 again but this time not actually know what will happen! Kinda awesome right? At the same time I sorta hate how it was done.. There's a crap load of gibberish being tossed around by every character and no one has a straight damn answer about what is happening here - even at the very end. We see Zak and Aerith from two different times recognize each other but.. what does that even mean??? Is Zak still alive now? Does Aerith already know what will happen? Are her and Sephiroth in NG+ mode and not telling anyone???
Find out next time, on Dragonball Z!
No wait a minute...