This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a fine game. It looks good, plays well and has no glitches but it's overrated as hell.
[Also note I haven't played the original game so this review is from the perspective of someone who had only played remake and knows nothing else about the ff7 lore or whatever.]
Combat is fine, it's very simplistic and
you can usually get by by spamming square and ATB moves. There were a few instances where I had to strategize what to do and character placement to win but that was few a far between.
Midgar is probably one of the most distinct cities I've ever seen in a game though. I love the blue and cyan/green look of the city and how the city is designed. The city and its world building are pretty well done and concepts like mako and the running of Shinra are done really well. The only game I've seen out do it is probably the Bioshocks and System Shock 2, but i am irrational games biggest meat rider so that's to be expected lol. They should just make a game where you can drive around midgar and interact with things.
The characters are fine. None of them are written as real people and instead feel like tropes. Cloud is written to act like an emo teenage boy, Barret is written as a hothead turned dumbass, Wedge is written as the obligatory fat guy that loves food. This way of writing characters technically works (although some of the dialogue made me cringe for lack of a better word), but I much prefer when characters are written as real people that act realistically.
The character design is weird. The main and secondary characters have distinct outfits and are highly detailed, but the NPC's just wear normal clothes which creates a weird whiplash between the culture of midgar. Don't get me wrong some of them work and feel natural, but others (COUGH COUGH TIFA COUGH COUGH) just look like eye sores.
The story is also fine. It has its moments and I'd say 95% of the things that happen aren't filler but there's little to no impact on the characters which is weird. Sure, a few of them die but that doesn't move any of them or make them grieve. The closest there is is when sector 7 gets RKO'd but after that's all said and done the destruction of Seventh Heaven is mostly forgotten. I think the story's at it's best when it embraces the absurdity of its writing (that one part where you're on a motorbike with Jessie and that guy on the motorbike comes in was fucking stupid and probably the best thing in the whole game) or slows down to reveal things about it's characters and so you can take in the environment of midgar. I also think certain elements of it are clever like having Areith being able to communicate with the spirits in mako.
Overall Final Fantasy 7 remake is a fine game, I like it's worldbuilding and it was entertaining, but it's not anything that special outside of that.
[Also note I haven't played the original game so this review is from the perspective of someone who had only played remake and knows nothing else about the ff7 lore or whatever.]
Combat is fine, it's very simplistic and
you can usually get by by spamming square and ATB moves. There were a few instances where I had to strategize what to do and character placement to win but that was few a far between.
Midgar is probably one of the most distinct cities I've ever seen in a game though. I love the blue and cyan/green look of the city and how the city is designed. The city and its world building are pretty well done and concepts like mako and the running of Shinra are done really well. The only game I've seen out do it is probably the Bioshocks and System Shock 2, but i am irrational games biggest meat rider so that's to be expected lol. They should just make a game where you can drive around midgar and interact with things.
The characters are fine. None of them are written as real people and instead feel like tropes. Cloud is written to act like an emo teenage boy, Barret is written as a hothead turned dumbass, Wedge is written as the obligatory fat guy that loves food. This way of writing characters technically works (although some of the dialogue made me cringe for lack of a better word), but I much prefer when characters are written as real people that act realistically.
The character design is weird. The main and secondary characters have distinct outfits and are highly detailed, but the NPC's just wear normal clothes which creates a weird whiplash between the culture of midgar. Don't get me wrong some of them work and feel natural, but others (COUGH COUGH TIFA COUGH COUGH) just look like eye sores.
The story is also fine. It has its moments and I'd say 95% of the things that happen aren't filler but there's little to no impact on the characters which is weird. Sure, a few of them die but that doesn't move any of them or make them grieve. The closest there is is when sector 7 gets RKO'd but after that's all said and done the destruction of Seventh Heaven is mostly forgotten. I think the story's at it's best when it embraces the absurdity of its writing (that one part where you're on a motorbike with Jessie and that guy on the motorbike comes in was fucking stupid and probably the best thing in the whole game) or slows down to reveal things about it's characters and so you can take in the environment of midgar. I also think certain elements of it are clever like having Areith being able to communicate with the spirits in mako.
Overall Final Fantasy 7 remake is a fine game, I like it's worldbuilding and it was entertaining, but it's not anything that special outside of that.