Being a FFIX kid, and only having played the original FFVII many years after its cultural impact, I never had the reverence and attachment for it that would warrant much excitement for a remake, which is why it came as shock to me how much I ended up resonating with FF7R. Beyond cementing even further the strengths of FFVII's iconography and imagery that accompanies the opening hours of the game, FF7R manages to tap into an expanded lens of Midgar's intersectionality and its cast of characters that, while not overtly present in the original, seemingly was always there hidden in plain sight, recontextualized through the nostalgia brought in by the players familiar with the source material.

Besides the low poly textures and PS2 looking NPCs, much of FF7R's structure and design feels like a mish mash of 3 console generations with the occasional next gen setpiece thrown inbetween, that ends up shifting the focus from the bombastic high definition spectacle and graphical prowess long expected from a FFVII remake into a more intimate and contained retelling of Midgar's, unfortunately, still and ever increasingly relevant message. Being able to walk freely through the cheerful impoverished Sector 7 or the vibrant and lively Yakuza-y Wall Market and experiencing the lives of its residents through the eyes of a fully 3D controllable Cloud who is always able to look up and be reminded of how much better it could be for these people, conveys so much more than what was ever possible in the original's restricted camera and fast paced storytelling, and after spending so many hours in enclosed repetitive industrialized and wreckage filled grey hallways, being greeted with the rare beautfiul vista respite, like a glimpse at the full sky or Aerith's flower garden, makes the pathos of Midgar that ever more impactful as you storm the Shinra building in the grand finale.

Unlike the Compilation of FFVII's failure to capture the essence of the original, FF7R perfectly translates the old lego characters into fully realized HD versions with manneurisms and personalities more fitting of the modern age players sensibilities, while still retaining their simplicity and core motivations that defined FFVII. Witnessing the earnestness and sincerity between the protagonists as they recreate memorable and iconic scenes from the original in a much more cinematic flavor felt like watching a movie sucessfully reinterpret the text from a book into the visual medium, much more so than whatever Advent Children was, and it's easy to see that the team behind the remake genuinely understood and cared for the source material, keeping in all the weird, funny, cute and serious overtones and plot beats from FFVII. With a much bigger emphasis on the interaction and communication between the main cast, which extends itself into a dynamic and interchangeable fast paced combat that fully realizes the abstracted nature of the original's action and further elevates the comradery in and out of fights, FF7R addresses a major criticism I have had with FFVII and fills in the gaps of how these characters perceive and understand each other, with much more established motivations and fears that make use of the player's knowledge of this story and its outcome, and boy do they play to that as hard as they can.

The surrealness and magic that surrounds every interaction between Cloud and Aerith in the remake is greatly exacerbated by The Biggest Twist in Videogame History™, so much so that I had to keep myself from bursting into tears during that initial treck from the church to Aerith's house every time she opened her mouth. FF7R is very self aware of its nature as a remake, and it's fascinating how it utilizes the preconceptions of its player base to exponentiate its emotionality, which makes the moments when it pulls the rug on you that ever more impactful. As the distaste for videogame remakes continues to increase, sentiment as I'm sure many on this website share, I find it commendable that Square would analyze the fandom's idealization of FFVII and its characters, literalize it in FF7R and then immediately throw out the window the prospects of faithfully recreating the most conveted remake of all time. There are definitely added moments that do not stick the landing here, but FF7R explicitly makes the case very early on that it is in no way a replacement for FFVII. It felt liberating to see these characters free themselves from the shackles of the franchise and end up in uncharted territory, and while I have no idea what that will entail for the quality of the next episodes, the ambiguity and mystery of it all is definitely more enticing than pandering to an audience that would never be fully satisfied with the end result.

FF7R is an odd beast. A lot of its original content is subpar and undercuts the source material, like Jessie's big spotlight that undermines Aerith's talent for making Cloud uncomfortable, or Leslie's sewer detour that pads out what was supposed to be an urgent dash for Shinra's building. ​My apprehensions towards the future of this project remains ever present, judging from my experience with episodic content that most of the time fails to create a cohesive whole, with each subsequent episode shifting priorities and distancing themselves from the previous one. FF7R's release at the intersection between old and new gen also doesn't bode well for its future, and i'm deeply terrified of whatever Nomura-isms will inevitably happen in the next episodes. But considering I went into this one filled with cynicism and doubt, and got out of it feeling a newly found adoration for Final Fantasy that I hadn't in a very long time and an appreciation for the irony and snark devoid storytelling where the terrorists are the good guys and the bad guys are obvious and uncomplicated evil doers, I can say that the Final Fantasy VII Remake experience, for now, has been a resounding success.