Final Fantasy VII Remake: Changing What A "Remake" Truly Means
Picture this, It's 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII was released worldwide on the PS1, and was acclaimed, with both critical and commercial success too. It was rare at the time for JRPGs to do well in the West, due to most gamers not being interested in the genre before. However, Final Fantasy VII was an unreal piece of media, not just a game at the time. It was praised for its graphics, high-tech computer-animated cutscenes, and story. It was revolutionary for JRPGs at the time, the same way Super Mario 64 was revolutionary for platformers, at the same time as well. Final Fantasy VII would go down as one of the more important JRPGs of all time... Now let's go to ahead in time, to 2006. Square Enix showcased a tech demo for the PS3, being a remake of FF7's iconic opening scene, using the tech of the PS3.
Square intended to be nothing but just a tech demo, but fans at the time ran with it and came to the assumption that there was a remake of Final Fantasy VII on the way. Square shot down the claims of a FF7 Remake at the time, but it was the spark of fans requesting it. Advent Children, despite its flaws as a movie, was a beautiful, and gorgeous looking movie to watch, and fans at the time just kept dreaming of a remake for Final Fantasy VII, a more modern, up-to-date version with modern graphics like Advent Children was a dream at the time. Well, that was a dream until E3 2015, when Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced officially to be coming to the PS4. It was a dream come true, but nobody expected the game we got on April 10, 2020.
Since this was back in 2020, with the virus going around and lockdown being in effect, some fans were more surprised at how Square decided to "remake" Final Fantasy VII. Fans soon came to realize that Final Fantasy VII Remake was a remake, not just in the scene of remaking the original game, but a remake of what we knew from before. It was a huge risk for Square to do this with a Final Fantasy game, no, just a game that is beloved such as Final Fantasy VII, and change it for the fans who grew up with it since the early parts of their childhood on the original version of the PS1. Final Fantasy VII Remake is only part 1, of a trilogy to remake the original game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is part 2, and part 3 currently being in the works.
As for my personal connection to Final Fantasy VII, I don't have any, the original game came out before I was born, and I got FF7 Remake as a birthday gift, but even when I did decide to play it, I didn't. I played the original version first because I heard about how FF7 Remake was more than a remake than I thought, plus for some lore reasons that are in remake that I won't spoil here, but even after finishing the original Final Fantasy VII, I picked up Crisis Core, wrote my review for it, and then moved onto Final Fantasy VII Remake. Let's start off with gameplay. The gameplay feels incredibly smooth, the real-time action combat feels tight, and is a nice change from the original's take on combat. The Materia system feels recognizable from the original, with some good modern quality-of-life fixes.
The original in my opinion did not properly explain the materia system well enough to me, I didn't know materia could be paired together in the original, and there were no visual cues to let me know, but in the remake, the game does a much better job at letting me know, and the UI is much easier to understand. Everything else about the Materia system feels nearly identical to the original, even down to missing specific materia in a specific part, only to find out after you left that area later on. I love how you're able to swap between party members and take control of them when you see them. I can use Cloud's limit break on a boss, instead of being stuck controlling Cloud, I can control someone else while Cloud is dealing with his limit break, someone like Barret or Tifa, and continue attacking without being stuck. It's a small thing, but just nice to have. Graphically, this game looks incredible, I was playing on my PS5 with performance mode on for all of my playthrough. I prefer better-looking graphics when it comes to single-player games, but I'm willing to sacrifice graphics for 60 FPS, and in this case with FF7 Remake, it was a small sacrifice.
It's just a lot better with 60 FPS, and all the characters from the original have not looked better. The opening cutscene that they remade from the original just shows the magic of Square's talent when it comes to computer-animated cutscenes. You can see the growth in technology when you compare the original to the remake's recreation. It looks amazing, and though it is easy to make fun of the original's blocky characters and graphics, seeing this opening cutscene in the remake makes me wonder if this is how the kids who grew up with Final Fantasy VII back in 1997 saw this game at the time. They never knew graphics in video games would be as good as we have today. We've peaked when it came to graphics in video games, look at the jump from the PS4 generation to the PS5 generation, it's barely noticeable, and most games are still playable on both PS4 and PS5, but you gotta remember we're talking about video games in 1997, it was just not too long ago they just came off of 16-bit consoles such as the SNES and SEGA Genesis, and the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 were relatively the next, 3D consoles with the biggest jump we've seen both in terms of gameplay and graphics. So seeing this iconic cutscene being remade just shows all the love everybody who worked remake has for the original, it captures that magic from those kids long ago.
As for FF7 Remake's story, it's split into three parts within this Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. Final Fantasy VII Remake covers around the first 6 hours of the original game's story, while Rebirth covers up to the end of Disk 1, and part 3 (assumably) covers the rest of the original. Though it is unfortunate that FF7 Remake doesn't have all of the original story, it makes sense why. The original Final Fantasy VII had it take place in Midgar for the first few hours, before becoming a semi-open world after you leave Midgar, plus, games are a lot more expensive to make and publish when it comes to triple-A releases in the current gaming market then how they were in 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII was supposed to be on the Nintendo 64, but that game was so ambitious for the time, in order for it to be possible, it would have taken 12 cartridges, meanwhile, it took two disks on the PlayStation 1. Yet for the PS4 release, it took two disks as well, so I can't fault Square for splitting Final Fantasy VII into a trilogy. So if Square only has the first 6 hours of the original for one game in a trilogy, how did they stretch it out into a 30+ hour long game?
Well, this is where Final Fantasy VII Remake splits from being a remake in the traditional scene, things play out differently than they do in the original. Sephiroth makes his physical appearance much sooner than he does in the original, and he speaks to Cloud in a way that makes it sound like he already knows much about his future and Cloud's future from the original game. This is kinda the best way I can explain it without going into spoilers. This game has some sorta commentary about the picky fans (and a lot of other people's reviews here) who want Final Fantasy VII Remake to be a one-to-one identical remake to the original. A one-to-one remake in not possible in this current gaming climate, so they need to change it, and what they changed was destiny.
Destiny is changed in FF7 Remake, things play out differently to the original, setting the stage for what's to come in Rebirth and Part 3. I'm all here for this change in what Final Fantasy VII Remake sets to do. The original story is still there in the original Final Fantasy VII if you don't like Remake's adaption, but Remake's story is meant for FF7 fans who are already experienced with the original game, though newcomers can still make FF7 Remake their entry point into FF7/Final Fantasy in general. Final Fantasy VII Remake's story stretches out the first 6 hours of the original into 30+ hours by expanding upon previously smaller details that weren't touched in the original Final Fantasy VII or any other piece of Final Fantasy VII media. They expand upon side characters like Biggs and Jessie by giving them extra screen to make the player more attached to them as characters, while also giving previously well-known characters such as Aerith or Sephiroth by showing new depth into their characters.
Aerith is a very loveable character in Final Fantasy VII Remake, her voice actor does a great job at making Aerith come off as the silly flower girl in Midgar, meanwhile, Sephiroth feels like a shadow watching over you throughout the game. Even though his physical appearance is revealed sooner than it is in the original, I like that, It makes Sephiroth come across as a force who can put himself into any scene in the game whenever and however he likes. Though I like it as someone who previously played the original FF7 before the FF7 Remake, I have to acknowledge how this may come off to newcomers who haven't played the original. Some people won't play the original because they may find it outdated, or just don't want to play a PS1-era JRPG, so this effect doesn't really affect newcomers the way it did for me. Stuff like this is one of the flaws in Remake's story, it pays off for fans who've played the original Final Fantasy VII, however, it doesn't pay off for fans who made Final Fantasy VII Remake their entry point. Preferably, it would have found a way to keep these moments pay off for OG fans, while having that effect on new players, though that is probably hard to ask for.
For any additional notes, after playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I look back on Remake as sort of a tech demo for what was to come in Rebirth. Everything about gameplay and story is enhanced in Rebirth, this was Square's first attempt with the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy, so they took the feedback into Rebirth and polished that game into a better more refined version of FF7 Remake. Also, I haven't brought up the Yuffie DLC from Intergade. I haven't played it, I watched a story recap on YouTube instead because I didn't want to spend money on DLC I didn't really care about, and I didn't want to waste any filler hours when I could just be playing something else from my Backlog. For any critiques, I previously mentioned how I felt about the story for OG fans and newcomers, but another thing I wanted to add was about Side Quests. The Side Quests are dryer than a desert, most of them are given by random NPCs that nobody gives a shit about, and I only completed them for EXP and Items. I suppose it was fine during the first parts of the game, as it kinda gives some depth to the world of Midgar, but it seems to just be tacked on later into the game.
Overall, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a great start to the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy. It's a nice stepping stone to go into Rebirth and a good stepping stone into the wider world of Final Fantasy in general for newcomers. It was a fun playthrough to see all these characters I grew to love in their original blocky PS1 from today. Every character was enhanced for the better, they are all better versions of themselves, and the story was a great change to a previously beloved story in the original Final Fantasy VII. I enjoyed my time with Remake when I first finished it around the end of January this year, and I enjoyed myself with Rebirth since that game was released, from start to finish. I can't wait to see where part 3 will go, and I can just only see it going up from here.
Stats:
7th game I've completed in 2024 (this was a coincidence I swear)
Played on PlayStation 5.
Hours into Game: 32 Hours
Favorite Characters: Cloud, Aerith, Barret & Sephiroth
Least Favorite Character: Roche & Johnny
Score: 9/10 (4.5/5)
Last Statement: Sephiroth is hot ngl
Picture this, It's 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII was released worldwide on the PS1, and was acclaimed, with both critical and commercial success too. It was rare at the time for JRPGs to do well in the West, due to most gamers not being interested in the genre before. However, Final Fantasy VII was an unreal piece of media, not just a game at the time. It was praised for its graphics, high-tech computer-animated cutscenes, and story. It was revolutionary for JRPGs at the time, the same way Super Mario 64 was revolutionary for platformers, at the same time as well. Final Fantasy VII would go down as one of the more important JRPGs of all time... Now let's go to ahead in time, to 2006. Square Enix showcased a tech demo for the PS3, being a remake of FF7's iconic opening scene, using the tech of the PS3.
Square intended to be nothing but just a tech demo, but fans at the time ran with it and came to the assumption that there was a remake of Final Fantasy VII on the way. Square shot down the claims of a FF7 Remake at the time, but it was the spark of fans requesting it. Advent Children, despite its flaws as a movie, was a beautiful, and gorgeous looking movie to watch, and fans at the time just kept dreaming of a remake for Final Fantasy VII, a more modern, up-to-date version with modern graphics like Advent Children was a dream at the time. Well, that was a dream until E3 2015, when Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced officially to be coming to the PS4. It was a dream come true, but nobody expected the game we got on April 10, 2020.
Since this was back in 2020, with the virus going around and lockdown being in effect, some fans were more surprised at how Square decided to "remake" Final Fantasy VII. Fans soon came to realize that Final Fantasy VII Remake was a remake, not just in the scene of remaking the original game, but a remake of what we knew from before. It was a huge risk for Square to do this with a Final Fantasy game, no, just a game that is beloved such as Final Fantasy VII, and change it for the fans who grew up with it since the early parts of their childhood on the original version of the PS1. Final Fantasy VII Remake is only part 1, of a trilogy to remake the original game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is part 2, and part 3 currently being in the works.
As for my personal connection to Final Fantasy VII, I don't have any, the original game came out before I was born, and I got FF7 Remake as a birthday gift, but even when I did decide to play it, I didn't. I played the original version first because I heard about how FF7 Remake was more than a remake than I thought, plus for some lore reasons that are in remake that I won't spoil here, but even after finishing the original Final Fantasy VII, I picked up Crisis Core, wrote my review for it, and then moved onto Final Fantasy VII Remake. Let's start off with gameplay. The gameplay feels incredibly smooth, the real-time action combat feels tight, and is a nice change from the original's take on combat. The Materia system feels recognizable from the original, with some good modern quality-of-life fixes.
The original in my opinion did not properly explain the materia system well enough to me, I didn't know materia could be paired together in the original, and there were no visual cues to let me know, but in the remake, the game does a much better job at letting me know, and the UI is much easier to understand. Everything else about the Materia system feels nearly identical to the original, even down to missing specific materia in a specific part, only to find out after you left that area later on. I love how you're able to swap between party members and take control of them when you see them. I can use Cloud's limit break on a boss, instead of being stuck controlling Cloud, I can control someone else while Cloud is dealing with his limit break, someone like Barret or Tifa, and continue attacking without being stuck. It's a small thing, but just nice to have. Graphically, this game looks incredible, I was playing on my PS5 with performance mode on for all of my playthrough. I prefer better-looking graphics when it comes to single-player games, but I'm willing to sacrifice graphics for 60 FPS, and in this case with FF7 Remake, it was a small sacrifice.
It's just a lot better with 60 FPS, and all the characters from the original have not looked better. The opening cutscene that they remade from the original just shows the magic of Square's talent when it comes to computer-animated cutscenes. You can see the growth in technology when you compare the original to the remake's recreation. It looks amazing, and though it is easy to make fun of the original's blocky characters and graphics, seeing this opening cutscene in the remake makes me wonder if this is how the kids who grew up with Final Fantasy VII back in 1997 saw this game at the time. They never knew graphics in video games would be as good as we have today. We've peaked when it came to graphics in video games, look at the jump from the PS4 generation to the PS5 generation, it's barely noticeable, and most games are still playable on both PS4 and PS5, but you gotta remember we're talking about video games in 1997, it was just not too long ago they just came off of 16-bit consoles such as the SNES and SEGA Genesis, and the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 were relatively the next, 3D consoles with the biggest jump we've seen both in terms of gameplay and graphics. So seeing this iconic cutscene being remade just shows all the love everybody who worked remake has for the original, it captures that magic from those kids long ago.
As for FF7 Remake's story, it's split into three parts within this Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. Final Fantasy VII Remake covers around the first 6 hours of the original game's story, while Rebirth covers up to the end of Disk 1, and part 3 (assumably) covers the rest of the original. Though it is unfortunate that FF7 Remake doesn't have all of the original story, it makes sense why. The original Final Fantasy VII had it take place in Midgar for the first few hours, before becoming a semi-open world after you leave Midgar, plus, games are a lot more expensive to make and publish when it comes to triple-A releases in the current gaming market then how they were in 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII was supposed to be on the Nintendo 64, but that game was so ambitious for the time, in order for it to be possible, it would have taken 12 cartridges, meanwhile, it took two disks on the PlayStation 1. Yet for the PS4 release, it took two disks as well, so I can't fault Square for splitting Final Fantasy VII into a trilogy. So if Square only has the first 6 hours of the original for one game in a trilogy, how did they stretch it out into a 30+ hour long game?
Well, this is where Final Fantasy VII Remake splits from being a remake in the traditional scene, things play out differently than they do in the original. Sephiroth makes his physical appearance much sooner than he does in the original, and he speaks to Cloud in a way that makes it sound like he already knows much about his future and Cloud's future from the original game. This is kinda the best way I can explain it without going into spoilers. This game has some sorta commentary about the picky fans (and a lot of other people's reviews here) who want Final Fantasy VII Remake to be a one-to-one identical remake to the original. A one-to-one remake in not possible in this current gaming climate, so they need to change it, and what they changed was destiny.
Destiny is changed in FF7 Remake, things play out differently to the original, setting the stage for what's to come in Rebirth and Part 3. I'm all here for this change in what Final Fantasy VII Remake sets to do. The original story is still there in the original Final Fantasy VII if you don't like Remake's adaption, but Remake's story is meant for FF7 fans who are already experienced with the original game, though newcomers can still make FF7 Remake their entry point into FF7/Final Fantasy in general. Final Fantasy VII Remake's story stretches out the first 6 hours of the original into 30+ hours by expanding upon previously smaller details that weren't touched in the original Final Fantasy VII or any other piece of Final Fantasy VII media. They expand upon side characters like Biggs and Jessie by giving them extra screen to make the player more attached to them as characters, while also giving previously well-known characters such as Aerith or Sephiroth by showing new depth into their characters.
Aerith is a very loveable character in Final Fantasy VII Remake, her voice actor does a great job at making Aerith come off as the silly flower girl in Midgar, meanwhile, Sephiroth feels like a shadow watching over you throughout the game. Even though his physical appearance is revealed sooner than it is in the original, I like that, It makes Sephiroth come across as a force who can put himself into any scene in the game whenever and however he likes. Though I like it as someone who previously played the original FF7 before the FF7 Remake, I have to acknowledge how this may come off to newcomers who haven't played the original. Some people won't play the original because they may find it outdated, or just don't want to play a PS1-era JRPG, so this effect doesn't really affect newcomers the way it did for me. Stuff like this is one of the flaws in Remake's story, it pays off for fans who've played the original Final Fantasy VII, however, it doesn't pay off for fans who made Final Fantasy VII Remake their entry point. Preferably, it would have found a way to keep these moments pay off for OG fans, while having that effect on new players, though that is probably hard to ask for.
For any additional notes, after playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I look back on Remake as sort of a tech demo for what was to come in Rebirth. Everything about gameplay and story is enhanced in Rebirth, this was Square's first attempt with the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy, so they took the feedback into Rebirth and polished that game into a better more refined version of FF7 Remake. Also, I haven't brought up the Yuffie DLC from Intergade. I haven't played it, I watched a story recap on YouTube instead because I didn't want to spend money on DLC I didn't really care about, and I didn't want to waste any filler hours when I could just be playing something else from my Backlog. For any critiques, I previously mentioned how I felt about the story for OG fans and newcomers, but another thing I wanted to add was about Side Quests. The Side Quests are dryer than a desert, most of them are given by random NPCs that nobody gives a shit about, and I only completed them for EXP and Items. I suppose it was fine during the first parts of the game, as it kinda gives some depth to the world of Midgar, but it seems to just be tacked on later into the game.
Overall, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a great start to the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy. It's a nice stepping stone to go into Rebirth and a good stepping stone into the wider world of Final Fantasy in general for newcomers. It was a fun playthrough to see all these characters I grew to love in their original blocky PS1 from today. Every character was enhanced for the better, they are all better versions of themselves, and the story was a great change to a previously beloved story in the original Final Fantasy VII. I enjoyed my time with Remake when I first finished it around the end of January this year, and I enjoyed myself with Rebirth since that game was released, from start to finish. I can't wait to see where part 3 will go, and I can just only see it going up from here.
Stats:
7th game I've completed in 2024 (this was a coincidence I swear)
Played on PlayStation 5.
Hours into Game: 32 Hours
Favorite Characters: Cloud, Aerith, Barret & Sephiroth
Least Favorite Character: Roche & Johnny
Score: 9/10 (4.5/5)
Last Statement: Sephiroth is hot ngl