Oh hey guys yo I just heard of this unknown little gem called Final Fantasy 7: Make. It's like Final Fantasy Remake but it's just made. They made it.
The thing about playing the video game Final Fantasy Seven in the year 2022 is that there is no way to go into this sucker free of expectations. Those expectations were mostly absorbed via osmosis from message boards in the 00s and they were mostly way wrong because kids didn't understand the game any better than they understood anything else. They hadn't even gotten any of the good Final Fantasy games in English at the time! Playwise they were here playing this game, which tries to make a more freeform FFV but lacks the options and good boss design and so is mostly just kind of okay. But also, that's not what anyone really talks about so who cares.
First thing I see is the shot with Aeris (look I played the original translation for this shut up) that pulls back and shows Midgar and I realize, damn this looks great. This looks better than any AAA game released in the last few generations. Great art direction. And I realize that the weird fucked up chunky overworld sprites are an attempt at making the game like those previous final fantasies. They hadn't decided on how the aesthetics should look in 3D yet and I think that the decision to drop that was correct but tiny lumpy cloud is funny so it balances out.
You would always get the impression from online teens that this sucker was just endless stoic melodrama but not only is it not that, it's kind of extremely about being not that. Coud tries to play that role for roughly five seconds before becoming a ride-or-die for his friends ultra sincere guy and it rules. Aeris is immediately very charming. Tifa is kind of an insecure weirdo for plot reasons. Barret has some VERY unpleasant localization choices but is still very likable. Vincent has hilarious backstory and is otherwise uh, present. There's like nothing there. Yuffie also is maybe halfway to a character. Red XIII fuck man why is he even there I dunno. Cool that he's a cat. Sephiroth is some dipshit. Just a dude. He exists for the sake of Cloud's character.
Most importantly, everyone involved knew the truth that Final Fantasy only works when it's like 50% comedy, and that's what we get. The actual save the world story is secondary to the intense internal drama of a handful of main characters that's actually good and compelling and does rad stuff with the presentation and the game is just constantly whipping between jokes and drama the whole way, often in the same scene. The game is very textually clear that it's not enough to want to save the world. You have to be people. You have a real reason for fighting, because the world isn't an abstract concept. It's the people you know and care about. It's da lifestream babyyy.
The scale of ambition here is wild. They put a whole tower defence game in this thing for some reason. You hit a button to make a dolphin launch you three stories upwards. You do CPR as a man who needs about 30 seconds to take a full breath. These things make the game feel so fun and alive and also make it nearly impossible to make something exactly like it in the modern era with modern budget expectations, though Yakuza is the closest thing I can think of. I knew the game's reputation as having long summons but the final boss having an attack where a meteor shoots through half the solar system and explodes the sun to damage the party and it takes like, multiple minutes is absolutely hilarious and wonderful. They just went for it. It wasn't always smart but they just did whatever wild fuckin thing they could think of.
I'm very curious about the absolutely wild legacy of FF7s extended universe because it's an inherently absurd premise for it to have one. But I get it. I can see, fully, why this thing made such an impact. Why it lives on in the brains of all the kids who played it as a teen. It holds up! I had a great time, and I feel enriched, and that's what matters.
The thing about playing the video game Final Fantasy Seven in the year 2022 is that there is no way to go into this sucker free of expectations. Those expectations were mostly absorbed via osmosis from message boards in the 00s and they were mostly way wrong because kids didn't understand the game any better than they understood anything else. They hadn't even gotten any of the good Final Fantasy games in English at the time! Playwise they were here playing this game, which tries to make a more freeform FFV but lacks the options and good boss design and so is mostly just kind of okay. But also, that's not what anyone really talks about so who cares.
First thing I see is the shot with Aeris (look I played the original translation for this shut up) that pulls back and shows Midgar and I realize, damn this looks great. This looks better than any AAA game released in the last few generations. Great art direction. And I realize that the weird fucked up chunky overworld sprites are an attempt at making the game like those previous final fantasies. They hadn't decided on how the aesthetics should look in 3D yet and I think that the decision to drop that was correct but tiny lumpy cloud is funny so it balances out.
You would always get the impression from online teens that this sucker was just endless stoic melodrama but not only is it not that, it's kind of extremely about being not that. Coud tries to play that role for roughly five seconds before becoming a ride-or-die for his friends ultra sincere guy and it rules. Aeris is immediately very charming. Tifa is kind of an insecure weirdo for plot reasons. Barret has some VERY unpleasant localization choices but is still very likable. Vincent has hilarious backstory and is otherwise uh, present. There's like nothing there. Yuffie also is maybe halfway to a character. Red XIII fuck man why is he even there I dunno. Cool that he's a cat. Sephiroth is some dipshit. Just a dude. He exists for the sake of Cloud's character.
Most importantly, everyone involved knew the truth that Final Fantasy only works when it's like 50% comedy, and that's what we get. The actual save the world story is secondary to the intense internal drama of a handful of main characters that's actually good and compelling and does rad stuff with the presentation and the game is just constantly whipping between jokes and drama the whole way, often in the same scene. The game is very textually clear that it's not enough to want to save the world. You have to be people. You have a real reason for fighting, because the world isn't an abstract concept. It's the people you know and care about. It's da lifestream babyyy.
The scale of ambition here is wild. They put a whole tower defence game in this thing for some reason. You hit a button to make a dolphin launch you three stories upwards. You do CPR as a man who needs about 30 seconds to take a full breath. These things make the game feel so fun and alive and also make it nearly impossible to make something exactly like it in the modern era with modern budget expectations, though Yakuza is the closest thing I can think of. I knew the game's reputation as having long summons but the final boss having an attack where a meteor shoots through half the solar system and explodes the sun to damage the party and it takes like, multiple minutes is absolutely hilarious and wonderful. They just went for it. It wasn't always smart but they just did whatever wild fuckin thing they could think of.
I'm very curious about the absolutely wild legacy of FF7s extended universe because it's an inherently absurd premise for it to have one. But I get it. I can see, fully, why this thing made such an impact. Why it lives on in the brains of all the kids who played it as a teen. It holds up! I had a great time, and I feel enriched, and that's what matters.