“THE UNKNOWN JOURNEY WILL CONTINUE”

(Warning: spoilers for Evangelion/Rebuilds and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off)

Avatar: The Last Airbender just released its highly(?) anticipated live-action Netflix adaptation, which has garnered – according to Wikipedia – “mixed to positive reception from critics”. I’ve meanwhile been absorbing tidbits of information from Twitter and my friend Jordan who actually decided to sit down and watch it. Although I haven’t watched the show, I’ve seen/heard enough from critics and people I trust that I’m content to skip over this one without needing to form my own opinion on it.

Even so, it was an interesting few days, observing the discourse – each tweet another bombshell. You know that thing you liked from the original series? They decided to change it for some reason. Also it’s worse now. In trying to appeal to longtime fans and capture the interest of potential newcomers, I suppose you might end up with something that appeals to no one.

Although it’s likely not the first question creators ask, vocal fans and critics will turn this one simple question into a pointedly rhetorical one: “Who is this for?”

I vividly remember watching M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender film in theaters on my thirteenth birthday. I also vividly remember how disappointed I was. I still remember the Earthbending scene, where it seems like it takes six dudes to move a pillow-sized rock. I remember watching this scene and thinking, “Did these people even watch the TV show?”

Hollywood’s obsession with remakes has come and gone. Nowadays it’s all about requels, thematic retreads dealing in intertextuality in lieu of 1:1 recaps.

In addition to remakes and requels, there’s also a secret third thing which I like to call: Remakes That Are Lying.

Although many people (liars) will claim that these are just Remakes With More Creative Liberty, I think these people are wrong.

The Evangelion rebuild films are a perfect example. The first movie is a fairly straightforward remake of the first six episodes of the anime. A few minor changes here and there but nothing crazy. The second movie is when it gets weird, starting with an entirely new character, new events, and an ending that completely derails from where the original series leaves off. Everything from the third movie onwards is basically uncharted territory, so completely removed from the original work that calling it a remake would be disingenuous.

A more recent example would be Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which begins as a 1:1 retelling of the graphic novel series for the duration of the first episode, until everything from the second episode onwards diverges so significantly that it becomes something entirely new. I love it.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is, in a lot of ways, a Remake That Is Lying. It is also Just A Remake sometimes. It’s also – famously – the first five hours of the original FFVII spun into a 30+ hour long RPG complete with its own unique characters, events, and an ending that completely derails where the original leaves off.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this game when it was revealed, when it was released, and even now, TODAY, as I write this (February 26th, 2024 @ 1:20 AM PST).

And look, I GET IT.

At a glance, turning what is essentially the prologue of your seminal ecocentric JRPG into the first episode of a trilogy of AAA Remakes maybe sounds not so great. Playing through the game once again, there remains a litany of baffling decisions and design choices – and yet, I think what Square was able to accomplish here is unlike anything the industry has ever seen before, or will probably ever see again.

FFVII Remake is a juggernaut. It’s the most daring remake of any video game I’ve ever played. It’s also such a wildly different interpretation of the source material that it runs the risk of completely alienating the original fanbase, in some ways intentionally so.

The first notable difference would be the battle system. No longer a series of turn-based random encounters, FFVII Remake is a tried-and-true action RPG hybrid. It’s also maybe the most interesting blend of the two genres I’ve played in recent memory. Although players will utilize a real time battle system, using commands in tactical mode slows the action down to a glacial crawl, turning combat into a quasi-turn-based/semi-real-time mutant. Like Devil May Cry meets YOMI Hustle. Even this description doesn’t account for the fact that each ability/spell has a significant windup which can be interrupted by enemies, meaning you can’t spam these commands willy-nilly and expect to overwhelm your opponent through shock and awe alone.

I’ve already detailed my experience with Final Fantasy as a series, and I don’t wish to repeat myself here, but suffice to say I’m not a Final Fantasy connoisseur. FFVII and FFXVI are the only mainline entries I’ve played. Between these games, FFVII Remake has my favorite combat system.

I should also stress, it’s not perfect.

Your teammates’ AI isn’t ideal. I assume this is to encourage players to switch between characters and use their abilities in battle. This sounds great on paper. In 95% of fights this won’t be a problem. But very, very rarely, I’d encounter opponents that were far too aggressive, forcing me into a super defensive playstyle where every other spell cast was Cura or Raise.

There’s also a good amount of attacks that feel like they can’t be dodged, which would be a massive problem if this was a pure action game. However, because this is an Action RPG, and because the player can take control of multiple characters to revive/heal one another without much hassle, I actually think that it’s okay for some attacks to be wildly unbalanced like this. There is, after all, no (reliable) way to dodge incoming attacks in a pure turn-based RPG like the original FFVII. This can make some encounters feel a little lopsided, but I think the overall intended experience is to force players into using their abilities/spells quickly so they must optimize putting pressure on enemies. Your mileage may vary.

Another thing is that, wow, the materia system in this feels much better to use! Materia descriptions are now clear, succinct, and easy to understand. Linked materia light up when they can be paired now, meaning there’s no ambiguity as to whether or not they can synergize. Materia also stays bound to the weapon/armor it’s originally assigned to, although you can also choose to re-slot the same materia when equipping a new weapon. Best of all though, you can re-slot materia from the same menu – if another character has it equipped, you can still authorize another character to equip it.

I think some of the new materia (namely the purple/yellow) aren’t great, however. Cloud begins with Deadly Dodge which lets you attack after doing a dodge roll. I feel like this should’ve just been a specific character ability, because I never really used it.

Other purple materia, such as Auto-Cure, are great insurance policies. But then I have to ask, why do I need to dedicate an entire materia slot to automating one spell? I feel like there should be a system to automate teammate behavior. I kept thinking about Kingdom Hearts and how you could actually customize your teammates’ AI in that one, I think that would’ve been neat here (I’ve only finished Kingdom Hearts 1).

Exclusive to this Remake are the weapon upgrades, which allow players to unlock specific stat bonuses tied to individual weapons. For example, one weapon might let you upgrade your HP/MP, attack or magic attack power, defense, etc. but these are only for when your character is using that weapon. Luckily, skill points persist between weapons, so if you have 100 SP for one weapon and you unlock a bunch of upgrades, you will still have 100 SP to spend if you find another weapon and decide to buy a bunch of upgrades for that one as well.

Each weapon also has one special ability, and once player’s max out their weapon’s proficiency (usually only takes 1-3 battles), that ability is no longer tied to that weapon and can be used regardless of the weapon equipped. It was always funny to use Barret’s melee weapons for a few encounters to score the weapon ability, and then never use the weapon ever again.

Still, I think all of these mechanics congeal into something that’s satisfying to experience. Even if players don’t level up their materia constantly, as long as they’re earning weapon abilities, they’ll at least land on their feet in the game’s latter half.

Plotwise, FFVII Remake follows the original game’s story beats, but expands on significant events and encounters, while also adding extra scenarios. I’ve seen/heard people describe the FFVII Remake as “bloated,” but I couldn’t disagree more.

I would consider sidequests/optional content to be “bloat,” only if they are/were excessive in length/amount. This will be the last time I mention FFXVI in this review, but I seriously groaned when I completed one of the last story missions in that game and ten side quests appeared on my world map. FFXVI has a whopping 76 side quests. FFVII Remake has 26. They’re short, inoffensive, easily skippable, and only occur during three chapters of the game.

The “bloat” I would assume most people are referring to is the new story content, which is mandatory and cannot be skipped. To that, I have to say that I thought all the new story content was pretty good, actually!

Sure, the Jessie-centric level with a motorcycle boss fight could easily be written off as filler. I’m sure every pearl clutching FFVII purist was fuming once they realized Square decided to give every Avalanche member a backstory, and goals, and motives. “Did Jessie need an entire chapter dedicated to her?” I hear a disgruntled, middle-aged YouTube video essayist ask. The answer: no, probably not. But I like it anyway.

Especially on this most recent playthrough, there is an uncomfortable amount of dissonance in these chapters. The Avalanche crew is a little too happy-go-lucky. Jessie is head over heels for Cloud immediately. Let’s not even talk about the parachute sequence.

Yet for some reason, nobody ever talks about how weird these chapters feel in context. After all, you know if you’ve played the original FFVII, these people are going to die. Avalanche is a footnote, a plucky band of ecoterrorists whose story is over before it even begins. It’s a tragedy. FFVII Remake isn’t asking you to forget about what happens when the Sector 7 plate collapses. It’s asking you to hold your breath. It’s asking you to imagine Avalanche happy, alive, and flourishing.

For me, this felt oddly provocative? Almost perverted, in a sense. It’s like the game desperately wants players to know Jessie before pulling out the carpet from underneath them. This got me thinking…

Well, actually, before I continue, I should also mention that if you’ve played FFVII Remake, you know that Biggs and Wedge technically survive the Sector 7 collapse. It’s a weird detail. Like what possible reason would the story/writers have for saving these characters?

Enter Aerith Gainsborough.

As of my writing this (now February 27th, 5:23 PM), FFVII Rebirth is about 30+ hours from release. Based on what we know from pre-release material, it’s likely that Rebirth will account for everything up to, and including, the Forgotten Capital. Based on the events of FFVII Remake, however, and in light of the story not being a perfect 1:1 retelling, there is a lingering uncertainty which underlines all topics concerning Aerith’s ultimate fate.

In other words, will Aerith meet a similar fate at the hands of Sephiroth yet again?

It’s impossible to know. Maybe this will all seem silly in a week or two once diehard fans have indulged in several consecutive all-nighters, plowing through the main story in a ravenous frenzy to know the definitive answer (frankly it’ll be a miracle if I don’t get spoiled). I’ve racked my brain over and over, like what outcome makes the most sense here? Would it be more shocking if Aerith lived? Would it be more shocking if Aerith died again? I don’t know!

If you’ve read my FFVII review, you’ll also know that I believe that Aerith’s death is entirely avoidable. Aerith doesn’t need to die for the remaining story to take place. That’s what makes her death tragic.

“I'm sure she wanted to give her life for the planet,” Cloud tells Tifa.

“Really? I wonder? I don't think that's it at all.” Tifa says, “I think she didn't think she would die at all, but that she planned on coming back all along. She always used to talk about the 'Next time'. She talked about the future more than any of us…”

But now the canon is set in stone, isn’t it? The flow of events and everything should be immutable. Avalanche has to die. Aerith has to die.

The FFVII Remake literalizes this idea of “canon” with the Whispers. So-called Arbiters of Fate which operate to prevent significant changes to the “timeline” or, to be more precise, FFVII’s original story.

There’s been a lot of writing/theories on what Whispers were/are and how they’re supposed to work, but I think gamefaqs user gules222 sums it up beautifully: “Basically, the Whispers are a mechanism created by the planet to preserve "destiny." Think of them being like WEAPON, except they are trying to keep events from the original game intact.”

In context, this makes the ending of FFVII Remake all the more pertinent and existentially troubling. Sephiroth appears to erase the Whispers all at once, meaning that canon has now been nullified, essentially. Anything can happen.

Of course, this is maybe less effective as we know that FFVII Rebirth (at least from marketing material) appears to follow the general sequence of events as in the original FFVII. Although there remains the anxiety that, at any moment, fate could be altered once again.

In a stroke of genius, FFVII Remake recontextualizes Cloud and company’s escape from Midgar as escaping the chains of fate themselves. The oppressive upper plates are redefined as “steel skies,” an iron firmament for those below.

“I miss it. The steel sky.”

What was once confining and familiar is nowhere to be found. What’s ahead is vast and expansive and exciting and scary. Freedom is a blessing and a curse.

“Did Jessie need an entire chapter dedicated to her?” No. But who cares?

Even if Square released a traditional FFVII Remaster with all the bells and whistles you’d come to expect, with all the bespoke pre-rendered backgrounds, quality of life improvements, and graphical enhancements, we’d still have people complaining. They changed it too much. They didn’t change it enough.

Remake is a stark contrast. In some ways, it is utterly hostile to the idea that it should be repeating story beats and character arcs, and in other ways it is evidently beholden to doing exactly that. There’s at least enough fanservice to keep a casual audience entertained.

The English voice cast also does a phenomenal job. I would be remiss not to mention them here. I love all of them. The writing is great and the line delivery is top notch. These characters feel real and believable and I got super attached to all of them. I actually cried when Aerith met Marlene (because I hate seeing kids cry) and Barret’s scene in the Sector 6 park after the Sector 7 plate falls. Barret’s voice actor gives an amazing performance. Having him be the gruff, ultra-macho badass for most of the game, only to have him fall into despair, hearing his voice break as he screams his daughter’s name, is incredible.

And of course, Nobuo Uematsu’s legendary FFVII soundtrack reimagined and rearranged. One of the most reverent and inspired soundtracks in any game. I love how multiple leitmotifs will often intersect in songs. Leitmotifs from the “Bombing Mission” return when escaping from the Mako Reactor and when fighting in the streets of Sector 8. The leitmotif even returns in the final chapter, during the motorcycle escape sequence!

There’s like a hundred tiny little details I’d love to get into, but this review is already so long, and it’s like, what could I even contribute to the conversation at this point? I love this game, man.

Actually, here’s where I’ll start wrapping this up: does Aerith Gainsborough deserve to die?

Although fans have put up some resistance to the idea of altering canon, as in the case of Biggs and Wedge surviving the Sector 7 collapse, what about Aerith? Would her survival be a fundamental disservice to the ideas/themes of the original FFVII? Would her survival be a logical extension of the Remake’s ideas/themes of altering fate/destiny? I don’t really know.

Ultimately, I think that FFVII Remake’s reception and the conversation surrounding it has gradually become less reactionary. Those that like it, like it; those that don’t like it, don’t like it. Some people still don’t like that it’s being released as a trilogy! To those people, I say: I don’t think there’s a world that exists where the FFVII Remake encompasses the entire original game from start to finish. Partly because the original FFVII is too big, and partly because dev cycles are too long. There’s no world where what you’re asking for doesn’t end with spectacular compromise.

2016’s Ratchet and Clank was marketed as a tie-in to the movie, although it was structurally (almost) a remake of the first game. I loved the original Ratchet and Clank, so when I finished the 2016 game and realized the last third of the original had been gutted and retooled into a half-baked slipshod climax, I was more than a little bummed!

FFVII Remake could’ve easily tried to fit its original story into a full price PlayStation exclusive, but it would be neutered. It would not be the definitive, true FFVII experience... Well, in fairness, the FFVII Remake we got isn’t the definitive, true FFVII experience either, but it at least demonstrated that Square wasn’t going to rush a remake of one of the most beloved video games of all time.

Of all the games anyone could have picked to Not Be Rushed, I think the FFVII Remake trilogy is probably the best thing to Not Be Rushed.

In a lot of ways, the FFVII Remake is all about Not Rushing.

New chapters are added, new story events, new characters. The game takes its sweet time. The sewers/trainyard sections after confronting Don Corneo become their own chapters, and although many might bemoan these levels as “padding,” I enjoy them because I get to spend more time with Aerith and Tifa and having them interact – a dynamic that doesn’t even exist in the original FFVII. Seeing these characters talk, interact, and be friends is cool and rad!

FFVII Remake is a game about wanting more, and the lengths people will go to in service of more. FFVII Remake is more FFVII and it’s more than just FFVII.

And there’s still more to come.

“Shall we mosey on over?”

“Let’s.”