Revisiting this I had a good time. Even after getting platinum on PS4 I still enjoyed the combat and even doing the side quests.
On the narrative and overall experience I find the REMAKE project underwhelming. I enjoy the nostalgic feeling of wandering through Midgar again, but at the same time, it feels almost like a Disneyland version of it. Where detail is added, it lacks a bit of authenticity and charm. The slums are oddly clean, the class division often more like background dressing, occasionally even romanticised.
I don’t mind the idea of changes in a new adaptation. There’s a theory that the whispers represent OG fans fighting any idea of change. This is a cool idea, but it just doesn’t work if you’re not following it up with something meaningful. So far it seems the changes consist of adding redundant background stories for the smallest details, and tying in some of the woeful spin-offs we’ve already tried to forget about. The big political themes have been diluted in favour of flashy shounen anime story beats and sword fights. Characters have been brought to life in a way, but cloud in particular is changed for the worse. Repeating the same issue made in Crisis Core, he’s made more into a timid boy who can’t talk to girls, rather than a soldier out of his depth, a man pretending to be something he’s not, and the abstract he wants to be, Zack, feels less impactful now that he too is more of a cartoon character.
On the narrative and overall experience I find the REMAKE project underwhelming. I enjoy the nostalgic feeling of wandering through Midgar again, but at the same time, it feels almost like a Disneyland version of it. Where detail is added, it lacks a bit of authenticity and charm. The slums are oddly clean, the class division often more like background dressing, occasionally even romanticised.
I don’t mind the idea of changes in a new adaptation. There’s a theory that the whispers represent OG fans fighting any idea of change. This is a cool idea, but it just doesn’t work if you’re not following it up with something meaningful. So far it seems the changes consist of adding redundant background stories for the smallest details, and tying in some of the woeful spin-offs we’ve already tried to forget about. The big political themes have been diluted in favour of flashy shounen anime story beats and sword fights. Characters have been brought to life in a way, but cloud in particular is changed for the worse. Repeating the same issue made in Crisis Core, he’s made more into a timid boy who can’t talk to girls, rather than a soldier out of his depth, a man pretending to be something he’s not, and the abstract he wants to be, Zack, feels less impactful now that he too is more of a cartoon character.