A Long Awaited Remake Meets Lofty Expectations
By Riley Fink
By Riley Fink
In 1997, Final Fantasy VII was released by Square Enix, and it’s no stretch to claim it changed the gaming industry forever. With an 80 million dollar budget on a brand new 3D console, FFVII blew people away, popularizing the JRPG genre in the west and introducing the general public to a far more grounded and emotional story than any game that came before it. The ‘97 original still holds up to this day and many still herald it as the best game of all time, but many aspects were limited due to the time of its release, leading to years of speculation about a full fledged remake of the PS1 classic.
The monumental scale of FFVII makes it nearly impossible to remake with modern standards, so the solution by Square Enix was to split the project up into multiple full-game installments. After years of rumors of cancellation since its announcement in 2015, the first part of this project, confusingly titled Final Fantasy VII Remake, finally released on April 10 for PS4 to near universal acclaim.
This game is set in the dystopian steampunk city of Midgar, where the Shinra Electric Company is sucking out the literal lifeblood of the planet, called Mako, in order to power the massive city they control. You play as the mercenary Cloud Strife, and the game starts out with you doing a job for the eco-terrorist group Avalanche, who fight to rebel against the tyranny of Shinra.
To be clear, Midgar was a town that you were only in for the first 3-4 hours of FFVII, now a full 25-30 hour experience. This setup was heavily criticized by a few fans who saw the extension of Midgar as cheap padding, but I believe this was essential, as Midgar was a bit too short in FFVII for how many important events happen within it. Regardless, FFVII Remake is a full game with a complete narrative, though with a pretty unsatisfactory ending as a result.
Now for the actually important aspects of the game, Square Enix aces almost all of them. The soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard this whole decade, a mix of tons of styles and genres while still staying true to the mood of the original. The visuals and art direction are incredible, though with some texture issues that seem patchable. The combat system is near perfect, with an extremely smart adaptation of the original’s sudo-turn based style into an action setting, and a meaty amount of post game content and challenges to make this combat really shine. The combat’s few faults, such as air combat being a lot less fun, will most likely be addressed in future installments. For a game so focused on story, the balance between cutscenes and gameplay is surprisingly good, and the game smoothly transitions between them, only using loading screens between major areas.
The execution of the story is slightly more controversial, but mostly due to the strange ending, as for the first 95% of the game, the writing and presentation is near spot on, and as overused of a phrase it is, it really does feel like an interactive blockbuster movie. The quality of the characters even succeeds the old ones, and voice acting adds a lot to make them feel more grounded.
Overall, there’s something in this game for everybody, not just fans of FFVII like myself. Addictive combat, an interesting story, and insane polish in almost every corner of the world, Final Fantasy VII Remake more than exceeded my already lofty expectations that have been building up for half a decade.
The monumental scale of FFVII makes it nearly impossible to remake with modern standards, so the solution by Square Enix was to split the project up into multiple full-game installments. After years of rumors of cancellation since its announcement in 2015, the first part of this project, confusingly titled Final Fantasy VII Remake, finally released on April 10 for PS4 to near universal acclaim.
This game is set in the dystopian steampunk city of Midgar, where the Shinra Electric Company is sucking out the literal lifeblood of the planet, called Mako, in order to power the massive city they control. You play as the mercenary Cloud Strife, and the game starts out with you doing a job for the eco-terrorist group Avalanche, who fight to rebel against the tyranny of Shinra.
To be clear, Midgar was a town that you were only in for the first 3-4 hours of FFVII, now a full 25-30 hour experience. This setup was heavily criticized by a few fans who saw the extension of Midgar as cheap padding, but I believe this was essential, as Midgar was a bit too short in FFVII for how many important events happen within it. Regardless, FFVII Remake is a full game with a complete narrative, though with a pretty unsatisfactory ending as a result.
Now for the actually important aspects of the game, Square Enix aces almost all of them. The soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard this whole decade, a mix of tons of styles and genres while still staying true to the mood of the original. The visuals and art direction are incredible, though with some texture issues that seem patchable. The combat system is near perfect, with an extremely smart adaptation of the original’s sudo-turn based style into an action setting, and a meaty amount of post game content and challenges to make this combat really shine. The combat’s few faults, such as air combat being a lot less fun, will most likely be addressed in future installments. For a game so focused on story, the balance between cutscenes and gameplay is surprisingly good, and the game smoothly transitions between them, only using loading screens between major areas.
The execution of the story is slightly more controversial, but mostly due to the strange ending, as for the first 95% of the game, the writing and presentation is near spot on, and as overused of a phrase it is, it really does feel like an interactive blockbuster movie. The quality of the characters even succeeds the old ones, and voice acting adds a lot to make them feel more grounded.
Overall, there’s something in this game for everybody, not just fans of FFVII like myself. Addictive combat, an interesting story, and insane polish in almost every corner of the world, Final Fantasy VII Remake more than exceeded my already lofty expectations that have been building up for half a decade.