I saw this trailer live when it debuted during The Game Awards and I know I'm late as hell sharing it here. By now, most people already have Sephiroth in their hands, but it's a cool addition nonetheless. I thought it was a nice touch that they gave Cloud his variation of Omnislash from Advent Children to use as a Final Smash against his primary antagonist.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix, released for PlayStation 4 on April 10, 2020. It is the first in a planned series of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. Set in the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar, players control mercenary Cloud Strife as he and an eco-terrorist group known as AVALANCHE oppose a powerful megacorporation known as Shinra from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. The gameplay combines real-time action with strategic and role-playing elements.
Remake was announced in 2015 following years of speculation. Several key staff members returned, including character designer Tetsuya Nomura as director and main character designer, director Yoshinori Kitase as producer, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima as scenario, event planner Motomu Toriyama as co-director/scenario design, and composer Nobuo Uematsu returning to compose the main theme of the game, among other staff. The staff redesigned the characters to balance realism and stylization. While the original Japanese cast remains intact, the English dub was remade.
The game was well received for its graphics, gameplay, narrative and music. Critics generally praised how faithful the story and lore was to the original game from 1997 while also expanding on it. The new type of gameplay received similar responses thanks to its usage of strategy while critics were mixed in the linearity and sidequests. Remake has become one of the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 games, selling over 3.5 million copies within the first three days.
Premise:
Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first in a planned series of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. It covers the first section of the original game, set in the metropolis Midgar; IGN estimated that Remake covers approximately 10-15% of the original game's story.
Players control Cloud Strife, a former Shinra soldier turned mercenary who joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to fight the Shinra Corporation, who have been draining the planet's life energy. Every element has been remade, using real-time polygonal graphics as opposed to the pre-rendered environments of the original. The story includes major expansions to character development and some notable plot additions.
Exploration and battle mechanics both take place in real time, like Final Fantasy XV. The game features an altered "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system from the original, which gradually fills up slowly, or can fill faster with attacks. Once it is filled, the player can halt the action and use special abilities such as magic, items, and special moves. The player can also assign these special abilities to shortcut buttons, allowing them to play entirely in real-time without pausing. Each special ability uses up a segment of the ATB bar. The player can also switch between party members at any time during battle. Each party member has their own individual skills, such as Cloud's close-quarters melee attacks and Barret's long-range distance attacks. Players are also able to use magic and summons of large creatures, and a Limit Break gauge allows characters to perform more powerful attacks once charged. While the game has more real-time elements, strategic elements still remain, such as selecting weapons and magic for each character to wield.
Despite being marketed as a remake, the narrative has multiple changes from the original game such as Barret being attacked by the antagonist Sephiroth but being saved by a shadow. Sephiroth appears constantly in the story during the Midgar scenario despite not being properly introduced until a flashback Cloud explores. Vice also noted that Cloud sees the future of Aerith in the original 1997 game, leaving her fate unknown to returning fans. Yoshinori Kitase refrained from explaining the reason for the changes from the narrative, claiming " I want to let you know is that all of the lore from the works created after the original game, the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, that’s all very much in the base of the canon for the remake, and going forward it will be too."
Plot: (**SPOILERS**)
Cloud Strife is a former member of SOLDIER, the elite warriors of the Shinra Electric Power Company. Shinra uses mako, the Planet's spiritual energy, harvested by massive reactors, to power the metropolis of Midgar and develop cutting-edge technology. Disillusioned with Shinra, and at the request of his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart, Cloud takes a mercenary job for Avalanche, an ecoterrorist organization, led by Barret Wallace. Barret believes excessive mako harvesting harms the planet, leading a bombing attack on a mako reactor. In the aftermath, Cloud is haunted by memories of Sephiroth, an enigmatic former SOLDIER member, and meets the florist Aerith Gainsborough. Cloud goes missing in an action in the next attack. Cloud meets Aerith again and protects her from Shinra forces. After they reunite with Tifa, the trio learns that Shinra plans to collapse a piece of the "plate" onto the Sector 7 slums. Avalanche fails to stop Shinra's plan, and the plate falls. Aerith helps most of the population and Barret's daughter Marlene evacuate in time, but is captured by Shinra.
Cloud, Tifa, and Barret infiltrate Shinra headquarters and rescue Aerith from being used as an experiment by Shinra scientist Hojo. She reveals that she is the last descendant of the Cetra, a near-extinct precursor race who resided in a "Promised Land", which Shinra covets due to its boundless mako reserves. The group also meets a talking wolf-like creature called Red XIII, who explains that the strange ghost-like entities the group has encountered are called Whispers. They exist to ensure that the course of destiny is not altered, by correcting any deviations from this course. Meanwhile, Sephiroth infiltrates Shinra and steals a mysterious entity known as "Jenova", somehow connected to the extinction of the Cetra.
In a confrontation at the top of Shinra headquarters, Sephiroth murders the president of Shinra. His son Rufus assumes control of the company and briefly fights Cloud, but is defeated. Cloud and his allies flee the scene via the Midgar Expressway, but find Sephiroth waiting for them at the end. Cloud's group defeat Whisper Harbinger, an entity formed by an amalgam of Whispers. Sephiroth confronts the group, urging Cloud to join him, and defy fate together. Cloud refuses and fights Sephiroth, but is no match for him alone and is defeated, although Sephiroth spares him before departing. Meanwhile, as Cloud's group leaves Midgar to stop Sephiroth, in a presumed alternate timeline, SOLDIER Zack Fair is seen triumphing over an army of Shinra forces and departing with a comatose Cloud.
The Verdict:
Narrative
Outside of some very minor revisions and tweaks for modern audiences, I was absolutely fine with this Remake's take on the FF7 narrative - until Chapter 18. At that point, the game's climax turns into a massive exposition dump. There's no way that you're going to be able to wrap your head around not even a fraction of everything that was brought to the table here unless you completed the original Final Fantasy VII and consumed a majority of the Compilation of FF7 post-game content. That being said, even knowing all of that stuff made a ton of this information made a lot of this information presented to the table here go completely over my head. I'm not going to act like I've read all of the companion books and lore stuff involving FF7 following it's initial release, including but not limited to the novels released prior to FF7: Advent Children's release, Hoshi o Meguru Otome and Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile.
In my opinion, it painted this awkward picture during this title's final act where the characters, specifically Aerith herself, knew FAR too much about what is going to happen, or rather what is supposed to happen, in future events in the timeline, given the fact that things play out exactly how they did in the original game.
But that's the name of the game isn't it? Do we as players want this "remake" to be a cookie cutter recreation of the original game in every way without any tweaks or revisions? In my opinion, that would be perfectly boring. Sure, I enjoyed the original FF7 for what it was worth back in 1997, but do I want this to be a cookie cutter rehash of the original game?
Simply put, hell no. Whether people want to admit it or not, but the original Final Fantasy VII (along with its spin-offs) was a flawed narrative. Even the minds behind this beloved game have admitted that over the course of the years that followed after the original game's release. I didn't think the Compilation of FF7 stuff was much better either (outside of Zack's backstory in Crisis Core), but that's just my opinion...
I thought that the liberties taken here served the narrative, such as Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse's expanded backstories, even though I didn't feel any more attached to them than I did in the original game since I knew their fates already - or so I thought anyway... Jesse comes off as the thirstiest (read: desperate to the point of delusional fangirling) chick ever that's trying to jump at Cloud's bones and he's not having any of it. Speaking of which, depending how you respond to Tifa, Aerith, and Jesse throughout the game, it makes this remake feel like a dating simulator at times.
I thought Shinra Corp's presence as the main antagonist was really undermined by Sephiroth in the last two to three chapters of the game to the point where I almost forgot that they were a thing by the time the credits rolled. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the Shinra HQ sequence and the escape down the highway. That took me back to when I experienced those moments back in the original game, despite some of the lackluster hiccups in this remake along the way in those sections, such as the extended stretch in Hojo's laboratory.
Gameplay
There are a total of 18 Chapters, each of which averages between 2-3 hours in length. Here are all of the chapters in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake:
Chapter 1: The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1 Chapter 2: Fateful Encounters Chapter 3: Home Sweet Slum Chapter 4: Mad Dash Chapter 5: Dogged Pursuit Chapter 6: Light the Way Chapter 7: A Trap is Sprung Chapter 8: Budding Bodyguard Chapter 9: The Town That Never Sleeps Chapter 10: Rough Waters Chapter 11: Haunted Chapter 12: Fight for Survival Chapter 13: A Broken World Chapter 14: In Search of Hope Chapter 15: The Day Midgar Stood Still Chapter 16: The Belly of the Beast Chapter 17: Deliverance from Chaos Chapter 18: Destiny’s Crossroads
Along with the main campaign, there are a little over two dozen side quests that Cloud and company can complete. These are scattered throughout the campaign in key sections such as the Slums or Wall Market. Most of these side quests are fairly short, averaging around 20-30 minutes depending on your level and if you need to actually hunt down a monster. They’re a good way to gain additional experience and items, so I recommend not skipping them.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake also includes a number of mini-games such as darts or destroying numbered blocks in order to obtain a high score. These are fun distractions that will kill some time, but don’t expect to invest a lot of hours into perfecting your dart-throwing abilities. Finally, this remake has a number of collectibles for the Final Fantasy faithful such as music or Moogle Medals. The later is used to purchase special items and additional skill points for your party.
Weapons, Abilities, and Materia
The biggest change in this game versus the original FF7 and this remake is how weapons are treated in this game. Your weapons don't become irrelevant once you find a new one. Instead, players are allowed to pick and choose weapons for their individual preference. It's a double-edged sword in a sense too as players are going to want to use every weapon in the game at least once to learn the unique abilities attached to them. The unique weapon abilities are permanently learned to that specific character after a set number of uses in combat, so it's beneficial to at least use every weapon long enough to learn all of the weapon abilities to have them at your party's disposal in combat. After that you can pick and choose your favorite weapon and stick with it as each weapon garners experience and can level up over time too. What does that mean, you ask? That means that if you choose to do so, you can use the Buster Sword from the start of the game to the end of the game if you wish. It just means that you would have to take the time to level the weapon up after acquiring the other desired weapon abilities from the other weapons in the game.
Materia in this remake functions the same as in the original FF7, but it's abundantly clear that this game gives you far too many Materia over the course of the game than you're actually going to ever need to buy from the various merchants, especially when you can always find what you need while on the main quest or via rewards from sidequests. My only complaint in terms of Materia in this game is that it seems like the game is VERY stingy when it comes to supplying the player with Support Materia, but it's overly abundant in providing you with multiples of every other Materia type. I understand how "powerful" Support Materia can be early into the game (with the biggest culprit being the Magnify Materia), but by the end of the game, it's beneficial for more than one spellcaster in your party to have the means to heal the entire party at once. It just felt like very unnecessary handicap/hindrance in the long scheme of things.
More on Chadley's Battle Intel Reports and Portable Combat Simulator below.
If you want to acquire Materia that you cannot obtain anywhere else in the game, you're going to have to fulfill the various requests from Chadley's Battle Intel Reports. You first meet this NPC in Chapter 3, but his requests will keep players busy from here to the end of the game and well into the post-game content. By completing his requests, he can craft unique and powerful Materia that you cannot obtain anywhere else in the game.
Each Party Member Brings Something Different To The Fight
Cloud Strife
Mode Shift
Cloud's mode shift ability allows him to switch between his balanced operator mode and his-attack oriented punisher mode. Press the [Triangle] button to switch modes.
Operator Mode: In operator mode, Cloud can execute fast attacks, guard against ranged attacks and magic. Operator mode is the default mode Cloud is in when he is in battle.
Punisher Mode: In punisher mode, Clouds moves more slowly, but Square unleashes a more powerful attack than usual. In addition, Cloud launches a counterblow every time he guards an enemy's melee attack. He cannot, however, guard against ranged attacks or magic. When you evade such attacks, you will switch back to Operator Mode.
Limit Breaks Cross-Slash: Damage your foe while making ominous symbols with your slashes.
Ascension: Focus on a single enemy and deliver several powerful strikes. Significantly increases stagger.
Cloud's unique abilities are going to be the two that you're going to be familiar with the most over the course of the game: Mode Shift -Operator Mode and Punisher Mode. Operator Mode allows for Cloud's traditional combo attacks with swings from his Buster Sword, but Punisher Mode allows for a slower, yet more methodical approach that allows Cloud to instantly counter close range attacks for massive damage. Punisher Mode is preferred against fast, agile foes who are hard to hit or those who are difficult to damage by normal means. Punisher Mode allows Cloud to deal considerable damage to the Stagger gauge, allowing him to overwhelm opponents once staggered. From there, you can switch back to Operator Mode and clean up foes with ease.
One of Cloud's late endgame weapon abilities, Counterstance, is an enhanced version of his Punisher Mode that counters close range AND long-range attacks for massive damage once triggered.
Barret Wallace
Overcharge
Press [Triangle] while in control of Barret to deliver a heavy-hitting attack that fills a large portion of his ATB Gauge. Once unleashed, it takes a long time to recharge his attack. Pressing [Triangle], however, will speed up the process.
Overrun
When equipped with a melee weapon, Barret's Overcharge turns into Overrun, where by pressing [Triangle] Barret will charge at his enemy, pushing them and finishing with a powerful jumping attack that sinks them on the ground.
Once unleashed, it takes time to recharge this attack. Pressing the [Triangle] button, however, will speed up the process.
Abilities Steelskin Focused Shot
Lifesaver
Maximum Fury
Charging Uppercut
Smackdown
Point Blank
Barrett starts off the game as the party's sole ranged fighter, but over the course of the game, he obtains a few close-range oriented abilities to round out his play style. He essentially fits in the role that Aerith can when she's not playable at specific points of the game's narrative. If you want him to be your tank, he can do that with ease. If you want him to be your party's spellcaster, he can do that too with minimal effort.
Whatever you do, don't sleep on his long-range abilities. If you need to hit a target, he's your man for wherever it may be hiding on the battlefield. On top of that, Barret's the resident tank for the party, especially when coupled with Provoke, Cover, and Barrier Materia.
Tifa Lockhart
Whirling Uppercut, Omnistrike, Rise and Fall
As Tifa, you can press the [Triangle] button to execute martial technique Whirling Uppercut. To access more advanced techniques, you must use Unbridled Strength to increase your chi level. At level two, you will execute Omnistrike, and at level three, Rise and Fall. Upon utilizing an advanced technique, you will expend chi and drop one level.
Tifa's unique ability is her Unbridled Strength ability. This allows her to "level up" her fighting prowess to unleash even more powerful attacks. She can deal out more Stagger potential than Cloud with the proper setups while her skills that you pick up by the end of game will have her dodging and evading attacks with ease while still dishing out massive damage. Her combo potential is comparable to Zell's "Duel" Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII without the confines and restrictions of those button inputs.
Her damage potential in this game is comparable to a fighting game character as she has juggle combos, resets, and even pick-ups that would make even Tekken and Marvel vs. Capcom fans blush.
Aerith Gainsborough
Tempest
As Aerith, you can hold down the [Triangle] button to focus your magical energies and release it to unleash Tempest, a powerful magical attack. The potency of Tempest depends on how much magical energy Aerith has stored up. Depending on the situation, you may want to store small amounts of energy and release spells in low-powered bursts, or bide your time and unleash a particularly devastating blast of magic.
Abilities
Soul Drain
Arcane Ward
Sorcerous Storm
Fleeting Familiar
Ray of Judgement
Lustrous Shield
ATB Ward
Limit Breaks
Healing Wind
Planet Protector
Aerith has a massive change to her playstyle from the original FF7. In this game, she has the unique ability (Arcane Ward) to double cast her magical spells in a single turn without costing her additional MP, thus making her one of the most powerful spellcasters in the game right off the bat. That being said, Aerith is still a glass cannon in terms of defense, but her magical offensive power more than makes up for that fact.
In this title, she reminds me a lot like Hope Estheim from Final Fantasy XIII in terms of magical potential and offensive power in terms of a spellcaster role in your party.
Red XIII (Nanaki)
You get Red XIII during the assault on Shinra HQ after freeing him from one of the containment pods that were in the same room with Aerith. Unfortunately, he's never under the player's control. He acts independently in combat and you are unable to equip any Materia on him nor change his weapon, armor, nor his accessory. He essentially is there to round out your party's numbers in the last two acts of the game when you're split up. I personally found it to be lazy game design that he wasn't playable, even in a limited capacity in this initial outing of this game.
Summons (Combat Simulations)
Some summons in Final Fantasy VII Remake are acquired commonly like every other Materia in the game and that's by finding them hidden throughout the locales across the main questline. For more powerful summons to have at your disposal, you're going to have to defeat them as part of Chadley's VR Missions.
Chadley's Portable Battle Simulator plays a huge role in acquiring summons in this remake.
Yes, you have to fight and defeat these summons in battle, similarly to how you acquire Guardian Forces (GF) in Final Fantasy VIII and Espers in Final Fantasy XII.
You can acquire every summon in the game by unlocking these Combat Simulations from the requests for Chadley's various Battle Intel Report criteria. I humbly suggest to cast Assess every enemy type that you encounter for the first time as that's going to make a lot of this grunt work that Chadley will ask of you over the course of the game to fly by like it's nothing. By the time you get to Chapter 13, you're going to realize that Chadley's various rewards for his requests are among some of the best Materia in the game to power up your characters. The more Battle Intel Reports that you complete, the more Combat Simulations Chadley will unlock to allow you to battle summons to add them to your collection.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it), the final summon, Bahamut, can only be acquired after clearing ALL Battle Intel Reports and VR battles via the Shinra Combat Simulator.
Bahamut in Final Fantasy VII Remake.
I personally loved these fights and I'm looking forward to going back and grinding throughout the post-game content to challenge Bahamut down the road.
Core Gameplay
My feelings about the core gameplay mechanics after experiencing the demo firsthand the month prior haven't changed much, if any, in the main release of this game. There are still occasions where you are fighting against the camera more than the enemies presented in front of you, but that issue can be alleviated a bit by swapping characters. I knew that this issue would be in the retail release of the game as the demo was released too close to the release date to fix that before launch, even though journalists who played the game the year prior at E3 said that it was a prevalent issue then too. In that regard, I can't give Square Enix a free pass. Like I said back when I offered my first impressions of the demo, this is a PlayStation 2 era issue and completely unacceptable in regard to this game when everything else visually is so polished.
There's one mechanic that I failed to mention in the demo that's applicable in the main game as well. Both playable characters and enemies within combat can be interrupted out of the charge times for more powerful attacks and spells. If this is done while charging/preparing a high level spell or a powerful ability with steep ATB and/or MP cost to perform, then your character permanently loses that amount of ATB and MP as a consequence. You don't get a "do over" in a sense. This is a powerful means to cripple/handicap specific enemies if you can constantly stun/topple them over to force them to be interrupted out of their most powerful attacks, such as using Tifa's True Strike and Focused Strike abilities. Of course, there's bosses and other various enemies who have attacks that can't be interrupted, but I highly recommend taking full advantage of this tactic when and where you can, because the game's AI will abuse it at every and any opportunity. This creates this game's false sense of artificial heightened difficulty for at least Normal gameplay.
In terms of artificial difficulty, there's a lot of that too as there's moments where the gameplay shifts into this frantic rush to menu through all of your available options faster than the AI has a chance to respond (even with the ATB settings set to Wait). It's exciting the first few times that it happens but turns into a chore at times over the course of the game. There were only a few select encounters that I found to be truly difficult, but a simple reconfiguration of my available Materia and weapon loadout solved those problems more often than a different approach to combat.
Every single battle in this game comes down to a few factors. First, Assessing the enemy before you and determining what method of attack that it is most vulnerable to, using the spell of the same name. Second, using that weakness your benefit as you pummel it with that specific weakness to fill up the enemy's stagger gauge. Alternatively, you could play defensively and hold your ground until the right opening - possibly using Cloud's Punisher Mode/Counterstance or Counter Materia to breach the defenses of defense-heavy foes. Last but not least, you continue to use these tactics until your opponent's Stagger gauge is completely filled, thus allowing players to unleash an uninterrupted assault on their enemies from increased damage output and very little resistance, if any from the opposition. Unfortunately, the Staggered state only lasts for a short time and it's highly recommended that players save their most powerful abilities and spells to hit their opponents with during this duration to make the most of the Stagger. Mastery of combat in this remake will require players to know all of their enemies' weaknesses on the fly and instantly be able to react to maximize and optimize their damage output and stagger potential at every opportunity.
There's one issue that doesn't become a problem until it becomes painfully apparent in Chapter 17 when you're forced to swap your party members repeatedly between two separate groups. The game doesn't present an obvious method of how to exchange your full Materia setup between party members. There's a method to swap/trade it out, but it's really not obvious on the surface in terms of navigating the menus. Once again, this creates an artificial means of extending gameplay by forcing players to painstakingly slog through rearranging their Materia setups as particular party members are added and removed throughout the course of the game's narrative.
Favorite Sections of the Game
Wall Market (Chapter 9)
Why Did I Love It? Square Enix took everything I completely hated about this corner of the game in the original title and remade it for the better. I was dreading getting to this section the entire time once I got Aerith into my party as I knew it was coming up. I made sure to rush through it every single time during my playthroughs of the original game.
Cloud's three possible dresses for his disguise into Don Corneo's mansion.
Tifa's three possible dresses, depending on how you responded to her question back in Chapter 3. I loved the Chun-Li-esque outfit, of course.
Aerith's three possible dresses.
Getting the dresses for the girls was fun in its own right (Tifa's is dependent by the responses to her in Chapter 3 FYI) but acquiring Cloud's dress turns the game into a mock Dance Dance Revolution battle for superiority as Cloud shows off his best dance moves. I laughed my ass off at that sequence, only to be pleasantly surprised at Aerith's dress as well.
Wall Market ended up being a blast with the various sidequests there too, along with the combat arena as well. You can return here later in the chapter and in the game (Chapter 13) with Tifa and Barret to complete the various individual single character and two-man and three-man challenges to boot.
But c'mon, who can't forget about the revamped Hell House boss fight? I'll admit that gave me some trouble for my first couple of attempts before I got patterns and weaknesses down.
Tifa's Gameplay
Why Did I Love It? From that first time that you're allowed to control her in Chapter 3 and throughout the game to see her abilities grow, I loved how she's a fucking wrecking machine in this remake. Her combo attacks are a thing of beauty once you hotkey your favorites and seamlessly transition into one after another back to back.
Tifa's Dropkick ability.
Tifa's Starshower ability.
All of the Summoning Combat Simulations
Why Did I Love It? It's no secret among my friends, but my favorite encounters in later and more recent Final Fantasy outings are the battles against the summons that players have to best in combat before they lend their power to the party in each respective title in this franchise. Much like their reputation in games past, these battles hold up as some of the best encounters in the game.
The Surprise Jenova (Dreamweaver) Battle in Shinra HQ
Why Did I Love It? Listen to this track right here.
Oh my fucking god at that epic remix to the Jenova theme. It set the tone and the stage for this battle - if the lead-in from the narrative wasn't climatic enough with the clever swerve the story pulled at this point. The battle itself was amazing in it's own right. It almost made the slog through Hojo's lab worth it.
Cloud vs. Rufus (Rooftop of Shinra HQ)
Why Did I Love It? Simply put - that fight fucking RULED. Double goes for Rufus' improved design here. I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see Rufus until this moment at the tail end of the game. Here's hoping we get to see him and the rest of his cohorts in Shinra Corp in the sequel(s).
The Final Boss - Sephiroth
Why Did I Love It? Seriously, how the hell are Square Enix are going to top this fight? I was legit mad after that fight. It was everything and more from what I wanted out of Sephiroth from the end of the original FF7.
The only thing that comes close to the awesomeness of this fight (in terms of gameplay) is his guest appearances at a secret boss in the Kingdom Hearts games over the years.
Most Hated Sections of the Game
2nd Mako Reactor Bombing Run
Why Did I Hate It? The entire slog to get there followed by another slog throughout the reactor to disable the parts of the Airbuster. It's a darn shame too, because the revisions to the Airbuster boss fight in this remake was well worth putting up with all of this to get there. Instead, this is padding the gameplay to extend this remake's runtime with seemingly endless corridors, stairs, and then finally the reactor itself that isn't that much to write about either. This was one of the first instances where the game was reaching pretty damn hard to add hours onto gameplay, but it definitely wasn't its biggest offender.
Hojo's Lab (Shinra HQ - Chapter 17: Deliverance from Chaos)
Why Did I Hate It? A completely unnecessary slog throughout a maze of corridors and rooms that would look more appropriate in a Mass Effect game if we were fighting the Reapers on their spaceship instead of supposedly heading up to the top of the Shinra HQ building. This was essentially padding the game's runtime for no reason with crap that wasn't fun to do at all with all of the constant pulling of levers and swapping between two separate parties. Plus this was a poor excuse to dump Red XIII into your party as a NPC and not allow him to be playable in any way whatsoever.
Motor Ball (Boss) During the Highway Escape Sequence (Chapter 18: Destiny's Crossroads)
Why Did I Hate It? This boss fight that was a traditional boss encounter in the original game was swapped out with an on-rails extended motorcycle chase sequence. The motorcycle combat in this Remake is hit or miss at best all on it's own, but when coupled with a boss encounter like this, that's when the glaring flaws with this aspect of the gameplay stick out like a sore thumb. Motor Ball has some questionable hitboxes on his tires (i.e. his weak point) and this fight just feels more like a chore than an exciting climax to this highway chase like it was in the original.
The Final Boss - Sephiroth
Why Did I Hate It? I'm mentioning this moment again because it made me mad after I finished this fight to close up the game. There's no way that they are going to top this battle in the sequels. How is anything after that climatic encounter is going to make it any better than what we experienced here? That encounter left me feeling like it's not going to get ANY better than this. It's only going downhill from here.
Ending Speculation & Theories
I'm sure a LOT of people lost their shit at this moment...
My Take On The Ending:
I'm going to start off by saying that I'm not versed in all of the post-FF7 novels and lore, such as the stuff that was released alongside the Compilation of FF7 content, but I feel like I have enough prior knowledge on the core Final Fantasy VII narrative to get a sense where they are going with this. That being said, I'll shoot for a second with my interpretation of the game's ending.
Simply put - I feel that we're getting a multiverse principle in a sense. By some bizarre change of fate - i.e. the Whispers (which were the gatekeepers in this game in terms of making sure that events maintain the course that they went in the original Final Fantasy VII to maintain the current timeline. I see them like Time Wraiths in the CW's Flash television show) - Aerith and Sephiroth have awareness of their fates from the original Final Fantasy VII. Sephiroth appears to be manipulating the Whispers AND Cloud to not only to follow the course of the original FF7, but to ultimately change his own fate at the end of that game as well. Aerith, on the other hand, is on board and willing to stop Sephiroth, but she seems to be questioning remaining on the course of her own fate as well. It's a crazy dilemma here as if both characters know what is going to happen to them, then why is Aerith so adamant about stopping Sephiroth here and now? It felt like it comes out of left field too, especially with Aerith's explanation prior to the final battle. The only explanation for that I could conclude to is that she wants to change - or rather remake - her own destiny as well. That would mean that this game isn't just a remake in name only as in the fact that Sephiroth wants to remake the entire course of all of these characters' fates and not only his own. He already manipulated Cloud and his friends into destroying the Whispers, who were the gatekeepers of maintaining the course of the original timeline from the events at the end of this game. The craziest thing to me during that battle was that they showed Cloud's party glimpses of everything that went wrong in the original FF7 timeline, including the desolate future where humanity is extinct 300 years later. If Aerith has memories and knowledge of the "proper" timeline, then she has to be painfully aware that she has to play Sephiroth's game in a sense to correct the course if humanity is going to survive. I felt like this game is telling us that the ending of the original Final Fantasy VII was the "bad" ending. Sure, Cloud and his party defeated Sephiroth and stopped Meteor with Holy and an assist from the Lifestream, but at what cost? Especially when it seems like that humanity is doomed to be extinct not too many centuries after that fact.
(Laughs) Who knows, we might end up getting this in the sequels...
From the way how I see it, Sephiroth is already ahead of the game to make his dream a reality and it might be too late for Cloud and his friends to make a difference. That's going to be the crazy thing about the sequel(s) if they are going the route that I'm expecting the game to go in. The game could potentially split in a capacity where we are still playing the events out like how they originally played out in the original FF7, but thanks to the Whispers being eliminated, you have this new reality where Zack Fair is still alive (devs have confirmed this) and he assembles his own crew to take on Sephiroth in his own reality while Aerith never dies in the current timeline. By the end of this remake series, all of these timelines/realities converge at a single point where everyone joins forces to defeat Sephiroth in a multi-tiered battle, much like the one against Bizarro-Sephiroth in the original FF7.
Time travel and alternate realities are usually a mixed bag and tend to be troublesome in a lot of fictional narratives. Look at how divided fans were after Marvel Studios concluded a decade long storyline with Avengers: Endgame with time travel fuckery. As a Marvel Comics fanboy, even I can admit that was far from the perfect way to handle all of that. That's why I'm simultaneously scared and excited to see what Square Enix does next with this. Not to mention that Tetsuya Nomura doesn't have a good reputation with gamers - namely by the fans soured by Kingdom Hearts III - especially when it comes to these narratives as of late.
Other Takes:
Dropped Frames Special - Final Fantasy VII Spoilercast (w/ Maximilian Dood)
Say what you will about Max but he's one of the biggest fans of FF7 lore - old and new - so it's interesting to hear what's his take on all of this. The guys on this session talk about EVERYTHING from the game and even bring up stuff from the companion books/novels that tie into the ending. So if you want a "hardcore" fan explanation and theories on the ending, you can't look any further than this. I definitely learned a lot of information here that I wasn't aware of otherwise.
My personal favorite theory from reddit
This is my favorite theory out of all of the ones that are floating out there as it makes you think outside of the box in a sense.
That's the million dollar question isn't it? For nostalgic fans of the original, you're already deep within this game's post-game content and anxiously awaiting any news of the next entry in this remake, so it doesn't matter what I have to say in that regard. For newcomers and casual fans of the original game, I have to say that this may not be for everyone. Not everyone is a fan of Square Enix's move to make their RPGs dwell into the realm of action games and I doubt FF7 Remake is going to change their opinions of that, especially if they didn't care for Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III's gameplay. The best advice that I can offer is to download the free demo and play through the initial reactor bombing run and see if this change to the classic gameplay is to your liking or not.
In terms of the narrative, it makes me both excited and afraid of where Square Enix is going to take this next. At the same time, I'm glad that it's making newcomers curious and eager to the take the initiative to experience the original Final Fantasy VII on their own terms 20+ years later.
Now let's see if this remake won't take 15-20 years to finish like the Kingdom Hearts series did. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be in my 50s to 60s still waiting another Final Fantasy VII Remake sequel.
Featuring a number of jaw-dropping reveals and glimpses at scenes from throughout the full game, the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Final Trailer is here! Play the free demo now: https://sqex.link/FF7RDemo FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be available worldwide April 10, 2020 on PlayStation 4. The story of this first, standalone game in the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE project covers up to the party’s escape from Midgar, and goes deeper into the events occurring in Midgar than the original FINAL FANTASY VII. The world is under the control of Shinra, a corporation controlling the planet's life force as mako energy. In the city of Midgar, Cloud Strife, former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary lends his aid to the Avalanche resistance group, unaware of the epic consequences that await him.
I know there's people avoiding any and all possible spoilers like the plague when it comes to this game and rightfully so, but to say that this game is well over twenty years old, there's not too much that is going to surprise me at this point going in. I get that the narrative is going to be "cleaned up" and expanded upon where needed, like all remakes should do, but I'm not going to go into this game like this isn't a story I haven't experienced before. For me and a lot of fans of the original game, this was our formal introduction to the RPG genre and cinematic gaming storytelling as a whole. For a final look at the game before people get their hands on it, it seems like this trailer is pulling out all of the stops, but it concerns me that there's VERY little gameplay shown here outside of some teases of fights towards the end of the Shinra Tower and Midgar Escape sections from the original game.
I got a good moment with my father recently when I showed this trailer to him and even he said he remembered me sitting in the den of my parents' home for hours on end when I was in middle school and high school playing this game. (Laughs) His first question about halfway in was whether or not this was a movie about it being made since it looked so real.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is an upcoming action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4. Split across multiple releases, the first part is scheduled for March 3, 2020. The game is a remake of the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII, following mercenary Cloud Strife as he and eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE battle against the corrupt Shinra megacorporation and the rogue former Shinra soldier Sephiroth. Gameplay is planned to combine real-time action similar to Dissidia Final Fantasy with other strategic elements.
The remake was announced following years of rumors and fan requests. Key staff members returned to help with Remake: original character designer Tetsuya Nomura returned as both director and main character designer, original director Yoshinori Kitase acted as producer, and Kazushige Nojima returned to write new material. Due to the scale of the project, the team decided to release Remake as multiple games so no original content would be cut. They also decided to add new content and adjust the original character designs to balance between realism and stylization.
E3 2019 Square Enix Conference Trailers:
Right off the bat, this game looks pretty fucking nuts in terms of the multi-tiered boss fight for the Guard Scorpion in the first Mako reactor run of this gameplay reveal demo.
The real-time action reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts at first glance, but the developers have assured players that there's the option to slow things down once an ATB bar is gained from normal attacks. From here, you can slow the action down to slow-motion effects and have time to think about your next plan of attack. This can be set to Wait or Active like traditional turn-based Final Fantasy titles for players who were fans of that style of gameplay won't feel alienated with the more action-oriented style to the changes to the battle system.
One major change that may have noticed from the footage above is that you can swap characters on the fly to take advantage of each character's unique abilities. Cloud can't attack flying enemies, so he has to swap to Barrett to shoot them down with his gatling gun. I'm intrigued to see how that will play out with the return of the Materia system when there was a Long-Range Materia in the original FF7 that allowed characters like Cloud (who specialize in close-range attacks) to attack flying enemies. Another change to the gameplay is that your characters have the ability to evade/roll or block incoming attacks. The block ability seems to work like the Cover Materia, where the attack damage is reduced in some capacity but you are able to counterattack with a stronger reversal in response. There also seems to be a type of combo system in play too where your party members can combo your various abilities (spells, enemy skills, etc.) and Limit Breaks back to back via the ATB gauge. You can potentially knock your enemies off-balance or stagger them (in the same vein as Final Fantasy XIII) and deal additional damage while they are in this state.
(Whistles) Wow, this looks amazing.
I think Square Enix wants players to dive into the combat of this game that while it has some of the same bells and whistles of the original FF7, that players should treat it as a different beast entirely. The impression I got from this is that they want to continue to evolve the combat of their modern titles without having feeling like they have to regress their advances for the sake of mere nostalgia.
Ever since this game was announced, I have been HEAVILY skeptical of it. I'm probably going to continue to feel that way until I physically have the game in my hands and have played all of the installments in succession to completion. I kept noticing a theme with all of these trailers that Square Enix would keep sharing - they aren't showing anything outside of Midgar. That instantly threw up a red flag that they were further behind on this project than they have let on previously. If only the first portion of the game, Midgar, would be solely focused on this area, then we could be potentially looking at this game stretching out to be at least 4-6 installments at this point if they tend to expand the original narrative, revises other points of it, and even potentially include the stuff they added into the lore over the years. This is going to be one hell of a stacked game.
Confirmed Information:
Final Fantasy VII Remake hits the PlayStation 4 on March 3, 2020 with multiple editions of the game available for pre-order.
The game will be split into two Blu-ray discs.
This first part will take place entirely in Midgar.
Gameplay footage revealed at E3 showed off its new combat system, which combines real-time and turn-based elements.
3.3.2020 - the day a LOT of people will be calling out sick from work/school...
From Square Enix's own website and I quote, "FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience."
In another significant structural change from the original, Final Fantasy VII Remake is to be segmented in multiple installments, each of which will be the size of Final Fantasy XIII, according to producer Yoshinori Kitase. Kitase, in the same interview, said the game the company's creating is just too big to play in one installment.
At E3 Kitase explained the game would take place in two parts, over two Blu-Ray discs, but did not indicate these parts would be released at different times.
It sounds like the team is recreating the hell out of this game, as Nomura and Kitase, in the few interviews they've done, make reference to its immense scale. Another clear theme: The duo aren't interested in a straight remake. The changes they're making aren't just to the combat, or to the vastness of the world, but to the story as well.
"I don't want the remake to end as something solely nostalgic. I want to get the fans of the original version excited," Kitase said to Dengaki, again translated by Gematsu. "We'll be making adjustments to the story with this thought in mind."
Nomura added to this, enigmatically saying, "I hope that [fans of the original] can be surprised once again." - CNET
My Personal History With Final Fantasy VII & Thoughts So Far:
Final Fantasy VII is a game that means a lot for many gamers. For many it was the gateway JRPG into the genre. Others it was the definitive reason to own the original PlayStation/PSX/PSone. Then there's many people who consider it to be one of, if not the best, games of all-time.
That last one is a bit of a stretch for me after all of these years. I got PSX during the tail-end of the '90s and the first games I got for it that Christmas that year were Mega Man 8, Soviet Strike, and Crash Bandicoot. It wasn't until my best friend who got one around the same time wouldn't shut up about FF7 while we would be at school and/or hanging out. Eventually, I caved and asked my dad to get it for me. For me personally, this was my first "proper" entry into the JRPG genre as I can't consider Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series a traditional RPG.
All of the playable characters that have been shown so far in trailers and gameplay videos.
There's a lot of things that I'll always remember FF7 for - the unforgettable characters, the music (that still floods my randomizer on Google Play music at times and I still have a wealth of mixed CDs with tracks from this game that I made back in high school and college), the battle system/mechanics (no one is going to ever forget the first time they saw Omnislash), and last, but not least - the story. Say what you will about the story that it was flawless and remarkable, but at the end of the day, this was a very flawed narrative. Even the producers and original developers admit to this as they got to the point where they couldn't even agree on the definitive ending, hence why there's code left in the game for Aeris to be present in the final battle against Sephiroth - but that's a conversation for another day.
FF7's narrative essentially revolves around Cloud Strife, who joined a military group - simply known as SOLDIER - that has ties to the shady Shinra Corporation. The bulk of Cloud's history is surrounded in mystery as left SOLDIER not too long before the events of the game start to join a rebellion group, AVALANCHE, as a mercenary for hire as per the recommendation of his childhood friend, Tifa Lockhart. (Laughs) After all of these years, I saw Cloud's actions as simply joining the military to impress the hot chick from his hometown that he was crushing on and ended up falling on his face in process, which somehow turned into a global destruction plot. Boy the things some people would do to get laid...
As events progress throughout the game, it's revealed that the Shinra Corporation have global domination in mind as they harvest their planet's resources for their own benefit, but the former leader of SOLDIER, Sephiroth, has his own plans as he wants to destroy the planet and all life living on it altogether. Cloud and Sephiroth's estranged history is revealed through flashbacks, shedding light on how Sephiroth's sanity deterioted until he became the megalomaniac that the game paints him as the title's titular villian.
Even after he's defeated in FF7, Sephiroth's villainy would live on for years to come afterwards with his constant reappearances in other Square Enix/Squaresoft games, such as the Kingdom Hearts series (optional boss), Dissidia: Final Fantasy series (playable and non-playable character), and even the FF7 tie-in games/spin-offs - Crisis Core (prequel to the events of FF7) and FF7: Advent Children (sequel CGI movie to the events of the original game). Apparently, Square Enix didn't know how to keep this guy buried six feet under. I honestly can't blame them though as everything involving him or FF7-related content period tends to sell like hotcakes.
Cloud would make a wealth of allies on his journey to save the planet from the combined threats of the Shinra Corporation and Sephiroth. He would reunite with his childhood friend, Tifa, and align himself with the leader of AVALANCHE, Barrett Wallace, shortly thereafter. Fate would have him cross paths with the last "Ancient" in existence when he met the flower girl, Aeris Gainsborough, who would live on in fans' memories of this game forever after being killed by Sephiroth. His party would discover Red XIII being experimented on in one of Shinra Corporation's laboratories, who would promptly join their fight as well. Before the quest is said and done, they would joined by the pilot/mechanic, Cid Highwind, the master thief/amateur ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi, the talking puppet, Cait Sith, and the former Turk, Vincent Valentine. Both Yuffie and Vincent were recruited by optional means in the game's narrative and not required to complete the game. Despite of this fact, both characters have been considered fan favorites over the years.
I guess the beauty and legacy of Final Fantasy VII is that these characters stand the test of time and this narrative has stuck with many gamers for over two decades now. The characters and their designs have become iconic and a mainstay to the genre for the years that followed, with little to no chance that will change anytime soon. I always felt the game's ending left a lot of things left to be desired. We got a nice cutscene to wrap the major crisis up, but we never got to see what happened next. In my honest opinion, the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which includes Advent Children, The Last Order (OVA movie), Dirge of Cereberus, and Crisis Core don't count as they added far too much unnecessary baggage and bullshit that Square Enix has to navigate through in terms of continuity for this game. As it's original stand-alone release, FF7 was a good game, a great one at various points of it's duration for that matter. I'm not going lie to myself saying that it's the best game that I have ever played nor I am going to say that it's the best gaming narrative out there, especially when even the producers and developers themselves say it's incomplete and flawed. On top of that, I've played and have seen games done better and tell their stories better. Nevertheless, the memories of this game have remained with me and I doubt they ever will go away for me or any other gamers that experienced this game in it's original format.
Much like the re-release of Resident Evil 2 (another beloved title from the PSX era of gaming) by Capcom earlier this year, nostalgia googles are going to be one hell of a drug when it comes to the reception of this game in the coming months (and years with the future installments). I want to see Square Enix get this right and remake this game to the capacity and proper vision that they want for it. I'm not a fan of splitting the game up into installments (clearly a cash cow scheme by Square Enix when it's common knowledge that nothing from them outside of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy related isn't making them much money), but it's whatever. It's clear that they aren't making this for me. I'm not part of the hardest of hardcore fans of this game. They are making this for the people who were literally losing their minds seeing this footage at E3 and around the world over the internet. These are the fans that live and breathe FF7. These people were in TEARS just to see this become a reality. I have had movies move me to tears, but it's completely over my head to see that type of a reaction just from people seeing this game being remade.
People have a right to be losing their minds about this game visually. This is like day and night in comparison from how this looks currently in comparison of the original release two decades ago.
I genuinely hope that this game is a success. Square Enix have a lot riding on this game in terms of their reputation in the gaming industry, financial resources and man-power behind the development of this game. Work on both Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts had to be prioritized at one point to get those games completed before those teams were brought in to work on this game as well. There's no doubt that Square Enix is under a lot of pressure to deliver with this massive love letter to long-time fans of this beloved entry of the Final Fantasy series. Fingers are crossed. Let's hope this remake will be one to remember.
