Shit, where do you start with something this big? A remake of Final Fantasy 7, one of the most influential RPGs of all time? And not just that, but a full, AAA budget, episodic retelling of one of gaming’s most iconic stories? I guess we start with some questions. Most important among them: Is Final Fantasy VII Remake… actually a remake of Final Fantasy 7 at all?
If you were alive and playing video games in 1997, you probably played Final Fantasy 7. It was a huge hit. While its blocky, low-polygon art style looks profoundly dated now, at the time it was a revolutionary change in style for the previously 2D pixel-based art that had dominated the series. Its story was a bit more… well, not mature, but maybe ‘relevant’ than the previous entries. You went from playing knights and thieves in semi-traditional fantasy settings to playing eco-terrorists and mercenaries in a sci-fi – or at least science fantasy – setting that nodded towards major issues like inequality and environmental fears. It changed JRPGs, particularly Final Fantasy, forever.
How do you remake a game that influential?
Chapter 1: Fight!
Right away, the game catches you up on some core changes. Gone is the classic turn-based combat that defined the JRPG genre for so long. In its place we have a more action-RPG style, a souped-up, in-depth version of what you might have seen in something like Kingdom Hearts. The combat is active, each hit filling up an ATB meter that allows you to use things like spells, abilities, and items.
The combat is initially just a bit too simple and a bit too slow. It isn’t until you start playing with a full party that the game thrives, but that takes a few chapters. Getting a real feel for the different ways to play Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith is definitely a good time. But the system’s real charms come as their ability lists deepen. You start instinctively jumping from character to character in combat, throwing down buffs, planning shifts based on who you want a tough enemy to focus on, and there’s a real flow to the encounters.
There’s also a decent amount of variety in how you set up and play. I’m about halfway through a second playthrough, this one on hard mode, and I have barely touched offensive materia. Instead, I focus on utilizing elemental abilities and mass healing/buffing… and it works. On the other hand, it’s totally possible to go for a more balanced approach, or a magic-focused one. As the game progresses, its flexibility reveals itself — and stays surprisingly fresh
Other changes are slower to reveal themselves.
Chapter 4: Character First
Avalanche, the eco-terrorist cell that hires Cloud at the start of the game, was very much an afterthought in the original series. Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were there to flesh the group out beyond its leader, playable character Barret, but that was basically it. Perhaps the smartest decision the game made was to give these characters, particularly Jessie, a lot more space to grow and interact as characters. You get a real sense for who the three of them are, and Jessie in particular shines.
This is where we see the radical expansion of the remake at its most positive: The game does a great job at giving its characters, large and small, more depth. Whether it is Barret explaining why he believes that violence is an acceptable response to Shinra’s pillaging of the planet or Jessie’s backstory as an actress, the game finds something about most of its characters to give them a little more flavor. In the original, the eco-terrorism was pretty quickly let go of in favor of a more fantastical struggle. Here, it stays front and center. Not only that, but the game (smartly) lets its characters have different feelings about violence.
One of my favorite moments of the game comes very early on, when dour Cloud finally cracks his first smile at the antics of the Avalanche crew. There was a real sense of growth in that moment, some visual, character-driven storytelling that the previous game literally could not do. When the game is focusing on its characters and its setting, Final Fantasy VII Remake verges on being a masterpiece.
Chapter 9: Pacing Issues
While the expansion works well when it deals with character and thematic issues, there are definitely times it starts to drag. Chapter 9, the infamous Wall Market section, is chief among those. It’s not that it has too many side quests; I think it has roughly the same amount as other, stronger chapters. It just doesn’t tell you anything new about any of the characters or the world. The middle of the game is, in some ways, the definition of Busy Work.
Minor spoilers here, but let me describe to you the chain of events in Wall Market now. You see Tifa being sent into Don Corneo’s mansion. You go to the mansion, and three guards outside are like, nah, you can’t come in, Aerith isn’t pretty enough and you don’t have a pass. Inexplicably, you say, “Fine,” and leave your friend in the sexual harassment dungeon. You go off to ask Don Corneo’s three most loyal lackeys if they’ll help you break in, and one of them, after some side quests, says sure. So you do the side quests, and then another character comes and says you need to rescue Tifa immediately. You run back to the mansion and demand to be let inside to rescue your friend. The guards say no again, and you say fine again.
You leave, and find Aerith outside, on a literal red carpet with fireworks as she approaches the mansion. You tell her she’s pretty, and then the two of you go to a dance show, again abandoning Tifa. After you win a dance contest, another one of Corneo’s most loyal lackeys helps you crossdress and gives you a recommendation as Corneo’s bride out of nowhere. Finally, you return to the mansion again, and the guards – who recognize you AND know that you’re here to fuck things up – let you in. Then the mission proceeds.
If Chapter 4 demonstrated the expansion at its best, Chapter 9 of the game illustrates it at its (almost) worst. The additions feel like busy work, and not the fun kind.
Chapter 16: Climax!
The game’s climax takes a few chapters, and if you’ve played the original, it shouldn’t be a surprise: The assault on Shinra Tower was the last thing the team did before leaving Midgar and going into the open world. That remains in the game. But, as with everything else, they expand upon the assault, and craft a thrilling, memorable climax.
This is also the chapter where the game really forces you to learn the mechanics. The bosses are much harder, for example, forcing you to play without key resources or team members. But maybe my favorite trick was the way the game changes your team comp in unpredictable ways. These are the first really challenging fights of the game. This is also where you really internalize the mechanics of how to approach different, challenging fights.
While I wish this section came earlier, I’m glad the developers knew how to make a climax that was both mechanically and narratively thrilling.
Chapter 18: The One With All the Spoilers
Let’s be frank: Chapter 18, the last chapter of Final Fantasy VII Remake, is bad. There were a lot of benefits to stopping the game just after the party leaves Midgar, but there’s one enormous drawback: The franchise’s most famous character, perhaps the most well-known villain in gaming history, doesn’t really appear much during the Midgar sections. How are you going to have Final Fantasy 7 without Sephiroth? Tragically, you don’t. Instead, the team botches damn near every single second Sephiroth appears on screen.
Sephiroth was appearing a lot early in the game. Cloud would clutch his head in universal basic language for “I am having a trauma right now!” and then Sephiroth would pop in and say some nonsense. I guess it’s neat that they amped up – like, way amped up – the subtextual homosexuality between Cloud and Sephiroth. But that’s not really enough to warrant all those appearances, considering they could have done that in the next chapter and been fine. The game took Sephiroth from a figure shrouded in danger and intrigue to an amusement park spook, jumping out of the shadows to threaten you with a fake chainsaw and trying to vanish before your rational brain took over and said, wait, hold on, this is dumb as hell.
Unfortunately, Sephiroth is the last boss of the game. Hell, he’s kind of an easy last boss, too. The fight is cool, but in a shallow way — ultimately, now we know that Sephiroth is just another goon, a slightly more bombastic version of the Rufus and Darkstar fight that is nevertheless way easier. Heck, you fight him at the end of a boss rush that involves fighting a giant monster truck, three ghosts, and a dragon — and he’s far and away the easiest of those fights.
Why are you even fighting him? The game has no idea. The game gives you no clues. He’s just… bad, I guess, but mostly in a meaningless way. It will be hard to recover from how poorly this introduction goes.
And, to be honest, from how incoherent Chapter 18 is on the whole. For fans intimately familiar with the original, the idea of ‘changing your destiny’ has some meaning, I guess, but the game is painfully unclear about what that even means. What are you changing? Why do you want to change it? Longtime players know that you are likely ‘saving’ Aerith… but do we really expect the updates to have the guts to let her live? I don’t, and nothing in this game suggests to me that they do. And besides: If you haven’t played the original, and recently enough to have an emotional bond with its version of Aerith… even those ambiguous stakes are not enough.
Remake
So, where do I come down on the game overall? In general, I feel very positive about it. The art design, pulled from the original, is phenomenal. The mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and dystopic modernism looks and feels amazing. What’s more, the remake actually managed to improve upon that design in some places. One section of the game gives you a weird, beautiful, scary vision of how Midgar is lit.
Don’t get me wrong, I have issues with some of the storytelling. I wish they’d been able to be more restrained with Sephiroth. And, of course, I wish the final chapter hadn’t been such a mess. But I still ultimately found Final Fantasy VII Remake an incredible experience. Playing the game felt good. The game was thoughtful about its characters. Relationships build realistically.
Perhaps the biggest new theme of the game is one of creativity vs fidelity — this is where all the big changes to the actual meta-story of the game come in. This is not a straight remake, after all. Its title is Final Fantasy VII Remake, a subtle but important distinction. In a very real way, this game is about the challenge of remaking such an iconic title. How do you say something new? What is the balance between what fans want and what they need? The game isn’t sure, but it is interested in trying to explore the idea.
And so am I. I have issues with the game, certainly, and with their execution of this last theme. But ultimately, the freedom it brings gives way to new surprises and delights. Some people will inevitably be angry that this isn’t a straight remake. Personally, this is the version I want. I can’t relive being 12 or 13 and playing the original again for the first time. But I can join in its creators in wrestling with the game’s ideas and legacy, in where it came from and where it has to go. And for all its problems, that is what Final Fantasy VII Remake does, and does well.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is out now on PlayStation 4. If you want to hear ScreenRex’s early impressions of the game, we talk about it on our podcast. For a full, in-depth spoiler discussion, I recommend the excellent Waypoint Radio podcast on the game.