Not a Remake - Final Fantasy VII Reimagined

Finally, after years of teasing, rumours, and development drama, the Final Fantasy VII Remake has been released. Given my few qualms with the last mainline entry, I was worried that I would have to struggle through the combat just to enjoy the story, but the remake is a marketable step up from Square Enix’s recent developments.

Let me start by saying that I grew up on Final Fantasy VII. I remember the first time I ever saw it. I was at a birthday party for a kid that I wasn’t quite friends with… you know one of those ones where the whole class gets invited. Anyway, at one point the kid flipped on his PlayStation and was showing off this sweet new game. Up until this point I was mainly gaming on my blue Gameboy Pocket. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Since my parents spoiled us pretty good, we ended up getting a PlayStation and Final Fantasy VII soon after. My best friend also managed to convince his parents and got it too. Most of our days after school were spent crushing FFVII. We played a ton. In fact, Final Fantasy VII would have probably been the second or third game I ever beat, falling behind Pokemon Blue and likely The Ocarina of Time.

While I tried to keep my expectations in check, they were pretty high. The remake is good. Not perfect, but damn good. Let me start with where it stumbles before getting into where it succeeds. The biggest stumbling block is how the story plays out in the last couple chapters. It has been said that the remake is more of a reimagining, and that is largely thrown into gear over the last two chapters of the game. I get what they wanted to do, but sadly it feels like they Kingdom Heart’d it. The writing overcomplicated the ending.

The game also stumbles a handful of times in terms of game design. For the most part the game plays very well, but there are a handful of battles that left me scratching my head. Tight, confined battles that would cause the camera to snap around in circles is the main issue here. The materia system is back and feels great, but linking the usage of magic to the ATB bar feels like a missed opportunity. I constantly found that buffing the party wasn’t worth the ATB cost. Hard mode is another example of poor design. Having a hard mode is great, but the constraint on the use of items is a cheap way of increasing difficulty. It ultimately feels tacked on, and hiding certain battles behind this mode is very disappointing.

Lastly, the game suffers from some graphical inconsistencies. Digital Foundry does a great job of highlighting this. Some parts of the game appear to have broken textures. A small blemish on an otherwise amazing looking game.

That all being said, the game gets a lot of things right. This is probably the best playing single player Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy XII. Gone is the clunky, janky combat from XV, and in its place is a buttery smooth combat system. Every playable character has their own distinct feel, and swapping between each on the fly adds a depth that just feels good. That is the best way to describe it: good. As I mentioned earlier, I do wish magic wasn’t tied to the ATB gauge, but the materia system is back, and is just as fun to create combinations with as the original game. There is also a stagger mechanic which kind of reminds me of FFXIII. Unlike FFXIII, they managed to make the stagger mechanic fun this time around. The method to defeating enemies efficiently lives in the stagger system, and enemies can have different ways of increasing their stagger meter.

Summon materia is also back and improved over the last mainline entry. In some boss or arena fights, depending on certain conditions like stagger, you will be able to summon a monster to battle by your side. While the original game let you summon at your fancy, the frequent yet limited summoning context in the remake is a step up from more recent entries in the series. Summons behave a lot like espers in FFXII. You can spend ATB to have the summon perform a move, but you do not control the summon directly. Your party does not vanish this time around, and having an extra member fight alongside you can quickly turn the tide of some difficult boss fights.

The story does have a bit of campiness, but for the most part that just adds to the nostalgia factor. The original game was quite campy to begin with, and the more bizarre or strange pieces of the story just invoke a feeling of familiarity. The vocal performances are also excellent. The character casting just feels right, and the delivery of lines is done very well. Again, it is just a feel thing. The characters feel just right.

So why is this game a reimagining and not a remake? Simply put, the final act of the game takes huge steps away from the original game. I could see people being upset with the changes as the game wasn’t quite advertised this way, but the changes open up the development team to make larger sweeping changes in future parts. Not to spoil too much, think more of a Marvel multiverse kind of thing. Personally I am excited for the next entries, and am looking forward to where the story will go.

After fifty hours I managed to complete the story on normal, and obtained all but four trophies. Even after completing the game and grinding out some trophy hunting, I don’t think I am done with it yet.