Here is something that you should know in this review: I have NEVER played the original Final Fantasy VII. I am going to review this remake as a non-Final Fantasy VII person, especially since many of the reviews I have seen are from Final Fantasy VII fans, so I am not going to have that bias. Now that you know, let us begin this long-awaited review.
Pros:
1.) Let’s start this review properly with the opening of this video game.
Already at the start, the game has a fantastic presentation. Where do I begin? Let’s start with the music: I love it so much from The Prelude – Reunion to One-Winged Angel – Rebirth, there are so many musical moments and its different variations that stood out to me. I may have heard some of the tunes here or there throughout my life, but now that this game has my full attention now, I can say that most, if not all of these tunes, are now in my head.
Secondly, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. While there are not many, the CG cutscenes look so crisp and detailed to the point of almost looking life-like. The in-game graphics may not look as detailed as the CG cutscenes, they look so amazing that there is nothing much to complain or nitpick. I can say that the dialogue cutscenes do look wooden with the characters just flapping their mouths instead of lip-syncing the actors’ voices, and there are times where the game takes it time loading some textures and a few areas where it does not look great; it does not ruin the game and are more like minor errors compared to the rest of the graphics. Overall, the presentation between its music and graphics are top-notch, and I congratulate them in that area.
2.) What an interesting world that is Midgar and its characters. While the game is only limited to the city of Midgar, what it shows is interesting (even though in my case, I have seen similar stuff like this before in other games, but FFVII has shown these earlier than those games) from the Mako reactors to the slums of Sector 7 to the Wall Market to the Shinra Company Building itself. The scale of some of these areas is enormous, and it does a good job helping players understand how big they are when going to these places. As for the characters, what can I say about them? They are all interesting in their own ways: Cloud Strife is a closed-off and skilled ex-SOLDIER who only cares about getting paid to do Avalanche’s (an eco-terrorist group) job until Sephiroth (I cannot tell you much about him yet) reappears in his life, Barret Wallace is a loving father to his four-year-old daughter and a hardcore environmentalist who wants to make sure that the planet is rid of mako reactors since he is sees them as ruining the planet, Tifa Lockhart is a tough yet kind brawler who shares the same goals with Avalanche but not to an extreme scale as Barret’s, and Aerith Gainsborough is a kind yet playful girl that has more to her background than just being a skillful magician.
Even other major characters (who from what I have heard were side-characters in the original) have their own time to shine in this game, especially Sephiroth, who is slowly becoming one of my favorite video game antagonists, though we shall see what they are going to do with him from here. I love these characters and the world they live in (for the most part), and I cannot wait to see what lies beyond Midgar in the next game.
3.) As for the gameplay, if it was not obvious already, it is completely different from the original. Instead of a turn-based mechanic like the original, the remake decides to use a real-time mechanic similar to Kingdom Hearts‘ battle mechanics. You fight one or several opponents at the same time while controlling up to three party members with four different characters, though you cannot choose who goes to your party since they have already been set for you. Cloud is the balanced fighter, Barrett is the ranged gunner, Tifa is the fast brawler, and Aerith is the skillful mage; all of these have their share of uses depending on what you are looking. The most interesting thing about the gameplay is the materia system: the characters do not have a set of magic and skills (not counting abilities), so there are several materia (magical orbs that can level up to increase their intensity) that can range from elemental magic like fire and ice to variation of skills like increased Active Time Battle (or ATB, a bar that makes these characters do certain moves) and assessing enemies that these characters can have to help in their battles. The fighting system is awesome with the player having to concentrate with their characters and the enemies at the same time but can pause the battle while picking moves, and while there are times where it can be irritating (if these guys keep interrupting me while I am using MP or ATB moves that will ultimately use MP and ATB even it fails, I swear…!), the amount of customizations you can give to each character and applying them to battle is so much fun, and it is enjoyable to win against a difficult boss battle with what you have.
Cons:
1.) The camera can be an issue at times, particularly in battles. When things get hectic and chaotic, the camera can make these battles hard to follow, especially when you are pushed into the corner and enemies are moving quickly. It can go a bit too close to the characters where I cannot really see what is happening until I have to back off. It can be somewhat fixed with lock-on and adjustments in the options menu, but not completely. This is more of an annoyance, but I wish that this can be fixed, hopefully, it will in the next game.
2.) This one can be seen as a nitpick, but I wish that the audio for the dialogue can be improved, particularly when they are heard via radio, comms, TVs, basically any diegetic sound sources. I can barely understand what they are saying, and it makes certain hectic moments ruined with the lack of clear audio. I know you guys are going to say, “Turn on subtitles.” While it does help, I am the type of person who would rather not have subtitles in any visual media unless if a character is speaking in a foreign language that the audience has to understand. Having subtitles is distracting, and I rather see what the characters are going through rather than words fill up a fourth of the screen. This is an easy fix, but I prefer no subtitles if it were not for the distorted audio.
3.) I will remind you guys once again that I have never played Final Fantasy VII, so I want you to keep that in mind when I talk about the narrative. Before you get the wrong idea, I do like the writing and the story, but I do not like how some things are either left out or not explained. I do like the world of FFVII, but there are things that confuse me. Here are some examples that I recall when playing this game: what is Wutai? Who is Sephiroth, and why does Cloud hate him so much? How big is Avalanche if it is not the five members we have seen so far? What in the world is this cat-looking humanoid that appears for a few seconds? Who are these other characters that appear very late into the game? Why is one of these late newcomers treating the playable characters as though they are best friends? What is the place that these characters go to in the last boss fight (it is a cool boss fight, but I still have no idea what exactly that place is)? I know that many of these questions may be answered in the sequels, but that is not the only thing that bothers me narrative-wise.
There are a few areas in the game where I think it spends a little too much time. I am not fond of revisiting certain areas like the sewers and the train graveyard, because they are padding the experience for a bit too long or they were never interesting places to explore other than story purposes (assuming it is going to be mentioned again later). In certain gameplay moments that continues the narrative, all you have to do is move your characters a few steps and that is it…the developers could not just make a whole cutscene instead of dividing into two parts with the gameplay in between, or am I missing something? I cannot help but feel that I need to play the original game in some way, because not everything is fully explained as mentioned before. While it does not ruin the game’s narrative, it does feel insulting that most of the things I learned about these characters, groups, and Midgar are through information from the loading screen. Also, I like to mention that I am not a fan of the Whispers until the last chapter, because they are conveniences to the plot when a big plot point occurs and the characters cannot do anything about it because of these Whispers. Overall, I love the characters, the narrative, and the world of Midgar, but it does bother and confuse me that there are many plot points and world building that are left unresolved or unanswered until the next game.
Overall:
On January 31, 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII was released on the first PlayStation, and that video game has a huge impact on everyone who has played it. The writing, the characters, the gameplay, the world, the themes, and so many more are what stand out to these fans (and possibly more, but you should find their videos just to be sure). This game was such a huge success that there are several spin-offs from Before Crisis to Crisis Core to G-Bike, several of its characters appear in Kingdom Hearts (a video game where I knew some of these characters), an animated CG film and OVA were made called Advent Children and Last Order respectively, and the main character, Cloud Strife, became a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When its remake was announced on E3 2015, I will let these videos explain everything to you how the fans felt:
After five years of waiting, was the remake worth it, especially from a non-Final Fantasy person’s point of view?
There are a few reasons why I did not get this game at launch. As mentioned before, I have never played Final Fantasy VII, but I do know certain story beats and I have watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children many years ago (If you wondering what I thought of it at the time, I loved the action, the animation, and the music, but I could not care less about the story and the characters). Another reason is that this video game is PART 1 of the original game instead of the whole game itself; that easily discouraged me, and I thought I should wait until all of the parts are released, but with the current pandemic and the coming end of the PlayStation 4 console, I decided to get this game anyway. After playing it twice and replaying the first three chapters for the third time in hard mode, what does a non-Final Fantasy VII fan like me has to say? I do enjoy playing this game, but I do not love it.
I can see why the fans love these characters and the world, but since this is just part 1 of a whole story, it leaves me kind of frustrated that I have to wait (likely for a few years) until the next part to be satisfied (especially since not all of the playable characters from Yuffie to Vincent have not appeared yet). Though, if the ending is implying what I think it is, the next part may have an interesting twist to the next Final Fantasy VII Remake games. I will be honest, if I was told to choose which is the best game between Final Fantasy VII Remake and Persona 5 Royal, I am going to pick Persona 5 Royal, because it has a resolved and satisfying story, more content than the original, stylish presentation, fun gameplay, and more things to do in it. To be fair, what great things that FFVII Remake has, it does very well. Maybe as a whole, the FFVII Remake series will be 10/10, but being the first of its series, it leaves a great first impression on its gameplay, its world, its characters, and its presentation despite the frustrating unresolved story. I cannot wait to see what is in store for FFVII Remake; it has my attention, and I cannot wait for the next part…in a few years…or I can just play the original.
8/10
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