XIII Walked So VII Could Run
I finished Final Fantasy VII Remake in a week. I didn’t take my time with it. I’m still far from “done” with it. With that being said I still want to put in coherent words what I feel (or rather felt)whilst gallivanting throughout the 35 hours it took for me to see the credits.
When I booted up the game for the first time I wasn’t alone. My good friend Stephanie was there with me as I counted down the hours, then minutes, then finally seconds until the game was available to play. My first impression when playing through the first chapter of the game was “Heh, the enemies are a lot tougher than they were in the demo….” Despite the extra period in my ellipses that wasn’t a bad thing. In fact my one concern with the demo is that the game felt too easy. I was afraid I was going to be able to cheese my way through the story buy just mashing the Square button. Luckily that wasn’t the case. Final Fantasy VII isn’t Final Fantasy XV.
FFXV is a pinball machine that only has one ball. FFVII is pachislot.
Let’s talk about the graphics.
This is without a doubt the prettiest looking game Square has ever put out. Every nook and cranny has been filled to the brim with such luscious detail, and I cannot wait until I can experience this game on a Playsation 5. The current console just can’t handle the love and affection Unreal Engine 4 gives to this world. It’s still good to look at, but just wait a second or two for the smaller assets to properly load in. Other than that the game is breathtaking. Battles look like prerendered cutscenes that you’d see in tech demos in the mid 2010s. That’s absolutely a compliment. I get “Legend of Zelda Wii u demonstration” vibes during the fight with Reno in the church. Keeping the battle UI on screen during these phase transitions helps keep you into the game. It just looks great.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a Playstation 5 launch title that came a bit early.
When I heard Nobuo Uematsu was composing a song for FFVII Remake I was intrigued, but not surprised. He had just did a track for FFXV’s multiplayer expansion, after all. I’m sorry but the new song he did for the ending kind of sucks. It’s got this early 00’s not-quite butt rock vibe to it. I still think it holds up though in the context of it all but you probably won’t see me jamming out to it any time soon. The rest of the soundtrack however is just stunning. It radiates this Final Fantasy XIII energy throughout. This makes sense seeing that a good amount of the game’s soundtrack is by Masashi Hamauzu- the composer for FFXIII. (He really loves using the triangle.) The underground tunnels Aerith and Cloud trek through before Wall Market had me completely enthralled. I could talk about the music all day long honestly. Wall Market, Jenova, the final boss battle in particular was hyping me up more than when 15 year old me first finished the original FFVII all those years ago.
If FFVII Remake’s OST doesn’t come to Spotify I’ll simply be forced to give Square Enix *more* of my money.
When talking about how FFVII Remake *plays* I was reminded of the tight corridors of Cocoon in Final Fantasy XIII, and how reviewers completely bashed it for being too linear. I suppose after coming from the Morrowind-esque open world of FFXII one would expect it to always be like this, but Final Fantasy X was perhaps more linear, and people don’t seem to remember that nearly as much as they like to poke fun at XIII. Final Fantasy XIII was in fact a linear game, with a far from linear story structure, and I feel like the whiplash of game and story is what stuck out with people over a decade ago. Final Fantasy VII Remake is also a linear game. Don’t let the side quests and optional fights fool you. The game is a roller coaster ride that’s not splitting up into any different rails, and that’s fine! Final Fantasy XV proved that Square just…. can’t do open worlds well. Midgar isn’t an open world, but it’s a closed off world with so much to do, and it’s fun to play which at the end of the day is all that really matters in the end. The 35 hours that it took me to finish the game weren’t wasted, and I didn’t do a single side quest. I don’t regret this. Just…playing the game proved to me that I got my money’s worth. I didn’t need to be coddled with bonus content. I absolutely plan on playing this game again, but the hard mode and New Game Plus just doesn’t do it for me. Hard mode disables item usage, and in lieu of a proper new game plus there’s a chapter select feature after you finish the game that lets you well, select chapters- while keeping your stats, weapons, and materia. I don’t really see the fun in stomping on enemies with endgame weapons, nor do I find not being able to use items that I still find out in the open (Hey Square maybe you should’ve just given us money in chests now to buy more materia???)
For eons we have waited for a Final Fantasy Action RPG to actually be good, and with Final Fantasy VII Remake we no longer have to worry about the future.
IN CONCLUSION
Final Fantasy VII Remake is an absolutely gorgeous game, with gameplay that puts you in a flow-state not unlike the best JRPGs of the mid-00s, and music that literally brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. Much like the original FFVII changed the genre and industry as a whole, The first installment of it’s reimagining will still be talked about in the coming years, and if Square continues this series with the same quality and polish then we’re safe to breathe a sigh of relief. Square Enix is back. Final Fantasy is back.
