Final Fantasy 7 REMAKE - First Look

This was supposed to be a mini review but it really got away from me. For more of a quick summary you can just check out my conclusions at the bottom.

Nothing says fantasy like a big sprawling metropolis

Those of you who, like me, have been waiting for Final Fantasy 7 REMAKE to come out finally have some cause for celebration, as there is now a Demo of the game available to play on the PSN(sorry XBOX and Switch Players, nothing planned for you guys yet). The Demo covers the start of the game through the first boss fight and subsequent escape from the starting area… I think I spoiler proofed that well enough. We haven’t really delved into video games too much on this blog, but I figured now was as good a time as any since this is something I have been waiting for since they were teasing a remake during the PS2 era… 

I know it’s a tech demo for the PS3, but it came out in very early 2005, almost 2 years before the PS3 dropped. Yeah,that’s right, I’ve been waiting for this remake for over a decade. Funny thing too, since Final Fantasy 7 barely makes my top 5 for my favorite games in the series. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it. I’ve beaten the entire game at least 5 times, and most of the spinoffs too. Maybe at some point I’ll put out an article ranking the main series, since I’m one of the rare people that’s beaten almost every one of them (never made it through 13). Anyway, on to the review.

Graphics, Visuals, and Audio

To say things have improved is an understatement.

So the first thing anyone’s gonna notice is obviously the graphics, which are an easy improvement over a 32 bit game from 1997. By modern standards I’d say the graphics are average, it’s harder to tell since they clearly took a more stylized approach with their design philosophy as opposed to going for true realism, but I like it. It really works for this game. 

The original still has it’s charm though.

The soundtrack is an interesting blend of the music I remember and love, but with newer elements added in. For example, the music playing over the prelude starts off very much the same, but eventually starts to incorporate some shades of the final boss music. 

As for the overall visual feel,they definitely hit the nail on the head. The storytelling sequences are much improved. Obviously working in a full 3D medium now as opposed to 3D characters over a 2D background allows for more creative camera work and dynamic action sequences. My only minor gripe is that some of the characters’ physical gestures and movement style is very anime inspired. Not trying to hate or anything, but as someone who doesn’t really watch a lot of anime it seems a bit awkward at times, but. That being said it’s a Japanese game so I sort of expected it.

Gameplay and Combat

EVERYTHING. IS. DIFFERENT. This is something that’s going to upset a lot of the purists out there that have been begging for the remake to be basically the exact same game with updated graphics, but if you ask me it all seems like an improvement, or at the very least a lateral move. Running around is more or less the same, I mean it’s just running around, the main difference is you can control the camera now. Also they included boxes you can smash with your weapon to get items and restoratives.

We’ve gone from this…

The new combat system is pretty cool. It’s mostly hack and slash, but with a bit of added RPG depth. It feels like they took elements of the original FF7’s combat and mashed them up with Kingdom Hearts. The face buttons mostly deal with action combat. Attacking, dodging, blocking, etc, while X opens up the commands menu. The commands menu is where the RPG elements come in. Each character has an ATB bar which fills while you fight and each action in the commands menu consumes an ATB bar. These actions include using items, magic, and special abilities. You also have the ability to give other characters commands and you can swap between characters using the D-Pad.

..to this!

There are plenty of other elements to go over with this such as staggering and targeting, but I’ve gone on too long already. Anyway, the combat is simple enough to use, but it seems that mastering it is going to be a serious challenge. The demo includes a boss fight, and it does everything it can to make it really FEEL like a boss fight. Seriously, I must have used like 20 potions and a phoenix down during the fight, but I’m a scrub with this new system.

The original version felt like a slightly more difficult normal enemy.

This version really tries to scale things up and make it feel like a boss.

As for the rest, I wish I could say. The demo doesn’t get to any of the character building stuff, so we don’t get to see how the new materia system works(or if there even is one) or if there are any weapon or equipment upgrades, or how new limit breaks are acquired. I’m also curious to see how the overworld is going to work in this new installment, or if there will even be one, and I’d like to see how many active party members you can have at once and how switching active members works, but for this demo you’re really just limited to Cloud and Barret. Speaking of Cloud and Barret…

The Nostalgia

So far this demo has done everything it possibly could to hit me with the nostalgia for this game as intensely as possible. Seriously, it was like a sharp kick to my nostalgia-balls. Everything from the music to the setting to the characters, it was all perfect. I loved getting to hear the characters actually speak, even the minor ones like Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie.

What kind of dick names their kid Wedge?

Speaking of which, Wedge is voiced by Matt L. Jones, who no matter how many other roles he plays will always be Dwight’s other cousin Zeke from The Office to me. Also I was pretty happy to see that Barret was just as much of a cheesy action movie character stereotype as ever. He’s just Mr. T, Carl Weathers, and Danny Glover rolled into one dude. I love that so far the game seems to know exactly where to keep things in line with the original, while also knowing where to throw in a little something new and different. I really hope this trend continues throughout the game.

Barret’s combat dialogue alone earns him a permanent slot in my party.

I know the game is supposed to be episodic, but it’s my hope that they really don’t do much to condense the story down, I hope they can find a way to keep the epic scope and scale of the original, and find ways for you to revisit old locations to unlock new things. I also really hope that nothing gets cut. Except for maybe Wutai… that was always optional anyway… it can be DLC I guess. At any rate only time will tell.

Future Concerns

The first “episode” of the game is supposed to detail all the events in the game up until they leave Midgar, which is actually good because I remember as a kid it felt like that was an entire game on its own. Even though Midgar was only the starting town it really feels like about 1/4 of the game’s entire plot takes place there. My first time playing, I remember getting to the end of Midgar and thinking “Oh, I’m probably almost done with the first disc.” Boy was I stupid.

Don’t remember this in the demo, must be an Easter egg.

That being said, for all my talk about preserving the epic scope of the original, if they’re taking the Midgar portion of it and making a whole game out of just that, I have to wonder what the pacing is going to be like for the rest of the episodes. As much as I would love to play through like 8-9 full video games worth of Final Fantasy 7, I’m not sure how many other people would. So I would be concerned that if they did put that much attention into each episode, people would eventually lose interest and they would eventually stop making them, leaving everything incomplete. At the same time I wouldn’t want the opposite to happen. They’ve got a delicate balancing act ahead of them.

I shouldn’t use “balancing act” to discuss a game where the main character is falling into a pit every 5 minutes.

Conclusion - The Nostalgia Is Strong With This One

Hopeful, that is how I feel about this remake after playing the limited demo. From what I’ve seen, a lot of care and a lot of effort has been put into this remake. Which is only the first in a series, and only covers the Midgar portion of the game. It preserves and encapsulates so much of what I remembered loving about the original, and the new elements often come in the form of welcome changes, or outright improvements. The combat’s great, graphics are great, music is great, and the voice acting is great.  Everything in this demo just feels right, and I hope that carries through to the rest of the game. My only concerns at this stage would be that they either take too long or make too many episodes, and people lose interest, or they rush too much and lose a lot of the game’s epic scale. Only time will tell though.

One more screenshot, just in case there weren’t enough.

If you want to check out the demo for yourself it’s available on the PSN right now, the full version of the game is set to be released on April 10, 2020.