FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE

The decision to split the Final Fantasy VII remake into a trilogy has led to an arduous task for the developers with underwhelming results, and this first part bears the brunt of its issues. [h3]Story Pacing[/h3] Remake follows the events of the first 5 hours of the original game (approximately 15% of the story), but it inserts so much filler that it has ballooned into a 30-to-40-hour experience with glaring pacing issues. Of the 18 chapters in the game, less than half feel satisfying. Chapter 1 is an almost perfect remake of the original game’s opening, and acts as a phenomenal tutorial. Chapters 2, 5 to 7, 10 to 12, 14, 15, 17 and 18 were all 5-to-10-minute sections in the original game, and each has become at least 40 minutes long for a first-time playthrough. Many of them are nice for world-building and character dialogue, but they drag on and kill any sense of urgency in certain chapters. Chapters 3, 8, 9, and 14 are where you can perform numerous side quests. These act as a prospect to gain experience, earn new materia, and meet important side characters. I personally believe this game should have been 15 hours long at most, with chapters like this expanded to feature more optional side quests that could boost your playtime significantly. Chapters 4 and 13 are almost entirely new material. The former is a great opportunity to explore the upper plate, and it expands massively on the character of Jessie, though it does little to build upon Biggs or Wedge, and it introduces a character named Roche who is far too over-the-top. The latter is filler that takes you to a secret underground laboratory which has no effect on the plot and doesn’t make sense unless you’ve played Dirge of Cerberus, the PS2 sequel to the original. [h3]Combat and Progression[/h3] While I can understand some fans being disappointed about the change from turn-based combat to action combat, it’s hard to deny that it’s extremely well-done. Performing your standard attacks builds your ATB meter, which can be spent on more powerful moves, such as weapon abilities and magic, and this expertly meshes with the materia system. It even solves one of my few issues with combat in the original, as here each character feels unique and worthy of a space on your team, while OG Tifa eventually became outclassed. Aerial combat is rather clunky and bosses often drop their stagger due to phase shifts, but these flaws are rectified in Rebirth. I’m also rather fond of the weapon progression system. In the original game, weapons obtained early on were quickly superseded by later ones, giving the player no reason to use weapons like the Buster Sword outside of aesthetics. In the remake trilogy, weapons level up alongside the player, allowing them to stay relevant throughout the entire experience. Each character gets 6 weapons, each with differently balanced stats and a unique combat ability which you must become proficient with before you can perform it with any other weapon, which encourages you to collect them all. Hard difficulty has quickly become one of my favourite aspects of the remake trilogy. Every enemy and boss fight is buffed to be a challenge for characters at the level cap, items are completely unusable, and MP is not restored by beds or benches. It requires you to have a good understanding of every opponent, have well-planned character builds, and to be conservative with your use of magic. Nobody can reasonably claim the combat in this game is “just button mashing” after experiencing hard difficulty. However, replaying the game does draw attention to how often the game forces you to walk slowly. [h3]Character Performances[/h3] The voice actors do an incredible job of bringing the characters to life, in particular Tifa and Aerith. My gold star for best performance undoubtedly goes to John Eric Bentley as Barret, whose unique take nails the character’s rage, empathy, and his deep passion for the world. [h3]Story Changes[/h3] The most questionable changes here are those made to the story. Final Fantasy VII was a masterclass in storytelling, which was a pioneer in telling deep stories in video games with mature, highly political themes - a true trendsetter. On the other hand, the remake trilogy seems uncomfortable telling this story. The original's story begins with Cloud, a super-soldier mercenary, working with Barret's eco-terrorist group Avalanche to blow up Midgar's mako reactors, which the Shinra corporation are using to suck up the planet's lifeblood for cheap energy. Jessie's homemade bomb destroys the first reactor along with a city block in Sectors 1 and 8, killing dozens of civilians. She is distraught with the casualties but plans to build slightly weaker bombs in future attacks, as it’s their only option against Shinra’s oppressive regime. In the remake, Jessie's bomb is practically a firecracker that deals almost no damage to the reactor, but President Shinra and Heidegger remotely control the defence systems within the reactor to blow it up along with some nearby streets. Jessie gets to live with the guilt of believing her bomb did that, but it ultimately makes Avalanche seem incompetent or unserious about taking down Shinra, considering that Barret could have made a bigger blast with his limit break. There are many other odd changes like this throughout, which I cannot possibly cover in the 7,950-character limit of a Steam review. The most egregious change is undoubtedly the whispers - arbiters of fate that intervene if the story differs from the original, except they do nothing about Jessie’s bomb in Chapter 1, they harass Aerith for no reason in Chapter 2, they allow Chapter 4, they let Cloud fight Reno in Chapter 8, they allow the party to be delayed by a ghost in Chapter 11, they allow Hojo to give a massive spoiler in Chapter 16… All this to set up a big final boss fight with them and Sephiroth attacking the party in Part 1 without any of his character's backstory being given. It gives off a lack of confidence in the story and a desire to chase multiverse trends. [h3]DLC[/h3] The Intermission DLC is a 2-chapter side story starring Yuffie on a secret mission in Midgar. She works with another Wutaian operative named Sonon to break into the Shinra building and steal an extremely powerful materia. It takes place during Chapters 8 to 12 of the main game, and you’ll see characters like Tifa and Barret along the way. The Fort Condor minigame is the best part of the experience. Whereas the original game’s version was a slow-paced tower defence, here it is a fast-paced and well-balanced game of attack and defence. The minigame gets harder with the game difficulty, meaning that it’s worth obtaining all the boards and pieces on your first playthrough to have a wide range of strategies to try out. The box-breaking minigame in the Shinra building is also a fun test of your understanding of Yuffie's moveset. My main issue with this DLC is how the third act plays out. Yuffie and Sonon discover that the materia they are after is not fully developed, then they fight Scarlet to escape. After her mech suit is destroyed, Scarlet presses a panic button on her leg to call in Deepground, Nero, and Weiss. None of these characters or concepts are set up anywhere earlier in the DLC or the main game, so their sudden appearance will make absolutely no sense to anyone but the 19 people who played Dirge of Cerberus. Ultimately, it's a brief, inoffensive side plot that cannot and does not have any noteworthy repercussions on the main story. [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] I struggle to think of anybody I'd recommend this game to. Fans of the original game will generally despise the changes to the story, while new players will find it to be a confusing mess. The combat, soundtrack, and voice acting are the only things that work for me. Perhaps in 20 years' time, Square Enix will consider giving us an actual remake, rather than Nomura's atrocious fanfiction. Rating: [b]6.5/10[/b]

First time playing a Final Fantasy game. Nice graphics and music, but it feels like a chore with all the filler and padding. So much unnecessary time‑consuming stuff that contributes nothing but boredom.

Steam really needs to add mixed reviews, because that is my overall thought: mixed. I think overall FF7 Remake is a good game and, at times, it’s seriously great! But this isn’t a good FF7, and that’s what makes me upset. If people like this version, then by all means, do enjoy it! I can see people liking this more, but the original is almost better in every way, and I’m not one of those people who thinks OG can’t be remade- far from it. I think a FF7 remake can work and it can be better than the original; this though.. This ain’t it, chief. Before I really be a ♥♥♥♥ to this game, I do wanna sing this remake’s praises because there is a lot to like about this game. For starters, this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GORGEOUS. I’m not a graphics guy, but this game seriously looks amazing. The character models look great, even the facial expressions. Midgar feels so alive, and seeing it up close for the very first time is great; it actually feels lived in and like an actual city. And I’ll admit it: as a massive fan of the original, I gotta admit some characters are better than the original. Barret and Aerith are the two prime examples of feeling like characters; not to say they didn’t have characters or good writing in OG (far from it), but they have more personality, and it honestly made me really like Aerith a lot more. Barret is also amazing, and his friendly banter with Cloud never failed to make me laugh; he feels more fleshed out in this game, especially with his daughter Marline, and seeing the two interact is nice! And I will say it: a lot of songs are better than the OG, and while some songs I do prefer the original over, the actual remake’s soundtrack is anything BUT bad; a lot of the songs are amazing. My personal favorite is Flowers Blooming in the Church; while the original feels ethereal, something completely out of place in Midgar, the remake’s version feels so beautiful, just like a flower, and it still captures that magic of being otherworldly. The voice acting (for the most part, some VA’s suck ass) is pretty good! Aerith and Cloud’s VAs are amazing; Tifa and Barret are also really good. Combat is extremely satisfying and has that oomph! And the final two chapters (especially the last one) are PEAK (on a story standpoint besides the last two final bosses). Now to actually criticize the game because there’s a lot to criticize: the story is all over the place. Final Fantasy VII OG is an amazing story; it seriously is. It’s up there with Mother 3 as one of my favorite stories in gaming, and in FF7 OG it handled its topics in a very mature way while having some fun moments at the same time, and for a game discussing its politics in a game made in 1997 is extremely bold, yet it’s handled maturely and engagingly…. The remake feels like it can’t even do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that. This game is trying to be a remake while also being a sequel(ish) to the original, which, okay, is a gotcha. My favorite game OAT is Metal Gear Solid 2; that game did a gotcha with introducing Raiden as the main protagonist instead of Snake, and throughout the game, the story and events are a beat-for-beat of the first game. But Metal Gear Solid 2 uses that and twists it on its head, making the final few hours some of the greatest moments in gaming history, and it actually makes sense. But for the FF7 remake, it only works halfway, even with the context of understanding the ending, defying destiny, and forming your own path... It feels underwhelming, which is a topic that can work in a game like Final Fantasy VII, but it doesn’t explore those themes that much until the final chapter. Which, yeah, MGS2 did that in its few hours, but when you played MGS2 you feel something is off the whole time and it actually built suspense; here the game is deliberately telling me “OOOOO! LOOK AT THE GHOSTS!! THAT WASN’T IN THE OG!!! OOOOO!”. The boss fight with them is great, though, and the final fight with Sephiroth is badass but feels underwhelming because Sephiroth doesn’t have his backstory yet, and it feels like it’s trying to be an FF7 version of the MCU. So the fight goes from “HOLY CRAP! I GET TO FIGHT SEPHIROTH” to “why am I fighting Sephiroth?” There are plenty of other story beats I don’t like but it’s not offensively bad. But here’s the thing: I can ignore the story being underwhelming and not being as good as the original; I seriously can… If the pacing wasn’t ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AWFUL. So you know how in the original, Midgar is only 5 hours, right? In the original, it establishes the characters, a tutorial on how the game mechanics work, builds up that atmosphere, and discusses its politics of eco-terrorism and the environment very well. In this remake, the whole game, which took me 29 hours to finish (I didn’t do many side quests and I wanted to focus on the story) the average time of at least 30 to 40 hours. Now look, I like slowburn; some of my favorite media is slowburn, and I prefer character development and writing over flashy fighting any day of the week. But in FF7 Remake, oh my god, get a move on. There are moments in this game where the pacing is either the slowest thing ever, where you walk super slow, gotta go through a wall, solve a puzzle where the characters move at the speed of a snail. Or the game has a relatively normal pacing up until something HAS to intervene and the characters become super slow. And even one example earlier in the game where you go to Jesse’s house and the game just becomes so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring, and at times the game IS boring to play. As much as I did really like the final 2 chapters, chapter 17 has this moment where you constantly go back and forth solving this puzzle with switches, and you constantly swap characters, and what the hell does this have to do with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anything??? And this section.. It just goes on and on; this whole game is just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring. I know I’m trying to be somewhat entertaining in this review, but playing this is like scratching nails on a chalkboard; it is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring. And I’m somewhat kind of impressed, because they somehow made FF7 boring to play. The OG is a pretty fast-paced JRPG, but it works well with its story and gameplay, balancing both of them at a good pace, and it never felt boring. Here? Besides combat, I am deadass falling asleep in my chair playing this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. There are moments in the game where even locations feel bloated for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason, If i am getting bored at an FF7 game, you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. Also, this ties into the pacing, but I feel like I have to mention it: Why does every side character and character you talk to maybe once in the original have ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character arcs? Like some of these characters show up once in the whole game in the original, but here, every character MUST have an arc, which sure sounds good as a concept, but then the game starts spouting out ORIGINAL CHARACTERS that do nothing but interfere with the plot. Why not focus on that time establishing Tifa or Aerith or Cloud or Barret or even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Sephiroth? But NOPE! We gotta stop everything we are doing to introduce new characters and make old characters have arcs. Like what??? There’s a character who works with Don Corneo whose name I already forgot (that should tell you how not important he is), and he has this arc of his wife being prostituted and taken by Corneo and vanishes without a trace. Wow, sounds extremely interesting! Does it come up again? NOPE! It adds nothing to the plot because it’s never brought up again, wow. Waste of the game’s precious time. This game is just a 7/10, which sucks because FF7 OG is one of my favorite games ever; that game was a 10/10, and while it wasn’t perfect, it still was fun to play, read, and immerse yourself in the game. Remake can’t even do that, and while it does things better than the original, it’s not better than it. Like I said in the beginning, it is a good game; it’s just not a good FF7 game.

Missleading Title, its not a Remake at all and closer to a Reboot cashgrab. If you Love the Original then i can not recommend this game. Game does everything to slow down progression to justify turning the Originals 5h Midgar into as long as possible.