Final Fantasy VII Remake Review

The original Final Fantasy VII was genre defining. For many people it was their first experience with a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) and being released in 1997, gives it a legacy that spans over 25 years. So, with this current trend of releasing modern takes on classic games, it was only a matter of time before Cloud made his return.

Final Fantasy VII Remake follows the Midgar portion of the original game. Things are way more fleshed out this time and Midgar actually feels like a Big City. The story is pretty much the same but throughout the story you will have encounters with beings called Spectres. These creatures are the main driving force behind the new game. They constantly appear when you don’t want them to and their allegiance is hard to pinpoint. Sometimes they will assist you and sometimes they will get in your way to prevent progression or to stop you learning certain information too early. One thing they did differently revolves around Sephiroth. Sephiroth is the main villain in the original FFVII but he doesn’t really show up until partway through the original game. This time around we get introduced to Sephiroth almost from the beginning, giving you more time to get to know him and become obsessed with his goals. Just like the original, it looks like our main goal is to save the planet but how we do that may end up being different. The Remake has already shown us that it has no problem changing specific events.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake is not so much a Remake than a very clever sequel. The original FFVII was so popular it spawned a multitude of spinoff projects that collectively are known as the Final Fantasy VII Compilation and many of these are referenced within the Remake. There are references to Advent Children, Durge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. On top of that, both Aerith and Sephiroth act and speak like they already know what’s gonna happen. While Aerith tries to hide it, Sephiroth seems to be using that knowledge to try to influence fate.

I had a lot of fun playing through this game. My only real complaint is the text size for boss attacks but this never really became a huge problem. I could still get by the bosses without it. I did end up beating the game on Hard difficulty so I could get the Platinum trophy and I have to say it was so much fun. It almost feels like Hard mode was the intended way to play. On the other difficulties you could get past most fights just by pressing the attack button and occasionally use abilities. But on Hard mode you have to consider everything. You have to think about the weapon, armour, accessory, which materia you’re gonna use and which character is going to play which role. Playing the game this way made it infinitely more enjoyable and cemented it as one of my favourite games of all time.