A Boundless Adventure: A Heartfelt Review of ‘Final Fantasy 7 Remake’
How do you redevelop a five-hour moment from an original game into a new experience that easily reaches 30 hours without coming off as some bloated malformation of what used to be? The Final Fantasy 7 Remake may not be a definitive answer to that incredibly specific question, but you’ll definitely find it mentioned in a textbook about turning lemons into lemonade. This remake convolutes that lemonade-making process until you wind up with a technical marvel that stems from nostalgia into a perennial bloom of new memories. Trading the original chip-pad soundtrack for a fully voiced orchestra, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake finds itself in many firsts for itself and wears them like a Sunday best. Gameplay, party systems, story, and self-awareness have all been adapted into this new image that no matter how different, was still nostalgic.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake opens with a near shot-for-shot recreation of the original’s intro in gorgeous new light, demonstrating not only the technological jump between the three generations of video games, but also the scale of Final Fantasy 7’s world, Gaia. Traveling from the expansive outside deserts through the upper plates of Midgar until the camera pans out above Shinra Headquarters until all of Midgar is visible, this opening sequence stamps out any doubts that this giant mechanical pizza couldn’t house the first part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
From Announcement to Launch
This game that I’ve been waiting for since the E3 reveal back in 2015 was finally in my hands, no longer a myth. The introduction makes a seamless transition into gameplay right after Cloud hops off of the train and without missing a beat, I was playing the game. The opening moments of storming the Mako Reactor should have been ruined by the five years of expectations compounding onto itself. In spite of countless tutorial blocks forcing themselves into my wake, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a force from the beginning.
Fresh from the demo that had released before the official launch, I already had a solid grasp on navigating the command board. I mostly ignored the info boxes that came my way and stormed straight through the Mako Reactor, Buster Sword (Cloud’s weapon) in hand. The most basic comparison I can make to combat in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is something akin to Kingdom Hearts 3 if you put anchors into Sora’s oversized shoes and were allowed to play as both Donald and Goofy with free reign. The controls are incredibly similar to that of the main Kingdom Hearts titles with the command board being the factor of what separates each character from one another in terms of combat ability as well as general control. Nothing about the control scheme felt complicated or heavy-handed. In fact, combat made a lot of sense even with the command board quickly amassing over twenty options early in the game. The only real exception to this simplicity that comes to mind was learning how to set up shortcuts for the command board. I don’t recall there ever being a tutorial for it and I only found the option after scouring the menu.
Taking out the Mako Reactor was a pretty quick and effective tutorial that allowed me to familiarize myself with not just the new controls, but the additional members of Avalanche raiding the Mako Reactor under Barret’s command. Sure I remember Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse from the original, but they never came off as more than just a couple jobbers from Avalanche in the original. Now in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake I cannot say that remains the case. Whether it’s in momentus cutscenes or while I’m idly waiting for a password to be cracked, each character is given so much more emotion and personality than I could have hoped for. Small bickerings and quips between all the characters were fun touches that I never knew I needed.
Following the destruction of the Mako Reactor, I escape through the rubble as Cloud, alongside Barret, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie. Upon entering the city, I get to see the aftermath of the bombing in great, horrific detail as I walk past terrified groups of children and adults alike, cowering in the situation they’ve been dealt. It’s here that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake starts taking noticeable steps away from the original’s events and begins to plant the seeds for what’s really going on. On my way to Sector 7, I fall through some rubble and after trying to maneuver my way back through the city, I’m met with the tease of a reunion among burning buildings. Headaches visually pierce through Cloud’s bravado as a figure that undoubtedly appears as Sephiroth urges me, Cloud, to follow. I’m grinning throughout this conversation (if you can even call it that), but at the same time it’s running through my head that this encounter never happens in the original. After escaping that scenario, I wind up finding Aerith – who is struggling against what appears to be nothing at first. But after another vision of Sephiroth passes, the figures become visible and appear as ragged cloaks that wisp through the wind as their ends appear to dissipate. Again, this entire sequence is new to Final Fantasy 7 with each discrepancy escalating the distance between the original and remake, creating something that felt unpredictable and fresh.
Finally, after defeating hordes of jobbers, Cloud gets to join back with Avalanche on the train and enter the slums of Sector 7 where the Final Fantasy 7 Remake shows its other side of gameplay. Tons of speculation went around how “open world” the remake would allow itself to be, and the easy answer is a mixed bag. Everything up until this breather in the slums has been completely linear, but it’s here where the game begins to open things up a bit and lets Cloud interact with people around the town. One particular moment stood out: in my first walk around the slums, I was able to eavesdrop on the populace speculating about Cloud and just what he meant to Tifa, or whether he was just some punk walking around with an oversized sword. But after Tifa encouraged me to do side quests from various citizens, the general word got better. Occasionally I’d hear someone call Cloud a genius cat whisperer after walking toward the weapons shop and having later spoken to people showed that there was no longer any risk of being totally disregarded. Sure, I could have ignored the side quests and gone straight to Seventh Heaven (Tifa’s bar which helps serve as Avalanche’s hideout) for my money, but I would have lost my title of “cat whisperer” and denied the fun of watching this town change, even if those changes are slight.
Linearity and Worldbuilding
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake pretty much follows this pattern between lengthy linear sequences into moments of reprieve usually found inside the slums of sectors as well as Wall Market. I wouldn’t say that I expected this much of the game to be linear, but I don’t find it to be that much of a negative. Its linearity is mostly passable because the combat being done incredibly well between each character’s abilities and the various enemy designs, both new and old.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake has four total playable characters with a party system that only allows three characters to be in the party at a time (with the minor exception of Red XIII not being playable, but who still acts as a party member). Each character follows the same rule of having set actions in their attack tree, but those trees open up when adding the Materia System and weapon skills in the mix. The Materia system is fairly straightforward and works by slotting different types of Materia into the character’s weapons. Materia can range between basic spells like Fira and Cure, but also have other effects like doubling a character’s ATB meter (the cost you pay to use spells/abilities) and Materia is where the summons are accessible. This system nullifies the notion of a character joining the party and immediately being cast as the designated healer or support mage. It allows for a clean creation of custom party roles that can be changed at any time outside of battles.
On the other side of the battle mechanic coin, each character has multiple equippable weapons that can be gained throughout the game and each weapon has an ability attached to it which can be used either when that weapon is equipped or can be gained permanently by building proficiency with the weapon. Each ability varies in functionality and building proficiency in each weapon usually just means applying the ability in combat. For example, Cloud’s Nail Bat has the ability Disorder which allows me to swap between Operator and Punisher mode freely during a combo and Barret can gain the ability Smackdown with his Wrecking Ball, a heavy melee attack that stomps the ground and greatly staggers opponents. Every character has the opportunity to obtain a horde of abilities making every one of them well rounded forces in combat with maybe the exception of Aerith who mostly gains support abilities and magic oriented attacks.
Altogether, combat in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake starts off pretty simple, but after creating different Materia sets and acquiring new abilities, I was able to craft the gameplay to fit my style and make it look as stylish as possible. Throw this expansive system in with a cast of enemies and bosses that have set weaknesses to elements and strategies, and I rarely stop having fun playing. There is an outlier, however, to the otherwise never-ending fun via the The Arsenal boss fight towards the end of the game. The boss itself has visible weaknesses to take advantage of, but what made the fight painful was that the only characters available in the fight are Barret and Aerith. I mentioned before that Aerith has the weaker potential compared to the rest of the cast, and The Arsenal fight made it all the more obvious when it had been fifteen minutes and I was still working on the third wheel of the mech. This was the only fight I came across that made me feel this way, but it was definitely a fight I was dreading when doing my second playthrough on Hard Mode.
The Undeniable Style of the Remake
I’m not sure why it took me this long to mention one of the biggest draws to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake: its sense of style. So many faces of Midgar are shown off in beautiful display, highlighting the years of artistic advances video games have made since 1997. For the most part when talking visuals, I really mean it when I say that damn near everything appears to be carefully crafted with the utmost care. However, there are a few unjust moments where I’ll be in the middle of some dialogue with the camera honing in on the characters and some texture will seemingly have lost a full dimension in this exchange. It’s bizarre, as if the original Final Fantasy 7 is somehow breaking through the remake’s visual fidelity vying for relevancy through its own remake. This, of course is rare but also awkwardly consistent in the same spots regardless of playthrough save. It’s unfortunate, but I find that it’s so much easier to get lost and appreciate the world that they so righteously painted rather than notice unfaithful blotches that I find so easy to forget.
With such decadent planes of near infallible artistry, the only missing piece to complete this expressive union is an ensemble of orchestras, live groups, and pop mixes fulfilling the complete image of Midgar’s setting in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. For as many faces Midgar wears, each is given a voice that ranges from quick and comedic to oceanic and epic. The new arrangement for “Prelude” flaunted its namesake by not only being the voice which opens the journey, but also the way the score was going to be treated. I’m unsure as to how many pieces of music the original Final Fantasy 7 run through Midgar had, but each one I recognized was not only done justice, but excelled in its pairing with the setting the music it encompassed. It didn’t matter if I was whacking boxes in a children’s hideout or if I was destroying the desperate tendrils of destiny, each moment had a tune and each tune was jamming.
Wall Market
What is possibly the best example of a union of these two mediums is found in one my most anticipated areas to explore in Midgar: Wall Market. No one word fits when I try to pinpoint the overall style of Wall Market and that is mostly because of how much is housed in this expansive yet curiously isolated amalgamation. The threshold into Wall Market is naught but some metal scaffolding occupied by some shoddily placed christmas lights overlooking repurposed metal structures decorated with neon signs and tufts of rust. This is where to go for a good time – no matter the vice – so long as a blind eye and caught tongue remain ignorant of cruder spectacles that remain underground. Wall Market’s theme is very much the same, beginning with thuds of percussion and belching winds, quickly setting an industrial tone that just as quickly gets transitioned into a fun, whimsical melody that lazes a layer above the driving percussion, a perfect voice that encompasses the identity with which Wall Market masquerades.
Lovely as much as it is unsettling, Wall Market was my favorite place to visit in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. So much is going on and playing as both Cloud and Aerith I get to march in the middle of every parade I stumble upon as I try to find Tifa. At one point I was getting the most salacious hand massage I’d ever seen and only maybe an hour later I was fighting in an underground pit against a gauntlet of enemies that ended with a final fight against a house. I was challenged by the most welcoming gym trainers to a competition of squats and ultimately landed a one on one with the Honeybee Inn’s very own Andrea Rhodea for my favorite spectacle inside of Wall Market.
The nightclub to yearn for, home to Honeygirls and Honeyboys the Honeybee Inn is Andrea Rhodea’s neon lit castle – open to members only. After being invited by Andrea Rhodea himself, I got to witness Cloud’s most arduous task ever to befall him: dancing. Mostly done through cutscenes and some of the most stylishly implemented bouts of quick time events, I watched as Cloud rehearsed a couple moves for some Honeygirls before getting dragged before an auditorium entertaining a couple friendly faces with a fantastic show of song and dance. So many questions when the Final Fantasy 7 Remake was announced were directed towards how the game was going to handle the Honeybee Inn and Cloud’s crossdressing. This entire spectacle was their answer and it was fantastic. The music is gorgeous and watching Andrea Rhodea effortlessly rope Cloud into strutting his stuff in front a crowd is something I’ll never tire of. Each movement of the music slowly creeps into the scene where Andrea Rhodea transforms Cloud “into a vision of beauty” and ultimately realizes itself as a work of art.
Changes to the Original – The Whispers
The full package of the Final Fantasy Remake is a gorgeous journey through the beginning of a story that up until now was thought to be all said and done. However, the remake slowly unravels itself to be something more akin to a response to the original rather than a retelling. This thirty hour game didn’t feel bloated because so much of this new narrative was handled with care. I never knew that I would soon care as much as I do now for the Avalanche trio (Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse), but after racing through a train tunnel on a motorcycle and parachuting through the plates, I can’t help but shed a tear for the fate they’ve been handed. Yet just as soon as I start loving the new direction the Final Fantasy 7 Remake starts heading for, something always gets in the way and there is no effort in making their interference a secret. The Whispers.
These “arbiters of fate” are so much more than just enemies to defeat nor are they some roadblock to whatever predetermined ending Final Fantasy 7 had hiding behind a battle. The Whispers are a game mechanic that lash out at anything trying to change what had been written so many years ago. For example, when Avalanche starts planning for the next bombing of a mako reactor, instead of Cloud automatically being a part of that team, it was decided in the remake that he wasn’t needed. After just one nap there was a storm of Whispers attacking the slums, surrounding Seventh Heaven and injuring Jesse, forcing Barret to hire Cloud for the job. This is all because this path of events is how Cloud was destined to link up with Aerith and the Whispers wouldn’t have it any other way. The Whispers even guarded both Aerith and Cloud from any interference between their exchange.
Moments such as those occur all throughout Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s story and culminate towards a direction I never would have predicted. The game lets me acknowledge and remember the original either through recreation of events in the actual game or through subtle clips of what is doomed to be, which pierce Cloud’s mind in the headaches he suffers from. In the ending sequence of the remake events have started diverging from the original far enough that the Whispers create this maelstrom of destiny. And at the very edge of fate, Aerith mentions that what lies beyond is “freedom.” This is the remake giving me free reign to fight against events of the original story and carve a new narrative. The fights against the Whisper Harbinger, as well as the Whispers Rubrum, Croceo, and Virdi, were literal fights against the force of destiny itself. And at the center of it all was Sephiroth, egging me on as Cloud to get stronger, to fight on and become the change I want to see in this world, as if knowing his own fate in the original.
Fighting the Narrative Itself
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake took off in directions that felt both natural and insane with execution that can rival many artisans of this craft. Playing the game felt fluid, watching the world of Midgar unfold under my own influence was gorgeous, and slowly grasping the narrative itself as some tangible force was a euphoric actualization of dreams – thought to only be possible in online forums and fan-made what-ifs. Recommending this remake feels like such an easy decision because of how well made it is and how compelling the narrative has grown to be, but the notion of having experienced the original is what makes me think for just a second longer. Without knowing or having experienced the original Final Fantasy 7, a fair bit is lost in those moments of fighting the narrative itself. Personally I think the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a good introduction to the series for anyone new looking in, and newcomers shouldn’t be discouraged by not knowing much about the original. In fact, I can see it causing people to finally go back and play the original.
This is an experience I spent a lot of time anticipating and am still taking so much time thinking about. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a fantastic game that takes the job of remaking its own franchise and puts it into my own hands to help shape. I don’t know how much cooler that idea can get, but given that this is just the first part of a series whose ending appears to be boundless, I cannot wait for the adventures that are sure to come.
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