4.5/5 ★ – bokonon764's review of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

The lauded remake of the JRPG classic, and one of the most famous video games of all time. As someone who didn’t play the original, I gotta say, this is a well written story, I don’t get sucked into game stories very much these days, but this one got me me pretty interested. I started this about a year after it came out, and picked it back up when news of the sequel started coming out. I was a little bummed to learn that this was part one of a trilogy, but after playing it, I’m completely fine with waiting for more. It just so happens I finished the game right as Rebirth, the sequel, came out. But then I gotta wait for one more, I guess. That’s the breaks. I love this game, but it had to grow on me. Like I said, this is my second attempt, and I got through it this time, but because of its cinematic nature, it can be a bit of a slog. Mini games, long cutscenes, and annoyingly slow walking sequences bring the momentum to a grinding halt at times. I just took my time with it, played other games if I didn’t feel like playing this one, and I enjoyed this game way more that way. It was never difficult to hop back in, and the story is coherent and interesting enough, I never forgot what I was doing or where I was like I do in some games. It’s a linear, chapter-based game, once you finish an area, you can’t return without replaying the whole chapter; although, main areas in the game are visited in multiple chapters. There are 3 or 4 sort of “open world” chapters, where you’re given a large area of Midgar to move around, complete optional side quests. Those areas break up the monotony quite a bit, and it also feels like there’s a perfect amount of them. I fuckin love the combat. It took some getting used to for me, but once I hit a certain stride, every battle was fun. There’s a stagger system that’s easy enough to understand, and for most of the game, you control a party of three characters. You can freely switch between characters, and also give commands to other party members, it really is a perfect hybrid of action and strategy RPG styles. If you can find that sweet spot of controlling specific characters for specific needs while dishing out commands to the other party members, it’s pretty smooth, and keeps you busy. You level characters up through battle experience, and manually level up weapons for stat boosts and passive abilities. And lastly there’s materia. Materia are these glowing ball things that you can slot into weapons and accessories, and they grant access to stat boosts, spells, specials moves, all kinds of stuff. I spent a lot of time optimizing the best load out for my party, as is tradition in JRPGs. It’s a deep enough system to really dive into, and easy enough for folks who don’t like fuckin around in the menu for long periods of time. On my hard mode playthrough, I felt a little annoyed having to constantly switch out materia load outs, it would’ve been nice to be able to save load outs. This games beautiful, probably the best looking JRPG I’ve ever played. It’s got that signature Square Enix art direction, all steam punk and zippers everywhere. The crew looks better than ever, and what a crew it is. A story driven RPG is only as good as it’s party, and FF7 has one of the most iconic RPG parties of all time, and for good reason. My first experience with some of these characters was playing Kingdom Hearts as a kid, I didn’t even know who the hell any of these characters were. It’s cool to see them fully realized in this way. Like I said, never played the original, I don’t know what changes they may have made to turn a single game into a trilogy, but I wouldn’t have known this was a part one if I didn’t know going in, it works as it’s own story. I mean, I’m glad it’s just part one of a trilogy, I’m so on board with seeing what comes next, but it’s a pretty good story all on it’s own. Midgars awesome, the whole eco terrorist plot line is cool. There’s a pretty on the nose commentary here, a pointed finger at world governments and fossil fuel companies that ravage the earth. In FF7, fossil fuels are just swapped out for a thing called Mako, which is just magic, swirly shit that makes modernities possible, electricity and the like. There’s an evil corporation that’s a stand in for world governments and corrupt companies, and they will do whatever they can to remain in power. I’m here for it, ready for parts 2 and 3. Post-game stuff: there’s a hard mode that’s pretty challenging. Standard fare, enemies are stronger, your characters are a little weaker. The real challenge comes from losing the ability to use items, which I relied pretty heavily on in my normal mode playthrough. I really didn’t think I was gonna do any post game stuff, but I wanted to play more, so I kept going. If you want that 100% Platinum status, certain chapters have to be played several times. It was a grind that felt unnecessary. Some real tough endgame bosses that really flex your knowledge of combat and materia. There’s a paid 4-5 hour DLC called Intergrade, featuring a storyline starring Yuffie, another character from the original game. It’s events takes place halfway through the main games story, but it’s suggested you finish the main game first. Included, there’s a fun strategy mini game, a nice little story to play, a few side quests…it’s a great little DLC. There’s these songs that play during one of the side quests, they’re like advertisement songs for a bar called the Happy Turtle, and the songs are so fuckin rad. There’s a couple pop ones, some 50s doo wop, even a bro-metal trashy one. The music in the entirety of Final Fantasy VII Remake is excellent, but these songs in the DLC were a particular treat. It was cool to finally experience this classic, albeit in an updated format. It’s depressing that Hollywood is obsessed with churning out soulless remakes that suck, but if game developers keep making remakes like this, I’m super down for it.