In the 20 odd years leading upto this I never thought they would ever do a remake of this absolute gem of a game. Final Fantasy 7! It set the benchmark for RPG’s at a whole new level with an array of amazing characters, music and the story! Oh my!
So here it is announced and about to be released. A Remake!
I was lucky enough to get my copy early and thankfully my work shifts didnt realy disrupt a near 4 day play through. I say this but I wasnt on it all day every day for four days I racked up below 40 hours on my playthrough. I didnt do everything but that is for my other review that will contain spoilers. I say spoilers but anyone who has played the original knows the story etc but yes I wont spoil this for anyone as it really, really is gold.
I was dubious going into this as yes I am a Final Fantasy fanboy and yes I had very high expectations about this remake and howtheyhad decided to do three games instead of one. Where would it end? Would they change anything? Will I enjoy it or even love it as much as the original. It is a mammoth undertaking for Square Enix to do this. FF7 has a huge fanbase and this remake will be turning heads everywhere.
Okay a brief and I say brief run over the story for anyone who either hasnt played the original for whatever reason? (YOU SHOULD!)
Meet Cloud, our hero and protagonist. Cloud is an ex- SOLDIER who are the equivelent of the toughest military force in the world if they had been enhanced chemically by an energy source found in the planet. Anyway Cloud, ex-SOLDIER starts his journey aboard a train in the mechanical brilliance that is the city of Midgar. He has joined a mission with a bunch of freedom fighters named Avalanche. Their goal is to blow the Mako reactors thats draining the planet of the Mako energy. Simple enough? No the Electrical power company Shinra want to squash Avalanche and their plans. So Cloud goes with Avalanche and its members. Most notable are Tifa, Cloud’s busty childhood kickboxing friend and Barret, video games answer to a cross breed of terminator and Mr T. The guy literally has a mini gun for a forearm. He rocks. As the story progresses and you see just how bad shinra is and what it will cost to bring them down, but are they the real enemy here? No! (que the angelic choir!) SE-PHI-ROTH! Yes Sephiroth the legendary soldier from the war, presumed dead but in fact very much alive. He plagues Cloud’s mind for reasons I wont go into but this guy is very dangerous and very very cool. Best way to put it, he makes a nuke look like a sparkler. An last but not least by any means is Aerith. The flower girl. The ancient. Aerith is key to the story almost as much as Cloud is but I will not go into that again I want new players to experience this first hand. In the remake she totally kicks butt. So with these characters and factions in place, your about to embark on a story that will stick with you for years to come! 22 years to date for myself. Still brilliant.
Ok gameplay, the Remake has gone with a similar active battle system like Final Fantasy 15 with minor changes and to be very honest it works and had they done this with 15 I’d have been happir with that game. Anyway, the game is not turn based as its original was however there is a classic mode I have yet to try which does turn it into a turnbased game during battles but I will say the difficulty will be at an easy setting only. Now then the variety of weapons which you can upgrade using SP points gained from levelling your characters up add increased stats to your weapons including Cloud’s famous Buster Sword (The big bulky sword). You also equip materia to them to use in battle.
Materia is Final Fantasy 7’s magic and skill system and what I like is the way its both limited and tactical when giving characters only a set amount to battle with. As you battle you gain AP points which will level any equipped materia overtime to unlock better and more powerful variants.
Right what the remake does do well is it really does recapture the magic of the original. I found myself sat there grinning stupidly because it was like playing it as a kid all over again. Good times! The story is told brilliantly in the remake. They dont skip over anything crucial and they havent changed anything from the original bar a couple of minor things. Again see the other review if you wish to comment on this.
The downside of the remake is well not a great deal. The main thing is now well be waiting a good year and a half at least for part 2 of this phenomenal series. One thing I wasnt keen on was the stagger metre which during battles makes your enemy more vulnerable and will end up recieving more damage from you. I found one or two enemies seemed to not have this rule but were also immune to just about everything. Ok its nice theres hard enemies in a game but when your doing 5 damage per hit on an enemy with 70000 health its a bit like okay mate god mode yourself outta here! That said it literally was about 2 enemies total. I may have overlooked something but what I wrote above was what it was when I was battling them.
There is another thing about the remake I was surprised about but enjoyed it but as frustrating as this is to anyone reading that has no idea what I am prattling about. I cant share my opinion on it as its a huge spoiler and I dont want to wreck it.
Overall The remake of Final Fantasy 7 is fantastic. I wouldnt be surprised if it is game of the year despite the other contenders coming out in the coming months. It really is well made with a return to some of the most original characters, storytelling and soundtrack that video games have to offer. If you have been on the fence about buying. Consider yourself pulled down and on the buying side as it is worth your time money and effort. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Keep an eye out for my second review packed with spoilers. Hit the subscribe so youll be notified when I have uploaded it.
Thanks for reading.
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