*Heavy spoilers follow*
It’s not hyperbole for someone to suggest that Final Fantasy VII is one of the greatest games ever created. Not only did the 1997 title display the new powers of 3-D animations and never-before-seen cut scenes, it pushed the boundaries of story-telling and gave us characters that we truly cared about. Whispers of a remake turned into full blown roars after Sony unveiled a tech demo in 2006 for the PlayStation 3. Finally, developer Square Enix drew back the curtains on a fully realized Final Fantasy VII Remake during Sony’s 2015 PSX conference. And five years later, fans of the 1997 classic found themselves once again arriving in Midgar ready to save the planet.
The pressure on Square Enix to deliver a faithful remake, while also providing new, compelling content was astronomical. The developer did not make things easier for itself after announcing Final Fantasy VII Remake will be broken into separate parts, the first focusing solely on your time in the steel city Midgar. Excitement quickly turned to skepticism as familiar fans of the ’97 title would tell you that the events of Midgar span, maybe, the first eight hours or so. What exactly could Square Enix add, without it being labeled as “filler”, to push FFVII Remake closer to the standard 30-40 hour runtime? The developer breathed fresh life into Midgar and showed us areas of the city we had only imagined, and gave the supporting characters, Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge, the type of character development they deserved.
For the most part, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a faithful recreation of the time spent in Midgar. Ex-Soldier Cloud Strife has teamed up with Barret Wallace and AVALANCHE in their attempts to stop the evil corporation Shinra from extracting more of the precious lifeblood of the planet, Mako. The opening sequence with Aerith Gainsborough and her flowers and the intersecting train eventually coming to a halt with Cloud jumping off was perfect. Right from the get go, I knew I was going to explore every inch of Midgar as the game would let me. The feeling of actually walking around the city, interacting with people was incredible. Everything from the visuals to the voice acting was everything I hoped it would be.
Now as I mentioned, Remake accomplishes being a faithful recreation, but in the process becomes something else entirely. About three to four hours into the game, after the Sector 1 explosion, Cloud stumbles into Aerith. After she gives him the yellow flower, she’s suddenly freaking out and waving her arms in a frantic. Once Cloud touches her, a mysterious shadowy figure appears known as the Whispers. Aerith proceeds to run away and the Whisper vanishes. Throughout the game, these shadowy figures pop up, only seen by Cloud, and interfere to ensure events follow the story of the ’97 game to a tee. It’s Square Enix essentially breaking the fourth wall to tell us that Remake is trying to break-free, but its predecessor won’t allow it. On top of that, Square Enix fully introduced Sephiroth as the true villain trying to consume the planet’s energy through Meteor and become the rightful ruler. Like I said, Square needed to find ways to fill-in about 20-odd hours, so why not get Sephiroth right into the mix. But still, introducing Sephiroth at this stage as such an important player was not how the original went. Again, knowing how much pressure came with a Final Fantasy VII remake, Square Enix attempted the impossible. Cloud and co. battle against Fate itself, and in doing so, break themselves from destiny’s chains to blaze forth into a strange unknown future. From thinking that we knew exactly where the story was going, now, anything can happen. Square took a swing for the fences and came up big.
The deep dive into Midgar was much needed to build upon existing characters, while also introducing new ones. Marle is an elderly woman who runs the apartments in Sector 7. She views Tifa as her honorary granddaughter and makes Cloud swear to be there for her. No one really had a parental-type figure in the original, so introducing Marle was a welcoming addition to further strengthen the bond between Cloud and Tifa. We also get a deeper-dive into the supporting members of AVALANCHE, especially Jessie. One mission involved Cloud, Wedge, and Biggs occupying Jessie top-side of Sector 7 to visit her family. Her father was a maintenance supervisor at one of Shinra’s Mako reactors, but had fallen ill to Mako-poisoning. Jessie’s mom asks her how her job at the theater is going and her acting career, showing that Jessie lies to her family about her involvement with AVALANCHE. Learning more about these characters that way, introducing family and people who care for them and having them open up on their past goals amplifies the emotion you feel for them. It’s an amazing job to find new ways to care about these characters and to not make it feel forced.
The most notable new character is Chadley. Chadley works as a Shinra intern, but secretly wants to take down the evil corporation. Chadley is the main source for obtaining new Summon materia. He devises virtual reality simulations against the Summons that you will actually fight against, and if you win, you get the materia. A really fun, engaging way to acquire the game’s special materia instead of just simply being gifted it. On top of that, Chadley asks Cloud to collect battle data by performing various skills or inflicting certain damage to enemies in exchange for the crafting of other special materia.
Speaking of battles, many JRPEG fans are probably accustomed to a turn-based battle system. Square Enix meshed turn-based and real-time fighting into a hybrid for Final Fantasy XV, and that same battle system returned for FFVII Remake. It took some getting used to (I wasn’t the biggest fan during XV), but eventually the combos began to click and I was flying between party members dishing the pain. Instead of having the characters stick with basic attacks and magic, FFVII Remake added character abilities. These abilities are special moves that don’t consume MP, but rather the ATB, attack time battle, meter. For example, the first ability Cloud possesses with his Buster Sword is Braver. Fans of the ’97 game will remember that Braver was the first Limit Break for Cloud, a special move for when he’s taken a certain amount of damage. Limits are still present in Remake, but Square decided to switch things around. In Cloud’s case, his first Limit Break is Cross-Slash, a Limit Break he still had in the original, but obtained shortly into the game.
The way for the characters to obtain their abilities are through special progression on their weapons. Each weapon has a special ability associated with it, but once you unlock the ability then you can use it on any weapon. In addition to unlocking abilities, each weapon’s attributes can be upgraded throughout the game, meaning you’re not locked into using the next weapon you find. By the end of my play-through, Cloud was back to wielding his trusty Buster Sword (I’m a sucker for keeping it old school). Implementing the ability to upgrade weapon attributes gives the player so much flexibility with how they want to build their party, and also try to keep their favorite weapons equipped.
Right from the moment Sony announced Final Fantasy VII Remake, the pressure began to mount for Square Enix to deliver the goods. The developer didn’t help itself announcing the remake would be broken up into separate parts, especially having to wait five years for this first one. But when it was all said and done, Square Enix crafted a beautiful re-telling of a classic, while also creating what should be an exciting, new adventure. Attempting to break free from destiny by literally having the party fight against Destiny is something only Square Enix could pull off, and it did. It would’ve been so easy for Square to simply re-create a frame-by-frame remake, it would’ve sold a bazillion copies. But Square Enix went against the grain, pulled off a major twist, and ultimately gave us a well-crafted, expanded, intriguing remake that new and old fans will talk about for years to come.
Final Score: 9.5/10
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