Completely BiaS Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake

(mild spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake, but FULL ON spoiler for the original Final Fantasy VII)

Although Final Fantasy VII is already a 10 years old game when I played it, I was still amazed by the scope of the game, something you don’t find very often in modern games. I was skeptical about this episodic Final Fantasy VII Remake saga following the disappointment that is Final Fantasy XV. But having played it from start to finish, I can say confidently this installment of Final Fantasy VII Remake did not disappoint.

Better than ever

The first thing you will notice when you boot up this game is the insanely beautiful visual, there is just no other way to put it. The graphic is constantly stunning throughout your adventure in Midgar. There are minor texture problems, but it shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment of the game. The game also runs pretty well considering I am not running this on a PS4 Pro. Fans who have played the original will appreciate the faithful recreation of old locations such as Aerith’s house, 7th Heaven, Train graveyard, etc. But the highlight has to be Midgar’s famous red light district, The Wall Market. Its streets are filled with bars, restaurants and there are sick people in the alleyways, little details like such reinforce Midgar as a living breathing world. Character and item models are detailed and well-designed. For example Cloud’s buster sword, it came with two connecting materia slots and if you look closely you can see the materias on the sword are indeed connected, this is also true on other character’s weapons. The colour of materias on their weapons changes depending on what materias you have equipped. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith and a handful of side characters look better than ever. A huge leap from their last outing in the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Characters and dialog are very well-written. You will need to be prepared to fall in love with the main cast once again. Even side characters like Jesse, Biggs and Wedge were given more personality and backstory compared to the original. Although we have only spent a limited amount of time with new characters such as Leslie and Rouche, I am looking forward to seeing more of them in later installments.

Active time battle

The battle system is a very controversial one ever since the game was announced. If you are looking for a completely turn based combat system, this game simply doesn’t have that. Instead it is an active battle system similar to the one found in Final Fantasy XV. The twist being this time when you open the menu, you will enter a slow motion mode where you can carefully select abilities and spell while also allowing you to plan your next moves. But if you are willing to try this out, this battle system is not as bad as first glance. Attacks were given a lot more weight and way less ‘floaty’, it’s a huge improvement compared to Final Fantasy XV. The biggest problem with Final Fantasy XV's combat is there is no real incentive for players to switch tactics or weapons, all you need to do is pick a weapon, hold down the attack button, heal up occasionally and this will get you through the whole game. However enemies here can be very challenging if you just mash the attack buttons and not plan your attacks and abilities, it encourages the player to have a strategy similar to old turn based combat. The game also gets way more interesting after a few hours when you have more abilities and materias. It also forces you to take risks because in order to use abilities or cast spells, you need ATB, which is a resource you can get by attacking. This means if you are low on HP, you have to get a few hits into the enemies before you can heal up with spells or items.

You can switch to another character during combat. This is essential to succeeding in combat, because when AI is controlling the other party members, they are very defensive and will not use any abilities. All party members have an area they excel at. Cloud is the only one with a counter attack stance. Barret can fire a barrage of bullets, perfect for dealing with enemies that are flying or standing on high ground. Tifa can deal a large amount of close range burst damage, great for destroying a staggered enemy. Aerith is a natural magic dealer and can do some crazy magic damage, but she is way less mobile compared to other characters. So using different characters when facing different enemies is highly recommended. Enemies AI seems to prioritize the character which the player controls, if you are unlucky, you are forced to switch to another character immediately. This can feel unfair in certain situations, when enemies overwhelm a character the second you take controls.

While normal encounters with more than one enemy can get very hectic, boss fights are a joy to play through. Bosses are very well-designed and completely spectacular to watch, each boss has different weaknesses and all of them feel very different. Returning enemies such as The Hellhouse is particularly memorable. The stagger meter was borrowed straight from Final Fantasy XIII and it can be very satisfying to pull off. Although sometimes it leads to frustrating moments when you are about to stagger a boss, it immediately goes into another form thus clearing the whole stagger meter and you have to build it up again from the start.

The sinking feeling

And now we have to address the elephant in the room. This is not the ‘full’ Final Fantasy VII experience. We have known since before release that this is going to the ‘part 1’ of the Final Fantasy VII remake saga. Unfortunately this has also negatively impacted this game in multiple aspects. Because this game only takes place in Midgar, which is about 7-8 hours in the original. Multiple sections of the game are stretched out into a 1-1.5 hours dungeon crawling gameplay. There are some nice additions, which are not in the original but many were clearly filler locations that can feel boring at times. There are open areas where you can constantly return to and it serves as the ‘open world map’ of this game. But this area is very small compared to the original and games with similar structure. The side quests are also a big let down compared to the amazing writings of the main scenario. Many were mind numbingly boring fetch quests which usually involve sending Cloud and his party to a set location, kill some monster and return. Some good character interactions were locked behind these side quests, making those a painful few hours before you get to the good stuff.

A huge spoiler for the original Final Fantasy VII incoming, Aerith dies in disc 1. Yeah, they killed a main character a third into the game Game of Thrones style back in 1997. Everytime Aerith shows up during my whole playthrough, I cannot stop reminding myself we are leading her to her ultimate demise. That's not the worst part, what hurts even more is knowing this game is going to end in 40-50 hours when the party steps out of Midgar and we will have to wait god knows how many years for the next part. Maybe Square Enix will find some bizarre way to save Aerith, but the fact that we will not see the outcome anytime soon really sucks. And this thought was looming over me throughout my whole playthrough.

There is a new challenger in the FFVII waifu war!

A long journey

Final Fantasy VII was undoubtedly one of the reasons why Final Fantasy was the staple of what a JRPG should be like back in the days. While the franchise was not in the best shape after the mediocre Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy VII Remake(part 1) was an enjoyable ride from start to finish. It goes to show that Square Enix can still pump out excellent games. Although it is disappointing that this is only a part of the whole Final Fantasy VII Remake experience, it is still a damn good one. Would I recommend this to anyone? Probably. But you might get more out of it when the whole saga has been released.

SCORE: * * *

(* = Very Bad, not recommended to anyone. Not worth ANY time investment)

(** = Overall an average experience, flawed but still playable game. Generally would not recommend)

(*** = Good, would recommend it to people who love similar types of games. If the game is part of a franchise, then it is a must play for those fans )

(**** = Excellent, EVERYONE who loves games should try this one out. It has my highest regard)