This game is such a mixed bag.

Many times while playing through the story I found myself thinking how the game was everything I ever wanted from this remake project. The cast of FFVII has never been better. Seeing locations like Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga look so alive had me feeling overwhelmed sometimes. Everything that was true to the original I found phenomenal- but back to that later.

Sadly, they really drop the ball on the side content. They have such an expansive and beautiful map but it ends up getting filled to the brim with repetitive, Ubisoft-type open world activities. Not only are the activities boring even by the second area of the game, but it’s so formulaic to the point they follow the same pattern in every single area. As for the side quests? Essentially the same, boring fetch quests that were in Remake part 1. They have a slight edge here due to usually leading to nice scenes with one of your party members- but there’s also so much more of them; so pick your poison.

And as for the Minigames? They play a massive part in the charm of the OG game, and leading up to launch it seemed like the devs really understood this. Though, in the end, most of the minigames feel like they exist to pad the number. There are exceptions (though mainly only Queens Blood) and anytime the story has a little dose of Chocobo Racing or Dolphin swimming it’s usually fine- but most are incredibly janky and expect you to be incredible at the games despite the jank. It kind of makes the Minigames not fun anymore when they lock side quests or good rewards behind such frustrating systems.

-Back to the story
The last five hours or so of the game really show the cracks, and in a few different aspects. The game has a run of increasingly fun dungeons, each better than the last- until you reach the final dungeon that brings the pace to a halt. It’s so slow to get through- especially when you’re this close to the end. It doesn’t help that of the four boss fights present here, you’ve essentially already fought two of them the area right before this!

Vincent and Cid get to do so little that their inclusion feels out of place. They probably shouldn’t have introduced them until part 3.

And then theres that moment of the story. What the entire remake project to this point has been leading up to this moment. Not only is the climactic moment that these two games have been leading to- it’s also the most iconic scene from the OG and arguably one of the most iconic gaming moments ever. How do they remake this? In a convoluted mess.

I don’t actually hate what they are trying to do here. Aerith and Sephiroth (presumably from the OG) both live on in the time stream and are fighting using the whispers. Sephiroth trying to change things in an attempt to win this time, and Aerith trying to keep things going the way they did since she knows it leads to his defeat. Cloud having an ever bigger breakdown than in the OG to the point that he believes he saved her?

Nothing wrong with any of that. The lifesteam is incredibly magical anyway and I’m not opposed to developing that further. Cloud having an even bigger breakdown than before will lead to a greater emotional punch when the rest of the cast comes to save him.

However, the execution is not good. At all. The best word to describe it is probably just clumsy. The way they edit the death scene with Clouds’ denial leads to a confusing chain of events where you aren’t sure for a while if what you’re seeing is even real. There are ways to do an unreliable narrator far better than this.

You then get thrust into an overlong boss fight against Sephiroth again. I was already skeptical when Remake had you fight Sephiroth so soon- but this is far worse. They already make us fight Reborn Sephiroth here. In the second part of the trilogy.

???

There’s just a lot of confusion, really.

It’s possible that the third game is still good if they have a better execution of these ideas, but here it really just feels like they wanted an in-your-face ending that could get theory people talking about the game for the next four years. And even if the next game is good, they already messed up what was mine and probably many others most anticipated moment. I really wanted this to break my heart but instead I was left confused.

They’ve completely changed the theming of the game to be about Fate / Defying fate and I don’t understand why. Loss has always been the main theme of FFVII. It fits perfectly. Loss is what brings all these characters together. It’s especially weird that this change comes during this stretch of the story, given that this is where the original theme was most relevant. Going through this game you get hit with Tifa’s loss, Barrett’s loss, Nanaki’s loss and it should all be leading to what could’ve been the perfect ending of Cloud losing Aerith… and instead they change it all at the last minute. It’s like they don’t understand the real story purpose she died for.

I’m still not sure of all my thoughts for this game but it definitely isn’t going to stick with me. Not in the way i had hoped for, at least.