Fandom is such a fickle thing to handle properly. Especially for a property like Final Fantasy VII. It is not just the arguably most popular entry in one of the biggest and longest running RPG franchises in videogame history, it was a straight up phenomenon back in the nineties. For many people, this game released right in the middle of their most formative years. It shaped them. It also shaped creator Squaresoft. A watershed moment for them as a videogame production company, the Japanese RPG subgenre as a whole and even the entire industry at large. They had broken conventions; by shifting from Nintendo to Sony, from cartridge to CD-ROM, from fantasy to sci-fi, from pixels to polygons. It launched the careers of several up and coming designers, writers, producers and directors. This game, this phenomenon, blew up in such a major way that it's ripple effects and aftershocks are still being felt to this very day.

How then, as a creator, do you even begin to approach a remake project of a game with a legacy of such magnitude. It's very weight can directly be felt through the game's opening Prelude music track. This franchise means so much to so many people in all kinds of different ways. It's daunting to think about. You want to do justice to every possible moment, big and small; every single character and location, major or minor. You want to expand on all of this and present it in the highest possible fidelity that current day realtime graphics and audio can offer. The amount of time, effort and money this would cost is absolutely staggering for an adventure of this size. So they made the equally improbable and risky but only logical decision to split this project up in three distinct parts. Three fully fledged games that could stand on their own, while still intrinsically linked to eachother.

The first game in this trilogy, simply called Remake, covers what is essentially Act 1 of the overarching three or five act story. Which is challenging, as that first act only takes up about 5 hours of storytelling and gameplay in the original game, give or take; taking place in just one location. They had to stretch out one of the best paced opening acts to an RPG, so that it could stand on it's own as a fully featured 30-50 hour adventure, depending on the amount of content you decide to engage with.

So the brisk pacing of the original game is entirely sacrificed. What we get in it's place is much more world building and character moments than the original was ever able to realistically offer at the time. The location this game takes place in, the city of Midgar, is arguably one of the most iconic locations in all of videogames. It's metaphor, of the rich and privileged literally living above the poor and downtrodden, is far from subtle, but undeniably effective. The related imagery of it's construction, an impossibly large metal disc hundreds of meters above ground, robbing the people living below of literal sunlight, is strikingly oppressive. In the original we hardly ever see the looming metal plate above. In the remake it's always just a slight camera adjustment away as a constant reminder of the inhuman oppression being wrought here.

We get to fully experience life in the slums in visually detailed fashion and through a plethora of spoken lines from it's inhabitants. Several sectors, as they are inhumanely called, are visited throughout the game. Both the beautiful and ugly parts of society are brought to bare. The same is true for the brief trips to the top of the plate. More than the original game already did, we get to experience all facets of humanity. Greed and generosity, hate and love, indifference and compassion, cowardice and courage, shame and pride; it's all here. The often melancholic music only serves to further strengthen these feelings with beautifully realised compositions and rearrangements that do full justice to Nobuo Uematsu's classic original score, while creatively adding to it as well. This is one of the greatest soundtracks ever made, based on one of the greatest soundtracks ever made.

Nowhere is the humanity of this oppressed world brought to the forefront as much as through the central cast of colorful characters. This cast is at least as important as the world itself and they all mean so much to the fans. Back in the day, you had to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself. Dialogue was relatively brief, voices were absent, faces didn't show emotion and general animations were limited. It's quite the achievement in itself then, that despite these technical limitations, people still connected deeply to these characters and genuinely cared for their wellbeing.

It was therefore so easy to drop the ball here. Yet, this game didn't. In fact, these characters have never felt so alive and complete before; as lovingly animated and voice acted as they are. All of them fitting the characterizations of the originals so effectively, while adding on to it even further. It's a combination of good writing, solid acting, timeless design and heartfelt musical themes that manage to stick with you. Certain side characters, particularly the supporting members of the Avalanche eco-terrorist group which you are a part of, are now fully fleshed out as well, and you come to care for them about as much as the central cast.

All of these characters have their own particular qualities and flaws, convictions and doubts. They sometimes question their own actions and those of others. It's an effective lens through which to reflect on the enterprise you partake in: blowing up reactors which are sucking the planet dry of it's literal life energy, so they can offer the general populace a life of comfort and prosperity. The game does not shy away from showing you the collatoral of these bombings on innocent lives and the characters themselves will show doubts about it too. Yet, the stakes are incredibly high, Shinra -the company responsible for these reactors- is nothing short of a suffocating fascist government and nobody else is seemingly doing anything about the whole situation. So it's all justified, right?

The big bad of Final Fantasy VII is not Shinra though. It's a deceptive storytelling trick the original game manages to pull off effectively, by only revealing near the end of the first act that it's possibly not Shinra, but this fallen war hero called Sephiroth we should all be primarily worrying about. This is where Remake falls short of the original game. Sephiroth as the prospective antagonist is introduced much earlier this time around; manipulating protagonist Cloud immediately following the opening bombing mission. It's great for longtime fans, but might be confusing to new players. For most of the game, we don't really get to know exactly what Sephiroth's motivations and goals are and why we should hate him. The build up to one of the most iconic villains in videogame history was expertly handled in the original, but due to the constraints of just covering the first act, this build up is now compromised.

Similarly, the praiseworthy pacing of the original game is compromised too. All the extra world building and character moments are very much appreciated. That being said, a lot of it is offered through numerous lengthy, linear sections that tend to overstay their welcome a bit, particularly Hojo's Lab near the end; a stand in for the traditional final dungeon that entirely kills the forward momentum of the plot. Traversal through these sections isn't overly exciting once the beauty of the accompanying vistas and music wears off. The other half of this game exists of open areas in which you partake in optional sidequests. With the exception of the wonderfully whimsical Wall Market, these sidequests are a bit dull and forgettable most of the time and don't offer all that much in terms of gameplay or story.

That being said, this game definitely offers some truly memorable moments that impress and stick with you. There's the exciting opening bombing mission and your sobering confrontation with it's immediate aftermath; the first time you set foot in the slums and visit Seventh Heaven; the charming side mission with the supporting Avalanche crew to the top of the plate; the tense build up and subsequent exciting battle against the Airbuster; your first proper meet-up with Aerith and subsequent visiting of her house; everything that goes down in the aforementioned Wall Market; the falling of the Sector 7 plate and it's aftermath; exploring Shinra HQ and it's museum; fighting Jenova for the first time; the entire escape sequence juggling multiple perspectives at once. It's all greatly directed stuff.

Tying all this together is not just exploration and traversal. There's combat to be had, lots of combat. Arguably more than in the original game. Probably the biggest risk taken in terms of gameplay design, is the move away from the dynamic turn-based nature of the ATB combat system in the original and replacing it with an entirely unique action-turn based hybrid system. You no longer transition into a seperate battle screen, it all takes place right then and there in the environment; the music dynamically transitioning between the regular traversal music to an exciting battle rendition of the same song in such a smooth way that it always manages to impress. It's the single best realised gameplay feature of Remake and the one thing you want to keep coming back for.

It's nothing short of amazing what they managed to achieve here. All the neccessary tactics from the original ATB system are still in place, further enhanced by real-time action combat and everything that entails. So you not only issue commands to your crew, you also block, dodge and perform simple combos, all the while switching between the three members of your party. It feels surprisingly tight to control and the slowdown that occurs while you bring up the command menu is always appreciated, both in terms of visuals and as a moment of levity and respite from the intense action on screen.

All the party members have their own control scheme and way to play, emphasizing their individual roles. More than in the original, these different characters feel completely distinct from eachother. Cloud is a good multirole fighter, Barret is a great tank that attacks from range, Tifa is quick on her feet and builds ATB bars and stagger quickly, while Aerith is vulnerable but able to deal a great amount of ranged damage. The overall balance and synergy on display here is simply praiseworthy.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, it's the boss battles where the combat system truly shines. Every boss feels like a proper set piece, not just in terms of audiovisual presentation, but especially in terms of gameplay. You really need to stay on top of it all to come out victorious. Doubly so in Hard Mode, which unlocks after beating the game for the first time. This mode takes away the use of items, doesn't let you recover precious MP at rest spots and adds extra attacks and patterns to every boss. It's where the best parts of the combat show themselves.

Unlike the combat, the way you build out your characters has hardly changed from the original. It's the same Materia system from before and why wouldn't it be? It's a timeless system with which to strategize and shape the party to your liking, adapting to different situations as you go.

Equally, the general equipment system has not changed much. They kept it simple, so all you equip are a weapon, one piece of armor (if you can even call it that) and one accessory. Unlike the original, none of the weapons you obtain ever become obsolete. They not only offer you new abilities to learn, they also level up alongside your characters, offering further build opportunities on top of the materia slotting. This also means that Cloud's iconic Buster Sword remains relevant throughout the adventure, which fans are sure to appreciate. It's a solid change-up that doesn't overcomplicate things, although the customization screen for these weapons could certainly have been a bit more snappy.

Overall, possible materia and equipment builds can never become as crazy and creative as the original eventually is able to offer, but we're of course only on the first act of a bigger story here. There is much more to come down the line, well after this game's initial release.

Which remains the biggest challenge for this game's development. The story is not done after finishing this game. There are two more games coming up. Despite this, the developers did feel the need to round this off as it's own self-contained adventure. This leads to a big otherworldly showdown with Sephiroth at the very end that feels out of place. Equally, the so called whispers, literal arbiters of fate that occasionally appear to steer the party in the same plot direction as the original game -representing the most purist and protective of fans- feels like a curious and intriguing addition at best and a forced way to overcomplicate the general plot at worst.

How these specific changes and additions will shake out, remains to be seen. There is potential here for new, exciting surprises to come along in the following two games that could delight longtime fans; making them feel emotions comparable to their first time playing the original game back in the day. Emotions which would not neccessarily be there in equal measure if the entire plot plays out in the exact same way as before. Equally though, they could end up not adding anything of substance and feel entirely superfluous to what was already a really solid story to begin with. For the time being, we can only measure this specific game on it's own merits.

Those merits are largely predicated by that fickle fandom. The people who, like me, grew up with the original classic and have so many specific emotions and memories attached to it. In respecting those very emotions and memories by delivering an experience that does them justice, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a resounding success. The world, characters and music have never shone as brightly before, the materia system is still here in all it's mechanical glory and the combat convinces by arguably being the best of it's kind. In that sense, newcomers should equally be able to appreciate what this game has on offer. Both general plot and pacing do fall short and it's side content can be a bore. It's a very solid foundation that the development team will hopefully be able to build on properly, so they can truly spread their wings for the more open structured sequels.