kalksamen
4 reviews liked by kalksamen
This review contains spoilers
[still playing the game, and damn if it's that long, wip]
There's way lots to say for this "remake". Way lots.
Before i gave this a play i played through the original Final Fantasy VII for the PSX (PS4 version, which is a bit ugly) which was largely based upon (and later on the whole Compilation of FFVII created by the infamous Tetsuya Nomura), up to the point i gave up halfway during the 75% of Disc 1 and watched someone play the rest of it. It was a breakthrough hit for Squaresoft that was acclaimed by everyone and was known for having a modular Ability system known as Materia which allowed them to customize their own set of abilities and magic.
In the late 2010s, Nomura would be really purposeful to plan a trilogy of games that set in the main storyline of FFVII, starting with Remake (with Rebirth coming just after 4 years) which largely is compromised of the entire Midgar part, with further extensions and slight alterations. They apparently couldn't bother doing the Remake in one single entry so they decided to go on that direction, which apparently caused a questionable amount of fans that didn't like the way Squaresoft decided.
But what about how i felt about FF7 Remake? It's a remarkable experience. Not perfect, but just good enough. Problems? The English and Japanese dubs are VERY different in context which has caused quite a lot of confusion that, for example, the Italian subtitles match the Japanese translitteration. I've had encountered this problem since when i played the Live A Live remake. Apparently, it's quite a controversial decision from the localization team for being a Square Enix game. But anyway, let's cut it off.
The story of the game takes on a dramatic spin compared to the old Final Fantasy titles, with cinematic-style cutscenes taking the hurdle and extended plotlines all over the way. Parts of the rest of FFVII are taken and placed in Remake as well, including bits of soundtrack from the latter half of Disc 1 and familiar plot points such as Cloud's flashbacks. Taking in consideration this game heavily takes place inside Midgar, there is no actual overworld zone and the game mostly takes through a linear world progression (as of Chapter 11) with several small towns. Just like in FFVII, your party supports up to three playable characters and feature the famous Materia system, but the main difference is that combat is entirely redone with a different real-time battle system which replaces the necessity of having to use a separate battle scene, instead going for a more Chrono-esque immediate start and having the player control one of the three player characters, each one with their unique ability skillsets that can learn off from specific weapons they can obtain from shops. You can also upgrade your weapon's traits as well, allowing yourself to decide how you want to best suit your weapon's use at your discretion.
What i REALLY loved about this game, which unexpectedly hit me hard, is that the whole game's scoring is GODDAMN FUCKING great. I expected this game to be quite in the same quality as Final Fantasy XV but i'm utterly awe'd at the direction of this game, unlike how Nomura handled most of his games. Cutscenes, timing, the soundtrack variations (there's like so many rearrangements of Let The Battles Begin for example).
There's way lots to say for this "remake". Way lots.
Before i gave this a play i played through the original Final Fantasy VII for the PSX (PS4 version, which is a bit ugly) which was largely based upon (and later on the whole Compilation of FFVII created by the infamous Tetsuya Nomura), up to the point i gave up halfway during the 75% of Disc 1 and watched someone play the rest of it. It was a breakthrough hit for Squaresoft that was acclaimed by everyone and was known for having a modular Ability system known as Materia which allowed them to customize their own set of abilities and magic.
In the late 2010s, Nomura would be really purposeful to plan a trilogy of games that set in the main storyline of FFVII, starting with Remake (with Rebirth coming just after 4 years) which largely is compromised of the entire Midgar part, with further extensions and slight alterations. They apparently couldn't bother doing the Remake in one single entry so they decided to go on that direction, which apparently caused a questionable amount of fans that didn't like the way Squaresoft decided.
But what about how i felt about FF7 Remake? It's a remarkable experience. Not perfect, but just good enough. Problems? The English and Japanese dubs are VERY different in context which has caused quite a lot of confusion that, for example, the Italian subtitles match the Japanese translitteration. I've had encountered this problem since when i played the Live A Live remake. Apparently, it's quite a controversial decision from the localization team for being a Square Enix game. But anyway, let's cut it off.
The story of the game takes on a dramatic spin compared to the old Final Fantasy titles, with cinematic-style cutscenes taking the hurdle and extended plotlines all over the way. Parts of the rest of FFVII are taken and placed in Remake as well, including bits of soundtrack from the latter half of Disc 1 and familiar plot points such as Cloud's flashbacks. Taking in consideration this game heavily takes place inside Midgar, there is no actual overworld zone and the game mostly takes through a linear world progression (as of Chapter 11) with several small towns. Just like in FFVII, your party supports up to three playable characters and feature the famous Materia system, but the main difference is that combat is entirely redone with a different real-time battle system which replaces the necessity of having to use a separate battle scene, instead going for a more Chrono-esque immediate start and having the player control one of the three player characters, each one with their unique ability skillsets that can learn off from specific weapons they can obtain from shops. You can also upgrade your weapon's traits as well, allowing yourself to decide how you want to best suit your weapon's use at your discretion.
What i REALLY loved about this game, which unexpectedly hit me hard, is that the whole game's scoring is GODDAMN FUCKING great. I expected this game to be quite in the same quality as Final Fantasy XV but i'm utterly awe'd at the direction of this game, unlike how Nomura handled most of his games. Cutscenes, timing, the soundtrack variations (there's like so many rearrangements of Let The Battles Begin for example).
this is a game of very high highs and painful lows. for every motorcycle chase or insane boss fight, there are equal slow moments in both the story and gameplay that slowed the games pace to a painful crawl, to where even someone like me who hasn't played the original yet can tell that this is dragged out. however, uematsu went hard with the ost and those last few chapters besides some confusing story elements went IN so most things are forgiven
Just wanted to use this to say that I recently realised that the situation with Persona 5 and its fandom is kinda like Fortnite. The actual game is decent, or in Persona 5’s case, really fucking good, but the fandom gives the game and sane fans an awful image to the hatedom.
Don't get me wrong, I love this game and it's characters, the story it's absolutely interesting and has me hooked, but…
Negative aspects
The Gameplay is bad. It's a gacha and farming resources' problem, of course. Leveling cards up it's an absolute pain, and they don't really are exactly generous with this either. Then, in chapters like Ignihyde, they force you to have strong cards of very specific characters despite the difficulty of the battles. The farming in general it's boring and tedious despite being lessons on loop; events aren't free of this either. And, well, the gacha system used to be worse, at least they guarantee you the card now.
Positive aspects
Gameplay aside, everything else in the game is very polished. You can see Disney's high level of expertise and the care they have put into the characters, the art, the music and all the audiovisual aspects. While it is true that there are chapters that have been left behind because they were the earliest, there are events that make up for the lack of character content and show their development or interactions.
Negative aspects
The Gameplay is bad. It's a gacha and farming resources' problem, of course. Leveling cards up it's an absolute pain, and they don't really are exactly generous with this either. Then, in chapters like Ignihyde, they force you to have strong cards of very specific characters despite the difficulty of the battles. The farming in general it's boring and tedious despite being lessons on loop; events aren't free of this either. And, well, the gacha system used to be worse, at least they guarantee you the card now.
Positive aspects
Gameplay aside, everything else in the game is very polished. You can see Disney's high level of expertise and the care they have put into the characters, the art, the music and all the audiovisual aspects. While it is true that there are chapters that have been left behind because they were the earliest, there are events that make up for the lack of character content and show their development or interactions.