First of all, I never played the original. We never had a PS1 in our family and I am not a huge fan of turn-based combat. Of course, I always heard that Final Fantasy VII is great, yes even considered a masterpiece among fans. And I finally got my hands on a PS5 after a long time through a worldwide pandemic. Why not give the remake a chance? It looks fantastic, I can catch up on (a part of) the story, and it's even not really turn-based anymore. Of course, I had to play it. And boy is this an awesome game. Sure it is a tad too linear and the story of this first part is at its rather humble beginning and yes it left me with a lot of question marks. But the characters are just fantastic, how can you not fall in love with any of our heroes? Tifa and Aerith are so loving, Barret is our grumpy but also a lovable big guy, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge are more in the background but also will stick in your mind when you finish the game. Although the game only plays in the Midgar section of FFVII it brings some neat variance to the table but a few more different locations would have been better. The battle system is in my opinion the perfect mix between action and tactics and brings the ATB system to modern times. Choosing the skills and effects for your weapons might be a chore sometimes but it gives you a lot of freedom for your playstyle. The same with the materias. Just pick what you want to use and level it up. The game is not grindy which I definitely welcome warmly. At least when you finish most of the sidequests. Only in the last fight, there was one phase that kicked my ass two times where I wished I could go back and level some materia again. Felt like a dead-end at first but eventually defeated the boss. But that is probably my only negative experience with the game. I think this is a true masterpiece on its own next to the PS1 classic and I am so psyched for the second part.

Now I have finished Intermission and it's pretty good too. Yuffie's adventure is a little bit short but if you want more of FF7 Remake then it's nice. The story is nothing really special except some characters out of other FF7 games. Yuffie's fighting style is a lot of fun though. Albeit the other main characters felt very fluently Yuffie feels even more dynamic. Only once again the last boss, oh boy, was a struggle. But what a feeling beating that encounter. Intermission is not necessary but is a neat addition for 5 hours of playtime.