Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (2021) [PS5] critique

 

“Remake (transitive verb): to make anew or in a different form.”

-Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Much has been said about Final Fantasy VII Remake. A masterpiece. A cash grab. An opportunity to tell a more fleshed-out story. A tedious exercise of adding 30 hours of filler into a small portion of the original. When Remake came out in 2020, Square Enix hoped to repeat the magic of the original 1997 title, now approaching its 30-year anniversary. 

Nearly four years after its release, Final Fantasy VII Remake has been praised for its lofty scope, criticized for its length and padding, lambasted for the story changes and lauded for its updated visuals and gameplay. I could keep going, but the point of this critique is neither to find faults nor agreements with the masses. 

The point is to analyze Remake and compare it with the legacy of one of the most ground-breaking RPGs ever released, then evaluate the efficacy of its presentation under the following criteria: Has Final Fantasy VII Remake accomplished what it intended to do under the definition of a remake? Does Final Fantasy VII Remake work as a standalone title with a beginning, middle and end? Finally, was Square-Enix successful in taking a story beloved by millions and transforming it into something new?

The Lead Up To Remake

Final Fantasy VII jump-started public interest into JRPGs at a time when the term was foreign to most people. Combining the technology within Sony’s CD-based 32-bit console with an engaging modern fantasy story filled with quirky, yet complex characters, Final Fantasy VII began a cultural zeitgeist that would last well into the new millennium. Despite the release of future Final Fantasy titles, from mainline to spinoffs and remasters, fans hungered for more Final Fantasy VII. Capitalizing on that, Square Enix (fresh off of their merger) announced the Compilations of Final Fantasy VII collection. The compilation featured several spin-off games before and after the events of Final Fantasy VII, an OVA, a full-length movie and a number of short novellas.

The first inklings of a remake came in the early 2000s, when Square announced updated versions of VII, VIII and IX for the PS2. The company scrapped that idea as they would have had to cut content for it to work on the new hardware. As the sixth generation arrived, Square Enix teased a remake through a tech demo in 2005. They showcased their Crystal Tools engine by recreating the intro to Final Fantasy VII. The tech demo re-sparked the conversation about remaking Final Fantasy VII, a conversation Square Enix wouldn’t resolve until the mid 2010s. Final Fantasy producer Shinji Hashimoto brought the subject up to Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima and Tetsuya Nomura. Realizing that it would be now or never, the trio agreed to make it happen. The game officially entered full production in 2015. Square Enix appointed Nomura as director of the project, despite working on Kingdom Hearts III at the time. 

A Legacy Remade

One of the primary goals the development team had to decide on was determining the scope of the game in relation to the original. They could have remastered Final Fantasy VII with better graphics, which was what the fans wanted. However, the team noted that both the graphics (including character models and set pieces) and mechanics (turn-based combat, Materia/weapon systems, etc.) were outdated by modern standards. To that end, the team decided to do a full-blown remake that would update these mechanics and recreate the world using current technology.

Scope discussions then focused on two directions for the Remake project: remake the entire game from start to finish or expand upon the original with multiple releases. To make that call, the team analyzed the game and separated the scenarios that were absolutely essential with those that the fans wanted to see. It became apparent that publishing a remade version of Final Fantasy VII as a single game would not be possible. There was too much content from the main story to cut out relative to what the team wanted to do.

In the end, the team decided that a series of connected titles would be the best option to tell the most complete version of Final Fantasy VII possible. The Remake team would also design each entry as a so-called “standalone title,” with each successive installment building upon the previous.

Midgar, Built to Scale

With the scope defined, the team decided that the first installment would take place entirely within Midgar, Final Fantasy VII’s iconic raised metropolis. Nomura stated that Midgar stood as an iconic symbol both within the world of Final Fantasy VII and with fans in general. However, the original game was not able to convey just how massive Midgar was due to the limitations of the hardware at the time.

 The team had to consider the amount of visual information presented to players as the environment in Remake would be rendered in full 3D. Moreover, they also had to account for the time it would take travelling from one point of the city to another, which adds up after a while.

As for ending the first installment at Midgar, Nomura stated that the team would need to reformat the level designs were they to extend beyond Midgar and into the world map. Doing so would have the team cut up other scenarios that they felt were crucial for the first part. According to Nomura, the story ending at an abrupt and awkward point was another reason the team kept the first installment solely in Midgar. Even if they added new gameplay elements post-escape, the inorganic end point was something that was not acceptable to the team.

Producer Kitase stated that once the team cemented their decision on setting the first installment in Midgar, the Final Fantasy VII Remake project truly began.

New and Nostalgic

The team placed a strong focus on making the game feel new and nostalgic for players of the original game. At the same time, they wanted to give new players an idea of what Final Fantasy VII was all about without bogging them down with too much information. To that end, the project team built Remake’s battle system using the action-based style of Dissida: Final Fantasy as a basis. Incorporating and modernizing the gameplay elements of Final Fantasy VII was the team’s main goal. One such example is the Active Time Battle system (ATB), which will be discussed in detail below. 

On the subject of characters, the models in Remake were rebuilt from scratch as opposed to using the ones developed for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Nomura stated that he wanted to balance the realistic models in Advent Children with a more conventional cartoon-like design. Cloud’s design went through several iterations before settling on one that was similar to Nomura’s original concept. The team also restyled Tifa’s original design based on feedback from their ethics department, giving her a more realistic look to better fit fighting scenes.

Along with a slight redesign, Aerith was restyled as a long-range fighter. She lobs magical energy out of her staff to attack enemies instead of getting up close and personal. The design team also  modified Barret’s Gun-Arm to look more intimidating than in the original game.

Seen From Mako-Infused Eyes

Final Fantasy VII Remake used Unreal Engine 4 for development. The Enlighten lighting engine augmented the game’s visuals produced by Unreal Engine 4. The combination resulted in vivid and highly detailed field visuals that helped convey the enormity of Midgar. Despite the hallway simulator nature of the game, there is enough variety within the environment to draw the eyes, from graffiti to detritus and everything in between. Area designs vary from skulking through Mako Reactors, to travelling through the slums and even venturing through the sewers beneath the undercity. 

As mentioned in a few sections above, translating the original game into a fully 3D setting meant that the team needed to account for scale. To that end, one thing they did was increase the height of Midgar’s upper city from 50 meters in the original to 300 meters. They also expanded the central pillar to accommodate multiple trains traveling between the upper and lower cities – a sight best seen during Chapter 5 of the story.

Monster designs follow the concept of the realistic-yet-cartoonish designs of the main cast. The team put emphasis on the little details – movement animations, embellishments and the like – to give them a sense of presence. For example, the Unknown Entities act on instinct and move skittishly with twitch-like movements, a byproduct of their gruesome experimentation. On the subject of battles, spells and effects are bright and punchy. Cloud’s sword has a bit of a liquidy-blur effect that’s highly pronounced when viewed through the game’s Photo Mode. The most impressive part of all of this is that the game maintains a consistent frame rate when played in Performance Mode, despite all the heavy action both in the field and in battle.

You Can Hear The Whispers of The Planet

The music in Final Fantasy VII Remake consists of a mix between arrangements of the original game’s music by Nobuo Uematsu, and new tracks by series veterans Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki. Uematsu also contributed one new song to the game, “Hollow.” Intended to be a reflection of Cloud’s state of mind during the game, Uematsu wrote it as a rock song with male vocals and the image of rain. Fun fact: The provisional title for the song in Japanese was “Karappo no Sora” or “Empty Sky” before being translated to English as “Hollow.”

The game employs the use of adaptive music during player controlled sequences, simultaneously playing multiple arrangements of a single track. These tracks fade in and out of one another based on player actions, like when you enter or exit a battle, for instance. Arrangements for boss fights also use adaptive music, with the melodies shifting as the player progresses through the different phases. The sound team also had to rearrange tracks to account for voiced dialogue, but were careful not to disrupt the original melodies from Final Fantasy VII.

The sound effects in the game compliment the musical design. You can hear and feel the heft of Cloud’s sword as he brings it down on his enemies with the satisfying sound of a slice cutting through the air. Spells, explosions and the sounds of gunfire are prominent when heard, yet they don’t overpower the music or vocals.

Active Time Battle Revised

The battle system was a key element that the Remake needed to nail down. Over the years, Square Enix has veered away from traditional turn-based battle mechanics, and instead opted for more action-oriented gameplay. Player reception of these Action RPG elements has been mixed, to say the least. Given the large stakes behind Remake and wanting it to feel both new and nostalgic, the development team opted for a hybrid version of FFVII’s Active Time Battle system.

Fighting is done in real-time, with each of the four characters specializing in either melee or ranged combat. Cloud and Tifa are the close-range fighters, using quick attacks and high-damaging abilities to punish enemies. Aerith and Barret are designated as the ranged fighters. They provide support to the party while dishing out damage from afar. Barret can also operate as a melee fighter with the Atomic Scissor and Pile Bunker weapons, but he works much better as a long range fighter. 

As time passes during battle, a thin blue ATB bar fills up under each character’s name on screen. The bar fills faster as players perform standard attacks with Square, or special character-specific actions with Triangle. Players can access the command menu at any time by pressing X. Doing this slows the action to a crawl, allowing players to take their time selecting commands. All commands, spells and item use costs a filled ATB segment, along with required MP if applicable. All characters can fill up to two segments, but can temporarily gain an additional segment by using the Refocus Limit, granted by the Refocus Materia.

Art of Combat

In the same vein as Chrono Trigger, enemies are visible on the field. Players can either engage in combat by approaching enemies or avoid confrontation. Players take control of Cloud in battle by default. However, players can adjust their primary controlled character in battle through the main menu. In this way, they are not limited to solely fighting as Cloud. AI controls the other party members, but players can take control of them by pressing left or right on the D-Pad during battle. Switching characters in the heat of battle to utilize their unique abilities and specializations is a key strategy for winning battles. 

Final Fantasy VII Remake employs the staggering mechanic first introduced in Final Fantasy XIII. The stagger meter for each enemy rises as Cloud and co. press their attacks. Certain abilities and exploiting weaknesses fill that gauge faster. When full, the enemy becomes incapacitated and vulnerable to additional damage for a short period of time. 

Enemies can enter a Pressured state based on the player fulfilling certain conditions. Usually, that involves dealing a certain amount of damage, exploiting a weakness or destroying an auxiliary target on their person. When Pressured, the stagger gauge fills more quickly. Players must therefore focus on taking advantage of the Pressured state to quickly and efficiently stagger their opponents.

Ability, Command, Magic, Item

Abilities, Commands, Magic and Items can only be used with ATB. Conversely, healing magic and items can be used on the field without limits. Returning to combat, each action that’s not a normal attack or a Triangle command costs ATB to use. In most cases, it’s one bar. However, certain Abilities and Commands, like Aerith’s Ray of Judgement or the Pray Command, cost two ATB bars. Some abilities even exhaust the ATB bar, with the damage dealt being proportional to the amount the bar has been filled prior to use.

Players can also assign Abilities, Commands, Items and Magic to shortcuts. Players can access these shortcuts in battle by holding L1 and pressing Circle, Square, Triangle or X, provided you have available ATB to spare. Shortcuts are highly useful when you’re in the heat of the battle and you don’t want to interrupt the flow by accessing the command menu. Shortcuts are also great for quick heals when characters are critically injured and for selecting your best attacks when enemies are staggered. 

You can also select commands for the other members of your party not in your immediate control by pressing L2 or R2 while in the command menu. This allows players to coordinate their party’s actions without having to take direct control of the characters to do so.

SOLDIER, Interrupted

As good as the battle system felt when I first played it in 2020, one major criticism I had back then was that enemies will often interrupt your actions. Conversely, outside of staggering or pressuring, Cloud and company have a hard time interrupting enemy attacks. The act of interruption I speak of is when an enemy strikes just as you are either about to cast a spell, use a command or ability or use an item, thereby cancelling your action. This results in a wasted ATB segment that could have been used to either heal your party or deliver a fatal blow to end the battle. 

Four years removed and a second playthough later, I’ve come to an understanding of this unexplained interruption system the team implemented in Remake. If you realize that your actions can be cancelled out, it puts the onus on the player to pay attention to enemy movements, study the Combat Analyzer (a good reason why the Assess Materia is your best friend in this game) and wait for lulls and openings during a fight to either strike back or regroup as a team.

Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t a game where you can rush head first into enemy throngs and defeat them by mashing buttons. Strategy and timing is built into the revised ATB system, forcing players to slow down and pay attention to each fight. Only by exercising patience while pressing forward will you prevail. Players would have a better understanding of this system if the game was more overt in explaining that their actions can be interrupted.

What’s Your Status?

Status effects and buffs play a major role in Final Fantasy VII Remake, much like they did in the original title. As fights occur in real-time, these effects can either turn the tides of battle to your favour, or leave you helplessly staring at the Game Over screen. While statuses like Poison or Silence can be debilitating, they wear off after a set time. Using items or Cleansing Materia clears the negative status outright. Pairing the Warding Materia to a status-inducing magic will reduce or protect against that status, depending on the Support Materia’s level. Players can prevent status effects by wearing certain accessories.

Buffs, such as Haste, Regen or Barrier, operate in the same manner. They are duration-based beneficial effects that can either be an aid or a hindrance depending on who’s using it.

Swordplay

Moving on to the individual playable characters and their unique combat capabilities, we start things off with Cloud Strife. This former SOLDIER  is a situational fighter who utilizes two stances, or modes, in battle. Operator Mode is his primary means of attack, allowing him to maneuver the field and strike quickly and precisely with physical attacks. Pressing Triangle switches his stance to Punisher Mode. In this mode, Cloud moves slower but his attacks do way more damage and charge more ATB as a result. Cloud will also counterattack any physical attacks while guarding in Punisher Mode. Regardless of modes, Cloud can execute a combo by pressing Square repeatedly. Cloud can also perform a powerful AoE attack by holding down Square.

True to his jack-of-all-trades nature, Cloud is a well-rounded character best used as a means to whittle down an enemy’s stagger meter before dealing heavy damage with his abilities and Limits. Both Operator and Punisher Modes should be used interchangeably, along with abilities like Focused Thrust and Counterstance, to maximize his damage and stagger output. His high magic stat also makes him an excellent spellcaster, with only Aerith surpassing him on that metric.

All four characters can use Limit Breaks – powerful attacks that are accessed once the Limit Gauge is filled. In addition, each character in Remake has access to two levels of limits. With Cloud, his Level 1 Limit is the classic Cross-Slash – a powerful three-hit combo. His Level 2 Limit is called Ascension – a combination of Cloud’s Omnislash and Climhazzard limits from the original game. While powerful in its own right, Cloud can also use Ascension to quickly build up an enemy’s stagger meter.

Way of the Fist

With fists of stone and knees that never buckle, Tifa Lockhart focuses on delivering speedy attacks while evading anything that comes her way. Tifa’s special mechanic involves the use of chi to power up her attacks through her Unbridled Strength ability. By using Unbridled Strength, Tifa gains additional attacks to her base combo. Her unique Triangle ability also changes with each level of chi. She starts each battle with Whirling Uppercut, which can be leveled up to Omnistrike and Rise and Fall. What makes these three attacks truly unique is their ability to boost an enemy’s stagger percentage. Furthermore, Tifa can use these three moves consecutively, further increasing the stagger percentage and boosting damage. 

Tifa’s primary strength is her ability to quickly stagger opponents. Her quick attacks, combined with Unbridled Strength and other abilities like Focused Strike, allow her to easily build an enemy’s stagger meter. Once staggered, players should unload with her accumulated Triangle attacks and the True Strike ability to boost the stagger percentage. Tifa can then punish opponents with powerful abilities like Overpower and Starshower. The latter is arguably her most powerful move in her arsenal, as it increases the damage of her next attack. Her low HP and need to get up close and personal to attack are her biggest weaknesses.

In terms of Limits, Tifa uses her classic Somersault move – a powerful and flashy kick – as her Level 1 Limit. Her Level 2 Limit, Dolphin Blow,  consists of a series of combo attacks that end with a devastating uppercut. This is a reference to Tifa’s Limit mechanic in the original game, where she could string all of her limits together to form a powerful seven hit combo.

Sharpshooter

Barret Wallace performs two roles in the party. The first is that of a long-range fighter who can pick off targets that Cloud and Tifa cannot reach. His second role is that of a tank who can divert and absorb damage meant for other party members. Holding down Square causes Barret to unload a volley of bullets at his target, ending with a medium-sized explosion that also builds ATB. Pressing Triangle uses his Overcharge ability, dealing more damage than his base attack and charging more ATB. Overcharge has a cooldown period before its next use, but it can be recharged faster by mashing Triangle. 

When equipped with a melee weapon, Barret can deal slow but powerful attacks that end with a ground slam that affects multiple enemies. His Triangle ability transforms into Overrun – a charging attack that ends with a powerful slam. His major disadvantage with using melee attachments is his inability to target airborne enemies without using ATB.

As a tank, Barret can use Steelskin to reduce damage and Lifesaver, which redirects damage taken by the party to him. Given his low speed and magic, Barret acts best as a support role, mitigating damage while supporting the party with his Abilities and Limits. Barret’s Level 1 Limit, Fire in the Hole, is a renamed version of his Big Shot limit from the original game. His Level 2 Limit, Catastrophe, is also the same from the original.

Tellurics

Aerith Gainsborough rounds out the list of playable characters in Remake. She is the dedicated spellcaster of the group with the highest magic stat of the four. She attacks by hurling slow moving, but powerful magical projectiles from her staff. She can also physically attack opponents with her staff at close range. Tempest is her unique Triangle ability, and operates in one of two ways. 

Tapping Triangle releases several bolts of magical energy to one target. Holding Triangle to charge and then releasing it launches a powerful chunk of magic which explodes, dealing up to five hits of damage. Tempest also charges Aerith’s ATB bar. This ability really shines against staggered enemies, as the charged Tempest attack will keep her ATB bar full, giving her plenty of opportunities to lay down wards or cast powerful magic.

On the subject of wards, the ones that Aerith creates are used to support the party. Of her abilities, her best is the Arcane Ward. When conjured, anyone who casts a spell while standing in the ward will cast it twice, making it useful for dealing lots of magical damage or buffing your party. Offensively, her Ray of Judgement skill is excellent against staggered opponents as it boosts the stagger percentage. Aerith suffers from low physical attack and defense and is fairly slow. As such, she’s best used to support attackers like Cloud and Tifa from a distance, before switching to powerful magic when enemies are pressured or staggered. 

Aerith’s limits are primarily utility based. Her Level 1 Limit, Healing Wind, heals the party. Her Level 2 Limit, Planet Protector, casts Shield on the party, rendering physical attacks ineffective for a period of time.

Still More Fighting

Boss fights in Final Fantasy VII Remake are highly cinematic affairs that can drag on for too long if you don’t have the right strategy in place. Luckily, the game gives you the option to retry from before the start of battle to tweak your character’s loadout. It also helps that players can skip cutscenes. Bosses in Remake are split into various phases, with each phase forcing players to alter their approach. On each new phase, bosses either gain new attacks or modify the field to their advantage. Sometimes, players will have to focus on and take out a secondary target before the boss can be damaged.

Some of Remake’s best gameplay moments in which the party has to get creative happen during boss fights. A great example is during the fight against the Valkyrie on the ruined Sector 7 plate. During the latter stages of the fight, the machine launches a drone that fires a powerful laser at the party. But by luring it into its own beam, you can greatly damage and stagger it, giving players an opportunity to press their attacks.

Remake modified many of the original game’s bosses, like the Guard Scorpion, the Abzu and the Airbuster, to account for the multiphase format. Speaking of the Airbuster, according to the Final Fantasy VII Remake: Material Ultimania, Nomura proposed that the boss should take flight in the third phase. This flight change gave lead battle designer Tomotaka Shiroichi ideas to add removable, autonomous arms and other mechanics. This drastically changes the feel of the fight from the original game. The player now has to contend with giant lasers and flying arms alongside its standard fare. 

Welcome to Hell (House)

The Airbuster wasn’t the only enemy that got a complete makeover. Initially a random encounter in the original, the Hell House became a full-fledged boss fight in Remake. Cloud and Aerith fight this oddity in the Corneo Colosseum during the events of Chapter 9. What makes this boss noteworthy is that it presents the first true test of the player’s understanding of Remake’s battle system.

In a nutshell, the Hell House constantly switches weaknesses, hits pretty hard and has a high HP pool. On top of that, the game limits you to playing as Cloud and Aerith. Cloud is great at pressuring and building the stagger while avoiding attacks, but his magic capabilities tend to be ignored. Aerith is slow, has low defense and low HP. However, her spellcasting in this fight is the key to winning as she can effectively exploit the shifting weaknesses. Speaking from personal experience, it took a long time to finish that battle. It was one of the bigger reasons why I didn’t return to the game for several years. 

The key to beating the fight, I learned, was playing to both Cloud and Aerith’s strengths. Splitting the four elements between the two magically adept characters means you have coverage when Hell House switches elemental screens. By keeping Cloud in Punisher Mode and alternating between physical counterattacks and Focused Thrusts, he can keep the pressure off of Aerith. Aerith, meanwhile, can hang back and alternate between throwing offensive spells and healing. So long as one employs a strategy where each character has at least one ATB in hand, the fight becomes more manageable.

This fight overall helps players to prepare for the trials ahead and forces them to think more carefully about their equipment, abilities and Materia prior to each major encounter.

Navigating the Field

Outside of battle Cloud and company can explore the area, talk with NPCs and interact with shop vendors and vending machines. The party can recover HP and MP by sitting on benches conveniently located beside vending machines. By running up to or interacting with small, near-transparent blue squared overlays, Cloud and the others can perform various field actions. These include, but are not limited to, jumping over gaps, vaulting over objects, climbing ladders and pulling or pushing objects. 

Breakable boxes can be found all over the field map. Characters can break into them by pressing Square. Inside, players can find items, Mako shards that restore MP and Moogle Medals. The chances of finding items in these boxes are random. Players can also find and open treasure chests. Chests with yellow highlights contain items, while those with purple highlights contain new weapons for party members.

Players can also access a quick menu by pressing X. This menu’s primary purpose is to use restoratives or magic to recover HP and MP. Normally, using an item closes the menu, but by holding L1 while selecting an item or spell, you can keep the menu open. This allows players to repeatedly use Potions or Cure magic to keep everyone’s health up without having to repeatedly open the menu. 

Wait, What’s That Sound?

Whilst traversing the field, you’ll sometimes hear a snippet of music coming from a vending machine or a music player nearby. That’s an indication that a piece of music can be picked up. Players can find these tracks at shops, special vending machines containing items and music and from talking to certain individuals. When obtained, you can play them at any jukebox you run into on your journey. There are over 60 themes to be found, many of them remixes or covers of music from the original Final Fantasy VII. 

Some of the remixed and covered music include jazz renditions of well-known tunes, like Tifa’s Theme, Bombing Mission and Crazy Motorcycle. Interestingly enough, you can listen to this very jazz album through Spotify or YouTube. Tunes exclusive to Remake include Scarlett’s Theme, Stamp’s Theme and Midgar Blues. 

The Power of the Ancients

Cloud and company employ the use of Materia while fighting for their lives in Midgar. Like in the original game, Materia are divided into five types: Magic (Green), Support (Blue), Summon (Red), Command (Yellow) and Complete – formerly known as Independent (Purple). Materia grow by accumulating AP from battle, with each new level granting new spells, skills or passive buffs. Unlike the original game, you cannot create copies of new Materia when they are Mastered. That means players can only obtain a limited number of copies of the same Materia. Given this handicap, players must pay close attention to what Materia they give each character.

 

Magic is self-explanatory – equipping it grants access to magic while affecting stats like Magic and Spirit. Command Materia grants a character access to commands outside their abilities. Examples include Steal and Enemy Skill. Some orbs, like Chakra and ATB Boost, provide supportive and restorative commands that do not require MP to consume. Support Materia in Final Fantasy VII Remake can only be connected to Magic or Command Materia via a linked Materia slot on a weapon or armor. The one exception is AP Plus. Any Materia linked with it will accumulate double the AP. This makes it absolutely necessary for mastering all Magic Materia as per the Battle Report.

While it may seem that Magic Materia plays a high importance in character builds, players must not underestimate the utility of Complete Materia. While they cannot be linked (aside from AP Plus), Complete Materia like Skill Master, Steadfast Block and Magic Plus can make all the difference in battle. Utilizing Complete Materia in builds is essential for clearing Hard Mode.

Players can equip Materia by entering the Materia and Equipment sub-menu on the main menu.

Come Forth!

Each character can equip only one Summon Materia at a time. At certain points in tough fights, a summon meter appears. When filled, a character can then call on a summoned monster to aid them in battle. Summoned monsters act independently, but come with their own ATB abilities that characters can use. When the meter empties, the summon performs a final move that either aids your party or deals heavy damage to enemies. 

Players receive their first Summon Materia, Ifrit, from Jessie at the end of Chapter 3. They can also grab the Chocobo and Mog Summon through a Discovery quest while infiltrating Mako Reactor 5. Players can obtain the remaining four summons – Shiva, Fat Chocobo, Leviathan and Bahamut – through participating in Chadley’s VR Missions. Three other summons – Chocobo Chick, Cactuar and Carbuncle – were released either as Digital Deluxe exclusives or pre-order bonuses. 

Tools of The Trade 

During their travels, players can either purchase or find new weapons, armour and accessories. Each weapon and armour includes its own Materia slot setup. In the case of armour, the amount of Materia you can equip is set dependent. Conversely, players can increase the number of Materia they can equip through Weapon Modification, discussed in the next section. Each weapon Materia slots (when fully upgraded) max out at three pairs of linked slots, six in total. Armour Materia slots max out at two pairs of linked slots, four in total. 

Accessories grant passive effects to an equipped character. A great deal of accessories provide an increase to stats, like Attack, Defense or Magic Attack. Some special accessories grant powerful passive effects. Examples include increased healing from the Healing Carcanet, or filling the Limit Gauge with every use of ATB with the Transference Module.

Items are plentiful in Remake. You can purchase the most common sundries, like Potions, Antidotes and Phoenix Downs from vendor shops and vending machines on the map. Sometimes, vending machines will have a limited stock on some harder-to-find consumables, like MP restoring Ethers. Players can also use items specifically designed for battle. Some examples include Grenades, Celeres drinks (which cast Haste) and stuffed animals doubling as explosives. 

Weapons and Mods

When compared to the original game, Remake provides more weapons for each character at this stage of the story. Given that the game primarily centers around Midgar, it makes sense that characters need a diverse set of weapons to use. Each party member can gain access to six different weapons. Remake retains many weapons from the original game, such as the Mythril Saber, the Atomic Scissors and the Bladed Staff (formerly Striking Staff). All weapons grant the use of a specific ability. A character’s proficiency with that ability increases by using it in battle. The ability is mastered once the its proficiency gauge (shown in the equipment menu) is filled. This allows characters to freely use that weapon-specific ability, regardless of what weapon they equip. 

Players gain access to the weapon modification mechanic in Chapter 3. By spending Skill Points (SP) on their weapons, characters can increase stats like Attack and Magic, earn passive buffs, and increase the number of Materia a weapon can hold. Weapon Levels, which increase after accumulating a set number of SP, increase the number of sub-cores on a weapon, thereby unlocking more upgrades. Some weapons grant the valuable Reprieve ability, allowing the character to survive fatal attacks with 1 HP remaining – an absolutely essential passive for Hard Mode.  Characters earn a set number of SP at each level up. After level 50, players must then obtain special Manuscripts to fully max out SP. 

A Merc’s Entertainment

Throughout the game, Cloud can participate in a few minigames, the first being darts in Tifa’s bar during Chapters 3 and 4.

A bike minigame, reminiscent of the one played in the original game, makes an appearance during the ride back up to Sector 7 with Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. In it, Cloud can slash to his left and right. He can execute a flashy spin move with Triangle and a long-range shockwave by holding L1 and then pressing Triangle. Both Triangle moves have a cooldown associated with it. Cloud can also block attacks on the bike with R1. This game returns in a big way during Chapter 18. You can skip both bike games on a New Game+ file.

Chapter 8 introduces the Whack-a-Box minigame. Accessed after defeating the Hedgehog Pie King enemy during the main scenario, Cloud can play the game by talking to the children in the Sector 5 hideout. The object of the game is to destroy as many boxes as possible within the time limit. Aside from his Braver ability, Cloud is limited to using the ability on his equipped weapon. A harder version of Whack-a-Box is accessible in Chapter 14.

The squats minigame from the original makes an appearance during the Wall Market segment in Chapter 9. Much like the original, players have to press buttons in a determined order to have Cloud perform squats. Players are shown a button guide which disappears as Cloud completes reps. He also speeds up, making it harder for the player to keep up with the timing. Tifa can participate in a pull-up challenge in Chapter 14, which operates the same way as the squat challenge.

SOLDIERs Don’t Dance

By far, one of the most out of place, yet humorous minigames in Remake is the dance-off between Cloud and Andrea Rhodea – the top entertainer of Wall Market’s Honey Bee Inn and member of the Trio. As Andrea finds out about Cloud and Aerith’s plan to infiltrate Corneo’s mansion, he invites the pair to the Honey Bee Inn for the chance to earn his blessing. To earn it, Cloud must put aside his cool guy persona and dance like no SOLDIER had ever danced before.

Button inputs float around as Andrea and Cloud dance on stage. The player must press them in time with the music. Visually, the buttons also have a slight hexagonal outline to them that closes as the symbol gets close to it. Pressing the button just as it overlaps with the outline ensures a perfect input. Players can either time their presses to the music or to visual cues to pass the minigame and continue the story. If you do well enough, you’ll earn one of Andrea’s earrings and the “Dancing Queen” trophy. 

In all honesty, the dance minigame was jarring to see at first, when compared to the source material. The Honey Bee Inn was originally a brothel that was optional to visit. By collecting a Member’s Card and entering the premise, Cloud would find himself in some humorous and awkward scenarios. Remake’s version – updated to suit both modern tastes and times – reimagines the Inn as a burlesque dance parlour. Once I got over my initial shock of the changes, I found the dance-off to be extremely campy in the best way. The whole scene, complete with Cloud getting jiggy with it, perfectly encapsulates the essence of the original Final Fantasy VII – a game that was filled with both serious and silly moments. 

Odd Jobs

Starting in Chapter 3, Cloud can undertake a number of side quests within the slums. These can be anything from gathering items to defeating tough enemies to… looking for cats. Completing these requests not only rewards players with items, money and equipment, but they also affect Cloud’s reputation as a mercenary. Some NPC’s have different dialogue depending on how many requests Cloud has completed. As his rep increases, more odd jobs become available to undertake.

The number of quests completed in Chapters 4, 8 and 9 also determines what outfits Tifa, Aerith and Cloud will wear when facing Don Corneo at the end of Chapter 9. To go even further, completing all the requests in Chapters 4 and 8 will unlock Discovery events with Tifa and Aerith respectively. It’s in Tifa’s Discovery event that you get to pick which outfit she’ll wear, be it mature, sporty or exotic.

On the subject of Discovery events, players can access these mini-events under certain conditions. Examples include witnessing a rare Materia within the under Plate ventilation system or trying to open a stuck door in Sector 5. Resolving these Discoveries either leads to rare and powerful rewards, or shortcuts that cut down on backtracking time exponentially. Some Discoveries also flesh out certain NPCs, like Johnny, the thief Mirabelle, and her granddaughter Kyrie. The latter two were featured in the FFVII novella, On The Way To A Smile.

Challenges Fit For A SOLDIER

Final Fantasy VII Remake has a dearth of challenges available for the discerning player. The largest being the Arena fights and completing Chadley’s Battle Report. Starting in Chapter 9, after the mandatory fight against the Hell House, players can partake in optional fights within the Corneo Colosseum. You can obtain valuable prizes including Manuscripts and the valuable Limit Manuals. These manuals, specific to each character, grant them their Level 2 Limits. The Colosseum can be revisited later on in Chapter 14, allowing players to obtain Barret and Tifa’s Limit Manuals. 

During the events of Chapter 16, Cloud and company can access a Shinra VR Battle simulator. Players can gain access to an upgraded simulator in Chapter 17, but only after beating the game once. Whether colosseum or simulator, the battles include single character gauntlets, two member challenges and a full party fight against waves of strong opponents.

Cloud meets Chadley, one of Hojo’s assistants, in Chapter 3. He gives Cloud a Combat Analyzer and tasks him to fill out his Battle Report. The Battle Report consists of a series of challenges where players must demonstrate their understanding of the combat system. Challenges include analyzing a number of enemies using the Assess Materia, exploiting weaknesses and even defeating summoned monsters. On completion of each task, Chadley rewards the player with new and highly useful Materia to purchase.

Revisiting the Past

Players can access the New Game+ mode after saving a completed game file. Loading this save opens the Chapter Select screen. Here, players can revisit chapters to pick up missing treasure, undertake different side-quests and change up the bridal outfits for Cloud, Tifa and Aerith. Using a New Game+ save also unlocks impressive bonuses, like granting double EXP and triple AP for all fights and access to an improved VR simulator in Chapter 17. Some of the hardest fights and the greatest rewards are only available in this simulator. The EXP/AP boosts are also vital to both reaching each character’s max levels and mastering various Materia before undertaking the Hard Mode gauntlet.

Players also unlock the Hard difficulty when starting up a New Game+ save and selecting Hard Mode upon selecting a chapter. Hard Mode imposes severe restrictions. Players cannot use any items for recovery or attack. The benches only recover HP. Rare Mako shards are the only way to restore MP. On top of all of this, enemies have heightened stats and HP totals. Players receive additional Manuscripts as a reward for completing certain boss fights in Hard Mode. You will need these in order to obtain every weapon skill as you stop gaining SP after level 50. 

Intergrade

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, the PS5 upgrade of Final Fantasy VII Remake, provides a number of upgrades and performance improvements over the base PS4 game. Firstly, Intergrade allows players to choose two visual modes. Quality Mode presents the game in 4K resolution at 30fps. Performance Mode drops the resolution to 1620p, but enhances the framerate to 60fps. The base version topped out at 1620p at 30fps when playing on a PS4 Pro. I played the whole game in Performance Mode and I was very impressed with how smooth everything looked. 

Textures, shadows and lighting have vastly improved. Background objects, animations and effects look stunning when compared to the base game. On top of that, load times had greatly reduced, just averaging over 2 seconds to load new areas compared to the roughly 40 seconds in the PS4 version. In essence, Intergrade is the definitive way to play Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Episode: INTERMission is Remake’s sole DLC and the key component in Intergrade. As the ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi, players will infiltrate Shinra to recover a powerful Materia. It’s a story which occurs in parallel with Remake’s main story and fleshes out both Yuffie’s character, while providing additional lore for Remake. The DLC is available to players if they purchased Intergrade directly. Those who upgraded from the PS4 version (like myself) must pay an additional fee to access the content. As I have not played Episode: INTERMission at this time, it will be excluded from the current scope of this critique.

Cloud: An Insecure and Untrustful SOLDIER

Spoilers abound as we begin a detailed analysis of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s story.

Cloud Strife, a former SOLDIER First Class, is the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII Remake. He comes across as cocksure and knowledgeable of all things battle and Shinra. However, his aloof attitude and bravado is but a mask hiding a lot of insecurity and uncertainty of himself. Throughout the story, Cloud struggles to connect and interact with others due to his introverted nature. Through flashbacks within the game, Cloud’s awkward and reticent nature stems from his inability to trust others and, more importantly, himself. 

Execution-wise, Cloud’s character and narrative arc differs greatly from his depiction in the original game. While Final Fantasy VII was more subtle about it, Remake immediately sows doubt about Cloud’s memories after he encounters hallucinations of his mortal enemy, Sephiroth. As Cloud’s icy demeanour thaws while interacting with both AVALANCHE and Aerith, Sephiroth looms large in his mind, almost ham-handedly so. The game constantly reminds players that Sephiroth and JENOVA are key links to Cloud’s story without explaining why that’s the case. It’s difficult for new players to invest in those connections without playing the original. 

Barret: A Vengeful, Cyberpunk Zealot

The man with a gun for an arm, Barret Wallace comes across as a battle-hungry zealot at first glance. As the leader of a rogue cell of AVALANCHE, he is constantly preaching about the evils of Shinra and their exploitation of the Planet’s resources. When he’s off of his pulpit, he’s gunning down anything and anyone related to Shinra. But beneath that rough and tumble appearance is a caring, devoted father who is extremely empathetic to his team. 

True to his nature as a tank, he is always willing to shoulder his team’s burdens and guilty feelings. His performative devotion to the cause, however, is constantly at odds with his apparent need for vengeance. A prime example of this is in Chapter 17, when Barret confronts President Shinra in the Shinra Building. Rather than letting him fall to his death, he instead rescues him and makes various demands. This leads to a fatal encounter with Sephiroth and his miraculous recovery by the Whispers – something I’ll discuss more about below 

Like with Cloud, Remake teases the reasonings behind Barret’s motivation for revenge, but never reveals it in the game. This presents another blow to Remake’s claim as a standalone title story-wise, as players will need to play the sequels to discover what makes the man tick.

Tifa: A Brawler With A Nurturing Heart

Tifa’s portrayal in Final Fantasy VII as Cloud’s childhood friend with little else to her character remains a constant criticism. Remake attempts to correct that by highlighting the fighter’s strong-willed personality and positive outlook, all while hinting at her hardships. On top of that, the Remake team had her lean more into the maternal side of her character.

During Chapter 3, players get a glimpse of Tifa’s life post-Nibelheim. Arriving five years previously, she wasted no time in ingraining herself to the Sector 7 community, while simultaneously working as a member of AVALANCHE. From her landlady, Marle, to young Betty, and even to the members of the neighborhood watch, Tifa provides comfort and stability to everyone around her. This extends also to Cloud as she shows him around and helps start up his mercenary career, while at the same time keeping an eye on him. 

Armed with an upbeat attitude and a tendency to find solutions to their current problems, Tifa encourages the party throughout the story. That attitude cracks slightly upon the destruction of Sector 7 and the loss of her home and community for the second time. Instead of following through with her anger, she channels it towards helping those who are suffering after the Plate collapse as a way to take responsibility for AVALANCHE’s actions. It’s a small, but important glimmer of agency given to Tifa, with her realizing that they need to provide whatever aid they can first before considering their next move. Once again, it will be up to the sequels to determine if Tifa can escape Cloud’s influence and have agency over her actions.

Aerith: The All-Knowing Florist

Aerith, a florist skilled with both staff and magic, is the last surviving member of the Cetra – the original inheritors of the Planet. Like her depiction in Final Fantasy VII, Aerith appears to have an inkling of what’s to come with the Planet, given her connection to it. However, Aerith is pursued by the Whispers – the arbiters of fate who ensure that the timeline remains intact – during her first interaction with Cloud in Chapter 2. As the story progresses, players see more instances of Aerith knowing more than what she’s letting on about. 

Towards the end of the game, she discovers that Sephiroth has twisted the Whispers to suit his own needs. She explains to the party in both Chapters 17 and 18 the importance of defeating Sephiroth due to this complication, but reveals that by doing this, they risk altering their destinies.  

She changes at the end of the game to a more muted and unsure character, knowing that the future will be different now that the agents of fate are no more. To both the casual player and the fans alike, Aerith’s characterization in Remake raises questions of who this Aerith really is. The answers, yet again, should be revealed in the rest of the trilogy.

Balancing the Leading Ladies

The Final Fantasy VII Remake team took great lengths to ensure that both Tifa and Aerith have equal amounts of screen time in the game. They wanted to avoid any sort of favoritism for one character over the other, given that fans have very strong opinions between the two.

Throughout the sewers, the Train Graveyard and certain segments of The Drum in the Shinra Building, Remake puts the leading ladies on the centre stage, with Aerith’s spirited disposition balancing nicely with Tifa’s calm and reserved nature. The game does a good job showing how well they complement one another away from Cloud’s influence. They bring each other’s spirits up, encourage one another and team up to tease Cloud on occasion. Tifa and Aerith in Remake are less portrayed as romantic rivals and more shown as budding friends who eventually trust one another with their lives.

Red XIII: A Lab Rat Dog Whose Late To The Game

Red XIII’s introduction at the tail end presents the largest case against Final Fantasy VII Remake being deemed a standalone title. A wolf-like animal with crimson fur and a flaming tail, Red XIII is one of Hojo’s experiments in the Shinra Building. He joins the party after interacting with Aerith upon his release.

Red XIII is taciturn in nature, with his only focus being escaping Hojo’s lab. He sees Cloud and the others as the opportunity he needs to escape. He also acts as an exposition dump. He reveals to the party the nature of the Whispers as the arbiters of time themselves. They ensure that the timeline remains intact, regardless of whatever fate befalls the Planet. Red is also knowledgeable about the Drum and the experiments within, making him a valuable wealth of information.

Unlike the others, the game’s AI handles Red XIII. Players cannot change his equipment, as a result. He also suffers from limited character growth due to his brief introduction and his unplayability. He grows to trust Cloud and the others at the end, but is still withdrawn until – surprise, surprise – his full backstory is revealed in Rebirth. 

Sephiroth: A Looming Silver-Haired Presence

Sephiroth in Remake operates differently from his original incarnation. In Final Fantasy VII, he is this mythical figure who is unseen, yet whispered about, either out of fear or reverence. This Sephiroth operates in the shadows, with the player seeing the aftermath of his actions. His first appearance outside of flashbacks is on the Cargo Ship heading to the Western Continent. Everything else leading to his reveal on the ship was a combination of built up tension and a demonstration of his unparalleled strength.

Remake somewhat cheapens Sephiroth’s appearances by showing him right after the Reactor 1 bombing, albeit through a hallucination from Cloud’s perspective. From that moment, Sephiroth becomes this constant presence throughout Remake, taunting and goading Cloud whenever he makes an appearance. This unfortunately reduces the tension that was firmly established in the original game. Sephiroth, therefore, becomes more of an annoyance rather than a threat or someone to be feared. His appearances, though, contribute to Cloud’s inability to trust his memories of the past and others. By isolating Cloud and filling him with doubts, Sephiroth intends to mold the former SOLDIER into a puppet for his own gains. 

Towards the end of the game, Aerith realizes that Sephiroth somehow gained the power to bend the Planet’s will to his own. It’s not clear how he accomplished this; Remake only offers allusions to the source material as an explanation. Like Aerith, Sephiroth has an awareness of what the future holds, effectively sprouting new theories of who he truly is in the Remake trilogy. After the final battle, Sephroth reveals to Cloud that he intends to remake the universe in his own image and that he requires the blond-haired swordsman’s help to do so.

The People of Midgar

Midgar, along with its people, act as a sort of character themselves within Final Fantasy VII Remake. The city, its governing powers and the socioeconomic hierarchies that exist within are related to themes of unfettered capitalism, classism and upward mobility, unethical experimentation and environmental degradation. While Final Fantasy VII explores each of these concepts at different length, Final Fantasy VII Remake expands upon them and does its best to reframe them under the original game’s main theme of life and death. I say “does its best” in this context because a secondary theme exists specifically within Remake: altering one’s fate.

Within the slums, we see and hear the struggles of the masses who make a living there. Some people see moving up to and living on the Plate as an aspirational goal. Several Shinra employees who work at the Shinra Building itself live in the slums, despite the salary and prestige that comes from working with the government. Shinra’s extent on classism even extends to those who get to live on the Plate, as seen in Chapter 4 when Cloud accompanies Jessie to the Sector 7 Plate. Shinra allows middle-class residents who work for them to live in suburban housing on the Plate. The closer one gets to the Shinra Building at the centre of the city, the more opulent the living spaces become. Residents of the undercity hold onto hope to reach the plate. This becomes more difficult due to a lottery system and artificial scarcity of real-estate established by Shinra. 

The plight of the undercity residents get ample airtime up until the Sector 7 Plate falls. The focus of the game’s themes then gradually shifts over to Sephiroth, Aerith, the nature of fate and the underlying results of altering it. With regards to altering fate, Remake changed the narrative on the fates of many characters.  Zack’s and Biggs’ survivals being the largest annotation. At game’s end, the survivors of Sector 7 band together to rebuild what was lost – a major change from the original when very few were shown to have survived the disaster.

A Corrupt, Corporate Government

Shinra Electric Power Incorporated, the company that effectively dominates the world, sits at the other end of the spectrum. The original game was more subtle in showing the avarice and hubris of Shinra, both in exploiting natural resources and playing god with human experimentation.  Remake elaborates on this by using Shinra as an allusion to real-world conglomerates who have a firm grip on the necessities of life while simultaneously exploiting the environment to negative effect. The game also showcases how the company sows division between the rich and poor by using AVALANCHE as a scapegoat to restart the war against Wutai. Though Midgar has a mayor in Domino, his governance is farcical at best. President Shinra and his department heads make all of the decisions about Midgar and its people.

Expanding the Amoral Scientist

Remake was also highly successful in highlighting Professor Hojo’s god complex and total disregard for life in pursuit of science.  The original portrayed him as an enigmatic, creepy scientist in the original. Remake doubles down on Hojo’s depravity and callousness when it comes to his precious research. 

Throughout their journey, Cloud and the others see the full scale of Hojo’s machinations in the monsters that he created and unleashed purely for scientific data. Examples include the secret underground lab in Sector 7 and, most notably, The Drum on the 68th floor of the Shinra Building. One of the most spine-tingling moments in the game occurs in a scene between Aerith and Hojo in the Shinra Building. Here, he describes in detail how he and his team dissected and catalogued every iota of matter from Aerith’s birth mother after she died. While Aerith stands firm, she immediately breaks down the moment the Head of Scientific Research leaves. It’s a testament to how much more disturbing this character became in comparison to his original iteration.

A Remake or a Reframing?

Coming around to the definition of a ‘remake’ provided at the beginning of this critique, Final Fantasy VII Remake follows the latter half of its interpretation – to make it in a different form. However, the game is rife with missed opportunities and baffling story decisions that make it hard for the game to fit that definition. For instance, Remake could have explored different avenues of its story, starting in Chapter 3 when Barret doesn’t hire Cloud on for the Reactor #5 mission.

We could have seen Cloud taking on other requests or even meeting Aerith earlier than intended before organically returning to AVALANCHE and Tifa to continue the story. Instead, Cloud is once again forced to follow the script of the original game thanks to the intervention of the Whispers; the avatars of fate itself and controversial figures within Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Barret’s ‘death’ and subsequent revival by the Whispers was an odd story choice. Sephiroth cuts them both down as Barret makes demands of President Shinra. At first glance, Remake would take a new direction in terms of character death – Aerith would not be the only one who died at the hands of Sephiroth this time around. But after the battle against JENOVA, we see Barret’s miraculous revival, thanks to the Whispers. Remake forces the game and its characters to follow the Planet’s script instead of veering to new territory. The Whispers act as a sort of plot armour to the characters, as they are crucial to The Planet’s future.

Defying Capital “D” Destiny

The Whispers, as explained by Red XIII, are essentially the avatars representing The Planet’s will. Their job is to ensure that the timeline remains as is and to correct any deviations to that timeline. From the developer’s perspective, they can act as an allegory to the die-hard fans of the original game who wanted a 1-to-1 conversion of the original game. Thematically, they are analogous to the unbending flow of time in relation to the cycle of life and death.

Through the course of the game, and specifically the final battles, the Whispers impart a glimmer of what the future holds for Cloud and the others. Each vision ties to the plot of the original game. However, only two characters seem to understand their context and importance: Aerith and Sephiroth. In Aerith’s perspective, she’s content with following the natural order of things; the will of the Planet is absolute, it knows what it wants and what’s to happen. Sephiroth, on the other hand, seeks to bend that will to his own and subvert his own destiny.

The idea that one can alter one’s destiny is not a novel concept – it’s a well-used trope in fiction. However, unless one is paying very close attention to the story, all of this talk of unshackling oneself from Fate’s chains can fly over a player’s head, leaving them very confused as to what the Remake team was trying to accomplish with the story. It also affects the re-interpretation of the game’s primary themes – namely of life, death and grief.

No Turning Back

Defeating the Whispers did more than just sever the chains of fate from Cloud and the others. Their demise also affected the timeline with the sudden survival of one Zack Fair – a character destined to die upon reaching Midgar. Even then, the game remains ambiguous about his survival – did he die, or did he not? And if he did, how does that change things going forward?

Another important consequence is that the plot armour granted by the Whispers throughout Remake is all but gone. This opens up new avenues in the overall story, such as revelations about characters being revealed earlier or a premature death of a central character. However, in the context of Remake and its standalone definition, it doesn’t fit. Those new avenues would have been better explored earlier in the game, rather than being teased for the next installment. 

Overall, Remake mishandled the Whispers as a means to drive the plot. If the Remake team wanted to alter the story while maintaining its bones, they could have had these avatars of fate influence the characters actions subtly to start. As the story progressed, their influence would grow up to a point where Cloud and the others could feel the influence of destiny upon them. That would have given them agency as they could choose to either follow or break free from it. Instead, they were an overbearing presence that micromanaged the cast to fit the Planet’s – and eventually Sephiroth’s – narrative, all but forcing Cloud and the others to shatter it, regardless of the consequences. 

What Lies Ahead

Has Remake accomplished the above? Under the literal definition, yes. However, in the eyes of those who were fans of the original and those who understand storytelling, that’s a bit more iffy. I say this mainly because of what lies ahead, now that the original timeline is broken. Is it a standalone game? Well, that’s also ambiguous to say. While players can enjoy the game its own thanks to its brilliant gameplay design, it also reminds you that the story remains unfinished. An incomplete story is not ‘standalone’ in any sense, especially if the story continues in another installment. 

Finally, did Remake turn the original story, beloved by millions, into something new? Yes, but not in the way fans imagined it. Remake expanded upon the main cast, yes, but opened things up to new interpretations. Furthermore, the game’s story in relation to the central themes of the original is now left open to interpretation. Will future installments aid or undermine them? Those are questions that Square-Enix have not answered at this time.

Nomura states that, to him, there are two meanings to the word “Remake.” He defines the first under a paraphrased version of the definition I’ve provided at the start of this critique. When talking about the second meaning, he acts coy and says to ask him again in a few years. Likely, we will not get the answers we’re looking for until the full trilogy is released. Which leads me to my final points before grading.

Seven Seconds Until the End

Remake is a beautiful spectacle filled with high-octane action and fully realized set pieces with plenty of opportunities for replay. However, its insistence on a convoluted retelling of the first part of its iconic story leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste in this writer’s mind. As it stands, this critique about Remake and its place within Final Fantasy VII’s creative universe overall needs revisiting when the trilogy is fully released. A complete analysis of the story in relation to the original is not possible at this current time, given its disjointed nature. However, when looking at it as a standalone title, story included, I feel that Square Enix’s marketing and PR departments should have chosen their words more carefully. Perhaps a more apt term befitting the Remake trilogy would be “Interconnected?”

Visuals: 9/10

Despite being termed a hallway simulator, the visuals nevertheless present a sense of vastness and presence that was inconceivable in the original game. Midgar itself is grand and sprawling, filled with little bits and bobs that make it seem alive. Character models and enemy designs are stunning and true to the original game’s artwork. While some muddy textures and the fairly muted colour scheme in most areas (tans, greys, and browns dominate) bring down the score, they do not detract from the overall visual experience.

Audio: 9/10

Considered one of Nobuo Uematsu’s finest works, the music from Final Fantasy VII, composers Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki took great love and care with remixing and remastering the soundtrack. The use of adaptive music, both in field and in battle, was excellently implemented and gave the game an almost cinematic feel to it. Some of the remixed music didn’t land as well as others. I speak specifically of the odd and out-of-place dubstep version of “Oppressed People” that plays in the second half of Ruined Expressway. Aside from that one, the majority of the music in Remake fits the narrative that it was going for.

Hamauzu and Suzuki also contributed new tracks that built upon the atmosphere and tension presented in Uematsu’s original soundtrack. One great example is the music that plays during “The Valkyrie” boss fight – it’s a solid track befitting the obstacles Cloud and company have to face to reach the top of the plate. Speaking of the characters, the voice work was well done, with standout performances by Cody Christian, John Eric Bently, Britt Baron, Brianna White and Tyler Hoechlin.

Gameplay: 9/10

The combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake is the linchpin of the game. By marrying the classic, turn-based combat mechanics of the original game with real-time action elements, Final Fantasy VII Remake succeeds in creating an engaging battle system. Tying abilities, magic and item use to the ATB introduced a level of strategy that prevents battles from being too monotonous, especially when compared to most modern ARPGs. 

Players have endless customization options thanks to the vast amount of Materia, Accessories and Weapon upgrades available. Short minigames provide a slight respite to all of the frequent battles Cloud and company faces on their journey. The game could have provided more clear explanations of some of the finer mechanics of the battle system, with action interruptions being the biggest example. 

Narrative: 6/10

While the story of Final Fantasy VII Remake follows the structure of the first part of the original game, Square Enix saw fit to expand it – for better and for worse. Remake grants players a deeper look at the primary cast of characters, while giving some supporting characters – like Biggs, Wedge and Jessie – a chance at the stage. What harms the story is Sephiroth’s introduction at the start of Chapter 2. Whereas he’s both mythical and mysterious in the original, his constant appearances, in both Cloud’s mind and through the men in Black Capes, dilute that mystery. He becomes more of a pest to get on Cloud’s nerves, rather than someone who has a greater agenda in mind.

While intriguing on paper, the implementation of the Whispers and the idea of altering one’s fate felt more like a sledgehammer pounding on the player’s psyche instead of what should have been a subtle, but noticeable touch. Like Sephiroth, these avatars of fate are annoyances that micromanage the actions of the main cast to the satisfaction of the Planet’s will. Their defeat at the end of the game opens up the rest of the story to interpretation, but that opening should have happened much, much earlier.

That’s not to say that there are no worthy differences within Remake. Some of the expanded scenarios fit well within the structure of the original game. Examples include facing Don Corneo again in Chapter 14. Even the character development within the poorly paced Train Graveyard segment was nicely done. It gave players deeper insight into Tifa and Aerith. However, if Remake wanted the story to be remade anew or in a different form, the developers should have altered or outright broken that structure early in the game’s story.

Themes: 7/10

Despite the disjointed nature of the story, Remake does present some opportunities to explore its original themes. One such example is the connection between Aerith and the lost spirits that reside in the Train Graveyard. However, these moments are eschewed by the overarching themes of fate, free will and determinism that are present in Remake. Even those feelings of loss that were present in the original are blunted with the survival of Biggs and Zack – two characters who should have been dead in the original.

Beyond that, Remake grants the opportunity to explore themes of socioeconomic inequality, unfettered exploitation of resources and the morals of human experimentation. Most of these themes are relegated to the back seat at the final chapters as the focus shifts to defying one’s predetermined path. The story culminates in a final shattering of fate’s shackles, giving the characters – and players – an opportunity to reinterpret the original story and its themes of life, death and grief.  

Challenge: 8/10

Remake doesn’t outright hold the player’s hand, but neither does it force them to guess how to fight. Battle systems are explained succinctly in the opening stages and players get ample opportunities to practice and get better. There is a bit of a difficulty spike against the Hell House, but its primary purpose is to test the player’s knowledge of both the battle and Materia systems. The player must then focus on timing and strategy more than hitting enemies over and over again. The game is generous enough to give players an option to restart from a point before pivotal battle to reassess their strategy. 

Furthermore, Remake grants players the option to change the difficulty in game. Players can select two styles of Easy or Normal mode. In Classic Mode, characters attack automatically until the player brings up the command menu. Normal Mode (not to be confused with the difficulty mode), gives players full control of characters, including attacks, dodges and the like.

Replayability: 9/10

Completing the game grants players access to a Chapter Select mode. Players can revisit each chapter and explore new avenues that they missed out on in their initial playthrough. Examples include selecting new bridal outfits, exploring different dialogue options that can further unlock different quests, completing minigames and challenges and collecting missed weapons and armor. In addition, the game doubles the EXP and triples the AP earned when replaying chapters, allowing players to max out character levels and Materia more quickly. Replaying Chapter 17 also unlocks a more difficult VR battle simulator. Players can find the game’s best items through those battles. 

On top of all of that, Hard mode is also unlocked on game completion. In Hard mode, players are locked from using any items, can only restore HP on benches and enemies are twice as powerful than on Normal difficulty. Playing through each chapter on Hard grants Manuscripts for weapon upgrades.

Personal Grade: 10/10

As a critic, I sometimes forget that the games I’m analyzing are supposed to be fun, first and foremost. I can talk about gameplay, visuals and the convoluted story until I’m blue in the face, but none of that matters if I’m not having fun with it in the first place. For all its liberties done with the story, Final Fantasy VII Remake was and is an absolute blast to play. It’s one that I feel I’ll be returning to time and time again, especially after I play the other two entries of the trilogy. 

 

 

Aggregated Score: 8.3

 

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Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Bluesky as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.