I knew it was going to be good. This will have spoilers, so turn back if you haven't beaten the game. Detailed spoilers are separated where possible.
Story
I'll admit I haven't played the original (well, a PS4 port) for about 3 years, so my memory of this game I've beaten 5 times is a little fuzzy. FFXV, the last main series title was directed to appeal to old and new players of FF games in general, with the emphasis on gameplay. FFV7R is the same but for fans of the original FF7, as the story took some turns, in addition to flushing out the whole thing into what I really hope is at least 100 hours of journey over three parts. I love this because it doesn't replace the original at all. There were only microscopic parts of the Remake that you'd need to have played the original to understand (1).
The graphical update and art direction really made the classism, poverty and mature themes much more visceral. I'd forgotten that the game has prostitution and heavily implied drug use. The bandits are so clearly tweakers, and the remixed The Oppressed track drives that home. There are shacks, trash, and rats everywhere in the slums. The Wall Market, while absolutely obnoxious to navigate, was seedy af, and I certainly shifted in my when Madam M gave Cloud a...hand...job. I don't remember the character Leslie from the original, but loved that his believable backstory and motivation for helping you (2).
As far as the last action-packed portion of the game, it looks like it's setting up to refute the original key moments (3). I think the FFVIIR series is going to rewrite itself.
* * Spoilers * *
1. Cait Sith, the amalgamation of 3 characters, being disappointed when the reactor blows up.
2. Most movies, stealing someone's girl usually only resolves itself as their partner wasn't paying enough attention to her, and the scenario laid out here was that the Don gets what he wants, underlings be damned.
3. We see Barrett get killed-but-not-really, but the end fight has flash forwards of Aerith's death and Red XIII's roaming the plains after nature takes back Midgar.
Characters
The all-10/10 gorgeous female cast take turns falling in love with Cloud, and who wouldn't? I especially like that he gradually opens up to the group, and really only at the end does Barrett vocally acknowledge that they're buds. Speaking of Barrett, special shout out to John Eric Bentley for superb voice acting that kept the character dialed to 11 throughout the whole experience. The voice acting in general was top-tier, though I do think Aerith and Tifa sound almost like the same person. Jessie was hands down the thirstiest to get at Cloud's two materia down below, but Aerith has a few moments of her own. Tifa is the long play though, as she really is just a friend who happens to be a 100/10. She was definitely my favorite to play with the much-faster fight mechanics, not to mention dealing out way more damage than the other members.
* * Spoilers * *
4. I think Yuffie is now Kyrie. Even the English VAs pronounce it the way you would Yuffie in Japanese ([yoof-fee-eh], not [yuh-fee]) Her story was similar enough, but left murky so she could come back in the next part. Bonus if Yuffie's character is replaced by Mirelle!
5. All that stuff at the end with Zack looks like it'll be just as confusing to figure out his and Cloud's relationship to the world. Goddamn it.
6. So far Sephiroth is just mysterious and edgy. I'm over detached cool male villains. I hope they amp it up in the next game.
7. Who tf was that motorcycle dude?
8. I mentioned in another article about good meta, when your characters are aware what you as a player are going through. When Cloud sees a gussied up Aerith on the bridge and you can see her tiddy vein (it's that detailed), he can't talk and I dropped my controller. One reaction not present was Elmyra Gainsborough's super-nice gigantic house in the slums that allows everyone to come and go as they please, villains and all. She says nothing about this.
9. In 5 playthroughs of the original, I hadn't realized that the prominent ShinRa employees were heads of divisions, and there's a part at the end that spells it out for you. Scarlett is still as hot as she is deadly...so good.
Gameplay
I beat the game at around 42 hours, and considering how linear (and easy) it was, there's not a whole lot of places I could have saved time. I still think too many music tracks play in the first couple chapters, but the new tracks are great, though clearly not Uematsu tracks. The lame part is the music that plays during the longer, nonlinear portions of the game for hours at a time. Wall Market was simply too long for me, so the music was grating, the map having so many twists and turns, and generally splitting my attention between exploring and wanting to hurry up through the chapter to get to more exciting music/scenes.
The difficulty was all over the place, though low for most of it. The game doesn't really require grinding, and you can't really do it anyway. Most of the areas have 5-second fights and that's it. Or...within those same areas you get to fights that constantly interrupt your healing and die. The weapon learning system is awesome and makes these items surprisingly nonlinear. For Tifa, I ended up going back to the gloves you start the game with, thanks to damage upgrades. New materia to match the actiony battle system. Love it. Some of those battles you're dancing between earning enough ATB to heal yourself and safely dodging enemy attacks. Turns out most of the purple materia affect your ATB, and this will be much more important for my Hard playthrough.
The boss fights were by far the best portion of gameplay in any Final Fantasy. Multiple phases with their own strategies, super dangerous, but with tells for their attacks, all powered with music tracks that'll have you panting and sweating. Most of them end with a satisfying explosion. The first time against Hell House in the Colosseum, I barely clung onto an absolutely exhilarating fight.
The characters all played differently, with Aerith being the most prone to being flung all around the arena, so I almost never used her. I used Tifa as often as I could, followed by Barrett. Not only does Tifa have the goodies, but you'll wake up with some busted fronts and kneecaps if you mess with her. I didn't catch on for a few hours, hacking away for 5 minutes as Cloud, only to switch to Tifa and do the same damage in 10 seconds. Barrett is also easy, and has his own flow.
The other refreshing thing was that Limit Breaks always triggered when I needed them. Too many games either trap you into using them on weak enemies by not being at-will, or you get them just before dying.
Half the mini games were alright, though pull-ups can got to hell for not explaining that you can do them a lot faster.
Presentation
I played this on a PS4 Pro with an HDR-capable TV and it was gorgeous. This game's lighting was next-level, and the sound effects were fantastic. The audio wasn't all forced to the center channel, which raises a lot of questions about how other games do it. The director was not confused about what made the original great, and kept in all the story beats. One of my favorite is the scene when Barrett/Red XIII/Aerith are escaping the ShinRa building via a long elevator, and a machine (The Arsenal) shoots away the windows. The FFVIIR battle is unbelievably fun, and was my favorite thing about the final chapter of the story. The same can be said for knowing the value of the original soundtrack. We got a handful of versions of the battle themes, and one of the most sacred tracks -- Underneath the Rotting Pizza --was appropriately untouched.
When the credits started to roll, I hadn't heard of most of the voice actors, and I'm extremely grateful for Square not going the route of overused actors (and probably saving money and elevating some careers.) I definitely heard Steven J Blume and John DiMaggio in there, but they are not main characters. These actors are talented, but I can spot them a mile away, and it diminishes the experience sometimes. Take Troy Baker. He is very talented, and always gives a great performance. However, he's Booker DeWitt (Bioshock Infinite) and Sam Drake (Uncharted series), and I just couldn't accept him as a bad guy in Death Stranding. That's on me, though. The main voice cast of FFVIIR blew it out of the water, collected the droplets, ran them through a filter, and made a drink out of it. Yokudekita (good job)!
FFVII is being split up into multiple releases, with full retail price tags on each version, I think to the same studio's rampant abuse of re-releasing Final Fantasy VI on every platform known to man. Sometimes, there were graphical and translation updates, but sometimes it was just some QA-checked port on the latest Nintendo system. I am sold on where the series is going, and I only hope that there will be less than 23 years between this and part 2. I think the dev team worked so hard on the assets that it would be a waste not to release all versions in the same console cycle. Also, I got the physical version, which shipped an install disc, and play disc with ZERO updates. The game works flawlessly out of the box.
Tifa in that kimono had me leakin, though.
Comments