The 23-year wait is over and I have died. I had today off in exchange for working the weekend and was idly about to start up Death Stranding when one of my online friends was playing the Remake demo. This was the first shock to my system. I know that originally, tomorrow (3.3.2020) was supposed to be the launch date, but had otherwise kept the whole thing out of my mind until I saw that. 8GB and a few minutes later, I was playing the hour demo, and it's pretty much exactly what was promised.
The graphics are basically the PS4 doing Advent Children real time. The gameplay is a lot like Final Fantasy XV, but a little more involved. The boss fights are amazing if you're used to JRPGs making bosses the same battles with more HP. The voice acting is fantastic and all the voice actors did their homework. My only gripe is the anime verbal grunts that HAVE to be audible, wtf? The opening chapter of the game that you play in the demo is just as frenetic orchestral music (I usually worry about music 'softening' with orchestral remasters.) The demo was great to watch, and it just floored me to finally get to play, fraying my nerves in the best ways. No glitches, no errors, no mistranslations; it is perfect. I had to pee before starting the game up and still played the demo in one sitting. It's that good.
The FF7 Remake resonates profoundly with me because I played the original just before high school, and from there chose to study Japanese. After my first trip, I choose my career path to be an ESL teacher just so I could live in the country that produces my favorite experiences. Granted, I learned a whole lot of things about Japanese language, culture and people, and my relationship with Japan is a lot more than just this game. However, I can't ignore the fact that this game was ultimately what pointed me away from computers and into language and teaching. All this powered my piss-prevented playthrough and lead to my death!
Download it now. Play it now. April 10th can't come soon enough!
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