Final Fantasy VII Remake is a Action-RPG title originally released in 2020 for PS4, and was later been ported to PS5 version in 2021 as FFVII: Intergrade. It was developed and published by Square Enix, and it is a full remake of the 1997's original game for PS1.
The RPG genres had begun in mid-80s starting off with the first game of the whole franchise called Final Fantasy for NES by Square had been credited for pioneering turn-based RPG. It was regarded as one of the most influential and successful role-playing games becoming a major role of the RPG genres which led into spawning many successful sequels and supplementary titles in the form of the Final Fantasy series including FFII and FFIII for NES, and FFIV, FFV and FFVI for SNES.
There's one of the title that became a huge game changer was Final Fantasy VII for PS1 was released in 1997 had becoming a widespread critically acclaim RPGs title had sold over 12 million copies worldwide and been regarded as a franchise's landmark game. It was listed as being a greatest game of all-time had won numerous of game awards, as well as boosting sales of the PlayStation console and popularizing console RPGs worldwide making FFVII most beloved game of the whole franchise had spawned several of spin-offs, animated features, and short stories based in the world and continuity of FFVII.
In early 2000s, Square was originally considering remaking the original game for the PS2, but the idea was abandoned due to the difficulty of developing for new hardware which led the team went on focusing on new games instead.
The idea of remaking FFVII had became one of the fan's most demanding game for over 15 years begging till it has finally revealed the teaser trailer of FFVII remake at SONY's E3 Press Conference 2015 had led the whole audience and fans cheering for the excitement, as the remake has finally released for PS4 in 2020, and later ported to PS5 in 2021.
I have finally got the PS4 version of the game because this is the game that I am looking forward to playing it which I've spend weeks of playthrough to fight off enemies and bosses, levelling up party members, discovering and exploring around the area, and completing numerous of quests.
What makes FFVII Remake quite different from the original 1997's title? so instead of traditional turn-based RPG, it is a Action-RPG with more focused on real-time elements which I think I liked the changes of the battle mechanics and exploration throughout the game.
So how does the remake capture the same magic as the original? the answer is that I really liked the game because its feels like a different RPG experience that is not relying on the nostalgia of traditional turn-based style, but instead it brings a newer gameplay style with fluid battle system and creating a larger environmental design which is a great way for newcomers to get into with the game well. While adding in-depths plots and better script writing, the game still retains the original story and presentation with same characters and locations we all remember still really adds up the faithfulness of the 1997's original game.
To keep you mind that the remake is not a full single game itself like the original, but instead they decided to release it as a multi-game because according to the team who worked on remake said that fitting the game into single release would cutting the large parts of the game may going to ruin the team's vision, so splitting the game into multiple parts makes easier for team to take time to develop such as this game will mostly focused on city of Midgar as a first part of FFVII Remake, while other two parts will eventually be on the later installiment in the future, so I don't finding it quite big of the deal because I fully understand that the FFVII is quite a large game back in PS1 days may take sometime for developers to create a massive portion to fit in the remake.
Despite the game's splitting in parts, I've managed to enjoy the first part of FFVII Remake which I will discuss further on the storyplot, battle system, exploration, story quests, visuals, and sounds in this review.
So without go further ado, lets start the review.
Presentation
The first part takes place in city of Midgar where one of planet's lifestream is being drained for energy by the world dominating megacorporation known as Shinra Electric Power Company run by the President Shinra who is responsible for weakening the planet, threatening its existence and all life.
It follows the protagonist named Cloud Strife who joins with the eco-terrorist organisation known as AVALANCHE as an mercenary setting his mission to stop the megacorporation Shinra from using the planet's life essence as an energy source.
So far what I've learned about the first part of the story in the game which involves the most corrupted corporation are planning to destroy people's home planet by wiping out their homes, bar, garage, schools, and shops that may affect the overall environment of whole city turned into nothing but emptiness which is the reason why the groups of heroes went on mission to prevent the mega company from harming the home planet which I got to say it is a straight-forward plot to know what was going on in the story.
You have characters like Cloud Strife who is a reckless mercenary welds with his huge-ass buster sword and start kicking Shira's soldier asses is the reason why I liked him in the game. He's one of the character had suffered with his terrible flashbacks depicting his memories of mysterious man named Sephiroth kept haunting him for long time, as well as he had trouble with his social problem that made him difficult to interacting with the people which I fully understand his age is not being fully mature in the game, but his personality may going to improve in later scene.
He has a childhood friend named Tifa Lockhart who also works with the AVALANCHE group, as well as being the owner of Seven Heaven bar and restaurant. She's one of the martial artist that can fight off the enemies with her ambitious fists and has cool technique moves becoming a Cloud's supportive fighter throughout the adventure, and also she's one of the beautiful female character in the game with great long black hair, pretty eyes, and of course made a interaction between her and Cloud throughout the scene is what makes her so memorable.
Then you have leader of the AVALANCHE named Barret Wallace, who looks like MR.T from TV series A-Team, joins up with Cloud during the quest. He welds with a gatling gun attached into his arm which looks pretty awesome and I got to say I really liked his serious humour throughout the story and he's also a great father figure to his adaptive daughter named Marlene to look after which makes him very interesting in the game, and I also loved the part where Cloud instantly teases him with the trash talk in the first chapter of the game which made me laugh a lot.
Lastly you have a cute flower girl named Aerith Gainsborough who spent time helping with her adaptive mother by growing and selling her beautiful bunches of flowers as a florist joins up with Cloud to becoming her bodyguard. She had ability to use her magic staff to fight off enemies as well as aiding the teams with healing magic. She is one of the nicest and friendly character in the game building up a new friendship between her and Cloud working together as a team which really adds up nicely with the scene pretty well.
Aside with 4 of the beloved characters, there are other members of the AVALANCHE group you seen at the beginning of the first mission like Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge who came to help with Cloud and Barret to infiltrate and destroy one of the reactors.
I find these guys are kinda bit annoying in some scenes, but atleast they helped them properly throughout the mission which is okay as long as you get used too with these guys.
I got to say the cast of villains in the game are actually great, so you have corrupted old President Shinra, large and big bearded executive Heidegger, glamorous blond lady Scarlet, and crazy scientist professor Hojo are responsible for experimenting the new weapon developments, recruiting many elite soldiers to control sectors, and planning to wipe out many homes filled with innocent people which proves that the members of Shinra Corporation are the most vile human beings that brings down the population of life existence.
Then you have 3 douchebags like Roche, Reno and Rude trying to take down Cloud and his teams, while I find Tseng is quite mature compared with other 3 weirdos, but you still can't trust this guy.
I got to say I really liked Sephiroth as a mysterious villain which randomly appears on Cloud's hallucination. He's one of main arch-enemy that still haunts Cloud's troubled past, as you can see the insanity level of Sephiroth's smirky personality looked way too disturbing especially the part in the cutscenes.
What makes one-winged angel quite appealing is that he welds long-ass masamune, long-black coat, and long sliver hair that made him look more recognisable and badass villain in FF series.
While the aspects of the story still being faithful to the 1997's original game, the remake did really add up a better script writing and in-depth plot throughout the cutscenes such as the dialogue between Cloud and Sephiroth during the horrible hallucination, learning the backstory of Aerith's childhood past being raised as an orphanage, the emotional connections between Cloud and Tifa, the Barret delivers an awesome humorous one-liner, and the confrontation between heroes and villains is what makes the game feels more cinematic than any of FF games.
There are few cutscenes which I finding it quite hilarious like the fat-ass Wedge get his ass bitten by the dogs, a beauty parlor named Madam M gives Cloud a weird hand massage, and of course Cloud being forced into dressed up as woman which is oddly strange, but still entertaining to watch.
They really nailed the game's presentation design for its dystopian cyberpunk theme of the Midgar City filled with industrial style environments such as Sector 1 which has Mako Reactor took place in Shinra Electric Power Company, while the rest such as Sector 7 slums which is a hideout place filled with locations such as Seventh Heaven which is a Tifa's bar and restaurant place, home residents, scrap boulevard, small shops, and it also has upper level city where Shinra warehouse took place in.
Then Sector 5 slums has church, Aerith's garden house, and center district has Fifth Cafe, Leaf house for orphanage, and plaza with abandoned houses.
Lastly Sector 6 has park's playground, sewers, and of course wall market filled with entertainment and shopping stuff such as gyms, diner, pharmacy, boutique, honeybee inn, Madam M's parlor, and Corneo Colosseum.
Overall, it has fantastic storyline, recognisable cast of characters, and outstanding game's presentation design.
Gameplay
The first part of game has 18 chapters in single-player campaign set in City of Midgar. You take control of Cloud Strife in both real-time exploration and battle mechanics as your goal is to complete the certain objectives of quests that been shown on the map menu screen.
In exploration, you roam around by pushing the left stick while you can dash by simply press the left thumbstick or hold R2 trigger, and using right stick to control the camera system to look around the surrounding of the area. Pressing the L2 will change the mini-map interface from top-right side to top-centred, but you can access the map menu screen by pressing the touchpad button will help you navigate through the area such as the icons that indicates stuff like main quests, side-quests, items shop, weapon shop, materia shop, battle intel, and etc.
You can also access the command menu by pressing the X button which lets you navigate the commands list such as using curing items and magic, while the attacking command can only work on battle gameplay which I will discuss it later on the review.
Pressing the option button lets you access to inventory options which lets you customised and organise your equipment, upgrades, items, and parties.
You can interact and talk to any of the NPCs by pressing the triangle button to gather information from them such as hints and tips, giving you side-mission to help them, and asking them for buying and selling stuff, while using the same button also lets you interact objects such as flipping switches and picking up items.
When you encounter the enemy which changes into battle gameplay system, so you will attack them by tapping the square button, while holding it will lets you perform multiple hit on foes for moderate damage.
Pressing triangle allows you to perform unique ability such as Cloud's mode shift has two attacking system like his balanced operator mode which is a quick but less damage works mostly on ranged attacks and magic, then you have the punisher mode are slow but performs more damage attack as well as lunches counterblow while guarding enemy's attacks or magic. Barret will unleash his overcharge weapon for heavy damage attack but it takes long time to recharge his attack. Aerith has ability to release her powerful tempest magical attack depending on how much magical energy she has stored up.
Tifa will execute her martial technique such as whirling uppercut, while she needs to increase her chi level that will allow her to access more advanced techniques such as omnistrike and rise & fall.
The more you perform various of heavy attacks on enemies causing them to get staggered which means it makes easier for you to defeat them faster when enemy's staggering bar been fully filled up in temporary time.
You will have ATB gauge bar which can be fully increase by using the strong attacks on enemies which quickly fills the gauge that you can use ATB for its special abilities such as magic, items, and special moves.
You can guard yourself by holding the R1 to block the enemy's melee attacks or any other projectiles while pressing the circle button allows you to evade as well. You can lock-on target by clicking the R3 thumbstick while swiping with left and right with right stick to change target on enemies, and You can switch any of character on your parties to play as by pressing the d-pad button during the combat, and you can also command your ally by pressing any of these two triggers which give you access to their command menu list to use it as tactical.
Like I've mentioned about accessing the command menu with the X button before, this will allow you to select any of command within the menu such as performing weapon abilities which requires 1 or 2 ATB gauge like Cloud's braver which is a powerful jump attack in midair, focused thrust can lunge toward an enemy, and triple slash allows him to slash foes three times resulting more damage blow.
Barret has steelskin will receive less damage taken for temporarily, focused shot unleashes a burst of energy, and maximum fury will allow him to fire a long stream of bullets.
Tifa will perform her powerful techniques like divekick, strengthen basic attacks with unbridled strength, and focused strike will moderately increases stagger with a charging attack.
Aerith will unleash an attack that absorbs MP, and arcane ward attack spells cast within the ward will automatically be cast twice which last 3 mins.
The spells will allow you to use any of magics depending on which materia you equipped with, so these magic attacks that you can use it to attack enemy such as fire, ice, thunder, and wind. The poison allows you to use toxin-related spells, the barrier allows you to use defensive spells increases your defend skills, the time allows you to use time magic to slow down and stop enemies, the healing will cures you or ally with healing spells, the cleansing will cure you or ally from stuff like poison, and the revival will resurrect you or ally with restore spells when they already running out of their HP.
The Limit will appear on command menu when the limit's gauge is full can be filled by either by taking damage or staggering enemies which allows you to perform available limit breaks resulting a massive damage against foes. It has Cloud's cross-slash, Barret's fire in a hole, Tifa's somersault, and Aerith's healing wind.
You can call for summon through the command menu when it's active only available in certain fights, so you will have summon monsters like Ifrit deals fire damage, Cactuar deals fixed damage, Carbuncle uses support/heal, Shiva deals ice damage, and others to join in battle and fight alongside the party.
The Item gives you an option to select any of items to use like potions that increases your HP, phoneix down that allow you to revive your ally, ether that increases your MP, antidote removes poison, and other useful stuff that really comes in handy for most of the quests.
I find the new combat system for remake is magnificent which I am glad that the team have avoided the traditional turn-based system from the original, instead it uses the real-time battle mechanics that gives you freedom to roam around and attack during the combat which makes easier for newcomers or casuals to get into with freshly new gameplay mechanics adding a flexibility of combat system while retaining with the strategic RPG elements like ATB gauge and command menu are also been faithful to the original source material.
The balance of the combat system is excellent with great range of attacks and effective magics which I am happy that the choices of weapons, armor, accessories and materia they included in the game has it own advantages like one of the weapon has better strength and speed, one of the armor has better defense, one of accessories has better use of magic and increases luck, and one of the materia improves your magic attacks and defense which is very good for the character's attributes.
Speaking of attributes, the upgrades gives you an option to unlock your attributes skill trees like your max HP, max MP, defense, attack power, magic attack, and adding materia slots which improves upon your skills, but you can always reset your upgrades and try out different upgrade combinations by speaking to Chadley somewhere in the area that you need to spend 100Gil so that he can help you to regain all of your SP for weapon and redo your upgrades can be done repeatedly whenever he is around.
I got to say the exploration in the game is incredible with open-world areas of Sector 7, 5, and 6 which I can able to explore and discover the things such as breaking crates and objects to obtain items and Gils, visiting a shop that you can buy and sell your choice of items and equipments, talking to NPCs for information, and spend more time roaming around and battling against bunch of foes to skill up your levels is what makes the game quite fun to play.
I also liked the mini-game stuff like whack-a-box, darts, pull-up challenge, squats, bike minigame, and dance-off which also helps you keeping busy with the game.
Then you have the combat simulation known as VR mission which can be unlocked by finding and collecting battle intel reports, so you and your ally put on test to fight against curtain enemies.
Aside with exploration, the main quest in every chapters is spectacular that keeps the game so engaging to play. You have the missions like mako reactor where you get to fight against the scorpion sentinel, joining with Jessie and the crews in motor chase sequence, finding way through rusted maintenance area, escaping from the church with Aerith, participating the arena fight in underground colosseum, meeting up Tifa from Corneo's mansion, encountering with bunch of ghosts from haunted train station, and many more single-player actions is what made the game feels like a different RPGs experience.
The remake definitely has the best boss battles like scorpion sentinel, roche rode on motorcyle, crab warden, airbuster, reno and rude, hell house, abzu, ghoul, and best of all is the whole bosses at every last two chapters at the end really shines my experience.
My disadvantage on this game is that I find the side quests is the weakest part of the game because there are just latterly same side-missions like finding all missing cats, bringing kids back to school, and retrieving lost chocobos are kinda gets repetitive, where as the rest like meeting with Johnny, helping little betty with music, helping doctor to create ingredient for medicines, and all others are just completely dumb which is opposite of making it interesting, so I wish the team could have done something better with the idea that we wanted to enjoy certain of side-missions that are supposed to be good, not meant to be entirely boring.
I also wanted to point out the choices of the difficulty options which for those who wanted to have a bigger RPG experience with more focused on intense overall challenge and full completion should pick the normal or hard difficulty which takes about 50 to 60 hours more to beat, where as the easy or classic mode only applied to casuals are looking for less frustrating playthrough takes about 25 to 30 hours of game's length which I got to say these difficulty setting is absolutely fine it should be as long as you can enjoy the whole game with no issues at all.
So far, I've managed to enjoy the whole game which I am very happy with the results that it turned out to be a finest Action-RPG title in all thanks to epic boss battles, choices of weapons and upgrades, discovering new areas, teaming up with ally to join the fight, and of course being an outstanding single-player action is just what I wanted from the remake.
Overall, it has magnificent combat system, incredible exploration of open-world areas, and epic main quests.
Graphics
FFVII Remake is remarkably perfection that made our eye boggle in all thanks to gorgeous visual design which really showed off what the Playstation console is been capable off.
I've seen a spectacular results of environmental design through the draw-distance seeing a large background of industrial building on the landscape without losing every detail is surprisingly achievable especially with PS4 system had managed to pull off many environments in whole area.
The dynamic lighting effects is neatly done with great shades of shadow and the reflection is just very well done indeed and it also toned down the motion blur effects which I am very glad that it doesn't interfere the vision of the game itself.
The texture surfaces of environmental buildings and ground floor is really nice and sharp which adds the realism of the game, the special effect is looking crisper with the use of particles and other stuff they add in the game, the character's animation feels very realistic in both cutscenes and in-game action, and of course there are no signs of major slow-downs when running on PS4 locked on clean 30 FPS which makes the whole design very appealing to our eye.
This is got to be the best looking game of any PS4 libraries you've seen really shows what the future of gaming technology like in 2020s especially with the PS5 version did however polished up graphical details and being able to run on 60 FPS which is a nice changes that give the game a fresh look for next-gen system, so going back to the PS4 version I've still continuing the review, these graphics are still look fantastic on the PS4 even with the pro console variant.
Overall, it has large environmental design, detailed draw-distance, dynamic lighting effects, sharp textures, crisper special effect, realistic character's animation, and clean frame-rate.
Music and Sounds
As much I've loved the 1997's original game soundtrack, this remake is a amazing recreation of the original music with fully rich orchestrated sounds adding a atmospheric feel to this game.
It has the recognisable soundtrack you may familiar such as the epic and intense song like Bombing mission, Let the battle begin (battle theme), and Those who fight (boss battle theme) that makes you pumped up for the action. Some much soothing and calmer song like Tifa's theme, Aerith's theme, On our way, and the main theme of FFVII are much sounded more emotional and beautiful at same time, while it does have rather depressing songs like Anxiety and Waiting to be found which I got to say I still loved the whole OST that really fits the mood of the game which was done by the long-time veterans Nobuo Uematsu who wrote for the original FFVII, with original tracks by several other series veterans such as Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki did such a legendary work on their score.
I also enjoyed the new track called "Hollow" which was performed by the Yosh who is a lead vocalist from the rock band called "Survive Said the Prophet", so this song really captures the Cloud's state of mind with impressive acoustic sounds and haunting lyrics really works well in this game.
The sound design is remarkable for its environmental noises and atmospheric background effects in every areas is very well done for most part, and I got to say it is a first FF game has the new voice cast for every characters since the previous FF games which I don't really mind because they did such a fabulous job on their role that deserves their credit for the overall performance.
Overall, it has amazing soundtrack, remarkable sound designs, and fabulous voice role.
Special Features
The best features is that if you had a physical PS4 copy of the game which gives you an option to download a digital version for PS5 as a free upgrade called FFVII: Remake Intergrade (the free upgrade may require physical PS4 disk to play digital PS5 version) which included the PS5 exclusive DLC titled Intermission featuring playable character Yuffie Kisaragi who does not appear in the original game. It is included with the purchase of PS5 version, but sadly it must be purchased separately if using the free upgrade from the PS4 version which is kinda bummer for those who had a PS4 copy had to buy DLC separately, but still I heard many positives about the expansion is still worth for playing.
Overall, it's still a great package.
Advantages
Fantastic storyline
Recognisable cast of characters
Outstanding presentation design
Magnificent combat system
Incredible exploration
Epic main quests
Gorgeous visuals design
Amazing soundtrack
Fabulous voice performance
Disadvantages
Poor side-quests
DLC aren't included in free upgrade
Final Verdict
Presentation 10/10 - fantastic storyline, recognisable cast of characters, and outstanding game's presentation design.
Gameplay 9/10 - magnificent combat system, incredible exploration of open-world areas, and epic main quests.
Graphics 10/10 - large environmental design, detailed draw-distance, dynamic lighting effects, sharp textures, crisper special effect, realistic character's animation, and clean frame-rate.
Music and Sounds 10/10 - amazing soundtrack, remarkable sound designs, and fabulous voice role.
Special Features 9/10 - Free upgrade option available on PS5 when using physical PS4 copy and DLC expansion.
Overall 9.5/10 - Despite the remake isn't a full single game like the original, I can honestly say that this is by far one of the legendary must own game that I am so happy to play it again in sometime future.
The combat feels remarkably well executed with the mix of real-time battle mechanics and strategic RPG elements with it that gives a new player a flexible combat experience.
The exploration of free-roaming open-world giving player a freedom to explore and discover the things around, the graphics is well crafted with large environmental design pushes the PS4 into hardware limits, it has amazing recreation of memorable soundtrack from the original game, the main quests filled with many great actions and epic boss fights keeps you engaging with the game well, and of course the game's presentation is very well done for its script-writing and in-depth plot adding a better story development.
The poor choice of side-quests and lack of DLC for free upgrade is somewhat not been great, but atleast they could do something better for next installiment in future.
That being said I still loved the game because this is what the fans of the original game are been waiting for over the years and I was hoping to look forward to see the next adventures of Cloud and his friends for the next part of the remake (possibly part 2 and part 3 for future).
While there are no official releases for the PC, Xbox, and Switch which the game stays the remains on the Playstation platforms, I still highly recommended to not just a hardcore fans of the originals, but also a fans of the RPG genres in general can get a hands on with the remake.
Skip it
Rent it
Buy it
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