Final Fantasy VII : Remake

I'm thrilled to share with you all this first review. This is my first step towards having a more critical mindset towards the games I play.

🐸 I hope you all have as much fun reading them as I did writing them! 🐸

If you have any questions about the scoring here's my criteria

Studio : Square Enix
Year of release : 2020
Platforms : PS4, PS5

Aesthetics

The game is gorgeous. The transitions between gameplay and cutscenes are seamless, and the game looks just as beautiful in both states. The color palettes and light effects used are thought out and the positioning of the camera is clever when the game wants to show us something.

In combat, movements and particle effects are precise and satisfying (besides maybe the Blizzard spell).

The art style is unmistakably recognizable, giving us that Square Enix stamp on both the character and fashion design. Also, less important character models don't dip that much in quality, especially compared to the other games that prefer to focus solely on the main characters.

The music is, just as well, outstanding. The Final Fantasy series OSTs are notoriously grand and oozing with effort. I was looking forward to listening to FFVII's revamped OST, although I didn't play the original game. It didn't disappoint, the OST not only follows the visuals and situations perfectly, but it also shapes your mood.

The game emotionally involved me many times just thanks to its visuals and music, which are pretty flawless in my opinion, and I am ready to overlook the small number of insignificant flaws.

10/10

Polished aesthetics where all aspects (visuals, sound, music) are done in a high and consistent quality (relative to the year and game's platform, of course).

SPOILERS AHEAD UNTIL THE END OF THE REVIEW

Context

There are many things that I still don't understand, most of which were reoccurring and seem to have an important part in the lore. Examples would be the flashbacks and the hooded people with tattoos. I am aware that the story is still at the beginning, but the game had many opportunities to address these plot points. What was funny is that every time Cloud had a flashback, he would start to struggle and attract the team's attention for a minute. This is followed by Cloud brushing it off and nobody mentioning this again. This repeats for every single flashback.

The characters are presented to us in a surprisingly endearing way while giving us depth, especially for a JRPG. This genre tends to create awkward and unrealistic interactions between characters, making both casual and intense moments quite cringe-worthy, sometimes. In FFVII Remake, the dialogues had a certain natural flow that lacks from other JRPGs. Sure there are moments here and there that reminded me of the genre's flaws, but they were either forgivable or inconsequential. I would add that their goals and ambitions are convincing and quite human and relatable at times, which only adds more of that endearment factor.

The city was almost treated like a character. We've explored many parts of it, the good, the bad, and the very ugly. Story-wise, the different zones have a structure that makes perfect sense. At times, the story feels like it pulls the characters from place to place, when it should be the opposite. Despite this flaw, all the characters have their role and I feel like they have been proactive most of the time. The high stakes involved me emotionally and the consequences of their actions were real.

The narrative progression of the less intricate places is, of course, somewhat predictable, but the problem is that this predictability spills into the gameplay. This makes the pacing quite odd at times, giving us slices of great storytelling, but juxtaposed with bland filler that you'd rather skip.

9/10

Strong context, but some aspects from the above are either flawed or missing.

Design

Combat

Combat is dynamic, fun, and sometimes tense. I think that this is due to a successful system that is, on a surface level, pretty simple, but giving the player an insane amount of possibilities for action. This makes the system complex enough to make each enemy type encounter unique. On the other hand, finding a viable strategy against one enemy type makes them pretty harmless, although the game shakes up our expectations by mixing up multiple enemy types. FFVII Remake's action game inspirations are obvious, with different characters having different feels and playstyles in combat, which shouldn't be taken for granted in a JRPG. The ATB System is a genius way to raise the stakes and force the player to make decisions in combat.

Statistics and skill management

Although a bit simple to my taste, the improvement of stats is very flexible and easy to understand. Each weapon has its own "stat tree", which means that changing a weapon will also change the bonus stats your character currently has. This isn't what changes your playstyle though, it merely optimizes your current build. The true star of these RPG gimmicks is the skill management system: Materias. They provide skills and increased stats, with some of those synergizing with others. This gives the player a pretty satisfying degree of personalization and can add more depth to each character's playstyle. I had lots of fun playing with Materias.

Items and equipment

Consumable items work exactly how you would expect them to work in a Final Fantasy game, and it's exactly how it's supposed to be. Accessories and armor pieces are a bit more "Actionified", raising offensive stats by percentages, giving special in-combat bonuses, and unlocking new Materia slots. The weapons on the other hand are pretty special. Some of them change the character's basic attack patterns, along with a unique weapon skill that can be permanently learned after a while. Every weapon obtained is useful even later on in the game. This makes every new weapon obtained really exciting. I just wish we had more of them.

Level design

Oh boy. This is where the game starts showing its cracks. First, there are the hubs, which are at best crowded supermarkets where you have to find what you're looking for through the clutter. At worst, these hubs are mazes full of dead ends. I constantly wished I could find the different shops more easily. There was also a lack of indications within the city, which didn't help at all for making a mental map. I actually can't recall the structure of these hubs I spent hours in. It was a struggle, especially since I didn't know how to display the mini-map for the first 5 to 10 hours, which was mostly my fault, but in all honesty, it barely helped.

Now the levels that aren't hubs. An average level is organized in the following way: Firstly, a very linear corridor, with monsters, decorations, and rubble here and there so you don't notice the linearity. Then generally an area with multiple rooms and a new gimmick that you won't see anywhere else in the game. Depending on the gimmick, its enjoyment goes from totally inoffensive to atrociously frustrating, I'm thinking of the mechanical hands. Then, another corridor (not always the case) and a boss fight. The boss fight is either followed by another corridor or with backtracking. There are a few exceptions here and there, for example in Chapter 17, at Hojo's laboratory. This level was enjoyable, open-ended, and complex, although it still had its quirks.

Long story short, I would've preferred that Square Enix dropped the gimmicks to focus on creating better, less predictable levels. This really impacted my enjoyment at times and I hope the sequel fixes this, especially since they've shown good design within the game.

Side Quests

They were hit or miss. Some of them had clear goals and/or clear information within the UI. Some others were extremely vague and very hard to track on the UI. Neither the map nor the quest's description helped. I found myself abandoning some quests which isn't something I do often, so I'd say that the game partially failed at making compelling and understandable side quests.

UI

At first I had a hard time understanding some of the controls that affected the UI. The UI's organization was sometimes incoherent with the rest, like for example the Story - Map - Quests menu. The rest is fine, but it could have been better, it really shouldn't have been this much of a struggle.

Difficulty

It's alright. The game knows how to pace itself most of the time, but I feel like it struggles with balancing difficulty before major fights. They sometimes feel overwhelming but

resilience and retrying is generally the solution, I actually never had to grind for a difficult

fight.

7/10

Very solid in some aspects, pretty [ flawed / lacking ] in others.

Cohesion

I have no complaints when it comes to cohesion between combat, the UI, the items and the equipment, and the skill management. They all make sense within the story, especially with the in-depth inclusion of Materia lore within the game's dialogues. What I have problems with are some of the quests though.

There is a certain kind of quest that gives you access to new Materia: Battle Intel. Chadley, the character that gives you these quests, is extremely out of place, his motivations make very little sense. Some of the Summon Materias (powerful special skills that can be used only against boss battles) can only be obtained through boss fights.

How it's brought pulls you out from the experience and reminds you that you're actually playing a video game. You'll interact with Chadley a handful of times through the game, and it always kinda feels like an excuse to include the unlocking of Materias as a gameplay element.

8/10

Experience with strong cohesion overall, but some considerable elements are either flawed or missing.

Emotions and Conclusion

My experience with this game was emotionally colorful at times, a bit greyer at others, but overall I enjoyed myself. At times I would play for entire days, captivated by the intense story and by exciting battles. Some other times, I genuinely wanted to rage quit, whether it was for a terrible new gimmick or annoying fights due to the occasional sudden jump in difficulty. I have also had a few *no thoughts - empty brain* moments due to the linearity and predictability of the level design. Despite this, the game always knew how to drag me back with exciting battles, endearing dialogue, or visual treats. I don't know if I would come back to the game, but I sure am curious to see what the sequel has in store.