I played through FFVII:R two months back, at the behest of a friend who had read about it and really wanted to talk about it. The confusion about whether or not the PS5 upgrade for the PS+ version is free had me thinking at the time that it probably wasn’t going to upgraded for me so timing didn’t matter. After playing it, I found this thread and the link to Tim Rogers’ review. Three hours seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot of alone time doing dishes. So I watched it all, then realized he’s the guy who’s three-hour video of Doom I had once stated to see, then watched everything by his Patreon. So thanks for that, all you good people.
Something about a three hour review is that I can find something echoing or countering my thoughts in a way I hadn’t verbalized. So, thinking back on this all two months after the fact, here was the confluence of Rogers’ and my opinions.
Final Fantasy VII: Remake was all the goodness of Final Fantasy VII that I remember in only a vague and totemic form from playing it 20 years ago. I thought the Remake’s developers went overboard adding minigames to what already felt like a good, complete game. Then Rogers pointed out these all existed there.
The main characters feel developed, have richly detailed models and smooth animations, exist in the world, and really connected with me. I like the different animations for sitting on a bench, and I loved how Cloud just carefully enough adjusts his sword not to hit anything as he takes a seat. Even Barrett, who probably had to start as the stereotype he originally was, developed beyond that and realistically had it as an image he projects to strangers. I do want to see all of the models, textures, and animations in the upgraded version.
Battles were exciting! I only remember that about boss fights and optional kingly monsters (Weapons?) way back. Remake had me anticipating fights. I lost to chumps who were tough on their own, not because they were associated with the story. That forced me to engage more with the mechanics, which revealed more play in the battle system, which led to my incredibly high satisfaction with it. The final fight pushed even further, to where I was discovering timing around making attacks, switching characters, and triggering abilities from the previous character. It was great for the game to push and me to find something to answer it.
I felt out of the moment scrounging for items when all the characters are acting in a rush. Upon beating the game and learning that hard mode says “you can’t use items”, I was so happy. I started to replay just to see what it was like. It was glorious. Now all the lessons about combats are being put to the test, how you perform in a fight matters because MP don’t come back in a chapter, and the pacing is elevated by heading straight to objectives. Hard mode seems like the best way to play the game. I think Rogers mentioned something like, this is role-playing in that you know what to do as the character and properly fill the role.
I want to play the game again, hoping the upgrade works for PS+ plus, so I can tackle hard mode, pay attention to the ending (where I was staying up too late to get any of the details about what’s really going on), and relish the experience once more.
Once I finished, I thought Final Fantasy VII: Remake was a good game, yet I loved it greatly. That confuses the more I look at it. What do I mean by “good”? It somehow relates either to innovation and newness present, or what percentage of friends would I recommend it to. Maybe my history as an RPG fan blinds me, but I expect FFVII:R is not going to click with everyone, and that it’s not bringing an experience everyone should attempt to see. roguefrog’s comment about VO might help explain why I have a general feeling of merely “good”. To that point, there is a lot of Japanese-esque grunt communication, far more than happens normally in English.
If you think you might like it, play it. It surprised me with how much I grew to love it.
