A good man who serves a great evil is not without sin. He must recognize and accept his complicity. He must open his eyes to the truth — that his corporate masters are profiting from the planet's pain.
Beaten: 2020, 2024
Version played: Playstation 4, Playstation 5
I have so many conflicting feelings about Remake.
On the one hand: I love FFVII. It is one of my absolute, all-time favorite games. Of course I want to see my favorite characters and setting in modern graphics. Of course I want to play it again, but updated.
And that's what we got. Except... not.
Remake is a faithful recreation of FFVII right up until it isn't. It introduces story elements that didn't exist in the original game and heavily revises major scenes. To give an example, you never see Sephiroth in person in Midgar. Here you see him in the first hour, taunting Cloud, and he continues to do so throughout Remake, which entirely takes place in Midgar.
And this is but one example of many. For every thing it does exactly like the original, there are a hundred things that are different. And I... really wish they weren't.
It's weird, because I'm usually not a purist. I've watched adaptations of books and manga that wildly change the plot and still wholly enjoyed them. So why does it stick out here? It's not like you can do a shot-for-shot remake of FFVII in the modern day; it just doesn't make sense. Of course there would be changes.
I just... really didn't like a lot of them.
And it sucks! I wish I liked Remake more. I played it in 2020 in the span of a few days and was left baffled by all the things that were different and uncertain how to feel about the ending. I replayed it in 2024 right before Rebirth came out and found that no, I really don't like a lot of it. Take Roche for example: I found him totally unnecessary, obvious filler.
That's not to say that I disliked all of it. There are parts of Remake that feel like the original FFVII to me. I loved exploring Midgar and getting to see all the little nooks and crannies of the slums. There's some character work that I found fantastic. The graphics are obviously beautiful. But on the whole... I just didn't like it. Sorry.
Favorite character
While my favorite FFVII character is Tifa, I actually have to single out Barret here. Barret is a very strong character in the original game and serves as the deuteragonist for a good third of the game, and I was thrilled that he got so much of the spotlight in Remake. Barret is forthright about his ideals and convictions to the point of extremism, contrasted by his love for his daughter and desire to build her a better world. You simply could not have FFVII without Barret taking Shinra to task for all it's done, and I am so glad I got to see him in all his glory.
But also, I adore Tifa. She is every bit the woman I fell in love with in FFVII: thoughtful and caring, determined to make a difference yet anxious about the uncertainty in her heart.
I don't like Remake's Cloud as much as the original. What a lot of FFVII media has forgotten about the original game is that Cloud was kind of a weirdo from the beginning. He has good moments in Remake, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't ring completely true to the Cloud I grew up with.
Favorite music
I would go through the whole soundtrack and list my favorites, but holy toledo, Remake has such a long soundtrack. So instead I'll highlight my favorite track, "The Valkyrie." It's the background music for the Valkyrie fight in chapter 15, and it is a phenomenal piece of music. Seriously, listen to it all the way through.
I also really like "Hollow" and its instrumental version, "Hollow Skies."
Favorite location
I mean, the whole game is Midgar, so...
I did really like seeing how some of the backgrounds in the original were turned into full 3D maps. Aerith's house especially turned out fantastic. And while the Shinra building has a lot of differences, I did feel nostalgic, so at least there's that.
Gameplay thoughts
It took a while to grow on me, but I do really like Remake's combat. No FF game has managed to nail the combination of turn-based and action RPG until this. It feels a little wonky at times — it's kind of weird to play around in the menu at the same time you're fighting a boss — but once you get into the flow of it, it really works.
I did appreciate that materia worked very similarly to the original, rather than Crisis Core's one-spell-only materia. I wanted more All materia (or Magnify here, I guess) but I understand why they don't give them to you.
Sidequesting in this game isn't great. Yeah, there are sidequests, but I didn't find any of them particularly compelling, nor did they add the kind of depth to the setting that I like to see. Remake is really more of a linear title to me.
Also: any time I had Tifa in my party, she's the one I played. She was so much fun to use. Mastering all of her weapon abilities and letting them fly against bosses was so sastisying.
My one main complaint about the gameplay is that I really didn't think the weapon leveling system was necessary. Sure, more stats and materia slots are nice, but I just didn't care about it.