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Thoughts on the FF7 remake
5 years ago
General
It's...better then expected actually. I went into it prepared to be disappointed. As a fan of the more classic-styled jRPGs I wasn't really enjoying the direction Square's taken the Final Fantasy series in since 10 or so.
To be fair I think it would have been more apt to call the game a re-imagining of Final Fantasy 7 then an honest to goodness remake. Gameplay wise it's MUCH different, being an action RPG. That being said, on the normal difficulty combat is fun and challenging. You WILL get punished by bosses and normal mobs alike if you try to get through the game just button-mashing. You WILL take heavy damage to your party if you don't utilize guarding and dodging. And you WILL get destroyed if you rush in to attack without thinking.
As far as the pacing goes, I, like so many others, was a bit miffed that we weren't getting the FULL story of Final Fantasy 7 right away. The game goes right up to the point where the party makes their escape from Midgar. A LOT has been added. Dungeons areas are MUCH larger and take a lot more time to traverse then in the original. The major plot points are all there but there IS stuff that's been changed, added, or altered. Purists of the series are probably miffed because the plot isn't an exact copy-paste of the original. But honestly I like the added elements to the story. The new characters add more depth to the story and make Midgar really feel like a living, breathing city.
I personally loved the fact that they gave Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie more time in the spotlight and spent the time to actually develop them as major players in the plot aside from just cannon-fodder NPCs that get killed off early on like in the original game.
If I had ONE major gripe it would be that Red XIII wasn't a playable character and instead acted as an AI controlled party member when he joins your team, but given that you don't even recruit him until the finale of the game that's understandable. That's just a matter of personal preference though and doesn't really speak to the game's quality as a whole.
Another major issue is that even though the game's been modified to make sure you get plenty of gameplay out of the events leading up to the party's escape from Midgar, the fact remains that we haven't even a quarter of the story the original game told. I'll be interested to see what they do in future installments...but I'm also miffed about having to pay full price for what is probably going to be at least 2-3 more games just to get the full story.
Overall though, I enjoyed seeing Final Fantasy 7 re-imagined as a more 'modern' RPG. While the game wasn't a carbon copy of the original, it stayed true to it in enough ways to maintain the nostalgia factor while still being it's own unique experience. If you're a fan of action RPGs it's definitely worth picking up just for the combat alone.
To be fair I think it would have been more apt to call the game a re-imagining of Final Fantasy 7 then an honest to goodness remake. Gameplay wise it's MUCH different, being an action RPG. That being said, on the normal difficulty combat is fun and challenging. You WILL get punished by bosses and normal mobs alike if you try to get through the game just button-mashing. You WILL take heavy damage to your party if you don't utilize guarding and dodging. And you WILL get destroyed if you rush in to attack without thinking.
As far as the pacing goes, I, like so many others, was a bit miffed that we weren't getting the FULL story of Final Fantasy 7 right away. The game goes right up to the point where the party makes their escape from Midgar. A LOT has been added. Dungeons areas are MUCH larger and take a lot more time to traverse then in the original. The major plot points are all there but there IS stuff that's been changed, added, or altered. Purists of the series are probably miffed because the plot isn't an exact copy-paste of the original. But honestly I like the added elements to the story. The new characters add more depth to the story and make Midgar really feel like a living, breathing city.
I personally loved the fact that they gave Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie more time in the spotlight and spent the time to actually develop them as major players in the plot aside from just cannon-fodder NPCs that get killed off early on like in the original game.
If I had ONE major gripe it would be that Red XIII wasn't a playable character and instead acted as an AI controlled party member when he joins your team, but given that you don't even recruit him until the finale of the game that's understandable. That's just a matter of personal preference though and doesn't really speak to the game's quality as a whole.
Another major issue is that even though the game's been modified to make sure you get plenty of gameplay out of the events leading up to the party's escape from Midgar, the fact remains that we haven't even a quarter of the story the original game told. I'll be interested to see what they do in future installments...but I'm also miffed about having to pay full price for what is probably going to be at least 2-3 more games just to get the full story.
Overall though, I enjoyed seeing Final Fantasy 7 re-imagined as a more 'modern' RPG. While the game wasn't a carbon copy of the original, it stayed true to it in enough ways to maintain the nostalgia factor while still being it's own unique experience. If you're a fan of action RPGs it's definitely worth picking up just for the combat alone.
