Review - Final Fantasy VII Remake

The original game was released back in 1997 and it became and instant classic and one of the greatest video games in history. Now, 23 years later and after lots of requests regarding a remake, the promise has been fulfilled, kinda.

An ex-SOLDIER named Cloud Strife is hired by an eco-movement called Avalanche to help them destroy the reactors of the infamous city Midgar controlled by the organisation ruling the entire city and practically everything named Shin-ra.

The plot is practically the same as the original game with a few changes and expansions. We get more scenes and interactions with the rest of Avalanche, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge, and these are great, we get to know more from them.

The graphics are photo realistic, the city of Midgar is impressive and immersive. You get to see reaction and discussions from the rest of the citizens while walking around which makes it even more realistic. There are times when the graphics are not fully loaded and have a low resolution, this happens more than expected and it may be because of the many things the game has to load...it doesn't have enough capacity to load it all.

All the main characters look and seem more realistic than ever. The voice acting is impressive from each of them, I have to say I really enjoyed and admired the works of the voice actors who portrait Barret and Aerith who sound so good and real. It feels unreal to be able to hear the conversations from the original game for the first time.

The music was also another excellent aspect from the original and it doesn't fall short in the Remake. The same songs we all love and heard a thousand times are updated with a fully orchestra. Some of them sound even better than ever it gives you goosebumps.
There is also a new main theme composed by the great Nobuo Uematsu which is a great addition but it's a shame you only get to hear it just once.

The game is practically linear story follow, there's not much else to do except the side quests and main story. It opens a little bit in some areas but that's all, you cannot come back to those places later in the game. Still, the good thing and main reason for this remake is the story so that's not a bad thing at all.

The fighting system has been updated as well, while it has some elements that are just the same like weapons choice, leveling-up, materia and summons, the fights are real time now (forget the turn-based) and faster than ever. You can also change character while fighting just pressing a button or make them cast a spell or use a specific attack by pausing the fight making it look like a super slow motion fight.

To confirm once and for all, the game only covers everything until the main group leaves Midgar and that's it. We'll have to wait for some years to be able to play the entire story in this updated version. There's still no word how many parts the game will be, but I won't be surprised if it's like 4 or even 5 parts, so expect like 10 years of waiting to play it all...

Still, even if this first part only covers about 8% from the original game, it takes around 35 to 40 hours to finish it. After the ending, a "Chapter Selection" that works like a "New Game +" shows up and the hard difficulty is added, that makes it for more hours of fun to finish everything.

And there's a lot of stuff to do, there are lots of side quests, most of them mundane, like fighting monsters or looking for missing objects or people, but they're still fun to play as they give you experience, new items and it may change things you see later in the game. Mini games are back too, even the motorcycle one and it's too epic to describe. 

There's going to be some controversy too, while the story is practically the same as the original, the ending has been fairly changed and makes it for possible future changes, but that will be for another post filled with spoilers.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Part 1?) is an amazing game with a thrilling story and speechless battle system. The chance to see your favourite characters in such realistic way and to be able to hear the amazing soundtrack one more time and watch the unforgettable scenes like they're real it just an amazing experience makes you remember why you love Final Fantasy VII characters and universe.

- The Good: Photorealistic Graphics
                   Real Time Fast Battle System
                   Voice Casting
                   Midgar like never seen before
                   Be able to see the main characters as real as ever
                   The ending, open to new possibilities!

- The Bad: Some Low Resolution Graphics
                   Some side quests are too simple and nothing new
                   To wait for upcoming parts and more years to play the rest of the story...

Rate: 98 out of 100