Final Fantasy VII Remakemight not match the same legendary status as the originalFinal Fantasy VII, but it’s by no means a bad game. As far as gameplay goes, this is one of Square Enix’s finest efforts in the action RPG genre, and the rest of theFFVIIRsub-series will if nothing else be home to some addictive combat.
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For as strong as the combat is,Final Fantasy VII Remakeis by no means perfect and already in need of some serious fixes. From a rather lifeless Midgar to mangling Sephiroth’s introduction,FFVIIRdoesn’t approach its source material with the most tact.
10Motivation To Explore Midgar
Final Fantasy VII Remakemakes it look like players will only ever be able to explore Midgar is segmented chunks only to offer more or less complete freedom in Chapter 14. On their way to rescue Aerith from Shinra, Cloud, Tifa, & Barret decide to spend some time in the Slums ensuring no one needs their help before they go.
Taking the time to do the side quests scattered all over Midgar, however, will only reveal just how barren and poorly designed the overworld is. All the emphasis on cinematic direction has resulted in a Midgar full of tight corridors, linear paths, and not all that much to find off the beaten path.
9More Enemies To Fight
Chapter 14 should be the best chapter in the game.Final Fantasy VII Remakefinally lets players explore virtually all of Midgar in one burst, complete with a fast travel system and more side quests than any other chapter in the game. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to grind or just goof around with combat will quickly find how lifeless Midgar is.
There are barely any enemies to fight, making it a challenge to level up and develop Materia outside of Corneo’s Colosseum in Chapters 9 & 14, and the VR Battles in Chapter 17. Worse yet, enemies take forever to respawn. Random battles may not be immersive, but they ensure scenarios like this don’t happen.
8More Level Design Like Wall Market
Wall Market is the only part ofFinal Fantasy VII Remakethat feels truly and definitively improved over the original. It is absolutely overflowing with life, and the actual level design present in Wall Market makes use of hidden pathways and plenty of secret content.Thisis what the entire remake should have been like.
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Especially when it comes to dungeons. Outside of Wall Market, the level design is unfortunately lacking. There’s not only an overabundance of hallways, the actual design prioritizes being cinematic over engaging to traverse.Final Fantasy VIIhas some of the strongest dungeon design in the genre. For theRemaketo not follow through is disappointing.
7Stronger Side Content
It really is no exaggeration to claim thatFinal Fantasy VIIhas some of the best side content in the RPG genre. The overworld is teeming with hidden nooks & crannies, there are secrets in just about every single area, and the side quests manage to be both important to the plot (while still refreshingly optional) and genuinely engaging (Wutai, in particular.)
To the game’s credit, the side content in Wall Market is more often than not exceptional, butFinal Fantasy VII Remakeis perfectly content with mediocre, MMO-esque side quests more often than not– which is especially baffling consideringFinal Fantasy XIV, the actual MMO, has strong side content.
6Tighter Pacing
One of the most disappointing aspects ofFinal Fantasy VII Remakehas to be the pacing. The originalFinal Fantasy VIIhas a level of freedom that most modern games could only dream of hoping. There’s so much optional content, and it’s all paced at the discretion of the player once they leave Midgar. Emphasis on “once they leave Midgar.”
Now, this isn’t to say Midgar is poorly paced in the original game, but it’s also six hours, notthirty.Final Fantasy VII Remakestretches out the plot so it’s five times as long, and while this helps in better understanding the nuances ofFFVII’s world & characters, it’s at the expense of the story’s natural pacing. Nothing can ever move neatly from A to B.
5A Party Editor
In the defense of the remake,Final Fantasy VII Remakeis actually pretty faithful when it comes to party composition in Midgar. It doesn’t go out of its way to jam characters in where they don’t belong, making the player finally getting their own party all the more momentous… only for it to be revealed that there’s no way to edit the party.
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Even with a full team of four,Final Fantasy VII Remakedoes not let the player pick and choose who they want inside of their party outside of Corneo’s Colosseum and VR Battles. The final chapter even features a hidden mechanic which varies up the final party. Why not just let the player freely pick?
4Playable Red XIII
Red XIII has never quite been treated with the respect he deserves. Ever sinceAdvent Children, the character has existed primarily in the background. Heading into theRemake, fans were at least certain they’d be able to have Red XIII in their party– and while they can, he is strictly a guest party member this time around.
To be fair, this does have its advantages, notably the fact that Red XIII gets to be a consistent part of the climax’s action, but the fact he isn’t playable is still extremely disappointing. Especially since he looks like he’d be very fun to play as! Red XIII even has Materia visibly equipped, so it’s rather strange he’s relegated to a guest role.
3Real Consequence
Not only does death have real meaning inFinal Fantasy VII, there’s real consequence for the party’s actions. AVALANCHE targeting Shinra results in the company dropping the Plate onto Sector 7– killing Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs in the process. TheRemakeamplifies their death scenes considerably, doing a great job playing up the emotion, only to rip consequence out of the occasion.
Not only does Wedge explicitly live this time around, the ending cinematic implies there’s a reality where Biggs and Jessie are alive. Beyond the possibility of AVALANCHE surviving, however, the real problem comes from the fact thatFFVIIRgoes out of its way to characterize the NPCs of Sector 7 only to let most of them live.
2An Epilogue
IfFinal Fantasy VII Remakeis going to be episodic, it does make sense to some extent that Midgar would end up being its own complete chapter in the story. Midgar always had its own culture and atmosphere, so there’s inherent value in expanding it. At the same time, cutting off at Midgar means stopping the story just shy of Cloud revealing his intense history with Sephiroth.
Taking into account that Sephiroth now serves as Part 1’s final boss, an epilogue chapter where the party travels to Kalm and Cloud explains his backstory would have been a cleaner way to end the story narratively. Chapter 19 could be the travel to Kalm itself, with Chapter 20 Cloud’s flashback. It would be difficult to come up with a satisfying final boss for Part 1, however.
1Less Sephiroth
Sephiroth is widely considered one of the greatest video game villains of all time, and for good reason.Final Fantasy VIIvery slowly builds up to his reveal, allowing players to craft their own idea of Sephiroth based on Cloud’s misconceptions and Tifa’s memories– only for Sephiroth himself to be little more than a puppet, just as much a man running from himself as Cloud.
ForFinal Fantasy VII Remaketo not only introduce Sephiroth as a tangible presence early on, but to make him a recurring one who serves as the game’s (albeit incredibly fun) final boss, ends up doing the game little favors. Not helping matters is Sephiroth more or less behaving like hisAdvent Childrenself, waxing poetic more than he ever did inFFVII.
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