FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE

The decision to split the Final Fantasy VII remake into a trilogy has led to an arduous task for the developers with underwhelming results, and this first part bears the brunt of its issues. [h3]Story Pacing[/h3] Remake follows the events of the first 5 hours of the original game (approximately 15% of the story), but it inserts so much filler that it has ballooned into a 30-to-40-hour experience with glaring pacing issues. Of the 18 chapters in the game, less than half feel satisfying. Chapter 1 is an almost perfect remake of the original game’s opening, and acts as a phenomenal tutorial. Chapters 2, 5 to 7, 10 to 12, 14, 15, 17 and 18 were all 5-to-10-minute sections in the original game, and each has become at least 40 minutes long for a first-time playthrough. Many of them are nice for world-building and character dialogue, but they drag on and kill any sense of urgency in certain chapters. Chapters 3, 8, 9, and 14 are where you can perform numerous side quests. These act as a prospect to gain experience, earn new materia, and meet important side characters. I personally believe this game should have been 15 hours long at most, with chapters like this expanded to feature more optional side quests that could boost your playtime significantly. Chapters 4 and 13 are almost entirely new material. The former is a great opportunity to explore the upper plate, and it expands massively on the character of Jessie, though it does little to build upon Biggs or Wedge, and it introduces a character named Roche who is far too over-the-top. The latter is filler that takes you to a secret underground laboratory which has no effect on the plot and doesn’t make sense unless you’ve played Dirge of Cerberus, the PS2 sequel to the original. [h3]Combat and Progression[/h3] While I can understand some fans being disappointed about the change from turn-based combat to action combat, it’s hard to deny that it’s extremely well-done. Performing your standard attacks builds your ATB meter, which can be spent on more powerful moves, such as weapon abilities and magic, and this expertly meshes with the materia system. It even solves one of my few issues with combat in the original, as here each character feels unique and worthy of a space on your team, while OG Tifa eventually became outclassed. Aerial combat is rather clunky and bosses often drop their stagger due to phase shifts, but these flaws are rectified in Rebirth. I’m also rather fond of the weapon progression system. In the original game, weapons obtained early on were quickly superseded by later ones, giving the player no reason to use weapons like the Buster Sword outside of aesthetics. In the remake trilogy, weapons level up alongside the player, allowing them to stay relevant throughout the entire experience. Each character gets 6 weapons, each with differently balanced stats and a unique combat ability which you must become proficient with before you can perform it with any other weapon, which encourages you to collect them all. Hard difficulty has quickly become one of my favourite aspects of the remake trilogy. Every enemy and boss fight is buffed to be a challenge for characters at the level cap, items are completely unusable, and MP is not restored by beds or benches. It requires you to have a good understanding of every opponent, have well-planned character builds, and to be conservative with your use of magic. Nobody can reasonably claim the combat in this game is “just button mashing” after experiencing hard difficulty. However, replaying the game does draw attention to how often the game forces you to walk slowly. [h3]Character Performances[/h3] The voice actors do an incredible job of bringing the characters to life, in particular Tifa and Aerith. My gold star for best performance undoubtedly goes to John Eric Bentley as Barret, whose unique take nails the character’s rage, empathy, and his deep passion for the world. [h3]Story Changes[/h3] The most questionable changes here are those made to the story. Final Fantasy VII was a masterclass in storytelling, which was a pioneer in telling deep stories in video games with mature, highly political themes - a true trendsetter. On the other hand, the remake trilogy seems uncomfortable telling this story. The original's story begins with Cloud, a super-soldier mercenary, working with Barret's eco-terrorist group Avalanche to blow up Midgar's mako reactors, which the Shinra corporation are using to suck up the planet's lifeblood for cheap energy. Jessie's homemade bomb destroys the reactor along with a city block in Sectors 1 and 8, killing dozens of civilians. She is distraught with the casualties but plans to build slightly weaker bombs in future attacks, as it’s their only option against Shinra’s oppressive regime. In the remake, Jessie's bomb is practically a firecracker that deals almost no damage to the reactor, but President Shinra and Heidegger remotely control the defence systems within the reactor to blow it up along with some streets the nearby streets. Jessie gets to live with the guilt of believing her bomb did that, but it ultimately makes Avalanche seem incompetent or unserious about taking down Shinra, considering that Barret could have made a bigger blast with his limit break. There are many other odd changes like this throughout, which I cannot possibly cover in the 7,950-character limit of a Steam review. The most egregious change is undoubtedly the whispers - arbiters of fate that intervene if the story differs from the original, except they do nothing about Jessie’s bomb in Chapter 1, they harass Aerith for no reason in Chapter 2, they allow Chapter 4, they let Cloud fight Reno in Chapter 8, they allow the party to be delayed by a ghost in Chapter 11, they allow Hojo to give a massive spoiler in Chapter 16… All this to set up a big final boss fight with them and Sephiroth attacking the party in Part 1 without any of his character's backstory being given. It gives off a lack of confidence in the story and a desire to chase multiverse trends. [h3]DLC[/h3] The Intermission DLC is a 2-chapter side story starring Yuffie on a secret mission in Midgar. She works with another Wutaian operative named Sonon to break into the Shinra building and steal an extremely powerful materia. It takes place during Chapters 8 to 12 of the main game, and you’ll see characters like Tifa and Barret along the way. The Fort Condor minigame is the best part of the experience. Whereas the original game’s version was a slow-paced tower defence, here it is a fast-paced and well-balanced game of attack and defence. The minigame gets harder with the game difficulty, meaning that it’s worth obtaining all the boards and pieces on your first playthrough to have a wide range of strategies to try out. The box-breaking minigame in the Shinra building is also a fun test of your understanding of Yuffie's moveset. My main issue with this DLC is how the third act plays out. Yuffie and Sonon discover that the materia they are after is not fully developed, then they fight Scarlet to escape. After her mech suit is destroyed, Scarlet presses a panic button on her leg to call in Deepground, Nero, and Weiss. None of these characters or concepts are set up anywhere earlier in the DLC or the main game, so their sudden appearance will make absolutely no sense to anyone but the 19 people who played Dirge of Cerberus. Ultimately, it's a brief, inoffensive side plot that cannot and does not have any noteworthy repercussions on the main story. [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] I struggle to think of anybody I'd recommend this game to. Fans of the original game will generally despise the changes to the story, while new players will find it to be a confusing mess. The combat, soundtrack, and voice acting are the only things that work for me. Perhaps in 20 years' time, Square Enix will consider giving us an actual remake, rather than Nomura's atrocious fanfiction. Rating: [b]6.5/10[/b]