Welcome to part 2 of my thoughts on the Final Fantasy VII Remake. This will be all about my feelings on how the Remake compares to the original, and this will have a lot of plot spoilers for both games. So if you haven’t at least played the Remake, know some parts will go into the story differences.
Read part one here if you haven’t.
Now you may have noticed I didn’t talk about music in the first part. That’s because my thoughts about the music is in comparison to the original. This is mainly due to a difference in philosophy, I think. In the original, there was no voice acting, so music was setting all of the atmosphere. It was powerful foreground music. Now, with voice acting, the music is more low key and in the background. It doesn’t stand out as much. Still great, just not as interesting when compared to the original.
Still, the music for the squatting minigame goes hard. They didn’t need to use the combat theme for it, but they did.
It is possible to change the volume of music, but making it too loud would make it harder to hear the fine voice acting within the game.
The improved graphics does allow them to do some cool stuff, like actually show what kind of materia you have equipped in the weapon. Yeah, all weapons have visual slots that accurately reflect what kind of materia is in there.
The Remake takes what was five to ten hours in the original game and turns it into thirty to forty hours (or more). While there are a lot of good character interactions added, with more lively towns and a better sense of Midgar, a lot of what’s added are dungeon-like battle segments. They do have fun moments within the dungeons, but sometimes it does feel a bit much. I did not need three separate dungeons for second mission.
Dungeons can also affect the pacing, such as when the characters are in a rush to get somewhere but still take the time to talk and mull about. The story is slightly shifted so it’s not as apparent they have to rush, but players of the original game will feel like things are being dragged out.
I also have to say, I am disappointed that they didn’t make Red XIII a full playable character. Yeah, he only comes 90% into the game, but still, it could have worked. There was still a lot of combat content left with quite a few bosses and minibosses, and having him actually be in the party would make him feel more like part of the group. There is even a combat simulator that he could have participated in! He didn’t need the same amount of weapons as everyone else. I certainly wouldn’t mind learning an entirely new character at that stage of the game, even though it might seem strange to first time players.
The game does actually change the story of Final Fantasy VII. They add a whole bunch of cloaked ghosts that both kind of help and hurt the player at various times. Their actions may seem random but if you played the original game, you may get a sense of what they’re actually trying to do.
Towards the end of the game, they to more clearly state what the goal of the cloaked ghosts are. At this point in the game, I don’t really see their purpose other than to generate conversation. Now, maybe that might change at the conclusion of the story and the changes may actually affect the overall feel of the story. For now, they seem just there to keep players of the original on their toes.
The game also turns kind of ridiculous in the last chapter. It is like the feel like they need a big action set piece to finish things off and the game goes 2x Advent Children style wildness. It certainly feels far too grand for the place of the story they’re at, and is just kind of a long combat slog with little interesting character moments.
There may or may not be future story implications, but who knows. Within the story of Remake, though, it just feels over-the-top compared to what’s been going on so far.
The most improved part of the game is definitely the Wall Market segment. It was a memorable part of the original, and they just turned up all of the extravagance this time around to an extravaganza.
Some moments do feel weaker in the Remake, such as what happened in Shinra tower. In the original, it was quite tense and creepy. In the Remake, it doesn’t nearly feel as worrying, not helped by a long dungeon, either. A dungeon that would have been the perfect place for players to get acclimated to fighting with Red XIII if they bothered to make Red XIII playable!
I did watch a play through of the game from someone that has not played the original. It was fascinating to see how differently she saw events compared to me. What I felt was filler was actually pretty fascinating when viewed through the lens of a first-time player. She also quite astutely figured out things about the cloaked figures as well as other hints given by the game. It does give me a different appreciation for all the things added by the Remake.
Show me the best girl.
I said show me the best girl.
Perfection.
Final Fantasy VII was my first Final Fantasy and first JRPG. In a lot of ways, it was kind of the perfect JRPG to start with because unlike other Final Fantasies, the game doesn’t even introduce the concept of a world map until several hours in. For my first time playing, I had no idea such a thing even existed and thought going through the various sectors of Midgar was going to be the entire game.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is what the first playthrough of the Midgar section feels like: Grand. The city of mako was everything there was to the world with nothing important beyond the walls. Midgar is brought to life in the most amazing way. If they let me, I would explore all of it.
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