Final Fantasy VII Remake

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8148 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,327 out of 8148
  2. Mixed: 727 out of 8148
  3. Negative: 1,094 out of 8148
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  1. DarkChaplain
    Apr 10, 2020
    4
    All Square Enix needed to do was follow the script's core beats, and flesh it out, while fully realizing the setting's world, ambiance and characters. For about half the game, they actually achieve this. It's a joyful, nostalgic trip to Midgar, with Avalanche growing dear to your heart all over again. Tifa and Aerith are stunning in their added depth and interactions with the rest of theAll Square Enix needed to do was follow the script's core beats, and flesh it out, while fully realizing the setting's world, ambiance and characters. For about half the game, they actually achieve this. It's a joyful, nostalgic trip to Midgar, with Avalanche growing dear to your heart all over again. Tifa and Aerith are stunning in their added depth and interactions with the rest of the cast. Infiltrating Don Corneo's abode had me laughing at just how good it was.

    But the further the story progressed, the harder did Nojima and Toriyama deviate from the original's story and developments. From introducing core villains, whose presence was supposed to be felt as a looming dread, without fully unveiling them yet, far too early over additions of fate ghosts to a completely absurd, rewritten ending that pulls everything into question while making it clear that no, this is not a Remake, but a reimagining, a reboot, with the publisher opening the next part up to being whatever they wish it to be (or is easier to produce than a faithful sequel), the so-called Remake is a massive letdown.

    I was ready to adore this game. Cautiously optimistic ever since they announced it, being of the old guard that had been wishing for a faithful remake for a decade before the announcement dropped, I wanted to love it. For a good amount of hours, I actually did. It is a great shame that they decided to abandon the script in favor of Nojima's prime storytelling device (not to spoil things directly, but if you look at a list of games he's written for on Wikipedia, you'll be able to tell what most of them have in common...).

    The real tragedy of this first part of the "remake" really is that they did nearly everything right for so much of the game. From adding sidequests to flesh out the Sector 7 slums and their inhabitants, adding dialogue, making a real show out of the Honey Bee manor, speeding up some tedious parts while allowing further exploration in others. Graphically, the game looks absolutely stunning and I am ready to consider the main cast here to be the definitive versions, the best overall designed and authentic renditions. The music is for the most part incredibly well arranged from the original Uematsu tracks, although the new tracks fall short on a stylistic level. Added characters and comedic relief work in the game's favor at the point they occur, before everything comes tumbling down to crash and burn.

    It left me asking myself whether these changes were intended from the start, or were taken as a get out of jail free option when Square Enix's executives realized just how expensive the full game would turn out being, if they kept the same level of detail and interaction throughout all we remember from the original. It's almost like they put so much of their budget into the first half, they couldn't possibly maintain this scope for future zones, cities, dungeons and the like. Abandoning the original makes sense on some level, considering that, especially when it comes with a sort of justification to do things differently with part 2. The problem is, that none of these full rewrites are good. They're fanfic-level absurdities that fail to grasp what made the original beloved in the first place. It's as if they didn't truly understand why fans wanted a remake, or what they expected of it. Maybe they figured that sales of Kingdom Hearts 3 indicated that people wanted more of that absurd type of modern Square Enix storytelling? I'm grasping at straws here, trying to somehow understand what made this company throw one of their most highly valued and cherished title into the river to drown any future expectations.

    If I had Nojima's timey wimey powers vested within me, I would like to turn back time to the moment that the relevant staff at Square Enix decided to make these fatal decisions, and force them to defy fate. I wished this game nothing but success, but this company has once again managed to disappoint and, in a sense, infuriate. My biggest fear is that the rewrites will tarnish the original's legacy, especially for the newcomer audience that expected to hop into it with no prior experience. To them, it'll feel very disjointed, but probably cool due to the way it looks and plays. They won't be able to grasp what made the original a classic for the ages, however.
    That's a shame.    … Expand
  2. wotakit
    Apr 10, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Most people knew that this wasn't going to be a shot-for-shot replica of the original game which is fine, but the ending to FF7R completely derails from the original to the point where semantics of what a 'remake' is becomes irrelevant. It uses the history and characters of the FF7 universe to start a brand new story on an alternate timeline. Characters that should be dead, no longer are so fundamental motivations and character arcs are out of the window. The next parts will be starting fresh and this should be extremely worrying to anyone who knows Squares recent history. Square no longer has the ability to create new stories that are coherent or interesting. This is why people were excited for a remake of a story that everyone already loved. They couldn't possibly screw this one up and yet they still have.

    Aside from the ending, there are plenty of other negatives too. Filler is a major problem. The side quests are almost all basic filler fetch quests. "Go here, kill x enemies, come back, go somewhere else, repeat." I've seen people defending this saying that you can't create a 30+ hour game without some padding. I don't understand this at all. Either make the game shorter or make the "padding" GOOD content. The game is much more linear than I expected. Almost every single walkable area in the game is a narrow corridor.
    The hybrid combat system is actually pretty good but there are big flaws in the AI. The enemies always agro on the character that the player is controlling and your allies do very little to help or defend themselves. This combination seems to be Squares way of ensuring that you switch characters often but it is so poorly executed and feels forced.
    The camera sucks in combat even with the recommended changes to the settings. You can't see what you're looking at half the time, especially if the enemy is above you.
    There is also a serious texture problem. The worst being looking down to the slums from the plate. I believe that this will be fixed in the day 1 patch though. It needs to be.

    It sucks to give this game such a low score. FF7 is my all time favourite and I really wanted this to succeed. The game gets some things right, and when it does, it absolutely nails them. But sadly there is just far too much crap surrounding it, that i'm left disappointed overall.    … Expand
  3. Raewulf
    Apr 13, 2020
    0
    Think of your favorite game.

    Now, let M. Night Shyamalan rewrite the ending. But it's not really the ending, it's only the first arc, which you paid worth a triple A value. They could have fleshed out the story, but they retcon and spoil significant climactic parts of the complete game. Now, it's a reboot with an alternate timeline. This new generation has a knack for deflecting    Think of your favorite game.

    Now, let M. Night Shyamalan rewrite the ending. But it's not really the ending, it's only the first arc, which you paid worth a triple A value. They could have fleshed out the story, but they retcon and spoil significant climactic parts of the complete game. Now, it's a reboot with an alternate timeline. This new generation has a knack for deflecting criticism and make it out about failures of pleasing everyone. The requests for a remake were clear: same story, modern graphics. They are raised to aim for subversion and radical change. How else can you explain the pattern of remakes for our cherished films and games? They keep buying it. What luck these game developers have! They no longer need to brainstorm a coherent story, just a couple of twists and their own unsolicited spin, graphical overhauls and the approval of Hollywood to release a game. Midgar, a police state, could have easily been a playground for free movement, looting upscale lofts, taking out higher-ups, scaling buildings, and jumping from one roof to the next. No, we get linear scenes, recycled Kingdom Heart characters, and snoozefest sidequests which plague MMORPGs.

    FF7: Refund
    FF7: Retcon
    FF7: Redo

    If your critical review gets enough helpful votes, they take it down. They must be thinking about Square Enix stocks.    … Expand
  4. 0xf8006
    Apr 13, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is the epitome of style over substance.

    For everything this game does well, it gets overshadowed by staggering things that it does wrong. The way SE expanded some characters and gave them more development is then immediately followed by meaningless kill X amount of monsters side quests. Or a sequence involving a reactor that turns a short sequence from the original into a sprawling set piece chased with a new character and a fast paced boss fight that is then followed by a 30 minute sequence of walking to the next city with maybe 2 encounters (see combat for later problems with that) and "character development that could have been established just as well without slamming the brakes on the pacing.

    Visually, the game looks wonderful, I'm not going to argue that. In fact, the game looks so well made, that I believe that a movie called Final Fantasy VII Reimagined would have been a more pleasant experience than this game. I will defend this by also pointing out that every meaningful fight and experience is pushed so hard to be a cinematic experience that they should have just crafted a cinematic experience.

    The sound is not my thing at all, but for the most part is well composed. I don't enjoy jazz or modern takes on old video game music. The music from the original was the first game that spoke to me that music in a video game could be a well made thing. But I get that everything must be made modern lest there be money left on the table. The new compositions by Uematsu are also some of his worst compositions to date, in my opinion, and don't add anything of substance to the game.

    The combat system. Oh boy, here we go. So, the combat system is SE once again trying to redefine a concept that doesn't need redefinition in Square's titles, but not taking the same missteps in formerly Enix made titles. For an example of this, look to every Final Fantasy title since 10, then compare that to every Dragon Quest title since....I suppose, 1. On one side, you have redefining every iteration, sometimes successfully, other times, less so. Then on the other side a series who knows what it is, stays true to that and continues to receive praise and enjoyment from it's fan base. So, true to form, SE decided once again to redefine combat for a Final Fantasy title. And...it works...except when it doesn't. This aspect is the one I had the most concern for up to release. I do not usually enjoy action rpg's so I went into FF7R expecting the story to carry me through a combat system I wasn't a fan of. The combat system is actually fun and enjoyable, but there are caveats. The first caveat is that a battle is either over in milliseconds or is a sweeping epic encounter to last the ages. There is no just middle difficulty battles. The easier battles only draw out the already padded sequences which halt the pacing and the harder battles end up serving as a signpost that there will be much less content of interest past that point.

    The story is where the game completely bottoms out its score for me. I wasn't looking for a 1:1 story of the original, but I didn't want something like this mess either. The original is still highly regarded to this day because it did so much right: character development, sound, gameplay, story-telling (which includes pacing), it even subverted expectations before that was the cool thing to do. So, what could be done with something so perfectly crafted? You can look at the result objectively, see the tiny cracks and flaws that time has shown, subtly repair those imperfections and improve the entire project through minor changes. Instead, we got Nomura. And Nomura does things the Nomura way. This means we get ridiculous over the top villains (but not really, cause friendship will save the day), we got convoluted plot lines designed to span over years and years of content with the pay-off usually amount to too little, too late, and we get his story that he wanted to make. What we got was NOT Final Fantasy 7 Remake, what we got was Final Fantasy 7 Reimagined. Nomura's direction allowed the fundamentals of the game to exist, but not when they would get in the way of the story he felt he needed to change the original in to.

    Final thoughts: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an overproduced game that will appeal to fan boys in a similar vein that a jingling pair of keys will appeal to an infant. It's shiny and sparkly and new. It lacks any substance or reverence for the original story (not world, there's a difference). This game will sell very well and will pave the road for canon spin-offs spanning multiple consoles and hand-helds and maybe in 15 more years, the final part will come out where Sephiroth and Cloud join forces to prevent Aerith's death at the hands of the watchers because the black materia and the white materia can bring paradise to the planet if they're linked.    … Expand
  5. NullMechanism
    Apr 14, 2020
    2
    This "game" can basically be summed up as padding and filler.

    They took 5-minute "dungeons" from the original Midgar and turned them each into hour-long FF13 hallways. Even worse, they inserted all new "dungeons" (hour-long FF13 hallways) in between story beats where the original FF7 would have just moved on to the next story beat. It doesn't add anything to the story or game world. It    This "game" can basically be summed up as padding and filler.

    They took 5-minute "dungeons" from the original Midgar and turned them each into hour-long FF13 hallways. Even worse, they inserted all new "dungeons" (hour-long FF13 hallways) in between story beats where the original FF7 would have just moved on to the next story beat. It doesn't add anything to the story or game world. It doesn't flesh out the original Midgar. It's not even fun. You just go down some glorified decorated hallways and fight three guys at a time for 30+ hours. This is not fun. This is not a game. This is mindless, joyless, and a chore. I actually had to force myself to finish this awful slog.

    The sidequests do little to break up the monotony--in fact, they amplify it. They are the most soulless, uninteresting MMO quests you can imagine. At some point I just stopped bothering with them because they add noting of value to this game. They are not fun or interesting.

    This isn't Final Fantasy 7. This is Final Fantasy 13 loosely based on Final Fantasy 7. This game does not respect your time. Square Enix claimed that this remake was going to be episodic because the game world was going to be "greatly expanded" and "vast." Midgar is not expanded. It is padded. What happened here is that they decided from day one that they wanted to sell multiple games as "episodes," and then struggled to come up with filler content to stretch Midgar out to 30+ hours. And they couldn't even come up with anything fun. As I said, this is easily the worst video game I ever played in my life.

    This is the most soulless, joyless corporate cash-grab ever created, it is a personal attack against video games as a medium, and it is a crime against humanity.    … Expand
  6. WilliamWesker
    May 1, 2020
    0
    **** game was straight up hot garbage. And Wtf was they trying to do at the end? Not to mention all it was a 100% linear hand holding FF13 reskin, with a partial story that made 0% sense. By just throwing in a few retarded "quests", aka go fetch's that for me, with obvious "crawl" spaces and slow downs to hide loading and add another pointless hour of gameplay. I even did 100% in less than**** game was straight up hot garbage. And Wtf was they trying to do at the end? Not to mention all it was a 100% linear hand holding FF13 reskin, with a partial story that made 0% sense. By just throwing in a few retarded "quests", aka go fetch's that for me, with obvious "crawl" spaces and slow downs to hide loading and add another pointless hour of gameplay. I even did 100% in less than 30h and ended up being one very disappointed gamer. Not even any replay value and i have replayed og FF7 multiple times on almost every system its made for.
    5 years for this trash, really? So, what's next?? Wait for another 5 years, for Part 2.. "The Walk to Junon". Then wait for another 5 years, for Part 3.. "The Golden Saucer", and so on......
    If they wanted to make Part 1 Midgar only, it should of been a fully open world with a **** ton to do, not this hot garbage of a mess. Graphics do not make the game, you lazy SQUARE GRAVE ROBBERS! Games need content.. more than useless filler and a pretty cinematic shell skin!!    … Expand
  7. Spoonfishlee
    Apr 12, 2020
    3
    It's very hard to score this game. Many of the moments in this game had me floored. I loved the combat, although I notice a lot of people are missing the turn based system. The deeper storytelling and acting had me plastered to the screen all the way through. The impossible had happened: an amazing, faithful remake of FF7 had come into existence. It was a couple of hours before the endIt's very hard to score this game. Many of the moments in this game had me floored. I loved the combat, although I notice a lot of people are missing the turn based system. The deeper storytelling and acting had me plastered to the screen all the way through. The impossible had happened: an amazing, faithful remake of FF7 had come into existence. It was a couple of hours before the end where I was completely sold. I expected to escape and ride down the highway into some sort of To Be Continued-screen. My 9 or even 10 score was ready to be dealt out.

    But then it takes a turn. A very hard turn. I tried to buy what it was trying to sell me, but my attachment to the story was quickly dissolving on the screen. After seeing that conclusion, I felt like I could no longer recommend this game to anyone. It's very hard to pick a score, but I think I have to base it on how fatigued and empty I feel whenever I see a thumbnail of the game now.

    I would say I'm a difficult fan to please when it comes to FF7. The original has been the most influential gaming experience of my life, since I played it in -99. I know every line and beat. But I will not be picking up the subsequent releases of this reboot series.

    A lot of new players enjoy it. That's good. But for me, it was a sad waste of an opportunity, and a sad waste of all the earlier phenomenal moments that were based on the source material.    … Expand
  8. oreimo33
    Apr 16, 2020
    0
    I give this game the worst possible score because it essentially scams the consumer by calling itself a remake despite actually being a sequel.

    However, the fact that Square blatantly scams its audience is not not the only thing wrong with this game. The presentation is underwhelming when compared to the real Final Fantasy VII. A good example in this very game is Sephiroth. What made    I give this game the worst possible score because it essentially scams the consumer by calling itself a remake despite actually being a sequel.

    However, the fact that Square blatantly scams its audience is not not the only thing wrong with this game. The presentation is underwhelming when compared to the real Final Fantasy VII. A good example in this very game is Sephiroth. What made him so effective in the original game? Subtlety, a drawn out but distant threat, unclear motives, seeing his power without actually seeing him. What do we get instead? The guy shows up as soon as humanly possible and is talking straight to Cloud. Zero subtlety.

    Furthermore, this game has unholy amounts padding. They took 5-minute dungeons and turned them into hour-long FF13 hallways. The sidequests are uninspired, tedious and cliche.

    It's pretty underwhelming considering it's been in production for 5+ years. It's padded with tedious. The slums are barely expanded, with no upper plate exploration. Most of the areas are empty hallways with pointless alleyways.

    Even visually, it disappoints. It has some of the ugliest in-game graphics we've seen this console generation.There is really no excuse for a AAA product of this magnitude to have this much of a problem loading textures and reusing assets (there is one location that has three NPC clones right next to one another).

    The story, however, is the worst part of this game aside from it being a scam. Even discounting the butchered ending, there's lots of eye-rolling moments and baffling decisions throughout. Lots of classic scenes were cut arbitrarily.

    Combat is too easy and braindead if you enjoy action games and not strategic enough if you enjoy strategy games. It's the worst of both worlds.    … Expand
  9. kstud1
    Apr 11, 2020
    2
    That's right square, milk us for all you can get, let's take a original playstation game which was sold complete and cost $30.00 twenty three years ago and split it into 4 games and sell each for $60.00, great way to treat you fan base.
  10. wihdinheimo
    Dec 6, 2020
    0
    This game sucks. Once you'll finish it there's a twist that absolutely ruins the franchise. If this was developers way of paying homage to the original game, they should all be fired. Square-Enix hasn't been able to write anything coherent since Sakaguchi left the company.

    The ending feels like the adults were done with the script and some kid came in and drew crayons over the last few    This game sucks. Once you'll finish it there's a twist that absolutely ruins the franchise. If this was developers way of paying homage to the original game, they should all be fired. Square-Enix hasn't been able to write anything coherent since Sakaguchi left the company.

    The ending feels like the adults were done with the script and some kid came in and drew crayons over the last few pages.

    The antagonist of the game, Sephiroth is introduced too early which breaks the tension.

    Get your narrative together Nomura, you can't write. Sakaguchi's approach of wholesomeness and creativity is gone with your childish plot twists and the greed of your company shareholders. Square-Enix became the Shinra. The story of this game sucks so hard, that every single employee involved making these decisions should be fired on the spot. Super disappointed.    … Expand
  11. CidVicious87
    Apr 19, 2020
    4
    ###SPOILERS###

    Anybody who gave this game a good score, hasn't finished the game or is so worn down by square enix that they just don't care. While the first 2/3rds of the game made me feel like the good times, before the empire, the last third of the game is a blatant slap in the face to fans of the classic game. I understand it's a remake, and that you need to make it fresh, but to    ###SPOILERS###

    Anybody who gave this game a good score, hasn't finished the game or is so worn down by square enix that they just don't care. While the first 2/3rds of the game made me feel like the good times, before the empire, the last third of the game is a blatant slap in the face to fans of the classic game. I understand it's a remake, and that you need to make it fresh, but to change critical story points and add a half baked notion of fate/destiny to a world where that never existed is disgusting and disrespectful to the classic. This game takes away from the agency of the characters, their trials their sacrifice in order to make something more Nomura like, i.e. bringing Kairi back to life in KH3. Barrett is basically Kairi in this game, he gets stabbed in the chest by Sephiroth, then the fate ghosts bring him back to life, yes their are actual FATE ghosts in the game. Not to mention that the fate ghosts look like giant mummified phallus. I'm sorry if you have to suffer through this game, because if someone with half a brain had kept Nomura from writing this ending then it could have been a classic.

    Also the combat is amazing, till you realized it doesn't evolve at all. Enemies use too much interrupting abilities to actually play the game without hitting r2 to pause. Also they turned it into an mmo where you have to manage aggro, because guess what, your allies' atb bar doesn't fill up on its own. So you will be spending most of combat slamming square to build it up. It's needlessly micro-managey. I hoped they would implement mechanics so that your teammates didn't stand around doing jack while you build your atb, but nope. Basically they took a less refined version of ff12's combat and made it even more useless. Add all up this isn't even a complete game and they have the nerve to charge a full price is the end. The good will earned by 14 and 12 is done. I will not buy a single square enix game again, even the western ips. Thanks guys for being arrogant and disrespectful.    … Expand
  12. Spokker
    Apr 10, 2020
    4
    I'm a 30-something-year-old boomer, first played the original when I was 13 and replayed it off and on since then.

    When I played the initial bombing mission in the Remake, I felt like a kid again. As I progressed in the story, there were moments of great beauty. In some scenes it's everything I've ever wanted, the hairs on my arms standing at full attention. Then those *things* show up    I'm a 30-something-year-old boomer, first played the original when I was 13 and replayed it off and on since then.

    When I played the initial bombing mission in the Remake, I felt like a kid again. As I progressed in the story, there were moments of great beauty. In some scenes it's everything I've ever wanted, the hairs on my arms standing at full attention. Then those *things* show up and are like OOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY and ruin the whole moment. It's like an annoying sibling running in the room and screaming at the top of their lungs to annoy you and you lose your good vibes.

    This game is padded more than Tifa's orthopedic underwear. If your goal is to tickle your nostalgia bone, then you are going to be frustrated when you want to discover the next remade scene, only to find that the game forces you to endure generic RPG quests and busywork in a horrid daytime rendition of the slums.

    I expected to make some compromises. I made peace with the episodic nature of the game. I prepared myself for some modern anime storytelling tropes and the cringe that goes with it. I wasn't expecting a 1:1 recreation. What we got instead was something akin to Kingdom Hearts, anime nonsense that doesn't mean anything.

    FF7 may have been science-fiction fantasy, but it was about something, particularly the Midgar portion. Corporations, environmentalism, class struggles, terrorism and so on. Some of that is in the Remake, but for every moment that captures the heart of the original, there are many more that seem to miss the entire point of the original as ghostly beings swirl around doing who knows what and the characters grimace at them. But not before you find Midgar's lost cats.

    It doesn't make me hopeful for future episodes. One could make the case the original FF7 went off the rails at some point in the end game. The Remake is off the rails within the first hour.    … Expand
  13. nephy
    Apr 24, 2020
    4
    So like most people I thought FF7:R was a remake;usually when remake is implied in the title;it's insinuating that they're remaking assets from the ground up;even though there are plenty of articles to show as sources that SE implied this was a 1:1 remake with a ton of content now padded to the game(the reason why they decided on episodic chapters);however this is not the case. FF7:R is aSo like most people I thought FF7:R was a remake;usually when remake is implied in the title;it's insinuating that they're remaking assets from the ground up;even though there are plenty of articles to show as sources that SE implied this was a 1:1 remake with a ton of content now padded to the game(the reason why they decided on episodic chapters);however this is not the case. FF7:R is a sequel to FF7,advent children, and Crisis Core. It's not necessarily a bad game;as a pseudo-action RPG it's pretty great. You might be wondering why I'm listing it as a "psuedo" action RPG;well one thing this game stays faithful to is how the battle-system works;similar to the original RPG;FF7R treats the player as if they're going through a turn-based combat system(very similar to FF12, or Crisis Core, but not quite). You're able to freely move, and utilize basic attacks, or pick specials without cool-downs(not including limit breakers);however unlike an action RPG your evasion inputs really don't matter unless you're avoiding large AOEs,constantly managing your party, and switching characters to utilize the best method of taking out enemies, or supporting fellow party members;as an action RPG it falls flat,as a spin to classic RPGS though it does a great job with its battle-system. If you're open to a new story I'm sure the game diverging the plot won't be an issue, but if you're expecting a 1:1 remake, or a follow up to the original story via ep.2 you're not going to get it;I'm emphasizing this is a sequel, because of Sephiroth, and because of a returning character from Crisis Core;also because of ghosts that weren't in the original story that now are;if you don't know what I'm talking about;play the game, or don't;maybe look up a walk-through. I understand if SE wanted to not spoil to the audience this would be a sequel, but HONESTLY it's false advertisement, and it's disgusting. All in all the "selling-point" of this "remake" is its gameplay, but it's a step below FFXV(which is saying a lot, because FFXV's combat was already severely flawed", and the materia system works, but that's it;nothing really exceptional going on with the battle-system, or the materia system. This game really just acts like fan-service to those who enjoy action RPGs who could never get into a turn-based game. What a disappointment Square Enix is.… Expand
  14. MinionX
    May 1, 2020
    0
    Final Fantasy 7: Remake is the perfect example of when too much FILLER becomes basically a LORE killer!
    This game is even laughable focused on a generic KINGDOM HEARTS kind of way & I'm not just talking about gameplay.., which is also one of its biggest problems, apart from the fact that for the most of it.. has intermediate sections, in which one has absolutely nothing to do, aside from    Final Fantasy 7: Remake is the perfect example of when too much FILLER becomes basically a LORE killer!
    This game is even laughable focused on a generic KINGDOM HEARTS kind of way & I'm not just talking about gameplay.., which is also one of its biggest problems, apart from the fact that for the most of it.. has intermediate sections, in which one has absolutely nothing to do, aside from side-quests, which have no relevance in the plot of the movie, I mean, game, & that makes it simply ¡¡-BORING-!!    … Expand
  15. Tydeous
    Apr 18, 2020
    3
    I would say it was an 7-9 rating until I hit the final chapter (chapter 18). The immense retcon to the story and the future of the setting was enough to utterly ruin the game's story and the future of the series. I won't be buying a sequel.
  16. tyber16
    Apr 10, 2020
    4
    It's an okay game. The story has many **** filler kingdom hearts part but the game is a decent action-rpg. If you don't know the original than this will be a complete game like a first season of a series.
  17. Psycho0762
    Oct 17, 2020
    0
    this is not a remake this is an abomination not worth $60.00 x4 for each chapter its full of fluff and fetch quests this is kingdom hearts with ff7 characters if this was a song SE would be sued for plagiarism get your money back before the 90 days are up and don't buy. every person that gave it a good review is dishonest or never played the greatest game ever ps1 ff7 i still play ff7this is not a remake this is an abomination not worth $60.00 x4 for each chapter its full of fluff and fetch quests this is kingdom hearts with ff7 characters if this was a song SE would be sued for plagiarism get your money back before the 90 days are up and don't buy. every person that gave it a good review is dishonest or never played the greatest game ever ps1 ff7 i still play ff7 with my ps2 and just got a black chocobos i have been playing ff7 since 1997 when it was originally released in the us and this garbage called a remake is not ff7 only the 1st 2hrs of game play are. then it goes to garbage. SE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN FOR THIS CRAP THEY JUST CANT LET GO OF KINGDOM HEARTS WHAT DID YOU THINK WE WERE STUPID REALLY ff7 original is one of the greatist games of all times it has laughter, tears it has true omg moments and great stories. some char we fell in love with some we hated with all our hearts and what i wanted as a die hard lover of ff7 is to play it with modern graphics with voices and fall in love with the char all over again with a new visual not some 30hr+ wast of fluff midgar was only 15min into disk 1 and you turn'd it into 30+ of garbage damn you square damn you… Expand
  18. VictorBoomtown
    Apr 11, 2020
    1
    This 'remake' is an insult to those of us who have been waiting 20+ years to finally get to play an updated version of the game. (Which is what everyone wanted.) Suddenly, this game changes the entire plot and **** the bed for any future installments and everyone's praising it for being meta and deep.

    I'm so sick of the whole "this is good because it subverts your expectations!". It    This 'remake' is an insult to those of us who have been waiting 20+ years to finally get to play an updated version of the game. (Which is what everyone wanted.) Suddenly, this game changes the entire plot and **** the bed for any future installments and everyone's praising it for being meta and deep.

    I'm so sick of the whole "this is good because it subverts your expectations!". It wasn't good when Star Wars did it, and it's not good now.    … Expand
  19. jim-bob
    Apr 17, 2020
    1
    FINAL FANTASY VII "REMAKE" Is an insulting marketing scam directed by a childish egomaniac with no respect for the original game or the fans.
    THIS GAME IS NOT A REMAKE. it's advertising fraud. The core plot & themes have been ripped out and replaced with an idiotic, convoluted trainwreck involving the stupidest ideas ever conceived.
    Time travel, alternate timelines, alternate dimensions,    FINAL FANTASY VII "REMAKE" Is an insulting marketing scam directed by a childish egomaniac with no respect for the original game or the fans.
    THIS GAME IS NOT A REMAKE. it's advertising fraud. The core plot & themes have been ripped out and replaced with an idiotic, convoluted trainwreck involving the stupidest ideas ever conceived.
    Time travel, alternate timelines, alternate dimensions, visions of the future, time travelling ghosts from a future timeline that make the audience lose brain cells every time they appear.
    Profoundly idiotic nonsense that has no place in the story or universe & belongs in the tangled mess that is Kingdom Hearts. The characters aren't even the same. They're alternate characters from an alternate universe/timeline. i'm not joking.

    --THIS IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT & HORRIBLE ORIGINAL STORY--
    A direct quote from a Square Enix Gamespot interview
    "in terms of how faithful the remake is to the original Final Fantasy VII, from the perspective of the storyline it is very faithful indeed"
    Square Enix LIED. they have lied to their fans for 5 years straight.
    The game starts off looking similar to FF7 at the intro of the bombing mission for the purpose of deceiving you, then the plot quickly drives off a cliff into poorly written absurdity that bears little to no resemblance to FF7. Cloud is having visions of the future, Aerith and Sephiroth are now from the future, as if this wasn't enough to completely ruin their character development & every great scene they're supposed to have Sephiroth now shows up every 5 minutes ruining the build up he had and his reveal in FF7, there are also time travelling ghosts that show up way too often. they are at the core of the bastardised plot making up the most moronic & badly written scenes in this game. Things get even stupider towards the Shinra building & the ending is just a surreal mess that plays out like a bad fanfiction with terrible implications for the future of the series.

    --TERRIBLE GAMEPLAY PADDING--
    When news released this game would be Midgar only (only the first 10% of the original game) the devs claimed it had to be this way because they had so much content and ideas to expand midgar. However There aren't really any new areas, many of the ones that are there are badly made with garbage low resolution textures and a distinct lack of detail and polish, the game feels more linear than ever and ultimately it's obvious they lied again. this game should only be a few hours long however they've padded it out to 30 hours by using the absolute worst aspects of modern 'cinematic' games & RPGs.
    the combat is mostly fun. not solid... but fun however most of the game is not spent doing combat.
    most of your time is wasted on forced side quests that are long, tedious & uninteresting, Forced walking/slow moving state sections, performing meaningless & monotonous interactions that play long animations (e.g pressing triangle to move an obstacle out of your way, pressing a button and waiting for a machine do it's thing, sliding along a narrow wall)
    There's so much of this. it's spread across the game so as not to anger players too much but all together it's only purpose is to pad out the game by wasting hours of the players time.

    --THIS GAME IS NOT FOR PEOPLE NEW TO FF7--
    it's completely inaccessible to a new audience. if you wanted to experience FF7 for the first time with modern gameplay and graphics, if you wanted to play an actual remake like you were promised.. you can't. This game is not that. it's a completely different plot by nomura that expects that you've played the original Final Fantasy 7, Crisis Core for the PSP & watched the FF7 Advent children movie to understand it. (there's references to Dirge of Cerberus too)
    Nomura is a pretentious hack who makes his games unapproachable by demanding way more from the audience then his crappy writing is ever deserving of.

    Never let Nomura direct or write anything ever again. Square Enix have scammed their fans and this is the last time they'll ever see my money.    … Expand
  20. Niftylen
    Apr 11, 2020
    1
    Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, that's how I'd describe my final opinion of this Nomura headed 'REMAKE' of FF7.

    I was ready to give this game a 10/10 and immediately start up a second, hard-mode playthrough of the game as a victory lap of what was 90% one of the most incredible gaming experiences I've ever had. 23 years ago I wasn't even old enough to appreciate the OG    Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, that's how I'd describe my final opinion of this Nomura headed 'REMAKE' of FF7.

    I was ready to give this game a 10/10 and immediately start up a second, hard-mode playthrough of the game as a victory lap of what was 90% one of the most incredible gaming experiences I've ever had.

    23 years ago I wasn't even old enough to appreciate the OG FFVII, though a few years after it's release I did play through it and for myself, and many, many other now 20+ year old gamers, it was etched in my memory as the definitive RPG game and a wonderful, unique story told through arguably the most iconic cast of characters of all time in gaming.

    It's 2020, and the so called 'REMAKE' that seemed like a mythical dream we all had that would never be realised, ala Half-Life 3, is finally here.

    56 hours in and the game reaches an incredible crescendo of nostalgic boss after boss, massive set pieces that were only polygons interpreted into imagined epic scenes back in 1997, are finally fully realised with glorious graphics and sound.

    However, throughout the journey I kept getting a sick feeling in my stomach. These hooded sand-ghosts flying around scenes and influencing the action, I kept trying to interpret this new addition to the narrative, I tried to settle on it just being a device to show the planet trying to direct the heroes on their path, or even Jenova cells deceiving them.

    Something just didn't quite sit right though, they looked, and behaved quite like 'Nobodies' in the KH series, a thought which broke the immersion and brought me back to a reality where Tetsuya Nomura was at the helm.

    I remember how awful the KH series had become, how much of a let down FFXV was, how convoluted and contrived the plots were, and how cringeworthy the FFVII expanded universe had been (perhaps bar some parts of Crisis Core, though a lot of it was very, very 'anime').

    And so, with that sick feeling in my stomach I reached the last few chapter of the game, knowing in the back of my mind that things were about to go off the rails, at least to some extent.

    Suffice to say, things were worse than I could have imagined. I don't need to describe the events of the end of this game, but it was truly, truly disappointing, and actually quite saddening, to see what could have been such a celebration and honouring of an all-time classic be corrupted.

    After the end credits I found myself quite upset if I'm being honest. It's the same sort of feeling that the final season of GOT gave me, or that feeling when a band you love 'sells out' and starts playing cheap, formulaic pop songs.

    There's quite a few thoughts and questions I've been ruminating over, now that I'm starting to digest what's been done in this game.

    Why did they call it 'REMAKE' and not advertise it as a completely new story, or even a sequel (I think the events of the game point towards it being more of the latter)? I think I would have not pre-ordered, and would have set my expectations very differently, had this been the case. I suspect money could be the only reason I feel duped as a fan of the original.

    Who decided that the story should be drastically changed, and indeed be changed by none other than one of the stinkiest, hack-iest tropes of story telling in time-travel and alternative universes? I suspect Nomura had a big hand in this, given his track record on creating absolute messes of narratives in recent game he's been heavily involved in.

    The thought that angers me most is that the original FFVII is a piece of art, it's no longer something should be though of as solely owned by its creators. It's in the hearts of many, many fans, who give the game and story its honoured place as a classic through their fandom and love for it.

    The more and more I think about it, I feel like Nomura and co. have little to no respect for the fans that have given their work this love, and perhaps even harbour some contempt for them wanting to see their childhood imagination and memories of the story realised as they deserve to be.

    There is a certain arrogance to twisting this world and story to their own whim, as if to say that "this is our world, our characters, what you fans think means nothing to us, we can do what we want with them and you can get f**ked if you disagree".

    Perhaps I will come to terms with the fact that there will probably now never be a full and proper remake of this game, keeping the original, impeccable narrative intact, whilst fleshing out the world and characters in a tasteful fashion. The first 90% of this game achieved this goal, just to throw it out in the final hour or so.

    Perhaps I'll let it go one day, and try to enjoy the sequel, though I won't hold my breath given how truly awful the new writing at the end of this game was

    You were so, so close to perfection, but I suspect egos, pay-checks, and influence are too much a factor at Square-Enix.    … Expand
  21. Troxartas
    Apr 12, 2020
    4
    This game has been hyped to death and in the end, its not really worth it. If your a fan of the original then the ending will infuriate you. If you expected them to deliver the whole experience as it was in sequels, they wont. The game play itself is fine, though I would have liked for it to be 100% as it used to be. (because RPG's like that are a dying breed. But it isn't the worst. AsThis game has been hyped to death and in the end, its not really worth it. If your a fan of the original then the ending will infuriate you. If you expected them to deliver the whole experience as it was in sequels, they wont. The game play itself is fine, though I would have liked for it to be 100% as it used to be. (because RPG's like that are a dying breed. But it isn't the worst. As many have already said its combat is a lot like Kingdom Hearts, you will make periodic move choices like casting spells/using items. Graphic wise its good but SE has for a long time imo been making "Well polished turds".
    The Biggest problem is the ending where SE says "F%*ck you" to any fans of the original, who hoped to see the post Midgar sections as they were. Thanks to some out of left field story telling choices, SE give themselves free reign to do whatever the hell they want with the next installment. They now have free license to completely alter a story that was never broken. Nomura's influence seems especially heavy, as many of the retcons and universal resets are the same b.s. that hounded the latest Kingdom hearts entries.
    To sum up, if your looking to relive the old feelings FF7 brought you, Play the original. (its available on damn near everything now) I know many old school fans already pre-ordered the game and SE already has your money, but i would not recommend this game to anyone looking to relive the ff7 experience. At least wait a few months and buy it on sale for 20$, not worth the full price.    … Expand
  22. Samriv
    Apr 12, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The audio/visual presentations top notch. Some texture work is a but pedestrian in some ares, but FFVIIR got the visual part right. Where it steers wrong, is perhaps on the most important category in an RPG: Story telling. The original Story was a harsh, if social relevant one, but this time around some changes are made from the get go to portray the game's cast as more heroic than they actually well. Avalanche is a Geo-Terrorist group and the FFVIIR tries to sugar coat that. Perhaps more egregious of all, is Nomura's penchant for the nonsensical. FFVIIR pulls a stunning 180 degree turn into Kingdom Hearts 2 and beyond territory. A move that renders the original cannon (which was the superior work) meaningless in the end. Truly the game in someways is a slap in the face to the original fervent fanzine.… Expand
  23. kfarnef
    Apr 10, 2020
    3
    An insult to everything Final Fantasy 7 used to represent. This game covers less than 10 percent of the original, that's the reason why we have so many pointless, boring quests and characters nobody wanted, otherwise we would have been able to complete it in less than eight hours or so. Same for the ridiculous cutscenes. The storyline has been mangled so bad that you will need to play theAn insult to everything Final Fantasy 7 used to represent. This game covers less than 10 percent of the original, that's the reason why we have so many pointless, boring quests and characters nobody wanted, otherwise we would have been able to complete it in less than eight hours or so. Same for the ridiculous cutscenes. The storyline has been mangled so bad that you will need to play the original game in order to make a sense of it. No, I don't care about Kingdom Hearts, Advent Children or any of that stuff. I wanted what was promised: Final Fantasy 7 REMAKE, they even wrote it in capital letters. This game is comparable to the prequels AND the sequels of the original Star Wars trilogy with the ewoks teleporting from the future movies just to mock you and your expectations. Is this the future you want for your games? FF-7 episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 80 dollars each and extra DLCs for the plot, secret characters and summons?… Expand
  24. Alternative4
    Apr 30, 2020
    3
    Nomura once again proved he is incapable of writing a decent coherent story and thus decides to bastardize FF7R with space jannies and deus ex machina. This truly sucks because the gameplay, environments, music, graphics, JP voice acting were all Elder Deity tiey. Yet this is all overshadowed by the woefully inadequate writing. Im so incredibly dissatisfied
  25. gamer3421
    Apr 12, 2020
    0
    Square Enix should have titled this game as "Phinal Phantasy VII Phantoms" instead as "Final Fantasy VII Remake"! (This game is neither a Remake nor a Reboot! It's a Reimagination of the original game!)

    "Final Fantasy VII Refund" is an alternative title since original fans of the game will certainly ask for refund because Square Enix is deceivingly selling the game as it being a    Square Enix should have titled this game as "Phinal Phantasy VII Phantoms" instead as "Final Fantasy VII Remake"! (This game is neither a Remake nor a Reboot! It's a Reimagination of the original game!)

    "Final Fantasy VII Refund" is an alternative title since original fans of the game will certainly ask for refund because Square Enix is deceivingly selling the game as it being a "Remake"!

    Basically, this is not even a Final Fantasy game, this is a Kingdom Hearts game! If Square Enix had titled this game as "Final Fantasy VII Kingdom Hearts", I wouldn't even be here rating this game because I simply don't like and don't play Kingdom Hearts games! But since it is being marketed as the remake of the original Final Fantasy VII, and Square Enix is really insulting the original fans of the game by doing so, it is absolutely obvious that this game deserves a 0 rating score!

    "Zelda: Breath of the Wild" world map is estimated to be 60% bigger than "Skyrim" world map, and Nintendo did a spectacular game for Nintendo Switch! Yet, look at what Square Enix is delivering for PS4 after 5+ years of development, an unfinished remake which is only 1/7 part of the original game that covers only the Midgar city part! (This is unbelievable!)

    Square Enix is really not confident about this remake, so they just desperately decided to add Ifrit, Shiva and the original FFVII Ending scenes in the part 1 of the remake in case the part 1 fails to sell and the whole remake project gets stuck in part 1!

    The hate for this remake is already so Big that people will eventually start hating the original Final Fantasy VII game they once used to love!

    Final Fantasy VII (R.I.P _ 1997 - 2020)

    ...    … Expand
  26. PokeBluedude
    Apr 14, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. First 3/4 of the game are truely amazing! I was in complete awe of how right square enix had got this. However the last two chapters basically rewrite the story. And the story means everything to me. They have ruined it in my opinion… Expand
  27. RancidGorbag
    Apr 15, 2020
    3
    Why is Final Fantasy VII so beloved among fans? Because it has such a compelling story and fantastic combat system. The remake falls short on both accounts. The AI was disappointing and it was a pain to have to sort through the menus to use abilities. To call it a remake is misleading. This is a reimagining pioneered by the most infamous director in video game history. It was 30 hours ofWhy is Final Fantasy VII so beloved among fans? Because it has such a compelling story and fantastic combat system. The remake falls short on both accounts. The AI was disappointing and it was a pain to have to sort through the menus to use abilities. To call it a remake is misleading. This is a reimagining pioneered by the most infamous director in video game history. It was 30 hours of Nomura building up the the moment he could tell us that he's going to make this game into whatever he sees fit.… Expand
  28. Shiroguma48
    Apr 15, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It gets a low score for the same reason most people gave it a low score - false advertising. I loved most of it. I thought the redesign of Midgar was excellent if a little over-linear (but the original was linear too). I thought the characters were excellently designed and voiced. I loved the new combat system although there is room for improvement obviously. I knew this was Midgar only and I was on board with that, though I would have preferred the side content to be less ‘fillery’ and more relevant. I was expecting some minor story changes and additions, and no, I wasn’t surprised to see Sephiroth (though I still maintain he didn’t need to be there). I played all the way through 16 of 18 chapters and would have gladly scored the game 8 out of 10 at that point. But then Square inexplicably chose to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and ruin the entire plot with some textbook Nomura fate/destiny/timelinely crap. I just can’t get my head around how they thought they would get away it. They literally lied to their entire fanbase about their intentions for this project. All the while churning out interviews about how important it was to stay true to the original to keep the fans happy etc... Incredibly disappointing. Maybe they will pull something amazing out of the bag. But until then, 2 is all this deceitful production deserves.… Expand
  29. funboby
    Apr 16, 2020
    0
    This is a big f u you to the original FF7 fans. It teases you for 95% and then the ending comes and you realize that everything has been a lie. We've been waiting for a remake since the 2005 ps3 technical demo was release. Now that crunch time is here - Square has decided to dangle a carrot in front of you for 35 hours and watch you chase it, then snatch it away and kick you in the mouthThis is a big f u you to the original FF7 fans. It teases you for 95% and then the ending comes and you realize that everything has been a lie. We've been waiting for a remake since the 2005 ps3 technical demo was release. Now that crunch time is here - Square has decided to dangle a carrot in front of you for 35 hours and watch you chase it, then snatch it away and kick you in the mouth in the last final minutes, brutally reminding you that they will do whatever the hell they want; whatever makes them the most money. The direction they are heading in is disgusting. It was "too hard" for them to make a full remake of this game so they switched it up to some hot garbage at the end to give them an out for all future installments.… Expand
  30. SilentNightmare
    Apr 14, 2020
    4
    I finished the game now and this is what I can say about it:

    + Great Visuals + Great Soundtrack + Good Character Design + Good Voices +/- The combat has its strengths and weaknesses. I hope the next part goes back to the classic turn based battle. - Horrible Fetch Sidequest straight out of some MMO. - Way too linear and narrow "Dungeons". - The padding is very annoying, it    I finished the game now and this is what I can say about it:

    + Great Visuals
    + Great Soundtrack
    + Good Character Design
    + Good Voices

    +/- The combat has its strengths and weaknesses. I hope the next part goes back to the classic turn based battle.

    - Horrible Fetch Sidequest straight out of some MMO.
    - Way too linear and narrow "Dungeons".
    - The padding is very annoying, it doesn't add anything meaningful to this game, only exist to make it longer.
    - Too much Story changes from the original, the ending putt this game from a 6/10 to a 4/10.
    - No hard mode available in first playthrough

    All in all it is a pretty average RPG, buy it on a sale and you can have some fun if you are not a fan of the original.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PS4 Game of 2020
5
#5 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020
4
#4 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 126 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 116 out of 126
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 126
  3. Negative: 0 out of 126
  1. GameMAG
    Sep 14, 2020
    90
    Final Fantasy VII Remake is the game we've been waiting for from Square Enix for so long. Atmospheric, interesting and exciting all your attention modern jRPG with an interesting story and spectacular battles. To achieve the ideal, the project only needs more even graphics and all the content from the original release. If you were waiting for a turn-based classic with new graphics you will most likely be disappointed, since the game has changed a lot. Everyone else is happy with the release of the first really powerful single-player release from the internal Square Enix studio for many years. Especially after the failure of Final Fantasy XV.
    Read full review
  2. Riot Pixels
    Aug 20, 2020
    80
    A good remake of the introductory part of the cult-favorite Final Fantasy VII. It improves on the original game in almost all aspects, yet lacks in scale and drops the ball at the very end.
    Read full review
  3. Finger Guns
    Aug 10, 2020
    90
    What matters is still intact, and that’s the heart and soul of one of the greatest stories in video game history. It’s a return to form that has felt a long time in coming, and what’s even better is that there’s still at least two more games of this quality to come...They can’t mess this up, can they?
    Read full review
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