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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. bluedemon
    Apr 19, 2020
    6
    I created an account just to review this game, I have been a FF fan since Final Fantasy on the SNES, I have played and beaten them all save for 13 which was awful in my opinion. I was really looking forward to the remake as VII has a special place in my heart for the FF series, but my expectations were not through the roof because I am older and know better. That said this game gets a 6I created an account just to review this game, I have been a FF fan since Final Fantasy on the SNES, I have played and beaten them all save for 13 which was awful in my opinion. I was really looking forward to the remake as VII has a special place in my heart for the FF series, but my expectations were not through the roof because I am older and know better. That said this game gets a 6 from me, here's why.
    Pros:
    The combat is updated and while not what I personally wanted, it's okay and manageable, the fact the enemies are visible in the world is great to me.
    It looks fantastic, I think it is the best looking game I own on my PS4 Pro
    I like the upgrade the weapons feature, that was a nice surprise and allowed me to switch up my weapons and go back to the Buster sword more then I would have normally.

    Mixed:
    Midgar looks awesome and feels huge, but after a few minutes in each new section didn't feel all that large or necessary.
    New story beats are sort of interesting, but again to me didn't really add that much to the over all story, but rather felt more of a filler to justify having this part take place only in midgar
    Ending: Was different, I didn't hate it like some did, some of the new story beats are interesting, and some of them aren't. This was just okay in my opinion.

    Cons:
    Summons are a waste of time, at least the mechanics to me. There is no reason they wouldn't have just made them work like they did in the original. You equip the materia, you can call them whenever you want in whichever battle you want, and in order to call them more than once per battle you have to level up the materia just like the rest of the materia. And you should be able to equip more than 1. Having them as a "character" was to me pointless, especially with the semi randomness of which they will allow you to summon one.
    The long corridor effect, in the original, Midgar was pretty straight forward, but it was only for about 4-6 hours if you did everything and then the game opened up. The way this was portrayed was the reason it was in Midgar only was to give us an opportunity to explore more of it, baring a couple of areas that were a bit more fleshed out but for no other reason then to extend the game playing time started to feel boring and pointless. I beat the game after 35 hours, completed all the available side quests and really felt that I was in Midgar way to long.
    The game can be beat in about 30 hours, I am sorry but when Square-Enix says a full game, I was thinking something closer to a 50-60 hour experience for a JRPG. I have put more hours into a racing game then I did with this one. And yes I could go back and play through it in Hard mode, but why would you want to? The only reason to do so is for the trophies.
    Some of the fun parts in the Wall Market are replaced or taken out completely for significantly less fun parts, I don't want to go into details because of spoilers but it was less fun doing the first part of the Wall Market compared to the original.

    All in all this is a very long review for a game that i wanted to like more, that makes me want to go back and play the original, except for the fact that I find it hard to do now, because I don't want random battles anymore, but I want turn based combat, or my original summons back in the way they should be, I also want my Midgar and rest of the game to look like this one and be voiced like this one, so I find myself having a difficult time wanting to play the original now that this exists. This fixes some issues with the original game no doubt in my mind about that, but creates new ones that from a remake I didn't want nor was expecting. For that reason it's a 6 in my mind, I might up it to a 7 depending on how long it takes to get part 2 and whether or not our character and materia progress carries over to the next part. But if it doesn't and this really is a stand alone game it will stay at a 6 or go to a 5.    … Expand
  2. Alan_Ocean
    Apr 28, 2020
    7
    The gameplay? Awesome. The graphics? Awesome. The story? More boring than watching paint dry.
  3. rubenstolp
    Apr 21, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 32-year old FF7 Veteran here, reporting. *WARNING, SPOILERS*

    Just to provide a little context, I’ve been an all-round gamer (PC, Console, multiple genres) for as long as I can hold a controller and I’ve played FF7 extensively. So here goes. Straight out of the gate I’d like to say that I’ve enjoyed parts of this game, but my overall judgment of it is negative. I’ll try to keep it brief.

    Gameplay(Battles):
    By far the best aspect of this game for me. The battles are the best and most enjoyable I’ve come across in any RPG that utilises an ATB-type system. It was fun, intelligent and engaging. It mattered what I did tactically, and the fights were not easy, like in many games nowadays. The moves that Cloud and Tifa perform are awesome. I defeated Shiva on the second try, by settings Ice and Elemental materias on defense, I love that the materia system has some depth like that. The original had this already, but it’s still worth mentioning as it is also part of this game and it adequately ties into the Remake battle system as well. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the battle package. Sometimes battles could take an extreme amount of time, when by coincidence I wouldn’t have the correct Materia equipped for the correct weakness of enemies.
    Pacing/Logistics:
    Quality over Quantity is the catch phrase here. The pacing is a bit too slow for my taste. There is a lot of filler content in the form of side missions that are slightly reminiscent of crisis core missions. The quality battle system soothes the filler content, but doesn’t completely negate the effect. I regret saying that the filler content also seeps over into more important cutscenes a bit. I do believe having characters go through more ordeals together generates more bonding with and between the characters but only when the ordeals are meaningful and personal to the characters, such as the shenanigans with Don Corneo, the Sector 7 pillar, etc. I like the fact that you can just take the “chocobo-bus” for free and fast travelling later on, as soon as that form of travel becomes relevant. I’ll say it once more; Quality over quantity folks. Compared to the Witcher, the side quests are just bland.
    Graphics:
    Not bad, the main character models are nicely done, although I do wish some characters had a less perfect face to give them a bit more character. Tifa looks like a sex doll to me. Regular NPC’s are complete garbage, and their generic out-of-place (always happy, though they live in a slum) voice acting doesn’t help with that. Bad textures for everything except the main characters pretty much. So surfaces, walls and objects are mostly blurry. When you have something like God of War out in 2018, there’s just no excuse for this. The magic and ability effects are best-in-class as you can expect form SE. Summon models are also well done. The first time I looked up at the plate from the slums was a breath-taking moment. In summary: Also a mixed bag, and could’ve been much better.
    Story/Presentation/Voice acting:
    Generally, zooming in on a story arc works well if you’re trying to give it more depth. SE has succeeded somewhat in this regard, when it comes to memorable characters like for example Jessie and Aerith. Especially such a scene as where you go to Jessie’s house can make the gravity of the events that unfold more relatable and grounded in reality. Really though, if you have not played FF7 before you play this game, you will have a question mark above your head throughout the whole game. Hell, I even had a question mark a good amount of times, and there’s very little info on the new plot-line untill pretty much the end. Fighting the ultimate bad guy while in the OG you only just found out who he is, feels wrong. In the context of this game, which completely changes the story arc it might turn out not to be strange later on. And here is the segway into the most controversial problem with this game. It just destroys and nullifies story arcs like JJ Abrams did in the latest Star Wars film. Although I am curious to see where they go from here. This new direction neither respects nor adds to the original. Not a good choice overall, and not the choice people were hoping to see either.
    When it comes to voice acting and animation I strongly believe they should’ve gone with motion capture and corresponding voices, at least for the important scenes. This would’ve given so much more life to the characters and story. Especially Aertih’s voice is bland, typecast and generic. The script is also a mixed bag. Barret’s voice acting is good, but also easy as he’s always over the top and angry. But you can feel that the scenes aren’t acted together like they are with mocap, and although they did a reasonable job with the animation it just doesn’t hit the mark anno 2020. The animation system in the Witcher 3 is better, and so is the voice acting. Red XIII’s voice deserves an honorable mention.    … Expand
  4. J-seraphim
    May 3, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I genuinely like the game 90% of the time, I welcomed the changes, loved the music, combat and visuals. The characters were well portrayed and the game was looking to be a remake of the original... except it wasn't. It's not even a "remake" it's a sequel, if you haven't played the original by the time you get to the last hour or so, you won't know wtf is going on. And on top of that you realize Cloud will need a keyblade and Sephiroth is probably half Xahanort because that's legitimately where this "Final Kindom Advent Crisis Dirge hearts" game went with it. I love the expanded universe... but they decided to slap a kingdom hearts plot where it doesn't belong. Its jarring, and if you played kingdom hearts you will recognize a section of the final battle scene which is very obnoxious. So much potential wasted... Nomura if you are mad at FF VERSUS debacle don't take out on the fans, we were you then. You petty mf.… Expand
  5. Vmac19
    Apr 22, 2020
    5
    Honestly it was beautifully made and really well done. All the way up to chatper 17 was amazing. It was the ending that was bad. It was literally 2 hours of nothing but a crap tone or pointless bosses and subbosses. They changed the ending to the original which alone isn't so bad. It's just felt rushed and half assed. felt like that just ran out of time and said screw it.
  6. Cainomane
    May 12, 2020
    5
    Ho appena finito il gioco e la domanda che mi sono posto è stata: Cosa è sta roba? Square Enix ha letteralmente violentato un capolavoro per creare un gioco privo di anima e corpo. Non è un remake, non so descrivere neppure cosa sia. Innanzitutto il sistema ad episodi poteva benissimo essere superato, poiché la scusa della dimensione originale non regge, basti pensare a Dragon Quest XI cheHo appena finito il gioco e la domanda che mi sono posto è stata: Cosa è sta roba? Square Enix ha letteralmente violentato un capolavoro per creare un gioco privo di anima e corpo. Non è un remake, non so descrivere neppure cosa sia. Innanzitutto il sistema ad episodi poteva benissimo essere superato, poiché la scusa della dimensione originale non regge, basti pensare a Dragon Quest XI che a livello di grandezza e contenuti se lo mangia a FFVII, quello per PS1. Il sistema di comabttimento l'ho trovato confusionario e frustrante, la sfida non tiene conto dei progressi dei personaggi, i combattimenti sono o inesistenti, o snervanti. Più che un gioco di ruolo sembra un gioco di combattimento, uno Street of Rage con i personaggi Square. Un remake avrebbe dovuto tenere conto di ciò. La grafica è meravigliosa per i personaggi, che battono i modelli in CG di Advent Children (... anche se è un film di 10 anni ), tuttavia il resto è altalenante, con scorci bellissimi, ma anche texture che sfigurerebbero su una PS2. Secondo me i programmatori non si sono sforzati più di tanti per ottimizzare il motore grafico (il paragone è sempre Dragon Quest XI...meraviglioso). La cosa peggiore del gioco alla fine è la trama, massacrata da un concept assurdo e imbarazzante. Un consiglio per in fan di FFVII, state alla larga, questo non è un remake, ma la reinterpretazione di una software house che cerca di innovare, ma che crea mostri (in senso negativo) di giochi. Vorrei ricordare alla SE che innovazione non vuol dire dimenticare cosa c'è diu buono nelle vecchie formule di gioco. Si guardassero intorno, poiché sia con FFXV che con questo remake avete fatto un DISASTRO!… Expand
  7. Chavez_0
    May 25, 2020
    5
    The game is cool - not quite as good as the original but still worth playing

    Pros: - Mostly good graphics - Voice Acting is mostly great - Pretty fun to play - Barrett - Tifa Cons: - Aerith's voice grates on my nerves (obviously that's a personal issue) - I don't like the addition of the Sephiroth's Dementors - The B.S. busy work side quests - Sneaking out of Aerith's House    The game is cool - not quite as good as the original but still worth playing

    Pros:
    - Mostly good graphics
    - Voice Acting is mostly great
    - Pretty fun to play
    - Barrett
    - Tifa

    Cons:
    - Aerith's voice grates on my nerves (obviously that's a personal issue)
    - I don't like the addition of the Sephiroth's Dementors
    - The B.S. busy work side quests
    - Sneaking out of Aerith's House
    - The water pressure gauge mini-game in the sewers
    - If felt needlessly padded out to stretch game play time - why?    … Expand
  8. Slempi
    May 17, 2020
    7
    Great for reliving the original game!

    +Looks great +Additional character development +Fun battle system -Game could be half the length if low effort side quests, unnecessarily long corridor areas, etc were cut -this is an incomplete story that on its own has nothing on the og epic story. In addition, gimmicky changes are made -hard mode is severely needed, but only added after you    Great for reliving the original game!

    +Looks great
    +Additional character development
    +Fun battle system

    -Game could be half the length if low effort side quests, unnecessarily long corridor areas, etc were cut
    -this is an incomplete story that on its own has nothing on the og epic story. In addition, gimmicky changes are made
    -hard mode is severely needed, but only added after you already finished the game. No additional content - even less so since all items are unusable - you will still find them in every chest though...    … Expand
  9. Frank0101
    Jun 20, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is constantly moaning for having be a remake instead of something different, with the devs changing things just to show how the whispers force them to stay in line with the original plot because the bad fans want it. This until the final part, when they totally unleash their desire for doing another game and totally ruin what was an otherwise impressive work.

    If Nomura and the devs hated so much doing this remake, because they thought they were so good that they could do better, why haven’t they just said that they weren’t doing it? It would have been more honest and respectful for the original game and the fans who were waiting this for more than 15 years.

    Given the reception of FFXIII and FFIV, which were among the worst episodes of the series, I don’t see how could they feel entitled to think that they were still able to do something at the level of the original game, not to mention something better. Approaching this remake with more humbleness would have maybe reminded them how to make good games.

    Instead the decision was to be arrogant and diverge from the original story in a way that doesn’t make sense for new players, shows important plot events way too early (never seen a game spoilering itself), takes from inferior material such as Advent Children or games having nothing to do with FF7 such as Kingdom Hearts, and adds a level of meta gaming that was totally unneeded nor requested for a remake. As result there’s explosions and things like cutting trains in two, but the story is ruined.

    The only thing that saves the game is that you can enjoy the first 90% (if you ignore Sephiroth’s annoying apparitions and Whispers) and pretend that the ending is before entering that portal.

    This is Nomura’s ego ruining an otherwise great game. I really hope they know what they are doing, because if they screw on this fans will never forgive them.    … Expand
  10. Parallax
    Jul 2, 2020
    5
    Lots and lots and lots of walking and talking. Not a lot of gamay at all. Graphics are great but you'll notice a lot of instances where texture don't pop in really not sure why this game has such high rating. Probably because nostalgia.
  11. germanik
    Sep 6, 2021
    5
    Боевка разочаровала, это уже не тактика как было в оригинале, а какой-то слешер, причем однокнопочной. Что мешало сделать полностью классическую боевку, как в оригинале - мне искренне неясно. Игра не получила русскую локализацию, что я также ставлю игре в минус. Есть технические ляпы: например непрогружаются текстуры объектов, в версии для ПС5 это исправили.

    Из плюсов безусловно    Боевка разочаровала, это уже не тактика как было в оригинале, а какой-то слешер, причем однокнопочной. Что мешало сделать полностью классическую боевку, как в оригинале - мне искренне неясно. Игра не получила русскую локализацию, что я также ставлю игре в минус. Есть технические ляпы: например непрогружаются текстуры объектов, в версии для ПС5 это исправили.

    Из плюсов безусловно красивый саунд и великолепная работа художников. Но опять же, если бы это было главным в игре(    … Expand
  12. Guy_McDude
    Jun 14, 2020
    5
    I was really excited about this but to put things as simply as possible and not overlong like the combat is, the game is simply a chore to play. The combat philosophy seems to be to remove control from the player as much as it can get away with. The maps require an exhausting amount of running back and forth for dialogue so simplistic and shallow it borders on machine generated. It'sI was really excited about this but to put things as simply as possible and not overlong like the combat is, the game is simply a chore to play. The combat philosophy seems to be to remove control from the player as much as it can get away with. The maps require an exhausting amount of running back and forth for dialogue so simplistic and shallow it borders on machine generated. It's just... Not good.… Expand
  13. frederik1478
    Jul 3, 2020
    6
    I like but have too many problems , I think the first part and the middle are strong The last part of the game Tricks on a bit too long , I look forward to the next game but My biggest problem with this game is that it just feels too long
  14. HamletArcher
    Jun 27, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. FF 7 Remake is by no means a bad game. Nostalgic story from a quarter century ago, updated action combat system, above average graphics, remix of memorable music are all elements that put this game on solid ground. Unfortunately, there are just way tooo much filler content that don’t add to the story, and/or just plainly make no sense. While the Jessie story is not bad, how the characters seemingly forget about all those hooded ghosts immediately after they have taken over the whole slum shows a failure to integrate the new material into the original story. Shouldn’t Barret, who blames Shinra for all the wrong in the world, at least conjecture that the ghosts are Shinra’s doing or related somehow to the mako depleted planet? Many of the maps are large but so linear and so illogically designed that they feel unbelievable and unimmersible. The NPCs are robotic and annoyingly repeating the same line endlessly (in the original, at least they didn’t repeat that line unless you actively talked to them). In the misguided attempt to expand Midgar, Square Enix has sadly made it more restrictive and smaller, also more illogical and less believable. In the age of Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2, FF 7 Remake’s world is already obsolete as soon as it is updated. When the original Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997, it set a new benchmark for that generation of games. The Remake, unfortunately, doesn’t measure up to the ones in the present generation.… Expand
  15. ERRORCODE-20
    Jun 6, 2020
    7
    The combat in this game is great but the story can be hard to follow if you haven't played the original and crisis core. Too many fetch quests and filler moments hurt this game in the long run as well. Overall its a good game but nothing ground breaking.
  16. morgoth834
    Jun 19, 2020
    6
    The game play is great and the plot still holds up, but, with the added padding, the pacing is terrible. Also the new story elements detract from the games charm and add a bunch of convoluted nonsense.
  17. Kimbohdoy103
    Jun 20, 2020
    5
    Game was fun
    But the story was meh!! Not that great plus confusing
    The gameplay as i ve said before was fun tho the STUDIO felt like was so lazy to do his job i mean the amount of details ignored is ridiculous like, stupid AI
    Like the sneakin scene to the buildin was totally childish and STOOPID... MANY OTHER THANGS THEY COULD HAVE MADE IT BETTER
  18. tk_248
    Nov 22, 2021
    6
    хз, японские фишки чот не особо залетели, для ознакомления норм
  19. Cloudxtifa
    May 8, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am a fan of ff7 since childhood, i've been waiting for this remake my entire life! Damn Everything was really good from gameplay to cutscenes!! and the music was just perfect! Loved everything about this game except that Sephiroth appears way too early, and whenever i saw those fate ghosts, i just had a gut feeling telling me that square enix is playing us dirty, yet i chose to ignore this feeling and Oh boy I was right!! I wanted to give this remake a 10 but when i remember the kingdom hearts cringy nonsense (which btw i really hate) shoved into the story especially the ending, it pisses me off! Wish they just sticked to the OG script! i don't know who suggested that including those Dementors from harry potter was a good idea, all i can say blame tetsuya nomura if the upcoming chapters turn into another kh time paradox bs! Square thank you for the effort but don't fix what is not broken, you nailed ch9 tho.… Expand
  20. xenreal
    Jun 19, 2020
    6
    Linear journey with a lot of fan service. Good design and graphics. Gameplay is better than in the previous part, real-time combat better than the turn-based. Boring side quests and locations for the side quests.
  21. FasterThanLight
    Jun 24, 2020
    6
    Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of the best, and worst games at the same time. Quite an achievement. It's a roller coaster of emotions as well as quality.

    Negatives: - In some areas there are very obvious texture quality issues. - The new 'side missions' are weak and don't really build on the main characters or story and really feel like padding. - The combat is great, but also very    Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of the best, and worst games at the same time. Quite an achievement. It's a roller coaster of emotions as well as quality.

    Negatives:
    - In some areas there are very obvious texture quality issues.
    - The new 'side missions' are weak and don't really build on the main characters or story and really feel like padding.
    - The combat is great, but also very frustrating at the same time, I love the game but find myself frustrated way to frequently with the battle system, mostly when characters are interrupted losing their ATB/Items/MP but failing to do an attack.

    Positives:
    - Generally the story is great
    - The characters are still true to the characters we love from 1997
    - The updated gameplay is mostly great.

    Overall:
    I feel the game needed another 6+ months of polish. It would have been great to have been a PS5 launch title, that would have given the dev team time to polish and tweak the game to be a true masterpiece which it deserves to be, but sadly didn't quite achieve.    … Expand
  22. waverdope
    Jun 22, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a fan of the original Final Fantasy VII, I did think overall that Final Fantasy VII Remake was a good game.

    Pros:
    I like a lot of the character stuff that they added to beef up the character development. The story, for the most part, is pretty faithful to the original, with the exception of the ghosts and after chapter 18. The graphics are top notch and the gameplay was pretty solid, consider that it is an improved version of Final Fantasy XIII's gameplay (a game I strongly disliked, including its gameplay).

    Cons:
    What holds me back from saying it's a fantastic game is the pacing of the story and the endgame stuff, basically anything after chapter 18. There are too many areas that are full of superfluous content and was unnecessary. Some of the boss fights took way too long and didn't have interesting tactics to win, which messed up the pacing. Other times, I could miss with moves such as limit breaks, which should always hit due to the nature of the attack. Sometimes combos got interrupted by cheap attacks. Also, the ghosts appearing in the game was incredibly stupid. Also, compared to Final Fantasy VII original, this is not a complete story. The music is okay, despite not being a fan of Masashi Hamauzu as a composer, but the additional tracks are very forgettable.

    Overall, it's definitely an enjoyable game and I do like it overall, but it's not a masterpiece or a phenomenal game.    … Expand
  23. Yaskaveloutch
    Jun 23, 2020
    5
    This game is a joke. Half of the game is made with useless cinematic without any utility, there is fights we could just cancel (the dev I mean). And there is an entire chapter (the 10) inside f***ing sewers ! WE STOPED TO DO THIS 10 YEARS AGO ! Cloud is just a Dark Sasuke with no personalities. I killing myself trying to finish the game because I'm bored. People loved it only because ofThis game is a joke. Half of the game is made with useless cinematic without any utility, there is fights we could just cancel (the dev I mean). And there is an entire chapter (the 10) inside f***ing sewers ! WE STOPED TO DO THIS 10 YEARS AGO ! Cloud is just a Dark Sasuke with no personalities. I killing myself trying to finish the game because I'm bored. People loved it only because of nostalgia. I'm a millennial and I say it : this game sucks.… Expand
  24. Trashpanda25
    Jul 2, 2020
    7
    TLDR It's like the hobbit movies. I'm glad they exist but it should be one game / book or at the very least, they should trim the fat.

    This game is very fun. The graphics and music are amazing and pay great homage to the original. I was so excited to hear they were expanding the game and possibly clarifying some of the gaps that the original PS game had left open. This is a    TLDR It's like the hobbit movies. I'm glad they exist but it should be one game / book or at the very least, they should trim the fat.

    This game is very fun. The graphics and music are amazing and pay great homage to the original. I was so excited to hear they were expanding the game and possibly clarifying some of the gaps that the original PS game had left open. This is a remake / re-writing of the original it's important to accept that. The game makes it clear early enough adding characters and side quests that didn't exist before. Here is where my issues lie. I am 100% on board for extended and more fleshed out story but I do not want filler or bad story telling... and that's a good portion of what I got from the first 10 hours of the game.

    The side quests and town stuff drags. It's jarring how badly the side quets dip in quality as compared to the main story. By the end I was skipping optional content because it was making me hate the game. I may have lost out on some decent story that was sprinkled into the side quests but I couldn't have been bothered to sift through the BAD storytelling. I even felt that some of the early events with the main avalanche team just felt bland. I wanted to move on from that section of the game. The game tips at one point at a certain train-yard and i feel like the story telling goes back to being off the charts in a good way and if you ignore the side quests you are basically on the rails for great story, great characters, amazing environments, and epic battles.

    The end opened up allot for the follow up games which I will be playing but I don't know if I'll be buying them day one. I'm no longer blindly trusting the series. I think this game would be an A+ if it didn't expand and add sub-par side quests featuring cardboard cutouts for characters.

    The combat did nothing for me and the original is vastly better in this area. It's not bad, it's just not really fun and that's a bit of an issue for a video game. I'd honestly say put it on 'easy' and the only difference you will feel is that you will be stopping to heal less often.    … Expand
  25. Realnoobman
    Jul 19, 2020
    7
    One of the best graphics ever, beautiful game, very good character design and awesome scenario. The first part of this game and the enemies and bosses are the best elements of this remake. The ending part of the game is, instead, the worst element of this remake: the characters are distorted in their personality and the plot loses all its charm. Can not give the same emotions as theOne of the best graphics ever, beautiful game, very good character design and awesome scenario. The first part of this game and the enemies and bosses are the best elements of this remake. The ending part of the game is, instead, the worst element of this remake: the characters are distorted in their personality and the plot loses all its charm. Can not give the same emotions as the original and some sections are repetitive.… Expand
  26. superman002100
    Jul 25, 2020
    6
    I've been a long time fan of FF, just like many. This game has amazing graphics and I like the added components in both the story and Midgar. I thought they did well with the battle mechanics, and boss fights were wild...But that's all it was. It missed the mark on the most important thing, IMO, being fun. I have always loved RPG's because they gave you the ability to grind a little, or doI've been a long time fan of FF, just like many. This game has amazing graphics and I like the added components in both the story and Midgar. I thought they did well with the battle mechanics, and boss fights were wild...But that's all it was. It missed the mark on the most important thing, IMO, being fun. I have always loved RPG's because they gave you the ability to grind a little, or do a few side quests earlier that made you a beast during the main story. This game is played linear and in chapters like a really poor man's Devil May Cry, but instead of being fun and exciting, it was littered with orange cones and boxes you can knock over and uneventful side missions which essentially amounted to "fetch" quests. The enemies that do exist are too sparse and bland and while the materia spells are great- there is no materia out there to get that gives you anything close to that double cast, "Knights of the Round" type of power. The game just lost my desire to play it as I treked along to the next boss, there was nothing to work torward. Since there are no real ways to grind experience or level anything up, you are stuck playing the game with generally an underdeveloped character which felt like a ploy to make the game last longer (fights would take longer and you would die more often). They offer hope with a little replayability by giving you a level select after you beat it, sprinkled with a couple more weapon points - which do little to nothing for you at that point. I platinum about 95% of games I play, so I started a hard run. With maxed out characters and materia I was one shoted by a jump attack from a basic lizard man, and called it quits shortly after that. And in hard mode there is no refilling your MP on any level, the rest stops only do HP. The high level spells cost about a quarter of your MP and there are some ways to slightly mitigate that, but dang. If you desire learning strengths and weaknesses, trying and failing, and developing strategies then this may be more for you than it was me. I like owning things and being able to use the cool spells in the game but, FF7R seems to not want you to do that. It's too hard to maintain any MP and to build ATB to use them. I ended up, putting it down, far away from my platinum. Too much frustration with no fun to offset it.… Expand
  27. Uncl3s4mbr
    Dec 31, 2020
    7
    Boring and do not give freedom to explore. noThe combat system is not fun.
    Do not looks like the origina FF VII.
  28. BerserkWolf
    Jul 10, 2021
    5
    Un arte maravilloso al igual que su música, la originalidad de cambiar su historia no le resta nostalgia pero si esencia, respecto ala jugabilidad me dejo un mal sabor de boca el cambio del funcionamiento de las materias de igual forma en las batallas terminas un poco limitado especialmente cuando debes de enfrentarte a los retos del juego ya que no existe mas opción de crecimiento, y porUn arte maravilloso al igual que su música, la originalidad de cambiar su historia no le resta nostalgia pero si esencia, respecto ala jugabilidad me dejo un mal sabor de boca el cambio del funcionamiento de las materias de igual forma en las batallas terminas un poco limitado especialmente cuando debes de enfrentarte a los retos del juego ya que no existe mas opción de crecimiento, y por ultimo de verdad era necesario el modo difícil? creo que termina por arruinar la esencia del original… Expand
  29. QilBoy
    Sep 20, 2021
    7
    I'll be evaluating this game mostly as a product on its own, but it needs to be said that the atmosphere, enviroments and characters of the original FFVII are given new, spectacular life thanks to the massive technological advancements that the game industry has made since 1997.
    The narrows streets of the lively slums and the ominous industrial landscapes of Midgar can now be explored and    I'll be evaluating this game mostly as a product on its own, but it needs to be said that the atmosphere, enviroments and characters of the original FFVII are given new, spectacular life thanks to the massive technological advancements that the game industry has made since 1997.
    The narrows streets of the lively slums and the ominous industrial landscapes of Midgar can now be explored and witnessed with a realism that was once impossible, Cloud and the others now display a more rounded personality and deeper character thanks to the aid that voice acting and facial animations provide when making these fictional inidviduals feel more real (mostly thanks to the spectacularly written dialogues: these characters often speak to each other with such realistic demeanor, empathy and wit that you could mistake them for actual people), just as the new areas of the city and backstories give more personality to certain cast members and expand on the worldbuilding of the original. Even the soundtrack, once limited by the sound chip of the PlayStation, can now explode in its orchestral glory, surpassing the original. Every single aspect of the original game finds here a bigger, more decorated stage to perform on, without losing any of its original flare and instead having more room to convey itself. In that sense, yes: FFVII Remake is more FFVII than FFVII itself could ever be, at its time. And yet, in the final story beats of the game, although the presentation never fails, the screenplay and writing do, faltering here and there with abrupt tonal shifts and protagonists acting out of character to accomodate the story, mostly when the writers try to toy with the original script a little. But let's move on to the gameplay.
    If we compare the gameplay to a coin, we have two sides: Level Design and Combat.
    Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Level Design is quite underwheling, and it's mostly due to its painful linearity. There are small detours here and there, but they are all so inconsequential and minute that in the end it stll very much feels like you're funnelled through Midgar on a narrow path. There are pleasant exceptions, mosty when exploring towns (like the labyrinthian Wall Market), but they are exceptions. The one aggravating element that makes this even worse are the slow, sluggish animations. Cloud takes such a long time to climb ladders, slowly bend to open chests, press a button or swinging on monkey bars it's soporific. Some of these may be a way to hide loading screens, but some others can't be and are just a waste of time.
    Thankfully, walking and exploring it's not what we'll be mostly doing: that would be fighting.
    And the Combat of Final Fantasy 7 Remake is, simply put, better than the original game.
    This is not due to the shift from Turn-Based to Action: a Turn-Based game can be just as engrossing as an Action game, but the original game had some issues that hindered the overall experience that this game doesn't have, be it for its Action game nature or clever design choices.
    Firstly: one of the main flaws of the original is how every party member felt the same, since Materia is the main pillar of Combat, and every character can have every Materia, so they all felt like the same exact character in battle. Here, every character has its own Combos, with different range, speed and mechanics during fights which completely changes how you approach the enemy. On top of that, each character has a specific set of Abilities unique to them, unlocked through different weapons (which in turn incentivizes the player to try out every weapon), maybe some Abilities feel way too smiliar and plain, but overall it's a pretty solid array of techniques. Speaking of weapons, now every weapon has its own skill tree that can be upgraded. Every weapon has a different skill tree which leads to different builds for different situations. This way, not a single weapon truly becomes obsolete. The only real downside of Combat are Aerial Combos, which feel extremely sluggish and clunky, mostly due to the lack of options given to the player on air unlike games like Kingdom Hearts.
    The Enemy Roster, as well, is spectacular. So many different varieties of enemies with different movement and attack patterns, elemental weaknesses and weak points to find, since now enemies, and especially bosses, have different body parts to attack, which can affect the flow of battle, offering even more strategic options.
    Or, in other words: FFVII Remake tells a part of the same story that was told 23 years ago, only with more passion and more believable characters, but the exact same spirit, making only a couple missteps, especially in the end. The Level Design leaves much to be desired, but the strategic depth and variety of options in Combat, strengthened by the sensational bosses and enemies offered by the main story, side-quests and challenges, makes FFVII Remake substantially better than the original, as far as gameplay.    … Expand
  30. Marcelzoro
    Aug 16, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Very short, i love the game, but i desapointing, I hope the sequel is better, but the emotion isn't the same as the original, or I'm getting old… Expand
  31. Beegee84
    Sep 9, 2021
    5
    The original was the best game ever made. It was dark sofisticated and engaging. The remake re-wrote the story taking away things that had impact, absolutely everything that made the original good is gone. The open world exploration after midgard..... gone

    The tactical combat...... gone Meaningful choices....... gone Music that fits...... gone Everything that's been fleshed out is pure    The original was the best game ever made. It was dark sofisticated and engaging. The remake re-wrote the story taking away things that had impact, absolutely everything that made the original good is gone. The open world exploration after midgard..... gone

    The tactical combat...... gone
    Meaningful choices....... gone
    Music that fits...... gone

    Everything that's been fleshed out is pure filler nothing that's been added is good or worth anyone's time. It's literally just loads more wandering down linear corridors that don't even look pretty to the point where the story is near impossible to follow. The gaps between important events in the game are spread way too far apart.

    Its more like a walking simulator like say death stranding without the graphics than the original ff7. Everything is such a chore endless fetch it quests childish dialog which wasn't present in the original.

    Its like the whole thing got beaten by a PC culture stick.

    The original had you dying to find out the mystery of sephiroth. This game re-writes the main things that kept the original interesting by giving sephiroth to much of a role too early........ throughout the original you were dying to work out what was going on with sephiroth is he good or bad he was talked up so much before you interacted with him and then when you did it had a huge impact..... all of this is removed    … Expand
  32. Renegade1503
    Apr 13, 2020
    5
    Based on 25h of gameplay.
    An okay game, but way too hyped imo. Beautiful graphics, but that's it. Nothing else is special about this game. And I have played FF games since FF III (EU).
  33. Gogmagog
    Apr 15, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game's a bomb, but that can only go so far. After the highway chase, everything becomes weird and unnecessary. Felt like the game's right next door to Kingdom Hearts.… Expand
  34. Strewth
    Apr 12, 2020
    7
    They should have made a movie instead.

    -Hallway simulator (Maps are mostly empty corridors) -Overly frenetic combat (constantly healing instead of planning attack strategy) -Parts dragged on way too long (Shinra tower just would not end) -Game's broken into chapters & locations instead of an open world (Missed quests & items/materia) -NPC animation and portions of the maps looked    They should have made a movie instead.

    -Hallway simulator (Maps are mostly empty corridors)
    -Overly frenetic combat (constantly healing instead of planning attack strategy)
    -Parts dragged on way too long (Shinra tower just would not end)
    -Game's broken into chapters & locations instead of an open world (Missed quests & items/materia)
    -NPC animation and portions of the maps looked cheap and nasty (Backgrounds look ps2 era)

    I can't for the life of me understand why it took so long to release this game.

    The cut scenes and story are amazing and well worth checking out when this goes on sale but as a whole this is definitely not worth the full price.

    I'm so glad this wasn't the Final Fantasy 7 I played as a kid.    … Expand
  35. Grald
    Apr 19, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For context, I played original FF7 many times and it's one of my favorite games.

    Story: 0
    The game built up my expectations very well until the ending ruined the game for me with a cheap nonsensical multiverse twist.

    Graphics: 8
    Incredible designs and animations for battle and main characters. Scenery textures and backgrounds are very irregular, usually bad.

    Gameplay: 7
    Combat was very fun and engaging to me. For the rest, not much exploration, lots of filler, and sidequests were heartless.

    Conclusion: I regret playing this game, I feel cheated because of the story.    … Expand
  36. Polycount
    Apr 12, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Everything was fun, then the end happened.

    In what was pretty much a beautiful rendition of the original turned sour at an ending that felt like a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. Why did cloud choose to bring Zack back even though he showed no signs of remembering who he was. Why did everyone agree to chase Sephiroth after having no information on his backstory whatsoever? There was so many things that could of been fleshed out but ended up souring the game.    … Expand
  37. Monk099
    Apr 17, 2020
    7
    I wanted this game to be a 10. I bought the PS4 pro specifically for this title. To say I have been disappointed would be too much. The game is gorgeous super detailed, character models are fantastic. Battle mechanics are fun and easy enough to learn. So the infrastructure for a great game is there, however 2 things are worth noting as a let down. Area traversal is to put it briefly,I wanted this game to be a 10. I bought the PS4 pro specifically for this title. To say I have been disappointed would be too much. The game is gorgeous super detailed, character models are fantastic. Battle mechanics are fun and easy enough to learn. So the infrastructure for a great game is there, however 2 things are worth noting as a let down. Area traversal is to put it briefly, cumbersome. You are constantly forced to walk when you want to run you are often following an other character and if they are walking so are you, lots of really slow movement that just kills the momentum. The second issue is the story. It's a shell of the original, there are quite a few plot holes. A lot of it feels hollow and trite. I'm still enjoying my playthrough but if I didn't have a previous emotional connection with the characters I would probably pass on this game.… Expand
  38. Ertyjr
    Apr 12, 2020
    6
    I absolutely love the original ff7, but one part I hated about it was how absolutely boring it could be at times, due to filler content, or having to grind enemies for levels before you could advance. I was hoping ff7 remake would address that. What they instead did was took the most boring part of the game, and turn it into a 40 hour standalone game.

    Ff7 remake can be extremely engaging    I absolutely love the original ff7, but one part I hated about it was how absolutely boring it could be at times, due to filler content, or having to grind enemies for levels before you could advance. I was hoping ff7 remake would address that. What they instead did was took the most boring part of the game, and turn it into a 40 hour standalone game.

    Ff7 remake can be extremely engaging when it wants to be, and I really love the new battle system, which I wasn't sure I would. But what I thought would be the best part of ff7 remake turned out to be the worst. There is just so much boring needless filler in this game that just takes up time. It's little things like having to hold down triangle for 5 seconds just to pull a switch. Or sometimes you're forced to walk painfully slow just so the camera can show you some view it wants you to see. Sometimes you go out of the way to explore only to find that you weren't exploring, it's the right way, but first you have to go push a box by holding down triangle for 5 seconds, but you have to do it twice. All in all, this isn't a bad game, it just has very long periods of doing absolutely nothing for no good reason, and then it has really cool stuff. I'd say about 20% of the game is really good stuff, and the other 80 is filler.    … Expand
  39. madak17
    Apr 16, 2020
    7
    This is not a remake. It's frankly a little insulting to call it that. Without getting into spoilers, there are *steep* departures in the story. And frankly, they are not good. Even beyond that, in order to make Midgar into a 30 hour game, the story was padded heavily, which very negatively impacted the pacing.

    I found the changes in the music to be negative as well. The themes are    This is not a remake. It's frankly a little insulting to call it that. Without getting into spoilers, there are *steep* departures in the story. And frankly, they are not good. Even beyond that, in order to make Midgar into a 30 hour game, the story was padded heavily, which very negatively impacted the pacing.

    I found the changes in the music to be negative as well. The themes are still there, but in some cases are now muddled with more noise. The boss theme, the motorcycle theme, and Sephiroth's theme are the most impacted.

    The slums of Midgar are also far brighter than I think they should be as well. For a place that supposed to be filled with smog and overshadowed by giant plates, it looks quite sunny. The slums at night are gorgeous however.

    I will say the combat is an improvement. I'm a bit sad that there are no stat changes when you equip materia now (e.g. you can't highly boost mp and magic stats just by loading up a character with magic-type materia), but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

    Overall, as a lifelong fan of the original, while the game was fun, I have to say that the story changes are a huge disappointment and I'm not at all excited for the next installment.    … Expand
  40. TSoultz1995
    Apr 16, 2020
    7
    Going into this, I was optimistic that Square Enix would deliver another memorable experience like the original. In many way they came very close, even improving upon some things, but varying levels of polish and some stumbling towards the end detracted from the overall experience and creates concerns for the rest of the episodes.

    Pros: -Overall script and acting are superb, Tifa,    Going into this, I was optimistic that Square Enix would deliver another memorable experience like the original. In many way they came very close, even improving upon some things, but varying levels of polish and some stumbling towards the end detracted from the overall experience and creates concerns for the rest of the episodes.

    Pros:

    -Overall script and acting are superb, Tifa, Cloud, and Jessie especially.
    -Cutscenes and direction are fantastic (I'm looking at you, Wall Market!)
    -Great expansion of some areas you visit
    -Some great additional fleshing out of the characters and world
    -Battle system retains the necessity for strategy and gives a nice nod to the original, while feeling fresh and more immersive with the added action elements

    Cons:

    -Overall uneven quality: Some parts of the game are breathtakingly beautiful, while other parts look like they are from a Nintendo 64 game. It can be jarring to see beautiful environments laid out in front of a giant, low resolution JPEG in the back ground or have beautiful main character models interacting with NPCS that look like they are on a PS3. Textures on doors, railings, flowers, fences, etc.. are especially lo-res. Latter half of the game in general feels like it doesn't quite have the polish of the earlier bits.

    -Pacing: While many of the additions to stretch this small section of the original to full game size are nice, others feel like unnecessary padding and are often oddly placed. Several times in the main narrative, you are told time is of the essence and the story builds up this great tension only to send things to a grinding halt a few minutes later, hitting you with a series of side quests that involve you finding lost cats or kids.

    -The last part of the game feels rushed (in terms of development) and pacing becomes worse. What is an intense, breakneck section with a sense of urgency in the original, gets bogged down with more unnecessary padding. Dungeons are ill placed and certain sequences go on too long. Dialogue seems not as carefully crafted as the rest of game.

    -New narrative choices: Some major plot changes occur that come seemingly out of left field and conflict or don't feel in line with the themes of the original. They also have concerning implications for the rest of the project as well as SquareEnix's marketing for it....detailed below WITH LIGHT SPOILERS:

    *Spoilers*

    -End seems to imply this is a reboot and future installments may not follow the plot of the original. This could potentially be exciting, however, the plot developments that lead up to this are not very assuring. It also seems to be in conflict with Square's marketing of this project as an expanded, "faithful retelling" and interviews with the co-director who said the basic beats would be there.

    -Alot of powerful, emotional scenes have their teeth taken away (Sector 7 Plate)

    -Changes in Shinra building felt like padding and an iconic scene was changed for one that seems to be more friendly to a Teen rating.

    -Narrative changes are confusing for veteran players, who know who certain characters are or become, but are especially unfriendly to new players. It is never established in this game who a certain character is, why he is bad, and why we should want to stop him. As a result, the story seems to require that players have played through the original (but even then, it still feels out of place).    … Expand
  41. Shadow1234
    Apr 12, 2020
    5
    Don't get me wrong this game is amazing in every sense. I highly recommend playing it however.... wait for a sale to purchase. Let me explain:

    The graphics are top notch and not something that even needs to be discussed. They nail the end life of this gaming generation and everything it is capable of with the next generation coming soon. Hearing the music and soundtracks take me back    Don't get me wrong this game is amazing in every sense. I highly recommend playing it however.... wait for a sale to purchase. Let me explain:

    The graphics are top notch and not something that even needs to be discussed. They nail the end life of this gaming generation and everything it is capable of with the next generation coming soon.
    Hearing the music and soundtracks take me back to the original for sure. The voice acting is superb and the audio while playing is great. From Barret's one liners to Jessie hitting on Cloud, even listening to the background voice as you walk through a section of town is great.

    The battles are awesome and and you can choose if you want it to be simplistic or more challenging. With many original monsters making a reappearance.

    I like everything about this game but here is why it only got a 5.

    I did not read up on anything about this game pre-release so I could be totally surprised by everything and enjoy it all. Everything was going great. Then the game ended and I was not even out of Midgar,

    ARE YOU JOKING ME!!! Looks like SE is going to make this into a three part series I would guess. While some may enjoy that I do not. Yes it makes the overall game larger but it also means we as players wont be done it until 2023, provided they release the next part every year and I doubt that is going to happen but it sure as hell better. If they do it every two years then we will be done this series by 2026. No way this game is just a two part series as Midgar was the first game. If I recall the game took place over a few towns and areas of the world map. Yes they really fleshed out Midgar with a town more to do and it was great but now I have to buy another game/DLC maybe two at $79.99 CAD each I am guessing. MONEY GRAB!! That is why this game gets a 5, Buy it; just wait on a sale.    … Expand
  42. LeesanJP
    Apr 17, 2020
    6
    The game is a 8 technically, but the ending just killed it for me. Don't expect anything good for now on from this project, u are gonna die not seeing a real FF7 Remake.

    Expect btw, Aerith not dying (or resurrecting in some way) expect Zack coming to help Cloud and so on...
  43. ELipson85
    Apr 19, 2020
    6
    This is the first game I felt compelled to write a review for because it does so many things right, but there is room for improvement and I really want to see the series succeed, as I think it has the potential to be a masterpiece.

    Visuals: Cut scenes, main character models, and many of the locales are beautiful, HOWEVER, the game is very inconsistent.....there are many bad textures,    This is the first game I felt compelled to write a review for because it does so many things right, but there is room for improvement and I really want to see the series succeed, as I think it has the potential to be a masterpiece.

    Visuals: Cut scenes, main character models, and many of the locales are beautiful, HOWEVER, the game is very inconsistent.....there are many bad textures, NPCs that look like they are from a PS3 game (with bad lip movements), and some really awkward blurry JPEGS for backgrounds. It doesn't feel like a very polished game or one that took 5 years or so to make.

    Gameplay: I really enjoyed the new battle system. Its immersive and still retains the tactical element (in tougher fights, at least) of the original.

    Pacing: This is where the game stumbles a bit.... in trying to make this a full game's worth of content, its hard to feel that they didn't pad it out. There is some backtracking, some questionably long and oddly placed dungeons (looking at you, Hojo's lab), and the side quest are on the basic side. Some of the side quest hubs are also placed at weird points in the narrative, Chapter 14 in particular. When the main narrative is ramping up and creating stakes, it just kills it when immediately after the game sends you in search of kids and chocobos.

    Story: This is the tough one.... many of the story additions and even changes were great. The fleshing out of Avalanche and Wall Market were superb. However, some of the other changes, notably regarding character deaths and "that ending" lessen the impact of some of the original's narrative beats and also don't make sense with the themes of the original. Changes aren't bad at all, but they should make sense and be consistent with the overall narrative. The ending felt very out of place and honestly, took away some excitement for the rest of the series.

    Music: In general, the music is fantastic.

    Acting: Fantastic overall. Tifa, Cloud, and Jessie's actors did a great job. Aerith was pretty good, but she had the most potentially "cringe" lines, which can be difficult to pull off and require a lot of nuance to not come off as cheesy.... I think there is some room for improvement there.

    All in all, an enjoyable experience, however I do not think I will be pre-ordering the next one. It doesn't quite feel like a $80 (I got the deluxe edition) experience and with what the ending implies for the rest of the episodes, I will wait for reviews and a price drop.    … Expand
  44. ongtongt
    Apr 17, 2020
    6
    To be honest, I don't think this is a bad game at all and I wish I could score it higher. I had a fair amount of fun playing it until right at the end. But the last hour of this game is a complete slap in the face to fans of the original as well as making no sense. An end boss made no sense at that point in the game. They hadn't even introduced Sephiroth or Jenova properly so why was ITo be honest, I don't think this is a bad game at all and I wish I could score it higher. I had a fair amount of fun playing it until right at the end. But the last hour of this game is a complete slap in the face to fans of the original as well as making no sense. An end boss made no sense at that point in the game. They hadn't even introduced Sephiroth or Jenova properly so why was I fighting them.

    The game is fun to play, however, but since ff7 is a story-driven game so I had to mark it down dramatically for ruining it at the end and I'm worried about the direction it's heading.    … Expand
  45. JuliusSkeezer
    Apr 13, 2020
    6
    To start with, i'm not a nostalgia junkie for this game. Yes, I've played the original, and no, I wasn't 12 at the time, nor was it my favorite game, or even favorite installment in the series. I also came into the remake with zero expectations, but cautiously optimistic and hoping to enjoy it on its own merits.

    The game certainly looks gorgeous - at least when all the textures actually    To start with, i'm not a nostalgia junkie for this game. Yes, I've played the original, and no, I wasn't 12 at the time, nor was it my favorite game, or even favorite installment in the series. I also came into the remake with zero expectations, but cautiously optimistic and hoping to enjoy it on its own merits.

    The game certainly looks gorgeous - at least when all the textures actually load in, which to be fair, is most of the time. No complaints there. And the remixes of the old soundtrack all sound pretty fantastic (save for the jukebox versions, which may have given me ear cancer).

    The entire cast, including supporting characters have been greatly fleshed out, and for the most part the characterizations are done pretty well. As far as voice acting goes, in English, Cloud really nails it, but the rest of the cast is extremely hit & miss, with the majority being voiced by the same bottom-barrel zero-talent troupe that has been making a laughing stock of dubbed anime and JP games for decades. While they certainly do a better job than they do with most games, putting whipped cream on **** only does so much to make it more appetizing. I'm fairly convinced some of these people have never had a natural conversation in their lives at this point.

    Some new characters make their appearances as well, and they really stand out. Not in a good way. You can really tell the difference between the old cast designs and personalities in comparison to the super ridiculous trash characters added in. They add nothing, and only really serve to make the world less coherent and less... I would say believable, but that's not quite the world. Best I can do though.

    Now gameplay, and hooboy, where to start. SE has never been able to make a decent action-combat system, and it's really showing here. All the problems that combat had in XV show up here with bells on. Some actually worse.

    To start with, the party A.I. is abominable. All they do is auto-attack (with a very, very few exceptions if you give them certain materia) and they do so at a snail's pace, meaning they build ATB for spells and abilities at roughly 1/10 the pace of the character you're controlling, further meaning that if you actually want to use any spells or abilities on your party characters, you are absolutely forced to constantly swap between them - and given the lackluster targeting and lock-on system the game uses, this can quickly become disorienting when you're in a large group battle or boss battle.

    Also, the AI does very little to actually avoid incoming damage, so you constantly need to babysit them as well.

    Gambits, Square-Enix. Give them to us if you're going to insist on inflicting your sub-par action combat on us. For God's sake. I'm not one of those people who whined about the game not being turn-based like the original, but given how this turned out, and how your past endeavors with action combat have failed so miserably, I can very well understand their position.

    Dodging does fundamentally nothing, except against the most rudimentary of foes, and their most basic attacks, as everything from anything more beefy - especially bosses - WILL track you until it lands. Likewise you can guard, but this is mitigated by the fact that many enemies have grab attacks which go straight through your guard, and have tells which are nigh indistinguishable from their other attacks, especially amidst the rain of particle effects showering the screen at all times. Bosses just don't care if you guard or not in most cases.

    Status-attacks are nearly useless to use, and when used by enemies naturally track you until they hit, often leaving huge lingering clouds of effect that WILL give you status ailments 100% of the time unless you expressly put on something to immunize yourself before you encounter them. Usually not too dangerous, but extremely annoying nonetheless, especially given the near zero success rate of your own.

    Like Ice magic? Enjoy the fact that it doesn't damage on contact, but rather you have to wait for an overblown animation where the ice crystal grows and then finally - seconds later - explodes where it initially impacted, giving enemies more than ample time to just casually stroll out of the area of effect before they get hurt.

    Speaking of mobility in combat, enemies have it in spades, and you generally don't. As usually SE is grossly in love with their animations, and you have to sit through the end of every overblown animation before you can do whatever it is you want to do next, be it move, cast, attack or dodge, meaning by the time you actually can, generally you're out of position for it. Some enemies are so mobile that nearly every attack will whiff, no matter how good your stats are, because in the time between your button-press and the attack going off, they're far, far out of range. It's intensely frustrating.

    Well, I'm at the character limit, so there's that. Oh, and every mini-game is absolute cancer. Enjoy.    … Expand
  46. Joe1549
    Apr 16, 2020
    6
    TL;DR: A mixed bag, some really great nostalgic moments combined with a game designer force feeding their own narrative onto a classic game.

    I'm a bit shaken right now, as someone that likes to get lost in fantasy worlds, I've had my share of disappointing endings. It seems there's no escaping it, I can count on one hand the amount of "good" endings I've seen come out of media of all    TL;DR: A mixed bag, some really great nostalgic moments combined with a game designer force feeding their own narrative onto a classic game.

    I'm a bit shaken right now, as someone that likes to get lost in fantasy worlds, I've had my share of disappointing endings. It seems there's no escaping it, I can count on one hand the amount of "good" endings I've seen come out of media of all types whether it be film, television, or video games.

    I should have known when I saw Square's recent line of work that this game would turn into a mess. Luckily, for the most part, it waits until the final act to do so.

    If you played the original Final Fantasy 7, there's no doubt you will overlook a lot of rough stuff early on in the game. You'll stick it out because you are excited to spend time with the characters you love and the settings that you enjoyed. Over time though, the problems will be too much to ignore even for the most loyal of fan.

    The good: Spending time with these iconic characters was a treat. The voice acting was top-notch. The character models were great. There were several moments where I became emotional.

    The okay: Combat was more than a little frustrating. While it was pretty to look at, ultimately it became an exercise in mashing the square button. Team members do not accrue AP fast enough to be useful in battle, requiring you to constantly switch from team member to team member. Most combat boils down to firing a spell which targets the enemy's weakness then mashing square once they are "staggered". Unfortunately on bosses, you would often stagger just as the boss entered the next phase, thus negating your stagger. There were also other annoyances such as getting interrupted when trying to cast a spell which happened much too frequently.

    The bad: Looking back at the game, there's no doubt there was filler content or "padding". I can count 6 of the 18 chapters that felt like unneeded, stretched out padding levels, that's 1/3 of the game. Even the content that's not "padding" is presented in the same linear style as Final Fantasy 13. Nowhere is the padding more evident than the side-quests which are the lowest-effort side quests I've ever seen in a game. You are tasked with killing rats or finding cats. If you think the quests will get more complex, you are mistaken.

    There's been much discussion of the textures in this game. I must admit as a PC gamer who bought a PS4 just to play this game, I was taken aback at the texture quality throughout the game. I just chalked it up to it being a console game and felt that this is what console gamers had to deal with. However, some of the textures are downright awful and oddly enough are used as set-pieces in certain chapters. You will often see texture pop-in and just overall, some low quality textures throughout the game. To me, this was easiest to ignore as I felt that this could be corrected when the game came to PC.

    If I was going to nitpick I'd say that the NPCs felt out of place, certainly they did not have the look of slum dwellers. I've seen this done much better in other games that even came out of Japan (Yakuza for example).

    The ugly: The ending. The most coherent explanation was that the ending was metaphorically defeating the real life purists who wanted to see FF7 remastered faithfully. It seems that square-enix have given themselves a green light to make broad changes to the game. A bold move when you're selling an episodic game. I can't say that I will pick up part 2 and I was damn excited for part 2, I thought that would be the meat of the game. Now, much like Star Wars, I guess the new Final Fantasy 7 was made for new fans, not us original fans. I'll take a wait-and-see approach, pre-ordering part 2 is laughably out of the picture now.

    This was a wake-up call for me. It caused me to give a hard look to the final fantasy series and made me realize that even though I played 7, 8, 9, and 10, the only one that actually stuck with me was Final Fantasy 7. it almost looks like it was an accident now, an anomaly in the JRPG world. Well no longer, now it gets to join the rest of the JRPGs with it's own nonsensical plot.    … Expand
  47. Sebsta696
    Apr 18, 2020
    5
    Battle system is lacking, battles don't feel satisfying due to hybrid system that isn't as nice as the original, lack of grinding, story changes are shoehorned and feel like Kingdom Hearts. The cutscenes and production values feel too overdone, gameplay suffers. The linearity of the original is exacerbated by extremely lengthy and boring hallways and corridors.
  48. mathios
    Apr 10, 2020
    5
    I will start by saying that the game looks amazing(most of the time) and that the battle system is fun and addicting. I loved seeing all these characters realized in modern graphics and seeing them interact with some newly added dialogue. With this said... this is not a "remake" and people understanding the plot should see that once they have completed the game. The story turns into aI will start by saying that the game looks amazing(most of the time) and that the battle system is fun and addicting. I loved seeing all these characters realized in modern graphics and seeing them interact with some newly added dialogue. With this said... this is not a "remake" and people understanding the plot should see that once they have completed the game. The story turns into a total mess the last third of the game and introduces some very ridiculous scenes and concepts that further strongly implies that this game is not a remake. I can only liken it to the ridiculousness of the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

    The game is also extremely padded with parts/dungeons being too drawn out which also impacts the games overall pacing. The side quests are nothing to write home about and are also very few. Lastly, the game is a little too linear for my taste. I never expected it to be open-world but I also didn't expect it to play like this considering this game only takes plays in the Midgar portion of the original.    … Expand
  49. Darkiboo
    Apr 15, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. With how often promotional material for Final Fantasy VII Remake advertised a "faithful" remake, after completing this game, you'd question how these people would function in a romantic relationship. Perhaps to them, being faithful is only cheating on their partner once a week. Let that metaphor sink in for the following review: This Is Not Final Fantasy VII Anymore.

    Here is a list of 'absolute' story changes this "Remake" deploys on its player base:

    1) Wedge and Biggs survive the fall of the Sector 7 plate, removing Barret's raison d'être for his fueled hatred against Shinra. So much emotional weight was put into these connections for it to be satisfyingly sad when they perish. Except permanent death is not a thing nowadays. It is now a sin to have an audience experience negative emotions that capture the tapestry of life.

    2) Sephiroth is not an unknown presence to be feared and learned about. He is immediately recognized as a threat to every single person who witnesses him--and everyone witnesses him because he appears multiple times throughout the game, including as the final boss. This final encounter copies the cinematography and choreography of Cloud's battle at the end of FF7: Advent Children. Sephiroth envelops Midgar in shadow; Cloud and him face-off 1v1; Sephiroth tells Cloud he'll exist forever after being defeated. Previous ideas are recycled to pad nostalgia further in this climax.

    3) The overall story now closely resembles Kingdom Hearts. The epicenter of divergence from the original story happens in a place called "Destiny's Crossroads" (like Destiny Island from Kingdom Hearts). Here, you'll encounter a massive fiend the same shape as a Darkside Heartless. This fiend is attached to three new Time/Space entities that give visions to EXACT FOOTAGE from the END of FF7 and FF7: Advent Children (such as Meteor hitting the planet, Red XIII and his children, Aerith dying, and the final battle against Sephiroth). This story now involves multiple timelines and time travel I guess.

    4) Speaking of timelines, Zack appears and he's alive and well, watching you defeat Sephiroth. It is unknown if every game after the original FF7 will become moot after this Remake is complete.

    5) After defeating Sephiroth, Cloud already has a feeling that the Sephiroth wasn't real and needs to find the real one. There is little reference to Jenova in this entire game, and the concept of "Reunion" seems like common knowledge, so it is impossible how these characters come to such a comfortable conclusion of hating Sephiroth, believing he was a fake, and thinking he'll destroy the planet. Aerith even goes so far as to say to Sephiroth, "Everything about you is wrong." Remember, Aerith has never met Sephiroth before. You'll often find this dichotomy of writing that has the characters fully aware of the game's expanded lore and then sometimes not at all.

    6) Sephiroth transports Cloud to a distant planet for a short duel. He wins, but says that Cloud has 7 seconds to make a change. If you count to 7, nothing happens by the end of it... Afterwards, Cloud somehow returns to Midgar and his party is ready to track down and destroy Sephiroth. None of this makes sense.

    7) The earliest change players will encounter are called "Whispers". These mysterious, hooded ghosts appear during divergences from the original game. It quickly becomes apparent that these ghosts sometimes impede your progress to sustain the original FF7's plot, and then sometimes intervene to change it. They ensure you can't save Jessie, because she's supposed to die, but they are involved in the final battle against Sephiroth that is felt by every citizen of Midgar. Also, these Whispers are seen by Aerith immediately, and then eventually everyone else in the gang, including Rufus Shinra, but not by any of the Turks for some reason. These things exist solely to be theorized about by Youtubers to prolong the exposure of FF7R.

    Conclusion:

    This game's combat and materia system is complex and beautifully designed. The music is astounding and very fitting, except for a new arrangement of One Winged Angel that sounds flat. These components are the sole reason to play the game. New characters like Roche fit well into Midgar, but new story scenes create a lack of urgency that get annoying. And the main plot is now the epitome of everything wrong in modern storytelling. Content is obtuse, actions are convenient, characters never speak their mind which lead to cliche story problems, and the more mystery for people to talk about the better. Final Fantasy VII Remake is well-worth renting, or buying used for ~$30. The story experience and concluding frustration and confusion is not worth full price. I will not support the future games that draw on the same tropes and rehashing of ideas that exist in parallel franchises. Depending on your taste in storytelling, buyer integrity, and disposable income, you will make a choice appropriate to your life.    … Expand
  50. Kakashi2
    Apr 14, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Here is my list of letdowns:

    The action RPG elements ruins some of the settings. Instead of making interesting looking places, the game has to create these open battle fields due to the combat system.

    Some of my favorite scenes were cut or significantly altered. Climbing up the wall in wall market to the upper plate was changed heavily (the tone wasn't as dark and this section was essentially changed to a generic combat level). The graffiti was toned down and it just had a very different feel.

    You can't play as Red XIII, he is included in the game and plays along side you but you have no control over him. This is a major letdown, because he was my favorite side character of the original. If the game wasn't cut into sections, Red XIII would be a playable character. Since he is acquired so close to the end of the game, I think the developers just wanted to postpone adding his weapons, abilities, and game-play.

    The music at times was a letdown, this I didn't anticipate. The original FF7 has arguably the best video game soundtrack of all time. The remixes in this just had a different tone (some generic electronic music for example was added). I miss the soft piano and the ominous melodies.

    The padding. Often this game throws overly long battles and battle segments that really slow down the experience.

    Certain characters who originally died survived. I think this minimizes the bleak tone of the original.

    The Shinra Sephiroth sequence was changed heavily. My absolute favorite Migard part of the original was when you follow Sephiroth's trail of blood. It was scary, made Sephiroth feel like a formidably villain. This was changed to a trail of mako gloop. This just ruined the tone of the best Migard section IMO.    … Expand
  51. TheMathKing
    Apr 20, 2020
    5
    This game steals failure from the jaws of success. All but the last hour of the game is an absolutely mindblowing recreation of the first bit of the original FF7.

    Story: (3/10) ========== The recreation is far superior in nearly every way, which is frustrating as the alterations at the end and throughout the story are childish, idiotic, nonsensical and ruins work they achieved here.    This game steals failure from the jaws of success. All but the last hour of the game is an absolutely mindblowing recreation of the first bit of the original FF7.

    Story: (3/10)
    ==========
    The recreation is far superior in nearly every way, which is frustrating as the alterations at the end and throughout the story are childish, idiotic, nonsensical and ruins work they achieved here. These alterations are no different than teenage fan-fiction, taking what was cool about the original story and perverting it with childish concepts that miss the whole point of the original plot.

    If you thought final fantasy has been in a decline since the days of old, they've brought that stale decline to the classics as well. For new players, the new stuff will make absolutely no sense to you as they bring up plot points that you'd only understand if you played the original game.

    The new story line elements spoil or ruin nearly every major story element in the original game. All possibility of including, in a later sequel, what made Final Fantasy 7 a great story has been effectively eliminated by the cheap, non-sensical and childish alterations the writers of this game included. This is a shame as they did a perfect remake of the midgar part and it would have been amazing to see them recreate the parts that actually made FF7 great.

    I had lost confidence in squaresoft's ability to produce good content a while ago, and this just confirms what I already knew about the writers at this company. If only they stuck to the original plot instead of fumbling their way through making a new plot.

    Game Mechanics (10/10)
    =====================

    The battle system is astronomically good. They managed to perfect the combat system that started with final fantasy 1 with modernizations from the modern era. Their past attempts (FF15, FF13) have been sloppy in comparison to the strategic ATB of the days of old, but this includes the best of high action combat and strategic RPG mechanics.

    My only gripe about the system is that you cannot fully explore it with access to the limited materia included in this game. Another issue is that there are some quality of life improvements needed, like the range of attacks being displayed on the battlefield, or materia swapping between characters.

    Quests (4/10)
    ===========
    With games like the Witcher 3 or Skyrim, RPG quests have come a long way from the old days; yet Final Fantasy is still stuck in the past. You literally have a "find all the X" quest appear a few times, and the rest are just "kill or fetch" quests. They have little story to them what-so-ever. Luckily the main story quests are stunning and have nice, albeit linear dungeons to explore. This is a linear part of the game, so the linearity is acceptable.

    One major gripe I have over the side quests is that they reuse many of the dungeons multiple times.

    Acting (10/10)
    ============
    The acting is absolutely amazing. It's on the level of being on par with full feature film. The character models portray emotions and there isn't a single main character that falls behind in this regard.

    GraphicsArt Style (10/10)
    ======================
    The game is stunning, and the design of the world is something unique. The amount of detail put into the world is amazing, and the graphics engine is used to the fullest of it's potential to show that detail to you. The combat is so cinematic you feel like you're watching an action movie as you play.

    Music (10/10)
    ===========
    Not only do they remake the entire original music score, they expertly place these scores, and many variations of them, at perfect places in the game. It sounds like going to an opera, and honestly is so overwhelmingly epic that my heart was racing the entire time. The don't over-do any of the themes either so they are always fresh. It's perfect.

    Overall Feel (5/10)
    ================
    I feel like this was a perfect 10/10 masterpiece of a game that had some aberrant and immature child come in, with authority, and mar it with new and terrible story elements. It is like being fed a perfect meal from a 3 Michelin star restaurant but finding something tastes a bit off. As you eat and enjoy your meal the taste gets worse and worse till you find out there is a dead rat at the bottom of your dish. Yes, it was mostly great, but you can't get over that dead rat, which is a representation of the poor storyline elements and the boring quests.    … Expand
  52. Loffs
    Apr 11, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I like this game. At times I love it, but unfortunately at other times I hate the monumental story changes that I wish somebody spoiled it early so I could've cancelled my preorder. Just because Sephiroth is a fan favourite doesn't mean you can squeeze him into every cutscene, make him the final boss AND give him time travel powers to justify him appearing so early. How will the actual ending even work now that we've already fought him and sliced buildings like it's Advent Children? Square Enix changed up the story just for an "epic" fanfiction fight, and it will cheapen any use of Sephiroth later.

    I might be in the minority here but I really don't like how anime this is. All the gasps, grunts, moans and exaggerated animations outside main stort cutscenes is super awkward. I thought after FF15 they understood that. I know it's a Japanese production but you don't see Capcom doing this in their games. I don't need an "ugh-huh" every time a character makes a movement.

    I hate comparing everything with the Witcher 3, but that game set a standard for how sidequests can be immersive and fun. It also set a standard for detailed and well crafted NPCs, while in FF7R at one point I saw the same low resolution person copypasted three times in the same frame. The sidequests are literally World of Warcraft "Go over there and kill 10 rats" level of originality. It's not even an open world game! What were they even doing all those years when developing this?

    Positives: Love the gameplay, the music and the atmosphere of Midgar. When the game sticks with the core of the story, it's incredible. It's got tons of potential. Again, I do like this game. But I really wanted to love it and introduce my friends to it who never got into the original. With all the story changes I can't do that, and it's frustrating. A remake shouldn't require beforehand knowledge of the game. It's disappointing.    … Expand
  53. RIELTURO
    Apr 14, 2020
    7
    To begin I'm huge fan of the original Final Fantasy 7 release in 1997. The remake starts amazing well but soon after the first reactor mission you will soon see new additions added to the story that might pick your interest for better or worse.

    The graphics are amazing on the main mission is amazing however for the side stories you may experience some texture popping or even notice    To begin I'm huge fan of the original Final Fantasy 7 release in 1997. The remake starts amazing well but soon after the first reactor mission you will soon see new additions added to the story that might pick your interest for better or worse.

    The graphics are amazing on the main mission is amazing however for the side stories you may experience some texture popping or even notice some MPC lack details compare to the main characters. Some areas don't have any texture to them and feel like a PS3 game.

    The new orchestrated soundtrack is amazing and brings the old songs back to life and feels so much better. Listening to them again is such a joy.

    The new gameplay is a lot of fun and does improve the action RPG implemented in FF15 for the better however I did experience by the end of the game camera issue, where I had to dodge a boss attacks trying to adjust the camera in a good angle.

    For newcomers, I can recommend the game I had a lot of fun with it until the end. Unfortunately, some part feels really repetitive and ashore which killed the momentum of the story moment. For returning players, some story changes might be for the worse. I didn't like the change of direction they took by the end of the game and left me with mixed feelings about the sequel.    … Expand
  54. Arshen
    Apr 11, 2020
    7
    Historia diferente, parecida pero diferente.

    Juego pasillero y texturas de una generación anterior. Gana mucho por su componente nostálgico y para los que siempre hemos soñado con volver a jugar con Cloud y compañía con gráficos actualizados, pero a las horas te das cuenta que es una mezcla entre Crisis core, Advent children, y elementos nostálgicos del original. Incluso en algunos    Historia diferente, parecida pero diferente.

    Juego pasillero y texturas de una generación anterior.

    Gana mucho por su componente nostálgico y para los que siempre hemos soñado con volver a jugar con Cloud y compañía con gráficos actualizados, pero a las horas te das cuenta que es una mezcla entre Crisis core, Advent children, y elementos nostálgicos del original. Incluso en algunos momentos recuerda demasiado a FFXIII y sus niveles pasilleros y música electrónica oriental que nada tenían que ver con el original.

    Aún así el sistema de combate no está mal y el juego en conjunto es entretenido.    … Expand
  55. Kodes
    Apr 15, 2020
    6
    This is coming from a huge FF and JRPG fan for reference.

    This game is weak. I'm not going to go to far into detail, but I'll give a short list of problems, **no spoilers**  -The maps are super linear and hand holding, there is borderline no exploration in this game.. -They packed this game with fluff and filler. They littered the game with forced slow walking  sections and endless    This is coming from a huge FF and JRPG fan for reference.

    This game is weak. I'm not going to go to far into detail, but I'll give a short list of problems, **no spoilers** 


    -The maps are super linear and hand holding, there is borderline no exploration in this game..


    -They packed this game with fluff and filler. They littered the game with forced slow walking  sections and endless ladders and squeeze spots in a blatant attempt at extending game time. It's painfully noticeable the further you get into the game and look back.


    -Graphics are sporadic, but unbelievably bad from Chapter 10-14. The world looks like a PS2 era game. Shady textures, grainy coloring, even using still backgrounds techniques from Ps1 Era. Characters still look good, but environment and scenery is terrible. 


    -75% of battles don't respawn, it's one and done. With the terribly linear maps, zero exploration and terrible side quest(very few to begin with and only available certain chapters) this makes for a pretty boring experience. Which is a shame considering the combat is one of it's best points. 


    -Midgar was dragged out with absolutely nothing of value added to the FF7 story. They could have went further with the story if they cut out the 50-60% that is filler. It's an obvious attempt at dragging this out across many parts. 


    -What little story with substance they actually provided is already starting to look like its convoluted cousin Kingdom Hearts, this is not a Remake, but a Reboot.


    The combat is good, the Materia system is solid and the VA is well done. They packed the game with Voice Acting and live Animation to try and mask a very poorly made experience. It's obviously a lazy attempt at cashing in on the once great Square, not to be confused with Square Enix, most popular titles and its fanbase.    … Expand
  56. Amyliano
    Apr 16, 2020
    6
    It is a good game but I don't think it lives up to my expectations. The story and music are what shine the most, but the gameplay is somewhat lacking; that is, there is no wide room for levelling up. In fact, you could forget about levelling up and just smash your way through chapters.
  57. Alien678
    Apr 23, 2020
    7
    Don't know what to think about this "REMAKE".
    I played Final Fantasy 7 original on ps back in my childhood day and I wasn't so impressed with it, Final Fantasy 8 I liked much more. But FF7 had her moments where I asked myself "da heck is going" or " WHAT, NO WAY" and Sephiroth ... well, he is awesome. And this remake blows it all away into space, but remake brings some others good    Don't know what to think about this "REMAKE".
    I played Final Fantasy 7 original on ps back in my childhood day and I wasn't so impressed with it, Final Fantasy 8 I liked much more. But FF7 had her moments where I asked myself "da heck is going" or " WHAT, NO WAY" and Sephiroth ... well, he is awesome. And this remake blows it all away into space, but remake brings some others good moments. so 7/10    … Expand
  58. Cesspul
    May 2, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 10/10 game of the year. Nothing but good things to say about it. Fantastic is every way.… Expand
  59. adamrjp
    Apr 10, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Once the initial nostalgia wears off you’re left with a very linear, very repetitive and dull grind to an unsatisfying conclusion. I thought the first mission included in the demo is the only real major highlight of the game before it descends into a boring slog of fetch quests and endless battles against the same enemies. The odd shout outs to the old game are nice but others are horribly misplaced and you see the same mechanic being applied to a different area. It feels like they rushed the end of this game too. The Shinra building section is one of the most boring bits of a game I’ve ever played and the fact that Red isn’t a playable character (the game gives a text box reason for this) proves that they ran out of time.
    Overall very disappointing. I got the game a week early and have already flogged it after finishing it. No way I could put myself through it all again.    … Expand
  60. oil_T
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    Game was quite nice till the last chapter. Ending is awful. I bought a Remake, not an alternative story.
  61. mac10299
    Apr 16, 2020
    6
    Its not a good overall game, the secondary missions are to boring.

    It looks like Nomura was hold back for the ff7 original story but he actually do whatever he can do to put he's personality in the game making that parts of the game the worst. The game have some good points: The graphics Principal character expressions Remastered music To be honest that's actually the only ones i can    Its not a good overall game, the secondary missions are to boring.

    It looks like Nomura was hold back for the ff7 original story but he actually do whatever he can do to put he's personality in the game making that parts of the game the worst.

    The game have some good points:
    The graphics
    Principal character expressions
    Remastered music
    To be honest that's actually the only ones i can put on the table for this game maybe are another ones in the game but the only excuse to buy the game is nostalgic and the remastered music.

    The secondary missions of ff7 remake are literally indistinguishable from ffXV, they are equally bad. The npc's look like they come from Fallout 4.

    Better waste money in Persona 5 Royale its more worth it or buy another game, wait till this game low the price if you want to buy it    … Expand
  62. Syntheticbreed
    Apr 12, 2020
    6
    Uninspired and mundane side quests drag out a game that never needed to be this long in the city of Midgar. Lacking voice over work along side stereotypically dumbed down characters hurt the story's progression. The battle system is a major let down as well. To sum it up, it isn't a bad game, but it absolutely was not worth the wait. If you buy this, expect Kingdom Hearts meets FinalUninspired and mundane side quests drag out a game that never needed to be this long in the city of Midgar. Lacking voice over work along side stereotypically dumbed down characters hurt the story's progression. The battle system is a major let down as well. To sum it up, it isn't a bad game, but it absolutely was not worth the wait. If you buy this, expect Kingdom Hearts meets Final Fantasy Xv, and not in a good way. It's a hollow lacking package wrapped in lovely graphics and beautifully orchestrated music.… Expand
  63. Usercool
    Apr 13, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pro: Even though I wasn't a fan of the combat system, it's very well implemented and enjoyable. Great new depth in character development. Cons: the story and gameplay elements in chapters 17 & 18ruin everything the game has worked up to. The game feels way too padded filled with generic content and it's as enjoyable as walking down a dank straight corridor where you're being forced in a single direction.… Expand
  64. basbazooka
    Apr 10, 2020
    7
    I never played the original so I cannot judge it compared to that, but overall I really enjoyed this game! The story is interesting and especially the character writing is done very well, great cutscenes and dialogue for the most part. Also the characters look great.

    Some downsides: -Some levels feel very very drawn out and repetitive, they could have cut out some things to make it    I never played the original so I cannot judge it compared to that, but overall I really enjoyed this game! The story is interesting and especially the character writing is done very well, great cutscenes and dialogue for the most part. Also the characters look great.

    Some downsides:

    -Some levels feel very very drawn out and repetitive, they could have cut out some things to make it more streamlined

    -Combat could have been more expanded upon, for example you cannot control the AI of your teammates such as in FFXIII , I really loved that feature since you could create many strategies with it and the basic AI is very stupid in this game (most of the time my teammates did nothing untill I controlled them)

    -Bosses have a little bit to much health, the fights become very long because of this (not difficult, just very long)

    Really curious what they will do in the next part!    … Expand
  65. AntenSe7en
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So I just finished playing through the story, and I’ve gotta say, I’m unfortunately disappointed in the direction they took this game in. Allow me to preface that by saying that there’s a lot of good in this game, though. It’s graphically stunning, the combat is fun and engaging, the character development in the first 5 or 6 hours was more than we got in some of SE’s past games (I’m looking at you, FFXV), and Midgar was faithfully re-created and fleshed out. It really felt like what I personally imagined a hyper-realistic Midgar should look like.

    So why am I disappointed? Simply put: the ending was enough to offset all of the good that this game brought to the table. I understand that this wasn’t supposed to be a beat-for-beat remake of the original Final Fantasy 7, but the narrative direction that this game was taken to at the very end was chock full of Kingdom Hearts levels of **** It made next to no sense, especially considering that the game felt very true to the original for a good 90% of the game. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the KH series, but we have plenty of those games. If I wanted to play a KH game, I would have popped KH3 into my PS4. The problem is that this game wasn’t supposed to be a convoluted mess of a story. In fact, the source material was right there for the creators of this game to follow. It didn’t have to be a 1:1 remake for it to feel faithful to the original, but adding in plot elements like the “Arbiters of Fate”, and to have the game end with a swarm of them surrounding the Shinra building, followed by a romp into a portal created by Aerith that leads you to a fight with a giant, Midgar destroying ripoff of a heartless, to an Advent Children-esque fight with Sephiroth, and then topped off with a one-on-one duel between Cloud and Sephiroth where he spouts nonsensical, lofty, cryptic dialogue pertaining to “the edge of creation” while the game retcons the events of the past games set in the Final Fantasy 7 sub-universe just left me scratching my head, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was suckered in and lied to. I’m starting to feel like Square-Enix can’t do anything right anymore. They honestly had one job with this game, which was to give us Final Fantasy 7, with some added content that allowed us to see and explore Midgar, while spacing out the main story points. The sad thing is that that’s essentially what they did, right before the writers dropped some acid and set to work on writing the ending...

    I’ll be honest: if you’re looking to play a fun, engaging, beautifully designed JRPG and have little to no knowledge of the original Final Fantasy 7, then I highly recommend that you play this game. However, If you’re a fan of the original then avoid this game like the plague, as it’ll only serve to undo what was next to perfectly done back in 1997.    … Expand
  66. willko
    Apr 15, 2020
    5
    The battle system has been a massive disappointment. This game is a remake of a game that used a turn-based combat style. I strongly prefer turn-based combat over action-oriented combat. While this battle system tries its best to be a hybrid between the two styles(which in and of itself makes it lower quality than pure turn-based), it leans more toward the action side than the turn-basedThe battle system has been a massive disappointment. This game is a remake of a game that used a turn-based combat style. I strongly prefer turn-based combat over action-oriented combat. While this battle system tries its best to be a hybrid between the two styles(which in and of itself makes it lower quality than pure turn-based), it leans more toward the action side than the turn-based side of things.

    Square added a "Classic Mode" which was intended to be something of a compromise for the turn-based fans. But, Classic Mode is a complete joke. Classic Mode locks the difficulty to the Easy setting and simply dumbs down the gameplay of the action-oriented combat. It is not "classic" in any way at all. When you use Classic Mode, two things happen: difficulty is locked to Easy(as I mentioned) and your character will automatically do physical attacks and blocks during a fight. If the developers think that turn-based fans just want a dumbed down and easier game, then they misunderstand their fans entirely.    … Expand
  67. Dwoodlander
    Apr 19, 2020
    7
    Overall, this game had many fantastic aspects. The soundtrack was overall phenomenal. The battle system was consistently engaging with fun gameplay and a near-perfect difficulty level. The materia from the original was smartly implemented and a joy to use. Many of the boss battles were absolutely incredible. There are of course many beautiful and emotional scenes, both those of which weOverall, this game had many fantastic aspects. The soundtrack was overall phenomenal. The battle system was consistently engaging with fun gameplay and a near-perfect difficulty level. The materia from the original was smartly implemented and a joy to use. Many of the boss battles were absolutely incredible. There are of course many beautiful and emotional scenes, both those of which we are familiar with and expanded backstories that were handled really well. I teared up multiple times and can’t remember the last time a game impacted me in this way.

    However, as much as I wished this were a 10/10 masterpiece, the experience was held back in many regards. First, some of the story additions are incredibly lazy and out of place. Most notably, the ending is absolutely atrocious and convoluted. A major change to the original is not the worst part; the worst part is that the alternative they offer at the end is convoluted KH-level nonsense that implies a complete scrapping of the original source material, making most of the preceding events completely pointless. I didn’t believe the hearsay, but yes, the ending is THAT bad.

    I also felt like some of the environments were a bit too narrow and corridor-like. Much of the level designs felt very uninspiring, just point A to point B without much thinking involved. Aspects of the graphics such as the character models and weapons were beautiful, but it’s also bizarre and jarring to notice that many of the distant views are just static, slightly blurry, and flat images (seriously, the clouds don’t even move). The texture issues that have been mentioned were pretty minor, but noticeable. While it was fun to take a break from the action and collect materia, the side quests and added NPCs ranged from bad to mediocre.

    This was a difficult game to review as the original is one of the most important games of all time to me. I enjoyed many moments of this, but it was held back by some of the changes and terrible ending as well as some mediocre design.    … Expand
  68. thepipina
    May 16, 2020
    5
    There was no reason to change the story for the worst. I didn't buy into the "meta commentary"- it was badly done and disrespectful to fans. The Dementors belong in the Harry Potter universe. BEWARE this is not a remake but rather a spin-off. I almost stopped playing the game before the end. Best moments: when the actual moments of the original were recreated...
  69. MixedFeelings
    Apr 15, 2020
    5
    It's less than 10% of the original FF7. Too much unnecessary content as fillers to make the game feel like a full game. There is enough story in the original game to make several parts already. I don't see why there is a need to add so much garbage fillers. Great way to make your fanbase pay again and again for the same game. At this rate, we will have a finished remake in 20 years.It's less than 10% of the original FF7. Too much unnecessary content as fillers to make the game feel like a full game. There is enough story in the original game to make several parts already. I don't see why there is a need to add so much garbage fillers. Great way to make your fanbase pay again and again for the same game. At this rate, we will have a finished remake in 20 years.

    Honestly, it is such a great game ruined by greed. It's a shame. I really want to give it a higher score but all we got is less than a small portion of the whole story in this so called REMAKE. Very misleading title.    … Expand
  70. revelc
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    I gave it a 7.8, it would've been a 9 if they didn't messed up the story. This is more like a FF7: Reimagined by Nomura.

    The good: great visual upgrade from the original, fun combat, and most of the cast are nicely remake. The not so good: episodic, some details but significant moments are altered and felt streamlined, such as when Aeris met Cloud the first time or you can choose to    I gave it a 7.8, it would've been a 9 if they didn't messed up the story. This is more like a FF7: Reimagined by Nomura.

    The good: great visual upgrade from the original, fun combat, and most of the cast are nicely remake.

    The not so good: episodic, some details but significant moments are altered and felt streamlined, such as when Aeris met Cloud the first time or you can choose to give the flower to Marlene, filler quests are mostly unimaginative and boring, new characters aren't necessary.

    The ugly: altering smaller moments are forgivable, but main plot line altered just to show your own take and calling it a remake? it is a sin. Unnecessary alteration.

    I do look forward for the next episode, if its ever happen in this lifetime, and I won't bother with wishing for more closer plot line to the original since it's already a different story.    … Expand
  71. chad_pattan
    Apr 12, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Let's get the important stuff out of the way.

    1. This is NOT a "perfect 10" game. Not close.
    2. This is NOT a "Remake". it's a reimagining. Things have been changed around to suit the episodic narrative and there's been a heavy expansion of various things (that frankly didn't need it).
    3. The parts that ARE from the original, are true to it. Segments and fights and bosses and even scripted lines are almost perfectly taken from the original, which is good.
    4. Jessie and Hojo are the standout stars of the game in terms of memorable characters, with Biggs and Tifa a close second and Red XIII a close third.

    Here's the thing. I'm not going to fault the game for trying something new. My issue isn't that. It's the way it was done.

    The game feels patchwork. The first few hours are almost cut-and-paste from the original, then it veers sharply left into a completely different thing, then veers back. Segments that were previously flashbacks for Cloud are present, but in some cases you're playing them out rather than them being just flashbacks. The final 2-3 hours in particular make absolutely no sense.

    Then it hits you.

    They wrote this game to try and bridge Crisis Core to the main game.

    If you don't remember Crisis Core, don't feel bad. It was a PSP game, a LONG time ago, and not a very good one.

    It wasn't that I hated this. I didn't. I actually had fun on a few bosses and the voice acting is superb. But this felt like they started down the path of a true remake and then at some point someone got involved who wanted more explosions and random changes that made no sense as implemented.

    Finally, Midgar is full of fluff and padding. A bunch of quests and walking eat up the bulk of the gameplay, and you'd be hard pressed to get 20 hours out of it if you only focused on the main segments.

    I'll close by stressing once again: Jessie is easily the best character. Period. You will remember her long after you've played. She was written that well and her voice actor did so good. Meanwhile, Aerith came off annoying and childish the majority of the game - likely to make you feel the annoyance that Cloud felt when escorting her, but over the top.

    Is it worth playing? Absolutely. But you should keep your expectations in check.    … Expand
  72. mnt9
    Apr 13, 2020
    5
    Nice graphics. Action oriented gameplay is great. But this is horribly unfinished. Narrative has been expanded with a bunch of trash to make a 20 hour play through into a 60 hour one. Lots of issues with random low res textures and low res models. The game is unreasonably hard on normal difficulty. Designed to force you to make your way through the game at a slow pace. Lots of boring sideNice graphics. Action oriented gameplay is great. But this is horribly unfinished. Narrative has been expanded with a bunch of trash to make a 20 hour play through into a 60 hour one. Lots of issues with random low res textures and low res models. The game is unreasonably hard on normal difficulty. Designed to force you to make your way through the game at a slow pace. Lots of boring side quests that slow the game down further. Good luck trying to skip them on normal difficulty though. Midgar should have been streamlined into a 15-20h tops.… Expand
  73. rsaioxkreual
    Apr 12, 2020
    5
    The voice acting is AWFUL. I swear to god, that and the horrifying teeth knocked this down 2 points as is. There's a lot of padding, and while padding isn't always bad, in this case they only had a section that is about 3-5 hours long and they made it 30 hours. That's a lot of damn padding.

    FFVII was my favorite game ever, and the remake is just 'meh.' It's pretty. It's flashy, but    The voice acting is AWFUL. I swear to god, that and the horrifying teeth knocked this down 2 points as is. There's a lot of padding, and while padding isn't always bad, in this case they only had a section that is about 3-5 hours long and they made it 30 hours. That's a lot of damn padding.

    FFVII was my favorite game ever, and the remake is just 'meh.'

    It's pretty. It's flashy, but whatever. Could do with it, could do without it.

    You have any idea how painful that is to say, that something that you've been looking forward to for 15+ years is just 'fine'? There are certain things that are great, but other things that are just plain disappointing.    … Expand
  74. patriarchy
    Apr 10, 2020
    6
    Visuals are mostly solid, there are some PS2 era moments here and there though. I played on PS4Pro and the game fails to load higher res assets constantly. Audio is very good and while pulls the nostalgia strings in a right way it got some solid moments by it's own. Turn based part is made well, however action is a miss. Some enemy attacks tracking is ridiculous, while some of yours isVisuals are mostly solid, there are some PS2 era moments here and there though. I played on PS4Pro and the game fails to load higher res assets constantly. Audio is very good and while pulls the nostalgia strings in a right way it got some solid moments by it's own. Turn based part is made well, however action is a miss. Some enemy attacks tracking is ridiculous, while some of yours is really bad. Story is diluted in a way I did not care for the characters I loved in the original. It's supposed to focus on Midgar only to give it more depth yet some moments from original are cut. It's like a cover of a song which is not as good. Overall it's a decent game, worth playing. I would prefer it to be rapid-fire like the original though. The tone shift is significant here.
    Add two points to my score if you're high or drunk while playing.    … Expand
  75. ravador
    Apr 12, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll try to be as short as possible on this one.
    I first played this game on my dad's PS1 when I was like 6 or so. Didn't really understand anything at all, since I'm not a native English speaker. I never really thought much of it. That changed when I replayed it when i was 17 or so. I suddenly realized what it was about, went through the hardships with the characters and was sunk into the story and the universe of FF7.

    Just to clarify, I played through the entire FF7R with all side quests in about 38 hours, experienced all the content there probably is.

    So let's break down the review into a few categories.

    Visuals: My god, the game is absolutely stunning. Though there are some texture loading issues and the background of the slums while on the underplate of plate 5 is just a pixelated 2d texture, I enjoyed looking at the game every time. Random NPCs look like **** but that doesn't matter since the main cast is just breathtaking. Aerith especially looks incredibly beautiful... 9/10

    Audio: Phenomenal voice acting, great sound effects, INSANE soundtrack... would give 11/10 if I could.

    Combat: With the history that Square has of not being able to do a good combat system, I went in prepared for a rough ride. That wasn't the case at all. The core of the combat is great! Every character is unique and feels fun to play, maybe except Barret, but that's a nitpick. I loved playing as Tifa the most, her comb-ish playstyle fits great with what I like. There are many tactical elements too,. The difficulty again was extremely surprising. Most Square games are easy peasy, but this was very well balanced a thought out. Aerith is broken though... 9/10

    Progression: Materia system is great, works pretty much the same as in the original. The weapon Materia core upgrades are interesting, well though out, but not that interesting as you progress further. They contain only raw stats, with the exception of that healing passive on kill. The proficiency system with weapon skills is an amazing idea. I truly loved it. Leveling feels a little bit unimpactful and Materia stat changed are very very small... 8/10

    Basic Enemy design: Here is the Achilles heel of the combat system. Many enemies you fight are WAY too tanky, have frustrating mechanics like 1 minute long immunity, AoE hex, AoE paralyze, AoE sleep, etc. and your companions aren't exactly very good at dodging those. The thing I hated the most though was the fact that the enemies pretty much always target only the character you are actively controlling. That is lazy as **** and makes the game forcing you to play Barret in hard fights... 3/10

    Boss design: On the contrary, Boss fights are AWESOME in this game. Every boss feels unique, has cool mechanics, many stages, environment play a great role in many of the fights and the are so MANY of them. Rufus was in my opinion the best fight. Very entertaining. Many bosses have INSANE health bars though, and whacking them for too long makes it tedious and not very fun... 9/10

    Level design and exploration: Another thing Square REALLY struggles at, but this time they weren't able to turn it around. Most of the game are one-way corridors with an occasional chest or secret Materia. Exploration is at it's best while simply looking at the distance and observing the beautiful scenery of Midgar... 5/10

    Story: ... So... if this was an original game, I would say it was good. Like 7/10. But this is FF7 "remake". Not really a remake mind you. The first half of the game follows the original pretty well. Doesn't do a lot of new things, only expands on an already existing lore. But after chapter 12, everything starts to break down. If I could, I would personally strangle the person who thought "arbiters of fate" were a good idea (this is very probably Nomura's lazy ass wanting to somehow justify completely changing the story). These things singlehandedly make the game's story unimpactful. You feel like everything happens because that's what the Planet wants, and that's a load of bull****. The pacing is all over the place. Sephiroth appears way too frequently. There is no sense of urgency. the moment Barret got stabbed and he just stood up because the Planet didn't want him do die... WHY THE **** EVEN PUT THAT IN?! jesus... At this stage of the game, the party aren't supposed to be world boss battling OPs, they're relatively new to this. WTF even was that final boss? Why the **** did we battle the fate itself?... 3/10
    Oh don't worry I know why. Because NOMURA has complexes from being just a concept artist back at OG FF7, so nobody cared about his input and now he wants to change the entire game how he sees fit. This dude should have never been promoted. If Kitase would have 100% control over this game, I bet it would be different.

    Minigames: Awesome. Drakengard 3 combined with Miku dance... I never knew I wanted that, but I loved it... 10/10    … Expand
  76. Woofoof
    May 3, 2020
    7
    The title is misleading, it is a sequel not a remake, and the ending is hot garbage but otherwise it is an OK game.
  77. visiblelight7
    Jun 8, 2023
    5
    Gorgeous graphics but more importantly a legendary story, characters and plot. To top it off, the music is heavenly. Childhood dream to relive this in 2020!

    But it was tedious and boring. The only reason its good is the characters and music. The graphics also. But its like every other game now. Overextended and the story has been diluted as hell so they can sell you a game in 10 years    Gorgeous graphics but more importantly a legendary story, characters and plot. To top it off, the music is heavenly. Childhood dream to relive this in 2020!

    But it was tedious and boring. The only reason its good is the characters and music. The graphics also. But its like every other game now. Overextended and the story has been diluted as hell so they can sell you a game in 10 years release time and milk it to the maximum. They sorta ruined it .

    A long time fan i been waiting 25+ years for this remake. Imagine, i could NOT finish it due to boredom and repetition. They ruined it to be honest.    … Expand
  78. endfoto
    Apr 29, 2020
    5
    This is helpless hard to have a full story in 1 games nowaday , Why remake FFVII ?? because of the sales (original). this remake just the same kind of FFXV ,most important about original FF7 is the battle system with view of the angle arrangement(feel good and excited). Now,strange line to go for character ,no open world ,limited you go anywhere ,part of story and story changed.This is helpless hard to have a full story in 1 games nowaday , Why remake FFVII ?? because of the sales (original). this remake just the same kind of FFXV ,most important about original FF7 is the battle system with view of the angle arrangement(feel good and excited). Now,strange line to go for character ,no open world ,limited you go anywhere ,part of story and story changed. Personal 5 even way better than this . you can see many second hand FF7 remake to sell on web , this is not worth to have and keep games.... I keep the original FF7 and soundtrack but not this one ....... 5 stars just for Tifa only nothing more .Tifa make me finish the whole games . if you want to play FF7 remake, wait second hand with half price of it.… Expand
  79. Ed16
    Apr 16, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first half of the game feels great 10/10, the second part of the game feels bad 4/10, so 7/10 as a whole. That is the type of game, where you are not satisfied after its completion. Not because you want more, but because the ending was bad and you are tired of the gameplay. I think I won't buy the continuation of the game, for the reasons I've listed below, but I recommend you to try it out.

    Most positive moments of the game:

    - It is beautiful
    - Minigames make the game more diverse, most of them are fun
    - Storytelling, dynamics of events in the first half of the game, feels diverse and interesting
    - Many cutscenes
    - Most boss fights feel great, especially I liked moments when during the change of the phase, music also changes. Some boss fights feel tedious and routine, like the last ones.

    Most negative moments of the game

    - The second half of the game is less diverse and more boring, then the first one, in several cases you need to go back to locations, that you have already visited, during main or side quest.
    - Behavioral of protagonists in many cases seem naive and stupid.
    - U can't kill or stop any human antagonist NPC in this game, because game developers do not permit you to do so. Antagonists always run away, do whatever they want, and make your characters look stupid. And then some of them eventually die, this is not because of you. As a whole, it feels like Latin melodrama or childish cartoon, do not know which fits best. :)
    - The main character is no one, from nowhere
    - The story ending is mysteriously stupid
    - In many cases, the gameplay is scripted, and you cannot go there and do that...
    - You cannot get "Alls quests" achievement after first completed walkthrough, surprise!
    - Materia system becomes very routine in the end. You have needed set of materia for one party, but in the last chapters, when you often switch characters you always have to switch materies. No one has told you, that you need the whole set of materia for all characters.
    Too many materia in the end, very long list to select from.
    Asses materia, you always need to switch it.
    You frequently need to switch materia, when you have a small number of slots.
    - There is no text search in enemy intel. Pictures of the enemies do no shown in the interface of the list.

    Neutral:

    - The combat system is neither turn-based or realtime, it is a combination of both. Sometimes it feels good, sometimes it feels bad. It usually feels bad during hard boss fights, when you do not understand whats going on, boss casting some unknown spells (no descriptions in enemy intel), your characters die, your dodges do not work, because you need to block instead, your blocks do not work, because you need to dodge instead... I've got wipes on few bosses on normal difficulty, thanks to the healing and resurrect, but still.
    - Side quests are ok.
    - Locations are ok... Slums, slums, slums...
    - The interface is ok.

    P.S. I didn't play the original game.    … Expand
  80. Funmachine
    Apr 14, 2020
    7
    While the graphics are stunning and the rework of the characters are really good the combat is (for me) not good. Maybe it was a problem I played Sekiro days before but u cant really block or dodge in the right time. Also the game is sometimes slow as hell and why they didn't put a "part 1" in the title? It is frustrating to know that it will took years till the next part.
  81. Itwasokayguy
    Apr 16, 2020
    7
    The game would’ve been better if it was about 1/4th the length, they added so much padding and so much it feels empty.

    If it didn’t have the FF7 name tied to it, it’s a mediocre game, which what I am rating it as. Any other franchise would have to make a game that stands on it’s own before thinking about making sequels, but SE knows we’re suckers and would pay for this incomplete game.
  82. Renzokuken
    Apr 12, 2020
    6
    I wanted to love this game, I really did. I'm one of the old guard, I grew up with games like Final Fantasy VII, When square-enix announced this remake I was cautiously optimistic, I knew what square-enix's track record with the series was like after being burned by Final Fantasy XV, but I also knew that as long as they stuck to the source material and added some modern shine, everythingI wanted to love this game, I really did. I'm one of the old guard, I grew up with games like Final Fantasy VII, When square-enix announced this remake I was cautiously optimistic, I knew what square-enix's track record with the series was like after being burned by Final Fantasy XV, but I also knew that as long as they stuck to the source material and added some modern shine, everything would be fine.

    It wasn't fine.

    The audio ranges from faithful and fantastic orchestral versions of the original audio, to the barely memorable tracks in place of classics, someone tell me why oppressed people is no longer the theme in wall market when it was so iconic in the original, and tell me what they replaced it with because sitting here writing this, I can't remember it was so forgettable.

    Area design, is fantastic and faithful to the source material but marred by low quality textures, NPC models, sky boxes and backdrops. This is a crying shame because there are numerous standout moments like your first visit to Aerith's house that absolutely floored me, then immediately after I walk back into the sector 5 slums and the textures are all over the place once again and the NPC's look like they fell out of a PS2 game. Exploring the world, as in the physical movement from place to place is also a mixed bag, animations and movement speed are fine, but the game way over uses forced walking to the point of it being infuriating. Every dungeon has multiple areas filled with debris to crawl or squeeze through at a snails pace, multiple zones where you walk and talk, every time you go indoors you're forced to walk. It feels like the developers added this in just to make the game feel longer, but it's utterly infuriating regardless. Speaking of dragging the game out, sidequests are entirely optional, but entirely pointless. They could have given these some minor story significance, used them to flesh out characters or plot points, but instead they're boring fetch or kill quests for people you don't know and care very little about.

    Combat for me was hugely conflicted. I'm a fan of classic turn based RPG's, but I was 100% willing to give this game and it's new action hybrid combat the benefit of the doubt, and I'm mostly glad I did, with a few caveats. Firstly hit-stun is absolutely horrendous and needs toning down every single love tap from an enemy knocks you on your ass and cancels your abilities. Secondly the camera is awful, and finally switching from offence to defence is too slow due to animation locking, which exacerbates the hit-stun problem. Otherwise, combat is fun, an awesome mix between tactical and action combat and a standout feature of the game. Animations are fantastic and the boss battles are a stand-out feature you're unlikely to forget should you pick this up.

    The plot. Ok here's my biggest issue, everything taken from the original game, the characters and their portrayals, the various scenes, most of the script, the additional exposition, the extended dungeons, all that stuff, is fantastic and I believe it really is the best portrayal of these characters we've seen so far. However, all the bits they added on top of this, "feel like some kingdom hearts BS" as IGN recently stated in their review. There's no good way to explain this without spoilers suffice to say that plot elements have been added, especially within the ending, that mean that square-enix can now diverge from the original game's plot. It's poorly written, puts this game firmly within re-imagining or reboot territory rather than being the remake we were sold, and feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card for when they inevitably decide they've bitten off more than they can chew remaking this entire game. This is the primary reason for the average score, you can't sell your game as a remake then sneak in a reboot during the closing scene, it left a bitter taste in my mouth after an otherwise satisfying journey.    … Expand
  83. esmen
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    Until the last chapter the game was really amazing but that ending was just not right.
  84. nestharus
    Apr 11, 2020
    6
    The level design is kinda like the original FF7. The original was a lot single small paths. In 3D it feels like you are running through hallways. This is only true of Midgar though. I think the level design could have been modified a bit to be more open. While it was visually beautiful, it lacked creativity. It really felt like I was running through a level, not a city. This will only be aThe level design is kinda like the original FF7. The original was a lot single small paths. In 3D it feels like you are running through hallways. This is only true of Midgar though. I think the level design could have been modified a bit to be more open. While it was visually beautiful, it lacked creativity. It really felt like I was running through a level, not a city. This will only be a problem with volume 1 as it was only an issue on Disc 1 in the original.

    The enemy design is excellent. Every enemy has its own unique characteristics. You don't just hit 'n kill.

    The side missions are incredibly boring. They actually added a bunch of fetch quests to try and stretch the length of the game.

    They added a new character that added nothing to the game. Once again, it was to stretch it.

    They introduced Sephiroth way too early, essentially ruining him for the entire game. He is no longer that mysterious figure of overwhelming power. They fully identified him almost immediately. This is completely different from the spirit of the original that only showed the carnage he left in his wake.

    I didn't personally really like the ATB system. For one, only the character you are controlling really fills up the ATB gauge. If you need a heal you need to swap to the character with the heals, get a few attacks in, and then heal. I understand that they wanted to space out the abilities and the spells with the ATB system, but it should have been equal across the board regardless of who was being controlled and potentially slowed down.

    The story of the first volume was WAY too stretched out. It actually dragged and I found myself bored and uninterested. I did enjoy that they added some extra depth to the characters. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie were extremely forgettable. I didn't like the extra missions though. I prefer the original's flow a lot more. It was more.. streamlined and to the point. It didn't "drag."

    The game was too easy. All of the cool mechanics don't matter when you can play on the hardest difficulty available and just mindlessly roflstomp everything with no grinding. If the story had been as good as the original, this wouldn't have been an issue. With it lacking in both gameplay and story, that hurts.

    My only recommendation for volume 2 is to avoid the full blown side quests. Keep it open and adventurous. Include the secrets and side things to do, but don't hold people's hands or point them out. Just let them be there. Let people explore and discover. I didn't enjoy these guideposts in the remake that weren't in the original. I don't even remember learning about Wutai in the original until I went to Wutai.    … Expand
  85. Archibald23
    May 1, 2020
    5
    IM SUCH A BIG FAN OF FF7-8-9-10...
    How can i say - this is just a mirage - a nice mirage - you approach your hand and... and you see nothing... i hanged on at chapter 17.... cant go on... sorry but i tried! The lack of depth.... so few invocation and half of the invocation are jokes... the shops are sooooooo empty!!! what a joke... Where is the time you see a weapon you cannot afford    IM SUCH A BIG FAN OF FF7-8-9-10...
    How can i say - this is just a mirage - a nice mirage - you approach your hand and... and you see nothing... i hanged on at chapter 17.... cant go on... sorry but i tried! The lack of depth.... so few invocation and half of the invocation are jokes... the shops are sooooooo empty!!! what a joke... Where is the time you see a weapon you cannot afford (ginving you the goal to farm until you can afford to buy it.... collecting music (lol)... toooo much bla bla bla - secondary jokes quest (kill me please).
    The comparison with the original may be... but sorry to me this game deserve a 10/20 - they dont stole your money but they give you something so flat (if you believe this is deep - this is just an illusion - play the original pn switch for example and you will see......)
    Peace to all!
    .......and DAMN!!!! Where is the cardgame or the blitzball !!! ah i forget the is the dart.......     … Expand
  86. Dimpfelmoer
    Apr 14, 2020
    5
    Can someone please explain the appeal to me?
    Ok, I admit, I’m not getting it. I haven’t played the original, and I haven’t played any FF game at all, so maybe it’s all bit too much but my main gripes would still be the same I guess.
    1) The main character is an arrogant, humourless, grumpy idiot with a face of a 16 year old and the hairdo that makes him look very vain and silly.    Can someone please explain the appeal to me?
    Ok, I admit, I’m not getting it. I haven’t played the original, and I haven’t played any FF game at all, so maybe it’s all bit too much but my main gripes would still be the same I guess.
    1) The main character is an arrogant, humourless, grumpy idiot with a face of a 16 year old and the hairdo that makes him look very vain and silly. Surprisingly enough, all the girls in the game swoon over him and I can only assume that the initial concept was to target socially awkward, humourless, bored teenage boys (I guess back in the 90s, gamers were stereotyped like that) and lure them in with the assurance that hot girls found that kind of **** attitude completely irresistible. Boy, are they in for a surprise.
    2) The story doesn’t make any sense at all, not even in small segments, which results in incredibly dull and pointless dialogue. The story starts with the good guys blowing up a reactor and because their bomb was a bit too powerful, they destroy half of the city, killing a lot of innocents in the process. Is that supposed to make you root for these guys? Didn’t work with me. Because of the terrorist attack, there is heightened security alert and our heroes try to act unsuspicious when they board the train. Well, one of them has a heavy machine gun for a right hand, one of them a man sized sword on his back and the third looks like a teenage hooker with a boob job, and still they pass security without anyone so much as glancing at them. Then the game throws in more bad guys, mystical creatures, robots, gods, ghosts, as they see fit, with no regard for storytelling, just to have a constant flow of boss fights.
    3) Controls are the clumsiest I’ve experienced in a long while. When you meet the flower girl for the second time, there is a 5 minute walk over the rooftops and in any other game like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, this would be a fun jump, run, climb, swing, shimmy parkour with lot’s of action, but here, since you can do nothing but walk, I mean, no jumping, no ducking, nob climbing, you just move from prompt to prompt and let the game do the work for you, which is so boring, that I wondered why they put it in there in the first place. While we’re at it, this Cloud fellow, in battle he can jump over 30 feet gaps and practically fly quite easily, but when they make their way through the slummy environment it’s apparently impossible to climb over a car wreck, or jump over a three feet gap. It just feels so wrong most of the time.
    4) Pointless side missions. There is one side mission that is quite ironically called ‘the Party never stops’ where you run around like a headless chicken for 20 minutes and it culminates in having to find sick people in toilets. If this is supposed to be funny, I just don’t get the humour. Also, whenever they have a go at anything non combat (the term puzzle would just not be inappropriate I think) it feels really stupid, like operating the giant robot hand, or getting the catwalks in place.

    Which leaves the combat. Well I guess this is very thought through and complex and I’m just a bit too impatient to learn all the elements and angles. I will try to get more into that, cause there must be one redeeming quality, right?    … Expand
  87. saber_rider
    Apr 10, 2020
    7
    I don't get the hype around this remake.

    I love the original Final Fantasy 7. Its still one of my favorite games. The remake judged on its own is an ok game with great graphics and character models, but it has almost nothing of the things which made the original FF7 such a great game: - it's not an open world game any more with a huge world to explore freely, but rather walking    I don't get the hype around this remake.

    I love the original Final Fantasy 7. Its still one of my favorite games. The remake judged on its own is an ok game with great graphics and character models, but it has almost nothing of the things which made the original FF7 such a great game:

    - it's not an open world game any more with a huge world to explore freely, but rather walking through a lot of linear corridors and hallways and needlessly blown up filler content with no meaning other than stretching out Midgar into a full length game.

    - you can't even move around freely in Midgar. When i heard first of this remake playing only in Midgar, I thought they make some GTA type of open world city exploration out of it and that Cloud could drive around in the city with his motorcycle, but its really not like that at all. Its very very linear and episodic.

    - It has a lot of MMO like meaningless fetch quests, like rescuing cats or bringing something from point A to point B. And with a lot I mean really a lot.

    The graphic, animations, overall presentation and sound is very good in this game and the combat system is kind of fun, even if its way to easy, but everything else feels just mediocre at best and not nearly as good as in the original. What I really miss most is the huge world you could travel around in and all the different environments you could visit in the original.

    Even if FF 7 remake plays only in Midgar i really don't understand why they didn't make it more open world exploration like, like I imagine Cyperpunk 2077 or Dying Light 2 to be.    … Expand
  88. EchoX860
    Apr 11, 2020
    5
    It's fine, I really don't see all the massive hype around the game. I understand it's only part 1, but it felt incredibly short for me in comparison to other games of the same series and same genre
  89. BizA7X
    Apr 10, 2020
    6
    Remake is such a disappointment, starting from graphics where some of the areas looked awesome and other had texture copied from original ff7. Game is so linear, bestiary nearly empty, no true classic mode for players that don’t like action RPG. Terribly mixed music that don’t fit game whatsoever, quests similar to one you can experience in any mmorpg. On plus definitely main characterRemake is such a disappointment, starting from graphics where some of the areas looked awesome and other had texture copied from original ff7. Game is so linear, bestiary nearly empty, no true classic mode for players that don’t like action RPG. Terribly mixed music that don’t fit game whatsoever, quests similar to one you can experience in any mmorpg. On plus definitely main character design and great voice acting and that’s all really. Changes made to main story should force SE to change name from remake to profanation.… Expand
  90. KB5K
    Apr 21, 2020
    6
    Game of the year, you say? ...Are you kidding?

    I can't believe the number of reviews praising the game's graphics. This easily has the worst textures I've seen in a triple-A title this console generation. The only exceptions are the early and late game environments, possibly due to the low-key lighting, making the texture issues less noticeable. In many of the game environments,    Game of the year, you say? ...Are you kidding?

    I can't believe the number of reviews praising the game's graphics. This easily has the worst textures I've seen in a triple-A title this console generation. The only exceptions are the early and late game environments, possibly due to the low-key lighting, making the texture issues less noticeable. In many of the game environments, textures lack simple bump maps. They're insultingly bad for fans of the original who have waited decades to see this project come to fruition. The character models are very nice, but that's about it. There are moments when the textures are literally comparable to PS2, especially in the sector 5 junkyard area. That's not an exaggeration.

    The side quests are throwaway "fetch quests." The hard linear nature of the game takes away from the experience of the old final fantasy games that opened up near the end, giving you the chance to explore the world and build your characters. That never really happens here -- you can only explore one sector of Midgar near the end.

    The combat is fun at some moments and a klunky mess at others. It's so easy that you'll never face a significant challenge in the game (i died 3 times in my entire playthrough). Because of this, there isn't the necessary level of strategic depth that the original had; for example, I never had to use an item to remove a status effect because they rarely affected battle in a significant way. The most common ailment was the toad status, which you can ignore for literally a few seconds until it wears off naturally. Never used a "remedy," "smelling salts," "echo screen," etc. By extension, status defense materia and skills are arguably useless.

    The worst part of the battle system by far is the camera; despite changing the in-game settings, enemies frequently go off screen or block your view, and when you try to reposition the camera with the right stick you end up targeting a different enemy. We had the same camera issue in the last single player final fantasy title, and SE is simply not learning from past mistakes.

    Fanboys will jump on the bandwagon, but those who judge the game according to current standards and not based on nostalgia for the original will have a hard time calling this a GOTY contender.

    P.S. Worth noting that there are tons of annoying narrow passageways you need to squeeze through in this game. They're almost constant. Of course, they're really hiding loading screens. This game should be much better optimized given that it's offline, segmented into chapters, and so incredibly linear. Maybe SE should worry less about making Cloud's hair so damn pretty (his hair literally has collision detection) and worry more about building a game with functional environments that don't force you through narrow passages every 10 minutes and textures that don't look like they're 15 years old. Maybe actually texture a rock or a door every now and then. Just a thought.    … Expand
  91. Trinstin
    May 2, 2020
    6
    Square had one job... which was to remake FF7 and not bastardize it in the process. They failed of course because corporate greed knows no bounds. Even Cloud agrees with me when he says "This sucks" in reference to the first pointless side quest the game makes you do. They padded this game so much, I know that they could have just remade the full game. Very disappointed overall.
  92. R00K
    Apr 18, 2020
    5
    Pros + fight system
    + graphics
    + voice acting

    Cons
    - filler content
    - game play length
    - controls

    Overall FF7 remake is a decent game with an outstanding fight system. However the game lacks sufficient depth to make it a outstanding game. In the end the game trades filler content to make up for the lack of story with the game being unfinished and rushed to market.
  93. NaturalLucker
    Apr 23, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Very meh game. First 3-4 chapters and the last one are a blast, but everything in between can be very boring and frustrating. The first problem is it's "open world" which is nearly empty and uninteresting except some side-quests. The second: very lengthy sequences like whole 17-th episode or some "Oh, this monster stole our key, let's run after him for 15 minutes" shenanigans.… Expand
  94. Kjlionheart
    Apr 15, 2020
    7
    It was fun. I loved all the character Interactions and the budding relationships. I've done everything and seen every alternative now however. It's not that long, and doesn't have much extra but more than the original.
  95. Tionik06
    May 3, 2020
    7
    Honest Review: The good: FF7 of old was a mind blowing advancement of game development technology, and I'm happy to say the remake pushes the limits and beyond as well. If you are looking to jump up and fist pump, i had at least 4 of these moments. Fans of old get an excellent soundtrack remix, character callbacks, poignant moments, quirky attitude. The new look may look serious but theHonest Review: The good: FF7 of old was a mind blowing advancement of game development technology, and I'm happy to say the remake pushes the limits and beyond as well. If you are looking to jump up and fist pump, i had at least 4 of these moments. Fans of old get an excellent soundtrack remix, character callbacks, poignant moments, quirky attitude. The new look may look serious but the characters remain intact. As for the Barret voice controversy, I think his English voice is perfect and as you play it you will experience the actor's range. Combat is excellent when you figure it out. The bad: during the main story you experience the game through amazing technology, director camera angles, awesome moments. Not during the side quests. Side quests are bland and often have you backtracking heavy in this 100% linear game. Even the side quest characters and town character textures are hugely low res making you think it was for a different game. The linearity of it. There is no world map. If you hated FFXIII because of linearity, you cannot give this game a pass due to nostalgia. FFXIII actually had more freedom and people crapped all over that excellent game due to linearity and a voice actor.

    I also don't like how much they are stretching this out. We are looking at 4-6 episodes which is crazy for waiting and monetary purposes.    … Expand
  96. localboy_claude
    May 12, 2020
    7
    FF7R boasts a solid blend of combining the best of Turn-based RPG combat, by splicing them into a passable action combat system. Strategy manages to take a front seat while button mashing will lead you into an early defeat.

    The game is an absolute masterpiece up until you start realizing tetsuya nomura's terrible kingdom hearts style writing becomes more and more present, ultimately    FF7R boasts a solid blend of combining the best of Turn-based RPG combat, by splicing them into a passable action combat system. Strategy manages to take a front seat while button mashing will lead you into an early defeat.

    The game is an absolute masterpiece up until you start realizing tetsuya nomura's terrible kingdom hearts style writing becomes more and more present, ultimately destroying the flawless story originally helmed by the great sakaguchi.    … Expand
  97. mfmaxpower
    Apr 19, 2020
    7
    As someone who hasn't played the original, it's a 7 for me - a very mixed bag. The biggest negative for me is the combat. It's a messy system that poses little real challenge at all for the majority of encounters, making much of it feel more like filler for an interactive movie. The visuals can be stunning, but the texture issues are jarring. The characters and their interactions with eachAs someone who hasn't played the original, it's a 7 for me - a very mixed bag. The biggest negative for me is the combat. It's a messy system that poses little real challenge at all for the majority of encounters, making much of it feel more like filler for an interactive movie. The visuals can be stunning, but the texture issues are jarring. The characters and their interactions with each other are fantastic, but there's a massive drop-off in quality with NPCs. The main missions are well done but the side quests are often awful.

    Overall, very mixed in quality but I'd recommend for any sci-fi/fantasy fans who like narrative based games with (mostly) great visuals.    … Expand
  98. Orangefizz
    Apr 10, 2020
    6
    Is this FF7 or world of warcraft?

    I love the story telling, character building, world development, combat, etc.

    But why am I rescuing cats? This is so dumb.
  99. MrAATiger
    Apr 13, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I can't describe how conflicted I am with this game. The characters are fleshed out, the dialogues are amazing, gameplay is fun and the graphics are stunning, especially when you consider the hardware limitations of the PS4. BUT, they pulled a Kingdom Hearts. Until chapter 17 everything seems fine. Some parts are tedious but nothing game breaking. Sidequests are in most cases boring, assets are mostly copy and paste (I told myself because of the setting). Now to the huge elephant in the room: You see, in this game there were some lazy as **** designed spirit's. Those spirit's are manifestations of fate. Yes, good old fate. And fate doesn't want to change everything with the Final Fantasy 7 story. So you have to defeat fate, cause of reasons, and sephiroth is coming from a different timeline (of course) to change his fate. After you defeat fate, the future is unwritten and every event can change. Does Aerith die? Is Zac alive? Biggs is also alive for a reason?

    This is lazy writing with a Nomura-Style bull****. Change something if you want, but don't write lazy **** in the game to explain yourself for your decisions. No one needs that.at least be honest and say: it's a reimagined world with new event's at some point. Wait for a good sale and buy it for 30 bug's. It's an ok game but nothing game changing.    … Expand
  100. watiu1
    Apr 11, 2020
    6
    It's not good, but not bad either. The hype was very much more than what the game delivered. Save your money and watch the game on Twitch. Will not be buying the additional games as they are released.
Page:

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

All reviews »
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
See all critic reviews »