Final Fantasy VII Remake

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8148 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,327 out of 8148
  2. Mixed: 727 out of 8148
  3. Negative: 1,094 out of 8148
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  1. Soriosh
    Apr 26, 2020
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Music: 10/10 Boy oh boy, did they raise the stakes on this one. The scores have been remade into quite honestly a glorious cornucopia of nostalgia, emotion, and depth. Each major boss fight has it's own thematic take on the old OST, transitioning between phases seemingly flawlessly. Imagine 3 separate tracks being produced and recorded, and being able to overlap and transition seamlessly based on your phase progression. The old classics tug at the heartstrings, and the remade themes hype you up and make major encounters feel intense.

    Combat: 9/10 Here's where things diverge. The combat is a fresh take on Active + ATB. The old Materia strategies and setups are still available and will have you altering your slots constantly, especially for Hard Mode. Each character has their own unique combat style and capabilities, but you can honestly setup each character however you want to with the new weapon upgrade system. (somewhat tedious, but adding a bit of depth to stats that can be tailored towards your playstyle) Most players might not understand the true depth and capabilities until they start actively messing with most of the at first seemingly less useful Materia and character swapping actions for ATB growth. I feel like they gave us the best of both worlds with Hack n' Slash + ATB that both new and old fans can appreciate.

    Gameplay: 7/10 This isn't tied to combat, it's the overall gameplay. This game is linear. It's meant to be a heavily story focused segment of the main game, setting up for what the future may bring. That said, there is inevitable padding (Sewers #2). 3 Chapters involve sidequests in which, if you decide to do them, will lengthen the chapter playtime two-three-fold. HOWEVER, if you don't WANT to do the sidequests, you don't have to. Miss some pretty strong materia/items? Sure, but nothing you can't necessarily live without. You can run an entire first playthrough with only main story if you want, then if you are feeling up to it you can go back in chapter select and replay those chapters for the sidequests and story changes that completing them brings. Your choices matter in a couple of main story scenarios, but mainly only change cutscenes; albeit gloriously at some moments. The game is sprinkled with some of the old minigames, and some new ones to boot, but none will keep you seated there once you have obtained your desired result/trophy.

    Story: This is the controversial topic among ALL players who have played through the game. That said, I'm giving this an 8/10. I'd even go so far as to give it a 9/10 up to a point. Bear with me. The added backstories are a nice touch, generally fleshing out all of the main characters in delightful and even thoughtful ways. Who knew Biggs and Wedge were orphans? That Biggs even lived in and apparently even helped out with an Orphanage in the sector 5 Slums? That Wedge is such a Cat fanatic? That Jessie could POSSIBLY be even more thirsty? The story moments will bring a tear to the eye of any loyal OG Fan, the voice acting for the main cast is superb (Barret, you did it right), and the banter is goofy and amazing (you can see obvious relationship transitions in the banter throughout the game between the entire cast). The game has these insane highs, and when going through the main story moments there was hardly a time I was not grinning ear to ear over goofy content or nostalgia, or being absolutely wrecked emotionally. You get brought along on this rollercoaster of nostalgia and emotion, carried on the tracks (linearity) by the cast, and you're loving every damn second of it (minus the padding for some). They are doing absolutely everything right; Sector 7/Wall Market/Shinra HQ and all of the involved characters (and new ones) are expanded and more glorious than you remember... Then it happens. The ending. The rollercoaster reaches it's peak and falls from the greatest height, you are hyped. You are ready. And then you just ride on a flat and straight road. What is this? Not what you expected? It wasn't what I expected either. At first, I even hated it. 5/10 random thrown in material, even. Ruins the story, right? What changed my mind? Thought. Square didn't change anything about the overall main story so far, they bring you through this amazing game to this, what could ultimately RUIN the game and the next installments for everyone. There aren't enough characters available for me to give my overall view, but I will say this: IRONICALLY, I trust that SE did not bring us through a 9 or 10/10 story to completely ruin it by the end. I believe there is a plan. If you pay attention throughout the extra story bits, there are hints at greater possibility. Can certain characters survive where they are meant to die? Is everything uncertain? I don't think so. I believe the games will play out the same as the OG for the most part. Only time will tell, but keep your mind open to the ending and what it portrays for the future, and you may be as hyped as me.    … Expand
  2. 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...
  3. RevolverF0X
    Jun 22, 2020
    0
    FF7 remake is neither a faithful remake, or a good standalone game. Judging it on its own It feels incomplete, and is poorly executed. Gameplay is repetitive, Combat is button mashy and unsatisfying, level design is the worst of the generation, the story telling is fan-fic quality, the voice acting is atrocious, and the graphics range from very impressive to the worst last gen had toFF7 remake is neither a faithful remake, or a good standalone game. Judging it on its own It feels incomplete, and is poorly executed. Gameplay is repetitive, Combat is button mashy and unsatisfying, level design is the worst of the generation, the story telling is fan-fic quality, the voice acting is atrocious, and the graphics range from very impressive to the worst last gen had to offer.

    It commits the unforgivable sin of being a hunt the button prompt game, or worse, a find the cutscene quest. constant interruptions. The game is so much more preoccupied with telling its bad story, that it will take control away from you. Even early on i was fighting a scripted camera that wouldnt let me look left or right entering the shanty town the first time. There are times when there are 2 directions to go, but if you dare not go the way they intended, Your character will ignore you and start walking back with a warning on screen.

    Judging the game as a remake it completely fails. For starters its NOT a remake, and its incomplete. All the previous complaints are still true but then you add on that it ruins a classic. This isnt nostalgia goggles, I played the original AFTER this. Though incredibly outdated, still has much better storytellying. For example Sephitroth in the original game is the most well introduced and teased villain in almost any game. Here he appears without context an hour into the game, and just keeps showing up after.

    I could go on and on. The smaller things I dont even have time to mention in this review would be bad enough to ruin the game, but Ill just end by saying this affront to a classic was UNPLAYABLE to me. Ive played many games I havent enjoyed, but this is the first game Ive ever played that direspected gaming history as a whole.    … Expand
  4. SonyStudio
    Mar 9, 2021
    10
    After this remake, I immediatly want to play part 2. So blessed to live in this age.
  5. Felnze
    Jul 7, 2020
    2
    It doesn't take long for this game to show it's true colors. Chapter 2 is the genesis from which all story related problems arise, with nods to Advent Children, the constant pushing of Sephiroth, and the introduction of the Whispers. Even in regards to game play, you are consistently greeted with a "Warning" signal if you dare to stray from the extremely narrow path laid out before you.It doesn't take long for this game to show it's true colors. Chapter 2 is the genesis from which all story related problems arise, with nods to Advent Children, the constant pushing of Sephiroth, and the introduction of the Whispers. Even in regards to game play, you are consistently greeted with a "Warning" signal if you dare to stray from the extremely narrow path laid out before you.

    The short length of the story might be forgivable, if the post content was plentiful enough. However, we are only given a hard mode with a few extra arena battles thrown in. Even Final Fantasy 13 provided various quests and an open field to play around in when the story was reaching it's last stretch. Some "fans" seem to miss the point that cutting out a second trip through the sewers and the over bloated length of a subway could have allowed for a trip to Kalm or the Chocobo Farm. Who doesn't want those things? Easy answer: People who don't care about FF7.

    This is something we've all been trained to accept: spindly little area maps, repetitive sphere grids, and stagger mechanics that have been done to death. After all of that, we need to go back to FF8 and FF9 to even come close to what would be considered a 3D Final Fantasy game. We need to wake up and get out of this. The customers who have been pouring countless dollars into Square Enix products (in hopes that the company will deliver) deserve better than this. You deserve better.    … Expand
  6. Lostasa
    Apr 18, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am going to start out with Game-play, it's amazing I loved every second of it, very fluid and engaging imo it's an 8/10. Moving on to Sound I believe it's a little underwhelming during slow points but ramps up and is great during big battles and scenes so 7/10. Visuals I can only say breath taking it's so great to see the characters and world that I love so much looking as beautiful as it does 9/10 and I have heard of others talking about texture issues but I only saw it maybe once or twice so it didn't affect me. Now for the part that ruined it for me the Story, well what can I say they did such an amazing job for like 95% of the game step for step it was amazing but as soon as I hit the end of the highway and the game became Kingdom Hearts and I was fighting the Darkness it all fell apart, with them making this a new story it's not what I nor a lot of fans were looking for, the Final Fantasy 7 story was already confusing and full and they could have fleshed that out and made it perfect like they were doing for most of the game but for them to add alternate time-lines and whatever else they plan it just ruins it for me so I hate to do this but the story gets a 3/10. This is just so disappointing and I wish they hadn't gone down this path. This is my review for the first installment of the "re-imagined" FF7 series. If for some reason this ending doesn't do what it's portraying it's going to do in the second installment (rewriting the whole story line) and this is just what the original story was supposed to be like but with limitations of the time couldn't be I will change my rating after I play the next game, but for now it looks like they done f***ed it up imo.… Expand
  7. Punkit
    Apr 12, 2020
    4
    Los gráficos son una risa con patas, las texturas son de play 3, lineal a no más poder y lo más importante el final... Cambiarle el nombre a este juego porque no es un remake.
  8. Barneycat
    Apr 15, 2020
    1
    Most of the game was an enjoyable retelling of the PlayStation one classic - save for the heavy handedness of the Shinra, ahem, I mean Square-enix's newly formed 'ethics department'. Their work is evident in removing any and (possibly) all deaths from the game as well as reframing and changing some of the actions and motivations of the self described eco-terrorists avalanche. Nope, noMost of the game was an enjoyable retelling of the PlayStation one classic - save for the heavy handedness of the Shinra, ahem, I mean Square-enix's newly formed 'ethics department'. Their work is evident in removing any and (possibly) all deaths from the game as well as reframing and changing some of the actions and motivations of the self described eco-terrorists avalanche. Nope, no deaths here, we are all just super nice terrorists. Jenovas blood from the lavatory scene is changed from red to a nice sparkly purple as if they are terrified to show red like a like a prime time TV sanitory pad commercial and Aerith was no longer kept captive and experimented as a child - she was just staying there and "it was not too bad and she was treated well"... how nice. It kind of makes her mother's actions, as she dies trying to get Aerith to safety, a little less meaningful, cos, you know, it wasn't so bad living there apparently...
    Square enix seem to have Disney-fied themselves. The ending presents a **** show starring a Kingdom hearts like convoluted plot exploding all over the last hour of the game as our protagonists fight the physical embodiment of fate. Yes, fate incarnate - in some kind of parallel universe, dimensional plane, where time and space is frozen. Snore. After defeating the giant heartless, I mean the physical embodiment of Fate, golden rain sparkles across time bringing anyone who died back to life and ruining decade old storielines that people love and and were hyped about seeing in a remake.

    It was so close to being exactly what people wanted but, like eating a tasty sandwhich with a **** surprise on the last bite, you can't help but feel that somehow the overall meal is ruined.    … Expand
  9. r3zuri
    Apr 15, 2020
    4
    I feel like I was bait-and-switched. Aside from the ridiculous ending and the last few chapters, this seemed like it was a faithful retelling of the game I loved. The characters and dialogue and set design was so, so great. And then they threw it all away with an absolute mess of an ending. I feel so sad.
  10. OGFF7FORME
    Apr 16, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is not a remake. It is a re-imagining/sequel to the original ff7. It is not meant to be played instead of the original JRPG. The audience is expected to have a familiarity with at least the original game and Crisis Core. The "remake" follows the original game somewhat, often stretching out plot points as much as possible to make the game seem longer. Tasks that took 10-20 minutes in the original game now take over an hour, because Cloud needs to walk as slowly as possible down narrow hallways and play cutie pie waifu simulator at regular intervals.

    Cloud also spends a lot of time doing thrilling side quests such as finding cats and killing rats in a junkyard.

    Additionally, there are new and exciting fanfiction characters who add nothing to the plot except filler. That is what this game basically is: a double decker filler sandwich with a little bit of plot holding it together.

    Why did I rate it a 4, you may ask? The combat is pretty fun. The graphics and music are good. And sometimes the game surprised me by being faithful enough to the source material that I felt like I was actually just playing the original with upgraded graphics. Then, the spooky time ghosts would show up, and I would realize that nope, I was still playing an expensive Kingdom Hearts fanfiction.

    You know how a lot of people play the original game every few years? They're going to keep doing that. You know what they're going to do with the remake once the initial hype of seeing their favorite characters in HD wears off? Toss the game in the back of the closet until they are looking for stuff to throw in the Goodwill donation box.    … Expand
  11. T3h_Danger
    Apr 21, 2020
    2
    Some of it looks nice but the new combat system is a failure to update a working game mechanic.
    99% of fights are too easy to an embarrassing degree, with the last 1% being overpowered misery factories.
    Some goals they present you with are difficult because there are SO few opportunities to battle.
    The story is a bloated boring mess and only a small portion of the original story.
  12. BigBullet
    Apr 22, 2020
    3
    The Good
    -The combat isn’t half bad. The tactical menu is pretty cool and lets you plan + execute your strategy nicely.
    -There’s some nice banter and dialogue between the characters in some scenes which I thought was neat. -The music can be a bit too much at times but other than that it’s mostly good. The Bad -LOTS of padding which ruins the pacing throughout the game. -While the combat    The Good
    -The combat isn’t half bad. The tactical menu is pretty cool and lets you plan + execute your strategy nicely.
    -There’s some nice banter and dialogue between the characters in some scenes which I thought was neat.
    -The music can be a bit too much at times but other than that it’s mostly good.

    The Bad
    -LOTS of padding which ruins the pacing throughout the game.
    -While the combat is alright, some parts bother me. For example, it’s easy to have your attack interrupted. I wish summons were a bit cooler as well. -Inconsistent graphics. Some textures look good, while others look absolutely terrible. The Ugly
    -Anything involving the ghosts, time traveling, or alternate universes. I have no idea why they thought introducing all of that crap into the game was a good idea. The last sections of the game go off the rails HARD and basically cements that this game really isn’t a remake but a sequel which is really messed up if you ask me. Overall the game has some good stuff, but it’s ultimately soured by all of the terrible stuff.    … Expand
  13. Hell_son
    May 1, 2020
    0
    Everything is done to make a maximum of money using FF7's past notoriety. Too much talking, excessively caricatured characters, theatrical scenes, corridors and narrow corridors to artificially extend the life of the game to the point of nausea ! All is all is mixed, twisted. It's a huge smokescreen that can only impress shallow people. Even the story of a Call of Duty is better done.Everything is done to make a maximum of money using FF7's past notoriety. Too much talking, excessively caricatured characters, theatrical scenes, corridors and narrow corridors to artificially extend the life of the game to the point of nausea ! All is all is mixed, twisted. It's a huge smokescreen that can only impress shallow people. Even the story of a Call of Duty is better done.

    The truth is that SquareEnix can afford to do sh*t because Final Fantasy 7 was a masterpiece. Some of us deny that truth.

    I redid FF7 at least 6 times. Each time I enjoyed reading all the dialogues. In FF7R, I skipped the dialogues several times, just in the first run ! Among of those who gave a 10/10, how many will do this game again and watching all the cutscenes ?    … Expand
  14. 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
  15. Zands
    Apr 16, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Guess we're exiting the timeline where FF7 was such an emotional masterpiece directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and entering the one where Tetsuya Nomura got his job instead of being only the character designer. Because the original story was obviously not good enough if it had people still begging for a remake 20 years after it's original release. Good thing Nomura got us with his fate ghost and other kingdom hearts BS.

    Seriously, how can you manage to nail every uncertain aspects of a remake and F up the story?
    What was the point of creating a special comity to ensure the upcoming FF games would keep true to their roots if you can't prevent the guy from doing that?    … Expand
  16. shubbledubbledi
    Apr 16, 2020
    3
    To call this a Remake is almost false advertising. The final few hours of this game are a giant FU to every player of the original and amount to what can only be called a complete reboot of the game, with a heavy dose of the Nomura/Nojima narrative nonsense combination as the cherry on top.

    This game ends on such a poor note that I have no choice but to heavily mark it down. Up to the    To call this a Remake is almost false advertising. The final few hours of this game are a giant FU to every player of the original and amount to what can only be called a complete reboot of the game, with a heavy dose of the Nomura/Nojima narrative nonsense combination as the cherry on top.

    This game ends on such a poor note that I have no choice but to heavily mark it down. Up to the final few hours the game wasn't perfect, and many of the additions or changes were questionable, but many additions were also quite enjoyable and it did not diverge majorly from the original (with some notable exceptions).
    Where the sequels to this game go from here is anyone's guess, but it certainly won't be Final Fantasy 7 anymore.    … Expand
  17. FF7remakeSUCKS
    Apr 19, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game was in development way too long to suck this bad. The music was decent, but the graphics suffered from texture pops. The game is filled with bland and filler side quests, and the ending story makes this not a scam. It's called a Remake so I was expecting changes, but what they remade this into sucks.… Expand
  18. leonre
    Apr 20, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I feel like rose-tinted-glasses are the only reason this remake was a success.
    As you play through the beginning from the first reactor to the slums and Seventh Heaven this game seems great, it seems like it stuck with the original game and it keeps the same tone, atmosphere, and story. As an individual that grew up playing the original FFVII, I was in love, it was beautiful to see these scenes recreated, and the beginning filler quests were things like pest controls or finding cats, some obvious filler, but hey, it's the beginning of the game and Cloud's trying to get his name out as a merc, so it was passable and made sense he was stuck doing small-fry work.
    It only went downhill from there, the filler became more tedious, and my god is there filler, it's a chore by the halfway point, the only thing that drives you onward is the fact that the scenes that stayed true to the original are amazingly done, the music, voice acting, emotion and love put into it is felt through. Yet an even amount of iconic scenes are ruined by the addition of the Dementors, which not only ruin old beloved scenes, but also their meta-narrative will rip you out of the story once you figure out their purpose.
    The characters are amazingly well done, they sound exactly like I always imagined, their personalities fit the original game so well, doing away with the one-dimensional husks the compilation made them. Definitely the best part of the remake.
    The use of Sephiroth is atrocious and just ruins his character and the mystery behind him, killing what tension the original had.
    The last step that made me simply want the game to end so I could stop being disappointed was the Shin-Ra HQ, there was so much linear pointless corridor filler I thought I was back in FFXIII. At one point I forgot I was in the HQ because I was desperately trudging through trying to make it end. This is the same place where you meet Red XIII, a main character than is no longer playable, and the excuse given was his character wouldn't be developed enough to justify him being playable(?) even though he fights side by side with you for pretty much every fight, because screw you Red XIII fans, you should've been Cloud or Tifa fans instead.
    After that the iconic "trail of blood" scene is butchered because the developer is now afraid of blood so you follow purple goo in an otherwise spotless HQ, which is the least intimidating thing I've ever experienced. Then you get a pretty awesome Rufus fight, which was the only good thing about the HQ besides taking the stairs.
    Then the ending simply becomes Kingdom Hearts and completely changes the story so it's officially no longer the original FF7, Cloud and co. transcend realities and fight Dementors and Sephiroth while Advent Children anime fight scenes happen, Cloud almost defeats Sephiroth right there, which further makes remake-Sephiroth a joke and no threat whatsoever.

    This is not a remake of the original FF7 like it was advertised, they said there would be story changes, but given the name "remake" I feel like many (including myself) assumed it would just be changes of things like the addition of Roche, or characters like Leslie Kyle and Kyrie getting some side-arcs, things that weren't in the original but could still reasonably exist alongside the original story we expected, added content that has some level of quality that wasn't in the original, to give more life and playtime to Midgar.
    Not that this would actually be a literal spinoff that isn't even close to the original FF7 and should be considered an entry in the compilation. We asked for a remake or remaster for years, and they said that's what we were getting, so it's not unreasonable to think people would expect a FF7 remake, not a spin-off under the guise of a remake. While technically the name makes sense, being a remake of the original storyline, and how they're "remaking" destiny. SE could have said they were completely changing the entire plot, but they chose not to, they chose to mislead customers. It's deceitful and my final strands of respect for the company left with this remake, Makes me miss the days of Squaresoft.    … Expand
  19. Lucleonhart
    Apr 24, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 10/10 for chapters 1-17, they stayed at the original and expanded the universe beautifully and 6/10 for chapter 18 because that out-of-this-world ending was just poorly written and does not fit the game. :)… Expand
  20. Subjectdelta64
    Apr 24, 2020
    10
    I really love this game. Me and my brother grew up on 7 and we played the whole thing together. Now we did it again and we've both had a great time, whether its laughing at some square enix corniness, or genuinely enjoying the story beats, i really think this game is going to cover crisis core and advent when its done, and hopefully retcon some of the stupid out of those. I think its aI really love this game. Me and my brother grew up on 7 and we played the whole thing together. Now we did it again and we've both had a great time, whether its laughing at some square enix corniness, or genuinely enjoying the story beats, i really think this game is going to cover crisis core and advent when its done, and hopefully retcon some of the stupid out of those. I think its a miracle this game came out as good as it did, i dont think people realize what the true length of this episodic game is going to be, and throughout it all, we get to play the same characters. me and my brother get to be excited for a new 40 hours release of our favorite game, every couple years (probably but thats ok). they did a wonderful job, i saw one of the negative reviews mentioning the dating options but i love tha aspect so much! you get to learn so much more about everyone. i have to give it 10, i never had a dull moment, only real bad thing was there is one particularly bad loading time during a section and some npc characters look a bit dated. didnt effect my experience whatsoever so 10/10, loved it, big fan, cant wait for episode 2, hell, cant wait to just play through this again.… Expand
  21. 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
  22. SylviaLehman
    Apr 14, 2020
    10
    At this hard and dark moment.
    This game gave me my life´s faith back.
    Brought me back to life.
    Thanks.
  23. 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
  24. Fenrir79
    Apr 10, 2020
    10
    Twenty three years ago I f*cking loved this game. FF7R was easily my most anticipated game of 2020. It took some time but Square Enix really knocked it out of the park with this reimagining. I loved every moment of it. I can't wait to see Yuffie, Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind in part II. Phenomenal game. 10/10
  25. turbolag
    Apr 26, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I wouldn't recommend this game to a fan or non fan. There isn't that much content in the game, it's just spread across points of waiting for no reason. Waiting to push buttons and side quests that are obviously an afterthought for filler. There is nothing remake about this. It's a reimagining of the story that completely breaks the story and the franchises existing cannon past and present. The killing destiny loophole at the end doesn't really save anything.

    There isn't anything really rewarding in the game as it's all basically handed to you. Vending machines always have deals on items for battles and money is excessively plentiful. The game is painfully linear, even worse than midgar was in the original game. The combat is painfully simple and unengaging coupled with micromanaging that is more tedious than helpful to the situation.

    The voice acting is terrible most characters sound mentally damaged and awkward. Barrett is God awful. The only thing redeeming to this is the name. If this was any other franchise or any other FF remake it would be laughed out of town.    … Expand
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. Binxybrown
    Apr 21, 2020
    2
    Pros:
    combat is pretty good even though I am not a fan of kingdom hearts like combat.
    Voice acting and graphics are 10/10 Music is okay 6/10 experience new character growth moments for members of avalanche as well as Cloud Cons: Plot is not the same as original and it is worse for it Music is not as good as the original, although new songs are okay the remixes of old music felt    Pros:
    combat is pretty good even though I am not a fan of kingdom hearts like combat.
    Voice acting and graphics are 10/10
    Music is okay 6/10
    experience new character growth moments for members of avalanche as well as Cloud

    Cons:
    Plot is not the same as original and it is worse for it
    Music is not as good as the original, although new songs are okay the remixes of old music felt tacked on and didnt always fit
    Pacing was very slow, some areas felt like they were intentionally dragged out. This happens less frequently the further into the game you get, but even just before the end of the game there is a section that just felt tacked on

    Will get into SPOILERS here:
    They added a new plot element about the main characters and sephiroth fighting against fate, at the end of the game you literally kill the arbiters of fate who have been doing weird **** all game and distracted from the main story considerably.

    This new plot element subverts the themes of the original for seemingly no gain, I was really happy for the majority of the game's new content but none of the scenes with these fate monsters really made sense as a player and when it was finally explained it felt cheap. After beating the game the existence of this plot line has basically destroyed my hopes for the next titles to actually tell the real story.

    Should have called it FF7 Reimagined    … Expand
  29. DanePhillips34
    Apr 16, 2020
    0
    First of all, I'm a big fan of the original Final Fantasy VII game. I don't have time to play games nowadays so I really wanted to buy this remake for my son, but after reading the reviews from this website, I will definitely not.

    It's pretty clear that this remake is a scam, not full game (Midgar part only?), action game (No thanks), and worst part, story drastically changed. So    First of all, I'm a big fan of the original Final Fantasy VII game. I don't have time to play games nowadays so I really wanted to buy this remake for my son, but after reading the reviews from this website, I will definitely not.

    It's pretty clear that this remake is a scam, not full game (Midgar part only?), action game (No thanks), and worst part, story drastically changed.

    So basically, Squaresoft is selling a new Final Fantasy VII action game with a new story that covers only Midgar part as a "Remake"? (Fraudscam at its best.)    … Expand
  30. kleeptomaniac
    Apr 16, 2020
    3
    I enjoyed 90% percent of this game, until the ending happened and the writers decided they weren't making a remake anymore. Why did a remake people have been waiting for, for decades have to be ruined because of the writers massive ego.

    I wanted the original story of FF7 remade, not an alternate take or reimagining.
    **** you Nomura.
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 126 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 116 out of 126
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 126
  3. Negative: 0 out of 126
  1. GameMAG
    Sep 14, 2020
    90
    Final Fantasy VII Remake is the game we've been waiting for from Square Enix for so long. Atmospheric, interesting and exciting all your attention modern jRPG with an interesting story and spectacular battles. To achieve the ideal, the project only needs more even graphics and all the content from the original release. If you were waiting for a turn-based classic with new graphics you will most likely be disappointed, since the game has changed a lot. Everyone else is happy with the release of the first really powerful single-player release from the internal Square Enix studio for many years. Especially after the failure of Final Fantasy XV.
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  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.
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  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?
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