A remade Final Fantasy VII for a new generation

One of the most recognized RPGs in the gaming world, Final Fantasy VII, debuted a newer, remade version last week as I type. (Note - this entry has no spoilers)

It is one of the most anticipated titles in all of not only the Final Fantasy series but also of any game.

The original Final Fantasy VII was my first ever RPG - and I played it, initially, on the PC. It was released in 1998, a year after the PS1 version debuted to spectacular reviews. The PC conversion was not quite perfect, and my PC had no Voodoo Graphics card at the time - it was a slow Pentium II using a base graphics card, with little 3D capability (I had to buy a somewhat better ATI card - this was before AMD acquired ATI Technologies - to replace it). It somewhat struggled to play the game but I was able to manage.

The blocky textures and the characters are telltale signs that Final Fantasy VII was initially going to be released for the Nintendo 64 - but, space limitations of the cartridge space forced Square (then called Squaresoft - before the Enix merger) to bring it to Sony’s new PlayStation console. The game is considered a best seller and one of the best games ever on the Sony PlayStation.

The remade version was years in the making. It started with a tech demo (less than a minute) for the PS3, and it was not a pre-rendered video - it is a tech demo that demonstrated the power of the PS3’s graphics. Fans of FF7 really wanted a remade game for the PS3, and Square at the time - now Square Enix - was very hesitant to do one - until recent developments.

The remake was teased in 2015. First teased footage came out in 2016, and not until E3 2019 was there a demo ready to roll - demos rolled out from E3 and PAX conventions showed how the game matured in its development, compared to the demo that went out on the PS Network and eventually to the game itself. The textures on the PSN demo looked sharper and detailed, with text and UI changes - and the models were more detailed. In the remake, Cloud looked more like the mako-infused SOLDIER that he is, and Barret has a mixed race look. Tifa and Aerith look like true women who can fight, with Aerith being the role of being a healer DPS. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie have a deeper role, even though they are NPCs.

When Square Enix announced the remake of FF7, they did say that it was only the “first chapter” of the story. Everyone had to know that this was only one of a few parts. It is a complete game, but not a complete story. The complete story will eventually be unfolded as development of the newer FF7’s Part 2 continues. Nearly 50 hours into Part 1 of the Remake, and I can see why this had to be split into more than one or two parts. Some of the “dungeons” that would have taken less detailed work in the original blocky textures and all) are now longer.

Square has a hit with the remake. Many veterans will love the fleshed out storyline, even though it is just one chapter. Only diehards are not going to be happy with how disjointed the story is.