ASH PLAYS: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Cloud and the gang returns 13 years later and this is something fans have been waiting for, including myself eagerly, for a long time now. There were so many questions we all had waiting on this game, why is it only in Midgar? Where are the other two discs worth of the game? Well let me explain why, this all makes perfect sense now.

I spent a good 50+ hours on my first playthrough and if I said I wasn’t filled with joy and nostalgia I would be lying, this is easily one of my favourite game series ever since a kid so I really had a lot of worry how this game would play out. As an overview of the story for fans or newcomers, Midgar is the capital city in the world of Gaia and power base of Shinra Electric Power Company. Long story short, Shinra is hurting the planet and eco terrorists Avalanche want to stop Shinra from hurting it. Childhood friends Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart meet again and Tifa brings Cloud (an ex-solider of Shinra) into the gang to help earn money as a merc. Events happen, without any spoilers, and leads the gang down different connecting paths such as stopping Sephiroth, a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet.

So? We are only in Midgar for this remake, fear not. The visuals and depth this instalment takes players is truly incredible and I was amazed how much detail of the story would shine in this 2020 edition, completely staying true to the original and showing favourite characters in all their glory with the spot on personality traits and emotions. Not for one moment did I take a second to think about the original character, I instantly knew this was how this character would be and how their role would play out in the game. Cloud as reserved as expected, Barret as stubborn as possible, Wedge, Biggs, Jesse all captured incredibly and so on, the characters have been developed perfectly and character development that maybe the original didn’t give enough time to grow. I felt myself avoiding the story and just wandering around and exploring Midgar just to see how all these images of the original and remake would link up and that in itself is an amazing experience.

Sound design per usual for Square Enix is above most games in its genre and I’d even go as far as outside of the genre as well. Basically what you’re buying is disc one of the original, which of course I know you can slam through it in short time, but this really has so much to offer. Exploring, side quests, missions, beautiful cut scenes, collecting, grinding. 50 hours in and I still was left feeling like I could play more.

Combat system, well I feel like Square Enix have finally found their modern day combat system and I’m an old school guy for Final Fantasy. I’m all for the turn based action, this didn’t bother me in the slightest with this new system. I want to firstly say Final Fantasy 15 has a lot to thank for this, I thoroughly enjoyed 15 and understand some didn’t but without this game I don’t think Square Enix would have crafted the perfect blend for this day and age.

Real time with a blend of ATB and slow down time/stop time to select each character’s next move or maybe you want to smash the square button until everything is dead and that is also fine. The way this game found ways to utilise all of the combat systems was smart, same again using some of FF15 as a reference and others such as 13, but learning the enemy, staggering the enemy, finding its weakness and finding your strongest points through your squad to attack, how stylish the combat becomes further into the game when abilities and magic starts to improve is stunning! I found myself setting every member to make the highest stagger percentage and biggest combinations which in itself was a challenge and damn right cool to see it pulled off. If you’re a massive fan of the original don’t worry, this remake doesn’t step on its toes, but it adds a very fun new addition which utilises the original combat very well.

So if the story wasn’t enough or hearing how delightful the combat is, then wait till you hear this, side quests do not feel like boring old typical do this and do that! Even though they may not be the longest quests, they’re important. They show off the heart of Midgar more impressively than the actual main quests, the nostalgia seeing names you’re familiar with or mini games in places you know better than you think. These side quests also affect the storyline which is another reason I have to praise this game so highly as Square Enix have understood people want the rest of the game but have managed to keep us busy enough till part two arrives, saying certain things to characters, completing all of the side questions, completing none of them or even doing one or two effects your playthrough which gives this more replay value.

Battle intel I found myself getting obsessed with I wanted all the material, I wanted all the summons including miss-able ones. Yes the summons look out of this world and still remain the coolest guardians in games to this date, I wanted to complete every task which could vary from staggering eight different monsters or using unique abilities, stagger 300% and so on but this is necessary if you want to reach that classic OP feeling in Final Fantasy. Battle simulations to test your skills, or the coliseum at Wall Market, collectable weapons, collectable music of all our favourite theme tunes and more are worth the time for nostalgia.

If that wasn’t enough, the game provides a New Game+ mode and hard difficulty to grind out any last collectables or tempt to take on Bahumat, but you get the idea, there is simply so much to get through it is very clear why this is only up to the end of Midgar, which if each instalment gives us this much detail and depth into the game I will happily be playing each instalment. Plus, am I the only one that thinks it’s cool we are getting three discs? Anyway, I really took my time playing through this, searching high and low to not miss anything, listening to every conversation, looking down every street, alleyway, shop and I didn’t feel an inch of disappointment. I love Final Fantasy, I love Square Enix for understanding what we wanted but giving it a fresh twist without taking away what we loved about FF7 so much.

Rating: 10/10

And that rounds off our next guest column from Ash! Be sure to follow Ash on his socials and stay tuned to Distorted Sound next as we bring our next column in our Ash Plays series!