I'm an 80's child and the original FF7 was the defining game of my childhood, so to say I'm a big fan is an understatement. When the remake was announced I could not wait, here's my take on the good and not so good bits....... Fight System: Brilliant combination of real time action (I first saw this in Parasite Eve) but you can still stop the action to select individual commands for the team so it also thankfully retains the original turn based feel too. Love the pressure and stagger elements, it really adds to the intensity of battle, especially the longer boss battles. Summons: Sadly underwhelming and feel underpowered. In the original summons were a big deal and when they appeared they stole the show. Most of the time I used summons in the remake they added little value and I forgot they were even there until their final attack. Disappointing 🙁 Story: True to the original, including added depth. Cut Scenes: Some are painfully long and awkward, which left me desperately mashing the X button to skip through the mundane dialogue, complete with what appeared to me to be totally random gasps of 'oh', 'uh' and 'ah'. I think these gasps and moans are intended to recapture the drama of the scene with a retro feel, but for me they just sounded like odd sex noises. Thankfully there is a skip option. Characters: Beautifully recreated and true to their original personas. Love them all. Linear Gameplay: One of the best things about the original for me was the open world free roam, do anything in any order. Part 1 of the remake is very linear, save for a couple of times when you can smash the environment and combat simulator to beef up your team. I worry that because the remake is being released in parts, each release will be a linear play through of a particular section of the original story, like midgar in this release. Unless they open it up into a world map at some point, it will lose a massive appeal for me. They could easily get around this by introducing the world map in part 2 with CID's airship, but making certain areas of the world map inaccessible until later in the game or only when certain criteria is fulfilled (like the different coloured chocobos). If they get this wrong it will ruin it for me personally. Music: Absolutely devine. I was worried early on when I didn't recognise much of the soundtrack, but as the game went on stunning remastered variants of the best loved tunes came pumping back to life and really complimented the onscreen action. Personal favourites are still the fight theme and boss battle theme, superb. Graphics: Beautiful, that's all. Mini Games: Most are pointless, but offer some decent rewards. This was also true of the original so it was just about tolerable for the 100% completion tag. Backstory: A bit more explanation about the origins of Sephiroth and Zack would have been nice for those new to the game who have not played the original FF7 or Crisis Core. VR Battle Simulator: Nice addition and great way to obtain some sweet materia. Still on the fence about gaining summons this way, there was something quite satisfying about finally reaching the hard to get red orb visible in the environment that you knew was a summon, but not which one. Maybe in open world map there will be some in the environment? Hard Mode Battle Simulator: Yeah no shit! Looking forward to ruby weapon. Materia: Faithfully recreated and easy to use and level up. Weapons: Nice selection and great level up system. Could have been a bit more variation in abilities, I ended up sticking with one and not bothering even levelling up the others as there was no point. All in All: A really polished remake that retains all the appeal (and irritations) of the original game. I just hope they get the open world map up and running for part 2.
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