[First Impression] Final Fantasy VII Remake

Cloud is back, definitely.

Final Fantasy, a game series by Square Enix, one that is heavily well received by video game players in general. Even when it was decades ago, older Final Fantasy games are still being played and crowned one of the best made games series of all time. A prime example of this would be Final Fantasy VII, which is getting a remake, and hell it is something it deserves, and with all the teasers and gameplay Square Enix is showing us, ooh! Holy macaroni are we going to heaven really soon! Well, this is JJ-kun of The Gamers Camp, as a contributor for When in Manila Plays, bringing you my first impression of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a reimagining of the classic game Final Fantasy VII released for the PlayStation 1 in January of 1997, developed and published by Square Enix, then called Square Soft. Still, well received by a lot of people, it gained enough attention to have a remake for the PlayStation 4 and will be released for the said console on April 10th, 2020 with a timed exclusivity until the same day of 2021.

From very limited polygons, to millions of polygons, the graphical update from Final Fantasy VII to Final Fantasy VII Remake is massive. I could look and play this game all day. From the body, to the clothes, to the hair, and the facial aesthetics, man… If I see anyone not falling in love with this game, may they be an old classic player or a newcomer to Final Fantasy VII, I honestly don’t know what I would be able to do to that person.

Particles and littlest of the details come out in the actual gameplay, may it be in the field or when you are battling enemies. It makes the attacks more than what it looks without the particles.

On the original version, this game is a turn-based RPG, where you just select your course of action to attack the enemies and opponents, however, for the Remake, it is now an action RPG, similar to the style of Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts. It is really quite interesting as they changed the gameplay to be similar to the style of Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts, whereas other game remakes such as Pokemon remakes like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and its remakes doesn’t really change its genre and gameplay, but rather updates on it instead.

As a person who loves Action RPG more than anything, yeah, I hate turn-based RPG aside from Pokemon, sue me, I loved the change, but even when they changed it to action-RPG, there is a Classic Mode for those who prefer the old controls from the original game. In this mode, Cloud and the other characters would attack automatically so you can focus on the commands option like using items and spells, and that is really interesting that they didn’t just remake the game but also thought of those who previously played the original version, something a lot of developers don’t look into.

The demo will walk you through the first part of Final Fantasy VII where Cloud and the others would destroy the Mako Reactor 1. Oh! Before I forget, in the original version, you may finish this part of the game in less than 20 minutes or so, but in the demo, it lasts for 1 hour, only for that part… Man, it makes you think how big and long the game on full release is!

Well, that pretty much sums up everything about my first impression of Final Fantasy VII Remake, based on the demo, which we all know does not represent the final game. However, what my point here is that, if the demo alone is, I’m not gonna lie, already a 9/10, I wonder how much more would it be for the full game when it releases on April 10th, 2020? And we have to consider that the game is also more than 100gigabytes in size and will make use of 2 Blu-Ray Discs. That is something to look forward to. To end this, I just would like to say one thing: 

This game is literally the definition of what it means to have a remake.

Did you guys like my first impression of Final Fantasy VII Remake? If you did, make sure you check out my channel where I post videos similar to this one and my Facebook page where I constantly go live playing your favorite video games that and my YouTube channel.

Until then guys, see you soon!