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With a basin-sized sword on our backs, we help in slums, such as ecoterrorists, we fight a large corporation that ruthlessly exploits the planet, but if necessary, we spend hours rolling out many dice on time.
That’s pretty much the point of making a remake of an old and very successful classic.
Final Fantasy VII Remake deftly adapted the iconic Japanese RPG made 23 years ago to today’s requirements, with its stunning graphics and refurbished combat system that tells essentially the same story, but still expanded, though it often remains faithful the original in small details. This rework is as much for those who still consider the original as the best game in the world, as for those who are only now getting to know the world of Final Fantasy.
It was the most successful part of the series.
In movies, remakes, especially in Hollywood, generally don’t promise much: they’re more successful, but most of the time they don’t catch up with the original, radiate unimaginable, lack the nuances of old classics, or think again. in the wrong direction. The whole thing. The situation in the gaming industry isn’t that bad, even if we ignore the Tomb Raider-Doom line, which is basically more of a reboot, there is still Resident Evil 2, Shadow of the Colossus, or Black Mesa as recent positive examples.
However, you’re sure who might be surprised that one of 2020’s most anticipated and overdone games is a remake, plus one that proudly announces it in its title. However, the original Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, was the most successful piece in the series with 12 million copies sold. This took the cult series so far to new heights, opening one of the most important Japanese game series in the western market and making Japanese RPGs popular worldwide (later also released for PC after PlayStation). Some people started learning Japanese so they could play the following parts as soon as possible: At that time, the Japanese version came out with a good six-month lead over the English version.
Final Fantasies are never direct sequels to each other, although there were games in the series that had more separate numbered parts, they don’t even take place in one world, but they always bring recurring elements, well-established opponents, or just names for 1987, even released for Nintendo from the first part. The more parts a person plays, the more references and little details they can discover, but beyond the common ground, each piece was always characterized by spectacular graphics, a renewed game and a story that was faithful to the Japanese role-playing game.
The original Part 7, which has already arrived on the Sony PlayStation, has built such a large fan base compared to the following episodes that Square, which has since merged with Enix, tried to achieve success with various related games, movies lively and background even a few years later. . Many still demanded a revamp of the original, which was eroded by manufacturers for a time, making it an unpredictable job to bring a game of this size to today’s standard.
Then in 2015, the protagonist Cloud appeared in a video with his giant sword and it was announced that the remake would come.
While development was not entirely smooth: It was an external development team replaced, resources reallocated after the release of Kingdom Hearts III and even the final release date slipped five weeks, at last year’s E3, the director of the original game, this time in the remake After the presentation of Kitasze Josinori, who contributed as a producer, it already seemed that a great release was coming. Questions also arose when he became confident that the newly released game would actually cover only the first stage of the original, set in Midgar, but the creators promised to knead the 6-8 hour stage in a full game at once. old fans and new players will be happy too.
We can immerse ourselves in the world of slums
The most important question was how much did he manage to take over and recreate the very special atmosphere and diversity of the original game: it was very serious and touching at the same time, light and fun at times, mixed with cyberpunk and fantasy, futuristic dragons and robots, bioexperiments, perhaps at first Apparently, but in fact very strong, the characters experience serious personality development, one of the most iconic protagonists in the game’s history and, of course, the complex multi-layered story.
The world, which promises up to 100 hours of gameplay, was explored primarily by moving over predesigned backgrounds with comically rough figures reminiscent of the early 1990s in 3D. In engagements, the game switched to a separate battlefield, where more detailed models were used for split battles with spells, summons, and special abilities. Meanwhile, the creators were already testing how to take the game in the direction of a more cinematic effect with spectacular step animations cut out from time to time. On top of all this, they threw it all away with lots of fun mini-games.
Throughout the Remake, it seems that it was made by people who were very immersed in the original, and based on that, they were able to rethink and modernize their ideas. This is no coincidence, as the big names from the original production team have returned to the newly released game, which
it brings that particular humor very well.
New, more forced and boring parts are also added, but the feeling of satisfaction dominates much more during playback, which is also helped by the recycled original music.
For Final Fantasy VII Remake, the creators captured the original world and recreated it with today’s spectacular graphics, making each scene traceable and alive. Suddenly it unfolds before us, almost all the points seem to be as we could have imagined in the past. This time, if we want, we can take a closer look at the daily life of Midgar by going from the slums to the scary train cemetery, or to the Wall Market corresponding to the local party district, which is really useful with its flashlights . There were times when he simply walked and listened to the conversations of the characters that filled the city.
However, it is far from completely free to explore the city: just like in the original, the story progressed quite linearly in this part, the Remake only progresses within the frame. Therefore, no one should expect a freely navigable map like the one that was otherwise ambiguous, the greatest virtue of Final Fantasy XV released in late 2016.
This, in turn, also means that the creators have preserved the main points of the original story, with the same twists and turns of our team beginning to fight against the great company, and then developing a much more complex image than It seems. Meanwhile, the larger space provides an opportunity to better deploy the main characters in Midgar, and in new situations we meet the elite soldier, a distant cloud, a barrel with a machine gun in one hand, but capable of anything for his Little girl, Tifa and Aerith, always smiling but carrying a heavy burden on their shoulders. Alongside them, several old and new supporting characters also have their own thread in the story.
The materials remained, but the fight was spinning.
While moving to a spectacular new environment, the main historical threads and emotional aspects also remained, the gameplay was completely reformed. The original turn-based, sliding and battles have been replaced by a hybrid system in which the fight is carried out in real time, but you can slow down the action at any time by selecting a spell or special combat move from the menu once it is finished. you have loaded the required action bar.
They all have a unique style, Cloud uses two-handed swords, Barret attacks with hand-mounted machine guns, Tifa is a bare-handed martial artist, while Aerith essentially plays the role of a magician. The wolf and tiger mix Red XIII also returns as an old favorite, but only enters battles as a guest character. There may be up to three of the four upgradeable characters in our team’s battles at once, but this is also broken down by the game as the story unfolds. In battles, we control one main character, the others do their thing automatically, but you can switch to them at any time and give orders to all the other characters anyway if you want them to use any special abilities.
All characters have their own special attack, while the other abilities can be recovered using weapons and a one-to-one matrix system from the original. Materials that appear as brightly colored balls at first can be linked to weapons or equipment: some allow spells, others change the abilities of another material (for example, extend the effect of a spell to multiple enemies) or simply increase the attributes of a character. Although the fight has become much faster, you have to play chess with specially upgradeable materials like you used to, because you can’t run the game with one tactic.
What is also new is that each weapon also offers separate combination options, as we can activate a series of bonuses in each of them, which mainly improves one of our statistics. On the one hand, this also ensures that even the first basic weapon can be used at the end of the game, and on the other hand, you have to think in front of certain main opponents about what additional ability you are likely to achieve. Finally, the terribly slow but strong later limits, and the subversions that can be evoked with the matter, also do a good service in some points. The most spectacular elements of fighting are when the special creatures and deities, Ifrit, Shiva, etc., are well known from the Final Fantasy series. It also goes into combat for a while.
It is worth learning everything thoroughly because the game is usually challenging enough to fight. There are also easy and called classic modes (the latter is the same as easy, but all the characters attack automatically, we only need to give instructions for special abilities), but these are only recommended if one does not want to play a significant part of the game. bother with fights.
Let’s roll some dice or roll!
The missions and an important part of the main story are also linked to the battles, but other types of side missions also emerge to contribute to a better understanding of certain neighborhoods or characters. We can help you find lost Chocobos (the iconic returning Final Fantasy birds that serve as horses), squeeze medications from various ingredients, or treat a hidden treasure. Each location has only a handful of side quests, but they often consist of multiple parts and at least don’t get completely repetitive.
There is also a mission that is activated depending on what response we have given in a situation in the past. This is because there are several points in the game where we have the decision in a conversation, and this can influence how subsequent events will unfold or which character will be present in a situation; In this way, even the creators remembered the multiplayer dating scene from the original game. There aren’t as many secret items, materials, weapons in the series, but we can still deal with ultra-heavy optional bosses.
And, of course, there are the mini-games that have become a trademark of Final Fantasy, of which there were many good things in the original 7, thanks in part to a comprehensive casino. So far, the story is out of the question, but the engine and battlefield minigame are several times an integral part of the main thread, just as we’ll have to practice dancing. Also, there are elaborate darts, the squatting returns imaginatively, the pull-ups are especially uncomfortable in the end, while at Whack-a-Box we have to roll the dice with different points in time.
There is still a long way to go
The creators have promised in advance that the extended story will only expose a full game in this city, and it does: There are 40 hours in the game by default, but I ended up with 70 hours, along with the minigames, thoroughly exploring everything. The original departure from the city was only part of the leadership, but now its twists and turns work perfectly fine, the characters develop very well and it also has a climax:
Then it made sense to divide the original into several parts.
In the end, one only regrets that now nothing is known about what is coming. Sure, there will be a sequel, but Square hasn’t even confirmed exactly how many more parts it’s planning and when they might arrive. Most of the guesses, along with this first one, are expected to total three parts, and the next one is already on PlayStation 5.
Regardless, sales are on the rise: In addition to nostalgia and positive reviews, closures introduced worldwide may play a role: 3.5 million copies of the game disappeared in three days, making it one of the exclusive games PlayStation 4 other platform) is already a record holder.
(Cover image: Square Enix)
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