On March 2nd, Square-Enix surprised us with a demo of the upcoming, highly anticipated revisit of the beloved entry in the franchise, Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s cool that Square is giving fans a little gift considering the game was pushed to April. Despite the huge following, will fans accept the modern changes when it comes to the mechanics?
Final Fantasy VII was one of the original Playstation’s memorable titles released back in 1997, originally intended as a game for the Nintendo 64‘s scrapped CD addon, and its fanbase is still strong to this day–obviously. After additional games that tie-in with the main story–Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core–as well as the Advent Children movie, we are reintroduced to the game with what the Playstation 4 has to offer in terms of power and realism before the advent of the next generation of the Playstation 5.
One thing from this is there is finally voice acting, although a little different from what fans are used to hearing from Advent Children. We get to hear what Cloud says outside of the memes, as well as Barrett and the gang–and from someone who considers this a least favorite in the series, the voices are perfect! Although, the biggest thing about Final Fantasy VII we’ve learned so far is the battle system, where fans were familiarized with the ATB battle system in traditional Final Fantasy fashion.
There might be disappointment to some who are iffy of modern Square-Enix J-RPGs, with the most recent Final Fantasy XV taking inspiration from the “button smashing” in Kingdom Hearts, with an open world-style battle system. While FFXV was criticized for adapting to modern change (and driving a car around, earning the nicknames “Driving Simulator”, and even “Boy Band Simulator”), people who are loyal to FFVII seem to have forgotten about the “flaws” of the most recent game in the franchise and are praising the similar inclusion in FF7R, which makes FFXV fans disappointed in the blatant two-facedness, and the fact that FFXV could have had more to the story than what we were presented due to its “development hell”.
Final Fantasy VII never appealed to me, and more than two decades later, it still does not. However, thumbs up to Square-Enix for introducing a classic to a new generation, and perhaps give renewed interest to those–including present company–a renewed hope in converting the haters. However, due to the proposed multi-chapter installments of Final Fantasy VII Remake, it’s probably a better idea to wait for the finished product… whenever that will be.
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