Final Fantasy VII Remake End Review

 I finally finished the FFVII Remake that I got with PS Plus.

Pros: This game focuses on the Midgar chapter of the game only which allows for Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge to get more characterization. Jessie is by far the best performance of the three.

Mixed: The combat. I tried playing the Classic version in the demo and did not like it. So I set it on Easy. I figured the combat out after I played Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. FFVII Remake literally uses the same system but with an active battle system. In HNmk2, you use AP points to attack and do combos to increase an SP meter which can then be used with a combination of AP and SP to activate abilities and items. This usually means you won't be able to use items or abilities until your second turn. In FFVIIR, you do the same thing in real time to increase the ATB meter to get ATB bars to perform commands. With MP being another limiting factor. It is hack and slash with command interrupts. Once I understood the combat it was much more enjoyable, but it took a long time to get there, like Chapter 8 or so.

I don't understand the need to make every weapon have its own sphere grid. Materia alone was where you spent a lot of time in the original. We didn't need more fiddly bits. On the plus side, I figured out late you can select all the materia up abilities then just set the weapon to auto to speed things up. I just wish I saw that way earlier in the game.

Cons: Mini-game-itis. This starts with drunken darts simulator in 7th Heaven and continues with a brutal sequence of mini-games in Sector 6 Wall Market. Some of my least favorite sequences are the squat and armlift exercises. And the rhythm mini-game which ended with Aerith saying, "Well at least you tried." I was so tired of these mini-games I just stopped playing for a year.

This game is long, like I spent 50 hours but it felt like 100 hours with 18 different chapters and a lot of padding in terms of mini-games and extra side quests.

I hate, hate, hate the fight with the giant 6 wheeler car while Cloud is on the motorbike. No healing at all from the truck. Meanwhile you need to dodge and weave and try to slash the tires of the six wheeler with a limited armor pool on the bike. I died like two or three times in a row before I finally won.

The story adds in the whispers and a free will versus fate/destiny subplot that it just did not need. It feels like every side story, every movie, and every retelling of this tale just makes the plot even murkier and less interesting.

I am glad I paid like 2.50 for this rather than 60 (PS Plus subscription is like 60/12 = 5 dollars a month, so each game is 2.50. Don't lie to yourself and say it was free, it was not). I have no desire to buy a PS5 to continue the tale.