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The music is, of course perfect. If you love the original soundtrack, you’ll love this one. Honestly no complaints or criticisms there.

The story is, for the most part the same as the original Midgar section. Or I should say, it contains most of the same story beats. However, as mentioned earlier, there are many new tales interwoven, to help flesh things out. Some things work, others come across purely as a way to increase length, but overall, there’s still enough quality new stuff there that even a fan who knows Final Fantasy VII inside and out will find something to enjoy. There is one massive elephant in the room though, and that is the ending. I did not like the ending at all! Without giving any spoilers, I felt it was poorly written, convoluted the plot and generally just changes way too much. Of course, I wasn’t expecting exactly the same ending as the original Midgar section, I mean, we want the game to still stand on its own without the need for a big ‘To be Continued’ plastered across the screen (though they basically did that anyway), but here, too much is left unanswered. Too many elements from the original classic are suddenly, inextricably altered and not for the better. Again, I really want to avoid spoilers, so I can’t talk about specifics, but I honestly doubt that many fans of the original will be particularly pleased with how the last 20 minutes pan out. The ending feels like something straight out of Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy XIII-2. I will say that due to some of the changes it makes, or at least suggests, I have a strong feeling that future instalments could stray even further from the source material and eventually what made the original so great. At times, it feels more closely connected to Advent Children than it necessarily does the first title. I just hope that we don’t end up with a Kingdom Hearts deal, where ten years from now, we’ll finally get “Remake 3” and even then it doesn’t really finish things off. Final Fantasy VII-2 ReDirge 0.877: A momentary Re;Birth Advent /3 Core Days, here we come! Was all of this enough to turn me off the game or ongoing series entirely? No way! But it did leave an ever so slightly aspartic taste in my mouth. By the end of it all, the game certainly feels more like a ‘reboot’, or rather a ‘reimagining’ than a straight up remake. I guess there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but it’ll be interesting to see what other changes they make in the future.

I have left the gameplay for last - mostly because I feel rather ambivalent towards it in general. If you’ve given the recent Demo a try, you’ll mostly know what to expect. I’m a purist, I wanted the more traditional turn-based gameplay of old. But, the new action based style actually works very well. It’s not a pure action game, and the way it handles spells and abilities feels more like a traditional RPG, which I loved. However, the actual action gameplay side of things can be a little clunky. When it works, it just works and feels great and is surprisingly tactical. You can rarely just go into a battle and purely mash square. But when there are a multitude of enemies on screen, it does become a little awkward and the camera does not always work as you’d like.

The game is not particularly difficult (on ‘Normal’), at least I didn’t think so. ‘Hard’ mode (as well as a ‘Chapter Select’) does unlock once you complete the game, but I haven’t tried that out yet. There is the occasional battle that will prove more troublesome, but none that I ever found to be much of an obstacle. I have read a number of people found it more difficult so, and I think this goes without saying, your mileage may vary. If I had to compare it to anything, I’d say that the battle system reminds me of a cross between FFXV, Lightning Returns: FFXIII and Kingdom Hearts. One insignificant nit-pick – you can’t jump. I want to jump dammit. Give me that privilege!

Ultimately, despite my quibbles, Final Fantasy VII Remake is still a good game, but that’s mostly due to the merits of the original. Is it perfect? Definitely not. Does it fully recapture the magic of that first FFVII experience? No. But it does succeed in making me excited for the series (again). The original story is still there and as good as ever, though it is, in my opinion, terribly padded, when it never needed to be. The excuse that the remake would not be able to fit into a single release is simply unfounded. Take away much of the unnecessary filler and you have a relatively short game – still worth a purchase, certainly – that should have been packaged with the rest of the story. Will this be a Hobbit situation? Quite probably - I liked An Unexpected Journey, and it all went downhill from there! I don’t know how the Remake sequels will be, but I can’t wait to find out!

-Julia