Note: The following piece contains intermittent story spoilers for Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Final Fantasy VII was lightning in a bottle. When the ground-breaking JRPG released in 1997, it elevated the entire genre with it. FF VII was a game that introduced millions of players to the idea of following a story with characters, helping popularize role playing games in the West. While Squaresoft was enjoying a steady rise in popularity with a consistent stream of hits such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Super Mario RPG, it was Final Fantasy VII that truly brought Square into the mainstream and cemented them as the premiere Japanese Role Playing Game (or JRPG) developer and publisher of the late ‘90s and 2000s. Final Fantasy VII took players on an emotional, high-stakes journey that was unlike anything else on the market at the time. Its groundbreaking legacy makes it one of the most important video games of its era.

But a lot’s changed since 1997. In 2003, Squaresoft ended up merging with then-rival Enix after the box office bomb Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had put its financial toll on the company. Moreover, many key staff, most notably including Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, left the company during this period. Squaresoft, now known as Square Enix, had become a different company. While the publisher was still able to produce hits such as Dragon Quest VIII and Kingdom Hearts II, it was the mainline Final Fantasy series that struggled to find its footing with this new era of Square Enix.

Final Fantasy XII, XIII, XIV, and XV all had publicly known development struggles in some capacity. Final Fantasy XII changed directors, giving the game an exceptionally long development cycle and a relatively mixed reception upon launch. The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy is perhaps the most infamous chapter in Square Enix’s young history, as the trilogy of games represented the company being disconnected from what their longtime fans wanted. A series once renowned on incorporating cinematic elements into the role-playing formula was leaving far less room for player expression and playstyle creativity, as the FF XIII trilogy has a notable focus on managing automation, rather than having direct control of a party.

While Final Fantasy XIV is now seen as one of the most successful MMORPGs ever, it was initially a different story. Its original development was plagued by extremely poor direction and communication, leading to a launch that Square Enix would later have to publicly apologize for. Final Fantasy XV had a ten year gap between its original reveal as Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the final game’s eventual launch, which was arguably unrecognizable from the game’s original trailer. While FF XV ended up as a solid Action RPG despite its incredibly long, rough development cycle, it still had notable issues in regard to pacing and some aspects of its combat design that held it back from true greatness.

The reason as to why I feel the need to bring up the recent history of mainline Final Fantasy titles is because it initially seemed like Final Fantasy VII Remake would continue the trend of modern mainline Final Fantasy games: an early announcement, publicly known issues about the game’s development, and a concerningly large gap of time between announcement and release. Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced at E3 2015 to universal hype. The game’s reveal is arguably one of the most magical, exciting announcements in the event’s history. Longtime Final Fantasy fans were getting what they wanted - a revisit to the world of Final Fantasy VII with a modern JRPG coat of paint and a greater production value to fully realize the game’s ambitious story and world.

This excitement would only continue later in 2015, as another trailer for the game was shown at PlayStation Experience in December. The trailer provided a look at gameplay, with exploration, combat, in-game cutscenes, and voice acting being shown off. While the trailer showed the game having noticeable dips in performance, the trailer was enough to convince fans that Final Fantasy VII Remake was, in fact, a real video game that was actually going to release at some point.

What followed was an unsettling silence. 2016 passed by without any news on the game. In 2017, something incredibly worrisome was discovered by the public: Final Fantasy VII Remake was switching developers from CyberConnect2 to in-house at Square Enix, with development essentially being restarted from scratch. The news was disappointing and worrying to fans and journalists alike. FF VII Remake was likely a long ways away if development was starting over. It was during this period that people began wondering if this game would simply continue the trend of mainline Final Fantasy titles with a long, troubled development cycle resulting in an ostensibly flawed final product.

But what was the difference between a game like Final Fantasy XV ending up with poor qualities versus Final Fantasy VII Remake ending up with poor qualities due to its troubled development? FF VII Remake had a legacy that it directly had to live up to. Final Fantasy VII is one of Square Enix’s most successful games of all time, in additional to the title being one of the most influential games of all time. If they were to remake the game, only to have the final product come out subpar, not only would fans be disappointed that a new Final Fantasy game would fall short of expectations, but fans once inspired and positively impacted by the original Final Fantasy VII would feel cheated that a recreation of such an important game failed to do justice to the original game’s legacy.

More than any other title that they had worked on before, Square Enix could not afford to screw up Final Fantasy VII Remake. A lot of expectations were riding on this project, and the developers at Square Enix were keenly aware of that. It would certainly have built up a lot of pressure for the team working on the game, but then, a developer has to expect to face pressure when tackling a project that aims to modernize a groundbreaking title in the first place.

While there was a lot of skepticism about the game’s quality, there were reasons to be hopeful that Square Enix could somehow pull through. Square Enix very smartly decided to go silent on the game until they were ready to show the game when it was very close to what the final product would look like. Moreover, Final Fantasy XV, while definitely having flaws, was still significantly better than most other games with 10+ year development cycles and had genuinely great aspects to it. Final Fantasy XIV, after its rough launch, gradually became more and more appreciated and adored by fans as the game’s continuous support and new expansions proved that developers at Square Enix were more than willing to listen to fan feedback. Other titles at Square Enix such as World of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest XI, and Octopath Traveler proved that Square Enix still had a lot of talent, promise, and willingness to listen to fans.

The anticipation leading up to Final Fantasy VII Remake can best be described as “cautious excitement”. Fans of the original game and fans of JRPGs in general obviously wanted the game to turn out great, but there was no concrete reason yet to be excited for the game. That would change at E3 2019 - four years after the game’s initial announcement. This was the first time that the public had seen the game since development of the game had moved in-house. As such, Square Enix had everything to prove with their presentation of the game at this event had everything to prove. Square Enix needed to show Final Fantasy VII Remake in a good light.

Showing Final Fantasy VII Remake in a good light at E3 2019 is likely an understatement for what Square Enix accomplished with their showing of the game at E3 2019. The game looked remarkable, with fans reacting incredibly positively to the game’s action combat that smartly incorporated ATB elements from the original game to cast magic, use items, and perform stronger, special attacks. The production value was insane, with stellar animations, music, voice acting, and character designs across the board. Moreover, the game’s tone felt in spirit with the original game, and less like the divisive Compellation of Final Fantasy VII projects (i.e. Advent Children, Before Crisis, etc.). Suffice to say, a lot of worries that fans had about the game were immediately put to rest. The cautious excitement turned into genuine excitement and positive anticipation for the game to release.

With a March 2020 release date (later pushed to April 2020 for additional time for the development team to polish the game), the narrative had now completely shifted on Final Fantasy VII Remake. Not only did this game appear really, really good despite switching developers mid-cycle, but it genuinely looked like it would respect the original game’s legacy while providing something exciting, new, and fun.

Months rolled by as excitement for the game continued to build. April 2020 came around. People around the globe were eager to play video games more than ever due to lockdown restrictions being put in place as the pandemic impacted more and more areas of the world. The stage was set for millions of people to play Final Fantasy VII Remake at launch. As it released, Remake needed to provide entertainment in a critical time in addition to living to the expectations set by the legacy of the original Final Fantasy VII while also living up to the game’s own hype that it had created. As the game landed in people’s hands, it became immediately apparent that Square Enix had succeeded in creating a special game that, while perhaps taking a direction that some would take issue with, is something that instills a new hope and optimism for the developer’s future.

I have a personal appreciation for the Final Fantasy franchise. Like so many other people, the Final Fantasy series of games introduced me to the landscape of JRPGs, with some entries in the series, namely Final Fantasy IX and X, being some of my favorite games of all time. I enjoy most titles within the series while still acknowledging the flaws of certain titles. It was difficult to watch the franchise struggle to find its footing in the mid 2000s and early 2010s, as many Final Fantasy games were failing to meet fan expectations due to a lack of listening to what players wanted and poor communication on Square Enix’s end. I, like so many other fans of Square Enix’s IPs, hoped to see the company return to greatness in some capacity. Square Enix was and is never going to be the company that they were in the ‘90s, but I’ve firmly believed throughout the 2010s that they still had the potential and capability of producing great games. While I primarily turned to JRPG offerings from Atlus, Bandai Namco, and Nintendo during the 2010s, I was quietly optimistic that Square Enix would one day turn around and begin creating more exciting games that provided fans with RPGs that were exciting and fun to play.

Throughout the decade, they began taking the right steps for me. Titles like Bravely Default and Final Fantasy XV had unmistakable flaws that I took issue with, but I could see that the company was making an effort to improve and grow from where they had been earlier in the decade. I wanted Square Enix and the Final Fantasy franchise to return to delivering some of the best RPGs on the market eventually. The reason that I bring this up is because it was Final Fantasy VII Remake that truly convinced me that Square Enix very well may be headed in a direction that I feel may put them in a new era of producing a consistent stream of great games once again.

I feel that Final Fantasy VII Remake is the best title in the Final Fantasy series since 2001’s Final Fantasy X. In addition, I look back on my time with Final Fantasy VII Remake incredibly fondly to the point that I genuinely consider to be one of the greatest Japanese Action RPGs of the last decade. In spite of the immense pressure and expectations placed on them, the development team at Square Enix delivered something truly special in my eyes - something that makes me genuinely excited for future Square Enix titles (namely the likes of Final Fantasy XVI and future installments of Final Fantasy VII Remake). There are flaws with the game just like any other, but this is a game where I feel the overall strengths of the game far outweigh the severity of its issues. It’s worth noting that I got the platinum trophy on both PS4 and PS5 - an effort that I rarely undertake -, with a combined total of about 130 hours put into the game as of writing.

With that said, I want to use this piece as a means of discussing my overall thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake and what made me enjoy the game as much as I did. After an assessment and analysis of the title, I want to then continue in a discussion on the exciting future suggested by Final Fantasy VII Remake and the unprecedented, unknown approach of future installments of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project.

Let’s dive into what exactly makes Final Fantasy VII Remake stand as one of the greatest Action RPGs of the decade.

Personal Hopes for Final Fantasy VII Remake Prior to its Release

Before I can fully talk about the remake, I feel the need to bring up my personal feelings about the original 1997 JRPG. Final Fantasy VII was a game I had initially only watched my brother play, as I often thought of it as a game “not allowed” for me. As such, my first experiences with the series wouldn’t occur until I picked up Final Fantasy IX. After falling in love with the likes of FF VIII, IX, and X at a young age, I eventually went back and played FF VII, after being familiar with the game through watching my brother play it when I was younger.

As such, I knew a fair number of plot details prior to playing the game for the first time. This includes perhaps the most spoiled event in the history of the medium of video games - Aerith’s death at the end of Disc 1. This moment left shockwaves in its player base at the time because story-important playable characters being killed off was something rarely done before - certainly never before in a game with as much popularity as FF VII. However, due to knowing this spoiler before playing the game for the first time,]my entire perception of Aerith’s character throughout my time of Final Fantasy VII was clouded. Knowing that Aerith was a character with a doomed fate, I inherently didn’t invest much in her character, both emotionally and mechanically.

It didn’t help that this wasn’t specifically hard to do. I’ve always failed to understand what made people get so attached to Aerith’s character in the original Final Fantasy VII. She doesn’t get too many chances for her character to shine and resonate compared to other characters from my perspective. I personally feel that the only playable characters that have enough development to get emotionally invested with in the original Final Fantasy VII include Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and to a lesser extent, Cid. Aerith simply doesn’t have as much of a character arc to latch onto in the original game, making her a comparatively weak character. While her role in the story is integral to the overall story, especially in the latter half of the game, I never felt like there was a huge hole left by her absence.

An aspect of Final Fantasy VII that did Aerith’s character no particular favors is that in Final Fantasy VII, most characters are mechanically very similar to one another. Some characters have slight differences in stats, but the primary difference between playable characters in the original game were what Limit Breaks they could perform and what weapons they could use. Aerith’s Limit Breaks are all support-focused abilities that are helpful, but she’s offset by weapons and stat differences that cause her to have worse physical strength, meaning that she primarily serves a role in casting magic (though, again, her magic stat isn’t significantly better than that of other characters). As such, I didn’t have much of a reason to want to use Aerith in battles when other characters had more offensive Limit Breaks and stronger weapon variants.

My first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII as a child was filled with an indifference towards Aerith as a character and party member. But as she served a very important role in the arc and central themes of the story, I was left really wanting to like her as a character more than I actually did. Even as years have progressed and my perspective on the original Final Fantasy VII has grown and developed, I still don’t feel like Aerith’s character is explored as well as it could have been in the original title. What doesn’t help is that Aerith’s appearances in other media (such as Kingdom Hearts, Advent Children, etc.) didn’t do anything productive for her character. Square Enix made Aerith an angelic figure, which made her feel more like a symbol than a character.

My biggest wish with Final Fantasy VII Remake since its announcement was for the game to realize Aerith’s character in a much better way. While I obviously wanted every playable character and some side characters to get more screen time and be explored and developed more, I feel that a remake presented a perfect opportunity to fully realize her character and make me care about her in a way that the original game wasn’t capable of doing. Other characters such as Cait Sith (or Reeve), Cid, Red XIII, Yuffie, and Vincent could all benefit from more expansion and development, but Aerith was the character that I felt truly needed to be developed more than any other character in order for the themes of the overall game to hit as hard as possible. This was what I wanted more than anything out of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

As for the rest of my experience with Final Fantasy VII and what I wanted from Remake before its release, I mainly just wanted to see materia, FF VII’s magic and ability progression system, return and be expanded upon in addition to making different playable characters feel more distinct from one another. I like Final Fantasy VII quite a bit, however I feel like I don’t enjoy the game as much as some because of how interchangeable a lot of the characters feel, mechanically speaking. Making your team of three party members never quite feels it requires you to factor in what unique traits each party member brings to the table like you would in other titles in the genre. While other JRPGs and indeed other Final Fantasy games have jobs/classes to differentiate what certain characters are capable of, FF VII allows characters to serve whatever role that the player wishes. In some ways, this is liberating and prevents characters from being put in an easily identifiable box, but in other ways, it makes every character feel interchangeable and indistinct, gameplay-wise.

I wanted Final Fantasy VII Remake to make characters feel more diverse from one another. I wanted to have a reason to play as a certain character versus another, while still retaining the excellent materia system in conjunction with a traditional levelling system for character progression. In addition to my desire for characters and especially Aerith’s character to be expanded upon, how did Final Fantasy VII Remake fare in delivering improvements that I wanted to see?

Put simply, my expectations were exceeded more than I could have possibly expected.

A Stellar Introduction to Stellar Combat

As soon as the player begins Chapter 1, it becomes immediately apparent that combat and the expansion and development of characters were huge priorities for the development team. The famous opening bombing mission serves as a great tutorial that familiarizes the player with the game’s core combat, with new mechanics gradually being introduced so as not to overwhelm the player with information. The player will learn to use ATB charges to perform abilities, cast magic, or use items. Cloud’s abilities include Braver, a strong attack that deals huge damage, and Focusing Thrust, an attack that significantly increases an enemy’s Stagger gauge. Stagger, a mechanic returning from the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, rewards players that exploit enemy openings and weaknesses by letting them fill a Stagger gauge that, when filled all the way, will temporarily allow the enemy to become defenseless, making all damage multiplied by an amount that can be further increased by performing certain attacks.

In addition to these abilities, Cloud can perform a Fire spell that deals big damage to human enemies at the cost of MP, which refills over time, when connecting basic physical attacks, and finding Mako Shards in breakable crates in the environment, rewarding exploration. The last of the unique abilities available only to Cloud at this point in time is the ability to switch between “Operator Mode” and “Punisher Mode”, the former of which is a more mobile version of attacking and can block attacks, while the latter has far less mobility, but attacks stronger and faster in addition to giving Cloud a counterattack if the player holds the corresponding button while being attacked by an enemy.

All of Cloud’s unique abilities on display get put into perspective when the player gains access to use Barret a few encounters into the Bombing Mission. When the player gains control of Barret, one of my biggest requests of things I wanted to see in Remake gets immediately answered: Barret and Cloud play significantly different from one another. While Cloud focuses on close-quarters combat with a focus on switching attack styles and countering enemy attacks, Barret is a slower-moving, tank-like character that prioritizes dealing damage from afar while taking damage from enemies. When the player can first take control of Barret, there are security-camera-like enemies that can only be attacked by Barret, communicating to the player that some enemies can only be properly disposed of through long-range fighters’ attacks or magic spells. Other enemies surround the characters, giving the player an opportunity to use Barret’s Steelskin ability, a move that temporarily decreases the damage he takes, in addition to Overcharge, a powerful barrage of shots that cools down afterward but can be charged faster through timed button presses during regular attacks.

Both characters feature incredibly different playstyles, but what makes the difference of these playstyles work together so well is the fact that Final Fantasy VII Remake features an incredibly fluid system where players can immediately switch control of different characters quickly and intuitively. Alternatively, if a player simply wants a character to do something while not necessarily taking direct control of them, players also have the option of using the trigger buttons to direct commands for the AI-controlled party members to use ATB commands - if not given any commands, they will only perform regular attacks, dodges, and guard as needed. This ensures that all major decisions such as using items, spells, and special abilities are always in the player’s direct control, making for a party dynamic that works incredibly well.

Other action RPGs such as Kingdom Hearts and various Tales of titles have characters not being directly controlled by the player be entirely controlled by the AI, taking some level of control away from the player. This results in the tragic and infamous phenomenon of Donald Duck wasting MP from healing you when you don’t need to be healed. But with Final Fantasy VII Remake, the ability to switch playable characters on the fly and give direct commands when needed creates a dynamic and snappy combat system that keeps players on their toes. Additionally, with each character being so different from one another, it inherently provides a nice gameplay variety of playstyles, ensuring that players will never get bored of playing one character for too long.

The rest of the bombing mission is filled with relatively straightforward tutorials that introduce exploiting enemy weaknesses, running to avoid obstacles, and taking advantage of Barret’s long-range attacks. However, the entire opening chapter reaches its climax with the game’s first boss encounter: the Scorpion Sentinel. This first boss does an amazing job at setting the tone for the rest of the game’s boss fights - multiple phases and special attacks that cause the player to consistently adopt new strategies and approaches throughout the entire fight. The game throws in some amazing mid-fight dialogue exchanges between Cloud and Barret that does a fantastic job at selling their distrust towards each other at this point in the story in addition to giving some great elaboration on their character nuances that help really sell these characters to the player.

The Scorpion Sentinel is a cinematic yet strategic treat for the player, and it perfectly encapsulates what players can expect from the rest of the game’s best content - that being the incredible boss fights in each chapter of the game. While basic enemy encounters doubtlessly require smart use of ATB charges, exploiting enemy weaknesses, judicious direction of multiple party members’ actions, and triggering Stagger onto enemies, it’s the game’s boss encounters that feel like true, fun-filled tests of the player’s understanding of the game’s mechanics. Final Fantasy VII Remake is one of the few games where I’ve genuinely wished that there was a Boss Rush mode that allowed the player to fight all of the game’s bosses back-to-back. These fights are amazingly fun, as they deliver unique set-pieces and challenges, filling the game with consistent highlights that stick with the player. From the incredibly dynamic Airbuster fight at the climax of Chapter 7, to the hilarious-yet-engaging Hell House fight in Chapter 9, to even one-on-one encounters like the fight between Cloud and Rufus on top of Shinra Headquarters near the end of Chapter 17 - all boss fights in Final Fantasy VII Remake are genuine treats for the player.

Hard Mode is a difficulty unlocked after completing the main story that prevents the use of items and healing MP at benches, making MP conservation fundamentally important, while also incentivizing judicious use of Chakra and Prayer - healing moves that don’t consume MP. As the name of the difficulty would imply, it also makes enemies more aggressive, inflict more damage, and in the case of certain boss fights, introduces more mechanics. The Hell House fight has many steps in it for the player to keep track of, but in Hard Mode, the demonic abode spits out deadly Tonberries that the player has to deal with immediately, in addition to the Hell House entering the defensive God House Mode more frequently and quickly after having its elemental weaknesses exposed.

Playing through the game’s many bosses on my first playthrough was incredibly fun, but playing through the game again on Hard Mode gave me an even greater appreciation for how these bosses are designed. Aside from the fact that sections of their health bar won’t deplete any further if the player is entering a new phase of the fight definitely deflates the elation of inflicting massive damage from strong attacks, there really aren’t any weaknesses to the game’s boss encounters. They’re consistent, fun challenges that constantly give the player something to look forward to - something that many games aspire and fail to accomplish with their boss encounters. Final Fantasy VII Remake delivers amazing combat gameplay, and its during the stellar boss fights that the incredible work that the development team at Square Enix put into the combat really shines through.

After defeating the Scorpion Sentinel, Cloud and Barret escape the Mako Reactor as the bomb detonates. In the original Final Fantasy VII, the bomb set up by Cloud and Barret delivers a catastrophic blast that destroys the entire reactor. Given that Final Fantasy VII Remake was being released in a post-9/11 world, that inherently means that the game was certainly going to portray the bioterrorism of the original game (one that portrayed terrorism in a pre 9/11 world) in a different light - and that is certainly the case. The bomb being detonated by AVALANCHE in Remake is intended to disarm, not destroy, as the explosion the bomb itself leaves is quite minor. In a narrative alteration that helps immediately paint the Shinra Electric Power Company as an entity willing to destroy the city to create a fabricated political narrative, President Shinra makes the call to destroy the reactor internally and blame the destruction on AVALANCHE’s bomb intended to disarm the reactor.

The following chapter illustrates the terror this decision injects into the surrounding city. While the original Final Fantasy VII only showed a few screens of Cloud walking through Midgar in the wake of the explosion, Remake features various NPCs that are clearly in a panic. Apartment buildings are on fire, scaffoldings are collapsing, civilians are injured - through the game expanding on certain narrative elements of the original, Remake allows certain moments to have more emotional weight to them, and Chapter 2’s focus on showing the terror and hopelessness of the people of Midgar is arguably one of the best examples of Remake’s expansion and elaboration of story elements from the 1997 game.

As the player progresses to the next chapter, they’re introduced to Tifa, another playable character that’s a notable fan-favorite. While she’s another close-quarters fighter, Tifa has a significantly different playstyle than that of Cloud. Rather than switching stances and countering as needed, Tifa’s fighting style is focused on using Unbridled Strength to give herself buffs while perform combos that increase Stagger significantly. She’s easily the most agile character in the game and has various attacks that connect into one another very well, making her yet another incredibly fun character to play as that stands out from other characters.

Introduced in the game’s third chapter are side quests, a point of divisiveness or even contention among players of Remake. Let’s talk about side quests and how they factor into the overall quality of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Of Questing and Linearity

Chapter 3 features the introduction of side quests that serve the narrative purpose of Cloud gaining notoriety in the slums of Midgar. While only doing one of these side quests is required for story progression, it is true that the game makes a poor first impression on side quests with its introductory offering of side jobs for Cloud to accomplish. The quest where Cloud has to find three lost cats scattered around the Sector 7 Slums is laughably stereotypical in how generic of an RPG side quest that it is.

Final Fantasy VII Remake’s environments aren’t very large, and some side quests only make that all the more apparent. Most quests devolve to back tracking through pathways to find certain key items or fight special enemies. A few quests are even partially or even entirely devoted to just talking to multiple NPCs - which, when most NPCs are fairly close together, feels like poor quest design. That said, there are a few good side quests in the game, specifically in Chapter 14, the most open-ended chapter in the game in terms of side quests. Quests in this chapter will require the player to complete minigames, conquer challenging battles (including one with a behemoth that’s especially fun), and revisit certain areas, all of which focus on concluding smaller story arcs with NPCs that have been introduced throughout the game. Even in this chapter, the quests offered are decent at best, but they’re doubtlessly something that can be significantly improved upon in future installments of this multi-episode remake.

At the very least, quests feel justified given that they do yield meaningful rewards such as new weapons, equipment, and materia, and most quests do a good job at developing NPCs, further characterizing the main cast, and worldbuilding for this more comprehensive look at Midgar and its people. As someone that loves doing side quests in RPGs, I didn’t hate my time with Remake’s quests, though I feel that their quality was ultimately held back by Midgar’s very linear structure - something that won’t be a factor in future installments. Since most environments in the game are linear, quests have to work around their linear design, inherently limiting the design and structure of quests. As the post-Midgar sections of Remake will be in the comparatively more open world of Gaia, quest structure and design should be expanded and elaborated upon.

On the subject of linearity, we’ve come to the inevitable part of this piece where I feel the need to express that linearity is not inherently a bad thing. The stigma around linearity in RPGs, specifically in Final Fantasy games, primarily devolves from Final Fantasy XIII’s infamous “final hallway” criticism - the fact that most of the game’s environments are effectively hallways, making them as linear as an environment could possibly be. It’s well-known that FF XIII and, to a lesser extent, its two direct sequels were dog-piled by the entire internet for their linearity. However, with this wave of online criticism, an important factor was forgotten: linearity wasn’t the issue, it’s what was done with the game’s linearity that caused people to criticize the game. Final Fantasy X was and continues to be a popular counter-argument to those that feel FF XIII’s linearity was inherently bad - FF X had linearity and is generally seen as one of the best games in the series and one of the best JRPGs of all time. So how could it be that two games that have linear environments and structure are perceived so differently?

It comes down to how the game incorporates such linearity and how the overall game design and user experience accommodates the game’s linearity. Final Fantasy X’s ostensible linearity isn’t minded by most players because the environments are generally quick to get through, include various NPCs to talk to, and feature various shops, boss fights, and/or cutscenes throughout each area. This makes every area, no matter how linear they are, feel like they respect the player’s time and have elements that promote a snappy and fun user experience. Conversely, FF XIII’s linear areas take significantly longer to get through than FF X’s, with most areas in FF XIII taking at least an hour to get through. Additionally, most areas don’t have any NPCs to talk to nor any side activities for the player to partake in, generally making areas feel uninteresting and disconnected from one another due to the game’s story structure. Throw in cutscenes with a cast of characters that, while more complex, aren’t as immediately likable as FF X’s cast, and suddenly the user experience in FF XIII is made even worse with long, linear dungeons that seem to disrespect the player’s time.

My point in comparing these two games is that linearity is not something that inherently creates a poor user experience. Rather, it is a creative and design choice that needs to be properly accommodated by other factors of the game’s design in order to work well. Final Fantasy VII Remake features linearity, but incorporates game design that works alongside the linear structure of most of its environments to keep the game on a relatively quick pace. In fact, I’d argue that the game design of Remake accommodates Midgar’s linearity better than the original Final Fantasy VII.

The previously mentioned quests help with making there feel like there’s more to do in various areas. Beyond that is a wealth of minigames and environmental puzzles that diversify gameplay in addition to areas being relatively quick to get through. There are a few areas that drag on a bit - the Collapsed Expressway’s crane puzzle gets quite old after having to do it three times in a row, and the Drum in Chapter 17, while having a fun structure to it, goes a good twenty minutes too long for my liking. For the most part, though, the linearity of Remake’s environments fades into the back of players’ minds as they navigate them due to the excellence and quantity of both combat, cutscenes and distractions via NPCs and minigames. Indeed, Remake’s linear environments prove that linearity is not inherently bad, given that my experience in most environments are mostly positive ones.

One aspect of Final Fantasy VII Remake that is decisively less linear than FF X and FF XIII is its progression system. While VII Remake has a traditional leveling system, the rate at which players level up is mostly fixed, as there are a finite number of encounters within each chapter. Levels primarily raise stats and provide SP, which can be then used to invest in weapons upgrades. Each character in Remake has six weapons that they can equip, and allow for upgrades in stats, physical and magic strength, HP and MP capacity, materia slots, and more as the player gains more SP. Each weapon essentially serves as a different build, to which the player can decide which upgrades they’d like to prioritize with each available build. With the inclusion of allowing the player to reset their upgrades if they wish to do so, this provides a degree of flexibility and personalization to progression which only helps Remake’s overall linearity not feel particularly overbearing - as the progression and growth of the playable characters is something that the player is given a good amount of control and freedom over, especially in comparison to FF X’s Classic Sphere Grid and FF XIII’s Crystarium Grid.

Characterization Consummation

The early chapters of the game introduce Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge - all of which are very minor characters in the original game. Their role in the original game is limited to being extra characters in AVALANCHE and flesh out the anti-Shinra motivations of the organizations (as well as providing some early game worldbuilding, tutorials, and exposition to the player). In Remake, all three of these characters are fleshed out and all have inherently more involved relationships with Cloud, Barret, and Tifa.

Chapter 4 ends up being the best showcase for the camaraderie Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge have with the main playable cast while also providing a backstory and new setting not included in the original game. This chapter introduces the player to the biking minigame that returns in the game’s final chapter, in addition to letting the player explore the top side of Midgar where the more wealthy citizens of the city live - an aspect of Midgar that was implied but never seen in the 1997 original. Not only does the inclusion of this chapter provide a better look at the totality of Midgar, Remake’s primary setting, but it also provides great characterization for Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge - all of whom have been promoted from unimportant characters killed off early on in the original game to fully fleshed out characters that I ended up caring a fair deal about.

This improvement in character exploration and development between these three characters applies to practically every important character in Remake, which is something that makes me incredibly happy to see. While I liked a lot of Final Fantasy VII’s playable cast and some of its villains, Remake does a remarkable job at using strong writing and particularly well-done dialogue exchanges between characters to create scenes filled with characterization. The end result is a game with characters that I became much more attached and connected to than any character in the original game.

The playable cast of characters in Final Fantasy VII Remake has quickly grown to be one of my favorite casts in any RPG of recent memory because of how incredibly well these characters have been adapted and expanded upon from their original depictions. Cloud is a character that feels like a completely different person in the Compellation of Final Fantasy VII projects. He is decisively quieter and more emotionally deadpan in titles like Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts. These particular depictions feel contradictory to how he appeared in the original Final Fantasy VII, where, yes, he was emotionally reserved at various points in the story. However, FF VII contextualizes Cloud’s reservation over time, as it becomes apparent throughout the story that he puts on a guise of a fictionalized, tougher version of himself due to him claiming the identity of another character that actually accomplished what Cloud always hoped he could be able to accomplish.

Cloud is an emotionally complex character because he’s essentially a quirky, overambitious screw-up that’s masquerading as a tough guy that accomplished his dreams of becoming an elite SOLDIER. However, Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts never seemed to understand this about his character, leading to underwhelming portrayals of the character. Final Fantasy VII Remake immediately won over many diehard Final Fantasy VII fans due to the game’s excellent understanding of Cloud’s character - a crucial tentpole that, had it not been properly realized, may have compromised the overall story quality to be seen in this remake.

Indeed, Cloud is an incredibly likeable character throughout Final Fantasy VII Remake. He’s initially a cold and consistently rude mercenary at the beginning of the game, giving consistent snarky quips to Barret and regularly reminding AVALANCHE that he’s only working with them for money, not for their cause. The opening shows a lot about how Cloud appears as this tough, strong character - but throughout the game, we steadily see a more vulnerable side of Cloud. Chapter 4 has a particularly great moment for Cloud’s character where Jessie calls out Cloud’s genuine concern for Wedge’s well-being after he gets attacked, to which Cloud gets embarrassed and quickly redirects the conversation. It’s a short moment, but it gives evidence that Cloud is actually a character that cares about others significantly more than he lets on and that his cold exterior is just that, an exterior.

Barret and Tifa are both given great dialogue throughout the game that characterize them fantastically well. While their story arcs and backstories aren’t fully explored in this title, as their backstories are more relevant to sections of Final Fantasy VII that occur after the party leaves Midgar, both of these characters have so much charisma thanks to their great writing and are given phenomenal voice acting performances.

Of course, the character that needed the most elaboration on their characterization, in my opinion, was Aerith. While her full introduction to the player doesn’t occur until Chapter 8, roughly 40% of the way through the game, her character interactions between Cloud, Tifa, Barret, the Turks, and various NPCs made me end up adoring her character. As stated above, I felt that one of Remake’s biggest goals was to make me care about Aerith as a character. Not only does Remake succeed in doing this, but it turned Aerith into arguably one of my favorite video game characters in any RPG. Seriously.

As soon as Cloud walks along the rooftops after leaving the church with Aerith, we have a generally straightforward walking section that’s made incredibly memorable by fantastic exchanges between Cloud and Aerith. Like with Cloud, Aerith was represented in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles such as Crisis Core and other projects like Kingdom Hearts as a stale depiction of her character. Remake immediately creates a more interesting character out of Aerith through injecting her writing with an endearing amount of wit and sassiness that’s always believable and complements the kindness of her character without ever feeling overbearing, annoying, or unneeded for her character. Indeed, Aerith feels like more of a character in Remake than she has in any other title, I would argue.

The introduction of new aspects of her character, such as helping with the Leaf House orphanage in the Section 5 slums and her mysterious knowledge of the Whispers and other new story elements introduced in Remake make her character feel more dynamic and interesting while retaining her importance to the central narrative just like in the original title. Combat-wise, Aerith is a magic-focused character as she was in the original game, with the incredibly helpful skill to drain MP from enemies and create fields where any spells cast within it will be cast twice, along with other helpful supportive skills. However, what made me like using Aerith in combat is that she’s been adapted into being a ranged fighter that, instead of bashing enemies with her rod like in the original game, now uses her rod to shoot projectiles towards enemies as her basic attack. This single change makes her feel significantly more relevant and useful as a support-focused character, as her attacks can still easily inflict damage while she uses ATB charges to other go offensive with magic spells, or use special abilities for supportive buffs. She works great as the final piece of the playable cast to make every playable character in this game feel like they serve a unique purpose that can’t be served by any other character. Every character feels like they have something special that they provide in combat.

This feeling of uniqueness and value that each party member brings in combat extends to their role in the narrative. In the original Final Fantasy VII, some characters didn’t get much screen time in relation to other characters. Cait Sith is a character mostly met with indifference at best because he simply never gets a chance to be explored as a character or even frequently interact with other characters. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, every character has at least one section where they become the only character in the party, giving them a specific time to shine. Even beyond these moments, though, each of the four playable characters get ample opportunities to express themselves through dialogue exchanges while navigating dungeons, during battles, and especially during the game’s many well-directed and well-written cutscenes.

Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith all have distinctly different personalities that aren’t conceptually different from the original game. But since Remake prioritizes giving each character more dialogue, more chances to build relationships with one another, and build their individual personalities and character arcs, I found myself getting significantly more attached to these characters than any characters found in the original Final Fantasy VII. Even comparing this title to other modern RPGs, Final Fantasy VII Remake does an exceptional job at creating endearing characters that I’m left eagerly wanting to see more of in future installments.

With Aerith being an incredibly well-fleshed out character that I loved seeing onscreen this time around, in addition to every party member feeling distinct and valuable, both of my biggest wishes for Final Fantasy VII Remake came true. With incredibly fun boss encounters, a challenging Hard Mode that offers specifically enthralling VR simulation battles, along with fantastic characterization, a satisfying progression system, and a great amount of gameplay and environment variety, I ended up really enjoying my time with Final Fantasy VII Remake. To my surprise, this enjoyment would only be amplified by the announcement of the PlayStation 5 upgrade of the game, dubbed Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade, that would include new DLC the focused on Yuffie, an optional character in the original game. This only prompted me to want to dive into the game again after I was serendipitous enough to snatch a PS5 earlier this year.

interMISSION, the name of the DLC featuring Yuffie and newcomer Sonon, echo many of my praises and critiques of the main game. Some linear dungeons here go on a bit too long and some side activities aren’t too fun (namely the collection of the Happy Turtle flyers), but those flaws are offset by the incredible combat and characterization on display. Yuffie, a character widely seen as an energetic if a bit of an annoying teenager in the original game, is portrayed here in the best manner she’s ever been. Sonon, while a brand new character to Remake, complements Yuffie’s character very well and gives her a great “straight-man” type character to bounce off her more energetic, pompous attitude.

Yuffie follows the trend of other characters by having an incredibly fun and unique moveset during combat, as she has a fitting amount of versatility in her playstyle. As a character that can freely switch between short-range and long-range fighting, she never gets tiring to play as, which is an impressive feat given that she’s the only directly controllable character in this DLC. Along with the incredible adaptation and modernization of the Fort Condor minigame, along with some exciting boss fights, interMISSION only strengthens the overall quality of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

As someone that comes to RPGs primarily for a good story, an interesting world, a likable cast of character to get invested in, and fun gameplay to play around with, I found myself greatly satisfied by Final Fantasy VII Remake. That said, there’s one aspect of that list that I haven’t discussed yet - the story of Final Fantasy VII Remake. While I won’t be dissecting the story here (perhaps that can be saved for another time), I do want to talk about how I don’t feel that its diversions from the original game are cause for concern.

“The Unknown Journey Will Continue”

When Final Fantasy VII Remake was first unveiled at E3 2015, it was quietly also unveiled that the game was planned to be a multi-part saga so that the game could reimagined on a greater scale while still covering the entire story and world of the original game. This caused some concern and confusion among the community. People were unsure how being multiple parts may cause strain on the overall quality of the game’s pacing and story. Would this mean that Motorball (the last fight in Midgar in original FF VII) would be the final boss of the game covering Midgar?

Square Enix’s answer to this is that Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t a “remake” in the traditional sense, which itself became a point of contention for many faithful fans of the original game that just wanted a no-frills remake of one of their favorite games. It can be argued that FF VII Remake is actually a sequel to FF VII, as many plot elements such as the inclusion of the Whispers or the Arbiters of Fate are revealed to have events in the story occur “as they should” - AKA, occur exactly as they did in the original game.

The reason as to why I’m mentioning this is not to argue whether or not this should have been done at all. I’m not interested in arguing whether the game should have stuck more closely to the original’s story. The fact stands that Final Fantasy VII Remake has new story content with an ending (made even more detailed with the DLC including additional scenes that take place after the main game’s ending) that suggests that what happens in future installments could be completely different from the original game. In a way, this makes the anticipation for future installments of this remake feel far more exciting than if Square Enix was sticking closer to the original game’s script.

This is best exemplified by the text that appears onscreen right before the credits roll: “The Unknown Journey Will Continue”. How closely future installments stick to the original game remains to be seen as of writing, but the fact that I, as someone that’s played and is very much familiar with the original, don’t know what’s going to happen in future installments makes me far more interested in the future of this remake than I would be if I did know exactly what to expect. It was a narrative decision that I was admittedly against at first glance because, like so many other people, I felt more comfortable with generally knowing what to expect in future parts of this remake. But as time has gone on, I’ve grown to appreciate this approach more and more because it creates anticipation in a way that can excite both FF VII newcomers and veterans in a way that I don’t think a remake has every tried to do before.

With the exceptional amount of character expression and development that ended up in me having a deeper love and appreciation for FF VII’s characters than ever before, I developed a trust in Final Fantasy VII Remake’s developers that they have what it takes to make this multi-part saga consistently high quality. Obviously, it remains to be seen if the trust that I’ve put in the development team is well-put. As of writing, the next installment of Final Fantasy VII Remake has not been officially revealed and likely won’t be until Summer 2022 at the earliest. That said, Final Fantasy VII Remake was developed in such a way that gave a lot of renewed faith and trust in Square Enix’s developers, and with that renewed faith and trust has come a belief that future installments of Remake will, at the very least, consistently keep us invested in this game’s future due to the fact that we don’t fully know what to expect moving forward.

Concluding Thoughts

Final Fantasy VII Remake has harbored many doubts during its long road between announcement and release. The game switched developers and took just under five years to release after its initial announcement. It was the subject of scrutiny and criticism, especially by long-time Final Fantasy fans that were skeptical if Square Enix was capable of making something even close to the quality of their PS1-era library of games. And yet, when it released, Final Fantasy VII Remake was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, even despite its bold yet divisive approach of introducing new story content not seen in the original game. It was the recipient of multiple Game of the Year nominations and was generally seen as one of the best releases in 2020, in addition to being one of the best games Square Enix has put out in years.

I play lots of JRPGs because of the comfort, joy, and imagination that they provide. Many Final Fantasy titles provided just this. While I want to enjoy every JRPG that I play, some are clearly better than others, and many of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy titles of the last fifteen years haven’t met the quality of them being in my personal list of favorite games like so many older Final Fantasy games have. And yet, despite the occasional disappointments that Final Fantasy games have given me, I hoped that the series would once again reach greatness. I approached and continue to approach each game in the series hoping that they provide fun, interesting experiences.

When I began playing Final Fantasy VII Remake for the first time, I could immediately tell that it had an energy unlike any other Final Fantasy title released in the last fifteen years. I could feel the confidence from FF VII Remake’s developers - their strong belief that they had created a fun, challenging Action RPG with wonderfully realized characters that improve upon the foundation set by the original game. And that confidence that I could feel only further enlightened my experience with the game.

With over a year passing since my initial playthrough, I feel just as strongly that Final Fantasy VII Remake is one of the best Action RPGs of recent memory. The developers had an arguably unprecedented amount of pressure placed on them, and yet they delivered with an incredibly enjoyable game that gave me exactly what I wanted and then some. It turned Final Fantasy VII into a game that I like into something that I am actively looking forward to seeing more of. It’s a special game that gives me a new degree of optimism and hope for the future of Final Fantasy - which is perhaps that greatest thing that Final Fantasy VII Remake could have possibly given me.

Thank you so much for reading! What are your thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake? What are your thoughts on the future of Final Fantasy, Square Enix, and JRPGs as a whole? As always, join the conversation and let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter @DerekExMachina!