(The original game starts in Midgar and then opens up a whole world map for you to explore.) It's all impeccably detailed, but you will see an awful lot of green-hued factories, cement, and slums. Much of this is because all of FF7 Remake takes place in one city: Midgar. Many of the game's dungeons and explorable environments look alike, using variations on the same terrain, color palettes, and design features. I have literally never taken so many screenshots while playing a game. Arresting action sequences consistently left me gobsmacked, with balletic combat and stunning, eye-catching moments. The main character designs are intricately detailed, their faces redolent with emotion and expression. FF7 Remake upgrades the aesthetics of the original by several orders of magnitude. The low-poly, "block monster" character models have become a running joke among Final Fantasy fans. The original FF7 looked great in the early days of the first PlayStation, but those visuals didn't age well. Uneven pacing and the repetitive nature of dungeons keep it just shy of perfection, but overall, FF7 Remake is a game to cherish for fans and first-timers.Īerith in Wall Market. For the most part, it's an enormous success, with achingly beautiful aesthetics, a mesmerizing story, and snappy combat.
It must be simultaneously innovative and nostalgic. It needs to work as a standalone story and as part of a larger whole. It has to appeal to longstanding lorehounds as well as newcomers. The first of an unknown number of installments, Square Enix has a lot of mouths to feed with this project. His new pals represent a rebel underclass looking to overthrow Shinra, a global corporation that produces electricity and technology derived from Mako energy, the lifeblood of the planet. You will lose sleep for Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it will be worth it.įF7 Remake retraces roughly the first third of the sprawling tale told in the 1997 PS1 role-playing classic, which sees the spiky-haired mercenary Cloud fall in with the eco-terrorism group known as Avalanche.