Final Fantasy VII Remake

*6.8 rating (long review)

Really liked it in the beginning and was excited to see how the story unfolded, especially as someone who never played the original. As I got further into it, however, the game seemed to drag on for longer than it should. There was so much backtrack in linear areas that it felt like a walking simulator at times (which isn't necessarily bad, but most areas weren't visually entertaining enough to WANT to come back to, in my opinion). I have yet to play the second part but, if it's as padded as this first one, it's no wonder they had to split it into three separate games--so much content was unnecessary and boring.

The game could be visually stunning at times though, I loved the character and boss designs. Aside from the acting, I thought the characters were very loveable and had you rooting for them (I love Wedge lmao). Combat was fun, I enjoyed learning how to play as each character and fine-tuning their equipment and materia. And it's a Final Fantasy game, so you already know the music is going to be beautiful. I was really looking forward to getting platinum, but after beating it once I don't think I have it in me to replay it again unfortunately. I may try playing the original to see if it grabs my attention, but as it stands currently I don't think I'll continue playing the trilogy.

Amazing opening, immediately went downhill after that

I wasn't a Final Fantasy fan before playing but I'm a fan now. It's certainly a flawed game but it was a wonderful experience and it easily has the best real-time/turn-based hybrid combat on the market.

The end is bad, BAD, but all the game IS SOOOOO GOOD

Final Fantasy VII Remake
✪ {ᏚᏟᏫᏒᎬ : 6.5}
…   …………….
🝰 | 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂

• Story : 5.9
~ having never played the original, most of the story felt like running in circles. i did really like the cute and goofy parts, but it still felt mostly kind of, pointless? now i do know that there's more to this, but this one individually was, just alright.
𐄁 Characters : 6.8
~ i think they did a pretty good job with some of the characters. there's still alot of meaningless lines, but eh.
𐄁 Voice Acting (English) : 6.0
~ neither great, nor bad. tbh some are pretty bad. but i got used to it. sometimes it's a lil too goofy, but it fits the characters.

• Atmosphere : 5.6
𐄁 Immersion : 2.4
𐄁 Intensity : 4.8

• Gameplay : 4.4
𐄁 Combat : 5.7
~ combat is, still not very fun. i do like the idea of mixing real-time & turn-based, but the execution is poor. because it does neither well.
like the dodge and block are totally useless.
it's not as mindless as the hold square in XV, but it's still not far enough from that.
the whole thing is just purely tedious grinding over and over again. tho it's certainly more balanced.
𐄁 AI : 3.2
𐄁 Movement : 2.5
~ extremely limited and contained. maybe even worse than XV. somehow.
• Level Design : 3.4
~ while exploring, it's always super linear, like just empty straight hallways all the way through, and it just completely takes the sense of adventure away. and with the combat stuff, it repeats itself way too many times, and tho i do like the variety of the enemies, alot of them are just horribly designed (not looks). doesn't help that the game mechanics are pretty poor either.
𐄁 Pacing : 4.3
~ the game itself has bad pacing, and on top of that, there's TOO MANY cutscenes. like, you can't walk 10 steps without running into a random scene. it got really annoying. you gotta leave some of the storytelling to the gameplay.
𐄁 Puzzles : 2.0
~ i still see that hand thing in my nightmares
• Side Content : 3.1
~ i treid a few, they all had terrible design in every way imaginable. but still, one was so goofy [JOHNNY BOY], that despite the horribly made quests, was kinda fun.

• Visuals : 6.7
~ inconsistently decent.
𐄁 Textures : 4.1
~ if you look at pretty much anything besides character models for a little more than a glance, you'll realize it's made of 2 pixels.
𐄁 Lighting : 7.7
𐄁 Small Details : 2.0
• Environment Design : 5.8
~ disappointing.
⋆ Cinematography : 8.7
~ most of the cinematics were absolute fucking quality. usually really good stuff. but, there are alot of really meaningless cutscenes, which still have good cinematography.

• Animations : 7.1
~ too many staggering animations. in both forms of gameplay animations, and interrupting mini-cutscenes.
𐄁 Movement Animations : 6.0
𐄁 Combat Animations : 7.4
𐄁 Facial Animations : 3.7

• SoundTrack : 7.0
~ some of the tracks are really good, my biggest problem is the same one i had with xv. the music is ALWAYS going, and sometimes it doesn't give a damn if it fits what's going on on the screen or not. it's mere purpose is to hide the lack of a decent sound design.
• Sound Design : 3.6
~ just as terrible as xv.

• Performance : ￪￪￬

⎆ 𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝚂⬎
𐄁 Customization : 𝜘
𐄁 Replayability : 2.1
𐄁 Innovation : ⍟
𐄁 Accessibility : ⍟
𐄁 Setting Options : ⍟⍟⍟
𐄁 UI/HUD : 8.0
𐄁 Extras : 〆
𐄁 Collectibles : 𝜘
𐄁 Trophies : 𝜘

…   ……………….
？| 𝚀𝚄𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂

𐄁 Do i recommend this game? um.. the characters are likable and i had fun spending time with them, but honestly there's not much more to it.
𐄁 Did it make me take my time with it? i tried to, but not really.
𐄁 Did it meet my expectations? i expected something a million miles ahead of XV, and tho this was certainly far better, it still has a long long way to go.

…    ……………………
〄 | 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽
- Platforms : PS4 Pro
- First Playthrough : 15.6.24
𐄁 Finished at : 18.6.24
𐄁 Playtime : 27h 43′
𐄁 Difficulty : Normal
- Beaten : 1'¹ times
- Trophy Progress : 44℅
⟆⟅ | Won't Platinum `~'

Final fantasy 7 remake is the definition of "flawed excellence".