I absolutely love Final Fantasy VII – the original, Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children. But by no means am I an expert on all of the Final Fantasy games, nor do I consider myself a hardcore gamer. So going into this, know that this review is based on my passion for this game and these characters, and not a big fancy gamer review.

Now that we have that out of the way –

The Final Fantasy VII Remake released Friday, which was a much needed mental break for me during all the stress of the coronavirus and quarantine. I began Friday evening and finished up Wednesday morning with the main storyline.

I absolutely LOVED it.

The game itself was beautiful and detailed. The world was rebuilt and explorable with the Unreal Engine 4, and each character is made to look more realistic. It makes my beloved FF7: Advent Children look outdated, because the game just looks THAT good.

A lot of people worried it was a total reboot instead of a remake, and I think it falls somewhere in between. The multipart release gives them the opportunity to keep the major plot points of Final Fantasy VII, while also enriching it and giving more depth to the story. I’m all for this. Having bits of new along with the story you know not only keeps it fresh, but also gives you more to play as you soak up the nostalgia. And considering I want as much of this to play as possible, I’m happy with the way they’re telling the story and handling the episodic structure.

The combat is somewhat adjustable to your liking. A classic, easy, and normal mode are available initially, and a hard mode is unlocked once you complete the main story. You have familiar battle elements from FF7, such as special abilities, limit breaks, controlling the actions of members of your party. But you also have it combined with real time combat, which I was a huge fan of, because turned based combat is not my favorite thing. So having the same feeling and abilities, while also being able to actively attack, was super entertaining for me.

Overall, I absolutely loved this game, and it easily slides into my top 5 favorite games of all time. I’m already starting a replay, this time aiming to complete more side tasks, etc.

Have you played Final Fantasy VII Remake yet?

-Angel