Final Fantasy VII Remake Review
Review score
- Status
- Finished
- Platform
- PC
- Playtime
- 23.4h
I finished Final Fantasy VII Remake after playing for around 23 hours on PC. This is my review of the game: the things I loved, my gripes, and whatever stayed in my head after finishing it.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. There are parts that feel stretched out or outdated, but when the game gets something right, it gets it really right.
The music
The music is amazing and very Kingdom Hearts to me, which is always going to be a good thing.
It never feels like something playing in the background just because the game needs music. It gives every scene more personality, especially when the story gets serious or a boss fight begins. There were many moments where the music made an already good scene feel much bigger.
Characters and the world
The characters are done and written really well. They actually feel like they belong in the world created for them. The game also takes its time introducing everyone, so I never felt overwhelmed by a huge cast appearing at once. This happens to me with other JRPGs.
Persona 5 was really good at this too, but Final Fantasy VII Remake handles it just as well. You get enough time with each character before the story moves on to someone else.
The world feels very alive while moving from one mission to another. The mission structure is actually not bad, and it leads into some great action scenes that you get to control instead of only watching them happen.
I am not a huge fan of Barret, though. Maybe that will change in the next game (or maybe not).
Story and pacing
The story starts a bit slowly, but it quickly becomes much more interesting from Chapter 8. That was when I felt properly invested and wanted to keep going.
The earlier chapters are clearly there to flesh out the story, but there is also a lot of filler. Some of the dialogue and motives can feel very childish. The underlying ideas for what these characters are doing are actually very cool, which makes it more frustrating. It made it difficult for me to care about them during some important moments.
Almost, anyway. Once the story picks up, it becomes much easier to see what the game is building toward.
Combat
The controls are intuitive, and combat feels great when a combo with your ally hits exactly right. Switching characters, using their abilities, and finding the right moment to attack is very satisfying.
However, the frequency of normal combat made it less fun over time. The combat system itself is good; there is just too much of it. Some fights started feeling like something I had to finish before reaching the next interesting part.
The boss fights are spectacular, though. They are easily some of the best parts of the game. The scale, music, and combat all come together perfectly.
Side quests
The side quests have a lot of heart and passion behind them, but the design feels outdated. Eventually, I had to ditch many of them.
I did not stop because their stories were bad. Completing them was simply not interesting enough to keep me going, especially when the main story had finally become exciting.
Playing on PC
The lack of ultrawide support was disappointing. It did not ruin the game for me in the long term, but proper support would have been nice.
Apart from that, the game felt comfortable on PC, and the controls were easy to understand from the beginning.
Final thoughts
Final Fantasy VII Remake has a slow start, too much filler, and side quests that I did not want to finish. Even with those problems, the characters, world, music, and especially the boss fights made it worth it for me.
I really cannot wait to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but I am a bit sad that it is not available in my Steam store. I will probably look into the Switch 2 or Xbox version instead.
For now, I am very happy I finally finished Remake.