Final Fantasy VII Remake

I'd be lying if I said this didn't feel padded, or that the tonal shifts weren't sometimes jarring, or that the villiains weren't ridiculously cartoonish, but still - WOW. Incredibly gorgeous, meticulously designed, and emotionally gripping. Obviously an enormous labor of love for all involved. The ending will be controversial for those who worship at the altar of the OG, but it opens up many new possibilities for the sequels. Now do FF6.

It's different than OG, not better or worse. Feared that Midgar being drawn out would kill pacing but was invested the entire time. Story is better written, actually giving depth to all things (events, characters). Combat is complex but feels right. Each character actually controls differently which is nice. Remixes of music are wonderful, some original songs slap. More focus on engaging in combat to unlock special things (not a huge fan of that vs OG). Leveling is deeper with weapon upgrades.

There are many standout features of this Herculean accomplishment of a video game. The depth of characterization given to both old and new friends, the delicate balance between accessible and customizable combat, the essential doubling of time spent and things to accomplish in Midgar without feeling like things have been unnecessarily padded, and the investing manner in which the story creates the new while respecting the old. This is everything I've wanted it to be for fifteen years. Bravo.

Japanese people think all black people are Kirk Lazarus. Things have changed. A sickening rush of nostalgia through music.

Looks incredible with a solid script and acting. Ticks all the right nostalgia boxes, while introducing some new elements that don't clash with the established. Combat system is surprisingly enjoyable. Negative marks come from not really enjoying the first section with the insufferable Aerith or the pacing of the final stretch, as well as some classic music tracks being butchered. Ultimately a very high benchmark not just in updating a game to the modern paradigm, but in modern gaming full stop.

The ending is.... very bad. The story in general unravels into a confusing mess. However, nostalgia and outstanding production values carry it for the most part. The combat, as it was in FFXV, is incredibly satisfying.

Never played the original but I thought this was excellent. Great combat system and gorgeous graphics and very cool performances and I loved the ending and the direction they're taking it in.

I'm a diehard fanboy of the original. I loved venturing into this world with immaculate new graphics, meaningful character development, & an inspired new approach to materia & battle techniques. The absolute highlight though has to be the music. They've reworked the original soundtrack in such a beautiful way that it's both fresh & nostalgic. There were times I'd just close my eyes and listen for a while. Slight weaknesses; Midgar was my least favorite part of the original & dungeons were long.

Enjoyed this a lot - I never played the original and this was awesome. The story was engaging from start to finish, and the pacing was good for the majority of the game. There were a few rare sections that dragged, but that's to be expected with a game this expansive. Can't wait for the 2nd part!

A different kind of remake than what most people were expecting. The parts that were faithful to the original were really well done and the character portrayals and interactions were on point, but the further it deviated from the original story the more I disliked it, especially the controversial ending. Also has severe pacing issues due to being a 5 hour portion of the original stretched to over 30 hours. Still, the gameplay is solid and I enjoyed it overall except for the padding and ending.

It has a bit too much filler, the hidden loading sequences are annoying and immersive-breaking, and it's too easy before the New Game Plus. The story also could be a bit clearer and faster. The male gaze is prevalent, the main women are too much in line with beauty standards, and the main black character also falls into some tropes. But everything else was fun and pretty well-made, in general. Too bad these setbacks prevent it from being truly great.

Clearly not as good as the original, yet far exceeds expectations. Lots to like despite the drawn out filler sections and the butchering of the materia system.

The core of FFVIIR's gameplay is fantastic, even if the encounters and stat balancing don't do much to encourage player investment. As a remake, there is very noticeable padding and some of the added narrative beats can come off pretty moot or uninteresting. While the original still maintains its own valuable novelties in terms of presentation, this game does a fantastic job of not only reimaging the original's narrative but also creating strong theming about the nature of remakes in general.

The gameplay is a ton of fun but, although there are some good story elements, I just found the dialogue and cutscenes far to cringey to ever get immersed. All the terrible voice acting and anime grunting completely kills any fun I had with the other aspects of the game. The cringe was enough to make me abandoned this by chapter 10

Exceedingly well made in many respects - aesthetically, fun hack n slash gameplay, still a great base story, music/voice acting, extra modes and stuff to do - but there’s just these little things about it that bug me so much. The Whispers, ugh, what were they thinking?

Padded to hell and back. Not a fan of all of the obvious resource store NPCS and objects scattered all about, makes it feel really lazy. Similar corridor problems that Final Fantasy XIII had. The battle system sucks and I really don't understand what they were thinking with it. Feels really stupid in places when it easily could have felt more impressive by just being shorter and more intentional rather than BIG for the sake of it.

You play the FF7R for the adventure you experience with the characters, the incredible soundtrack and the complete staging of the game. You can see the production value around every corner. But it's not for the gameplay, which is in short, pretty rudimentary - especially fighting becomes monotonous very quickly.

23 years ago this game taught me that girls could be all squares, rectangles and circles, as long as they had a good heart. NOW they're telling me girls need to have a good heart and be ridiculously cute and hot. Thanks for that, now remake my life! This game is a prime example for bloating, just so you can sell it as "30+ hours runtime". There literally is a setpiece where you run up 59 floors, continually slowing down...for nothing, not even a trophy to make fun of you. But hey, there's tits.

I was going to be generous with my score for this one in spite of the game's shenanigans. I think making every single female cast member head over heels horny for Cloud made for a lot of completely patronising and awkward scenes. However, the strong world building, mostly excellent music (except one or two complete stinkers) and solid combat was a good time. Right up until the final 3-4 hours with some of the worst mission and boss design. Sorry, Remake. Lowered from great to good score.

Solid. A lot of content. Good story. Fights get a bit boring and repetitive.