FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE

My favorite game is FF7 ( the original ). Just had to get this game, So far it's great and I actually enjoy the "changes" so far in the story. [i]I'll update this review when I've completed it. :-) [/i]

They stretched a 5-hour intro into a 50-hour game. Some chapters are completely pointless and don't advance the story. It's really boring in some parts, and the combat is so shallow that I have physical pain. The story, when you remove the unnecessary chapters, is quite lovely. The ending cutscene in the rain was quite something. Edit after DLC: The DLC was quite nice! The combat, music, and progression were better than the base game. In particular, almost none of the fake loading screens that were so present on the base game (climb a ladder/walk slowly on this pipe for 30s while we load the next part) are present on the DLC (I noticed only two). Overral, this restores a bit of my hope for rebirth! Still, I'll maintain my negative review since just 5h of a good DLC cannot fully restore 50h of a total barren game.

Back in my early teen years, when I was heavily into JRPGs, I never understood why Final Fantasy 7 was considered to be so great. I’d played almost every FF at that point, and 7 didn’t stand out at all when I considered FF6, FF9, and FF12. For me, those were the ones that stood out. But after replaying FF7 a few years ago, it clicked. It made sense why people love that game so much. I still wouldn’t consider it amongst my favourites from the franchise, but it’s definitely a great game. I had a similar experience with Remake. When I played it for the first time at launch, it felt slow, clunky, and the pacing seriously dragged. I came out of the game appreciating the graphics, music, the ending, and some characters more like Aerith. But mostly I just wanted to be done with it. That didn’t happen with my recent replay. I wanted to take my time, and I enjoyed the modern Midgar they created. I loved the character interactions and how they expanded on old ones and added new ones into the mix. I found the combat system to have a great amount of depth to it as well. It still has its share of pretty annoying issues, but I’m able to forgive many of them because it does an incredible job at capturing that feeling of oppression and magic that the Midgar section of the PSX game holds. Other than that, though, it’s helped me appreciate how good this game looks and the mix of realism and traditional FF animations works well for the most part. I say that because the voice acting and character animations clash sometimes and come off as awkward. The exaggerated movements we see so frequently in FF games are here, and I’m all for that. But sometimes they don’t mesh too well with how the voice actors delivered their lines. But when it works, it works very well. The actual story is very similar to the original, just some things changed around and some new things here and there. But it's largely the same, just stretched out from 6-8 hours to close to 30. And that’s usually a cause for concern, but they did a good job of not making it feel like it was dragging about 80% of the time. It still has pacing issues, mainly in chapters 5, 6, and 11. They aren’t great and are the worst chapters in the game. They drag for much longer than they should, and don’t offer any interesting encounters or events along the way. I feel like chapters 5 and 6 should’ve been combined and cut down. And chapter 11 should’ve been half of its size, especially considering that at that point in the story, we should be rushing to stop a huge metal plate from crushing people along with their homes. I don’t dislike it as a section in the remake, because the bosses are cool. But it’s placed very poorly in the story sequence. Other things that hurt the pacing include traversal moments in the game, aka walking through cracks in a wall, walking a tightrope, etc. The game also forced me to walk very slowly way more frequently than I’d have liked. If I want to stop to listen to the character dialogue or to look at the scenery, I’ll stop and take a look myself. With that being said, my favourite chapters were 9, 12, and the last few. I thought they were amazing. They have decent side quests, great character interactions, fun scenarios, and fun enemy encounters. The game’s ending is also really good. I remember when I first played the game, it was the thing that interested me the most, and I still feel that way. Although I feel more positive about the rest of the game as well. I do wish they didn’t change the final line in the game, though. The original line was perfect and got Aerith’s anxiety across very well. The chapters I’ve yet to mention thus far range from decent to good. And the actual side quests are decently fun. Some are definitely better than others, like the party never stops, which is my favourite quest line in the game, since its just good old silly Final Fantasy shit. A lot of the side quests include newly introduced characters to FF7. These new characters range from ok to great. Johnny is pretty hilarious and a great time during the middle portion of the game. I know he was in the original, but he’s barely a character there and feels completely different here. He reminded me of other Final Fantasy characters like Zell, but leaning more into the wacky, dumb stuff. And I was all for it. This game in general felt like it needed more wacky and silly stuff, which Intergrade leaned into, and I hope to see Rebirth lean into it as well when I play it. As for the actual level design of the game, it lacks anything interesting, to be honest. It’s very linear and obvious what to do next, and the encounters are mostly forced, meaning you can’t run away from many fights. The encounter design isn’t bad, though, and combat is quite fun, especially on hard mode. So I didn’t mind too much. It does feel a little stale towards the end, though. I get that you’re supposed to feel boxed in, and then the world opens up in Rebirth after leaving Midgar, but sometimes it genuinely hurts the exploration of the game. Touching on combat, I do wish hard mode were available from the get-go because it teaches the mechanics of the game to the player far better by punishing poor play. You can finish normal mode with your eyes closed, but hard mode makes the player need to utilise mechanics better, especially since you have no access to items during battle. It also brings the deeper mechanics to the surface to show how much depth there really is in the combat system. It made me appreciate it much more. If the combat was a bit faster and had proper air combos that weren’t so barebones and clunky to tackle airborne enemies, it’d genuinely be fantastic. Of course, the music is just as amazing as I remember, honestly even more so. It takes the original already cinematic soundtrack and elevates it to feel even grander. The genre-bending also adds to it and makes for some pretty cool experimentation in the music. Intergrade has equally amazing music that sometimes made me just stop and listen for dozens of minutes. Speaking of Intergrade, I liked it quite a bit. It made me want to hop into Rebirth ASAP. It’s sillier than Remake, as mentioned, but still hits those emotional punches. I’m all for this personally, I’ve always found Final Fantasy’s sense of humour and over exaggeration to be hilarious. The cutscenes in Intergrade didn’t feel as stilted as a number of the ones in Remake did. Everyone’s more animated, sure, but the voice acting and editing of the scenes help make it feel a lot more natural here. I always found Yuffie in the OG FF7 to be annoying and one of my least favourite party members, but she’s pretty good in Intergrade. I enjoyed this version of her A LOT more than the original, and I’m happy I feel that way cus her character design and outfit look great. The combat in Intergrade is very fun as well, it’s faster paced and feels slightly smoother. At times, it reminded me of Kingdom Hearts II’s combat system, especially with the synergy mechanic, which reminded me of limits from that game. Probably some of the best praise I can give a video game, considering KH2 is my favourite game. I’m glad I had a much better time with both FF7 and FF7 Remake on my replays because I have some friends who adore these games, and for years, I never really understood why. I still wouldn’t say I adore them, but there are definitely things about them I love. And Remake does a good job at giving a modern look into what that genre-defining game from the late 90s could look like. And I’m very curious how they proceed with the rest of the trilogy because it has some of my favourite sections in the original, but also some of the worst. It feels like they have the opportunity to fix some of the issues that came with the era the game was created, and also try some new ideas with the ever-evolving technology we have now. I’m very excited to see how Rebirth and the final game turn out. 7.5/10

Awesome part 1 of a grand story with some flaws here and there. The characters are the main selling point of the game and are very well done in terms of characterisation and character designs accompanied by nice animation and cutscenes. This game is quite long though and at some portions you can feel the game drag, especially if you do all the sidequests, which, while do mostly offer some characterisation, are kinda boring and not that rewarding. The drag can also be felt in combat because there's a few bosses who are just damage sponges and fighting flying enemies in this game is just dumb. The combat is still pretty good and offers variety with different playstyles. While the story is awesome with peaks that make up for some of the slog moments, the story can get a bit confusing, like around the end. The story is also understood better if you’re familiar with the original source material, but this game can still stand on its own.Also, the OST is a banger.

I really enjoyed the first part of the story — the way it builds and is written kept me hooked. The characters feel real, the story and lore are amazing. After playing original, Crisis Core, Remake, and Rebirth, I think FFVII is one of the best, most carefully made games out there. セフィロス大好き!!

Def a must-play! characters, outfits, story — all of it was so damn good, gorgeous, and absolute peak fiction My biggest crashouts were 100% the Hell House fight, who let that exist?? and the Sephiroth boss — which, ironically, felt easier than that flying firebreathing IKEA sh!t (also i chose 60 floors of stairs. no chest, no achievement…but was kinda chill ╥ ω ╥) As soon as I have money, Im buying next parts. no hesitation

In my opinion, they ruined this game completely. Yeah, graphics are really nice but the summons are completely useless and changing from the OG turn based to this real time action sucks. FF has gone down hill for years and this hasn't changed my mind. While the FF online is good for most people, this remake...well, I wish it didn't exist. It took my favorite JRPG and completely ruined the gameplay. Everyone online says the same thing as far as summoning, which is what made this game in the first place! They are weak, they only come out if there's enough room in the place space and they are expensive to use. Graphics do not make a game.

I really wanted to enjoy this game more. I would consider myself a die-hard Square Enix fan and have played the original FF7 multiple times through. I have 3 main problems with the game. First, the combat is incredibly rigid and can get boring really quickly. I would have hoped that this game's combat could be as fun / fluid as another square game, Kingdom Hearts 2 (made ~15 years before this one) but it's just not. There are barely any opportunities to add depth to your combos, and it feels like once you hit the attack button you lose control of your character for a significant amount of time. There's also very little mobility a lot of the time. I often felt like I was spamming the dodge button just to move at a reasonable pace during combat. And don't even get me started on playing as Barret for almost an entire chapter. Worst gameplay experience ever. Secondly, I understand that the game is influenced by anime tropes, but the interactions of the characters are very cringe worthy and sometimes just don't make sense. Part of this is probably just to fill time since this game covers about 6 hours of playtime in the original game with ~30 hours of playtime. One really odd example is when you first meet up with Tifa and she gets you an apartment. She tells you to go to bed and you retire to the room, there's a cutscene where you try going to bed but can't, and then Tifa shows up again unprompted, asks Cloud "what're you up to" and then after a brief awkward interaction just says "Well you should go to bed" and leaves. Like, how unnatural and weird is it to tell someone to get some rest and then shortly after barge in, ask one or two questions, and then insist they actually rest? Just a total waste of a scene honestly. There are also a couple of times where the game locks you into an interaction with the NPC's in order to teach you a mechanic that is already incredibly obvious. One of these weird interactions was near the beginning of chapter 6 where you have to deactivate some lights to direct power to some doors. Tifa insists that you follow her up a ladder to have some exposition about the light sources, and to my surprise, when I decided to just go over to the button and turn it off to open the door, the game wouldn't even let me hit the button. Then, I talked to Tifa and after a short cutscene she told me to press the same button I wanted to earlier, and when I did, she says "great job cloud!". It's honestly pretty insulting to me that you're forced into that exposition where you're told what to do and then treated like you figured something out after being explicitly told what to do, with the added frustration of being locked out of figuring it out for yourself. It's just bad game design. Lastly, I think there are a lot of moments that just felt clunky when traversing the world. There are countless times where you have to have a small "cutscene" to walk inbetween two closely spaced objects, or hop over a random piece of debris, but again the engine doesn't let you feel like you have control and the interaction is slow enough that it feels like an intentional moment to get you to notice _something_ that just isn't really there. This is especially true in Chapter 16 when Tifa has to climb into the guard shack to grab a keycard and when Cloud has to crawl through the vents in the shinra building _SO SLOWLY_.

My only complain about this game is how unnecessarily grindy it is when it comes to perfecting the achievements. Overall, it's an amazing Final Fantasy game. The story is compelling, both main and side characters are likeable, and most importantly the battle system is amazing. It deserves the recognition it gets from the fans setting aside the nostalgia it brings. P.S. Shout out to my friends who helped me get this game. I'll forever be grateful to your generosity.

Something is wrong with the PC port. Sometimes when I launch, it basically melts my PC and I have to hard reset. I've got a 4080 Super and Ryzen 7800X3D, and have no issues with other games (except the Lego ones - damn, they're cursed).

This game was lot of fun the dlc was amazing to play but replaying chapter 9 so many times just to get a full completion was dumb. Don't do a 100% completion run if you value your sanity.

6/10 (*9/10 for FF7 Compilation fans, none of whom haven't played this 100 times by now) ---------------------------------- Do yourself a massive favor and go play the original FF7 with some mods (check out 7th Heaven mod manager to find some great, easy-to-use setups) or Clair Obscur Expedition 33 and give the 7Remake series a wide berth. This is a weird game to rate. Personally I dislike what they've done to one of my favorite games of all time, but putting my biases aside I can still see the blemishes pretty clearly, even if I was initially pretty wowed by it. But if you're a little less 'turned-on', and bewitched by the presentation and the starstruck nature of seeing your favorite characters in full, beautiful detail with animation and voice, I think you'll have a very different experience. It's not at all surprising that many people consider this game a masterpiece. It is not, with absolute certainty. It's a well-polished AAA action rpg with high quality music, mechanics and combat, but enough faults in the content, pacing, plot and writing that make the game less than the sum of its parts. This is a complete restructuring of the first few hours of the original game from 1997. Right out of the gate before the intro movie is even finished, there are a multitude of embellishments and stylistic changes that let you know, this is not Final Fantasy 7. Very little remains of the original beyond the setting, the (for the most part) characters, the bare bones structure of the plot and a few key moments of the story. A story, which unfortunately, has been pretty thoroughly butchered in service of attaching a brand new narrative to the existing one while also re-contextualizing known events and characters. Leading to a climax and conclusion that is contextually absurd and, as of part 2, results in nothing being added to the original plots points. Begging the question: "why?" Love it or hate it, its undeniable that the changes made to the plot and characters undermine and cheapen the events and writing of the original beyond repair. You have to detach yourself from that original setting and accept this plot and these characters as canonically separate in order to appreciate them, which seems to be the writers' intent. And even in that context I find the task insurmountable as the quality of writing and story telling here comes across as juvenile, peppered with some genuinely excellent moments and performances which left me even more upset. Particularly with some very cringe standouts like Sephiroth, Aerith and Red XIII, the latter two of whom are my favorite characters from the original. This is further exacerbated by awkward, "SquareEnix," voice direction. If you enjoy English dubbed anime then this type of awkwardness is probably a taste you've acquired but even after growing up with it and decades of hearing it, I still can't stand it. Where is the stellar localization team that worked on Final Fantasy 12, 14 and 16? Even Advent Children's dub was less cringe. The inconsistency in the writing is really unfortunate to see since you know someone who was skilled and who really cared was working on it. A 'too many cooks' scenario, without a doubt. A problem the entire game has all the way up to the top, having multiple directors each with very different leadership and creative approaches. If you're familiar with their works, you can see pretty clearly which parts of the game were more 'Kitase', 'Toriyama', or 'Nomura'. Which creates this kaleidoscope experience that further damages the integrity and cohesion of the whole. Visually, musically, the game is outstanding. The OST shines brilliantly when revisiting original tracks, rearranged with loving detail by Hamauzu. But is bloated with cacophonous orchestrations and additions by Mitsuto Suzuki that are very tonally out of place for FF7. This was the team that worked on FF13 and you can really hear that style pretty clearly even in some of the Uematsu rearrangements. Overall, though, its a feast for the eyes and ears. The combat is definitely full of eye-candy spectacle. It's just a mix of block/parry-based defense, and resource builder-spender action systems with light party swap mechanics. Fun but unfortunately lacks challenge and only really shines in the few one vs one encounters, or on the post-game Hard difficulty. Most of Remake's game play consists of an immense amount of filler and bloat. Long stretches of game play with pointless side stories and exposition that has no effect on character development or plot. Walk and talk sequences. Pointless NPCs like Chadley, Betty, Tifa's landlord, Roche, that serve no narrative purpose. Frequent abrupt loss of camera and run/walk control, and constantly waiting for Clouds lethargic animations to finish while he moves through tight spaces or interacts with objects. With how much of this bloat follows into Rebirth, it feels like the Remake project was split into multiple parts to try and milk as much money out of the franchise as they could, rather than it being done by necessity. Partly fueled by the director Kitase's delusion that the game needed to be 1:1 to-scale with minimal abstraction. Tighter paced structure, better map and level design, good writing and the removal of 80% of the filler could have seen Remake, Rebirth and Regurgitation (or whatever its gonna be called) combined into a unanimously 10/10, 40 hour rpg (sans optional content), and stunning successor and companion to the original. All said, its a pretty okay game and certainly the better of the two between this and Rebirth. But for a remake of a game whose primary selling points was one of the most well-regarded stories and characters in video game history, it shows precious little consideration or respect for its predecessor. Unless you're a die-hard Crisis Core fan, give this series a pass. This is peak modern SquareEnix and I don't think we'll be seeing anything else of substance from them ever again.

What an amazing game with a spicy twist. There's definite replay-ability. I know some people were waiting for the whole series to come out... don't. There's tons of replay-ability there. Graphically it's amazing, the gameplay is wonderful, I can't begin to sing this game's praises. 10/10 highly recommend.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade isn’t just a visual upgrade—it’s the definitive version of one of the most ambitious and beloved reimaginings in modern gaming. With enhanced visuals, performance improvements, and the addition of the EPISODE INTERmission DLC starring Yuffie, Intergrade takes what was already an epic experience and makes it sharper, smoother, and even more satisfying. Let’s start with the core game. Final Fantasy VII Remake takes the opening Midgar arc of the original 1997 game and expands it into a full-length RPG with fully voiced characters, cinematic storytelling, and a hybrid combat system that fuses real-time action with the strategic depth of classic turn-based gameplay. It's bold. It’s beautiful. And for fans—both new and old—it’s emotionally resonant. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith aren’t just polygonal memories anymore; they’re fully realized people with weight, nuance, and chemistry. The game's writing, voice acting, and character animations make them come alive in ways that elevate the original's story rather than replace it. Midgar itself feels massive, alive, and terrifyingly corporate, especially under the shadow of Shinra’s control. Combat is fluid, dynamic, and incredibly fun. Each character feels distinct, with unique mechanics and playstyles. Switching between them mid-battle adds tactical depth, and the ability to slow time to issue commands captures the best of both turn-based and real-time systems. Boss fights are highlights—cinematic, challenging, and packed with spectacle. Intergrade’s upgrades on PC make a significant difference: textures are sharper, lighting is more atmospheric, and performance modes let you prioritize smooth 60fps gameplay or enhanced visuals with ray tracing. Load times are nearly instant, making exploration and fast travel seamless. Then there's EPISODE INTERmission, a short but punchy DLC chapter starring the fan-favorite ninja Yuffie Kisaragi. It’s a great addition, offering a new combat style, a fresh perspective on Midgar, and some valuable context for what's coming next in the Remake saga. Yuffie herself is a joy—playful, skilled, and emotionally grounded. The DLC also teases deeper threads in the unfolding story that longtime fans will recognize and speculate wildly about. If there’s any critique, it’s that the game’s expanded narrative (especially the ending) takes some wild turns that might confuse newcomers or divide diehard fans. But it’s bold, and it signals that Square Enix isn’t content to just retread old ground—they’re telling a new story inspired by the classic, not shackled to it. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is a stunning, heartfelt tribute to a gaming legend, elevated by next-gen enhancements and a meaningful new DLC. It’s part remake, part reinvention, and entirely unforgettable. Whether you're reliving the journey or discovering it for the first time, this is the way to experience Final Fantasy VII in the modern era. Rating: 9/10

It feels incredibly padded with tons of unnecessary cutscenes and slow walking segments. It takes 2 hours to reach the Don in the original game, but 15 hours into the remake and I'm still trudging through the road to get to sector 6. It's just so incredibly slow as to become boring.

I love the story, characters, and cut scenes. But, as I kept progressing, the level design felt sooo repetitive and boring.

really good story and characters but its padded to hell and back [spoiler] cloud crossdressing section made me want to kms [/spoiler]

Graphics are by far the best thing about this game, it looks amazing. I actually enjoy the game play while it can have slow parts throughout it overall kept my attention when playing. How the combat and materia work I thoroughly enjoy as well, I have spent hours at this point changing what materia are on the weapons to go through bosses easier. Definitely recommend this game if you're looking to spend time in this is the game

I love this game. Its story is great, the characters are great. the only issues are the nonstop crashes. Other than that 9/10 game

Final Fantasy VII Remake so far feels like a game that does justice to the original. The attention to detail, the reimagined environments, and the respectful treatment of the characters and story make it a worthy continuation of the Remake project. It’s clear the developers have a deep love for the source material, and that shines through in almost every scene. That said, one element feels completely absent: random encounters. For many long-time fans of the Final Fantasy series (like myself), this mechanic was more than just a gameplay feature, it was part of the soul of the older games. Random encounters brought an unpredictable rhythm to exploration and made leveling up and experimenting with new materia feel organic and frequent. Early in the game, you don’t get to fully engage with the otherwise excellent combat system as often as you might like. Without the steady drip of battles, the ability to try new materia or grind out levels is significantly reduced. It's a change that, while modern in design, strips away some of the magic that defined the original experience. I understand random encounters are unlikely to return, and that the design philosophy has shifted. But part of me still misses that classic grind, the anticipation, the tension, and the satisfaction of a well-earned level-up. Final Fantasy VII Retrograde is still an impressive game, but for some fans, that missing piece is a notable one.

This game honors the original and goes above and beyond my expectations.

For me, nothing beats the original FF7, but this game is great and gives you a lot more story for the supporting characters which is really nice to have and the combat is a lot of fun.

It pains me to click "no" when asked if I recommend this game, but I can't say I've loved my time with it so far. I find myself losing interest every time I try to finish it, and that's never a good feeling with a game. Chances are, you're interested in this because you played the original. So, does this game manage to recapture and modernize the classic game of FFVII? Yes and no. It succeeds in retelling and expanding on the original story in ways that feel relatively organic. I also enjoy how they expand and further develop the relationships between the main characters. In particular, if you're a fan of Cloud and Tifa's scenes in the original game, you'll get plenty more in this one. Overall, I have few complaints about the story, other than that it drags in places, due to how they had to expand on original story beats to get a whole game out of just Midgar. So, where does the game stumble? Unfortunately, with the gameplay. While I get that Square Enix didn't just want to remake the exact same game with prettier graphics, they've so fundamentally changed the combat, that it feels almost unrecognizable compared to the original. Somehow, it rarely seems to matter how much I try to manually control the characters. No matter how much I try to execute the basic attacks with precision, it seldom feels like I'm making much of a difference. I've resorted to just playing the battles on auto, because it feels almost exactly the same to me. I'll admit that perhaps there's just something I'm missing, but if the problem isn't obvious, perhaps there is an issue with gameplay clarity that should have been addressed. So, the short version is this: will you like this game if you're looking for a modernized retelling of the classic story? Probably, yes! Will you like this game if you wanted a classic, JRPG experience? Probably not. It's probably worth picking up the game for the story and quality voice acting, but the actual game itself is just too different and obtuse for me to truly enjoy. It's a bummer to have to say this, because this game really is quite a polished, well-made experience. It simply doesn't matter how much you polish something if someone doesn't like the underlying concept. I hesitantly click the "no" button, because the cons ever-so-slightly outweigh the pros for me. It's not a "bad" game, it just doesn't give me enough of what I wanted to give it a pure "thumbs-up".

I for sure prefer the original, and this isn't the best game I've ever played, and it definitely takes some getting used to and some trust in the process, but both the creative and narrative liberties taken as well as the fun combat mechanics make this game worth it.

As someone who's enjoyed the atmosphere and opening half of the PS1 and SNES Final Fantasy games (the grinding and endless boss rushes that you get with the back-half of those games aren't my cup of tea), this felt curated to my tastes. I never felt overwhelmed/frustrated by the number of battles. The game mostly adheres to a linear chapter-driven narrative, with chapters where multiple optional quests are available to complete before advancing the story. The side quests are Bethesda quality (Fallout, Elder Scrolls), but still are welcome reasons to continue to play within the world they've crafted. It took me 29 hours to beat the game on easy difficulty, including the side-quests available in the first playthrough.

I thought the game was okay with decent pace up until chapter 7. Then I fell asleep.

Nothing compares to the original but damn, I did have a jolly good time and I look forward to the next one.

So awesome! I have been an rpg nut of any kind for a long time. This game really scratches that itch. Beautiful and fun. Great job square :).

When Remake first was announced, many of us were understandably excited. FF VII stood as a monument to many of our shared histories. And now we had an opportunity to relive and re-imagine the world that carved out such a big space in our collective imaginations. But what started out as a fantastic opportunity sadly turned into an exercise in ego-fulfillment and laziness. The former because of the disregard showed to the plot, mood, setting and characters of the original title. As if to say, "I could do it better," the remake attempts to make better decisions with the game's plot, setting and characters but this attempt should only be met with contempt. It isn't simply the small plot changes, but an overall disregard for what made the original truly great, each facet and part of it. Laziness because well, the writing and the new content is absolutely trite and meaningless I can only assume it came to us from a complete disregard for hard work and the possibility to create something truly great. What we end up with is a very middling effort that fails to truly envisage a great title in the modern age. Sadly, this is the norm not only for squaresoft, but also for most game companies that parade their AAA properties like money sponges. I gave this game a chance partly thanks to the false praise often heaped on it, but mostly because I wanted to give it a chance to make me happy. To remind me of a time in my life where I became totally enraptured by a world, by characters, by a plot that was excellently delivered and respected my intelligence enough not to spoon-feed me. And while I did get small moments of that from time to time playing the remake, a majority of it is non-sense filler. There's no need to add even more characters. It makes no sense to change the plot. It does nothing for me, and I assume you too, reader of this review. I truly doubt that if you want to play remake in hopes of reliving what should be a highlight of your gaming career and maybe even your life as a whole, then you will find yourself mostly disappointed. And if you simply want to play a great game with modern day production values, I dare say you're going to find MUCH better elsewhere.

I really enjoyed this game. Looks great, performs well. Was my first final fantasy game.

This game is incredible, I am not a gamer generally and was just in it for the plot but the gameplay was smooth, the characters were extremely compelling and the changes to the source material are a welcomed revision to the main plot of FFVII. Genuinely not into anime or that general style of media, and this game does toe that line with the overly reactive humor and excessive grunting but it was just laid back enough to be acceptable for someone like myself and didn't take me out of the game. This game got me very invested in the FF series as a whole and plot is one for the ages. This is some 10/10 stuff right here in my opinion.

Saves stopped working for no reason. Played multiple hours and couldn't save. Looked up how to fix and nothing worked. 10 hours wasted on playtime and fixing it. I literally can't play the game, it's total bs

pure greatness. masterpiece. 11/10. best visuals i have ever seen and some of the most likeable characters with aerith and cloud. super good character development w cloud and especially barret

Game Rating: 10/10 SPOILERS AHEAD jumping into my first Final Fantasy game because of seeing all the cool characters it brings might have been one of the best choices I made in my gaming history, the game is purely amazing, I have fully completed it with all achievements like 2 weeks ago, but I decided to write to review only now because it truly took me a lot to truly take this masterpiece in, if you have never played "anime" based games, or Final Fantasy games, this one is certainly a must play, I never really knew what to expect as I only played competitive and soulslike games before, but in the first hour of the game I can say it got me hooked, and I didn't even know how it managed to get me hooked like that, as I never felt so attracted to a game like Final Fantasy 7 before, the graphics are actually amazing and they actually surprised me a lot when I first booted up the game, the game straight up throws you into this action based mission which is made to really get you into the game, and after that, the game keeps throwing the same thing at you, to keep you constantly hooked, it adds scenes and characters that are made to keep you entertained either by their personality like Tifa or humour like Wedge, the game truly has it all, it's like watching an anime full of action but also takes it's time for peaceful scenes and humoring the audience, which is exactly what this game has done perfectly, the game takes place in the city, not much to say there, but the vibes it gives are purely beautiful, especially some parts of the city that are not as badly affected by the reactors as others, especially the adittion of the slums really added a depth to our characters and the lore because we saw how they lived and stuff, not only that, the story, ever since the first mission, hypes up Sephiroth to the point when he actually appears at the end of the game you don't even know if he is real or not, which really adds to the first time experience if you played the game with no spoilers not only that, on top of all that, you have all this characters that you use to fight, all these different weapons, abilities and ultimates that make the combas as flashy as possible that would be impossible for someone with epilepsy to play, this game has probably the flashiest combat I have ever seen in a game before, it's like watching Tengen Vs Gyutaro constantly fight on your screen, full of explosions and full of slashes, this game is simply beautiful in every aspect, from the story, to the vibe of the game, to the characters, to the inside jokes like cloud in a maid outfit, to the combat, and to the main villain. this game really got me into Final Fantasy and I can't wait to play the other ones, if you plan to fully complete the game with all achievements though, just be careful as it's an insanely big game, the original story is extremely long in my opinion and if you want to fully complete the game you will have to finish it more than once, which will truly take a long time, but that's the only thing you should care about, other than that, boot up the game, and enjoy this masterpiece, if you made it so far into the review, thank you so much and have a great day <3

OG FF7 is in my top games of all time, the remake is not for me, the price tag is hard to digest and I won't invest in the sequels.

game looks really nice and has a good story. combat is fluent.

The action combat is so antithetical to the original game, its unplayable for anyone who wants that style of play. Its badly explained in the tutorial and for anyone who enjoys the turned based original, such a completely different game that its genuinely impossible to push through it to experience the story. If you enjoy souls like rolling around on the floor then lucky you, here's easy mode of that. For the rest of us, its a terrible betrayal of the original.

Tifa in 4K is all I need in a game. Oh and it's fun. But mostly Tifa.

Overall good game! While there are quite a few moments that felt like filler or unnecessary fluff, and some gameplay during key moments was frustrating, the characters really carry the experience and make it worthwhile.

Lovely besides the absolute slog this game puts you through a few times while traveling. Need more Cloud in dress content ASAP!!!!!

the only reason why i bought this game was to look at clouds biceps honestly

one of my favorite games, the combat is fun and it has an amazing story

The graphics, characters, and even the story are all good, but the game feels like a drag and more like an interactive movie than a game.

For the first time playing a Final Fantasy game, it was gentle to a beginner and sent me to an early grave trying to finish the game. But every second was worth it,especially with how beautiful the game is and how cool the story is. I will say I'm a Tifa hater out here XD

Graphics and characters are great, that's it. The ending is terrible, if you dont know about the original game, it makes no sense. The gameplay is going up and down stars constantly and flipping switches. The combat is flashy, but blocking and dodging is not satisfying at all. Extremely linear game. Best gear is just buying it in the last store or finding it in the last chest in main story. Enemies are sponges, even random low level rats. The worst FF game, so bad I almost didn't finish it, luckely its a short game.

I have not played the original game, nor am I a big fan of JRPGs, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy 7 remake. The setting, characters and story are in my opinion its biggest draw - beautiful, emotional, charming, suitable for younger audiences but also entertaining and respectful enough for older ones to be able to enjoy it as well. Engaging right from the start, weaving between more immediate socio-political events and the more mysterious and personal fantasy arcs of the main cast. It is very obviously a high budget production - there are hours of quality cutscenes, excellent character designs, animations and effects, top-notch voice acting, thrilling action sequences, detailed environments, sprawling and grandiose backdrops, tons of awesome music tracks... Combat is pretty fun once you get how it works. Its combination of real-time action and pause + party management is one of the more unique systems I've seen and it works well. Not the most complex RPG elements, but just enough to be able to experiment some and have to pay attention on the higher difficulty or during the tougher fights, making it a nice introduction to the genre. Main story missions are well-designed, they offer a good variety in gameplay mechanics, areas to visit and story beats and retain a decent pacing all things considered. The side content is clearly the weaker part, but there is just enough of optional quests and mini-games to give you some extra entertainment or insight into the city of Midgar and not become bothersome. I did often find it too linear and limiting and there's definitely a lot of time-padding throughout the game, but from everything I have experienced - I can see why FF7 is such a beloved title.

Seeing the story fleshed out, with varying degrees of change to the original story, and the very high quality of graphical improvement makes the game quite interesting. The extent of the cut scenes makes it feel as though you are watching a movie, I felt nostalgic of Advent Children. On the other side the combat changed a great deal. Adjusting to the real time combat and the alteration to the combat system took getting used to. Limit breaks being downgraded into common abilities added to the flow of strategy. I however did not appreciate the ATB bar influencing the ability to perform all actions: weapon skills, spells, and using items. Being able to continually attack, but not able to utilize items from a satchel struck me as inconvenient nonsense. Summons being restricted to very particular combat situations was also disappointing as summons to me have always been a highlight of the series. Upgrading the weapons to cultivate a play style, which took me back to FFXIII, was novel and easy to understand. The mini-games were difficult to appreciate. The Darts game was the hardest challenge of the game, harder than any of the fights I cleared on Normal for the first play through. The two games in Wall Market with the bodybuilders felt akin to rub your head/pat your stomach, the design of the pull-ups was aggravating, but less so than the darts. Bottom line, it's worthwhile just to see the reimagining of the original game, that so far has been done well from a story stand point.

Absolutely love this game! Played it a few years ago, now I'm replaying it and appreciating it even more. I played and adored the original FF7 and this is a beautiful homage to it. It's got plenty of nostalgia for returning fans, while introducing new things and new plot twists that can keep new fans engaged. The side quests can be a bit of a slog but the game lets you skip those for the most part. Combat is easy to learn but tough to master, though bosses can be a bit spongey at times. I'd say this is a solid 8.5/10, haven't played Rebirth yet but I'm looking forward to it if it's anywhere near the same quality as Remake!!

First i was not so much into this type of anime jrpg(semi turn base game i think) but after i got the remake in a sale i just played the game and was so driven into it & then into this franchise that now i have played both remake and rebirth and planning to go onto more into this series !! This is real good game btw..

Amazing game. Feels like they've perfected the combat system Kingdom Hearts was going for. The story changes keep things interesting even if they are unnecessary in several places, Graphically very impressive.