Heyo people of Vizzed! I felt like I needed to review this remake since I said I thought the gameplay looked boring back when it came out but it would turn out that the gameplay I watched was someone playing it in a way that made it look super boring. Before I jump in I'll also say I don't have the history of playing Final Fantasy 7 that some people will no doubt have however, I have watched my mom play the original to death so I will be mentioning how things differ from the original based on my memory of watching my mom play the original and will be talking about spoilers!



Gameplay 10/10 -
Turning a turn-based RPG into an action RPG will always be an interesting choice but one I think was for the better of the game allowing a new generation to enjoy Final Fantasy 7! That said how did the game manage the change? Fantastic The playable characters all have unique things about them like Cloud can enter punisher mode where his damage increases quite a bit but he walks super slow. My personal favorite was Tifa's combos it was super fun just doing crazy-looking moves to get the enemy to stagger. I think it was a wise decision to only allow spells to be cast when the ATB gauge is full forcing players to not just go running in like crazy and then healing whenever they needed to though if you played smart you could still likely pull that off.


Graphics 10/10 -
With the exception of a few graphical and texture hiccups, this game throughout was the best-looking game I've ever played and I typically don't really care for games looking super realistic but even without it being my preference I would be lying to say I found the game anything less than stunning graphicly.


Sound 10/10 -
Before I get into the soundtrack I'll say changing the voices of the entire cast in the English version is something I still find questionable but I imagine was a choice done because they couldn't get everyone back with how some of the characters sound almost just like the original voice they had for a said character but with Aerith it was a huge upgrade with her new voice! Now for the soundtrack, they did an amazing job with the new arrangements of the classic songs they even managed to make me like the normal battle theme a song I've heard more hours than I want to know. Some of the songs I would even argue improve on an already iconic song.


Addictive 6/10 -
I don't feel like I'm that likely to replay the game since the entire game is in Midgar and there's only so long you can play it without feeling a bit worn out of the area but they did try to mix it up some with some of the towns feeling very different than the others but I imagine I'd only replay the game once part 2 and 3 have released if I wanted to get an opinion on the entire remake.


(Spoilers)
Story 7/10 -
Reviewing a story that only feels 1/3rd done is a new challenge for me but I'll try to focus on just what this game does. I like how early on nothing changes too drastically just feels like they added stuff to flesh out characters so you care more for them and such but by the end of the game it's gone pretty far out of being just a redo of the game's original story thanks to the Whispers reviving characters who shouldn't be dead and then with the final boss showing moments of the future which if you haven't played or seen 7 you'll be clueless just like the party but if you do know what the moments are it's just like why are they showing this! I like how throughout the game with the Whispers it feels as if the devs want to change things and yet the fans want everything the same at least that's what I think the whispers are supposed to represent, I'm super curious how part 2 and 3 will play out after the ending of this game but maybe in 2030 I'll have reviews of both those games only time will tell.


Depth 8/10 -
Despite never leaving Midgar I still have to say this game is deep because of Materia and the weapon upgrades you could really approach the game's combat how you wanted to because of the different options you have when upgrading weapons and then using Materia how you wanted to I personally didn't dive super deep into using Materia I liked focusing on dealing damage with just my weapons and abilities.


Difficulty 5/10 -
I played on Normal the hardest difficulty you start with and I thought the game wasn't all that hard with a few exceptions namely this one part in the sewers where you fight like 5 lizards that wanna be Dragoons and they spam jump and turn you into a frog but besides that one bit a few bosses could pressure me a bit but nothing too terrible.


Overall 8.5/10 -
Overall this game does some things really well and makes me wish the whole remake was out already! But on the topic of part 1 it was a lot better than I thought it would be and I look forward to playing part 2 and 3 at some point later in life!