- AKA
- Alex T
Been thinking about Remake a bit lately. Thought I’d share my thoughts and see where everyone else is at. Consider this part 3 of my impression on the game, now half a year after release (here's part 1 and part 2).
Pretty much the only thing I wanted out of a FF7 re-release, whether it be a port or remake, was for it to be retranslated. To this day I'm disappointed the endearing, yet faulty script of the original PlayStation release has been carried through the generations. It's not that I hate everything about it. I actually think the original translation is worthy of academic analysis in how it's riddled with errors yet manages to resonant with millions of players. This is a topic I'd like to think more on later, but for now the key takeaway is that beside the translation, I love the OG as is. Everything from its snappy battle animations, vibrant color palette, and obtuse minigames. Can't get enough of it.
So how does a remake appeal to me? The answer is simple: I love any reason to think about FF7 more. And there was a lot to think about when the remake was announced at E3 2015. At the time we didn't know the project would be split into parts nor that it'd be an action RPG. The sky was the limit! However, when both aspects were revealed a few months later, I abandoned all expectations. The OG has a specific, brilliant pacing. I'd argue it's the best paced JRPG ever (again, topic for another time). Splitting the story into parts was inconceivable to me. From that moment the remake existed as its own beast in my mind. I knew it would never replace the OG, but I obviously still wanted it to be good.
Then the radio silence. Three and a half years and all we got were two screenshots, a concept gallery, and a key art. Amazing.
I can recite the May 2019 State of Play teaser by heart. Voice lines, music cues, all of it. But the more I saw from later trailers, the more I became pessimistic. FF7R was looking like a modern video game. And of course, visually, that's great! But I don't think all modern video game design decisions are winners. When I first saw the side quest menu I immediately complained to my brother in a lengthy text.
"FF7R is a big, dumb, beautiful AAA video game." That's the first thing I wrote about FF7R after my first session with it. And I still feel that way even approaching 200 hours. My biggest issue with AAA video games is inconsistent quality. FF7R is plagued with this. For example, the voice cast can nail some powerful emotions, yet they're also forced to do anime grunts. Why are anime grunts a thing? Before I die, I hope to make a "Remove Anime Grunts" mod for FF7R on PC. Also, why are the side quests so bad? The setting is Midgar. How can there be boring side quests when Midgar is the backdrop? Oh, and while the main characters look great, the NPCs look like they just walked out of The Sims. Can't complain about the cutscene quality either, but talk to an NPC and suddenly the camera can’t keep up with their over expressive animations. There's even a skill tree, the AAA video game equivalent of air, that’s so boring they included a way to automate it.
There’s a lot I don’t find ideal in a game with FF7 in the title and my first playthrough was dragged down because of it. But at the same time, I was excited. The Whispers were turning out to be everything I wanted them to be. I poured myself into inspecting their every action. After Chapter 2 I theorized that they were not aligned with Sephiroth. After Chapter 4 I theorized that they interfered to re-align the plot. I was in disbelief when the party started seeing visions of future events in Chapter 18. With the Whispers, wow, the sky was the limit again. I've read in many different ways how the Whispers are "meta-commentary drivel". That wasn't my experience with them. The Whispers opened discussions. When my brother and buddy beat FF7R, I received "can't wait to talk about this with you" texts. And the best part? We're all on even ground now. I'm no longer the "guy that can answer anything about FF7". When my buddy asks me a plot question, I don't have to be like "ohhoho just you wait and see haha". Their guess is as good mine as to the future of FF7. I love this.
There's a lot of arguments against the Whispers and I guess I want to feature a few rebuttals here. I know we're all pretty solid on our impressions of them, but I just gotta write these down somewhere.
People say the fate and time elements are out of place. The OG features mythological creatures, dieselpunk automobiles and airships, an alien, spellcasting, and surf boards. SURF BOARDS. The Compilation added VR. To me, FF7 has always been a hodgepodge of genres, fate and time elements don’t seem out of place when I list them with everything else. People say the Whispers and the ending are tonally dissonant. In the OG, Cloud goes snowboarding within an hour of playtime after Aerith's death, the most monumental death in video game history. The party has a mini vacation at Costa del Sol immediately after the cargo ship crew is brutally murdered. To me, FF7 has always been a weird adventure with almost comical tone shifts. People say the Whispers are a nonsensical plot device. In the OG, Cloud, a SOLDIER 1st Class, needs help from Shera to move a chunk of metal that's trapped Cid. Rufus personally visits Rocket Town to take the Tiny Bronco so that his manufacturing company can cross the ocean. An amusement park has its own prison, and after being accused of murdering the park staff, the party is told they can have freedom by *checks notes* ...winning a chocobo race.
I hope I don't sound super defensive. I don't want to be seen as "that Whisper fan" around here. Like, I get the jokes around them. My brother was mid-conversation on his FF4 remake playthrough and I was like "that's great but when do the plot ghosts come in?" It's fun, though I'm also genuine when I say that I enjoy their addition and don't find them obtrusive in FF7 at all.
Circling this back around, without the Whispers, FF7R would've been a steaming hot pile of AAA madness to me. With the Whispers, FF7R says something interesting. Without the Whispers, FF7R would've been an attempt to replace the OG, but with issues that would've made it an inferior experience to me. With the Whispers, FF7R has its own identity. The inconsistent quality is still there of course, but I'm much more tolerable of it in a new game versus a game trying to fill the OG's shoes.
It's strange, but it feels accurate to write that I'm proud of FF7R. I enjoy its bold message and the resulting discussions. Reading reactions and thinking about the OG has made one thing clear to me: Final Fantasy VII is a game that lives larger in people's minds than how it was ever rendered on-screen. I'm not sure what to call this quality, but it's part of what drove Remake to existence. I can't think of a more requested remake in media.
I walk an hour a day as part of my daily commute to and from work. Lots of thinking time. It could be considered boring, but I make do. Pondering FF7R, its message, its details, its future, never fails to capture my imagination. It's a game I play even when I'm not actually playing it. A hallmark of all my favorite games.
Pretty much the only thing I wanted out of a FF7 re-release, whether it be a port or remake, was for it to be retranslated. To this day I'm disappointed the endearing, yet faulty script of the original PlayStation release has been carried through the generations. It's not that I hate everything about it. I actually think the original translation is worthy of academic analysis in how it's riddled with errors yet manages to resonant with millions of players. This is a topic I'd like to think more on later, but for now the key takeaway is that beside the translation, I love the OG as is. Everything from its snappy battle animations, vibrant color palette, and obtuse minigames. Can't get enough of it.
So how does a remake appeal to me? The answer is simple: I love any reason to think about FF7 more. And there was a lot to think about when the remake was announced at E3 2015. At the time we didn't know the project would be split into parts nor that it'd be an action RPG. The sky was the limit! However, when both aspects were revealed a few months later, I abandoned all expectations. The OG has a specific, brilliant pacing. I'd argue it's the best paced JRPG ever (again, topic for another time). Splitting the story into parts was inconceivable to me. From that moment the remake existed as its own beast in my mind. I knew it would never replace the OG, but I obviously still wanted it to be good.
Then the radio silence. Three and a half years and all we got were two screenshots, a concept gallery, and a key art. Amazing.
I can recite the May 2019 State of Play teaser by heart. Voice lines, music cues, all of it. But the more I saw from later trailers, the more I became pessimistic. FF7R was looking like a modern video game. And of course, visually, that's great! But I don't think all modern video game design decisions are winners. When I first saw the side quest menu I immediately complained to my brother in a lengthy text.
"FF7R is a big, dumb, beautiful AAA video game." That's the first thing I wrote about FF7R after my first session with it. And I still feel that way even approaching 200 hours. My biggest issue with AAA video games is inconsistent quality. FF7R is plagued with this. For example, the voice cast can nail some powerful emotions, yet they're also forced to do anime grunts. Why are anime grunts a thing? Before I die, I hope to make a "Remove Anime Grunts" mod for FF7R on PC. Also, why are the side quests so bad? The setting is Midgar. How can there be boring side quests when Midgar is the backdrop? Oh, and while the main characters look great, the NPCs look like they just walked out of The Sims. Can't complain about the cutscene quality either, but talk to an NPC and suddenly the camera can’t keep up with their over expressive animations. There's even a skill tree, the AAA video game equivalent of air, that’s so boring they included a way to automate it.
There’s a lot I don’t find ideal in a game with FF7 in the title and my first playthrough was dragged down because of it. But at the same time, I was excited. The Whispers were turning out to be everything I wanted them to be. I poured myself into inspecting their every action. After Chapter 2 I theorized that they were not aligned with Sephiroth. After Chapter 4 I theorized that they interfered to re-align the plot. I was in disbelief when the party started seeing visions of future events in Chapter 18. With the Whispers, wow, the sky was the limit again. I've read in many different ways how the Whispers are "meta-commentary drivel". That wasn't my experience with them. The Whispers opened discussions. When my brother and buddy beat FF7R, I received "can't wait to talk about this with you" texts. And the best part? We're all on even ground now. I'm no longer the "guy that can answer anything about FF7". When my buddy asks me a plot question, I don't have to be like "ohhoho just you wait and see haha". Their guess is as good mine as to the future of FF7. I love this.
There's a lot of arguments against the Whispers and I guess I want to feature a few rebuttals here. I know we're all pretty solid on our impressions of them, but I just gotta write these down somewhere.
People say the fate and time elements are out of place. The OG features mythological creatures, dieselpunk automobiles and airships, an alien, spellcasting, and surf boards. SURF BOARDS. The Compilation added VR. To me, FF7 has always been a hodgepodge of genres, fate and time elements don’t seem out of place when I list them with everything else. People say the Whispers and the ending are tonally dissonant. In the OG, Cloud goes snowboarding within an hour of playtime after Aerith's death, the most monumental death in video game history. The party has a mini vacation at Costa del Sol immediately after the cargo ship crew is brutally murdered. To me, FF7 has always been a weird adventure with almost comical tone shifts. People say the Whispers are a nonsensical plot device. In the OG, Cloud, a SOLDIER 1st Class, needs help from Shera to move a chunk of metal that's trapped Cid. Rufus personally visits Rocket Town to take the Tiny Bronco so that his manufacturing company can cross the ocean. An amusement park has its own prison, and after being accused of murdering the park staff, the party is told they can have freedom by *checks notes* ...winning a chocobo race.
I hope I don't sound super defensive. I don't want to be seen as "that Whisper fan" around here. Like, I get the jokes around them. My brother was mid-conversation on his FF4 remake playthrough and I was like "that's great but when do the plot ghosts come in?" It's fun, though I'm also genuine when I say that I enjoy their addition and don't find them obtrusive in FF7 at all.
Circling this back around, without the Whispers, FF7R would've been a steaming hot pile of AAA madness to me. With the Whispers, FF7R says something interesting. Without the Whispers, FF7R would've been an attempt to replace the OG, but with issues that would've made it an inferior experience to me. With the Whispers, FF7R has its own identity. The inconsistent quality is still there of course, but I'm much more tolerable of it in a new game versus a game trying to fill the OG's shoes.
It's strange, but it feels accurate to write that I'm proud of FF7R. I enjoy its bold message and the resulting discussions. Reading reactions and thinking about the OG has made one thing clear to me: Final Fantasy VII is a game that lives larger in people's minds than how it was ever rendered on-screen. I'm not sure what to call this quality, but it's part of what drove Remake to existence. I can't think of a more requested remake in media.
I walk an hour a day as part of my daily commute to and from work. Lots of thinking time. It could be considered boring, but I make do. Pondering FF7R, its message, its details, its future, never fails to capture my imagination. It's a game I play even when I'm not actually playing it. A hallmark of all my favorite games.
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