Every fan of Final Fantasy has waited for the day that Square Enix decided to cash in and make a modern version of Final Fantasy 7.
I'm looking forward to it, but it does also scare the hell out of me!
Final Fantasy 7 is a pretty perfect story as it is. There are some minor tweaks to it that I'd like to see, but for the most part they need to try and capture the essence of the original at all costs.
The Music:
I mentioned this on Final Fantasy 6 too, but the music in Final Fantasy 7 is yet again an amazing feat of excellence.
It's amazing on its own in the game itself, and impressive in a live orchestra piece. I've listened to piano tracks of the songs, but the best I've heard comes from Mega Ran.
His Black Materia album is amazing. He basically lays down the tracks from the game, and then raps over them with a drum machine, telling the story of Final Fantasy 7 in song form.
If you want a summary of the story in an hour, in rap form then click here!
Four lines is not enough to sum up how great the music is. Every character has a perfect theme for them. Every town has a song that forms a part of the landscape. The world is alive with music, and most of it you could listen to independently of the game and it would create an image of the places they belong to, easily.
Classic FM sometimes do video game music days, they should just stick this on around the clock, it would get people listening!
The Characters
This game has a great cast of characters, and their unusual weaponry.
You have a huge muscle man with a gun for an arm. A giant plush toy ridden by a cat with a Megaphone. A four legged mammal who fights with his claws.
The people each have cool weapons and great back stories for being involved in the game.
Some are dragged in against their will. Some fight for a cause, or freedom. Others are there for alternative motives and at times your own party members end up being your enemy of sorts because of what motivates them.
The Enemies
Sephiroph is the famous enemy from this game. But The Turks and Shinra are legendary, and could've been just as universally known as he is.
Their motives are all excellent. The Turks are gangsters with an awesome theme tune and awesome attitudes. Hojo the mad scientist is essentially responsible for everyone's woes. The Shinra corp is interested in profit above all else and will damage the environment to get it.
Sephiroph is like the peak of the pyramid. His story threads through the whole game, inspiring Cloud to become a Soldier.
His interactions with Shinra and all the other enemies. His motives for wanting to cleanse the planet with Meteor. If he wasn't so mad he might of made it as a good guy in another story.
The Story
People talk about the moment they left certain areas of newer games and saw how amazing and vast the HD world was. I had this experience with Final Fantasy 7 first.
I remember playing as a 13 year old, I'd spent days doing the early game pieces. I remember fighting in the Shinra building and thinking I was at the end of the game. It seems insane looking back that I thought the days I'd put into this game were 'enough' to complete it.
I reached the mini game where you escape the building in a van and are chased by bikers.
The inspiration for Daryl in the Walking dead, with Cloud riding a motorcycle of his own, spinning his sword to take down Soldiers.
When I reached the end of that race and the edge of Midgar, I was a little confused. It didn't add up, the characters were fighting Shinra, it seemed like Shinra were on the back foot. Where could it possibly go next?
Then you walk out of the Midgar gates, and an entire world map unfolds ahead of you. I remember being blown away.
I made the mistake of skipping a lot of the side quests and towns in my first play through.
It took me so long to get to the end, at one point I was stuck on a single boss battle for days because I didn't understand the materia I had collected could help me get through the battle.
I often laugh thinking about the fact I reached the final boss with a party of Level 30 heroes with terrible gear and very little Materia.
Early in the battle one of my party was turned into a Frog, and I had no way of making him human again.
The other two characters could cast some summons, and did a few thousand damage. I had to repeatedly heal and heal and heal.
It took me over three hours.
I remember it vividly. The death, and then the final 1 vs 1 where I saw Omnislash for the first time. (I didn't get any level 4 limit breaks in this play through!)
The ending of that game blew me away, I felt brilliant.
I also recognised that I'd made an absolute hash of the game by this point and strived to play it perfectly at least once through. Since that point I've nearly done it but given up because of how much of a grind it can be.
I've only ever managed to get the Summon 'Alexander' once. But I've managed to get every character, including Aries, to their 4th limit break. I've seen every inch of the map, got all of the enemy moves, and come close to a team of full Level 100 characters (giving up in the high 80s low 90s)
The only thing that particularly held me back was having the time to just grind up to those higher levels, but I tried to do absolutely everything as best I could.
There are numerous parts that I have only seen in videos online, showing the games hidden mechanics.
In one example, you get to go on a date, traditionally with 2 of the female characters. But if you play things just right and insult them both enough you end up going on the 'date' with one of the guys instead where you see different story pieces.
There are hidden characters that you can sign up too. With hidden back stories and so forth.
You could easily sink 100 hours into this game and not do everything. People act like that's a modern thing from the likes of Skyrim, but this game did it without sending you on a thousand wild goose chases (ok maybe some geese were chased, but not to Elder Scrolls levels!).
I hope that the remake doesn't ruin the above points. The battle system has apparently been changed to a more modern type, which is understandable, but may alter too much.
The music MUST stay the same. The voices of the characters must be carefully planned, so as to not be irritating.
I can't wait to see the WEAPON enemies in 4k, along with the characters and their weaponry. This remake has huge potential, but they cannot break it.
Before I wrap up, I want to say that I hope they don't alter Aries' story, and I hope they fix the writing mistakes made with Cait Sith where he returns straight after the pyramid collapse, rather than later in the game when there's a perfect chance to reintroduce him.
My friend pointed this out to me once and it has bugged me ever since!
Anyway, enough of my ramblings, I don't feel this was a very good one tonight to be honest, sorry! Let me know in the comments what you think. What would you like to see the remake include?