Final Fantasy VII Remake, review: Much-hyped retread is flawed but breathtaking

When you first load up Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, it’s hard not to be bowled over. Gliding around and above the streets of the fantastical city of Midgar, the game feels immediately epic, breathtaking in scale.

It should be no surprise – this is a game balanced unapologetically on the shoulders of a giant, the original 1997 PlayStation release that remains one of the most beloved video games ever made. Anything less than breathtaking would constitute a rank disappointment.

Of course, Final Fantasy VII Remake was no mere remastering job; this was a radical reconstruction, taking only the first section of the original and expanding it into a comprehensive standalone adventure.

In Final Fantasy VII, you play, predominantly, as Cloud Strife, a spiky haired mercenary with a heart of gold. Cloud stands out by virtue of his almost comically oversized weapon, the Buster Sword. The game begins with Cloud employed up with a group of eco-terrorists called Avalanche to help sabotage an industrial facility that is harming the planet by harvesting its life force, known as Mako.

It isn’t long before you are able to play as other members of Cloud’s team. These include Barret, a pugnacious tank of a man with a gun for an arm, Tifa, a fleet-footed martial artist, and Aerith, an enigmatic flower seller.

In adapting the first eight-odd hours of Final Fantasy VII – the rest will be released separately – developers Square Enix made changes to the story, some more significant than others. Such is the stature of the original that even the smaller alterations are liable to rub some the wrong way. It will help that the remake does an admirable job of recapturing the original’s swashbuckling spirit.

The combat system has undergone some major changes from the original game, which used a turn-based RPG battle system. It now takes the form of a hybrid, blending real-time combat with stop-start command choices. It works well; the ability (and, often, tactical necessity) to switch between your different fighters mid-battle adds another layer of complexity, likewise the pretty extensive character and weapon customisation options. Memorable boss battles and less-memorable mini-game sequences (such as darts and dancing) also bulk the game’s substance.

Low-fi musical riffs from the PlayStation version are given lush orchestration here; the once-blocky graphics are now staggeringly real. Final Fantasy VII Remake’s cutscenes, in particular, are things of beauty, pushing the PS4 console to the very limit of its graphical potential.

The dialogue and character development, however, are less spectacular – the sort of dismally broad banter that epitomises the sort of artless, B-movie writing that games have always been derided for. The Final Fantasy franchise has its fair share of adult fans, who aren’t all in it just for the nostalgia value; while the combat system is more than satisfying enough to sustain the attention of older players, the dialogue is not.

As was the case in the Resident Evil 3 remake (released a week ago), there are times when Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Nineties roots become a little too conspicuous – especially when it comes to level designs. Final Fantasy VII is a linear game by nature, at times frustratingly so. The urban environments certainly look the part, but their appeal is diminished by the lack of any real openness.

The gender dynamics are also a relic of the past. Male characters come in all shapes and sizes, such as the butch, barrel-chested Barret, or the squat Wedge. Women, on the other hand, are uniform, as far as main characters go: brown-haired, doe-eyed, and slender. Midgar may be a place of mechanised wonders and magic spells, but it seems the male gaze functions just as prosaically as it does here on Earth.

It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the game’s faults, however, when its successes are so electrically entertaining. The broader story sweeps you up despite the groan-inducing dialogue, and communicates an agreeable, morally clear environmentalist agenda. This may not top the original, but that was never really on the table – roll on part two.