First of all I’m just gonna straight up say that I rate this game a 10/10, I honestly have very little bad to say about it. Granted I am a tad bit bias in that this is one of my all time favourite game series. Also this’ll be my second complete play through, I originally completed it back on release on PS4 and just completed it again on PS5 just in time for the release of Rebirth. A refresh of the story and where it ends never hurt nobody.
Even though it’s called a remake, this is somewhat misleading. As to a degree it’s kinda it’s own game. With the game being split into what is to be a new trilogy. It does for the most part follow the story of the original from the PS1. For part 1 which takes around 30 hours to complete and if you want to platinum the game double that with two full play throughs and a few extra plays of three chapters to get the dress trophies. This game has fully stretched the original prologue area of what maybe 5 or 6 hours into a full stand alone game. Expanding on every aspect and then some. The entirety of this game takes place in Midgar, you don’t even step out of the city until the end of the game. Not to mention it incorporates story elements from Crisis Core and the film Advent children. I’m hoping with rebirth it’ll even go as far as using elements from Dirge of Cerberus. So without going into too much detail or spoilers, this game also has new enemies the whispers, these are arbiters of fate that basically rewrite the timeline and infer there is alternate timelines that potentially change the original story or even crossing into an alternate one entirely. The near 4 year wait to see how it all unfolds is nearly over and I can honestly not fucking wait.
Graphically final fantasy games always look stellar on launch, which usually means they hold up even a good few years later. This game is no different, especially on main character models they just look phenomenal still. Even the detail of all the different sectors and slums. Now some bits are starting to show their age like some of the NPC characters along with some janky facial features. Not every texture has stood the test of time but I think some games namely what a lot of flagship Nintendo games do. That strong stylistic design reigns supreme of graphical prowess, now obviously this looked banging on release but having a strong design and aesthetics throughout with attention detail helps it stand out still. Having a clear stylistic line in design between the slums beneath the plate, to the corporate upper society above the plate again aids in this.
Even though the game is played in chapters it does run in a linear fashion with the vast majority of the areas been linked up. Giving a more open world feel, not that there’s much in terms of hidden areas or alternate paths. Most the time they lead to the concluding area or a small hidden passage with an item chest. If you are lucky it’ll be a weapon chest.
I find the combat highly engaging a strong mix of basic combat and turn based attacking. Now you can dodge, guard and attack with one button controlling each manoeuvre, but there’s no complex combos. Now you can control Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and Barret in this game along with Red XIII as a companion late into the game. Each character has their own attack chains and special moves, which change with whatever weapon you have selected at the time. To combat the lack of combos and to keep the turn based strategy in place. You have the ATB gauge of two bars as standard that fill over the course of a battle, each slot allows for either a spell to be cast, a special move or the use of an item. So in the later boss fights this is especially important to time so you don’t run out. As with load outs from time to time you are character locked. The only other thing outside of equipment you get is materia. Now materia are your spells and extra buffs that most can be levelled up with AP you earn from each fight. Then there’s SP which allows you to fill out your weapon skill tree which each one has it’s own to fill out and improve it’s base stats. It all works fluidly and seamlessly swapping character mid battle never feels out of place.
I think with the extra padding and splitting the game into three parts is for the best. Even though the original was no slouch taking like 40 hours to go through to complete and that’s not doing everything. The extra hundreds of hours by the time this trilogy wraps up will allow for a much deeper telling of the story, giving side character more time to shine and more importantly far more Sephiroth. As well as the capitalistic greed of mega corporations that creates massive societal divisions whilst killing the world they live on, and giving rise to eco terrorism that the general populace are turned against by said corporations. Nevertheless the inclusion of more side quests help flesh out Midgar along with the big evil that is Shinra whilst it kills everything with no remorse. All with the aim of setting up the bigger moments yet to come.
My few complaints of the game are slight but I’ll list them nonetheless as my very little gaming review integrity states I must point out bad points. I think there should be more side quests as some aren’t great and as the story progresses in a continuous and linear manner, some chapters which could have more have none or very few. I think there is 26 all in all, and 4 are linked to choices so two will always be missable during a complete run. I think there’s an alright amount of weapons but not enough items for that much to make any difference to your character builds. I think either two small open areas or one bigger one should’ve been included for a bit of materia/level grinding also a few more enemy variants. There aren’t many bosses in game, well hard ones, most come towards the end of the game and the hardest are chapter locked behind hard mode. More fights in the colosseum or Shinra VR missions to allow more summon unlocks. A bit of dialogue choice would’ve gone far for an extra bit of immersion. Now I believe from the info and trailers this has been resolved tenfold in Rebirth.
Honestly I loved the original and I love this version. I love the gameplay which is only aided by the still fantastic story. There’s not much here considering how much I could write about the game. I’d argue this is due to even though there’s 30 hours or so to sink into. It’s still just the prologue. Most of the extra fluff comes into the expansive nature of the story and I don’t really want to ruin any of that if you’ve never played any version. Everything is designed and finessed perfectly for what it needs to be. The voice acting and character works is fantastic and the build up until the climatic fight of the first game rolling straight into Rebirth.
I should probably mention that I never played the DLC intermission with the extra chapters playing as Yuffie. My PS5 version is pre-owned and for whatever reason they code locked the DLC behind the one use activation codes from new. The PS store doesn’t recognise I’ve got the game and won’t let me download it. This is a common problem from what I can find out. I’m sure there may be a work around I’ve yet to find but I’m out of time to try as my copy of Rebirth has been dispatched as you read this line. Maybe if I choose to go for the platinum on the hard play through I could attempt to get it again one day.
I am going to rate this a non bias full 10/10, Real Fuckin’ Tasty.
If by chance you’ve managed to never play anything to do with this series, I can’t recommend it enough to go out your way to do it. Even if this title is the starting point. Now with part 2 released in a few days from now, it couldn’t be a better time to dig in and treat yourself.
Released on April 2020 PS4 and June 10th 2021 on PS5.
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