This is our review for Final Fantasy VII Remake (FF7R). We have compiled our thoughts after playing through the story and its post-game contents. Read on to know more!

Final Fantasy VII Remake Review

New Combat Experience

The combat system in the remake was perfectly made and implemented. In this game, you get to play like the usual action game genre while also utilizing a classic active time combat system with the ATB gauge. Every action on the command menu requires ATB charges. The thing is, you can only hold 2 ATB bars at max without Refocus, which will force you to efficiently use the charges instead of just spamming skills, spells, and items.

Like most action games, you can, and you should, also try executing other abilities in conjunction with attacks performed by other members or your active character for an effective combo.

Summoning in the remake also offers a new experience as the Summons now act as a temporary extra member that you can also issue commands to. After the duration, these Summons execute their ultimate attack, which is what they actually do in the original.

Hard Mode's Difficulty Spike

The Easy Difficulty of the game makes every combat a breeze for people who just wants to progress through the story, Normal Difficulty has a balanced mixture of a fun and challenging playthrough, while Hard Difficulty makes everything ridiculously difficult and we cannot stress that enough.

In Hard mode, enemies get buffed to more or less twice their stats in Normal mode, which might catch you off guard if you have been playing in Easy mode. Players must prepare both their raw skills and equipment before going through this challenge as even one simple Wererat can chip off a thousand HP if they are not careful.

That is not really a problem. You can always heal your team with healing spells and items, right? WRONG.

Items are completely disabled at any point in Hard Difficulty and you cannot restore MP by using rest areas or completing Odd Jobs. This forces players to manage their MP efficiently or find other ways to restore their HP and MP. Talk about difficulty spike.

However, this difficulty spike is perfect for players who really want to play the game in a more challenging way, especially those who like optimizing party members for certain enemies and situations. We genuinely loved these final challenges of the game and we are looking forward to more of these in the future installments.

Game Fillers

Yes, most video games, if not all, have fillers that stretch the story and extend the length of every playthrough. Some are good that you will feel like taking a break from all the suspense while still doing something relevant to the main events and buffing up your character, but some are just unnecessary that you will start thinking "why am I doing this again?".

One of the most annoying fillers was controlling the robot arms in the Collapsed Expressway. It takes way too much time for something that players should not really bother with. What makes it more annoying is that you HAVE TO go through that part a lot of times if you are aiming for a complete play log.

Others are the "mini-loading screen" that occurs every time you have to hold the triangle button to proceed to the next area and the "pseudo-cutscenes" (which is unskippable, by the way) when you are stuck at slow walking and cannot speed up your pace in any way.

There are also sidequests that feel forced, too, but the majority of them adds more spice to the game where you encounter more difficult but exciting enemies and obtain useful weapons and items. These are the ones that effectively fleshed out the backstory of other characters and events. You can skip these, though, unless you are a completionist.

They Have Cute Cats

Lastly, they added more cats in the remake which are seriously cute! Thanks to Betty and Wedge, these felines will help you ease the irritations from the other annoying fillers you have gotten through or from those agonizing times when you got repeatedly jumped by the bosses.

Related Links

Other News

• Can You Play FF7 Remake on Xbox One, Switch, and PC?
• When Does Part 2 Come Out?
• Butterfinger DLC Items
• Game Length
• New Features
• DLC Information
• Cast and List of Voice Actors