When Final Fantasy 7 Remake was released for the Sony home console in 2020, fans of the saga were shaken by a flow of skepticism aimed at accompanying the anxious wait. Mixed but completely legitimate emotions. Skepticism due to the Remake wording combined with a title that for many has been and always will be a sacred and untouchable monster. Anxious waiting because in the end being able to play again with Cloud, Tifa and Barret on new generation consoles was still an incredible emotion and that, with a few tears in our eyes, allowed us to appreciate the features of our heroes (and not only) no longer limited by a finite number of angular polygons.
On balance, the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake was a success, although the game was not released in a complete way, but broken up into numerous episodes and of which, to date in 2022, we are still waiting for the second chapter. The choice, at least on paper, made many turn up their noses who rightly wanted a complete game right away, to be able to lose themselves in it for hundreds of hours, reliving the memory of a youth spent with the pad in hand, trying not to wasting too much time between minigames in the Gold Saucer or trying to create the perfect Chocobo hybrid.
Taking a nice fast-forward to the present day, finally even Steam PC users, six months after the port for the Epic Games Store and two years after the original release, can get their hands on this title and on the Intergrade chapter (additional episode which puts us in Yuffie’s shoes). The trend of PlayStation titles arriving on PC, on the sidelines, shows no signs of slowing down, and is gradually becoming more and more common with titles such as God of War in Santa Monica and the announced arrival of Spiderman. Whoever writes these words has waited for the moment of the release on Steam to confront for the first time with this blast from the past.
The Remake of Final Fantasy 7 for Steam certainly does not miss an installation to say the least substantial, which we recommend placing on a nice SSD disk to lighten the uploads and to facilitate the transitions between movies and gameplay, which should thus be without interruptions. sort of, a kind of “free flow” that PlayStation users are well accustomed to.
Graphically, Square Enix with this port has created a small masterpiece of fidelity, and since the introductory movie, with a fast-moving train in the heart of Midgar, we feel at home, in a familiar environment, but which at the same time has undergone a incredible aesthetic restructuring, able to almost obscure the CGI sequences of the original (or at least the memory of them), considered avant-garde eons ago. Each sequence and each panorama left us speechless, recalling the same emotions felt playing the original title.
And the music, from chills on the back and goosebumps. No longer the sixteen audio channels and MIDI tracks, but a symphony orchestra to embellish a Renaissance fresco, with the music and themes most dear to us still there, to keep us company in our exploration, or to give us energy in the frenetic fights, with a pressing symphony that certainly pumps more adrenaline into our synapses.
After getting off the aforementioned train, we realize that the work is almost radically different from the original title. There is no longer an overhead view to follow our movements in the world, but a third-person camera. But not only that: no more turn-based combat, entirely based on the ATB bar, but a completely different system made up of dynamic and purely action encounters, integrated by a sort of slow motion pause that allows you to select skills, spells and objects from use, with the option to also maneuver any team member.
The camera, in this capacity, follows the action perfectly smoothly and without lag due to sudden loads, with the Fps that can be pushed up to 120 without ever giving any sign of abating. (Graphics card used: RTX3080 NVidia)
The change in the combat system takes time to assimilate, especially for those who love the style of the JRPG, not just the predecessors (and sequels) of this saga, but the genre as a whole, and it makes perfect sense and in line with the structure. Contemporary. Square Enix’s attempt is perhaps aimed not only at awakening the nostalgics of the saga from their torpor, but also at attracting new generations to the franchise, now accustomed to games with frenetic combat, and perhaps in part souls-like, with boss battles to study. and learn for various attack and dodge patterns, featuring multiple phases to tackle.
Changes, although not completely radical, are also present in the use of Materia (gems to be set in weapons and armor that provide more powerful spells and abilities) and especially in the use of Summon, that is the legendary creatures that can be summoned to help us in fighting and actually fighting alongside us.
In the original version, these Materia were not only very common, but they could be used every turn, mana permitting, chaining combos that could in some cases lead to the annihilation of a boss in a single turn (Knights of the Round – Magic Counter – Mime ). However, the original FF7 featured many more random encounters while exploring the world, and so accelerating combat with data gimmicks was the order of the day.
In the Remake the summons are special actions, they are activated mainly during the various boss fights, with an indicator (similar to that of the limit break) that once filled allows us to summon our favorite creature, which not only participates in the fight in a proactive, but it can also be maneuvered by us, through the selection of a number of offensive or defensive skills. And when it’s time to leave us, the summon in question uses one last devastating ability to help us even more in the fight to the death with the boss before us.
Furthermore, the weapons used by our heroes can be upgraded during the game, activating additional bonuses to the various types of attacks and defenses, sometimes unlocking other sockets for our matter. Most of these gems can be purchased from the numerous vendors scattered around the map, or found following meticulous exploration of each environment and location, sometimes hidden in secret areas. In addition, an NPC named Chadley, a young Shinra researcher, through a series of optional quests, is able to create additional and often unique matter as well as terrifying challenges.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, however, is far from the freedom of action we had in the original version. We can certainly spend hours perfecting our darts skills (mini game in Tifa’s tavern), or spend time in the combat simulation to unlock other Materia, but we cannot freely move around the world nor spend hours training along pure and simple. random fights.
At times it seems to play an “on rail” title, guided by the plot, with some slight deviation that opens up by completing the side quests. And it almost seems to be the protagonists of a version of Final Fantasy 7 that a narrator is exposing to someone, as a thing of the past, and which therefore omits the unnecessary parts, focusing only on the main story.
And perhaps this is precisely the intent: perhaps creating an exact copy of the original would have generated conflicting opinions (not to fix what is not broken); perhaps this management of history allows for more freedom in the adaptation, especially for what has yet to be published and which promises to be very different from what we already know.
But this title is still a masterpiece of technical realization, and a big, very big love letter from Square Enix to their fans, who for many years have dreamed of wielding Cloud’s Buster Sword once again, seeing Sephirot in all his majestic wickedness, and once again being moved by… well, who knows has understood.
The only big flaw of the PC version. already evident with the launch for EGS, lies in the lack of graphical customization options, which is especially true since we are talking about a work still created with Unreal Engine 4. If there is no management of basic settings such as anti-aliasing , even the resolutions offered do not take 21: 9 configurations into account, and without a doubt much more could be done in this segment.
For the rest it is a more than competent port, capable of guaranteeing 4K at 120Fps going beyond the structural limit of a PS5 that is still impossible to find on the shelves of your trusted store. And – here the nostalgia factor comes into play – for those who have not yet explored the Midgar of 2022, being able to experience it at three hundred and sixty degrees under such a well-groomed guise is a more unique than rare experience, perhaps comparable only to that offered by the now historic remake of Resident Evil 2.
Regardless of the scarce range of technical configurations and above all the issues related to narrative fidelity, few remastered and modernized titles can boast of having succeeded in the task of transporting a much loved old world into the present: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of them, and in the recent formula touches an artistic apex that is really difficult to meet on other shores. The PC Steam version demonstrates once again how much the technological advancement of video cards can go hand in hand with that of the latest generation consoles, offering a truly incredible show and giving the best of PC Gamers the opportunity to return to playing the role by Cloud Strife.
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