After the slight postponement of the release date, in just over a month we will finally be able to get our hands on Final Fantasy VII Remake. As the fateful release approached, Square Enix embarked on an international tour to present the title to the press. Koch Media invited us for the preview event, where they were also present Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director with Tetsuya Nomura, e Yoshinori Kitase, producer of the game and director of the original Final Fantasy VII, accompanied by the inevitable interpreter Gavin Poffley.
This time there was not the same demo that we had already pulped at E3, Gamescom and Milan Games Week, but more extensive fragments of the actual game. We were therefore able to touch new elements previously inaccessible of the Remake such as equipment and Materia, we explored better Midgar and fought as Tifa and Aerith. In this article, we will therefore focus on the previously unexplored news, so if this is your first time reading about Final Fantasy VII Remake, take a look at our previous articles first.
Our test of Final Fantasy VII Remake began from the very beginning of the actual game, with the majestic opening cinematic that catapulted us directly into the very first mission: the attack on Midgar Reactor 1.
Being the first steps in the adventure, as we continued the information windows explained the basics of the gameplay mechanics. Before arriving at the heart of the reactor we passed through the structure, which was understandably enlarged compared to the original but which denoted a palpable fidelity of architecture. As Cloud and Barret, we fought our way through various patrols of Shinra soldiers and various armed robots, but the facility's security system also included laser traps to overcome with the right timing.
After taking down the Guard Scorpion (which we have talked about extensively in our previous hands-ons) it is time for a timed escape, made far from easy by the reactor defense troops. The normal enemies encountered in the original Final Fantasy VII are now more characterized. The Sweeper they are tough and impetuous metal beasts, while i Grunt give a hard time with their agility and timing of shots.
It is in the face of enemies like these that the skeptics of the renewed gameplay formula of the Remake will have to change their mind: an Action-RPG is not necessarily less profound and tactical than a pure JRPG; if in the original game a few turns of physical attacks or at least a spell were enough to take down the aforementioned opponents, in this case surely tapping the button of the attack blindly will not be enough, but it is necessary to use the brain as much as the timing in the commands.
The game, in fact, does not spare those who play superficially and does not pay attention to the use of ATB moves, the positioning of the characters and, above all, the exploitation of weaknesses and ability to weaken the enemy sending him into a state of crisis. The Guard Scorpion itself seemed more difficult to beat than our previous tests.
We escape from the facility before the bomb does its job and, before continuing, Barret gives a motivational speech to the whole group. It is only one of the examples suitable to indicate the care dedicated to the screenplay of this remake: if in the original this scene is exhausted in very few essential lines, here we witness a small cathartic moment, where we perceive the doubt in the looks and voices of the members of Avalanche, while instead Barret reconfirms his ardor as a resolute leader, willing to do anything for the cause.
It's just a pity that the good English dialogue didn't match the Spanish subtitles. Throughout the test the subtitles reported a translation of the dialogues apparently too free and out of phase with respect to the original, and on some occasions we found that the jokes were really out of tune in the mouths of the respective characters. We strongly hope that these have been isolated cases, and that the rest of the location will be less traumatic than seen on this occasion.
After this scene we ran into Aerith, haunted by the ghostly figures already seen in previous trailers; the beings, very similar to Harry Potter's Dementors, are particularly enigmatic and we can't wait to find out more about them. The meeting was soon interrupted by the arrival of a Shinra patrol, which we got rid of before retracing our steps towards the rendezvous with the rest of the team.
We thus cross the streets of Midgar and, although it was noted that they provided us with a rather linear path, we could not help but notice the greatest number of details they contained, especially in showing the dramatic effects of our visit to the reactor: rubble everywhere, portions of buildings on fire, inhabitants in the streets looking apprehensively towards the source of the explosion, and whose disturbed comments we heard as we passed them.
Our walk to the station turned out to be more agitated than expected. We saw Cloud fall victim to a tremendously vivid hallucination, which heavily distorted his visual perception and prompted us to follow the vision of Sephiroth through the alleys of the city, with which we finally had a brief and restless dialogue, before seeing him disappear into thin air. It seems that in Final Fantasy VII Remake these visions will accompany Cloud throughout the game in a more active way than in the original FFVII, emphasizing and enhancing his sense of helplessness instilled by the trauma suffered in his past.
Continuing on the way to the station we had to collide several times with the patrols of Shinra soldiers that dotted the streets, and in particular against soldiers with metal shields. Also in this case the normal direct attacks did not work, indeed the recoil of our blows left us temporarily uncovered; we had to resort to quick shifts to get behind the soldiers, all while juggling the other attacks. At the end of our journey, as expected, we were forced to flee by jumping on the moving train, ending this trial portion of the Remake.
The third part of the demo was set in chapter 7, during the assault on the Mako reactor of Sector 5 in the company this time of Tifa. The busty warrior turned out to be an extraordinary fighter in close combat, thanks to her speed and her varied combos suitable for all kinds of situations. Her triangle button allows her to perform a powerful whip to use as a finisher during her attack combinations. Moreover, thanks to the ATB, he can take advantage of moves like Chakra to heal himself.
The mission objectives were different from those of the original FFVII, as during the descent towards the reactor the group of Cloud and his companions will take care to deviate from the road to prevent the construction of the Airbuster, the boss that we will face shortly thereafter. We have not been given a way to know if sabotaging the Shinra robot in order and in the correct way will be lower during the battle, but it was certainly a novelty to face compared to the canonical descent towards the heart of the reactor to blow it up .
In this phase, we have also been able to level up some matter and access higher level spells, such as Cura or Blizzara.
The development of the materials takes place as in the original game, or with the accumulation of AP obtained from the defeat of the enemies. Beyond the Materia, however, even the weapons this time can evolve through an upgrade system that strongly recalls the Crystallium of FFXIII (which in turn recalled the Spherography of FFX). We haven't been able to go into the details of this development, but it is certainly a further layer of progression and customization of weapons, since each of them is unique in terms of active and passive skills to be obtained.
The last part of the hands-on consisted of the boss battle against Abzu (renamed from the original Aps), or the bluish monster that attacks our heroes in the sewers of Sector 6, immediately after the confrontation with Don Corneo, and that we already have glimpsed in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer from last TGS.
In addition to the HP of the main body, the boss was equipped with two horns that protruded from the hump with each its own health bar; despite its considerable size, the beast proved to be agile and capable of making large leaps from one side of the fighting arena to the other, so it was necessary to always be alert not to be overwhelmed, also because with its charges it was capable to land and block one of the members of the group causing him considerable damage. The key to getting the better of him was to focus attacks on the horns to stun him, and then hurl our most powerful attacks at him.
In this fight, in addition to Cloud and Tifa, we were finally able to try Aerith. As it was easy to guess, the young Cetra turned out to be a character unsuitable for close combat, but extremely powerful with magic, so we used her abundantly to cast Ignis (Fire) using the boss's weakness to fire. Obviously his abilities also exploit his prodigious magical talent, for example with one of these we threw a sort of enchanted crystal that got stuck in the boss and then exploded hitting all its parts; an AoE attack therefore, which we are sure will also be very useful against groups of enemies close to each other.
Unlike the original game, in Final Fantasy VII Remake Aerith is not forced to perform standard attacks by approaching and hitting with the stirrup, but launches bursts of small magical attacks from a distance simply by holding down the attack button; obviously the important thing was to keep a safe distance and be ready to dodge the charges of the boss, leaving him at the mercy of the close attacks of Cloud and Tifa.
During this boss fight we also got to try the Summon system. During the course of the fight, a special bar gradually filled up, and once it was full we have summoned the mighty Ifrit. When he arrived on the field he took part in the fight as if he were a fourth party member, and although we could not control him directly, through the ATB menu we were able to give him which special attacks to launch against our opponent.
The Summon, however, has a limited time indicated on the screen, but immediately before retiring the fiery esper automatically threw his final Hellfire technique, weighing heavily on the HP of Abzu, to which we finally gave the coup de grace with our hands.
Our test of Final Fantasy VII Remake reconfirmed the already excellent impressions that the demo and the various trailers released over the last few months had sent us. In particular, we loved to immerse ourselves once again in that decadent and fascinating Midgar that we met back in 1997 (and from which we expect so much) that this remake proposes more spectacular than ever. It also exalted us to take control of his beloved protagonists again and retrace their exploits, which here have been revised and expanded, offering new views and new scenarios that enrich FFVII as we never dreamed of. Because this is really what Final Fantasy VII Remake seemed to us: a dream come true.
The appointment, therefore, is with our review in which we will give our final judgment, and which you can read on our pages presumably just before the expected release date set for April 10th.
► Final Fantasy VII Remake is an Action-RPG type game developed and published by Square Enix for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 10/04/2020
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a game to own at all costs: we decided to evaluate it with a 92%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Final Fantasy VII Remake Review
