Written by Bryant Donato
Earlier this week, the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo was released on PSN to a horde of voracious fans, old and new alike. While most demos are a fun way to entreat the masses with a taste of the game, this one has a different air about it. This demo has the heart and soul of a franchise, and with that, many fan’s dreams on its back. While that’s not exactly fair, it’s been realistically deemed that this demo is a trial by fire. I think that this is a trial that this demo passed without a shadow of a doubt. Final Fantasy VII is a game that was many people’s first foray into Final Fantasy, as well as the first 3D incarnation of the fabled JRPG franchise. Critically acclaimed and universally lauded, the game and its characters have been solidified into modern media culture as icons, rightfully so. This is the weight that this demo must bear while it reinvents the source of passion of so many people.
This is a demo that stands tall. When you first enter the game, you see a character (no spoilers for those new to the game’s story) doing her thing in the mean streets of Midgar. After this brief visual introduction, the camera pulls back further and further, for you to see the scope of the city, and it is magnificent. It really sets the tone and scale for what you are about to do in. As you progress through the story, you gain control of the titular character of the game. As you move around, items are knocked about but nothing looks out of place given the setting, and everything has that industrial grime you’d be accustomed to in such a cyberpunk-esque environment. Here you really get to see the attention to detail that this game is mired in.
When you engage your first enemies, combat is fast; simple at first, but offers opportunities to explore techniques on your own before tutorials begin to show you the ropes. Things like stance switching, abilities, magic, and a system that allows you to both simultaneously build up the familiar ATB Gauge while hammering out combos in between spells and selected abilities feels good. This continues through the demo as you gain your first comrade in arms and learn to manage two characters during combat. This creates a nice amount of pacing and action while you’re constantly switching between their two points of view, allowing strategy and execution to shine through. It was enjoyable and I did not find myself dreading combat and avoiding it like in other incarnations of this battle system.
This was a relief, because I believe that this is the leg that it NEEDS to stand on, given that the battle system change has been the biggest draw of criticism to the Final Fantasy franchise in the recent installments and has been a deterrent for many fans to try their new games. I think this will be a fantastic remake overall and I am looking forward to exploring Midgar and everything it has to offer.
