And she naps a lot.
I wanted to write about the Final Fantasy VII demo because I just got around to playing it and I wanted to immortalize my thoughts before I started reading other opinions on the internet. Keep in mind I haven’t read anyone else’s review of the demo, and I normally wouldn’t use MMO Fallout for a single player demo but I played it and it had so much of an impact on me that I just had to talk about it.
Let’s get started.
Everyone loves Final Fantasy VII, especially people who say that they hate it. It was a genre-defining release for RPGs when it came out in 1997. The remake is going to be nuts, both in the fact that it is enormous in scope and that Tetsuya Nomura couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with “budget and time” written on it.
The FF7 remake starts out with a gorgeous looking cutscene as we meet our merry cast of terrorists. Immediately you start learning about the game’s mechanics. Press square to attack, hold square for area attacks. Very simple.
Combat in Final Fantasy 7 is real time with a touch of turn-based-esque gameplay. It isn’t a hack and slash per se. The active time battle system gives you the opportunity to cast spells, use abilities, and use items by hitting X to slow time to a near halt so you can choose your next move without feeling rushed.
Pretty much any aspect of the game is explained either shortly before or long before it becomes relevant or necessary. Those shiny boxes? They have items. The not shiny boxes you see stacked up? Break them for items. Here’s how you attack, here’s how you do commands, here’s how you change modes, etc. If the game itself wasn’t so enjoyable, I’d be annoyed at the designers showing me how to do everything short of wiping myself.
Going into the mini-boss and boss fight of the demo, Cloud straight out says “you need to hit it with lightning spells” and it just so happens that Barrett has lightning spells. Maybe I’m being too critical considering this is 1.) a demo meant to show the game off and 2.) basically the tutorial of the game. It didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the demo but I can see how hardcore players might scoff at the exposition.
The ATB system is great because the game hands you everything you need on a silver platter. Time slows down to a halt for your abilities/spells, you can simply hit L2 or R2 to bring up your party member commands to throw abilities without swapping over to them, and everything is laid out nice and neat. At no point during the demo were either Cloud or Barrett ever close to getting KO’s and if they did I had several Phoenix Downs. I think I had 20-30 potions left by the time I finished the demo, I assume there will be less in the main game.
At the very least Square Enix doesn’t have to worry about anyone not understanding how to beat the boss. You’d literally have to be playing the game muted and with no subtitles to not get the message. The boss has a laser attachment that you have to walk behind a metal barrier that conveniently drops to avoid. My cat could do this and like I said, she naps a lot. In fact she’s napping right now. I played on Normal mode; there is a classic and easy mode but who needs that?
If FF7 was completely real time (navigating menus), I could see the battle being more hectic but it’s not. It’s the anti-Dark Souls of RPGs that will kill you with simplification and exposition. But it’s fun, I had a lot of fun. This honestly turned me into an early adopter for episode 1 whereas before I was planning on waiting until all three parts were available in a compilation.
Good work, Final Fantasy. You’ve made a game that is fun to play and accessible even to the lowest skill gamer. I even handed the controller to my cat who was able to take down the big boss without a single KO and she’s the cutest gamer.
MMO Fallout 