Square Enix dropped the demo for the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 1 with no warning on Monday. Several members of the EFG staff dove in right away (because we couldn’t help ourselves).
Our impressions are below:
Stephen Duetzmann
Michael Melkonian – CardboardConsole.com
“It keeps everything that worked in Final Fantasy XV, and dumps everything that didn’t. This may be the best hybrid of action and menu-based combat I’ve seen in an RPG.”
Jeffrey Walker – Community Manager
The Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo pulled right at my nostalgia heartstrings as the title screen plays the Final Fantasy Theme.
The opening cinematic is beautiful. I have not played Final Fantasy VII all the way through, but I have played the opening of the game. The combat is nice and fluid. Going from battle to exploration took no time away and everything you need to know about character upgrades, items, and gil are posted on the side of the screen without a pause in playing. Switching from attacks to spells freezes the combat so that you can think about your selection.
One thing I really enjoyed is that you have to watch your surroundings. For example, I used a fire spell, but there was a pillar between the enemy and me. The fire ended up hitting the pillar instead of the enemy. The game is a bit difficult. It took all of my resources (phoenix downs, potions, and cure) to defeat the first boss and I only beat him with a lucky limit break at the right time. Overall, this game looks like it will be amazing and I cannot wait until it is released on April 10th.
Michael Duetzmann – Contributor
Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, The Album Rumors by Fleetwood Mac…
Final Fantasy 7
There are some things that just resonate when the opening beats play or the opening lines are spoken.
Final Fantasy 7 was a hand me down experience for me, I played a copy with the green [Playstation Hits] stripe along the cover. Somehow Square Enix has taken that experience I first felt in 1998 and made it better.
The demo expands the story of Final Fantasy 7’s opening scene: The bombing of Mako Reactor One. In both perspective, as the game is presented in real time and a full 3-d environment, and narratively as it features new dialogue, events, and a dynamic score.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 1’s nostalgic power comes from filling in the gaps from the original game. The PS1 featured beautiful backgrounds locked in place and loading times between battle and exploration that reset the pace at every switch. The remake is full of gorgeous 3d backgrounds and smoothly animated characters.
The best way I could describe the game flow was they replaced the start and stop flow of turn based game play with a tidal flow: real time action builds up a gauge that can be spent for powerful actions.
The game offers a “Classic Mode” that features a more turn based feel, and it puts the real time action under AI control. This is intended to cater to players could turn out to be a very powerful accessibility tool
The music shifts in and out of combat and creates a single continuous score instead of separate tracks. Every expected track is accounted for a supporting character Barret hums the tune of Fanfare after a well fought battle. Do yourself a favor and Listen to the opening theme before starting the demo before starting it up.
I could talk about this game for hours, but the best thing YOU can do is play it yourself. It was a 45 minute experience after a quick 15 minute download. What are you waiting for? GO!
What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!
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