PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Part 1)

 Final Fantasy VII is arguably the most important game in video game history as it transitioned from cartridges of past to the PlayStation CD that is still being used today.  It spun off with such popularity that spin-off games were created like Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus and a DVD named FF7: Advent Children.  However, the biggest news of this game was that there would be a Remake in store and it was met with much hype, buzz, and anticipation.  It released on April 10, 2020 (yes in the middle of the pandemic, it happens) and to much sales, accolades and some consternation.  So what do I feel the Remake does well? What needs to be improved on going forward? All that and more ahead!

Positives:

1. Active Battle/Strategy- You have to be strategic with this game and its active battle system.  It's actually quite fun to do that.  I enjoyed the games battle system and the strategy with the bosses (there isn't much on regular battles as it is the same as any RPG, beat the hell out of the enemy) that you have employ.  So this was a major plus.

2. Music- Yep, this is another plus but I enjoyed a lot of the music in this game.  I overall thought it was a great plus and my personal best music was the Jenova fight that you fight late in the game.  Overall though the soundtrack is fantastic.

3. Most character arcs- I enjoy the quick character arcs and the emotions that are enveloped.  The arcs of Tifa and Aerith are very solid overall and they set the stage for themselves in future parts in this series. They provide calmness in turmoil, kindness when times are rough and I feel they will provide that later on.  Red is already very cerebral and I suspect that will happen going forward more.  If you played the Intergrade, you can see more of the backstory of Yuffie and where she will come into play later (I would assume at least) in Part 2.  

4. Non-Playable Characters- I thought this was a good addition to the mix.  I thought also that the NPC's were a good combination and worked well overall with the game.  Each has a good amount of interaction, or you are Johnny and you are quirky which is also good.  I think this was a good step.  I do have my questions about going forward in the upcoming Part 2 but for Part 1 the NPC's are quite good.

5. Graphics- Yeah this was not going to be on here because it is always redundant for Square and Final Fantasy and the blog if I relate it again and again.  Yes, Final Fantasy graphics are good, yes Square has good graphics departments on Final Fantasy.  This game is no different.

Negatives:

1. Cloud's character arc: If you notice why I did not include Cloud, there is a good reason.  I despised Cloud for 14 chapters minus one cutscene with him and Tifa and him and Leslie.  For those wondering you can YouTube those scenes.  However, his attitude stunk for most of this game.  I did not enjoy playing with him because of this.  It's fine that he was in a couple missions for the money as that was literally the same as the original, however he was much more of a jerk in the Remake than the original.  One scene was following a sidequest where he requests so much gil for such a simple task that people get mad at and I wonder why the reason to make him just a major jerk.  Also he comes off as just terse in every way towards Aerith and it really is annoying really quick.  He does get better at this from Chapter 15 onward but once he gets the leadership role in Part 2 (again assuming this happens) I hope his attitude very much changes too.

2. Sidequests: I found these just tedious than fun.  They just revolved going in a massive circle it felt but not just that the treasures were meh at best most times.  It was neat to face a couple enemies but that's all it was good for.  I hope when Part 2 happens if there are more sidequests that they can be more fun than just tedious. 

3. Length of battles: Note this is more for the boss fights, but I found some to just be grinding.  I don't mind the lack of fire power/attacking by the characters themselves but I did mind when boss fights took half an hour to an hour to complete.  I just found it to be long, dragging and something that needs to change in Part 2 as well.  I just hope that it happens, and there is more balance to this.

Overall Rating:

Without question there was a lot of buzz and hype to Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 1.  It deserves accolades with its positives but its negatives also should be noted and improved upon as the game reaches the PS5 for the future.  The one thing that will help this game mainly is Cloud's hopeful improvement and the length of battle improvement.  Overall I thought FF VII: Remake Part 1 was a very solid game and rating it 8 out of 10 seems fair I believe.

PS2/PS3/PS4 Game Review: Final Fantasy X-2

 Final Fantasy X-2 was supposed to be a Yuna-centric sequel to find our good lad Tidus after the ending of Final Fantasy X.  What it envelopes is looking into spheres that may look into Tidus and a male figure that looks like Tidus, but it leads to an adventure that digs deep into the past of Spira. To this day, this game gets crucified for its fan-service type gaming as it leads with the aforementioned Yuna, but FFX star Rikku and newcomer Paine.  Is the game rightly crucified? Is the game a bit unworthy of the claim? All that and more below!

Positives:

1. Active Battle System- This is probably the best takeaway from the game is the active battle system and its ability to succeed in this game I believe probably was the spring board to games later on to the active battle system.  This was a great plus as opposed to the turn based games of the past.  I felt that Square did really well overall for this.

2. Music- I was going to put this as a neutral but in the end it goes to the positives but only just.  It's not a favorite soundtrack of mine, but it isn't bad.  The battle theme and boss theme are okay, but the worlds maps music are the best.  So that overall is why the game's music is the main plus.

3. Chapter 4 Song- One of the best songs I would say done on Final Fantasy but probably the signature of the game other than the battle system is the fact that this song was done.  The way that this song was done was exemplary and it does really amazingly well with all the graphics and it makes it worthwhile overall to play for that moment.

Negatives:

1. Story- Good golly the story is just so awful.  I just don't get how they made it that way.  I get the idea of trying to find a lost loved one but make something of it after that.  Make the story meaningful.  Square doesn't do any of that in this game.  I felt that this game, which has the active battle system, use of the past worlds would have been so much more and could have been so much more open but instead it was just bland, and honestly just bad.

2. Fan Service- Okay look, I am for making characters look amazing but there comes a point where it just becomes fan service and this easily was fan service to the characters.  To me it makes me feel like.. they are already beautiful and we already know Yuna and Rikku are fantastic leaders and role models.  I don't see the need to provide fan service and try to attract male viewers to them and also LeBlanc, and it just looks porous.  You can make them amazing, fantastic characters, leaders and just have a good story.

3. Side quests: For as much as I thought FFX was arduous on this, FFX-2 is just ridiculous on it.  I get they are a big point to the game but it feels that this game just missed the mark on them and it became boring for lack of better words.  I kept expecting the game to burst to life with the story, quests and side-quests and it just didn't do well at all.  I also wouldn't recommend the re-calibration of the lightning towers because that is just ridiculous.

4. The NPC's- For the record, NPC's means Non-Playable Characters, and honestly I just thought this game has mediocre at best NPC's.  It's not anything great, LeBlanc is meh, Nooj is meh, same with Baralai and others.  I just never got any major appeal to them and honestly they came up well short.  It's so unfortunate that this happen while other games had good NPC's.

Overall Rating:

I cannot recommend FFX-2 to anyone, and here's the reason.. it's legit just fan service to have.  I didn't enjoy much of anything about the game.  The story isn't good, the quests nor side-quests are good either.  I feel the battle system was the only good thing to this game and it is highly unfortunate overall that this was the only good thing about the game.  Very rough game that deserves only a 4 out of 10.