I adoreFinal Fantasy 7 Remake. The poignant tale ofCloud’s fight with Avalanche against Shinra to preserve a better futurefor their world was reimagined not only in stunning next-gen fidelity, but with heightened and remixed drama. The revival is full of incredibly talented performances, made even more engaging through its slick, mechanically rich combat.
There’s a lot to love about Square Enix’s return to one of gaming’s most treasured darlings, perfectly encapsulating the essence of the original while putting a new spin on things. But looking back for its fifth anniversary, I can’t help but feel that it was the beginning of a misguided approach — Remake should’ve never been ‘Part 1’ in a trilogy. It should’ve just been Final Fantasy 7.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Was A Chore
Remake was split into three parts to expand upon nearly every story beat and character, in theory making for a deeper and more meaningful narrative. Instead, the middle installment,Rebirth, gave us a bog-standard open world with some of the most repetitive objectives in the genre. Climb a tower, unlock part of the map, find a geode, press triangle three times, repeat. Once you’ve explored one part of Gaia, you’ve explored it all.
Meanwhile, stuffed into every single major point of interest, we have exhausting, unending minigames that needlessly pad the runtime. Collect segways, round up Moogles, snap photos of pink cactuars, wrangle Chocobos… there is so much bland filler to stretch this interim game out. By the end, rather than being swept up in the moving touchstone of the narrative, I was more excited for the credits.
Queen’s Blood was great, though.
The ending is also a major problem with Rebirth. We all know what’s going to happen — Aerith’s death is one of gaming’s most iconic moments, a near-unavoidable spoiler, and it’s clear from the start that Square Enix is building to her demise for its big Part 2 conclusion. It makes the meandering from zone to zone, minigame to minigame, even more of a slog as we’re all eager to see how it’s been reimagined. Then we get there.
Despite much of the game’s runtime amounting to an open world filled with guff, we’re rushed through the Forgotten City with no time to take in the scenery. Instead, we’re almost immediately presented with a convoluted showdown that pales in comparison to the original, juggling Zack’s disjointed narrative with Cloud’s unreliable one. It’s almost deflating watching the tangled web of multiple worlds clash with generic glitch effects.
Some fans speculate that we’ll be able to explore the city properly in Part 3, along with the also-missing Rocket Town and Bone Village (how did a game as drawn-out as Rebirth not find time for these?), but I’m not sure I care anymore. I’ve already sunk too much time into these games.
The original Final Fantasy 7 takes nearly 50 hours to beat, which, while lengthy back then, is unbelievably short compared to the trilogy thus far. Remake lasts just over 40 hours, and Rebirth around 90 hours (counting side quests and “All Styles”), making for a total of 130. Part 3 will pile even more game time on top, I’m sure, stretching what was once a succinct narrative even thinner.
I was already burned out last year as Rebirth’s generic open-world, checklist objectives, tired minigames, and glacial pacing all put a damper on the frenetic beginnings of Remake. Another few dozen hours in this world just doesn’t sound enticing when I could enjoy the same story in a fraction of the time. I’d rather just boot up the original.
Five years later, it’s bittersweet looking back on Final Fantasy 7 Remake. It was the game thatcemented my love for the series, opened my eyes to JRPGs in general, and had me finally obsess over Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and the eternally underrated Jessie. I still enjoy revisiting the mucky wastes of Midgar, wading through the slums with Avalanche as we plot Shinra’s downfall, but the idea of taking the classic and chopping it up into a trilogy simply hasn’t worked for me.
The original told a compelling narrative in one part, and it’s hard to believe Square Enix couldn’t have done the same all these years later.
