Sq. Enix’s “spare no expense” remake is without doubt one of the greatest Ultimate Fantasy video games.
Ultimate Fantasy VII is a landmark launch within the historical past of video video games for a wide range of causes, a few of that are about how the sport wasn’t on Nintendo techniques. That meant it was an enormous deal when the PlayStation authentic Ultimate Fantasy VII got here to Nintendo Swap in 2019. A yr after that, Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake got here out on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo gamers have been behind the eight ball (or seven ball?) once more. This time round although, Nintendo followers solely needed to wait practically six years for Ultimate Fantasy VII to return to a Nintendo console as a substitute of the greater than 20 for the unique. Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake involves Swap 2 as a elegant product, operating extremely properly on Nintendo’s new {hardware}. It is a nice port of an ideal recreation that’s simply as enjoyable and electrical now because it was once I first performed it in 2020.
However there’s a key side of Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake that I want to use this area to debate as a result of that is largely how I landed at being an even bigger fan of the promised Remake trilogy than I’m of the unique recreation. In case you are somebody who has prevented the whole lot Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake till it got here to a Nintendo platform, simply go get the sport. It’s superior. The action-oriented fight does a unbelievable job of fusing the standard turn-based battles of the unique with some newer character action-esque type. The visuals on Swap 2 are spectacular, calling to thoughts the truth that when Remake hit PS4, we have been 4 years into the reign of the PS4 Professional. You probably have doubted that the Swap 2 is a conveyable PS4 Professional (for essentially the most half), this recreation needs to be a very good showcase of how it’s form of simply that. The characters are extremely properly written, bringing a variety of depth and likability to your entire forged, particularly some comparatively throwaway characters from the unique. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie from the Avalanche staff are rattling close to endlessly endearing. Whilst you don’t play as any of them immediately, they’re main components of Remake’s journey and all have their very own poignant moments as Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, and Barrett hog the lion’s share of the highlight.
Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake is simply the primary a part of a three-game story, so take into account that Remake solely covers the opening Midgar portion of Ultimate Fantasy. What was initially a couple of hours of gameplay within the PlayStation model is now a 30-hour journey. The Swap 2 model comes full with the Intermission DLC that bridges a niche between Remake and the 2024 sequel Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth and stars Yuffie. The story of the DLC is ok and it’s enjoyable messing round with Yuffie’s distinctive fight type, however it’s not as tight and fulfilling as the bottom recreation. Even nonetheless, the sport’s general nice writing comes by means of the place, as soon as once more, I began to care about characters I by no means would have cared a lot about within the authentic Ultimate Fantasy VII. New alongside the launch of this particular model is the Streamlined Development choices. By and enormous, that’s only a fancy identify for a similar type of factor Sq. Enix has added to a variety of Ultimate Fantasy ports. You may toggle on some cheats and boosts to make the sport simpler and transfer faster. A few of them, like having each hit deal max injury, are comically highly effective. Others, like an expertise booster or at all times have particular capacity gauges crammed in battle, are simpler mode versus the hilarious domination of borderline everlasting one-hit kills. Streamlined Development is nice so long as you fiddle with it to make it what’s most fulfilling to you. The Swap 2 launch has been my third playthrough of the sport and having this faster approach to romp by means of it has been enjoyable.
In order that largely covers this model of the Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake particularly. Like I stated: in case you have not heard a lot in regards to the recreation since its 2020 launch, go away now. I’m going to speak in a approach that speaks to broad spoilers.
The factor that hit me whereas taking part in Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake throughout its rollout and launch is that this isn’t a real remake in what we’d anticipate. No, this can be a meta remake. It is a sequel to Ultimate Fantasy VII – and all the varied spinoffs through the years – that simply occurs to be subtitled Remake. This is without doubt one of the extra self-indulgent big-budget video video games I’ve ever performed as a result of it largely looks like Tetsuya Nomura and the staff at Sq. Enix heard the pleas for a remake of Ultimate Fantasy VII and ignored them to go use that as a pretense to make regardless of the hell they needed. This deepens the plot of the unique recreation, however it additionally follows up Disaster Core (accessible on Swap) and the film Introduction Youngsters. Remake has a twisty narrative that provides much more depth and leaves a variety of unanswered questions.
Remake makes use of your information of Ultimate Fantasy VII and its story and characters as a cudgel to toy along with your expectations and query what is going on on this off-kilter retelling of the primary act of the unique recreation. It’s jarring when, inside the opening hour or two, Cloud has a complete bizarre imaginative and prescient of Sephiroth earlier than he’s even actually launched within the recreation. It’s even weirder when a military of grim reaper-looking Whispers present up round your first run-in with Aerith. After which there’s the drug addict that Cloud imagines is Sephiroth at one level. It’s wild. It’s arduous to know if all of those massive swings repay since as of this evaluate, we’re nonetheless ready for the third and last recreation, however sitting right here replaying Remake after taking part in by means of 2024’s Rebirth, the swings have principally paid off thus far.
It is a recreation that shouldn’t exist in most affordable worlds. A couple of years earlier and the remake is perhaps extra benign. A couple of years later and there’s no approach this recreation will get greenlit. We stay in a world with Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake, although. It is a recreation that bounces from deathly severe local weather disasters and tragedy to crossdressing dance sequences and combating demonic homes. Ultimate Fantasy VII Remake is a deeply bizarre recreation, however it’s a deeply bizarre recreation with superior fight, great writing, unimaginable music, and a joyously baffling story. Within the means of this weird journey to a remake of a basic, Sq. Enix additionally created the most effective Ultimate Fantasy video games of the final 30 years.
