We were finally able to get our hands on the Final Fantasy VII Remake and were able to experience it for just under four hours. During this session, which mainly focused on the game's combat system, we were able to play through Chapters 1 & 2 in their entirety, as well as all of the Sector 5 Reactor sequence — eventually finishing with the battle against Aps in the sewers of Wall Market.
This one-stop tour also not only allowed us to experience more of the game's mechanics, but also grasp the direction Square Enix is taking with the Remake. It should be noted that a demo containing just the first chapter of the game is currently available to download from the PlayStation Store.
- Genre: Action-RPG
- Release Date: April 10 2020
- Platform: PS4 (Timed Exclusive)
- Developer: Square Enix
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Price: $59.99
Chapters 1 & 2
First impressions of the gameplay
This section represents the most significant part of the preview, and is also the most cinematic. It's all the more important that we highlight the extent to which Remake's rewritten content will shock fans from the moment they jump into Midgar.
We won't describe the opening sequence of Remake, given its widespread availability online. If you haven't seen it yet because you want to keep it a surprise, and for good reason.
There's no point attempting to hide it: the mere prospect of controlling Cloud in this famous train station is enough to get players excited. Square Enix have teased players with this concept for years to no avail (we still remember the PS3 tech demo from E3 2005), and this remake of one of the most popular JRPGs of all time has remained mere fantasy for an extremely long time.
But at long last, it's finally here, even if it's just a taste of what's in store.
Final Fantasy VII Remake treads similar ground to the last two solo releases in the series: like in FFXIII, the Remake sets the player on a pre-designated path, trading freedom of action for a closer focus on story and characters, at least during the first chapter.
This chapter also includes a variety of unique mechanics, including the ability to stun enemies by targeting their weak points. The remake also borrows heavily from FFXV's action-RPG mechanics, offering players an improved battle system which is immediately apparent from the first encounter. Each sword slash feels just right, a far cry from Noctis and his stilted swordplay.
The Active Time Battle system also seems to be a variant of Final Fantasy XV's Wait Mode. This new take on the ATB system allows players to freeze time and take a moment to decide on what move they want to use next.
The more confident players among you can also play the game as a straight ARPG, using special attacks via shortcuts like in Kingdom Hearts. This may come off as a bit miss-matched right off the bat, but once you've got a hang of things, the mix of systems proves immensely satisfying.
Cloud is quickly joined by Barret and the two plunge into the heart of the reactor, at which point you're able to quickly swap between characters with a simple press of the D-pad. Each playable character has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, which incentives players to freely swap between members of their roster in order to get the most out of their different skillsets.
To the surprise of no one, Barret can deal with enemies outside of your party's range with a unique attack that allows him fire off huge cartridges in rapid succession. Given their different combat styles, each character plays differently and requires a certain amount of time to get used to.
Managing the positioning of your party is no easy task, given that the AI plays any characters that you're not currently controlling very reservedly.
Let's also touch on another issue that we noted during the preview: managing the camera when changing characters and combat in general, which often takes place in confined arenas. Whether fighting in the reactor's narrow hallways or going up against robots armed to the teeth, moving the camera becomes a frustrating chore that may result in you taking damage.
It's important to remember that this is still a preview build, so there's still a chance that Square Enix might find a solution to this problem before the game launches on April 10.
It's a shame, as the rest of the gameplay is a real pleasure: encounters are fierce, characters compliment each other nicely, and the ATB and stun mechanics offer an interesting tactical element to combat. In order to stagger your adversaries, you must first identify then exploit their weak point until it reaches 100%.
This will briefly stun your target and cause them to take significant damage until they regain their senses.In more important fights, you'll have to save your transcendences (this game's Limit equivalent) and your most powerful abilities for the moment your enemy drops their guard.
This is particularly relevant in the first boss battle we experienced, against Robot Scorpion, who guards the heart of the reactor. This sturdy boss is weak to lightning attacks, which are perfect for staggering him and chipping away enough of his hp to move on to the next phase.
This is in fact a real boss fight, with unique patterns and spells that force you to change the way you fight. Your best bet at beating Scorpion Sentinel is to first make him focus on Barret so that Cloud can get behind him and continuously attack his weak point. Then once he climbs up the nearest wall, swap back to Barret and begin peppering him with long range attacks.
Being able to keep the pressure on your enemies is going to an important skill in FF7 Remake. Being able to read your enemy's attacks and knowing whether to dodge or guard them with R1 is also important skill, and quickly becomes combat a balancing act between these two approaches.
With Barret, however, mobility really isn't an option. The leader of AVALANCHE moves about as well as a pickup truck, with his very short dodges relegating him to the fringes of the arena. This is compared to Cloud, who can expertly swap from defence to offence in the drop of a hat. Well, he's the protagonist for a reason.
The Impact on Midgar
After your first taste of a boss battle, the game allows you to chose the amount of time before the bomb explodes — either 20 or 30 minutes. If everything goes according to plan, opting for 20 minutes will give you an extra amount of Gil as a reward once you make it back to Sector 7.
Once you've escaped the reactor, the game slows down a bit to allow you to truly appreciate the impact of the explosion. Sector 1 on the Upper Plate takes heavy damage, with countless injured and a residential zone reduced to a pitiful state.
While working his way through this chaos, Cloud reminiscences of his youth in Nibelheim, which also was engulfed by flames. This very deliberate narrative thread leads to our first encounter with the legendary Sephiroth, who was not in the original game at this point, and who is proof of Square Enix's desire to make the game a new experience for newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.
Even going off just over an hour of gameplay, the original setting appears to have been expanded upon and enriched. Here's hoping that further additions and new characters will continue to fit in nicely with the pre-existing FFVII universe.
For the moment, we can at least confirm that a lot of content has been added between fleeing the reactor, and despite a reliance on narrow zones, Final Fantasy VII Remake manages to create a gripping atmosphere with steady pacing.
It's a real pleasure to see members of AVALANCHE talk between one another, with protagonists frequently exchanging conversation that shows us just how much dialogue has progressed in the last 23 years.
Sector 5 Reactor: Air Buster
Reactor 5 & Controlling Tifa
In this new sequence, a section of AVALANCHE returns to the Sector 5 Reactor to finish the job. Being aware of infiltrators in their base, the Shinra corporation attempts to discredit the bio-terrorist organisation through a live report on the intrusion.
Once the bomb has been planted, the group decides to destroy their newest toy, the Air Buster, and really hit Shinra where it hurts. But before you take on the robot, you can weaken it by sabotaging its controlling mechanism at several different locations in the reactor.
It's up to you to decide what you want to deactivate as you work your way up the building: we were able to mess with the boss' controls at 5 different locations, which disabled Air Buster's most powerful attack, making the encounter a slight bit easier.
Once you've made it out of the "dungeon", the famous lever sequence makes its return, but with an added level of complexity for the remake. Pulling the levers a second time once the main door is open will reveal a secondary room brimming with valuable consumables.
This is a good moment to point out that the game will hint at its secrets on occasion, allowing attentive players to reap the rewards. On the other hand, it's a shame that the remake only tinkers with the environment and leaves the layout near identical to the original title.
Luckily, the new content does its job, as the addition of Tifa during this section of the demo makes gameplay much more dynamic. Tifa can dodge the furthest out of anyone in the group and has excellent crowd control at her disposal, allowing her to draw the attention of your enemies so that Cloud can focus on dealing as much damage as possible.
Materia & Equipment
Our journey through the reactor is also a great time to touch on the way that the Remake handles magic and materia. It should be said that the addition of new types of materia which teach your characters new attacks will make playing them even more satisfying.
For example, one of these new purple orbs allows Cloud to perform a spinning attack immedaitely after a dodge. This is a fantastic addition and goes a long way in making sure that combat feels as variable as possible.
Other types of materia act identically to how they did in 1997, which is a real relief on a personal level — besides summon materia, which are limited to one per person.
Following a quick scan of the menus during this sequence, which occurs a fair bit into the game, we can happily confirm that the game offers a lot of choice in terms of equipment and customisation.
Each weapon not only has its own skill tree to work through, but also has unqiue special attacks which can be retained and used with other weapons once mastered. All in all, the remake offers players a plethora of new content to learn and new ways to make your characters unstoppable.
Whether the enemies will be accordingly balanced to deal with Cloud's new-found powers remains to be seen, but things are looking positive moving forward.
Fighting Air-Buster
By denying him access to his mega-bombs, we were able to prevent Air Buster from launching its strongest attack. However, this is still a somewhat tricky boss to deal with, given that the fight takes place at a crossroads and is prone to camera difficulties.
During its final phase, Air Buster will take to the sky, changing the point of view and making movement even trickier. Once again, it's up to Barett to continually deal damage to the boss; the rest of your team are forced to wait until it eventually comes into range.
The second encounter with Shinra's prized combat robot also offered us the chance to see summons in action.
In this case, we chose to summon Ifrit, who did their part in making the screen even harder to read. To make matters worse, this summon completely blocked the path to the boss during their time on the battlefield.
To return to an earlier point, this is another example of the camera problems that spoil the party. FFVII Remake has great ideas, as well as dynamic and interesting systems, but these mechanics are spoiled by the camera, time and time again.
Fighting Aps
In the final section of the demon, we were able to take on Aps, the terror of Wall Market's sewers. This time round, the team features Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris in its ranks. Aeris is a fragile and slow magic-user, and just like Barett, is best positioned away from your enemies, where she can heal and buff her allies to her heart's content.
It's kind of hard for us to wrap our heads around how a flower seller might possess this level of magical ability, but we were thankful to have her in our party for this final challenge.
Aps is weak to fire and will sometimes catch ablaze if you target him with Tifa and Aeris' spells. This will force him to extinguish himself in a pool of sewer water. It is also pssobile to destroy both of the boss' horns, which will store and release energy at you when they glow red.
Aps is a great example of a boss with multiple smaller weaknesses, all of which add up to a unique and enjoyable encounter. All bosses have weak points to exploit, which offers up new opportunities to deal heavy damage. It should be noted that during this boss fight, which takes place in a wide room in the sewers, camera issues are barely a factor. Having a larger arena also reduces the sense of confusion when changing between characters.
You may have seen some of the screenshots over the last few weeks, and there's no getting away from it: FFVII Remake is simply stunning to look at. The influence of the art direction can be felt constantly, with breathtaking particles and special affects throughout, all of which has little to no impact on the framerate.
Of course, we played the preview on a PS4 Pro, but even still, to see the game show off such impressive visuals on a consistent framerate was one of real shining moments of the preview. That said, Square Enix doesn't shy away from cutting corners. Some textures fall well below expectations and characters appear blurry from certain angles.
Imperfections aside, we can't wait to see how the remake treats some of the most well-known locations from the original, such as Wall Market and the slums. Last, but not least, there's the OST, which is dynamically integrated into your gameplay.
The soundtrack acts as a perfect compliment to the gameplay thanks to perfect reorchestrations of works by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, and Mitsuto Suzuki. The result is a real treat for the sense, both in and out of combat.
Despite some reservations with a camera which has the tendency to behave erratically, we came out of our preview session with a wide smile on our faces. For this first episode in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, players can expect an extremely deep and interesting gameplay experience which mixes the best of FFVII, XIII, & XV within the framework of an action-RPG.
Despite an excellent first impression, we still have many questions about what the Remake has in store. Nevertheless, one thing is sure: combat will leave you breathless.
