[h1]Final Fantasy VII Remake – Am I Still Playing The Same Game?[/h1]
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (5/10)
The [b]cutscenes[/b] are fantastic. They're full of emotion, movement, and some genuinely cinematic moments. You can tell a lot of effort went into the presentation.
Unfortunately, the [b]voice acting[/b] didn't land for me. It's not terrible, but it often crosses the line into being a little too over-the-top and, at times, downright cringey. It made it harder to take some of the more serious moments seriously.
The [b]combat[/b] also never clicked. Blocking and dodging feel inconsistent, and once an enemy lands a hit, your character can spend what feels like an eternity getting staggered and slapped around while you watch helplessly. Apparently my greatest ability was becoming a punching bag.
Performance, at least, is excellent. The game runs great on both my [b]Steam Deck[/b] and PC, so no complaints there.
The [b]story and lore[/b] were interesting enough to keep me going, but the acting kept pulling me out of it. Then there's the music. It starts off fine, but after a while it repeats so often that I started wondering if someone had accidentally left the same playlist on loop. Sometimes the music doesn't even match what's happening in the cutscenes. Nothing says "epic emotional moment" quite like what sounds like elevator music refusing to leave.
One thing that genuinely annoyed me was how the game handles some of the later bosses. Before the second boss in Chapter 17, and again in Chapter 18, you're basically thrown into the fight without a proper chance to adjust your equipment or materia. So your first attempt often feels less like a boss fight and more like a scouting mission to figure out what you should have equipped in the first place.
Now let's talk about the story.
I genuinely have no idea what happened.
I started by joining what felt like a tree-hugger resistance group fighting an electric company. Then I was fighting anime bodyguards, Cloud's mysterious hallucinations, flying dementors, giant portals, and mountain-sized bosses. Every few hours it felt like someone quietly swapped the game cartridge while I wasn't looking.
Maybe if you're a long-time [b]Final Fantasy[/b] fan, all of this makes perfect sense. As someone experiencing it for the first time, though, the lore, power scaling, and overall story were incredibly difficult to follow. It just isn't very newcomer-friendly.
The biggest issue for me is that there are [b]no real stakes[/b]. Everyone seems to have plot armor, and the game ends on a massive cliffhanger that basically says, "Go buy the next game if you want answers."
Today...
I'm good.
[b]Great presentation, confusing story, frustrating combat, and a cliffhanger ending that did more to sell the sequel than satisfy this one.[/b]
My Recommendation: Buy if it is on sale. Or if you are a FF Fan
