EGX 2019

I played the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo at EGX.

The advancements in hardware for the PlayStation systems since the PS1 has allowed Square Enix to truly realize their original concepts for the city of Midgard, and they have made sure to push the limits of the hardware where FFXV, the most recent entry in the FF series, did not.

The fluid movements and the high poly models of the characters, Cloud and Barrett, have achieved making the characters feel more alive than they did in FFVII, from flowing hair physics (the hair guy is back at it again) and proper facial animation.

While the original JRPG combat system of the Final Fantasy franchise is yet lost to us, FFVIIR feels less like FFXV's combat, which feels floaty, than it does feel similar to that of Kingdom Hearts. The ATB system allows you to initiate spells and abilities in multiple ways, be it by shortcuts via holding L1, giving commands to your party members while in tactical mode, or using your own abilities while in tactical mode. Tactical mode slows down the games time, giving you the ability to take a breather in combat and think about your next move, but if this isn't how you wish to play you can always shortcut commands to the shortcut tab when in the main menu.

The real time combat nature of the Remake made the fight with the "Scorpion Sentinel" feel a lot different to the fight in the original FFVII. During the fight, after you've dealt enough damage, the boss will enter it's second phase, much like a raid boss in an MMO. They will then have a Barrier around itself with the only weak point being the core on its back, in order to defeat the phase you must gain the attention of the Sentinel with one character and then switch to the other in order to destroy the core. Then next phase has the Sentinel use it's tail laser, in order to avoid taking damage, the player must get behind debris that falls from the ceiling, just make sure to stay behind it or you will get shot still.

The combat system also has a stagger mechanic, where if you do enough damage to the enemy it will fill up a secondary stage below there health bar which, when full, will cause the enemy to be staggered and collapse on the floor. When staggered the enemy takes increased damage and can't move.

My current gripes with the remake is the change of the original law/story. In the original story Aerith is the only character that can see the spirits, and Sephiroth doesn't appear at the start of the game. During the scenes shown in the demo, a black feather, from "The one-winged angel"/Sephiroth, falls next to Cloud causing him to grip his head and keel over. This never happened in the original game, and doesn't fit in the story. I hope that when the final game, which is just the first section of the game (Midgard), comes out i am proven to be paranoid over nothing, or the changes in story actually help make it better.