With the remake on the horizon, why not revisit the original to see how far we've come?

23 years ago this game came out. That's almost 2/3 my life ago. Crazy to think. Just how far have we come in this time?

The game begins with a field of stars… which become the fireflies flying around Aeris in the heart of the Midgar slum. This blocky mess of a pre-rendered cutscene was in fact state of the art at the time, and as the camera flies all the way out from her to the edges of Midgar revealing the whole city from above. It was a hell of a way to start the game and say what we'd be doing on the Playstation: Motion JPEG at half standard def resolution! Then we push all the way into a mysterious group who jumps off a train, and wastes a few guards… The first thing you'll notice is the game is quite obviously designed for standard definition analog signals. The dithering on the polygons appears smooth and blended on a television but on a digital display it looks like ass. That being said… even on a CRT the big blocky models don't hold up too well anymore…

We follow the leader and are ambushed by two guards with machine guns that somehow do ten times less damage than the giant sword we are carrying. Moving on and he regroups and we get to name our main character.

Cloud… too silly. Let's call him Claude. The rest try to introduce themselves, but Claude is having none of it. Just wants to do the job and get out. The leader, a large black man with a machine gun arm gives you your objective: the Mako reactor. This game is totally sensible and not racist at all, as he's angry, swears a lot, seems to abandon his daughter quite often, and shoots stuff randomly. Let's name him Korny.

Korny explains his goal: Shinra, the evil corporation the runs the city, extracts Mako energy from the planet and turns it into power. The energy is in fact the life blood of the planet, and before long it will dry up leaving everything lifeless. Good thing it's at least clean unlike our coal and oil! He joins, and gets to fight beside Claude. The rest of the team, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, open doors and provide support while Korny and Claude make their way to the reactor to plant a bomb. Korny Reiterates the seriousness of the coming environmental disaster, but Claude doesn't care and just wants his money when the job is over. He must be a republican.

Korny and Claude fight their way to the reactor, where Claude sets up the bomb. But not before having a bizarre feeling… an inner monologue warning him about about something that may or may not make sense in what will be a crazy ass story.

The alarm trips, and a boss is dispatched to fight them. A giant scorpion thing. And here, not 15 minutes into the game, a major translation error rears its ugly head. Korny yells "Attack while it's tail is up! It's going to counterattack with its laser!" Sounds as if you are being given a command: attack while the tail is up to stop the laser attack. NOPE! It attacks with the tail laser and wastes you. What you have to do is NOT attack while the tail is up. As in, IF you attack while the tail it's up, THEN it will counterattack with the laser. Also they said 'it's' instead of 'its'. That my friends is the first of many lines of a botched translation. They blow it up and it fades away like all bosses into a red wireframe.

How satisfying. A clock starts at the countdown timer for the bomb. Let's get out of here. Korny and Claude fight their way out against weird ass security and shooty laser things. They escape, and the reactor explodes. Korny blows up their hideout to cover their tracks, and tells everyone to split up and regroup on the train to sector 7. Claude goes on and on about his money. We get it dude.

Claude runs into the flower girl from the intro, and you can be a dick to her or be nice. The game keeps track and how you treat characters, which decides whom you'll go on a date with later on. Is she working as a prostitute? Her 'flowers' are unreasonably cheap, and this is sometimes a cover in real life. He mister, buy a 'flower'. Is it true?!

Oops, Claude got spotted. Gotta fight your way to the train. Somehow the soldiers punches do more damage than their machine guns. Claude jumps on the moving train to escape. The cutscenes are wildly inconsistent. Sometimes the characters are 'realistically' rendered, sometimes they are prerendered as a blocky mess (as in this one), and sometimes the game draws them onto the cutscene in real time. It's like… pick one guys.

Claude makes the train, and everyone is happy to see him but Korny. The only think keeping him from being Mr T is the word fool. His apostrophied "shit" let us know it's more like "sheeeeit." His dialect is very heavy handed… I still do not know what the hell this pizza line is supposed to mean. Another mangled translation. Claude demonstrates his republican principles by asking why poor people don't just stop being poor.

The group meets up at a bar in Sector 7. Oh look who it is! The bar is owned by Claude's childhood friend. Hmmm. Judging by her figure, CommandrCleavage seems like an appropriate DBO name, but that won't fit. So just Cleavage. You can give her the flower you bought, or give it to Korny's daughter Marlene.

Ahhh he said it! Full on Mr. T! Also this option is a little spicy.

The news reports lots of casualties from the bomb planted earlier. Korny and Claude flex a bit and try to out macho each other. Claude's like "gimme my money!" Cleavage begs Claude to stay and fight with them, and reminds him of his childhood promise…

Cleavage and Claude sit atop a well back in their hometown during a flashback. Claude mentions he wants to join soldier and become as cool as Sephiroth (first mention of him). Cleavage makes him promise that if he makes soldier and she's in trouble that he'll come save her. Claude's like, yeah no I can't do that like a massive tool. Claude decides to stay after Korny pays him, even knowing that the money is for his daughter's education. Dick move Claude. Claude sleeps over in the bar, and in the morning you once again get a rather spicy dialogue option. Which makes no sense because if she's hot you WOULDN'T get sleep, but none of this makes sense so whatever.

Everyone heads to the train station to head for the next reactor target in sector 5. I am not sure how faithful the translation is, but is sure does encapsulate the crippling ignorance of the 90s.

On the train, they are all found out and have to bail. There are various security systems in the train tunnel, and miraculously Cleavage can dodge a rocket that exploded mere inches away. The group makes their way to the new reactor through maintenance access routes, and fight weird things along the way like flying fish. Because that's totally normal.

Inside the reactor and at the detonation location, Claude collapses and has a flashback. Cleavage's father is dead, and she's yelling about hating Sephiroth and Shinra. The plot thickens I guess. Claude plants the bomb, then everyone heads for the exit. No countdown this time. And right here we have one really stupid damn minigame. You all have to hit the buttons at once, but do you think Korny or Cleavage will give you a countdown or anything? Like 3…2…1… go? NOPE! You have to do it completely blind and guessing. Ugggggggg.

Ambushed by the president of Shinra, he goes on about how Claude isn't as cool as Sephiroth, then drops off a mechanical monstrosity to fight, and in true James Bond fashion leaves before the kill is made. The boss fight is pretty easy given it's surrounded and back attacks do double damage. It explodes but oh no! Claude falls through the hole in prerendered cutscene in which everyone is still a blocky mess. So far the opening is the only cutscene where they seemed to try hard.

Claude lands on a church and a flower bead breaks his fall. Yeah Right. Anyway turns out this is where the flower girl tends her flowers. What should we call her? How about… Sammy. The Turks, a special forces group from Shinra shows up to take Sammy. And even though Claude doesn't care about anyone or anything, he decides to help her out of there. Because she's pretty! Oh, and there are little demon monsters in the back of the church. WTF man. WTF. Sammy attacks with a staff and a Jordanesque jump. After escaping the Turks, Sammy convinces Claude to be her bodyguard on top of a not at all proportional building to how big it was on the inside. She reveals she knew someone from Soldier herself, and that's why she's drawn to Claude, but not much more than that at the moment.

Good thing she has a bodyguard. In the streets there are thugs, who have a disturbing attack called 'Grind' in which they come up behind and just kind of rub you… Also score another one for the translators.

Claude takes Sammy home, and her mom basically tells you to get lost since someone else from soldier broke her heart. Claude tells Sammy that he has to meet back up with Cleavage, and she gets a wee bit jealous. Claude sneaks out, but Sammy is too smart for that, and insists on coming with Claude to meet up with Cleavage.

On the way, we encounter the most bizarre enemy in the game. A house. A literal house. Which we apparently also fight in the remake too. Sammy and Claude talk for a while, and tells him he's a lot like her first boyfriend. But wait! Cleavage appears in a sexy dress, on a chocobo drawn carriage bound for the wall market. Sammy and Claude go to investigate.

The following portion of the game is easily the strangest. They discover Cleavage is in Don Corneo's mansion, who's a local crime boss. He picks a 'bride' from three girls every night, so he's only letting women into his mansion. And thus, the plan becomes to dress Claude up as a woman to get inside.

And so you must get a dress, a wig, and various accessories to cross dress your way into Corneo's mansion. You can obtain a wig by out squatting some bros, some sexy underwear from a group of older gay men in a hot tub, makeup by Donald Trumping your way into a dressing room, a dress from a depressed dressmaker whose passion is restored by the ridiculousness, and many other optional items to make you more convincing as a woman. I can't particularly say the whole thing is handled with sensitivity, but it did break ground at the time.

Inside the mansion, Claude and Sammy find Cleavage is waiting in what appears to be a sex dungeon. She explains she's here because they need information the Don has, and this was the way to get close. She is quite accepting of his choice of outfit. The three parade themselves in front of the don, and depending on the job you did he will pick one of the three. This time lucky Claude was chosen!

You go to his bedroom, distract him, and Sammy and Cleavage bust in. You squeeze him for information by literally threatening to rip off his balls. He confesses that Shinra is going to blow up a support, and have the slums below crushed by the top level of the city and blame it on you. Of course knowing he'll win, Don opens a trap door and sends you right to a sewer monster. Because sewers are always spacious and full of monsters.

Escaping the sewer you make your way through the train graveyard, with literal ghosts and demonic chariots. Here you can steal a great weapon for Sammy, but you barely get to use it before she's taken away. Korny has already rushed to the support to stop Shinra, so they send Sammy to take care of Korny's daughter. They reach the top of the pillar right after the Turks set the bomb, and barely escape after fighting them. They catch Sammy being taken away in a helicopter, and she tells them Marlene is safe. Swinging on a conveniently placed cable to freedom, the pillar blows, and everyone in the slums is crushed while president Shinra watches on from his office at the top of the city.

They go back to Sammy's house to get Marlene, and Sammy's mom tells them that the Turks want her because she's an 'ancient', the chosen people who will find the promised land. Sammy's mom isn't her mom, but an adoptive parent. Ancients have powers… can feel the planet… Wanting to stop Shinra, they all decide to rescue her from the headquarters. They find a wire that will lead them up the wreckage to the top of the city. This has to be my favorite line of the game.

How to get in? Korny wants to run and gun, Cleavage wants to sneak in. Let's sneak in. The game makes you literally climb 60 flights of stairs, and once again displays a lot of sensitivity. Once inside, you must make it to the top floor by getting various keycards that let you progress. There's another stupid minigame where you have to signal to your party when to cross the room to as not be seen by guards. If you mess up you start over. Just lose four times quickly, and it'll let you skip it.

In all your snooping, you manage to overhear a meeting with Shinra's elite. It confirms the worst suspicions, and reveals Sammy's location. In the research lab, Claude finds "Jenova", a headless creature who will become very very important in the plot later on. The group rescues Sammy and a strange talking red lion, who goes by RED XII. But he says we can call him whatever we want. How about John 117? Cool then!

Of course you're all kidnapped and brought in front of the president. He explains the promised land is full of Mako, and they'll be crazy rich if an ancient will lead them there. Then you get thrown in holding cells. But after falling asleep, the door mysteriously opens…

Running out, a trail of blood leads from Jeonova up the stairs to president Shinra, head. Skewered with the sword of Sephiroth. Claude explains he thinks he knows what's going on, but will explain later as they've got to get the hell out.

Rufus, the VP and son of the President, helicopters in and takes over, explaining he's going to run Shinra differently: through fear. Claude fights him while the others escape fighting a giant robot on the elevator down. Claude bests Rufus, but he hightails it.

The crew makes their escape on a truck, and Claude takes a motorcycle. While the characters are finally more detailed in the cutscene, the animation is janky as hell. Everyone 'skates' across the ground. Still, this blew my mind when I first saw it. remember what 3D games looked like in 1997! You play what is probably the game's most fun minigame, where you protect the truck from the Shinra soldiers on their own bikes by slashing with your sword. Of course when you reach the end of the highway, a giant tank shows up that you have to destroy.

And so, the crew bids Midgar farewell as Claude tells them they need to go after Sephiroth. He says he'll explain as soon as they leave the city and get safe. And so here will end the first installment of the remake…

Does the game hold up? If you're under 30 years old, probably not.

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Sephiroth kills Aeris

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It puts every game remake I’ve ever seen to shame. Frankly it puts a lot of GAMES to shame.

It’s not perfect. Some of the NPCs look like they could be in the PS3 era. The combat, while vastly improved, could still be even better.

But I’ve never seen a world so realized. So alive. Everything from the settings to the Numerous NPCs who carry on are super vibrant. It’s not quite on the level of the Market in Uncharted 4, but the whole game is like 85% there. So many little things add great touches. But the big grand stuff like looking up from the slums and seeing the plates of the city are awesome. The combat is light years better than the original turn based stuff. It’s action oriented and you are constantly making decisions against even normal enemies.

The story is likewise significantly expanded, and straight up altered. But once again all the characters totally come alive. It’s really fantastic. Everything appears to be custom animated: there are no “cutscenes” with people just standing there cutting back and forth like Mass Effect or HZD. Everything has performance capture.

There are dumb side quests but you can skip them and not really be behind in terms of power.

This is how you can bring a world to life. You look up and it’s somehow 7 hours later.

I'm rather pleased with the way the remake not only treats sexuality, but also how it celebrates queer culture.

One of the most well known sequences in the game is where you cross dress in order to sneak into a thug's mansion. In the original, it was not handled the best it could have been, with the whole thing as a joke and subject for ridicule. The incongruous nature of a tough guy dressing in a girlie dress was played for laughs. The Honeybee Inn, were you can gather a few of the items like sexy underwear and makeup to look the part, was in the original pretty much a brothel for deviants. Its patrons were largely stereotypical gay men, and once again many of the scenes and interactions were played for laughs as a group strips Cloud and goads him into the hot tub with them.

In contrast in the Remake, the Honeybee in is more of a Queer Cabaret. Rather than be the butt of a joke, Cloud is quite comfortable and gets up and does a dance off with the program director. Everything from the dance to the overt flirting by the director is never really treated as unwelcome to Cloud. As he's made over on stage, the crowd cheers on, welcoming the transition. Not a single boo or ridiculing sneer. Just support. And then the final line:

“True beauty is an expression of the heart. A thing without shame to which notions of gender don’t apply. Don’t ever be afraid, Cloud.”

And while in the original Cloud was deathly embarrassed, in the remake he owns it. Tifa recognizes him, and in stead of laughing like in the original, Cloud just replies [regarding the dress] “Nailed it, yes, I know, thank you."

It's a straight up celebration and not played for shame or ridicule. Fucking. Awesome. So often queer characters are either villains, or jokes. Here they are neither. The gender fluidity extends into other areas as well, such as the androgynous personal trainer in the gym. In the original, it was more explicitly ridiculed with the big buff men who like to wear wigs, but in the remake it just IS, and nobody comments much on it.

Likewise the nature of the Thug's mansion is itself explored more, with henchmen sympathetic and worried, knowing how women are exploited. Cloud is catcalled as he strolls down the street as a women. The whole sad nature of the scenario is given a much more thoughtful treatment.

Likewise I feel like sexual desire drives many of the characters in ways that refreshingly reflect how much it drives real people. In games you generally either see characters just overtly sexual for the benefit of the (presumably male) player, or else completely uninterested or driven by it. Like, nearly every old hollywood movie was largely driven by sex. It's a giant piece of everyone's life. It feels really grounded in the characters, and never obscene. There's already a bazillion memes about Cloud and Jessie, but the sexual tension creates a very real and meaningful set of exchanges between Cloud and Tifa / Aerith. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised given the uncomfortable nature of the heterosexual interactions versus the supremely confident queer cloud, that Cloud might not be completely straight.

Like, it's not perfect but it's all super liberating in what it does well.

I love that this game exists.

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When does the game really get going?

I played the first two chapters. I made it back to base and met Tifa before I stopped. I liked it, and I plan on playing more soon, but I’m still not fully sold I guess. The combat seems neat, but it’s very brainless so far. I’ve heard that changes once you get deeper in.

Didn’t help that Joseph Anderson put out a four hour video about The Witcher and I fell into another play through (along with starting Thronebreaker in Switch, which is fantastic).

When does the game really get going?

It's kind of gradual. There isn't a discrete point where it 'gets going'. It just keeps ramping up.

I played the first two chapters. I made it back to base and met Tifa before I stopped. I liked it, and I plan on playing more soon, but I’m still not fully sold I guess. The combat seems neat, but it’s very brainless so far. I’ve heard that changes once you get deeper in.

Are you on real time, or classic battle? Like the rest of the game, it opens way up gradually. I probably won't try classic mode, because the remake battle system is dope.

I’m using the new battle system. I really like it, or at least I see it’s potential. So far I just haven’t had to do much beyond mash square and use the occasional spell. And switch to Barrett all the damn time because he’s too dumb to keep his meter charged.

I’m using the new battle system. I really like it, or at least I see it’s potential. So far I just haven’t had to do much beyond mash square and use the occasional spell. And switch to Barrett all the damn time because he’s too dumb to keep his meter charged.

Yeah, you've just seen the intro basically. There's more to it.

I finished the main story, and never thought it could be this good. The only real gripes I have are with the pointless side jobs, and the audio mix (the music is too often mixed way too low in cinematics. You have one of the best game scores in history, you should let the music come forward sometimes and do its thing!)

I can say though, that the game is meant to be played by those who have finished the original. It's not a nostalgia thing, and it's hard to explain without spoiling, but if this is your first crack at Final Fantasy 7 you might be confused. It's really smart, and really bold and brilliant I think.

There's a constant struggle between nostolgia and moving forward, so what the game does is quite smart. You have for the first 17/18 chapters a more or less faithful retelling of the original, simply with much more detail with things greatly expanded upon and a few things changed here or there. But that ending. It frees the creators up to do whatever they want now, not shackled by the original. It can move forward into the unknown. I am so excited to continue when the next one comes out.

It's a home run.

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I finished the main story, and never thought it could be this good. The only real gripes I have are with the pointless side jobs, and the audio mix (the music is too often mixed way too low in cinematics. You have one of the best game scores in history, you should let the music come forward sometimes and do its thing!)

I can say though, that the game is meant to be played by those who have finished the original. It's not a nostalgia thing, and it's hard to explain without spoiling, but if this is your first crack at Final Fantasy 7 you might be confused. It's really smart, and really bold and brilliant I think.

There's a constant struggle between nostolgia and moving forward, so what the game does is quite smart. You have for the first 17/18 chapters a more or less faithful retelling of the original, simply with much more detail with things greatly expanded upon and a few things changed here or there. But that ending. It frees the creators up to do whatever they want now, not shackled by the original. It can move forward into the unknown. I am so excited to continue when the next one comes out.

It's a home run.

And even if it won't be the same for me as someone who hasn't played it, I'm pretty keen to give it a go now.

I’m using the new battle system. I really like it, or at least I see it’s potential. So far I just haven’t had to do much beyond mash square and use the occasional spell. And switch to Barrett all the damn time because he’s too dumb to keep his meter charged.

I think you'll be happy when it comes to hard mode. You really have to learn the intricacies of the control, player abilities, enemy weaknesses, and Materia spec.

On hard mode I forget I am playing what was once a JRPG. It feels like a straight up action game at times.

I finally started playing again tonight. I’m in the slums doing the first round of side quests. None of them are good, but the combat is fun, so I’m still enjoying myself. I am interested to see where the story goes. I’m glad I started up agan; in really enjoying myself.

So, I never played more than an hour or two of the original game. I’ve heard this remake really assumes you have, to the point where it might not really make sense without that context. Can you answer to that Cody? I have no issues reading a synopsis or watching a let’s play of the original, I don’t really care about spoilers.

You absolutely 100% need to have played all of the original. To explain why or what won’t make sense would be a spoiler. The “remake” in the title doesn’t mean what you think it does.

Also yes. All the side jobs suck. But you can skip them.

This game rules. I just did the mission for Jessie. The combat finally got challenging, and I’m sure it’s just the beginning.

Also, I love the writing and characters so far. It’s really sort of cheesy, but it’s so earnest and endearing that it really works for me. I love Jessie and Wedge.

I guess I’ll dive into watching or reading the story of the original before I get too much farther.

This game rules. I just did the mission for Jessie. The combat finally got challenging, and I’m sure it’s just the beginning.

I'm going through on hard mode now (on chapter 15 of 18), and you have to absolutely master the combat and the boss weaknesses to succeed. You max out at level 50, and even then you aren't overpowered in the least. Each boss is super varied, and I've had to have custom materia loadouts for each. It helps that all the characters are so different and have unique abilities. If you want tips I can give some, but figuring it out is super fun. Hard mode is tougher enemies, no item usage, and MP only recharging between chapters or after specific story points.

I guess I’ll dive into watching or reading the story of the original before I get too much farther.

You can play up until close to the end and still have things make sense. It's the last bit that requires you to have played the original.

I played through the original again before my hard mode playthrough, and doing all the story stuff took me 28 hours at a decent pace that wasn't rushed. If you aren't going to beat any of the superbosses, it's not the longest JRPG by any margin. The PS4 version even has a level booster and a fast forward.

I watched a 45 minute story rundown last night. Is it the Zak/Cloud blending stuff? The video I watched started by explaining the events that happen before the game starts, but I assume those are late game revelations in the actual game, stuff like Cloud not being a SOLDIER and his getting Zak’s memories. So I’m thinking that the remake is sticking true to how that stuff was originally presented, but I don’t know that for sure.

Do they change how anything plays out, or just recontextualize something?

In any case the sort of the original game seems bonkers. I guess I’ll just look it up if something happens that I don’t understand.

I watched a 45 minute story rundown last night. Is it the Zak/Cloud blending stuff? The video I watched started by explaining the events that happen before the game starts, but I assume those are late game revelations in the actual game, stuff like Cloud not being a SOLDIER and his getting Zak’s memories. So I’m thinking that the remake is sticking true to how that stuff was originally presented, but I don’t know that for sure.

Do they change how anything plays out, or just recontextualize something?

In any case the sort of the original game seems bonkers. I guess I’ll just look it up if something happens that I don’t understand.

I think you'll be fine if you watched a rundown. As long as it covered everything with Zack, Aerith, Sephiroth, Jenova, and most importantly the ending, you should be fine. You might miss 'little' things, but big picture you should be ok.

I just spent 45 minutes fighting a house. No story rundown makes that make any sense. (: The whole crowd chanting the victory music was a great touch though.

This might be game of the generation. I kinda wish I had an affinity for the original game. I bet this is real cool for those people.

I just spent 45 minutes fighting a house. No story rundown makes that make any sense. (: The whole crowd chanting the victory music was a great touch though.

This might be game of the generation. I kinda wish I had an affinity for the original game. I bet this is real cool for those people.

Did you know you can Stop or put the Hell House to sleep? Lots of bosses are susceptible to sleep, poison, and stop. Don't overlook those spells!

Also, the house was just a regular enemy you fight randomly in the original game. Didn't you read my lets play? :-p

lol, I actually didn’t. I knew I was going to play the remake and didn’t know that it basically assumed you had played the original. I looked for a rundown of the story and forgot that’s the thing that was the start of this thread.

lol, I actually didn’t. I knew I was going to play the remake and didn’t know that it basically assumed you had played the original. I looked for a rundown of the story and forgot that’s the thing that was the start of this thread.

So I think I'm done with the game finally. There's three trophies left, but they seem lame and not worth doing. Collect all enemy skills, collect all music CDs, see all the dresses. BORING.

Watching the Aerith voice actor play that section, and cry at the end because the message is so beautiful was touching.