For months, fans have been hoping we would get a demo for Final Fantasy 7 Remake after a demo has been shown at press events recently. Yesterday, we were finally given the demo to play, and if there’s one word to describe it, its breathtaking. After a section of Final Fantasy 7 was remade as a tech demo for the Playstation 3, fans have dreamt about being able to play a remake of the hugely popular 1997 game. You can check out the tech demo footage below (courtesy of IGN)
The demo was released on Monday after it was recently shown off again over the weekend at PAX East. The demo showcases the first portion of the game that sees Cloud, Barrett, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge travel to the Mako 1 Reactor in Midgar and ultimately destroy it. We got to play roughly the first 40-50 minutes of the game, and it was nothing short of amazing.
The Reactor largely follows the layout of the original but is expanded with new things to do and explore, and everything is just a little bit larger. But it was very easy to think back to the original and imagine which part of the Reactor you’re currently in. The demo ends after you defeat the first boss of the game, the Guard Scorpion, and escape from the Reactor before the bomb goes off.
Table of Contents
Graphics
Final Fantasy 7 was released 23 years ago, so it was very obvious the game would look vastly different to the original, but this may just be the nicest looking console game I have ever seen. The attention to detail is astounding; you can see individual hair strands, pores of the skin and freckles. The environments are very detailed and the overall look and feel of the game is incredible and shows how far gaming has come since the Playstation 1 era. The character models are impressive too. They have generally kept in line with what we’ve come to expect from their designs over the years but are updated to look a little nicer. Barrett is still a big guy built like a tank with a minigun on his arm, and Cloud & Aerith still look as we would expect them to. I also have to give huge compliments to Biggs, Jessie and Wedge. Square-Enix have done an amazing job with these character models. Jessie may also now take the crown for my video game crush (sorry RE2 Remake’s Claire Redfield). Its understandable that we are now in the age where character models look closer to real life than ever as we can use motion capture and create CGI renders of actual actors and then just modify them as needed. I also really hope that Biggs, Jessie and Wedge got a lot more screen time in this game as they *SPOILER ALERT* get killed off fairly early on in the original. But since the Midgar section of the original takes around 4 hours to complete and this is expected to be a minimum of 40 hours game, I would expect its much later in the story they get killed off, if they do at all.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy 7 Remake plays a lot like Final Fantasy XV, just with some slight differences. If you’ve played Final Fantasy XV you generally know what to expect going into this. You essentially have to spam Square to attack, but each character also has another mode of attack by pressing Triangle. This changes your attack and allows you to do stronger attacks by holding Square.
One big improvement is that when you press X to bring up the Command Menu, it freezes the game while you select what attack, spell or item you want to use. This gives it more of that old school Final Fantasy 7 feel where fights were all about strategy and traversing through menus for the right attack to use. This also allows you to regroup if needed and think of your next move.
At the start of the game, you get to choose which difficulty you want. There’s Easy and Normal difficulty but also a Classic mode. In Classic mode, fights are automated, meaning you don’t need to spam Square continuously, you just have to worry about the menus, giving this a more old school feel to it. When using Classic mode, the game plays on Easy difficulty though.
How Big Is The Game?
While we don’t know for certain, it isn’t unreasonable to expect a 40+ hour game. Final Fantasy games are notoriously long, and I don’t expect this to be any different. The full game will be split into different episodes, with this game focusing on the events of Midgar, and I assume there will be another 2-4 games to come. How long it’ll take to fully release no-one knows, but I expect it to be far into the PS5 life cycle before we are through. The Midgar portion of the game usually takes around 3-5 hours to complete, so I would expect a lot of brand new content and areas in the Remake. This should feel like a complete game in itself and not just a short portion of it. Well, we hope, at least.
Final Thoughts
Fans, including myself, have been waited at least 15 years for this and now that it is here, it hasn’t disappointed. Part of me does think the game should have been a PS5 launch title, since the PS5 is releasing later this year. What better way to get people to buy your new console day one? The rest of the game will be released on the PS5 at a later date, so it’s strange that part 1 is on the PS4 and the rest on PS5. But the good news is the PS5 is confirmed to be PS4 backwards compatible, so you don’t need to worry about keeping your old PS4 to play the full game.
But overall, this demo is nothing short of breathtaking. The graphics are outstanding, the gameplay is great and it makes me want the game even more. Thankfully, there is only one month to go and then the full game will be released!
Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be released on April 10th, 2020 as a PS4 exclusive.
What did you think of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo? Let us know in the comments.
Be sure to check out more of the latest news and guides on Gamezo, the new and upcoming gaming site. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest articles.
