I never played the original final fantasy 7. iIt was one of those games I could tell I would vibe with, more-than-likely, yet I never got it. It was just one of those things that never happened. The bigger bites out of my time at home, from primary school, was used on the Spyro trilogy, which I’m sure is still stuck in my DNA somewhere. I played PS1 as the first console I had that used a TV, and I usually sat on the floor with bionicles and a crate of legos with all the smaller bits that sank to the bottom of the box, that I would build spaceships with. You know what else? I was there for Slizer. I was a real 90s child.
That sets the scene, pretty much, to me not playing a game, ever, and jumping into this remake. The graphics are very beautiful. That’s what I always looked for in a game, and still do, because it needs to look right for the thing to properly get me into it, hooked. (This is why I regard many games on the nintendo DS as unplayable.) FFVII took place on the pages of PS1 and Games Master magazine pages. Always caught my eye, and I knew the idea of turn based RPGs, but actually playing this eluded me. Seemed like an investment in a world that would pull me in for a very long time, diverting me from what I was already enjoying. How common in life. This remake looks great anyway, and it’s confident about it too, so two ticked boxes give it attraction straight off the bat. Going in, my initial reactions to things other than this game were “woah, its linear, really linear, and I like it”. Its the reaction of a man who goes “freedom for what?” when freedom is offered. Shall we face it? Linear is lovely when its done truly well, like in the majority of games. I’m not a stuck-in-school kid, so the appeal of exploring San Andreas, doing doughnuts in a sports-car I pressed the triangle button to steal, has its place, slowly receding further away from me because of the calendar and the clock.
A big point of how I really like this game is the focus it provides, and it brushes and fades in the cutscenes so smoothly, that it actually feels great to be present during them. There’s hardly been any I wanted to cut short. The story is massively interesting and intriguing, even though I’ve only spent around ten to thirteen hours on it? Yeah, its played out in a way that agrees with me. It takes me back to my cinephile days of watching the matrix movies, and everyone I knew, knew I loved all those movies to metaphorical pieces. It has that purpose, that setting that’s dystopian but hopeful, wild and living, rather than grim “this is all we got” of some zombie games or fallout, that are truly dystopian, with FFVII, I feel I am in a team of well-dressed, diverse, larger than life “baddies”. Yeah I said it. The basic plot was spelled out loud and clear from the start. Its not a dystopia or a utopia, it has elements of each, in a vintage English way that feels antique and futuristic, simultaneously. I said it feels like I’m on the baddies side, because these rebels are pretty much demolishing energy power-plants for the gigantic city, where it’s set. Why? They believe the energy, called “Mako” is made from life force of the planet, and these power plants are “bleeding the earth dry”. To me, the newbie, I’m not convinced the parts of the city, that are orderly and humble, (like the ones Barrett intimidates on the train), I’m not convinced they, the majority, and the majority’s leadership is actually doing anything wrong, because the idea of this energy is never proven nor shown to be from where our group of good-looking, charismatic protagonists say. So Cloud’s agenda helps me. He’s in it for the money. The “eco terrorists” (as they’re called by government and their supporting civilians), seem to be on some religious type of crusade, based on a belief. The corporations haven’t argued with them however, and the security on the power plants is abysmal. The buildings are basically abandoned. This means I really am in a fantasy story that takes all kinds of liberties about what’s accepted as “standard fare”. So yeah, plenty of intrigue on my behalf with “whos, whys, and whats” of the world im presented with, to keep my attention sharp in game, and attentive in story, in cutscenes, dialogue and so-on.
I’ve said enough for an initial reaction, to this beautiful, intriguing, curious title I always suspected I’d “vibe with”. The fact is, I do. And that’s enough-said, for now.
The Humble Rock Dove 