I’ve been trying to revisit Final Fantasy VII and wanted to offer a counterpoint to the effusive Final Fantasy VII letter a few weeks ago. When I initially played it, it was the one of my first role-playing games and I was blown away by the graphics, the music, and the scope of the game. These days, while it’s still a decent game, its flaws are more evident and its strengths more commonplace.
The main issue is the dialogue. While this has been criticised in recent Final Fantasies, it’s arguably worse in Final Fantasy VII. The main difference is that the recent games are voiced, which highlights the poor writing. To quote Harrison Ford, ‘You can type this stuff, but you sure can’t say it’. To make matters worse, there are often interminably long dialogue breaks. A secondary issue are the Characters, Barratt is a stereotype at best and the most memorable thing about Aeris is that she dies. The others aren’t significantly better.
There are other smaller issues like the numerous iffy mini-games, random battles, and unskippable summons, some of which are simply a product of their time.
It’s still undeniably a classic, but I don’t think its aged well and you can see why it might be difficult to remake. There’s going to be a temptation to try and iron out a lot of these flaws, but retaining them may result in a lukewarm reception in today’s environment, and making changes will likely anger fans.
Matt (He_who_runs_away – PSN ID)
