Her combat style, a hectic mix of close-range and long-range fighting, is terrific fun too. Flipping switches with ranged attacks and clambering up walls like the ninja she is results in much more interesting exploration than Cloud is ever faced with. It's centred on Yuffie, a character who didn't appear until later in the original game.

The extra Intergrade episode, originally DLC for the PlayStation version, has levels that benefit from a little more interactivity. While the mix of ironwork scrap yards and neon-lit streets is incredibly pretty throughout, dungeon-like areas are more mundane and static. There, you get a sense of what life is like for those who are ignorant of the planet's plight. In the original game, that section was only two screens long.Īnother highlight is a brand new chunk of story that has you walking a quiet residential district for Shinra employees, a kind of company town. After the destruction of a Mako Reactor early in the game, you'll walk among the panicking populace, and really feel connected to the people around you as they desperately search for loved ones amid the wreckage. Only a handful of chapters push the brakes to let Cloud wander around a hub and take on sidequests. The Midgar portion of the original game wasn't exactly open world, and neither is the remake. As everything reaches a dramatic climax, it makes sense to close the book there (until the inevitable sequel).

While originally the Midgar section could take about 10 hours, here it's transformed into a 35-40 hour adventure that feels more complete in its own right. The biggest caveat is that, despite the title, FF7R only retells the opening of the original game-the portion set in the grimy, industrial city of Midgar, where the wealthy live in comfort on gigantic plates of metal, while the poor live in the shadows beneath next to piles of scrap and waste. The combat system is now fully real-time, though in a way that finally manages to honour the classic RPG legacy of the series. It balances faithfully recreating the original 1997 game (1998 if you first played it on PC like I did, giving me a lasting appreciation for the MIDI soundtrack), while commenting on the source material in a way that makes it feel up-to-date. After the lacklustre, confused, and unfinished-feeling Final Fantasy 15, this new take on one of the most beloved games in the series feels like it truly has vision.

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