POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD for this ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ review piece. You’ve been warned!
Final Fantasy VII was a game that seemed ahead of its time. It combined an wildly ambitious story about past traumas set to a backdrop of a greedy corporation sucking the life out of the planet (literally) with the best graphics at the time. Nothing like it had been seen before and one has to wonder if revisiting an old game from 1997 is the best move.
As Final Fantasy VII Remake uniquely demonstrates, not only does the present day technology make its two-decade old story even more powerful, it packages an unexpectedly timely message with a much-needed dose of wistful nostalgia.
Speaking of other 2020 GOTY candidates we reviewed or looked at besides ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’, the GOAT team talk about ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
In writing this review for Final Fantasy VII Remake, it’s hard to not draw comparisons between the game and what’s happening in real life.
People feeling powerless and trapped (literally). Politicians being nothing more than mouthpieces for insidious agendas. The spinning of narratives and conveying of misinformation. Corporations wielding an excessive amount of power compared to the people. The world is literally dying a slow death due to said corporations, and the population is not better off.
Those descriptions can be used to describe both Final Fantasy VII Remake and the real-world in equal measure and you’d struggle to find the difference.
The iconic characters and the backdrop of Final Fantasy VII‘s story remains largely unchanged for Remake: it still tells a tale of taking back control of corporations and making the world a better place through whatever means necessary, even if it means resorting to revolutionary violence.
But while Final Fantasy VII kept things pretty black and white (Shinra, the aforementioned greedy corporation, is bad while Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret and the rest of Avalanche, the revolutionary group opposing them, are good), Remake brilliantly turns things into a more realistic grey.
It’s no longer as simple as “beating the bad guy” as it was in the OG game. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, actions have consequences, innocent people get hurt, moral boundaries are questioned, and pondering whether the means justify the ends is a genuine concern. Looking at all the political shenanigans that’s happening across the globe right now, one has to wonder if Remake isn’t slying winking at us this entire time.
If anything, time has only enriched Final Fantasy VII‘s story. It feels a bit ironic how Final Fantasy VII warned us about this sort of thing back in 1997, and now Remake has arrived with the same powerful message along with a dollop of “I told you so.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake offers up uncomfortably grim yet accurate snapshots on politics, corporations slowly destroying the planet purely out of greed, and the discourse that’s running through the world. It’s unsettling to experience all this, especially with all the uncertainty that’s gripping the real world right now.
And yet, Final Fantasy VII Remake is paradoxically the ideal sort of game to get us through the current dark times thanks to its masterful use of nostalgia.
Wistfully longing for a time that’s passed is a slippery slope, especially when said passed time is often viewed with rose-tinted glasses. But in the face of everything we’ve faced in 2020 so far, perhaps a bit of nostalgia is what we need to get through these tough times and Final Fantasy VII Remake is filled to the brim with it.
There’s a familiar comfort in seeing Cloud, Tifa, Barret and Aerith again, in seeing Midgar in its grimy glory, and in seeing all those iconic Final Fantasy VII moments be lovingly recreated and reimagined in Remake.
We can all use a break from reality but we can’t ignore what’s going on around us, and Final Fantasy VII Remake allows us to have that cake and eat it too.
In an unexpected way, Final Fantasy VII Remake is perhaps the perfect game to capture a glimpse of the messiness of politics, uneasiness and anger that’s happening around the world in 2020 while simultaneously acting as a nostalgic bandaid to the chaos.
There’s little doubt Final Fantasy VII Remake will be a strong contender for 2020’s GOTY accolade (which is shaping up to be a fiercely-fought contest), but it is unlikely there will be another game this year that so accurately captures the current global landscape while also acting as a much-needed comfort blanket.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.