Seeing a lot of people asking about song names so: Outro song: FF7 Remake OST: Smash 'Em, Rip 'Em - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nciYl92Xl7TbkY0.html Other song used in end section: FF7 Remake OST: Home Away from Home - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bLScZsKE3dbblHU.html

“Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius parts.” LMAO

Whoever drew that picture of the whispers dragging Cloud to the bath was a genius, and that exact scene should have been in the game.

The concept of battling against fate and mysterious creatures that intervene in the events of the story to keep it on track would've worked better if it happened in a story that was written around it, rather than inserted into a story that worked fine enough on its own.

"Tetsu Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius parts" Damn. No punches were pulled here.

03:55 "When you love something you don't need it to be perfect."

"Nomura is like a mad genius without the genius part." - I loled so hard at this :-D And you, sir, are like a mad genius without the mad part! Seriously, I love how you offer constructive criticism. When you criticize something, you take the effort to offer your own solution (or multiple solutions). That's so rare in video game journalism and one of the reasons why I like your channel so much.

I completely agree that the pacing of the plate collapse is completely deflated by all the filler in between. They just stretch out too much, including the story drama. The feeling or urgency from the original is lost in the process.

Fans: Please remake FF7 Nomura: How would you like a mash up of the FFXIII trilogy with Kingdom Hearts but have the cast of FF7 play the parts! Brilliant!

"When you love something it doesn't need to be perfect" well said.

Nomura is obsessed with the idea of destiny... It ruins all his games. It takes away the reality of sometimes life just sucks for no reason, learn and grow from it.

All I ever wanted was the original game with a massive graphical overhaul, is that too much to ask for?

I wish Nomura and Kitase would watch this, in the company of an interpreter. The padding in this game is ridiculously tedious and the level design of dungeons and puzzles therein doesn't help.

The whole ''house'' enemy actually makes sense if you think about it, it's a house designed as a trap for people, and people living in the slums of Midgar probably want nothing more than a house to stay in, considering most of them live in broken down cargo crates, tubes, rubble and debree. So, as wierd as it may seem, it's actually quite brilliant if you think about it.

When writing a script for a story properly (something huge that has to connect and be coherent through and through), it is quite important to have themes in mind. In the case of FFVII the original themes were always the triangle of coping with loss + environmentalism + finding identity (the three main plots resolved at disc 3 are the planet fighting against meteor, Cloud and some of the others finding their place in the world and the entire party dealing with their individual losses and the loss of Aerith). Changing the theme to 'fate and destiny' means a huge shift in narrative, to the point that even reproducing every single event from the original game might result in a completely different feel to the story, because the emphasis and direction are other beasts entirely. So I'm not sure how to feel about this explicit change in theme. They still have time to recover in the next parts, but if they keep going for this kingdom hearts-esque stuff it's quite a risky take. Again, this has no bearing on whether or not they reuse events from the original game, they can play everything out the same, but now they have clearly established the theme is something else. Several bits might end up seeing "off" if they are not careful to put the pieces together in a way that fits the newly established theme, and character development can go wrong in many different ways because metacommentary is ultimately extremely difficult to come through. Forcing fate into us all the time through introducing the whispers during changes from the original will get cheap very fast like mentioned in the video. I can only hope they thought everything out already at least. This critique has really articulated why I felt strange about several parts of the game, and I think the ending definitely made me the most uncomfortable, and the reason for this I now believe to be this inconsistency in how they carefully set up the themes to be the same as the original game but then immediately broke into another theme without decent setup for it.

Your take on this lines up almost point-for-point of mine, as a longtime fan myself. I -just- finished today and I appreciate your critical response. I'm trying to be optimistic, but you know... that whole "logic, and evidence, and years of experience" thing. 💀

I don't think you fully grasped the drama of the sewer parts. Those bridges collapsing were tense situations. Underneath them is doodoo water. If you get even a drop of that on you, you're as good as dead! Leper colonies won't let you in. Those ninja turtles you fight? They were normal people once. They used to live on the surface. What happened to them? That's right, they fell in poo.

My one problem with the remake is that I feel like it assumes you played the game already. Also Nomura is trying to too hard to be this artsy writer.

>mini games can't exist in modern gaming Looks like someone hasn't heard of Yakuza

This is such a good video. You praise the good parts and criticise the bad ones. I feel like you could go on for so much longer but keeping your videos in this length speaks so highly of you as a writer. Whenever you make a video it usually ends up being my favorite video on that game. Great job and keep it up!

The pacing in 7R is the reason I'm struggling to want to play it again.

I don't mind that the story is going in a different direction but would have rather they just....did it and not forced in the whispers as a plot device to justify it.

upvoted for "we live in a society"

Your writing is superb. You say all the right things in the right way. Your delivery is excellent, letting the text what it needs to be said without unnecessary vocal tricks. A word you've used be fore is "immersive." Your videos are like that. I never finished FF VII, though I tried to play it when it came out. Now I understand a lot better which made is so great for so many people. Thank you.

Yo, hojos lab is so padded it really adds to my distaste of the back half of the remake

Truly tho, this critique gives me life. I’ve been feeling like a crazy person surrounded by 9 and 10 scores.

The whispers are indeed the fans. What happened? They killed us. 😕

Thanks for providing awesome content. The video honestly brought back feelings of my teenage years. Both as an artist and as a fan of final fantasy. It's refreshing and genuinely gives me a ton of inspiration. Thank you again.

I think it makes sense that Aerith was so weird in Crisis Core. She was younger and hadn't built up her confidence yet. Losing Zack must have been hard on her, just like it would be losing someone you love in real life. You'll go through a period of sadness and then you become stronger for it and grow as a person. The result being the Aerith we see in FF7.

Nomura's comment about story: "Making it surprising... if things seem that you can predict the outcome... then I will think of a different, unexpected development" just proves how bad of a writer he really is. Being predictable isn't bad, being unpredictable isn't bad either, but to forcefully pull the rug out from the audience's feet in order to keep them "surprised" is stupid and terrible writing. A great story always has elements that are predictable and that allow the audience to piece together the clues to predict what will happen next in order to keep them engaged. If you're constantly pulling the rug out from beneath your audience you're only going to bore them, stress them out and leave them bewildered; this is why Kingdom Hearts is such a terrible game series, none of the story elements make sense or connect together properly and all of the things you can predict (like Sora's stupidity) are just infuriating. Why did they give this game, *the* game that has defined the FF series, to Nomura? It just doesn't make any sense.

To your paint illustration, I would add that low-fi graphics and text dialog greatly increase the amount of interpretation that takes place, and therefore the “length” of those red arrows (and the resulting distance between your interpretation of the original and the remake).

Best analisys of FF7 Remake I've seen. I had the same about the parts where the game is faithful to the original are excelent, but all the filler content destroyed the pace of the game.

Amazing vid. I agree 100% with you - not sure i have ever had that experience in any review/critique. I'm really grateful for your time spent on this, Thank you!

I’m happy to see this is a good middle ground between the people ignoring the faults and the people only seeing the faults. Great vid!

The force that created a butterfly effect is Sephiroth. It's hinting at him being Advent Children Sephi. But who knows

Best review/critique i have seen so far for the remake, especially the conclusion at the end. Being excited for what's to come while feeling that it won't end well.

I think they really dropped the ball with how prevalent Sephiroth was in the remake. How can they escalate his presence in the story when you've literally fought and beat him, or at least a version of him.

I’ve never played to original, but after playing the remake I have thought of playing the original

I'm getting off the train. See ya!

I think the one comfort we can all take is that once this is all complete and ported to PC, modders can use the given resources (and maybe a little help from neural network fakery of the near future) to make this into the Final Fantasy Remake VII that was asked for. And then everyone can be happy.

I will play this in another 20 years when the parts have been shortened, cleaned up and put together.

This is the most important video on Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

You are an amazing writer, and have a very good analysis of the Final Fantasy 7 world. Thank you, for such a great video! You have encouraged me to go back and finish the game. I have given up fairly early on as the fluff that was forced in has really put me off. But seeing the demon house, wowza!

I have fallen in love with your channel. Keep up the good work! Your videos are so insightful and in depth I love it!

Another thing, I REALLY wanted an Original Soundtrack option for the game. Gosh that would have really propelled this game!

*Star Wars : No one is ever really gone* *FF7R : Hold my mako !*

The Whispers could never be consistent or make sense. Destiny and fate were never thematically part of FFVII. You can't just shoehorn a new theme into an existing narrative.

Thank you for this video! Amazing in depth and heartfelt commentary on the remake. I lived the original and agree with much of your feelings on the remake. I think I was so happy to be replaying with how I felt it looked in my head that I didn't mind a lot of the things you didn't like. I enjoyed the 'filler' content in general as it felt like it built on what midgar was. All in all I loved the remake. Thanks for taking the time to make this.

"the remake can't take that away from you" Not when the remake is a sequel, though.

When I found out that Kitase relegated major duties to Nomura in terms of story and direction, I already knew to lower my expectations. The music, hands down, is awesome! Always was and I wouldn't expect anything less. Gamewise, it is visually stunning and fun to play, yet it somehow feels hollow. Pacing was inconsistent at times. There was also quite an amount of filler and certain areas were stretched out too long. I guess this was done in order for them to justify the Midgar chapter to be a full length first installment of which who knows how long and how many more episosic releases to come. However, the painful "barefoot stepping on a Lego" sensation is, is that it seems that Nomura is subtly manipulating the narrative and themes of the original. I see this "Remake" as basically Final Fantasy XVI with a FFVII skin on it. Under the guise of the beloved 1997 game, Nomura capitalizes on nostalgia and thus automatically sucking in those OG players, myself included. I wasn't expecting a beat for beat copy, and as technology has advanced since 1997, adding fresh gameplay elements, expanding certain areas for exploration and discovery, and fleshing out some minor characters is all fine and dandy. Jolly good! But hinting at and adding the unnecessary factors of possible alternative time lines and altering fate and destiny, which will then shift key events, themes, and the narrative, then it loses the spirit and essence of what made the original FFVII so memorable and epic and the impact is lost even as Nomura wows you with flashy visuals and graphics. And this will likely continue. So, just prepare for expectations to be subverted in the next installments as the narrative elements will most likely deviate and go in wild tangents. Square-Enix should have called it Final Fantasy VII : Alternate (or Parallel Universe) instead. It would have been more fitting and fans of the original probably, probably wouldn't have been as perturbed when they got to the end of this Midgar installment and with future releases. Maybe. For now, we got "Nomura'd". Not thrashing this remake, as I liked playing it...to a certain degree, but I just didn't love it. We'll see what happens in the next release.

You were so spot on with just about every point in this critique, and the conclusion to it was so good. Well done.

Nomura just has absolutely no concept of either pacing or grounding in his writing, and it is just totally deflates the stakes that could otherwise be present in the story. Going into some parallel dimension to fight a literal embodiment of fate this early in 7's overall narrative feels so cheap and unearned. He's like the JJ Abrams of video games. Sure, the spectacle is cool, but neither of them can write a real story worth a fuck.

Great video: better to temper your expectations down the line, especially when the narrative may have gotten itself into an inescapable situation.

Just my two cents, I didn't feel like the game was padded at all. I was very happy throughout my entire playthrough that I was able to catch more insight about life in Midgar. Even stuff like finding the cats in Sector 7 Slums felt like it was a nice glimpse at Cloud's willingness to listen to Tifa's suggestions, despite thinking he was above the task. Obviously stuff like that was also put in to make things like the plate hit harder. In fact, as a long time fan, I felt like some lines were in there SPECIFICALLY to put a bad feeling in your stomach, like when Jessie yells out that 'together, we can take on the world!' when they're parachuting back from her mission. I nearly cried! No, Jessie, we can't take on the world, YOU FOOOOOL! Great video though, and I couldn't agree more that they did our boys and girls loads of justice. Personalities are spot freaking on, and performances from voice actors were perfect.

“Can be both faithful and fun” When exactly did those stop being mutually inclusive?

I’m shocked you didn’t like the pre-rendered background in chapter 15. I felt like that was a beautiful homage to the original game because of how much the original relied on these types of backgrounds. I guess to each his own, but that was actually one of my favorite details

This was sad to watch and heartfelt but you spoke the words of my sorrow. Thank you for this.

"or by embracing the modern action rpg trend" proceeds to show a tales game...a game from a series that was always action based ever since its first game "tales of phantasia" on the SNES :P

Regarding the last 5 minutes of the review. As someone that also has heavily mixed feelings regarding the ending and the "defying fate" plot line, i'm at the same time giddy with joy and excitement, yet filled with potential dread, You just cant turn your eyes away from a good train wreck, and with the way this is going, it will probably be the biggest train wreck possible, i am almost 100% expecting Genesis and the Sephiroth Brothers to show up during the next game, with Angel and Dirge of Cerberus Vincent in all of their post Kingdom Hearts Nomura Glory. I'm all in for Nomuras Wild ride, and I am expecting we will reach some Kingdom Hearts and Rebuild of Evangelion Shenanigans. Final Fantasy 7.77 YOU CAN(NOT) REMAKE will be one hell of a beautiful train wreck. The mere thought of it fills me with hope an despair

This critique was put together good. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Keep up the good work.

Amazing review as always! I feel like other reviewers tend to gloss over the necessary complexities that make a game both good and bad, but you definitely give credence to both sides of the story. More impressively, the fact that you're willing to go the extra mile by weaving a main theme of faith to the review itself is truly masterful and much appreciated!

It really is kind of surreal to look back on all those E3 reaction videos, now that the game is out. Seeing people enraptured at...what exactly? What were they so joyous to see? An unflinching monument to their nostalgia? Hell, *I* was excited, I was hyped, but now I look back at myself and wonder - would it have ever occurred to me, at the time, that what I really wanted to see was honestly closer to what we ultimately got?

the demon house was fucking amazing. i remember during the development my brother mused about whether the house would be in the game and i voiced my doubts so when i finally got to this point i was so giddy for my brother to see it and indeed he loved it probably even more than he whould have thought

I just want to thank you for making this video, you really have captured the essence of the story the fans and the problems, you hit every nail on he head from disk finishing the first part to padding, I have played every final fantasy except 12, even final fantasy tactics on a modded ps, I have 7,8,9,10,10-2 all saved in my play station and am currently slapping ff7r on hard mode, you did the best review I've saw and I grateful.

To your points about the whispers not making sense: Sephiroth is changing things which brings the whispers. The whispers appear to only be interested in the main story line, Wedge being alive wasn't important until he tried to rejoin the party. I think they are unable to influence Sephiroth, which is how he's able to change things. Sometimes events are changed without Sephiroth intervening, but because there are smaller differences caused down the line, like the party not trusting cloud.

I think the force that's changing things, and causing the whispers to act is Advent Children Sephiroth. You talked about how he shows up entirely to often, and if you notice, when he shows up, things in the game change a little, which causes the whispers to try and course correct. And Cloud trying to kill Reno is the strongest counter to this theory, however I personally think his decision to kill Reno was brought about by the extra tension Sephiroths presence brought.

I laughed way harder at "Murky and Advent Childreny" than I probably should have .

So many things I loved about this review... Honest, vulnerable, uplifting... How is it a video game review can be so beautiful it amplifies the beauty of the thing it’s reviewing? I would say this video belongs in a museum if I thought that would elevate it

I've been having this thought for a while now. I've been a fan of Nomura's art since I was a kid. But who's bright idea was it to give him a director's role instead of just art director? Looking at this guys track records and his portfolio in the industry, as a director I can say with confidence that he has won every battle, but lost every war. Anyways, I do agree about the character difference, but the whole thing about CC Aerith is that was 4 years ago pre Zack Aerith. Her charcter back then, a quitter, an orphan, grew up in the slums. It makes sense she's reserved, and I think she took a lot after Zack with her outgoing personality. Also, she's been selling flowers in various sectors, and if you played Crisis Core, you know initially it didn't sell well. And as a person with sales background I can tell you with confidence, if you are selling an unwanted product, you are not selling the product itself, you are selling your presentation. So being outgoing and clever comes naturally with the profession as she gets better at it.

and about that inconsistency in destiny changing by itself... We should also mention Barret that decides to NOT bring Cloud in the Reactor 5's mission. Why he does that?? Writers deliberatly changed the story on their will, so they could introduce Numens, created precisely to be killed, in order to change what they want from the original story... that's all

I’m so glad you mentioned red xiii in the sailor suit haha everyone all these years was wondering how they’d pull of the cross dressing and I was like ‘yo...a lion...dressed up as a sailor...walks on his hind legs...and no one notices...’ I forgot about the dolphin though 🤣

If I found out I won the lottery I would probably smile a bit and then end up somewhat energetic for 5 to 10 minutes... I don't know what it would take for me to be so excited about something that I would scream... it feels impossible

You do a very good job in explaining how you can like an idea of something (the Whispers) and how you can not like its execution. I agree with you 100% when it comes to the Whispers. Though most the mini games and side quests are skipable, it is common to have these features in a Final Fantasy game; and in Final Fantasy fashion those two come at the end of the game, it just happened much earlier in this game. I think some side quest was important in building more of 'life in Midgar.' What didn't work for me was all the appearances of Sepiroth. He was suppose to be built up. Maybe the should have had Cloud hear his voice instead of hallucinating him. His first appearance could of been after the death of the President only.

"Ain't no gettin' off this train"? Nope, I'm definitely getting off.

This is the 'review' i've been waiting for, amazing job, see you at the crash site!

Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII: You are (not) a SOLDIER

I think one thing worth mentioning about the opening cutscene is the point where Aerith looks up and the camera zooms out to see the full midgar. In the original it zooms out and the music does its thing and then you get the title. In the remake however, since the city is so much larger, while the zoom out happens the music starts, then kinda takes a deep breath and THEN you are at the point where you get the title of the game.

Thank you for all your reviews, keeps me from dying of boredom in these trying times. Also, your voice is pretty soothing, keep up the good work, hope you continue to grow!

Not just Crisis Core, but most JRPGs and anime after the mid-2000s feel like they're written by aliens trying to appproximate human behavior. The industry over there is littered with people who don't observe actual life, but instead take their cues from older JRPGs/anime. The way so many characters are written now are basically approximations of approximations, becoming more and more alienating and off-putting as the years go by. While VIIR's story is shaky (especially with how it concludes), I'm glad the characters act and speak like people again.

I dont hear most people saying this but sephiroth is one of the worst villains in this game. Its like we got pay off with him without getting a backstory or set up. It feels awkward and badly structured/paced. The makers of this game have some balls to try and tell his own version of a story so many people love.

The game was just a fancy corridor sim with all the padding of a personal safety room. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when they put remake on it and let Nomura drive the wheel of it. But I bought it anyways to be proven wrong. So my skepticism could be beat. I'm not buying the second one. I'm just gonna watch the videos months later and be disappointed without having to pull out my wallet.

"A true leader knows that destiny is beyond their control...and accepts that!"- Sora after the final battle in KH3. Square can't even follow their own philosophy.

Watched the whole thing. Fantastic analysis. Thank you for your efforts here.

Even the most awe-striking crashes, collapses, and moments of destruction ever seen, can become moments we look back on in history and think “that was amazing to witness, and I was there when it happened.” They aren’t always awful, or bad, but they are very often surprising and inspiring. Thank you for doing this whole video. I was in agreement with nearly all of your points, especially the unnecessary padding. I only differed, really, in that I was looking forward to this finally happening after 15 years of bated breath, and that breath was taken away with the gorgeous and true-to-character execution-though mildly suffocated as well, with the fluff. It’s sure to be a wild ride.

Beautiful video, really loving your channel :). I still think they kept it in Midgar to see how fans react because they are planning to not let Aerith die and either replace her with Tifa to have a "new shocking moment" or make some dramatic cutscene where you think she dies and all of a sudden Cloud's sword is blocking it or something along those lines. The way you presented the arbiters of fate you almost made it seem poetic and beautiful until your criticism, good job with that. I also loved the remake, most importantly it managed to get this melancholic magic back at many spots that any Final Fantasy after X missed in my opinion. I really enjoyed how they elaborated the Avalanche characters, they are a heartwarming likable bunch and I was actually quite happy that the game wasn't in a rush and allowed us to have some more quiet and peaceful moments with them. Luckily I grew up with Final Fantasy VIII and don't have the best or fondest memories of VII because of that, so I guess I can be a little bit more optimistic about the future releases (unless the quality drops with the changes as you mentioned...).

You're the GOAT man. I unironically think you're the best at what you do on this platform and I totally shill your content. Eat your heart out Joseph Anderson and Matthewmatosis.

Having just finished the game myself (finally, I know), I found this video looking for lore and recaps and well.. kinda like yourself with the concept of the remake; ya almost lost me there in the first half but I’m here for the rest. Good save and good video. Thanks.

Thank you!. This is so great. I love your game history take and philosophy!

I was too excited for MGSV to not be cynical about video games

Hey, i want to say your are one of the most rarest content creator than i found really good for talking about games and make a perspective on them. You deserve more views and attention.

Great review. This really sounds how i feel. So amazed and happy, but at the same time very worried...

the best honest and clear critique of the remake on youtube tbh

I won't support current-day squeenix but I always enjoy your analyses, NKB. Great videos. For everyone's sake who plans to pony up the 300+ dollars it will almost certainly cost to play the whole remake, here's hoping it doesn't go full Kingdom Hearts. I don't have much confidence that they'll be able to avoid it at this point, but you never know...

Hey! I'm brand new here and just a few mins in. I can hear ur love for ff7 and I relate. Subbed and just wanted to say thanks for putting words to how I'm feeling about the state of ff7r.

hey square, i know a way to tell a new story: How about just making a new game?

They played me like a damn fiddle...I played the Demo and I saw an absolute LOVE and respect for the original. Then, while I played the game I couldn't stop having a weird sensation. It started with the NPCs that looked off regarding the main characters (like in FF XV) but I didn't matter, then the padding but it was ok. It was all bearable, the only thing they didn't have to mess with was with the story. I thought the remake applied only to the gameplay. I think I would preffer a remaster with modern graphics/models, but leaving the old structure intact. FFVII didn't age well :/. Comparing this 'destiny stuff' with MGS 2 is not entirely correct, MGS 2 was not 'MGS Remake'. I think I'll play the original and not buy the next chapters. Great analysis!

I think i watched every video existent about this game, but just this one feels so well written and thought out. I really wish i had written it so i could be proud of that :) Choo choo

The mix between freeform fighting and scrolling through menus felt very incompatible to me like I was playing two different games at once. 😢 I agree with a lot of the points made in this video though, and it's greatly made! I just had to make one myself comparing the FF7 Remake to Yakuza Kiwami in regards of how you could remake a story. And this video was a great inspiration! Thanks for the entertainment! ❤

Nothing has given me more pure nostalgic bliss and joy than the full music drop in the remake JENOVA fight. Holy fuck I died and came back to life in that moment.

I DON'T WANNA LOOK FOR A CAT! I WANNA DESTROY SHINRA!!!!