Final Fantasy VII Remake is an action role-playing game by Square Enix and released for PlayStation 4 in April 2020. An enhanced version, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows in 2021.
Final Fantasy VII Remake[b] is an action role-playing game by Square Enix and released for PlayStation 4 in April 2020. An enhanced version, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade,[c] was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows in 2021.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first in a planned trilogy of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. Set in the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar, players control the mercenary Cloud Strife. He joins AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group trying to stop the powerful megacorporation Shinra from using the planet’s life essence as an energy source. The gameplay combines real-time action with role-playing elements.
Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced in 2015 following years of speculation. Several key staff members from the original game returned for the title, including character designer and original story writer Tetsuya Nomura as director, director and writer Yoshinori Kitase as producer, writer and event planner Kazushige Nojima as story and scenario writer, event planner Motomu Toriyama as a co-director, and composer Nobuo Uematsu who returned to write the main theme. The staff redesigned the characters to balance realism and stylization.
Final Fantasy VII Remake received positive reviews, with praise for its graphics, gameplay, narrative, and music. Critics praised the expanded story and the updated battle system for its strategic elements and visual flourishes, but the linearity and repetitive side-quests received criticism. The game became one of the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 games, by selling over 3.5 million units within three days and over 7 million units by September 2023. The second game in the trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, was released on February 29, 2024.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is the first in a planned series of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. It covers the first section of the original game, set in the metropolis Midgar.[1]
Players control Cloud Strife, a former Shinra soldier turned mercenary who joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to fight the Shinra Corporation, who have been draining the planet’s life energy.[2][3] Every element has been remade, using real-time polygonal graphics as opposed to the pre-rendered environments of the original.[4][5] The story includes major expansions to character development and some notable plot additions.[6]
Exploration and battle mechanics both take place in real-time, like Final Fantasy XV. The game features an altered Active Time Battle (ATB) system from the original, which gradually fills up slowly, or can fill faster with attacks. Once it is filled, the player can halt the action and use special abilities such as magic, items, and special moves. The player can assign these special abilities to shortcut buttons, allowing them to play in real-time without pausing. Each special ability uses up a segment of the ATB bar.[7] The player can switch between party members at any time during battle. Each party member has their own individual skills, such as Cloud’s close-quarters melee attacks and Barret’s long-range distance attacks.[8][9] Players are able to use magic and summons of large creatures, and a Limit Break gauge allows characters to perform more powerful attacks once charged. While the game has more real-time elements, strategic elements still remain, such as selecting weapons and magic for each character to wield.