In the world of videogames, the story and setting of Final Fantasy VII has been elevated to the realm of myth. First released in 1997 on the Sony PlayStation, it ushered in a new era of Japanese role-playing games, and in the process, its story—begrudging hero Cloud Strife and a ragtag band of idealists and hangers-on fight the captivatingly evil Sephiroth for the sake of the planet—became larger than life for a lot of players. Cloud, Sephiroth, the floating city of Midgar—these are signifiers in the world of games that reach far wider than the game they come from, and exist with power outside of their context.
What’s most striking, then, about Final Fantasy VII Remake is how particular it is. Amidst a number of strange adaptational choices, its greatest success is in making the setting and characters of this mythic story feel more specific and human than they ever have before.
Final Fantasy VII Remake begins, like its originator, with an action sequence. The mercenary Cloud Strife teams up with Barrett, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie—members of the eco-terrorist group Avalanche—to destroy a reactor in the floating cyberpunk city of Midgar. The corporate overlords of Midgar, Shinra, have created an energy source using the lifestream, the magical life force of the planet, and Avalanche’s goal is to stop them any way they can. The first hour of both games is,