This economical scene tells us everything we need to know about the balance of power in Midgar, whose lives have value, and whose don’t. And no one has to speak in order for the power of that moment to come through. The camera pulls back, and we’re enveloped by the sounds of classical music as we see President Shinra regarding the destruction while safely ensconced in his tower, clearly unmoved by the loss of life, the incalculable human cost of his actions. In one moment, we get a terrifying point-of-view shot from the ground in the slums below as the plate comes crashing down, crushing hundreds of people.Ī moment later, we’re looking down on the collapse from a vantage point high above. My favorite example of this is an early cutscene that depicts the collapse of the sector 7 plate in Midgar, a calamity caused by the evil Shinra corporation for its own benefit. One mark of great art is its ability to turn limitations into assets, and one way that FF7 does this is through some genuinely powerful cutscenes that convey a great deal of emotion and meaning without spoken words. In many cases the limitations of the original technology led to unique and effective creative choices that still hold up, even if the graphics themselves have clearly come from a different time.Ĭonsider how FF7 handles the lack of voice acting. Just as the sophisticated CGI of 2005’s King Kong can’t render the beauty of the stop-motion animation featured in the 1933 original obsolete, 1997’s Final Fantasy 7 will always possess unique qualities that make it worth seeking out and experiencing. The original FF7 will still be as vital as ever, in fact. So what then? Will it still be worth going back and playing the original?Ībsolutely. Remake will eventually tell the complete story of the battle Cloud and his friends fight to protect the planet from Sephiroth. The lack of Cloud’s character arc and the frustration of seeing credits roll just as the story really begins are temporary matters, however. If you want the whole story, with no multi-year pauses between acts, the original release is your only option. Final Fantasy 7 itself, on the other hand, is finished now, and its comparatively simple graphics don’t hurt the quality of its storytelling and character development nearly as much as you might think from looking at screenshots. It’s a serious detriment to Remake’s narrative arc, and we won’t be able to judge whether it was a wise decision until the whole of the Final Fantasy 7 remake is released, which will likely take years. Though Remake will someday offer us Cloud’s entire journey - presumably, at least - it currently begins and ends without Cloud undergoing much character development at all. Losing that journey, or at least holding off until whenever we’ll get the next installment, is a disappointment when Cloud’s journey is handled so well, with such solid pacing, in the original release.įF7 is about a lot of things, but central to its story is Cloud’s path into the fullness of himself, as he learns what it is to lose, to grieve, and to care about something larger than himself. A real human being starts to form where at first there was only the shadow of a person. Once you venture into the world beyond Midgar’s gates, however, you also start venturing deeper into Cloud’s psyche and his past. It’s a bit like The Fellowship of the Ring ending right when Frodo and the other hobbits are about to leave the Shire.īut the biggest limitation that comes with Remake’s decision to end at that moment isn’t how you get cut off from exploring the wider world, but how you’re held back from exploring Cloud as a character.Ĭloud begins as a seemingly fairly typical brand of male hero: a little cold, and cut off from his own emotions. The credits roll just as the heroes are about to venture into the wider world, robbing players of that jaw-dropping experience until the next release. It’s one of the greatest “Wow!” moments in all of gaming, and Remake doesn’t give you that … at least not yet. You spend your first six or eight hours in Midgar when playing the original release, and Midgar is a metallic, stratified city that feels vast - until you finally take your first steps beyond it and see the entire world map spreading out before you. But the first Remake release ends right where the 1997 game feels like it’s just about to get going.