It’s officially been five years since the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and fans are still talking about the game’s legacy. To this day, fans will argue about the game’s meta narrative and being split into three parts, showing how much of an impact it left. Simply put, this unique take on Square Enix’s classic PS1 JRPG will always be a talking point with gamers.
While there are plenty of things to criticize about the game, pretty much everyone will agree that the combat is really good. Fans might want more turn-based fighting these days, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looking like a treat, but there’s no denying that Remake has excellent combat.
Fans were initially worried when it was revealed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake would have real-time combat mixed with turn-based elements. Square Enix have been trigger happy about their release of action RPGs, so fans of the classic series were worried. The release of Final Fantasy 15 also worried fans, though that had less to do with its combat and more with the incomplete narrative.
Luckily, once fans got their hands on Remake, they knew this combat was special.
This bit of praise is hard to describe, but they made each hit “feel” right. For example, Cloud’s Buster Sword has the right amount of heft that you can’t just slash mindlessly. At the same time, each of those hits also feels heavy and it helps that each slash has a satisfying sound effect.
We can say the same thing about Tifa. It’s easy to ogle at this woman’s figure, but she’s arguably the best character to use in the game. Her quick strikes are satisfying to nail and hitting that uppercut as the opponent’s guard meter breaks is pure adrenaline. It astonishes me how she isn’t in any Tekken game, but maybe Square Enix is waiting for a Dead or Alive revival.
Aerith and Barrett are slightly similar since they’re both long-ranged fighters, but they still play really differently. Barrett can spam shooting bullets for a good while before needing to reload, so fans have to be careful with his attacks. On the other hand, Aerith’s attacks are much slower, but they also drain the guard meter more and help make her magic attacks feel more devastating.
One other stroke of genius in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is how easy they made character switching during battles. Players simply have to press a button and they’re immediately a different fighter, which is great for switching up tactics. Cloud can’t slash everything after all, especially annoying enemies in the air, so switching to Barrett, Tifa, and Aerith is imperative.
Bringing up the menu to slow things down and choose your abilities is a mixed bag. While gamers can input shortcuts to bring out their favorite special attacks, this isn’t always guaranteed. Sometimes the enemy is weak to a specific spell not in your registered combos, so fans will have to bring up that menu. It can be great for thinking up new tactics or taking photos, but bringing up the menu can also be a pacebreaker.
For better or worse, Final Fantasy 7 Remake has a ton of unlockable abilities players can use. Each weapon has a different skill that can be transferred to the character after enough usage, making sure players use each weapon. Thankfully, there are a lot of battles, but fans who just want to use their favorite weapon might deprive themselves of new abilities.
Speaking of using your favorite weapon, Remake lets you upgrade your preferred one so that it never gets thrown away. Those who feel that Cloud should always have his Buster Sword can actually do so here, with each upgrade powering up offense, defense, and more. It’s a feature that was also in Kingdom Hearts 3, which has just as much controversy surrounding it as Remake, so this is appropriate.
Gamers currently enjoying Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth know that the combat has only gotten better in the sequel. Team-up attacks, more weapons, satisfying finishing moves, Rebirth takes everything from Remake and makes them better.
If you’re going to play Final Fantasy 7 Remake for any reason, especially now that it's coming to Switch 2, do it for the combat.