Final Fantasy VII Remake
This is my third time through the game, but I just had to play it again on PC. Each time I play it confirms that I prefer it over the original game, although they are entirely different experiences. A real highlight for me is how they've fleshed out Midgar and the various characters that inhabit it. I always found Tifa to be a boring character, who's only real attributes where on her chest. Her entire personality pretty much boiled down to the fact that she was in love with Cloud-- so much so that she never called him out on his bullshit delusions, even in private.
Another aspect I very much enjoy is Barret. I really like how they made him more charismatic. He never felt like a leader in the original game, just a caricature of an angry black man. He was a cartoon version of a Black Panther with an eco twist. While I can't say I disliked him in the original, he only had one interesting wrinkle to his character and it has to do with his past. This one really makes him feel like more of a living, breathing person. You get the sense that he has to grapple with the dubious morality of his actions. The speech he gives after the first boss battle really struck me. I didn't get the sense that he was just patting himself and everyone on the back, but very clearly acknowledging that they all did some fucked up shit and that he's willing to shoulder the burden. It's almost as if he's written in a way that acknowledges that he has to spin their actions positively to keep them going. It makes Avalanche feel more like a cult, how the group responds to it all, which I think fits in well with the depiction in Before Crisis. As an extension to this, the deceptive and manipulative nature of Jessie only furthers this feeling. It's a curious thing, because I feel like the overall tone of the game is far lighter than the original. However, I feel as though the more subtle writing in the remake makes it just as dark as the original-- along with there being far more gruesome and destructive consequences to Avalanche's actions.
All of that even works to make the death of the various Avalanche characters feel more impactful. I'm not a fan of how the game goes on to undermine all of that work, but it is at least done better in the remake than in the original. Avalanche in the original was just a group of people I never cared about, because they were never very fleshed out. They felt like friends of a friend, who I was just never going to meet again.
I also like the one, big addition to the story that everyone hates. I like it, because it does such a good job of predicting and commenting on fan culture in general. Things can change and be made anew, fresh perspectives on old things a nice. Nothing is sacred.
My favorite thing happens to be the combat system. It is, hands down, my favorite combat system in a JRPG. Playing Original and Remake back to back really confirmed it for me. I found the combat in the original dull at best, with the materia system being interesting but entirely needless to really utilize. You can do cool stuff with it, but most of the battles in the game can be won by simply hitting the attack command or using basic magic. There's a whole lotta apologists for that style of gameplay, the TB or ATB sorta style. I've never really bought into any of the virtues that they espouse. It's very rare to play a game in that style that is actually strategic or tactical, or at least has any sort of depth to it. Usually that sort of depth comes from a conscious effort to make the games difficult by gimping oneself. They aren't exactly Total War or XCOM in terms of strategy and tactics, and they never will be. The more action oriented combat in Remake is just far more fun for me, because at the very least it's pretty much always satisfying to play. Even when I set things up to steam roll, it's still massively satisfying to execute, due to the visual and haptic feedback.
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