That FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE DEMO, Tho!

Are you sick of hearing about this game yet? I hope you're not sick of hearing about this yet because I'm gamer number insert-insanely-high-number here that is going to talk about the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE DEMO.

When it was announced FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE would be releasing on March 3rd, 2020. I was highly skeptical. The game was revealed way back in 2015 at E3 and years passed before we saw anything on the game. Given how long it took Kingdom Hearts III to come out (and some would argue the wait was so no worth it), I had my doubts that FFVIIR would make the March 3rd release date. My initial reaction to finding out FFVIIR got delayed was to burst into laughter. "Ha!, I knew it! I knew Square Enix couldn't get the game out on the date!" Then I found out the release date was only pushed back to April 10th. I'd thought we were in for a 9 month delay or more. Since the delay was so small, I quickly stowed the "I told ya so!" attitude. 

Sure, I wasn't bummed out by the delay. I hadn't even planned on picking up FFVIIR on launch day. However, I am well aware of the impact FFVII had on gaming as well as gamers so that delay, diminutive as it was, had to be a tough pill to swallow for quite a number of fans. Thankfully, Square Enix dropped a demo on the PSN store to tide us over until April 10th. I've played it. Twice.

Yeah, the demo is awesome, the end.

No, really, I could end this post right here, right now. FFVIIR Demo is freaking amazing. If you have a PS4, download the demo, play it and make sure you're wearing a helmet so you don't get the room messy when the demo blows your dang mind. 

Let's get the obvious out of the way first; FFVIIR is GORGEOUS. You know the meme where the dude is passing by with his girl and she catches him looking at some other girl? Well you're the dude, whatever game you think is visually alluring is your girl and FFVIIR is the girl you're passing by eyeing. I remember watching cut scenes from the original FFVII back in 1997 (yes, I'm getting old, get over it it), thinking they were so incredible, wishing the in-game graphics could look that good. Here we are in 2020 and FFVIIR's visuals look light years ahead of anything in the original game. The lighting effects when Cloud and Barret attack enemies and even the way crates and boxes scatter about when you slash them with the Buster Sword is is cool.

Combat was one of my primary concerns in FFVIIR. Even without plying the FF games after FFX, I knew the series had moved away from turn based combat. I get that turned based battles are not everyone's cup on tea for RPGs, but it has always been one of my favorite things about the genre. FFVVR opts for a real time battle system and man, did it wipe away my worries. You can do quick, successive strikes or slow but more powerful slashes with Cloud. You can easily swap between party members with a press of the control pad and when you aren't giving them orders, the AI will put them to work. The ATB gauge is still here and once it fills up, you can either use a Limit Break or use an item or magic. Time freezes while you're issuing these commands but flows while using normal attacks. I've only played the demo twice but I get the feeling this is only but a taste of things to come and I've no doubt hardcore FFVIIR players will show us some amazing stuff.

We have some new voice actors for FFVIIR. This was something else I was worried about, though not as much as the aforementioned battle system. I liked the voice crew from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and I wasn't sure how we'll I'd take to these new VAs. The voices for Cloud and Barret are spot on. There's one point in the demo where Cloud tells Barret "Get help" and his absolute deadpan delivery of that line, complete with Barret's reaction made me laugh out loud. Even side characters like Biggs, Wedge and Jessie  are cast well and I am so jazzed to hear more from these new VAs.

Speaking of Jessie, boy howdy does this girl ever have the hots for Cloud. In the 1997 original her crush was noticeable, sure, but for FFVIIR, it has been cranked up to eleven. Jessie openly flirts with Cloud at every opportunity. This girl is crushing on Cloud so hard that I doubt she would let the fact that Tifa clearly is also crushing on him, stop her from making a move on the spiked blonde. Somebody toss this girl in the ocean because she is soooooo thirsty. 

The FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE DEMO convinced me to buy the game at launch. On Thursday evening, I went on Amazon and pre-ordered the deluxe edition of the game. I am still let down that this will only be the first part of the game but with the remake greatly expanding upon the original, I don't feel like waiting until the full game is out. Yes, I realize that could take years but I suppose the demo made me get caught up in FFVII hype all over again.