10 Video Game Remakes With ONE Major Flaw

On the flip-side of Resident Evil 3, we have a game that was bloated out with exhausting busy-work.

In many ways, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a gorgeous expansion of the iconic original - well, like 25% of it, anyway - adding a wealth of meaningful content to the game's early portion.

But it's also a brilliant 20-hour game encased within a deeply padded 30-hour core experience, bulked out with tiresome switch-throwing excursions, relentless squeezing-through-gap animations (which also disguise loading times), and that agonising crane section.

And let us not forget the criminally overbaked Hojo's Lab level, which reduces the late-game to a stamina-draining slog just as it's meant to be ramping up excitedly for the finale.

What felt pacy in the original feels sluggish and lazily transparent here, in an attempt to elongate a game which could've justified its asking price with a tight 20-hour campaign, especially with some of the solid side content on offer.

While one hopes Square Enix might cool it with the blatant padding for part two - whenever it comes out - it's best to keep your expectations low, and anticipate a wealth of excessively "game-y" embellishments.