Final Fantasy 7 Remake HANDS ON: 8 Ups & 3 Downs
We've played Square Enix's biggest ever project, and it delivers.
The year is 1998, and the UK school Summer holidays are barely a week old. Your writer, and a number of others, head over to the house of their classmate Andrew Stevenson for no other reason than he is one of the very few people in our school to own a Sony PlayStation. After losing every game of Ridge Racer and not really "getting" Parappa The Rapper, everyone elects to go out on their bikes and cycle up to Blockbuster.
Not having brought my bike, I elect to stay behind. Skimming through the pile of CD cases for something to play, I hear a voice from behind call "there's a weird RPG in there that came with the console, I didn't like it but it'll fill a few hours for you".
That game was Final Fantasy VII, and that moment changed my life forever.
After begging for a PlayStation that Christmas and sinking every subsequent winter's night into it after school, I knew I'd found my favourite game of all time. Over 20 years and probably about as many playthroughs later, the game remains not only the one that made me fall in love with the franchise, but probably gaming as a whole.
To subsequently say that I was nervous about the notion of a remake then, would be an understatement.
So rarely are reboots and re-imaginings anything other than a tone-deaf cash grab, and the years that have spanned the gap between the Remake's announcement and Square Enix very kindly allowing me 4 full hours to play feel like a lifetime.
But that time came to an end at the close of February, and with my idiot 11-year-old heart beating clean through my chest, I embarked upon the greatest story ever told.... again.
Let's mosey.