Finished it over the weekend. I can't believe it, but they didn't mess this up! This was actually a pretty great remake of FFVII, a pretty great FF game, and a pretty game video game in general.
I don't mind the ending being convoluted because it comes with the territory. Remember, this is a game made by the same people who make indecipherable games about Mickey Mouse in the Multiverse, with subtitles such as "358/2 Drop Two 1.8HD Microsoft Word Edition". Convoluted malarkey is their specialty, and let's not pretend that the original FFVII didn't have tons of that as well.
As far as weird nonsense goes, this was actually pretty well-executed. The Whispers are quite clearly a metaphor for the FFVII fanbase's aversion to any change to the beloved game, and the characters literally defeat it (as well as the OG versions of themselves), thereby freeing the developers of the game to do it differently this time. And why should they retread the same story? It's actually quite cool. Instead of a remake, we got a remake-turned-sequel.
As far as the remake side of things goes, they did a really great job of showing why this game was so special. The characters are more realized than ever, and are extremely likable. The voice acting is pretty great, while still sounding like a silly video game with a crossdressing quest line - this is a good thing! The soundtrack... it felt like they literally had hours of sex with the original soundtrack. It is so good. They just took very, very special musical tracks and arranged them in so many interesting ways. The music in this game is simply amazing.
The combat system is extremely satisfying and the level of challenge is spot-on. The levelling up and materia systems are kinda meh (and have been overshadowed by much smarter systems like the Sphere Grid in FF10). But the actual action RPG gameplay is just really fun. This game has such good combat you literally scour the map to find things to fight.
Overall this was surprisingly really great. I had no faith in them whatsoever. As far as I'm concerned there hasn't been a good FF game since XII in 2006. I thought these guys have completely lost touch with how to make a good game, and that Western developers have left them in the dust in pretty much everything but music. But not anymore! If they make more FF games in the vein of this one I would be very pleased.
