If Stairway to Heaven were to be released tomorrow, would it still be the Stairway to Heaven we know?
Don’t think so.
It would certainly be welcome as a wonderful ballad, sure, but it will not be the quintessential rock ballad, the one forbidden in music stores because is played way too much.
Stairway to Heaven was released in 1971, the gem of the fourth album that marks the full artistic maturity of Led Zeppelin, when the progressive hard rock is exploding, leaving behind the hippie psychedelia from the 60s.
Stairway to Heaven is a monument, even if Jimmy Page is not your average guitar hero (at least, not in a Ritchie Blackmore/Joe Satriani meaning) and if we are going to dissect it with more or less technical criteria we can find reasons why it is not a perfect song (but believing in perfection would make us horrible people).
Point is, it was the right song at the right time, and that’s why it became a game-changer.
Since I guess that the Google algorithm is pretty confused at the moment, let’s clarify that yes, the title is right and this post is about Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Recap
The original Final Fantasy VII represented a devastating economic effort, something no longer replicable:
Final Fantasy VII remains among the most expensive productions in gaming history despite being released in 1997, well before the gaming industry outclassed every other entertainment sector.
A production worth more than forty million dollars spent by a Japanese company that, although wealthy, was still focused on its internal market.
With Final Fantasy VII, Square was preparing to challenge the world:
It was real all-in, a bet that could very well have gone wrong leading to a company failure, the creative challenge of a lifetime for all those who worked there.
Era
In ’97, the Videogame world was at the dawn of the PlayStation phenomenon and the discovery of 3D gaming which, returning to my musical metaphors, we can very well relate to the advent of the Fender Stratocaster in 1954.
As if all this were not enough, Final Fantasy VII was revolutionary in how it intercepted cyberpunk, environmentalism, and the futuristic atmospheres of Japan of the 90s, leaving behind the medieval fantasy that represented the standard for Squaresoft and JRPG production.
If we think about it, the very idea that Avalanche was a group of eco-terrorists fighting for the salvation of the planet leads us to understand how much Final Fantasy VII was ahead of its time:
Feet planted firmly on the present, with a gaze projected towards the future we are now living.
Final Fantasy VII Remake assumptions
Now: in fact, the Remake isn’t even the same song, but a nice cover.
Visually stunning?
Yeah, ok: but to be honest it represents a virginity we already lost many years ago with the movie Advent Children.
While Advent Children was showing off the top of the technology of its time (just like the original Final Fantasy VII back in ‘97), the same thing isn’t true for the Remake.
Even if the graphics are cool and all, the Final Fantasy VII: Remake standards are from a few years ago and the gameplay (which is cool and all) brings nothing revolutionary to the table:
The technology behind this remake is old and, by the time its last part will come out in an unspecified future, it will be outdated.
Final Fantasy VII was released at the dawn of the first PlayStation, its remake was born within the PS4 sunset.
But let’s be clear: it is an inevitable condition.
Even if Square Enix were willing to take the crazy risks of Squaresoft in 1997 (and therefore put practically all its human capital, even before economic, to the destinies of a single title) it would never have managed to create such an immense video game in time. useful with the ambition to revolutionize the videogame. Everyone went crazy with this tech demo (remember: it was 2005!)
Let’s be honest here: the only reason we have a remake in the first place is that fans wanted it so badly that the opportunity was too tempting for the company.
Due to this, Final Fantasy VII: Remake doesn’t bring anything new or shocking into the industry.
It is not, and never will be, Stairway to Heaven.
It can only hope not to become Greta Van Fleet.
New Players
Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that the ending of Remake “Part 1” shows the cards on the table, clarifying where we are going to end up in future installments and the concept itself behind the term “Remake” (which should also be seen as a sort of “Rewritten”).
Parallel universes, alternative realities, what if? and all that narratively very dangerous stuff that sounds way more like Kingdom Hearts than Final Fantasy VII (with the important difference that Kingdom Hearts was born with this spirit in the first place).
I understand the reasons behind the ending mind you, and I honestly don’t know if something better could have been done:
As I have always reiterated, it would make no sense to tell me a story I know by heart pretending to seek suspense and catalyze interest after the end of what remains merely a “First Part”.
The trouble is, if you don’t know the original story, you can’t understand much of this metanarrative stuff since you never crossed the tracks from where we are now deviating.
So, if you never played the original Final Fantasy VII, the remake will make very little sense to you (at least for now).
Conversely, those who have played the game over and over can take this detour as a derailment:
“Final Fantasy VII is a goofy game with serious moments, the remake is a serious game with goofy moments”
As the excellent Dunkview video review shows us, another problem with the remake can be found within the “rhythm” of the narrative:
it’s like having a 10+ episodes TV series telling a story that could have been portrayed in a two-hour movie.
Do we need a remake of Final Fantasy VII?
Despite this post title, I don’t think the remake sucks that bad honestly.
Or rather, I don’t think Square Enix could have done better:
We are talking about a different company with different people that, most of all, are working in a completely different videogame industry.
I mean, what Square Enix could have done better?
Tell us the same story using a modern graphic engine?
Maybe.
But Final Fantasy VII was a huge game, and if its story has meant so much for so many players is also because it was told inside a vast and credible world, crafted with the idea of making the most of all the technological potential of its time.
And Square Enix does not have the means, the ways, or the time to be able to deliver something like this anymore.