Habemus FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: first thoughts up to 7th Heaven.*spoilers*

Because being Essential is seriously cutting on my gaming time. So I installed Final Fantasy 7 remake beat the first reactor. Only real difference from the demo is that we get a flashback to Nibelheim and we see child Tifa. It feels a bit more polished than the Demo. The padding SO FAR makes sense... except that bit that it doesn't... more on that later.

"You get to see so much of Midgar compared to the original" or so they claimed... it IS KINDA true, but at the same time the path is even more linear than the original. I'm talking something between X and XIII levels of linearity. Just by saying that I can almost hear  the mobs going for the pitchforks and torches. The only real difference between the original and the remake is that the Remake is padded out more than the Moogle half of Cait Sith. Veterans of Final Fantasy 7 will feel the padding I look worse than newcomers. Now with that said the padding Has been mostly enjoyable. Kicking so much sin Shinra butt with Cloud alone has been glorious.

But not everything has been good... there is one thing that I absolutely HATE! about the remake.

Sephiroth's appearance so early in the game. We meet "Sephiroth" BEFORE WE MEET AERITH...

To put it in simple terms it's a weak reveal of the character. I don't have an issue with Cloud getting PTSD from Nibelheim due to the fire on Midgar's Sector 8. It's everything that happens afterwards what bothered me. As a veteran I know all about Sephiroth, Cloud, Nibelheim incident 5 years ago... but revealing Sephiroth this weight is a very weak development.

In the original all we hear is How Great and Mighty Sephiroth Is. We don't truly get to see him an action until Cloud tells his story. All we know is that he killed President Shinra and burst out the JENOVA remains from their containment unit. Once Cloud tells his story, the next big feat of strength by Sephiroth is impaling on Midgar Zolom  in a tree. This feat is incredible because at that point in the game if we fight a Midgar Zolom it's a death-wish.

Getting triggered and having flashbacks from a 5 years ago is acceptable. It shows that there's something wrong with Cloud without giving away too many spoilers. Now having hallucinations is a different story. It shows that there's something seriously wrong with Cloud and that he's definitely hiding something.

Having Aerith have "similar hallucinations"  when she's attacked by Dementors. (Whispers of Fate) cheapens both Aeris and Cloud. Especially when she can pass off her hallucinations to Cloud. It almost feels as if they're trying to make the Aerith×Cloud ship feel like a toxic relationship between two insane people.

Other than the Sephiroth bit, I've been enjoying the remake. Hopefully Nomura will not Nomura too much.