Even though the release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake was pushed back a month, it is still very close to releasing! Having watched the trailers more times than I would care to count, I wanted to give some thoughts I have not seen around as much.

First off, it has been driving me crazy how many times Cloud falls down.

Oops, there he goes.

Oh, darn.

Down he goes!

Never mind. He did a big flip like a big boy and is safe.

Baddies!

Now, onto the assholes. They mostly all seem to be upgraded in their nasty personalities.

Heidegger is no longer a round man with an almost comical personality. He seems to be President Shinra’s number two more than before. In fact, he has had quite the physical upgrade.

Although, it seems we may have his stupid laugh after all.

Also, there’s Reno.

Again…

Reno seems to be a real kitty cat this time around. I mean, he literally jumps onto Cloud’s sword and tries to poke him with his cattle prod, or whatever you want to call it. Channeling that anime fight scene energy! Well, everything seems to.

Then we have Reno’s partner in crime, Rude. The man named after his personality like some Metal Gear Solid character.

Personally, I think one of the best details to fighting in the game is Rude literally picking Cloud up by his feet, and throw him into Aerith, knocking them both down.

Not much is shown of Tseng, but well, he’s there. It looks like it follows the original scene where Aerith is watching Marlene, and Tseng comes and takes her away.

Here we have Otacon Hojo in his man cave, at his super cool gamer station.

Do you think his bangs ever bother him?

(Spoiler Free) Who is this Reeve? He must be evil if he’s with Shinra!

There is not much to add about Scarlet, other than she seems to be even nastier than before, including using a soldier as her own footstool. She is seen playing with Materia, most likely for more weapons development.

Next up, we have a newcomer, Roche! Soldier third class. In the original game, I always wondered why there were not anymore Soldiers, considering how much work seemed to go into the Soldier program, so I welcome the new addition. The dude needs to wear a helmet, though.

Little neat thing I picked up. It looks like he uses the same starting sword Zack used in Crisis Core. Seems they kept the continuity of the lower class Soldiers using the same sword.

Next, we have a look the stupid piece of shit that is Palmer. He seems to be more self indulgent than ever. I bet that tea hits like a truck.

Ugh. While I’m on the baddies, I guess I have to at least mention Don Corneo. He still seems horny. Not much new there.

Now we get to the part I am most excited to talk about. Sephiroth and Jenova. I have seen people upset that they will both be introduced in the Midgar section of the game. This honestly makes sense to me, considering the first installation of this game will be just Midgar, and the game needs to establish the main enemy. From my own experience to watching other playthroughs of the original game, Midgar seems to average about eight hours long. In an extremely long game, it was reasonable enough to have Shinra be the main antagonist for early game. However, with Midgar now nearing forty hours long as the developers say, it would be difficult to retain Shinra as the main antagonist only to have the end of forty hours to not even move forward with the true enemies, Sephiroth and Jenova. Do not get me wrong, Shinra is the root of much of this evil, but they certainly take a backseat once what they unleashed becomes a greater threat than themselves. We even see Cloud and Sephiroth tousle in Midgar.

Some say they hope this is just a clone and not the real Sephiroth. In the original game, you do not see the “real” Sephiroth until much later in the game, entombed in crystal. I am happy to say this definitely is a clone. As much is provided by these screenshots showing a Sephiroth clone transforming into Jenova. This could mean the one they are fighting is the Jenova that escaped the lab, killed President Shinra, while taking on Sephiroth’s form.

See here the clone beginning to transform.

Part two:

Now, in the ugly, terrifying form of Jenova, or at least a part of them. I am personally thrilled to see Jenova in high definition. I always wondered what they looked like in their battle form. The original games limited what they looked like, and it always triggered my curiosity. Needless to say, I am not disappointed. They seem to have an anthropomorphic skull, giving you at least something to focus on.

The rest of Jenova seems to be less recognizable as something we could easily identify, which I love. Too many pieces of media make their aliens look too much like humans, bugs, or other animals. Jenova is an extremely creative design.

You can interestingly enough, see their body seem to be spreading around the room, possibly taking over large portions of Shinra alone. Strange alien matter is climbing the walls, floors, and pillars.

Up close, the detail is incredible on how organic Jenova looks. They seem to be an absolute mess, of something not completely put together yet, which they truly are not, as their cells still are not all together.

Combat!

Here are a few things I noticed from the combat that I have personally not seen pointed out as much.

For starters, I have been wondering how they would have Red XIII fight. In this combat scene where Aerith casts a spell on a creature, you can see Red XIII doing a few curled up flips down to the ground. It seems Red will retain some of the moves from the original game, where he attacks with somersaults. How they will make that work, I have no idea, but it looks great in the trailer. Check the top left!

Obligatory pictures of a few of the summons we know and love.

I swear I have seen this enemy before, either in the original game, or another title in the series. Still, they looked absolutely incredible. Shiva is shown fighting it in the trailer.

Now here is something I believe has more implication than we think. The Moogle on the Chocobo.

Looking closely, you can tell it is a type of stuffed toy, or something along those lines.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, remembering Cait Sith, he was a robot cat riding a stuffed Moogle that was “magically brought to life.”

I believe once we see Cait Sith in the later installations, the Moogle part of him may resemble these Moogles here. Stuffed toys that are magically brought to life. I would myself be thrilled to see the Moogle part of Cait Sith look more plush and toy like. The original art and in game models made it hard to tell it was a stuffed toy, and it was hard as well to tell that Cait Sith, the “cat” himself, was a robot. Android? Whatever.

It was always strange to me how the party kind of just accepts what Cait Sith is. Maybe we’ll get more curiousity from them this time around.

Now look, is not this thing bloody cute? The Chocobo is even smiling. Be still my beating heart.

Story and Detail

Here are some story stuff I wanted to pick out.

First off, check out the two to the right. I cannot believe they got the Blues Brothers in the game!

Seriously, though. I am very happy to see rest of Avalanche get more love this time around. They seem to be keeping their original personality types, with more flavor added in. Avalanche feels so much more like a team this time around. Even in this scene with Roche, we see Biggs and Wedge having Cloud’s back.

Something caught my eye in the scene where they are defending the pillar in Sector Seven. We can see Wedge fighting alongside with what looks like average civilians. Could more than just Avalanche know of what is happening? Or are they extra Avalanche members who do not share the spotlight?

In several of the trailers, we see what look like ghosts made of black smoke swarming our heroes. A quick still shows what looks like a hood. Could these be Sephiroth clones of some sort?

Here we can even see them swarming the entire Shinra building. What could this mean?

I was very excited to see the escape from Midgar highway chase look very familiar. Same truck, with Cloud and Red XIII in the back.

You can even see the possible clones in this part.

Taking over Shinra?

I was thoroughly impressed with the subtle facial emotions they gave to Cloud. As stoic as he is, he still has emotions. They seem to be oppressed, but are still there. Example, his “not interested” glare is better than ever.

Even his subtle body language as he has what seems to be a tender talk with Tifa. By subtle body language, I mean shitty posture.

We have this gorgeous looking scene where Cloud sees Aerith, presumably for the first time, dressed up in Wall Market.

His facial expression is mild, but there is a lot to it, for someone who holds onto apathy as hard as he does.

Gotta say, I really love his face when he is fed up with Corneo.

His face here seems to be much of a “sure, why not.” I appreciate this because he is not overtly against what is happening, which is his cross dressing scene. It really looked like a musical number in the trailer, and I can only hope it is. More of this, please. The man dressing him even mentions how beauty transcends gender. This was a nice way of putting something that surely was delicate to handle.

Hey, Cloud. Why do you have a gun? Maybe it’s a device of some sorts, but I was certain it was a firearm until I took a closer look at it. A grappling device, maybe?

In this same scene, Cloud has a new sword, meaning upgrades! It even has what looks like an extra Materia slot.

We’ve seen the parachuting scene from the trailers, and wondered it’s purpose. The staple parachuting scene in the original game happens when you return to Midgar much later in the game, after you get Cid’s airship back from Shinra.

Side note, Cid better have a southern accent again, because it was perfect for him.

Anyway, if you check it out, it seems they are parachuting into the slums. This could be how they are getting back down from the upper plate after a mission. We don’t see Barret, but I assume he has his own parachute, as he is made up of muscle on muscle.

Oh, boy! Do we get to climb every god damn floor of Shinra again?

We at least know that once again, Cloud will jump off a toilet to get into the air vents. It’s such a small detail compared to everything else, but it makes me happy. This looks like a bathroom that Shinra executives do drugs in.

Here we have Tifa and Aerith egging Cloud onto do something, with him seeming somewhat hesitant. What it could be, I’m not sure, but I’m excited to find out.

I’d be a fool if I did not pander to the audience, and myself, by just showing off how good Red XIII looks. His voice is also stellar.

Side step, again, the slums near Aerith’s church are visually drop dead gorgeous. With most the game being in an urban setting, it is nice to see some sunlight and greenery.

For my last note, I will just point something out. What fucking good is this stoplight to the right of Jessie?

I am extremely excited for this remake, and I hope I was able to pick your curiosity at least a little bit! These are mostly my favorite things I noted, so this definitely is a personal post, but I wanted to share regardless. We’ll see you soon!

Oh, and here’s a stupid picture I drew.