ゲームを楽しもう!

for the past while I've been going through all of the FF7 games again, I'd played them all before but i felt like i needed a refresher with them. this game was the reason for that, i always wanted to try it but i kept telling myself that i needed to get caught back up with the first bunch of games first since it'd been so long since I'd played them. i had put it off though at launch and by the time i wanted to start replaying those games i had hit an awkward point. episode intergrade came out and rendered the PS4 version basically obsolete and i did not own a PS5 at that point. so i waited and waited until i eventually owned a PS5 but by then i had just been too distracted by other games. when i saw rebirth come out though and i saw just how good that game looked, i had to make a start and get on these. I'm glad i did, too. i loved replaying all the games, watching advent children, I'd even picked up some of the books to read and downloaded before crisis. it helps that the game i did all this for, the one I'm talking about today, is just as good as i had hoped it would be. in some ways it's even better.

to address the big thing about this though first, yeah, this isn't a remake. it's a sequel and i love that. to me this is the ideal kind of remake. something transformative and new that uses ideas from older games in a new way. games like this or resident evil 3 remake. this game is entirely different from the original. it plays radically different, the story it tells hits many of the same beats but has an entirely different structure and style with new characters and new arcs and a different tone and meaning than the original. it's so meta about it too and i adore that. the new sections are mostly pretty solid. the underground lab is really fun and i like how it drops some hints about deepground. the above plate section with avalanche is one of my favourite parts of the game, i love roche and it builds on the world so well. it's nice to really get to see the above plate areas expanded too, it was one area i always wanted to see more of in the original. there's a cool new colosseum segment in wall market that's really funny. there's some new expanded dungeons with maintenance areas under the plates, wastelands, new sewer sections and a lab area inside of shinra tower, though the latter of these i feel pretty mixed on. the hojo lab just slows down the pacing and makes that final area feel very dragged out. every dungeon in the basegame is heavily expanded on too to the point that many don't even feel like the same areas in a good way. the train graveyard having a new storyline about ghosts, returning trips to the sewers, the destroyed plate climb being entirely different and more or less new and even the journey to wall market with the destroyed highway, that latter bit is one of my favourite dungeons now, where i wasn't so into the original segment.

each comes with new gimmicks and mechanics to deal with. it makes each of them a lot more fun to me. those original areas are all intact too, the game didn't cut anything like a lot of remakes these days tend to. wall market and the various slum towns with their stores and npcs to talk to, aeriths house (which is probably the games best looking area, i had to have spent easily half an hour sitting there and enjoying the atmosphere), the different reactors, the train tunnels, the shinier and fancier shinra building complete with a 59 story staircase that actually managed to somehow crash and almost brick my system, the support pillar, the church and the even more beautiful loveless avenue. it's all here and it all looks amazing. there's so much detail in the environments and a ton of new worldbuilding with things like stamp and all the ads you see and the expanded emphasis on the wutai conflict. it's the most well realized the world has ever felt.

that world is also really beautiful. i'm not sure i prefer it overall since i love those pre-renders in the original but the game is such a spectacle most of the time. the skyboxes give it such a sense of scale and really makes midgar feel huge even compared to before. it also does particle effects better than almost any other game I've seen, in and out of battle. things like seeing the mako coming out of pipes and having it light up the environment with a green glow or seeing fireflies over the river outside of aeriths house. all of the sparks and spells and explosions in battle too and some really cool summons. it's all really beautiful. the game has a green hue to it in most areas, it feels like the thing that i really associate the look of it with more than anything, like a cool mako tinged hue, it makes the city feel almost tainted by it sometimes and it's a really distinctive look. not every area is like this, a lot aren't, but it's just the thing i associate with the game.

the character design work here is another highlight. the core cast look just as good as ever, especially tifa who has a new design that i do really like. I don't think it's as good as her advent children design though. the rest of the cast look more or less the same and they all look great. cloud, aerith, scarlet and reno benefit the most here. both cloud and reno are so beautiful, reno especially. even rufus and reeve both had huge glow ups and looks so cool here, i loved getting to see even the briefest of glimpses of cait sith. so adorable. red XIII and barret look really cool too! the side cast look similarly great, i love the cool NPC designs with characters like roche, kyrie, johnny and Leslie who are all easily up there with being as well designed as the original cast (though some characters like kyrie and Leslie did show up in some of the side books before, they're new to the games). though the random NPC's and a lot of the story side cast do lack that sense of style that they had in crisis core, which is a shame. these designs just transfer super well to the HD era, i can see why this new cuter version of cloud drew so many people to the remake. the way everyone looks now is just so appealing and expressive and they do it while retaining all of the charm of their older PS1 and PS2 era stylishness. . it's a perfect example of how higher fidelity characters can still look stylish and pretty. it's something a lot of modern AAA games stumble with, especially in their male casts. finding a AAA game with attractive men is like finding a needle in an ugly, bearded haystack. so thank you square for keeping the husbando dream alive for me.

the combat system is one of the biggest areas the game shines in. it's so unique and fun and it's got so much variety. I've seen it and the second game's battle systems called some of the best ever made and I'd be inclined to agree. how it works is that the game uses a hybrid of action game hack and slash/third person shooter combat mixed with a turn based ATB system like in the original. you built up your ATB with basic attacks from the action combat and then cash it in with the ATB attacks that let you use spells or abilities for healing, buffs or huge damage. each character also plays really differently. cloud is the most standard with some sword combo strings, one light and another heavy that work in separate modes as well as a lot of unlockable stronger combos like a stabbing attack, some overheads and a really cool attack that goes between multiple enemies in succession. he's the closest to a traditional action game character, though he isn't the deepest and he doesn't have the highest damage. the deepest would be tifa. she works similar to cloud with a melee combo string but instead of modes she can end hers with one of 3 ending attacks depending on how much she has stored using her main ATB attack. the more she has stored with that the longer her combo string gets too. one is an uppercut, another is a strong hit and the last one is a full on attack chain that can end a combo and do a ton of damage, though using either of these will degrade your level until you're able to store that energy again. she gets some more unlockable attacks too like a trap she can set that does huge damage, rush attacks, more powerful strikes and a really cool vergil-style attack that goes in a star pattern and makes your next ATB attack more powerful. she's probably the games best character, though she can sometimes be outdamaged.

barret is also there and he has a pretty unique gameplay loop, might even be my favourite of the team. naturally he's a gun character for the most part and his gameplay mainly consists of sitting back and blasting the enemy with a minigun. he slowly charges up a burst as you attack though and once you let it out it can do huge damage. at first this is a little boring though because there isn't really much to him since his first few ATB's are just a focused blast similar to his charge and a self buff but once you unlock more weapons he does show his appeal more and opens up. once you unlock his ability that lets you spend his whole ATB for a large continuous stream of high damage shots his real appeal shines. you blast with your overcharge at the start of a fight, then hit them with the stream attack and then you flip between the two as they charge. it's very fun and he's the easiest character to learn to maximise damage with. he has some more stuff though, later on he even unlocks some melee weapons that lend him to being slow heavy hitter up close with some attacks that have him charging at enemies or doing cool uppercuts and smackdowns, though despite the absurd damage he can do here i just found it too slow to be fun and stuck with his guns. aerith is the most complicated and i found her the hardest to use but she can deal the games highest damage numbers with relative ease. she was mainly focused around magic and her staff. she can shoot ranged attacks, has a charge shot and a bunch of abilities relating to magic. she can put down a ward that gives her doublecast in its vicinity or a different one that gives teammates extra ATB, drain mana from enemies, give herself an AOE and other things like a cool large damage beam attack . he's fun when you get her down but learning her is a lot harder than the rest and she is very dependant on the materia you give her far more than the rest of the cast but she's probably the most fun to work on a build for. sadly that's all you get in the base campaign. red XIII shows up but he's not playable and yuffie is exclusive to the DLC. it's worth noting that if you don't want to play the game as an action game, you don't have to. it has a mode called "classic mode" that automates the attacking for you and just leaves you to focus on ATB attacks and spells, so the game is super accessible even if ARPG's aren't your style.

there's more to it than just the battle system though. it's an RPG so you have your usual things like levels and gear, though weapons here aren't level based so you could very well use any at any point if you want. they even come with different abilities and some like barrets melee weapons or clouds nailbat even have different attacks attached to them. that nail bat was especially fun, i loved combining it with aero to drag enemies to me and bat them out of the park. there's a crysterium style system for weapon upgrades with points you earn upon level up, though i do feel mixed on this system since you need to either set it to automatically upgrade or you need to manually level up every weapon and there is a super long animation every time you enter it. with multiple weapons to upgrade it can be a real hassle. there's Materia which is just as useful here as in the original game and is super varied with new skills like steal and pray, tons of spells which can really change up battles (i stuck with aero, heals, ice and haste on pretty much every member and barrier was also a must, those were almost too useful), stat upgrades, new weapon attacks like one super useful one that happens after you do a dodge and summons you unlock as you beat optional battles. you can find them in the world, buy them or get some exclusive ones via a challenge system with the new character chadley. though do be warned a few of those are locked behind DLC in the original version like the cactuar or carbuncle, but if you have the games PS5 port they're unlocked by default.

one thing i would also love to talk about is the boss fights, they're really good here. there's just so many cool ones and even though boss fights aren't always a highlight in games for me, here they honestly were. reno, rude, roche, the air buster and the fight with rufus are all some of the games best moments, reno and rufus especially were a blast to fight and i love the cool little cutscenes you get during them. they feel so cinematic in a way that few games really ever manage to feel for me. like a really cool shonen anime fight scene. there's a lot to do on the side despite its short-ish runtime. minigames like squatting and monster battling in the simulator. sidequests that open up parts of the world or give cool rewards that can even change aspects of the story like getting cloud a better dress (which is even funnier here than in the original). CD collecting to unlock remixed music at jukeboxes dotted around the map. there's darts, G-bike and even a cool box destroying minigame that i had a lot of fun with. you can battle in three different colosseum type things. one with chadley where you gain new summons, another in wall market that has you take on character challenges against waves of enemies or stronger ultra-bosses in the shinra building battle sim. there's a lot of variety in what you do here.

most of the old story stuff is here intact, it doesn't really cut anything and it doesn't try to sanitize any of it either. the game still has that bite the original game had in its writing, now maybe even moreso as things like avalanche being more hardcore than their other cells and barrets want for violence gets brought into focus. i think it's overall a lot better told here though, it's a lot more wordy and cutscene heavy but that just works for me. you still get all of those beats more or less in the same order, some i think are more effective now though, seeing the destruction and aftermath of the plate fall is heartbreaking and i had at least one moment seeing the sheer scale of it while climbing up to the shinra tower that it actually brought me to tears, same for some of the stuff with jessie and biggs. i like the focus on expanding the characters beyond more than they originally were presented as and i love how it brings more into focus the depths in the main cast that were already there. like barret being the worlds most caring father in addition to a radicalized eco-terrorist, cloud being a grumpy dork that does still care for the people around him, aerith being a Disney princess that swears and would probably kill a few people if she could and tifa being more than just a childhood friend and seeing them grow and change over the course of the game. aerith getting more prone to swearing and acts of violence, her instant best friendship with tifa and cloud and barret going from standoffish jerks to becoming best bro's. these are depths that were always there, but here they feel like more of a focus and you see so much more of it now with the expanded script and storyline. seeing characters like jessie, biggs and wedge get to be real characters, seeing johnny get entire chunks dedicated to him and his adventures, shinra being a real presence that you see so much of the inner workings of with characters like reeve and scarlet getting more screentime too, reno and rude having their own focus to show how the turks work (i love both of them so much and i'm glad their friendship from advent children is still intact here), aerith's mom having an expanded role, there's a new story segment in the train graveyard that had me super emotional and really expands on how dangerous life in midgar can be, the new characters like kirie, the wall market owners, Leslie and roche all being a ton of fun and adding so much to the story and world. it all just works for me. the story it tells with the characters it has just works better for me here than it did in that section in the original.

spoiler warning

i think for me what makes the story work, in addition to all this, is the meta stuff. the game is a commentary on remakes and the culture around them. the fan demand and the status of FF7 as a game that *had* to be and *should* be remade. those fans are even in the game as the whispers, the arbiters of fate. beings trying to push the cast into the mould set out for them by the original game. making sure characters die when they're supposed to and making sure destined meetings happen when and where they have to. they're trying to make the game an authentic remake, something the game itself has very little actual desire to be with all its new content and changes, the actual future of 7 is shown to the cast as a bad ending they need to avoid. they fight fate and the concept of a remake itself in order to push into a new tomorrow, a story that's not beholden to the structure of the original. i think that's really cool and i think the way its handled is really fun especially when you find stuff like them physically repelling you from 7th heaven if you try to go there as yuffie. it does help that i just agree with the games stances. a straight remake would be boring and the game is at its least interesting when it's being super faithful. The game shines the best with stuff like this, when it's pushing itself and trying to be bold and new. hell it's not even a remake, it's a sequel. it expects you to have finished the original, advent children, dirge and crisis core. it's changes go so much further than just the small stuff. zack lives here , he shows up several times both in the ending and a new post credit scene for the PS5 port. there's more of a focus on things from the other games like the wutai war from crisis core and even some dirge of Cerberus cameos in the DLC episode, which i think is great. some characters that die even survive and you fight sephiroth, in midgar, that's crazy. he has a far larger role here and i like that a lot, it works with the story the game wants to tell and his homoeroticism with cloud is great, especially in that one ramen ad they did. you should look that up if you get the chance. it all comes together to make a pretty great story, the midgar stuff in the original was a real highlight and i think expanding it into its own game was a great choice. it's a city that always had a lot of stories to tell and i like how it takes what was a short, but memorable chunk of the original and makes it into something as legendary as it's reputation.

now the soundtrack. the hardest part to live up to more so than anything else is probably the music. that original score is one of the best in the medium and managing to reach those heights again is not an easy task. thankfully they managed it though by getting together some of the best artists they had for the project. having Masashi hamauzu alone on this would bring them to that heights but adding Mitsuto Suzuki and Nobuo uematsu is just overkill and that's before all of the other composers that worked on this. hamauzu many of you will know already from games like the final fantasy XIII trilogy, musashi samurai legend, dirge of Cerberus or unlimited saga. same goes for Nobuo uematsu, who composed OST's for the first 10 FF games as well as lost odyssey, blue dragon, the last story and even a track in a personal favourite of mine in norn9. Mitsuto Suzuki worked on games like the FF13 trilogy, the 3rd birthday, the dissidia titles and super bombliss. Shotaro Shima who worked on kingdom hearts 3, FF7 ever crisis, rebirth and first soldier. Yoshitaka Suzuki who worked on crimson tears, MGS4 and peace walker, norn 9, left alive, ninja blade, bayonetta and stranger of paradise. one hell of a resume. Yoshinori Nakamura who worked on sengoku night blood, ensemble stars, forespoken, the live a live remake and FF7 rebirth. Yasunori Nishiki who worked on neverdead, frontier gate, gravity rush 2, fate extella, octopath traveller, granblue versus and uma musume. Tadayoshi Makino who worked on zack and wiki, monster hunter freedom unite as well as tri, wilds, world and portable third, dragons dogma, resident evil 2, my hero ones justice 2 and gundam evolution. Keiki Kobayashi who worked on katamari damacy, the ace combat series, the ridge racer series, the tekken series, idolmaster 2 amd harmonic score, tank tank tank, starfox zero and street fighter 5. Tsuyoshi Sekito who worked on SD snatcher, brave fencer musashi, dawn of mana, dissidia, the last remnant, mindjack, the crystal bearers, the 3rd birthday, FF explorers and visions of mana. Takafumi Imamura who worked on FF16 and 14 in addition to this. a resume shared by Daiki Ishikawa who has worked on all the same titles. Nozomi Toki who worked on ever crisis, dawntrial and first soldier. lastly is Ayumu Murai who worked on this and some remasters like saga frontier 2, romancing saga and the pixel remasters. that's a lot of composers and you need that many for just how much music this game has. 8 whole discs for the physical release, that's a lot of music and it's also a lot of really good music. so let's get into the best of those tracks.

the OST starts with a great track in "The Prelude - Reunion " one of the better renditions of prelude I've seen. the same could be said for "bombing mission" which was already one of my favourite tracks from the original and here it's just as good, though maybe not as catchy for me. "Let the Battles Begin! - Ex-SOLDIER" is the first of the battle themes and the first rendition of the core battle theme and one of the more solid ones, the musical swells give me major FF13 energy, the later versions "a mercs job", "crab warden" and "operation: save aerith" are solid too and especially "Let the Battles Begin! -REMAKE-". "mako reactor 1" though i don't feel as fond of, i still like it but it's the first track that i don't think manages to come close to how good it's base track is, though i do love the piano in it. it's also the first song with a battle remix and it's solid too. "Scorpion Sentinel" is a fantastic remix of the boss theme from the original game. "getaway", "shinra's theme", "chance meeting in sector 8", "let the battles begin- break through" and "shining beacon of civilisation" are also highlights "shinra creed" feels like it was lifted from the original game and i mean that as a complement. "Tifa's theme- seventh heaven" is an OST highlight, easily one of my most listened to tracks on here. "sector 7 undercity" is one of the best town themes in the game. "avalanche's theme" is great, as is "on our way", "just another job", "red zone", "run run run" and "midnight spiral". the guitar work in "jessie's theme" sounds very FF15, i love that. meanwhile "moonlight thievery" sounds right out of musashi samurai legend, another of hamauzu's best. i love the piano work in "a tower, a promise" as well as in "nightfall in the city" which also has some amazing violin work. "a new operation" is a cool take on the battle theme. "dogged pursuit" sounds very FF13 in a way that i love, almost like a lost battle track from that game, same for the later track "section E".

"undercity suns" has some really good piano work and i love its other variation "tightrope". "maze of scrap metal", "critical shot", "the randevous point", Wwhack a box" and "the airbuster" are all worth mentioning. that last one is one of the games most impressive tracks, it's a real highlight. the new rendition of "turks theme" is amazing and it's boss version "turks- reno" is even better, though it feels more like the basic battle theme than a remix of the turks theme. i also like the "office" version of the turks theme a lot. "flowers blooming in the church" might just be the best renditon of the song. "under the rotting pizza" is also a very good rendition, though the rendition of "anxiety" that chapter is easily the best version of the song. the same for the "home again" version of aeriths theme, it's easily one of the best. i love the track "Hollow skies" too. the remix of "the oppressed- Beck's Badasses " comes out of nowhere but it's one of the games most unique remixes with big regge influences though it's battle theme varient for the area "due recompence" is an even bigger highlight, it's so funky and it sounds like it would fit right into something like sonic rush. wallmarket has a few variences, the basic "the town that never sleeps" is solid but i prefer the "madame M" version and the best of these is easily the "chocobo sam" varient that plays the stables. i hung out there for like 10 mins listening to it the first trip in. i love "the most muscular" which sounds like a playstation all stars battle theme, i don't think many people will get what i mean by that but a few of you will. "an unforgettable night" is super jazzy in a :) way and it reminds me of the YIIK ost, i love its synthy piano work.

"luxury massage" is also super jazzy, i love that one. the corneo collosseum music is pretty good i especially like the tracks "corneo collosseum", "hell house" which is one of the best remixes if not the best of the original games battle themes and "collosseum death match" the latter of which would fit into an older FF game as a perfect boss theme for a late PS1 port. the rendition of "victory fanfare" there is cute too. "a certain gaudyness" is one of my favourite of the aeriths theme remixes, same goes for "a familiar flower". i love the bells in that one. "stand up" is a stand-out, same for its reprise version. i love "vibe valentino", "don of the slums", the "abzu" fight music, "come on, this way", "elgor" and "ghoul", i don't have much to say about them but they're all very good tracks. i love the spooky piano and wind sounds in "black wind". i like "waiting to be found" too, it's one of the best piano tracks in the game. "fight for survival" is a great battle theme, if not one of hamauzu's best. "rematch atop the pillar" is one of the best battle themes, another killer track from hamauzu who does most of the games best battle tracks. "daughters farewell" is heartbreaking, "infinities end" is a very catchy battle theme. "wild de chocobo" is a very solid version of the chocobo theme. "leslie's theme" is one of the catchier chill songs in the game, i'm a big fan of that. "the day midgar stood still", "a solemn street", "the shinra building" and "infiltrating shinra HQ". i like "the drum" but it's very creepy, same with "cultivating madness" which is even moreso. that can't be said for "another day at shinra" though which is more upbeat, if a little sad sounding. the games final stretch has some really solid tracks too. like a fantastic new version of "J-E-N-O-V-A" with its "quickening" version, the excellent boss themes "rufus shinra", "the arsenal", "arbiter of fate- rebirth", "arbiter of fate- singularity" and the expected new version of "one winged angel- rebirth" which is as good as you expect it to be. there's also a 12 mins credit song that's a big melody of all of the major tracks, it's so cute.

as far as my overall favourites from the OST. "star of seventh heaven" is another favourite, the synthy piano sound gives me energy of something like last wave from outrun. also up there with the bests is the tracks "midnight randevous", "train graveyard", "collapsed freeway" which just might be the games best dungeon theme and it's battle theme "high five" just might be the games third best battle theme right behind "haunted" and "smash 'em, rip 'em" which is the best battle theme in the game by a wide margin and probably my favourite track. "limited options" is beautiful, same with "the look on her face", "all quiet at the gates" and "return to the planet" are up there too. "hand in hand" is pretty funky, i like it. "scarlet's theme" is the games standout vocal track, not that "hollow" is bad persay, but this is just leagues ahead for me. "corporate archives" is amazing, same with "home away from home" which are two lategame favourites.

there's also all of those CD's you can find with fun remixes. they're almost all good. "prelude" is a fun clubby sounding remix which sounds very FFX'y to me. the jazzy "bombing mission" remix is fantastic, it feels very otome game OST to me for the first half and then you get a more intense second half. there's a really soothing jazz remix of "tifa's theme", a pretty great country blues version of "barrets theme" which is joined by an also bluesy "turks theme, "cait sith theme" is more jazz again, you'll be seeing a lot of that in this section. a super upbeat harmonica driven version of "decendent of shinobi" that i love along with an amazing traditional instrument version of "wutai". a super catchy jazz version of "let the battles begin" is here too, it's almost surf rockey. there's a really funky version of "under the rotting pizza", a very anime OP souning rendition of "the oppressed", a tropical remix of "honeybee inn" that would it right in kingdom hearts. there's an amazing jazz band rendition of "the chase". the version of "main theme of final fantasy 7" here with the accoustics is one of the best versions of the song, period. the best version of "on our way" is in this segment, sounding kind of like a jazzy 80's jpop song. "good night, until tomorrow" is a great variation on the original games OP. the varient on "farm boy" still sounds super RPG'y, but maybe more PS2 than PS1. "electric de chocobo" is a cool surf rock version of the chocobo theme. it also has my favourite version of "costa del sol" with a jazzier remix. the big band version of "gold saucer" is amazing. "hip hop de chocobo" is the funniest song in the game. there's a really good vocal version of "stamp's theme" that sounds like a song you would hear on a kids TV show, it's cute!

as far as ports go. the original version was originally a PS4 exclusive but this didn't last. eventually it was ported to PS5 with the subtitle "Intergrade" which had the usual graphcics enhancements as well as some new optional boss fights, a photo mode, new difficulty settings, a new post credits scene and a brand new DLC chapter starring yuffie. none of this would ever make their way to PS4, sadly. the episode intermission with yuffie is enough for this to make the original port effectively obsolete though considering it's big enough to more or less be its own new game with its own battle system and minigames and areas. I won't talk too much about it here though since i plan to eventually give it its own article in the future. it would also be ported to things like the switch 2 and xbox later down the line, though the former is not all on cart due to being a key and the other didn't seem to get a physical release at all. these versions would also come with their own additions like a max XP mode and other things to make the game optionally easier for people, which is very welcome even if i'll never use them. it's cheap and readily available though. the ps4 and ps5 versions will run you anywhere from £10-20, but there is a bundle of the game and rebirth available for around £40 which is a steal for the amount of game you get. switch 2 will run you more though since it's so new out and it's a game key card, so it's a hard sell. the game will run you around 25-30 hours, it's as long as the original game was which is impressive considering it just covers midgar. it squeezes a lot from the setting and makes it so much more fully realized than either the original game or crisis core did for me. there's a lot of side stuff too so if you take your time and do all of the quests and minigames and the cool postgame optional fights, you could be looking at a 40-50 hour runtime. it's also not super difficult, there is a hard mode that i actually enjoyed trying out, it really makes you learn the materia system's ins and outs and i love that. for most players though the game is a breezy time on easy or normal, i'd stick to normal your first run though, it just feels the best for me.

there was a part 2 eventually with rebirth which seems to hugely expand the setting and seems like a great game in its own right with its open world and extra characters. there's also a part 3 soon with revelations, though that's a long way off and beyond the initial trailer I've been avoiding finding out more. i want to go in fairly blind. there's also a whole series of games here beforehand in the 7 series, though i won't talk much about them here since i already covered most of them in the past few months. Tetsuya Nomura directed this one, though not on his own since you also had as co-directors Naoki Hamaguchi and Motomu Toriyama. it's a stacked list of people at the head of it. nomura is the most well known of the lot. artist for the original FF7 as well as being involved with things like kingdom hearts, TWEWY, front mission, parasite eve, ehrgeiz, musashi samurai legend, dirge of Cerberus and tons of other final fantasy games in some capacity. naoki worked on games like lightning returns, mobius final fantasy, ever crisis, FF12 and the other 13 games, as well as the original 14. motomu worked on games like racing lagoon, front mission evolved, final fantasy 13, 13-2, 10 and 10-2, revenant wings, lighting returns and the 3rd birthday. though the studio listed is just listed as "square enix" so giving the specific team involved credit is more difficult. the fact this article is as long as it is should stand testament to just how good this game is, so of course i recommend it, it's a great action game and an even better sequel, it's charming and fun and deeply meaningful. in a landscape where remake culture has kind of run rampant i think a game like this that goes out of its way to criticize it is important, at least it is to me. it gives words to my thoughts and concerns better than i think i ever could and i implore you to give both it and it's predecessors a try.