"The Midgar chapter earns it. The padding between does not."
About
Cloud Strife and his allies fight through the sprawling mako-powered city of Midgar to stop the Shinra Electric Power Company's exploitation of the planet's life force. Combat combines real-time action with a command-based menu system where you pause battles to queue abilities and spells, building up limit breaks as you damage and take damage. The game includes a separate campaign following ninja Yuffie Kisaragi as she infiltrates Midgar to steal Shinra's secrets.
Verdict
The combat is a genuine highlight, a real-time and ATB hybrid that rewards reading enemies and juggling materia. It's wrapped in a game that mistakes slow walking and constant cutscene interruptions for grandeur, stretching six hours of the original into forty. Worth it for the boss fights and the soundtrack, frustrating in the long corridors between them.
You'll like it if …
- +you love the original Midgar and want it expanded with lived-in detail
- +you enjoy battles that reward reading enemies and tuning materia loadouts
- +a reinterpreted classic soundtrack matters as much to you as the gameplay
You'll dislike it if …
- −you want brisk pacing instead of slow walks and cutscene interruptions
- −you replay games and need a reason to return after one linear run
Breakdown
- +Real-time and ATB hybrid rewards reading enemies and juggling materia loadouts
- +Boss fights demand thinking beyond mashing, forcing tactical materia and ability selection
- +Limit break economy builds tension as you balance damage output with meter generation
- −Trash mobs reduce combat to one-button repetition, wasting the systems' potential
- −Damage-sponge enemies and chase sequences turn combat into a slog over time
- +Materia and ATB management give combat real teeth across forty hours of content
- −Linear story you push through once with nothing pulling you back for another run
- −Yuffie chapter adds a side story but provides no reason to revisit the game
- −Heavy padding stretches a short slice of story across forty hours
- +Cast given real emotional depth, with Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge earning their beats
- +Midgar expanded with care that makes the city feel alive and lived-in
- −Dialogue padding hurts pacing in a narrative-led game
- −Forced slow-walk segments and constant cutscene interruptions kill momentum
- −Story changes and late-chapter metaplot lean into confusion
- +Art direction looks like the future we imagined on PS1, consistently gorgeous throughout
- +Soundtrack carries entire stretches and reinterprets the original without losing its identity
- +Stunning character models and visual fidelity earn near-unanimous praise
- +Largely solid technically with excellent optimization for the scope
- −Unreal Engine stuttering shows up in spots
- −Camera and targeting friction affects some players
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