When Final Fantasy 7 remake was released, I, like almost everyone else, was very excited for it. I was also a bit concerned what Square Enix was going to do to it after the mess that was Final Fantasy 15.
FF7 wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the masterpiece that the obviously paid off critics were hailing it as. IT was an average RPG but nothing terribly special. Almost every single professional critic was hailing it as game of the year or one of the best RPG's ever made and other such nonsense, while the average user was giving it a 4 - 6 out of 10, which is what it deserves.
Final Fantasy 7 kind of ticked me off because for years now, Square Enix has slowly been screwing over FF fans by focusing almost entirely on graphics and not appearing to be terribly concerned with story, playability, or having the game actually be any good. Final Fantasy 15 was a disaster and the story didn't even make sense. With Final Fantasy 7's release, I was thinking that they already have a story, so they can't possibly screw that one up, right? Well, not exactly.
There was quite a bit of rather stupid material in the game and this comes as very little surprise at this point because I don't really expect much out of Squenix anymore and I don't think anyone else really does either. FF7 was the only game I paid full price for in 2020 and it was such a letdown to me that I have permanently lost faith in the game studio. I am unlikely to get any of their products in the future because of this betrayal of trust that has taken place over the past 3 years.
Square Enix isn't known for offering really any of their games at a discount and for some reason or another they are able to get away with this. I have to admit that I found it a bit amusing therefore that Final Fantasy 7 is actually being given away for free to anyone that has a PlayStation Plus membership. I think this is only happening because of the fact that they have already sold all the copies of this that they are going to meaning that anyone who would consider buying this game, has already done so. They put it on special a few times and sold a few more, but the only people that remain are those that won't play it unless it is free.
I don't think many of these people are going to be converted. It's not a great game and I find it completely despicable that they are, at least for as far as I have heard, releasing this game as a trilogy, which is completely unnecessary. I for one will NOT be purchasing the 2nd or 3rd part of this title, despite the fond memories I have of the original.
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Just a side gripe here: This game is absolutely loaded with "impassable barriers" that someone could quite easily climb over, especially a guy with a sword he recently killed a giant robot with
Perhaps I set the bar too high for Final Fantasy titles because these games were so epic in the past but mostly I have taken the hump as far as Squenix is concerned because there is always a massive discrepancy between the professional critic's opinion and the average user. This is evident for films on Rotten Tomatoes as well and I believe that a lot of the critics are likely either afraid to say bad things about anything Square Enix makes, or they are paid to say nice things. Either way, they can't be trusted and Final Fantasy 7 remake is a good example of the critics and average users having very different opinions.
Square is scheduling a FF7 release for PS5 in June. I can't even imagine who would buy that but once again, I am sure millions of people will do so. We continue to reward Squenix for their bad behavior, so why would they ever change that strategy?