Summary
- Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis brings a visually updated combat experience to mobile platforms while maintaining a cutesier style outside of combat.
- Ever Crisis abridges events and jumps between narratives, diminishing the sense of a continuous experience, but still captures the essence of Final Fantasy 7.
- The free-to-play nature of Ever Crisis, with its monetization mechanics and stamina system, hinders its potential as a proper remake.
Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis takes a new approach to the story of Final Fantasy 7 and its related games, but it doesn't exactly set out to be the definitive version of the experience, pointing to why yet another remake could still be worthwhile. Ever Crisis arrives on the market as a free-to-play mobile title, following in the footsteps of games like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia rather than the tradition of the mainline series on consoles. It does, however, strive to bring the look of combat in modern console entries to the title, while scenes outside of combat take on a cutesier style.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis is far from the first stab that publisher Square Enix has taken at revisiting the story of Final Fantasy 7. From the film Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children to the remaster updating Crisis Core, most of these entries have focused on filling in gaps or surrounding the core narrative with prequel and sequel material. Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the title Rebirth are two parts of a trilogy that tackles the game itself again, but these games come at it from a new angle rather than a straight retelling. Collectively, all of these titles are part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 subseries.
Ever Crisis Shows Why Final Fantasy 7 Deserves Another Run
Certain elements of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis offer a more classically styled treatment of FF7 than the Remake games, particularly in aesthetics. Scenes outside of combat take a stab at updating the look of the original game to modern mobile platforms, rendering environments from pre-set angles and maintaining squat, exaggerated proportions for the characters. Recreating a style initially defined by the graphical capabilities of the original PlayStation is a tricky task to pull off, but although Ever Crisis might not entirely recapture Final Fantasy 7's rich atmosphere, it generally gets the job done irably.
Those looking for a straightforward update of Final Fantasy 7, however, still won't find it in Ever Crisis. Taking a broader view of the entire Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, Ever Crisis abridges events and jumps between narratives and source material in a way that loses the sense of one continuous experience. The choice to swap graphical styles for combat enhances the occasionally jarring nature of the game, making it hard to settle in with the more cartoony models outside of battle and accept an immersive presentation of the world.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis Is Harmed By Monetization
The biggest roadblock to Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis's potential status as a proper FF7 remake lies in its free-to-play nature, which is never content to take a back seat. It's impossible to sit down and play the game for hours in the same way as the original Final Fantasy 7 thanks to a stamina system that forces a price upon long sessions. Ever Crisis is all too happy to promote its purchases in general, with a typically clunky mobile menu experience and progression systems reworked around incentivizing investment.
Ever Crisis's gacha system is its central mechanic for monetization, locking strong weapons and gear behind what essentially amounts to a paid roll of the dice. Although it's still possible to progress through Ever Crisis without relying on the gacha mechanics, making many of the best upgrades a reward for splurging significantly damages the more natural incentivization to master the original Final Fantasy 7 and other games in the Compilation. It's hard to step into a fantasy world and get truly immersed in its story when a game is intent on calling the mind to very real currency.
The FF7 Remake Trilogy Isn't The Same Experience
Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth might be the most surefire bet for introducing a newcomer hesitant to boot up the original to the world of FF7, but they ultimately offer a very different experience. Although the new titles share core characters, threads, and concepts with the PlayStation classic, Square Enix deliberately forged a new path with both the story and gameplay. From Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's combat changes to the expansion of certain narrative segments, this is a smart way to allow the new trilogy to stand side-by-side with the original and offer something new for longtime fans, but it does leave a hole for a loyal, modern experience.
The gameplay changes in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy are the most immediately obvious alteration, with 3D environments and a real-time combat system significantly overhauling spatial progression and battle experience. Turn-based combat can be a love-it or hate-it mechanic, so these changes open up the game to an arguably wider audience while losing some core aspects of the original design. Understanding the narrative overhaul requires a deeper familiarity with Final Fantasy 7, but it remains true to key elements while taking notable detours, and changes will no doubt continue to amass in Rebirth and the planned final game.
Basic Remasters Don't Do Final Fantasy 7 Justice
The original Final Fantasy 7 is no stranger to modern platforms, but it's never been able to appear in its finest possible form. The low-resolution background art and low-poly characters can still look excellent on a CRT screen, but they integrate far more poorly in stark HD. A loyal remake could expand on Ever Crisis's attempted recreation in properly adapting the world for HD while maintaining the same environments and character designs. There's also room for miscellaneous quality-of-life options and translation fixes that could be included while retaining the same core mechanics and dialogue.
Final Fantasy 7 has never lost its grip on the gaming scene, but the perfect way to play the original game on modern systems remains elusive. Going back to basics and delivering a fresh update to the classic experience would be the perfect way to let Cloud's story live on, and perhaps even pave the way for similar treatments of Final Fantasy 8 and 9. Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis is an interesting new take on the material, but more than anything, it proves just how much a straight remake of Final Fantasy 7 still has to offer.
