It’s been a long time since the public demo was first leaked/rumored, but now at last we can try out the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo ourselves!

I’ve played through it twice, once on Normal and once on Classic.

First off, the nostalgia from the music alone is unreal. I love the new version of the opening bombing mission theme, and it really helped drive home that this remake is really happening.

Moving on to more tangible things, Cloud and Barrett’s personalities feel on point so far, and I like what they’ve done with the Avalanche members.

I enjoyed the dialogue during the demo, and I’m looking forward to (presumably) getting to know Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs better across the course of the game. At one point there’s a little bit of background banter between Jessie and Biggs, and I hope there are more conversations like that in the full game.

Anyway, the public demo is missing flashbacks that will be present in this sequence in the final release, so I’m looking forward to that as well.

The gameplay feels pretty good. At first the camera felt odd, but it didn’t bother me much once I got into it. The normal combat system is interesting. It’s certainly action, but pausing to pick special moves and switching between characters made it feel slower and more tactical. I was also bad at it, so I’ll need to pay more attention to dodging and blocking if I go with Normal in the full game.

I tried out Classic mode for my second playthrough. Classic is locked into the Easy difficulty setting, so between that and the AI being much better at dodging/blocking than I was, fights were significantly easier (although I still had to heal myself occasionally).

Classic mode doesn’t feel like a true turn-based RPG, and battles against weaker enemies are a bit odd since sometimes the auto-attacks are enough to defeat them, but I still kinda like it. It’s… relaxing, compared to the regular gameplay mode, and it lets you really focus more on the choices you’re making. I’m interested to see how it feels later in the game when enemies get tougher. (I’d also like the ability to select Normal difficulty with Classic mode, but I don’t think they’ll add that.)

Overall I’m pretty happy with the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. It doesn’t answer my major questions about how the bulk of the game will play out (how much exploration is there? what are side quests like? will the city actually feel alive?), but the start feels good and I’m looking forward to playing the full thing on April 10!

Today, Square Enix revealed a new batch of art and screenshots from the Final Fantasy VII Remake.

They shared two new pieces of art, one of Tifa looking up at the night sky and one of Sephiroth walking through the flames.

This scene is then shown a second time, as their new screenshots of Sephiroth include him inside a building, possibly the Shinra Building, and then a screenshot of him with the fire behind him. There have been a lot of questions about how this game is going to handle Sephiroth since it focuses on Midgar, so these two screenshots raise a lot of possibilities.

First, does this mean we’ll actually see Sephiroth during the Shinra Building section of the game?

I like the creepy buildup in the original of following the blood trail and only seeing the results of Sephiroth’s passage, but I can see why for the remake, they might want to show him here instead.

Second, since the scene with Sephiroth in the flames keeps being shown, does that mean we’re going to see that flashback sequence?

I can imagine them handling this in three possible ways. Either we’ll get brief flashback snippets throughout the full game without seeing the entire thing, they’ve changed when that section of the game occurs in order to show the flashback sequence before the party leaves Midgar, or this first game will actually include Kalm.

Either way, I hope the full flashback is still playable in the remake, instead of being just a cutscene, whether we get to it in this game or the next.

The next screenshots show President Shinra, whom we previously saw as a hologram projection in one of the trailers, and Heidegger. (I thought this was the first time they showed Heidegger in the remake, but he actually appeared in a trailer back in June and I somehow forgot. Sorry, Heidegger.)

We’ve also gotten our first details on the new Soldier character shown previously. His name is Roche, he loves bikes, and apparently his allies find him annoying. He’s also described as being a “3-C SOLDIER turned rebel,” so maybe he’s actually an ally instead of an enemy.

Roche is probably the part of the remake I’m the least enthused about right now. Adding a new character could work out fine, but I’m just not sold on him yet.

There are new screenshots of Aerith in combat, along with the introduction of her MP-draining “Soul Drain” ability and defensive “Lustrous Shield” ability. There are new screenshots of Shiva, as well.

Then it’s time for the Train Graveyard. The Train Graveyard is one of the areas that’s been expanded for the remake, with new dialogue and story content added for this area. That sounds interesting to me. In contrast to my doubts about Roche, I’m all in favor of expanding Midgar with new dialogue and stories to make the city feel more alive, and I can’t wait to see the sorts of things they do.

Finally, the post concludes with some screenshots from the Shinra Building.

Final Fantasy VII Remake looks absolutely beautiful, and I’m really excited to play it when it comes out in March. I had some concerns when it was first announced, but now I’m on board.

What do you think about the latest screenshots? How do you think the Sephiroth flashback will be handled? Do you see Roche as a welcome addition or a potential weak link? Share your thoughts in the comments!