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Image credit: Eurogamer

In many ways, it’s sort of hard to believe that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is six years old. I don’t mean that in terms of how ahead-of-the-game it was, either - it’s sort of the opposite. This is a recent game that, on replay, feels like a curious time capsule, a slice of game design that has become far less common since its release. Mercifully, no matter how aged it might feel in places, it’s still a most enjoyable and easy-to-recommend experience.

Part of that slightly aged feeling comes, doubtless, from the existence of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Rebirth is such a confident expansion and expression of Remake’s ideas - and in some ways, an outright repudiation of a couple of its mechanics. Rebirth is evolution, mea culpa, and revolution all in one - and that’s bound to make Remake feel a little out-of-date after the fact.

At the same time, however, Remake also manages to feel that way perfectly well on its own. It was released at a strange time - right at the yawning mouth of pandemic lockdowns, for a start - but also culturally in games. With hindsight one can see game design trends slowly on a turn right at the point at which this was released - making Remake one of the last games to follow a bunch of trends and traditions set in the early days of the PS4 generation. Mission design, the way areas are laid out… it all just feels a touch older than it actually is.

And then there’s just how Remake looks, which even with a light-touch next-gen glow-up has this very weird thing going on where its heroes look like PS5 characters (they did even on the PS4), while many NPCs look and animate like they fell through a portal from the world of the PS3’s Final Fantasy 13. Remake is full of all of these kinds of dichotomies. Such things were visible and noticeable at launch, and the passage of time has only amplified these curiosities, most of which were probably a result of a marathon development time.

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It’s still brilliant, though. There’s an energy to Remake that is irresistible - this is Final Fantasy getting back in the saddle, wriggling into a comfort zone where its developers knew they could thrive. Remake is, by its very definition, a re-run of something we’ve seen before - but it’s also experimental, curious, and thoughtful in how it interprets that past. I still love it very much.

This new Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 version is largely predictable, a totally reliable and accurate port of the PS5 ‘Intergrade’ version of the game, which packs in various visual upgrades and a stand-alone DLC-esque mini campaign that bridges the gap between this game and its sequel. It’s a worthy version.

We can thereby streamline the port analysis element, though of course you can find more extensive side-by-side analysis elsewhere. The Xbox Series X version is fairly materially indistinguishable from the PS5 version, except for the fact that Xbox lacks the haptic controller feedback features of PS5 on a platform level, and the load times are slightly longer - something which is quite often the case with PS5 ports to the platform. Xbox has a couple of strings to its bow to offset this, however - you’ve got Quick Resume which eliminates the much longer initial load-in, and the fact that this version of the game is Play Anywhere means you can cross-platform flick between Xbox and PC or devices like the ROG Ally, which is handy indeed.

The Switch 2 obviously isn’t visually identical to the big console versions. DLSS does a lot of heavy lifting here, meaning the game is rendered at a lower resolution and then AI-upscaled appropriately. This is common on the platform, and the results are broadly good. It can look a bit dithered, meaning some textures have a slightly ‘dotty’ or fuzzy texture to them under certain circumstances - usually in the background. The other main sticking point is, practically inevitably, that luciously-styled hair - but the result is excellent by the standards of the hardware involved, I think - especially in handheld mode, which as always covers up some of the imperfections.

What you have, then, are two totally serviceable versions of this fascinating and great game by the standards of each of the new platforms upon which it has been released. Good stuff. The game itself has that time capsule vibe going on - but at the same time, the way it played was never quite the most interesting thing about FF7 Remake anyway.

Image credit: Square Enix

This is a gripping game because of what it grapples with - the concept of remaking and reimagining one of the greatest of all time not in a straight-shot do-over, but in a total rethinking that ends up not just reinterpreting the original, but ends up in conversation with it. It’s appropriate that some pre-orders of these new versions have included a free copy of the original - for in order to get the optimum experience, you’ll want to eventually play both.

There is another reason too, of course. Rebirth. Rebirth is newer, of course - but there is a reason it was nominated for Game of the Year in 2024 - it’s absolutely bloody brilliant, and as mentioned is an utterly fantastic sequel to Remake in pretty much every way. Remake is well worth playing stand-alone still - but the promise of Rebirth on these platforms - and sooner than later, I expect - is more than enough reason to hop in and play Remake now - and get on tenterhooks for that third game, which could very well seal this trio’s reputation as one of the finest gaming trilogies of all time.

These games deserve a shot at being experienced by more people, and more people in turn deserve the chance to see what these weird and wonderful, meta, twisty, faithful, table-flipping remakes are about. That chance is now here for more people than ever. Good.