Final Fantasy VII Remake managed to defy all expectations and make fans' dreams come true. When the game was first announced, the question at the top of everyone's mind was what was going to change and what was going to stay the same.
Many felt some aesthetic choices and plot beats just would not work the same way as they did in 1997, both due society changing and the differences between the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 4. Ultimately, many were pleasantly surprised by what remained the same from the original and how well it actually works. The ten entries below show just how dedicated the developers were to recreating the original game's classic Midgar chapter.
10 Tifa's Wardrobe
Square took their sweet time revealing Tifa in trailers. Many thought they would tone down her appearance, since in the original she wears shorts and a tank top with her mid-drift exposed. The new design remains largely faithful to the PS1 version. Her design shows a lot of skin, but there's nothing wrong with a sexy character. She has a significant role in the plot and is not just eye candy. And to be fair, just about everyone in this game is eye candy.
9 Cloud's Design
A lot of the designs were done to make them stand out on the PS1 with its limited polygons for each character. Cloud's big spiky hair looks ridiculous, but it made him instantly recognizable in 1997. It would be absolute heresy to change it, but at the same time it is hilarious to think of a hardened soldier for hire spending this much time on their hairstyle. The single shoulder blade and giant Buster Sword also contribute to this weird look.
8 Scorpion Boss Fight
The first boss fight in the original game is a robotic scorpion who ambushes the player as Cloud and Barret plant the bomb in the Mako reactor. In the original game it is a relatively simple boss fight. In the remake it is an epic introductory bout with several stages. This boss fight especially shows how the developer did not just recreate almost every aspect of Midgar, but turned up even the slightest aspects to eleven.
7 Don Corneo
People like to joke about how everyone in Final Fantasy VII Remake is thirsty as all get out. Don Corneo, however, is on another level, being one of the sleaziest characters of all time. People are creeped out just by looking at him. In the game, players infiltrate his estate by disguising themselves as one of his potential brides. The game even exacerbates this dark side of Midgar, with characters talking mournfully about the women who leave to go to his estate.
6 Climbing The Stairs
Upon assaulting Shinra HQ, players can choose to either take the elevator up or use the stairs. This is almost a joke on the player, because anyone who chooses the latter is forced to climb literally dozens of flights of stairs while the characters complain and become progressively more fatigued.
Even for a forty hour game, climbing up the stairs takes a lot of time. Most are glad the remake kept the original's sense of humor.
5 Pre-Rendered Backgrounds
Final Fantasy VII Remake is easily one of the best looking games of the generation. Except for a few bad textures, Midgar looks nearly flawless. What is surprising here is a trick they used all the way in 1997 to make the world look better - pre-rendered backgrounds. Instead of the entire world being 2D except for character models, the backdrops are often flat, feeling like a matte painting from an old Hollywood movie. Even though the effect is noticeable, it still looks nice.
4 Hell House
The Hell House is an enemy in the original game players fight in Midgar. Most thought this ridiculous design would be left at the wayside for the remake simply because of how flippant of an idea fighting a house is. The developer not only included the enemy, but made it a boss in Corneo's Colosseum, complete with announcers commenting on the action. Fans were happy to see the remake embrace all the ridiculousness.
3 Scarlet
Scarlet is the head of weapons development for Shinra. As one would expect from someone who produces instruments of death and destruction, she is mean and ruthless. Less expected is the revealing dress she dons which accentuates her bust.
Like with Tifa's wardrobe, her design for the remake changes little about this, and even turns up the steam. We still wonder if Tifa and Scarlet will have a slap in Junon later on in the story.
2 Cait Sith
While Cait Sith has not been introduced to the party yet, players see the animatronic cat mourn the Sector 7 plate collapse. It was extremely risky to shoehorn one of the game's most embarrassing characters into an extremely dramatic moment, yet it manages to work perfectly. Will Cait Sith join the party in the second part of the remake? If so, will the cat be accompanied by the giant mog? Perhaps this remake can actually make Cait Sith cool.
1 Cross Dressing
This was the biggest question on everyone's minds. People thought it was impossible for a remake to tastefully and respectfully depict cross dressing without mocking the idea. Miraculously, it ends up as one of the best sequences of the entire journey. It is still extremely comedic, but the humor comes from Cloud's extreme discomfort rather than joking about the concept, which would have been disrespectful. After all, it is just as Andrea says during the chapter; "True beauty is an expression of the heart. A thing without shame, to which notions of gender don't apply."