8 Things We Learned From the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo

After what feels like forever, the Final Fantasy VII remake is coming out on April 10. At least, the first part is coming out that day. That’s because Square Enix made the controversial decision to turn the remake into several smaller games, with the first one focusing entirely on misadventures in Midgar.

Wondering whether it’s worth it to return to the world of Final Fantasy VII? Well, you’re in luck: you can download a demo right now and check it out for yourself. And while the demo only takes about an hour to complete, it has helped us learn a few important things about what is arguably the most important RPG of 2020.

Minor characters play a bigger role

Final Fantasy VII is built around a core group of playable heroes such as Cloud, Barrett, and Tifa. But there are also plenty of supporting characters, including fellow AVALANCHE members Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge.

In the original game, these characters didn’t have much of a spotlight. In the remake demo, though, each side character gets a surprising amount of dialogue. The best example of this is Jessie: we see her clear attraction to Cloud and even the beginning of a potential romance between the two of them through their extensive dialogue.

If these characters are any indication, we’re going to get a lot of cool moments involving marginal characters all throughout the remake.

There are fewer dialogue options

While it was no Mass Effect, the original Final Fantasy VII had a few moments with different dialogue choices. These often revolved around the ladies in Cloud’s life (such as how Cloud feels about Tifa or whether he buys a flower from Aeris).

In the remake demo, we get dialogue options. This is surprising because there are several places where such options would be very logical (like when Jessie explicitly asks about Cloud’s relationship with Tifa).

And while this is less definitive evidence, the sizzle reel of game moments at the end of the demo shows a lot of Cloud fighting while wearing a flower from Aerith. This makes sense if the dialogue options are gone because you would no longer be able to refuse her offer of a flower.