The opening cinematic for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been released, and it’s already causing quite a stir.
This remade cinematic is not exactly a 1:1 remake of the original opening cinematic of the game. However, there are quite a few similarities between the two, and nearly every shot in the original opening is remade.
Let’s start by taking a look at the shots that the two cinematics share. The most notable shared sequence involves Aeris walking through the street of Midgar and dropping her flowers. The camera then zooms out to show us the scope of this incredible city before we zoom back in on a speeding train that carries Cloud and the rest of our heroes to the game’s first playable sequence.
As you’ve certainly already guessed, the remade version of that sequence looks better than it did on the PlayStation. Years worth of technological improvements tend to do that. What’s kind of amazing is that the sequences these two trailers share are actually similar in many ways. It speaks to the strong cinematic direction of the original title at a time when the art of crafting video game cinematics was in its earliest days.
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Pure graphical beauty aside, this remade trailer benefits from advancements over time in different ways. The biggest example of this is almost certainly the part of the opening movie where we see Cloud and his crew arrive on the train and start doing battle. The original version of this scene is hindered somewhat by an awkward transition from cinematic graphics to gameplay visuals. Because those two visual styles are much closer in the remake, we really get a much better sense of the dramatic impact of this moment.
There are also quite a few new sequences in this remade version of the opening movie which show everything from children playing in the streets to shots of the rest of the game’s world. Fans will know that some of these areas we see are previews of what is to come later in the game, but they help supplement the scope of this scene regardless.
All in all, this opening movie really showcases how the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 remake looks to show us more of the game than ever before. It’s certainly enough to get us even more hyped for the upcoming remake, even if there’s another Final Fantasy game we wouldn’t mind seeing get that same treatment…
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.