Final Fantasy VII Remake is the Template for “Grown-Up” JRPGs

In the face of the practical hurdles to regularly playing JRPGs, Final Fantasy VII Remake has proposed an alternative model for equally robust storytelling more easily accessible for adult gamers: a more succinct mode of storytelling that uses replay mechanics and a sense of real-time urgency to turn an incomplete plot into something thematically richer than games that are twice as long.

I’m an adult now, and I still love video games. Some people like TV, others books, and others movies, but video games are my preferred medium for entertainment, but my tastes have changed since I was a kid. I’m more interested in weird, less action-packed games, but I’m also much more interested in shorter games. As a kid, “80 hours of story-based gameplay” in a game’s marketing would make me salivate, but today it makes me less likely to play it.

I agree with the author that Final Fantasy 7 Remake masterfully crafted an RPG experience that could be consumed by adults. Part of it is being shorter, but there’s more to it (such as creating a better sense of urgency) that the article goes into.