Final Fantasy VII Remake
It feels almost weird to re-nominate something that is not only so recent, but I already declared as responsible for helping me get through the first year of the pandemic, but replaying Final Fantasy VII Remake this year—thanks to its leap to Steam and the announcement of its followup, Rebirth—re-reminded me that even out of the context of one of the first big things I threw myself into in the early days of the 2020 lockdowns, Remake remains a remarkably bold approach to the daunting task of re-doing one of the most popular games of all time. It remains an excellent action-RPG, but its in its reframing of the legacy of Final Fantasy VII as something vital to the text itself and its characters, as they fight to try and defy a fate we’ve known for them for nearly three decades, was arguably more impactful on me the second time around now that it was less about the surprise of the first time experience and something I could focus on and absorb. – James Whitbrook
