Square Enix Faces Backlash Over New Steam Release of Original Final Fantasy 7
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Square Enix's new Steam and GOG release of the 1997 original Final Fantasy 7 has been met with mostly negative reviews due to technical blunders, audio desyncs, and the controversial delisting of the 2013 version.
When a publisher dusts off a legendary title, players expect a celebration, not a technical mess. That is exactly what happened when Square Enix dropped a brand-new version of the 1997 original Final Fantasy 7 on Steam and GOG, accompanied by the abrupt delisting of the stable 2013 PC version. Rather than welcoming the update, Midgar veterans flooded the Steam store page with mostly negative reviews. While the release introduced long-requested quality of life features like autosaves, a speed toggle, and the ability to turn off random encounters, the execution completely missed the mark.
The core complaints point to glaring technical oversights that call the QA process into serious question. Players quickly discovered that increasing the frame rate limit doubled the combat speed without properly adjusting the animations, resulting in messy audio desyncs. On top of that, mandatory 4:3 resolution lockouts, broken launcher crashes for a significant number of users, and poorly upscaled backgrounds and FMVs left the classic looking worse than it did over a decade ago. Even with a quick hotfix rolling out to address the battle speed issues, the damage to community trust was already done.
This rocky rollout touches on a much larger conversation about digital ownership and game preservation that modern players care deeply about. When publishers replace working digital versions with inferior updates and restrict access to the software people bought years ago, it highlights the fragility of our modern library spaces. Fortunately, the previous 2013 version was quietly added back to the libraries of past owners as a fallback, but the whole situation is a sharp reminder that convenience should never come at the cost of playability. As reported by IGN and detailed by Eurogamer, Square Enix has work to do if it wants to turn these reviews around. Original reporting by Fran Ruiz on Eurogamer
Tags: Final Fantasy 7, Square Enix, Steam, PC Gaming, Game Preservation
Original article: Eurogamer