Final Fantasy VII’s Steam return shipped broken — and Square’s hotfix barely calmed the crowd

Final Fantasy VII’s Steam comeback turned into a mess: players found busted combat, audio glitches and launcher headaches

Square Enix tried to modernize the 1997 Final Fantasy VII for PC and dropped a nostalgia-shaped bomb instead. The updated build that replaced the 2013 Steam port added welcome quality-of-life bits – 3x speed, autosave, no-random-encounter toggles and a “battle enhancement” option – but a raft of technical regressions (dizzying battle speeds, audio desync, locked resolution, a buggy mandatory launcher and reports of corrupt downloads) overwhelmed the release and pushed user reviews to “Mostly Negative” within hours.

• Same-day hotfix addressed the most obvious issue: an uncapped 30 FPS that broke ATB timing and doubled battle animation speed (Square’s Steam news post).
• Players still report ongoing desyncs, blurry upscales versus community mods, and a launcher that intercepts input – problems that a single hotfix hasn’t fixed.
• Community modders loudly offered help and framed the release as inferior to existing modded builds; preservation concerns rose when Square replaced the sellable 2013 edition on Steam.

What happened, in plain terms

The package Square put on Steam on Feb. 24 rearranged a classic’s plumbing. On paper it was an overdue parity update aligning the original with modern ports — but in practice the new build shipped with timing and presentation bugs that made combat feel like a rollercoaster. Players discovered fights running at double speed after Square attempted to increase framerate to 30 FPS; the change broke the game’s ATB timing so animations and damage queues no longer matched the intended cadence. Audio stutters and desynchronized cutscenes compounded the problem, and multiple users reported the launcher interfering with game input. A handful of isolated download errors — including a reported 0-byte upload — added fuel to the outrage even where they weren’t widely replicated.

Square’s response: a patch, but not a roadmap

Square Enix pushed a hotfix the same day, acknowledging and patching the core issue that sped up battles (their Steam group post confirms a targeted fix for gameplay speed and stability). That was the right move — but it feels like triage, not accountability. The company hasn’t published detailed patch notes explaining why a framerate tweak would break ATB timing, nor have they clarified whether settings removed from the storefront build (like flexible resolution options) were intentional or accidental regressions. In short: we got a fix, not transparency.

The uncomfortable truth: this was avoidable

There’s an ugly pattern here. Square’s PC stewardship has repeatedly stumbled, and this release underscores the cost of treating legacy ports as minor projects. Community modders — teams that spent years fixing the 2013 port’s rough edges — publicly offered help within 24 hours, noting the new build is objectively inferior to many community-maintained versions. That’s embarrassing. When your fans are better preservationists and QA testers than your internal team, the PR problem is existential, not cosmetic.

If I were sitting across from Square’s PR rep, the first question would be simple: why did the store-facing build remove or alter PC options that community patches had already proven necessary, and why was there no compatibility path for fans’ existing saves and mods? The company owes a concrete answer — and a clear timeline for restoring parity with the community’s expectations.

Why this matters beyond one bad day

This isn’t just about momentary outrage or a few angry reviews. Final Fantasy VII is a cultural touchstone; how Square handles its back catalog signals where the company now sits relative to preservation, trust and PC customers. Replacing the 2013 edition in the store (it remains in owners’ libraries but can’t be purchased anew) raises preservation flags — and when a re-release ships in worse shape than community-made builds, customers start asking whether buying officially supported versions is worth it.

What to watch next

• Official patch notes and Steam-group updates from Square Enix — the community wants detailed changelogs, not quiet fixes.
• Steam review trend over the next 48-72 hours. If ratings don’t recover after substantive fixes, pressure for a rollback or re-release will increase.
• Whether Square accepts community help or integrates mods’ fixes. Tsunamods and other modders publicly offered assistance — a cooperation would be the fastest route to stability.
• GOG’s DRM-free version and sale running Feb. 24-Mar. 8. If GOG diverges (faster fixes or preserved options), PC buyers will notice.

TL;DR

Square re-released Final Fantasy VII with modern features, but sloppy QA and a botched framerate change broke core systems and provoked a review backlash. A same-day hotfix patched the worst speed bug, but persistent audio desyncs, launcher issues and missing PC options left players skeptical. Watch for full patch notes, community collaboration, and whether Square will restore the 2013 edition’s accessibility or accept modders’ help.