Final Fantasy VII Remake

[hogso]

A thread for itself rather than the general FF thread. 

I couldn't really be happier with what they've done, based on this teaser alone. 

The change to the battle system was absolutely required, there was no possible way a turn based system could have been used. 

The field sections, as brief as they appear here, are exactly the kind of thing that appeared in the FFXV Episode Duscae 'demo', and combat seems similar-ish too. Good signs. 

Story seems untouched, lines are lifted straight out of the original, and not giving the option to name Cloud is a no brainer. I don't mind the cheesy voiceovers either, kinda comes with the territory, but it could only be temporary voices used just for this. 

Very happy with how it's shaping up, there's nothing there I don't like. 

[Stevo985]

Hmmmm, I was a late comer to the original, and pretty much hated it due to the complete lack of gameplay (turn based games are **** dull).

So if they've taken that element out and added some actual combat and stuff to do more than just walking from point A to point B, I may very well check this out, as I've always felt I've been missing out here.

[hogso]

It would have been bonkers to pander to the minority and keep a turn based battle system, it was definitely required to turn it into an action based system instead. I've always loved the characters, locales, and stories, which seem to be polished as mich as one could hope, at least goin by the new teaser.

This out over night though has raised some eyebrows - the game will be 'told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience'.

I can only assume this means it's going to be episodic. The three discs in three parts? Probably not, as part 3 would be, well, pretty much nothing. Except chocobo breeding and the end game. I don't really like that sound of that, as it suggests they're going to smash through 'part one' to get it out, then you'll have to wait 3 months for the next bit. Not a style of playing that suits an RPG at all. Hopefully they're early enough into development to realise that is a very silly decision, and it is reversed.

The each entry having a unique experience bit, though...that is odd. Unique in regards to story? Gameplay? Verh strange.

[Chindie]

Making it episodic let's them nickel and dime it to the nth degree. Given that this is about the holiest of holy cows Square has, there's not really any surprise they're going to milk it dry. Expect it to be DLC'd out of its arse as well.

[hogso]

This explanation was offered by the Director, Tetsuya Nomura, in a Japanese interview translated on NeoGAF; "If we tried to stuff the whole game into one release, some part of the game would have to appear as digests. We’d have to remove some contents from the game, and it would be difficult to add more to the game. Considering that a full remake of the original game must be achieved, we have decided to split the game into episodes."

The latest thinking is that it'll be like the Mass Effect Trilogy, and link saves that way...but how would this work in regards to levelling, for example, is anyone's guess.

[Dr_Pangloss]

5 hours ago, Chindie said:

Making it episodic let's them nickel and dime it to the nth degree. Given that this is about the holiest of holy cows Square has, there's not really any surprise they're going to milk it dry. Expect it to be DLC'd out of its arse as well.

Yep, kind of sums up the industry to me, squeeze as much money as possible out of a game that will already be a big success, since the hard work (story etc) has already been done like 18-19 years ago. 

[Ingram85]

Why charge £45 for a game when you can charge £15-20 per "episode". Ugh.

I'll wait until they are all out and discounted in a sale. Word removed's.

[Ginko]

Was I the only one who was a little underwhelmed from that trailer then?

Looked a little empty to me, that and I've not been a fan of the latest FF games so if they stick to that sort of thing I think I'm going to be disappointed. Here's hoping I'm wrong and they pull out all the stops though.

[jacketspuds]

Waited 18 years for a remake, I think I can wait another year or so for a FF7 complete edition.

[hogso]

If what they're saying is true, that'd be a bit like waiting till the third mass effect came out before playing any of the games. Which you might like to do, but it's certainly not something I'll be doing. They're very keen to avoid the term 'episodic' as that term basically equates to a game being very short. They're suggesting they'll develop three full length games, parts I, II and III. Kitase had this to say in an interview with Famitsu -

 

Quote

"If we took everything that's in the original game and remade it at that quality, we couldn't get it all on a single release.

For instance, players will be able to explore many different areas of Midgar in this game that they couldn't access in the original -  if we're remaking this world, we want to add in areas like this and depict them with real detail," said director Tetsuya Nomura. Of course, there may be parts that are cut from the original for various reasons, but with all the new depiction that we're adding to the game and the level of detail we're incorporating, the overall amount of content is only going to increase."

Sursh

 

Confirmed that cross-dressing for Don Corneo will remain too.

I'd suggest the following for how the split in regards to the story should go;

I - Start - Gold Saucer (inc. Midgar, Kalm, Chocobo Farm, Junon, Costa Del Sol)

II - Coral Prison - Temple of the Ancients (inc. Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, Rocket Town, Wutai)

III - Icicle Inn - End (inc. Mountain Climbing, Mideel, Coral Town, Junon, Rocket Town, Midgar, North Crater)

I'd like to see new locales, too. All the towns should be pretty hefty things, with their own quests in the contempary style. With the mention of things cut from the original, I expect to see bits such as the rumoured Aerith revival quest that was cut from the original included. Yuffie and Vincent with their associated side quests would be mandatory, too.

Edited December 9, 2015 by hogso

[Chindie]

I'd kill for a FF9 remake...To this day my favourite Final Fantasy.

[hogso]

If VII is a big success, it wouldn't be a terribly difficult decision for them to remake VIII and IX too, under the same sort of process. That'd mean all the pre-PS3 era offline games would have had some sort of significant update (all the pre-VII games have had Steam/iOS/android releases with a graphical update (even the sequel to IV!)), except for XII, which has been heavily rumoured to be having a 'HD' release since X/X-2 HD came out. I'd love to see it.

It does leave VI as the odd one out, though, really. Massive, massive, game, definitely worthy of a remake as well, but would SE be put off by a perceived lack of fanbase, given it's age, that wouldn't push sales like the VII remake will? Likely. Which is a shame as it should be spoken of in similar terms to the PS1 era games.

Kitase (original and remake director) has a blog post on the SE site. He doesn't say anything unexpected, really;

"With Final Fantasy VII remake, we have the opportunity to go beyond the story, world and experience of Final Fantasy VII in ways we've always dreamed of - from the depths of Midgar to the skies above the Planet.

"The multi-part format enables us to expand the original story and turn it into an epic experience for fans and new gamers alike."

blog.

More story, no surprise, is there anything more to the 'skies above the planet' line? Maybe not. But perhaps the game will have us fly to the comet in Cid's rocket and try to blow it up, accompanied by an Aerosmith soundtrack.

[hogso]

Kitase has come out again to re-iterate the size of the 'episodes' - specifically using the XIII trilogy as an example, suggesting each 'episode' will be the size of those games. Time will tell, but I'm a little dubious.

[Dante_Lockhart]

By 'Episodes' does he mean 'individual games' like FF13, 13-2, LR? How would that work?

Game 1: First mission to Kalm

Game 2: Junon to Mount Nibel

Game 3:  Rocket Town to Junon escape

Game 4: Mideel to end game

[hogso]

I presume 3, and drew up a similar 'schedule' earlier on in the thread. It'll be FFVIIR Parts I, II, and III. I can only hope that each part is a game as large as each of the FFXIII trilogy, with say 50 hours in the campaign and something to do in the gap between games. They're still calling it episodic though, which also suggests the gap between each will be perhaps 6 months rather than a full year. Question is, would you want the gamein parts, or wait an extra 18 months/2 yearsfor the whole thing. I'm not really sure I can answer that, but I think the correct answer should be to just release the whole thing in one go.

[villa4europe]

the only way i can see it working is by adding a huge amount of scale to the world map, they can bump up the cities but i dont know if that will work, can you imagine if in episode one they made it so deep it took 20 hours to get out of midgar?

also interested how the gold saucer will work across the episodes (and how it will work in general, and if they will keep the amazing little things in the game like the bloke at the GS station)

[Dante_Lockhart]

Surely making it all in one go would be the best option? They fact that you can go back to most towns during the course of the game means that even the 3rd instalment will need ALL the info from the previous discs.

[V01]

I'd guess it will work like an expansion/disc swap. so the 3 episodes all fall under one game on the console and if you have the disc you just leave the newest one in.

[Daweii]

My main concern is playability.. I mean in theory this works especially in a digital age just have all 3-4 episodes installed so it works, the main issue is by the time episode 4 is out it'll be a 250GB game on the HDD and we may actually start to see how slow the PS4 HDD actually is. It's mad that full installs are needed on PS4 because Blu-Ray is too slow, but this game by the end may actually show that Sony going for a 5400 RPM HDD may be too slow as well.

Not even factoring in that with PS4K being a thing and Sony likely streamlining console releases to an every 3 year cycle. We could have Episode 1 leveraging PS4, Episodes 2 and 3 leveraging PS4K and Episode 4 taking so long it's on PS5. Unless Square Enix plan to launch Episode 4 as the ugliest PS5 game and don't leverage the power of PS4K, then this Episodic format may leave for a very jarring looking game visually.

[hogso]

I can only hope my presumption is right and we'll get them every 6 months, but yeah it'll be interesting if this supports PS4K. I'd want one if so.