Schlagwort: ffvii remake

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With last week’s release of the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo, countless fans finally have a chance to relive the thrill of that first Mako reactor run. From returning to Midgar, recreating the game cover of Cloud gazing up at the hulking Shinra building, and hearing the impressively reimagined soundtrack, it’s easy to imagine how FFVII Remake is inspiring some major nostalgic feels. After all, who doesn’t immediately get transported back to memories of the original?

Well, me for one.

I didn’t play FFVII when it was first released. Until recently, I had never even played a Final Fantasy game. The legendary series has always been one of my biggest cultural blind spots, either due to age (in 1997 I was five), or from willful ignorance. JRPGs didn’t always click with me as a kid, and while I saw snippets of different FF titles while gaming with friends over the years, it never quite drew me in enough to play an entry on my own.

Even in 2018 when I finally booted up FFVII on PS4, determined to give a celebrated classic a shot, I still couldn’t connect. There were elements of the game that excited me (The summons! The soundtrack! Tifa!), but even after reaching a certain pivotal plot point (you know which one!), I found myself losing steam and ultimately I didn’t finish it. Maybe I was coming to it too late, maybe my expectations were too high. But ultimately I figured I was firmly on the “Final Fantasy isn’t for me” train.

Which is why after a hands-on experience last month, it’s blowing my mind that Final Fantasy VII Remake is easily one of my most anticipated games of 2020.

At first I thought it was just the updated graphics. That opening sequence drifting through a fully realized and lived-in Midgar is nothing short of stunning. Seeing Cloud leap into action at the beginning of the Mako reactor run genuinely sparked joy in me. He and the AVALANCHE crew are stylishly realized, and seeing them move through the world was a delight. Their personalities shine from small quips during battle to longer fleshed out cutscenes, and I was immediately endeared to the bombastic Barret and sweet, kindhearted Aerith. It helps that the world they are moving through gleams with eye-catching environments. From the glowing metal walkways of the Mako reactor, to the harried and burning alleyways of Midgar’s business district, I couldn’t stop pausing to take in my surroundings.

Square Enix’s updated vision of Midgar had successfully piqued my interest, but I felt like I was finally cutting my teeth as a true Final Fantasy convert during the fast-paced and kinetic combat. Y’all, I was having the time of my life during these battle sequences. Switching between Cloud and his party members is a fluid choreography that I was thrilled to learn, and once I had the hang of balancing my ATB charges and abilities, I felt like I could conquer Shinra and the world. That’s not to say I always had the hang of it — there were some particularly harrowing moments in a post-demo boss battle where I felt like I was using every ATB charge to force feed my party Potions. But once I found a steady rhythm, mastering the dance between characters and abilities felt natural. More than that, it felt exciting in a way that I had never felt about Final Fantasy before.

This increased tenfold when I used a Summon for the first time. Unlike in the original FFVII, Summons are something that require teamwork to get the most out of. With a Summoning materia equipped, one character can unleash a Summon, but then all party members can use their ATB charges to guide it in battle. It makes the Summon so much more than a cool animation and hefty attack. Instead they are an active and lasting part of the fight that encouraged more of that kinetic back and forth that I was thriving on. I might not have a lot of feelings tied to the original game, but I definitely felt something powerful when I unleashed Shiva during a fight.

It’s a feeling that stayed with me well after my playthrough, and again once I sat down to play the demo at home. It may have taken 23 years, but for the first time in my life, I think I’m fully on board the Final Fantasy train. I can’t wait to see where it takes me when Final Fantasy VII Remake comes to PS4 on April 10.

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Reimagining gaming icons is no easy task. Yet two decades after fans said goodbye to Final Fantasy VII’s cast as the original game’s credits rolled, came a welcome reunion. And since that initial tease, Square Enix has introduced us to the ‘Remake’ versions of the likes of Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII. All were welcomed with open arms.

And one of the biggest characters (literally) benefiting from the added graphical heft PS4 and Unreal Engine provides is Midgar. A spot you may have been exploring yourself this week in the newly released demo.

Even back in 1997 and exploring barely a fraction of its entirety, the city left an indelible mark. From the filth-ridden slums that devoured its underside to the towering presence of the Shinra headquarters at its centre, the place felt tangibly real.

The Remake’s recently unveiled opener showcased much which had been left to our imagination in the original version. Flying between skyscrapers and into the streets below, we glimpse not only the daily lives of Midgar’s inhabitants, but gain a sense of how extensive Square Enix’s changes are. The steampunk-influenced city-state is now fully-realized.

And with that sequence’s promise of the expanded, yet familiar, Midgar that awaits for us all to explore on 10th April, we sat down with producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi to walk us through its key scenes and talk about the design decisions the studio has made when rebuilding this iconic city for PS4.

1. Beyond the Wasteland

The opening scene is completely different from the original, giving us a bird’s eye view (literally) of the area surrounding the city. One that’s devoid of life. I ask if this is an early nod to one of the story’s central themes: planetary devastation due to industrialization. Kitase acknowledges that was one reason. “We didn’t want to go over the top with it,” says the producer. “But there is very much the nuance that [Midgar] is damaging the surrounding area.”

2. Advent Children references

We then spiral into a gleaming, sun-kissed metropolis. A side of Midgar we’ve not seen since 2005 movie Advent Children. Did the studio use any reference material from the game’s subsequent tie-ins or did it start afresh?

“We did refer to Advent Children and other previous series’ work when rebuild Midgar,” explains co-director Naoki Hamaguchi. “But one of the main things we actually set out to redo was the scale of the city itself. The original wasn’t that realistic if you consider the size of the individual buildings and how big they were in comparison to the overall city. It was quite condensed; we really set out to make Midgar realistic. The size between the buildings, the density… that’s one of the big things we set out to change.”

3. City-building logistics

So does that mean the studio has a fully-designed topographical map of Midgar? Sort of, according to the co-director. “We haven’t done it all to the same quality or same level of detail as the actual areas you do get to visit in the game, but we have mapped out the entire city and what’s in each of those areas.”

But that hasn’t stopped the team answering an important theoretical question: could the city’s design work for real? “You know the structure of Midgar; you’ve the big central pillar, and each sector is supported by its own sub-pillar,” continues Hamaguchi. “We worked out the right size and construction, how big those pillars would need to be to physically support the weight of the plate on top of them. Also the honeycomb structure of the pillars and where the tunnels would have to go for it to still work as a physical structure.

“That has all been mapped out and we understand quite a lot of detail about the realities of how Midgar would be constructed as a city.”

4. Everyday life in Midgar

Yoshinori Kitase: “We really wanted to show the everyday lives of Midgar’s citizens. [Partly] to show how they lived in this massive city powered by Mako energy, how and when they’d be using it, to tell that aspect of the story.

“The original version went straight into the bombing mission. We wanted that feeling that things were already underway, you were in the middle of the action. Yet if you immediately went from there into the panic caused by the bombing mission afterwards, you wouldn’t understand the impact it had on the inhabitants’ everyday lives before that event interrupted them. That’s why we started with this domestic kind of scene.”

5. Architectural digest

Gleaming skyscrapers give way to smaller buildings made of brick. There are glimpses of construction work as we get to street level. A city constantly expanding, building on itself, building over its history. “The idea is that the city is being built from the center outwards,” says Kitase. “You can also sense the different architectural styles as you go out from the central pillar, with high-rises on the city edge. We’ve put quite a bit of effort into making you feel like it is modernizing as the city builds outwards.”

6. A downtrodden playground

A familiar sight to those who have poured over 2015’s announcement trailer, the playground serves as a storytelling tool to distinguish the economic inequality between Midgar’s citizens. But not just between those living on the plates and those in the slums underneath. “Within each sector you’ve got the difference between rich and poor. Each plate is its own city,” states Hamaguchi. “There are some areas within those that are older, beaten up. The playground is used to show there are downturned areas that aren’t so well off in the city areas too.”

7. A city’s lifeblood

Yoshinori Kitase: “Up to [this point in the opener] we’ve seen the benefits of living with Mako. It supports people’s comfortable lifestyle in the city. But the depiction here of the Mako reactor turning on is that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows; there’s a darker side to Mako as well.”

8. A flower girl

A callback to the original’s iconic opening scene appears some two minutes into Remake’s version. “I felt that it was a great transition,” says Kitase simply of the new version, as we swoop from the Mako-touched skies above the reactor to an alley and Aerith’s debut.

9. A walk down Loveless Street

A pan out brings us to the entertainment hub of Midgar, Loveless Street, complete with cinemas and other venues. We note its proximity to Reactor No.1, your actions in which will shortly devastate this peaceful district. “The player gets to see how the [Reactor bombing] impacts the city,” Hamaguchi explains. “We want them to feel conflicted about the effects of their actions. That’s why we depicted this area in such detail.”

10. A beacon of industry

In Remake, Shinra’s headquarters is relatively untouched. At least on the outside. “We didn’t want to mess with the outer form of the building, because it could really affect people’s memories of what Midgar should look like. The inside though, like the floor structure, has seen major rearranging.” Hamaguchi remains tight-lipped on specifics though. “It’s something we want players to discover when they’re inside.”

11. A city of many experiences

Naoki Hamaguchi: “The core concept we worked on was that the player must be able to experience Midgar for themselves. Each individual location within has distinctive concepts and personalities. There’s a different style of gameplay experience waiting in each one of them.”

12. Lighting supplied by Unreal Engine

Naoki Hamaguchi: “We’ve used new tech to enhance the game’s lighting, to make the city of Midgar feel as real as possible. A network of over 100 synced PCs do copious physics simulations, calculations to work out the exact realistic reflection and how the lighting beams will bounce off any object in the game. Through doing that we managed to create amazing atmospheric lighting for the city.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOA5GwRcBks&w=1032&h=581]

What do you think about the reinvented Midgar? Leave your impressions of what you’ve seen in the demo thus far in the comments below!

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

By now you’ve likely seen the news – you can finally play Final Fantasy VII Remake in your own home via the just-announced PS4 demo. If you’re at all curious about this beautifully reimagined adventure, download the demo and run through the memorable “bombing run” mission for yourself. It wowed PS1 players back in 1997, and I’m happy to say the 2020 interpretation is just as riveting.

If you missed the PS1 original or any of its subsequent re-releases, think of the bombing run as a cold open for the entire game. You’re thrust into a death-defying mission to take out a Mako reactor, a device the omnipresent Shinra Electric Power Company is using to fuel all sorts of modern marvels. The catch is this process may be siphoning energy right out of the planet itself, a fact Shinra chooses to ignore. Naturally this doesn’t sit well with some folks, namely the initial heroes of Final Fantasy VII.

A NEW EXPERIENCE

The demo – and main game – begins with Barret, Cloud, and the AVALANCHE group rolling up to the facility, breaking inside, and planting a bomb on Mako Reactor 1. A tense boss battle unfolds, the reactor blows, and the demo concludes. It was effective 23 years ago, and it’s a wild ride today.

But where that demo ends, our hands-on experience begins. Immediately after the blast, Cloud and crew escape underground and then scatter into the streets. This sequence takes perhaps 10 minutes in the original game, with just a handful of scenes and camera perspectives to sell the action. In the remake, Cloud is hoofing it through alleys, up fire escapes, and across rooftops with Shinra soldiers at every turn. Civilians lie injured in the streets, chaos reigns in all directions, and you’re left to wonder, was the bombing worth all this?

And this sequence is what really made FFVII Remake click for me. I see how Square Enix plans to not just lengthen, but also enrich the original experience with moments and events that further sell the aftermath of such a momentous attack. While the original did an excellent job in 1997, 2020’s remake fully conveys the destruction with flames, injured NPCs, collapsing infrastructure, and an overall chaotic tone as you’re fired upon by Shinra goons. There are so many pivotal moments within the city of Midgar that could benefit from this treatment, so I can’t wait to see how they play out in the remake.

Chapter 2 also adds an encounter with Aerith and, believe it or not, a flashback / hallucinatory manifestation of Sephiroth. This entire segment is new, and does a great job cementing Sephiroth’s looming, villainous presence within the FFVIIR world. He towers over Cloud not just in physical stature, but also confidence; as capable as Cloud seems in these opening moments, he’s clearly outclassed by this specter from his past. I won’t get into the words exchanged or what exactly happens, but it’s interesting to see just how much FFVIIR is going to play with existing fans’ assumptions. The end result seems to be a game that’s welcoming to new players, but fresh even if you know the original front to back.

THOSE WHO FIGHT

From this point we move to another save file further into the game. Melee expert Tifa joins Cloud and Barret, and we’re ready to take out another reactor. As you can determine for yourself via the demo, the battle system has you attacking to build up ATB charges and then spend said charges on Abilities, Spells, or Items. Each character also brings something unique to the fight, such as Barret’s long-range bullets or Cloud’s powerful Punisher stance.

Some enemies are pushovers. Others require smart positioning, efficient use of ATB, and using all three characters to push enemies into a staggered state. Once staggered, you can really pour on the pain. Players are also given the option to choose between this action-oriented approach (complete with evade rolls and controller shortcuts to Abilities and Spells), or a Classic Mode where characters attack automatically and you direct the usage of ATB.

The save we played had access to powerful Summon Materia as well. Materia grants characters spells and other abilities, while Summon Materia gives the equipped character access to that particular Summon – in this case, Final Fantasy mainstay Leviathan. Once summoned, the monster will fight alongside your party on its own, or you can spend ATB on powerful attacks (while still having access to your own ATB abilities). If the enemy you’re fighting is weak to the Summons’ powers, you can dish out a whole lotta damage in short order.

Case in point is a battle against Abzu, a boss we fought later in the demo session. In this instance I had Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith in my party, with the latter having access to Ifrit. He bursts onto the scene with fiery… flare… and really tears into this boss, giving me time to heal and build charges. I didn’t sample Classic Mode but can say the default approach really makes you consider each action. Mashing Attack is good and all, but bosses and enemies have all kinds of tricks that make you change tactics quickly.

MORE MIDGAR

By the time our session wrapped up, I was eager to find new Materia, experiment with battles, and further see just how much content Square Enix has added to the original experience. Almost any moment I could recall from the past – President Shinra’s encounter with the trio near one of the reactors, or a simple button-pressing minigame, for instance – has been totally reimagined and dramatized in a way that makes even familiar moments feel new again. Love what I’ve seen so far and can’t wait to see the rest of what Midgar has to offer.

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 5 minutes

For many longtime PlayStation fans, the original Final Fantasy VII was a groundbreaking, genre-defining experience. We’re naturally eager to learn more about the fully reimagined Final Fantasy VII Remake, which dramatically updates both the gameplay and the storytelling of the beloved original.

So when we received this latest batch of screens we asked our friends at Square Enix if they could provide some context for a few of them. Take a peek at the captions below these screenshots, then browse the full gallery below.

Each weapon has its own unique weapon abilities that increase in proficiency the more they are used. When an ability’s proficiency level reaches the maximum, that ability is then learned by the wielder and can be used when wielding any weapon.

Here we see Cloud’s Buster Sword upgrade screen. The different options allow you to improve the wielder’s status or increase the number of Materia slots available.

Classic Mode can be activated by selecting “CLASSIC” from the difficulty menu. In Classic Mode, party members will act automatically, with the ATB gauge filling up as they do so. In this mode, the player only needs to select which abilities, magic, and items they will use their ATB charges for. This brings the feel of the gameplay closer to the menu-based battles from the original FFVII but with the amazing immersive graphics of the remake.

It is also possible to revert to direct control at any time during Classic Mode by pushing buttons on the controller.

The triangle button activates each character’s unique ability. Cloud’s unique ability is to switch between different fighting styles. He can switch between “Operator Mode” which has a good balance between attack and defense, and “Punisher Mode” [pictured] which is geared heavily towards offense. In Punisher Mode, Cloud’s movement speed is reduced, but his basic square button attacks are upgraded to even mightier blows.

Chocobo & Moogle use their special move “Stampede” to run down the enemy with a herd of chocobos.

While equipping Summon Materia, you will be able to summon a powerful ally once the special summon gauge fills up. Summons will fight alongside you automatically on the battlefield, but you can also use your own ATB charges to have them perform special abilities. Just before they leave the fight, your ally will unleash a powerful special move!

Assess – Materia that allows you to use the Assess ability. When you use Assess on an enemy, you can see their resistances and weaknesses, making it easier to defeat them in battle.

You can play darts at the dartboard in Seventh Heaven.

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake arrives on PS4 March 3, 2020.

Website: LINK