Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (29th February 2024)

[Julius]

We've got previews! Not too surprising as one preview slipped out a bit early yesterday...and the thoughts seem real positive! 

Game Informer also got a chance to sit down with some of the team and asked about the game being on two discs:

Quote

Why Two Discs?

Rebirth is so big that Square is splitting it between two discs. Hamaguchi states that the game is 150GB, with 100 on one disc and 50 on the other. However, you won't be swapping discs like fans did with the original. Due to the PS5 architecture, players will first install the entire game by inserting both discs. After that, only one of them will be needed to play the full game.

Hamaguchi explains the decision to split Rebirth in this way had less to do with rekindling nostalgia and more as a method to preserve the team's lofty vision for it. Square had always envisioned Rebirth as a massive, highly detailed world more immersive than Remake's revamped Midgar. Thus, squeezing it on a single Blu-ray would have forced the designers to scale back on content and ideas, so doubling up on discs became the obvious solution.

Hype. Just over five months to go... 

[Julius]

Special TGS showing covers some open world exploration, Kalm, chocobo catching, hunts, mini-games and the return of CHADLEY! 

Excellent companion piece to the previews from the other day! 

[Glen-i]

Bit of clarification on a new mechanic.

Quote

RPGFan: In the trailers, we have seen the synergy team attacks. Will everybody have a team attack with every character à la Chrono Trigger, or will it be limited to a specific grouping of characters?

Hamaguchi: Thank you for this great question. To answer it simply, all characters will have synergy attacks with every character pairing. Sort of the reason why we decided to do it this way was to give players that freedom and fun of choosing through trial and error their favorite pairings or trying unique pairings they hadn't tried before. If we were to have it so that only specific characters are able to synergy attack, that would go against this idea of freedom and enjoyment for the player. We really wanted to keep that idea of freedom for the players despite knowing that a lot of hard work and graphic resources went into making it this way.

So yeah, it seems to be their take on Dual Techs from Chrono Trigger. That's rad! Wonder if there'll be Triple Techs as well?

Can't wait for this to come out on PC!

Edited October 14, 2023 by Glen-i

[Julius]

S-E have pretty randomly dropped a wonderfully narrated story recap of the Remake project's happenings so far:

Seriously wonder if this might be the (optional to watch it, recap-style) opening for the game? 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Julius

[Julius]

Full trailer from the TGAs, including the delightful theme song for the game (WARNING: I think it shows a fair bit, so if you're sensitive to that and want to go media blackout...now would be the time based on this trailer):

And just the song itself: 

I'm getting A Place to Call Home vibes.

Damn it, Uematsu  Loren Allred has a beautiful voice, too  I know VII was the only PS1 mainline FF to go without a love theme (kinda), so for Uematsu to finally give it one in the Remake project feels special 

ALSO!

Spoiler

JESSIE! CID!

The live performance:

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

What a trailer!  

I may as well just declare this my GOTY of 2024 right now.  

[drahkon]

Not watching it.

I NEED THIS GAME

[Hero-of-Time]

Gorgeous. 

[Happenstance]

12 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Gorgeous. 

Hmmm, might have to be my new phone wallpaper

[Glen-i]

OK guys. I'm gonna have to ask the question. It's time to place your bets! You know what I'm going to ask, but I'll spoiler it anyway.

Spoiler

Yes, I'm talking about that scene. Anyone who's played FF7 knows which scene.

Will Sephiroth successfully land his "Down Air" on Aerith? Or will some stupid retcon stop him?

Quite frankly, I firmly believe Square will cop out and not kill Aerith off. They haven't the orbs to do it. And every lame-o will celebrate that their fanfiction they wrote 20 years ago is now canon.

 

[Dcubed]

Sephiroth is totally gonna whiff that down A and lose his final stock in spectacular fashion.

[Hero-of-Time]

Zack is gonna swoop in and save the day. 

[Happenstance]

I'd have zero problems with it changing anyway. That's kind of the whole point of this series now, all that stuff already happened.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

I'd have zero problems with it changing anyway. That's kind of the whole point of this series now, all that stuff already happened.

Exactly. I wanna see where the new twists take us. If I want the old story I can play the original game.

[Dcubed]

28 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Exactly. I wanna see where the new twists take us. If I want the old story I can play the original game.

The entire point of this retelling is to rewrite history into something totally new.  Everything involving the whispers is a metacommentary on existing FF7 fans who don't want anything bastardised or changed (which will be interesting to see what happens when the cast inevitably prevent Aerith's intended death).

As long as S-E don't attempt to bury the original game and refuse to let it continue to be re-released in the future. I have no issues with them doing whatever with this new FF7.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I'd have zero problems with it changing anyway. That's kind of the whole point of this series now, all that stuff already happened.

Oh no, I agree. And I am all in on Nomura's Crazy Retcon Train! It's fun seeing what liberties Remake took.

The thing is though, I'm so expecting it to change at this point, that it playing out as it does in the original would actually be a legit twist.

It's what I would do in his shoes.

[Julius]

On 12/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, Glen-i said:

OK guys. I'm gonna have to ask the question. It's time to place your bets! You know what I'm going to ask, but I'll spoiler it anyway.

  Spoilers for a PS1 Game (Reveal hidden contents)

Yes, I'm talking about that scene. Anyone who's played FF7 knows which scene.

Will Sephiroth successfully land his "Down Air" on Aerith? Or will some stupid retcon stop him?

Quite frankly, I firmly believe Square will cop out and not kill Aerith off. They haven't the orbs to do it. And every lame-o will celebrate that their fanfiction they wrote 20 years ago is now canon.

 

I've had full on fever dreams about this since the trailer dropped, and my take is pretty firmly that...

Spoiler

...you do both. 

Aerith bites it once again. 

But! 

She is "reborn" - ahem, Rebirth - in Zack's timeline following this; she snaps out of one timeline and into the other. Remake very, very heavily hinted that Sephiroth has been hopping between timelines of various VII projects, and it seems only natural that allowing Aerith to do so in death would be the planet's way to respond – she dies, ends up in the lifestream, and wakes up in the body of the Aerith in Zack's timeline. Aerith also knowing bits and pieces of what's happened in other timelines in Remake maybe even hints that this isn't the first time it's happened. Would be floored if we find out the infection point (her sort of typical "respawn" spot) is her very introduction at the start of VII/Remake in the alleyway, that would be wild. 

Anyways, this way you get both the gut punch of the original, the continued deviation and wackiness of the Remake project, and have no idea what's going on as we move into the final game. You also get a hint of hope, a further hint about these worlds inevitably colliding in the final part of the trilogy, and story-wise it would allow you to have split parties in different timelines until everything collides: one spearheaded by Cloud, and the other by Zack. 

 

On 12/11/2023 at 1:25 PM, Dcubed said:

As long as S-E don't attempt to bury the original game and refuse to let it continue to be re-released in the future. I have no issues with them doing whatever with this new FF7.

While I agree with you and @Hero-of-Time in that I appreciate S-E doing the unexpected with this project and making some very bold decisions along the way, I do think having a remake project basically end up being a sequel project is a really interesting choice. 

On the one hand, it's awesome to reward longtime fans, as well as for those like me who weren't even born at the time of original VII's release but don't mind going back and playing older games (heck, I even watched AC and it was WILD). So much of the Remake project so far has clearly come from a place of love on S-E's side. 

However, it also potentially limits the future reach of the project, at least commercially? I have friends I could probably convince to play a PS4/PS5 remake of a PS1 game, but good luck convincing them to play a not-so-great looking and fairly clunky-controlling PS1 game to then move onto this remake-quel. I think the overwhelming majority of modern players don't care to go back to a PS1 game, in all honesty. 

In fact, just recently I had a friend ask me to fill him in on the details of VII as he'd started playing Remake, and I essentially just had to say "you'll be fine for most of it as it introduces everything like it's a remake...until suddenly it's not;" he ended up just looking up a video or two to catch him up lore-wise, and while I wouldn't say that's the best way to handle it if you haven't the played the original before going into Remake, the further away we get from original VII, the more likely I think that's going to become the reality for new fans looking to experience this story – at which point, I've got to ask, are the continued re-releases of the original 1997 game aimed at new fans to have them step into this story, or for old fans to revisit a cherished favourite?

Either way, I think even if Remake had been a 1:1 project encapsulating the entire journey in one game, that the original VII would be safe and continue to be released, purely because this is Square Enix ($$$), one of their biggest landmark titles, and so much of that original staff is still around today. It's not a Bluepoint situation, I don't think, where we'll likely never see the original Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls versions released again with native versions on new platforms, because they've effectively been replaced by their remakes. 

With all this in mind, unless Ever Crisis gets the touch-ups and fixes it needs to be a new and definitive way to play the original story, I genuinely wouldn't be shocked if VII got another remake project in the next 25 years to basically deliver on the idea and promise of remaking VII closer to 1:1 (with the tech and consoles to allow for it) and nothing more, especially if that long rumoured IX remake does come to fruition. 

Or - I don't know why this came to mind, and this is a random stab in the dark - I feel like there's a bit of a cute and fun workaround to throw in here to have included a "remake" (or just a way to experience the PS1 game in a modernised way) in the Remake project: how awesome would it be if the final game in the trilogy ends and it unlocks a VII Remastered? Basically what mods can achieve on PC: new models, updated backgrounds, etc., for the original top-down game. Kind of like how completing Dragon Quest XI in Japan gave players a chance to download the original Dragon Quest for free (first time it was available on a PlayStation platform in any form, too, which makes it especially nuts!). 

Will it happen? No. But would it be awesome and an especially classy way to cap off the VII Remake trilogy? Sleep-deprived me certainly thinks so 

[Glen-i]

Interesting theory @Julius. I never considered that angle as an option. Although, that does run the risk of getting to Kingdom Hearts level of confusion.

As for the other point. I feel like that general viewpoint of "retro not being playable" that more younger people have is partly why a lot of developers are pivoting to what is perceived to be popular. FF7 Remake does it well, but when a game does it poorly (Lightning Returns: FF13 being a prime example), it really highlights what gets lost in the change in direction.

Sure, it's great when a genuinely good game like FF7 Remake comes around, but if anything, this might encourage more niche genres to shift to more contemporary ones. After all, BotW has made more then a couple of other Ninty IP's ape what it does.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Glen-i

[Dcubed]

Sounds to me like Julius has been playing too much of Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma 

[Julius]

On 12/26/2023 at 8:35 AM, Glen-i said:

Although, that does run the risk of getting to Kingdom Hearts level of confusion.

Looks back at how Remake ended and me audibly going "Nomura wtf dude we left the rails in our dust about three hours ago, this isn't KH, chill tf out"

Oh, I have full faith that we're going there  just how wild it gets really depends on what Nojima has decided to do with the story, I remember reading somewhere that Nomura wanted a generally faithful remake and it was Nojima who just went off the rails – and looking at Nojima's work as a writer outside of the Remake project, while he's worked on titles revered like VIII and X back in the day, he's also been one of the main writers on:

Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2, Chain of Memories, X-2, Crisis Core, The First Soldier, Stranger of Paradise (and Subspace Emissary with 

So, I'm pretty confident it's getting weird (and also sorry Nomura for assuming it was just down to you; as it turns out, your main writer is the main writer from KH, how did we not figure it'd get weird?!). I remember when Remake came out watching Maximillian Dood's reactions/theories and he seemed super unhinged when he went off the rails about the story back then, but I think in retrospect, he pretty much nailed it. As time has passed I think I've just generally settled on it getting weird. 

And I dig it 

On 12/26/2023 at 8:35 AM, Glen-i said:

I feel like that general viewpoint of "retro not being playable" that more younger people have is partly why a lot of developers are pivoting to what is perceived to be popular.

I think it's a difficult one, because I don't even especially think it's a case of people looking at the original VII and older games and thinking they're unplayable – more than, well, look at everything else around today. Returning to a game that's 25+ years old now that was on the cutting edge of 3D at the time, and considering just how far games have come since then with how mechanics and QoL features have evolved...while I won't say that it's unfair to expect people to return to older games, I do think it's very difficult to do when your frame of reference before going back is the state of modern gaming. It's very different to something like returning to an old film, for example, because of the feedback and interactivity involved in games – VII makes sense being the way it is when you consider that it's an evolution of I - VI and a mostly successful transition to 3D, but is so, so different to what is out there today, that going back to early 3D games can feel genuinely jarring when it comes to their controls and perspectives.

Again, I don't want to oversell going back to a PS1 game as being some massive woe-is-me undertaking, but it's like comparing the state of competitive sprinting and all of the strides it's made technologically and through our advanced understanding of biology and biomechanics to similar competitive events at the very first Olympics, thousands of years ago – and then perhaps like asking a modern day sprinter to drop all the specially designed gear, tracks, training, diet, etc., and race against the giants of that early sporting age. 

This isn't me at all disagreeing with you, by the way, because I hear your point on devs pivoting to what is popular – in fact, I think it's cyclical in that when I think of, say, a Metal Gear Solid remake, what comes to mind but a third-person, over-the-shoulder, mostly cover-based shooter? AAA studios and the general gaming audience are kind of just blindly feeding off the expectations of one another, it feels, and the popular options is often the same as the one as the safe option, unfortunately. I think the problem then becomes a case of S-E taking steps forward and back, leaning on what is popular or trying to align themselves with that several times over in the 25+ years (which is a looooooooong time in terms of video game history) since VII to bounce back from poor decisions or to please shareholders, etc. How many playing VII at launch on 1997 would've thought XVI would come out as late as 2023 and basically throw so much of what it means to be a JRPG out of the window? 

It's a weird one, and I don't think there's a right or wrong way to go about it – as someone who enjoyed Remake, I guess the natural thing for me want to do is to share that enjoyment and experience with friends, and that's where I think a more typical remake at some point down the line is going to make sense, because

As someone who has gone back to a few games from that era for the first time, for me it comes from wanting to seek out new games and experiences to enjoy to form my own opinions on them and just gain a better understanding of what I enjoy, and I go in having opened myself up to the mindset of "this game is fairly old as far as video games go, let's get some context on games from the time and do away with my preconceived notions of what a game is now or what I thought a game was then, and take it as what it is – and then assess it through the lens of someone playing it today after the fact". But I don't think everyone can or wants to view games that way, or is open to going back to older games (which is okay, btw: play what you want to play) – and I can't blame them, to be honest, with just how many great games we're swamped with today, let alone everything else 

On 12/26/2023 at 9:41 AM, Dcubed said:

Sounds to me like Julius has been playing too much of Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma 

You'll need to explain this one for me as someone who hasn't played those games

but also: yes, almost definitely 

[Glen-i]

5 hours ago, Julius said:

You'll need to explain this one for me as someone who hasn't played those games.

Visual novels, so I won't actually explain why, because they're great plots, brought to you by the developers who gave you Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!

Unlikely to be the same writers, but it's still amusing.

[Julius]

18 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Visual novels, so I won't actually explain why, because they're great plots, brought to you by the developers who gave you Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!

Unlikely to be the same writers, but it's still amusing.

Oh yeah, I've heard of them, just having not played them I didn't know if it was brought up because I sound insane, because of their plots being insane or...other things being insane 

That PMD link does make me more interested though, I'll be honest 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Oh yeah, I've heard of them, just having not played them I didn't know if it was brought up because I sound insane, because of their plots being insane or...other things being insane 

Definitely the plots.

[Hero-of-Time]

 the art used here.

 

[Julius]

A tweet from the game's Japanese account shows that Fast Travel in the game is indeed fast: 

Quote

[Field movement: Fast travel]

You can instantly move to specific bases such as cities or Chocobo stops in various locations using fast travel. Use it wisely to advance your adventure, such as when you get lost and want to return to your original location.

Somehow it had completely slipped to the back of my mind that this would be an open world affair, just an overwhelming amount of games coming up these next few weeks. 

Crazy to think this game is just 6½ weeks away. Curious as to if and when we'll see a demo drop, maybe at the end of Jan/start of Feb?