Final Fantasy VII
 

Final Fantasy 7 is the first in the Final Fantasy series to show up on PC. It's inspired some spin-offs, a movie, and hundreds of mods in various other games.

It looks like it's also getting pretty heavily modded itself. Here's a video explaining a new mod that updates the background images so they look far better than they did way back in 1997. He's also got a mod replacing the characters and music running.

Great game that I've played through five times myself, and likely to replay again many times in the future. I'm not sure that I'd ever alter the original game though, it's just pretty darn good as is.

I'm not sure about those characters but I sure would update the backgrounds and monsters. And… umm… the bumble bee girls. :blush:

Glad to see this guy's videos here. He makes some great stuff.

I'm a little over a week late on this but…

Thanks for sharing that! Looks interesting that they've included everything from the previous series into this one. I guess it's because its the final one! I am still deciding whether to purchase it or wait for the price drop!

Hey, there's been another vague teaser about that long-delayed remake. Coming … soon? Ever? The answer remains hazy, but here is some fancy cgi to look at:



The only concrete information: there will be yet another teaser this summer at E3.

I have zero interest in a remake that they're splitting into three games just to milk the fanbase.

I'd no idea they were taking an episodic approach to this remake, that's just not cool. If I do acquire this one down the road, it will be well after all parts are available and fully updated/patched.

Yep last I read Square wanted to break the remake into three games. They claimed it would be to huge, and to maximize the money needed to fund the full remake.

I hadn't heard that either. I'm unlikely to buy the remake anyway as I understand it'll be more of an action/fighting game than an RPG, but yeah -- that's pretty shameless.

Episodes: can't tell if it will be bad or not. The original game IS huge and now the dialog is going to be real dialog instead of little text bubbles. I could see it being as long as Witcher 3 + Heart of Stone + Blood & Wine. It's hard to tell at this point how much will be cut out and what might be expanded. (Somehow I doubt Cloud cross dressing is going to make it in, though.)

There are little bits of combat in that video about two thirds of the way in but it's hard to tell how it works. It certainly isn't 3 characters lined up on one side.

I think you're remembering it as being larger than it actually was. It was a big game for its time, but it wasn't that big. They're going to have to add a substantial amount of new content to stretch it out over three games.

Their attempt at explaining that decision is pretty funny.

Say what??

I'm pretty sure that's Japanese for "Three games is more profitable than one".

The only reason why I bought FF15 was - hairworks.
Thanks to that I wasn't disappointed in failed story and other sterile stuff in the game.

I have no desire to play FF7, original nor remake, as from what I know it's some 5 year old kids game with kindergarden story. But I will open my wallet if it adds hairworks. Why?
I need something to demonstrate what PC is to friends when they come. That can't be phonegames with nudity filter graphics nor cleanshaved animals that would normally be furry.

I'll be basing my purchase on this revision product solely on what friends and others think of it. As of right now, I'm keeping my expectations extremely low.

I've got high hopes but there's really not any chance I'll buy until all the episodes are out.
@joxer - FF7 is not at all childish.

As someone whose favorite series is Final Fantasy, I'm remarkably hyped but just as equally cautious, and for a few reasons.

I'm not sure of the talent of modern day Square when it comes to replicating tone, atmosphere, emotional cues (visually and audibly), and storytelling with the original Final Fantasy VII. They have a huge task ahead of them, and being able to capture the world so perfectly in full 3D will be such a different experience from the original game. Then again, Crisis Core pulled it off very well.

Additionally, the notion that they'd need to split up the game into more than one installment is a bit worrying. The original Final Fantasy 7 came in three discs, but sold as one game. We need to see the pricing model of the remake before making any judgments. Will it be $60 per disc? $40? Who knows, but this isn't the Square from 20 years ago. A lot of key staff like Sakaguchi and Uematsu aren't a part of Square anymore.

I'm extremely cautious, but trying to be optimistic, too. I love FF, but I don't have any respect for price gouging. I'm content to pay more than what I usually do for games considering it's Final Fantasy, but there is a limit.

From my impression based on various articles it will be similar to Final Fantasy 13. Each new game/episode continued the story and was priced at $50-60 on it's release.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped…II_Box_Art.jpg

ESRB Teen.
Can it get more childish than that? Maybe. Dunno.

I'm not saying immature can't be fun, not only it can, there are numerous works that pwn "serious" products with quality and fun. But this is Square Enix. So far when it said teen on their titles I've played, it never ment - smart.

FF VII is actually pretty dark. It has its lighter moments, but it's not your typical cartoonish JRPG.

My only issue with the story/writing is that a few plot points weren't very clear. I think some things might have been lost in the English translation.

Hansel and Gretel is pretty dark too. It doesn't make it Adults Only.

It certainly is not a child's game, ala Sonic. It isn't my favourite of the series, but it's certainly well worth playing, assuming you enjoy the genre.

Why this fixation on ratings? Ratings are determined by blood & boobs. Hearts of Iron games, for instance, are rated E for Everyone. That's no kids game.


And that's just in the opening twenty hours or so. Things go downhill from there. NOT a game for kids. Teens maybe, but not kids.

I would argue that if all someone knows is that it's a "5 year old kids game with kindergarden story", well, they don't know much.

Ratings don't stop cartoons from referencing adults humor that goes over the heads of children. The anime Attack on Titan is rated TV-14, maybe that's for kindergarteners too?

As Zloth said, ESRB ratings are determined based on level of violence and sexual nature. Unless you think 5 year olds are meant to understand being manipulated, drugged, depression, their relationship to other people and place in the world, and so on.

Sorry but it's hard to imagine Attack on Titan looking like Nintendo Gameboy game. :)
It's possible to visualize it as a chibi game like ff15 chibi version, but not as those low quality eyesight destruction visuals from the time before anyone here was born when god, I mean Nintendo, still walked on Earth. At least I can't.

I was 24.

I thought we had a fairly high proportion of grandpa gamers hereabouts. Now I'm embarrassed -- have I been chatting with teenagers all unawares?

FF7 hasn't aged well but I wouldn't call them made for grandpa gamer's.:sweatdrop:

I was 16 at the time of it's original release on the PSOne.

Heck I still have fond memories of the original Atari/Sega/Nintendo systems as a kid also.

Damn I'm an old fossil at 37 in gaming terms.:(

My comparison for graphics start with Wizardry and Ultima, as well as the original Bards Tales. Anything that equals or exceeds those will work for me. Matter of fact I look for games that DON'T overstress my computer, or make my fans run overtime. Those are the genius type games that I'm likely to not only love, but to replay over and over in the future. The first dozen Final Fantasies all wore for me, save that eleventh one. I shy away from online garbage for the most part, save a very few exceptions.

Remake release date trailer:

https://youtu.be/Z3xSGv3Hfio

Gameplay premier:

https://youtu.be/kJvzzivkK28 (Warning: extreme marketing, attempts at acting by managerial personalities, and a whole crowd of tools - but there's good information in there for those with strong stomachs)

Except for the combat system, that looks damn good, and this is coming from someone who generally dislikes most JRPGs.

That combat system though… why? So we have to fight in real time to fill up a bar before we can activate the ATB system now? Maybe it's more fun than it looks when you're actually playing it, but color me skeptical.

I'm still clueless about this game that looks as kindergarden masquerade yet people swear it should be rated Ao. Bleh.

Whoever wants it's whatever form of collector's edition, prepare to shell out 250€:
https://store.eu.square-enix-games.c…ss-edition-ps4

Yes, 250 for some paper and plastic. I was like O_O, rechecked thrice before posting.

Oh my….taking a great turn based game and turning it into some action-y game?? I was looking forward to this project's release, now I'll likely just avoid it.

Actually, this looks MORE turn based to me than the original game.

In the original, the game plays in real time while your characters' action bars fill up. Once a bar fills, you can go through the menus and select something to do. While you do that, though, the game keeps playing! Enemies will attack you while you're going through the menu system, trying to find that one potion you want to use. Once your do your attack, your bar starts to fill again - and you just sit there and watch while that happens. (Well, theoretically - with three characters, somebody's bar is likely to fill pretty soon.)

In this game, though, you can (practically) STOP the game when you want to enter a command. It looks like those things fill fairly fast as you make attacks, too. So you've got action while it isn't your turn, and plenty of time to think and hunt down your menu options - plus some sort of shortcuts for oft-used menu items. It sure sounds like an improvement to me.

But it's still a long way away. First it has to show up for PS4, then maybe we'll get ours with the PS5? <shrug>

The new system is still a lot more action-oriented though with you moving the characters in real-time and hitting a button for each attack.

The only thing that was real-time in the original was the ATB bar. Characters and enemies couldn't act until the bar was full.

Also, most of the FF games had two modes that you could choose between. You could choose "wait" mode if you didn't want enemies to be able to attack as soon as their bar was full. It was basically full turn-based mode. I don't remember if that was in FF7, but I think it was. I preferred the normal ATB system.

I wounder if it'll have the same story as the original or if there'll be lots of extras? Either way for people who never played this. It'll be totally amazing to get to play it for the first time looking like that. For those who already know the story, it'll be fun to see it all in that kind of graphics, but not much else I guess.

@joxer The graphics is kind of typical for many J-RPGS I guess? even if it might not look like it the story contains such a things as gang-rape and terrorists attacks. So that is the reason people is pushing for the AO rating I guess. The story is acctually amazing, it is almost like the one who wrote it could see into the future. Because it deals with the biggest problems of the earth today, before they were the biggest problems. Such a things like terrorism and destruction of the environment is at the core of this story.

I expect there's going to be a significant amount of differences in the way it's told. The dialogue appears to be completely rewritten.

I'm not sure if I'd call it amazing, but it was pretty interesting for a console game in 1997. There were parts that I found confusing though, and some things just weren't very clear. I expect the translation to be a lot better for the remake.

Perhaps I was mistaken with my perception on first glance, what I'll likely do is just read and listen to what folks have to say when the game releases, then make my decision based on feedback. I don't mind moving around on a tactical field, as long as I'm not rushed while doing so.

Man, the original game has not aged well at all. I reinstalled it last night and played for a bit. What's up with the Steam version not even having gamepad support?