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[Rentahamster]

The reason these articles are confusing right now is because.......

Spoiler: FF7R big spoilers

The ending of the game almost explicitly suggests that the events of this one will deviate heavily from the original.

The only reason i'm okay with that idea is because it means that they're free to rewrite the events of the game as they choose to...meaning that we don't HAVE to feel spoonfed content because they're free to make the future parts as original as they want.

But if they're still going to spoon feed us the events/flow from the original, then this game is just going to take 10 years to complete and completely destroy the whole purpose of the remake.

Spoiler: FF7 & FF7R Endgame Spoilers

I'm not so sure that it's that explicit, nor that it necessarily means heavy deviation. The main takeaway is that you're battling fate and while there is now potential for drastic change, that doesn't mean it's a guarantee. Other than the existence of this fate bending phenomenon, characters who seem to know more about the future (but lack the context to understand this yet), and what seems to be the creation of an alternate past reality (Zack and Stamp - how that will affect "our" reality is currently unknown), the characters are still on the same level and path as in the original game.

Cloud is still fucked up mentally and doesn't know his own identity.

(the next 3 aren't explicitly shown, but there's also nothing shown that suggests this isn't also still the case)
Sephiroth is still in the Northern Crater.
Rufus is the new president and is also going to attempt to find Sephiroth.
The party is setting out to find answers - no reason why they shouldn't head to Kalm next.

 

[Rentahamster]

Serious question to you guys.

Do you trust modern day Square Enix to deliver on this? Cause I sure as hell don't.

If you asked me a few years ago, I would have said no. However, given that they nailed this game, I'm optimistic. In this particular team, anyway.

It's Force Awakens to Last Jedi all over again.

Those movies had a change in leadership between the two, and also never had a solid outline or plan going forward.

FF7R has the same team working on it, and they've been planning this for many years.

 

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

Those movies had a change in leadership between the two, and also never had a solid outline or plan going forward.

FF7R has the same team working on it, and they've been planning this for many years.

Fair enough. In that case, let's say "Kingdom Hearts 1 to the entire rest of the series all over again" instead.

 

[Pantz]

That's a lot of candy bars

 

[Rentahamster]

Fair enough. In that case, let's say "Kingdom Hearts 1 to the entire rest of the series all over again" instead.

That's a more likely scenario compared to Star Wars.

However, the Disney factor is not involved here, plus they already have a main story backbone to work off of instead of making up a majority of new stuff.

 

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

That's a more likely scenario compared to Star Wars.

However, the Disney factor is not involved here, plus they already have a main story backbone to work off of instead of making up a majority of new stuff.

I'm with you dude. FFVIIR is phenomenal and a 9/10 to me, but I got so burned by Kingdom Hearts that I don't trust the dude. If it was literally anyone else, I'd be 100% game.

 

[Rentahamster]

I'm with you dude. FFVIIR is phenomenal and a 9/10 to me, but I got so burned by Kingdom Hearts that I don't trust the dude. If it was literally anyone else, I'd be 100% game.

But this guy's here too

And this guy

Spoiler

I wish this guys was here too

 

[Ten_Fold]

Part 2 I can see being late 2021 or early 2022. I also see them re-releasing FF7R once the exclusive deal is done.

 

[WorldHero]

I'd like to wait until they're all finished and play them in succession (I assume the older titles will get cleaned up for next gen machines?)
But it sounds like I may be waiting for a while.

 

[Strider311]

Overall, I very much enjoyed FF7 remake. That said, I have ZERO faith that they can see this story through to completion. It's a miracle that SquareEnix was even able to put this out at all. They aren't what they used to be.

 

[CuNi]

How many people were working during the development of the original ff7 and how many are now?

Sorry for the late answer. Apparently, between 100 and 150 on the final version for a year till release.
I would have to reach a bit but I would say it's easily more today.

 

[GymWolf]

Stiller: square
Blonde chick: the fanbase

 

[martino]

ok if they cut the price too

They're not planning to make the games smaller, only to focus on smaller portions of the original game's story.

This means that instead of a 40-hour game that spans 2 continents, we could probably have a 40-hour game that spans a single continent, or something like that.

edit : ok ignore what i first said. why not.

 

[pLow7]

But this guy's here too

And this guy

Spoiler

I wish this guys was here too

Hironobu hasn't made a decent game in decades.

 

[German Hops]

pfft, we'll land on the moon before FF7r reaches completion.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Ummm it better open up after midgar. There not meant to be open world, but not meant to be so linear either. Final Fantasy is about jumping into A fantasy world and having access to it.
Its Final Fantasy not Final Fantasy 13 lol

 

[M1chl]

I wanted to ask, why the Remake is in shape of more parts. Was the OG game that long?

 

[Rentahamster]

Was the OG game that long?

Yup. There's a lot more world out there.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Even smaller parts? Gosh.

Release 1 - 2 episodes in bravely default engine while you work on finale already. Why the heck they want to take any longer?

 

[eastwood333]

I'll just wait for the inevitable complete edition on XSX. Not a fan of playing portions of a game to only then wait 7 months- 1 year to play the next episode and having to get back into the story, relearning the controls etc... Its like watching 45 minutes of a 2 hr movie.

 

[New Yorks Finest]

I know how frustrating it is bro especially in Square Enix’s case. They don’t have a great reputation right now and their games takes forever

So hopefully with this approach they’ll release them faster. Because if you don’t know, the recent FF7R is 40 hours worth of content and thats not a bad thing at all

That's not bad at all. Not a huge gamer but only games like Cyberpunk gets me excited nowadays, where I'll manage some time to sit down and enjoy it.

FF7 looks pretty, that's fa sho!!!

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Well, that's going to break it even further.... The new parts of the remake are just boring as hell, the game has no pace because of them.

These guys smoked too much good stuff, they want to brainstorm their way into every small details of every npc from the old game... All I wanted was a literal retelling of the exact same story with updated visuals (I like the new battle system, so I guess that too)... not stupid side missions where I look for cats and hunt rats with Tifa.

 

[BlackTron]

 

[martino]

Spoiler

I wish this guys was here too

No, let him do lost odyssey sequel or next game of the kind.

 

[UltimaKilo]

After deciding to release the game in parts, and making a 40 hour midgar part (which shouldn’t be more than 5 hours), they come up with this shit? How much filler do they need?

 

[gela94]

I'll just wait for the inevitable complete edition on XSX. Not a fan of playing portions of a game to only then wait 7 months- 1 year to play the next episode and having to get back into the story, relearning the controls etc... Its like watching 45 minutes of a 2 hr movie.

Well lucky for you then that it won't be like that but instead 2-3 years in between releases

 

[gamerforever]

This game is starting to remind me of the Shenmue series - at least when they don't complete this people will be able to finish the game on the original version.

 

[MiguelItUp]

So what could've been a two piece or trilogy is gonna be a full on series of games. Oh boy!

Really though, I hope it doesn't get dragged on that long. :|

 

[gamerforever]

So what could've been a two piece or trilogy is gonna be a full on series of games. Oh boy!

Really though, I hope it doesn't get dragged on that long. :|

It is a weird one, because it's a remake. I suspect that if it doesn't sell they will stop development. I think this will get released on the PC and Xbox Series X and maybe even the next switch eventually, so it should sell a lot.

 

[DragoonKain]

Does anyone think this eliminates any chances of being able to freely explore the world in future episodes? To me that's what made FF7 what it was. If each game is its confined area and it never opens up for you to fully go back and explore the world and find all the secrets, that to me would ruin the entire thing for me.

 

[Kumomeme]

Does anyone think this eliminates any chances of being able to freely explore the world in future episodes? To me that's what made FF7 what it was. If each game is its confined area and it never opens up for you to fully go back and explore the world and find all the secrets, that to me would ruin the entire thing for me.

i believe big open area is happened..but dont expect open world...if people said that FFVIIR similliar to FFXIII, toriyama and 13 staff involved, and it safe to assume, that XIII-2 or LR13 open area structure is probably the route they goes for and i believe feasible to them than forcing open world game like XV

and i believe the problem is the thread title, which is too quickly to drawn conclusion from the interview that give people 'wrong' idea

 

[DragoonKain]

i believe big open area is happened..but dont expect open world...if people said that FFVIIR similliar to FFXIII, toriyama and 13 staff involved, and it safe to assume, that XIII-2 or LR13 open area structure is probably the route they goes for and i believe feasible to them than forcing open world game like XV

and i believe the problem is the thread title, which is too quickly to drawn conclusion from the interview that give people 'wrong' idea

Without an open world I don't know how they implement the Highwind and chocobos fully. They are used to obviously reached hidden areas and of course the submarine as well. I think they gotta make it open world at some point to reach the full FFVII experience.

 

[Stuart360]

Well i hope they dont expect to charge $60 for each episode.

 

[Pallas]

Hm ... does this mean we pretty much won’t get an overworld map like in FFVII to traverse locations and it’ll just be a point and click map. Guess I’m not too surprised.

 

[Kumomeme]

Without an open world I don't know how they implement the Highwind and chocobos fully. They are used to obviously reached hidden areas and of course the submarine as well. I think they gotta make it open world at some point to reach the full FFVII experience.

they can look at XIV example...flying mount existed there although the map in the game had tons of loading-connected area..and i doubt all the world area will be available in next part...atleast, there SSD available next gen which is should alleviate lot of technical issue if they actually goes open world..but i worry the world will be empty lifeless, full of fetch quest typical of open world games problem

 

[DGrayson]

$€ ?

I honestly dont care if they put it in 10 parts, as long as each part is good, price to value is appropriate and IT DOESNT TAKE YEARS BETWEEN PARTS.

 

[ethomaz]

Oh the dear God, let’s welcome the ducking boring filers like they did with Midgar lol

 

[Yoboman]

The next game should be a big ass open world BOTW style game, that gives that feeling like the original "the real game starts here" after Midgar

But we will get some linear crap

 

[Dacon]

It's not in the OP's link, but the ultimania book also quotes the producer stating that the upcoming remake's story will still follow the original's very closely.

In fact, the Ultimania seems to contradict itself on this point, with Nomura saying that a key character has survived a past ordeal, a character whose survival in itself drastically changes the narrative.

Considering it basically takes 5 or 6 years to make a decently-sized video game anymore, I would expect this to feel really drawn out.

The Witcher 3 was developed in 3 and a half years, and has an absolutely massive and detailed open world with a huge narrative. The Xenoblade games, while not the prettiest, delivered huge game worlds with great stories and were developed in reasonable amounts of time.

Serious question to you guys.

Do you trust modern day Square Enix to deliver on this? Cause I sure as hell don't.

No, I don't. It took them 5 years to finish FFVIIR from its original announcement, to get the relatively small game world that is Midgar, and they filled it with very little meaningful content outside of its relatively small narrative if you cut out the ridiculous amount of padding. The graphics are a strange hodgepodge of low res assets and stellar character models and cutscenes.

Like, if they really intend to split the story up into several parts, can you IMAGINE the ridiculous amount of padding and bloat they would fill the game with to justify a 60 dollar purchase?

Kojima did point out Japanese devs were lagging behind in terms of tools. Which is what the FOX engine was aimed at solving... Perhaps he was right.

Which was the whole point of Nomura's teams switching to Unreal Engine 4 for the KH3 and FFVIIR projects. People had assumed that this would drastically shorten dev times due to UE4's relative ease of use, it appears they were wrong.

I'm going to say the same thing that I said to my close friends when this project was announced to be split into parts in the first place. I don't fucking believe that you could not remake FFVII and make it one game.

For one thing, every fucking zone in the game does not need to be turned into some elaborate huge ass multitiered location, you can pretty much make the towns the same size they were in the original with maybe a bit more detail, just make them prettier with a more believable sense of scale, we don't need every area to be massive. Hell I would have been happy if the game basically had similar design to FFX, just with much higher quality assets.

The narrative does not need to be padded out with insignificant side stories that are ultimately irrelevant to the main plot.

The whole project reeks of a lack of focus. 5 years in on this project and they STILL don't have a backbone outlined for the future of the project? How is that not a major indictment on the competence of this team?

I still don't really know what took them so long to finish this game, especially given just how much of the 3d assets were outsourced to Malaysian companies.

$€ ?

I honestly dont care if they put it in 10 parts, as long as each part is good, price to value is appropriate and IT DOESNT TAKE YEARS BETWEEN PARTS.

There is absolutely no way it won't. Now consider, would you really be ok with the game being split up into 10 parts over the next 8-10 years?

Let's hope that's not the case, but it is looking bleak friend.

 

[Lady Bird]

In fact, the Ultimania seems to contradict itself on this point, with Nomura saying that a key character has survived a past ordeal, a character whose survival in itself drastically changes the narrative.

My guess is that those new elements are going to reshape the narrative enough to inject entirely new story and character arcs into the game, but the basic plot beats are still going to be the same, as in, they still go to Kalm, there's still the Kalm flashback sequence, then the chocobo ranch, and Midgard Zolom in the swamp, and Junon with the celebration march, etc.

It actually makes sense. The original game's story, after Midgar, relied a lot on the World Map's quick traveling to properly pace the narrative in small chunks, while also following FF6's model for presenting one character's personal arc at a time. The story halted to a very simplistic "let's just chase Sephiroth" tale for a good long time, but it worked due to the way it was incorporated with the gameplay systems at the time. "Here's the world map, explore every town, discovers bits of each character's past, get more context about past events, or buildup towards future events, or worldbuilding in general", so that by the time you reach Temple of the Ancients and the story starts to pick up the pace again, you have all the information you need to understand (nearly) everything that is going on and why this large cast of characters are helping you out. There were plenty of interesting cutscenes and short stories on the way that added to the whole thing, but they were somewhat fragmented in small chunks in different corners of the world map, and the player was kind of collecting them all while the main story barely advanced.

In a remake like FFVII:R's, where they're going for a far more cinematic game focused on smaller parts of the original's story, and with plenty of character banter and development inbetween cutscenes, the original just does not offer, say, a single continent's worth of material for interesting plot developments at every corner or at every chapter's end, not until way later at least, nor was it properly structured for a movie-like experience (until disc 2 bringing that experience back). So adding in new elements that can mess up with everything and create new narrative threads is an interesting solution to adapt the original story into the new model.

That key character is now likely going to reshape how and when Cloud's past is presented into the story, as well as change Cloud's and Aerith's dynamics into something new, perhaps leading them into entirely new character arcs (Aerith's needing it more so than Cloud's, at least). That key character will have their own personal goals, which might in turn also affect Sephiroth's actions from now on, and there's a whole new story that can potentially be born out of it, even if the original's key plot beats are still somewhat preserved.

That's my take on square's words.

 

[Roni]

Which was the whole point of Nomura's teams switching to Unreal Engine 4 for the KH3 and FFVIIR projects. People had assumed that this would drastically shorten dev times due to UE4's relative ease of use, it appears they were wrong.

Well, the tool is only the tool. Nomura's team output is not gonna be the same as a team that's been working with Unreal since version 2... There's still gonna be a learning process, which is taking place now rather than back in the PS2/PS3 era when there were a lot more cookie cutter games because the devs were still normalizing the dev process.

 

[wzy]

Switching to Unreal, arguably, did drastically shorten development time for Remake. At least compared to XV.

 

[Silvawuff]

MMOs do this already. I hope if they go this route, they'll release patches containing the next parts of the game as part of the product we purchased, rather than a nickel and dime DLC approach.

 

[Rentahamster]

In fact, the Ultimania seems to contradict itself on this point, with Nomura saying that a key character has survived a past ordeal, a character whose survival in itself drastically changes the narrative.

That's not necessarily the case. I can imagine scenarios where both are true.

 

[AGRacing]

Next gen is here. They should be able to deliver the rest of this game on those platforms without the forced linearity.

 

[Piku_Ringo]

So... they decided to chop it off into... uhm... episodes?
I feel like I've seen this before.
Hmmmm...

And you better hope that doesn't become the norm going forward.