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Final Fantasy VII Remake: Rebirth Demo dropping tomorrow

mortal

Gold Member
Saw Jon from DF talking about this game on X, huh? Isn’t this an open world game, a genre he notoriously despises?
Despise is a bit strong, no? He also praised Death Stranding 2, which is also open world.
Not being fond of a particular genre or design doesn't mean one can't appreciate other aspects of a game.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Despise is a bit strong, no? He also praised Death Stranding 2, which is also open world.
Not being fond of a particular genre or design doesn't mean one can't appreciate other aspects of a game.
Actually those were his words, not mine. It’s just funny.
 

april6e

Member
The demo was obviously amazing so I don't want my gripes below to come across as hating on the game. But:

1. Where was the scene where Sephiroth rips Jenova from the wiring? It's one of the best scenes in the entire game. Does it happen in the second demo coming up?

2. I don't know if I'm being nitpicky but Cloud and Sephiroth's voice actors weren't doing it for me. Especially Cloud. Maybe it was just because the actors were trying to use a different voice for young Cloud?

3. Again, I cannot state how much it annoys me that Sony keeps their games console exclusive for a year or more before putting it on PC. The 60fps performance mode looks like utter dog crap on PS5 even on a 4k OLED. The fidelity mode looks fine but the shaky 30fps makes me sick. It sucks that I have to play a 50+ hour game that way. Why can't every Sony game have "balanced" mode like in Spiderman 2 and God of War 2? The balanced mode in Spiderman 2 was incredible and used VRR to make it feel almost like 60fps.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
2. I don't know if I'm being nitpicky but Cloud and Sephiroth's voice actors weren't doing it for me. Especially Cloud. Maybe it was just because the actors were trying to use a different voice for young Cloud?
I think because in flashback Cloud is acting like Zack because his messed up memory.
 

RavageX

Member
ALL this complaining, geez. Maybe I'm a simple guy. The DEMO did a great job at reminding me of my original play of FF7. I enjoyed seeing it fleshed out more, and I listen to the game in Japanese.

My only real complaints are blocked areas (no, don't go that way, go THIS way) let me wonder off and get killed for being underleveled if need be....and the climbing rocks. They don't need to be yellow....gamers aren't that dumb, and if they are....they can use a guide or something.

I didn't see anything wrong with the graphics and I don't care about FPS.
 

FUBARx89

Member
Managed to play the demo. I liked it just fine - it did feel a little weird just jumping into the Kalm flashback right away, but it was fine overall.

Visually things looked pretty good, played on graphics mode. Some pop in here and there but overall nothing too distracting - more problems with lighting for me when entire rooms or areas wouldn't quite light up until I was in them a while, probably the most distracting visual element. Cloud's model also looked kind of weird, but I think part of that is from it being years prior and not present day, so he's more wide eyed and youthful, but I didn't pay enough attention to the few out of flashback scenes to really notice. Combat feels different this time though fundamentally the same. I felt both right at home and also not so much, I'm used to Cloud reacting differently to certain conditions and they've changed that in this game (like with flying enemies), though I'm sure I'll get used to it after playing a while.

The music is pretty great as a whole and I liked the piano minigame a lot. I liked performing Tifa's theme and found myself humming in tune with my terrible playing (C rank first time), but I think it will be really cool if there are quite a few sheet music pieces in the game.

As some have mentioned
the ending is pretty awful with the super, ultra slow moving. I mean he's moving faster when he's crawling under debris than he is while otherwise moving... it's really hard to deal with. Maybe just speed the animation up a bit..

Nibelheim felt.. a lot bigger. I expected it to be smaller. Some scenes and areas were done really well, as far as the transition to this. Really made me feel again like this is FF VII remake.. Got me nice and lubed up for the inevitable rug pull they're going to do like they did with Remake. I hate how it can make me feel this way, but at least this time I know not to be absolutely gutted when things go off rails completely, so there is that.

Regarding cloud looking wierd
Do you not think he like a mashup of Zak & Cloud? Since they're not his memories, maybe they kinda fused appearance wise in "Clouds" memories.
 

Synless

Member
Literally every Sony 1st party shits all over Remake.
Nah, I disagree.
The demo was obviously amazing so I don't want my gripes below to come across as hating on the game. But:

1. Where was the scene where Sephiroth rips Jenova from the wiring? It's one of the best scenes in the entire game. Does it happen in the second demo coming up?

2. I don't know if I'm being nitpicky but Cloud and Sephiroth's voice actors weren't doing it for me. Especially Cloud. Maybe it was just because the actors were trying to use a different voice for young Cloud?

3. Again, I cannot state how much it annoys me that Sony keeps their games console exclusive for a year or more before putting it on PC. The 60fps performance mode looks like utter dog crap on PS5 even on a 4k OLED. The fidelity mode looks fine but the shaky 30fps makes me sick. It sucks that I have to play a 50+ hour game that way. Why can't every Sony game have "balanced" mode like in Spiderman 2 and God of War 2? The balanced mode in Spiderman 2 was incredible and used VRR to make it feel almost like 60fps.
1) that’s later in that chapter.
2) they are talking younger. cloud is something like 17 when that happened. His voice acting in remake is great.
 
Just thought I'd share some captures I got off my PS5, texture, lighting and geometry are all reasonably good and increased over the previous game, look even better in game. I had to compress one or two of the images because it wasn't letting me upload them onto Neogaf.
sJIElci.jpg


kIdKCrq.jpg
9zzvrY4.jpg
 
So anyone else getting Elden ring vibes to this games design?

Few things I think are little bit similar.

1. World Design.

Elden ring clearly has an order the devs want you to tackle its content. You can deviate from it but you will have a hard time. Some areas are locked behind others until certain conditions are met. Rebirth will definitely be more linear than elden ring due to the story but it still reminds me of it. The way the Mithril mines connects Junon and the grasslands is similar to how Elden ring connects certain areas. Neither of these games are go anywhere at anytime open worlds like Just cause 2 or GTA5.

2. Lots of unique content

Even from the trailers we know this game will have tons of unique locations, enemies, side-quests and mini games etc just like Elden ring! I think this is just the nature of a developer finally being able to make a JRPG at an Open world 1 to 1 scale. This alone will make the world far more interesting to explore they say Far cry or Horizon. If anything this could be interesting to explore than Elden ring. That game just really has combat at the end of day.

3.Grand Fantastical Structures.

Seeing Junon from the Open world reminded me of Elden Rings Captial! Obviously the art style is completely different but the sense of awe is the same. FFVII has many other similar locations.

4. Hard Boss fights encouraging exploration.

This surprised me I watched Max's previews and he said the Big snake Boss fight was really hard if you bee lined the story reminding me of Margit in Elden Ring. The Titan Boss fight seems almost impossible if you fight him without discovering his shrines first. I don't expect it to be as difficult as Elden Ring but still it's a good design choice!

Anyone else feel the same way or just me? Obviously I mean this in a hugely positive way.
 
I played through the entire demo in one 1.5 hour sitting, starting off in Graphics mode and then switching to Performance mode after 30 minutes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's obviously just more of the same high quality RPG that we got with Final Fantasy VII Remake, a game which I played through to completion first on my PS4 Pro during COVID lockdown and again on PS5 before switching to PC. Love everything about this game: the visuals, the characters, the voice-acting, the music (oh the music is just so damn good I had to buy the CD soundtrack) and the gameplay. It's just an absolute joy to play and I cannot wait for the full version of part 2 in a couple of weeks (I have ordered the physical deluxe edition with the steelbook case as I do for all the Final Fantasy games on PlayStation if available).

I also found the image quality in Performance mode to be perfectly fine on my 55" LG B9 OLED TV from the viewing distance I sit at. Yes, it is softer than the Graphics mode, which is to be expected from the lower resolution, but I didn't find it overly blurry or offensive in any way personally. I don't mind the 30 fps framerate either, it seems to be properly framepaced and feels smooth enough, but I will likely play the final game in the 60 fps mode as motion just looks smoother at this framerate on an OLED panel.
 
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zapper

Member
I played the demo, I hope the Nibelheim section was developed some time ago, lots of low resolution textures, extremely low polygon count, very outdated materials and lighting...

Leaving Nibelheim it improves by opening the map (even if the low res textures remain, especially rocks and some really ugly props), but the first section in a town is really old. as I said, I hope it's a portion of the game that wasn't yet optimized or developed a long time ago, maybe it's one of those parts they had in mind to include in the first but then moved to rebirth. performance mode to be optimized, I read that the pp is at a quarter of the resolution, in fact the image is completely blurred and I chose to go in graphics mode. I continue to turn up my nose at the UE, whether it's the 4 or the 5 it really shows a lot of difficulty in giving a product that flows excellently, the 16 is definitely superior technically with its proprietary engine built for that game by CBUIII. the only thing I appreciate about ue for this project is that it probably allowed SE to add a lot of content that is seen in the trailers (all the minigames), otherwise it remains the worst engine on the market.
 

Sephimoth

Member
Haven't read all 12 pages so maybe this has been covered...

I was shocked to see Sephiroth was the same level as Cloud on the stats page (level 40?), maybe that was just done for the demo. Sephiroth didn't feel god tier like he did in the original flashback. Hopefully they adjust this, he should be at least double Clouds level and just wipe through enemies to make a point.

(Although the fact you fought and beat him in game 1 kinda ruins the point the original flashback was trying to make. Another reason I think that battle was a huge mistake)
 
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I was shocked to see Sephiroth was the same level as Cloud on the stats page (level 40?), maybe that was just done for the demo. Sephiroth didn't feel god tier like he did in the original flashback.

I think it was done for gameplay purposes. It is possible to get Game Over... I intentionally did so.
 
Haven't read all 12 pages so maybe this has been covered...

I was shocked to see Sephiroth was the same level as Cloud on the stats page (level 40?), maybe that was just done for the demo. Sephiroth didn't feel god tier like he did in the original flashback. Hopefully they adjust this, he should be at least double Clouds level and just wipe through enemies to make a point.

(Although the fact you fought and beat him in game 1 kinda ruins the point the original flashback was trying to make. Another reason I think that battle was a huge mistake)
Yep, I didn't like this either. But as you said, they already ruined this so why worry I guess.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The demo was obviously amazing so I don't want my gripes below to come across as hating on the game. But:

1. Where was the scene where Sephiroth rips Jenova from the wiring? It's one of the best scenes in the entire game. Does it happen in the second demo coming up?

2. I don't know if I'm being nitpicky but Cloud and Sephiroth's voice actors weren't doing it for me. Especially Cloud. Maybe it was just because the actors were trying to use a different voice for young Cloud?

3. Again, I cannot state how much it annoys me that Sony keeps their games console exclusive for a year or more before putting it on PC. The 60fps performance mode looks like utter dog crap on PS5 even on a 4k OLED. The fidelity mode looks fine but the shaky 30fps makes me sick. It sucks that I have to play a 50+ hour game that way. Why can't every Sony game have "balanced" mode like in Spiderman 2 and God of War 2? The balanced mode in Spiderman 2 was incredible and used VRR to make it feel almost like 60fps.
I totally agree with the whole realization Sephiroth had. I didn’t get the sense that Sephiroth was angry.
 
The demo was obviously amazing so I don't want my gripes below to come across as hating on the game. But:

1. Where was the scene where Sephiroth rips Jenova from the wiring? It's one of the best scenes in the entire game. Does it happen in the second demo coming up?

This hasn't happened yet. It happens after the point in which the demo ends. Sephiroth goes back to the reactor and an encounter occurs there. No, it won't happen in the second demo because the second demo is just an out of context, open area around Junon.
 
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Was reading that neither
Cid nor Vincent are playable in the game.. Vincent I understand, he's attainable much later in the game, but allegedly this game is going past where we would have visited Rocket Town in the original, plus the Tiny Bronco is obviously in the game from the trailers.. wtf 🫠 .
So the reality is, after two parts of their remake, they will have just barely finished the first disc of FF VII. That said, disc 3 is basically nothing so it's all still feasible to do.
 
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Goddamn it, after trying Tifa's theme for 90 minutes I manged to get 145 Great and 1 Good.

Am I the only one going insane trying to get the Star rating for that song?
 
The demo was obviously amazing so I don't want my gripes below to come across as hating on the game. But:

1. Where was the scene where Sephiroth rips Jenova from the wiring? It's one of the best scenes in the entire game. Does it happen in the second demo coming up?

2. I don't know if I'm being nitpicky but Cloud and Sephiroth's voice actors weren't doing it for me. Especially Cloud. Maybe it was just because the actors were trying to use a different voice for young Cloud?

3. Again, I cannot state how much it annoys me that Sony keeps their games console exclusive for a year or more before putting it on PC. The 60fps performance mode looks like utter dog crap on PS5 even on a 4k OLED. The fidelity mode looks fine but the shaky 30fps makes me sick. It sucks that I have to play a 50+ hour game that way. Why can't every Sony game have "balanced" mode like in Spiderman 2 and God of War 2? The balanced mode in Spiderman 2 was incredible and used VRR to make it feel almost like 60fps.

Square Enix sucks that's why
 

Yamisan

Member
This piano mini-game is harder than playing the same songs on a real piano. Also my ps5 must be super powered as the rocks and faces do not look nearly as bad as some screen shots going around.
 
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Dis

Member
Pegi 18.

(I just wanted to say Pegi 18)

The hunt for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PS5 begins tomorrow! I will go across the entire province, scour every toy store, small scale videogame store in search of the Deluxe Edition to be sold under the counter.

I had luck with FFXV and a toystore decided to sell it before the street date.

All according to Keikaku (keikaku means plan)
 

FingerBang

Member


We're getting an update for the demo, at least for graphics mode, on Feb 21st! It says the game's final version will get this update as well... which sounds obvious. I hope they take care of graphics mode, too, because I think it has its own issues.
 
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sigmaZ

Member
FF 16 Town


Final Fantay VII remake Town PS5



Final Fantasy 16 is the better looking game... Really? REALLY!?

This is actually a good comparison because one of the things that is far superior in the FF7 remake is in the USE of lighting. They got a professional irl lighting designer on board. There were times where my jaw dropped at how good some of the lighting choices were especially in and around buildings.
FF16 on the other had a lot of flashy lighting in battles that looked pretty on an OLED, particularly the Bahamut fight, but the field lighting was some of the worst I've experienced in a recent game. The town from the video (never cared to remember any of the town names in FF16) had horrid lighting and every time you went in and out of a building, the game would reload the lighting. It was very awkward and felt unnecessarily dark at times, but apparently during development, Daddy P was not willing to bend on that.
 
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Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
This is actually a good comparison because one of the things that is far superior in the FF7 remake is in the USE of lighting. They got a professional irl lighting designer on board. There were times where my jaw dropped at how good some of the lighting choices were especially in and around buildings.
FF16 on the other had a lot of flashy lighting in battles that looked pretty on an OLED, particularly the Bahamut fight, but the field lighting was some of the worst I've experienced in a recent game. The town from the video (never cared to remember any of the town names in FF16) had horrid lighting and every time you went in and out of a building, the game would reload the lighting. It was very awkward and felt unnecessarily dark at times, but apparently during development, Daddy P was not willing to bend on that.
The lighting in 16 is way ahead of 7R in rendition and if I have to guess technology behind it. Maybe you’re questioning the art direction here which is a matter of tastes, I for example absolutely love how 16 does it. Well you know except when it decides to go pink 😅
 

sigmaZ

Member
The lighting in 16 is way ahead of 7R in rendition and if I have to guess technology behind it. Maybe you’re questioning the art direction here which is a matter of tastes, I for example absolutely love how 16 does it. Well you know except when it decides to go pink 😅
That's why I emphasized the USE of lighting not the technology. And yes, it's aesthetics, so it's taste. I really liked the way that FF16 handled the lighting for crystals and fire in darker areas.
 

Bojji

Member
That's why I emphasized the USE of lighting not the technology. And yes, it's aesthetics, so it's taste. I really liked the way that FF16 handled the lighting for crystals and fire in darker areas.

XVI looks much better in indirect lighting, Rebirth is very flat in areas of the demo without direct sunlight.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Was reading that neither
Cid nor Vincent are playable in the game.. Vincent I understand, he's attainable much later in the game, but allegedly this game is going past where we would have visited Rocket Town in the original, plus the Tiny Bronco is obviously in the game from the trailers.. wtf 🫠 .
So the reality is, after two parts of their remake, they will have just barely finished the first disc of FF VII. That said, disc 3 is basically nothing so it's all still feasible to do.

Disc 2 and 3 were essentially nothing.

I usually completed disc 1 in around 20 hours, and in slightly over 30 hours I saw the ending. Disc 2 was pretty bad actually. A big hunt for huge materia that ended up doing shit. It got good at the end when you had to raid Midgar.

Ofcourse they will change things up and expand, but there shouldn't be more than one game left after the Forgotten Capital.
 
That patch must have helped a lot, I ended up switching from graphics mode to performance and really didn't notice much of a different. Certainly no blurry textures, though I didn't try it pre-patch to compare. 30fps doesn't bother me, but the frame pacing and judder was driving me nuts in Nibelheim.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Disc 2 and 3 were essentially nothing.

I usually completed disc 1 in around 20 hours, and in slightly over 30 hours I saw the ending. Disc 2 was pretty bad actually. A big hunt for huge materia that ended up doing shit. It got good at the end when you had to raid Midgar.

Ofcourse they will change things up and expand, but there shouldn't be more than one game left after the Forgotten Capital.

I feel like a lot of the point of disc two in OG was the idea of open world. As you said, the main story Beats are front and back loaded with a relative vacuum in the middle taken up the canon-sidequest of the Huge Materia. At this in Between point you had full control of a full (as you can get it) party, vehicles, and access to essentially every sidequest in the game. Wutai, chocobo breeding, materia caves, super bosses, limit break farming. It was disc one's "bunch of side content in the places you go, but you're on our leash," and expanded it into a prolonged segment of "literally, do whatever you want,"

Translates weak narratively, but to date it's still the best expression of an open world that Square has ever pulled off in the Sony Era.

It's intentionally designed training wheels - the same thing FFXIII attempted but mangled horribly, and the same thing the OG VII itself pulls earlier with the transition from Midgar to the overworld. Most fascinating to me, is it looks like Rebirth is expanding on this little design approach.

Remake was in one city, and focused ona set group of characters. The game is mostly focused on teaching you the new battle system - weapon skills, abilities, the revised ATB, materia, etc. With Rebirth this is all iterated upon, and save Chadley and the tutorial menu, the game expects you to pick up staggering and battle basics quickly. Way quicker than Remake. Why so? Because we need to explain synergy skills, abilities, folios, new character playsets, etc. People complain about having no carried over progression from Remake in Rebirth. I raise these people this idea: Rebirth as a game, as a series of systems meant to challenge the user - is the best kind of carried over progress: skill, muscle memory, mastery of the advanced end game strats from Remake and OG. It's a game that seems to respect your knowledge and ability.

In Part 3 of Remake, I'm sure they'll lean into side content and freedom much like they have here, but bank on the huge materia and WEAPON bits being expanded upon and featured heavily. My take, anyway.
 
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