Topic: Final Fantasy 7 - Remake

[NoSleep]

He was developed as part of the SOLDIER project, I thought? Ah, now I remember; he thought he was a member of SOLDIER but he was getting his own story mixed up with somebody else's. Wasn't he experimented on nonetheless, so had enhanced abilities?

[Cerys]

He was, but he was still a scrawny little cunt.

But as the two main characters Tidus and Yuna are hideous. The forced laughter is nightmarish as well.

Yuna was hideous because the voice actor thought she was supposed to be matching the lip movements of the animation and no-one disabused her of this.  And the forced laughter is supposed to be horrendous.  It's kind of the point.

Tidus, however, has no excuse.

[Consignia]

Wasn't he experimented on nonetheless, so had enhanced abilities?

He was exposed to mako, so had bright eyes but didn't make the SOLDIER cut. I can't remember if the mako exposure was due him being preserved for a while or was part of the SOLDIER tryouts. But as far as I remember, Cloud wasn't at all special.

[The Boston Crab]

I know it's in the tags but until this playthrough, I'd never noticed Tifa's tits and the way she pushes them out in victory. Little stretch, arch the back and, ah! I guess I never had her in my party before but I'm telling you I've filled my Limit Break several times since I noticed.

[NoSleep]

Cloud wasn't at all special.

He was special enough.

[Johnny Textface]

I know it's in the tags but until this playthrough, I'd never noticed Tifa's tits and the way she pushes them out in victory. Little stretch, arch the back and, ah! I guess I never had her in my party before but I'm telling you I've filled my Limit Break several times since I noticed.

Hmm I noticed that the first time she battled. I think I actually named her 'Tits'.

[Cerys]

I may have named her 'Busty' once or twice.

[Bhazor]

... and now the game has real time combat. Well fuck.

Still not convinced by the art style. Just look at how cute it used to be and now it just has a generic action anime look to it. And cloud looks like Tidus. And a cunt.

[Mister Six]

... and now the game has real time combat. Well fuck.

Still not convinced by the art style. Just look at how cute it used to be and now it just has a generic action anime look to it. And cloud looks like Tidus. And a cunt.

You need to lose the "!" from the gif extension in the URL.

Like this:

[St_Eddie]

I wanted to respond to Timothy's post from the 'Kingdom Hearts' thread but figured that it would be better not to derail that thread and post it here instead...

That FF remake is gonna be great.

Now where have I heard that before?

I'd be willing to bet good money that it's going to be a major disappointment.  The development has already been started over from scratch once and the lack of news is rather telling, I reckon (it was announced 4 years ago now!).  Aside from anything else, I abhor the art style for the remake.  It's been rendered in the Advent Children style.  Urgh.  A decent remake would have used Tetsuya Nomura's art style from the original game as a jumping off point...

Imagine that cartoon aesthetic rendered on the PS4 (or PS5 as the much delayed remake's production is likely to switch over to - mark my words).  Bright, colourful, charming, full of character and timeless.  No, instead they've gone for a semi-realistic look...

Soulless, dull, fucking 'dark and gritty™' and already it looks dated; with that horrible 90's Matrix pissy green filter.  Yuk.

This remake is gonna be absolute crap.  No more turn based battles; fuck updating it for a modern audience.  There's nothing intrinsically wrong with turn based battles and if you're going to change such a fundamental part of Final Fantasy VII, then why even bother calling it Final Fantasy VII?  Also, I'll be very surprised if the game still has a world map that you're free to explore because of technical limitations and the fact that Square Enix have said that they intend to release the game in an episodic format.

Nope, I'm calling it now; this remake is going to blow.  Final Fantasy VII is in my top 5 games of all time but I have absolutely zero faith that this remake will be anything other than a horribly misguided and inferior waste of time, resources and potential.

[Twed]

I've probably said this before, maybe already in this thread, but:

Things like FF7 are wonderful because the right ingredients came together at the right time and something magical happened. Trying to plan to do that is impossible, and trying to do it with the same materials is impossible and inevitably disappointing.

I don't care about the remakes because there's nothing about FF7 that appeals to me that doesn't derive from it being exactly as it is, warts and all. It is magical.

[St_Eddie]

I've probably said this before, maybe already in this thread, but:

Things like FF7 are wonderful because the right ingredients came together at the right time and something magical happened. Trying to plan to do that is impossible, and trying to do it with the same materials is impossible and inevitably disappointing.

I don't care about the remakes because there's nothing about FF7 that appeals to me that doesn't derive from it being exactly as it is, warts and all. It is magical.

Spot on, mate.

I'd have much sooner that they did a remaster of the original game.  Re-render the backgrounds in HD, create new character models (whilst staying reasonably true to the original style), redo the FMV sequences, record an orchestral version of the soundtrack.  Do a new English translation of the original Japanese dialogue (that's one thing that definitely could do with an update) but keep the core of the game exactly the same.  It doesn't need a full on remake and to do so is quite frankly, a fool's errand.

[Bazooka]

I don't really see it selling to people who didn't play the PS version or aren't already into the series. Could be wrong, American RPGs have sold very well to the casual crowd(different type of beast of course).

[NoSleep]

Yuna was hideous because the voice actor thought she was supposed to be matching the lip movements of the animation and no-one disabused her of this.

The voice actors had nothing to do with that. The game required that the the audio files for speech had to be the exact length as the original Japanese ones or things would go horribly wrong (graphic events were triggered in sequence with the audio, so the timing of the whole scene would start going askew) . A lot of rewriting had to be undertaken to accommodate this quirk.

[brat-sampson]

Anyone interested in this topic would benefit a lot from Tim Rogers' series on it.

EDIT: though it's more in the actual differences between versions as a result of the translation, rather than the intrinsic causes.

[St_Eddie]

Anyone interested in this topic would benefit a lot from Tim Rogers' series on it.

Oooohhhh, lovely stuff.  Thanks for the the recommendation.  Downloading to my hard drive as I type.  I read up about the poor English translation many moons ago but this video series looks to be very comprehensive and besides, I could do with a refresher course.  Ta.

[St_Eddie]

.

[Timothy]

Spot on, mate.

I'd have much sooner that they did a remaster of the original game.  Re-render the backgrounds in HD, create new character models (whilst staying reasonably true to the original style), redo the FMV sequences, record an orchestral version of the soundtrack.  Do a new English translation of the original Japanese dialogue (that's one thing that definitely could do with an update) but keep the core of the game exactly the same.  It doesn't need a full on remake and to do so is quite frankly, a fool's errand.

I rather have a remake with differences that feels like a new game then a remaster tbh. And I like the new graphics so far.

If I want to play the original I just plugin my old console.

[NoSleep]

The FFVII English translation is clunky a fair bit of the time. Square upped their game later on, thanks to Alexander O. Smith.

Here's an interview with him talking about the problems they had on FFX: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/true-tales-from-localization-hell/

And another about the beautiful thing that is the translation he did for Vagrant Story: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/vagrant-story-localization

Would love his input on a rewrite.

[Cloud]

The inability to replicate the organic success of the original being the reason why they refused to do a remake for so long.  I guess they eventually got their arms twisted enough...

I have hope that it'll be a good game in its own right, alongside the timeless original that has plenty of currently accessible ports.... but I do think that expecting "the same hit as the original but updated" would lead to disappointment.  It's like any remake really, Star Trek for another example, if you go in expecting a modern replica of the original you are sure to end up bitterly disappointed.  Go in seeing it as a retelling that complements rather than replaces the original and you'll have a better time of it.

[Utter Shit]

I wanted to respond to Timothy's post from the 'Kingdom Hearts' thread but figured that it would be better not to derail that thread and post it here instead...

Now where have I heard that before?

I'd be willing to bet good money that it's going to be a major disappointment.  The development has already been started over from scratch once and the lack of news is rather telling, I reckon (it was announced 4 years ago now!).  Aside from anything else, I abhor the art style for the remake.  It's been rendered in the Advent Children style.  Urgh.  A decent remake would have used Tetsuya Nomura's art style from the original game as a jumping off point...

Imagine that cartoon aesthetic rendered on the PS4 (or PS5 as the much delayed remake's production is likely to switch over to - mark my words).  Bright, colourful, charming, full of character and timeless.  No, instead they've gone for a semi-realistic look...

Soulless, dull, fucking 'dark and gritty™' and already it looks dated; with that horrible 90's Matrix pissy green filter.  Yuk.

This remake is gonna be absolute crap.  No more turn based battles; fuck updating it for a modern audience.  There's nothing intrinsically wrong with turn based battles and if you're going to change such a fundamental part of Final Fantasy VII, then why even bother calling it Final Fantasy VII?  Also, I'll be very surprised if the game still has a world map that you're free to explore because of technical limitations and the fact that Square Enix have said that they intend to release the game in an episodic format.

Nope, I'm calling it now; this remake is going to blow.  Final Fantasy VII is in my top 5 games of all time but I have absolutely zero faith that this remake will be anything other than a horribly misguided and inferior waste of time, resources and potential.

I've no idea whether this will be any good or not, but none of the issues you have with the remake would bother me in the slightest. The main draw of the original was the story - in fact, as much as I love that game, I'd say it's really the only draw, as the gameplay is pretty limited and the graphics (by today's standards) are crap. I wouldn't have been against a turn-based fight setup necessarily, but IMO a proper fight mode will always be better if it's done well. So FF7 with improved graphics and a better fight mode? Yes please.

[thraxx]

Looking forward to seeing how Chocobos translate into this gritty real life interpretation. Presumable they will use the Rod Hull and Emo strip from Viz as inspiration.

[gmoney]

Indeed. Quite a lot of Japanese media doesn't pander to having a consistent tone, and is all the better for it.

[Timothy]

I've no idea whether this will be any good or not, but none of the issues you have with the remake would bother me in the slightest. The main draw of the original was the story - in fact, as much as I love that game, I'd say it's really the only draw, as the gameplay is pretty limited and the graphics (by today's standards) are crap. I wouldn't have been against a turn-based fight setup necessarily, but IMO a proper fight mode will always be better if it's done well. So FF7 with improved graphics and a better fight mode? Yes please.

Same here! Game is gonna be great.

[Thursday]

The story is the part I'm most worried about though. I'm flexible on what they do what the battle system and all that.

I'm sure we discussed this fairly recently, but there's a weird perception vs reality discrepancy going on with how the tone of the story and some of the characters are perceived today. And I feel like with Nomura directing, he's going to play into the Advent Children perception of it. I don't think he'll go so far as to add in some the extra shite he added in that film, but I wouldn't put it past him.

[Consignia]

I reckon there's going to be some of that compilation of FFVII in there. That whole thing was about ruining the original with poorly written guff. Crisis core was fun to play, but the story left no lasting impression. Just reading on wiki about Genesis has left me shaking my head.

[Phil_A]

Honestly, I feel the story was mostly incomprehensible beyond a certain point. I was all about the atmosphere, the world design, the music. Those backgrounds were massively evocative and it's a real pity up-rezzed versions will never exist.





(I would like to further the recommendation for Tim Rogers' video series about FF7 translation differences, it's great.)

[touchingcloth]

They’re remaking it again?

[Thursday]

Eh?

[St_Eddie]

My sentiments exactly.