Good day everyone, I'm Kitase, the producer of Final Fantasy VII Remake. There had been a raging wave of developments related to Final Fantasy VII Remake, from the sudden announcement in May, the release date reveal in an orchestra concert held in Los Angeles on June 9, and a playable demo at E3. But I'd be glad if all of our fans are delighted with the many surprises after waiting for so long. In doing a remake, what we first emphasized was to depict Midgar, which symbolized the world setting of the original Final Fantasy VII the most, in a charming way. We newly redesigned the interior structure of Midgar, and added new episodes as well as depictions of the daily lives of citizens who live there. Ultimately, just by depicting the story until the original's Escape From Midgar, we already reached a huge capacity with a pack of 2 Blu-ray discs, which should have enough density and volume for the world setting and storyline. To go along with that, we have optimized character growths and boss monster placements for this game, completely reconstructing it as a single standalone game, which we think will have become a title worth playing enough. We plan to develop the Final Fantasy VII remake project into multiple titles in the future, but we hope you will look forward to the release of the first title, Final Fantasy VII Remake, on March 3, 2020. June 14, 2019 Yoshinori Kitase, Producer of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

sharkie

Austria18508 Posts

June 14 2019 14:59 GMT

#770

I dont get how midgard alone could fill a whole game without changing the story?:/ kinda has me a little worried there

Duka08

3391 Posts

June 14 2019 16:04 GMT

#771

I can see them making it work. They'll have to add a lot rather than changing things I would think, just side stuff to do, new NPCs and storylines, etc. Given all the marketing we've seen lately even before any "official" word, it was pretty obvious everything was gonna be Midgar focused. It's the most iconic and memorable, broadly, when it comes to FF7. I don't think they'll have to dramatically change or ruin any existing story threads to make it work, just elaborate and expound on what's already there.

Soltanol

Germany55 Posts

June 14 2019 17:51 GMT

#772

We only visited 1 or 2 (can't remember its been 20 years since i played it)of the 8 sectors of Midgar in the original game. They can easily create a bunch of new storylines where we fight Shinra and sabotage their projects in these sectors.
This would'nt change the overall story, but fill the town with more life and give a lot more background stories about the other avalanche members.

ProMeTheus112

France2027 Posts

June 14 2019 22:18 GMT

#773

Wish I could play it on PC. I'm interested in gameplay changes and improvements, and enrichment of the environment especially from rpg perspective. Idk how many episodes they're going to make but hope they will work well together and playing the full game isn't going to cost a lot etc... but well can't play it until PC version^^ PC version pls!^^

sharkie

Austria18508 Posts

June 14 2019 23:34 GMT

#774

In the original game cloud barely spent any time with avalanche and thats why it never was anything more than a job for him. Now if it becomes days, weeks, months he should become attached to them more strongly now?

Also will aeris become now a "visit me whenever you want to" part of midgar? I think the urgency and "being thrown in the cold water" was part of the story? Maybe I am just too pessimistic but Id rather have had us visit midgar somewhere in the middle of the story when we had the key to do it...

FFGenerations

7088 Posts

June 15 2019 17:31 GMT

#775

of course ff7 doesnt need improving or fleshing out
that's ridiculous to say
but they're doing it
shrugs
i think we should take it for what it is
("lets remake ff7 but put a bunch of extra stuff in it")
it's never meant to replace ff7

Shalashaska_123

United States142 Posts

June 16 2019 22:09 GMT

#776

I think sharkie and FFGenerations are right. Expanding the story of Midgar into a whole game will change the pacing and feel of the story compared to the original. Not to mention that if they add too much, it will obscure the overarching story and make it too hard to follow. I suppose the creators just want to give Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie more screentime and dialogue so that when the plate comes crashing down, it'll have more of an emotional impact on us.

Regarding the character designs, Aeris has the best one in my opinion. She is absolutely stunning---the perfect girl-next-door archetype---and resembles her original look the most. I don't know how I feel about Barret's wearing sunglasses. He didn't have any in the original, and although it gives him a badass look, I would prefer to see his eyes to connect with him emotionally at certain points like when he reunites with Marlene or when Dyne comes around. Cloud was a little too skinny in the 2015 trailer, but he looks much better now. In that one thumbnail I can actually see the heads of his tricep muscle. That's excellent; he is a warrior after all, wielding a ridiculously large sword. Tifa, on the other hand, still needs some work done on her to be honest. She has the same problem Cloud did in the 2015 trailer, namely that she's too skinny. Her legs in particular could use a little more thickness. I think in one shot of the recent trailer I saw her sporting a six pack, but that isn't sufficient for the body of a brawler. Also, her design was changed from the original by the addition of stockings. That is unforgivable if you ask me. She should not be covered up. I would have been sold on the remake without a doubt if they used this model for Tifa.

+ Show Spoiler +

Last but not least, there's Sephiroth. We only see him for about 5 seconds in one of the recent trailers, but I'm not too impressed with his look. His face seems soft and pudgy, and his neck has no definition. Compare these screenshots with the original concept art, for example.

+ Show Spoiler +

The original artwork features a masculine, powerful, and intimidating Sephiroth, but the one in the trailer lacks these traits and doesn't appear menacing to me. Heck, the way he looks (and sounds) in Crisis Core is superior. Just by looking at his eyes I can tell he's a psychopath.

+ Show Spoiler +

Anyway, what also concerns me is that the entire game will be released in parts for not only the PS4, but also the PS5 and subsequent consoles. It would be nice if Square built a console specifically for this game, as it would save people a lot of money, and there wouldn't be graphical differences between this first part and future ones. With how slow the development has been since the first announcement in 2015, I sadly expect to be fighting Safer-Sephiroth in HD in 2047, fifty years after the game's initial release on PS1 in 1997. Hopefully I'll still be around to experience it.

Gahlo

United States35160 Posts

June 16 2019 22:27 GMT

#777

I'm not concerned about the story being too complicated to follow, especially considering we've had to deal with the awful translation we got from the original game.

While I think it's safe to say that part 2 and later will be on the PS5, the PS5 will be backwards compatible with the PS4. I intend to just wait out the PS5.

FFGenerations

7088 Posts

June 17 2019 02:20 GMT

#778

https://thelifestream.net/news/final-fantasy-vii-remake/41293/new-details-from-the-ffvii-remake-bombing-mission/