Final Fantasy 7 Remake is beginning to appear like an actual, playable video game that may see a launch. Let’s scour the newest trailer for hints at what the game could be like!
Right now, we don’t know precisely the place Final Fantasy 7 Remake stands. The new trailer launched as a part of PlayStation’s State of Play stream tells us to count on extra info in June, however that appears like 100 years away. How will the game play? How totally different will it’s to the unique? How will it painting a few of FF7’s most iconic characters and scenes?
I’m a tragic act, so I’ve been fascinated with this so much, watching the trailer repeatedly, and making an attempt to glean hints as to what FF7 Remake could be like from it. Here’s some very nerdy fan observations from that obsessive trailer-dissecting session.
Everything we noticed is in Midgar
One main factor to notice within the trailer is that identical to the earlier footage of a now-outdated construct of the game, the whole lot we see is throughout the partitions of the mega-city of Midgar.
This is important as a result of when FF7 Remake was introduced in 2015 it was revealed to be an episodic venture. Rather than being episodic within the Life is Strange sense, this could be extra akin to Final Fantasy 13, 13-2 and Lightning Returns – a number of full-size games that observe on from one-another like conventional sequels. This construction, Square Enix defined, would enable it to cost-effectively recreate the sprawling world of FF7 with out reducing corners.
Seeing solely Midgar within the trailers to this point may merely be a advertising and marketing and spoiler-related alternative. It may additionally solely be that is the one section of a bigger game that’s prepared to indicate. However, it does tease one different risk that’s been advised by followers since 2015: that half one in all FF7 Remake will solely include the part of the game set in Midgar.
In the unique game leaving Midgar and breaking out into the wilder world is an enormous second and will completely work because the climax of a person game. Midgar can also be ripe to be expanded, because it’s established each within the unique FF7 and in prolonged media as an enormous place with many alternative sides to it, from the poverty and struggling under the plate to the opulence above – the latter of which is barely explored within the unique FF7. With that stated, not the whole lot seen matches up beat-for-beat to what we all know of the Midgar chapter of FF7…
That Sephiroth Appearance
The elephant within the room within the trailer is an look by Sephiroth, who makes no in-person look through the Midgar part of the unique game. He’s in actual fact lacking and presumed useless at the moment. He’s a ghost from Cloud’s previous, talked about as a legend. Though he does burst onto the scene throughout Midgar’s finale, he nonetheless nonetheless goes unseen, represented solely by the bloody carnage he leaves in his wake. This is, by the way, an all-time nice technique to introduce a villain. The temper of stalking via blood-streaked corridors completely units the tone for his brutality and evil.
In this trailer, nonetheless, we see Sephiroth at what seems to be an earlier level within the game, and talking dialogue we don’t discover within the unique.
It appears fairly simple to pinpoint precisely the place within the game this scene seemingly is. Cloud is surrounded by hearth, wreckage and explosions, and we all know from the unique game that in among the Mako Reactor-destroying terrorist missions he suffers hallucinations which might be associated to Sephiroth and his previous. In FF7, that is much less specific – eerie inner-monologue set towards a jet black display screen – but when I needed to guess, Sephiroth’s look right here taunting Cloud is a substitute for that, a hallucination of his biggest nemesis.
The route of the scene appears suspect to me; although that is only a snippet, we solely see Sephiroth from behind, his face obscured – and this can be the facet of his character that’s saved for a extra ultimate reveal when he steps into the highlight as the primary villain. It additionally is sensible in tandem with the purpose above, nonetheless – if Midgar encompasses all of FF7 Remake’s first entry, it’d make plenty of sense to present Sephiroth extra presence in that first chapter even when he isn’t bodily current to construct in the direction of his flashback reveal on the onset of chapter 2.
Aerith, alternative, and fascinating scene placement
While just about each character has undergone one thing of an overhaul on this trailer in comparison with the final, Sephiroth isn’t the one debut: Aerith can also be right here for the primary time. She’s obtained a subtly-tweaked design, most totally different within the type of a far more sensible skirt. What’s extra fascinating to me, nonetheless, is the scene she and Cloud seem in.
In the unique game, Cloud and Aerith meet on the streets of Midgar. He’s on the run and he or she’s promoting flowers. That a lot seems to be the identical right here, however what’s curious is the setting. In the remake model of this scene issues appear fairly calm: it’s a daily road with a automobile within the background and pedestrians casually strolling round. In the unique game, the pair meet on scorched streets – wrecked vehicles, rubble and hearth – within the aftermath of Cloud and the AVALANCHE group blowing up one of many Mako reactors. It’s clear that if nothing else, both the timing or location of this scene has been adjusted – and this can be a nice trace at how a lot occasions could also be modified within the remake versus the unique FF7.
One different factor that’s fascinating about this scene is the dialogue, additionally. The earlier real-time trailer for FF7 Remake featured traces that have been roughly wholesale ripped from a combination of the unique Japanese and the liberty-taking PS1 localization – however right here, we hear new, totally different traces typically. Though it’s troublesome to inform within the context of a trailer, the presentation of this scene appears totally different, with Aerith seeming to supply Cloud the flower quite than ask him to purchase one. We could possibly be reducing round participant alternative, however this dialog within the unique game is house to 3 to 4 dialogue selections that assist to form your future relationship with Aerith. Will these selections stay intact within the remake? The supply of the snippet within the trailer suggests extra a full-blown, hands-off story scene than one which’d pause for selections.
This raises a bigger query, too: what of issues like FF7’s iconic courting sequence? At one level within the unique game Cloud goes on a date with one of many members of his celebration, with the date decided by the way you’ve spoken to characters up till that time. The alternative to purchase a flower or not is the primary that impacts this storyline – however does a branching date that might doubtlessly find yourself with Cloud and Barret awkwardly having fun with romantic fireworks collectively match a extra cinematic story that’ll little question wish to drive house Cloud and Aerith’s connection for max emotional manipulation?
All of this hyperlinks again into questions I beforehand raised once I stated Final Fantasy 7 remake’s biggest challenge isn’t scope, but tone. I wouldn’t be stunned to see plenty of issues like character alternative and goofy non-canon dates stripped out in pursuit of a extra deeply cinematic story with a extra constant tone.
Barret has a brand new voice route, and it’s lastly proper
FF7 hard-man Barret has had a voice because the film spin-off Advent Children, however for my cash it’s by no means fairly been proper. To be clear, we within the West have been spoiled by a foolish, over-the-top Mr. T type dialect that wasn’t anyplace close to consultant of the unique Japanese textual content, however the buttoned-up, gruff voice-over and writing discovered within the movie and compilation games by no means felt like Barret to me. I as soon as stated that DMX should do Barret’s voice over, and I used to be solely half joking. I used to be dissatisfied when the compilation voice returned within the earlier trailer.
As such, I’m very happy to see a change of route for Barret on this trailer. He has the type of supply and diction now that feels extra becoming of a personality liable to suits of righteous anger and melodrama. In reality, this execution appears like a fantastic midway home between the unique Japanese characterization as-written and the over-the-top however iconic localized model. Mediating between these two tones, each beloved by followers of various areas, is among the remake’s key and most troublesome challenges.
Final Fantasy 7 is completely choc stuffed with bizarre little nuances like this, like Cait Sith talking in a particular regional Japanese dialect that’s totally different from that of Reeve, his controller. This is a degree misplaced within the unique translation completely. The refined shift in Barret’s localized voice – which could not even be a brand new actor, however may simply be a change in route – provides me hope that this facet will be nailed.
The fight positive seems to be like Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy 7 Remake has clearly gone via a number of totally different iterations. Just trying on the distinction of the person interface between the first non-CG trailer, some later screenshots and the newest footage reveals that. This new trailer makes one factor clear, nonetheless: this fight seems to resemble Kingdom Hearts fairly a bit.
In one part of the trailer, as pictured above, you’ll be able to see the participant opening a shortcut menu with instructions for a restrict break and a potion, identical to how in Kingdom Hearts a shortcut menu can be utilized to entry spells and therapeutic. In different sections we will see the UI parts lighting up because the participant lands assaults – the flashing seeming to incidate button presses, displaying that that is constructed round a extra conventional (and extra mashing-friendly) button-hammering fight system than the leisurely button-holding motion of Final Fantasy 15.
Obviously that is actually troublesome to really perceive with out taking part in the game, nevertheless it undoubtedly seems this can veer nearer to Kingdom Hearts than FF15 – which is sensible, since Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura is on the helm, as is Kingdom Hearts 2 battle director Mitsunori Takahashi. Here’s hoping some classes will be discovered from KH3, which definitely has the best combat in the series.
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