Final Fantasy 7 Remake interview: “This had to be a complete standalone game, a real satisfying gaming experience”

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a singular beast, a video game that requires concerns not frequent in different titles below improvement. Its distinctive standing as a trailblazing, groundbreaking relic of the early 3D period implies that any remake of it was going to be a frightening job.

Two of the those that job has fallen to is producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi. Kitase, after all, has kind with Final Fantasy 7 – in addition to serving because the producer of Final Fantasy 10 and 13, and the director of FFs 6 and eight, he directed and co-wrote the unique FF7 and acted as producer on all the collection of 2000s spin-offs that made up the ‘Compilation of Final Fantasy 7’. Hamaguchi is a collection veteran, however is new to FF7, having beforehand labored on FF12 and 13. While Tetsuya Nomura is heading up the path of the game, he has a number of co-directors working alongside him, with Hamaguchi dealing with fight and moment-to-moment gameplay whereas FF13’s Motomu Toriyama co-directs the story.

After enjoying a brand new construct of FF7 Remake for a number of hours we obtained an opportunity to sit down down with the pair to speak about their method to the sequel. We talked concerning the act of splitting the unique game’s content material into a number of full-sized games for the remake, making certain selection and taste in a sprawling cyberpunk metropolis that might simply all really feel the identical, and the method of creating a battle system that directly respects and modernizes FF7’s basic fight. Here’s our chat in full.

VG247: I need to begin off by asking you about selection, I suppose, as a result of in Final Fantasy folks kind of typically count on a grand journey that takes you to a lot of completely different locations. You take into consideration the unique FF7, you’ve obtained icy climates and grassy locations and deserts, cities and cities… however this game is clearly simply set in a single large metropolis. So how do you’re employed to fulfill the fan expectations of seeing a broad vary of stuff inside this setting?

Naoki Hamaguchi: I’m glad you picked up on that, as a result of we actually have put all our efforts in there. First of all, to provide the reply… you actually, completely won’t really feel that that is one closed off location, or that it’s all the identical and boring. I can assure you that, as a result of we actually did pay a lot consideration to creating such completely different feeling places, even inside the metropolis of Midgar. You’ve obtained all of the completely different locations within the metropolis, you’ve obtained like, the plate metropolis on the highest, happening to the slums, the tunnels… for instance, the round tunnel, the central tunnel – it wasn’t actually proven that a lot within the unique, the one which goes throughout the central pillar…

We actually did give attention to giving every of these their very own little neighborhood and their very own tradition. Again, perhaps they’re not 100% tremendous completely different, fully completely different visually, however they do look so completely different. They’ve every obtained their very own little persona and tradition too, so you actually will expertise so many alternative places, a lot variation even inside Midgar.

And like I say, every of these places is basically constructed based mostly on the tradition of the folks there. You’ll actually get really feel for who lives there from from the visuals too.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake interview: “This had to be a complete standalone game, a real satisfying gaming experience”

VG247: Can you discuss a bit of concerning the means of deciding the game’s contents? You’ve obtained stuff that folks count on in a Final Fantasy game, proper? So you would possibly have a look at it and say… we will’t ship this game with out Ifrit, the summon monster. But within the unique game, you don’t get any summons till nicely after the part of the story this game covers. Ifrit, you get him on the Cargo Ship, proper? Anyway, the purpose is… how do you determine what to deliver ahead into this game and what to depart behind for the longer term, to make it simpler on you for the longer term games?

Naoki Hamaguchi: Well to begin with, that’s excellent information concerning the unique game. [laughs] But no, I can’t inform you clearly about, like, “we’ve decided to leave this out for the future” and what we’ve included on this game and what we’ve not carried out – that’s clearly one thing I can’t contact upon. But… the way in which that we checked out it, the highest precedence of deciding what content material to go in was that this needed to be an entire standalone game, an actual satisfying gaming expertise. After you’ve accomplished the game, it’s important to suppose that yeah, this was a superb game in its personal proper. That was the filter via which we assessed what content material is within the game.

So actually, the way in which that we checked out it was that this must be a satisfying game expertise in its personal proper. If you concentrate on that… okay, summons are from after Midgar so we will’t embrace them, however can we actually not have a single summon on this game? Fans need to see the summons on this game! They actually needed to go in, even when it’s one thing that appeared after Midgar within the unique story, we felt that if it was one thing wanted to make this game actually nice in its personal proper, it has to go in. That was the considering we had there, and that features stuff like Shiva and Ifrit that you simply talked about.

VG247: So I’m fairly positive that after Sephiroth seems and also you’re strolling across the streets of Midgar, that’s a music monitor from Advent Children. [We later verified this; the music monitor is a brand new association of ‘The Promised Land‘ from 2005 FF7 sequel film Advent Children.] I used to be stunned to listen to that. I understand [Tetsuya] Nomura-san stated earlier than that the remake is in a special continuity to the FF7 tasks from the previous, however I’m interested by how a lot of the compilation concepts you wished to deliver into the game. Hearing music from the compilation that by no means appeared within the unique FF7 was a pleasing shock.

Yoshinori Kitase: I can’t provide you with full particulars precisely what number of occasions, the place they’re referenced, or something like that, however what I need to let you recognize is that the entire lore from the works created after the unique game, the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, that’s all very a lot within the base of the canon for the remake, and going ahead will probably be too.

VG247: Playing as a lot of the game as I did immediately, it seems like there’s an actual persevering with line from the FF13 trilogy to this game – which, after all, you each labored on the FF13 trilogy. The apparent instance is within the return of the Stagger mechanic, however in different methods too. Do you are feeling like there have been classes discovered which have fed into this undertaking?

Naoki Hamaguchi: I imply, I did develop the FF13 battle system, so… once more, there could also be an affect from that simply from me engaged on it, however I don’t actually intentionally consider it as a successor. I didn’t have the FF13 system in thoughts once I was creating, so I actually didn’t base it on that system in any respect.

The ideology of making the battle system for FF7 Remake actually began out with the… ‘how do we represent and how do we reimagine the core ATB battle system from the original game for the modern audience?’ The results of that’s it grew to become a barely extra action-oriented system, however actually I don’t need folks to neglect, at its core, [it] continues to be an ATB system. It includes charging up the ATB gauge and utilizing that to make use of your talents in your your objects and issues like that. Really, the motion is is positioned on high of that.

If you play skillfully utilizing the motion mechanics, it makes charging up that ATB gauge much more environment friendly, after which you can even use it to open up the enemy for large injury by staggering them and issues like that. But at its core it’s nonetheless very a lot the ATB system, in order that’s the connection between the motion mechanics and what we tried to realize by retaining the core of FF7 in there.

I’m very assured on this new battle system that I’ve provide you with right here. I believe the truth that basic mode is feasible in any respect actually exhibits how every a part of the motion parts and the ATB parts carried out their very own distinctive features inside that total battle system.

By switching on basic mode, you may automate all of these motion features after which simply think about enjoying it [in] the very same method as the unique by choosing your instructions, so I believe that actually does present how properly all of the components of the battle system match collectively.

VG247: You’ve clearly talked an excellent deal concerning the present 4 occasion members, however I’d like to know in case you can inform folks what we will count on from Red XIII. Obviously within the context of when he enters the story on this game, he is available in very late. So is he gonna be the identical stage of fleshed out as the opposite forged members or is he maybe gonna be a visitor? Can you discuss that in any respect?

Naoki Hamaguchi: You’ve picked up some actually good factors right here! [laughs] You’re precisely proper. We felt the purpose at which Red XIII joins the occasion within the story may be very late on so we thought okay, if we’re gonna have him as a full character and attempt to get the participant to get pleasure from his character improvement arc and progress as a personality via that, it’s not likely sufficient time to try this.

So we thought that one of the simplest ways to have him concerned was as a visitor character. Normally all through the game you’ll be enjoying as a three-man occasion, however you should have him as a visitor character that fights alongside you through the the final a part of the story there. He’ll be utilizing all of his previous actually nostalgic strikes, and also you’ll see that. We felt that was one of the simplest ways of displaying him off as a personality and who he’s. That’s why we felt that was one of the simplest ways to incorporate him.


 

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