May 102019
I was prepared for the apparent Final Fantasy news teases to be disappointed, but yesterday’s State of Play broadcast really did include the Final Fantasy VII Remake!
It also appears as though “Final Fantasy VII Remake” might be its official title, since it’s in the logo now.
The State of Play itself was pretty short, so we didn’t get much more than a 1-minute trailer of new Final Fantasy VII Remake footage. However, they promised that more information is coming in June, with Nomura stating:
Most of the plans are already in place in the run up to launch, so please bear with us a little longer until we can release more information next month.”
That sounds like E3 news to me, and… maybe even a release date?
Now, let’s take a look at the newest trailer.
It focuses on early-game content, with most of the action taking place during the opening Mako Reactor mission. We also get a short conversation between Cloud and Aeris (whose name appears to be localized as Aerith this time around), in which she offers him a flower.
There are a few interesting things to take note of.
First, the brief combat scenes show something many fans wanted: you can control multiple characters in combat! (Although the original trailer also showed this, there were still some doubts.)
How this will be handled is unclear, but the scene at 0:20 clearly shows Barret as the playable character. His name in the menu is highlighted, the camera is focused on him, and he has a “Backblast” command not present for Cloud.
(Compare this to the part at 0:21, where the player is playing as Cloud.)
Second, while we still haven’t seen Tifa in the remake, we’ve seen battles where she will be present. While the combat scenes in the trailer only ever show Cloud and Barret or Cloud and Aerith on-screen, Tifa’s name is listed alongside theirs.
Third, materia is confirmed! There was some concern that they might scrap the materia system for the remake, but fans on Reddit noticed two brief moments in which materia equipped on Cloud’s sword is visible.
Finally, the trailer ends with a scene seemingly in the Mako Reactor, in which Sephiroth asks Cloud, “Can you bear to see the Planet suffer, Cloud?”
This line is not from the original game, and while the placement suggests it’s Cloud having a vision of Sephiroth rather than Sephiroth actually being there in person, I’m really not sure what we should take from this scene. Why is he talking to Cloud about the Planet’s suffering? It could be a cause for concern, but on the other hand, if it’s a hallucination, then it makes much more sense.
Overall, I’m still disappointed that Final Fantasy VII Remake won’t use a turn-based/ATB combat system, but aside from that, this trailer is good. It looks like they’re keeping a lot of things from the original (I was even happy to see the countdown timer), which is what we want.
What concerns me the most is still the release timeline – and not because it’s taking so long.
Some fans had been hoping the multi-part release idea was scrapped, but Square Enix confirmed that “production is underway as multiple parts.”
(Since this is Square Enix, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if these things are named Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Remake-2, and so on.)
I don’t like Final Fantasy VII being split into multiple parts, especially since I felt the original game didn’t hit its stride until after leaving Midgar. It’s also made me wonder about modern JRPGs. If a game like Final Fantasy VII is too big to be remade as a single game, is that why modern JRPGs often feel like they lack the heart and soul of older JRPGs? Are they smaller in some ways even though they’re bigger in others?
Anyway, I’m cautiously optimistic about the Final Fantasy VII Remake and looking forward to news about it in June. What are your thoughts on the new trailer?
Really not digging the way this is going. I wish they let that other company finish it for them. This just looks like it wants to be Advent Children the game. Figured this would happen as soon as they said they were bringing it back in-house.
What about this makes you think of Advent Children more than the first trailer did?
Barret mainly (he seemed like a copy/paste from the movie), and the changes to the lines of all the characters felt more Advent Children-esk.
Hmm, well, I hope we get a more substantial look at everything in June. My main concern in regards to the tone is that they might try making it too serious and lose a lot of the goofier moments from the game.