Final Fantasy VII Remake

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Balthier: I'm afraid the jury's still out on that one.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake is an upcoming remake of Final Fantasy VII, originally released for the PlayStation in 1997. The game is entirely remade, using the story and characters from the original, and will be released in parts. Each game in the project will have a volume of content comparable to a standalone Final Fantasy game. The disc version of the first game is a two-Blu-ray Disc set.^[2] The official title is Final Fantasy VII Remake to convey its status as a remake rather than a spin-off or sequel.^[3] The Remake is a reimagining of the original game that goes deeper into the world and characters.^[2] The game is being developed by Square Enix's Business Division 1, helmed by Yoshinori Kitase as producer (the original director of Final Fantasy VII) and Tetsuya Nomura as director (original character designer known as the director for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and the Kingdom Hearts series).

The remake was a surprise announcement made on June 15 during E3 2015, after years of rumors and fan demand. The debut gameplay trailer was shown on December 5, 2015 during PlayStation Experience 2015.^[4]. The first part of the project was set to be released worldwide on March 3, 2020, but the release date was pushed back to April 10. The first part covers the events of Midgar from the original game. The game Is 100GB in size.^[5] A playable demo of the game was released for PlayStation 4 on March 2, 2020, one day before the title's originally scheduled release date.^[6]

Gameplay

Square Enix is aiming for a new take on classic concepts with an evolution of the ATB system that yields greater action with tactical control. The player can switch between party members on-the-fly and use a wide range of abilities and spells. The player can issue orders to the other characters, or leave them to AI. Switching to a different party member at the right time can make best use of their unique abilities. The Materia system can be used to tailor one's play style and abilities.^[2] Summons fight alongside the player until the timer expires, and the summon exits by performing its signature attack.

The E3 2019 gameplay trailer shows Barret and Cloud take on the original game's first boss. To use their special abilities, the player must fill the ATB bar by using basic real-time attacks. When the ATB gauge is full, the player can enter special mode where time stands still allowing one to use a special ability. The player can also assign special commands to short-cut buttons. Various Limit Breaks return from the original as character-specific special attacks. In the gameplay demo Barret can hit far-away targets with his machine gun, and the party can take cover behind debris on the battlefield.

Buster Sword upgrade screen from FFVII Remake — Buster Sword upgrade screen.

Each weapon has unique abilities get better with use. When an ability is maxed out the wielder learns it permanently and it can be used with any weapon. Skill points earned from battle can be spent to improve one's weapon, such as by adding more Materia slots.^[7]

In standard modes, the ATB Gauge fills up by repeatedly attacking, but in Classic Mode this aspect is handled automatically forgoing worry about the action side, allowing the player to focus solely on selecting commands, similar to the original release.^[8] Classic Mode is activated from the difficulty menu. It is possible to revert to direct control at any time during Classic Mode. activates each character’s unique ability.^[7]

Synopsis

Setting

Midgar2-FFVII-remake — Midgar, powered by Shinra Electric Company's Mako power.

Gaia is a technologically advanced planet dominated by humans, who are the only major sentient race other than a few nearly extinct species. The world is economically, militarily, and politically dominated by the powerful conglomerate of Shinra Electric Power Company, which profits from the use of Mako Reactors.

The reactors siphon a special type of energy—called Mako—out of the planet and convert it into electricity, giving consumers access to technological comforts and innovations that ease and improve the quality of everyday life. One of the byproducts of the extraction and refinement of Mako energy is Materia, a concentrated form of Mako which allows the wielder to harness its magical properties.

President Shinra leads his eponymous organization, and is the world's de facto ruler. Unbeknown to most of the world, Shinra's existence hides many atrocities and acts of despotism committed since its rise to power, including public manipulation, internal conflicts, and abuses of its authority, from morally questionable scientific experimentation, human rights abuses, unaddressed civil inequalities and issues, military and police scale oppression, and the denial of the detrimental results of Mako as a power source.

Withered-Flowers-FFVII-Remake — Withered flowers in Midgar.

Mako energy is drawn from the Lifestream, a flow of life-force beneath the planet's surface. All life originates from the Lifestream, and returns to it upon death, and the Lifestream is the sum of all the life that has ever and will ever live upon the planet. The process of extracting Mako energy drains the life of the planet to generate electricity. This can be seen in the Shinra's capital city of Midgar surrounded by a wasteland where plants barely grow.

Characters

The cast featured in the original Final Fantasy VII is said to return with all the same playable characters.

Playable characters

Cloud Strife: The main protagonist, introduced as a former member of SOLDIER now operating as a mercenary caught up in the actions of eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE.
Barret Wallace: The leader of AVALANCHE, who wields a machine gun on his right arm in place of his injured hand. Despite his brash and loud-mouthed personality, he is a caring person.
Aerith Gainsborough: A kind-hearted flower girl from the Midgar Slums, who has a mysterious past involving the Legend of the Cetra.
Tifa Lockhart: A member of AVALANCHE and Cloud's childhood friend. She runs a pub called Seventh Heaven, which doubles as the rebel group's hideout, but has doubts regarding the methods being employed by the group.
Red XIII: Starts off as a guest character in part 1.

Other characters

Sephiroth: The main antagonist, and legendary supersoldier of Shinra Company, believed to have died five years ago and is on antagonistic terms with Cloud but needs him alive for unknown malicious purposes.
President Shinra: The president of Shinra Company, who cares more about money than the fate of the Planet's Mako energy draining.
Heidegger: President Shinra's assistant who gives reports to his president.
Reeve:
Scarlet:
Palmer:
Biggs: A member of AVALANCHE who likes to help.
Wedge: A member of AVALANCHE who dreams of being more than a cowardly sidekick.
Jessie: A member of AVALANCHE who is an expert on bombs.
Marlene Wallace: Barret's kind-hearted daughter who cares for her father and his friends.
Reno: A member of the Turks working for President Shinra.
Rude: A member of the Turks working for President Shinra.
Tseng: The leader of the Turks working for President Shinra.
Professor Hojo:
Don Corneo: A wealthy man from Sector 6 who loves to flirt with women.

Story

The story is expected to follow the original closely. The first gameplay trailer shows scenes faithfully recreating AVALANCHE's bombing mission on the Sector 1 Reactor. Trailers have also shown that the game will expand on the stories in new ways, such as a scene in which Tifa expresses doubts regarding AVALANCHE's methods and Cloud experiencing a vision of Sephiroth.

Music

The game will feature arranged and updated remixes of songs heard in the original game, as well as several new tracks. Background music will transition to a battle variation in certain areas.

In June 2019, it was revealed Nobuo Uematsu will return for the remake, though in what capacity was not stated in full at the time.^[9] It was then revealed in January 31, 2020 that the game's ending theme, "Hollow," was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and sung by Yosh from Survive Said The Prophet. The lyrics are by Kazushige Nojima, translated by Ben Sabin, and John Crow. It was also revealed that Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki were composing and arranging music for the game.

The music featured in the E3 2015 reveal trailer was "Beyond The Wasteland" from Advent Children as well as part of the Distant Worlds orchestrated rendition of "Opening - Bombing Mission", which was further used in the gameplay trailer shown at PlayStation Experience 2015.

Development

Main article: Final Fantasy VII Remake development

Release

The game is planned for release in multiple parts, as a remake of Final Fantasy VII would not fit into a single release. Was the team to dedicate to a single release, the content would need to be cut, so rather than remake the game as a full volume, it was decided to do it in parts.^[3] The parts will be full-sized games with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy cited as the base model, each part being the scale of one game from the XIII series. ^[10] The first installment will be released on two Blu-ray discs.^[11]

Packaging artwork

Production credits

Executive Producer	Shinji Hashimoto^[12]
Producer	Yoshinori Kitase
Director	Tetsuya Nomura
Co-director (Game Design/Programming)	Naoki Hamaguchi^[13]
Co-director (Scenario Design)	Motomu Toriyama^[13]
Scenario	Kazushige Nojima
Character Designers	Tetsuya Nomura, Roberto Ferrari
Planner	Yui Sawada
Graphics & VFX Director	Shintaro Takai^[13]
Battle Director	Teruki Endo^[13]
Environment Director	Takako Miyake^[13]
Lighting Director	Iichiro Yamaguchi^[13]
Character Modeling Director	Masaaki Kazeno^[13]
Animation Director	Yoshiyuki Soma^[13]
Composer	Nobuo Uematsu ^[9]Masashi Hamauzu Mitsuto Suzuki

Voice cast

Character	Japanese Voice Actor	English Voice Actor
Cloud Strife	Takahiro Sakurai	Cody Christian
Sephiroth	Toshiyuki Morikawa	Tyler Hoechlin
Aerith Gainsborough	Maaya Sakamoto	Briana White
Tifa Lockhart	Ayumi Ito	Britt Baron
Red XIII	Kappei Yamaguchi^[14]
Barret Wallace	Masahiro Kobayashi	John Eric Bentley
Jessie	Satomi Moriya^[15]	Erica Lindbeck
Biggs	Shuhei Sakaguchi^[15]	Gideon Emery
Wedge	Takayuki Asai^[15]	Matt L. Jones
President Shinra	Genzō Wakayama^[16]
Heidegger	Katsumi Cho^[16]
Scarlet
Palmer
Reeve
Tseng	Junichi Suwabe^[17]
Reno	Keiji Fujiwara^[15]
Rude	Taiten Kusunoki^[15]
Professor Hojo	Shigeru Chiba^[14]
Marlene Wallace
Don Corneo	Youhei Tadano^[17]
Roche	Kenta Miyake^[16]
Chadley	Shuichiro Umeda^[14]
Andrea Rhodea	Tomokazu Sugita^[17]
Leslie Kyle	Tasuku Hatanaka^[17]
Madam M	Yuka Komatsu^[17]
Chocobo Sam	Masashi Sugawara^[17]