Support NeoGAF

[Rean no Kiseki]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Has Gone Gold, Confirms Tetsuya Nomura

Final Fantasy VII Remake will not be delayed any further, as the game has already been mastered ahead of its release.

www.dualshockers.com

"Originally, Final Fantasy VII Remake was set to release tomorrow, March 3, but back in January, Square Enix announced that the game would be pushed back a little over a month to its new launch date in April.

Fortunately, it has now been confirmed that no additional delays for FFVIIR will be coming through, as the initial work on the project has now finished. News Final Fantasy VII Remake Delayed to April 10 Read More In a new conversation with 4Gamer, Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura was asked about the current progress on the game and how it was faring leading up to launch day.

Nomura responded and said that no further delays will be coming because work on FFVIIR has now initially wrapped up. “We had some time to improve the quality of the final product, but we have already mastered it, so there is no further delay,” Nomura explained. So yes, this means that Final Fantasy VII has now officially gone gold, which is one of the final steps all games go through prior to release. For many, this is surely a very positive thing to hear and might seem a bit surreal. Final Fantasy VII Remake was first unveiled all the way back at E3 2015 during PlayStation’s press event. Since that time, news on the project has largely fallen silent until the past year when Square Enix finally opted to start showing off the game once again.

The road to launch has been a long one, but knowing that Nomura and the team at Square have now mastered the final version of the game that will ship out around the world is definitely exciting. In other news, Square Enix also today finally released the long-awaited demo for Final Fantasy VII as well. News on the demo first leaked earlier this year, but a release date was never announced for the trial until just this morning. As of now, you can check out the opening area of FFVIIR on your own PS4 at home if you haven’t already. News Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo Is Now Available on the Playstation Store Read More Final Fantasy VII is set to release next month on April 10, 2020, exclusively for the PS4."

Return me to the life stream if old.

 

[greencoder]

So how many episodes will there be? And when will they come out?

 

[Hestar69]

So how many episodes will there be? And when will they come out?

Three games I would bet.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

This is definitely surreal, they announced this all the way back in 2015!

 

[Barakov]

This is definitely surreal, they announced this all the way back in 2015!

5 years for development of a Final Fantasy game? Sounds about right.

 

[Hostile_18]

5 years for development of a Final Fantasy game? Sounds about right.

I think part 2 and 3 will be about 2 years out each. They have the engine, production pipeline, lots of reusable assets, and to some degree the story framework etc.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Just played the demo and it was fucking dynamite. The battle system was so much fun and the visuals is off the goddamn charts. Excellent recreation of the Mako Reactor bombing mission. Can't wait for the whole game to drop.

No wonder Sony is in no rush to talk about PS5 when they still have smoking fire coming out of the PS4.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Just played the demo and it was fucking dynamite. The battle system was so much fun and the visuals is off the goddamn charts. Excellent recreation of the Mako Reactor bombing mission. Can't wait for the whole game to drop.

No wonder Sony is in no rush to talk about PS5 when they still have smoking fire coming out of the PS4.

Man, you're really making me want to download the demo right now!

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Can you really go gold, when 80% of the game is still not made...?

We shall see... We shall see...

 

[E.T. Waifu]

Can you really go gold, when 80% of the game is still not made...?

We shall see... We shall see...

that's such a boomer thing to say

 

[Gavin Stevens]

that's such a boomer thing to say

It’s true, I have had explosive diarrhea, but can we leave my private life out of it babe?

 

[E.T. Waifu]

It’s true, I have had explosive diarrhea, but can we leave my private life out of it babe?

understandable tbh, boo.

 

[Aggelos]

This is definitely surreal, they announced this all the way back in 2015!

5 years for development of a Final Fantasy game? Sounds about right.

Be bound to remember that the game was announced back in 2015. But then, suddenly in Spring 2017 they announced that they were recruiting people for their core dev team....
And People went/reacted like "What the hell? Shouldn't this have happened 2 years ago?"

Final Fantasy VII Remake Team Urgently Recruiting, Heres A Message From Key Staff

Kitase For this project, we aim to surpass the original work in terms of quality by increasing the number of staff to strengthen the core company development as we head into the development progress phase. Nomura Twenty years have gone by and the number of generations that aren't familiar with...

www.neogaf.com

Final Fantasy VII Remake development shifts from external cooperation to internal focus

Last week, news surfaced that Square Enix is recruiting core staff for Final Fantasy VII Remake and that Naoki Hamaguchi, the main programmer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project le…

www.gematsu.com

They apparently didn't like what CyberConnect2 had done up to that point (at least, that is what rumours suggested), hence the "shifting development of FF7Remake internally" policy. Question is : Did they throw away most of CyberConnect2's work?

CyberConnect2 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[lyan]

time to buy squareenix shares.

 

[Jason28]

Go Gold or go Bold !

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Do we know at this stage how many episodes there will be and how long an episode plays out? Its a fantastic game, but to preorder at £60 per episode with no information on playtime, this could be a very expensive game.

 

[Panaphonics]

5 years. To remake AN EXISTING GAME. FOR A SINGLE EPISODE. Pathetic

 

[Deleted member 1159]

5 years. To remake AN EXISTING GAME. FOR A SINGLE EPISODE. Pathetic

“Remake an existing game”

Yes, if this is anything it’s just an uprez and refresh of the battle system

 

[Panaphonics]

“Remake an existing game”

Yes, if this is anything it’s just an uprez and refresh of the battle system

Well, do they have to come up with a complete new story? New characters? New environments?
It’s still less work than creating everything from scratch. At least the creative part.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Well, do they have to come up with a complete new story? New characters? New environments?
It’s still less work than creating everything from scratch. At least the creative part.

New story? Yes, it’s definitely significantly changed from the original. New characters? See above. New environments? Unless you think they’re reusing any assets from before besides concept art...

A tiny, minuscule amount of the 1997 game is in this game. All of the assets are new, all of the voice acting, all of the scripting...I went back and played the intro of the og game for fun this morning, to think that the effort that has gone into the remake could be eased by the existing property is pretty dumb. It’s like looking at a Disney classic and thinking “ah, who cares, they’re just taking a classic fairy tale where all the work has already been done...”

 

[Kumomeme]

I think part 2 and 3 will be about 2 years out each. They have the engine, production pipeline, lots of reusable assets, and to some degree the story framework etc.

doubt it would be that easy

FFVII had lot of unique location...so there lot of unique asset...making asset is one of process that take long time in development. There reason the game split in part and originally kitase said the game would take 3-4 times longer if developed with XIII quality before in interview.

part 2 will be outside midgar with each area had their own unique design and content..lot of unique asset that different from midgar will be involved...they need to making them from scratch...i doubt they could easily reuse assets in midgar as there surely would be unfit outside there..midgar, basically industrial city with steel pipes while outside midgar, the overworld is with forest, mountain, sea and stuff..you can even travel through it...its like FFXIII where goes from cocoon vs to archyle steppe...just imagine midgar is like cyberpunk 2077 city while outside midgar would be like HZD open world. Too vastly different transition there.

and outside midgar will be atleast big open area..different scale there...unless they would just copy paste content like how much of open world game out there, but FFVII had lot of unique location..from big industrial steel and pipes Midgar, to town like Kalm, chocobo ranch, Junon, costa del sol, to desert like area like gongaga ( notice the unique building there) all way to northen crater

but for part 3 might be bit faster though due lot of asset in part 2 can be reused than those in midgar.

 

[Kumomeme]

5 years. To remake AN EXISTING GAME. FOR A SINGLE EPISODE. Pathetic

dont confuse it as 'episode' like life is strange..think it as trilogy of full game..making game not easy and 4-5 years is normal for nowdays AAA game and from the quality we see, the period is not without reason

 

[Saber]

So, its on.

Can wait for this game to deliver.

 

[DonF]

good, no more delays and the waiting for episode 2 begins

 

[Klayzer]

Be bound to remember that the game was announced back in 2015. But then, suddenly in Spring 2017 they announced that they were recruiting people for their core dev team....
And People went/reacted like "What the hell? Shouldn't this have happened 2 years ago?"

Final Fantasy VII Remake Team Urgently Recruiting, Heres A Message From Key Staff

Kitase For this project, we aim to surpass the original work in terms of quality by increasing the number of staff to strengthen the core company development as we head into the development progress phase. Nomura Twenty years have gone by and the number of generations that aren't familiar with...

www.neogaf.com

Final Fantasy VII Remake development shifts from external cooperation to internal focus

Last week, news surfaced that Square Enix is recruiting core staff for Final Fantasy VII Remake and that Naoki Hamaguchi, the main programmer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project le…

www.gematsu.com

They apparently didn't like what CyberConnect2 had done up to that point (at least, that is what rumours suggested), hence the "shifting development of FF7Remake internally" policy. Question is : Did they throw away most of CyberConnect2's work?

CyberConnect2 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Modern Square is the most inefficient studio bar none. It's a miracle this project was done in five years. Well one third of project anyway.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Just played the demo and it was fucking dynamite. The battle system was so much fun and the visuals is off the goddamn charts. Excellent recreation of the Mako Reactor bombing mission. Can't wait for the whole game to drop.

No wonder Sony is in no rush to talk about PS5 when they still have smoking fire coming out of the PS4.

I finished the demo last night and started another playthrough right after. The game looks amazing, the combat is fun and fluid. This game is going to do really well

 

[Mr Hyde]

5 years. To remake AN EXISTING GAME. FOR A SINGLE EPISODE. Pathetic

Well, look at this accomplished game developer right here. Why don't you apply for a job as a game director at Square Enix and show these lazy fucks how a real man handles a big budget AAA remake of one of the most influential and beloved games of all time? Or better yet, shut the fuck up.

 

[Klayzer]

Well, look at this accomplished game developer right here. Why don't you apply for a job as a game director at Square Enix and show these lazy fucks how a real man handles a big budget AAA remake of one of the most influential and beloved games of all time? Or better yet, shut the fuck up.

You have to admit Square isn't very good with time management. They seemingly add on extra projects to an already bloated budget for said project in the first place. I want the game to succeed, I'm just wary of current Square management.

 

[base]

So how many episodes will there be? And when will they come out?

I think 3. Midgar 1, 2 is someone's death, 3 the last part.

 

[Zerotex]

I think 3. Midgar 1, 2 is someone's death, 3 the last part.

I think so... like the 3 disc in PSX era.

 

[Fake]

5 years for development of a Final Fantasy game? Sounds about right.

Kingdom Hearts...

 

[TGO]

I really wish they'd ditch the Remake Subtitle

 

[Mr Hyde]

You have to admit Square isn't very good with time management.

Sure, they might have mishandled a few projects, but anyone working in a creative environment knows how many things that can go wrong when you are handling big projects such as this. Some people here just thinks game development is smooth sailing from the get go.

Kitase has always stressed how hard a remake of FF VII would be, due to the enormous scope. The amount of pre-production and planning, let alone the actual development, have surely required an insane amount of dedication and resources, even if it's a remake. Add to that all of the expectations and pressure that comes from fans and Investors with such a pristine title and it's no wonder this project has been so time consuming.

And then you have some yahoo on a video game board calling this whole endeavor "pathetic" from behind his computer. Stay classy.

 

[Klayzer]

Sure, they might have mishandled a few projects, but anyone working in a creative environment knows how many things that can go wrong when you are handling big projects such as this. Some people here just thinks game development is smooth sailing from the get go.

Kitase has always stressed how hard a remake of FF VII would be, due to the enormous scope. The amount of pre-production and planning, let alone the actual development, have surely required an insane amount of dedication and resources, even if it's a remake. Add to that all of the expectations and pressure that comes from fans and Investors with such a pristine title and it's no wonder this project has been so time consuming.

And then you have some yahoo on a video game board calling this whole endeavor "pathetic" from behind his computer. Stay classy.

I definitely wouldn't call it pathetic. My frustration is strictly on how far out they announce products before actual development.

 

[Thabass]

Well, do they have to come up with a complete new story? New characters? New environments?
It’s still less work than creating everything from scratch. At least the creative part.

Posts like this remind that the common Joe Schmoe does not know how video game development works and it really shows. You're not going to make the same game 1:1 unless you're just going to remaster the original game with some minor texture upgrades (ex: FFVIII). This is a full on remake with new assets, voice acting, story elements, artwork, battle system and engine. This is a "remake" in every sense of the word.

With that said, and someone already pointed out, this was developed externally at first and something went awry with how development was going with CyberConnect2. Square didn't like it and so they had to change it up. So, they had to hire new people internally to work on this game and then bring people from other teams to work on the game. I think we can forgive Square a little hear for at least being proactive enough to say: "No, this shit won't fly, let's do it ourselves".

Though admittedly, it should have been that way from the beginning.

 

[Mr Hyde]

My frustration is strictly on how far out they announce products before actual development.

I feel you. In that department they can certainly improve. And many other publishers too. Early announcements with no actual work put in have never led to anything good.

 

[H4ze]

Damn, I need to resist the urge to play the demo :S

 

[The Cockatrice]

I'll wait until the whole game is out and play it on high end PC or PS5. No reason to get it now.

 

[Thabass]

My frustration is strictly on how far out they announce products before actual development.

Big mood here. I agree with you. This practice needs to end. I don't mind if the product is announced a year out, but don't tell me shit until it's almost near completion.

 

[Tomeru]

Judging by how the scorpion boss battle is a pretty radical change, Im hyped af for owa fight. I mean hyped across the roof. Just imagining a live dynamic battle with sephiroth is making it hard for me to breath right now.

Heck, the first battle with cloud and sephiroth vs that dragon is giving me an unexplainable goosbumps.

So yeah, its going to take a while.

 

[HelpYouFall]

Watch everyone get conned and lose their shit by having to pay 60 bucks for each 'episode' instead of the full game and have Square destroy something beautiful yet again lol

 

[Nankatsu]

Can't wait for my boy Tetsuya to reveal that this is the full remake and not only part 1.

Spoiler

A guy can dream, right?

 

[RPGCrazied]

Great news. Now if only we could see the time table for the other parts. We going to wait 5 years for each part? Probably 2 years at a minimum for each.

 

[Aggelos]

Modern Square is the most inefficient studio bar none. It's a miracle this project was done in five years. Well one third of project anyway.

Well at least, every Cloud has a silver lining.... Somehow they managed to furnish out an episode after 5+ years.

But as you'd expect outside partnerships, outsourcing and external collaboration has been aplenty

"Devs from around the world came to work" on FFVII: Remake

Director Naoki Hamaguchi explains how the desire to deliver the best FFVII experience to fans is stronger than any pressure.

www.gamereactor.eu

 

[Afro Republican]

More like Bronze since it's an episodic game. I think it'll be decent but an average modern Square experience and people hyping themselves up too high must have forgotten about Squares recent track record. Will be a fine remake that will initially gain that nostalgia feeling but the episodic nature will break that for the other episodes and people will likely wait until the complete version with all the episodes is sold for $29.99 in 2034.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Im worry about The part 2.

This means that will take another 5 years?

 

[Ixion]

Im worry about The part 2.

This means that will take another 5 years?

It should obviously take less time since much of what was built for Part 1 will be used for a Part 2 and so on, and Kitase said so as well. Plus, he said the team will be working on the FFVII project until it's complete, so if they're forcing themselves to complete all the parts before working on other projects, then I would think they would try to be as efficient as possible.

 

[Vawn]

It’s true, I have had explosive diarrhea, but can we leave my private life out of it babe?

Hurr hurrr hurrrr

 

[ExpandKong]

“initial work has now finished” terrible wording, passive voice is a big no-no you learn in high school level journalism classes but OH WELL good news for FF7

 

[LordKasual]

doubt it would be that easy

FFVII had lot of unique location...so there lot of unique asset...making asset is one of process that take long time in development. There reason the game split in part and originally kitase said the game would take 3-4 times longer if developed with XIII quality before in interview.

part 2 will be outside midgar with each area had their own unique design and content..lot of unique asset that different from midgar will be involved...they need to making them from scratch...i doubt they could easily reuse assets in midgar as there surely would be unfit outside there..midgar, basically industrial city with steel pipes while outside midgar, the overworld is with forest, mountain, sea and stuff..you can even travel through it...its like FFXIII where goes from cocoon vs to archyle steppe...just imagine midgar is like cyberpunk 2077 city while outside midgar would be like HZD open world. Too vastly different transition there.

and outside midgar will be atleast big open area..different scale there...unless they would just copy paste content like how much of open world game out there, but FFVII had lot of unique location..from big industrial steel and pipes Midgar, to town like Kalm, chocobo ranch, Junon, costa del sol, to desert like area like gongaga ( notice the unique building there) all way to northen crater

but for part 3 might be bit faster though due lot of asset in part 2 can be reused than those in midgar.

Studios have done it before. The question is where Square is going to choose on placing their attention. Final Fantasy XIV is a perfect example of how much you can accomplish when you aren't afraid of sacrificing a little bit of fidelity for the sake of actually delivering meaningful content.

TBH FFXV is a decent example of this too. The environments in FFXV honestly weren't built out of super amazing assets....the best looking parts of the game were a result of clever placement and usage of lighting effects. It wasn't something like GTA5, Horizon ZD or RDR2 tier but what was there absolutely worked for what they needed it to....they just canned too much of the game.