FINAL FANTASY VII: REMAKE
It’s a brave new Materia world
Spinning that Final Fantasy VII disc for the first time back in 1997 was a moment to remember. Back then, RPGs simply didn’t do 3D graphics, let alone FMV. You wanted a roleplayer, you put up with cute sprites. But here was a game that sung PlayStation’s tune – literally, it made great use of the ‘new’ 24-channel sound Sony’s grey box could deliver. While the original took only a year to develop the PS4 remake has already been in development for two years, with director Nomura Tetsuya keen to refresh the familiar turn-based gameplay. Speaking in Monaco at the The Magic 2017 event, Tetsuya revealed Final Fantasy VII Remake will feature a new cover mechanic, and the original random encounters system is now gone, he said: “This is because in certain sections of the story you have to infiltrate areas and you can’t just walk down the centre of the path. The original game had random encounters, so that was kind of left up to the player’s imagination, but in the remake you see the whole progression of the infiltration in a seamless manner so we decided that we needed this kind of action for a sense of reality. You can do things like hide in the shadows to let guards by and then toss grenades to wipe them out. Of course, players who find that tedious can just charge out and fight them instead.”
CLOUD GAMING
Sidekick Barret was also seen in new footage ducking for cover as he battled the Guard Scorpion, which brought back memories of being blasted by that infernal tail laser (hint: ignore everything Cloud says!). As before, Barret plays differently to Cloud, his gun offering a tactical edge – because of his ranged attacks the gunner was always a back-row regular.
Now the battle is more dynamic, revealed Nomura: “You fight switching back and forth between the two of them, for example switching to Barret to effectively take down foes that Cloud’s sword cannot reach. So it has a level of strategy to it as well. The Guard Scorpion switches forms part way through the battle as well and can perform actions that it did not have in the original game.”
The remake will also feature destructible scenery, and even the Guard Scorpion’s legs can be blown off, to give you the advantage. This all points to a remake that echoes the original’s tactical action, but placed in a setting that takes full advantage of PS4’s power, and we’d expect nothing else from the game that pioneered 3D graphics on console.