BEHIND THE SCENES CLOUD CITY
How the magic is created
more about them, [when] they want to see this original story, the only version of the game available would be that original PlayStation version from 23 years ago. So I really had it in my mind that I wanted them to be able to experience that with the latest gaming technology, modern graphics, and modern exposition, which is one of the big reasons why we started working on the project.
OPM: At what point in development did the team decide to focus this game just on Midgar?
YK: I mean, it was very early on actually that we decided to make that decision – when we were looking at the plot of the game and how to plan out the overall picture. It became clear that in order to show everything in Final Fantasy VII in the level of detail, the level of realism that we wanted to do, and fill in all the gaps. Again, there’s a lot in the game which the original presentation of the game is quite abbreviated in some ways, there’s bits that the imagination fills in. And you obviously have to fill those in for a more modern style of realistic portrayal.
We realised quite early on that if we were going to do that we had two options for the game. The first one would be to force everything into a single game title, but that would have wound up as a very choppy, abbreviated, kind of a digest of the story and we couldn’t show absolutely everything in there. The other alternative would be to focus solidly on one area, depict that in the level of detail we wanted to do, but make it more than one game. So it became very clear that that was the better way of giving the fans what they wanted, which is why we made that decision for the current plan.
OPM: The Midgar portion sticks strongly in people’s minds. But that bit is only a few hours long. In what ways have you expanded it into a full game? Naoki Hamaguchi: When we first got the rough scenario outline, the plot, from the story writer Mr [Kazushige] Nojima, it already had a fair amount of additional detail in it. But when the decision was made to focus just on the story in Midgar in this first game in the project we really set ourselves the objective [that] we have to have that story, but with the same volume of gameplay as a numbered Final Fantasy game, otherwise it wouldn’t really feel right to us.
The approach that we took was essentially after we’d received the basic structure and the story outline from Mr Nojima, we’d then go down and start the level design and work out how to structure this as a standalone game in its own right –
“OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE TO FILL THOSE [DETAILS] IN FOR A MORE MODERN STYLE OF REALISTIC PORTRAYAL.”
with the right rhythm of the story, and the transitions and obviously how the battles would fit in, how the character growth would work as one overall full game. And then once we’ve written a certain amount of that and we fleshed it out, we’d send it back to Mr Nojima, he’d adapt the scenario and the story writing to work around that and flesh it out a bit more, and there’d be this back and forth between the two of us until we worked out a really good balance of content and a nice transition through the games so it really did feel like a solid story in its own right.
OPM: We’ve already seen that Remake incorporates elements that were originally later on in the game, such as some Summons and Sephiroth. How hard was it to decide what to bring forward and reintegrate into this game? YK: I mean certainly to start we’ll talk about Sephiroth. The way we had with Sephiroth in the original Final Fantasy VII was we deliberately kept him from appearing early on in the game, we held him back, so we could build up this picture and this image of him as this really big, really evil threat by hiding him and implying about how bad he was. Obviously, for the remake though, most people now know who Sephiroth is, what kind of character he is, so we felt it wasn’t quite as effective trying to hold him back in the same way.
So obviously with people knowing about who Sephiroth is now and we wanted to inject that feeling of him being this big, evil presence throughout the whole of the Remake project, and we felt it would be a good idea to have him in this first game to feel and give that impression, so you really can feel his presence within the overall story arc and really understand that he is this overlooking, real big, evil presence. So that was something we wanted to do to slightly change it round a bit.
OPM: As part of expanding on the Midgar section how have you opened up the setting? Have you incorporated any open world elements or side-quests?
NH: Okay, so first of all the overall concept of how we handled the game design and what we felt was really important about Final Fantasy VII is that story – and the characters who take part in the setting, but really the story that they tell. And an open world construction of a game where you can, for example, do a little bit of the story, then go somewhere else, and do something else, and then come back again, that would really affect the tempo and the kind of pacing and the direction of the story, different players would experience it in different ways. We really wanted to focus on having that story at a really nice, really cinematic pace. And so we went for a more story-driven approach, rather than an open world approach, along the lines of recent really good storydriven games like Uncharted or God Of War, for example. So this isn’t an open world game because of that very good reason of: we need to have the story told as best we can.
Of course, having said that, on the other side, we are very much aware that if you can only proceed with the main story and there’s nothing else to do outside of that the games tend to feel quite linear and there’s obviously a lot of people who criticise games for that. So the approach we took for that – while not damaging that story progression and that tension and that direction as it was – was to find the correct points in the story to be able to take that time out and go along those side branches. For example, when the team travel to a certain town or location they find, okay, now we’re going to stop for the night, we’re going to maybe take one day out and then carry on to our next objective once we’ve rested. And that would be the perfect place to basically slow the pace down and have all these sidequests that you can accept within that area. Obviously, some players can choose to do them, some players choose not to do them, and that’s allowed. So by keeping that the number one priority of the story progression feeling right, but also finding the right places that have these side activities, I think we managed to get a really good balance there.
The series might be called Final Fantasy, but its seventh story has almost become more myth than fantasy, a legend passed on from generation to generation since its PS1 release. The cultural osmosis has been so strong that many who’ve never played it already know quite a bit about it. And fans were dreaming of a remake long before this new version was announced. This game is the first part of that project, retelling the Midgar portion of the story as a full game, and passing the torch of the legend forward once again.
“The original Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997, 23 years ago, and caused a massive impact on the games industry. This is a full reimagining of that legendary game for a new audience of gamers,” producer Yoshinori Kitase says as he welcomes us to our early hands-on with four of the game’s chapters. “This isn’t just a port or a simple remaster of the game, we want to go above and beyond and deliver even more than people would expect even from a standard remake of a game.”
Whether you’re a fan or old or new, Kitase wants there to be something for you in Remake. “Our objective here is to deliver the definitive RPG experience for a new generation of fans. And then for people that played the original game, we want to deliver them those same thrills and same surprises as they got the first time around, but even bigger and even better this time.”
What’s key is that while Remake retells the opening of the PS1 game, every detail has been expanded. “In order to realise the world in that level of detail, we’ve had an absolutely massive amount of development work which has resulted in a huge volume of data, and that’s why this game is on a two Blu-ray disc set,” says Kitase. “This means that we’re looking at an equivalent of gameplay volume to any of the other numbered Final Fantasy games, which means we haven’t had to cut down or cut back on any of the things that people loved about the original game.”
The game’s focus might be on one city, Midgar, but it’s filled with variety and new things to discover as the story draws you through its different sectors. “The city has been rebuilt, focusing on the same core keywords of the design that we did for the original, which is it’s a very dark location. It’s got a modern steampunk vibe to it, but it’s also very eclectic and very different in different places,” says Kitase. “The visual style we’ve gone for isn’t a pure photorealism for photorealism’s sake. We’ve gone for a slightly more stylised approach that really respects and works to the strengths of the original Final Fantasy VII and its aesthetic decisions.”
On PS1 you might have spent a few hours in Midgar (depending on how quickly you blazed through it), but they were memorable ones, the visuals pushing the boundaries of what you’d expect in a JRPG. But they were from a top-down perspective and, while cutting-edge for the time, had limitations, so our imaginations filled a lot in. “The core concept the development team have worked to is the idea of experiencing the city of Midgar yourself,” says the game’s co-director, Naoki Hamaguchi. “We’ve taken a lot of care in depicting the structure of the city itself as well as the lives of the people who live in the city and in the slums around it in really extreme detail.” The different areas now feel even more distinct, and properly lived in. “Each individual location within Midgar also has its own personality and has been designed to give a completely different gameplay experience,” says Hamaguchi. At one point in the game we walk through city streets devastated by an explosion, turning what was only a few screens in the original game into a rich world packed with consequence. Cloud and his friends’ journey through Midgar might set the stage for the rest of FFVII, but it’s going to feel like a complete story in itself. Though, of course, the entire Remake project is seen by Square Enix as one big undertaking. “You’ll see the rest of that story in the future,” says Hamaguchi. “The development team is now finally reaching the release of this first game. And that means that we’re now in a position where we’re able to concentrate our full efforts on development on the second game.”
“OUR OBJECTIVE HERE IS TO DELIVER THE DEFINITIVE RPG EXPERIENCE.”