Source 1: https://www.facebook.com/BeyondMidgarFFVII/posts/154293388517734
Source 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/7cisea/ff_vii_remake_possible_leak/
Someone from 4chan posted that a Square Enix employee was recently fired.
http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/397105869/previous-ffvii-remake-legit-squareenix-press#p397105869
Both sources came from 4chan so it's hard to tell if it's fact or fiction, but one thing for sure though 4chan was mostly right about the FFXV spoilers a year ago.
Some important bits:
Q: How far along is it?
A: Advanced in many areas, although they haven't even finished recording voice over work yet, but the first Episode is playable in pretty much what would be called a pre-beta stage. It's playable all the way through. The game is now simply being polished up as pretty as it can become graphically and easily has some of the most impressive visuals at least I’ve ever seen on a home console. In terms of how it looks on the high end development rigs, it’s fucking ridiculous. Practically an interactive movie. The game is fully playable at this point from beginning to end, but you’ll see where there’s literally gray models and areas where they’ve clearly not added in any of the final textures are assets. Over than that, you have a game.
Q: In terms of Episodes, can you go further into that and what SE's plan is with the game?
A: Three episodic releases, all full games. They are just calling them episodes so people understand it one huge story. The initial goal a few years ago was part 1 and 2, with no episodes, but it quickly became evident that they wanted to push this further than any FF ever; they wanted a repeat of the way FFVII changed the way games were viewed and they are going to do that again. This is the game they want to be remembered by 50 years from now, their legacy. Each episode also has a subtitle.This is SE’s Star Wars.
Q: How long is each episode and what can we expect?
A: Right now the first episode, beginning to end, not including any side play is clocking around the 50+ hour mark. That also doesn't include the additional content that will be released between each episode for free to make the wait more bearable and relevance high.
Q: You were discussing this a bit randomly before we officially started the interview, but would you go back into the way you were describing the Summon System, and also, you had mentioned the Materia and Menu Systems being all integrated and unique?
A: That’s right. The Summons are absolutely fucking bad to the bone in this game. They nailed the balance between an overly drawn-out cinematic introduction and how they would be used. FFXV made it a sort of special event type deal when Summons could be used, which has never been in the spirit of FF. Here, the are not god or whatever they previously were, but massively powerful elemental and ancient monsters of lore that can be called on by “those who fight for the planet”. Some summons are stationary, meaning there will be a massive summon animation where they will plant themselves in cinematic fashion and launch a plethora of warheads, Alexander being an example. Other Summons are actually much more engageable, some with limited control where their attacks can be directed by the player for a limited amount of time while your other three party members, sometimes four, are doing their thing.
Some of the smaller more tactical centric summons witnessed so far as Ifrit, Shiva and this new one called Crusader, which is a golden knight looking character that will literally allow the camera to go into first-person mode and laugh spears of light at enemies while hovering around the battlefield. Odin actually has an amazing mechanic where you must charge the blade while controlling the horse like in the game ICO and attempt to hit your target with a “Zantetsuken” attack, which is an instant kill with no actual damage on regular enemies. I won’t go into some of the bigger summon spells because they’re simply too awesome to spoil, but I will say plainly here and no that each Summon is playable, unique, and has its own form and mode of control. They are a super weapon on the field in play, and you’re literally in-charge of them. Out of every FF, this is by far the best way I have ever seen the design implemented, and it is simply fun as hell. It also looks exquisite on UE4.
Q: Do you know anything else on PSX or only FF7R stuff? When will they reveal Tifa if it's the latter?
A: All the character designs including Tifa have been finalized. There is no plan to reveal characters in specific order. The only character the team is thinking of definitely revealing at the next showing is Aerith. Tifa's tits have been slightly nerfed though.[sigh]
Q: How far into the story will part 1 be? End of Midgar?
A: The final boss of the first game is Jenova birth. That's where part 1 ends.
Q: What's the timeframe for kh3 then, if we have to wait until thats out?
A: KH3 is set for the end of 2018, no specific date as they don't know when they will be ready. Some of our senior battle planners are working on both 7R and KH3, i heard it's progressing pretty well and they haven't missed any deadlines so far.
I don't know much more about kh3, not a lot of communication going on about it in the office.
For the world map we're working on something similar to XII, not as many loading screens. Areas are split into zones but we're trying to make each zone as big and seamless as possible. To get into cities you will also have to go through a loading sceen but the cities will be completely seamless or at least that's the plan. Making Midgar completely seamless has been pretty f***ing hard because it's way bigger than it was in the original game. Splitting the city up with loading screens is still possibility if we fail but Nomura is pretty stubborn about this.
Last edited by deskpro2k3 - on 17 November 2017
(mostly)
