Squeenix Final Fantasy VII Remake Integrade - now on Steam

[Beastro]

My sister would have my head if I showed my niece Alien

Sister-in-law would have mine.

I got a kick picking the first film years ago at my cousins and seeing the reaction of his four kids (roughly 9-14 at the time) to it after one voiced skepticism of how a movie that old could be scary.

Makes me thankful for the rule set in my house about shows and films. There were only two 1: good wins in the end and 2: no cruelty. People might roll their eyes at those, especially the former, but it opened a wide range for me to watch without restraint with the only major area off limits being typical slasher flicks, which mom hated and I never had a desire to watch, always finding them depressing and nihilistic.

 

[Grauken]

I saw a lot of violent movies as a kid at friends places and didn't mind most of them (as my parents forbid most of that at home). The only one that really gave me nightmares was Predator due to the skinning and funnily enough a disaster movie, The Towering Inferno, couldn't sleep well for a week or two afterwards.

 

[Beastro]

Worst experience for me as a kid (besides the good kind of being mortified by childrens shows like The Land Before Time and The Brave Little Toaster) was a friend picking Hellraiser III or so for his birthday and seeing a chick skinned alive and eaten purely for the gore-porn factor.

Sorry, not my cup of tea, and I speak as someone who didn't mind the skinning in Predator because it had a context to it becoming of a hunter.

 

[GhostCow]

FF7 wasn't so much narrative Zeitgeist, but definitely technical Zeitgeist. Those ugly char models, those 3d graphics, it blew minds then and showed a way forward for jRPGs. I don't like the game from a narrative viewpoint and really hate the end, or lets say the epilogue, the final fight was okay. But the game was, despite being a tonal mess, fun to play to my younger self. I can't imagine that a remake, however good from a technical standpoint it is, even captures an idota of the audience as the original did. Times have moved one, etc.

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I remember way back when FF7 was new I thought it was super weird, even as a kid, how the commercials did everything in its power to not show any actual gameplay.



So every commercial except the very last one was what NA saw. The first one in particular was the one they showed on just about every TV station you had at some point, you couldn't escape it. But here's the thing, if you had no prior history with Final Fantasy then you very likely saw this commercial and were hit with one big question:

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE?"

The commercial is talking about it being a motion picture first, with no mention of it even being a game. It uses such grand but abstract language that it creates curiosity in you because it seems so mysterious. Game commercials showed gameplay in some fashion, this was showing FMVs and advertising itself like it came from Hollywood. I'm convinced a huge reason why FF7 was so successful wasn't because of the storyline or characters or mechanics or gameplay, it was because nobody knew what the fuck they were being exposed to and wanted to find out what this commercial that ran 67,890 times per day was about.

I remember renting this with my friends way back in the '90s when it first came out, the Blockbuster had to put an elastic on the rent-out case to keep the game case fitted inside properly. You see this big jewel case with three discs inside and think you're getting not a mere game but a goddamn EXPERIENCE.

Then we popped it in, watched a starry sky for 2 minutes wondering if the game froze, got an FMV and realized very quickly this was just a JRPG. Both of my friends immediately wanted to go outside and play basketball instead. The bamboozle of a lifetime.

 

[Viata]

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Just look at Metal Gear Solid, which was released in the same year. It had way better graphics than FFVII.

 

[Grauken]

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Just look at Metal Gear Solid, which was released in the same year. It had way better graphics than FFVII.

And yet FF7 outsold MGS by a margin (9.8 mio to 6 mio). I get it, I hate those ugly polygon models as well, but you have to think of the time as well and people coming from SNES era 2d graphics to something that looked very different. It hasn't aged well, but at the time for most people that were the target audience (and many more who played jRPGs for the first time), it was a game changer

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Yes, Final Fantasy VII's graphics demonstrated the difficulties Squaresoft experienced with switching to 3D graphics on the Playstation from 2D graphics on the SNES (and NES before that). Although some of the pre-rendered background graphics and FMV cutscenes looked superb, the graphics rendered in real-time are quite crude --- especially the character models which are deficient even in their pre-rendered higher-polgyon FMV versions but are especially ugly in their low-polygon battle/travel versions. Squaresoft obviously learned from this experience, since FF VIII had greatly improved graphics still in a naturalistic style, while FF IX was even more improved technically with a cartoonish aesthetic. Of course, all 3D graphics appear worse over time, but I thought FF VII was ugly back in 1997, a stark contrast from Squaresoft's beautiful 2D pixel art graphics.

 

[Viata]

Chrono Cross was the best in graphical terms for all Square games on PS1 and that is probably their last game on the console.

 

[GhostCow]

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Yes, Final Fantasy VII's graphics demonstrated the difficulties Squaresoft experienced with switching to 3D graphics on the Playstation from 2D graphics on the SNES (and NES before that). Although some of the pre-rendered background graphics and FMV cutscenes looked superb, the graphics rendered in real-time are quite crude --- especially the character models which are deficient even in their pre-rendered higher-polgyon FMV versions but are especially ugly in their low-polygon battle/travel versions. Squaresoft obviously learned from this experience, since FF VIII had greatly improved graphics still in a naturalistic style, while FF IX was even more improved technically with a cartoonish aesthetic. Of course, all 3D graphics appear worse over time, but I thought FF VII was ugly back in 1997, a stark contrast from Squaresoft's beautiful 2D pixel art graphics.

Honestly I don't think 2d graphics age well either even if they do age better than 3d. I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game getting fawned over when you could do some really nice looking vector art or something instead.

 

[Grauken]

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Yes, Final Fantasy VII's graphics demonstrated the difficulties Squaresoft experienced with switching to 3D graphics on the Playstation from 2D graphics on the SNES (and NES before that). Although some of the pre-rendered background graphics and FMV cutscenes looked superb, the graphics rendered in real-time are quite crude --- especially the character models which are deficient even in their pre-rendered higher-polgyon FMV versions but are especially ugly in their low-polygon battle/travel versions. Squaresoft obviously learned from this experience, since FF VIII had greatly improved graphics still in a naturalistic style, while FF IX was even more improved technically with a cartoonish aesthetic. Of course, all 3D graphics appear worse over time, but I thought FF VII was ugly back in 1997, a stark contrast from Squaresoft's beautiful 2D pixel art graphics.

Honestly I don't think 2d graphics age well either even if they do age better than 3d. I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game getting fawned over when you could do some really nice looking vector art or something instead.

Every year we get hundred of games in all kinds of art styles, yet it's pixel games that some idiots like you pick out. You don't like them, don't play them

 

[GhostCow]

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Yes, Final Fantasy VII's graphics demonstrated the difficulties Squaresoft experienced with switching to 3D graphics on the Playstation from 2D graphics on the SNES (and NES before that). Although some of the pre-rendered background graphics and FMV cutscenes looked superb, the graphics rendered in real-time are quite crude --- especially the character models which are deficient even in their pre-rendered higher-polgyon FMV versions but are especially ugly in their low-polygon battle/travel versions. Squaresoft obviously learned from this experience, since FF VIII had greatly improved graphics still in a naturalistic style, while FF IX was even more improved technically with a cartoonish aesthetic. Of course, all 3D graphics appear worse over time, but I thought FF VII was ugly back in 1997, a stark contrast from Squaresoft's beautiful 2D pixel art graphics.

Honestly I don't think 2d graphics age well either even if they do age better than 3d. I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game getting fawned over when you could do some really nice looking vector art or something instead.

Every year we get hundred of games in all kinds of art styles, yet it's pixel games that some idiots like you pick out. You don't like them, don't play them

I don't play them. I think the last 2d game I played was the Rocket Knight remake, which was pretty good. It's not so much a problem lately, but there were a few years there were there were massive amounts of shitty pixel art games. It was unavoidable and all the nostalgia fags were creaming their pants over it. I don't have to play them to be annoyed by it.

 

[Viata]

I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game

That is a different thing. Obviously, if something is ugly as fuck right now, it's going to be ugly as fuck no matter how many years has passed. Yet, great SNK games look as beautiful now as they did when they were released. Why? Because it was top tier 2D art. The same doesn't happens to 3D, the only reason we still enjoy old 3D game is because of nostalgia or some of us don't really care about that.

 

[Grauken]

I don't have to play them to be annoyed by it.

That attitude makes you an idiot

 

[GhostCow]

I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game

That is a different thing. Obviously, if something is ugly as fuck right now, it's going to be ugly as fuck no matter how many years has passed. Yet, great SNK games look as beautiful now as they did when they were released. Why? Because it was top tier 2D art. The same doesn't happens to 3D, the only reason we still enjoy old 3D game is because of nostalgia or some of us don't really care about that.

This is truth. I was more thinking of the people who think SNES era Final Fantasy games still look good by today's standards. They don't. They look like shit. SNK games still look pretty decent though.

I don't have to play them to be annoyed by it.

That attitude makes you an idiot

If I get in your face and start screaming "I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU, I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU" everywhere you go you would get annoyed by it. The pixel art shit was that level of unavoidable for a while

 

[Grauken]

 

[Necroscope]

I remember way back when FF7 was new I thought it was super weird, even as a kid, how the commercials did everything in its power to not show any actual gameplay.



So every commercial except the very last one was what NA saw. The first one in particular was the one they showed on just about every TV station you had at some point, you couldn't escape it. But here's the thing, if you had no prior history with Final Fantasy then you very likely saw this commercial and were hit with one big question:

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE?"

The commercial is talking about it being a motion picture first, with no mention of it even being a game. It uses such grand but abstract language that it creates curiosity in you because it seems so mysterious. Game commercials showed gameplay in some fashion, this was showing FMVs and advertising itself like it came from Hollywood. I'm convinced a huge reason why FF7 was so successful wasn't because of the storyline or characters or mechanics or gameplay, it was because nobody knew what the fuck they were being exposed to and wanted to find out what this commercial that ran 67,890 times per day was about.

I remember renting this with my friends way back in the '90s when it first came out, the Blockbuster had to put an elastic on the rent-out case to keep the game case fitted inside properly. You see this big jewel case with three discs inside and think you're getting not a mere game but a goddamn EXPERIENCE.

Then we popped it in, watched a starry sky for 2 minutes wondering if the game froze, got an FMV and realized very quickly this was just a JRPG. Both of my friends immediately wanted to go outside and play basketball instead. The bamboozle of a lifetime.

I think the main reason why FFVII was so successful is because it came out at the right time and was properly advertised.

In Poland there was no game ads on TV - the only way to gain knowledge about upcoming titles was to buy gaming press. I still remember the issue of Official Playstation Magazine with FFVII as its cover story; it barely told anything about the gameplay and exposed only small, zoomed out screenshots of the game while praising it for its artistic values and revolutionary technological approach (FMV was the shit). After reading it I had no idea what this game was supposed to be but my imagination was off the roof.

After buying the game and playing it for a couple of minutes it was my disappointment that was off the roof. The game looked ridiculous with its grotesque 3D graphics even to my younger self and the gameplay was nothing like I imagined (I've never played a FF game prior). It was curiosity that kept me playing and the fact that back then after you bought a game you were stuck with it for the time being. I forced myself to play it and after a while found out that the game was actually pretty interesting and atmospheric.

Also, in terms of FFVII success it's important to note that PSX was the first console for many millennials and the console that marks the big shift from 2D gaming to 3D gaming. PSX had the right games and technology to pull off the revolution.

Chrono Cross was the best in graphical terms for all Square games on PS1 and that is probably their last game on the console.

Their last jRPG on PSX was FFIX.

 

[Viata]

Their last jRPG on PSX was FFIX.

Funny, given how perfect CC's graphics, I was sure IX came before it.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

In Poland there was no game ads on TV - the only way to gain knowledge about upcoming titles was to buy gaming press. I still remember the issue of Official Playstation Magazine with FFVII as its cover story; it barely told anything about the gameplay and exposed only small, zoomed out screenshots of the game while praising it for its artistic values and revolutionary technological approach (FMV was the shit). After reading it I had no idea what this game was supposed to be but my imagination was off the roof.

I like how both of our experiences were basically this:

 

[Necroscope]

Their last jRPG on PSX was FFIX.

Funny, given how perfect CC's graphics, I was sure IX came before it.

Chrono Coss is a beautiful game and one of the most atmospheric ones I've ever played. The graphics are good and still hold up quite well, but it is more due to its unique art direction; it's very colorful, but at the same time gives you this strange, melancholic vibe. We will never get a proper PC release of CC because the audience never seemed to be too fond of it, but maybe it's for the best that genuine things remain hidden and obscured, away from pop-culture shitness. The game wouldn't look and play any better than on ePSXe anyway.

I never liked FFIX. I remember when it came out many people, especially those who disliked FFVII, instantly declared it a superior game but I managed to sit through the first few hours before turning off the console and never playing the game again. I gave it a second chance about a year ago and managed to get pretty far before eventually loosing interest again. This game has this Shreck thing going on that is just not my thing - same as Shreck.

 

[Falksi]

Definitely didn't blow my mind back then as a PC gamer. I remember thinking how shit it looked and wishing the character models in the world were at least as good as the ones in battle or the FMVs. Now even those look like shit of course.

It wasn't even a technical limitation because FF IX looked way the hell better.

Yes, Final Fantasy VII's graphics demonstrated the difficulties Squaresoft experienced with switching to 3D graphics on the Playstation from 2D graphics on the SNES (and NES before that). Although some of the pre-rendered background graphics and FMV cutscenes looked superb, the graphics rendered in real-time are quite crude --- especially the character models which are deficient even in their pre-rendered higher-polgyon FMV versions but are especially ugly in their low-polygon battle/travel versions. Squaresoft obviously learned from this experience, since FF VIII had greatly improved graphics still in a naturalistic style, while FF IX was even more improved technically with a cartoonish aesthetic. Of course, all 3D graphics appear worse over time, but I thought FF VII was ugly back in 1997, a stark contrast from Squaresoft's beautiful 2D pixel art graphics.

Honestly I don't think 2d graphics age well either even if they do age better than 3d. I get pissed every time I see another shitty pixel art game getting fawned over when you could do some really nice looking vector art or something instead.

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

 

[Black]

It finally happened, 2020s are upon us.

 

[Okagron]

This is truth. I was more thinking of the people who think SNES era Final Fantasy games still look good by today's standards. They don't. They look like shit. SNK games still look pretty decent though.

This man unironically said Final Fantasy 6, a game wich has some of the best 2D artstyle in gaming, looks like shit. You are a fucking retard.

 

[GhostCow]

This is truth. I was more thinking of the people who think SNES era Final Fantasy games still look good by today's standards. They don't. They look like shit. SNK games still look pretty decent though.

This man unironically said Final Fantasy 6, a game wich has some of the best 2D artstyle in gaming, looks like shit. You are a fucking retard.

Nope, you're the one with nostalgia glasses on. If you think pixel graphics still look good by 2020 standards you are the one who is retarded

 

[Necroscope]

Nope, you're the one with nostalgia glasses on. If you think pixel graphics still look good by 2020 standards you are the one who is retarded

Joined: Jan 2, 2020

2D graphics look objectively better than early day 3D.

Even 8 bit graphics from late 80s still maintain the charm:

Now look at this fuckness: