Love PS1 RPGs? Say Hello to Upcoming Game ‘TBT: The Black Tower’

You like tasty PS1-era RPGs with great battle mechanics, giant swords and a Final Fantasy feel? Say hello the the big and beautiful indie RPG TBT: The Black Tower.

[Snookies12]

This has such a Final Fantasy 7 vibe! Wow... I'll be keeping my eye on this game for sure. Very promising early work.

[Gildarts]

What is promising about this? All I saw was a dude running around and some dialog.

[Qrphe]

I agree with the sentiment, or the lack of it, since I didn't really see anything to excite me.

[Snookies12]

It's not about that, it's the style in which it's presented. Look at the backgrounds when he enters the town. The lighting, the way things move, the blue text boxes that come up. It's all very reminiscent of FFVII. Having beaten FFVII many, many times, this was apparent to me the second I saw it.

[g2gshow]

yeah the vibe was very ff7 ish but that really doesn't say anything as it also didn't show much of anything. wait an see approach is all you can do as you already know prototype can change drastically good or bad

[Relientk77]

I love PS1 RPGs, and yes I want this game

[guitar_nerd_23]

Well colour me interested...

[Hazmat13]

i cant find that one in my crayon box.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Hmmm,not sold but very interested.

[Godmars290]

*Smacks Wada in the back of the head. HARD!*

THAT! THAT IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING ALL THIS CONSOLE GENERATION - YOU IDIOT!!

*SMACK!*

Edit@Snookies12:
Not like he's made any, just spends it, so I guess you're right.

But I'm pretty sure he'll notice this purple beauty from the THQ sale.

[Snookies12]

You better be smacking him with wads of money. That's all he knows how to respond to lol!

[DragonKnight]

I was going to post something like this.

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS SQUARE-ENIX! THIS IS WHAT WE WANT!

[NastyLeftHook0]

the art/color gives me a ff7 ni no kuni vibe

[Blastoise]

Other than the fact the guy runs weird, I could totally get into a game like this

Looks a little bit Shadow hearts/Final fantasy VII like, which is cool

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

You think he runs/walks weird check out the women on the right at 0:45 lol

[Blastoise]

What about the guy above at 0:45

Does a little bit of a moonwalk thing

...then again at 0:52

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Hahaha that is actually hilarious.
Especially with the crazy music playing in the background.
Everyone looks like their moonwalking or looking like they've had too many beers. What a strange town.

[ThatCanadianGuy514]

Do want.

[SegaSaturn669]

Just like old times. Walking around like a blind pervert rubbing on everyone. Leave it to the French to bring back this beloved genre.

[Godmars290]

But this is an indie title years after the fact of FF7. If Square had been more focused, improved upon instead of abandoned the mechanics after FF9, what they could have done would have likely been leaps and bounds beyond the demo above.

[_-EDMIX-_]

slowly starts pulling out wallet. I would give a few bucks to this game on Kickstarter if someone wants to give me a link to you know....help with the cause.

Oh I see. May will open up a kickstarter for it.

Do your part people and help them out. They've clearly made games before. Looking forward to this indie game.

[StrawHatPatriot]

Should have been how Final Fantasy VII looked dammit.

[Godmars290]

No. Just no. The 2012 Ford Mustang did not come before the 1908 Model T.

[StrawHatPatriot]

sigh* Obviously I meant the remake.

[Godmars290]

Then you should have just said "The Remake".

[StrawHatPatriot]

Yeah I know :(

[CLOUD1983]

WTF! this is FFVII w/o the steampunk setting & different story/chars o.o

The devs behind this must really love FFVII, this looks very interesting but I want first to see a video with a few battles & learn more about the story/lore before I get all excited.

[Agent_hitman]

FF7 style oh yeah!

[josephayal]

Looks way better than FF7

[-Gespenst-]

Honestly it just looks like Final Fantasy VII if it had been made by a bunch of amateurs. Nevertheless, this is more or less what I'd like a remake to be like, I'd imagine it'd obviously a lot better than this of course.

[Snookies12]

This is a prototype. It's not even an alpha game. This is a concept more or less. The reason it's not even ready for a kickstarter yet is because they don't have a solid game to show just yet. Give it time... It's not going to look pretty right now.

[USEYOURFIST]

@ (0.35) just a bit of a ripoff of the slums and tiffa's bar from FFvii

[e-p-ayeaH]

Looks cool but that´s about it.

[Sketchy_Galore]

Quite technically impressive for an amateur project but it will not work as an actual game since there's zero imagination and creativity there, spiky haired guy with a huge sword on his back walking around a slum to clunky robot funk music. If you want to create the next Final fantasy 7 you create a game with the same surprising depth, originality and heart that blew people away when FF7 was released you don't just take Final fantasy 7 and change a few colours and street names around. None of the things you're ripping off were the reason people loved Final fantasy, people loved it for the fact that it wasn't just ripping something off and was actually a work of passion.

Edit - in fact. After I posted this I had to go read the plot synopsis to check that this wasn't actually a fanfic game about Zack the SOLDIER from FF7 and I'd just been ragging on it for nothing. Turns out, nope it's not. Seriously guys, looks like it could be fine technically but you really really need someone in there with some creative ideas.

[Simon_ASA]

Please don't judge TBT now. First, it's an indie game, not a AAA production, don't forget that... and we never said we were going to create something as great as a HD remake of FF7. Also, I think we do have a lot of ideas. I reply to you Sketchy, but this is an answer to all people who compare the project with FF7. Of course we love FF7 and you can feel it, and I understand your reactions, but it really is the very beginning of the development. TBT is inspired by ASA: A Space Adventure, not FF7 first. And ASA has nothing to see with Final Fantasy !

[Sketchy_Galore]

Please don't take my criticism as an insult. I appreciate that it's tough trying to create a game at your level and I don't want to discourage you but the fact that this is an indie game and not an AA big budget blockbuster should be all the more reason to be more creative with it.

I am interested in Indie games because without the risk of losing millions of dollars, developers are free to take more chances and create more personal or imaginative experiences. This makes them more interesting to me than the big budget games that have to play it safe and so end up being generic and interchangeable. The fact remains that at the moment this game looks painfully generic and many aspects of it are so similar to Final fantasy 7 that I honestly thought for a few minutes that you were trying to create a fan fiction game based around a side character in FF7 (that looks pretty much exactly like the player character in this clip). Whether you feel the game is more heavily based on a different game I think the fact remains that many people just coming to this would see more similarity to Final fantasy 7 than anything else, since it looks, sounds and seemingly plays just like it.

I'm honestly not trying to piss you off. I'm not judging this game as if it's the final product and I'm not dismissing it. I completely get that there are still some rough edges on that thing because it's very early in development and I won't attack you for that at all. I'm just making sure that you know the art style and characters in this video should not be in the final version if you want to create any kind of impact, it just looks far too much like a game most people played fifteen years ago. I wish you well on the project, just be sure to put something in to distinguish it from every JRPG that has tried to replicate the formula of FF7 since the 90's.

[Simon_ASA]

Hey sure, I didn't take it as an insult don't worry ! I'm trying to read as many comments as possible on various sites, and I try to give my opinion too when possible ;) That's also part of the "indie" process, isn't it ? Being close to the players.
I also try to understand the many points of view : some people really like the fact that it reminds FF7, while others really want it to be different. nostalgia VS inovation. I'd like to find a right middle.
Let's see first if we can succeed in funding the project, or this adventure will finish very fast ! lol
Thanks a lot for your opinion Sketchy !

[Simon_ASA]

Graphics to improve ? Animation is strange ? You'll find some answers here : http://steamcommunity.com/w...
You can also read more details on the devblog ( http://2013tbt.blogspot.fr)
Or to summarize, one single word : "prototype" :)
Working on all your suggestions ! Thanks for telling us !

[Toadsanime]

Ah, good to see you found the article. Looking forward to the game, man!

[Acquiescence]

the music is uniformly excellent, if a little too outlandish for its own good.

It looks rough, especially the animations, but the potential is there. Definitely on my radar now.

[zoks310]

He run like he is on fire. lol

[Kamikaze135]

Looks TOO much like FFVII. I love FFVII, but I'd rather not play something that feels like a clone trying to cash in on somebody else's success.