Final Fantasy VII Remake VFX Director Shintaro Takai Speaks About Development of FFVII

Today the Japanese website dedicated to Computer Graphics CGWorld published an interview to Final Fantasy VII Remake Art Director and VFX Director Shintaro Takai, and he provided some interesting insight into the development of the game.

[bigmalky]

Hmm... I'm still not convinced.

Where it says people applied for the jobs that grew up playing FFVII, I'm wondering how much say they actually get anyway.

If they mess up the feelings that centered around experiencing FFVII, then they'll have another pretty, hollow shell of a game like XV.

Anyway, I won't be supporting it. Square started the bleeding out of FF with XIII and have continued to do so.

[Enturax]

"If they mess up the feelings that centered around experiencing FFVII"

Not saying it won't feel good but it will naturally feel way different; the generational leap is too big, plus they changed combat mechanics and free roam.

[naruga]

@bigmalky exactly my thoughts
....imo Square cannot in any way re-develop FF VII Remake at the same ultra high masterpiece- standards like the original ...Square is not same company anymore ...old game desingers who had deep knowledge how to build a game they have left the comapny and people from irrelevent posts (like artists and finacial managers ) have taken the seats of directors and game designers..

.FFXV proves exactly that ...FFXV is not even a complete game is just a sentimental story with a ton of elements/references from previous FF just so it can take the name FF game ...a hollow game as you said

If someone adds that FF 7 was the best FF game ever and the golden peak of game development for Square then can understand how difficult is to "REmake " FF 7 in new engine with the analoguous quality in order to create the wow effect in todays gaming field like it did back then

Though contrary to you i will buy the game .....it will be a sin to not buy it, not only because im a super FF fan but also after so many years of hype, speculations and cries to be remaked

[InKnight7s]

I played FfVII w/ and w/o mods + PS4 port non combat. FFVII didn't felt special becuase of tradional RPG. We felt it because of Cloud, Aerith, Sepiroth, Zack, Tefa, Barret, Red XIII and Shinra etc... the betreyal, phsyco, real life situations, fatherhood, relation ships, power and myths.

[bouzebbal]

Square talking about development.. Smells KH3 or FF15 all over again..
Nomura has to gtfo he's a terrible developer plumbs profit by being so slow and never communicating on anything

[Omnislashver36]

^KH3 has only been in development for less than 5 years, less than 4 on the new engine. And as far as ARPG systems try to find me one as advanced. I'll wait.

People also act like he didn't do BBS, 3D, 2.8, and assist on other projects during that time.

Let's be honest, the only thing he screwed up on was FFvXIII which happened because PS3 simply couldn't handle it.

If they're going the ARPG route there's nobody else we can trust but Nomura.

[Harkins1721]

What don’t you people understand about it being different teams? Once XV switched team of course it would feel different. Look at KH3. Its entering its 5th year this E3 and is suppose to release this year. Tabata lies about XVs main story being 50hrs long. Nomura has proven himself to make a good game. XV could have been the same had it had more dev time

[bigmalky]

It didn't need more dev time. It took ten years to push that mess out. The idea should have been scrapped and a new idea worked on from scratch.

Also, if Nomura is ever to make another really good game again, he needs to say no to working multiple titles and spin offs to concentrate on one thing, get it right first time, and not take a decade to release it.

SE just seem to want to turn every game into it's own little universe instead of telling a great story in one sitting. Its ruined Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

[TricksterArrow]

Sorry but no. Nomura is not a good director. He is very creative and visionary, but he is more ambitious than anything else. He was the reason why XV came out the way it did. Do you really think Versus XIII was shaping to be something really great and Square said: "hm, no, we don't want something good, we are pulling the plug and making something mediocre with literally the same assets". No. They were struggling with the project and the director, hence why he was fired from the project and another one had to come in and make the hard decisions. I'm actually satisfied with XV given it's ***** development cycle, I just hope Nomura and Square learned their lesson (that Nomura can't work alone at all and make the hard decisions).

[Omnislashver36]

Come on trickster...

Nomura's version of FFvXIII would have demolished FFXV. The only reason it didn't work out was because PS3 couldn't handle it, nothing more, nothing less. Look at the original trailers, they had rooms, not an open world. And extremely small rooms at best. The graphics were not amazing. The game simply wouldn't have worked back then.

And Tabata added almost nothing to the game but fetchquests and Luna.

He removed:
-Stella
-most of the dueling empire theme
-he didn't create Aranea, Ravus, or Ardyn. Nomura did. And Nomura would have likely done more with the characters.
-made an hour long movie when he could have added an hour's worth of cutscenes to the game instead, to flesh out those aforementioned characters so we could get a look at the bad guys
-he removed magic menus for no damn reason at all.

Sorry, but Nomura's version would have likely come out just a little later, but been a full experience.

You act like he's done nothing but he's come out with BBS, 3D, 2.8, and assisted on a ton of other projects. Also, his move to UE4 was the smartest thing Square could have done.

And KH3 has only been in development for less than 5 years, less than 4 on the new engine and will be released this year- that's with him working on two games! When presented with a console and engine his team can manage they were able to produce results. Tabata, not so much, the game won't be finished this year, next year, or ever.

To be fair, both of them need assistants, and Tabata needs to learn to keep magic menus, but comparing one to the other Nomura takes the cake all day. His games HAVE been coming out and KH3 will be more of a complete game THIS year than FFXV will be next year.

[Harkins1721]

Yes it did need more dev time. It shows what they're pumping out now and all the assets that didnt make it into the game. The 10 year dev cycle is because of the SE higher ups when Wada was in charge. XV itself for this gen was only worked on for 3-4 years. This is fact.

What game took Nomura a decade to make? Tabata finished XV. Nomura is currently on KH3 which again is its release year. Its been almost 5 years. And FF7R is entering its 3rd year.

XV was meant to be told in 1 game but because they couldnt fit everything they put it into a movie and anime. Yes it should have been part of the main game. Hence why it still needed to have more time.

[Kostche]

exactly, and they have already removed materia from the game, i am wondering how the actual limit breakers and summons will work, this game is going be huge fail for true ff7 fans, it probably end up like konami mgs, we had great stories characters, and gameplay, then then they sacraficed it all for open world gameplay with tapes, no codec, everything that made amazing mgs game

[Master of Unlocking]

Wait...what? They removed the Materias from the game? Mind me asking how you know that? You have a link somewhere?

[PumPum]

Story will be told in episodic content. Action based fights instead of turnbased.... They already ruined it. :(

[Goldby]

It's still turn based.
They have already stated that between. Ff7"(turn based) kingdom hearts (semi real time, and ffxv (full real time) its closer to ff7 than kingdom hearts.

The command prompts also show a block command, would not be possible in a pure action real time combat system

[Elda]

Release date 2025.

[Melankolis]

Episode 1

[alstruck]

Probably the game will be 3rd person adventure game like telltale games with QTE as 'battles', coming out in 10 years as ps5's final game and other platforms like PC, smartphones, VR, and whatever consumer technology we would have that time.. lol

[XxSPIDEYxX]

Cannot wait to play this on my Playstation 5..........Pro!

[Harkins1721]

"Entering final phase of production" Oh shit.

[PhoenixUp]

Dear lord it seems releasing this game episodically hasn’t done it any favors in getting the first portion out that much sooner

[Zanarkand]

A Crisis Core style FF7R on a bigger scale with similar combat. My expectations, at least.

[FernDiggidy]

We'll get another gameplay trailer in 2020