FFVIIR Official Concept Art & Twitter Whatnots

[Makoeyes987]

I mean, I personally love killing stuff and given the fact the battle system looks enjoyable, I welcome more reasons to engage in combat with things.

The quests I abhor and I'm hoping are kept to a minimum (or outright excluded) are the really random and boring fetch quests that simply exist. They exist to simply frustrate and challenge your eyes to perceive and notice random pixels among high definition dirt and debris.

Like, to give an example... Dog-tag quests. Randomly find dog-tags from killed hunters by looking for them everywhere. Or... Randomly find and disarm these hard-to-see bear-traps I placed in tall grass that only you can find because your party members just stand around doing fuck-all as you crawl in the fucking mud near dusk until daemons appear and try to tear you a new asshole.

Or find these teeny-tiny goddamn frogs for a ribbon but I won't tell you where they are, they could be anywhere in the whole world! Have fun!!!

Or find and hunt these monsters but they only come out during X weather so enjoy driving around and re-zoning areas to make the weather change!!!

...That's the type of stuff I don't get hyped for. And thankfully there's not really an indication we have that level of fetching here. I'll gladly get hyped to kill a mob if the mob has an interesting backstory and design to it. I just don't want to dig in the dirt to find rocks for some dude and that's it.

 

[Odysseus]

@Jairus I'm just saying that these renders have been released to coincide with the reveals of these characters, so the time for Avalanche to get them has passed. Shinra are the main enemy of part 1, and most of them will appear in multiple installments anyway so it makes sense they would get them. Roche is a brand new character, so that makes him marketable all on its own. Obviously square COULD make them marketable, but that doesn't seem to be a priority. I doubt they'll get the shaft in the game itself, its already plainly obvious that there's a ton more content with them just going by the trailers, I just don't think square views them as game sellers.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about FFXV's miserable fetch quests. None of those, please! As long as there's a bit of story to go with these NPCs, I think it'll be fine. The fact that they're seemingly available only within the current chapter helps too, that means they probably won't be too grindy.

 

[ForceStealer]

If they're not in an any prerendered cutscenes they might simply not have high res models, only the in-game models.

 

[FFShinra]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1228031333613658119

 

[Makoeyes987]

XV took some of their questing to levels I don't feel were necessary. I enjoy immersion and realism but there's a limit to how much I want to see and interact with minutiae in the world. And a level of how much I want to fetch or "help" people. It reflects diminishing returns; there's wanting things to do, and then being overwhelmed with too many boring and ridiculous things to do. Hunting frogs can be an amusing and fun mini-game (see FFIX), if properly designed.

And not all quests have to be directly connected to the main plot, they can be fun and immersive diversions from the plot to allow for one to unwind, get to know the setting and just play. But you also don't want to go down a rabbit hole that leaves you so far from your story that you're sorta floating along in the world like an out-of-work teen just looking for things to do to get the next upgrade. Aimlessly questing for reasons you don't even remember. That's why I think certain quests are time/chapter-limited, which makes sense.

I think there's a good balance in FFVII here, and I find Chadley and their continuous quests to be the most fascinating.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah the questlog screen looks encouraging to me. It's not a long list next to a map littered with icons like in XV. But fairly big images with visible indicators for steps to the quest. That suggests they're a bit more substantial.

And yeah, like you said, it's fine if it's something silly and unrelated like rescuing a cat, as long as it gives you more insight into life in Midgar, or finding a new area/enemy or that sort of thing.

Another part that I found tiring about XV's quests was that you couldn't really systematically clear out parts of a map. Basically everytime you returned to a questgiver they'd give you another one immediately and endlessly, lol.
Hunts are fine to be nearly limitless, because those are really just for the people who love the combat. (Though the patch that let you take multiple and return them to any settlement was crucial, lol)

 

[Jairus]

@Jairus I'm just saying that these renders have been released to coincide with the reveals of these characters, so the time for Avalanche to get them has passed. Shinra are the main enemy of part 1, and most of them will appear in multiple installments anyway so it makes sense they would get them. Roche is a brand new character, so that makes him marketable all on its own. Obviously square COULD make them marketable, but that doesn't seem to be a priority. I doubt they'll get the shaft in the game itself, its already plainly obvious that there's a ton more content with them just going by the trailers, I just don't think square views them as game sellers.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about FFXV's miserable fetch quests. None of those, please! As long as there's a bit of story to go with these NPCs, I think it'll be fine. The fact that they're seemingly available only within the current chapter helps too, that means they probably won't be too grindy.

The trio did get HD screenshots long after their initial reveals, so it is possible. And who's to say they'll stop releasing renders once the game releases? My concern is just that the lack of attention given to them in the marketing outside most of the trailers may be a reflection of how much of a presence they'll have in the game.

And Force, nothing's stopping SE from creating those renders if they didn't already have them. They should give them to us to remind us SE hasn't forgotten about them and to hold true to their own words. Virtually nothing's been officially shown of them since the leaks. They should give us something of them before the game comes out to address that. I mean really, tweeting about HD stairs was unnecessary and could have been replaced with a tweet about the trio instead, with their renders.

 

[oty]

Thing is, we have nothing to assure ourselves that they wont be "come here and kill 5 of X monsters" or "go there and find this cat". I wanna be hopeful but Idk.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Thing is, we have nothing to assure ourselves that they wont be "come here and kill 5 of X monsters" or "go there and find this cat". I wanna be hopeful but Idk.

Nothing but the absent of such quests being shown at all..? Nothing but the leaks of the game not indicating such quests are even present? Nothing but this game not just being an open-world urban sand box?

I mean, just explain to me what indication you have that these are going to be paper-thin sidequests that warrant assuming the worst. I mean, unless you just fundamentally hate the nature of any quest requiring you to battle and kill a monster, I have no idea what you're even basing this on.

 

[Odysseus]

My concern is just that the lack of attention given to them in the marketing outside most of the trailers may be a reflection of how much of a presence they'll have in the game.

All I can tell you at this point is to not over think it, and to not set your expectations too high. All I ever wanted was to get to spend a little more time with them, have Cloud interact more and let us get to know them a little better. From what we've seen so far, we're clearly getting at least that much. I know you have your hopes set higher than that, but keeping expectation tempered is the best approach here.

 

[Glaurung]

I don't know. I must be one of the few who actually enjoyed XV's radiant quests. Then again, I was playing it during a pretty stressful period and wandering through the landscape helped me evade. Also, you could ignore them.

Ok, back to VII:

• AVALANCHE should have HD renders, following Jairus' logic that NORA got them, and they were more like enhanced NPCs, tbh.
• Side quests for leveling up, getting new weapons and spending more time in Midgar is sweet. That part was, and will always be, my absolute favorite ever since I played it for the first time back in the day and was waaaaay too short for me.
• Hojo's gonna give me nightmares. I'm sure of it.

 

[oty]

Uhhhh I'm not into the leaks stuff. Non open world games can have such sidequests. And they literally described one of the sidequests as "asked to deal with some Drakes". Are you that surprised?

 

[ForceStealer]

They should give them to us to remind us SE hasn't forgotten about them and to hold true to their own words.

Their words were about exploring and expanding them. What does that have anything to do with high res renders?

I'm all for them getting renders, I was just saying that the renders might not exist if they're not present in movie sequences that require them.

And they literally described one of the sidequests as "asked to deal with some Drakes". Are you that surprised?

But that doesn't mean anything about what the quest is like. As he said, unless you're just against the whole premise of a quest involving finding an enemy and killing it, that tells us nothing about what the story that goes along with the quest is like, and that's the determining factor of quests being worthwhile. Not the mere fact that you go fetch something or whatever.

 

[Jairus]

All I can tell you at this point is to not over think it, and to not set your expectations too high. All I ever wanted was to get to spend a little more time with them, have Cloud interact more and let us get to know them a little better. From what we've seen so far, we're clearly getting at least that much. I know you have your hopes set higher than that, but keeping expectation tempered is the best approach here.

I know we're going to get to spend more time with them, but the way in which it's done concerns me. If it's just a bunch of quests and battles without much actual interaction between them, that's not going to do them justice. I want actual story development and growth with them, quieter character-driven scenes with them and Cloud (both as a group and each individually) as well as action and battles, again both as a group and with each one individually. I want them to be made to feel like they're as much a part of the team as the playable cast, with the only difference being that lack of direct playability.

SE chose to highlight a random quest giver in today's info drop instead of the trio. How much sense does that make? The quest system could have been shown just as easily without doing that.

Force, expansion and development, exploring and expanding can have multiple meanings. Giving them more of a marketing presence through renders can be a part of that. And as I said before, there is nothing stopping SE from creating the renders even if there aren't any prerendered scenes of them in the game. That shouldn't be a requirement.

 

[Smoothie King]

The general consensus on these side quests seems to be split. I lurk on Resetera and this site's subreddit. I think Square is in a tough spot because if you include them it ruins the pacing/story progression/they're boring etc. But if you don't put them in then it's too linear, blah blah blah. Personally, anything I can do to spend more time with these characters and explore as much of this world as possible is A-OK in my book. You want me to go to some neighborhood in the upper plate that I could have only dreamed about before? Sign this mercenary up, partner.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Personally I'd like to see a quest in which Tifa visits a food market and does the shopping for the 7th Heaven Menu. I'd also like to see some cooking games.
And another quest in which a delivery of beer has gone awol and Cloud and Jessie have to find out what happened to it.
And a quest where Barret goes to Parent-Teacher interview at Marlene's school and has to solve all problems using tact and smarts.

 

[Makoeyes987]

And Force, nothing's stopping SE from creating those renders if they didn't already have them. They should give them to us to remind us SE hasn't forgotten about them and to hold true to their own words. Virtually nothing's been officially shown of them since the leaks. They should give us something of them before the game comes out to address that. I mean really, tweeting about HD stairs was unnecessary and could have been replaced with a tweet about the trio instead, with their renders.

You do realize they'll probably keep some renders unreleased for awhile because there's an artbook that's going to be a collection of said renders including some never before seen artwork and stuff, right? I don't expect every CG render of the characters in the game to be released at once because they simply have to leave something to warrant the release of said artbook. Come on.

I know we're going to get to spend more time with them, but the way in which it's done concerns me. If it's just a bunch of quests and battles without much actual interaction between them, that's not going to do them justice. I want actual story development and growth with them, quieter character-driven scenes with them and Cloud (both as a group and each individually) as well as action and battles, again both as a group and with each one individually. I want them to be made to feel like they're as much a part of the team as the playable cast, with the only difference being that lack of direct playability.

SE chose to highlight a random quest giver in today's info drop instead of the trio. How much sense does that make? The quest system could have been shown just as easily without doing that.

Considering the lengths the story's been expanded, there's absolutely going to be more with Jessie and the others. They simply aren't interested in spoiling it. It's brand new material, so of course they're not going to reveal it now. That's the meat of the plot and story.

And they highlighted the side quests and new important NPC because they're new and tied to gameplay. Why else would they do it? Again, they're not going to just divulge a huge draw of the new material. If you want to see more, you'll have to play the game.

Uhhhh I'm not into the leaks stuff. Non open world games can have such sidequests. And they literally described one of the sidequests as "asked to deal with some Drakes". Are you that surprised?

I'm surprised at the leap you made in conclusions there.

You didn't see what led up to the quest's initiation. The dialogue between Cloud and said person giving the quest, the actual implementation of the quest, the resolution of the quest, or the dialogue of the conclusion of said quest.

But somehow you've composed an entire pre-conceived notion of how derivative and flat the quest is on account of a few words in the menu screen. That's really quite incredible.

The general consensus on these side quests seems to be split. I lurk on Resetera and this site's subreddit. I think Square is in a tough spot because if you include them it ruins the pacing/story progression/they're boring etc. But if you don't put them in then it's too linear, blah blah blah. Personally, anything I can do to spend more time with these characters and explore as much of this world as possible is A-OK in my book. You want me to go to some neighborhood in the upper plate that I could have only dreamed about before? Sign this mercenary up, partner.

I mean, you're right. You'll never please everyone but you can easily filter out trolls or those who'd hate anything regardless of how it was implemented simply because it doesn't fit a narrow view of what is "FFVII" and please the sweetspot of fans and those open minded to a new and enjoyable experience. Assuming they're somehow making this Fallout 76 tier level of ridiculous sidequest grinding or digging in the dirt for rocks, makes zero sense and is beyond normal levels cynicism or cautiousness.

 

[Erotic Materia]

I'd also like to see some cooking games.

UGH. Shoot me in the face.

 

[Odysseus]

SE chose to highlight a random quest giver in today's info drop instead of the trio.

Today's press release here was all about the side content though. We hadn't really seen anything official about sidequests or the DLC summons until now. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a "Meet Avalanche" type release later, maybe once the game gets closer to being released. Don't forget that Jessie is the one who introduces the demo that square's been shopping around. That's a role Barret easily could have filled, but they chose her. I'm probably being pessimistic about them not having Renders, pretty much everyone else does, after all. Just have some patience.

I'd also like to see some cooking games.

Personally I would love to see Tifa aggresively mix drinks.

 

[oty]

Yes because Square has never done that before and definitely not extremely recently right ??. Is such jump that incredible really?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Personally I'd like to see a quest in which Tifa visits a food market and does the shopping for the 7th Heaven Menu. I'd also like to see some cooking games.
And another quest in which a delivery of beer has gone awol and Cloud and Jessie have to find out what happened to it.
And a quest where Barret goes to Parent-Teacher interview at Marlene's school and has to solve all problems using tact and smarts.

........No. That's....

Personally I would love to see Tifa aggresively mix drinks.

Oh my God.

That was something I didn't even know I needed in my life. I think I'm gonna have to get that game. Thank you.

Yes because Square has never done that before and definitely not extremely recently right ??. Is such jump that incredible really?

What are you talking about? Yes, it is. You're confusing one development team and director with this one. If you're referring to XV, these are entirely different development teams, directors and producers. You're conflating two different games and design ethos here. Square isn't just some singular entity in charge of development for each and every game with the same team, after all.

 

[Jairus]

You do realize they'll probably keep some renders unreleased for awhile because there's an artbook that's going to be a collection of said renders including some never before seen artwork and stuff, right? I don't expect every CG render of the characters in the game to be released at once because they simply have to leave something to warrant the release of said artbook. Come on.

Do we have official verification of said art book's existence? And there's a difference between having it in print and having it available digitally. All of them should be available digitally sooner or later.

Considering the lengths the story's been expanded, there's absolutely going to be more with Jessie and the others. They simply aren't interested in spoiling it. It's brand new material, so of course they're not going to reveal it now. That's the meat of the plot and story.

I didn't say they had to say anything about what their stories involve, just give us their hires renders along with translated bios that were in Famitsu. That would be enough until the game comes out.

And they highlighted the side quests and new important NPC because they're new and tied to gameplay. Why else would they do it? Again, they're not going to just divulge a huge draw of the new material. If you want to see more, you'll have to play the game.

I didn't say they shouldn't have mentioned the sidequests. Of course they should have. They just could have done it without focusing on a random quest giver NPC and given us a separate info blurb and renders about the trio instead.

I hope you're right about an AVALANCHE info release later on, Ody. And I wonder if, for the full game, they'll keep Jessie's introduction or if it's just a demo-only thing.

 

[Misterbadguy]

The general consensus on these side quests seems to be split. I lurk on Resetera and this site's subreddit. I think Square is in a tough spot because if you include them it ruins the pacing/story progression/they're boring etc. But if you don't put them in then it's too linear, blah blah blah. Personally, anything I can do to spend more time with these characters and explore as much of this world as possible is A-OK in my book. You want me to go to some neighborhood in the upper plate that I could have only dreamed about before? Sign this mercenary up, partner.

Echoing a similar sentiment here - far as I'm concerned, if the quests aren't just blatant filler and actually have content that either fleshes out characters or the world itself, I'm good with it. I'd particularly like more of the former, given the dynamic chatter that the player characters have during gameplay; exclusive stuff that you'll only hear when doing certain side quests would be right up my alley.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Do we have official verification of said art book's existence? And there's a difference between having it in print and having it available digitally. All of them should be available digitally sooner or later.

Considering it's one of the selling points of the 1st Class edition, I'd say that's pretty official verification, right?

I didn't say they had to say anything about what their stories involve, just give us their hires renders along with translated bios that were in Famitsu. That would be enough until the game comes out.

Except they clearly aren't interested in doing so, probably because they don't want those high-res renders being reproduced given the artbook and prints that are meant to be sold in the first place. People used those renders for selling fan products and S-E is trying to market those renders for their art they're selling of the game. Clearly a conflict of interests at play.

 

[Misterbadguy]

Considering it's one of the selling points of the 1st Class edition, I'd say that's pretty official verification, right?

Almost certainly there'll be a proper one later in the year as well. Square LOVE making money off art books, just look at FF14.