FF7 Director Hamaguchi Inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn - PS Blog

ultima786

ultima786

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ultima
https://blog.playstation.com/2021/02/12/playstation-developers-most-anticipated-games-of-2021-and-beyond

What do you think of the below quote? Appears to me that they are looking to do something that evolves FF7R in a real way... open world? semi open-world?

“Horizon Zero Dawn, the first game of the franchise, left a huge impression on me as a game creator. I was taken by the deep immersive experience provided by the unbelievable graphics as well as the unique world I found myself in, a future where civilization has collapsed.

“In the sense that the next title is expected to evolve even further, Final Fantasy VII Remake, which I’m in charge of is expected to do so the same way. For that I have a personal affinity for Horizon (laughs). As a fan, I’m very much looking forward to Horizon: Forbidden West.”

– Naoki Hamaguchi, Director, Square Enix – Final Fantasy VII Remake
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Ite

Ite

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Ite
Torrie

Torrie

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There's so much speculation about what Part 2 is and is not going to be like that I prefer just to sit and wait patiently, ready to be surprised by whatever the creators are going to throw at us. A truly (or even semi) open world experience would be really nice though. I love this world so much that I'm looking forward to exploring more of it :lol:
 
Wol

Wol

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I hate chapter systems in JRPGs.

Hope they get rid of it on VII/2 Exidia Conflictus.
 
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Makoeyes987

Makoeyes987

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It really depends on how they're used. All of those examples may use chapters but they don't do it the same way at all.

FFVII-R and FFXV transition from chapter to chapter seamlessly, while Crisis Core and others sorta break the story by putting up a title card. Loading. And having you save afterwards. It breaks the feeling of cohesion and immersion at times.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

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Chapter systems are ideal for forum discussion because we can cleanly separate spoiler threads into chapters instead of just a general spoiler thread (can't go in there until after you beat the game) and a non-spoiler thread (can only discuss stuff in spoiler tags which is difficult and annoying for various reasons)

I loved the chapter by chapter discussions we had here so for that reason alone, I approve of chapters.
Also, chapter select. Love it.
 
ForceStealer

ForceStealer

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It also makes it nice for loading into a specific section instead of maintaining a million save files :P

I don't know that I have a strong feeling about them one way or the other. Crisis Core's are a little abrupt, I guess (though I like the art of the cards themselves), but as Tres said, the time skips in FFTactics' chapters all served the plot very well.
 
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Theozilla

Theozilla

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Makoeyes987 said:
Same, it makes it far easier to pick what parts of a story to replay and enjoy and not have to redo parts of the game that may be less than ideal.
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Yeah, I have no strong opinions about video games using chapters as a narrative decide, but I absolutely love the utility they can bring with replayability versatility and control. Nier Automata does that as well. It’s much nicer to pick which parts I want to replay instead of having to start from the beginning each time.
 
looneymoon

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Oh this is cool news! I'm really hoping the environmental/level design improves with a wider map in pt2, cuz the way that stuff was handled in pt 1 was really lackluster imo.

I can see them dismantling large sections of the story from Midgar to the Northern Continent to be much more non-linear. I dig that.

Also, I wasn't really a fan of the chapter system in FF7r part 1, but I'm not really against chapters in principle. It just depends on how they're used.
 
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Areega

Areega

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I don't know how I feel about an open world part 2. If SE did it well, the game could turn out amazing. But I don't know if SE have the experience to create an amazing open world game.

Not only that, but if the game was fully open world then it could feel too small. The game takes place over a whole planet, and, well, an open world map obviously won't be the size of a planet (and I don't think it should be as big as a real planet).

I kinda think SE should do a classic world map, like the older FF games, but looking more modern.
 
Obsidian Fire

Obsidian Fire

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SE doesn't have the greatest track record with open-world games is the thing. FFXV's open world is infamous for being really empty.

That said... Part 2 would obviously not be the entire world. Maybe just one continent. But... even that feels too "large" an area to make an "open-world" out of and still preserve the finally balanced plot beats FFVII was so famous for.
 
Ite

Ite

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Ite
I know FFXII wasn’t open world, but I think they did good there. Having bottlenecked zone borders and a distant image of where you’ll arrive after the cross-fade feels like a DM saying “and you travel for a few days without incident.” Yes it’s immersion breaking but so is giant monster Cloud crossing miles in a single bound. Which abstraction is better?

Or they could go the XV route with miles of nothingness? I wouldn’t mind that either, just because I could watch the FFVII cast walk in a field forever.
 
HylianMogget

HylianMogget

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I almost feel like remaking FFVII into a modern open-world style game would possibly be harder than designing an open-world game without such a basis. An old-school, linear JRPG with a world map has pretty different world design and pacing sensibilities than today's open-world games, and even though what they're doing with FFVII obviously isn't a 1:1 remake they're still sort of bound in some ways by the original in those aspects. I hope Part 2 is more open-feeling than Part 1, but I'm not really expecting it to be full open world (but, idk, who knows what they'll be able to pull off).

As for chapter systems, I'm generally not really a fan (except in certain instances like FFT and Nier Automata), and I was skeptical when it was announced that Part 1 would have chapters, but I think it ended up working alright. I agree with what others have said - it comes down to how they're used.

Mr. Ite said:
I know FFXII wasn’t open world, but I think they did good there.
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This thread got me thinking about FFXII, as well. It's been a long time since I played it so I'm not sure how the scale holds up today, but, yeah, I also thought they did a good job with the world. It felt large enough and traveling across the different zones was a suitable evolution from the old style world map.
 
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Obsidian Fire

Obsidian Fire

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A better example is FFXIV... which is a monderized version of FFXII's system. You have large zones with some pretty impressive stuff to to look at (seriously, the FFXIV zones are georgeous)... with enemies wandering around at set spawn points. There are loading screens between zones, but the zones themselves are so big you don't feel confined either.

And that kind of system feels like it would fit FFVII:R well.
 
Theozilla

Theozilla

Kaiju Member
Obsidian Fire said:
A better example is FFXIV... which is a monderized version of FFXII's system. You have large zones with some pretty impressive stuff to to look at (seriously, the FFXIV zones are georgeous)... with enemies wandering around at set spawn points. There are loading screens between zones, but the zones themselves are so big you don't feel confined either.

And that kind of system feels like it would fit FFVII:R well.
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Yeah, if FFXII is similar to FFXIV, that design sensibility I think could definitely work for the Remake. With towns/cities and or “dungeons”(e.g. Shinra mansion, and the various caves) also having their own zones in addition to areas inbetween locations.
 
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