SPOILERS FFVII Remake Frustration Expression Thread (*Open Spoilers*)

[Odysseus]

Aw that sucks. I guess this is the new flat screens in Crisis Core, 90's box computers in the OG.

 

[ForceStealer]

I didn't really see anyone in the slums with a phone, the PHS terminals you use in the Drum are very old school-looking. So I would expect the party to be using less advanced "burner" phone kinda things once they leave Midgar. With high end cell technology being reserved for Shinra/wealthy and the party not wanting to be easily tracked.

But also, who knows. Maybe they'll just talk through two Whispers tied together with a string.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Rude in Chapter 8 and Tseng in Chapter 18 both use boring slabs over flip phones.

Also the random Shinra employee on the elevator in Chapter 16.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Flip phones are much cooler and everybody knows this

 

[Tetsujin]

The flip phones were too modern for my taste as well

Give me the bulk. Give me the clunk. Give me those ancient ass phones. I want them to pull out a giant antenna before they can even use the damn things.

 

[Makoeyes987]

The OG PHS Cloud and the others use in FFVII was an old school Nokia inspired brick, going by the item models from the Ultimania Omega.

Hmmm.. Really would be interesting to see how they go about it. In the slums you see old school telephones in buildings and houses. Same with CR TVs and jukeboxes and old school record players. The tech is all over the damn place in the Remake.

 

[Odysseus]

It'd be funny if the flip phones they use in AC are retroactively made out to be the inferior tech they're forced to make due with post meteor.

 

[Cat on Mars]

It'd be funny if the flip phones they use in AC are retroactively made out to be the inferior tech they're forced to make due with post meteor.

I thought about how the Remake retconned some stuff, cellphones included, and my conclusion was exactly what you suggested. Out of all the changes and retcons, that's the easiest one to explain by a long shot.

 

[Clement Rage]

BC and CC also use flippy phones, though.

 

[Odysseus]

Yeah and those take place years earlier too

 

[Saven]

Hope Vincent gets his chance at redemption if he meets Marlene in the remake and whips out a 5G cell phone while she's talking to someone on her flip phone.

 

[Odysseus]

Vincent magically remembers the other timeline and his only application of this knowledge is to assert his dominance over a 5 year old.

 

[Shademp]

This game is so beautiful it frustrates me

I was just flooded with that feeling when seeing this screenshot of Cloud. It transports me back to ye olden times in 2004 when I thought these levels of graphics would only ever be reserved for FMVs. What a time to be alive.

 

[Odysseus]

It's still hard to believe it's real sometimes.

 

[Saven]

It didn't really get me until the walk back to the apartments with Tifa. I don't know how to put it in exact details, but ever since then, I always say "This is so weird" at least once every time I boot the game up. It still doesn't feel real to me.

 

[cold_spirit]

I get the feeling too. Sometimes it's with lame things like Remake appearing on the Square Enix Store's jumbotron. My mind's like "holy shit my babies are vogue again". Thinking about a future ad with renders of Yuffie and Cait Sith has me in disbelief.

Spoiler: lame jumbotron

The Sector 7 slums were a big moment for me too. I got emotional when the main theme started playing as Cloud left his apartment. And I'm calling it now, I'm going to cry when Vincent joins the party. That's my man. Imagine playing as that character in Remake's battle system. I might even make Vincent my profile pic.

 

[Odysseus]

I might even make Vincent my profile pic.

I... uh... I thought he already was... Oops.

 

[Sephiroth Crescent]

Don't remember if this was already mentioned but I missed Mr. Wallace's King Kong gesture.

 

[Ite]

Don't remember if this was already mentioned but I missed Mr. Wallace's King Kong gesture.

I only miss his Jeremy-Irons-in-the-Dungeons & Dragons-movie-big gestures because they didn’t fully toss his physical goofiness in Remake. I get whiplash from Barret’s body language, it goes from powerful planted stillness “You better be worth the money, merc.” To... whatever he was doing in the elevator five minutes later. It may just be that his mocap actor was not a 300lb giant with a gun-arm, but his physical expressions are puppeteered and uncanny to me.

I fully acknowledge that my tradition in Laban is very different from the Noh tradition, and when I think of Remake Barret’s (on-and-off) sweep-to-tableau movement style I definitely get Noh vibes, but Noh is a stylized dance tradition that isn’t supposed to be naturalistic, so having one actor in a scene literally dancing while everyone else is moving naturally? Especially when the same character was moving naturalistically just moments ago? Whiplash.

Funnily enough, OG Barret *does* align with Laban philosophy, he is a textbook “slash” style (sudden, fast, light, and direct). In Remake, though, he changes his movement style from scene to scene. The elevator scene is the biggest head scratcher for me, because within the span of a few sentences he glides, wrings, punches, and slashes. I don’t get any sense of the character from his physical performance, which isn’t something I could say about the cartoonish antics of ‘97 Barret.

On the flip side, Cloud’s physical direction, however, is 10000% a home run. His character *is* performative, and his movement is naturalistic but put-on. He wants to stand cool, so he “stands cool.” You could erase his head and mute his dialogue and get such a consistent and telling characterization. Jessie and Wedge are also standout performances.

 

[ForceStealer]

(I get the impression the elevator speech was, in whole or part, a rehearsed sermon he's given or prepared to give.)

 

[looneymoon]

It might be a sort of uncanny Valley effect happening (maybe not the most appropriate term to use, but I'm being approximate here). Or perhaps, more likely, a cultural difference. I don't tend to notice what Ite is describing in anime as much because they're cartoons. But I definitely get that feeling from some Japanese live action films.

 

[Jimmy XH]

Several of the characters have over-expressive body language and gestures that don’t translate 100% to the modern day. The OG had plenty of this but you needed it because of the graphical capability of the time and it was an effective way of conveying emotion, however you have voice acting and realistic character models to do that for you now.

It’s a small gripe and not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but it does notice, especially when compared to games of the current era (e.g. the hyper-real feel of TLOU 2).