FFVII Remake: Intergrade Yuffie DLC Announced

[Odysseus]

First game has a rigid, linear structure. They've converted a location you previously had to visit by backtracking into a game you could play for a reward anywhere without the need of going back across the map. Seems pretty clear cut to me, personally.

I'm just thinking back on the lofty ideas people had about a free-roam Midgar before we knew much about part one besides "It's only Midgar." Now that goalpost has shifted to an open-world world map (which does make more sense, granted.) I just don't think people should get their hopes up about it, I don't think it's the direction they're going to go.

 

[Ite]

First game has a rigid, linear structure. They've converted a location you previously had to visit by backtracking into a game you could play for a reward anywhere without the need of going back across the map. Seems pretty clear cut to me, personally.

I'm just thinking back on the lofty ideas people had about a free-roam Midgar before we knew much about part one besides "It's only Midgar." Now that goalpost has shifted to an open-world world map (which does make more sense, granted.) I just don't think people should get their hopes up about it, I don't think it's the direction they're going to go.

Have they said that the Fort Condor board game is playable??

 

[Odysseus]

Have they said that the Fort Condor board game is playable??

I don't think so. It might not be in the Yuffie DLC, but I bet it will be in the main game (in part 2, that is.)

 

[Shademp]

I wonder if the board game will be the tutorial before the real battles happen. Will there even be a single "real" Fort Condor battle before the Huge Materia quest?

What still clashes a bit in my head is the idea of having a Fort Condor board game while real battles are still on-going at the reactor. Is the board game distributed by Shinra and if so would they really make a game based on their own repeated failure to re-conquer the mako reactor? Would *anyone* create a board game about a struggle where blood is still being shed while players are leisurely moving their pawns on the board? I know FFVII isn't a world of reasonable people but I really wonder if that's where the lore will take it.

Or was Fort Condor re-conquered years ago and the board game is Shinra's way of celebrating their "final" victory over the place? How would this change the Huge Materia quest? How will the worldbuilding and lore of the place change?

Fort Condor was already a massive mould waiting to be reshaped into any dozen possible of shapes because of how limited its worldbuilding is in past canon. The introduction of the board game has left me wondering even more just what shape this new mould will take.

 

[Ite]

@Odysseus That’s an astute prediction. If the region between Kalm and the Mythril Mine is “Gran Pulse” or “Calm Lands” level of expansive, I think that ought to satisfy the “idea” of a world-spanning adventure story, and they may cut from Mythril Mines to a mandatory woodland scene for Yuffie, then straight to the outskirts of Junon. If Fort Condor gets its due in the Huge Materia section, it... *sad sigh* could be cut from Part 2 or relegated to a darts minigame...

What still clashes a bit in my head is the idea of having a Fort Condor board game while real battles are still on-going at the reactor. Is the board game distributed by Shinra and if so would they really make a game based on their own repeated failure to re-conquer the mako reactor? Would *anyone* create a board game about a struggle where blood is still being shed while players are leisurely moving their pawns on the board? I know FFVII isn't a world of reasonable people but I really wonder if that's where the lore will take it.

Or was Fort Condor re-conquered years ago and the board game is Shinra's way of celebrating their "final" victory over the place? How would this change the Huge Materia quest? How will the worldbuilding and lore of the place change?

Fort Condor was already a massive mould waiting to be reshaped into any dozen possible of shapes because of how limited its worldbuilding is in past canon and the introduction of the board game has left me wondering even more just what shape this new mould will take.

^^^^ This, exactly, and my ranting a few pages back was mostly about how I don’t trust that they’re thinking it through as thoroughly as you just did. I definitely could have done a better job articulating it, but I’m glad you did.

 

[Odysseus]

The rebels are selling the board game to fund the war effort, clearly .

There's not really a point in getting upset about hypotheticals, anyway. Once the DLC is out we'll presumably have more context about why this game exits; they've mentioned it enough in marketing that it must be important in one way or another, and surely they'll address if the REAL fort condor still exists or not. Then you'll get the inevitable famitsu interview about the DLC where Nomura or whoever will be probed on why they made this decision, which we will then scrutinize.

 

[Shademp]

Then you'll get the inevitable famitsu interview about the DLC where Nomura or whoever will be probed on why they made this decision, which we will then scrutinize.

Should we... Should we break free from the cycle?

But if we do, we will not only change the forum. We will also be changing...ourselves. There will be no going back. Do we dare defeat the whispers of fate and continue into unknown territory?

...Naaaaaaah.

 

[Smoothie King]

The board game can be a recreation of the battles that take place at Fort Condor. Sort of like the boardgame Risk tries to emulate real world war conflicts. I don't think it's existence in the game necessarily means Fort Condor won't be a thing in the Remake. If anything it probably affirms its existence.

 

[Odysseus]

Should we... Should we break free from the cycle?

But if we do, we will not only change the forum. We will also be changing...ourselves. There will be no going back. Do we dare defeat the whispers of fate and continue into unknown territory?

...Naaaaaaah.

I just told you what the next ten years of this forum is gonna be like, strap in bois.

 

[looneymoon]

maybe the Ft Condor boardgame is simply gonna be a remake of the OG mini game, and the actual location will be more of a... location?

 

[Ite]

The board game can be a recreation of the battles that take place at Fort Condor. Sort of like the boardgame Risk tries to emulate real world war conflicts. I don't think it's existence in the game necessarily means Fort Condor won't be a thing in the Remake. If anything it probably affirms its existence.

I think Ody’s idea is that rather than having the party be present for the battles, with the minigame representing an actual conflict, the minigame will represent the characters playing a diagetic board game, and Fort Condor — if it appears in Part 2 — will be used in a different way, either having the conflict play out with normal combat or not occur at all.

Edit: ninja’d by Looneymoon

 

[Shademp]

I just told you what the next ten years of this forum is gonna be like, strap in bois.

strap in

Nomura liked this post.

 

[Odysseus]

I think Ody’s idea is that rather than having the party be present for the battles, with the minigame representing an actual conflict, the minigame will represent the characters playing a diagetic board game, and Fort Condor — if it appears in Part 2 — will be used in a different way, either having the conflict play out with normal combat or not occur at all.

That's what I'm thinking, yeah.

I was talking with a fruit about this a few days ago; rendering an all-out WAR against Shinra is a lot more work on the PS5 than it was on the PS1, and since they're so married to realism now, preserving the original minigame as this board game is the happy median between having fort condor as a real place and not having to make all the assets for a full scale war with them until, say, the huge materia quest. The way the real battle will happen probably won't be an RTS, either.

 

[Smoothie King]

I think Ody’s idea is that rather than having the party be present for the battles, with the minigame representing an actual conflict, the minigame will represent the characters playing a diagetic board game, and Fort Condor — if it appears in Part 2 — will be used in a different way, either having the conflict play out with normal combat or not occur at all.

Edit: ninja’d by Looneymoon

I'd be fine with either, honestly. I don't have strong feelings about Fort Condor one way or the other. I'm glad they are acknowledging it exists. My gut is telling me that the mini game will be there. They've been too faithful to the little details so far to let it slip away. I think they'll have some obscure studio work on it and try to make it compelling in 2022.

 

[Ite]

That's what I'm thinking, yeah.

I was talking with a fruit about this a few days ago; rendering an all-out WAR against Shinra is a lot more work on the PS5 than it was on the PS1, and since they're so married to realism now, preserving the original minigame as this board game is the happy median between having fort condor as a real place and not having to make all the assets for a full scale war with them until, say, the huge materia quest. The way the real battle will happen probably won't be an RTS, either.

All very reasonable assumptions. As the original location held no vital relevance in terms of character development or thematic contribution, this is one of the areas where they’re relatively free to play.

I assume Sephiroth will show up.

 

[Shademp]

I was talking with a fruit

Off-topic but are people trying to give the word "fruit" a new meaning? I've seen it twice on the internet today and I'm assuming the users are unaware of its meaning as an offensive word/slur for a homosexual man.

 

[Odysseus]

I assume Sephiroth will show up.

He's actually the top fort condor player. They've banned him from all the local tournaments because he keeps taking all the prize money and lighting his opponents on fire. Nibelhiem was his biggest win to date.

Off-topic but are people trying to give the word "fruit" a new meaning? I've seen it twice on the internet today and I'm assuming the users are unaware of its meaning as an offensive word/slur for a homosexual man.

In this case I was referring to a certain watermelon man and being needlessly obtuse about it.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Morrowind and Oblivion and Syrim *do* have stories they want to tell (particularly Morrowind). They also are just fine with *not* telling them. Or letting the player interact with the story in a very superficial way that ignores the lore. And they are certainly fine with having a bunch of other stories *other* than the main story for the player to sink their teeth into. Such... flexabilty and choice of storyline interaction fits with an open-world design *very* well.

Final Fantasy games have a *very* different approach to story. They like tight narratives with non-optuonal worldbuilding. That kind of narrative focus doesn't go well with an open-world game style.

 

[LNK]

Having the fort condor mini game turned into a board game, gives me hope that the games at Gold Saucer will be ps one graphics

 

[Ite]

Morrowind and Oblivion and Syrim *do* have stories they want to tell (particularly Morrowind). They also are just fine with *not* telling them. Or letting the player interact with the story in a very superficial way that ignores the lore. And they are certainly fine with having a bunch of other stories *other* than the main story for the player to sink their teeth into. Such... flexabilty and choice of storyline interaction fits with an open-world design *very* well.

Final Fantasy games have a *very* different approach to story. They like tight narratives with non-optuonal worldbuilding. That kind of narrative focus doesn't go well with an open-world game style.

As they both started as D&D ripoffs, it’s interesting to see what aspects of the TTRPG the two different franchises prioritized.

Elder Scrolls (and Bethesda’s Fallout) really wants to nail the character creation and player-controlled experience, to simulate a DM who has done a thousand hours of worldbuilding but shows up to the table without a plan, crossing their arms and asking “what do you do?” whereas Final Fantasy wants to really nail the impactful narrative of a long campaign, simulating a DM who has meticulous session notes but could be accused of railroading. BioWare, Larien, Obsidian, and other CRPG developers land somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.

In all cases, the idea is to give the illusion that you’re doing both. When you move along a fixed path from Junon to Costa del Sol to Corel to the Gold Saucer, FF7 manages to trick you into thinking you’re exploring. Similarly, in Morrowind, when you connect something you read in a book to something an NPC says, you feel like you are part of a well-crafted narrative.

 

[Eerie]

maybe the Ft Condor boardgame is simply gonna be a remake of the OG mini game, and the actual location will be more of a... location?

That's actually what I thought all along because the mini game there doesn't really work with Remake standards. So the mini board game mentioned there is probably more of a nod to the OG than anything else. Maybe it's even something only Avalanche people have access to! Like Ody said though, they could simply be saving assets for the huge materia quest - again, something I could easily see them doing. Fort Condor is tht bizarre location you go to in part 1 of the OG, have nothing really to do but a weird mini-game, and it has no bearing on the next time you land there, where you have to fight the Shinra troops anyway. But if it's an open world, then they'll have to do it anyway - we have to be able to visit it then.

 

[Smoothie King]

Morrowind and Oblivion and Syrim *do* have stories they want to tell (particularly Morrowind). They also are just fine with *not* telling them. Or letting the player interact with the story in a very superficial way that ignores the lore. And they are certainly fine with having a bunch of other stories *other* than the main story for the player to sink their teeth into. Such... flexabilty and choice of storyline interaction fits with an open-world design *very* well.

Final Fantasy games have a *very* different approach to story. They like tight narratives with non-optuonal worldbuilding. That kind of narrative focus doesn't go well with an open-world game style.

Right, but surely you would concede that the story in Elder Scrolls is a distant, distant second to open world exploration. There are exactly zero compelling characters.. maybe one if I count Lucien Lachance. The story in Final Fantasy is everything. Story and characters.

 

[Makoeyes987]

One thing that I feel is increasingly being made clear, is that AVALANCHE as an organization is being set up to serve as a supporting role for the latter half of the FFVII-Remake story, specifically the conflict over the Huge Materia with Shinra.

These new characters aren't being created for one-time use in a DLC episode. This is simply their introduction, and I wouldn't be surprised if they served as liaisons that aid in infiltrating and planning the specific missions that all revolve around sabotaging or thwarting Shinra, such as the real Fort Condor, Rocket Town, the Junon Underwater Reactor, and other locations. Expanding the scenarios of each of those key locations would necessitate having more characters involved in the planning and logistics of such large scale attacks. And now that AVALANCHE HQ exists, they can take that role and make those quests feel much more intricate and narratively relevant than before. Instead of them being just resolved via a mini-game, they're going to involve actual combat and interaction within the game.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

In this case I was referring to a certain watermelon man and being needlessly obtuse about it.

Was this supposed to clear it up?

 

[Odysseus]

Yes, in a needlessly obtuse way.