Gamespot Coverage
- Thread starter Lex
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Lex
Administrator
Well, that was useless. A lot of PR non-answers from that Let's Mosey dude from yesterday.
- when asked how they're stretching the game out without it becoming "the hobbit movies" he said "that's a good question, right now we're focusing on this game"
- they don't know how many parts there are
- fan reaction to yesterday's trailer has been positive
Literally I think that was it.
- when asked how they're stretching the game out without it becoming "the hobbit movies" he said "that's a good question, right now we're focusing on this game"
- they don't know how many parts there are
- fan reaction to yesterday's trailer has been positive
Literally I think that was it.
The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
For real, though, I'm kind of embarrassed for SE. It will have been five years since the remake was announced (six years since development began) when we see just Midgar? XD
And they don't know how many parts there will be??
And they don't know how many parts there will be??
Teioh
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- Teiocho
I've said it elsewhere but I'm still holding onto that tiny sliver of hope that SE are trolling us and that they've got plans to end the game a little bit further on after the escape from Midgar so that the players get the same feeling of 'oh shit, there's more?!' that many players got at that part in the OG. I don't expect it to be much further, to Kalm at best...
But that's just me, being in denial and not wanting to play a whole game where we don't get further than Midgar
(Seriously, I had a dream this morning that SE had announced it was going to be in seven parts...)
But that's just me, being in denial and not wanting to play a whole game where we don't get further than Midgar
(Seriously, I had a dream this morning that SE had announced it was going to be in seven parts...)
The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
Not trying to be a Negative Nancy, by the way. I know a lot of people are excited, and that's wonderful. I'm just unclear on what the plan is here.
Again, when this first part releases, it will have been six years since development began. Five years since announcement. Two years since we learned that development had shifted wholely in-house.
Even generously assuming it's only three years after Part 1 releases that Part 2 comes along, then three more until Part 3, and that there are no more than three parts total, we're still looking at 2026 -- maybe 2025 if the stars line up (to give BJs to God) -- being the earliest they finish this.
There's pretty much already no way this finishes out on the PS4, though, under the very best of circumstances. I don't know if transitioning to the next-generation system will be the sort of problem it used to be? Hopefully that doesn't create any delays.
Continuing to utilize whatever latest Unreal Engine is available rather than building their own should help out some. And the fact that much of the original game's Disc 2 content involved revisiting locations from Disc 1 should be a big help (assuming the remake does continue to follow the beats of the original).
I'm being realistic about this, right? The absolute earliest they could be done is 2025?
Again, when this first part releases, it will have been six years since development began. Five years since announcement. Two years since we learned that development had shifted wholely in-house.
Even generously assuming it's only three years after Part 1 releases that Part 2 comes along, then three more until Part 3, and that there are no more than three parts total, we're still looking at 2026 -- maybe 2025 if the stars line up (to give BJs to God) -- being the earliest they finish this.
There's pretty much already no way this finishes out on the PS4, though, under the very best of circumstances. I don't know if transitioning to the next-generation system will be the sort of problem it used to be? Hopefully that doesn't create any delays.
Continuing to utilize whatever latest Unreal Engine is available rather than building their own should help out some. And the fact that much of the original game's Disc 2 content involved revisiting locations from Disc 1 should be a big help (assuming the remake does continue to follow the beats of the original).
I'm being realistic about this, right? The absolute earliest they could be done is 2025?
Ite
Save your valediction (she/her)
- AKA
- Ite
Yeah 2025 sounds about right. I imagine that most of the hard work is actually going to be designing the systems and battle animations, and Part 1 includes 5/9 player characters and a whole whack load of enemy AI. Any further instalments would be quickly done with those basics already published, no?
cold_spirit
he/him
- AKA
- Alex T
Was it directly stated that Part 1 will end with "escaping Midgar"? I'm not seeing those exact words used anywhere.
Transitioning between generations is very easy these days. Games are made to be scalable and hardware architecture has become homogeneous. I would expect to see Part 1 ported to the PS5 (or at least be compatible with a theoretical "Boost Mode" feature for the PS5, since it's backwards compatible.)
I feel like 2025 has always been a decent estimate to receive the whole story even before Kitase's comment. 2 to 4 parts each taking 2 to 4 years of development, that's been my mentality. I hear your concern though. I worry about the budget of the parts as the series continues. Lightning Returns was noticeably lower in quality and budget than the original game. Public interest begins to wane, and so does the developer's attention.
OdaDaimyO
Conqueror of Sugar
- AKA
- Mochi Lover
I mean, COME ON, what are you guys expecting?
Do you think, Mass Effect 2 was already in the making, before the first part released?
Has Square Enix multiple divisions, working simultaneously on the different parts of the Remake, like Activsion on the Call of Duty series, or Ubisoft on Assassin's Creed?
Do you think, FFVIIR part 1 is NOT a Triple AAA RPG with over 60 hours of playtime?
Do you know how long this ONE other game with 2 Blue-Ray discs of content, had for his development time?
Do you think, Mass Effect 2 was already in the making, before the first part released?
Has Square Enix multiple divisions, working simultaneously on the different parts of the Remake, like Activsion on the Call of Duty series, or Ubisoft on Assassin's Creed?
Do you think, FFVIIR part 1 is NOT a Triple AAA RPG with over 60 hours of playtime?
Do you know how long this ONE other game with 2 Blue-Ray discs of content, had for his development time?
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ForceStealer
Double Growth
Even if Part 2 was well underway it would be on PS5, so there was never doubt of that. But now that the playstations are on regular computer architecture, moving between them is going to be a lot smoother (and PS5 will easily play PS4 games), so I'm not so concerned about that.
The fact that Part 2 is just being planned is the far more....concerning/facepalmy/Classic SE part. Did they really blow up Midgar (so to speak) without any idea of how they would approach the rest? That is just ridiculous.
But, honestly, this looks so good that this still can't harsh my vibe. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this game, even if they never made another part, I will consider it a standalone deep dive of Midgar and a what-might-have-been, and have a blast with it.
The fact that Part 2 is just being planned is the far more....concerning/facepalmy/Classic SE part. Did they really blow up Midgar (so to speak) without any idea of how they would approach the rest? That is just ridiculous.
But, honestly, this looks so good that this still can't harsh my vibe. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this game, even if they never made another part, I will consider it a standalone deep dive of Midgar and a what-might-have-been, and have a blast with it.
pxp
Pro Adventurer
I think Kitase’s “planning” is a slightly misleading term as it makes it sound like they’re just starting Part 2 from scratch or something, which surely isn’t the case. I think what Kitase actually meant is “fine tuning plans,” although I’m under no illusions that they’ve got a hell of a mountain to climb regardless.
ForceStealer
Double Growth
I dunno, the scope seems like something you should probably have down first thing.
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
Ok, I'm gonna step in here to say that it comes as ABSOLUTELY ZERO SURPRISE to me that they don't have concrete plans around their part 2 yet. Additionally – That is absolutely the opposite of a concern for me either, because I live and breathe every moment of my professional life in the world of software sprint release planning, and understanding how things get done. While I don't work in the gaming industry, I pay really close attention to it, and the bare basics of the kind of things that we do are pretty much the same at a project implementation level that I can pretty strongly outline what's being looked at here, just based on content alone.
If you go back and look at the 2015 trailer, the game stuff is KINDA in place, but it still looks VERY different at a deeper level. That compared to now with all of the "we showed too much too soon" sentiment makes it pretty clear what they WANTED to have is what they've got now on the parts that they've shown. Nailing that initial baseline is important, because now that your team knows what they're going towards definitively, it's easier to measure your progress, and plan sprints for your teams accordingly.
Some of the stuff with Tifa is still at an earlier stage, but you'll note that a lot of the environments for things well past her appearance are done: APS & the ShinRa HQ being some examples of Boss Fights and Environments that are clear that they've done a shitton of the basic outline of what this Midgar portion is going to be already. The have enough done, and they've got a regular team cadence that they've managed to have a pattern of release internally that's consistent enough that they can make a hard commit to an external public deadline – known as a Release Date.
This means that they've got a solid handle on all of the assets and content that need to be completed here, and that the entirety of the team is solely focused on hitting that mark. That's 38 weeks away, which for most software development cycles is about 19 Sprint cycles up to the day of release (which, given that they have to print discs and all of that still is different, but that's also why day 1 patches exist). That essentially means that every sprint cycle since they made the State of Plan announcement, they've been completing about 5% of the remaining work to finish the game.
That's done because everything's all clearly mapped out and detailed for what they need to accomplish that, and all of the work is understood and compartmentalized. Most all of the teams and people involved are solely heads down on all of that at the moment, so asking them anything about part 2 is going to get you nebulous answers at best.
When it comes to part 2 – that's something where there are 100% a ton of individual contributors, leads, project managers, etc. who all have a ton of ideas about what to do next – but those aren't anything that're formalized at this stage. None of that work is scoped, and it's doubtful it's even t-shirt sized. They know that they're gonna have to stay focused on this release for a bit to ensure that everything works smoothly, and that's probably about a month or so of patches and updates, during which time the team is hoping to relax and get to appreciate some of what they've done.
Then, the Project managers and leads are going to be watching and combing feedback and input from the release to help know what they want to keep, and what things to tweak as they take everything that's a basic plan, and then start to outline the bigger parts of what new things need to be built, and what things that the team can move forward on already. Then that work's gonna go through whatever levels of building and testing are necessary to determine how viable and reliable it is, and once the basic framework for all of that's in place, and all the teams get into a solid cadence, we'll start to hear REAL details about the next part of the game.
At the end of the day, I'm viewing this like the current God of War games – it'll be a slower release for certain, but depending on what technology Part 2 needs to tackle the open-world elements, it's most than likely that a Part 2 and or Part 3 will be able to follow in more rapid succession, because there's far less testing and discovery needed to achieve everything else once the mechanics of the post-Midgar world are established (and likely Next Gen is here to give it what it needs to achieve that).
X
If you go back and look at the 2015 trailer, the game stuff is KINDA in place, but it still looks VERY different at a deeper level. That compared to now with all of the "we showed too much too soon" sentiment makes it pretty clear what they WANTED to have is what they've got now on the parts that they've shown. Nailing that initial baseline is important, because now that your team knows what they're going towards definitively, it's easier to measure your progress, and plan sprints for your teams accordingly.
Some of the stuff with Tifa is still at an earlier stage, but you'll note that a lot of the environments for things well past her appearance are done: APS & the ShinRa HQ being some examples of Boss Fights and Environments that are clear that they've done a shitton of the basic outline of what this Midgar portion is going to be already. The have enough done, and they've got a regular team cadence that they've managed to have a pattern of release internally that's consistent enough that they can make a hard commit to an external public deadline – known as a Release Date.
This means that they've got a solid handle on all of the assets and content that need to be completed here, and that the entirety of the team is solely focused on hitting that mark. That's 38 weeks away, which for most software development cycles is about 19 Sprint cycles up to the day of release (which, given that they have to print discs and all of that still is different, but that's also why day 1 patches exist). That essentially means that every sprint cycle since they made the State of Plan announcement, they've been completing about 5% of the remaining work to finish the game.
That's done because everything's all clearly mapped out and detailed for what they need to accomplish that, and all of the work is understood and compartmentalized. Most all of the teams and people involved are solely heads down on all of that at the moment, so asking them anything about part 2 is going to get you nebulous answers at best.
When it comes to part 2 – that's something where there are 100% a ton of individual contributors, leads, project managers, etc. who all have a ton of ideas about what to do next – but those aren't anything that're formalized at this stage. None of that work is scoped, and it's doubtful it's even t-shirt sized. They know that they're gonna have to stay focused on this release for a bit to ensure that everything works smoothly, and that's probably about a month or so of patches and updates, during which time the team is hoping to relax and get to appreciate some of what they've done.
Then, the Project managers and leads are going to be watching and combing feedback and input from the release to help know what they want to keep, and what things to tweak as they take everything that's a basic plan, and then start to outline the bigger parts of what new things need to be built, and what things that the team can move forward on already. Then that work's gonna go through whatever levels of building and testing are necessary to determine how viable and reliable it is, and once the basic framework for all of that's in place, and all the teams get into a solid cadence, we'll start to hear REAL details about the next part of the game.
At the end of the day, I'm viewing this like the current God of War games – it'll be a slower release for certain, but depending on what technology Part 2 needs to tackle the open-world elements, it's most than likely that a Part 2 and or Part 3 will be able to follow in more rapid succession, because there's far less testing and discovery needed to achieve everything else once the mechanics of the post-Midgar world are established (and likely Next Gen is here to give it what it needs to achieve that).
X
ForceStealer
Double Growth
X posting like
OdaDaimyO
Conqueror of Sugar
- AKA
- Mochi Lover
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
Aw, thanks!! Also – some more context and detail via Kitase on Twitter:
All just very exciting!
X
All just very exciting!
X
Kain424
Old Man in the Room
Honestly, this all sounds quite promising. And since five to six years is generally average for a big AAA title, I am relieved to hear Kitase say it will be even more efficient in the next one's cycle. I would put my hat on 2024 being the latest for a third installment, personally.
Kain424
Old Man in the Room
That is the best case scenario. Hell, if they were incredibly efficient, we could see a second part by next Christmas. But realistically, it could be that they just have to put the pieces together every year. They could drop one every March. Sure. But that would assume absolutely no hiccups or serious obstacles.
OdaDaimyO
Conqueror of Sugar
- AKA
- Mochi Lover
Can I ask you a question? Why...why do you think, they working already on part 2? Why do you think, SE are handling the multi-part, developing process different then others? Why do you think, that ONE DIVISION of developers, are working on MORE THEN ONE project, at the same time? It makes no sense...and you know why? Because there is no budget for it right know. They NEED to wait, AFTER the sales of the first part are covering the next projects cost. RIGHT NOW they need every soul, who is working on THIS project, finishing what's left, polishing what's already there, and not forget the biggest workload, bugs... BUGS BUSG BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUSG BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS and the marketing, but that's a seperate department.
Sorry, but all comes down to one thing, people have no patience when it comes to the Remake.
Hope I didn't come off rude.
Let's enjoy together the next 9 months full of HYPE & WONDER!
ForceStealer
Double Growth
Where did I say I thought they were/should be working on Part 2? I thought they would have a plan as to what Part 2 would be.