Hopes for Remake & Rebirth (story/content)

[Gary Caelum]

Also how did Xenoblade handle it? Was it all to scale or did it do like Chip suggested for the remake and do a smaller scale version of the planet?

Xenoblade X is all to-scale and completely seamless. You can exit a small building in the main city, get directly into your mech, and fly for 20 minutes to the other side of the planet and go into a building there, all with no loading screens. It's easily one of the most impressive open-world games ever made. Sad that so few people played it.

They manage it by
1) having all of the main locations very far apart
2) only having a few main points of interest (there's only 1 real city, 1 enemy base, then just a series of very minor locations)
3) the maximum travel speed for the mechs is relatively slow. Not really equivalent to an airship, especially one that gets turbo powered boosters during the story.

 

[Ite]

In theory though would they be able to have a traversable planet in a 1:1 scale open world game? Not everything is rendered at once anyway, it’s just called into screen when needed, the only issue would be size of the game (in terms of storage and file size) but I wonder how the PS4 hardware would handle all that... probably not great.

Let’s be real though by the time you get the Tiny Bronco we’ll be on PS5

 

[Tashasaurous]

I think it's safe to assume that we won't even get to the train station until after PS5 is released, especially since Nomura will still have his hands full and by the time he finishes with Part 1 of the Remake, it'll have to be shifted to PS5. Plus with the leaks of KH3 going on we'll most likely be waiting for several months or even a year before the rest of the world gets it and we'll be right back to before the time of world wide releases a little over a decade ago.

 

[Kain424]

They manage it by
1) having all of the main locations very far apart
2) only having a few main points of interest (there's only 1 real city, 1 enemy base, then just a series of very minor locations)
3) the maximum travel speed for the mechs is relatively slow. Not really equivalent to an airship, especially one that gets turbo powered boosters during the story.

This is largely doable. Having recently played Red Dead Redemption 2, I can state the PS4 can handle considerably more than one might at first imagine. The map is huge, fully explorable, and with tons of assets running at once.

Of course, all this may be unnecessary conjecture. As has been stated, it really depends on how far this first game goes into the story. Even if it only goes through to Junon, the map could easily be split by the Mythril Mines and save bigger issues for a sequel that will (presumably) be running on better hardware.

 

[ChipNoir]

I don't care what anyone says. I'm holding onto Holiday 2019. Nothing will sway me till we reach 2020.

 

[Gary Caelum]

This is largely doable. Having recently played Red Dead Redemption 2, I can state the PS4 can handle considerably more than one might at first imagine. The map is huge, fully explorable, and with tons of assets running at once.

Red Dead still has the slow movement speed though. That's a major factor. The only way they can have massive and distinct towns/cities in open-world games like RDR2 is if they know ahead of time when you're heading to a particular place, so they can start loading the relevant assets in time.

Hence why the airship was raising this question.

 

[ChipNoir]

Honestly I'm more curious about field map considerations. We're not talking about a normal cast of characters here, even by FF standards. It's the only one with a quadrapedal character for example. Red XIII being on four legs (Most of the time) means considerations have to be made for any situation where ladders might be involved. More perplexing would be situations where Cait Sith and his moogle mount are concerned. Even Aerith brings up some issues both in terms of her costume and her lack of physical ability compared to everyone else.

They weren't kidding when they said they had a lot to think about in terms of designing each area.

 

[KiwiPizza]

@ChipNoir I thought you were in the spring 2020 camp?

They could just make Cloud, Tifa (when story requires it) and Cid (when story requires it) the only appearable characters outside of battle. If all are then when climbing ladders get Red XIII to teleport to the top. As animating a quadrupedal character climbing a ladder upright would be quite difficult to make not look awkward.

Perhaps him leaping to the top would be an alternative. But how would Cait Sith work...?

Think about one solution then a problem for another character pokes its head out and says “what about me?”

Ok, this really is going to be an odd problem as it is something that doesn’t occur in other games....

 

[Makoeyes987]

The Moogle mount has arms and legs. It's not hard to imagine it climbing a ladder.

And contrary to what people may think, quadrapeds can climb up. Just have Red XIII climb up the sides of the ladders, instead of the rungs like people. Just like how a dog or a bear climbs up a tree or any other vertical surface.

Gosh, with this much worry, I can only imagine what people will think when they show Red XIII dressing up and trying to be a Shinra Grunt.

 

[Kain424]

Yeah, these aren't really issues. Animators are pretty talented aymore. I am pretty interested to know how combat works for each character though. I honestly hope you can go from character to character, with each controlling slightly different. Kind of like FFXV, which I think will probably be the easiest to compare to. Even with regards to a world map. It's the only one that makes sense.

Red Dead still has the slow movement speed though. That's a major factor. The only way they can have massive and distinct towns/cities in open-world games like RDR2 is if they know ahead of time when you're heading to a particular place, so they can start loading the relevant assets in time.

I don't see how this would be an issue. Leaving Midgar leaves Kalm and the Chocobo Farm on one side of the map and Fort Condor and Junon on another. With enough space in between, this is all doable in the same manner.

 

[Gary Caelum]

I don't see how this would be an issue. Leaving Midgar leaves Kalm and the Chocobo Farm on one side of the map and Fort Condor and Junon on another. With enough space in between, this is all doable in the same manner.

Yes, this comment was specifically regarding the airship. Given that the highwind gets rocket boosters during the original game, you'd assume it could go fairly fast. That's what would be a problem. Being able to go between Midgar and Junon in like 10 seconds would probably be impossible for an open world version of the game.

 

[Kain424]

That's all just a big MAYBE, though. We don't know
-what the engine requirements will be
-if the first game will even make it to the Highwind
-how big the world will be
-if there will even be a worldmap
-if said game will be on a PS4

But it's clear from looking at games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Final Fantasy XV, such a thing is absolutely possible. And MAYBE even likely.

 

[ChipNoir]

I was more thinking about Cait Sith's ability to navigate any sort of passageway that might be a bit small for him.

Then I remembered he's a stuffed toy, even the moogle, as implied by the zipper in it's back. So it squishing to conform to any shape would be a really clever way to show off their animation abilities.

 

[pxp]

Ah man reading this speculations gives me the hype tingles once again. Not that they ever really go away ... ?

 

[Ite]

Red XIII can leap up 100 feet in a single bound and his basic attack has him front-flipping with pinpoint accuracy. What makes y’all think he’ll be climbing ladders?

 

[Kain424]

I somehow doubt we'll be seeing that. But then again, they could make him a long-range fighter and give him such an ability in the game.

 

[ChipNoir]

I tend to think of Red XIII more as a rush type character that can close gaps. I can't see him as long range, but a distance closer for sure. Basically Sled Fang as the basis for all his melee or at least his power moves that are melee instead of magical.

 

[Kain424]

Makes sense to me. I'm hoping they will better differentiate character class for this remake. If they can do that, while more firmly solidifying individual story elements, this could really be something special. I'd like to delve more deeply into Wutai and Yuffie's stuff, spend time exploring Cosmo Canyon. All that.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Cait Sith is gonna look really dumb with a realistic art style.

 

[Kain424]

Dumber than he already looks?

 

[Makoeyes987]

No he's not...

He didn't look "dumb" in AC, DC and he won't look dumb here. Given half of what the enemies and summons are in FFVII, there's no problem at all.

It's Final Fantasy. He'll fit right in.

 

[Roger]

But they felt the need to remove the Moogle doll part of him in AC/DC to make him a bit less dumb visually. They probably won't take that liberty in the Remake.

 

[Kain424]

He already looks ridiculous. And he's supposed to. It hides his nature.

 

[Gary Caelum]

But they felt the need to remove the Moogle doll part of him in AC/DC to make him a bit less dumb visually. They probably won't take that liberty in the Remake.

Yes that's exactly what I was gonna say. Harder to do that in the main game. Although we still don't know how faithful they're intending to be to the original. They might just ditch the moogle doll.

 

[Kain424]

I don't see that happening. I mean, maybe if they're changing the game up that much. But remember they still had a guy with a little chocobo living in his afro in XIII. A mogbot is not out of the question.