NEW TRAILER: State of Play May 2019

[Ite]

Awesome analysis.

On the subject of materia slots: I think it would be pretty easy to implement materia slots on other weapons and armor, not just the Buster sword. Once you've created the code for field models reflecting menu choices, why not just implement it on every field model?

I'm now 100% convinced that the end of the trailer is the pillar and Cloud's hallucination afterwards. It used to just be a flash and an auditory hallucination, but now it's visual as well. I'm hopeful that this will be his *only* tease before the Kalm flashback/Cargo ship.

 

[Lex]

On the subject of materia slots: I think it would be pretty easy to implement materia slots on other weapons and armor, not just the Buster sword. Once you've created the code for field models reflecting menu choices, why not just implement it on every field model?

The issue is variability though, I'm thinking with number of slots, linked/ unlinked slots, the sword models and the placement of the slots in them they might just choose to avoid the headache of implementing it. Or at least drastically reduce the number of weapons. With the slots in place of course it's just a matter of "colour" and then "linked/ unlinked" but with 9 characters and all the weapon permutations? Idk. Is there any visible materia on Barret? I wasn't specifically looking for it tbf.

The armour is another thing I was trying to look for slots on, but couldn't see anything. It would be an amazing feature if they have weapons and armour like in the OG and all the slots were fully visible and customisable.

 

[Kain424]

All the weapons and armor being visible would seriously make me happy. I live for that shit.

 

[Ite]

I think that might be the "doohickeys" on Cloud and Barret during that sweeper fight, maybe a new armor or an accessory?

@ Lex the only real consideration would be the real-time rendering, no? I didn't see any materia on Barret, so you may be right.

Also, just wildly spitballing here, but maybe that sweeper fight is a sidequest? Take down the manufacturer of Shinra's oppressive machines. It looked like an auto shop.

 

[Kain424]

I think it looks like the back way in before you last see the AVALANCHE members.

 

[Kain424]

 

[Lex]

^I put screenies of that area in the video when we got to that part. That's where I think it is too. The only thing throwing me is the Shinra tarp, but that could feasibly be in that area for sure.

 

[Kain424]

Literally just got to that part of the video. Ha.

 

[Ite]

Hmmmm. Could be, could be. My counterpoint to that is that that area is hanging underneath the Plate, a system of ducts. You can't see it in the screenshot, but when it's rendered in the game there's a background image of the slums beneath you. The sweeper from the trailer seems to be in a solid-looking building.

 

[Kain424]

Yeah, it's going to need a better look to be sure. Of course, there is always the possibility it is an entirely new area as well from an expanded Midgar.

Anyhow, I actually gasped when I saw that screen of the materia in the sword. Previous mentions I almost sort of shrugged off as imagination, but that is definitely materia there.

 

[Ariga]

Your analysis video is very good. I really enjoyed it.

And yeah, I agree with the above, there is definitely materia in that buster sword. If they are keeping to the original game, then 2 magic materia. I hope they have materia visible for all party members. I don't know where Tifa's or Red's would be, though. Red's just stuck to his mane?

 

[ForceStealer]

Tifa's always been shown to have Materia in her gloves:

Red's are in his hairclip things, which honestly would make a little more sense if they were just vehicles for equipping materia rather than something he actually uses to attack

 

[ChipNoir]

Tifa's always been shown to have Materia in her gloves:

Red's are in his hairclip things, which honestly would make a little more sense if they were just vehicles for equipping materia rather than something he actually uses to attack

I mean, he headbutts and swings around. It works well enough.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

The implementation of visible Materia shouldn't be that bad, I don't think. It's just like defining a region on a customizable character where you can change the colour of a part of a clothing/item asset, which we see in VASTLY more detain on character creators. The materia all have preset colours of clear (empty), and a pre-defined yellow, green, red, purple, & blue – and those directly correspond to the materia type in the slot just changing that particular region as whatever colour. So while it seems like a lot of permutations, that's still less than what most character creators allow you to do just with choosing a type of pants, and then setting what shade of what colour you want your pants, stitches, buttons, and belt to be. Especially since they likely don't offer that level of variability with character skins, it shouldn't be too bad to add in those to weapons and accessories.




X

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

Putting visible Materia on weapons should be one of the easiest things in a technical sense. You define coordinates where the Materia can appear on the weapon model and have such a Materia model appear in each slot the player has Materia equipped. A simple hue change takes care of its type. Done

 

[pxp]

I mean, he headbutts and swings around. It works well enough.

I was always under the impression he bites - that’s what it sounds like to me anyway.

 

[Ite]

I was always under the impression he bites - that’s what it sounds like to me anyway.

And that’s what he does in the Complication. Biting almost exclusively. It will be very interesting to see how he plays.

 

[Ariga]

Tifa's always been shown to have Materia in her gloves:

Red's are in his hairclip things, which honestly would make a little more sense if they were just vehicles for equipping materia rather than something he actually uses to attack

I never thought that was materia. I thought those green things were just... designs or pretty stones or something. But thinking about it, yeah, they could be materia. However, the size of the materia in Advent Children is huge compared to what size they seem to look like in the remake.

 

[Ite]

It’s always been inconsistent. When Aeris’s hair bow comes undone, the white materia is only as big as a marble. 40 minutes later, Cloud’s holding a grapefruit-sized Black Materia. In AC all the materia seem to be as big as a cow’s eye, which fits the Buster Sword certainly. Then came that Tifa render for the 10th anniversary where we are back to marbles.

 

[ChipNoir]

And that’s what he does in the Complication. Biting almost exclusively. It will be very interesting to see how he plays.

...Was that wording intentional?

 

[ForceStealer]

I assume it was.

Many of the original character artworks included materia, so I definitely always interpreted Tifa's gloves as having materia. And it DOES make sense that only artificially manufactured materia would be of uniform size.
It also makes sense if these magic spheres could change to whatever size they needed to

 

[donkeyjack]

...Was that wording intentional?

Lol

 

[JBedford]

Materia appears in different shapes and sizes depending on what your source is. However the original game seems to imply that Materia isn't necessarily round by nature. This is seen in the field for the Huge Materia, Black Materia, and the Materia Caves Materia (except for one). All other Materia is the same spherical shape. This may be a mixture of because they were artificially manufactured and because designing lots of different shapes would be a helluva waste of time. Cutscenes seem to betray this because the Black Materia is spherical, as is the White Materia although I don't believe it's seen anywhere other than the cutscene. I put it down to miscommunication.

The fact that the Materia Caves Materia seem to fit perfectly fine in weapons mean they can change shape. To reconcile the inconsistencies of Materia sizes in my mind I imagined them like Pokeballs in the Pokemon anime.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I've always really liked materia because it's a core part of their world-building. "You shouldn't call it magic, because it's science." I love the materia scientists back in the Shinra HQ and how Zack is taught materia fusion as part of his SOLDIER training. I love how they only partially understand how it works or how it all fits into their ecosystem. And I wished that in Crisis Core, a really unusual combination of materia in fusion would sometimes cause the whole damn thing to blow up in Zack's face, occassioning some minor damage. That would feel real.

 

[FFShinra]

Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster. I just wanted to comment on a thought I had while watching the analysis video (which was quite nice to watch, by the way).

I have a theory on where the Jessie close up takes place. It's neither at Sector 8 nor Sector 1, and it isn't during the Sector 5 raid either. I believe this location is, in fact, the Sector 7 slum station.

I know, I know, it doesn't look anything like the simple rundown platform of the original game, but I think that is sort of the point. As to why the crew are jumping turnstiles and running, if my guess is correct its when Barret tells them all to split and head for base. Which means Jessie's "Have fun", if it wasn't created specifically for the trailer is, in context, her teasing Cloud about his impending return to Tifa. Which also means they are presenting Jessie's character from a different angle (hiding her own feelings behind the teasing) or dropping her interest in him all together in favor of something else.