Remake 'preparation'

[Wolf_]

Someone asked me once, if I could have one wish what would it be. And for a long time I've always said I'd love to play the game again for the first time, without remembering anything. The first time I played it I was 8 and I have to be honest, I understood very little of it. It took me several playthroughs and a couple more years to fully grasp the full story, at which point I could tell you more or less word for word what happened next.

1 gazillion playthroughs and 17 years later we get the remake (which I found by chance by religiously googling ff7 remake news on a weekly basis). My concern now is my playthroughs will take the edge off the new game and I don't want that. So I'm going to create a new game tonight on my psp and it will be my final playthrough until the release, in the hopes that I at least forget something.i've even gone as far as boxing my merchandise up so I don't have to look at them lol.

My question.. You think it will work? Are you doing something similar?

 

[Octo]

I think I last played the OG a couple of years ago. But I don't feel like I could ever forget enough of it. (I'm the same with Nirvana's Nevermind - it's etched into my brain)

So I dunno, I'm thinking some sort of severe head injury is required

 

[Wolf_]

So what I need is one of those men in black 'stick' things? My only hope is my horrific memory will finally help me out. I'd never expect to forget a lot but enough to be surprised every now and then. The fact that they're 'changing' things fills me with hope. But then again it is square Enix doing the changes..

 

[Flare]

I actually, coincidentally, just played VII in February this year, so it's fairly fresh in my mind, but it was only my second play through, so I doubt I'll remember everything like you have.
Now I have watched AC possibly a hundred times, and have memorized all the stuff there, and even though I haven't watched it in about a year, I still pretty much remember everything.

You might possibly be doomed.

 

[Wimbly]

Yup I'm currently resisting the temptation to do another play through so I can go in as fresh as possible. Not sure I'll be able to hold out, especially if that release date slips further away..

Last play through was a heavily modded HD steam version. I thought that would be the best version I would ever see, thank goodness I was wrong!

 

[Kionae]

I'm actually currently replaying the OG for the first time in god only knows how many years. I think the last time I played it all the way through was in college, actually... so at least 10 years. Though I've picked it up from time to time from various game saves since then and played...

Strange just how much is permanently burned into your memory even after that long.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

Yup I'm currently resisting the temptation to do another play through so I can go in as fresh as possible. Not sure I'll be able to hold out, especially if that release date slips further away..

Last play through was a heavily modded HD steam version. I thought that would be the best version I would ever see, thank goodness I was wrong!

Can you go through what exact mod you utilized and what it looks like? I'd be down to try it.

 

[Starling]

Well, playing the remake will basically like re-experiencing the game in a new way, what with changes to the graphics, translation and so on.

 

[Claymore]

Yeah I have to agree with Starling. Seeing the game fully realised in HD, with the new battle system and everything else ... it will be like an entirely new game. I don't think you have to worry about holding off playing the port or anything else.

 

[Ite]

Just got to Costa Del Sol in my latest playthrough. I cracked and started a week or so ago.

I figure, this is the last time I'll be able to play this game without the remake colouring how I percieve it. Kind of like reading the Hobbit for the last time before the movie comes out and burns Martin Freeman into all subsequent re-readings.

In that sense, this is our Final Final Fantasy VII... before the New Final Fantasy VII.

 

[55-]

I have had that feeling before, like the more I replay the game and the more I watch other people play it, the more familiar with the game I get, the more the magic and the surprise gets stripped away and the more it becomes just a game. My general rule with revisiting things is to do it only after at a few years have passed, and I've mostly forgotten it. But as it turns out, if you keep replaying something once every 2 or 3 years, eventually it gets so embedded in your head it can't be forgotten.

But yeah, nonetheless I haven't at all had the desire to scrub all knowledge of the game from my mind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind style and experience it fresh and new. I actually think that it's my emotional attachment to the game that's going to make the remake a powerful experience. I already experienced this a bit with CC tbh. Revisiting familiar locations looking fresh and new and beautiful. That was about half of the reason I cried through 70% of that game, the other half being just Zack. Every freakin' new character model in the remake is going to make me cry probably. Even characters I don't like. Heidegger even probably. Everything just looking the way I always dreamed of it looking.

 

[Mayo Master]

I have had that feeling before, like the more I replay the game and the more I watch other people play it, the more familiar with the game I get, the more the magic and the surprise gets stripped away and the more it becomes just a game. My general rule with revisiting things is to do it only after at a few years have passed, and I've mostly forgotten it. But as it turns out, if you keep replaying something once every 2 or 3 years, eventually it gets so embedded in your head it can't be forgotten.

I feel very much the same way. I really love the aspect of discovery in RPGs, and sometimes even after 3 years I curse my memory for remembering so much and feeling deprived of the magic and the surprise, as you put it. I've played too much FF7 and worked on modding it too much for my memories to go away.

I agree, the memories of the very first playthrough of FF7 were unique. I remember the surprise of finding President Shinra dead after only 6-7 hours into the game, while I was expecting him to be the main villain. I also remember a long moment of sheer disbelief at Aerith's death ("this is not happening, is it? ... ... ... Well, shit.")

That being said, the remake should provide a really renewed experience, so I would anticipate it like I had anticipated the Lord of the Rings movies while knowing the books beforehand. However... I'm actually contemplating a media blackout about the remake. I know I'm going to get it anyway, and I want it to feel as new as possible.

 

[Pixel]

Im actually rediscovering the game by picking through the japanese script. Little things like NPC interaction and mistranslated lines shed more light on Midgar. It's like experiencing it for the first time again.

Playing the remake, with possible expansion will most likely give the same feeling.

I want to explore ever bit of the story before the remake comes out.

 

[NikolaiBroketheZoom]

Despite growing up with the game and having watched various family members play it, I never got past Midgar the few times I picked it up over the years. I finally buckled down day after the remake was announced and finished the game in a week.

I knew about all the scenarios and characters and bosses and everything, having watched my brothers play and experienced various parts of the Compilation, but playing through it myself was a whole different experience. I found myself growing attached to characters I'd never cared for (Barret) and developing an appreciation for characters I'd always overlooked (Yuffie). I've been emotionally attached to the game since watching my brothers play it (it came out a few months before I was born so I was still too young to play it for a while, but it was always in heavy rotation in our PS1 so I in essence grew up with it), but I think playing it for myself, finally, has prepared me for the remake.

I felt this huge feeling of closure when I finally got to the post-credits starfield, tbh. I'd never gotten to it on my own and now, 18 years after the game's release, I've completed it. Felt good, man.

 

[robotwarui]

I'm going to rediscover the game thru my nephew (who I visit every weekend)
who has never experienced FFVII, and has learned to read just good enough.

All he knows is that Cloud is a cool guy with a sword. No spoilers.

I can't wait to see him discover it all.

 

[55-]

I'm going to rediscover the game thru my nephew (who I visit every weekend)
who has never experienced FFVII, and has learned to read just good enough.

All he knows is that Cloud is a cool guy with a sword. No spoilers.

I can't wait to see him discover it all.

Ahaha, I just recently watched a friend of mine play it for the first time. That is a great way of vicariously living through someone else's experience. I still have regrets about never being able to sit down and make a friend from high school play through the game, because I knew she was unaware of pop culture enough to go into it with absolutely no knowledge.

 

[Wimbly]

Yup I'm currently resisting the temptation to do another play through so I can go in as fresh as possible. Not sure I'll be able to hold out, especially if that release date slips further away..

Last play through was a heavily modded HD steam version. I thought that would be the best version I would ever see, thank goodness I was wrong!

Can you go through what exact mod you utilized and what it looks like? I'd be down to try it.

It's called Tifas bootleg. It adds a massive ton of customisation for what you want the characters to look like, the soundtrack and the menus and more. I downloaded it so long ago I can't remember where I got it.

Takes a bit of know how to install it, but nothing too difficult. There are plenty of guides to follow for installation if I remember correctly. Sorry, I'm sure other people here will much more helpful than me with it.

My profile picture is from a screen cap of a modded OG. Not mine I might add but it is definitely the OG. I didn't choose to have Clouds AC model, it would have ruined immersion in my opinion but each to their own.

 

[Wolf_]

Game is getting started for the final time tonight. I think I'm going to do my final playthrough with a challenge. Not sure which though. No items, no materia, dead characters stay dead. What do we reccomend?

 

[Wimbly]

Ooo dead characters stay dead, that sounds quite cool. Adds slight realism too!

 

[Lex]

Yup I'm currently resisting the temptation to do another play through so I can go in as fresh as possible. Not sure I'll be able to hold out, especially if that release date slips further away..

Last play through was a heavily modded HD steam version. I thought that would be the best version I would ever see, thank goodness I was wrong!

Can you go through what exact mod you utilized and what it looks like? I'd be down to try it.

It's called Tifas bootleg. It adds a massive ton of customisation for what you want the characters to look like, the soundtrack and the menus and more. I downloaded it so long ago I can't remember where I got it.

Takes a bit of know how to install it, but nothing too difficult. There are plenty of guides to follow for installation if I remember correctly. Sorry, I'm sure other people here will much more helpful than me with it.

My profile picture is from a screen cap of a modded OG. Not mine I might add but it is definitely the OG. I didn't choose to have Clouds AC model, it would have ruined immersion in my opinion but each to their own.

You got it from Qhimm.com. Either that or you got it from a torrent, since "Tifa's Bootleg" is a tutorial on Qhimm which contains PitBrat's Bootleg program (outdated and buggy, do not use) and links to a torrent which contains all the mod files.

If you want to mod, go to Qhimm.com and browse the forums extensively.

 

[Ite]

The famous "NPC Mod" was my preferred texture overhaul, as it didn't insert any Compilation designs, it just tried to emulate the FMV style during gameplay. Shame it was never finished, but it got damn near close. Only about one in every fifty people looked like a lego person (they also looked like giants compared to the realistic proportions of the modded sprites).

Truth be told, though, the original sprites work the best with the game. After about twenty minutes, they look like people to me. *imagination*

I wonder how Team AVALANCHE is taking the remake news...? They were so far along in their Bombing Mission mod.

I wonder if any qhimm duders feel like they've been wasting their time. Naww. Those mods were great accomplishments, or otherwise, great practice.

 

[Starling]

The OG's graphics reminds me of Ocarina of Time's graphics. Honestly, I'm fine with blocky graphics as long as you can tell what's going on and what everything is supposed to look like. It saddens me when people dismiss something simply because the graphics aren't some perfect movie quality hyper-realistic depiction of what's going on in the game.

 

[Mayo Master]

I wonder how Team AVALANCHE is taking the remake news...? They were so far along in their Bombing Mission mod.

Well you could ask me
I had been pulling the Team Avalanche project for the past 2-3 years (I produced more than 80% of the releases), and in my opinion the remake announcement canned the project. There's a big issue regarding the amount of work the project demanded: an artist working really hard (considering this is a hobby which cannot be financially compensated) could produce 10 scenes per year. There are 500+ scenes in the game. You get an idea of what it would have taken.
If the game were not to be remade, then I would have had the motivation to carry on because this project would have been the only way to get any remake at all. With Square doing it, they have many more people who have vastly superior talent, who can spend their whole working time, backed by the resources of a strong company, to make it. I have no motivation to spend so much time on a home-made mod which would be so easily surpassed in terms of quality.
Some people at qhimm believe that the remake will shatter what made the OG good, and they're convinced that their way of doing it will always be better than Square's (you may know of whom I speak ). I do not share that view, my ego does not demand it.

 

[Lex]

I hold the view that the original game and the remake are two entirely seperate entities. I don't expect the remake to colour my view of the original, because the Compilation doesn't - in any way, shape or form - colour my view of the original game. This obviously isn't the case for everyone.

I mention that because it's important - in the context of PC mods - that this differentiation is there. I'm fairly optimistic about this remake because even if it's shit, the original game is always going to be there for me to play. I use mods when I play the PC version, and I enjoy using them. I like having slightly more realistic characters, the retextured world map, the orchestral music, transparent dialogue boxes so I can see the whole screen (same with the battles). The same principal holds true here - if I want to play a vanilla version, I'll play the PS version rather than the PC version. All the mods do is enhance my experience. I fully expect the remake to be a completely different one. I think it's fairly foolish to enter the remake with a mind set for nostalgia, because I don't think we're going to get that from it. It's going to be incredibly different.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: it's a shame that your motivation has been affected, but I can totally understand why. I just know that people aren't going to stop playing the original game purely because of this remake, because they are absolutely going to be very different entities. I'm still kind of shocked that some people don't seem to get that. This isn't like the FFX remaster, but some people seem to think it is. They're literally creating a new game that tells the story of FFVII.

 

[Mayo Master]

I really appreciate your viewpoint. I agree that remake =/= remaster.
The thing is, in the modding community of qhimm, there are already other graphical mods (Omzy's and yarLson's) which provide HD renders of the environments - using Photoshop image filtering methods. These projects were demanding a considerably lesser amount of work, as a matter of fact they were single-handedly completed within a few months. These projects were tending to produce a result along the lines of a HD remaster.
Knowing the existence of these projects, the one we were doing at Team Avalanche had some interest if we could have a significant added value in comparison. No sense in spending 50 times the amount of time on something which is going to look 5% better, if you get the idea. So when doing the 3d modelling of the scenes for Team Avalanche, I had been taking the angle of a remake (although constrained by many technical limitations), and I didn't shy away from making modifications or add Easter eggs.
In a sense, with Square's remake on the one end, and existing HD "remaster-type" in the other, I wasn't seeing much point in continuing this time-consuming endeavor.