Square Enix registers domain "finalfantasyviipc.com"

[ForceStealer]

Hey, it's nice to see them doing something, it will indeed be interesting to see what or how they upgrade things. Really just getting the PS1-quality sound would be a huge improvement.

I might also say that this could be drumming up interest for a conclusion to a Compilation but I know better than that now.

 

[Flintlock]

Okay, I finally got to watch it with sound. Shitty trailer, if you ask me. And why the heck does the voiceover dude say "download and play the essential Final Fantasy experience today" when it's not available today?

The store page says "Optimized for PC – FINAL FANTASY VII has been updated to support the latest hardware and Windows Operating Systems." I doubt that much optimization has actually happened. I expect they've just made it work on Windows 7 and want to talk that up.

 

[Shademp]

Okay, I finally got to watch it with sound. Shitty trailer, if you ask me. And why the heck does the voiceover dude say "download and play the essential Final Fantasy experience today" when it's not available today?

Funny that even even the European Square Enix (as it seems to be under them and/or American SE that this is being directed) practice early, non-revealing trailers. I think that an announcement trailer should at least reveal (and preferably show) something of the new features, but my guess is that they are still very early in the design/porting process and have nothing to show. That's just my speculation though. That said, I quite enjoy the trailer. It's such cheesy commercialism that I can't help but like it.


I have found no mention or reference to an equivalent Japanese PC release project. Anyone here able to search through the JP web in search for a Japanese PC version? They never received a port in Japan so I would be surprised if they don't take the chance to deliver one now.

The store page says "Optimized for PC – FINAL FANTASY VII has been updated to support the latest hardware and Windows Operating Systems." I doubt that much optimization has actually happened. I expect they've just made it work on Windows 7 and want to talk that up.

From the official site:

Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64-bit)
2GHz Processor or faster
1GB RAM
DirectX 9-compatible graphic card

So apparently it works on three different operating systems.

 

[Flintlock]

From the official site:

Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64-bit)
2GHz Processor or faster
1GB RAM
DirectX 9-compatible graphic card

So apparently it works on three different operating systems.

Yes, I saw that myself, and I also saw that Lex posted it in this thread a few posts ago I was just curious as to what "optimizations" they've actually put in, or are going to put in, depending on how far along the process they are already.

 

[Strangelove]

PC gaming has never really been a big market in Japan, beyond MMORPGs, dating sims and ero-games. I don't know if it really had the level of popularity it had in the West, and a fair number of people don't have PCs and just used mobile devices for things like Internet access.

There doesn't seem to be much news about it yet, but I don't know nothing about searching domain registrations so don't know about all that.


The trailer really should have mentioned something about the new features. I am not particularly excited about it since I am happy with my PS1 copy/don't play many PC games anyway, but a trailer that tries to hype up a game I've already played with nothing new to entice me. isn't. going to entice me.

 

[ForceStealer]

The trailer came off more like it was aimed at the dozen or so people that haven't played it before.

 

[Cthulhu]

It makes sense in that you see a lot of ye olde PC games being updated to work on modern PC's and being distributed via Steam for prices that are actually higher than the used to be when they were collecting dust in your average game store's budget department (like €15 or €20); there is definitely a market for the golden oldies, particularly because they can be hard to get by and/or won't run on your blazing fast PC of today.

But it's not coming to Steam or some other popular online store, right?

 

[Lex]

According to the website, it's coming to "Square-Enix's online store". I think they might also re-release FF8 PC in the future.

I doubt that much optimization has actually happened. I expect they've just made it work on Windows 7 and want to talk that up.

I guarantee you the work involved in making the current PC version look normal on a modern system is no menial task. As has already been mentioned, MIDI music and 320*240 backgrounds. There is no way they're releasing it as it is.

 

[Strangelove]

There is no way they're releasing it as it is.

have you met square enix lately

 

[Lex]

lol You've got me there. But the PC version just will not run properly without mods these days, so they have to change something.

 

[Flintlock]

I guarantee you the work involved in making the current PC version look normal on a modern system is no menial task. As has already been mentioned, MIDI music and 320*240 backgrounds. There is no way they're releasing it as it is.

I don't expect them to either. But call me the owner of a dictionary, because I think optimization refers to modifying a computer program to make it run faster or more efficiently.

There's no way that any modern computer would struggle to play the original PC version, which is why I think it's an odd choice of wording.

 

[Lex]

I expect by "optimisation" what they actually mean is:

The removal of a need for disc swapping (the majority of data is duplicated after all, and this is probably a digital only title).

Faster load times.

Backgrounds that do not appear like a blurry mess.

The original music.

 

[Alex Strife]

That's honestly my guess. Higher resolution everywhere, so it would not look that bad, I suppose. Basically I understand it as "taking the original material and optimising it, i.e. making it look as good as possible with our current tools". But what do I know.

Also, I thought the trailer said "quintessential" and not "essential"? Perhaps I'm just being annoying here, but...

 

[Octo]

I feel like this is one epic ball tweaking excercise. Like someone sat down and said 'oh put together a half arsed website, we don't need to show them anything new, the fanboys can work themselves up into a frenzy BWA HA HA HA!'

I dunno....it feels kind of contemptuous. :/

 

[Shademp]

If Square are working from the PlayStation game source code, then we will definitely see the music and field background quality of the PSX because they will essentially be releasing the PSX game except on the PC.

But at present we don't know if they are making this port from scratch or simply tweaking with the old PC port. The term "PC re-release" to me does not exclude the possibility that they are avoiding the port by Eidos.

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[ForceStealer]

There's probably not anything "new" to show.

And what's the deal with this character booster? It puts all your HP, MP, and gil to maximum? Of the things that could improve FF7, I'm not sure making it easier was really on that list, it's rather easy as it is, I'd prefer a difficulty-enhancer.
But again, like I said the trailer implies this is for people that haven't played the game before, so I guess they're thinking for people who just wanna see the plot and nothing else? I dunno.

 

[AvecAloes]

But again, like I said the trailer implies this is for people that haven't played the game before, so I guess they're thinking for people who just wanna see the plot and nothing else? I dunno.

Really? I didn't actually get that "new player" vibe...also, "experience this mythical story...like never before" seems like a tall claim about something that I kind of doubt is going to be terribly improved upon vs. the original PC version, especially based on that trailer, which I found to be rather weak. Also also...I guess I just don't get the point. Look at me being the pessimist.

 

[Drax]

@ character booster

I remember maxing out an All materia. It sold for 1,000,000 gil and I never had to worry about money from that point. In fact it was the only thing I sold in the game.

 

[Cthulhu]

If Square are working from the PlayStation game source code

Good if there; iirc, Square admitted to having lost the original code / source / files / media etc for the game a while ago; did they find it again, or did they spend the last seven years trying to decompile and reassemble the game?

 

[Shademp]

Square admitted to having lost the original code / source / files / media etc for the game a while ago; did they find it again, or did they spend the last seven years trying to decompile and reassemble the game?

I've searched but I can't find confirmation that they would have lost the source code.

I read on this forum that it is commonplace for source codes to be lost so I wouldn't be surprised if Square lost their FFVII stuff though. After all they could not find their old stuff on Lucrecia when they made DoC so they had to look in guide books and fanart.

 

[Drax]

This explains Advent Children so much.

 

[Makoeyes987]

....How does the loss of FFVII's source code explain Advent Children?

 

[Tetsujin]

Perhaps as a metaphor, with the lost source code being the spirit of what made FFVII so memorable in the first place.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I find it hard to swallow that gameplay source code and program notes had anything to do with the actual spirit of what made FFVII AC what it is. But good job at the BSing

 

[Lex]

or did they spend the last seven years trying to decompile and reassemble the game?

This wouldn't even help them with the problem of shitty sound and bad resolution backgrounds though . Since the files are easily accessed on both the original Playstation and PC versions, my guess is they've just built a new filesystem and .exe.