TLS community collaboration for my upcoming videos

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

I'm about to work on my next video, which I'd like you all to be part of to a certain extent.
I'd like to include your ideas, thoughts and feedback in those videos, which is why I'm posting this here.

I have ideas for 4 5 videos as of now and I'd like to gauge your interest. See below:


Remaster, Remake, Re-Imagine, Reboot or Port? (Game Talk)

Spoiler

• Trying to find a definitive definition for all of them on the basis on existing definitions.
• While they seem clear cut, there still seems to be a lot of confusion and conflation in online discussions, journalism and even marketing.
• Most likely necessary to distinguish between the technical and the perceptive side.
• Focus on the Remake and other FFs, with comparisons to other games of course.

Your input: how would you differentiate those 4 on a technical and perceptive level? I'll weave your input into my own explanation.

What we want to see in the FFVII Remake (Game Talk)

Spoiler

List of wishes for the Remake, which are built upon all available information. This means no wishful thinking that wouldn't come to pass at all (e.g. turn-based battles) and nothing that has already been confirmed.
Some of the following ideas have been influenced by this thread on GameFAQs.

• Party banter
• Talking NPCs akin to FFXIII-2
• More extensive Huge Materia quest which integrates better into the plot and overall storytelling other than "Shinra bad, must stop them from getting them!"
• More about the Gi tribe and the battle of Cosmo Canyon.
• Shinra propaganda in Midgar and Junon (radio, posters, screens)
• Retaining the core of FFVII
  • Characters (personality, motivations, background, conflicts)
  • Plot
  • Main chain of events
  • Materia system (equipping in slots, leveling up, effects only when equipped, keep most, add new)
  • Most equipment
• Keep the light-hearted side of FFVII (humor, whacky stuff/enemies)
• Camping-like system for chats with party members akin to BoFIII with optional random or fixed scenes e.g. close to key events (character-specific or for the whole party)
• Difficulty modes (KH style)
• More strategy in battle, especially on higher difficulties, so that button mashing just isn't a viable option anymore

Your input: More ideas and refining existing ones. I'll include all of them.

FF Möbius Cards Analysis (Game Analysis)

Spoiler

• Comparing enemy/boss/summon cards (artworks only) with their original models.
• Based on the images in this thread.
• Additional analysis of the artworks themselves, because some might reveal interesting tidbits possibly planned for the Remake.

Your input: Ideas for the format. Collaborative analysis of the artworks is encouraged.

Catch-up on missed stuff (Game Analysis)

Spoiler

• Blurry Air-Buster screenshot
• View over Midgar in Universal Studios Japan XR Ride
• Onyx Dragon and possible appearance in the Remake
• More?

Your input: List of things I missed (in terms of material on my channel) you'd like me to cover.
I don't want to just regurgitate news, though. My strength lies in deep analysis or extensive talks about certain topics.

How to Transfer Progress between Installments (Game Talk)

Spoiler

• Considerations
• Transfer everything vs clean slate for each part
• Pros, cons and solutions for cons
• Possible compromises between both extremes

Your input: Simple: your ideas and opinion on how SE should solve this issue.

Feel free to post anything that comes to mind. Maybe even ideas for a completely different video?
Also, Which one would you prefer to be made first?

Thank you in advance for this hopefully fruitful collaboration!

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

I just found an artwork of an unused enemy on the FF Fandom Wikia. You guys might have already seen it. Its called Onyx Dragon. Interestingly enough, even the artwork is unfinished. Check it out here.

I'm thinking of including it in the "Catch-up on missed stuff" video, since it's possible they'll include it in the remake as a new enemy, boss or even super boss. What do you guys think?

 

[Lex]

Remaster, Remake, Re-Imagine, Reboot or Port? (Game Talk)

I remember being terribly frustrated when the PS4 port came out and people were calling it a remaster (and at the same time, confusing it with the remake).

FFVII has never been remastered. The closest thing we've seen is a combination of mods from Qhimm. The version on the PS4 is simply the PC version ported to the PS4. The PC version it is a port of, is the 1998 PC version which had some jiggery done to the .exe and DX hook to make it run on modern systems. The 1998 PC version is itself a port of the original playstation version. So the version on the PS4 is literally a port of a port of a port of the original. Which is kinda hilarious.

The remake itself looks to be some parts re-imagining and reboot, but we're not clear on that til we know more about it.

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

Wasn't the 1998 PC version a port of a pre-release version of the original PSX version? It had more problems than the original game after all, which would be explained by that. I'd have to look into it some more.

Regarding the PS4 version, i'm very much on the fence. Overall, it's a port of the Steam version. However, they did upres the background renders and applied some sort of filter to get rid of the visible pixels. Same thing for the font and other UI elements. So technically, it's a Remaster, albeit a very weak one, especially because they retained the 4:3 aspect ratio.
A remastered port?

I agree that the Remake seems to be more of a re-imagining, though I wouldn't call it a reboot. At least not of the original game, since that's not part of a series/continuity. If we're talking about the compilation, that's a different story. But only if they decide to create a new compilation. In that case, the Remake would mark the reboot of the FFVII compilation, which is something I would't put past SE.

 

[Lex]

No, it was just a bad port. Square Enix gave very specific instruction that it shouldn't deviate from the original game in any way, so when Eidos ported it they were very limited in what they could do. Upon its release I wouldn't say it had that many problems for your average PC game - it had more problems than the PS version purely by virtue of the fact that it wasn't a console game and therefore didn't benefit from the comfortable "every person's specification is the same". It's by no means an amazing port and it's kind of just a divided and bastardised version of the PS version glued together to work on PC, but it doesn't run any less poorly than other PC games of that era. The MIDI music however is unacceptable, particularly if you don't have a Yamaha sound card (in which case it sounds different, but passable).

I absolutely would not consider the PS4 version a remaster. I'd say it's the best "vanilla" version of the PC game graphically, but upscaling some backgrounds, applying a filter to them and using slightly higher res models doesn't constitute a remaster. For it to "technically" be a remaster they'd redraw the backgrounds and they'd also have to fix the damn sound, which ruins some of the best moments in the game.

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

Quick update:

I'm in the middle of recording part 1 of my Möbius Final Fantasy FFVII card artworks analysis (there are too many to fit in a single video. 63 in total).
However, I decided to put that on hold in favor of another video I think has content more immediately relevant: How to transfer progress between installments.

First, it's a great follow-up to my first Game Talk video "How to Split the Game" and I'd like to have my conclusion out there before Square Enix reveals anything related to that. I just hope I manage to get it out before my 3 weeks vacation in April, though progress is currently rather slow, unfortunately.

@Lex: Rather late reply, I know, but thank you for your input! I'll consider it for my other video once I manage to get to it.

 

[Castiel Strife]

A remaster is a game that keeps the same system in place and the same story, but touches up on the small things including graphics.

A remake is a game built from the ground up of an older game that mostly keeps the same story and possibly even some of the same mechanics. Resident Evil 2 was an incredible remake, in my opinion. I also thought MGS for the GameCube was a great remake of the PS1 original version.

A reimagining and reboot are mostly the same thing in my personal opinion. A reimagining is basically taking an old game and re-doing most all of it. Graphics, story, and maybe even gameplay. The only thing really kept around might be the setting or concept of the game. Many consider Red Dead Redemption a reimagining of Red Dead Revolver.

And a port is of course just basically the same game ported from either a former console in a family of consoles or another console altogether. PC also counts, of course. It’s basically the same game as the version it’s being ported from with possibly changes in performance/graphics and maybe a few things added in.

I do consider the steam version of FF7 (which was ported to the PS4) a remaster. No, they didn’t do much but it was touched up a tad. You can have a remaster that looks almost like an entirely new game or one that looks very similar to the original product. Final Fantasy X/X-2 on PS4 for instance looked so good that they could almost be considered remakes, but obviously they weren’t. The Halo Master Chief collection is another game that looked so so much better than it’s original counterpart.

These are a bit subjective, though, and not everyone will agree. It’s how I view them. As for the game itself and what I want to see... Well, I’ve had a very small request for a very long time that many have probably seen me post here already multiple times. I want the game to be free-roam after completion, which is something the original obviously didn’t allow.

Obviously in addition to that, I want the game to continue to be open-world, at least once you leave Midgar. Give me something to continue to do whenever I beat the game, some replayabilty. Maybe even a new game+? Some DLC would be cool too. I’m not usually a fan of DLC, but for a game as important as this is to me I’d welcome it with open arms. Other than all that, I just want the story to remain virtually untouched and the materia system to still be integrated into the game.

Progress between installments... I think it would be best if they allow you to save your data and upload it to the new game(s). They could have a set level for anyone who wants to start the game who (for whatever insane reason) didn’t play the other parts. That makes the most sense to me.

Also, everyone seems to think it will be in three parts. Why not two? They never said that it wouldn’t be two parts. There’s a pretty pivotal event that takes place that I believe is around halfway through the game, and if you ended the first part there it could be pretty incredible. Though I do imagine Square will opt for at least three for more money, I wouldn’t say it’s out of the realm of possibility that there are less. I don’t expect it to be more than three parts, but who knows.

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

A remaster is a game that keeps the same system in place and the same story, but touches up on the small things including graphics.

A remake is a game built from the ground up of an older game that mostly keeps the same story and possibly even some of the same mechanics. Resident Evil 2 was an incredible remake, in my opinion. I also thought MGS for the GameCube was a great remake of the PS1 original version.

A reimagining and reboot are mostly the same thing in my personal opinion. A reimagining is basically taking an old game and re-doing most all of it. Graphics, story, and maybe even gameplay. The only thing really kept around might be the setting or concept of the game. Many consider Red Dead Redemption a reimagining of Red Dead Revolver.

And a port is of course just basically the same game ported from either a former console in a family of consoles or another console altogether. PC also counts, of course. It’s basically the same game as the version it’s being ported from with possibly changes in performance/graphics and maybe a few things added in.

In general, I agree with these explanations, although they still seem too subjective. My goal is to refine the definitions of those terms to have objective and clear delineations between those terms.

Also, everyone seems to think it will be in three parts. Why not two? They never said that it wouldn’t be two parts. There’s a pretty pivotal event that takes place that I believe is around halfway through the game, and if you ended the first part there it could be pretty incredible. Though I do imagine Square will opt for at least three for more money, I wouldn’t say it’s out of the realm of possibility that there are less. I don’t expect it to be more than three parts, but who knows.

In my first Game Talk video, I did mention the 2-part solution, though because of a few reasons, I think it's rather unlikely and even detrimental to the final product. See my extensive explanation in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: for Final Fantasy VII

The only feasible splitting point content-wise would be after Aerith's demise (rhyme not intended). However, that would negatively influence its intended impact. That loss was so profound not just because of the great storytelling, but also because the player felt the loss in gameplay.

A party member you have been raising, leveling up and gearing up suddenly and unexpectedly is gone forever. If that happens at the end of an installment, it doesn't really matter that she's gone in the next one that's not coming out for years (I'd expect a 3 years gap if there were only 2 parts). That's why I think it's important that an installment doesn't end there. Also the hatred the player feels against Sephiroth because of this will be lost when the next installment comes around.

Furthermore, neither of those 2 parts would contain a finished narrative arc, which is especially bad with a long wait time between installments.

What about other splitting points? The only 2 I can imagine are after the Temple of the Ancients when Sephiroth obtains the Black Materia. But that would be an even less satisfying end for a game in my opinion. Furthermore, the next installment will start without Aerith, since she's gone MIA already, which leads to an even less impactful death without her involvement in the first few hours of the second installment.

And what about when Sephiroth summons Meteor? A great splitting point. A narrative arc ends (The Reunion) and the characters are at their lowest point. Furthermore, the execution sequence is a superb start for a game, not only in terms of story but also in terms of gameplay. After that intro/tutorial sequence is over, the player can already pilot the Highwind and enjoy the open world!

But here's the catch: measuring story content with an any% speedrun, there's only 30% story left after Sephiroth summons Meteor. That's a big problem. And how do we fix this problem? We chop up part 1 into 2 pieces: Midgar and Reunion. That's 25%, 45% and 30%. While still not ideal, Midgar has the most potential for expansions because it is in itself an enclosed story arc.

Now we have the battle against Shinra, which changes to the Chase for the Black Caped Man (Reunion arc) after escaping Midgar. And after Sephiroth summons Meteor, the Meteor arc starts.

TL;DR: 2 parts nay, 3 parts yay! With the nice side effect of more revenue for $quare €nix.