Yoshinori Kitase on the highs and lows of creating the timeless PlayStation classic

cold_spirit

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Alex T
Final Fantasy VII: Yoshinori Kitase on the highs and lows of creating the timeless PlayStation classic

New interview to coincide with FFVII's PS Now release. A tidbit, Vincent is Kitase's favorite character. No wonder Vincent got his own game.

Yoshinori Kitase said:
My personal favorite is Vincent Valentine. He’s an optional party member – so if you’re playing the game for the first time on PS Now, make sure you thoroughly explore a certain mansion… that’s all I’ll say.

I like the character because he’s the kind of dark hero who would typically appear in horror movies, and the type of character that did not exist in the Final Fantasy games before that point.


This is a nice story. It's wild how distant Japanese devs could be from western impressions and still make hits. Nowadays, JRPGs rely on the western market to survive.

Yoshinori Kitase said:
Fortunately, Final Fantasy VII was a hit. From the sales data, I could see it was selling well to people all over the world – but back then we didn’t really have the opportunity to interact with our global fans, so I didn’t really have a sense of just how well-received it was.

I only really understood five years later in 2002, when we released Final Fantasy X on PlayStation 2.

I went on a promotional tour of Europe and North America for the first time – it was the first chance I’d ever had to meet with international fans and many of them brought their copies of Final Fantasy VII for me to sign. That’s when I really felt the level of our success for the first time – it was very memorable to say the least.
 
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I find him quite an interesting character but I don't respect him the way I do Barret. If he were in my real life I'd want to slap him. I wouldn't like him at all.
I mean, one of the things I have always loved about the FFVII protagonists is how they're all deeply flawed, have some bad values, and often don't act like good people. But they keep trying.
 

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
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Ite
I find him quite an interesting character but I don't respect him the way I do Barret. If he were in my real life I'd want to slap him. I wouldn't like him at all.
I mean, one of the things I have always loved about the FFVII protagonists is how they're all deeply flawed, have some bad values, and often don't act like good people. But they keep trying.

Encapsulated perfectly with Cid. In peace time, I would want nothing at all to do with him. Even though two other party members literally betray us, he seems like the odd man out… But this isn’t peace time is it? The cast members of FFVII are strange bedfellows indeed.
 
Yes, I was thinking particularly of Cid. But I find the Cids of real life easier to deal with than the Vincents. You can stand up to a Cid and fight him. Vincent's a sort of blancmange; if you tell him he's an awful person, he'll just agree with you and go on sitting in his corner all depressed and self-absorbed.
 

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
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Ody
Bincent lives and dies on looking cool. He's nowhere near as interesting as Barret or Cid, but he's a handsome bishi with a DARK PAST, which makes him more appealing to a wide audience. I enjoy him too lol. He's just a really nothing character in the original game, all of his story stuff was left on the chopping block.
 

Eerie

Fire and Blood
Hopping on this thread because a French girl bought this book and is translating parts of this:


These interviews were conducted when Remake was being made, so the memories of the devs was already fading away ;) but to me it's Sakaguchi's note that he felt that even if the message about death that he wanted to convey was very important to him, he feels that he was too immature to carry it.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
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Smooth Criminal
I'm pretty certain it'll be tattered, however he'll have the pristine front edges of his front collar like in AC. He doesn't get his total tattered edge look until post-AC.

Real question is, will his right arm be fully sleeved or exposed like in the original FFVII. I'm inclined to think it won't be exposed given how it's been shown, even in BC. But they may throw a curveball and give his inner leather outfit a makeover more evocative of his OG outfit.
 
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