Final Fantasy VII Demake Scales Cloud Down to 8 Bits

[Cognimancer]

Final Fantasy VII Demake Scales Cloud Down to 8 Bits

Final Fantasy VII had 32 whole bits at its disposal. How well does it hold up with a quarter of that processing power?

When Final Fantasy made the jump to 3D in its seventh installment, it brought some pretty substantial changes to a formula that had worked well for the previous six games. Unsurprisingly, somebody had the idea to overhaul Final Fantasy VII to an oldschool 8-bit format. The bad news is that this happened a long time ago, and wasn't very good - bootleggers released a Final Fantasy VII demake on an unlicensed Famicom cartridge in China, but the balance was severely off and some critical scenes didn't make it in. A more recent effort has saved the project, though, overhauling the original bootleg into a respectable 8-bit adventure.

ROM hacker Lugia2009 spent four years rebuilding the Final Fantasy VII Famicom bootleg from the ground up. While the original demake re-used many art assets from Final Fantasy III, Lugia created new pixel illustrations based off of the PlayStation game's renders. The new version includes a more complete story, updated music and art, and a slew of other improvements.

Lugia has now finished the new and improved version [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1657/] of this eight year old demake of a 16 year old game. He's just getting warmed up, though: his next project is an overhaul of a NES bootleg of Pokemon Yellow, and he's got plans to touch up a NES bootleg of Resident Evil.

Source: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-vii-nes-restoration-sees-release-265640.phtml]

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[Tanis]

Not a fan of FF7, but I kind of like the idea of 'demakes'.

I'd love to see some of the newer, AAA types, get made in the old SNES style of gaming.

A DMC side scroller or whatever.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

Totally looks better than the real version does these days.
Final Fantasy shouldn't have jumped on the 3D train so early. I through VI are still all right to look at, but VII looks like junk, and VIII is hardly better. IX's all right, though.

OT: 4 years of work? That's a ridiculous amount of commitment. I respect that on so many levels, but on a few others, I'm just like 'what else could you have been doing with that time?'

 

[Fox12]

...someone spent 4 years making a classic game shittier?

And why is Meg Ryan standing at the top of the screen?

 

[AldUK]

Honestly, I would of preferred 16-bit. 8-bit feels too dated for me, but Snes is where it's at.

 

[vagabondwillsmile]

Honestly, I would of preferred 16-bit. 8-bit feels too dated for me, but Snes is where it's at.

I was thinking exactly the same thing as a read the article. Though, this is a massive undertaking with just one guy on the project. Doing a 16 bit built SNES style build would be extremely daunting. As much as I would love an SNES do-up, I don't want to take anything away from this guy's accomplishment and dedication.

 

[loa]

Urgh, too much noise in that screenshot.
I wish whoever did this took some clues from modern pixel art.
Retro doesn't mean having to copy all the mistakes from yesteryear when people were still pioneering the medium.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

So would anyone like to tell me which nes emulator would work best on this hack? Or if I need one at all?

This being asked from someone who owns 7 of course. Or do I need to own the bootleg cart for it to be moral?

 

[Scrythe]

At some point in early development, didn't FF7 start out 16-bit? I could have sworn I read that somewhere.

 

[Yopaz]

Totally looks better than the real version does these days.
Final Fantasy shouldn't have jumped on the 3D train so early. I through VI are still all right to look at, but VII looks like junk, and VIII is hardly better. IX's all right, though.

OT: 4 years of work? That's a ridiculous amount of commitment. I respect that on so many levels, but on a few others, I'm just like 'what else could you have been doing with that time?'

Final Fantasy VII strikes me as a 2D game trying to look 3D and the result is... not very good... if they had been just a little more patient to make a 3D game and rather tried making a great 2D game that could have managed to look good even today.

 

[Neverhoodian]

...someone spent 4 years making a classic game shittier?

And why is Meg Ryan standing at the top of the screen?

I know, right? Tidus isn't a Final Fantasy VII character.

/Spoonyjoke

Anyone that's interested in this better grab the download while they still can. Squeenix has a notorious track record for shutting down fan projects like this.

 

[Battenberg]

I haven't played FF7 yet (heresy I know) because I've been put off by how aged it looks these days, I might just have to give it a go now though as I do love the 8/16 bit look.

 

[rbstewart7263]

anyone know where to get the original? Ive got the hack but without the original to download????

 

[james.sponge]

I haven't played FF7 yet (heresy I know) because I've been put off by how aged it looks these days, I might just have to give it a go now though as I do love the 8/16 bit look.

I don't think you should play the game at this stage. One of the main reasons why FF7 was perceived as phenomenal was its 'spectacular' FMVs and larger than life battles in which you could summon a dragon that destroys half of the planet just kill some harmless bugs that live in the forest and mind their own business. Aside from that the game has nothing to offer the story is dull, the pacing is bad and grind is horrible. Playing 8bit version will only be chore unless you really enjoy NES nostalgia.

 

[bluegate]

Cool and all but, a NES demake of Pokemon Yellow? Why? The original pokemon Yellow wasn't that much above NES level to begin with. I see the point in scaling down a 'big' game to nes format, sure, but scaling down a gameboy game? That's just bonkers.

 

[Foolery]

At some point in early development, didn't FF7 start out 16-bit? I could have sworn I read that somewhere.

Kinda. The game was originally intended for release on the SNES, but was moved to the Nintendo 64. However, since the Nintendo 64's cartridges lacked the required storage capacity, Square decided to release the game for the PlayStation instead because of the disc format.

 

[Reed Spacer]

...so now Cloud really is a two-dimensional character?

(I kid, I kid...)

 

[Roxas1359]

Kinda. The game was originally intended for release on the SNES, but was moved to the Nintendo 64. However, since the Nintendo 64's cartridges lacked the required storage capacity, Square decided to release the game for the PlayStation instead because of the disc format.

Not to mention the costs of a single cartridge when compared to that of a disc. It's no wonder Square jumped to the PS1 when it did, because the price of those N64 cartridges was ridiculous.

OT: Hm, well this seems interesting, something I should probably check out sometime.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

It seems nice and I'll end up giving it a go at some stage but I'm going to have agree with it probably would look more a bit better in 16 bit rather than 8. In screenshots it looks a bit lacking. That said it is a fan project and it looks good given the time and resources put in.

 

[Akytalusia]

i wanted to test this hack out, and i've come to report that there's some critical information missing somewhere. after a great deal of effort, i managed to get an original copy of the game to work, i was also able to get the original translation to work, but i was unable to ever get this new advent translation to work. it just comes up with a black screen or a mapper error.
so i've tried everything i can think of and it's a no go. if anyone manages to get it to work, let me know. i'd love to try it.