Final Fantasy VII Remake To Be Created With Unreal Engine 4

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Final Fantasy VII Remake To Be Created With Unreal Engine 4


Things are about to get unreal.

Over the weekend, Square Enix revealed a trailer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165330-Final-Fantasy-7-Remake-PlayStation-Experience-15-Trailer#&gid=gallery_5171&pid=1] for the Final Fantasy VII remake. It has since been confirmed that the game will be created with Unreal Engine 4.

"We realize how special Final Fantasy VII is to fans, and we place our trust in Unreal Engine 4 technology and tools to help deliver this long-awaited remake, crafted for modern platforms," Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase said in a statement posted on IGN [http://au.ign.com/articles/2015/12/07/final-fantasy-7-remake-being-created-with-unreal-engine-4], while Epic Japan's Taka Kawasaki said "We're humbled that Square Enix has chosen Unreal Engine 4 to recreate one of the world's most beloved video games of all time. It is a joy to work with the talented developers behind the franchise, and this marks an unforgettable moment in Unreal Engine history."

According to Square, the Final Fantasy VII remake will be "told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience," later telling Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/sounds-like-the-final-fantasy-vii-remake-will-be-episod-1746564216] that "Each entry will have its own unique story. As a gaming experience, each entry will have the volume of content equal to a full-sized game."

[gallery=5171]

The Final Fantasy VII remake stated [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14114-Final-Fantasy-VII-Remake] "We are bringing dramatic changes to the Final Fantasy VII Remake," but that the game would still be recognizable to fans.




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[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Things are about to get unreal.

Spoiler: *sigh*

OT: not sure how I feel about the multi-part series yet, it entirely depends on how they "break it down" and/or what they add to it, does each "part" take a full game lengths worth? or is it just comfortably fitting what you can on each disk?

 

[ShakerSilver]

Reposting my response from another thread about the game being episodic

After reading the neofag interview... I'm still not convinced.

In terms of size, FFVII was big, but note the "was". It was big for a game on the PS1 and needed 3 discs back then - although that may have simply been due to all the cutscenes. Nowadays though it's not like the game wouldn't fit on a 40GB single-sided or even a 80GB double-sided Blu-Ray, even with the fancy graphics. Just look at MGSV and Witcher 3: two huge-ass games that managed to fit and have some of the best graphics of this gen.

Now, as for development time, I don't completely disagree here. It makes sense that if they simply develop the game in chunks then they'd be able to release it steadily rather than waiting until it was all done. However, I'm not sure why this is really an issue. I mean would people be too impatient or distracted that they couldn't wait a year or two after its announcement for its release? They could have always pushed its announcement further to keep the hype strong when it released (and hope Kotaku doesn't catch wind of it and leaks it).

The biggest issue I think that comes with the remake, and the reason why I believe they have to make it episodically is due to what SE is currently producing. Sure, if they chose to make this one big release, development would drag on for a long time and they would be spending lots of money without seeing any return from it - that's what happens when you make big games. This is why, as a big publisher, you make other smaller games more frequently to give you the money you need to develop your larger projects. However, SE is already has a big game in development hell - FFXV. Making two big games at the same time would be ridiculous, even for a big company like SE.

Which brings us to why its really episodic - they're using the FFVII Remake to fund FFXV's development. Since XV is proving to such an investment for SE, they need an easy way to get money. So why not make episodic installments to remake a beloved classic that fans will no doubt eat up? Making it episodic means they'll get money more frequently, giving them a steadier flow of funds. Now, this isn't really a bad idea - in fact it's a very smart business decision, and may provide us with FFXV faster. The real issue though is that this FFVII Remake may not turn out to be quite big remake that a lot of fans wanted - instead, it's a chopped up Remake with some features like the overworld probably cut out to make sure they can get it out in a "timely manner". This isn't even getting to things like pricing, which could go horribly wrong in a lot of ways.

Of course, this is mostly conjecture, but it would make a lot of sense for them to do this. I never really thought that SE would make really give us complete a FFVII remake (remember, this isn't Square anymore, it's Square Enix) and this just confirmed my thoughts.

Edit: I should also note that the fact that they're outsourcing the cutscenes and licensing another engine instead of using their same in-house engine for FFXV, it really helps support the notion that this Remake is just a smaller, cheaper production being made to support FFXV's development.

 

[dragongit]

Unreal? hmmm... odd since they had all that hullabaloo about the Luminous engine. I suppose looking at it closer, FF7 does have a different style compared to FF15. Not like, in art direction, but in the way things are lit and move. Does that mean FF15 has a bit more effort put into it? It's focused on by the core team and uses their in house engine. Where as FF7 Remake is using CyberConnect2 and Unreal.

 

[Shadefyre]

It's a shame that it'll likely have that sort of Unreal engine ugliness to the textures. I've never been able to place exactly what it is I don't like, but it's something that's bothered me with both Unreal 3 and Unreal 4. Which is not to say that all Unreal games look bad, but a lot of them, especially the lower budget ones. And it's starting to sound like that's exactly what this is, a small budget reboot intended to make a huge profit on fan nostalgia and excitement alone.

 

[Steven Bogos]

At this point, I would be very surprised if this wasnt also coming to PC. Right from the start, it's been ambiguous (Coming FIRST to PS4...) and now that it has been revealed it's running on unreal... it would be stupid for Square to not release a PC port.

 

[CaitSeith]

"Each entry will have its own unique story. As a gaming experience, each entry will have the volume of content equal to a full-sized game."

I have a bad feeling about this. "Full-sized" is a really vague unit of measure.

 

[Kameburger]

Unreal is a tested engine, so if this means it'll run at 60 on console I double support it. Regarding the episodes, you know what I'm good with a game that took close to 50 hours being split up into like 3 15 hour parts... Honestly I'm completely fine with that. I think people need to stop expecting the impossible from developers, especially when I don't see any evidence that points to them not doing right by the fans.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Each part will be a full-game's worth of content, huh? I wonder how they're measuring that. What makes up a full-game's worth? Six hours? Ten? Twenty? The original game took about forty hours for the average player--more if you wanted to do everything. So if we're going by that, then holy cow, what on Earth are they going to add in?
I doubt it will be forty hours, but still...

Anyway, I'm kind of excited to see what they'll be adding in, but like many others, I'm kind of dreading it too. VII's universe has become a bit...cluttered with all the spin offs, sequels, and prequels. Now, if they're just going to have little nods to that stuff--perhaps a character makes a cameo, or you can find notes/journals talking about it--then I'm okay with it. But if we're going to start having entire new sidequests, or even the main quest, involving this new stuff to the point where it brutally changes the game's story, then I won't be pleased I fear.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Another unfinished game from Square-Enix, huh? Fist they announce that Hitman will basically ship unfinished and now this? These people are idiots. They think that because of episodic games like Life is Strange and the success that Telltale games have had that they can just chop up every game into bits and pieces and that's how they want to sell it? This is of course the next step for the gaming industry. Beyond DLC. If they succeed you can bet that EA and Ubisoft (among others) will do the same. Ubisoft is probably dying to sell you Assassin's Creed one sequence at a time.

So how about this time you don't fall for it before it's too late? Is that too much to ask, gamers?

 

[josemlopes]

but a lot of them, especially the lower budget ones.

There is your problem, an engine can certainly have a particular look to it but its still very versatile if the team knows what is doing. Unreal 4 has the problem of everything looking too shiny with lots of bloom and soft reflection, something that can be toned down but most often then not isnt in indie games.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Whenever I read 'episodic', I have flashbacks to Telltale games. As long as they don't charge full price for each episode, I don't think people will have that many complaints.

 

[anthony87]

Whenever I read 'episodic', I have flashbacks to Telltale games. As long as they don't charge full price for each episode, I don't think people will have that many complaints.

I don't get why people are immediately jumping to the term "episodic" though. What they've said is "multi-part" which makes me think more along the lines of something like Mass Effect.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Huh... Well, on one hand, that should reduce development time since the Unreal Engine is very user friendly and offers tons of tools to speed up various processes. The material creator is insane, the new node based animation manager can be very helpful and overall prop managing has always been very solid.

On the other hand... This is gonna be a ***** to optimize. Their previous engines were made for specific games, The Unreal Engine was made to be an all-rounder. Also, we're gonna see more of 'Unreal specific' bugs and glitches.

Remember, the last time Squenix used the unreal Engine (The Last Remnant), the first release was a bloody mess, we had to wait for the PC-port to get something decent.

 

[Auron225]

Whenever I read 'episodic', I have flashbacks to Telltale games. As long as they don't charge full price for each episode, I don't think people will have that many complaints.

I don't get why people are immediately jumping to the term "episodic" though. What they've said is "multi-part" which makes me think more along the lines of something like Mass Effect.

I'm not sure if you meant for that to sound better than the idea of episodic... it doesn't in any case. Instead of releasing the game in episodes (where we can at least hope to pay normal price for a season pass and just download them as they come after), they're gonna split the game up into a trilogy and charge full price for all of them (since each one has the content of a "full game")? I'll take episodic over that.

 

[anthony87]

Whenever I read 'episodic', I have flashbacks to Telltale games. As long as they don't charge full price for each episode, I don't think people will have that many complaints.

I don't get why people are immediately jumping to the term "episodic" though. What they've said is "multi-part" which makes me think more along the lines of something like Mass Effect.

I'm not sure if you meant for that to sound better than the idea of episodic... it doesn't in any case. Instead of releasing the game in episodes (where we can at least hope to pay normal price for a season pass and just download them as they come after), they're gonna split the game up into a trilogy and charge full price for all of them (since each one has the content of a "full game")? I'll take episodic over that.

So you'd be happy to pay for....what? 20 episodes? 30? Don't forget that FF games tend to be pretty long, the episodic format just wouldn't work for a game this size.

 

[Buffoon1980]

neofag

Really? Proud of yourself for that little bon mot? Sigh.

 

[Auron225]

So you'd be happy to pay for....what? 20 episodes? 30? Don't forget that FF games tend to be pretty long, the episodic format just wouldn't work for a game this size.

Certainly not, but I doubt they'd even consider splitting it up into 30 separate episodes. Probably more like 6, at most. That's still not ideal (since I agree that episodes wouldn't suit a JRPG), but SE would have a harder time charging full retail price for individual episodes of a game than they would of seperate games in a trilogy. In the end, I'd rather only pay like ?40 for the game (even if I have to wait for episodes) than ?30 each for 3-4 games which should all really be one game.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I know everybody wants to talk about the content and the engine and whatnot, but I keep wondering . . . Does anybody else get "Blade" vibes from Barrett now?