Final Fantasy VII Opening Remade in the Unreal Engine

[Steve-O]

Despite being one of the most requested remakes of all time, Square Enix have repeatedly denied rumors that Final Fantasy VII will be remade, recently saying that would be “a lot more challenging” than developing a new game. But if you’re desperate to see the game in a higher res, fans have created a playable demo of the opening to FF VII built on the Unreal Engine.


The demo showcases real-time 3D environments and free camera control, so isn’t a complete package. To see the remake in action, you can watch the video below, or even download the demo for Windows – but act fast, Square Enix will likely force the developers to take down the video, and stop production:

just a thing i found this morning.. i'll link you the site if you fancy downloading

Requirements:


Platform: XP, Vista, W7
Core Processor: 2.0 GHZ
System RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: NVIDEA GeForce 6600+, ATI X700+
File Size: 200 MB

download: http://ff7remake.hostoi.com/index2.html

 

[Sultan]

This gives me an idea. I'd totally play a VII remake if it were made like Fallout 3. Heck, most of the environments have that Post-Apocalyptic vibe. Or maybe a blend of fast paced turn based combat (no random encounters thank you) mixed with a first person/switch to third person navigation. And visually (though the animation is nearly non existent) this is more than adequate. Hate to sound like a broken record, but Square -does not- need to push their visuals to the point where it's obnoxiously overblown. They're already using the Unreal Engine with another game, why not this remake?

 

[Mr. Gorilla]

This gives me an idea. I'd totally play a VII remake if it were made like Fallout 3.

Seeing as Fallout 3 was complete shit (As Bethesda RPGs generally are), I doubt Square-Enix would want to ruin their reputation among expert circles more than they already have by emulating the work of the company that is single-handedly killing the role-playing genre, aesthetically or mechanically. Oh, who am I kidding; of course they would. They don't care about quality anymore.

As for a "post-apocalyptic" feel, no; an FFVII remake, if anything, should look to critically acclaimed works of dystopian futurism/cyberpunk for aesthetic inspiration, such as Dark City and the Deus Ex series (After all, the game is pretty much Blade Runner 2: Electric Boogaloo as it is).

It would be smart for Square-Enix to use a licensed engine instead of stupidly developing all of their games from scratch (I blame much of the recent trouble the FF series has had on Square's insistence on dicking around with their own internally-developed engines).

Random battles and battle screen transitions need to go; what they need to do is improve upon Final Fantasy XII's system, in addition to looking to Dragon Age: Origins as an example.

Battles should have a basic attack command that allows the player-controlled character to attack enemies and chain up attack combos while doing so (They should look to action titles such as God of War and Devil May Cry for inspiration), with A.I. controlled characters operating based on an A.I. setup the player assigns before battle (Like Dragon Age: Origins and FFXII; in addition, players could pause the game and assign new commands and switch between player-controlled characters at any time).

Each spell/ability would have a cast-time and cooldown. Limit breaks would function pretty much identically to how they did in the original game.

 

[Lirael]

I think Tifa's boobs are even bigger than usual in this video... We're talking Lara Croft big.

Anyway! I'm not really a fan of the first person element. I can see why the developers may want to do this - it's easier - but I'd rather play Sqaure's original. Nevertheless, their work is pretty impressive.

In terms of gameplay, if Square were to remake FFVII, I'd like to see the battle system in X again. That was by far my favourite system...I loved being given the time to plan and manipulate the order of turns; the Sphere Grid was a little tricky at first, but it felt solid once you understood its mechanics.

Mr. Gorilla, I agree that they need to improve on the system in XII insofar as they should keep the battles in the field; random encounters do get incredibly irritating when you're trying to walk somewhere and are at a reasonable/high level.

 

[Mr. Gorilla]

They also need to get Vangelis involved with the remake (Well, if they had the budget, of course). Nobuo's great and all, but based on the sound of all of his recent work, I fear if they got him involved again and no one else the whole thing would have a fully orchestral and/or rock sound and not feel right at all, which was a major problem with Advent Children. It needs an electronic, futuristic sound to it, as the original had, to complement the game's themes of technology vs. nature, the misuse of genetic engineering and corporatism.

And as far as atmosphere and aesthetics go, they need to avoid the whole animu-loving weaboo feel the compilation (And many other recent Final Fantasy products) have been going for. If it's not going to be realistic and instead have a stylized anime feel, at least model your visuals and tone after something respectable, like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion.

And, again, Deus Ex, Deus Ex, Deus Ex. The world of Human Revolution is an especially nice place to look for inspiration in creating Midgar and the other major towns of FFVII. Sans all of the gold colouring. Except for the Gold Saucer, of course.

 

[Leon1242]

I liked it until I saw the fight at the train. It just looks clunky and off to me.

 

[Grimer]

not bad for a fan made demo. could have been a little more animated though.

 

[The Witch]

Eh, it's okay. :/

The graphics are all right, too, I suppose. But the battle looked strange.

I guess I was just thrown off by the fact that it didn't stick to the original opening. I'm the kind of fan that gets disappointed when something I like has the word "remake" in it and it turns out to just be some random inspiration and usage of the cast but told differently. To me, that's not a remake. It's a reboot. and I am not the type of fan that appreciates the idea of a VII reboot. ... just how I am.

But it was quite good, I've seen a few of these sorts of things but this looked well made.

 

[greenyxi]

I'm not a fan to be honest. I mean, it obviously took a lot of effort to make, but it feels too fan-made (as it should, but still...).
Making it all 1st person is terrible. I've never been a fan of 1st person though...the controls for basic movement always seem so clunky and off.
The battle at the start doesn't show any options to choose from; was this intentional?

I dunno...it just doesn't feel right to me in general

Mr. Gorilla: I love random battles. They were one of the things that made the good FF games, along with the battle transitions. I mean, FF12 lost some of its FF feel when it removed those things

 

[OmniWrench 8000]

Okay fan-made demo. Didn't really have that FF VII vibe I was hoping for.