Final Fantasy VII Remake launches 3rd March 2020 worldwide; gameplay demonstration and Tifa reveal

Someone dragged Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura from bed and flew them over to Los Angeles, as both senior figures clamoured onto the stage at Square Enix's E3 conference to lift the lid on the anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake. The most notable pieces of news concern the confirmation that the remake will indeed be split into multiple parts; the story and content of Midgar will be expanded to such an extent that the first installment of the remake will be entirely comprised of Midgar, filling up two Blu-Ray discs worth of content. Part 1 will release on 3rd March 2020 in what already looks like a packed first quarter for games.

A short trailer was shown to the crowd at the Final Fantasy VII: A Symphonic Reunion concert at Los Angeles the day prior and our reporter, Mitsuki, had the pleasure of being in the concert in person to not only enjoy all the MIDI music files being played, but also the trailer firsthand. A day later at the E3 event, Square Enix released the full extended trailer, which finally debuts a certain long awaited party member, now packing a refreshed but just as mostly faithful a design as the original.

Furthermore, a substantial gameplay preview demo build was shown and explained on stage. Here, Cloud and Barret, both armed with fresh voice actors, charge into battle in the Sector 7 Mako reactor, demonstrating a new hybrid action combat and traditional ATB system. Basic attacks with the square button will build ATB and when the bar fills, the playable character, who may be swiftly switched by the player at will, enters into Tactical Mode. In this mode, where time slows to a discernible crawl, players will enjoy a substantial window of opportunity with which to select commands from a traditional menu, usage of which depletes an ATB bar. This ranges from Potion use to Limit Breaks. Naturally, the combat will also be enhanced by the returning Materia system, though there is no word as to whether like in the original you can learn and execute certain enemy commands.

Check out FFF's Instagram while you're here! Our reporter, Mitsuki, was able to attend the concert and take pictures, solidifying the fact that she's a much more qualified individual for this position than I ever will be.

Also, Sephiroth.

 

All looks really positive! I noticed that Barret & Cloud have different Attack names - Clouds being 'Punish Mode' & Barrets being 'Overchrage', which I am guessing are the shortcuts to Limit Breaks?

Also, clearly taking a different route with scenes - No idea what was happening at the end with Aerith….

Excited for more news tonight, just hoping Eidos doesn't steal S-E's show again.

 

Ahh, you guys. To be there when the date was announced - the reaction from the crowd was awesome. When Nomura joined the stage with Kitase, I knew then we were definitely getting a small teaser. "We've been keeping this a secret!" Lol, you think?

More will be shown tonight at E3. I was a little surprised that they showed the release date to us and not during E3, but hey, no complaints here. =P

I don't really have any exciting pics to share. There were a lot of security going around telling people not to take pictures or videos. I think a very few were even escorted out (we were warned beforehand that might happen) for breaking rules.

So I only took pics at the very beginning when pics were allowed, and the very end. Nomura and Kitase were already off the stage at that point.

I really want to see Tifa tonight! And something outside of Midgar...

 

All looks really positive! I noticed that Barret & Cloud have different Attack names - Clouds being 'Punish Mode' & Barrets being 'Overchrage', which I am guessing are the shortcuts to Limit Breaks?

Also, clearly taking a different route with scenes - No idea what was happening at the end with Aerith….

Excited for more news tonight, just hoping Eidos doesn't steal S-E's show again.

The only conclusion that comes to my mind as to why she reacted that way is probably because of the presence of Sephiroth. That is what I think the black clouds is representing.

 

I am unbelievably exciteddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd!

 

I just noticed Cloud's Buster Sword has an Green Materia equipped in it. You can actually see it in the picture that Linnaete has posted. This means that all the Materias that you equip to your weapons will be visible.

 

I realise that the ‘Are we the baddies?’ moment was something very prominent in the Concert trailer, though they appear to have removed that footage for the longer E3 trailer.

We get a new Barret scene instead, so that’s great. I really like that they’ve kept the moral ambiguity in and they aren’t shying away from the terrorism angle. That’s a very important part of the Barret’s arc in particular.

Also, the ghosts are a little strange but I guess we’ll get used to them. They do remind me (and many of us) of Dementors from Harry Potter. It wouldn’t be the weirdest FF cross-over event!

It seems, however, that Cloud is plaguing Sephiroth throughout Midgar. This will be the will of Sephiroth, or spirit, rather than the Jenova-body, I presume. Only once Jenova breaks out (as in the original game) will there be a physical form of ‘Sephiroth’ which can be attacked, maybe. The rest might just be an illusion.

Who knows?

One other thing I’d like to mention is that we can see Jessie on a motorbike in the E3 trailer. This implies that there will be more than one motorbike section in this game!