Finally! Final Fantasy VII Remake Announced at E3 2019
E3 2019 this past week was full of exciting announcements, but none more exciting to the Welch household than the release date of the Final Fantasy VII remake. With an official trailer and gameplay, excitement couldn’t even begin to convey the emotions I felt.
Humans are complex creatures, but I’m going to try to convey my initial feelings and concerns now that I am not being hypnotized by impressive graphics and “Somersaults.”
More Game
1997’s Final Fantasy VII has packed a lot of story in those polygonal 3D models. With eleven playable characters and plenty more nonplayable ones, there was only so much that Square Enix could do with a text box. Luckily this remake will include more character development, where characters like Jessie have more dialogue in the clips that we saw at E3 than she did in the entire original game. With more character and story development, we aren’t sure when the game will be available in all of its entirety.
Multiple Installments
Four years since the original announcement at 2015’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the remake was announced to begin releasing March 2020. I say “begin releasing” because FFVII will actually be split across multiple releases. Fans of the series and of Tetsuya Nomura are used to waiting, and we’ve gotten very good at it, but I’m still slightly disappointed that this game won’t be released as complete. At this point, we only have the release date for the first game. No word yet as to when the second game will be announced.
Taking a Turn from Turn-based
I know that most are excited for the change from the traditional turn-based fighting that Final Fantasy VII is known for, but I am still not used to the idea. Similar to Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3, the battle system in FFVII will be a combination of real-time action and strategy-based combat. You will still be able to combine magical attacks and limit breaks, as time slows down so you can command each character. This is still however in “real time” while you can control multiple characters and move around freely, versus the original game that gave you more time to direct each character.
Our Favorite Characters Return
The characters of Final Fantasy VII have always been my favorite aspect of the game. I’ve participated in poll after poll to determine who was the best character of the game. It was so exciting to catch a glimpse of my favorites, including Cloud, Aerith, and most of all - Tifa.
TIFA
One of the biggest introductions for me, and understandably the rest of the universe, had to be Tifa. It is obvious that the character designers understood how important of a character Tifa Lockhart is to their fans. High-quality images were released of major characters in the story, and in these we see the dedication that the designers put into our favorites. Tifa has an updated look to her primary weapons, the gauntlets. A closer look shows the Chocobo and Bomb charms on her bracelets, and Nordic symbols carved into the gauntlets themselves. Square Enix gives us some gameplay of her fighting style, brandishing her signature “Somersault.” Looks like my girl is going to be in my party any chance I get!
Hello, Hot Boi.
Last but not least, we see everyone’s favorite pretty boy villain, Sephiroth. In the trailer a Sephiroth clone taunting Cloud, and the internet took a collective scream. Sephiroth has always been an interesting character for me. He exuded coolness during a time when being macho was all the rage. Out of what Square Enix brought with them to E3, we didn’t see much of what he can do in this first preview, however, I can’t wait to see more of his character design and gameplay once the game is released!