Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth is now lower than a month away from launch. Lately, PSU had the privilege of attending a Rebirth Press Occasion the place we had the chance to interview Director Naoki Hamaguchi and Producer Yoshinori Kitase, who supplied further info on the method of constructing Rebirth and what goes into the artistic course of.
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PSU:
Thanks very a lot for taking day out of your schedule for this interview, and congratulations on the work you’ve completed with Ultimate Fantasy Rebirth and, in fact, Ultimate Fantasy 7 Remake. What have you ever realized from the Remake that you just’ve included into Rebirth, and what enhancements have you ever included into Half 2?
FF7 Rebirth Director: Naoki Hamaguchi
Sure, so I believe it may be mentioned, for the general Ultimate Fantasy collection as nicely, that it’s story-based, which is type of the focus of many Ultimate Fantasy collection titles and, for Remake. Upon receiving this type of optimistic suggestions from the gamers, I consider that this was an space by which we might do an ideal job.
So I really feel very assured about this space. So for Rebirth, this was, in fact, intimidating; its story and this in-depth story expertise, and type of delving additional into it, was one thing for positive that we needed to type of preserve.
I additionally knew that, uh, some gamers who performed Remake felt that the story was very deep and fulfilling. There was, maybe, some lack of freedom in regards to the decisions they might make inside the gameplay. So, taking that into consideration for Rebirth, we began to construct upon the sturdy storylines and characters additional, the type of in-depth expertise that one can have by taking part in Ultimate Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
On high of that, it contains an enormous quantity of amount aspect content material filled with selection and the type of gameplay expertise together with this extra expanded world that enables the gamers the type of freedom to decide on no matter approach they want to play the sport. And on this sense, I consider we have been capable of elevate this gameplay expertise for Rebirth.
PSU:
Followers love the unique Ultimate Fantasy 7 story. There are some moments of the story you elaborated on intimately with the Remake. Some followers felt some adjustments, for instance, the belief that Zach could also be alive. In one of many earlier trailers you confirmed, what appeared to be like an alternate state of affairs the place Tifa, Barrett, and Arieth handed away in Midgar, and we now know that some members of Avalanche have might have additionally survived.
How do you go about primarily attempting to make as many individuals blissful as attainable with regards to the hardcore followers who love the unique story a lot, whereas, with the remake, there are additionally lots of new followers who’re experiencing this story for the primary time, so they could not find out about these adjustments. How do you attempt to appease either side of fan’s sorts of situations?
Producer Yoshinori Kitase:
Okay, so, in fact, this may be mentioned additionally for gamers taking part in Ultimate Fantasy 7 for the primary time. However, for these gamers, in addition to those that have performed the unique and are type of very accustomed to that storyline. I did really feel very a lot that the gameplay mustn’t, and the expertise mustn’t really feel precisely the identical as that of the unique. And it must have its personal newness that’s distinctive to Rebirth.
Seeing that the Remake collection is a trilogy. In fact, we’ll go from the primary title, the second, after which to the third. And between the discharge of those titles, there’s that interval between them. I consider this interval and the communication throughout these intervals with the followers and gamers of this recreation is significant to the method.
In fact, after the discharge of Remake, there have been many optimistic responses, however on the identical time, as you famous, maybe additionally some voices from gamers who wished to see the sport differently, or it was not the way in which that they’d, hoped to play out.
So, in that approach, listening to these various voices feeds into this type of total dialogue that I believe could be very constructive to have in creating every of those titles. In order that type of forwards and backwards of communication that may be had with the creators and the gamers is one thing crucial and important. And I really feel that this very a lot aids within the creation course of.
PSU:
The primary recreation primarily centered on Midgard, an remoted location, whereas Rebirth is now opening it as much as an unlimited world so that you can discover. How has the group gone about making a world that’s so wealthy, like Ultimate Fantasy 7’s, and implementing sufficient content material for folks to take pleasure in going off the crushed path? What can gamers count on to have the ability to discover and do to maintain them entertained by exploring as a lot as they will on the earth?
FF7 Rebirth Director: Naoki Hamaguchi
The world map of Rebirth is constructed in a approach that has way more aspect content material than the principle story itself. And so far as retaining issues fascinating or intriguing for gamers to wish to proceed to discover, we actually needed to type of leverage the type of uniqueness of every location and actually develop on, creating both sides quest to be its personal distinctive quest.
In that sense, we’ll have mini-games which are distinctive on their very own. Or, for instance, we’ll implement some gimmick or type of technique that one would possibly want to make use of to resolve the mini-game that’s very unique to that exact mini-game. With that, we’ll additionally introduce bosses and enemies which are distinctive to a sure aspect quest.
In order that approach, we actually maintain this expertise very contemporary and new for gamers. It evokes this sense of marvel and the sense that in the event you maintain touring to a brand new space, what’s going to watch for that participant? What sort of quest might be out there there for them to discover? I believe this can be a noticeable power of Rebirth.
Additional increasing on that side of the customers venturing out to numerous areas inside the world map, you’ll encounter Chocobos with distinct traits, like a capability. So, for instance, within the Grasslands, we’ll have extra commonplace Chocobos that enable gamers to experience and journey on them for quicker motion.
However in one other area, you would possibly discover a Chocobo, like a mountain Chocobo, that may scale cliffs. There are additionally Chocobo that may fly and can be utilized to journey by means of the oceans and seas. There are simply varied new modes of exploration that the participant can use. Together with that, these distinctive and various mini-games and aspect content material maintain including to this new feeling and marvel of exploration.
PSU:
Within the demo that i performed there are components within the the sport the place you’ll have conversations that characters the place you get to pick out varied dialog choices. I do know relying on the way you reply, it impacts your relationship with that character.
Do these moments influence the principle story because it goes alongside, or is that this primarily extra for website content material and character relationship constructing reasonably than affecting the principle state of affairs?
FF7 Rebirth Director: Naoki Hamaguchi
Okay. So, concerning the type of character parameters. One is affinity, which offers with a type of Cloud, and one other is character and the affinity between these two. For instance, within the Grasslands space, there’s a card game-centered quest that Cloud and Tifa will tackle. By undertaking this quest, you’ll be able to increase the affinity between these two characters, which primarily impacts the type of gold saucer date scene within the recreation.
The opposite character parameter is known as Celebration Stage. This refers back to the bond inside the total occasion. That is elevated by the characters leveling up all through the sport. There’s a character ability tree inside Rebirth. Leveling up the characters, there’s a type of development side that will increase, and you may study new synergy assaults and synergy instructions.
PSU
Summons have been a staple of Ultimate Fantasy for the reason that starting. The Remake launched a few summons that weren’t within the unique with Carbuncle and Cactar. We all know Rebirth is introducing a model new summon for the primary time we’ve ever seen, however some summons are additionally out there for pre-order solely, and you must have the save file from Remake to unlock, corresponding to Leviathan.
The primary a part of this query is, will you be capable to get these summons within the recreation in the event you don’t pre-order the sport or in the event you don’t have the save file from the unique Remake?
The second query is, what goes into your determination of what summons to introduce into the sport? Is it one thing you are feeling must be within the recreation, a fan favourite determination, or one thing you brainstorm?
A 3rd occasion of that query, will you convey again a number of the summons launched in Ultimate Fantasy 7, corresponding to Hades and the Knights of the Spherical?
FF7 Rebirth Director: Naoki Hamaguchi
Okay. So, concerning your first query about whether or not you’ll be able to retrieve these summons which are solely presently out there by means of pre-order Save information.
Yeah, so each, so for each the pre-order bonus and the save knowledge file bonus. Proper now, these are the one methods by which gamers can take possession of these summons. We want to see the way it performs out in gamers’ suggestions.
Concerning what goes into deciding which summons make it within the recreation. We do think about the unique Ultimate Fantasy 7 title and the way and which summons are current there. So, we attempt to persist with how a summon might have been acquired within the unique Ultimate Fantasy 7. We attempt to make it shut in Rebirth to offer a way of nostalgia in taking part in the sport. So that is one thing we do take into accout, however we additionally wish to introduce new summons for gamers to check out.
Now we have gone into deep discussions to find out Which type of summons could be nice to incorporate within the recreation.
Answering your third query of whether or not sure summons are going to come back again or be launched once more, that is one thing that we would like gamers to attend in anticipation to see whether or not this might be realized. I stay up for gamers taking part in and marvel if their favourite summons will return.
PSU want to thank Naoki Hamaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase, together with the remainder of the workers and the Sq. Enix PR group Chad Conceimo, Kyle Prahl, and Jordan Aslett.
