2020
30 Apri/ابريل 2020
FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Producer Promises He's Not drastically changing the story
Kitase يصرح انه تحدث مع المخرج Nomura أن جماهير اللعبة الأصلية تتوقع زيارة مشاهد و اماكن معروفة من جديد لذا لدينا شعور قوي بعدم الأبتعاد عن رغبتهم هذه فلذلك لن نغير القصة لشيء مختلف تماما عن اللعبة الأصلية رغم كونها Remake لكنها تظل FF7 بالنهاية.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s producer, Yoshinori Kitase, has promised that the team has no intention of making any drastic changes to the original game’s story in subsequent games.
Talking as part of an interview for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Ultimania book (translated by
Aitaikuji), Kitase said “I’ve talked about this extensively with [co-director Tetsuya] Nomura, but I’m sure fans of the original are expecting to revisit familiar locations and scenes, so we have strong feelings to not stray away from that.”
“From here on out, we’re not drastically changing the story and making it into something completely different than the original,” he added. “Even though it’s a Remake, please assume that FF7 will still be FF7 as usual.”
Following on from this, story and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima said “For me, I create scenarios that follow the general flow of the original story but with the assumption that the way things are presented or how events occur might be slightly different.”
المصدر IGN
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30 May/مايو 2020
Square Enix Is Pleased With Final Fantasy VII Remake Sales, Has Initiatives To Grow It Further
رئيس الشركة يوسكي ماتسودا صرح انهم سعداء برقم مبيعات FFVII Remake رغم ظروف الوباء.
Square Enix has commented on the sales of Final Fantasy VII Remake in a recent financial result briefing saying they are pleased with it.
Final Fantasy VII Remake sold more than 3.5 million copies in three days of its launch. Its launch was impacted by COVID-19 pandemic which means Square Enix had to ship fewer copies to stores which impacted the sales of the physical copy. This was overcome thanks to the increase in digital sales.
Square Enix CEO Yusuke Matsuda recently
answered some questions regarding the sales of Final Fantasy VII Remake and what they plan to do with it in the future.
“We are pleased that we were able to top 3.5 million units given that we chose to produce and ship fewer physical disks due to the impact that we foresaw from the coronavirus outbreak, ” said Yusuke Matsuda.
“Disk sales were lower than we had initially anticipated, but growth in digital sales increased their percentage of the whole, which we expect to lead to a better gross margin.”
المصدر Twisted Voxel
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6
July/يوليو 2020
Producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi talk about bringing Cloud Strife and his Avalanche allies to life for a new generation of gamers.
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This game has a few major departures from the original. How did you decide what areas and characters should be expanded upon and what moments should stay the same?
Naoki Hamaguchi: There are many aspects that are somewhat departures from the original, but we aimed to deliver a game experience that players would find “familiar yet new” rather than "completely new." We wanted to not have to cut away from the characters as much as in the original game, where you would really be traversing across fixed screens, rather than areas. By filling in these gaps, and making the traversal more realistic, we really wanted to create a deeper level of immersion, and of course that gives us more time and moments with the characters.
“Paying homage to the source material” served as a basis, but the original game is over 20 years old and the way in which many aspects were depicted back then could seem either outdated or unsuitable for this day and age. As such, there are many locations in which we challenged ourselves to largely “remake” the presentation while maintaining the essence of the original. This includes Wall Market, the Train Graveyard, and the Sector 7 Pillar; we took areas that could not be fully expressed back then and focused on reimagining those locations.
Are there any sections of the original that were deemed “sacred” and not subject to change?
Yoshinori Kitase: We didn’t lay out any rules in particular, but maintaining “elements that remain in the memories of our fans” is an understanding shared among the entire team that worked on the game.
The Honeybee Inn section of the game has been lauded for how it was handled. Was this a particularly challenging subject to approach given cultural differences between the late 1990s and today? How did you approach updating this section of the game?
Hamaguchi: From an ethical perspective, it’s true that we need to be more mindful in our portrayal compared to the time of the original release. Therefore, we decided to largely reimagine the events that unfold throughout Wall Market, including Honeybee Inn. We felt, let’s make it highly entertaining and increase the showbiz aspect of the setting. The French Moulin Rouge and Japanese burlesques served as reference material as we worked to enhance the Honeybee Inn through the dance battle. In essence, we’re paying homage to the enchantment of Wall Market, so I believe we were able to make the area feel familiar yet new, rather than a departure from the source material.
Sephiroth has a significantly expanded role in the Midgar section of the narrative. Why did you decide to give him more screen time earlier on than in the original?
Kitase: It goes without saying that nobody knew how the
FFVII story would unfold at the time of the original release. In order to heighten the threat of Sephiroth, the antagonist, we made a conscious decision to not show Sephiroth toward the first half of the game. This approach is similar to the storytelling found in mystery novels seeking out the culprit, and it’s also a production approach taken by the movie
Jaws to heighten the looming threat. However, with
FFVII Remake, we knew that many fans were already familiar with Sephiroth and we determined the same approach to production wouldn’t be as meaningful. Instead, we wanted to make it clear that his presence as a source of threat is one that dominates throughout the
Remake project, and landed on the direction of having him appear from the beginning in a manner that would leave a lasting impression.
Red XIII isn’t a playable character in this game. Why was that decision made?
Hamaguchi: Red XIII appears toward the latter half of the story, so we felt there was insufficient time to really develop his character in a way that players would fully enjoy playing as him in this game. That said, I do feel it was extremely important to build and establish the relationship between Cloud, the crew and Red XIII when considering future developments [in the story]. So, from the early stages, we had determined to use him as a starting point in the level design to complete the area around Hojo’s research lab. That location appears toward the end of this game. For those who felt disappointed about Red XIII not being playable in this installment, it would make me happy if you look forward to the next game.
There are lots of nods to the original game in this remake, but also to other classic Final Fantasy titles. What's your favorite Easter egg? Are there ones that fans haven't caught yet?
Hamaguchi: I think my favorite nod to the original is where Cloud and Aerith make their way through the rooftops of abandoned slum houses after escaping the church. The same scene exists in the original, and I felt that the sense of Aerith and Cloud getting to know each other was expressed well through that sequence. Portraying this more realistically with the modern technology available to us over the original allowed us to really take in the scenery of the slums and Midgar. Even as a person creating the game, I remember how it felt both familiar and new during development and how it got me thinking, “So this is what the surrounding scenery looked like when Aerith and Cloud were making their way through this area in the original game.” Perhaps a harder to recognize homage to the original would be, again, at the church … between the time Cloud falls into the church and Reno appears, the player can freely roam around inside. During that time, if the player moves to the area around the church exit, they will hear Reno considerately say the following: “Hang back. We’re not in any hurry.” This is actually a line that was implemented in the original, and the team working on this location proposed to include it in the remake as it was found in the source material.
Where did the idea to include new characters like Roche, Chadley, etc., into the narrative come from?
Hamaguchi: There are many characters depicted in the
Compilation of Final Fantasy VIIprojects (
Before Crisis,
Crisis Core,
Dirge of Cerberus,
Advent Children) and titles that made an appearance in
Final Fantasy VII Remake, but Roche and Chadley were originally proposed by the game design team, and we had requested our writer Mr. Nojima to incorporate them into the scenario. Regarding Roche, we originally considered making him a boss that concludes the motorcycle minigame as you head toward Sector 7. That said, we thought his originality as a character could pan into something interesting and decided to use his appearance in the motorcycle minigame as foreshadowing. We expanded on this by making him the boss for the Sector 7-6 Annex. In the cutscene, a strange bond of sorts can be seen forming between Cloud and Roche, and I’m also personally interested in seeing how things are going to unfold between them in the future. Regarding Chadley, we wanted to include content in which materia could be obtained through mission rewards in parallel with the main story progression; considering lore, we came up with a role that would make him a researcher working for Shinra.
Jessie has become a fan favorite. Did you know that players would connect so strongly with a character who was such a minor presence in the original game?
Kitase: I did imagine this would happen to a certain extent. After the original game released, she was also a favorite character of ours, so it was director Nomura’s desire from the early stages to want to depict [the three Avalanche members: Jessie, Biggs and Wedge] in depth. As a result of Mr. Nojima’s distinctive dialogue, the voice cast's performance, and the cutscene team’s wonderful direction, we were able to successfully depict her as a captivating character.
The music in FFVII Remake is a great mix of the original soundtrack, remixes and new tracks. How did that come together? What was Nobuo Uematsu's involvement?
Kitase: Mr. Uematsu expressed a strong desire to compose a main theme song [a vocal track] for this game that did not exist in the original. As we wanted to include a dynamic soundtrack that matches the action and narrative onscreen, it required a very large volume of new arrangements and new music for the new sections. Therefore, the arrangements for many of the in-game music had been entrusted to composers that have a connection with
Final Fantasy and are also trusted by Mr. Uematsu and me. In turn, we asked Mr. Uematsu to focus on the production of the main theme song which we believe resulted in a wonderful track imbued with soul.
المصدر The Hollywood Reporter
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21 July/يوليو 2020
Tetsuya Nomura (Director)
- Tetsuya Nomura: “We’re very aware that we need to hurry up with the next part. We, too, want to release it as soon.”
- Tetsuya Nomura: “We plan to release the next one as soon as possible, and it’ll be more enjoyable and higher quality than the first. Please wait a little while longer.”
- Tetsuya Nomura: “I believe that by the time we announce the next title, we’ll be able to clarify more on our plans moving forward.”
- Tetsuya Nomura: “The Whispers became visible after coming in contact with Aerith. As for when has Aerith been able to see them? I still can’t say.”
- Tetsuya Nomura: “As for the massage part, if we were to do something risky in that town, it would’ve gotten flagged by the ratings, so that was the only way we could do it.”
Yoshinori Kitase (Producer)
- Yoshinori Kitase: “The story of the newFinal Fantasy VII has just begun.”
Naoki Hamaguchi (Co-Director)
- Naoki Hamaguchi: “For the next part, I’d like to refer to those who asked for normal difficulty for Classic Mode.”
- Naoki Hamaguchi: “Development has already begun. We’re currently working diligently on it. we might keep you all waiting a little while, but please look forward to it.”
Motomu Toriyama (Co-Director)
- Motomu Toriyama: “We originally planned on including Roche in the last fight. However, we scrapped the idea since he would have ruined the serious mood. We also planned on having a battle [with Roche] in the slums in Chapter 14. We gave up on the idea since there aren’t any roads in the slum to ride a bike on.”
- Motomu Toriyama: “The chances of the laughable character appearing in the next game have increased a lot [laughs].”
- Motomu Toriyama: “As for the Avalanche hideout, we removed it because it created a sense of distance between Cloud and Avalanche.”
Nobuo Uematsu (Composer)
- Nobuo Uematsu: “Hollow was the very first song that I made by playing the guitar.”
Kazushige Nojima (Story and Scenario)
- Kazushige Nojima: “I think of Final Fantasyas a series that continues to change and face challenges. Final Fantasy VII Remakeis no exception.”
Makoto Ise (Sound Director)
- Makoto Ise: (On the worldwide simultaneous release) It was hell concurrently working on multiple languages for the voices (Japanese, English, French, and German) during the final stage of development. Just between you and me, we were barely able to make it on time.”
Keiji Kawamori (Music Supervisor)
- Keiji Kawamori: (On ideas about having long silence and no background music to make it more realistic) Since the originalFinal Fantasy VII always had music playing, we decided to work in that direction.”
المصدر Siliconera
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21 July/يوليو 2020
تصريح مثير للأهتمام من نومورا :
Interviewer: Generally for remakes, there’s those who don’t want changes from the original and there’s another camp who do. As the creators, did you have disputes over what to change and what not to?
Nomura: Because the plan for the ‘FF7 Remake’ was decided from the very start, there weren't any disputes. However, from person to person there were differences in ways of thinking so there were instances where disputes arose as to how much should be changed, unexpectedly in the second half there were many instances where I became a (door) stopper [laughs).
الترجمة :
المقابل : بشكل عام للريميكات ، هناك أولئك الذين لا يريدون تغييرات من اللعبة الأصلية وهناك معسكر آخر يريدون التغيير. كمطورين، هل كان لديك خلافات حول ما يجب تغييره وما لا يجب تغييره ؟
نومورا : نظرًا لأن خطة "FF7 Remake" قد تم تحديدها منذ البداية، لم يكن هناك أي نزاعات. ومع ذلك من شخص لآخر كانت هناك اختلافات في طرق التفكير لذلك كانت هناك حالات حيث نشأت نزاعات حول مقدار التغيير الذي يجب تغييره، بشكل غير متوقع في النصف الثاني من الريميك كان هناك العديد من الحالات التي أصبحت فيها سدادة (باب) [يضحك).
نفهم من كلامه ان كان فيه نية لتغييرات كثيرة في القصة لكن نومورا اوقفها ؟؟
هذه المقابلة بالكامل :
Here's the second of my translations of this week's Famitsu! In the issue there's also Toriyama and Hamaguchi interviews, plus a bunch of shorter interviews with people involved with the music (Nojima, Uematsu, etc). I'll try to get those interviews out tomorrow.
- - -
Interviewer: What did you honestly feel after the game’s release?
Nomura Tetsuya: First of all, relief. We’re still continuing down the road to completion [of the Remake] but, I think the direction the work we’re making has been recognised now.
المقابل : ما الذي شعرت به بصدق بعد إصدار اللعبة ؟
نومورا : أولاً، الارتياح. ما زلنا نواصل السير في الطريق إلى الانتهاء [من Remake ]، ولكن أعتقد أن الاتجاه الذي نقوم به أصبح معروفًا الآن.
When the interviewer mentioned the ‘lavishness’ of the game (eg having music tracks that play in only 1 scene):
Nomura: This is [due to] the staff’s love towards FF7. Also, the enthusiasm of the fans boosted the staff, I think.
عندما ذكر المحاور "سخاء" اللعبة (على سبيل المثال ، وجود مقطوعات موسيقية يتم تشغيلها في مشهد واحد فقط):
نومورا : هذا [بسبب] حب الموظفين تجاه FF7. أيضا، عزز حماس الجماهير الموظفين، على ما أعتقد.
Interviewer: Generally for remakes, there’s those who don’t want changes from the original and there’s another camp who do. As the creators, did you have disputes over what to change and what not to?
Nomura: Because the plan for the ‘FF7 Remake’ was decided from the very start, there weren't any disputes. However, from person to person there were differences in ways of thinking so there were instances where disputes arose as to how much should be changed, unexpectedly in the second half there were many instances where I became a (door) stopper [laughs).
تم ترجمته في الأعلى
Interviewer: The Feelers [English version = Whispers] are an big element that didn’t exist in the OG. What is the intention behind them having a ghost like form? Also, why in the English version are they called Whispers while in Japanese they’re called Feelers?
Nomura: Nojima-san made the request [for their ghost like form] because he wanted them to have an eeriness to them. At first they were like sand, particles crumbling while also remaining in form, that unclear form, more than the robe form, can be imagined as wind. Feelers are tangible, them being tangible has a meaning behind it, but I can’t say anything more now.
المقابل : بالنسبة إلى The Feelers [ في النسخة الأنجليزية يُطلق عليهم = Whispers ] هي عنصر كبير غير موجود في اللعبة الأصلية. ما هو القصد من وراء اشكالهم كأنهم اشباح ؟ أيضا، لماذا في النسخة الإنجليزية يطلق عليهم Whispers بينما في اليابانية يطلق عليهم Feelers ؟
نومورا : نوجيما-سان هو من قدم هذا الطلب لأنه أرادهم أن يكون لديهم غرابة. في البداية كانوا يشبهون الرمل، الجسيمات المتفتت ، هذا الشكل غير الواضح ، أكثر من شكل الرداء، يمكن تخيله على أنه ريح. المشاعر ملموسة، وكونها ملموسة لها معنى وراءها، لكن لا يمكنني قول أي شيء الآن.
[Note Nomura didn’t answer the question about the Feelers/Whispers terms]
يُلاحظ ان نومورا لم يجب على سؤال اختلاف الأسم.
Interviewer: Is becoming able to see the Feelers due to Aerith’s direct touch? Also, could she always see them?
Nomura: It’s due to Aerith’s touch, but whether Aerith could always see them, I can’t say yet.
المقابل : هل القدرة على رؤية "Feelers" بسبب لمسة Aerith المباشرة ؟ أيضا ، هل يمكن أن تراهم دائما ؟
نومورا : يرجع ذلك إلى لمسة Aerith، ولكن ما إذا كان Aerith يمكنها رؤيتهم دائمًا، لا يمكنني القول بعد.
Interviewer: Jessie has many scenes, and she’s attained a good deal of popularity - were these planned from the start?
Nomura: They were. However, we didn’t imagine Jessie would get this popular.
المذيع : جيسي لديها العديد من المشاهد، وقد حصلت على قدر كبير من الشعبية - هل تم التخطيط لها من البداية ؟
نومورا : كانت. ومع ذلك، لم نتخيل أن جيسي ستحصل على هذه الشعبية.
Interviewer: [About Madam M, Sam, and Andrea] Did their personalities come first, or their designs? Also, how did the massage parlour come about?
Nomura: At first the personalities weren’t quite so strong. The designs weren’t intended to be either. So, I think the voice acting and performances were important. As for the massage, because the age rating would get hung up on risque/shady things going on in that town, I think we had no other method.
المقابل : [ بخصوص مدام ام ، وسام ، وأندريا ] هل جاءت شخصياتهم أولاً، أم كانت تصميماتهم ؟ أيضا، كيف حدث صالون التدليك ؟
نومورا : في البداية لم تكن الشخصيات قوية جدًا. لم يكن المقصود من التصميمات أن تكون أيضًا. لذا ، أعتقد أن التمثيل الصوتي والعروض كانت مهمة. أما بالنسبة للتدليك، لأن التصنيف العمري سيعلق على الأشياء المشبوهة التي تحدث في تلك المدينة، أعتقد أنه لم يكن لدينا طريقة أخرى.
Interviewer: The appearance of [The Kids Are All Right] novel characters Kyrie and Leslie - what’s the story behind them appearing in this game?
Nomura: Both Nojima and me had the goal from the very start of including the Compilation works going forward, so it wouldn’t be odd for them to appear, or rather, we placed characters that properly should be there.
المقابل : ظهور شخصيات رواية [الأطفال بخير] كيري وليزلي - ما القصة وراء ظهورهم في هذه اللعبة ؟
نومورا : كان هدفنا أنا و نوجيما-سان منذ البداية هو تضمين أعمال التجميع للمضي قدمًا، لذلك لن يكون من الغريب أن تظهر ، أو بالأحرى، وضعنا الشخصيات التي يجب أن تكون هناك بشكل صحيح.
Interviewer: Finally, do you have a message for fans?
Nomura: ‘Please give us the next part quickly’ - we’re fully aware of those voices. We want to deliver it quickly. Because we want to deliver the next part, having a higher quality and even more enjoyable than the first, we intend to deliver it as soon as possible, so please wait a while longer. Also, because I think we’ll be able to clarify our plans from now on when [part 2] is officially unveiled, please look forward to it.
المقابل : أخيرًا، هل لديك رسالة للجماهير ؟
نومورا : "من فضلك أعطنا الجزء التالي بسرعة" - نحن على علم تام بتلك الأصوات. نريد تسليمها بسرعة. لأننا نريد تقديم الجزء التالي بجودة أعلى و أكثر متعة من الجزء الأول فإننا نعتزم تسليمه في أقرب وقت ممكن لذا يرجى الانتظار لفترة أطول. أيضًا، لأنني أعتقد أننا سنتمكن من توضيح خططنا من الآن فصاعدًا عندما يتم الكشف عن [ الجزء الثاني ] رسميًا، يرجى التطلع إليه.
المصدر
riddit
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21 July/يوليو 2020
اكد ياماجوتشي ان كيتاس هو من يريد يعمل "تغييرات كبيرة" في الريميك مقارنة باللعبة الأصلية و أن نومورا و هاماجوتشي عكس توجه كيتاس يشوفون ان الريميك تكريم للعبة الأصلية و هذا يأكد كلامي سابقا ان نومورا هو ضمان المشاريع :
I'm sure that there are several younger development staff who never played the original FFVII, so were there any instances where there was a bit of a generation gap ?
Hamaguchi : Since the original game was so widely loved by fans everywhere, there were a lot of younger staff members who were scared of making changes.
On the other hand, Producer Kitase wanted big changes (laughs). Nomura and I saw the Remake as an homage to the original game,so if we were to change anything, we made sure that it would be something planned with a specific reason that fans could accept.
الترجمة :
المقابل : أنا متأكد من أن هناك العديد من موظفي التطوير الأصغر سناً الذين لم يلعبوا أبداً FFVII الأصلي ، فهل كانت هناك حالات حيث كانت هناك فجوة بين الأجيال ؟
هاماجوتشي : نظرًا لأن اللعبة الأصلية كانت محبوبة على نطاق واسع من قبل المعجبين في كل مكان، كان هناك الكثير من الموظفين الأصغر سناً الذين كانوا خائفين من إجراء التغييرات. من ناحية أخرى ، أراد المنتج Kitase عمل تغييرات كبيرة (يضحك). رأيت أنا ونومورا أن ال Remake بمثابة تكريم للعبة الأصلية، لذلك إذا أردنا تغيير أي شيء، نتأكد من أنه سيكون شيئًا مخططًا لسبب محدد يُمكن للمعجبين قبوله.
المصدر حساب @aitaikimochi
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