It's interesting, but I don't think I am going to buy it. I don't care for this more modern anime style of character design. It has a very cinematic presentation, which I don't think works at all for video games (games are not movies!!! argh!) The best things about the original FFVII are the environments. The character models in the original game are tiny, which gave you a great sense of scale when traveling the world map or traversing through the massive mako reactor. This really helps to establish the themes in the game, and grounds everything in appropriate context. Modern games feel more like claustrophobic sets, where "actors" are confined to a small stage or short set pieces. A lot less immersive IMO. These two videos place a lot of emphasis on a camera angle below the player, and in the custscenes, and close-ups of the character's faces. All of the action an dialogue could happen in one place and you would hardly be able to tell.

For example, approaching the Mako reactor here feels pretty underwhelming

https://youtu.be/osEEQLSE6ng?t=254

Compared to this

https://youtu.be/0gnxPSHMNGE?t=196

The voice acting and sound production looks excellent though. I am curious to see how they remix the original sound track.

It's hard to tell for sure with these demos. I'll give it another look when it comes up, but I am seeing some red flags.

It looks beautiful, but ... AGH... the constant BANTER. 😵 Why does every moment have to be filled with pointless babble? It sounds like a Pixar movie!

I also lament how modern games hold orchestral soundtracks as the holy grail of game music. Soundtracks used to have more character, more freedom to express the mood with instrumentation and production effects. Now it all sounds like you're standing outside a theater while playing a cartoon. "What's YOUR brilliant plan then, genius?" Really? Cloud was supposed to be the silent type. So, SHUT UP.

mothergoose729 wrote:

https://youtu.be/osEEQLSE6ng?t=257

He walks like he is on a lunch break or something 🤣

It is important to accept that any remake will never have the same charm as the original. So being too different isnt all that bad I think, it gives you other reasons to buy it. It does look very good, reminds me of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie from 2001 which I thought looked photo-realistic at the time.

Look at Commandos 2 remaster, they are only making very small adjustments to retain the original charm and yet it doesnt feel the same (its still work-in-progress though). But I will buy it just to help show support for the series in someone's powerpoint presentation and hopefully see a new Commandos game in the future. Desperados 3 is in the works so I kinda have my hopes up.

SirNickity wrote:

I also lament how modern games hold orchestral soundtracks as the holy grail of game music. Soundtracks used to have more character, more freedom to express the mood with instrumentation and production effects. Now it all sounds like you're standing outside a theater while playing a cartoon.

Hiring orchestra today is actually relatively cheap and easy process and produces "good enough" (or better) results so I bet they are doing it simply out of convenience. The indie scene is where most creative passion is these days. I am sure there are a lot of passionate employees working on AAA titles as well but the corporate baggage is just too heavy these days.

Is it? I remember following Bear McCreary's blog where he was trying to get score recorded for Battlestar Gallactica, and it came down to him and others putting up the money to pay the musicians because the studio was running out of budget.

SirNickity wrote:

Is it? I remember following Bear McCreary's blog where he was trying to get score recorded for Battlestar Gallactica, and it came down to him and others putting up the money to pay the musicians because the studio was running out of budget.

Heh, that is a nice inside story, loved the music there myself.

I think it can be as low as 100-200k USD per completed hour of music. Surely it will vary between orchestras, as with most things. That is relatively affordable considering the amount of work and number of skilled people involved in recording it, especially when contrasted with the many high-salary developers/designers a studio needs to pay for a long time when making a game. But it probably comes down more to convenience and lower risk factors for the larger studios.