The Square Enix E3 conference kicked off with what we all wanted to see: Final Fantasy VII Remake! They showed off a quick trailer and then transitioned right into gameplay!! Before we get to that, it was interesting to note that they said that the game will have 2 Blu-Ray Discs worth of content; however, it is not the full game. The official press release confirmed that:
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE is a reimagining of the iconic original game that re-defined the RPG genre, diving deeper into the world and its characters than ever before. The first game in this project will be set in the eclectic city of Midgar and presents a fully standalone gaming experience that provides a great starting point to the series.
That is interesting to note because Square Enix has a standard edition for $59.99, a deluxe edition for $79.99, and 1st Class Edition for a whopping $329.99
The Deluxe Edition, available to pre-order now, contains a hardback art book featuring stunning concept art, a Mini-Soundtrack CD, Summon Materia DLC allowing players to summon Cactuar in game, and a Sephiroth SteelBook® Case. The Digital Deluxe Edition contains a digital art book, a digital Mini-Soundtrack, and Summon Materia DLC allowing players to summon Carbuncle and Cactuar in game.
The “1st Class Edition” includes all Deluxe Edition content, the Carbuncle Summon Materia DLC, as well as a Play Arts Kai Cloud Strife and Hardy Daytona box set (bundled separately), which is available to pre-order in limited quantities from the SQUARE ENIX Store.
Now… as for the combat, it is a hybrid between real-time and turn-based. By that, I mean actions are performed in real-time and an ATB gauge fills up. Once it is full, you can stop time and use abilities such as limit breaks, or spells from your materia. Doing so will consume the ATB gauge. For those who do not like this system and want real-time all the time you can bind your abilities to quick action buttons and mash them on the fly so that even limit breaks will also happen in real-time.
You control one character at a time with the other one controlled by the CPU. You can switch between characters with a simple button press and while each character fills up the ATB gauge the same, they all play differently from each other.
Check out the Reactor Scorpion boss battle for yourself!
They also released a longer version of the trailer from the Final Fantasy VII Reunion Concert that was held last night. You can view the full trailer below.
In addition, details of the game’s voice cast were unveiled, including:
- Cloud, voiced by Cody Christian (All American, Teen Wolf)
- Barret, voiced by John Eric Bentley (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Independence Day: Resurgence)
- Aerith, voiced by Briana White (Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Occupants)
- Tifa, voiced by Britt Baron (GLOW)
- Jessie, voiced by Erica Lindbeck (Spider-Man, Persona 5, ThunderCats Roar)
- Biggs, voiced by Gideon Emery (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Teen Wolf)
- Wedge, voiced by Matt Jones (Breaking Bad)
- Sephiroth, voiced by Tyler Hoechlin
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be available first for the PlayStation®4 system from March 3, 2020, with English, Japanese, French and German voiceover and English, French, LatAm Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, German and Spanish subtitles. For more information, visit: http://ffvii-remake.com.
