Final Fantasy VII Remako + Reunion mods on PC: How are they?

[AnansiThePersona]

So I do not have Final Fantasy VII Remake (I know, woe is me). Instead, I was going to replay through the OG game like many other brokies in my position are doing.


But, for months, I've been having trouble getting the Remako mod and the Reunion mod working with the game. Going through all the instructions, there's always small stuff that seems to slip me up. It leaves me to wonder if they are really legit mods or not. Like, how much do they improve the original game. I've played the original before, but I wanted to add enhancements this time.

Reunion + Remako HD Graphics mod install guide :: FINAL FANTASY VII General Discussions

So recently I decided I wanted to replay FF7, and since there was a lot of buzz around a these mods I wanted to try them out. I discovered that getting them to work together was kind of a pain in the ♥♥♥♥♥ and I saw others where having issues as well. I managed to figure out how to get both to...

steamcommunity.com

The Remako mod improves the graphics and the Reunion mod redoes the translation to be more "accurate".

Do any of you have any experience with these mods?

 

[Dio]

Reunion is a must. Remako has been vastly surpassed by Satsuki's upscaled HD backgrounds:

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

forums.qhimm.com

only problem i had with reunion(and one could argue Satsuki's) was that Reunion ignores whatever inputs are on the launcher. only when i went into the input mapping inside the game, it worked, and i was able to use either the controller or keyboard.

 

[Deleted member 925]

Just actually set this up today. It works but I wouldn't even try to mix Remako and Reunion together, seems like a pain in the ass. 7th Heaven 2.0 was very easy to setup Remako. The only thing that was annoying was getting my control to work, but DS4Win was the way to go with it.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

Maybe it's stockholm syndrome, but there's something about those more realistically porportioned models in FF7 that just looks so-very-wrong.

 

[Deleted member 12129]

Use Reunion and Satsuki's backgrounds instead. They're just straight installs to the base FF7 folder and off you go.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Use Reunion and Satsuki's backgrounds instead. They're just straight installs to the base FF7 folder and off you go.

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Damn so Satsuki's is the one. You said Reunion can just be dragged into the base FF7 folder? The tutorial had a bunch of other instructions.

 

[Corrupt]

Use Reunion and Satsuki's backgrounds instead. They're just straight installs to the base FF7 folder and off you go.

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Does either disable steam achievements?

 

[Deleted member 12129]

Damn so Satsuki's is the one. You said Reunion can just be dragged into the base FF7 folder? The tutorial had a bunch of other instructions.

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I just pointed the installer at the base FF7 folder. There are options you can change in the config file if you want.

 

[mordecaii83]

Does either disable steam achievements?

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Reunion does, it replaces the steam .exe with the original .exe so you lose achievements, cheats, and controller support is a bit weird.

 

[Sargerus]

Was there an update to Reunion since January? i tried it but encountered a glitch in the Reno fight that makes the game freeze everytime, so i gave up on it.

 

[Deleted member 57758]

Actually I've been trying to find a fix for this but I couldn't find anything on it, after installing the Reunion stuff, the game just doesn't wanna display in full screen

I can enable it in the mods config file but that's not really fullscreen and more like the window is just kinda blown up. If anyone knows a way to work around this, I'd appreciate it!

 

[C.Mongler]

I spent hours trying to get Remako to work a few months ago and it refused to work right. Also was confusing because whatever bug I ran into that was causing install issues seemed to be at a system level, in that uninstalling and deleting every single thing related to FFVII on my PC didn't let me try from scratch. It's been a while so I can't remember what exactly the issue was, but otherwise yeah, totally understand where you're at OP.

Gonna try some of the other options mentioned by folks in this thread though. Hopefully I have better luck, because I'm definitely itching for a playthrough after I wrap up the remake here in the next couple of days.

 

[Dio]

Was there an update to Reunion since January? i tried it but encountered a glitch in the Reno fight that makes the game freeze everytime, so i gave up on it.

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if it only happens on a specific point, you can disable reunion for it, and then enable it again after.

 

[Sargerus]

if it only happens on a specific point, you can disable reunion for it, and then enable it again after.

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IIRC Reunion uses a different .exe and save files than Steam no?

 

[craven68]

I began two days ago a new game with a french traduction with Satsuki background. It's so amazing !! There are some mod with better charactere too. You should look into it too x)

 

[Bradford]

I reinstalled the game and used both Remako and Reunion running on my CRT a week ago. It was lovely. I highly recommend it. It also wasn't really hard to get set up at all.

 

[exodus]

Reunion is a must. Remako has been vastly surpassed by Satsuki's upscaled HD backgrounds:

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

forums.qhimm.com

only problem i had with reunion(and one could argue Satsuki's) was that Reunion ignores whatever inputs are on the launcher. only when i went into the input mapping inside the game, it worked, and i was able to use either the controller or keyboard.

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Is it possible to use this without those character models?

 

[Dio]

IIRC Reunion uses a different .exe and save files than Steam no?

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iirc, the save files are just installed in a different location. i had to play the game until a save point so i could test mods more easily, and it was just a matter of changing the save file location.

Is it possible to use this without those character models?

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Satsuki only changes backgrounds. the models are from Reunion/other mods. on Reunion, you can disable/enable them on the ini file.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Maybe it's stockholm syndrome, but there's something about those more realistically porportioned models in FF7 that just looks so-very-wrong.

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That's because out of mostly cutscenes and battles, the FF7 used more classic SD characters proportions for scaling a lot of the pre-rendered backgrounds so I get what you mean, the proportioned models look can look nice but off a lot of times because of this. I rather play with nicer SD characters and AI upscaled backgrounds instead.

 

[Bit_Reactor]

I can't get into the realistically styled models on the backgrounds, they always look...disproportional.

 

[Deleted member 3010]

I just did OG FFVII this January but finishing the remake still reignited that urge to play it again.

On PC with these mods sounds like good enough justifications to do exactly that.

 

[AuthenticM]

You can get many more (and better) mods through the mod manager 7th Heaven 2.0. You should get that instead of Reunion.

7th Heaven 2.0 forum page
tutorial

It's all very simple to install. I recommend you download every package whose author is listed as "quimm community". You'll be able to customize everything how you like.

Have fun!

 

[Dio]

You can get many more (and better) mods through the mod manager 7th Heaven 2.0. You should get that instead of Reunion.

7th Heaven 2.0 forum page
tutorial

It's all very simple to install. I recommend you download every package whose author is listed as "quimm community". You'll be able to customize everything how you like.

Have fun!

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last time i checked, only Reunion offers the re-translation and 60fps battles, unless that changed.

 

[Rats]

I can't get into the realistically styled models on the backgrounds, they always look...disproportional.

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Agreed. They look nice in certain shots but when they don't fit they really don't fit.

 

[Mindman]

Can I install this Satsuki mod with 1 click to the Steam version?

 

[mordecaii83]

You can get many more (and better) mods through the mod manager 7th Heaven 2.0. You should get that instead of Reunion.

7th Heaven 2.0 forum page
tutorial

It's all very simple to install. I recommend you download every package whose author is listed as "quimm community". You'll be able to customize everything how you like.

Have fun!

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately 7th Heaven isn't compatible with Reunion so it's a no-go for me. Having a decent translation is too important.

 

[AuthenticM]

last time i checked, only Reunion offers the re-translation and 60fps battles, unless that changed.

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The retranslation is indeed exclusive to Reunion, though 60fps battles is available in 7th Heaven.

I understand how someone would want the retranslation, but for me, I'm satisfied with the rectified translation that New Threat offers, and I can get that with all the other mods from 7th Heaven.

Unfortunately 7th Heaven isn't compatible with Reunion so it's a no-go for me. Having a decent translation is too important.

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Yeah I get it. Though I would encourage you to play New Threat. On top of just improving the gameplay everywhere, it also offers a better translation. It fixes whatever confusion the vanilla translation had.

 

[Dio]

The retranslation is indeed exclusive to Reunion, though 60fps battles is available in 7th Heaven.

I understand how someone would want the retranslation, but for me, I'm satisfied with the rectified translation that New Threat offers, and I can get that with all the other mods from 7th Heaven.


Yeah I get it. Though I would encourage you to play New Threat. On top of just improving the gameplay everywhere, it also offers a better translation. It fixes whatever confusion the vanilla translation had.

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hmmm. well, while my setup of reunion+satsuki's works fine rn now, ill keep an open mind, more so to help friends set up easier.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Unfortunately 7th Heaven isn't compatible with Reunion so it's a no-go for me. Having a decent translation is too important.

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There's no other translation mods on 7th Heaven? I just downloaded it and I can't find any

 

[mordecaii83]

The retranslation is indeed exclusive to Reunion, though 60fps battles is available in 7th Heaven.

I understand how someone would want the retranslation, but for me, I'm satisfied with the rectified translation that New Threat offers, and I can get that with all the other mods from 7th Heaven.


Yeah I get it. Though I would encourage you to play New Threat. On top of just improving the gameplay everywhere, it also offers a better translation. It fixes whatever confusion the vanilla translation had.

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I'm not really looking for gameplay changes, I like how the base game plays. I just want the best translation possible and Reunion offers that.

There's no other translation mods on 7th Heaven? I just downloaded it and I can't find any

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There's an old version of of the translation part of Reunion ("Beacause"), but it's really old and not nearly as good as the current version. Apparently there's also "New Threat" but that's more than just a translation and not what I'm personally looking for.

 

[AuthenticM]

hmmm. well, while my setup of reunion+satsuki's works fine rn now, ill keep an open mind, more so to help friends set up easier.

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Yeah. Maybe at some point later, check out the whole catalogue of 7th Heaven. There's so, so much good stuff in there. Also, these chibi models from Ninostyle will be added to 7th Heaven in the next catalogue update:

There's no other translation mods on 7th Heaven? I just downloaded it and I can't find any

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Not standalone, no. However, I wholeheartedly recommend you play the New Threat mod. It comes with its own translation fixes. It's not as deep-down as that of Reunion, but it fixes all the main issues of the vanilla one.

I'm not really looking for gameplay changes, I like how the base game plays. I just want the best translation possible and Reunion offers that.

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Yeah I understand. If you've already played the game many times though, I very much recommend you try New Threat at some point. It's honestly great. I didn't understand what the fuss about it was until I watched a playthrough of it last year. It sold me.

EDIT:
If any of you want to see New Threat in action, Max Dood played all of it last year. I recommend you check it out. Here's the first video of the playthrough. I believe he was played version 1.4 or 1.5. New Threat 2.0 will come out later this year, and I'm excited to play it.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Yeah. Maybe at some point later, check out the whole catalogue of 7th Heaven. There's so, so much good stuff in there. Also, these chibi models from Ninostyle will be added to 7th Heaven in the next catalogue update:

Not standalone, no. However, I wholeheartedly recommend you play the New Threat mod. It comes with its own translation fixes. It's not as deep-down as that of Reunion, but it fixes all the main issues of the vanilla one.


Yeah I understand. If you've already played the game many times though, I very much recommend you try New Threat at some point. It's honestly great. I didn't understand what the fuss about it was until I watched a playthrough of it last year. It sold me.

EDIT:
If any of you want to see New Threat in action, Max Dood played all of it last year. I recommend you check it out. Here's the first video of the playthrough. I believe he was played version 1.4 or 1.5. New Threat 2.0 will come out later this year, and I'm excited to play it.

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Definitely gonna include New Threat then. Is it just me or are these loading times super long?

 

[B.K.]

Yeah. Maybe at some point later, check out the whole catalogue of 7th Heaven. There's so, so much good stuff in there. Also, these chibi models from Ninostyle will be added to 7th Heaven in the next catalogue update:

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Wow. Those are terrible.

 

[AuthenticM]

Definitely gonna include New Threat then. Is it just me or are these loading times super long?

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Sweet! Let us know what you think of it.

Which loading times? When I launch the game through 7th Heaven, sometimes it takes 6 or 7 seconds for the intro movie to start, but outside of that, I didn't have any loading time issues. I have an SSD.

 

[Corrupt]

Reunion is a must. Remako has been vastly surpassed by Satsuki's upscaled HD backgrounds:

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

[FF7PC]FF7 SYW "ArkTsukiVock" (v4) upscale : Battle, world map, fields, videos

forums.qhimm.com

only problem i had with reunion(and one could argue Satsuki's) was that Reunion ignores whatever inputs are on the launcher. only when i went into the input mapping inside the game, it worked, and i was able to use either the controller or keyboard.

Click to shrink...

Some of the pictures of the look more than upscaled, almost like a filter. Some of them look like water colour paintings that's washed the detail out. Maybe i'm just misremembering what some of these places originally looked like.

 

[Jroc]

Maybe it's stockholm syndrome, but there's something about those more realistically porportioned models in FF7 that just looks so-very-wrong.

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The backgrounds are modeled to match the scale of the Chibi models so you end up with giant chairs and square doorways.

 

[Dio]

Some of the pictures of the look more than upscaled, almost like a filter. Some of them look like water colour paintings that's washed the detail out. Maybe i'm just misremembering what some of these places originally looked like.

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remako looks even worse than that.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Sweet! Let us know what you think of it.

Which loading times? When I launch the game through 7th Heaven, sometimes it takes 6 or 7 seconds for the intro movie to start, but outside of that, I didn't have any loading time issues. I have an SSD.

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Ooh I meant download times. Those are surprisingly taking a while

 

[mordecaii83]

Wow. Those are terrible.

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Yeah I'm not gonna lie, I prefer just keeping the original models. I have strong enough nostalgia for the game that they really don't bother me (and never did tbh).

I'd rather play the PS1 version with the latest translation but unfortunately it hasn't been released so I may just start a PC playthrough as there's no indication when the PS1 patch will be released.

 

[Corrupt]

remako looks even worse than that.

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Man, I was hoping the results were more faithful. Shame Square seem to have no interest in looking at any sort of AI upscaling for their pre-rendered backgrounds.

 

[Dio]

Man, I was hoping the results were more faithful. Shame Square seem to have no interest in looking at any sort of AI upscaling for their pre-rendered backgrounds.

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i mean, while some are just not salvageable and have results like that, Satsuki does have some where you feel like the mod author got the original BGs, like the train intro:

 

[AuthenticM]

Ooh I meant download times. Those are surprisingly taking a while

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Oh, yeah. The downloads are pretty slow. I would recommend you turn off automatic sleep mode from your computer just in case your downloads get interrupted because of that.

There are a lot of packages available, but honestly, you only have to bother with those whose author is "quimm community". Everything you need is in there. Once you have them downloaded, you can auto-sort their load order and also customize precisely which mods you want activated or not.

EDIT:
Here's a glimpse at what the game looks like with some of the mods installed:

Everything in these screenshots (menu, font, character models, the scorpion tank) can be individually customized to your liking. I really like the battle models that recreate their character artworks, as well as the pristine UI that takes up much less space.

 

[AdvancedWind]

I got Remako + The Reunion almost fully working together, but backgrounds aren't working.

Should I just delete everything and go the full 7th heaven route? The most important change to me is the music, so if there's that in there, guess I could try

 

[Rookhelm]

Actually I've been trying to find a fix for this but I couldn't find anything on it, after installing the Reunion stuff, the game just doesn't wanna display in full screen

I can enable it in the mods config file but that's not really fullscreen and more like the window is just kinda blown up. If anyone knows a way to work around this, I'd appreciate it!

Click to shrink...

That's what happened to me. Eventually I just gave up and played the PS4 version

 

[ObbyDent]

Satsuki is not better than Remako, Sasuki smoothes it out way too much. I actually prefer OG graphics to Satsuki

 

[JahIthBer]

Get New Threat instead, it's one of the best mods ever made imo.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Okay for the soundtrack: is everyone just going with the original? Or is Anxious Heart superior? I assume it's a higher quality version of the soundtrack

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Get New Threat instead, it's one of the best mods ever made imo.

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I have turned New Threat on. Once installed, everything is surprisingly super easy. Just download all the Qhimm stuff and I was good.

 

[JahIthBer]

Okay for the soundtrack: is everyone just going with the original? Or is Anxious Heart superior? I assume it's a higher quality version of the soundtrack

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Are you getting the mod list from 7th heaven? i would suggest doing that, because the old standalone download for AH is quite outdated now. The music mod in 7th heaven should have a drop down menu for AH, the full selection option is pretty solid imo, of course some people think fan remixes are heresy but whatever.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

Are you getting the mod list from 7th heaven? i would suggest doing that, because the old standalone download for AH is quite outdated now. The music mod in 7th heaven should have a drop down menu for AH, the full selection option is pretty solid imo, of course some people think fan remixes are heresy but whatever.

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Yeah I've been doing this all through 7th Heaven. Also is there anything I can do about this error I keep getting:

Checking FF7 is not running ...
Checking FF7 .exe exists at C:\FINAL FANTASY VII\FF7.exe ...
Verifying installed game is compatible ...
Verifying game is not installed in a System/Protected folder ...
Verifying game is full/max install ...
... wm\world_us.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find wm\world_us.lgp on any disc ...
... field\char.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find field\char.lgp on any disc ...
... field\flevel.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find field\flevel.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\chocobo.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\chocobo.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\coaster.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\coaster.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\condor.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\condor.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\high-us.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\high-us.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\snowboard-us.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\snowboard-us.lgp on any disc ...
... minigame\sub.lgp not found. Scanning disc(s) for files ...
... failed to find minigame\sub.lgp on any disc ...
Your FF7 installation folder is missing critical file(s). When you installed FF7, you may have accidentally chosen to install the 'Standard Install', but the 'Maximum Install' is required.

7th Heaven can repair this for you automatically. Simply insert one of your game discs and try again.
Failed to launch FF7. View the above log for details.

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