Edit: UPDATE: This is a translation of recorded audio from the behind-closed-doors panel with Kitase, Hamaguchi, and Nomura at the FF 30th Anniversary Exhibition in Japan in January" . Thanks TLSLex and Koozek
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A user on the Lifestream.net forums has translated some audio where these dudes are apparently talking, during that last closed event. Take it for what you will:
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A user on the Lifestream.net forums has translated some audio where these dudes are apparently talking, during that last closed event. Take it for what you will:
Okay, listening to it now. We'll see how much of a job it will be to translate, but I'll try.
I'll add some general commentary in this post as I go along.
EDIT :
Okay, so I'm just listening through before doing the translation but already some interesting stuff -
They're talking about Aerith's house and how it's surrounded by water in the original.
They make comments about how they made it a river for it to make more sense, and how this impacts living conditions/structure of the world, and then talk about how this kinda stuff has to make sense in terms of how unlike before, with the quality of older games, that kind of stuff (like presumably how the water underneath Aerith's house makes little logistic sense) went unnoticed or wasn't cared about by gamers, but how it's changed in recent time therefore demanded that with the "richness"(realism) of the remake, that those kinda things be changed into something that is more coherent in terms of world-building.
EDIT 2 :
Gotten to the point Nomura comes on and presents the new concept art.
They start with Biggs. One thing to take away is that they say he looks "completely different" from what he looked like in the trailer.
The say the same thing for Wedge. The repeated use of "zenzen chigau" seems to indicate major change from their original designs in the trailer, meaning that this is probably even very different from the designs shown in the Ferrari Art that was in the exhibition.
They say the images brought reflect the newest designs, taken straight out of the office.
Wedge, they remark, particularly as the hair is concerned, looks a lot more realistic.
They go on to say Jessie is perhaps the one that has changed the most - becoming a lot more beatiful and feminine in appearance.
Also worth noting, that now as they show Cloud, and going by earlier remarks and the use of the term "real-time", these are not concept art pictures of the characters, but real-time rendered screenshots.
Nomura says that this version of Cloud is probably the closest visually to capturing the personality of the original Cloud I.E to clarify this phrase that's been thrown about so often from the partial snippets we got a while back - Nomura is commenting on how the visual design reflects Cloud's persona, and they go on to say that visually, they've designed him in a way that captures the way Cloud was not a cool guy in the original game - how he was actually a f***up just putting on a strong front.
They say he looks "real/very very young" this time around, and contrasts him to the AC Cloud, implying a very drastic change from that.
EDIT 3 :
In terms of development, they say the game is progressing very very smoothly.
They're in the process of working out the base "technology", I'd say in this context, refers to the primary game-play base for the game.
They banter a bit talking about how Kitase, Nomura and Hamaguchi have are connected through Line (a social app very common in Japan) and how Hamaguchi will often work on the game til late night, and send messages to the others at 03.00 at night etc.
They're adamant they're making "something we've never seen before" and ask us to "be excited".
Hamaguchi goes on, after Nomura leaves, to comment on the long draught of info since the first trailers, and apologizes. He goes on to say that the project has moved completely in-house, and is again, progressing very smoothly. At the current point they're at the stage where they're basically cramming a bunch of stuff into the game, but once they hit the stage of polishing up the look of things and can deliver something with suffuciently high quality, they will be releasing new footage.
He anticipates this will be in the near future due to how smoothly things are progressing.
Kitase then signs us off by making the joke previously mentioned in the thread, saying he wishes to keep on polishing up the game for the 35th anniversary, to which they all laugh and Hamaguchi responds objectingly "Hey that's a long ways off!"
He then however, also goes on to say that a lot is hanging on the next (presumably big) event, and that they're hoping to show off (the game) by then.
PERSONAL NOTE :
I'm kinda baffled by their comments about Cloud, because while it's true that Cloud's real persona is not a hard-ass like the Cloud we're first presented with, it makes no sense to me to make this apparent through his visual design early on in the story/game.
Cloud has been treated extensively with Mako and Sephiroth/Jenova cells - and as far as the player knows, was a member of SOLDIER with most people taking him on his word for that.
This, in my opinion, heavily implies that Cloud plays the part very well early on. Barret remarks on Cloud being tough early on, and people like Rufus don't act surprised at Cloud's claim to having been in Soldier.
Cloud's dofus side is surely something that is better left reflected in portrayls of his child self, or his post memory-fix appeance, not something to bludgeon the player over the head with early on in the game compromizing the later twist with on the nose story-telling through visuals.
https://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=782952&postcount=33
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