By Jim Rossignol on July 4th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.
(Yeah, okay, it was released on PC in 1998.)
That’s a delay of fifteen years for the PC version. Could be a record. Anyway, the newsbeasts of VG247 caught the scent of Square’s announcement and we could hear their howls from far across the internet. They soon brought home what appears to be a trailer, too, which you can see below. No release date, though.
Man, it would be really easy to spoiler this one for someone who had never played it, eh readers?
I vaguely remember playing this fucker at University with two guys called Nick and Bill. It never made much sense to me, but there it is. They seemed to enjoy it.
This was the best bit:
04/07/2012 at 16:02 Captain Hijinx says:
I sometimes cannot fathom the decisions of Squaresoft, but okay, a re-release on pc, they must really need the cash
04/07/2012 at 17:06 x1501 says:
“The revamp will include now “a host of new online features”. Achievements are to be included, of which there are 36, as is something called the “Character Booster”. “With the Character Booster you can increase your HP, MP and Gil levels to their maximum, all with the simple click of a button, leaving you to enjoy your adventure,””
Useless “achievements” fluff, pointless online requirement, and. . . an in-game trainer/cheater? This sounds like the worst re-release imaginable. And can you imagine the kind of excitement you’ll get from being able to sleep through the game’s fights on the max level and with unlimited money? I’ll stick with the 4 CDs I bought back in 1999, thank you.
04/07/2012 at 17:32 diamondmx says:
It could be worse, that button could be a microtransaction.
And it probably is.
05/07/2012 at 16:29 HeavyStorm says:
While mostly of what you said is true, I grasp the concept of the in-game cheater. You see, I always despised FF games because, while the story was good, I found battles to be frustrating, difficulty and boring. Having the option to just “enjoy” the storyline without being bothered by dying can be interesting.
(must say that this feelings come from when I was younger… nowadays, I don’t find the game that hard and have more patience to do the necessary grinding)
Anyway, even though that’s nice, I agree that it doesn’t justify a re-release. Only HD graphics would.
05/07/2012 at 16:48 x1501 says:
For people who want cheats, there is already a number of completely free game trainers that can give you not only unlimited Gil/HP/MP, but also all the Limit Breaks, Materias and Ultimate Weapons, various event hacks, in-game UI color selection, unlocked world map, and even quicksave/quickload options.
04/07/2012 at 18:34 Riaktion says:
This renders my possibly rare 3 CD PC version of FF7 I have less rare. I guess. Not that it matters of course.
04/07/2012 at 18:39 x1501 says:
4 CDs. You’re forgetting the separate installation disk:
http://images.craigslist.org/5Q25H15J63M53I33N7c5r4a48519aedbe1afa.jpg
05/07/2012 at 08:22 RegisteredUser says:
This is actually a pretty beautiful game(story, character, XG music, specials and cutscene wise), depending at which age and general technology level you play it at, I guess, but instant everything button and online?
Where is “Cinematics redone in HD” and MIDI soundtrack by the actually existing orchestral / proper OST versions etc?
05/07/2012 at 11:30 dazman76 says:
Yes… and “ability to skip the longest cutscenes that you’ve somehow committed to memory”, and “a collection of small hints that make some sense of chocobo breeding”, and “ability to skip summon animations” and… and :)
I do hope they’ve done more with this re-release than it initially seems, because VII really is still a true gem in many ways. VIII never did hook me in the same way, and I would swap the Junction system of VIII for the Materia system of VII, without a second thought. I always felt that VII also offered more things to do aside from the main story/quest, and the number of “nice little touches” was staggering. A random example of that would be Tifa’s limit break activation, trying to hit the “YEAH!!” on each one of the slot wheels to kick some serious arse :)
I’ll be keeping an eye on this one, for sure – I own the PS1 version which runs great in an emulator, except for graphical glitches. I only bought the PC version of VIII, which is functional buy nasty. If Square actually put some effort into this VII re-release, it could really be worth the money. I can’t think of any other game that provides so much play time, but with such variety instead of simple repetitive grind.
04/07/2012 at 16:03 DanPryce says:
Dude, Walker Principle.
I’ll definitely give this a try. We were an N64 household.
04/07/2012 at 16:29 Orija says:
Not really, it was released on the PC a long while ago. I think SE are trying to gauge the interest of the PC audience with this release and see if it would be worthwhile releasing their new games for the platform.
04/07/2012 at 17:21 Malk_Content says:
Which is kind of a dumb strategy as any PC gamer who wan’t to play this, already has!
04/07/2012 at 21:39 neonordnance says:
I haven’t. I’d happily pick it up on sale.
04/07/2012 at 22:27 DrozzRith says:
It’s supposedly coming out for $9.99, so I don’t know how much cheaper it can get.
05/07/2012 at 03:04 unavsda says:
$ 79.00! Babolat Pure Drive GT Tennis Racquets! This was great! http://zna.me/mnbsac
04/07/2012 at 16:52 MikoSquiz says:
Don’t bother. The shiny shiny new generation eyeball-immolating graphics and 3d-rendered environments made it compelling at the time, but apart from those it’s distilled tedium, with possibly the worst writing and story ever as a bonus. And those graphics have not aged well.
04/07/2012 at 18:27 CrookedLittleVein says:
“with possibly the worst writing and story ever as a bonus”
Possibly an over-exaggeration?
04/07/2012 at 19:09 SkittleDiddler says:
More like an under-exaggeration. The writing in all of the other FF games is equally horrible.
04/07/2012 at 20:36 killias2 says:
More like an over-exaggeration, as video game writing in general is universally bottom run. In comparison to other video games, the writing is acceptable, and the story is above average.
04/07/2012 at 21:30 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Don`t kid yourself, Square are second only to Bioware in terms of recycling the same plot over and over again.
04/07/2012 at 22:07 SkittleDiddler says:
Claiming the rest of the industry does it doesn’t make what I wrote less true.
The people behind the FF series couldn’t even be bothered to write coherent scripts for the two major-release movies they’ve made so far.
04/07/2012 at 22:12 Werthead says:
The story is perfectly reasonable. The problem is the English translation, which was eye-wateringly terrible at the time. The fact that the story and characters manage to survive it is nothing short of remarkable. If this version has the same English translation as the original, that would be disappointing given the number of fans out there who’d be willing to do it for free.
05/07/2012 at 06:52 Chiller says:
Since the game’s release on the PC I’ve played it a number of times, and I could never figure out what this “horrible translation” thing is all about.
Of course, I haven’t played the game in the original Japanese so I can’t compare, but I can’t remember anything standing out as jarring or wrong in the English text. This isn’t Zero Wing. What are you talking about?
05/07/2012 at 12:16 dazman76 says:
Chiller – it isn’t so much about errors and “Engrish”, but the people who translated the game took a lot of liberties. It was translated in the US as many games and films are, and on top of filling it with the kind of Westernised language crap you get in martial arts films, they also bent the story itself slightly in places to be “more palatable” to a Western audience.
I cannot remember where the hell I saw it, but I remember watching a video that featured the original Japanese text for some cut scenes and “text dialogue bits” early in the game, alongside a more literal translation (done by Japanese translators) shown in English subtitles. The difference is staggering – in places, the Western version we saw was miles away from the Japanese->English translation in the video.
This happens so much in games, and films. We wind up with dialogue that seems to have been aimed solely at pre-pubescent teens, and comically ridiculous voice-overs delivering it. Crouching Tiger is a great example – watch the Mandarin version with English subtitles, and the quality of dialogue is light years ahead of the terrible English audio track. I don’t particularly like watching whole films with subtitles, but since Crouching Tiger I’ve done just that.
05/07/2012 at 23:12 ramonkahn says:
Well I kinda liked the part of FFX, where, in the English cutscene, one character told the other “I love you”, and the German translation/caption was “Danke” (thanks). Not quite the same thing, I daresay. I remember being quite devastated after reading that and realising how bad the quality of the translation actually was…
PS: I hope the above was not SPOILERY, but the following link to the scene most certainly is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=UUOtPnCvuxzXbP5YMiYlWTWQ&v=XIv8R0N7Sxw#t=193s
04/07/2012 at 23:41 Universal Quitter says:
You’re insane or a troll (I suspect both). If you personally don’t like it, have fun in psycho-ville, but it is widely regarded as one of the finest masterpieces in gaming history by fans and experts. It consistently tops gaming journalism lists, was a gaming phenomenon in it’s pre-CodMod/HALO time, and has more crap/erotic/crap-erotic fanfiction written about it than ANY GAME EVER. The Aeris plot twist alone has been considered one of the most emotional moments in video game history.
Why do I feel like I just won the special olympics?
05/07/2012 at 00:11 Quarex says:
Final Fantasy VII is appropriately hated for functionally killing off the traditional Western RPG for about a decade while people recovered from the instant trend toward every RPG being increasingly more about cinematics and less about actual branching plots/choices/et cetera.
Basically, PC gamers who want to buy this remake are modern Judases.
05/07/2012 at 10:22 absolofdoom says:
No it’s hated because it was/is popular.
Admitting that you hate things because it’s cool is hard, but there you go.
06/07/2012 at 19:47 Werthead says:
Final Fantasy 7 PC release date: 28 June 1998
Baldur’s Gate release date: 30 November 1998.
So in this case, 10 years is actually about 5 months and 2 days.
05/07/2012 at 02:05 Runs With Foxes says:
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: The Emotionmen
04/07/2012 at 16:03 Jams O'Donnell says:
It’s not a fifteen year delay. I played it on PC back in 1998. This is some from-out-of-nowhere re-release.
Also, this game really is very good indeed.
04/07/2012 at 16:10 Ross Angus says:
I had a memory of a PC demo too. Glad it wasn’t false.
04/07/2012 at 16:49 SurprisedMan says:
Indeed, my first JRPG experience was the FF7 demo on PC. It was so weird, with random battles with previously invisible enemies, and battles that took place only in strange menus, that I assumed that it was just like that because it was a demo, and the actual game would be fine.
Eventually I grew to have an appreciation of those weird menus, but I’ll always hate random battles.
05/07/2012 at 01:00 devlocke says:
Just for the record, the whole random-battles thing is something JRPGs took from PC/CRPGs. Suddenly having to fight monsters you didn’t see before the random encounter started goes back at least as far as Wizardry, which is basically as far back as commercial PC gaming existed. If you managed to play RPGs on PC before FF7 came out, and never encountered them, you lead a charmed life, and I salute you.
05/07/2012 at 10:28 SurprisedMan says:
Yes, I know that NOW, but my trajectory was starting out with a NES (where I never played RPGs, or even really knew about them), and then in the early 90s it was mostly Amiga games, and adventure games were my thing. I played a few dungeon crawlers, but none with random battles. Toward the mid 90s I went more towards PC games, but my favourites were still graphic adventures, with a little bit of space sim, FPS and strategy mixed in there too. By the time FF8 came out on PC, random battles seemed like a very strange thing to me.
04/07/2012 at 16:15 Bluerps says:
Jup. Final Fantasy VIII was on PC too.
04/07/2012 at 16:51 Godwhacker says:
I still remember that game as being better than FFVII. I can also remember being told how I’m wrong about that.
04/07/2012 at 17:12 Mattressi says:
You’re not! People always tell me I’m wrong too, but I thought FFVII sucked and FFVIII was great. I still honestly can’t work out why people like FFVII and also why they don’t like FFVIII more.
04/07/2012 at 17:17 magnus says:
True, you’re not wrong at all, FF8 was waaay better.
04/07/2012 at 17:34 Zelius says:
People having differing opinions? Imagine that.
04/07/2012 at 18:01 Chris D says:
My guess would be the difference in setting and tone appeals to different people. VII features a fairly diverse cast of characters on what is essentially a road trip for most of the game. VIII has a group of high school/college kids and makes far more of the relationship dynamics of that setting.
Also Squall was the most eminently slappable lead character in the entire history of video games, with the possible exception of Kazuki from Front Mission 3, but I digress.
Personally I preferred VII but really enjoyed both.
04/07/2012 at 19:06 Memph says:
Chris has nailed it. 7 consumed a good 180+ hours for me to clock it and that was ignoring the Weapon bosses. At the time I bought it on PSX (at release – £44.99 from Blockbuster) it was my first foray into JRPG territory – and at that time, characters jumping from a CGI train pulling into the fantastically steampunk Midgar and being instantly playable, was nothing short of black voodoo wonder magic. Course I was confused as hell when the first battle kicked off, but once it all clicked I was proper hooked.
My girlfriend then loved the story so much she’d insist on me only playing it with her in the room – and yes, did actually cry at ‘that’ moment (I was pretty fucking gutted myself actually).
Sure the characters were one dimensional, but that’s exactly why they were there, doing what they were doing. This (http://nightmaremode.net/2012/07/displacement-in-final-fantasy-vii-20735/) is worth a read on the character aspect and how the setting, to me at least, was brilliant, brutal and captivating.
I tried to like 8. I really, really did, but Squall was an utter penis. I had no interest in teeny angst and the setting went from impoverished struggle to a rather dull, whimsy technohaven. Button bashing during summons (which were already overblown in 7 for something you had to watch over and over and….) was just sadistic, coupling the turn-based battles with Track & Field pad-slapping to maximise an attack. That, along with having to grind battles to steal and stock up on spells, was just too bloody painful for me to want to bother with. I often got stuck in long sequences with frequent battles as I never had enough spells to stay alive, forcing me to go back and grind, just to see the next part of the story. I first gave up around the time of the assassination attempt, then at the ‘battle of the Gardens’ or whatever, but just couldn’t be arsed with it.
7 I’d buy and play again in a heartbeat on Steam. Oh wait…oh well. I still have my Playstation discs I suppose. The haters may not get it, had got it, or just dislike JRPGs in general, but to me, it’s everything Baldur’s Gate worshippers chant about, in being a defining RPG of it’s time. Just with a J. And 100% more epic. Sporting a soundtrack and storyline carrying geniune emotional clout in it’s finest moments. A thoroughly deserved classic, no doubt about it and in my eyes, hasn’t been beaten yet by any of it’s sequels, psuedo-sequels, follow-ups or spin-offs. This is the game that dragged me from twitch addiction, to caring about characters and becoming lost in stats and a grand story. I’ll always love it for that.
04/07/2012 at 20:28 Godwhacker says:
Well I’m glad I’m not alone.
@Memph – don’t get me wrong- I loved FF7 too, it’s just that FF8 was a bit more coherent. Possibly. It was a long time ago and I was going through puberty.
04/07/2012 at 17:26 barelyhomosapien says:
FF8 was way better. I always thought my opinion was skewed because I played it first.
04/07/2012 at 21:33 Soziele says:
It was better in some ways. Graphically of course VIII blew VII out of the water, but VII had a more interesting protagonist (one dimensional though he was) and a more interesting story setting (industrial slum of VII vs. techno utopia design of VIII). I will stand by the fact that VIII has the best soundtrack of all the FF games.
However personally I despised VIII for the magic system, way too grindy for my taste. The storyline felt subpar and the “action” elements and button presses for combat felt unnecessary and counterproductive to gaming.
04/07/2012 at 19:02 lordcooper says:
FF VIII was alright plotwise, but the junction system was ridiculously exploitable. You could have maxed out stats with a level ten character. Actually, the level scaling made it so that keeping your level low was the optimal way to play.
04/07/2012 at 21:25 rockman29 says:
That’s a lot of the reason FF VIII was so fun. You could choose just how to play, and it was all within the bounds of the Junction system. Your character can be turned into the ultimate FF character with the junction system.
04/07/2012 at 18:59 Miked says:
Any news of FFVIII being released again?
06/07/2012 at 19:50 Werthead says:
There were rumours of this news from a few months back from the game files for both FF7 and FF8 going onto Steam (Square seem to have changed their minds since and made it exclusive to their own platform). So it looks like there’s a good chance that FF8 will follow.
04/07/2012 at 16:16 Cooper says:
Except that it doesn’t work on 64bit versions of windows, nor does it play well at all with either Vista or 7.
Here’s hoping they fix this. If it’s just a re-release of the same code, hardly anyone will be able to play it…
04/07/2012 at 16:20 Syra says:
still got it, one of the first cd games i ever had :o
04/07/2012 at 22:19 zapatapon says:
Same here, FF7 was my first PC CD bought simultaneously with – of all things – Grim Fandango . Still have both stored somewhere!
04/07/2012 at 16:21 Zelius says:
I can’t imagine they wouldn’t fix it. The leaked official website also cited features such as achievements, so it’s not just a straight port. I’m hoping for higher resolution support as well, but unfortunately that wasn’t mentioned.
Also, it seems like they’ll sell it exclusivey through the Square Enix online store. Meh.
04/07/2012 at 16:33 ffordesoon says:
I can. Square is legendarily penurious, and their PC track record is spotty at best. Plus, they’re a Japanese developer, which seems to automatically mean that a PC port will be broken or halfassed somehow.
Thankfully, they’re not Konami. Those dudes can’t even get console rereleases right. I’m still baffled that Silent Hill 2 and 3 actually look and sound better on a PS2 in SD with stereo sound than they do on a PS3 in HD with DTS 5.1 sound. That was just weird.
04/07/2012 at 17:00 Zelius says:
I wasn’t aware of their spotty track record on PC. My only experience with their PC games is just with games they published (Deus EX: HR and Just Cause 2), but those did seem pretty well optimized.
Either way, it would be an incredibly strange move to not at least make sure the game works on modern operating systems. And I’m hoping they reconsider the Square Enix store exclusivity. I’m not getting yet another online store account.
04/07/2012 at 17:00 FakeAssName says:
that is why they bought Eidos, and it is the absorbed remnants of Eidos that is driving releases like this.
the box may say Squenix, but most everything that is being done in the western world is actually more like a Eidos product.
04/07/2012 at 20:11 MaXimillion says:
To be fair, the PC port of The Last Remnant was far superior to the console version.
04/07/2012 at 17:08 Ruffian says:
it’s playable on win7, at least that’ what I have it on. it is curious that they’re rereleasing it all the sudden. I’d like to see them release it with a nice little graphics update or something.
04/07/2012 at 16:25 Drake Sigar says:
It’s been out for PC from the start. I picked it up back in 98 for the PC, and then again a few years later when it got a neat box set. I played it only a few months ago on Windows 7 64bit. It’s not that hard to get running, you just have to do some digging because the most useful FF7 site was taken down. :/
My hardest game to get running still remains Sid Meier’s Gettysburg.
04/07/2012 at 17:35 mckertis says:
” It’s not that hard to get running,”
Its not hard at all, considering we have frigging emulators, and had them for a decade.
Playstation version on emulator looks significantly better than PC port even BEFORE you factor in all the graphic plugin tweaks.
05/07/2012 at 13:08 dazman76 says:
McKertis – which emulator, and which version did you run FF7 in? I have a fairly old version of ePSXe, which seems to do a great job except for green artifacts all over the backdrops. I suppose given this re-release that the question might be pointless, but I agree with you – given the little tweaks and improvements the emulators themselves can apply, an emulated PS1 version does look rather nice :)
04/07/2012 at 16:42 Snidesworth says:
What they need to do (beyond making it work on modern operating systems) is to sort the music out. The Playstation 1 version got mp3s. The PC got midis that sounded radically different depending on which codec you played them with.
04/07/2012 at 17:49 Cooper says:
Yes. Music. Things they need for this release:
1) At -least- the original MP3s. Preferably something better.
2) Custom resolutions for the screen (i.e: widescreen)
3) Higher resolution backgrounds.
For 3) they exist. They’ve been seen and can be found on the internet. All they need to do is include them. Some of the hand-painted backdrops to FFVII are bloody beautiful.
04/07/2012 at 18:30 zeekthegeek says:
They actually didn’t use MP3 or other wave-based formats for the PS1 soundtrack, that was actually the PS1′s internal sound system format PSF which wasn’t really doable on PC at the time. Hopefully they take the time to implement one for this release – it really was a rather efficient system, that synthesized music from samples in a very interesting manner.
04/07/2012 at 16:26 InternetBatman says:
I still have the disks. It’s a shame it needs a fan-fix to be beatable.
04/07/2012 at 17:01 FakeAssName says:
for some ungodly reason I red this as “I still got the Dicks” on first glance.
04/07/2012 at 17:12 InternetBatman says:
Well, that’s also true, but it’s neither here nor there.
04/07/2012 at 19:05 Nesetalis says:
I /first/ played it on PC, didn’t own a PS1/PS2 until 2002
the PC version was buggy, but i finished it.
04/07/2012 at 19:19 kyrieee says:
Yup.
I remember reading about it in PCG. I think they even had a walkthrough.
04/07/2012 at 22:16 Werthead says:
Yup, I played the whole game from start to finish on the PC three times, the last time five years ago (with the help of a special patch that capped the frame rate on the minigames, which otherwise went absolutely beserk and became unplayable). It was a reasonable port, especially notable for the higher-resolution PC character models. The only problem was that the backgrounds were still the same res as the PS version, meaning that on anything above 640 the backgrounds tended to pixellate noticeably.
04/07/2012 at 16:03 Ice-Fyre says:
Not really a delay, as it did come out on the PC if I remember right…
04/07/2012 at 16:06 faelnor says:
It did. I have it somewhere, stolen from my uncle :/
Any hope for a GOG release? (pre-empting people saying no, since the first G stands for Good)
04/07/2012 at 16:10 OMGBEES says:
It totally was. It and VIII were released on PC by Eidos. NOW SQUENIX OWNS EIDOS. Wheels within wheels, man.
I hope it has the crappy Duck TruMotion Video from the first release. It was always such a pain to get that crap to play in sync with the game.
04/07/2012 at 16:12 scriptedfate says:
Indeed it did come out. It was ported to PC by Eidos back in ’98. I played the hell out of it and their port of FFVIII as, at the time, I had access to a computer but no PSX.
04/07/2012 at 16:13 Chmilz says:
Maybe they mean it’ll actually work on PC, and will have PC controls and interface. I played the 1998 version and it was pretty bad. It would also be super great if they touched-up the textures, sped up some of the aggravatingly slow combat animations, and let us skip any and all cinematics.
04/07/2012 at 16:19 Sparkasaurusmex says:
PC version (98) works fine in Windows 7 and even has a good high res mod.
04/07/2012 at 16:04 renatomrcosta says:
I thought it WAS already on the PC. A remember having finished an “ultima edition” or something some 10-odd years ago o.o
04/07/2012 at 16:05 Stardog says:
What are you talking about? It was released for PC in 1998… FF8 was also released.
04/07/2012 at 16:05 wisnoskij says:
It have been on the PC since 1998…
04/07/2012 at 16:06 Okami says:
Memories….
04/07/2012 at 19:29 TsunamiWombat says:
I’ve…seen things, that you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
04/07/2012 at 21:37 EPICTHEFAIL says:
I do not believe this. Someone finally spelled that with an umlaut. Finally.
04/07/2012 at 16:06 AlphaCentauri says:
As everyone else pointed out: It’s been on the PC since 1998.
04/07/2012 at 16:07 aliksy says:
Interesting. I was thinking of replaying it recently to see if it’s as good as I remember, but I didn’t want to find my old PS1 and disks. If this ends up on Steam for $5 I’ll pick it up.
04/07/2012 at 16:08 Snids says:
Well I still think it’s the business. The setting, the story. The gameplay might be a bit lacking perhaps.(Navigate menus and press X).
Just read a fantastic article on it:
http://nightmaremode.net/2012/07/displacement-in-final-fantasy-vii-20735/
04/07/2012 at 16:09 Jimbo says:
I don’t… what?
This is just an excuse for Cloud Saving jokes isn’t it?
04/07/2012 at 16:14 apocraphyn says:
Or jokes about the natural lack of Aeris Saving.
04/07/2012 at 16:12 Anthile says:
Cloud kills Dumbledore! Or something like that. I don’t quite remember the details.
04/07/2012 at 17:07 Zelius says:
Correct.
Also, Aeris is Tyler Durden.
04/07/2012 at 16:13 Lewie Procter says:
Shame that it’s only going to be available to buy direct from S-E, I hope that’s not a sign of things to come.
04/07/2012 at 16:21 Jams O'Donnell says:
I think a Steam release is also in the offing. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-21-final-fantasy-7-coming-to-steam-leak-suggests
04/07/2012 at 16:28 Lewie Procter says:
Yeah, I saw that, but the official website does say it’s going to be a Square Enix Store exclusive.
04/07/2012 at 17:11 Zelius says:
You’re right, and they’ve confirmed its exclusivity on their Twitter: https://twitter.com/SQUARE_ENIX_EU/status/220502564075094016
I hope this doesn’t mean Square Enix is going the way of EA, and coming up with an exclusive online distribution service of their own.
Edit: What’s interesting, though, is that both FFVII’s and FFVIII’s (!) game files have been on Steam for a while. Either it will be available at a later date, or they had a change of heart. Source.
04/07/2012 at 16:13 misterT0AST says:
I don’t think it’s worth playing at this point, if I’ve never touched it before. Thanks anyway.
04/07/2012 at 16:17 eleclipse says:
This game will always be worth it.
04/07/2012 at 16:31 dE says:
I don’t necessarily agree with that statement. It was an okay game for its time and for many people it was “baby’s first JRPG”. Since then, it didn’t really age that well. It’s that early 3D look. I can still play the 2D Titles just fine (Chrono Trigger, FF6, etc). Plus the formula has been done to death with countless iterations of the very same story (a lot of which have been made by the Square Enix Beast itself).
If you’ve played any JRPG released after FF7, you’ve got a pretty good idea about the story, gameplay, characters, scenery and music already. People say Call of Duty is the yearly release of the same game. Well, almost the entire JRPG Genre has been re-releasing FF7 ever since.
04/07/2012 at 16:43 rockman29 says:
I wish this statement wasn’t so false. It should really be change to reflect REALITY. Jeez.
Sighs, writing off the golden age of JRPGs is just dumb. Final Fantasy VII was part of the peak of that age. Other games like Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Earthbound, Star Ocean, Chrono Trigger, and even single game like Legend of Dragoon, and a whole array of the best Final Fantasy games ever made were part of this period.
The gameplay hasn’t aged. JRPGs just don’t know how to re-create how great the gameplay was in these games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VII. If you don’t play these JRPGs from this time then you may as well say you haven’t played many JRPGs, this was their time. And they’ve aged wonderfully in gameplay and presentation.
04/07/2012 at 16:51 Xercies says:
I would agree FF7 is not a corridor where you go down a single path waiting for random encounters, it has a big world you can explore with really great storyline and one of the best video game scores i can think of. I have played it recently and it still surprisingly holds up as a game.
04/07/2012 at 16:54 MikoSquiz says:
I thought that said “the writing of the Golden Age of RPGs is really dumb” and was in hearty agreement, then got very confused.
04/07/2012 at 17:17 dE says:
Oh what a splendid most. Ignoring everything I said, assuming really quite a lot about what I’ve and have not played and then going on about how it’s dumb to have a different opinion from yours. Bugger off.
Just a short note:
JRPGs just don’t know how to re-create how great the gameplay was in these games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VII.
Basically what I said, minus considering FF7 a golden age game. So why are you going off on a tangent again? And yes I don’t consider FF7 the golden age of JRPGs, it was the turning point where they became more visual fluff and less game. And the visual fluff suffers greatly from the early 3D graphics.
04/07/2012 at 21:35 rockman29 says:
“I thought that said “the writing of the Golden Age of RPGs is really dumb” and was in hearty agreement, then got very confused.”
That depends which games. FF VII and Chrono Cross among others have incredible translations. Other games… like Legend of Dragoon… not at all.
04/07/2012 at 17:08 liquidsoap89 says:
I’ve gotta disagree here. While I don’t think FF7 is the best RPG I’ve ever played, it’s held up surprisingly well over the years. I played it for the first time just 2 or 3 years ago on my PSP and I was still really impressed with the game.
I can just imagine shitting a brick if I played this when it first came out.
04/07/2012 at 17:20 magnus says:
Spot on, couldn’t have put it better myself, it was FF10 that was the final nail in the coffin as regards to JRPG’s for me.
05/07/2012 at 14:29 CrookedLittleVein says:
“I don’t necessarily agree with that statement. It was an okay game for its time and for many people it was “baby’s first JRPG”. Since then, it didn’t really age that well. It’s that early 3D look. I can still play the 2D Titles just fine (Chrono Trigger, FF6, etc). Plus the formula has been done to death with countless iterations of the very same story (a lot of which have been made by the Square Enix Beast itself). If you’ve played any JRPG released after FF7, you’ve got a pretty good idea about the story, gameplay, characters, scenery and music already. People say Call of Duty is the yearly release of the same game. Well, almost the entire JRPG Genre has been re-releasing FF7 ever since.”
By that “logic” we might as well dismiss M, Watchmen, The Prisoner or Duchamp’s Fountain. Not that I’m saying FFVII is a masterpiece, obviously.
04/07/2012 at 16:18 Toberoth says:
Dickens? Never read him before. Better not bother.
04/07/2012 at 16:21 Syra says:
Agreed!
04/07/2012 at 16:49 Xercies says:
Also I have no interest in that shakespeare bloke either!
04/07/2012 at 16:24 Syra says:
The stairs bit is hilarious, they even call each other retards on the way up.
Clearly they love Cloud so much they let you save your Cloud to the cloud so you can cloud whilst you Cloud. Oh man Cloud just lost all meaning O_o.
04/07/2012 at 16:26 Toberoth says:
God I loved this to death on PC when I was a wee lad (11 or 12 when it came out). The music was all messed up and it was slow as heck and the controls were weird but by crikey I put 300 hours or so into it and it had an incalculable effect on the way I approach games even now.
04/07/2012 at 16:31 greenbananas says:
Meh. How about instead of a re-release of this, one got a release of Shining Force 3? That I’d like. And with all 3 discs, if you please.
04/07/2012 at 16:32 ananachaphobiac says:
I can finally take my revenge upon Ruby and Emerald weapon!
04/07/2012 at 16:34 secretdoorinvisiblewall says:
“That’s a delay of fifteen years for the PC version. Could be a record.”
It was actually released for PC slightly after the original PSX release (in the USA at least, don’t know about other regions). Guess they might as well cash in again, though. There’s always a few people out there who don’t know how to use an emulator to run their old PSX discs.
04/07/2012 at 16:37 pilouuuu says:
Do you guys think it’s to dated to be played now or I could have fun with this game? I don’t care about achievements by the way. I’d like FF XIII to be released on the PC. I know it’s not a great game, but it looks fantastic!
04/07/2012 at 16:48 x1501 says:
For me, XIII, X, and X-2 were the weakest games in the series, so I’d rather vote for a chance to replay underrated FF XII on PC display resolutions. FF XIII in particular is something I never want to experience again. The combat system, level design, and writing are just atrocious.
04/07/2012 at 18:16 AmateurScience says:
It’s actually possible to emulate XII pretty well on a mid-ranged PC, and it looks absolutely fantastic upscaled to a decent resolution. You’ll need the disk but PCPSX2 is the emulator of champions.
I recently replayed it on the PC, it’s definitely one of my favourite post-snes final fantasies.
04/07/2012 at 16:40 The Sombrero Kid says:
sounds like they shit all over it
04/07/2012 at 16:44 The Sombrero Kid says:
everyone saying it came out in 98 has swapped their brain for Wikipedia, it came out in 97 on pc, i know because i was there & played it, Wikipedia is probably talking about the us release.
04/07/2012 at 16:49 rockman29 says:
It came out on PS1 in North America in 1997 also. I played it in 1997 on PS1. The game’s opening even lists a 1997 copyright for the NA release on PS1.
04/07/2012 at 16:53 DPB says:
I’m certain it was 1998 on PC, it was released round about the time I got my first computer. It was featured on the cover and reviewed in PC Gamer.
04/07/2012 at 17:02 The Sombrero Kid says:
i think my memory is bullshiting me.
04/07/2012 at 16:47 rockman29 says:
I like how all the FMVs are fast forwarded in the trailer so they are 60 FPS… that’s just retarded.
04/07/2012 at 16:49 The Sombrero Kid says:
lol nice try i doubt they’ll bite though.
04/07/2012 at 16:49 cowardly says:
Ah, stairs… We meet again!
04/07/2012 at 16:50 MistyMike says:
Can somebody in the know (not fanboys) say in a nutshell why is this game considered such a landmark and is it still worth playing today (for those of us that missed it)?
04/07/2012 at 16:57 RakeShark says:
3D Cinematics, a fairly good music score, decent combat, death of your party’s healer via cutscene being the pre-Revan big shocker, a bit of off-beat oddness, and it’s Final Fantasy. I think that’s it.
04/07/2012 at 21:40 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Thank you for making it sound brain-numbingly boring.
05/07/2012 at 01:37 Hardlylikely says:
That is essentially what it boils down to for someone who is not invested in the game itself or the JRPG subgenre.
04/07/2012 at 16:57 MikoSquiz says:
It had amazing cutting-edge graphics and was many console gamers’ first exposure to a massive-world RPG. It also has a bit of a mind screw plot and a main character dies, which were also potentially firsts for young gamers. (The mind screw plot is comically convoluted and extremely silly, and the character that dies has all the depth and complexity of a cardboard biscuit, just like all the other one-note wonders that make up the main cast, but you don’t really notice these things when you’re a child.)
04/07/2012 at 17:00 The Sombrero Kid says:
I despise almost all JRPGs but i can say that the 2 things that make this game unmissable is the sheer versatility of the materia system, combine that with the rewards for doing the optional battles & the fact the optional battle required leveling way past the point you were able to beat the game, all those things combined made it a true rpg with a story based jrpg inside it rather than the linear snooze fest that most jrpgs are.
04/07/2012 at 17:41 mckertis says:
“sheer versatility of the materia system”
Which at the same time made all character completely interchangeable and devoid of any uniqueness.
04/07/2012 at 19:20 x1501 says:
Oh, come on. Devoid of ANY uniqueness? Individual Limit Breaks, distinctive combat animations, unique character weapons, some stat variations at the early levels, character-specific story development leading to personal character preferences—things like that well compensated for the interchangeability of the Materia system and made the FFVII characters no less unique than in any other game. Besides, if the visual difference between, say, Tifa and Red XIII is not apparent enough for you, I think a visit to a good optometrist may be in order.
04/07/2012 at 17:23 Calabi says:
In my opinion its immersion and expectations. Like you know how most games you know what to expect. I mean you know the flow of the game from the beginning safe places, what type of gameplay and where. With Final Fantasy VII it pushes back against that a bit. FMVs you can move in. Varied gameplay that you dont know what your going to have to do and when. Unexpected things happening during battles. The story just kept on going and going and going but never got tired and became more epic with lots of revelations.
04/07/2012 at 17:59 Shooop says:
It was 3D.
Basically that’s it. The story is convoluted tripe and the characters are one-dimensional and probably were created only to be used for Rule 34.
04/07/2012 at 18:42 Aerothorn says:
Mike – I wrote about 20 pages on the subject for a (soon to be published) book. I can send you the manuscript of that chapter if you want it (in which case, e-mail me at aerothorn at gmail dawt com)
04/07/2012 at 17:05 Hypernetic says:
I will likely buy this, play it for a couple hours, and then never finish it like I did with the PSP version. It’s not the it’s not a good game, I’ve played through it to 100% several times… it’s just that I’ve played through it to 100% several times.
04/07/2012 at 17:05 therealspratt says:
Now if only they would release IX…
04/07/2012 at 17:43 MortalWombat says:
Oh golly gosh, YES! Ple-eeease!
04/07/2012 at 18:22 Silluete says:
oh yes please, 1000 needle yes.
04/07/2012 at 18:26 Urthman says:
This is actually the only Final Fantasy game I’ve played, and I played it on PC using the PSX disks and an emulator. It worked great, and also gives you the chance to quicksave anywhere, which cuts down on some of the tedium as you don’t have to replay huge chunks of stuff when you lose a battle or have some other catastrophe. Lets you cheat on the card game too, if you want.
04/07/2012 at 20:15 Memph says:
I hated those card games. Absolute hatred of the tallest, gurniest order.
05/07/2012 at 06:11 jrodman says:
Sure, the card game was dreadful, but it’s just not a Final Fantasy unless there’s a minigame that’s awful for you to hate.
(Okay, this is limited to versions above a point but hey, i’m just being a snark here).
04/07/2012 at 17:13 mouton says:
To each their own, but I never really liked the game. Tons of grind, typical animu confusing nonsense, overblown pathos… I guess it reminds people of the time their backs didn’t hurt and they didn’t have to work.
04/07/2012 at 17:13 Futurecast says:
Has anyone mentioned the mods for this yet?
http://kotaku.com/5910318/you-want-your-final-fantasy-vii-hd-remaster-well-here-it-is?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_facebook&utm_source=kotaku_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
04/07/2012 at 17:17 BobTheJanitor says:
Wow, what a terrible trailer. I mean, for a normal trailer for a normal game no one’s heard of, it would be okay, if somewhat generic. But for this particular game it’s a huge wasted opportunity. Your primary target for this should be people who remember the game from their youth, and the way you get them scrabbling for their wallets is with something very subdued that highlights some piece of memorable music (just the standard intro music would be a good start) that’s going to reach out and grab them right by the nostalgia-laden bits of their subconscious. Then just flash a few memorable scenes from the game while cutting to some faster and more exciting music, then just show the release date. Bang, wallets out.
You want your trailer to express the message (without literally saying it) ‘this is a very important game that demands your respect.’ Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, that’s how you get people excited to re-buy a 15 year old title. As a person who played this as a youngster when it first released, that’s the sort of thing that’s going to grab me. When I heard GENERIC ANNOUNCER MAN telling me so blatantly that this is a classic that I should love, I actually got less interested in buying it. Way to go!
04/07/2012 at 17:42 jrodman says:
I doubt modern gamers will really find this to their tastes.
It has some magic, but a lot of klunk. And I doubt that’s being addressed.
04/07/2012 at 17:44 Aerothorn says:
Showed a friend the ‘taking the stairs” video at college last year. Truly one of the game’s best moments.
Gets a lot of hate in the PC community, but it truly is a landmark video game. Wrote a chapter on it for my senior thesis, appreciated it a lot more when playing through it again as preparation. Translation remains god-awful (though at least the PC version fixed some typographical errors) but the rest remains charming.
04/07/2012 at 17:58 Maldomel says:
That’s an odd decision. Yes, better late than never, but I think there are already many people who played it (pc or not) or know about the story in general.
It is still a very good game (in my memories at least), but the aging graphics and story that can appear very banal today might hinder this and make it a minor release. Actually it would be better if it ended up like this, if only to show Square they need to let go of it. They have tried too much and too hard to capitalize on FFVII already, and at the same time they lost their edge with the whole Final Fantasy licence over time.
04/07/2012 at 17:59 Totally heterosexual says:
ix and then we might have a deal.
04/07/2012 at 18:21 Urthman says:
If anyone is seriously interested in playing this on PC, I can pretty much guarantee a better experience if you buy the PSX version and play it on an emulator.
05/07/2012 at 06:13 jrodman says:
You’re probably right. Although cleaning up the control scheme OR the translation would be a big step up.
04/07/2012 at 18:24 Zeewolf says:
This was actually released for the PC in 1977.
04/07/2012 at 23:35 Universal Quitter says:
Too bad this was on page 3, lol. Best comment of the article.
04/07/2012 at 18:28 phenom_x8 says:
They should remake FF 12 for PC, the grand story (no more silly teens romance),atmospheric setting (cyberpunk middle age era, guys!), deep gameplay (with tactics, point and click??),huge maps and great voice over (I love Basch voice actor very much) feels more than adequate to be called ‘PC enough’.
It’s my most played PS2 game(my nephews PS2 actually, my PC can’t run it at that time, sadly I couldnt finished it due to limited vacation time). I knew I can run it on my latest PC with emulator, but native PC version with better graphic (and FMV) would be very nice!
04/07/2012 at 20:55 FunkyBadger3 says:
Shame about the hateful characters.
04/07/2012 at 23:34 Universal Quitter says:
Or reinvent it as a 1st person shooter….
04/07/2012 at 19:39 alilsneaky says:
What a dumb trailer… Michael bay presents: final fantasy 7…
04/07/2012 at 20:21 Memph says:
Your cave may not have received the memo, but those cutscenes practically predate the common internet, let alone michael bay themed you-tube clip criticisms.
05/07/2012 at 14:01 Ralphomon says:
Yes, but this trailer for the new release and the editing therein that seeks to depict this game as a Bayesque explod-a-thon does not. Michael Bay references are both legitimate and apt in this case.
04/07/2012 at 19:47 Heliocentric says:
I still have this in a 3CD boxset. ^_^ Ah, stupid hoarding ways.
04/07/2012 at 20:54 FunkyBadger3 says:
My one – well maybe two – gaming claim to fame is killing Underwater Weapon with using Knights of the Round.
It took bloody ages.
04/07/2012 at 23:33 Universal Quitter says:
If you’re good at exploiting the game, WEAPONS are easy. W-item, hero-drink, and 4x cut.
04/07/2012 at 21:13 Gasmask Hero says:
Oh so, am I going to have to do the Gold chocobo grind for the FOURTH time in my life? Well Square-Enix, if that is your real name, I say NO. It’s time to reject this tyranny!
Although, I might actually finish it this time instead of getting the the final part and finding something else to do.
Why don’t they re-release VIII while they’re at it? I need a crack at pulling some of those GFs I missed the previous two times…
04/07/2012 at 22:02 paddymaxson says:
I’ll get it if it goes on steam….in a sale…who knows, maybe at 1080p it might not look completely like dog shit.
04/07/2012 at 22:21 Ethyls says:
And, just so people know, Aerith wasn’t killed by Sephiroth.
05/07/2012 at 00:37 Heliocentric says:
No, it was drowning.
05/07/2012 at 19:15 Ethyls says:
That, and J.E.N.O.V.A.
04/07/2012 at 22:24 Werthead says:
Interesting. If they do a fresh translation – the original English version was terrible – and if they allow players to skip the cut scenes and spell animations, it’ll be worth a re-purchase. Otherwise no. I’ve sat through Sephiroth’s complete Supernova spell sequence enough times for one life.
04/07/2012 at 22:32 Rahlon says:
It appears that this has been in the work as early as last year, it seems it was originally intended for a steam release. It’s also apparent that they’ve used a lot of fan made fixes, though I doubt they are still in the “new” release.
http://www.rpgsite.net/news/1782-ffviis-pc-rerelease-is-exclusive-to-the-square-enix-store–but-the-game-files-are-still-on-steam
http://rpgsite.net/articles/294-final-fantasy-vii-and-viii-are-on-steam–but-will-likely-never-see-release
It also hints that ff8 might possibly be in the works.
04/07/2012 at 23:31 Universal Quitter says:
When they made Final Fantasy X-2, I got irritated. When they remade the opening movie for VII as a tech demo for the PS3, I got suspicious. Now, I think they’re just flat out saying ‘FUCK YOU’ to anyone that wanted a current-gen remake or proper sequel to what was (likely) the greatest (console) RPG of it’s time.
And only pussies complain about the awesome stair-level. What gamer doesn’t want to wear out his D-pad, running back and forth for five minutes? Thumb blisters and A.D.D. induced anxiety build character.
05/07/2012 at 00:38 Heliocentric says:
No-one forced you to not take the lift.
04/07/2012 at 23:35 DrSlek says:
I know for a fact that over a decade ago, after my family getting our first PC, I played the demo of FF7.
So that game never actually came out, eh? Oh well.
04/07/2012 at 23:57 Jupiah says:
This is a joke right? The game has already been released on PC, what exactly is the point of rereleasing it with nothing but pointless achievements, unnecessary online features, and a stupid built in cheat code?
Are they seriously not gonna remake the graphics? Or fix the shoddy translation? Or add new quests, items and other content? Remix the music maybe? No, they’re not gonna give anyone that already owns this a reason to buy it again? Bare minimum of effort to update it for new operating systems and nothing else? Okay then.
05/07/2012 at 02:26 MadTinkerer says:
I do hope they redid the script. The original dialogue is often forgiven because it was most Westerners’ first encounter with the franchise, but it really was sub-par and wouldn’t be tolerated today.
That said, Final Fantasy VII is one of the most important PC RPGs ever. At the time it came out, the three biggest franchises (Ultima, Wizardry, and Might & Magic) were all suffering and indeed, almost gone. (The Elder Scrolls series was in the middle of it’s own detour at the time: two years after Daggerfall and four years before Morrowind.) Action “RPG”s such as Diablo and First Person Shooters were doing fine, and people were declaring the entire genre dead. Remember, this was shortly before Baldur’s Gate (and a year before Ultima IX), and during the same time that graphic adventures were disappearing from shelves. So if you asked any Marketing Drone what PC gamers wanted they’d tell you that everyone wants action and nobody wants story.
No new PROPER Western RPGs, no new graphic adventures. Nobody is funding them because they’re “dying” genres. But then Final Fantasy VII PC comes along and sells bucket-loads. And also Baldur’s Gate as well, but that was a D&D licensed CRPG so it’s not super surprising. So even though pretty much all the old franchises died, the consolation prize was a whole new wave of RPGs that proved the genre wasn’t dead, and Final Fantasy VII was right there at the start.
So WHY THE FUCK DOES EVERYONE MAKE GENERIC SWORDS & SORCERY RPGs!?!?! Yeah, okay: D&D licensed RPGs get a pass because D&D. Fallout? No: that’s just reviving an old existing franchise, so it doesn’t count. Can we PLEASE get a new RPG franchise that isn’t generic swords & sorcery!?! Final Fantasy VII proved that cross-genre stuff can sell!
Also FF9PC plz.
05/07/2012 at 02:53 TaroYamada says:
Cool re-release, played it and beat it on PS1 and still one of the best games ever in my book.
05/07/2012 at 06:20 Voon says:
Nah, I’d much rather a IX port. Or a reboot. Whichever comes first.
05/07/2012 at 07:59 frightlever says:
I played the std coupla hundred hours of FFVII when it came out on PC. Decent game, but I never bought into the series. Found FFVIII tedious and never looked at the series after.I can probably play the majority of them on my wristwatch these days.
Don’t remember that stairs scene but it is reminiscent of the driving scene in the movie version of A Clockwork Orange.
05/07/2012 at 08:25 RegisteredUser says:
Has someone linked that one guy’s heartfelt post / blog about that map and final fantasy yet?
Can’t remember the guy’s name, but it was a long, elaborate ponder on JRPGs and FF.
And there may have been either a purple-ish or pink hue to the blog or font. :P
05/07/2012 at 12:32 Felixader says:
Here is a fun fact: I heard the Phrase “Someone-someone-in-the-game”-dies LOOOOOONG before i ever played the game (it just slipped by me, beeing a Nintendo fanboy at that age) and never realized what it meant.
I played it a few years ago on the PC (awfull controls) and even then only erealized it when it happened.
05/07/2012 at 17:16 RegisteredUser says:
I rather like what they did with the website of the same name.
06/07/2012 at 01:50 Suits says:
FF7DLC climbing your way from the stairwell
08/07/2012 at 14:47 krizza3d says:
MULTIPLAYER CHOCOBO RACES!!!!!!!???????
08/07/2012 at 21:30 rebelphoenix says:
You should really consider re-writing the entire first paragraph. It just makes you look bad as a game journalist to not know that FF7 already had a PC release. Five minutes on google and you would have known that.