Next up in this 🧵: another rare interview from V Jump's special February 15, 1997 issue—this time with Yoshinori Kitase. FFVII's director speaks about his cinema-like responsibilities and comments on the the game's noteworthy story. (Scans courtesy of @duskyLimestone 🙏)
Kitase says that the increased capacity of CD-ROMs allowed for more realistic imaginary worlds than ever before. You didn't have to craftily manipulate and recycle a limited pool of assets, which translated to much more variety in locations and NPC models.
The shift to 3D graphics also liberated the team from limitations imposed by 2D worlds. You could now model a town in 3D space and arrange it as you saw fit instead of having to entirely redraw things if you decided the layout wasn't satisfactory.
FFVII allowed Kitase to create a visual-heavy production that resembled the ideal in his head. But imitating movies and simply tracing cinematic techniques wasn't enough. He had to be bold and take the game in a brave new direction.
The conventional "grammar of games" involved moving characters to locations, fighting a routine boss battle, returning to uneventful field maps, and occasionally seeing some flashy events. Kitase strove to break this reassuring yet very contrived-feeling pattern.
Kitase says FFVII's freshness came from how it broke the mold with its flowing visuals and story, making it feel much less contrived than previous RPGs. Where the norm was to have a few standout scenes at the beginning, middle, and end, FFVII included upwards of 40 all throughout
The materia system was a new take on FF's classic them of mixing and matching abilities to strategize against enemies. With items, the staff was worried there would be too many for players to find favorites, but they stuck with the amount for the sake of varied strategy.
Kitase says FFVII's story is set up as a three-act structure centered around Cloud's inner struggle. Each part corresponds to some leg of his personal journey, unlike in previous games, where the story would be divided into two worlds (e.g., World of Balance and World of Ruin).
Kitase says the first part of FFVII's story is made to feel like a conventional FF plot, with a black and white battle against evil. But then Aerith dies, and the story takes a turn for the enigmatic. [1/2]
Zack is introduced, and after retracing Cloud's past and addressing his trauma to some degree, the third act begins—a grand spectacle of Hollywood proportions. Kitase believed FFVII presented one path for the future direction of the video game medium. [2/2]
Stay tuned for the interview with Nomura coming up next (though it will likely be interrupted by the FFXVI coverage this week)
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Before the FFVII Rebirth Ultimania comes out, I wanted to write a thread on where my personal theorizing stands. This is more for posterity and future reflection than anything else, but feel free to follow along. 🧵
Disclaimer: I usually deal in either direct translations or straight shitposting, and not so much in theorycrafting, which, respectfully, lies somewhere in between. For god's sake, don't respect anything I say more than what you yourself think.
1. The Nature of Reality
The lifestream is a continuum of spiritual energy that extends into all space and time the planet ever has and ever will occupy. It's a macro model for the fluidity of individual human consciousness, and a micro model for the expanse of the whole cosmos.
For me, one of the biggest takeaways from that Kojima article is that to a contemporary Japanese audience, mako and Shinra's abuse of it bore a lot more similarity to nuclear power than fossil fuels.
We tend to see FFVII's mako harvesting and pollution underplot as a clear allegory for fossil fuel extraction and global warming. But I think that relationship is actually secondary.
From the terminology (mako reactor/魔晄炉 = nuclear reactor/原子炉) to the layout of the plants to the irradiation and mutation-inducing effects of mako, the parallels with nuclear power are much stronger.
I've got something a little different for you in this 🧵. It's an article from the June 1997 issue of Jugemu. "Philosophizing FFVII" is a contemporary Japanese analysis of FFVII's plot, characters, and mythos that delves into the game's late '90s cultural and media inspirations.
The author of the article is Yukihiro Kojima, then–Jugemu staff writer who later went on to work for the hugely successful MMO developer and publisher GungHo Entertainment (Puzzle & Dragons, Grandia Online, Ragnarok Online JP server).
Please note I won't be transcribing and fully translating this article as it's not an interview or part of an official guidebook. However, the full scans are available thanks to the incredible @duskyLimestone. Also, I won't use many signal phrases, so let's all please be tactful.
Next up in FFXVI coverage: translations from GameWatch's interview with Yoshida, Takai, and Suzuki, conducted by the inimitable Rina Asami
FFXVI's seamless boss fights, which transition fluidly from human to Eikon scale, left a big impression on Asami. Takai says some QTEs have been added in to maintain engagement during long cinematic portions.
Asami also remarks how excellent the musical transitions are. It was impossible to tell where one track ended and the next began. Soken and the sounds team put a lot of effort into splitting songs into multiple sections that flow with the battles.
I'll be kicking off today's FFXVI coverage with translations from 4Gamer's interview Naoki Yoshida, Hiroshi Takai, and Ryо̄ta Suzuki. 🧵
4Gamer was one of the first to player the new FFXVI demo. Their impression: over-the-top good. Yoshida responds with relief, not knowing whether others would think it's as good as the devs themselves do.
Of special note is the incredible production value of the Eikon battles. They recycle virtually zero assets and feel as though you're controlling an epic CG movie. The battles seemlessly progress from human vs. human scale to human vs. Eikon to Eikon vs. Eikon.
In this 🧵: the next rare interview from V Jump's special February 15, 1997 issue is with Tetsuya Nomura. Involved not only with character design but overall planning and scenario, Nomura discusses FFVII's highlights and shares some of his art. (Scans from @duskyLimestone
🙏)
Although Nomura didn't let the constraint of polygons affect his initial character designs for FFVII, when it came time to model them, he had to change various aspects and give detailed instructions. (Image text: "Remote control antenna"; "This shoulder is a little bigger")
Nomura says he was mindful to draw monsters that felt at home in FFVII's futuristic world, eschewing more medieval designs. The switch to CD-ROMs allowed for much more enemy variety and a reduction in palette swaps, which was something Sakaguchi wanted to do away with entirely.