Wada: "FFVII remake = 10x the length of FFXIII project."

[Rostum]

All the plot, game system and balancing are already done. SE has a game engine already to run it all. Essentially all they have to do is slap new textures/models on everything. I don't see how that would take 30-40 years.

Proof you know nothing of which you speak in terms of what's involved during development.

I'm not saying it'd actually take them 40 years (my guess is he was exagerating), but to say that's all that's involved is utter hogwash. To model, texture, light and animate an environment (especially at the ridiculous expectation of detail that people have these days) requires an immense amount of time, skill and talent on behalf of not only the artists and programmers but also the directors and managers.

And it certainly doesn't just involve texturing and modelling (which takes a very long time as it is), but you're also looking at character rigging (a very technical and creative process which is time consuming), character animation (this is probably the most time consuming thing from an art perspective; an animation studio that did Saturday morning cartoons that I knew a lot about did about 20 seconds of animation per week) and post-processing things like particles and lighting which are a whole other beast in themselves. I won't even get into the technical/coding side of things, where optimisation is such a huge aspect.

Basically, to get a high production project done you're looking at spending about 50,000,000USD and about 3-5 years of your time. These figures are nothing to be scoffed at, and you're in a huge amount of risk if things go wrong. These huge companies do know what they're doing; they do know what talent and skills to hire for their company. They aren't slack, they aren't stupid, etc. etc. They are just weighing up the risks involved and the extremely high expectations the industry and fanbase expect from such a project.

I am honestly not surprised it'd take longer than any project they've done thus far, but I am really guessing that the 30-40 years statement is completely exagerated.

Edit: Btw, that's just talking about the production phase. Pre-production and post-production stuff adds on probably double or tripple the time.

[Mirage]

Personally, I still feel it would be better if SE made the main game use the KH/Crisis Core engine and then used the Advent Children stuff for the cutscenes with maybe a few more scenes given the full CGI treatment. At least this way we don't have to suffer through the god awful AC desings of the characters and stick to the game's anime roots in terms of design.

I don't see why the choice of graphics engine would affect the visual style of the characters. If they used the crystal tools, they could probably get away with not having prerendered videos at all.

I am honestly not surprised it'd take longer than any project they've done thus far, but I am really guessing that the 30-40 years statement is completely exagerated.

Edit: Btw, that's just talking about the production phase. Pre-production and post-production stuff adds on probably double or tripple the time.

I don't quite understand why the development of this remake would take more time than any other game of similar technical quality. I mean even if it takes a really long time to make models, textures, animations and such, you still have to do that for other games too.

[Jiro]

They keep the fire well stoked. It sells games.

[PeneloRatsbane]

They should do it in the style of 7,8 and 9. Set backgrounds, obviously amped up, paths to walk on to get in shops and stuff. free range outside, Don't make everything to big and 3d (which is how i felt in DOC and CC) because it becomes generic. just keep it the way it is will all absurd lil scenes and details, but just make it more asthetic and maybe chuck in a few extra bits for funnsies

[VeloZer0]

When I play FFVII nowadays the pre-rendered backgrounds still look great. I am always amazed by how well they have stood up to modern fully rendered environments. Sprites not so much

The game would probably be completely stunning if they stuck with some remade super high res pre-rendered backgrounds.

Basically, to get a high production project done you're looking at spending about 50,000,000USD and about 3-5 years of your time. These figures are nothing to be scoffed at, and you're in a huge amount of risk if things go wrong. These huge companies do know what they're doing; they do know what talent and skills to hire for their company. They aren't slack, they aren't stupid, etc. etc. They are just weighing up the risks involved and the extremely high expectations the industry and fanbase expect from such a project.

The point of the quote was it would take ridiculously longer than production of a normal game. I'm not saying that the activities I described would be fast, but there is still a ton of crap already done for them. Chopping of all the writing, design and game engine is a significant savings for any project.

[PeneloRatsbane]

When I play FFVII nowadays the pre-rendered backgrounds still look great. I am always amazed by how well they have stood up to modern fully rendered environments. Sprites not so much

The game would probably be completely stunning if they stuck with some remade super high res pre-rendered backgrounds.

Yeah thats what I was thinking whilst i was playing it the other day. The enviroment of the vii world contributes so much to the overall feel and atmosphere of the game that any significant alteration may actually damage it. Thats why they should focus on the sprites.
The thing is, that done right and with an original approach that combines the classic RPG style with modern graphical advances they could make something great, That fans of the original game, and those who have been put off by the graphics could both love

[champagne supernova]

Actually, I've just had a little bit of a think through of this. Now I'm sure someone (at least one) will disagree with me, but the world of XIII is probably the same size, if not bigger, than the world of VII (excluding the World Map). The areas that you can explore in Palumpolum are bigger than the areas one can explore in Midgar (even including the Shin-Ra building) and then there are still places such as Nautilus and Eden, which would more than cover the other towns. Then there is the whole of Gran Pulse, plus all the wild areas in Cocoon, which are definitely bigger than all of VII's dungeons.

My point here is that, if XIII is roughly the same size of VII, then it shouldn't take longer to make. What will kill it, graphics side at least, would be a fully rendered World Map. It will be very interesting to see how they have achieved this in Versus.

But it's not just the graphics. In XIII, every line of dialogue was voiced - there was no text for unimportant characters. I think Square will need to continue this trend for VII, which will require a lot of voice talent (although, to be honest, Elder Scrolls probably has more dialogue than VII).

There is also no need to wait for a new graphics engine to be created. Crystal Tools will probably be able to render all of VII's pre-rendered backgrounds on the fly. Which could mean less loading times (like in XIII). Obviously, characters would also be now look a lot more realistic.

But I really don't think it is the graphics side of things that would hold up development. There are just so many hard decisions to be made and so much expectations around the game, that the developers would take forever polishing. Someone said Duke Nukem: Forever. Well, that's what would end up happening here.

[VeloZer0]

I don't see why the world map would take so long. It isn't really THAT big. It is probably the Same size as the Calm Lands in FF13. (you know what I mean).

I think one of the reasons FF13 took so much modeling is that you can move the camera and look WAY off in the distance in every direction. If they kept a fixed camera the amount of environment modeling that would need to be done is probably less than a third of that for a free camera.

[Mo-Nercy]

FFVII Remake = The new Duke Nukem Forever?

[Aerith's Knight]

Why the hell would we want it like FFXIII? We're not that spoiled.

[seiferalmasy2]

I think the very fact they are telling you it would take 10x longer to make VII than XIII should tell you the gulf in quality between the 2 games.

[blackmage_nuke]

I think the thing development time will most likely depend on is whether they want to let us be able to rotate/control the off battle camera

[Mirage]

I think the very fact they are telling you it would take 10x longer to make VII than XIII should tell you the gulf in quality between the 2 games.

I don't.
The "quality" aspects of the game are already done (story, characters, setting, battle system, etc). The things that would be changed are graphics, sound effects, music quality (i hope!) and perhaps the addition of voice acting. Why would any of these things, that are already done in other new games, suddenly take 10 times longer to do?

Furthermore, I don't know if it's possible, but all the textures and models they used when they made the pre-rendered backgrounds, would they be possible to reuse in a new realtime graphics engine? This question is probably mostly aimed at Omecle, no guesswork from others if you don't know for sure, please :p.

I mean those things are pretty detailed and stuff, they might hold up to realtime PS3 standards.

[VeloZer0]

This question is probably mostly aimed at Omecle, no guesswork from others if you don't know for sure, please

[champagne supernova]

Furthermore, I don't know if it's possible, but all the textures and models they used when they made the pre-rendered backgrounds, would they be possible to reuse in a new realtime graphics engine? This question is probably mostly aimed at Omecle, no guesswork from others if you don't know for sure, please .

I mean those things are pretty detailed and stuff, they might hold up to realtime PS3 standards.

I'm not a genius about graphics, but those pre-rendered backgrounds are basically pictures which the characters are then placed on. Although I suppose they must have some sort of texture or model when they were initially rendered. But I doubt that they can just be picked up & re-used.

But I think what Squenix is trying to say is that they don't want to find short-cuts to make VII. Yes, there are a whole lot of things they could just pick up from VII. And they could have a World Map lacking detail. But they want VII to have the production values that they achieved with XIII.

However, to say it's going to take 10 times as long because of graphics is a load of rubbish. Elder Scrolls IV took 4 years to make and it makes VII's entire world look tiny. It has much more dialogue (all fully voiced).

I have a strange feeling that a VII remake might not be that far away actually. Why else would Square-Enix be making statements like this that make no sense?