Final Fantasy VII Remake Trailer

This video was shown at Sony’s second State of Play event. The State of Play events are to replace their keynotes at E3 much like how Nintendo handles their E3 announcements via Directs. The biggest news is obviously the Final Fantasy VII remake. This game was teased about 4 years ago and this trailer is proof that, if anything, it is still being developed. Some thoughts:

• The English voice acting is terrible. I hope it comes with the option of running Japanese audio with English subtitles. I remember when Fire Emblem Fates was released on 3DS, there was a lot of disappointment in having only English audio. Nintendo may have learned from this mistake once Xenoblade Chronicles for the Switch came out in the US, as they provided a day one patch that offered a Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles option. I realize the trailer is just a teaser ahead of the release. One of the things that bothered me about the lip syncing is that the mouth movement was tuned for Japanese but never re-rendered for English. It’s completely jarring but I get it. It would cost a lot to re-render scenes just to match whatever language the game is played in. I get it, but it’s the actual quality of the voice acting that bothered me. Example: at exactly one minute into the video, the guy with the red bandana. Also, I tend to think when it comes to English voice-overs for Japanese anime, the acting tends to be a little extreme. Like no one sounds normal.
• There’s still no release date. Could be end of this year, could be end of next year. It could be another 4 years from now who knows.
• It looks NOTHING like the original. I mean that in a good way. The graphics update is just stunning.
• Would it be ignorant of me to say that it looks like nothing like a JRPG? It’s been awhile since I’ve played a proper JRPG but I don’t remember anything looking and playing like this.
• One of the final screens of the trailer says “Play it first on Playstation 4”. The original Final Fantasy VII was a Playstation exclusive. This makes me think it’s a time exclusive rather than a console one. I’m not holding my breath for a Switch release though.

Feel like pre-ordering? You can pre-order one from Amazon and Best Buy right now. Though, if you’re a collector’s edition kind of guy, I’m willing to bet a whole banana that one will be made for this game.