FINAL FANTASY 7 EVER CRISIS
Another type of Remake that covers the entire story of FF7, told in Chapters.
—For FF7 Ever Crisis, the stories from Before Crisis FF7 (takes place 6 years before the original FF7) up until Dirge of Cerberus (takes place 3 years after the original) will use a battle system designed especially for Ever Crisis. Does that mean FF7 Advent Children, which was originally a movie, will also be playable?
Nomura: Ever Crisis is basically kind of like another remake of the original FF7 using a birds eye view of the field with chibi characters but also incorporating regular full body detailed character designs for the battle parts. It will be a command style RPG. This game is the answer to those who said they like the command style RPG system.
The titles are divided into chapters that allows you to have a free game play style. The contents will cover the original FF7 and work its way through the Compilation of FF7 and include FF7 The First Soldier. In regards to the First Soldier that I mentioned earlier, Ever Crisis will also have part of the story within this game. In particular, since the story covers what happened before SOLDIER was established, we’ve also added in a part about THAT Legendary Hero’s youth. That story in particular is a huge eye-catcher, and we have asked Nojima-san to write the scenario too. We hope you look forward to it!
—There’s a lot of people who want a Remaster of other games within the Compilation. Instead of a remaster, this seems like a completely new game, so why did you decide to combine them all into one game?
Nomura: The concept of this game is to use the original FF7 as its base that players can enjoy. The Original FF7, FF7 First Soldier, and FF7R are all separate entities, so I don’t think this would wrap up other Compilation titles.
—Will the story of FF7 be presented chronologically? Or will the story from FF7 Before Crisis leading up to Dirge of Cerberus be rebuilt specifically for “FF7 Ever Crisis?”
Nomura: You will not need to play each title in its entirety before the next. Rather, each title will have its own chapters that you can select and play. Think of it more like a chronology of FF7.
—In regards to the chapters, will the stories be added as new updates?
Nomura: That’s right, new chapters will be added every month.
—In regards to the battle parts, it looks like it took the battle style from FF7R and made it into a command style RPG, but can you briefly explain what the battle system will be like?
Nomura: The battle system for the original FF& was based on the ATB system, so we will be going with that game style. The materia set up will also follow the original, and weapons, material, summons, and limit breaks can also be used, further opening the battle system.
—The new 3D chibi characters as wel las the 2D art design all look new. Who was responsible for the character illustrations in this game?
Nomura: The illustrations were done by our Art Designer Fujise Lisa. We originally wanted everything to be done with 3DCG models, but then in order to maximize the presentation of the original game’s atmosphere, this presented quite a few problems. We considered asking someone within the FF7 staff to do the character designs, but we all carried heavy workloads already. Thankfully at that time, Fujise came to us for some avatar design checks on a new project, and when we looked at her art, we thought, “Hey, wouldn’t this style also fit the game?” Even though Fujise was part of the team on another title I was involved in, we asked her to join the Ever Crisis one. We had new hope.
—Since the game seems to be very story driven, what will you do about voice recording?
Nomura: We’re still trying to figure out what to do with voice recording. Since I’m involved in a numerous amount of titles, I’m kind of stuck, and that goes for voice recording as well. Because of that, we even wanted to avoid having to do any new voice recordings. Since Final Fantasy Ever Crisis will use FF7 and other Compilation titles as its base, we thought “Why don’t we just not have voice acting?” However, it’s probably necessary to have it during the battle sequences, so we’re considering how to do so. If we are to add voices, it will probably be at a minimum.