FFVII on a PS1 is still absolutely gorgeous

Deleted member 49535 · Apr 14, 2020

The character models during exploration looked dated even before FFVIII came out.

The backgrounds are nice, though. But even then, VIII and IX are better in that regard as well.

JetmanJay · Apr 14, 2020

Nahhhh, I think it's the worst looking Final Fantasy game of all of them. Partly why I wouldn't have been mad, with just a graphically and musically upgraded Final Fantasy 7 so I wouldn't ever have to go back to the old one.

MrS · Apr 14, 2020

Looks dreadful. All PS1 games look dreadful.

Deleted member 13155 · Apr 14, 2020

OG FFVII looks like trash, and its one of the best games I have ever played.

Not only that, I think the gameplay is also very bad. Traversing the screens etc, it was much better done in the later FF games for PS1.

The battle screen was small and cluttered, and the art direction there differs from the travel screens. And then there are like 2 or 3 different character models for CGI. Its a mess of a game honestly. FFVIII characters look the same in battle, world map and towns and it has one CGI approach (not counting the ones you are still in control).

And there is the sound, an awesome OST marred by midi quality.

ImaginaShawn · Apr 14, 2020

I find FF7 to be as ugly as sin, the blocky character looks awful and the backgrounds look like mud paintings.

JeremyParish · Apr 14, 2020

I replayed the entire Midgar prologue last week on a PS1 connected to a great CRT with RGB cables and was amazed by how great it looks. At 240p on an analog screen, there's much less of an obvious difference between pre-baked and real-time assets than you see even on something like a PSP or Vita screen. The polygonal models have aged poorly, but the pre-rendered and hand-drawn environments were gorgeous—so much unique detail crammed into every screen, and there's great use of PS1 lighting effects to create actual "live" light sources that match the light cast within each scene while interacting with the real-time 3D objects.

Siresly · Apr 14, 2020

I agree with your assessment that those character models look like lego-like freakazoids.
I'm sure a lower resolution helps blend them into the backgrounds better, but the models themselves remain hideous, even for the time.
Probably the only thing that's straight up ugly though.

The models they used for combat look fine. Why didn't they use those for all contexts?
Pre-rendered backgrounds tended to look good for the time and Square had talented artists.

KastuśKalinoŭski · Apr 14, 2020

It still looks great on CRT screen.

Kain · Apr 14, 2020

Prefty said:
For spanish people, this will make you laugh:

Ahahahahaha

Aeris se une a la fiesta!

Prefty · Apr 14, 2020

Kain said:
Ahahahahaha

Aeris se une a la fiesta!

Hahahahaha

DrHercouet · Apr 14, 2020

I'm playing in on Vita alonside the remake and it's an absolute joy. The screen size is perfect for OG FF7, the mood is intact and... I'm still having a lot of fun. Sure, the polygons are rubbish but my god the atmosphere is GREAT. It has aged as fine as an old Kurt Russel movie : roughly but with style. And it's still packed with a lot of charm.

MrS said:
Looks dreadful. All PS1 games look dreadful.

I'm with my friends Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross and Megaman 8 and we'd like a few words.

Deleted member 13155 · Apr 14, 2020

Siresly said:
I agree with your assessment that those character models look like lego-like freakazoids.
I'm sure a lower resolution helps blend them into the backgrounds better, but the models themselves remain hideous, even for the time.
Probably the only thing that's straight up ugly though.

The models they used for combat look fine. Why didn't they use those for all contexts?
Pre-rendered backgrounds tended to look good for the time and Square had talented artists.

Yeah I thought the in game models looked terrible in 1997. The arms and shoulders were standouts to me in terms of ugliness, good lord.

Don't forget, there was already Resident Evil that did pre-rendered rather well. Ofcourse FF is far bigger in scope but still, it did make FFVII look less impressive to me.

diablogg · Apr 14, 2020

I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

MrS · Apr 14, 2020

DrHercouet said:
I'm with my friends Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross and Megaman 8 and we'd like a few words.

I'm glad you enjoy that style - I wish I could. Even my beloved RE2, SH and MGS have aged poorly. Alas!

Jimnymebob · Apr 14, 2020

I played this kinda late (like 2006-ish I think) on a PS2 with a CRT, and while I was never one of those "these dumb blocky characters make it unplayable people", I was never a huge fan of how it looked. The prerendered BGs are nice, especially on a CRT, but to be honest, most games I ever played with prerendered BGs would probably look nice today. The character models are the real problem for me, and I feel like IX was the one that solved that technical issue by having all the characters fairly short by default.

Enemy designs were a mess for the most part though lol. It had the problem Spyro had, where a lot of the enemies just felt like a mess of polygons vaguely resembling the first thing that came into the artists head.

Richietto · Apr 14, 2020

Backgrounds are still really nice on the proper screen, but because of the models it doesn't reach that height of beauty that something like FF9 reaches. Really doesn't help how high resolution the models are in the newest versions of the game. It's mad charming though.

KastuśKalinoŭski · Apr 14, 2020

DrHercouet said:
I'm with my friends Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross and Megaman 8 and we'd like a few words.

or Breath of Fire IV

Team_Feisar · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

Oh wow that looks good. Sad that Squeenix didnt offer an "New character Models"-Mode for the Remaster.
Of course i could play it on PC but JRPGs on the Switch are just too comfy.

AppleKid · Apr 14, 2020

Red said:
I agree, it's held up well. Despite, or maybe because of, its blocky simplicity.

I am playing the Switch release right now and I find it doesn't look as good as the original. This game needs a good CRT filter (or a good CRT).

The PC version and its descendants share these weird graphical quirks, where it looks like the prerendered content was badly cut out and pasted back together. The Ps1 original is still the best way to play this game.

Yeah, I tried the Switch version but couldn't stand the uprez and how off it made the full picture look. Playing on retroarch with just 2x resolution is much better for me.

The real benefit of the Switch to me was disabling random encounters but I can just do that with cheats so 🤷‍♂️

dskzero · Apr 14, 2020

These topics always remind me of this image:

Segafreak · Apr 14, 2020

Traxus said:
I've been having a great time watching others play through the new Remake the last few days so I'm not some kind of purist but I went back and fired up the original on my hacked PS Classic and dude...I hope ya'll haven't forgotten how stunning the original art was in this game. From jaw-droppingly beautiful CGI renders to the colorful, iconic characters, the art just slaps.

I'll try not to go on a big diatribe but I have a feeling our memories have been tainted a little by the ports on literally every platform that upres the low-poly character models into these super clean lego-like freakazoids then throw them in with low-res backgrounds that've merely been enlarged. You end up with this weird juxtaposition of assets where the characters now look like they've been pasted onto the game instead of existing within the game world. I appreciate the QoL enhancements and the ports are still a great way to experience FFVII but otherwise I gotta say, give me the jaggies all day long.

I snapped a few shots and even in the first five minutes of the game the detailed backgrounds tell a story, the characters are immediately memorable and the colors just pop off the screen. And I'm just playing in Retroarch with a simple scanline overlay.

If you agree, please post some of your favorite art and screencaps from the original game!

Sorry my dude but those fake scanlines look HORRIBLE.

Just play it without scanlines if you dont have a CRT lying around.

Rotobit · Apr 14, 2020

I hate humanoid character models modded into FFVII, the animations and world aren't built for them - half the doors are basically squares for the l'il chibis to move into

That's not to say the original models look great, but I recently discovered this mod which makes the chibis look like the official artwork:

Sadly it seems like the creator hasn't released it and it was already a WIP.

If Square Enix could do something like that officially and also AI upres the backgrounds + fix up the translation, you'd have the perfect remaster of VII.

Hace · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

lmao this looks terrible

Yuntu · Apr 14, 2020

The art direction for the backgrounds is good, SE always was (and still is) incredible at that. The character models ... yeah they dont look good anymore.

Jegriva · Apr 14, 2020

You're damn right.

Kromeo · Apr 14, 2020

Don't know why you used a battle screen as an example because that's hideous but I'll forever love the pre rendered backgrounds in 7,8,9

ImaginaShawn · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

What is the name of this mod?

Yarbskoo · Apr 14, 2020

Traxus said:
I played the hell out of those games but the art direction in any of the PS1 FFs was in a whole other league. In those screencaps I see a whole lot of brown, and a whole lot of grey. I'm not just talking about graphical power or realism.

Well as long as we're talking about pre-rendered scenery, Riven also came out in 1997.

DrHercouet · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

It looks so pretty yet so 𝔀𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓰 at the same time for some... weird reason. I'm definitely getting a strong FF8 vibe though!

MrS said:
I'm glad you enjoy that style - I wish I could. Even my beloved RE2, SH and MGS have aged poorly. Alas!

Yeah, to each his own I have to say. Also I deeply love my PS1 games on the Vita but FF9 on Switch is... not fitting my criteria. I love the game, but it's too dated for the screen size, so I can understand. We're entering the low-poly nostalgia era though (or are we in already?) and all the love sharing for these big cubes helps a lot. What a trip!

KastuśKalinoŭski said:
or Breath of Fire IV

Oh my god, I bought the game back in 2004 and never touched it (my PS1 broke soon after) Definitely downloading it on the Vita, I never noticed how much a babe this game was.

Horp · Apr 14, 2020

Huh?
This is a game that I remember I thought looked like absolute SHIT even back when it came out. Art direction and character designs from hell.
Sure, prerendered backgrounds are ok (when are they not), but they really don't meld well with the rest of the look and feel of the game, especially the characters.
The game looks like trash, simply put.

Deleted member 21411 · Apr 14, 2020

Everyone seems to be on the same page on the backgrounds. Character models at the time were know for just how expressive they could be but it's just tech moved so fast the character models just look really stupid to people that aren't already attached.

I love 7, love the look of it even but I'm glad the PC mods exist. To me this thing is timeless but it's also like me watching King Kong and showing it to a kid, I appreciate the weirdness going on

Now the fmvs I'll fight you all on. Ps1 fmvs are always my flavor of choice

diablogg · Apr 14, 2020

Hace said:
lmao this looks terrible

You honestly think those character models look worse than this:

mordecaii83 · Apr 14, 2020

I never had a problem with the character models, I knew what they were going for. In many ways I prefer them to the more realistic FFVIII ones because they work better for a lot of the humor.

greenbird · Apr 14, 2020

I've always loved those pre-rendered backgrounds from that era, great art direction and so full of detail. The character models you either love or hate, but the backgrounds make up 90% of the image, and they still look wonderful to me. These games always looked so much batter than the plain, blocky 3D environments many games were moving to at the time.

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

Problem with these character mods is the perspective getting messed up in various scenes. Check out the 2nd screen, Tifa is shorter than the white fence, and Cloud is about as tall as the side of the truck bed.

Hace · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
You honestly think those character models look worse than this:

I think they look hilariously out of place and shoddily implemented yes

Rotobit said:
I hate humanoid character models modded into FFVII, the animations and world aren't built for them - half the doors are basically squares for the l'il chibis to move into

That's not to say the original models look great, but I recently discovered this mod which makes the chibis look like the official artwork:

Sadly it seems like the creator hasn't released it and it was already a WIP.

If Square Enix could do something like that officially and also AI upres the backgrounds + fix up the translation, you'd have the perfect remaster of VII.

This is a far better attempt at sticking with the aesthetic

dskzero · Apr 14, 2020

Horp said:
Huh?
This is a game that I remember I thought looked like absolute SHIT even back when it came out. Art direction and character designs from hell.
Sure, prerendered backgrounds are ok (when are they not), but they really don't meld well with the rest of the look and feel of the game, especially the characters.
The game looks like trash, simply put.

The battle models were alright!

Yarbskoo · Apr 14, 2020

Rotobit said:
I hate humanoid character models modded into FFVII, the animations and world aren't built for them - half the doors are basically squares for the l'il chibis to move into

That's not to say the original models look great, but I recently discovered this mod which makes the chibis look like the official artwork:

Sadly it seems like the creator hasn't released it and it was already a WIP.

If Square Enix could do something like that officially and also AI upres the backgrounds + fix up the translation, you'd have the perfect remaster of VII.

Damn, that would have been a great mod to go with the AI upscaled backgrounds.

Thera · Apr 14, 2020

Traxus said:
these super clean lego-like freakazoids then throw them in with low-res backgrounds that've merely been enlarged

Already hate them as a kid, they were awful, so big no for me.
VIII and mostly IX improved so much on that.

ImaginaShawn · Apr 14, 2020

Hace said:
I think they look hilariously out of place and shoddily implemented yes

This is a far better attempt at sticking with the aesthetic

That is so ugly it literally gave me shivers.

Horp · Apr 14, 2020

dskzero said:
The battle models were alright!

I don't like the style. Early 3D on PS1 was generally ugly, but FF7 was one of the worst of the bunch.

Traxus · Apr 14, 2020

MrS said:
Looks dreadful. All PS1 games look dreadful.

These posts make me sad.

TeHi & BuSp · Apr 14, 2020

diablogg said:
I can no longer play FF7 without massively modding it on PC, it looks pretty horrendous without it... This is the new cannon FF7 look for me.

What the fuck is that? It's a monstrosity

show me your skeleton · Apr 14, 2020

RROCKMAN said:
Chibi's were a thing long before ps1 games lmao

It's not a graphics thing it's a style thing, and it's one you very clearly don't like.

eh, ff7's art direction is all over the place. battle screens have different models than field scenes FMVs have different models throughout the game, it's unfortunatly
inconsistent.

a fun remake would have been hand painted/newly rendered backgrounds with some high quality, consistent models but ah well!

diablogg · Apr 14, 2020

ImaginaShawn said:
What is the name of this mod?

It's x2 mods primarily, mainly The Reunion:

[FF7PC-98/Steam] Multiple mods and Modding Framework-The Reunion [R06f]

forums.qhimm.com

With the new models enabled in options, also a different mod which I can't find at the moment which is the AI redone backgrounds.

edit here it is, called Remako:

Install Guide

The site for the Remako Mod, a Final Fantasy VII mod that uses AI to improve the graphics of this classic JRPG.

captrobau.blogspot.com

Here's the steam guide if it helps:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/39140/discussions/0/2653116677226375280/

Soap · Apr 14, 2020

The background art of that era is great and it was perfected in the next by re:make. The character models are abysmal and final fantasy viii is much, much better in that regard.

Deleted member 21709 · Apr 14, 2020

Fantastic aesthetic and world building. I agree it still looks good.

Horp · Apr 14, 2020

Traxus said:
These posts make me sad.

All except second to last looks great for its time and hardware.

Punished Dan · Apr 14, 2020

TeHi & BuSp said:
What the fuck is that? It's a monstrosity

Qft

Tiny Chihuahueño · Apr 14, 2020

I remember being 14 at the time of release and thinking "holy shit this looks so bad when the cutscenes are over and it's time to play the actual game".

I can appreciate the background renders now in retrospect, but overall I wouldn't say it's a pretty game.

Pryme · Apr 14, 2020

Yeah, no. That looks awful today.

FFVII on a PS1 is still absolutely gorgeous

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