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Remembering the Final Fantasy VII PS3 Tech demo

oni-link

oni-link

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Oct 25, 2017
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So with FFVII Remake coming later in the year, I thought it would be cool to look back at the 2005 tech demo for FFVII



According to the FF Wiki:

The Final Fantasy VII technical demo is a remake of the Final Fantasy VII opening, showcasing the new graphical capabilities of the Sony PlayStation 3, unveiled in E3 May 16, 2005.

The technical demo was made by the team that went on to develop Final Fantasy XIII, with Motomu Toriyama as the director. Final Fantasy XIII was initially planned for the PlayStation 2, but the team working on it was derailed to make the Final Fantasy VII technical demo; the results for the demo were so good that the development of Final Fantasy XIII was moved to the PlayStation 3 platform once its full development resumed
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I remember seeing this in 2005 and being convinced FFVII was being remade for PS3

It's kind of funny now but it's probably a good thing it wasn't. In another timeline FFVII Remake came out on PS3 and we'd likely never get the great looking PS4 version

What were your thoughts when you first saw the PS3 demo, and were you convinced it was going to be remade for PS3?
 
BasilZero

BasilZero

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Oct 25, 2017
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Damn, that was back in 2005?


I dont really remember it from that time...I thought it was from 2009 or something....



2005 was when I first played FFVII lol.
 
Cactuar

Cactuar

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Nov 30, 2018
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Guess what? That looks great as well. It's my favorite game of all time. It should be remade every generation for as long as video games exist. I have spoken.
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

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Oct 25, 2017
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If FFVII Remake had been developed for PS3, this would definitely have upset Square Enix's entire release schedule, with massive consequences for their other projects in development at that time (FFXII, FFXIII, the whole Fabula Nova Crystallis, etc.).
 

Deleted member 4262

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I was at a huge LAN with hundreds of people when they released this, and I literally ran over to my best friend's table to tell him about it haha. The hype was unreal. And you know what? It still holds up fairly well today. I'd play it.
 
OP
OP
oni-link

oni-link

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Soriku said:
Kind of how I feel about KH3.

Anyway I think hot off the heels of PS2 you probably could've expected a remake considering SE's output. Then that gen happened...
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2005 was 8 years after FFVII came out, even if it took them a few years to release it, it would have only been a decade after release

To really see great leaps in tech I think it's best to wait 15 or 20 years before remaking a game

Imagine a 2008 Resi 2 remake, or a 2009 FFVII remake, they wouldn't have been as impressive as the remakes we got 20 years later

It's why I don't want Demon's Souls to be remade, it's too early and a remaster would be good enough. If they want to remake Demon's Souls, it would be better to wait another 10 years

That said I expect we'll get a remake of it anyway because it's the boring and popular choice
 
Multiverse Moo

Multiverse Moo

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EDIT - Removed, because I learned its from being filmed off-screen (hence the rolling effect) and then combined with audio from another source.

Swear I've seen a much better version of this upscaled!
 
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Rotobit

Rotobit

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yeah I'm kinda glad it didn't happen in retrospect

Would have been cool to see Crisis Core on the PS3 though, or a similar spin-off
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

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Oct 25, 2017
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Looking at Aerith's dress and the smoke next to her it doesn't seem like a tech demo but full on CG with mostly engine assets. That cloth physics would be too hard to do on PS3 back in 2004-2005 in real time, and PS3's terrible fillrate was bad with alpha particles which mostly ended up being low resolution and blocky whereas this looks very soft and clean. Plus the shadows look too sharp (back then games didn't even use real time shadows for environments much, and the little baked shadows they had was often quite blobby and low resolution).

It was probably the kind of "target render" thing they used to do back then, infact they did this for FFXIII too.


This was pre rendered with engine assets. And even the final release of FFXIII eventually did use pre rendered higher quality cutscenes at times that used engine assets, along with fully CG cutscenes as well as real time cutscenes.
 
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OutofMana

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Oct 25, 2017
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I was in my senior year in high school. Jesus, it's been a long time coming. I'm glad they waited this long. I don't think it would have come out great considering how much they struggled during the PS3 days.
 
Multiverse Moo

Multiverse Moo

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Listai said:
This looks so much worse.

Other than the disgusting motion interpolation does this AI upscale run the video through composite cables? and what's with the vertical rolling up and down the screen?
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Thats actually not the version I thought was being shared, lol. Looks like this is one that was filmed off-screen (hence the rolling shutter) combined with audio from IGN version of video. Will keep an eye out for the other one.
 
copelandmaster

copelandmaster

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Oct 25, 2017
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Listai said:
This looks so much worse.

Other than the disgusting motion interpolation does this AI upscale run the video through composite cables? and what's with the vertical rolling up and down the screen?
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This footage might be upscaled, but it isn't using motion interpolation. The original tech demo ran at a locked 60fps.

Here's DF's coverage, which is the only other easy to find 60fps version of the trailer.
 
banter

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Jan 12, 2018
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Not going to lie, watching this again made me happy we never got a remake on PS3.
 
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It's kinda wild how many versions we have of that Cloud shot now.

USiYg3v.png


maxresdefault.jpg


sg-ff7r-cloud-strife-character-information.jpg
 
TheGreatLugia

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DiipuSurotu said:
If FFVII Remake had been developed for PS3, this would definitely have upset Square Enix's entire release schedule, with massive consequences for their other projects in development at that time (FFXII, FFXIII, the whole Fabula Nova Crystallis, etc.).
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About that:
Tetsuya Nomura - Director & Concept Design

I started up the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE project around the time of Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII. We'd gone through Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus, and I was planning this by myself for about a year as the fifth and final entry in the compilation.

Since that initial plan and my first ideas, other projects took-shape and I became very busy as they moved forward, but I never stopped thinking about VII. As such, I feel like I'm looking forward to the release as much as anyone, as I've been carrying around these ideas for a long time.
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(source)
 
JuicyPlayer

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Was that demo actually running on PS3 hardware or was it like the Final Fantasy 6 technical demo for N64 where those graphics were actually running on silicon graphics computers?
 

Dunan

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Jun 11, 2018
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I saw "tech demo" and was confused for a moment, as I am old enough to remember the PS1 tech demo from 1995. (The disc is a collector's item now.)

Squaresoft made some great demo discs back in the day. There's no reason to make them now, but the excitement of having one in your hands is something I'll always look back on fondly.
 
Inuhanyou

Inuhanyou

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Oct 25, 2017
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back in the day this looked infinitely close to advent children visuals compared to the original game. now you can see all sorts of imperfections that make it look like crap but its still an example of diminishin returns
 
Arta

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I used to marvel over that tech demo for like a year straight, but now I'm glad they didn't do it back then.
 

Deleted member 437

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Yep, at the end of the day, glad we finally got to the point where it's on ps4.

Not only that, a majority of it will be on Ps5.
It's hard for me to imagine right now what Ff7 remake part 2 looks like on Ps5. Especially Ray tracing and all those bells and whistles.
They game already looks amazing.

There will be a day I say "part 1 is pretty ugly now looking back".
 
eternalblue

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It's incredible how amazing I thought this looked when it was first presented and how now all I can see is all the graphical limitations of the PS3.

It's also kinda crazy when I think about how when FFVII first came out, it was one of the best looking Playstation games ever at the time, and yet within 2 years time Square had made so much improvement in graphics with Final Fantasy VIII.

This tech demo is what really exploded fans' desire to see FFVII remake. I was certain that fan demand would eventually lead to a remake, just didn't know that it would take as long as it has. Ultimately I'm glad it wasn't until now that a remake's been made because of how spectacular it looks.
 
Spedfrom

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I'm only now realising how silly it was that people wanted a FF7 Remake only 8 years after the original released.
 
mindsale

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2005? Damn, I thought it was later than that. Yeah, glad the bland color palette didn't come to fruition.
 

Deleted member 543

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Damn, can't believe it's been 15 years.

I remember the PS3 reveal very well, as well as this tech demo and the proper next gen FF reveals the next year.

That gen really didn't work out how I expected it to.
 
Empyrean Cocytus

Empyrean Cocytus

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Man, for those that forgot, that Sony E3 presser was the original E3 of dreams. Sony showed off a ton of gorgeous trailers, and specifically said that all of them were actual gameplay on PS3 hardware.

Of course, this ended up being bullshit, but it was amazing to see the Sony Defense Force go out of their way to defend them.
 
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