Final Fantasy VII Remake Revisited Chapter 13: A Broken World
We’re taking a deep dive into the thirteenth chapter of Final Fantasy VII Remake with the wonderful development team who brought the game to life!This year is Final Fantasy VII’s 25th Anniversary - and the celebrations have begun!
As part of the ongoing festivities, the development team behind Final Fantasy VII Remake have graciously agreed to dive deeper into the game than ever before.
We've been revisiting their thoughts, memories, and anecdotes from the creation of the game. Check out the first and most recent chapters here:
- First Chapter: Final Fantasy VII Remake Revisited Chapter 1
- Previous Chapter: Final Fantasy VII Remake Revisited Chapter 12
If you've yet to play Final Fantasy VII Remake, go and play it now, and if you read on...
...please beware of spoilers.
With that warning out of the way, let’s mosey…
FFVII Remake wallows in the aftermath of the plate collapse a lot more than the original game. Why did you want players to confront the devastation first-hand in this way?
We decided to focus a whole chapter on the aftermath of the plate collapse in order to show the true impact of the situation in a more realistic way. This was the same idea as how we wanted to get across the aftermath of the reactor bombing mission on Sector 8.
The tragedy that Shinra creates, the fact that Avalanche was the original cause of it and the loss of several comrades are important factors for Cloud and the team's motivation later on in the story, so we took great care in how these scenes were depicted
Motomu Toriyama (Co-Director(Scenario Design))
The appearance of the slums changes drastically with the fall of the Sector 7 plate. Looking at all the debris and ruined buildings, it seems that the team did not just add debris to the existing location, but actually went to the trouble of creating another version of the same area again. Was this how it was done?
That is exactly what we did.
We needed to work on the ruined version after the original slums area was completed, so there was not a lot of time left to do it in. However, this is a very important scene for the overall story, so we did not want to cut any corners and it was exhausting for the team. Having said that, thanks to the interesting conceit that there was actually a secret test facility under the area, we were able to approach the design from a fresh perspective, even though we were really making the same location twice.
Takako Miyake (Environment Director)
The Failed Experiment boss in the lab has been designed with rich details, such as the patterns on its body that glow red or blue alternately.
How do you approach making these kinds of effects that are incorporated onto characters? Are they planned in co-ordination with the character team or added on once they have completed the design?
We actually incorporated emissive designs (using shaders that emit light) into some of the characters, and this system also allowed us to change the colour of the light used. We put effect particles over the character model and tweaked the visuals so it appears they are spilling out of the glowing sections.
The practical order in which this work was carried out involved a handover from the character team to the effects team, but we still all created the idea and worked on it together.
Shintaro Takai (Graphics & VFX Director)
The underground laboratories are hinted at earlier in the game by some NPCs, but I didn't think we'd actually visit them during FFVII Remake. Was it important to include these areas to start to set up some of the elements from the Compilation of FFVII?
We created the story and setting for FFVII Remake based on all the elements that are part of the world overall, including those from Compilation of FFVII. The underground facility in the Sector 7 slums is one area that these elements have been incorporated into in a memorable way.
Motomu Toriyama (Co-Director(Scenario Design))
Why was the decision made to allow the player to control only Barret during the underground sections of this chapter? Was it important to give him more screentime and re-establish his character as he had been away from the party for a while by this point? Cloud is absent for a big chunk of this chapter. Why did you make that decision?
I had decided from the start of development that we would definitely give each character their own playable sections, but there was a very clear reason to have the section where you controlled Barret in this chapter.
I felt that out of all the party characters, Barret would be the one who had the most heightened emotions here, with the chance that his friends and comrades from Sector 7 have perished in the plate collapse and the need to see the situation for himself. I wanted the player to take control of Barret and experience these mixed emotions alongside him, vicariously sharing the joy at saving Wedge and the despair at being unable to help his other comrades.
By having this as a playable section, I think we managed to portray his decision the next day in a convincing and believable way. It lets you see why he went as far as entrusting Marlene to Elmira so he could take direct action against Shinra.
Naoki Hamaguchi (Co-Director(Game Design / Programming))
Shooting the boxes as Barret is insanely satisfying. Is that why you added so many into the area?
The collapse of the Sector 7 plate is the big climax in the middle of the game, so I wanted to add some variation to the feel of the gameplay in this chapter.
I had just decided on making Barret the character used in this section and came up with the idea of differentiating it from the feel of the dungeons where you use Cloud by incorporating satisfying shooting mechanics with Barret's gun arm.
I really wanted to add a fresh feel to this section, so when it was first implemented, I actually requested for the team to put ten times as many Shinra crates down as you see now! (laughs)
Naoki Hamaguchi (Co-Director(Game Design / Programming))
Was there always an opportunity to create a brand-new piece of music for this boss battle, rather than needing to rely on rearranging existing music from the original FFVII? The track "Infinity's End" plays during the boss battle at the end of this chapter and it's an absolutely stunning piece of music. How did this come together?
"Infinity's End" was originally ordered by Mr. Toriyama as a track to play during battles with enemies in the exploration sections rather than for a boss battle. Although originally created at a request for a new battle theme for FFVII Remake, the finished piece had a real sense of scale and momentum, so it was ultimately used for a boss fight.
Keiji Kawamori (Music Supervisor)
I love the multi-tiered boss battle, with Tifa and Barret fighting on different levels. Was this difficult to implement? Did you ever consider doing more fights like this where the characters were separated?
I do think that there is more potential to expand on the idea of gameplay where the party is split.
We managed to include this type of mechanic in a small way with this boss battle in Remake, but I would like to polish it even further and try something similar again if it looks like we could do something fun with it.
Teruki Endo (Battle Director)
I was surprised at the detail and accuracy of physical features and movements. Not just the main characters like Cloud, but also animals like Wedge's cat. Did you do tests before implementing things like the cat's eyes, ears and gestures etc?
The facial animation section has some cat lovers on the team, so they were quite particular about these details. There were also other staff members who actually have cat allergies, but who heroically took it on themselves to take medicine and visit cat cafes to observe their gestures and movements anyway. We also looked at various different resources on cat ear and tongue movements etc. In some ways we may have been more particular about the cat's expressions than we were the human characters!
Akira Iwasawa (Facial Director)
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this chapter of Final Fantasy VII Remake Revisited and are looking forward to learning more from behind the scenes of the game over the coming months.
Make sure you share this article with your friends on social media and we hope you’re looking forward to Chapter 14 next week!
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is available on PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store while Final Fantasy VII Remake is available on PS4.
For news and updates on anything Final Fantasy VII related, make sure you follow us on social media: