A new trailer for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake focused on the interpersonal relationships and moody disposition of the game's playable protagonist, Cloud Strife. Previous trailers revealed returning characters and set up the game's world, but this one consisted mostly of conversations between Cloud and the other characters.
Square Enix revealed the Final Fantasy 7 Remake at E3 2015, and the company has slowly released more and more information about the project. Rather than being a full remake of the entire, multi-disc PlayStation 1 classic, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake will instead be a sort of "part one," taking place entirely in the game's opening section in the city of Midgar. Unlike the original, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake will have a real-time combat system (though there will be an option to enable a turn-based classic mode), and its weapon upgrade system will take cues from Final Fantasy 9.
Square Enix's new The Game Awards 2019 trailer showcased portions of Final Fantasy 7's opening, where Cloud, a mercenary, joins a group of revolutionaries to fight to save the planet. He tells them he's not in it for the good of the planet, however, and is only interested in the pay. Fans of the original are likely excited to see this scene and the others in the trailer - such as the scenes of Cloud speaking to Aerith and Tifa - fully voiced for the first time, especially in the remake's stunning take on the classic game's graphics.
These graphical improvements are what is perhaps most impressive about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The comparison of 1997 FF7 to 2020 FF7 is quite a sight: The new game's graphics are some of the prettiest in modern gaming, while the old are a mess of blurry, simply polygons. Still, despite the graphical improvements, the remake seems to be largely preserving the feel of the original game, including its more controversial segments. Square Enix has said the FF7 Remake will keep the infamous cross-dressing scene from the original, though the company has said it will somehow modernize the scene with the help of its internal ethics department.
Besides the story elements and impressive graphics, the Game Awards trailer also gives a glimpse at the Final Fantasy 7 Remake's combat system, which fans first got a more in-depth look at in the early 2019 Final Fantasy 7 gameplay reveal. The real-time system is a far cry from the instanced, turn-based system of the original, but hands-on previews of the FF7 Remake report it's some of the best combat in the whole franchise. Here's hoping the entire game will be as impressive as all of its individual elements have seemed in the period before its release.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches on March 3, 2020, on PS4.
Source: Square Enix