WEBVTT

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Hello! My name is Dan,

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I am a professional animator,
and this is New Frame Plus.

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The remake of Final
Fantasy VII is here,

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and it is affording us all
a very rare opportunity:

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the chance to see a classic, beloved
game updated to modern AAA standards.

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To see it not just remastered,
but re-imagined from the ground up.

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Every single asset,
every game-play system,

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AND every story sequence
reconsidered and built from scratch!

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As an animator,
that last one makes me REAL excited.

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Consider the potential here!

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These animators and directors and
performers have the opportunity

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not just to make these scenes prettier, but
to flesh out their character performances

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and cinematography
with a level of nuance

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that the original game
simply was not capable of.

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To show you what I mean,

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I'm going to do a deep dive

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into the animation of just
the opening title sequence

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in both versions of the game,
starting with the 1997 original.

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It’s easy to forget,
looking at it now but,

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Final Fantasy VII was a
technological leap in its own right;

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the first game in this franchise to leave
those familiar 8 and 16-bit roots behind

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in favor of Sony’s new PlayStation

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and all the shiny new 3D
graphics it was capable of.

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But these big hardware transitions
always come with some growing pains,

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and Final Fantasy VII
is loaded with them.

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The title sequence begins as an FMV
cinematic; basically a pre-rendered video.

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The ability to store movie files on disc
was one of the more exciting new features

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of the PlayStation’s
CD-ROM format.

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We open on a field of stars, the camera
lazily drifting around in space for…

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probably 20 seconds
longer than necessary.

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And then we cross-fade to a medium
close-up shot of a woman’s face

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bathed in eerie green light.

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And, I should probably
just go ahead and say that

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the character animation in Final
Fantasy VII’s pre-rendered cut-scenes

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is just... terrible.

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They've got poor body mechanics, no sense of
weight, dead-eyed expressions everywhere…

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the craft of animation is fundamentally
about taking something not alive,

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like a drawing or a CG model, and creating
the illusion of life in that thing,

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and you will rarely see that
illusion work in these scenes.

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Now, this failing is
COMPLETELY understandable.

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CG animation was still in its
very early days at this point,

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And Squaresoft’s cinematic animators

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would quickly find their
feet over the next few years,

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so no disrespect towards them!

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Honestly, nobody in 1997 was
delivering great CG character animation

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in their pre-rendered cut-scenes.

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...But yeah, this first effort
is pretty rough, though.

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So then we cut to a new angle,

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and we see that this woman is kneeling in
some sort of dark alley looking at something

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(although we can’t really see what
that glowing green something is)

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And it’s here that we can see that Aerith’s
character model is actually segmented,

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constructed of several separate pieces
of overlapping geometry.

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You can see the most obvious seams here
at her elbow joint and there at her waist.

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Now, this is actually how
all of Final Fantasy VII’s

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in-game character models
are constructed too;

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it was a pretty common character-modeling
approach in those early 3D days

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when deforming a character mesh with an
animated skeleton of joints in real time

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was just a lot for that
early hardware to handle.

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Of course,
animation in a pre-rendered movie

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isn’t bound by those
real-time processing concerns,

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so I’m guessing that this segmented
character model being used here is

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just an artifact of those real
early wild west days of CG animation

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where everyone was still trying
to just figure out the basics.

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And it’s also in this shot

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that we get our first taste of Final Fantasy
VII’s full body character animation,

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which,
like I said before: not great.

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You see the way she finishes standing up
and THEN starts straightening her back

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while her hips stay
completely locked in place?

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That sort of isolated motion is how
machines move, but not how humans do.

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All the parts of our bodies tend to
coordinate together when we move.

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It’s actually surprisingly difficult to move
just a single isolated part of your body

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without any other part
moving just a little bit.

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It what makes dancers like
these so darn impressive.

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Granted, I suspect that part of
the weirdness of her movement here

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might be due to the fact that
the animator's having to cheat

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to make her stand up AT ALL.

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Look at the lower half of her body for
the duration of this standing motion...

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You notice how her legs don’t
actually bend that much?

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Here, I’ll play it back in reverse...
Kinda looks like her knees bend slightly,

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and then her legs just stiffly
sink into the floor, right?

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I’m guessing that is
EXACTLY what’s happening.

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I would wager that this character
model (or at least her skirt geometry)

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wasn’t rigged to bend that way. Or maybe
there was some other technical complication

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preventing her from ACTUALLY being
shown kneeling on the ground,

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so the animator had to cheat
to make this shot work at all.

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And I say, hats off to you, sneaky animator
who made this impossible thing work.

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You weren’t the first
and will not be the last.

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...oh, THAT’S why the camera
doesn’t tilt down far enough

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for us to see the glowing thing
she’s looking at, isn’t it?

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Because lowering the camera any further would
reveal she’s not actually crouched down

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and break the whole illusion?
Aw that's it, isn’t it!

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Sorry, I got distracted,
what was I talking about...

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RIGHT. Yes,
Aerith moving like a robot. Okay.

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And it really doesn’t help that her
eyes are 2D textures pasted to her face

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that are only capable of
looking straight ahead.

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Like, look at her head turn here. You see
how her eyes just stay locked in place,

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staring forward for the entire move?
That, again, is how robots move, not humans.

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I mean,
try it yourself right now.

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Try turning to look 90
degrees to your left

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while keeping your eyes focused straight
in front of your face the entire time……

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is that not the most
robot-feeling thing to do?

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Now, I could keep nitpicking
this little stuff all day,

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but at this point you get the
idea, right?

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This is clearly a team
of artists and engineers

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learning their way around
a new animation medium,

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probably using the software equivalent of sticks
and rocks compared to modern animation tools.

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So, I think we can
cut them some slack.

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In fact,
let’s say some nice things!

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I really like the way this
extended shot is staged;

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the way it starts in close spending a quiet
intimate moment with this flower girl,

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and then slowly begins to pull back
as she walks out into the busy street.

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And then the bustle of this dark,
grimey city suddenly intrudes on it,

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breaking our line of sight and just taking over the
frame as the camera continues to pull back

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and the flower girl slowly
disappears into the cityscape.

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And, by the way: side benefit of having
all these nameless extras shrouded

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in moody shadow during this camera move?
Much harder to see animation flaws!

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Except on this guy. HEY.

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I see that hitch
in your walk cycle, random dude.

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Better get that looked at.

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But alright, we’re done with
character animation for a bit.

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The camera pulls back and back until we’re
looking over the entire city of Midgar.

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And just keep in mind: even though all of
this does look very rough and early CG,

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this one extended shot has been
a showcase of cinematography

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and character animation detail
(relatively) that, up to this point,

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Final Fantasy has never been
capable of doing before.

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Now it’s time for the second
half of this opening cinematic,

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and this is where stuff
gets really interesting.

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So, the camera begins its
flight back into town,

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inter-cut with some quick
shots of a decelerating train.

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We fly down, down, down until
we’re back at ground level.

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And the camera settles into place just as
this train pulls into the Sector 1 station,

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and the instant the train stops,

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the pre-rendered video portion of
this intro ends and we seamlessly(ish)

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transition from a movie
file to a static 2D image,

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the likes of which Final
Fantasy VII is going to have us

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running around in front
of for most of the game.

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But before we get
to the action here,

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I’d like to direct your
attention to these two guards.

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Because you probably noticed,
those guards appeared on screen BEFORE this

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pre-rendered video ended.

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And they were not PART
of the pre-rendered video.

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Those were in-game character
models, being rendered in real time,

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being layered OVER the FMV.

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This is a pretty cool little
trick they're pulling off here.

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I mean when you think about it,
almost every environment in this game

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is just a lavish pre-rendered 2D image
being layered behind the invisible terrain

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your 3D characters
are standing on,

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and there’s no real reason that that
background image CAN’T be a video.

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But to make that work, the animators had
to make sure that the game-play camera

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which is seeing and rendering
these two guards,

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imitated the pre-rendered cut-scene
camera’s movements perfectly

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to preserve the illusion of those 3D characters
being grounded in that moving 2D background.

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It’s a complicated trick,

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but quite effective at blurring the
boundary between movie file and game-play.

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Square would actually do
this a lot in the PS1 days

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and by Final Fantasy VIII,
they were getting real extra about it.

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ANYWAY. Now that the pre-rendered
video portion of this sequence is done,

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from here on, all of the characters
are going to be rendered in real-time.

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And real-time story scenes
in Final Fantasy VII

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have to deal with a handful
of very tricky limitations.

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Limitation No. 1:

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Because every animation in the game
takes up some amount of memory,

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the devs had to try to limit the number of
unique animations appearing in each scene.

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Because the more animations
needed in one single environment,

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the longer that environment
was going to take to load.

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Limitation No. 2:

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Because most of this game’s
environments are pre-rendered 2D images,

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their ability to move the
camera is extremely limited,

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and camera rotation is
completely locked down.

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So pretty much all of the action in any
given scene has to be played to one angle,

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kind of like a stage play.

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And Limitation No. 3:

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Final Fantasy VII’s characters....they
don’t really have faces.

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I mean, they do,

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but it’s near impossible to see them
at the games original resolution,

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and those faces weren’t
built to animate anyway.

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So, unlike the character
animation in the 16-bit games

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(which ran almost entirely on
exaggerated facial expressions),

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Final Fantasy VII’s characters
have to rely on gestures

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and heavily-exaggerated
body language.

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And that's not actually a
terrible trade-off in the end,

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but not being able to use facial expressions
is a pretty big acting limitation.

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All of that to say: for the duration of this
scene, the camera's barely going to move,

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the character performances are going to
be created by stringing together short,

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re-usable animations, and nobody is
going to be acting with their face.

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Ok? Ok.

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So first we see Biggs jump off the top of
the train and throw a guard to the ground,

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which reads SURPRISINGLY CLEARLY
considering how far away he is from camera

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and how low resolution
this game is.

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Next Jessie runs in and takes out
the second guard with a kick,

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which reads a little less clearly than the
throw, despite being closer to camera,

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largely because the guard's body
is kind of obscuring the move

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they probably could've tried to clear the silhouettes
a little better here, but I'm nitpicking.

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Notice how exaggerated all
these animations are, though!

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With render resolution this low and
character models this simplistic,

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there is no room for subtlety.

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The animators are having to push
everything to the extreme to read clearly.

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Wedge hops off the train next. And then
we see one of our main characters, Barret,

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who looks back toward the train and
gestures impatiently.

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The camera pedestals up a bit for the
grand entrance of our main character,

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who flips down for a showy,
absolutely cliche three-point landing.

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And there are a couple details
I really like in this moment.

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First, having Barret run out, look up
and gesture toward the train is great

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not only for directing our attention to
where Cloud’s entrance is about to happen,

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but it also signals to the new player that
Barret is in a position of authority here,

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and it sets the tone for the early antagonistic
dynamic between Barret and Cloud.

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And the second thing I really like is that
Cloud’s unnecessarily acrobatic entrance

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is a perfectly fine way to make your player character
feel like the coolest tough guy in the room

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(...eh, sort of),

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but in the LONG term,

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it also effectively sets up
Cloud as the kind of person who

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would try to present himself as the
coolest tough guy in the room,

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which is a surprising level of nuance for
a clump of untextured, faceless polygons

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hand-springing off a train.

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But yeah, then Barret tells you
to get moving and there you are,

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playing Final Fantasy VII.

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Overall, as clunky as these PS1
graphics and early 3D animations are,

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I’m surprised at how effective
all of this still manages to be.

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That’s kind of Final Fantasy
VII in a nutshell, really.

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This brings us to the
Final Fantasy VII Remake,

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a complete overhaul of the original game
with the full power of modern AAA budgets,

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talent and technology behind it.

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And of course, there are, TONS of
improvements you can just see at a glance.

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The high resolution graphics,
the high-fidelity character models,

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the lighting, the shading, the
effects... all of it gorgeous.

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But the two things that interest
me most are all those brand new

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motion-captured character performances
AND all the creative adjustments

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and changes designed to help this
opening achieve its story goals

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in ways that the
original couldn’t.

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Let’s see what 23 years of
technological advance can do.

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We begin, once more, drifting in a star fie--

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...hang on.

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...yep.
This is different. Okay!

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It turns out the Remake diverges from
the original intro sequence immediately.

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This time we open with a bird
flying over a barren wasteland

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and we get our first look at the Midgar
skyline in broad daylight,

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almost completely
shrouded in smog.

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We get a good look at the actual city
itself during the day time rush,

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all of the densely-packed buildings,
construction work, some kids riding bikes…

00:13:03.958 --> 00:13:07.434
honestly, this new opening could probably
have stood to cut 20 seconds too but,

00:13:07.459 --> 00:13:11.323
they do establish some important
thematic imagery in these new opening minutes:

00:13:11.348 --> 00:13:14.400
dead landscape, 
a bustling smog-coated city,

00:13:14.400 --> 00:13:16.433
dead flowers SPECIFICALLY,

00:13:16.458 --> 00:13:18.204
and, as the sun goes down,

00:13:18.229 --> 00:13:22.275
the bright green glow of Midgar’s
mako reactors illuminating the night.

00:13:22.300 --> 00:13:26.667
Now all of this is stuff that fans of Final
Fantasy VII are already well familiar with,

00:13:26.692 --> 00:13:30.979
but these two minutes sure do give the
newcomer a lot more useful information

00:13:31.004 --> 00:13:33.915
about this setting than
45 seconds of stars do.

00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:38.100
And that spray of green particles from
the reactor transitions us beautifully

00:13:38.125 --> 00:13:40.900
into the classic opening
sequence we know and love.

00:13:40.925 --> 00:13:43.167
I would say we are off to
a pretty strong start here.

00:13:43.192 --> 00:13:46.267
What’s more, craning the camera
down toward Aerith like this

00:13:46.292 --> 00:13:49.367
instead of simply cross-fading
affords us a much better look at

00:13:49.392 --> 00:13:52.756
what’s actually happening in
this scene; the Mako energy -

00:13:52.781 --> 00:13:55.507
the planet’s very life force,
we’re soon going to learn -

00:13:55.532 --> 00:13:58.576
is seeping from a broken
pipe in this dirty alley.

00:13:58.601 --> 00:14:00.984
And thanks to those two
extra minutes we just saw,

00:14:01.009 --> 00:14:04.925
the new player can probably start
connecting some dots on what’s happening here!

00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:07.667
Much more easily then they could
have in the original, anyway.

00:14:07.692 --> 00:14:09.800
And when we reach that
close up of her face,

00:14:09.825 --> 00:14:12.783
we can see that she’s
sort of lost in this glow,

00:14:12.808 --> 00:14:16.533
just basking in it, almost
meditative, possibly praying.

00:14:16.558 --> 00:14:21.650
And when she opens her eyes to look into
camera - just like she did 23 years before -

00:14:21.675 --> 00:14:26.412
...man. What an incredible difference two
decades and 4 console generations can make.

00:14:26.437 --> 00:14:28.967
This Aerith actually looks alive.

00:14:28.992 --> 00:14:33.078
Even in this tiny moment, there is so much
more subtle fidelity to the performance.

00:14:33.125 --> 00:14:36.597
The way her eyelids stir
slightly before she opens them.

00:14:36.622 --> 00:14:39.798
The way she first looks down at the
pipes she was focused on previously

00:14:39.823 --> 00:14:42.067
BEFORE her gaze drifts
up toward camera.

00:14:42.092 --> 00:14:46.438
The way not just her eyelids but also her
eye brows move slightly as she looks up.

00:14:46.463 --> 00:14:48.449
And all of those
subtle eye darts...

00:14:48.474 --> 00:14:51.529
Especially when compared to
the original robo-Aerith,

00:14:51.554 --> 00:14:54.533
what incredible realistic
acting fidelity here.

00:14:54.558 --> 00:14:57.967
Then we cut to the second shot,
very similar to the original angle,

00:14:57.992 --> 00:15:02.296
but with some better framing. Except this
time, Aerith doesn’t stand up right away.

00:15:02.321 --> 00:15:07.429
She just... stays here, gazing at this leaking
pipe, lingering in the moment.

00:15:07.454 --> 00:15:09.367
I REALLY love this change.

00:15:09.392 --> 00:15:13.833
It’s not a radical departure from the original,
but the extra time spent lingering here

00:15:13.858 --> 00:15:17.100
gives us a chance to emotionally
invest in this moment WITH her,

00:15:17.125 --> 00:15:19.433
in a way that you really
couldn’t in the original.

00:15:19.458 --> 00:15:22.248
And immediately AFTER that,
another change that I love:

00:15:22.273 --> 00:15:25.661
Aerith stands up NOT just
because it’s time to stand up,

00:15:25.686 --> 00:15:30.846
but because she suddenly senses a threat
at the end of the alley. This is so good.

00:15:30.871 --> 00:15:34.567
For one, it gives her a motivated
reason to stand up and leave this alley

00:15:34.592 --> 00:15:36.351
she was just having
that moment in.

00:15:36.376 --> 00:15:40.618
Two, it further reinforces what the original
game was trying to drive home as well:

00:15:40.658 --> 00:15:42.698
that this city is
a hostile place.

00:15:42.723 --> 00:15:47.010
And best of all, three: if you already
know a little bit about Aerith’s story,

00:15:47.035 --> 00:15:50.228
then you know that she
is ALWAYS being watched.

00:15:50.253 --> 00:15:54.500
She is a Person of Interest in this town.
And so seeing her get spooked by…

00:15:54.525 --> 00:15:57.294
well, seemingly nothing
at the end of this dark alley

00:15:57.319 --> 00:16:00.572
helps to plant some seeds for
her story WAY in advance,

00:16:00.597 --> 00:16:04.249
and, again, the original version of
this cut-scene didn’t do that AT ALL.

00:16:04.274 --> 00:16:08.429
Also, by the way? THAT’S how you animate standing
up from a kneeling position right there.

00:16:08.454 --> 00:16:09.367
A+

00:16:09.392 --> 00:16:13.005
Now here comes the biggest departures
from the original opening sequence:

00:16:13.030 --> 00:16:17.967
rather than maintaining one long shot from Aerith
standing to Aerith walking out of the alley

00:16:17.992 --> 00:16:20.900
to zooming out over the city to
zooming back into the train station,

00:16:20.925 --> 00:16:25.550
instead they cut to a new shot here and
add an entirely new series of events.

00:16:25.575 --> 00:16:27.600
Aerith hastily walks
out of the alley,

00:16:27.625 --> 00:16:30.100
nervously looking behind her
to see if she’s being followed,

00:16:30.125 --> 00:16:33.672
and accidentally bumps into a
passerby, dropping some of her flowers.

00:16:33.697 --> 00:16:37.500
She kneels to pick them up as the rest of
the city goes about its business around her

00:16:37.525 --> 00:16:40.167
(which is EXACTLY in line with
the tone of the original).

00:16:40.192 --> 00:16:43.883
But one of the flowers gets
trampled by a careless pedestrian.

00:16:43.908 --> 00:16:49.559
She slowly picks it up, cradles it in her
hands… and lingers in this moment too,

00:16:49.584 --> 00:16:52.389
just like she had with the
broken pipe in the alley.

00:16:52.414 --> 00:16:54.479
Now,
the symbolism of this addition

00:16:54.504 --> 00:16:58.267
combined with the shot of the dead
flowers earlier is Not At All Subtle.

00:16:58.292 --> 00:17:01.867
But for anybody experiencing Final
Fantasy VII for the first time

00:17:01.892 --> 00:17:03.289
(and a LOT of people
are going to be),

00:17:03.314 --> 00:17:07.839
drawing a direct visual parallel between
how Aerith treats the trampled flower

00:17:07.864 --> 00:17:11.243
and how she treats that broken
pipe leaking a weird green light,

00:17:11.268 --> 00:17:14.500
that I think is a worthwhile
bit of thematic foreshadowing.

00:17:14.525 --> 00:17:16.560
The flower girl is planting seeds.
Deal with it.

00:17:16.560 --> 00:17:18.730
But ok, time for that big flyover shot.

00:17:18.755 --> 00:17:22.355
The camera pulls back and back
and back… and keeps going because

00:17:22.380 --> 00:17:26.600
the city is huge this time and we get
that view of the entirety of Midgar,

00:17:26.625 --> 00:17:29.433
looking as gloriously
ominous as ever.

00:17:29.458 --> 00:17:34.233
Then we swoop back in to Sector 1, inter-cut
with those same shots of a decelerating train.

00:17:34.258 --> 00:17:38.833
Only this time, the camera flight ends
framing our main character atop the train.

00:17:38.858 --> 00:17:43.433
Again, arguably not a necessary change, but
it is a nice little hint to the newcomers that

00:17:43.458 --> 00:17:46.300
something is about to happen when
this train gets where it’s going.

00:17:46.325 --> 00:17:50.000
And can we just take a moment to appreciate
how far physics simulation has come?

00:17:50.025 --> 00:17:53.146
We already saw a ton of it before
with Aerith’s hair and clothing,

00:17:53.171 --> 00:17:56.367
but look at that wind whipping
through Cloud’s hair and shirt here.

00:17:56.392 --> 00:17:57.293
Awesome detail.

00:17:57.545 --> 00:18:02.067
Then we see the train pulling into
the station, and right... THERE,

00:18:02.092 --> 00:18:05.977
if I had to guess, is where we transition
from the pre-rendered cinematic

00:18:06.002 --> 00:18:08.212
to rendering this
scene in real time.

00:18:08.237 --> 00:18:13.067
Did I mention, by the way, that everything up until
now was almost definitely a pre-rendered movie,

00:18:13.092 --> 00:18:16.148
just like the original game did?
Because it probably is.

00:18:16.173 --> 00:18:17.445
And why shouldn’t it be?

00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:20.143
I mean, everything we’ve
seen so far in this sequence

00:18:20.168 --> 00:18:22.974
is meant to play out
exactly the same every time,

00:18:22.999 --> 00:18:27.267
AND the camera has to cover a ton of ground
and show all of Midgar at a couple of points.

00:18:27.292 --> 00:18:31.755
There is literally no reason to try to
make this all render smoothly in real time

00:18:31.780 --> 00:18:35.067
when they could just play a pre-rendered
movie and allow the actual level to

00:18:35.092 --> 00:18:37.231
load in the background so
we are not kept waiting.

00:18:37.256 --> 00:18:39.733
(A lot of modern games do that, by the way.)

00:18:39.758 --> 00:18:43.633
And, if my guess is correct,
they’re transitioning from movie file to

00:18:43.658 --> 00:18:47.945
in-game assets at almost the exact same
point as the original, so that’s fun!

00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:50.433
And if I’m wrong about
the exact hand-off moment,

00:18:50.458 --> 00:18:54.162
honestly, that's just a testament to
how good real-time rendering has gotten

00:18:54.187 --> 00:18:57.067
in modern AAA games that
it's this hard to tell.

00:18:57.092 --> 00:19:00.413
But here’s where the Remake diverges
heavily from the original again,

00:19:00.438 --> 00:19:04.033
because this game isn’t bound by any
of the original’s limitations.

00:19:04.058 --> 00:19:07.500
This is a fully 3D space
being rendered in real time.

00:19:07.525 --> 00:19:10.167
Now, the camera can move
wherever the director wants,

00:19:10.192 --> 00:19:10.933
so this time,

00:19:10.958 --> 00:19:14.800
they can actually shoot this scene using
standard cinematography techniques.

00:19:14.825 --> 00:19:17.067
So, instead of a static angle

00:19:17.092 --> 00:19:19.633
showing everybody jumping off
the train and fighting guards,

00:19:19.658 --> 00:19:25.533
this time, we get an uninterrupted moving Steadicam
shot of the attack from the guards’ perspective.

00:19:25.558 --> 00:19:30.100
They patrol the platform a bit, we hear
one of them get taken out off camera,

00:19:30.125 --> 00:19:33.833
the other hears this and turns to
see the platform behind him now empty

00:19:33.858 --> 00:19:35.967
so he gets suspicious
and starts looking…

00:19:35.992 --> 00:19:38.522
And watching this all play out
from the guards' perspective

00:19:38.547 --> 00:19:42.033
not only lends the scene more dramatic
tension, it also gives AVALANCHE

00:19:42.058 --> 00:19:44.289
a chance to look more
coordinated and stealthy.

00:19:44.314 --> 00:19:47.233
AND Jessie still gets to knock
a dude out with one kick.

00:19:47.258 --> 00:19:50.347
Then we get our introduction to
Barret (who is looking GOOD).

00:19:50.372 --> 00:19:52.467
Barret turns,
and just like in the old days

00:19:52.492 --> 00:19:55.374
he waves for Cloud to get his
butt off the train already.

00:19:55.399 --> 00:20:00.797
And Cloud obliges, just as before: in the
most unnecessarily dramatic way possible.

00:20:00.822 --> 00:20:03.204
And yes, this entrance
IS absolutely absurd,

00:20:03.229 --> 00:20:07.990
but, even ignoring the fact that it is a
direct callback to the original train jump,

00:20:08.015 --> 00:20:11.800
remember that performative coolness
and tough-guy posturing are

00:20:11.820 --> 00:20:15.360
CORE elements of Cloud’s character
at this point in his arc.

00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:17.300
WEDGE: "...but you know what I think?"
CLOUD: "Not interested."

00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:19.620
What we are seeing
right now is a facade

00:20:19.658 --> 00:20:23.167
which we are (hopefully) being
set up to eventually see through.

00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:28.340
And it does seems like Square’s narrative team
is leaning into that setup with some intent here

00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:32.700
JESSIE: "Ok THAT was pretty cool."

00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:35.840
I am excited to see
how they handle this.

00:20:35.861 --> 00:20:39.804
But, yeah, that’s it! Now we are playing
Final Fantasy VII, But Prettier!

00:20:39.829 --> 00:20:42.067
Only one cut-scene into this game

00:20:42.092 --> 00:20:45.667
and I am already really digging the
creative adjustments they’re making here.

00:20:45.692 --> 00:20:48.733
They’ve not only recreated the
original sequence with more detail,

00:20:48.758 --> 00:20:51.740
but actually added more
information and nuance,

00:20:51.765 --> 00:20:55.153
largely through the animated character
performances and cinematography.

00:20:55.178 --> 00:20:57.984
That’s what makes me so
excited for this Remake:

00:20:58.009 --> 00:21:03.333
because, good or bad, this return to Midgar
represents a HUGE animation opportunity.

00:21:03.358 --> 00:21:07.931
Final Fantasy VII’s story is PACKED
with some really juicy character scenes

00:21:07.956 --> 00:21:12.931
that the original game could only deliver through
text boxes and simplistic pantomime acting.

00:21:12.956 --> 00:21:17.767
There is so much untapped potential for
nuanced, animated acting in those scenes,

00:21:17.792 --> 00:21:21.262
and this Remake has the chance to
go back and make good on that potential!

00:21:21.287 --> 00:21:24.939
I am so jealous of the animators
in charge of re-imagining the scene

00:21:24.964 --> 00:21:27.135
where Cloud talks with
Aerith in the church.

00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:29.410
Or that scene where the party
is caught in Shinra tower

00:21:29.435 --> 00:21:31.818
and they’re all talking to
each other through the walls.

00:21:31.843 --> 00:21:36.368
OR the scene where Cloud is telling HIS
version of what happened five years ago,

00:21:36.393 --> 00:21:39.933
and Tifa’s just sitting in that
room, knowing his version is wrong,

00:21:39.958 --> 00:21:42.849
not knowing why, but
not SAYING anything?

00:21:42.874 --> 00:21:46.667
IMAGINE the blend of emotions happening
in her head throughout that scene.

00:21:46.692 --> 00:21:48.933
That is an animated
acting GOLDMINE.

00:21:48.958 --> 00:21:51.833
I’m calling it right now: whenever
that scene happens, watch Tifa’s face.

00:21:51.858 --> 00:21:55.733
That's one of the coolest character acting opportunities
in this whole dang game and they better not miss it--

00:21:55.758 --> 00:21:58.433
SORRY.... I am sorry.
I got excited.

00:21:58.458 --> 00:22:01.093
I don’t know if this game is going
to be great, or a disappointment.

00:22:01.118 --> 00:22:05.405
All I know is that this kind of
opportunity for comparative animation study

00:22:05.430 --> 00:22:09.200
does not come along often and
I cannot wait to get started.

00:22:09.225 --> 00:22:11.800
I’m actually going to be playing
this Remake for the first time

00:22:11.825 --> 00:22:14.665
over on our other channel,
PlayFrame, starting Monday.

00:22:14.690 --> 00:22:18.133
And if you have enjoyed me nerding
out about Final Fantasy VII animation

00:22:18.158 --> 00:22:21.733
and want to hear HOURS more of
it? Well, I hope you’ll join me.

00:22:21.758 --> 00:22:25.536
And thank you very much to
CanvasWolfDoll for suggesting this topic!

00:22:25.561 --> 00:22:27.900
I had so much fun
digging into this.

00:22:27.925 --> 00:22:31.567
If you’d like to suggest a topic for
a future animation analysis video,

00:22:31.592 --> 00:22:35.324
then consider supporting the show like
all of these good people listed here.

00:22:35.349 --> 00:22:38.333
Thank you very much for watching,
and I will see you next time.

00:22:38.358 --> 00:22:50.365
[music]