Final Fantasy VII (original) - Now on PS4

[Covarr]

With so much talk about the remake lately, I wanna discuss the new port of the original game to PS4. This port seems surprisingly competent.

Pros:

• Runs at native 1080p with anti-aliasing.
• A fast-forward button to run the game at 3x speed.
• Upscaled font.
• The framelimiter works correctly (unlike the PC version).
• They have centered field screens to have smaller black bars at top and bottom, instead of one big one at bottom.
• All the high quality FMVs and other improvements made to the Steam version have carried over.
• Trophy support.
• Uses PlayStation button labels instead of [Switch], [Cancel], etc.
• Analog support by default. Movement is still confined to 8 directions, but you can use either the stick or the D-Pad, and the stick auto runs if you push it all the way, or walks if you push it partway.
• Cheat button to refill HP/MP/Limit during battles.
• Cheat button to disable random encounters.

Cons:

• No widescreen support. Not even a half-assed "stretch" mode like you can get with Aali's driver, let alone a proper wider viewport.
• Will probably never be moddable.
• The line widths in the upscaled font are inconsistent.
• They have changed the save format, so it's unclear if BC will ever work with this.
• Battle scenes still run entirely at 15fps like PC (instead of 15fps for the 3D viewport and 60 for the menu like on PS1).
• It's ~4GB even though it doesn't need to be that big (Steam version is ~1.5GB).
• Battle scenes are not properly centered, and still have one big black bar at the bottom instead of smaller ones on bottom and top.
• They have not added any new spelling or grammar fixes, so Cloud still tells you to "Attack when it's tail is up!"
• Button mapping can't be changed.

It's not a perfect port, by any means, but it's clear they have put far more effort into it than Square Enix usually puts into their ports. I would go as far as to say this is the best version of this game currently available without mods.

[sithlord48]

One thing Covarr didn't mention is that R3 is Super battle mode where you have auto Limit and dex max as well as hp/mp restore (limit and hp/mp are applied after turns end) . with that and the 3x speed you can really run the game quickly . It took me less then 3 hrs to get out of midgar and thru clouds past!!

On the savegame front.
  So PS4FF7 uses its regular save format and is very much like PC the exported save file is save##.ff7 and save##.ff7.bin. the save file itself is 10MB (compare that to the old pc save of ~128Kb). The save is wrapped up in the standard PS4 save encryption that bloats the data up to 10MB . if we check psdevwiki info on ps4 saves we can see at least some progress has been made on opening these formats . However since they are encrypted and not signed like the ps3 copy we currently can't read or write these files.  The only good news is that its using the standard ps4 format for saving so there is a chance this will be figured out by people working on the ps4.

[olearyf2525]

So are the backgrounds blurry as heck on 1080p or did they legitimately clean up and filter the images and whatnot, like Satsuki's waifu field, world and battle scenes are they that quality of upscale?

[picklejar]

Thanks for this review Covarr, I actually tried to find a good review of the new PS4 port and couldn't find much. Your review exceeded all my questions and expectations! Just wanted to express my appreciation. I'm now much closer to a decision on whether to get it.

[dkma841]

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[Kaldarasha]

I assume the game is bigger as on PC because they use upscaled textures for the backgrounds. As far as I have seen it  they only interpolated them...

[Jaki]

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[Fischkopf]

• Cheat button to refill HP/MP/Limit during battles.
• Cheat button to disable random encounters.

What the hell... These are not pros. So this means you're able to use cheats at any given moment? I wonder what their reasoning behind this is. Because these elements are considered too taxing for todays gaming crowd?

You're supposed to use items to heal yourself... It was designed that way for a reason. Choosing the right moment in battle to heal party members is part of the whole fun. Also random battles are an integral part in the way the game was designed.  Disabling them would mean you miss a lot of XP, gil, learning enemy skills, useful items which makes you end up underpowered and will create more frustration than it was supposed to prevent in the first place. Omitting the integral aspect of random battles actually renders the whole battle aspect of the game pointless.

Including cheats by default will actually RUIN the whole experience for a lot of players, because a lot of people WILL just use those cheats, just because they're able to. If these are the philosphies the remake will be based on it won't be a bright future for this series as a whole.

[Covarr]

What the hell... These are not pros. So this means you're able to use cheats at any given moment? I wonder what their reasoning behind this is. Because these elements are considered too taxing for todays gaming crowd?

You're supposed to use items to heal yourself... It was designed that way for a reason. Choosing the right moment in battle to heal party members is part of the whole fun. Also random battles are an integral part in the way the game was designed.  Disabling them would mean you miss a lot of XP, gil, learning enemy skills, useful items which makes you end up underpowered and will create more frustration than it was supposed to prevent in the first place. Omitting the integral aspect of random battles actually renders the whole battle aspect of the game pointless.

Including cheats by default will actually RUIN the whole experience for a lot of players, because a lot of people WILL just use those cheats, just because they're able to.

I listed them as pros because they're optional. I fully intend to ignore them myself, just as I ignored the built-in cheats in the Steam version.

That said, look back at the '90s. There was a time when most games had cheats. It was really fun to mess around in debug mode in the Sonic the Hedgehog games, or give yourself a giant head in Goldeneye, or skip to later levels if you'd already beaten the game several times... but most people I know who used these cheats also beat the game normally. The cheats were an added bonus for repeat playthroughs. And if someone does want to use cheats? Let 'em. It's not like it'll affect our enjoyment of the game.

As for omitting random battles, it's something you can enable or disable on the fly. I don't think the intent is to leave 'em permanently off, but a reprieve if your party's in bad shape, or if you're overleveled anyway and in an area with weak monsters.

If these are the philosphies the remake will be based on it won't be a bright future for this series as a whole.

I highly doubt this is how they'll handle the remake. This seems to be something they've been putting exclusively on ports and rereleases, not new games.

[Roden]

I've been playing this version, one thing I really dislike is that the music restarts from the beginning after every battle. Was this in the PC version too? I really hope someone fixed that, it's so annoying as you can't hear the full music unless you (funnily enough), use the disable random battles cheat. Its also annoying that those cheats are available at the touch of a button at any time, there should be a cheat button active/inactive setting. If you're playing with dual shock it's OK but if you're on Vita via remote play its quite easy to activate them.

Other than it being a giant push to get gamers to buy FF7-remake (the theme you get free is a remake theme, and there's even a FF7 remake trailer in the main menu) it's rather nice to play. The high-res text and smooth animations make it hugely enjoyable playing on a 50 inch TV or whatever you have.. the backgrounds honestly don't look tooo bad. It has a primitive language selection option based on the PS4's OS language, but it at least has something so you can switch between Japanese/English/whatever if you like.

No modding makes me feel so powerless though, I can't make any custom versions tuned to my tastes. The speed up "cheat" can be handy, I don't use it much but I figure I will do. Overall, a thumbs up, but it has some issues!

[Fischkopf]

I've been playing this version, one thing I really dislike is that the music restarts from the beginning after every battle. Was this in the PC version too?

That's a pretty major flaw indeed, but a lot of people probably didn't even notice it so I don't think it will get patched. In the PC version it does NOT reset.

[Roden]

That's a pretty major flaw indeed, but a lot of people probably didn't even notice it so I don't think it will get patched. In the PC version it does NOT reset.

Yeah, it's not the only music flaw either, some parts the timing is quite off or the music continues playing during FMV (I think that happened on the first midgar reactor explosion at the start).

[Covarr]

For what it's worth, they have released a 1.01 patch. Here's what someone on the GameFAQs forums had to say about it:

According to the Update History in the console it fixes a freezing issue with the roller coaster in Gold Saucer.

Nothing special, but it shows they're not totally averse to updates. Who knows, they might eventually fix the music.

[Vgr]

Nothing special, but it shows they're not totally averse to updates. Who knows, they might eventually fix the music.

I wouldn't count too much on it. The Type-0 HD port on Steam got a lot of crap because a large number of people can't even run the game. And there are other numerous issues for people who can run it (like performance, which is the worst of all the games I have; even Civ V at max settings runs better), latest update was on September 30th, which was a little less than 2 months after the release. I'm sure they don't care much.

Who knows, they might surprise me. I wouldn't get my hopes up though, of course they're going to focus on the remake by now, the original is but a relic of the past (well, for them it seems, at least).

[Tekkie.X]

Ugh Type-0, played a couple of hours then never touched it again. Ran like shit on consoles, looks like shit on any platform too. Doesn't surprise me it ran like shit on PC, it's a really bad port.