#YOSHINORI KITASE

[rei-remediating]

Kitase says the lyrics in “Hollow” depicts Cloud’s feelings & emotions and “No Promises to Keep” is about Aerith’s feelings. It’s written that way and that’s something he’d like players to notice.

Source: https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2024/02/06/an-extended-demo-only-made-me-even-more-excited

[verumleonhart]

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

Can't tell you anything on the plot I just found the love story, child mercenaries, witch stuff, & Laguna all to be really cool.

Mechanics are flawed but I actually got addicted to breaking everything so that's another positive. Hell even the OST became Uematsu's best work to me. I just love overall experiential everything was.

[planckstorytime]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: A World Beyond Anger (Part Six)

VI. … And Why It Doesn’t Matter

You thought I was done complaining? No, never.

Doubtless someone will punch holes in my theory, and I wouldn’t even feign indignation. The truth is that none of the explanations posed by fans have established a coherent story. But the fact that this is where our attention has been directed – away from the emotional moments that give stories relevance in the first place – exposes the shallowness of this trade-off. Even if my desired theory comes to fruition, I don’t think it redeems Rebirth’s rendition of Aerith’s death.

The consistency, or lack thereof, between the obnoxious multiverse stuff and the franchise’s established lore ultimately matters little when you’ve already squandered that critical moment that makes us care. From whatever universe you view it, Rebirth demonstrates a puzzling ambivalence to Aerith’s passing. The impact of loss never lands, because moments later you have Zack stepping in for a tag-team match with Cloud against Sephiroth. It’s framed as some fist-pumping “fuck yeah” moment, complete with embarrassingly out-of-place musical callbacks and quotes from Crisis Core (2007). It doesn’t feel like purposeful whiplash to create a sense of disorientation, but rather completely tone-deaf and disrespectful fanservice, all during a moment that should leave the player feeling hollow. And no sooner has Aerith left the building than she rises again like the goddamn Undertaker, kicking ass and eliminating any modicum of loss. Whether she’s in the lifestream or a parallel timeline or a phantom of Cloud’s addled mind is a distinction without a difference. Her death – and perhaps all death in the series – has lost its significance, because it feels merely inconvenient.

Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series and story planner for the original FF7, channeled the pain and shock of his mother’s death into the loss of Aerith. Where once there was a source of joy, now there is only a void that will never be filled. In the original game, you’ll always have that empty slot on your party selection screen to remind you of who you’re missing. It’s an aching, uncomfortable treatment of death in fiction that was unconventional for its medium at the time. It cut straight to players’ hearts. With this is mind, does Rebirth capture anything remotely comparable? Should we call Sakaguchi and tell him his mom is still kicking somewhere?

When asked about the scene by Game Informer, Nomura had this to say:

“Prior to Final Fantasy VII, there have been other titles where characters have experienced tragedy, but many of them have come back or been revived in some ways. But I believe that loss is something that happens unexpectedly, and it’s not something so dramatic or drawn out, but is something in which a person that you have just conversed with is suddenly gone and never to come back. I believe that the person who dies should not return in this title, and that is what we did with the original… I do believe that the way we have depicted it brings about a new emotion and a new feeling for both players who have played the original Final Fantasy VII and newcomers.”

I struggle to conceive what this “new emotion” could be. Bewilderment? I can’t imagine another response when the developers diminish the tragedy of a lost friend because they want you to be more invested in keeping track of the stupid cartoon dog! Nothing can rationalize the cluttering of this sequence with a shell game that asks us to follow the Black/White/Clear Materia. This sequence, and the events immediately leading up to it, should not have been reduced to a gimmick of prestidigitation. We’re not wondering what we’ll do without Aerith – we’re wondering which sleeve she’s hiding in, so to speak. All of these unnecessary contrivances dare you to solve them, encourage you to switch off your Lizard Brain. But if you turn off your Lizard Brain and welcome those higher mammal functions, you’re bound to see how stupid all of this truly is. For Christ’s sake, we’re naming these worlds after dog breeds! Is that really worth what we’ve lost?

Mechanically-speaking, too, I feel the 1997 game better executed the subsequent battle. There’s an often overlooked quality of the Jenova LIFE fight: It’s really easy. Equip the Water Ring you picked up five minutes earlier and you’ve essentially won the fight. This works really well because you’re not supposed to be thinking hard about strategy and tactics or rocking out to Jenova’s awesome theme song – the battle just gives you time to chew on what’s happened, all the while Aerith’s theme softly rings in your ears. Rebirth gives you a complicated, high-flying, multi-stage boss fight that drops your dead friend’s musical motif midway through. Now, your party is dropkicking an eldritch monster and shouting quips, while electric guitars and synths blare in the background. You need to be actively paying attention for the hour-long boss gauntlet that follows, and it feels wrong to me. I didn’t party wipe; I’m not bad at this game (I beat Gilgamesh at level 49, prior to the endgame) – but micromanaging a chaotic battle drains what little emotion remained. I just felt numb in between fits of laughter.

That is to say, the ending of Rebirth feels like a trip to the dentist.

New mysteries take priority over an earnest portrayal of events, and I just don’t think they’re compelling enough to warrant that. Our knowledge of them has barely advanced since part one. We knew going in that Zack was in a different world, denoted by a different Stamp. And now we know… that there are different worlds denoted by different Stamps. For all the rigmarole, we learned shockingly little. The mystery didn’t really progress, aside from showcasing such a circus of inconsistencies that we’re basically forced to accept that it operates on dream logic. The true ending remains to be seen, but if the clues only amount to “the clues not adding up”, then I’d say that this plotline hasn’t felt rewarding.

My gut tells me this all leads to a cul-de-sac. I judge these riddles as cynical mystery boxes with little concrete direction. Rebirth backtracks on several of Remake’s more audacious changes, completely dropping plot points in some cases. I suspect the final game will do the same, and we’ll have something approaching the original. After all, this “adds up” to Advent Children, by Kitase’s admission. The man likewise expressed that the story will likely be adjusted based on audiences’ responses to the ending of the second part. Given that the narrative disruptions have had mixed reactions at best this time, I believe it’s fair to guess that we’re just looping back to the OG plot anyway.

With all of this in mind, attempting to unravel these unknown elements seems like a massive waste of time. I don’t find this ending quite as intolerable as that of Remake, but it still comes off as tacky and desperate. I think the third part will likely still be fun and contain many of the great moments from the latter half of the original. But I can’t hide my disappointment that, even though my worst nightmares about the project didn’t come to pass, it didn’t fully rehabilitate itself in my eyes either.

I won’t lie – when I started to feel that familiar anger rising again, I got scared. I didn’t get the clean resolution that I wanted, and I worried that destructive obsession would take me over again. I feared I was about to relapse into the world’s stupidest addiction.

All of a sudden, it clicked together. I spent 120 hours staring straight at the answer, oblivious to it. Yet it finally came to me.

FULL ESSAY: https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-a-world-beyond-anger/

[thereunionvii]

We explore the infamous closed door press conference with Maximillian Dood and dive deep into the reality that Square Enix never intended to use the original cast ever again and pulled a fast one on fans with Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind DLC and Tifa Lockhart Dissidia NT DLC and the shocking Chocobo GP revelation.

Was Maximillian Dood the fall guy?

Read this short article and learn why Rick Gomez, George Newbern, and more will never voice the characters again.

[graphicpolicy]

Yoshinori Kitase is an Otakon 2024 Guest

Yoshinori Kitase is an Otakon 2024 Guest #otakon #otakon2024 #otakon24

Yoshinori Kitase will be a guest at Otakon 2024. He is a producer at Square Enix, the company known for the “Final Fantasy” videogame franchise. Kitase began his career at Square Enix (formerly SQUARE Co., Ltd.) in 1990. He has been involved with many projects, including “Final Fantasy V,” “Final Fantasy VI,” “Final Fantasy VII,” “Final Fantasy VIII,” and “Final Fantasy X.” Kitase served as the…

[sapphire-weapon]

all this claire talk makes me jealous because while claire has been made useless in pretty much all projects at least capcom don’t neglect her like jill 😓

girl got her big comeback in death island yet somehow they managed to make even that the leon show

i'm telling u DI is there to set up for jilleon endgame i'm TELLING U

[dianeyang]

I asked Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth, and Yoshinori Kitase, the producer of the game and director of the original Final Fantasy Vll, to sign my sefikura fanart... and they signed it for me， YIPPEEEEEEEE

[thereasonsimbroke]

Video game adaptations are resurging, with many franchises explored for film or TV.

The #FinalFantasy series debuted in Hollywood in 2001, but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is largely forgotten. #SquareEnix is eager to revisit this franchise. Yoshinori Kitase, producer of #FinalFantasyVII Remake, recently expressed hope for an adaptation in an interview with Danny Pena. While no official plans exist, Hollywood directors show interest in the Final Fantasy VII universe, keeping Kitase optimistic about potential projects.

An adaptation could help Square Enix expand the franchise and boost its cultural impact. For now, fans must wait, as no development announcements have been made.

[nierielfaegir]

I feel like, while the other characters will be grieving Aerith's death, Cloud will be less "sad" because he knows Aerith still "lives" somewhere and he can see her again.

And with all this "different worlds coming together" talk and what the producer Yoshinori Kitase said about spending nearly 30 years with FFVII's characters, he wants to make them happy and give them a happy ending, it makes me think of a possibility where these two could find each other again and be together.

For example, Zack and Aerith get out of the "limbo" between realities and come to Cloud's world (Zack's world doesn't exist anymore). So in the end Cloud gets both his best friend and the woman he loves back.

However, he also said that the rest of the team would also be taken into consideration, so it won't just be "happiness and rainbows", so... Good luck everyone.

[silalcarin]

Cloti's Famous Kiss in FFVII Rebirth ─ Over 200 Fan Reactions on YouTube

Don't mind me, just making a short post for the Cloti fans on Tumblr pointing out these 2 amazing YouTube videos, counting over 200 fan reactions of Cloti's epic kiss!

Part 1:

Part 2:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As many people have already said elsewhere: the players choose who Cloud's date is (depending on how well said players treat the other party members), but only Cloud chooses who he kisses. 😏💁🏻‍♀️

Piggybacking on that, Tifa is literally the only date option out of the entire party with whom Cloud shares a kiss.

Cloud does NOT kiss Barret, nor vice versa.

Cloud does NOT kiss Red XIII, nor vice versa.

Cloud does NOT kiss Yuffie (she does kiss him on the cheek, but even then, it's not reciprocated, and she's fine with that since she's the biggest Cloti shipper).

Cloud does NOT kiss Cait Sith/Vincent/Cid, nor vice versa.

Most importantly: Cloud does NOT kiss Aerith, nor vice versa. In all of their so-called 'dates' in OG, Remake, and Rebirth, Cloud and Aerith do NOT kiss.

It's worth repeating: in both 'optional' and 'non-optional' moments throughout the entirety of the OG game, Remake and Rebirth, even through her death, Cloud and Aerith NEVER kiss.

After 27 years, the one and only person whom Cloud has ever kissed on-screen is Tifa.

Friendly reminder that, in the Final Fantasy franchise, the only pairings that have ever shared an on-screen kiss are canon couples. 😏💁🏻‍♀️

Finally, please do remember one very important thing: Cloud initiated the kiss with Tifa. Thus, another accurate way to describe this kiss is: Cloud kissed Tifa!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, that's the post. 🤗❤️

Thank you to crismas on YouTube for making these 2 amazing video compilations!

And thank you to the Power Trio ─ Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima, and Tetsuya Nomura ─ for making our kiss happen! 🥰

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT 6/30/2024:

Part 3 is now up! Once again, thank you to crismas for compiling these reactions!

450+ fan reactions, baby!

Part 3:

[demifiendrsa]

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH – Summer Game Fest 2023 Trailer

Japanese version

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second game in the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, will launch for PlayStation 5 in Early 2024. It will ship on two discs.

Screenshots

Overview

Get a first glimpse at the captivating story, thrilling gameplay and expansive world of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the highly anticipated new story in the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy VII remake project. In this standalone adventure, Cloud Strife and his friends have escaped the dystopian city of Midgar and embark on a new journey across the wide world of Gaia to pursue the vengeful swordsman, Sephiroth. Find out which mysteries the party will uncover when Final Fantasy VII Rebirth arrives on PlayStation 5 in early 2024. Players can explore an expansive world, all brought to life with a new level of graphical fidelity, developed specifically to leverage the power of the PlayStation 5 console.

Developer comments

How is development progressing on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth? Yoshinori Kitase, Producer: “Development is progressing smoothly and according to plan. We are currently working on nailing down a release date for the game.” How will players journey through the world outside of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth? Naoki Hamaguchi, Director: “Players will be able to journey across the wide and multifaceted world with a ahigh degree of freedom, experiencing a myriad of different stories along the way.” What are some of the key things to look forward to in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth story? Kazushige Nojima, Story and Scenario (Stellavista): “Players will witness a chain of narrative developments that lie at the very heart of the Final Fantasy VII story while discovering each character’s destiny.” Do I need to play Final Fantasy VII Remake to enjoy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth? Motomu Toriyama, Co-Director: “No—we have made preparations—so that players who did not get a chance to play the first game can fully enjoy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.” Has the battle system changed from Final Fantasy VII Remake? Teruki Endo, Battle Director: “In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, new comrades will join you in battle and you can cooperate with other party members in even closer ways than before.” Will Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have new original music? Keiji Kawamori, Music Supervisor: “Many new tracks have been created for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and we will be making some new arrangements of tracks from FINAL Final Fantasy VII Remake as well.”

[roseartsandfics]

Tifa (OG) -- Rose

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Golly, I hadn't even displayed anything for awhile, now ^^;. I've been busy, yes. First time back to displaying after the hiatus! Here is another rose artwork featuring my favorite FF character Tifa Lockhart, in the original FFVII, of course ^^

So wondering why I am not active as much? I was doing another virtual career camp. And I've been dealing with mental health issues for a while. It lasted for days, and I am still trying to recover, but I hope this helps.

Some spoils as I am about to say, for those who hadn't played CC, so yeah, be aware of that lol

I beat Crisis Core Reunion last month just before starting FFVII OG. So I managed to get up to the Minerva optional boss, and holy crap I could not defeat her 0_0. I knew she was going to be hard to defeat 0_0. One of my biggest mistakes is not getting the Genji Shield (which is missable to me, and impossible because I only mastered one Octaslash, and I was not going to take FOREVER to master three more), and possibly not having enough materia to convert to SPs, which I was losing due to the SP materia things I used to prevent more damage. Hey, Ziedrich and SP Turbo or Mastered works! They say Costly Punch works, but it made it a lot worse for my SP and getting damage and die every time without getting a Phoenix Down on time (no offense). Aerial Drain and Jump are slower. Surprisingly (prepare for what it works on her), Darkness works on her. HP wa getting low, but I can be fast on healing, and so I beat her! I gave her multiple tries because I am afraid of how other battles in other FF will be, and I don't want to lose the chance on beating them (Jevil from Deltarune I gave up because he was impossible to defeat XP)

Anyways, so I finished Tifa today, and did I little experiment on coloring and made more designable rather than make my coloring more crappy lol. It's been awhile since drawing her in the OG, and I've been playing the OG for a bit, and so here she is! I started using the Crayola Colors of the World pencils to actually color something more divergent and shadowing her hair and skin. I did her eyes differently because I don't feel like drawing her eyes in my style the way I always draw eyes (I am bad at drawing eyes lol). I am actually really happy how this turned out to be ^^. I actually liked how this piece turned out! ❤️ I just love her, and her characteristics as well in the game (and film) <3. I am still writing my fanfic, just hadn't gotten around to it.

We are supposed to have a tropical storm, so I can get this displayed before potential power outage. There… probably isn't going to be much gaming, unless I can play my 3DS and switch handheld, or write (which I can write my fanfics are awhile if the interent isn't wonky, or so, idk), or read, or draw, or whatever the hell I'm doing. I might be on hiatus again after the storm due to potential outage, so this will be the post before the storm. At least we are prepared, tornadoes are the ones I am worried about, but I'm watching. Stay safe and have a good night!

For those who don't know, any rose portrait arts are inspired by a friend of mine on Deviantart (still)! Welp, good night, and sleep well!

Tifa Lockhart and Final Fantasy VII ©Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Yusuke Naora and SQUARE ENIX

Artwork ©RosePrincessArts

No copyright infringement is intended

Used: Soho Studio pencils and colored pencils, Crayola regular and Colors of the World colored pencils, Cra-Z-Art colored pencils and blending stumps

[planckstorytime]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: A World Beyond Anger

https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/

Hello! This is an essay analyzing the themes of FF7 Rebirth through a psychoanalytic lens, while also critiquing the execution of the game's writing. Moreover, it's a personal reflection on my journey with the game, and the complicated feelings that got tangled up with that. Please give it a read if you have the chance.

Previous articles: FF7: Reflections of a Traumatized Generation (2020)

I Need to Talk about Final Fantasy VII Remake or My Head Will Explode (2021)

Excerpt: “A confluence of worlds… and emotions. Loss, chief among them. It engulfs fleeting moments of joy, transforming them into rage, sadness, hatred.”

– Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024), speaking to me, specifically

*The following contains spoilers*

I. Memoirs of a Neurotic Fan

Hoo boy.

It’s been a long four years since Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) released, and I don’t think I have ever before devoted so much emotional energy to deciphering how I truly feel about a piece of media. Initially, I enjoyed my return to a reimagined world of lovable characters, but unfavorable writing choices and a mind-boggling finale left me feeling torn. Despite striving to maintain an optimistic outlook at the end of my previous essay, my perspective on the game only darkened as the years wore on. Developer interviews constantly oscillated back and forth as to whether they would remain faithful to the original FF7 (1997), or, as the ending of Remake indicated, strike out on a brand new “unknown journey.” That’s not to mention the downright radioactive discourse among fans, combined with the litany of harassing messages I received for the most tepid criticisms.

Eventually, I grew to despise Remake. The positive emotions and ecstatic love I had for parts of the game sunk beneath my waves of ire toward its creative divergences – as well as what they represented to me. And I fed that hate. I hated its ponderous navel-gazing about the nature of adaptations. I hated its self-congratulatory insinuation that asinine story decisions like the “Baby’s-First-Metacommentary” Whispers and the resurrection of multiple deceased characters somehow constituted “bold” storytelling. I hated the uncritical portion of certain audiences that fell for this illusion of transgressive storytelling, all the while embracing a game that went out of its way to barrage the player with fanservice and puerile pandering. I hated the frequent argumentation that “it’s not a remake, it’s a sequel” was somehow seen as a mitigating factor, when it actually further aggravated my problems with it. I hated Remake’s emphasis on novelty, its subversion without meaning, its arrogant alienation of new audiences that wanted to experience a classic story, and its implicitly cynical view on thousands of years of storytelling tradition for the sake of “surprise.” To quote director Naoki Hamaguchi:

“When you try to remake a game and make it an entertaining game, having the exact storyline as the original would lack the excitement and surprise. I was looking for an essence to add to the story, and Zack was chosen to be this essence because in the original, there wasn’t much story about Zack, but in Crisis Core, he had a huge character development.”

But that lonely ember of hope persisted; after all, I had loved Remake at one point. I hated that stubborn attachment most of all. By the time Rebirth was fully unveiled, I wanted only one thing from it: to repulse me to my core, to be something so egregiously offensive to my sensibilities that I could never associate the project with anything positive again. “Perhaps if things get stupid enough,” I thought, “others will also see the emperor’s nakedness.” Pain and despair morphed into objects of desire for me. They were my keys to escaping these contradictory feelings of love and hate.

As you can see, I am quite well-adjusted and able to engage with art in a healthy way.

Continue Reading

[balambwanderer]

You know, apprehensive is my initial feeling but honestly I'd trust them to give us something good again.

I know the likelihood of a remake for VIII isn't very high, particularly going by this interview for understandable reasons, but I'll never quite give up hope y'know?

[sapphire-weapon]

guys

i need u to understand just how bad the ship wars in FF7 fandom are

the FF7 LTD (love triangle debate) makes aeons' antics look like lukewarm child's play

and a big contributing factor is the fact that yoshinori kitase (the director of OG and producer of remake) and tetsuya nomura (writer/director of advent children and director of remake) think the LTD is literally the funniest thing on the planet and they will go out of their way to troll the fanbase about it. this is not like RE where titles get passed from team to team and everyone puts their own spin on things. it is literally the same group of guys fanning the flames knowingly and on purpose for the lulz.

in FF7 OG, there's a moment in the game where cloud (our hero) can go on a date with one of his/your party members based on an invisible affection meter. in OG, this scene is pretty inconsequential overall. it's just a fun little thing that happens in the middle of the game where it's like "here's a break from the story, look at these cute moments, etc." and the date is never referenced again, so there's absolutely no indication which one is meant to be canon.

FF7 rebirth took that fun little scene and decided to just piss gasoline all over the fires of the ship wars. and then throw napalm on top for good measure.

SPOILERS FOR REBIRTH'S GOLD SAUCER DATES UNDER THE CUT

so the ship war is between cloud/tifa and cloud/aeris stans.

in the date you can go on with tifa in rebirth, she and cloud have an on-screen kiss at the end.

cloud and aeris do not have this at the end of their date.

but instead of that just settling the LTD and giving the win, finally, to cloud/tifa

rebirth made it so that the cloud/aeris date is explicitly canon -- because the date does get referenced again later in the game this time around, and regardless of who you actually took with you, the story was written as though you went with aeris. there's no alternate versions of that scene. the official story is that cloud went with aeris.

so, cloud and tifa may have kissed... but it's not canon. it didn't actually happen in the story. so it doesn't really matter if they ever kissed on screen at all, because, as far as the actual story of the game is concerned, that never happened.

do u see now how this is going to create massive, massive, massive problems in the fandom

[dianeyang]

FREE Sefikura handout at Anime NYC!!!

Hello my beautiful beautiful fellow sefikura shippers🥺 if you are planning to visit this year’s Anime NYC, from August 23rd to 25th, please come by my indie game booth (located in Hall 1B, 1B-49) and collect some sefikura fanart! I’ll be more than happy to make some new friends🥺🥺🥺

and yes - these were the fanart that i asked Naoki Hamaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase to sign for me back in June…

(note: the booth i am running is not at Artist Alley, as it is not an art-based booth - it’s a game booth located in Play NYC, Hall 1B.