#low polygon sephiroth

[wanyaneedanemesis]

Pre-nibelheim Sephiroth holding low poly Seph

No talk me I'm angy

[anagalis]

i fucking need to add something here because i love advent children so much

this scene is in basically every iteration of ff7, the original, advent children, crisis core (probably uses the advent children version and i think only the flames are slightly different). its always so incredible to see the jump in technology and how much better it looks every time. so how come that rebirth's version looks so much more detailed but still somehow more static than advent children?

when ff7r was in development some dev said (probably nomura iirc, it's been a while) how they first considered using the models from advent children for the game. just think about it, gaming has come so far they can now use high polygon models originally used in a cgi movie in real time. in the end they didn't use the advent children models because they were actually too low in quality, they can have even better graphics now.

so aside from sqare enix prerendering every frame in the movie, what makes it less static? (and im not really talking about his body moving less) basically, computers were so bad back then, they couldn't make the computer calculate (long) hair movement, like they can in the game now and it looking fine. they actually had to animate sephiroth's hair for the movie BY HAND. it was just faster and easier than making the computer calculate everything, maybe not even looking right and having to fix it afterwards. (they had to do that for every long haired character)

maybe this is a small nitpick, but the way sephiroth's hair flows with the wind in the advent children version just makes it more epic

1997- 2005 - 2024

[jcmarchi]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review - Cracking The Planet Wide Open - Game Informer

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review - Cracking The Planet Wide Open - Game Informer

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has quite the act to follow up – it must both live up to the sky-high expectations set by its predecessor, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and synthesize and modernize perhaps the most crucial chapter in our heroes’ adventure across Gaia. While my 80 hours in Rebirth didn’t quite match the overall nirvana of Remake, it���s a game I struggled to put down. A few stumbling blocks, like a bloated and sometimes tedious open world and intermittently uneven pacing, threaten the highs of Rebirth. But an exciting and well-told story, with an awe-inspiring finale to boot, almost made me forget the lows. The final result is a flawed but deeply reverent love letter to one of gaming’s most beloved RPGs. 

Finally out of Midgar, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII embark on a continent-hopping journey to stop Sephiroth from executing his plan to destroy the planet, starting with a visit to the city of Kalm. Like Midgar before, Kalm is lovingly recreated from polygonal pathways into a fully realized town. Seeing such a familiar location through the lens of 2024 for the first time is a treat, and it’s a feeling carried throughout the entire game. Junon, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim – iconic locations burned into my brain deliver moments of awe with each visit, and the feeling never gets old. 

Sometimes, though, asset pop-in in larger areas and unnaturally harsh lighting changes when going from inside to outside distract from that awe. And the game’s performance mode, which seems to run at a stable 60 FPS, is so blurry that I stuck with the 30 FPS graphics mode. A recent patch mitigated these issues a bit, but they still persist. 

Surrounding each of these locations is a sprawling open area dotted with side quests, combat challenges, card game matches, treasure caches, intel towers, scavenger hunts, and more. While exciting at first, realizing that each open-world area in Rebirth consists of the same objectives grew more disappointing as time passed. Much of it is good fun, carried by excellent combat and strong connections to the world and lore of Final Fantasy VII, but more variety would have gone a long way to sprucing up my time outside of story content. 

Pockets of greatness, like the fantastic Queen’s Blood card game or special Summon Shrines that lead to new powerful materia, are still great even when repeated throughout the world map. And where the standard area objectives rarely stray from the formula established early on, the side quests, which range from fine and forgettable to great, sprinkled throughout each region, provide levity and a nice touch of weirdness to the world of Cloud and his friends. One even had me laughing out loud at my screen, reeling from a reality check delivered right to Red XIII. Traversing these lands can be tedious at times, especially in areas where specific Chocobo mechanics, like mushroom-hopping and wind gliding, are required, and my frustrations with Rebirth’s overfilled open world peaked in these moments. 

But old and new story beats, like Bugenhagen’s explanation of the lifestream and the return of familiar faces from Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core, pulled me out of those dumps. Some of my favorite original Final Fantasy VII moments are given new life with beautiful visuals and expanded exposition. Fighting new foes and classic bosses with Rebirth’s combat, which further builds on Remake’s real-time action-strategy system, is exhilarating. Additional party members, like Red XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Sith, inject new layers of defensiveness, speed, and whimsy, respectively, to the mix, and Rebirth smartly uses the weapon proficiency bonus system and story moments to ensure none are left sitting on the bench for too long. 

Square Enix nails almost every story beat, expanding on the lore in ways I didn’t know I wanted while remaining faithful to the original narrative, but falters a few times with needlessly overstuffed chapters. One, in particular, begins with the endorphin rush of the Gold Saucer and then dumps you into a literal dustbowl with a laundry list of boring quests to complete before allowing you to continue forward, bringing the fun to an excruciating halt.

If Remake is about showing how the capitalist, villainous Shinra Electric Power Company is destroying Midgar, Rebirth is about how this company is destroying the world. Square Enix uses the game’s various regions to demonstrate Shinra’s effects on the planet and its people up close and personal. The Gold Saucer shines bright at night, with nearly a dozen minigames – just a fraction of the total game’s shocking amount –  and collectible treasures for its patrons (and Cloud) to delight in. But the surrounding Corel region is in ruins, now a desert thanks to miniature reactors converting the region’s lifestream into the energy needed to power the nightlife resort. 

Cloud’s fight to catch and stop Sephiroth takes a backseat to this commentary throughout, giving them time to work through their emotions together as most are venturing beyond where they’ve ever been in this world. Those discussions and growing bonds weave in and out of combat, where new Synergy Abilities provide meaningful boosts to Rebirth’s action in various ways, like one that splits two Active Time Battle bars into three or another that massively increases an enemy’s stagger. These abilities and other skills directly improve Cloud’s standing with his party, opening opportunities for additional insight and raising a special relationship meter.

Sephiroth’s sparse screentime makes each appearance by the One-Winged Angel all the more terrifying, culminating in a final act that broke my mind in the best way, both as a test of my combat abilities and my understanding of Final Fantasy VII. Square Enix already made clear to players where this game comes to a close, but the finale, which best serves fans rather than first-time players, isn’t any less wondrous because of that. Rebirth’s score matches the heights of this closing act and the rest of the game, with gorgeous tear-inducing arrangements, jazz-fusion bops, and an eclectic mix of new songs and old favorites.  

This sequel went wide, and while that comes with benefits, like new ways to explore this beloved world and its various sights, it also comes with drawbacks. They aren’t unlike anything fans of the genre have experienced before, and playing as cherished characters certainly eases the pain, but the tedium and bloat of the open-world checklist can sometimes get in the way of where Rebirth truly shines. The best of Remake exists in Rebirth, but the various open-world areas surrounding it – the parts that make Rebirth unique from its predecessor – sometimes miss the mark.

[ghostofnibelheim]

Bit of a weird question but your headcanons on Sephiroth's haircare routine AFTER he goes rogue? Does he still use the same products supplied by Shrina somehow? Does Hojo secretly supply them to him while he is happily slaying people for his "mother"? It seems Sephiroth still takes good care of his hair and himself, even after trying to kill everyone.

//I mean... if we want to be technical, Sephiroth dies shortly after going rogue, so I reckon his hair care routine is no longer an issue.

From that point forward, the Sephiroth you see is not Sephiroth, but Jenova in his image. While Sephiroth does control the visage, his physical body is encased in a crystal in the North Crater throughout most of the game, up until he becomes a demi-god, basically.

So the question can be: does Jenova!Sephiroth need hair care routine? Probably not. Jenova is a shapeshifting organism, which I assume means it can appear dirty or clean as it desires, so probably has no need for hygiene.

Does Sephiroth himself, as a sealed body in the North Crater, need hair care? Probably, but in his condition he really cannot move so.. I like to imagine he is not as pristine as the low polygons made him look back then.

Dr. Saru\\

[leronboi]

GOD I NEED TO EXPRESS HOW HOT SEPHIROTH IS IN CRISIS CORE!! HE IS JUST BUILT SOO DIFFERENTLY!!! Idk if it’s cuz I grew up playing that game or cuz he was still cool and sane and as a player, you get to see his humane side, but MANNNNNNNNN. Remake Sephiroth is hot but Crisis Core him makes me fuckin feral. 

[silver-wield]

the ÇA/dum

say that Aerith will be able to cure Cloud with her memory problems because she is from the future?

That is true ?

They say that, but they don't understand the story and act like remake is a sequel.

It's not. It's a Remake, not a reboot or sequel. Aerith isn't from the future and neither is Sephiroth.

They're confused by the more sophisticated graphics and storytelling, but that's hardly surprising since they were confused by the low res polygons and simple storyline too.

[thegleampt3]

does anyone by any chance have a transparent of low polygon lego sephiroth t posing

[tiny-cloud-dragon]

FF7: Random Bits 4 Chapter 4

Here it is, the final chapter for this Random Bit! Thank you to all of you who wait so patiently for me to update!

[Setting: Zack is having a bothersome tooth pulled, and Cloud is elected the lucky man to pick him up from his appointment.]

[Location: The car Cloud borrowed - Mid afternoon, almost at 7th Heaven]

Cloud felt nothing but relief as he turned down the street leading to the 7th Heaven. His enhanced vision could pick out the familiar store front and the sign that shone in the afternoon light like the beacon of salvation beckoning a lost soul home. In the seat beside him, Zack was in the midst of a heated argument with his hand. What he was arguing about was a mystery, as he was currently shouting in 'Boom Shaka-Laka'. The phrase had long ago stopped tickling Cloud's Funny Bone, and had begun to grate on his Last Nerve. 

The dragon part of him uncoiled and was pacing, tail lashing peevishly as it hissed in utter vexation and tried to convince him that it would be a very good idea if they ate Zack. Cloud tried to shut out the dragon's ranting as he drove as fast as he dared while still staying mostly within the posted speed limit. He had no desire to be pulled over with an angry dragon in his head and a friend high on general anesthesia, and have to say "Sorry, Officer. I was speeding so I wouldn't have to eat my friend." while Zack shouted BOOM SHAKA-LAKA! the whole time.

Cloud gratefully pulled up to the bar. He got out quickly and wrestled Zack out of his seat belt. Zack was not not on speaking terms with his hand. Cloud had thought that drawing a little face on Zack's hand would keep him entertained so he wouldn't keep licking the window. The hand puppet idea fell into the Cloud's mental list under the heading Things That Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.  Zack had started out talking enthusiastically to his hand, then making out with his hand, and then came the intensely emotional break up. Cloud had been witness to the entire Courtship Process from hook up, to break up, to appearance on family tabloid scandal talk show compressed into the space of three minutes.

Zack was frowning so hard at his hand that the corners of his mouth could have almost been deemed a tripping hazard. Cloud couldn't help but smile at the sight as he shut the car door and pulled Zack's arm across his shoulders to help steady him.  "Don't worry, Zack, " Cloud tried to soothe him, "At least you don't owe child support."

Zack harrumphed  and glared at his hand. It blinked back at him and sneered as Cloud helped him inside. The door opened like a mouth, rolling out a long tongue like a red carpet welcoming an esteemed guest. They stepped through, the potted trumpet shrub in the corner played a brief fanfare, and the door closed with a genteel burp.

Tifa was behind the bar, getting clean glasses ready for when the bar opened. She began speaking with Cloud, but Zack wasn't paying attention to the conversation because a small Sephiroth had just scampered down his arm and seated itself on the hand Cloud was griping Zack's wrist with. Zack stared at it. It smiled almost benignly at him before pulling out its sword, darting up Cloud's shoulder and, after pausing to giggle mischievously, sliced the string tethering Cloud's balloon head to his body.

Zack gasped as if sucking up all the air in the room and stood by helplessly as the yellow balloon with Cloud's face on it slowly floated up. Right into the briskly spinning blades of the ceiling fan, where it met its end with a loud pop!

Zack shrieked and looked from the falling bits of yellow latex to Cloud's neck. There was a hissing sound, and a new balloon rapidly inflated and floated up out of Cloud's collar, bouncing on the end of its freshly tied string.

Cloud was filling Tifa in on the details of how the appointment had gone when Zack gasped like a set of dying bagpipes. They both looked at Zack as he loosed a lung-shredding shriek that threatened to liquify their eardrums.  "What on earth-?" Tifa began as Zack all but gibbered with relief and grabbed at Cloud's head.

"He's been like that ever since I picked him up," Cloud replied, pulling Zack's frantic hands away from his head. "He's got this weird obsession with my head. You should have seen him when I picked him up!"

"I can only imagine," Tifa commented wryly.

Zack looked at Cloud and whimpered "Boom Shaka-Laka?" in the same tone one would use to ask 'are you alright?'

"Don't ask," Cloud said flatly as Tifa raised an eyebrow in question. "Let's just get him upstairs so he can sleep it off."

Tifa pulled Zack's left arm across her shoulders, and helped Cloud walk Zack towards the bar.

"Are you sure he's okay?" she asked, concerned as Zack went "Wheeeeee!" and started making random video game noises when she lifted the flip up counter top.

"Yeah, he's actually looking a lot better than when I first picked him up," Cloud grunted as he turned sideways and maneuvered Zack behind the counter.

"How can you tell?" Tifa grunted, giving Zack a helpful push as he decided to come to a dead stop halfway through the bar access door to stare around the room.

"Well, both of his eyes are looking in the same direction, and he's not falling down every half step."

"I'll take your word for it." Tifa said as Zack looked back and forth between her and Cloud, laughing hysterically.

The magical rainbow portal they had entered deposited them in an alternate universe where everything was the same, except the bar now had an odd 16-bit look to it. One might even go so far as to describe it as 'pre-rendered'. Zack turned his head to mention the observation to Cloud, and bust out laughing. Both of his friends had turned into bulky, low polygon, 3D versions of themselves. Their bodies were made of simple shapes, and they didn't even have hands, just stumpy hooves on the ends of their arms.

Polygon Cloud turned to give Zack an unreadable look, Zack jerked his face in the other direction to keep from being stabbed in the face by a spear of polygon hair, and almost lost an eye to a polygon tiddy. Tifa patted Zack with a hand stump, and he started laughing all over again. 

He continued to giggle as they shuffled up the pre-rendered stairs. The confined space barely left enough room for one person, let alone three, and this caused a storm of frantic clipping as various parts of Cloud and Tifa passed through the walls and themselves.

Zack's brain, still reeling from the general anesthesia, found the whole thing highly amusing, which was nothing of note, considering that in his current state, he would have laughed at the color of dryer lint. One of Cloud's hoof hands clipped through Zack's neck, while Tifa's face clipped through his head, and that was when it went from hysterically funny, to bowel twistingly unsettling. Zack blanched, the color draining out of his face like a flushed toilet as he got a good look at the inside of Tifa's head. He was about to scream when everything went black for half a second as the scene transitioned, leaving them standing in the pre-rendered hallway, all nice and separate.

Wilting with relief, Zack allowed himself to be led down the hall towards the bedroom. They met with a temporary delay when Tifa got stuck on the wall next to the bedroom door. They had to wait while she aimlessly turned in circles and glitched against the wall before finally getting unstuck. Cloud opened the door, leaving Zack wondering how one turned a door knob with a hand that lacked fingers, or even a wrist, and they stepped back into the normal world.

Cloud sat Zack on his bed by the window, where it had been ever since Zack had gotten lonely in his apartment on Base, and Tifa and Cloud had insisted that he move in. He ended up sharing a room with Cloud after he and Tifa got into a row over Zack not wanting her go to the costly expense of renovating the bar to add a new room. Cloud had stepped in with the offer to share his room before Zack ended up having to be carried upstairs in a bucket.

Tifa went back down to the bar to get a glass of water for Zack, while Cloud tried to get Zack comfortable. He pulled off Zack's boots, pushed him over onto the mattress, and was about to toss the blanket over him, when Zack abruptly sat back up with a cry of "Wait!"

"What? What is it?" Cloud asked, slightly startled at the outburst.

"I forgot to floss!"

"What?"

"I forgot to floss!

"You just had a tooth pulled! You don't need to floss right now-!," Cloud began as Zack jumped up.

Tifa returned, glass in hand and found Cloud arguing with an agitated Zack. 

"What are you two doing?" she asked as she set the glass down on the desk. 

"I forgot to floss," Zack babbled.

"You don't-!" Tifa started to say before Zack shoved Cloud's hands away and started Flossing. Something told Cloud that the immediate future need to be preserved for future generations, so he whipped his phone out and started recording while Tifa gave him a disapproving frown. He noted, however, that she made no effort to step in and stop the shenanigans.

Zack started out Flossing slowly, as if testing his coordination, and then went a little faster. Cloud expected him to stop after the first five minutes or so, but to his surprise, Zack began to speed up. His arms just kept moving faster and faster, becoming mere blurs as he Flossed as if his very life depended on it. Cloud feared that he was going to dislocate either a hip or a shoulder as the motion began to stir up a breeze. The wall calendar began flapping slowly, and random papers on Cloud's desk began to lift slightly. Cloud began to really worry when the curtains started fluttering. He swore he heard a faint whirring noise before Zack Flossed himself into exhaustion and collapsed backwards across his bed, snoring faintly.

"Well, color me impressed," Tifa whispered in admiration as they quietly left the room.

Zack woke a few hours later, jaw a little sore, but feeling much better than he had that morning. He had the vague and suspicious feeling that a lot things (most of them embarrassing) had happened, but darned if he could remember what they were. He sat up as Cloud came in to check on him.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah," Zack responded, his tone uncertain as he noticed the blank expression Cloud wore. He was very familiar with that look, or lack there of. Cloud usually had that look when he was hiding various emotions. By the way his mouth was tighter than usual at the corners, and the way his eyes were slightly crinkled at the corners, he finding something funny. And it had to do with him. More specifically, something he had done.

"What happened?" Zack asked in such a way that his question covered multiple contexts.

"What do you remember?" Cloud asked, enigmatically.

Zack, feeling more and more uneasy, searched though the jumbled box of hazy memories. He described the events starting from waking up in the exam room, all the way until he Flossed himself to sleep. Cloud listened, not saying a word until Zack was finished. Now everything made sense, including Zack's fascination with Cloud's head.

They spent a few minutes laughing at some of the more outlandish hallucinations, and the more humorous things Zack had done on the way home. 

"But the best hallucination was the rainbow unicorn! It had a rainbow mane, an diamond horn, and get this: it flew by farting rainbow glitter!" Zack howled with laughter, wiping his streaming eyes.

Cloud chuckled with him for a few moments before stopping and saying in a dead serious tone, "The unicorn was real,"

The seriousness with which Cloud delivered the news hit Zack's ears like a granite slab. Silence rang loud in the room for a few heartbeats before Zack stuttered in disbelief and no small amount of suspicion that Cloud was pulling his leg, "It what...?"

"The unicorn was real. That was 3rd Class ELITE Eunice Cornelius, who just made his first Shift today."

Zack stared at Cloud, not sure of what to say, so he settled for nodding and saying "Well, Boom Shaka-Laka!"

The End.

[cosplayinamerica]

Sephiroth from Final Fantasy : bill.alexander.948 // photo: steadyshark

I've always really been into FF7. I was kind of inspired by the guy who made the Polygon Cloud outfit years ago. I even contacted him for a few questions. The costume is hard to hear and talk out of it, so it's not that easy to interact with other people while in costume, everything has to be non-verbal unless they get close enough to hear and talk. I do like running up to Aeris / Aeriths and acting like I'm about to attack them though when it seems appropriate. I get a lot of fist-bumps from people, which is cool, but sometimes it's done too hard which isn't good for the cardboard.

With 3D printing becoming a thing, I came across a reddit user who had the files for the entire main cast. I extracted Sephiroth from it. I put my body size and dimensions in Cinema 4D to see how everything could fit around me, so I had to make certain adjustments to the size of things, while also not adjusting things too much to keep the original design intact as much as possible. I would then take the adjusted 3D model and use Pepakura to unfold the polygon faces, and I did size tests to see what truly fit me, what didn't, and what needed additional tuning.

There were times I had to redo pieces, like the face/head, I had to build out 3 times to fit how I wanted it. Some pieces, like the pants, had to be drastically changed in order for me to have the ability for me to walk.

The head had to be enlarged from the original, which actually made it look better and more "chibi". Having the eyes cut out with no white layer that I can see through actually worked in its favor too. Not only could I see better with regular holes, but it made him look even more menacing I think to have dark eyes. I don't think this would have worked as well if done with other characters, so it's a good thing I choose him.

Anyway, after getting the unfolded versions from Pepakura, I imported the vector versions of individual pieces into Illustrator on a canvas to the size of 36" x 48". I went to Staples to get these pieces printed on large blueprint paper, then cut them out and labeled which pieces belong to what. I looked around and in some cases purchased cardboard for it, I didn't want the cardboard to be too thin or too heavy, depending on which part of the costume it was for.

For the legs, I wanted much sturdier material. The head had to be a mixture of heavy and lighter cardboard, as I didn't want the head to weight too much, so there was a balance of heavy in the front with less cardboard and lighter in the back with more cardboard. He has a lot of hair coming down from the back, but that ended up helping to support the back piece and worked out really well.

When the cardboard was folded up and taped the way it was supposed to be, the next step was getting fabric. Because the models in the game are so low quality, I had to look at various references for the chest and eyes material and colors. I decided to do what seemed aesthetically pleasing and wing it with the eyes, since many sources felt too different. I've never really worked with sowing before, but thankfully it wasn't anything too complicated. I used a mixture of sowing and glue dots, to save on time. I wish I had just sown the whole thing, but I was on a time crunch. I had to worry about functionality too, like how to I get the chest to close, how do I get random hairs to stick out unnaturally, how do I properly fill out the inside of the head and comfortably, etc.

The answer to most of these questions was velcro, fishwire, and suspender buckles. the last 2 being my dad's idea. At one point I built a really long sword for him, playing with the possibility of the hand being able to hold it, but I felt that would just create even more issues for walking around, also poking people without noticing.

[isaaclaforeze-remade]

i don't know final fantasy, what's wrong with crisis core :o

this is like 3 pages long

let’s see. where do i begin...

Shin-Ra’s wrongdoing is completely swept aside, ignored, and even sometimes outright erased in the games narrative. This is because the main character, Zack Fair, is someone you’re supposed to like but who works for Shin-Ra. Shin-Ra was one of the main villains of the entire original story. Its status as such was not unfounded - it’s guilty of causing climate change on Gaia, imperialism / colonialism against Wutai (as well as everywhere else, just a longer time ago), human experimentation, genocide, maintaining a dictatorship, and basically every war crime out there.

Aeris Gainsborough is depicted as weak and is mostly just there in the plot of Crisis Core for Zack to have a love interest, which is super shitty. She’s someone who grew up in the slums after escaping a Shin-Ra lab, so shes tough in her own way in canon (i.e. in the original game.) This is more disappointing because she’s a very interesting character and learning more about her upbringing would’ve been really interesting if it wasn’t all about a man in her life. Crisis Core was released for FF7′s 10th anniversary, as a prequel. It would’ve been far better had it focused on the actual characters of FF7, rather than humanizing Shin-Ra for no reason.

As I mentioned before, Aeris exists in Crisis Core only to be a love interest for Zack. Zack is largely an irrelevant character in FF7, only appearing in flashbacks and occasionally alluded to in dialogue. Said dialogue was left ambiguous as to whom it was talking about, making Zack even more obscure. So, who was Zack in FF7?

If he is to be a sympathetic character, it’s likely that he was drawn in as a child by Shin-Ra’s propaganda for the Wutai War, enlisting for SOLDIER in his early teens. It’s unlikely he would have known the scope of Shin-Ra’s crimes or even the reality of what killing a person is like. It’s not hard to imagine he would come to regret his enlistment into SOLDIER, however, there exists within Shin-Ra an entire department meant to blackmail and threaten others not to cross the company. It’s likely that his parents or possibly even his entire hometown could have been threatened should he express any desire to desert.

This would be a fairly complex character with interesting and compelling storytelling, which, of course, Square Enix is too lazy to go for.

Instead, Zack is an upbeat, hyperactive teenager who fight with a smile on his face. He’s entirely loyal to Shin-Ra. The game is very careful not to let you see or play as Zack killing actual people, even though that’s exactly what SOLDIER is for. It instead opts for having him kill “clones” of other SOLDIERS (which is still chilling if you’ve actually played the original game, since Cloud is revealed to be a failed clone of Sephiroth. Cloud is his own person with his own motivations and morals, as we’ve gotten to know throughout the game.)

Cloud is in this game, unfortunately. I do not say this is unfortunate lightly.

From the original game, we have implications in dialogue that Cloud was “always picking fights,” and from the water tower scene we know he feels ostracized from other people and maintains a sense of arrogance as a coping mechanism for this. You’d expect this to be how he’s depicted in Crisis Core, right? Abrasive, tough, though perhaps knocked down a notch or two from working in the military. But, no, he’s actually depicted as timid and weak. It’s a huge disappointment when that’s nothing like the asshole Cloud everybody learned to love.

There’s these two new SOLDIER 1st Class characters that were never in or mentioned in the original game. Their names are Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos. Yes, those are really their names. 

Genesis’ only lines, really, are him reciting this stupid poem / play they made up for the game. it’s the most pretentiously-written thing to have ever disgraced my eardrums and i hate him for repeating the same lines from it constantly. i hate this man with a rage so all-consuming and disgraceful that i feel actively demonic by how hateful he makes me feel. please do not talk to me about this man or i will stop being friends with you if i already am and i’m COMPLETELY serious when i say this

angeal is like.. all he ever talks about is honor, honor, honor. shut the fuck up dude, you sound like a scratched mulan CD. ultimately he turns into a monster because of the experiments shin-ra did on him and he kills himself by forcing zack to kill him, boo fucking hoo. you have the strength to snap your own neck don’t give your kid a guilt complex you pompous asshole

the nibelheim incident, a major plot point in the original game and a very chilling moment, is retconned so that genesis can be in it and look all important. the reason this was done was because gackt(?), a famous jrock star, played the mocap/voice acting for genesis, and square wanted as much gackt stan money as they could get. it was pathetic and an embarrassment then, and it’s pathetic and embarrassing now. 

on top of all this, there’s weird gay-coding thrown in there in between zack and cloud to make zack’s death seem more tragic and get more fujo money. it worked.

did i mention angeal and genesis are also made conventionally attractive? also sephiroth isn’t an ugly little hojo-spawn like i prefer to imagine him as with the low polygon OG. so naturally there are a lot of fujoshis that ruin the fanbase experience for the original game by hijacking it with their libido for some irrelevant, poorly written cc characters. over the years this has just amplified my disappointment / embarrassment towards crisis core into active hatred, because as a trans gay man my experience being soured by the excessive amt of crazy fujoshis in the tag is suuuuuper damaging. doesn’t help that they love to write awful fetishy porn of cloud as a trans man and that makes it impossible for me to look for actual content of the headcanon which is disheartening.

i think thats it. thanks for reading

[furymint]

@albertashford: What program do you use to create pic?

I use photoshop CS6! I’ll put my process (from this edit) under the cut.

I started with this pic and cut out Nolanel, Halone, and the pews with the Polygonal Lasso tool. From there, I enhance each one with different levels of the Smart Sharpen tool. I also added Clipping Masked highlights and shadows using Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light (like the bright spots on Nolanel’s armor + halberd, the extra shadow on the end of his coat). I gave Nolanel a shadow by copying him, flipping him upside down, stretching him, and Color Overlaying some gray through Layer Styles. I Rasterized the Layer Style to make the color stick, and then played with Soft Light and Opacity.

Make sure to go under Select > Save Selection for each item you cut out, so you have back-ups and a way to Edit > Fill > Content Aware so you can prevent unwanted halo’s when you blur (shown on the left). That said, I purposefully added a white halo around Nol’s head with the gradient tool in radial mode with Hard Light so he’d pop from Halone a bit more.

I Gaussian Blurred the background and used the Eraser Tool (with a copy of the original, unblurred image beneath) to force the right depth and focus. The windows are enhanced with a low opacity second level that was Lens Blurred with a Lighten overlay. I blurred the pews a bit and gave Halone a pale blue Outer Glow using Layer Styles.

Afterwards, I cropped the image to the focus I wanted. I erased more of the floor to fix the depth again. I placed a black-to-transparent Gradient on Soft Light at the bottom and put some low opacity fire just below it. The text is also on low opacity and under Lighter Color, and my font is Palatino Linotype. I drew in the line above it with the Pencil tool, and added some vector designs. Finally, I put a white-to-transparent gradient on Soft Light behind Halone’s head. It looks like this without the black gradient:

A quick way to remove white or black background on things (the fire had a black bg) is Screen for black and Multiply for white. Go out and make the Sephiroth copy edits you deserve, everyone.

[oliviafrostnuamasters]

Final Fantasy VII

is a role playing video game developed by Square Enix for PS1 released in 1997

development on FFVII began in 1994 for super NES. After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting on several platforms, it was moved to PS1 due to advantages of the CD-ROM format

the title was the first series to use full motion video and 3D computer graphics, with most scenes using characters models superimposed over pre-rendered backgrounds

although the gameplay systems remained mostly unchanged from previous entries. FFVII featured science fiction elements with a more realistic presentation

the scale of development was unprecedented at the time, with a combined development and marketing budget of over $80 million and over 100 staff

the game is still widely regarded as a landmark title and one of the greatest games of all time

game was acknowledged for boosting sales in PS1 and popularising Japanese tole playing games worldwide, with praise given to its graphics, gameplay, music and story

Gameplay

the game features 3 modes of play: the world map, the field and the battle screen

the world is full of representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns, environments and ruins. Natural barriers such as mountains, deserts and bodies of water block access by foot to some areas-as the game progresses the player receives vehicles to get over those objects

in field mode the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map- this was represented in a 3D space for the first time

the player can explore the environment, talk with characters, advance the story and initiate event games in this mode (field mode)-these are short mini games that are special contest functions and are often lead by the story

while in field mode the player can also interact with shops and inns-these shops provide opportunity to buy and sell items that can aid the player & their party such as weapons, armour, and accessories

the battle screen places the player characters on one side, the enemies on the other and employs ‘active time battle’ (ATB) system in which the characters exchange moves until one side is defeated

commands in the game include attacking, casting magic, using items & summoning monsters

when all enemies are defeated then the battle ends and the player may be rewarded with money, items and experience points, if the player is defeated then its game over

Development

initial concept talks for FFVII began in 1994 following completion of FFVI

FFVII was initially planned as a 2D game for the SNES system which would have been the safe path given the imminent release of consoles capable of rendering 3D graphics

a 2D prototype of FFVII was created but development was postponed to help finish Chrono Trigger

in 1995 the team decided to take the riskier option and make a 3D game on new generation hardware, but they had yet to decide between releasing the game on cartridges or CD-ROM. The decision was influenced by two things:a tech demo based on FFVI created using the new Soft image 3D software and the escalating price of cartridge-based games, which was limiting their audience

tests were made for a N64 version of the game but this was scrapped during early testing as 2000 polygons put too much strain on the N64 causing a low frame rate

they had both technical and economical issues with nintendo’s current hardware and were impressed by the storage capacity of the CD-ROM when compared to the N64 cartridge-its because of this development of FFVII and all future planned projects were shifted to sony’s playstation

an initial decision was for battles to feature shifting camera angles

battle areas had a lower polygon count that field areas which made picking out distinct the features for each one more difficult

the summon sequences benefited greatly from the switch to the cinematic style as the team has struggled to portray their scale sing 2D graphics

the Materia system was introduced in this version of the game, this system provided more character customisation and battles no longer revolved around characters with innate skills & roles in battle, as Materia could be reconfigured between battles

Art Design

games art director was Yusuke Naora

with switch into 3D Naora realised he had to teach himself to draw again as 3D visuals required a different approach than 2D

Naora due to the scale of the project requested a development team devoted entirely to the games visual design

the departments duties included illustration, modelling of 3D characters, texturing, creation of environments, visual effects and animation

the main characters Cloud and Sephiroth influenced their rivalry from the legendary animosity between Miyamoyo Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro

Graphics

first project in the series to use 3D graphics

developers initially considered to overlaying 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds, but decided to change from pixel art to favour polygonal models

CD-ROM had slower access speed, delaying some actions during the game so the team needed to overcome the issue, they did this by using certain tricks to conceal load times, such as offering animations to keep players from getting bored

3D polygonal models were used instead of sprites because could better express emotion

for field navigation deformed models were used and also were used for real time event scenes for better expression of emotion, where realistic proportioned models were used in battles

the team purchased high end Softimage 3D and Power Animator software and more powerful hardware to handle the 3D graphics

the transition from 2D graphics to 3D environments overlaid on pre-rendered backgrounds was accompanied by a focus on a more realistic presentation

in previous entries the sizes for characters and environments were fixed and the layer saw things from a scrolling perspective. in FFVII this changed, environments shifted with camera angles and character models sizes shifted depending on both their place in the environment and their distance from the camera, giving a sense of scale

the choice of highly cinematic style of storytelling contrasted with Square Enix’s previous games It was a style influenced by Kitase who had an passion for films and an interest in the parallels between film and video game narrative

Motion specialists were brought in for the games battle animations

some of the real-time effects such as explosions were hand-drawn rather than computer animated

one major event in development was when the real-time graphics were synchronised to computer-generated full motion video (FMV) cutscenes for some story sequences. The most notable was when Cloud jumps onto an FMV rendered moving train-the backgrounds were created by overlaying two 2D graphic layers and changing the motion speed of each to simulate depth perception

the biggest issue with the 3D graphics was the large memory storage gap between the development hardware and the console. The team had to figure out how to shrink the amount of data while preserving desired effects as the tech demo was developed on a machine with 400 megabytes while the PS1 only had 2 megabytes

FFVII featured two types of cutscenes real time cutscenes featuring polygon models on pre-rendered backgrounds, and FMV cutscenes

people who worked on FMV scenes included artists and staff who worked on Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Terminator 2

the CGI FMV sequences total around 40 minutes of footage, something only possible due to the PS1 extra memory space and graphical power at the time

after researching this game i can see why this game is a milestone in the industry. the game introduced new technology and ideas which then in turn helped to produce the games seen today. I find it very interesting how they use similar techniques in storytelling from films and applied it to the cutscenes within the game, i am thinking of researching into links between film techniques and how they are used in video games, in particular video games of the RPG and open world genre which commonly feature cutscenes, in some cases there are games which are like playing a movie -see if there are games that actually play out like movies

[silver-wield]

We’re celebrating 13 years of the excellence that is Crisis Core and I just wanted to say that I really really need for that Cloti face caress to happen in Remake 😭 (and the “my mom, my town, tifa... give it back” line from OG too) can’t wait to see grunt Cloud and cowgirl Tifa! ❤️❤️

In a game that's mostly about Zack they still managed to show the inciting event for Cloud's backstory and tease his relationship with Tifa.

I mean, this is canon. CC is canon to the compilation, so at some point we're gonna get a scene like this in Remake. This is more detailed than OG, but it happened in OG too.

There's only so much they can do with low res polygons like this. We can see how cut up Cloud is because he literally murders Sephiroth and includes Tifa as a key reason why.

This is gonna make me cry when it happens in Remake. Just the thought of Cloud being a smol angry heartbroken kid taking on his childhood hero 😭😭😭😭😭😭

We've already seen Remake's cow girl Tifa although we didn't get a real good look at her, but she's gonna be adorable af close up cause she's Tifa ❤️

I'm looking forward to seeing Cloud in his grunt uniform and whether there's any slight design differences to his and Tifa's renders. Tifa looks slightly more youthful in the flashback, so cloud's should too 😁

[silver-wield]

Since it seems like many people (including myself) do not find Aerith very likable in this game, it makes me wonder if they are even going to kill her off this time/what is the point in killing her off. You would think the developers would be doing everything in their power to make her likable so that her death hurts the audience more but she just feels even more irritable and unlikable this time around. There's just no way her death will ever be as shocking/sad as it was the first time.

It's really interesting how things have gone from the 97 we need to make you love Aerith so it hurts more when she dies, to 2020 we dgaf if you like Aerith, this is how she is.

She's still gonna die. It's the plot. It makes no narrative sense to keep her alive because the story falls apart.

OG Aerith wasn't that nice to people either. She was rude to Barret and always acted like she knew best, even when she didn't. Just because someone speaks with a chirpy voice doesn't make them a nice person. Nojima said there less room for player imagination, so this is how Aerith actually was in OG and people just assumed she was nicer and everyone adored how she acted.

Cloud feels guilty about her death. That's the only thing he ever says about her in AC and that's real Cloud's feelings.

Dumdums focus on that OG descriptive narration like it's indicative of romantic feelings.

Three lines, which are necessary because low res polygons can't convey expression, so without this narration from Cloud we wouldn't know anything. He doesn't say anything about what he feels, just that he has feelings, which prompts Sephiroth to suggest he's a puppet. So, it's really more of a narrative lead in than a character motivation to say this. He doesn't say he loves Aerith or anything like that, just that he's upset. So, a normal reaction to watching someone he knows get impaled. Especially since he had to resist Sephiroth's influence telling him to kill Aerith himself.

I'm wondering how much character development they can give her between now and D day. She doesn't seem to see anything wrong in how she acts, which I find gross af and it needs calling out. The devs pointed out she was purposely trying to scare Cloud like how is that normal behaviour?

If she dies with a lot of people not liking her still then I guess that how it is. I wasn't bothered by her OG death. Tifa being upset hurt more. She made that scene relatable and empathetic.

Hopefully a lot of the OG stuff like Aerith dying and the lifestream scene are in part two so we get to spend the bulk of the game with real Cloud and don't have to put up with dumdums ruining the narrative.