Wark Digest #145 - One Reborn In Light, One Falls In Shadow
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week we say hello to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth even as we wave goodbye to Dissidia Opera Omnia (and all the while, some crazy publicity stunts are going down).
This week’s newsletter is x words, a y-minute read.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Has Arrived
The reunion is nigh, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now officially on sale worldwide (that is, if any of you have managed to actually tear yourselves away from the game to read this—I wouldn’t blame you if you couldn’t!). As half the internet dives into this massive new offering, let’s take a look at some highlights of launch week, including the requisite crazy marketing:
What’s going on:
Some eleventh-hour ads, including the official launch and accolades trailers, have been released, but as you might expect, they touch on some late-game elements more than previous videos, so be warned
And what’s more, be sure to adjust your content filters to avoid spoilers, as some channels have been dumping cutscenes onto sites like YouTube for days
Turns out some Japanese copies of the game were labelled incorrectly, swapping the Install and Play discs—though it seems this wasn’t the case for other regions
Some unusual marketing crossovers plugged the game in unexpected places:
Google has given the game one of its highest honours: a special animation that plays when you search “Final Fantasy VII,” “chocobo,” or other related phrases (click here to see it in action)
PlayStation UK recreated the Buster Sword on a massive billboard in Birmingham, using DualSense controllers (and you can enter to win one of them, so… let’s hope they didn’t get rained on, I guess?)
Red Bull rendered Cloud and Sephiroth in the cartoon style of their old “Red Bull gives you wiiings” commercials, a sponsorship I never could’ve foreseen
Nissin is running a commercial featuring Sephiroth (and his Japanese voice actor Toshiyuki Morikawa) insisting that Cloud eat a bowl of donbei udon—apparently a meal “so delicious, it has First Class taste”
If that last point gave you a craving for ramen and you live in the UK, Shoryu Ramen is also offering special Rebirth combos, including a placemat and “collectible” coaster
And lastly, just announced mere hours ago, Porsche took the leaders of the dev team for a cruise in some fancy cars to discuss the games’ development, and put a few voice actors through a driver development course in a FFVII-branded Porsche 911 because… reasons?
The leaders of the dev team shared a series of remarks on social media as well:
Director Naoki Hamaguchi: “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a labor of love and our tribute to adventure—a massive world of compelling stories and our most ambitious game to date. Like those who first brought us the original Final Fantasy VII, we’ve reached for something that was never possible before today’s technology: a deeper portrayal of our main cast of friends, comrades, and people of the Planet. By combining their powers in battle and strengthening their bonds through your choices, we hope you feel a powerful connection with these characters and the world they inhabit.”
Producer Yoshinori Kitase: “As the director of the original [FFVII], I feel very proud that we were able to introduce a whole generation to role-playing games and show so many newcomers a wider world of storytelling. Today, I’m filled with the same sense of pride when I look at what our development team has accomplished with [Rebirth].”
Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura: “Above all else, I felt we would need to do justice to the characters and story that had become so beloved by fans around the world. [Rebirth] delivers on this vision and vastly expands upon the original title not only in the size of its world, but in the quiet moments shared by party members, where warmth, joy, sorrow, and tenderness can be found. As they press on and forge deeper bonds en route to their ultimate fate, I hope you will open your heart to feel these feelings alongside them.”
Lastly, several other Square Enix social accounts shared commemorative artwork commending the Rebirth team on the game’s launch, including the Kingdom Hearts account, which shared an image of Sora watching Sephiroth on the screens in Shibuya, and Octopath Traveler
What we thought:
It’s hard to think of a bigger, more optimistic launch for a Square Enix or Final Fantasy game in recent memory, reaching so far into mainstream currents
In some ways, it’s making up for the general hype that got truncated for Remake, and speaks to the love that people have both for the events of the game outside of Midgar’s narrow scope, and for the FFVII world in general
The power of nostalgia, hype, and a light game release calendar combined
The ad campaign is also digging into some vibes that the series hasn’t really channeled before, like the wacky Nissin commercial—which makes me wonder if the usual marketing approach can be a little too stuffy or full of itself
Come to think of it, I’d watch a “Game Devs In Cars Getting Coffee” series—get on that, Netflix
What’s next? According to our poll from last issue, a whopping 70% of you were planning to get the game day one—if you’re looking for a place to share your enthusiasm and thoughts, check out our Discord, where we have a specific channel to do just that safely!
A Fond Farewell To Dissidia Opera Omnia
As one new legend arrives to pomp and fanfare, another legend has quietly gone to its well-earned rest. Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia terminated service yesterday, ending its 7 year run (just over 6 years for global). Before the doors were closed for good, however, global community leaders Joshua and Krystal from Square Enix hosted one last monthly livestream to say farewell to the beloved mobile title, and shared some insights from members of the development team (Daisuke Inoue, Jin Fujiwara, and Tetsuya Nomura).
What they’re saying:
Development on Opera Omnia started in 2014, after Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII released; Kujiraoka asked the team to develop a mini-game to be played within a companion app for the Dissidia Final Fantasy Arcade version
This minigame would’ve been a life sim where familiar characters “gather to live amongst each other on an airship” & “search for comrades scattered across the world,” until Fujiwara steered them toward a Dissidia-style Bravery system
Inoue “personally wanted to take a look at what happens after [the games] when it comes to the titles in the Final Fantasy series”
Throughout development, the team was very devoted to recreating elements of the characters’ movement from the source material, right down to the camera angles—rewatching key scenes repeatedly to nail the essence of each
The staff from Koei Tecmo is known for saying, according to Inoue, “when we’re working with [another company’s] title, if we don’t respect that, there’s absolutely no point to us developing it”
This meant staffers played FFXIV for months to add Alisaie faithfully
Inoue credits two Edgeworks staffers, Nanako Saito and Mimei Tsutamachi, for deftly handling the staggering cast of over 100+ Final Fantasy characters
The Ultima Weapon’s visual design required a technical work-around for characters who use thrown weapons, which opened the door for incorporating weapon skills for all characters
This prompted a nostalgic Nomura to chime in that he had been the one to introduce the Ultima Weapon to FF in the first place
Jack from Stranger of Paradise was added so quickly because Team Ninja was working on both the app and SoP, allowing for easy cross-communication
Nomura: “Since the beginning, we had talked about when the game would end. I didn’t want the game to end up in a mess. From the very beginning, we said that if the game were to end, we wanted it to be a clean ending.”
Each year, the time would ask themselves and each other if they could keep the game going with fresh ideas, ensuring there would be time if they did decide to end the story
Opera Omnia had about 179 characters, of whom over 100 received a voice for the first time (handpicked by Nomura) in this game
Nomura: “Although this is the end of Opera Omnia, we’d like to think of what the future holds for Dissidia”
What we thought:
Though the “familiar characters searching for comrades” idea ended up being integrated into the story, I’d play the crap out of a real life sim game like that
Even without knowing the research that went into recreating animations, the team’s love for the source material was already evident
Each character was incorporated with care and respect, either recreating their skillsets or improvising to compensate for the differences between the original games and the Bravery system of Dissidia—no small feat, especially in an area of the industry that’s all too prone to chasing a lazy payday
By the same token, juggling this many characters from a narrative standpoint must’ve been incredibly daunting, and it seems even the Square Enix staff were exhausted by the prospect
Nomura repeatedly mentioned how they wanted a clean ending for the game when the time came, and how they routinely assessed how much time they had left, and yet for the entire Global audience, the game’s content was greatly truncated, barring them from playing the final chapters
It’s great they wanted to make a clean dismount, but they absolutely cut the global experience short, so this was a bit of salt in a wound
With this, the Dissidia subseries is dormant for the time being… but Nomura seems to think there’s a future for it somehow, and that alone is encouraging
Finally, all the kudos to Joshua and Krystal, whose streams were a huge highlight of the Opera Omnia experience, from sharing news and road maps, to just being a rallying point for the community (and letting their cats get in on the fun too)
What’s next? The DFFOO YouTube channel wasted no time in posting the complete game’s story in three playlists (one for the main story, one for the Lost Chapters, and one for the Intersecting Wills chapters). This includes the chapters that Global didn’t get to play.
Joshua also encouraged players to link their accounts to SQEX Bridge before the game went down, in the hopes that if enough people did so, he might be able to make the case for an offline version. It sounds like a tall order, but this would be a huge win for the fans.
Around the Union
When we recently listed some spells from the franchise that totally didn’t live up to their reputations, we had so many good recommendations that we compiled the “7 Spells That Ended Up Being Almost Completely Useless [Commenter Edition]!” Did yours make the list?
And, as you embark into Rebirth this weekend, we have a handy-dandy Beginner’s Guide for your consideration, “7 Crucial Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tricks and Hidden Mechanics!” This video is spoiler-free but contains some tips and tricks and can make your entire playthrough smoother.
Meanwhile, the second issue of the Kupo Chronicle is now available for paid subscribers, wherein we establish a little background. Check it out now, and keep your eyes peeled for our next issue, where we’ll be examining how some beloved characters were nearly cut from their own game…
Now you’re up to speed! From the whole team at Final Fantasy Union, thank you for subscribing. Please let us know what you think of our coverage, and what you’d like to see covered in our weekly installments. As ever, if you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it with your friends!
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Until next time, kupo!