With only a little less than two months to go until the release of the remake of the cult classic Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix has decided to share with us a little more information to get us more excited about the upcoming remake.
Screenshots of Red XIII, Hojo, and new character Chadley, among more, were recently released on the PlayStation Blog, showing more of the beauty of this game, and raising our expectations.
Red XIII and Hojo
Red XIII
I am that which you see before you. Nothing more.
A beast with fire red fur (and a tail that's actually on fire) that talks like a human. Captured and experimented on Shinra's Professor Hojo. Red XIII has his own backstory that's explored in the game, dealing with who he is and where he's from, which is something we're super excited to experience again in this remake.
Hojo
The creator of the infimous SOLDIER project, Professor Hojo is the Director of Shinra's Research and Development Division, in which he creates various biological weapons and conducts horrible experiments, some of which even take the lives of his test subjects.
Tifa's Battle Style
Tifa, one of the main characters can unleash fast attacks by repeatedly pressing the □ button and use unique abilities with the △ button.
Special Abilities
With the △ button, Tifa can beat up enemies with her powerful special abilities.
She can send enemies up into the air with a strong uppercut...
Or hit enemies in the gut with her Omnistrike ability.
Rise and Fall has Tifa attack with a series of kicks and a strong final punch.
Tifa strikes with a quick attack from the front.
Tifa dives from the sky to strike her enemy with a powerful kick.
Tifa's play style seems really free, and even has elements of a fighting game, which should add a nice dimension to the game.
Materia
Of course, Final Fantasy VII wouldn't be Final Fantasy VII without materia!
We also got a new look at two materia available for use in the game.
Cure
Haling Materia of course offers the ability for using healing magic such as Cure and Cura, but in the screenshot above, we see Aerith using Regen.
Deadly Dodge
The Deadly Dodge materia allows for a powerful counter attack, which is new to the remake. The materia can be used by all characters.
Appearance Changes with Weapon
Characters' appearances will change with equipped weapons even outside of battle, so equipping the fan favorite Nail Bat will allow Cloud to show it off on his back while running around Midgar.
Summons
The last announcement gave us a preview of Shiva, and we get even more summons this time around.
Chocobo Chick
The Chocobo Chick may look cute, but packs powerful magic in its feathers!
This summon is new to the Remake, and can be obtained as a pre-order bonus by pre-ordering any edition of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Carbuncle
A regular to the Final Fantasy series, Carbuncle will make its appearance in Final Fantasy VII Remake and can be obtained by pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game from the PlayStation Store.
Cactuar
First introduced in Final Fantasy VI, Cactuars have essentially become mascots of the series, and will make their first appearance as a summon in a main series game in the Final Fantasy VII remake. It's not yet known if Cactuars will make an appearance as foes in the game, but the summon can be obtained by pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, or 1st Class Editions of the game.
We're excited to see these first time summons helping out Cloud and the gang in the Remake!
And if you can't pre-order these specific versions of the game, there's always the possibility of them being released as DLC on a later date.
Mercenary Quests and Battle Report
In these new Mercenary Quests and Battle Report quests, rewards can be obtained from doing various tasks around Midgar.
Mercenary Quests
As a mercenary, Cloud can take on various tasks from the citizens of Midgar that seem to deal with everything from getting rid of monsters, to small tasks like finding lost cats.
Mercenary Quests can be checked from the Quest menu.
Clearing out Drakes for rewards.
Battle Report
Chadley can be met in the Sector 7, where you can collect Battle Report Quests from him. He'll ask you to clear certain requirements, which will allow him to develop and sell you new types of materia.
Mission requirements vary, such as staggering a certain number of enemies, or using Assess a certain number of times.
Expanded World of Final Fantasy VII Remake
On top of the beautifully remade environments from the original game, new environments that weren't accessible in the original have also been added to the Remake.
Mako Reactor
Mako, one of the key elements of the story, is sucked from the planet and turned into electricity, gas, Materia, and also used for other purposes such as research.
Shinra has a monopoly on the resource, with reactors set up all over the world, but people question the safety of the reactors, as there have been several accidents at the rectors.
Corkscrew Tunnel
Connecting the slums with the richer areas of Midgar, the Corkscrew Tunnel winds its way up through the center of Midgar. The passengers of train cars runnin through the tunnel are always checked to make sure they aren't trespassing, and should it be found that they are, they are dealt with quickly.
April 10th Release Date
Although the release date was delayed, Square Enix has been treating its fans to new information to hold us over until the game makes its debut on store shelves. We're super excited for this remake, and hope you all are too!
Be sure to pre-order the game to get your hands on special items and summons!