That does look pretty gggoood... except for Cloud's arms... they look weirdly thin to me. I didn't think I need this but maybe I do? What says you!

Also answers the question of whether it's going to be just the same thing but prettier, which I'm glad it's not

Edit: Austin's article

As someone who pretty much replay/beat ff7 every other year since this game came out years 18 years ago. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

Don't like that they aren't using the old ATB system. I'm not a fan of the action style combat from the 15 demo, which this appears to be using from what they showed.

Can we get confirmation that Steven Burton is still voicing Cloud? I think it's him. He's the only voice for Cloud. Barret sounds a lot different from Advent Children.

Looks like they're using FF XV-style combat. Bleh. Let me tell you about ATB bars...

@sterling: I don't remember from the demo how 15 handled non-attacks but this looks like it's real time but also has a menu for those things. I wonder if it pauses or slows down time or something when you choose a magic/summon/item otherwise are you just standing there getting attacked while you decide?

Very excited for this and how much it doesn't appear to be a direct remake. The new combat is a big positive for me.

The combat scenes look a bit confusing to me, like most newer FF games, so I hope they didn't change much about the systems. Aside from that I'm pretty much this:

I need to see more of what that combat actually is before I form much of an opinion. Is the Materia system still in there? Limit breaks? Are you moving the characters around or is it like FF13? Are you pausing the game to queue up spells and stuff like FF12 or is it all automatic, or real-time menus? I understand that they were never going to release a game this expensive and use the old turn-based system, but I'll be extremely bummed if it's literally just FF15's gameplay shoehorned in, which is what people have been saying so far.

Turning this into an action RPG is the clincher on me not caring about this one bit. I suppose it's smart on their part, as a modern audience is not as receptive to turn based combat, but that's so not what I want.

Haters gonna' hate. Personally, I think this looks stupendous.

I'm hoping there is an option to use either or. That would be amazing. But I don't see it happening. Having a setting to turn on the old ATB or use the new action one.

I was kinda hoping they would update the older combat into something newer and more interesting. I've only played a very small part of FF7 ever so I'm not really a purist for that take on the combat, but it'd be cool to see that style brought onto a truly modern platform. I'll take a combat system that's leveraging Final Fantasy 15 tech if that's what they're doing though.

That trailer did a lot in terms of focusing my expectations, I do hope both FFVIIR and FFXV turn out fun and well.

Looks like I might finally end up playing FFVII after all. As someone who has never touched the game in any of its forms, and knows absolutely nothing about its story, I would like to see how this performs on its own, not as a nostalgia piece.

That would actually be pretty cool, but yeah, I'm afraid it actually happening is unlikely.

@gorkamorkaorka: I don't think there's anything official, but I'm about 99% sure that that is Steve Burton. Unless they got someone that sounds a hell of a lot like him. Though if Rachael Leigh Cook and George Newbern aren't in, then NO BUY.

I'm honestly surprised that we got this trailer this soon. I didn't expect to see anything at all until at least E3 next year, but it seems they're moving a little faster than expected.

I'm going to assume that this is just a rough base for what the combat will be in the final game. It's hard to really tell exactly how it plays, I just think this is them showing the direction they plan on going. And let's be real here, did anyone honestly believe the combat was going to be old school turn based?

Looks great though, I'm still hyped.

Barret sounds like the same Voice Actor that did Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

I'm sure the FFVII hate train will roll in any minute, but it looks pretty fantastic with a good mix of nostalgia and modern mechanics.

Interesting that they decided to change the battle system. Looks good, regardless.

Well, graphically it looks good, I'll give it that.

But, yeesh. That combat system looks . . . kinda not OK. It looks like either FFXIII's system or FFXV's system. I hated the FFXIII system and I wasn't impressed with the FFXV system from what I played of the demo. I get that the straight-up random battle turn based stuff isn't what the kids are into these days, but I think there are ways to do that in a modern way if they would just think about it hard enough. Sqeenix's insistence on making battles look "cinematic" at the expense of actual strategic gameplay has got to stop. If all I need to do is hit auto-battle, then don't even bother making a game, just make a movie.

Also, I agree with OP that Cloud looks weird. He too thin. I get that he was always supposed to be "wiry-strong," thin, but that isn't what it looks like in that trailer. That looks more like "strung-out junkie" thin.

Even with his Jack Skellington tattoo, Barrett looks kind of awesome. I'd definitely get this if I had a PS4, but I don't, so eh.

Turning this into an action RPG is just boring and cowardly. Also the trend of JRPG music going orchestral? Still sucks.

I don't think this is going to be an action RPG any more than Dragon Age is one. I don't think anyone should be expecting something that handles like a real action game.

It looks very similar to 15.

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!

I'm interested in hearing how the 8-4 guys react. They really love hardcore Japanese RPGs, and removing the old ATB seems to be removing a major aspect of the game. Then again, everyone knows the only reason why people like FF7 is because it was so heavily marketed. It's the Minions of its time.

I'm one of those dudes who's finished FF7 countless times over the years since it came out and I think this looks fucking dope. Y'know what they say about haters and hating though.

Nice to see skinny-armed men getting some representation for once, always felt alienated by characters with their big muscle arms because as someone with skinny arms I couldn't relate to them. I know Cloud must feel quite insecure around Barrett but he masks it well, and I'm sure having great hair helps with his overall confidence levels. Wish I had great hair to fall back on, but I don't, even my eyebrows suck because they are sparse at the edges. I tried some eyebrow serum but it doesn't seem to be making a difference, says it takes 60 days and I saw some before and after pictures where it seemed to work for others but 2 weeks in and I dunno, looks the same to me. I'll keep going with it but I'm not expecting a miracle or anything.

I haven't tried the FFXV demo so I can't comment on the quality of the real time combat system in that game, but as someone who never had a PS1 and didn't get around to trying FF7 until the PS3 era when they put it on PSN, I can say I'm glad they didn't stick with the traditional combat system from the original game. I know a lot of people wanted a turn based system, but I think the Xenoblade series is a good example of how you can do real time combat in a way that allows for turn based tactics. After all, when your skills are on a cool down that is really not all that different than the ATB system from FF7. The only difference is that each "ability" gets a turn instead of each character. So I'm not against the look of the combat, but I can say that putting a voice to some of those lines confirms what I have long believed to be true - the only reason people thought old Square games had better stories is because they didn't have to actually hear people say those awful lines.

I know I would be in the vast minority in wanting them to do a more thorough rewrite of the dialogue, but some of it is just plain bad. Personally, if I were them there would be two components of the game I would keep. The overarching story and the musical composition. Everything else could be changed and updated to a more modern system. I would say that the original combat system was fine for what it was, probably the part of the game that holds up the most, but it wasn't spectacular even compared to other PS1 era Square or Enix titles. This is a bigger change than I think most people wanted, but I think Square has developed better battle systems since FF7, and Nomura has never had turn based battles in his games so this didn't surprise me at all.

Cancer patient was what I described to my friend but strung out junkie is also appropriate!

I would if FFVIIR will be the Twin Snakes of FF.

This looks super rad. Way into Barret's slight re-design, and it's really weird/cool seeing the other Avalanche people fully rendered/animated.

Also, unless there's some secret turn-based thing going on here, its Kingdom Hearts you guys. That menu on the left? Almost ripped straight from KH. Which, personally, I'm totally okay with as gameplay-wise KH is one of favorite games, let alone "action RPGs", in existence.

@oscar__explosion: It is! Beau Billingslea. He also played Barret in Advent Children and stuff, super excited him and Steve Burton are back and here's hoping everyone else from AC is too. I need my Superman-voiced Sephiroth.

@teddie: Dunno about most of that stuff but you can see a Limit meter in the bottom right!

Well, it looks like I'll have to get a PS4 in the near future.

Kingdom Hearts combat is fine when it's Kingdom Hearts. That kind of incredibly simplistic combat system works there, because those games are basically for children. Also, with another KH game coming out, those people are already getting their fix on mashy boring combat. I'm just going to be super disappointed if that's literally all it ends up being. I'm far from married to the ATB system (it's had its day) but it's disappointing when plenty of other JRPGs have experimented with different battle systems that work and Square chooses the simplest format they have. That's why I think it's kind of cowardly and a missed opportunity.

But this is a FF7 remake. I guess the goal from the start was raking in $$$$$.

@oscar__explosion: Yo I was just going to say that. Beau Billingslea seems like the perfect fit for him. His redesign seems pretty cool too.

I'm surprised that they're not just going with the Advent Children designs for the characters. I actually like the designs that came out of that movie, but I'll be interested to see what they can come up with. Cloud is a little too thin, but otherwise I like what I've seen so far.

This looks pretty great, except holy shit that dialogue is still crap and sounds even worse coming out as actual voice now, haha.

It was passable enough to read when I was an ignorant 16 yeah old, but yikes, hearing it now like this makes it ROUGH.

So it's a modern FF. Not unexpected. In fact it was very very expected that this would be just that, a modern FF playing like FF13 or 15 or the Kingdom Hearts games. It just means that my interest for it has completely evaporated.

Aaaaaaaaand instantly not interested. The Final Fantasy team can't make good, responsive real-time combat, sorry. They always try this half-assed thing instead of just making it into an action game, and I ain't falling for it again

Looks all right, I'll definitely check it out since I could never be bothered to play 7. Though man, the frame rate during some of those battles hurt my eyes. Probably an early build thing that'll be fixed or a console thing.

2017 game or 2017 demo what do you guys think?

@alexgbro: FF15 is next year so I really can't see another mainline FF the year after. I think 2018 the earliest.

It's amazing how people speculate about the combat system. It's easy to tell who's played Kingdom Hearts and who hasn't. Guys, it's literally the KH combat system. It's the system that's guided the combat for FF15. That's why it looks like the FF15 system.

Make more RPG combat systems like Kingdom Hearts.

Holy s***. This was some FFXV 2013 E3 level type stuff. I can't wait for this. Looks incredible. Very happy to see they aren't afraid to try things differently which is dangerous with a remake, but it looks like it's paying off here.

Looks amazing can't wait, so crazy to see those guys in more then just like 5 pollys lol.

Actually quite interested in this now, I've played FF7 enough that a remake of the same game didnt interest me at all, but completely updated locations to run around in is pretty cool, and a new battle system means even if its worse, at least you're not just going through the same motions as the original.

Looking forward to seeing more changes, change it all!

Well it looked pretty good. Not happy at all about the real time combat, but it looked significantly better then their past games. Even FF15, Seemed more snappy, and fluid.

My initial reaction to this was as follows: "Wow they have certainly put a lot of money into this remake. This is probably the game that'll sink Square Enix then."

Pretty excited.

I'm also surprised we're getting any sort of gameplay footage at all, this soon after the remake's public announcement. I'd wager Square took last gen pretty hard, internally, and have decided they no longer want to spend a decade developing a game ever again. Fine by me.