Final Fantasy 7. The perfect game?
Proving popular with countless generations of gamers, despite its age, inspiring fanart, fiction, a series of spinoff games and even a full-budget movie, it's tempting to fit Final Fantasy VII with the title 'Greatest. Game. Ever'.
And I'll agree, it's an awesome game - but, as much as I love FF7, as much I enjoy playing through it over, and over, there's always been a nagging suspicion: could it be... better?
Let's be honest. The battles can get a little too samey, there's little incentive to experiment with materia, and the game can all to easily be bested by simply attacking and spamming Cure-All. We've all heard horror stories about players who have managed to push themselves to the Northern Crater without even grasping the basics of the materia system.
This mod - this rebalance - seeks to address these issues, altering enemy statistics and AI, nerfing overpowered skills whilst promoting others that have been neglected, introducing new tactics, creating cunning and entertaining creatures, and overall making battles far more exciting and engaging.
So, what exactly will the rebirth mod feature? Work is still in progress, and I intent to keep certain features secret until release, so as not to spoil matters, but the mod has the following broad aim in mind: to promote a more strategic mode of gameplay. You won't be able to mash attack to get through REBIRTH. You'll have to keep your wits as sharp as your sword, and think carefully about every choice you make through the entire game.
I think you'll love it.
Articles
Contrary to popular opinion, Rebirth didn't die, it just got put on the back burner for a while. Since Christmas 2011, I've been working on a PSX Disc One beta to be released as a demo / early version sometime around the end of next month / May 2012.
As proof, here's a video of me fighting the Materia Keeper, here called a Hexadragon to hint at his ice-weak, fire-absorbing elemental affinities. Rebirth's enemies are divided up into a small number of memorable classes with particular weaknesses and resistances, and often renamed to hint at those classes. It's just one of the things that (I hope) will make Rebirth a fun mod to play.
The disc one demo will include
- New materia and magic, including the much-desired water, wind and holy spells
- Rebalanced limit breaks
- Completely new equipment, with an emphasis on double-edged 'sidegrades' rather than 'upgrades'
- Enemies with more intuitive status and elemental vulnerabilities
- Stronger creatures and a noticeably increased difficulty
- More steals and higher steal-rates, finally making steal useful.
- The new 'disease' status, where Poison stops creatures from healing
- The 'defence break' mechanic
Update: 2011
News 2 commentsRebirth isn't dead! The comprehensive rebalance for Final Fantasy VII is undergoing some changes, but *all* aim to take the mod back to its original vision...
Upcoming release: Alpha Demo
News 3 commentsI intend to release an alpha demo before the new year. This demo will showcase Rebirth up to the Kalm Flashback, before allowing you to play the remainder...
Recent Progress
News 3 commentsSo, what's been going on with REBIRTH? Lots of behind-the-scenes coding, for a start - a new program I've written from scratch for the project, new AI...
Release Deferred
News 5 commentsUnfortunately, REBIRTH will not be making the February 2010 release we hoped for. However, I am confident that a Beta-version demo for the first disc...
Files
Rebirth v1 - Disc One
Demo 13 commentsAt last! Rebirth v1 / Disc One has been released! This download includes a PPF patch for the NTSC PSX release.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - Midgar Demo
Demo 9 commentsYou've waited and waited, so it's high time you got something in return! Here's a patch for the NTSC (American) PSOne version of Final Fantasy VII. The...
Post a comment
Profile
X
Tags
Embed Buttons
Link to Final Fantasy 7 - Rebirth Edition by selecting a button and using the embed code provided more...
You may also like
Seriosly, that looks amazing. I can promess another feedback...but i can't wait more for the launch! grrrr,xD
Dude: the game has elementar barriers? In others words, a spell that give you resistance to fire (and weakness to ice, for example)? Or, at least, items and armours with similars effects? (Only resistance, no element absorb please: jenova life and jenova death are really stupids combats in original game for this cause)
In any case... good job. Modern Rpg's are really bored to me...and your mod look more and more fun in each upgrade
I haven't implemented any Null-Element spells; they wouldn't be trivial to develop (lots of extraneous AI in a KERNEL file that has size limitations to begin with), and there's not many spells besides. As for the accessories, I haven't removed the element-absorbing equipment, but I have made sure Jenova-BIRTH doesn't rely purely on water attacks, if that's your concern.
JAJAJAJAJA, you need to recognaise that jenova rebirth battle are really stupid and easy in the original game. If you solved this problem, I'm happy,xD
I suppose that can be difficult of implement, but maybe can be interesting implement full elemental affinity in accesories: in other words: you absorve ice but you are weak to fire. In anycase, when I check the demo, I make a new feedback.
Your work is great. I understand that is hard and extrem laborious, but don't surrender man. Good luck
PD: The Hexadragon battle look really interesting.
So it's an .iso we can play on an emulater?
That's right - it's a PPF patch file that you can apply to an NTSC PSX ISO.
Just a note - the mod's not dead, in fact, I'm planning a Disc One demo for April-ish. Stay tuned.
The sleeping giant awakes from it's earthen slumber! :o
can't wait for the full version!
Um, can you keep the base of the original summons, like bahaumt zero
But also add new ones?
I'm pretty sure adding new magic animations (or at least Summons) is impossible, if not difficult. Besides, I'd rather Yojimbo work on the items he's already listed rather then meddling around with code like that.
oh and how do you make these PPF things as I wouldn't mind just having the proper Magic names like Cura, Thundaga, ect