FF7 on STEAM !!!

SeantheMan

Well it's about time ! .....

Guess I gotta buy it ..as will a lot here.... and yes Retro...we know you don't really love it or consider it the best in the series :P

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't buy the PC version. the midi music is terrible compared to the PS1 version.

Also I do think it's a great game. I hate the fanboys :P

Mal-Adjusted

just saw this myself! fantastic! the only thing i'm concerned about is that i heard the old PC version from waaaaaaay back was a bit crappy. I assume this is an updated version?

The best thing? Not three days ago, I hunted down an old Playstation and a second hand copy of FF7 to play it! O.0

wandatowell

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

The best thing? Not three days ago, I hunted down an old Playstation and a second hand copy of FF7 to play it! O.0

I bought a second had PS1 for 30 quid but FF7 is going for crazy prices. Though the market dictates the price so Im guessing the asking prices cant be too inaccurate.

Sofiztikated

I seem to recall reading that it was €4.99 somewhere else until Steam put it on for €14.99.

Retr0gamer

wandatowell wrote: »

I bought a second had PS1 for 30 quid but FF7 is going for crazy prices. Though the market dictates the price so Im guessing the asking prices cant be too inaccurate.

It does go for silly prices on ebay but it's also one of the most common games around since it sold millions. It's really not worth that much. Ask around, I'm sure someone has a copy that you know or else look in car boot sales. You can get it for a more reasonable price then. The game is far from rare.

SeantheMan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I wouldn't buy the PC version. the midi music is terrible compared to the PS1 version.

Also I do think it's a great game. I hate the fanboys :P

Someones already posted a fix, to get the PS1 tracks instead

At first I was disappointed that they included the crappy MIDI versions of all sounds & tracks in the Steam game version instead of the far superior PS1 tracks. Some awesome users here however posted a solution for this, so I made this thread to help others to find a quick way to improve this.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/39140/discussions/0/846958001158763901/

Dravokivich

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I seem to recall reading that it was €4.99 somewhere else until Steam put it on for €14.99.

It was going cheap on square enixs website last weekend. Unsure if they are still running the discount.

ancapailldorcha

Anyone else got it? I've read it's got loads of DRM crap with it sadly. I'd love to see FFVIII get an update as well.

Tar.Aldarion

Tis no FFIX

Vojera

Dravokivich wrote: »

It was going cheap on square enixs website last weekend. Unsure if they are still running the discount.

It's €12.99 on the SE website, but every time they have a sale it drops to €6.49. I've seen it drop to that a few times, so it's one I'd wait for rather than paying full price.

Syferus

I assume it's exactly the same PC version with - if you're lucky - some compatibility fixes.

I don't know what resolutions those pre-rendered backgrounds were rendered in but actually doing an updated 'HD' version of FF VII may be impossible, especially depending on how well maintained the original assets were after production.

Plenty of fan mods to up-rez and replace textures, though.

GreenWolfe

I was one of the chumps who bought from Square Enix directly when it was recently released.

Unfortunately, my laptop was in poor shape at the time(2 HDD replacements and an ill-fated Windows 8 upgrade) meant that I used up my activations and I'm in contact with Square Enix customer support to try and get it sorted.

What kind of idiot made an activation scheme you can only revoke on the installed machine itself? It's kind of useless if your laptop gets sent in for repair multiple times. It would be handy to know if the Steam version has the same brain-damaged copy protection scheme.

moc moc a moc

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I wouldn't buy the PC version. the midi music is terrible compared to the PS1 version.

I had the original PC version back in the day and it came with some Yamaha software to play the midi tracks with proper instruments instead of the ridiculous PC-style midi. Presumably this is also possible with the new version.

wandatowell

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ask around, I'm sure someone has a copy that you know.

Do you have a copy and can I have it please? :pac:

Retr0gamer

moc moc a moc wrote: »

I had the original PC version back in the day and it came with some Yamaha software to play the midi tracks with proper instruments instead of the ridiculous PC-style midi. Presumably this is also possible with the new version.

It made it better but it used the wrong instruments and sounded iffy.

Overheal

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I wouldn't buy the PC version. the midi music is terrible compared to the PS1 version.

Do you have an example of this/sample? :eek:

Kiith

Overheal wrote: »

Do you have an example of this/sample? :eek:

Here's an example, though i don't remember it being that bad. Not sure if the new version is this bad though, as i have it installed and it definitely sounds more like the first (iirc).

Retr0gamer

Jenova translates a lot better. This is a better comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQBRYN6XNJg

Even using better midi samples in this case it just sounds wrong to me.

Dravokivich

moc moc a moc wrote: »

I had the original PC version back in the day and it came with some Yamaha software to play the midi tracks with proper instruments instead of the ridiculous PC-style midi. Presumably this is also possible with the new version.

It's possibly a different midi sound font you were using. Standard sound fonts sound sh*te to keep cross platform compatibility. If you've purchased a soundcard such as creative, you may be able to reconfigure that to be used.

nesf

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

I was one of the chumps who bought from Square Enix directly when it was recently released.

Unfortunately, my laptop was in poor shape at the time(2 HDD replacements and an ill-fated Windows 8 upgrade) meant that I used up my activations and I'm in contact with Square Enix customer support to try and get it sorted.

What kind of idiot made an activation scheme you can only revoke on the installed machine itself? It's kind of useless if your laptop gets sent in for repair multiple times. It would be handy to know if the Steam version has the same brain-damaged copy protection scheme.

The Steam Store page doesn't mention any extra DRM on top of Steam itself. I've never installed a game that had extra DRM and it not be mentioned so...

Nemeses

I purchased this ages ago! I've the PC version in a box!

Wonder if there is a way I can hook it up to my steam account - Though saying that, I've a few mods that made the textures look better.

MitchKoobski

If you want to swap out the MIDI files for the PS1 versions you can find out how here: http://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/1hmgb2/ffvii_is_now_available_on_steam/cavtwhz.

I've done it already myself. Much better.

SeantheMan

MitchKoobski wrote: »

If you want to swap out the MIDI files for the PS1 versions you can find out how here: http://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/1hmgb2/ffvii_is_now_available_on_steam/cavtwhz.

I've done it already myself. Much better.

I posted a link to the fix in one of the first replies to Retro's comment

K.O.Kiki

Eh, any point getting this over either a non-ported PSN version or using an emulator with mods?

SeantheMan

Because it adds to your STEAM games of course !! :P ...apparently it has a 'cloud' save feature ..forgive the pun

Also, saves me having to install emulators/roms.

K.O.Kiki

SeantheMan wrote: »

Because it adds to your STEAM games of course !! :P ...apparently it has a 'cloud' save feature ..forgive the pun

Also, saves me having to install emulators/roms.

You COULD set up cloud saving by pointing your Dropbox to the "saves" folder on your PC...

Overheal

I signed the petition on steam to include the original score, but then my friend bought me the game for my birthday.

**** it. Its still FF7. As beautiful as the Score is, the story, and just about everything else about this game, is still incredibly fantastic.

Here. Wet your fcuking whistle. How long can you resist it?

In all honesty theres enough to occupy your brain while actually playing that the change in the score isnt a deal breaker. the game is still as engrossing as ever.

SeantheMan

You need to download the Distant Worlds albums where they are done in concert

MitchKoobski

Ran into a strange glitch last night.

I was in Wall market and trying to get the "item" from the vending machine at the inn (to get the Tiara from the Materia shop owner). However when I went to the inn it would let me buy the thing from the vending machine, but then when the screen was supposed to transition back to the daytime, the 'good nights sleep music' or whatever you want to call it kept looping non stop. Tried it with each option at the vending machine and it kept happening. In the end I just went on without it. I've swapped out the MIDI files for the .ogg ones so it might have something to do with that, but it hadn't happened before that.

KillerShamrock

Should I get this on steam or psn its 2 euro cheaper on psn but that's not really a deal breaker if its a direct copy of the ps1 version? Maybe the steam sale will knock a few euro off

Retr0gamer

Depends. If you are getting it off the European PSN then get the PC version. It plays much better since it runs at the correct speed and not slowed down.

If you are getting it off US PSN then get that version. It runs at the correct speed and is the original version of the game.

snausages

PC version has some cool mods, so get that. The music thing is really easy to fix so it's a total non-issue. The pre-rendered assets are the same on each and with motioninjoy you can play with a wireless DS3. Just remember to turn off your wifi so the horrible cloud saving system doesn't cannibalize your saves

Kiith

Some of the mods are bloody awful as well though. I've heard some disgraceful fan made music added to the game, changing the world map to some weird techno/dubstep medley. I mean...listen to this travesty.

Some of them are pretty amazing though.

Vojera

^^^ Ugh. And they called him Greg? >_>

MitchKoobski

I haven't cringed that hard in a while.

Retr0gamer

I really don't get why you'd use mods with this game. Play it as the developers originally intended. 320x240 backgrounds and all!

K.O.Kiki

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I really don't get why you'd use mods with this game. Play it as the developers originally intended. 320x240 backgrounds and all!

Maybe if the world was still using 4:3 aspect CRT...

Overheal

Ive spent more time lately reading about FFVII than playing it.

All the original assets for FFVII were, or at least large portions of it were, discarded. Most of the team that worked on the original game was dismissed, downsized, transferred, truncated, etc. so when it came to the PC Port they hired basically the same team that ported over Tomb Raider 1. In other words, FFVII met a very unfortunate fate in that both the team that created it and its original assets may never be entirely recoverable. Creating any sort of true adaptation or god forbid an HD Remake will meet obstacles that, frankly, probably shouldn't even be attempted. Not unless you really wanna just say **** it and include voice acting and a ton of other shyte into the game.

They can get away with it though. The music would be remastered by a full on symphony orchestra if I had my way, and a rock band and whatever else, when necessary. Just be include the original version on the disc and everyone would be happy either way.

MitchKoobski

New PC version gives you the option to use the 1997 models. Thought that was a nice touch.

DECEiFER

I've bought Final Fantasy VII on Steam today. I was one of the many who owned the game in 1997 for the original PlayStation and subsequently for the PC. I spent many hours on PlayStation playing it when I should have been doing homework, but it was so addictive and the story was so compelling.

However, then they ported it over to the PC a year or so later, it was awful. The codec they used for the FMVs was crap, the extra dithering added by the game was crap, it actually looked better on the PlayStation. The PC version was also riddled with bugs and as time went on, newer systems struggled to play it (there were patches made to help but overall it wasn't great).

So today I'm on Steam checking out the summer sale to see if anything was worth buying. Going through the pages of games and suddenly, my jaw dropped! They made most of the right changes and released the game for €12.99 (or $11.95 if you VPN to the US), so it's not a bad thing.

Here's a video I made of the first 30 minutes of gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxuCnhFHn_E

(best watched in fullscreen and 1080p)


The differences compared to the original PC port are:
=======================================
- There is higher resolution and quality FMV (Full Motion Video)/Cutscenes, which was lacking in the original port, which also due to a terrible codec and dithering being used, resulted in it looking crap compared to the original PlayStation version.*
- Filtered textures in battle.
- The character models are a lot cleaner looking and seem to have been re-rendered in a higher resolution.
- The UI has been fixed up nicely to look good on today's higher screen resolutions, also.
- Cloud saving so you can continue your game on another PC.
- Requires a free Square Enix account to play, which you can sign up for upon launching it for the first time.
- The music is wave, likely recordings of the original MIDIs (which is a good...great thing!), so it sounds as it should without needing to configure a MIDI device (MIDI has very limited native support since Windows Vista).

What has not changed:
=================
- The regular background textures are not filtered and look a bit tired from upscaling, however, they wouldn't look any better if you played the original PC port.
- The gameplay; it's exactly how you remember it, if you played the original on the PlayStation or PC in the late 90s.
- The original frame rate seems to have been preserved.

* I've uploaded a screenshot of an FMV from the original port and Steam version so you can compare. The dithering on the original is done in-game as when you play the movie file in your favorite video player in Windows, it doesn't have it. But even without the dithering, the Steam version's FMVs are noticeably better, but unfortunately not HD.

Original:
http://i.imgur.com/ZBxzspg.jpg

Steam:
http://i.imgur.com/UmSgXqo.jpg

SeantheMan

You say it needs a Square enix account, do you have to be online to play it ?

MitchKoobski

SeantheMan wrote: »

You say it needs a Square enix account, do you have to be online to play it ?

It's been 50/50 for me. Once my save files are loaded and your are playing, it just saves your game locally and lets you keep playing if the cloud saves can't sync for whatever reason.

DECEiFER

SeantheMan wrote: »

You say it needs a Square enix account, do you have to be online to play it ?

I'm not quite sure, actually! I'll check that out.

Regarding the music. They really didn't do a fantastic job of it (probably on purpose). Instead of using the official soundtrack (released in 1997, re-released in 2004), they recorded the soundtrack using some crappy synth/MIDI wavetable and they were converted to OGG. Some of it sounds good but remember that epic (boss) battle theme (metal, duddddeee!)? It sounds timid...and boring. The soundtrack is still for sale so it's possible that Square are being stingy.

What I'm doing right now is downloading a 320Kbps rip of the original soundtrack. I'm also downloading Final FanTim's latest remaster in 320Kbps (not easy to find in 320Kbps, mind you, but persistence pays off). I'm going to try and match the OGG file names to the real songs (since the names aren't labeled the same). Hopefully then it'll be a matter of transcoding the official soundtrack's songs over to OGG and giving each the correct file name so that they can be used as the in-game music instead. The same could be done for Final FanTim's remasters (whichever's preferred, each will likely have a different opinion). When I get it done, I'll share with you.

Just note that I don't know how it'll turn out because the lengths on each respective tracks will be different and some on the soundtrack have fade-outs, different endings, etc., so I'm not sure how well they'll loop in-game. I haven't tested it yet but I'll get going on the few that I have been able to match so far.


For example...

Here's the original boss battle theme from the commercial soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVBM3bX7xdw

Here's the specific remaster (there are lots, as you can imagine):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHaOdUDMRcc

I've taken the liberty of uploading the Steam version's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2JcPm3gYrk

For me, it's the remaster that wins. I'm just a sucker for any kind of a remaster (even though it's more of a remake than a remaster)!

Also, what they did to One-Winged Angel on the Steam version is too unforgivable. It'll ruin the experience when the time comes.

SeantheMan

DECEiFER wrote: »

I'm not quite sure, actually! I'll check that out.


What I'm doing right now is downloading a 320Kbps rip of the original soundtrack. I'm also downloading Final FanTim's latest remaster in 320Kbps (not easy to find in 320Kbps, mind you, but persistence pays off). I'm going to try and match the OGG file names to the real songs

The link on how to do it all is here dude

http://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/1hmgb2/ffvii_is_now_available_on_steam/cavtwhz

DECEiFER

SeantheMan wrote: »

The link on how to do it all is here dude

http://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/1hmgb2/ffvii_is_now_available_on_steam/cavtwhz

It looks good. I'm just be worried about the size of the download, as it's big enough to indicate that it contains the music, however, while it's big, it's not big enough for anything above 160Kbps MP3 quality. The only hope for it is if came from a higher MP3 source and is just compressed as an Ogg, which wouldn't be as bad, of course.

Also there's no way for it to add Final FanTim's remake. There are other fan works included, just not his.


EDIT: There's 3 missing. The Steam version (can't speak for the 2012 version) has 94 tracks in the music_ogg folder. The utility is only dishing out 91.

The following are missing from the utility:
comical.ogg
fin.ogg
oa.ogg

What I'm going to do is hang on to those files and replace the rest.

EDIT again:
Apparently comical.ogg and oa.ogg are unused. The same could be for fin.ogg, it's been so long since I've played the game that I cannot remember. You all should keep them anyways as it's always for the best.

It seems the concern about looping was also justified because the Oggs have intros and loops where the intro parts don't loop but the rest do. So it's best to use the utility SeantheMan linked to and enjoy a mix of fan-made, professional-made, and original works, even if none of them are done by Final FanTim (which for me is a shame).

Ladies & gentlemen, was this the greatest computer game of all time? For me it was, the best story I've come across in a computer game and it looked great for the time it was released. I'm going to buy it for old times sake.

The final battle music in the North Cave still gives me goosebumps!

DECEiFER

Deleted User wrote: »

Ladies & gentlemen, was this the greatest computer game of all time? For me it was, the best story I've come across in a computer game and it looked great for the time it was released. I'm going to buy it for old times sake.

The final battle music in the North Cave still gives me goosebumps!

The music is a piss-poor effort compared to the original PS1 music. There are ways to replace it. Posts have been made about it above. You'll be disappointed with One-Winged Angel, that's for sure! The PS1 version is much MUCH better, and there are some nice remakes/remasters out there that are even better again. I'm using the "remaster" by Final FanTim.

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't say it's even close to the best Final Fantasy let alone the best RPG. Story goes to pot after leaving Midgar as well.

Still a damn fine game.

snausages

^ lol, right on cue . tbh though I still think it's the best FF. VIII is too dour and IX is a little regressive. X and XIII are too linear and XII was a failed experiment. IV's too old, V I haven't played. VI is practically the exact same game in 16bit but with too many party members that become useless once you get magicite. VII just about tops it for me.

DECEiFER

Another example of the difference in music:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/w8kghl

The link is to a zip file containing One-Winged Angel from the PS1, Final FanTim, and Steam.

For God's sake, the Steam version doesn't even have MIDI choir aahs, nevermind real voices.

If anyone wants a replacement OGG soundtrack for their Steam/2012 copies, I'd be happy to upload the few different versions I have, including the PS1.