The original Final Fantasy VII was a grand adventure, punctuated by a number of high quality CG cutscenes. At the time, they were a big deal, but like most CG from the 1990s, they haven't aged especially well. There's still an artistic flair to them, but by today's standards they're obviously very limited on a technical level.
And that's why this new video from YouTube channel SnazzyAI makes for a fun watch — especially if you have nostalgia for original game. Using a combination of remastering techniques, SnazzyAI has revived every cutscene in Final Fantasy VII in 1080p at 30 frames-per-second. They've simply never looked better.
On the remastering process, SnazzyAI writes: "This is the video I've wanted to do forever. I dug through the three discs that Final Fantasy VII for PS1 came on, extracted all the STR cutscene files, converted them to AVI files, and then I took them from their 240P resolution and 15FPS framerate (due to constraints of the PS1 CD) to nearly 1080p and 30fps using cutting edge AI upscaling and interpolation."
"My goal is to respect the masterful work of the original release. I simply want to unlock the detail that was already there, but sadly hidden behind the technical limitations of the time."
It's impressive stuff, and the coolest part is that, like SnazzyAI says, this remastered video lets us pick out smaller details that we never really noticed up until now. Again, fans of Final Fantasy VII should definitely take a look.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 16
Stop forcing interpolation, this looks like a water painting,
Not good.
let the old be old
Interesting.
I am guessing the music doesn't exist because the actual cutscenes don't actually contain any?
Also, I am guessing he chose to use the PS1 discs for authenticity (as opposed to the PC version discs which actually have the videos already converted to AVI)?
Ah the memories. Just scrolling through that 50 minute video to get a kick of nostalgia was appreciated.
I remember those janky graphics being so impressive to my teenage mind and I watched them over and over. I had save files setup near key moments of the game so I could quickly load in and watch them.
I love this game.
@GamingFan4Lyf AVI has nothing to do with quality
As much as I love FF series, FFVII (Original) is one of the games that I haven't had the privilege of playing.
Feels so lifeless without the music
@Kienda I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's basically one giant nostalgia trip haha
@GamingFan4Lyf Part of the reason I went for the STR files on the PS1 roms was that I can convert it raw into an uncompressed AVI file using chroma upsampling. So each cutscene ended up being 200MB or more and in my experience, the upscaler meshed really well with that.
I borrowed the PC version from a friend way back in '97 and proceeded to watch all of the cutscenes in order like this, since you could just open the cutscene movies in a regular video player. Then I gave the game back.
Back then I would also use cheat codes to skip to the last level of a game, beat it with God mode turned on, and call it done. Dunno what I was thinking, lol.
@SnazzyAI Gotcha, makes sense! Thanks for the clarification!
When I saw the thumbnail, I thought this was going to remade using Dreams for some reason.
@LordOfTurnips Honestly- agreed. I was gonna say 'better' is a word alright, but I wouldn't stick it into that. Is it impressive they were able to do so, absolutely. But it just looks- not great.
@LordOfTurnips I totally agree that most interpolation is trash. And that's for a few reasons. Primarily, it's because people make the mistake of interpolating 24fps to 60fps. For the best results, doubling is key. Also, there's AI-based interpolation and non-AI based. AI has improved it significantly, but of course, I'm not sure it'll ever be perfect. And I totally respect those who don't like it
Old and outdated. The original Final Fantasy 7 was good at the time but sadly it hasn't aged well even with this face-lift. I'll stick to the Remake thanks.
Somehow, increasing the FPS gave the character movement even more of a creepy stop motion effect. I hate it.
@Amylian4Games get it on steam. It's quite cheap and you can use fan made mods to change textures to high quality and some more quality of life changes. Really great! I played it on PS1 and never finished it, then finished it on Steam years later!
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