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Final Fantasy VII Remake: World Preview
A full-color, lavishly illustrated introduction to the world of Final Fantasy VII Remake, presenting information on characters, settings, gameplay, and more!
With its captivating characters, striking visual design, and intense gameplay, Final Fantasy VII set a new standard for the RPG genre and became one of the top video game releases of all time. Now, with Final Fantasy VII Remake, players return to Midgar in a stunning new rendition of a timeless classic. This World Preview volume offers both new players and longtime fans essential information on characters, settings, gameplay, and more, as well as introductory comments from producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura.
With its captivating characters, striking visual design, and intense gameplay, Final Fantasy VII set a new standard for the RPG genre and became one of the top video game releases of all time. Now, with Final Fantasy VII Remake, players return to Midgar in a stunning new rendition of a timeless classic. This World Preview volume offers both new players and longtime fans essential information on characters, settings, gameplay, and more, as well as introductory comments from producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura.
136 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2020
10 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Square Enix
599 books85 followersSquare Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア・エニックス・ホールディングス) TYO: 9684 is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series. Its headquarters are located in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 1, 2020
I was excited to get this book in and see what it expanded on with the new remake that came out this year. While the screenshots were pretty, overall I was expecting a little bit more in this book. No new tidbits were really expanded on. I did enjoy that they had a time line of events leading up to the remake from Crisis Core and details that might be missed that are explained in game. The end had a short story about Aerith's past but two paragraphs in I gave up. This was cheaper than most companion books to games but still not might favorite one. Overall not bad but hopefully the part 2 will have a more expanded upon book.
June 3, 2021
Solo veo 3 razones para tener este libro:
1. Ser muy fan de final fantasy vii
2. Artículo de colección
3. La historia "picturing the past"
El libro contiene mucha información básica de final fantasy VII original y remake. Por lo que no aporta mucho contenido.
Pero la historia de la niñez de Aerith vista desde otra perspectiva merece la pena, aclarando como surgió el pequeño mural en el edificio shinra en el juego siendo un detalle apreciable. Por lo que solamente esa corta historia le da peso a este libro pequeño.
1. Ser muy fan de final fantasy vii
2. Artículo de colección
3. La historia "picturing the past"
El libro contiene mucha información básica de final fantasy VII original y remake. Por lo que no aporta mucho contenido.
Pero la historia de la niñez de Aerith vista desde otra perspectiva merece la pena, aclarando como surgió el pequeño mural en el edificio shinra en el juego siendo un detalle apreciable. Por lo que solamente esa corta historia le da peso a este libro pequeño.
April 1, 2022
Only read this for the Aerith short story, which was pretty good. Ended up reading the whole book anyway because it’s so short. Nothing special really. The short story is really the only good thing about it.
October 9, 2020
If there was a bit more writing, this could get 5 stars. However, it's a beautiful artbook.
September 28, 2020
If you're getting this expecting it to dish out more secrets from the Remake you're going to be dissapointed. If you're looking for an in-depth art book, you also will be dissapointed. I bought this because I'm a lore book junkie and I love Final Fantasy and it's artwork.
As far as lore/artbooks go this is really vanilla. I know square can produce great art books, but they are never released with an English translation. This is a translation from a book of the same name that was released in Japan prior to the Final Fantasy VII Remakes release, hence the title World Preview. Because of this a lot of the information provided is basically non existent.
The book is separated into three chapters. One focusing on characters, one on the world, another on game mechanics.
The character one would have been nice if they actually included every character that's in the game. Now remember this is a translation from a book that was released before the game came out. So sure, they are hiding some things but not even Rufus Shinra gets a page dedicated to him, I just found it odd. I also noticed that each character gets their English and Japanese voice actors listed. However both Sephiroth, and Chocobo Sam only have their Japanese actors named.
This section is then followed by a timeline which I thought was really neat. They included some of the Compilation titles like Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus and Before Crisis. However that being said, the timeline is hardly complete and leaves a lot of information out. It is a welcome addition that I didn't expect.
The section that focuses on the world was super lackluster. Just giant Pictures of locals with tiny blurbs about them. I found myself quickly skimming this section since the information.provided was things I already knew. They do however show some locations from the rest of Gaia.
Then there is the third chapter which lightly touches on game mechanics. This talks about limit breaks and summons. It's okay but since this book is essentially a translated promotional book the info here is real scarce.
Then we get a section showing all the merchandise you can buy for the game. This is pretty normal for square to do this, some Ultimania's I own have little sections like this as well.
Now for the final section, a short story that is supposed to detail Areith's childhood. This got me really excited since I'll take any new lore to the VII universe like candy. Unfortunately this was a real slog. The story focuses mainly on a Shinra Trooper that knew Areith as a kid, it's entirely skippable in my opinion.
Final thoughts, depending on what you're looking for in a translated art book from square I would say skip this. It really should have been translated before the game came out. It's been 6 months since the VII Remake came out and I really dont see the need for sending this one out after the game has come out. Fans will most likely preorder this to see if the book has any extra information about the world and it really doesn't.
If you are new to Final Fantasy I guess sure, pick it up. For long time fans there is nothing in here that warrants a purchase since this is all information we've known for years.
As far as lore/artbooks go this is really vanilla. I know square can produce great art books, but they are never released with an English translation. This is a translation from a book of the same name that was released in Japan prior to the Final Fantasy VII Remakes release, hence the title World Preview. Because of this a lot of the information provided is basically non existent.
The book is separated into three chapters. One focusing on characters, one on the world, another on game mechanics.
The character one would have been nice if they actually included every character that's in the game. Now remember this is a translation from a book that was released before the game came out. So sure, they are hiding some things but not even Rufus Shinra gets a page dedicated to him, I just found it odd. I also noticed that each character gets their English and Japanese voice actors listed. However both Sephiroth, and Chocobo Sam only have their Japanese actors named.
This section is then followed by a timeline which I thought was really neat. They included some of the Compilation titles like Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus and Before Crisis. However that being said, the timeline is hardly complete and leaves a lot of information out. It is a welcome addition that I didn't expect.
The section that focuses on the world was super lackluster. Just giant Pictures of locals with tiny blurbs about them. I found myself quickly skimming this section since the information.provided was things I already knew. They do however show some locations from the rest of Gaia.
Then there is the third chapter which lightly touches on game mechanics. This talks about limit breaks and summons. It's okay but since this book is essentially a translated promotional book the info here is real scarce.
Then we get a section showing all the merchandise you can buy for the game. This is pretty normal for square to do this, some Ultimania's I own have little sections like this as well.
Now for the final section, a short story that is supposed to detail Areith's childhood. This got me really excited since I'll take any new lore to the VII universe like candy. Unfortunately this was a real slog. The story focuses mainly on a Shinra Trooper that knew Areith as a kid, it's entirely skippable in my opinion.
Final thoughts, depending on what you're looking for in a translated art book from square I would say skip this. It really should have been translated before the game came out. It's been 6 months since the VII Remake came out and I really dont see the need for sending this one out after the game has come out. Fans will most likely preorder this to see if the book has any extra information about the world and it really doesn't.
If you are new to Final Fantasy I guess sure, pick it up. For long time fans there is nothing in here that warrants a purchase since this is all information we've known for years.
March 9, 2023
A great book for Final Fantasy 7 fans. The book is high quality, images are printed crisp and beautiful, beneath a dust jacket hides a matte hardcover with the whole team looking away from Midgar, English translation sounds natural, and the size is great to accommodate large images and spreads are not stuffed so it's a pleasure to look at, but not so big to become unwieldy. Minor quibble is that a lot of pages are glossy black which means fingerprints, but not as bad as in some other books.
Despite its title, this is much more than a preview of FF7 Remake World.
The book starts with foreword by Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase, and key terms like "mako" and "SOLDIER" laid out in the esthetic of the game. What I liked a lot is that each chapter gets a "Recalling a Classic" section where a comparison is made to the original game. It is well executed plus awesome nostalgic feels.
Chapter 1 covers characters, with main characters getting 4-6 pages of large images and screenshots, down to minor characters like Chocobo Sam getting a third of a page. There's also a short written introduction for each character. I also loved that this chapter has a whole timeline from 2,000 years before the game starts!
Chapter 2 is the world preview the book was named after. Full page spread of Midgar, and lush pictures of various locations with short explanations.
Chapter 3 is about mechanics of the game, showing off the battle system, abilities, limit breaks, summons, mini games, etc.
Then comes three spreads of merchandise which might annoy me in any other book, why am I paying for their ads, but I drooled over some of these here, plus their Play Arts figures are such eye candy.
The book ends with an exclusive 16-page story Picturing the Past which was a lot more fun and higher-quality than I imagined a story stuffed at the end of such book would be. I was glad to find out more about Aerith's childhood locked up by Shinra, and lives of Shinra employees searching for mako.
I think this book can be read before or after playing the game as it doesn't contain any major spoilers, but if you don't like to know anything before diving in, then leave it until you're about half-way through.
Highly recommended for all FF7 fans.
Despite its title, this is much more than a preview of FF7 Remake World.
The book starts with foreword by Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase, and key terms like "mako" and "SOLDIER" laid out in the esthetic of the game. What I liked a lot is that each chapter gets a "Recalling a Classic" section where a comparison is made to the original game. It is well executed plus awesome nostalgic feels.
Chapter 1 covers characters, with main characters getting 4-6 pages of large images and screenshots, down to minor characters like Chocobo Sam getting a third of a page. There's also a short written introduction for each character. I also loved that this chapter has a whole timeline from 2,000 years before the game starts!
Chapter 2 is the world preview the book was named after. Full page spread of Midgar, and lush pictures of various locations with short explanations.
Chapter 3 is about mechanics of the game, showing off the battle system, abilities, limit breaks, summons, mini games, etc.
Then comes three spreads of merchandise which might annoy me in any other book, why am I paying for their ads, but I drooled over some of these here, plus their Play Arts figures are such eye candy.
The book ends with an exclusive 16-page story Picturing the Past which was a lot more fun and higher-quality than I imagined a story stuffed at the end of such book would be. I was glad to find out more about Aerith's childhood locked up by Shinra, and lives of Shinra employees searching for mako.
I think this book can be read before or after playing the game as it doesn't contain any major spoilers, but if you don't like to know anything before diving in, then leave it until you're about half-way through.
Highly recommended for all FF7 fans.
February 18, 2021
I was hoping for a more traditional artbook or even something that would delve deeper into the characters, but this is neither of those things. Most of the images presented here are in-game screen shots or the same exact character models that can be seen on the menu page when playing Remake. The only thing that I found new and interesting was the timeline that includes some of the FFVII-centered games and their characters. There's a section that includes all the merch you can buy, which I found weird. There's also a short story included at the end that's supposed to focus on Aerith's childhood. "Supposed to" is the main thing there, because it's narrated by a random Shinra Trooper who knew Aerith when she lived in the Shinra building, but it didn't do much for me. I just expected more.
February 1, 2021
I enjoyed the short story at the end, and the comparisons between Remake and the original. The rest of it seemed pretty shallow, though, especially since this came out (in America at least) quite a while after the game, and it was definitely supposed to be a preview.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews