The polygonal character modeling of “Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy 7” in the PS1 era certainly looks rough now, but because it is so recognizable, it has become the symbol of “you can tell it is FF7 at a glance” in the hearts of players. Therefore, even if “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth/Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth” is objectively more refined in terms of graphics and character texture, there are still people who want to bring back the 1997 design, not for the sake of retro, but because that taste is difficult to replace.
The modder wants to change all the main characters back to their original looks
This project is promoted by well-known FF7 modder Stepheroth. In the past, he often made transformations to replace characters, but this time his goal is more clear: if successful, players will be able to see the appearance of the characters in “Rebirth” return to the low-polygon style of the original version, allowing Cloud, Tifa and others to enter the modern scene in a more retro, abrupt but also interesting way.
The main characters are almost completed, only a few characters are still being worked on
Stepheroth said in a community update that the main character group is almost complete, and there are still several characters to be completed, including Red Thirteen, Cait Xi and Zack. He also shared videos and screenshots at work, such as OG Tifa, OG Sephiroth, etc., and said that the computer was a bit stuck during the recording, but the overall effect seemed to be working.
The 1997 Cube Man walks into the ultra-exquisite scene of the 2020s, and it’s so funny just thinking about it!
Putting the character looks from 1997 into a modern setting like “Rebirth” would be visually very jumpy, even a little ridiculous. But at the same time, it is exactly what players want to see: the sense of the times and contrast, which makes people go back to the past in a second. Of course, it is not easy to completely replace it, because it means taking into account all aspects of character presentation in the entire game; what is even more exaggerated is that Stepheroth still treats this matter as a side job.