Final Fantasy VII Remake now has a game save converter, but it looks like a headache

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: As you probably already know, Square Enix decided to remaster the PlayStation 4 remake of Final Fantasy VII and call it "Final Fantasy VII Remake." It features better graphics and performance with the ability to toggle between the two.

As has been the trend moving into this new console generation, customers who have already bought the PlayStation 4 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake can get the PS5 upgrade for free when it releases next week. But what about all the progress you have made so far? Saves are not cross-compatible. I learned this when upgrading to the PS5 version of No Man's Sky.

Fortunately, Square Enix addressed this issue in the most recent FFVII PS4 update, which rolled out Wednesday. RPG Site noticed there is now a menu option to upload and convert saves, presumably so you can download them to your PS5. Unfortunately, it also looks like the process is going to be a hot mess.

First of all, you have to upload each file separately, which can be a pain if you like to have multiple saves as fall-backs. Okay, fine. So once you do that, you are good to go, right? Well, maybe not. Logically the process to get them transferred to the PS5 will be similar—open the game and find the transfer option in the start menu.

However, Kotaku notes both games must be installed for the data transfer to work. For those migrating to a new PS5, this is not an issue. However, it could present a potential pain in the rump for those playing on the PS5 in compatibility mode, which is likely a substantial number of users.

The crux of the problem is the PS5's notorious lack of drive space—well, that and the ballooning size of games. The PS4 version of FFVIIR is 86GB. It's unclear how large an install the PS5 version is, but assuming it's comparable, players are looking at another 86GB or more eating up their SSD.

Anyone who has had their PS5 for more than a couple of months is likely to have minimal space left. I can attest to this. I have only had mine for less than two months, and I have already bumped into the lack of drive space warning. I do not have room for another 80GB+ game. So despite the process being somewhat labor-intensive, which I can deal with, the space issue only compounds the headache.

Save transferring (using my use case as an example) will require:

• Deleting one or more games,
• Downloading and installing the PS5 version of FFVIIR,
• Going through the cumbersome data transfer process multiple times,
• Deleting the PS4 version,
• Downloading and reinstalling the previously deleted games.

And that's assuming there is enough space for said games. I'm sorry, but for me, that's game over. I'd rather just quit playing, wait for the rest of the episodes to land, and start over from scratch.

Here's looking forward to the day that developers starting saying, "You know what? I think this time we'll only make a next-gen version of our game." Just like the old days.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade launches June 10.

Image credit: RPG Site

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/89932-final-fantasy-vii-remake-now-has-save-file.html

 

[Dimitriid]

You know for as much as Sony talked up the capabilities of their ssd I think they should have considered the one feature that's actually potentially the most time consuming: enough disk space.

If you could just buy a "regular" nvme m.2 ssd the 1 tb models are usually even less than 100 USD on sale but oh no that'd be too simple: Sony wouldn't make abundant margin out of a secondary accessory market like extra storage.

 

[oldikes]

If you could just buy a "regular" nvme m.2 ssd the 1 tb models are usually even less than 100 USD on sale but oh no that'd be too simple: Sony wouldn't make abundant margin out of a secondary accessory market like extra storage.

Most "regular" (cheap) NVMEs have drastically less sustained performance than the SSDs in the PS5 and xbox series X. Would cause all sorts of issues for game developers who expect a certain minimum performance from the console. This is why xbox went the proprietary drive route, because they wont have to field complaints about buggy games from users or frustrated devs trying to account for slower drives. Sony's is more user-choice friendly, but more cumbersome and confusing.

We don't see many of the benefits of these drives yet, but we will as devs start moving to developing exclusively for current-gen in a year or two. Though maybe PC will hold progress back a bit, as the majority of PC gamers use slower SSDs or even HDDs still for game storage.

I can see us having massive open worlds like GTA V where every single building has a navigable interior - things like this were impossible before because of the overhead needed to stream in assets from spinning disks.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

You know for as much as Sony talked up the capabilities of their ssd I think they should have considered the one feature that's actually potentially the most time consuming: enough disk space.

If you could just buy a "regular" nvme m.2 ssd the 1 tb models are usually even less than 100 USD on sale but oh no that'd be too simple: Sony wouldn't make abundant margin out of a secondary accessory market like extra storage.

Yeah. The thing is that drive space has always been an issue with PlayStations. One of the first things I have always done with them is replace the minuscule HDD with a higher-capacity one. This is a well-known and documented shortfall that Sony has always acknowledged, which is why they have made them so easy to replace without voiding the warranty. Why this was not a consideration with the PS5 and the growing size of games is beyond me.

EDIT: The other funny thing about it is that it's also the first thing Sony upgrades when refreshing models. Next year or the year after they will release a PS5 1TB or larger.

 

[Dimitriid]

Most "regular" (cheap) NVMEs have drastically less sustained performance than the SSDs in the PS5 and xbox series X. Would cause all sorts of issues for game developers who expect a certain minimum performance from the console. This is why xbox went the proprietary drive route, because they wont have to field complaints about buggy games from users or frustrated devs trying to account for slower drives. Sony's is more user-choice friendly, but more cumbersome and confusing.

We don't see many of the benefits of these drives yet, but we will as devs start moving to developing exclusively for current-gen in a year or two. Though maybe PC will hold progress back a bit, as the majority of PC gamers use slower SSDs or even HDDs still for game storage.

I can see us having massive open worlds like GTA V where every single building has a navigable interior - things like this were impossible before because of the overhead needed to stream in assets from spinning disks.

There's some sense to what you're claiming but I just don't think it's doable. Not because of the tech: I believe it's there and even without Sony's claims for their proprietary SSDs with pci-e 4.0 nvme high end drives we wouldn't actually be too far off those super speeds.

No, the issue is that developing a game as big as GTA V already takes like 300 to 500 devs a good 7 or 8 years to complete: Multiplying the effort on the substantially higher fidelity graphics we have now and also adding 3x, 4x or 5x more content to create and place in the world would be just flat out not doable in terms of coordinating enough developers to do it on a reasonable timeframe.

It's ambitious yes, but we all know what happens when we get a game that's a little bit too ambitious about it's scope for it's own good (And if you need a spoiler, Star Citizen is what happens)

Last point here: the point of m.2 drives are minuscule size so even if you're taking *all* of that into account you could have developers opt into saying "This games needs to be on the PS5 official magical super fast SSD only" and let people install additional, cheap and "slow" 1200 to 1800mbps speed SSDs for the rest of their library which will be a bunch of PS4 titles and PS5 games that flat out just don't take advantage of the high speed storage.

So ultimately even conceding all you said it's still not a good reason not to allow people to bring their m.2s on day one.

 

[Rdmetz]

Or maybe they could just do it right from the get go like xbox die with smart delivery...

I heard SOOO MUCH crap about how smart delivery was just "a marketing gimmick" yet everytime this type of thing pops up the Xbox vereion (if there is one) has no such problem.

Plain and simple Sony utterly failed to deliver a worthwhile backwards compatibility system.

 

[Rdmetz]

You know for as much as Sony talked up the capabilities of their ssd I think they should have considered the one feature that's actually potentially the most time consuming: enough disk space.

If you could just buy a "regular" nvme m.2 ssd the 1 tb models are usually even less than 100 USD on sale but oh no that'd be too simple: Sony wouldn't make abundant margin out of a secondary accessory market like extra storage.

Heck they are counting on you buying a whole new system when your soldered on ssd eventually fails.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Heck they are counting on you buying a whole new system when your soldered on ssd eventually fails.

The SSD is not soldered on.

EDIT: I guess it is. It is just that I recall someone (I think it was Cerny) saying they were partnering with some SSD OEMs to produce higher capacity drive replacements but didn't have a timeline when they would be available.

EDIT: This is what I was thinking of:

 

[oldikes]

No, the issue is that developing a game as big as GTA V already takes like 300 to 500 devs a good 7 or 8 years to complete: Multiplying the effort on the substantially higher fidelity graphics we have now and also adding 3x, 4x or 5x more content to create and place in the world would be just flat out not doable in terms of coordinating enough developers to do it on a reasonable timeframe.

I think its more reasonable moving forward than it was historically, as a lot of these types of games become service-based and last for nearly if not a full decade. They wont need to be unique and hand designed environments either, they can be designed procedurally to some degree. (e.g. see how most of the gas stations in GTA v are nearly identical)

Last point here: the point of m.2 drives are minuscule size so even if you're taking *all* of that into account you could have developers opt into saying "This games needs to be on the PS5 official magical super fast SSD only" and let people install additional, cheap and "slow" 1200 to 1800mbps speed SSDs for the rest of their library which will be a bunch of PS4 titles and PS5 games that flat out just don't take advantage of the high speed storage.

Thats a very fair point - I don't know how it is on PS5 but this is very much already a thing on xbox series x. Xbox one games can run on external hard drives, and even a few specific series X enhanced games that dont need super fast load times (halo I think is one) can be run from external drives. But it does add another layer of confusion and inconsistency for users which consoles try to avoid.