Braver

Intro

Braver is a from scratch reimplemented game engine for the original (1997/8) FF7 PC release - although it should run with the more modern Steam re-release since that changes very little. The idea is to run the original game compatibly, from the original game files where possible, but also provide an easily moddable/hackable engine for adding extra functionality.

Downloads

Download the latest release here

Progress

Braver is still in an early beta stage; however it can load and run a reasonable number of FF7 locations already! You absolutely aren’t going to use it to do a serious playthrough of the game yet.

The plan is to take a pragmatic approach to implementing things: i.e. prefer a solution that works 80% of the time with minor glitches, but is playable in those cases, over not implementing something until it is perfect, or only implementing it in the 20% of cases where it works without glitches. Of course, eventually the hope is that Braver will work for every FF7 location/battle/etc.

Field

Battle

The end result is you can technically fight a battle, but while an static screenshot might look not too bad, right now the lack of animations and effects mean it doesn’t play very well. Technically the AI and mechanics mostly working means it’s doing the right thing with regards to what the enemies do and what effects each attack has, it just might not be obvious what’s happened!

World Map

Basic rendering of terrain and avatar done. Avatar movement based on terrain type done. No scripting or encounters implemented yet.

Audio

Other functionality

Current screenshots

First reactor mission

Materia menu

World map

Hi-res background replacement via plugin:

Hi res backgrounds

First few battle animations/effects decoded:

(i.e. playing the right combination of animations, movements, and effects based on the game scripts)