In development since 2015 by Team Ninja, in collaboration with Sony’s London-based XDev Studio, the PS5-exclusive finally comes out on March 22. 

Here’s what you need to know about it. Just something to note: this is a first impressions article based on just a few hours of playtime, and our views may change as we continue to play, and understand the game’s systems better.

1. Parrying, called “Countersparks,” is a big part of the gameplay. It’s my favorite part of the combat mechanic so far, as successful parries, especially when you’re able to parry multiple hits or an enemy’s special attack is, as you might expect, very satisfying.
   
   So far, the difficulty level feels like it’s an open-world “Souls-lite” and not a Souls-like game. You’ll find some success just by evading and mashing the attack button, as the game’s enemies, at least in the first 3 or 4 hours, have been forgiving in terms of giving you windows of opportunities, and are not very aggressive in parrying your attacks. 
   
   It’s fun to observe and learn how to parry an opponent so you can build up your opponent’s panic level to the point where you can unleash flashy, violent special attacks for major damage, but so far, I’ve had success just being aggressive with my attacks – which is to say, parrying hasn’t been extremely necessary.  
   
   Evading has also been more effecting for me as blocking depletes your stamina gauge known as “Ki” pretty quickly. 
   
   Team Ninja has been known though for difficult games like Ninja Gaiden and Nioh (although of course From Software has become the king of masochistic games) so I wonder if these early stages are just a teaser for what’s to come.
   
   The game also appears to have a great emphasis on narrative and story so I wonder also if they did hold back on the difficulty for this game, so that more players can experience the story. In their press materials, it is noted that accessibility is part of the game.
   
   There is some Souls similarity though as you earn a type of experience points called “Karma” that you lose after dying, but are able to recover in vendetta mode where you go after your last killer. Die though, and you lose those points. You also have a stamina bar, and a similar item-use user interface, and save spots where you can “deposit” earned karma.

2. It’s set in Japan’s “Bakumatsu” period, a real historical time period set between 1853 and 1868 wherein the country’s isolationist policies came to an end after the Perry Expedition led by US Commodore Matthew Perry.

By comparison, Ghost of Tsushima was set hundreds of years back in 1274.

3. There’s a strong emphasis on “Bonds.” Your bond with a region or a specific character can grow as you complete side quests for people in that region or complete missions with another character.
   
   The game’s characters may be its strongest suit so far. We’re just a few hours in, and we’re already invested in the characters we have met such as a fellow wandering ronin Ryoma Sakamoto, the bandit chief Gonzo, inventor Igashichi Iizuka, and famed geisha Taka Murayama. 
   
   They offer engaging dialogue, are visually interesting, and you just get this motivation to do missions with or for them, so you get to know them more. And there are also in-game rewards for doing so, as you raise your bond level. Your character is the silent protagonist type, by the way. 
   
   The same goes for the game’s many areas. Do the missions in the area, and your bond with that area goes up, which brings with it several rewards. I’m looking forward to see whether the people in the area will interact with you differently as you raise your bond level with the area. 
   
   I’m usually not the biggest fan of sidequests, and I often just focus on the main storyline, but raising that bond level with characters and areas has been an effective carrot-on-a-stick for me. 
   
   One of the mission types as well is you go around certain areas to “restore public order,” which is basically safespeak for “kill every bad guy in the area to free it.” It’s a familiar open-world game mechanic that Ghost of Tsushima also had.
   
   But one thing that the game may have over Tsushima is some measure of choice over events. Game Informer noted in its December preview, including an interview with lead designers: “Don’t expect a large number of these branches to present themselves during the main story, but completing certain side missions related to the main narrative or centering on an important character will help steer the overall adventure toward one of several endings.” 
   
   I’ve had one of those moments already where I had to decide whether to kill or let a target live, and it felt indeed like a weighty decision on how my character will proceed in the game. 

4. You’ll see a mishmash of both Japanese and Western equipment. The game wants to depict a transition period for Japan as Western influence comes along, and we see that in the items you can equip. You can equip a kimono with a Western-style hat while wearing boots. Or Japanese sandals paired with vests and Western pants. It’s a funny sight but one that I’m enjoying, and is a design element that helps set this game apart. I’m really intrigued by this initial East-meets-West setting. 
   
   The game’s loot system is also quite generous with weapon and armor drops, and these have various effects like higher night time damage or quicker Ki regeneration. There are some more unique items too that offer more unique effects on the character. 
   
   In spite of this being sort of like a revenge quest, the atmosphere isn’t that heavy, and seems to be in a less serious mood than Ghost of Tsushima. Or if we’re going to compare it to the Souls games, the tone is definitely less intimidating and oppressing than Elden Ring or the Souls games. I, for one, like it’s a little bit more relaxed. 

5. So far, there really seems to be a lot of interesting things to do here, and the combat mechanic seems fun to master. The stealth kills and the grappling hook also remind me of that old PlayStation ninja game series Tenchu. The assassinations from falling from the glider are amazing.
   
   Grappling to a high spot, and seamlessly transitioning to gliding is very cool too.
   
   But aside from that, Ronin has some rough spots. The roughest is the AI enemy scripting, specifically how far an enemy is supposed to go away from their area. When you’re at what appears to be the set border for their character, they repeatedly go back to their area, and then chase you again when you go a little bit nearer. 
   
   This includes at least one boss I’ve fought so far. He kept shuffling between attempting to go back to his original area, and to where I was – which really wasn’t that far from his area. The combat can be engaging, but these moments break the illusion.
   
   I’ve been able to exploit this as well, letting me pick off one enemy at a time. 
   
   And don’t expect Ghost of Tsushima-type eye candy. While the facial texture, hair, some locations, and characters do look great, and the art direction looks great, with unique East-meets-West settings, the graphical rendering of environments can sometimes have spots with rough or dull textures. Something to note in case you were wondering if it’s as visually stunning as Tsushima.
   
   I’m guessing that part of it is also due to Tsushima’s visual art direction going for a glossier, dreamier look, while Ronin feels more raw, and more grounded. 
   
   There’s also one part in the beginning where I just suddenly seemed to have a horse. I restored public order to an area, and suddenly I had a horse – no in-game scene where it was shown that I was rewarded with it. 

6. If you love cats, you’ll love Rise of the Ronin. My favorite minigame or side quest so far is tracking down cats. Cat areas are marked on the map, and you can sneak up on them, catch them, and pet them. So cute!

– Rappler.com

And most likely, if you’re the type of gamer who wants to blast through large chunks of the main quest first before trying out the side quests like me, odds are, Midgardsormr absolutely crushed your behind. He was surprisingly tough, and I don’t remember the last time I was surprised by how tough a JRPG boss is. 

My giant-scaled friend was so tough that, during our interview with director Naoki Hamaguchi, I had to ask him about it. And he said that yes, they deliberately made the boss harder to encourage the players to explore the map first, fight a few more battles, and check out some of the sidequests in the area. It was a way to instruct players that exploration really has an important role in this game.

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Q&A: ‘FFVII Rebirth’ director Naoki Hamaguchi on challenges, inspiring future game creators

(Plus, Hamaguchi felt like he was really emphasizing that they worked hard on the game’s sidequests, and thus, would want players to see them.)

He added as well that some, who are more familiar with the game, will be able to move through that first boss battle with little issue. But for people “that are not very familiar,” it’s best to explore, level up, and basically, as gamers would say “git gud” (get good). 

My gamer pride was hurt a bit. I thought I was a pretty good FFVII Remake player! 

But anyway, git gud I did. I raised my level by maybe 2 or 3, fixed my equipment and materia, and finally went out to meet my serpentine sweetheart…and proceeded to get my rear handed to me again. What in the name of Demon’s Souls is this?

Anyway, I finally did it in the next try, so take that Midgardsormr. It’s always so satisfying to take down a boss after having a tough time, yes? Here’s my video of that:

Play Video

Now, I’m 14 hours in, and currently at Chapter 7. There has been a lot of bosses, and most of them really offer a fun challenge, and I’ve died a few times against them, but Midgardsormr has been the hardest still. 

On that note, I would just like to commend how great the boss fights in this game are. The game’s been a great boss run for me. They’re quite varied, the designs are amazing, and so far, no two bosses have been the same. 

And the oldest rule in FFVII still applies: if you’re fighting a mechanical robot boss, use lightning. I’ve yet to see an exception to the rule.

Every boss you fight, you need to figure out their attack patterns, and when to dodge and when to block, like a traditional action game. And of course, along with that, there’s the menu-based combat options that you need to find the right timing for.

In difficult boss battles, making just one wrong menu choice in combat spells the difference between winning and losing, and that’s part of the reason why they’re so fun and exciting.

The new synergy abilities, which let two characters do team-up actions and attacks, are a wonderful new addition, that among other reasons, really give you a sense that your characters are working with one another.

Sometimes, bosses have multiple phases too, and a short in-game cinematic plays out to show you that you’re moving on to a next part in the battle. 

I’ve always been a great enjoyer of the battle system introduced in Remake, and it returns with a little more depth, and more customization options – and it showcases best during the boss battles. It challenges you to think. What’s the best way to deal with this boss? Or when it’s possible to select party members, which combination of characters might be best to use? 

It’s just fun, and the bosses are one of the things that have kept me glued. One of the things I dislike though is that the characters don’t seem to acknowledge that they’ve just gone through a big boss battle. 

There’s nothing like an epic “Midgardsormr vanquished” message on the screen like Final Fantasy XVI, or the characters being depicted as having had a tough time. After a boss, they often move on too quickly like nothing happened, and in doing that, well, winning the battle is just a little bit less satisfying. 

Even the classic victory music would have been great after a boss battle! I’d understand why playing that music might have been repetitive in normal battles, but maybe they should’ve used it for after-boss battles. That would’ve been nice. 

And Rebirth has a lot of minigames, doesn’t it? They’re mostly simple affairs (although I love the piano playing mechanic, shown below, and I’m excited to get more sheet music) but I think they’re a nice palate cleanser from the primary exploration and battle sequences. I do think that there are moments when they break the momentum of the game. 

Play Video

I’ve come to accept that it’s kind of a goofy game too, a little more so than Remake (see: Red XIII cosplaying as a human). Sometimes, it feels off, because along with the minigames, it overshadows the urgency in a mission involving the impending death of a planet.

I understand that maybe the developers didn’t want this to be an all-too-serious affair, but the tonal shift sometimes gives me whiplash. It can sometimes vascillate wildly between heavy, existential, doomsday scenes often involving main antagonist Sephiroth, and scenes that just feel a tad too cartoony.

I think, partly, the original FFVII got away with such a tone because the old graphics were blocky, chibi-style renditions. These remake titles are obviously much more realistic, so it feels like the cartoony moments could have maybe used some toning down, perhaps? But that’s me, so what did you think?

What else? I think the pacing so far in Rebirth is better. The dungeon runs are just the right size, ending with a boss before getting too repetitive. For exploration, I like the button memorization minigame for gathering intel on summons. The chocobos are also, I’m happy to report, as cute as ever, and just as fun to ride. And I’ve been playing in graphics mode to avoid the blurry textures issue. 

See you in entry two! And do share your thoughts to angelo.gonzales@rappler.com! – Rappler.com 

In the roundtable interview, Rappler was joined by gaming and tech sites Ungeek, One More Game, and GadgetMatch to talk about meeting fan expectations, the game being his way of giving back to the series, and the urge to always create something that gives people the “will to live.”

Check out our full interview below!

Note: A translator facilitated the interview between the press and Naoki Hamaguchi.

Rob Yatco, Ungeek: First question is, FFVII Rebirth introduced so many changes from the original. What aspect from the original did you want to keep intact?

Naoki Hamaguchi: Rather than changing the main storyline, I wanted to add details that we were not able to express at the time, so that users today can have new realizations, and find new information by using these kinds of details. 

I wanted to first keep the main storyline, but add details to give more expression, but if it’s only that, then everything’s like, you can expect how the story will go, so there’s no surprise for the users today, so I wanted to add some changes in terms of giving the users more a sense of, how do you say, anxiousness of not being able to read what’s going to happen.

Ungeek: Is there a thing in FFVII that was essential to keep? 

NH: Maybe, like the character settings and the world view that should be kept because I am also a fan of the original game, but it’s pretty hard to nail down which part we wanted to keep. 

It’s really hard to nail down just one section because everything is important, but there are some scenes that are definitely engraved deeper into the user’s memory. For example, Rufus’ ceremony, Cosmo Canyon where Red XIII finds out about his father. And also the scene with Barret and Dyne. 

But if you played Rebirth already, you might have noticed that the detail of the storyline might have changed. But what I wanted to keep is to be able to convey the same emotion with these scenes by adding details, but I didn’t want to change these emotions that the users will feel from these important scenes. So if I were to l pick one aspect, that would be one. 

Chris Garcia, One More Game: First of all, I’d just like to congratulate you on the launch of the game, it’s been a long time coming. How relieved is the team at the critical reception of the game? How much pressure does this add to properly wrap up the trilogy? And might you be able to share any discussions or remarks with Nomura-san and Kitase-san when the review scores were published? 

NH: I have received the reviews, and have received a lot of positive comments and reviews so I’m really thankful! 

On social network services, a lot of people thought that the team set the score goal for the game at 90. I made 90 as my own goal but I didn’t want to put pressure on the team, and so the goal wasn’t something that I was verbalizing to the team. 

FFVII Remake didn’t surpass the 90 score [on aggregated ratings] so I’d imagine that some of the team members might have had some feelings inside that they wanted to do better. But now that Rebirth has received this positive feedback, there might be some pressure for some members but I feel that to work towards the end of the trilogy, this gives everyone more power to push forward to give the final title the conclusion it deserves.

Before the launch, I was in America, and then afterwards I flew to South Korea, and to the Philippines today, so I haven’t talked to the team yet, including Nomura-san or Kitase-san. However, I’ve received a message from Kitase-san saying congratulations on the result. 

Rodneil Quiteles, GadgetMatch: Okay, my question is,you can now switch parties on the fly during exploration. Was that ability, was the ability to do that during combat ever considered? 

NH: I receive this question sometimes. But there are character parameters, and also like materia customization aspect of the battle that really changes the difficulty if you’re able to switch the party during the battle so I didn’t want to do that. 

But instead to give the spotlight to each character, I put in each character’s story in the main story, so you’re able to switch the characters that way but not inside the actual battle.  

Gelo Gonzales, Rappler: Okay, you said before that Final Fantasy VI was your inspiration for getting into the games industry? You worked on 12, 13, 14 and of course FF7 Remake. But Rebirth is your debut as the lead director (Hamaguchi was co-director for Remake), so how did that feel? How did it feel at the beginning when you first accepted the task? Was it an overwhelmingly exciting feeling?

NH: So obviously, the Final Fantasy franchise was the reason why I came into the game industry as a game creator. With 20 years of experience in this industry, Final Fantasy was what made me grow up as a creator so I feel that being able to work as a director for this title is sort of like fate, and serving as a director for this title would ultimately be like giving back to the Final Fantasy series. I told Kitase-san when I was told that I would be the director, I told him that I wanted to do my best. 

Ungeek: Now that the reviews for the game are out, what was the most surprising praise or feedback or criticism that you saw about the game, and is there anything that you would like to address? 

NH: Okay, so the previous titles mainly focused on story design and the storyline, and that’s what the series was praised for in the past, but for Rebirth, I wanted to give the series more of a challenge, and try to give the users more freedom of choosing what they want to do.

And the user reviews that came out had some comments praising the game system and having more freedom, and not only the storyline and the characters, but also the game system as well, so I think this sort of gives more possibility to the whole Final Fantasy franchise in the future, giving more possibilities, not only like the story and the characters, but also on the game design aspect so that’s originally what I wanted to achieve with this title and I’m happy I was able to know that the users also liked that aspect of the game in the reviews. 

One More Game: In the first chapter of the game, we get to see a very important scene involving Zack; how tough or tricky was it for the team to reintegrate that character into Rebirth, considering that during Crisis Core, we kind of implied his demise? So how tricky was it to navigate through that reintegration of that character into Rebirth? 

NH: So this sort of overlaps with the first answer to my first question. But when you try to remake a game and make it into an entertaining game, having the exact storyline as the original was sort of lacking like those elements of excitement and surprise. So I was looking for something like an essence to add to the story, and when looking for that, why Zack was chosen as that essence is because in the original version, there wasn’t much story on Zack, but in Crisis Core, he had a huge character development there, and he felt that if there was one essence that the user’s would sort of be convinced that it’s enough, it would be, Zack would be that character. 

So yeah, that’s why I wanted to have him come into Rebirth to give that essence of having like more to look forward to how the story would sort of unveil itself. 

GadgetMatch: Other than synergy abilities, are there more subtle changes to combat that you hoped players would appreciate? 

NH: So some users have already noticed this and have posted on socials, but the basic action and command part hasn’t changed. But I’ve made the action more enjoyable, by changing each character in battle just a little bit, for example, for Cloud, his dodge now has a hit box so it can give damage to the opponent if you look closely, and also another ability that creates a long range attack impact.

And so we tried to incorporate these solid changes for every character in Rebirth to make the action part in the game to expand more possibilities. And we’re really happy that the users have made comments that the battle is actually more enjoyable than Remake. It has evolved from Remake so I’m really happy about that. 

Rappler: So let’s talk about one of the most talked about characters right now, Tifa. How did you want to depict her? 

NH: So one thing that I was really careful about in this game is to depict the same amount of character development for Aerith and Tifa. I felt that depicting one side more would sort of lead to many users’ unhappiness and obviously Rebirth sort of depicts Aerith’s fate, and that’s a heavy part. 

So we also wanted to add some scenes for Tifa as well. In the original title, I felt we didn’t have enough scenes to get to know Tifa, and her emotions, how she felt, and how she developed as a character. So that’s why adding some scenes in the Gongaga area that was not in the original, I wanted to depict Tifa’s character that she is kind to everyone, and everyone respects her but inside she has her own battles, and conflicts and the memories from her childhood that’s affecting her and her emotions. 

So getting to know about Tifa’s naive part would sort of become equal with what’s depicted about Aerith. I’m really happy that a lot of users love Tifa in Rebirth, and not only Aerith. 

Play Video

Ungeek: So what were the main learning points from Remake that affected the way the team approached developing FFVII Rebirth. Are there already any learning points from Rebirth that would be brought to the third title? 

NH: So in Remake the main driving point was the storyline, and I feel a lot of the users praised that point about the story. But there was some feedback that they wanted to sort of get to explore Midgar more. 

So that’s one part I wanted to work on for Rebirth. For Rebirth, the story goes into the world map, and I wanted to make the game design in the world map to give more freedom to the users. And that sort of matched his aspirations of what he wanted to change with the Final Fantasy series. 

So for Rebirth, he was sure that this was the right game design, and it took 4 years to create this volume and everyone really did their best. But I feel that we were able to achieve this because there were no doubts on the game design. The objective was to create a game that provides more freedom of choice to the users in the world map. 

So first of all for now, we want everyone to focus just on Rebirth, and get to get to play in the game. And in previous interviews, when I was asked the same question, I would answer that I sort of have the image of the next title in my head.

But since you’ve asked, I would answer a little more in-depth. We’re already onto the next stage, and I’ve already shared our plans with my team. And I feel that the next game will be another different experience from Rebirth. But for now, let’s just enjoy Rebirth! 

One More Game: So next question, you mentioned before that, apart from some key members like Kitase-san and Nomura-san, most of the team members working on the Remake trilogy are “new” in the sense that they weren’t there during the OG FF7 release.  Was this an advantage because the team was looking at this trilogy with fresh eyes? Did the new members turn out to be an advantage? 

NH: The entertainment industry has changed a lot, and there are a lot of young developers, young new ideas that are very important to sort of give the entertainment part in the game today. And in that sense, he feels that including himself, the new staff members did a good job in giving that aspect to the game. 

But I also feel that, for example, like Toriyama-san, Nojima-san, Nomura-san, they’re also in the development team. And I feel that that really helped the team sort of go in the right way instead of creating something like a fan-made remake. 

We wanted to keep the important essence, like the important messages that the original members wanted to convey with the game. Some parts are not written in the script, but only in their head so having them in the development team sort of allowed the team to go in the right way to create a game that respects the original but adds the new entertainment aspect to the game. 

He feels that the balance between getting the ideas from the original creators, and having the new creators sort of bring that into life to this new game had a very good balance. That’s why he believes that the original fans are also very happy with how this game turned out to be. 

GadgetMatch: So the transmutation mechanic hasn’t been talked about much. It’s basically Full Metal Alchemist. So was that an inspiration, and how did you decide on that mechanic, and was there a worry that it would feel off or disjointed from the game? 

NH: So the world map is very big, and we needed a lot of contents, and sort of preparing each content like individually that was not the point, I wanted to make everything relate to the character’s development, the bond between the characters, and the parameters of the characters. 

And that’s sort of the game design that he was looking for. And I think the reason why all the media, and the users sort of like that part of the game is that because everything sort of intertwines together, and everything affects each other. And that sort of created this sense of excitement to the users, and transmutation is one of the parts that I think sort of added to the game design. 

And right now, the game industry trend is you sort of get all these materials to create sort of like your equipment and everything, right? 

And I felt that adding this into the Final Fantasy worldview wouldn’t be too unnatural.

And I sort of knew that users would like this in the game so there wasn’t much anxiousness. And that having this to serve as something that would depict character development would be a good addition to the game. 

Rappler: What was the most challenging aspect in developing FFVII Rebirth? 

NH: So, the most difficult challenging aspect was to define how big the world map will be. One thing that’s difficult about creating an open world map is if it’s only about moving to one place and another, this would be a negative thing in the game. 

But if it’s too small, you wouldn’t be able to feel the “open-worldness” so I needed to have enough space, enough area, but also give the right amount of content so that it’s not too vast and empty but like still have the freedom to have the adventure and that was the very first challenge that the development team had in the process.

And in the first year of developing the game, they dedicated the time to sort of define, how big the world map will be, which continent will be placed where. And it was very difficult but  because they had that fixed in the very beginning, they were able to move forward with the game development fairly smoothly because they already had the like, how big an area will be, where it will be. They could decide, “okay, we will have 40 [pieces of] content in this continent and such.” So having been able to do that in the early stages of the development was pretty good. 

Rappler: Were there other open-world games that felt like an inspiration? 

NH: So there are a few games that inspire the open world aspect of Rebirth. Although there are open world aspects in Rebirth, the areas will sort of be unlocked as the story proceeds, unlike Legend of Zelda, where everything is available in the very start. 

We sort of had Ghost of Tsushima as an inspiration. Because in that game, there are 2 sections, the top part and the bottom part. And the top part becomes available once you proceed with the storyline. That sort of gave him an idea of how to define the space, like how big the world map will be.

And then, the content to put inside the map… Witcher 3 does a very good job with this. Having the side content in those areas to sort of serve as a way to depict character development, and get to know each character in that area, I sort of had Witcher 3 as an inspiration for Rebirth.

So side content, and those parts, Witcher 3 was a big inspiration. 

Ungeek: Given the limitations that the original game faced, what were one or two things that you really wanted to remake/flesh out from the original? 

NH: So this sort of connects with the first question that you asked. There are many parts that we sort of try to flesh out. One part is Rufus’s ceremony. That’s one of my personal favorites. But in Rebirth, what I wanted everyone to experience the most is Barret’s part.

From remake, Marin [gets a more fleshed-out depiction] than the original game, and if you’ve already played the game, you would know that she is not Barret’s actual daughter. 

And that sort of a background story, there’s a very dramatic story between Dyne and Barret behind that story. Compared to the original version, the Corel Prison part, it’s a part where users will have more empathy towards the characters. And I feel that a lot of the players might sort of feel very emotional in that scene. 

And also some of the mini-games that are available in that area, it adds more to depict Barret’s inner conflict and his emotions. I feel that I was able to add a lot of aspects that adds to depicting the character’s emotions. And that’s what we want players to experience in this game.

One More Game: Considering that players might treat Rebirth as their jumping point into the world of Final Fantasy 7, how much of a challenge is it for the team to portray the many characters they use throughout the game? 

NH: The main storyline of this game is to chase after Sephiroth, and explore the world map while doing that. So I feel that having Sephiroth come out in the beginning, or in the demo version, and have players be more familiar with the character itself adds to the whole game experience. You know who you’re chasing after. That’s why I put in the Nibelheim episode in the very beginning.

This might be a different answer to your question, but while speaking to a lot of media and journalists, I did have feed back that Sephiroth is their favorite character. So they wanted to get to play Sephiroth more, not only in the first part.

In one of Chadley’s VR content – it’s more like end-game content – there is a part where you can play Cloud and Sephiroth in a battle, but the difficulty setting is very high. I wanted to talk about this today because the game’s already released. 

GadgetMatch: There’s a lot of discussion about graphics mode vs. performance, even in the demo. During the development, was it geared more towards graphics mode? What would your recommendation be? 

NH: So the answer to your first question, there wasn’t really a focus for the development team. It wasn’t like a preference. It was just like “performance mode, we have to get 60 frames per second” so it would be a question of to what level we would drop the graphics to in order to achieve 60 fps. And graphics mode needs only 30 frames, it would just be about brushing up the graphics. 

So there wasn’t a focus on which one we would prefer during the development process. 

Personally, I like to play other games in graphics mode as well, because I simply want to see better graphics. 

[On the feedback about the graphics], we have had a lot of feedback on whether the graphics in the performance mode will be improved or not, and we are hearing this. And right now, we’re working on creating on an updated patch to be able to improve that aspect of the game, and I don’t think that [update] will be so far away.

Ungeek: To build on that, what exactly is being addressed with that upcoming patch? 

NH: I’m not able to answer all, but one thing we’re working on is, we’ve heard feedback from the players that in certain situations or character positions that the facial lighting or the shadow, they look very scary. That’s one thing we’re working on, we’re working to mediate. 

Rappler: I’ve only started playing the game, and I can say it feels more challenging than Remake, and especially more than FF XVI. One of the earlier bosses, the big snake boss Midgardsormr, is giving me a really tough time. What went about setting the difficulty level of Rebirth? 

NH: So if you play the whole game, then you might not feel that the difficulty level is much higher than Remake. But actually the part where you’re playing right now, Midgarsormr, we made that part deliberately difficult. For people that are used to the game system, it might be easy for them to clear the game. 

Some people might be able to move straightforward. For people that are not very familiar, the point is to allow them to go back, and explore the world map, and have them explore the transmutation part, giving them the sense that the exploration adds to character development and allowing them to level up. [We wanted to convey] that these are important in moving the story forward, so the difficulty of that boss battle, Midgarsormr, was deliberately ramped up. 

Rappler: So that was your way of encouraging the players. 

NH: So that’s exactly it. And when you’re able to overcome that boss battle, then you’ll know how to overcome the following boss battles. You’ll know that exploring the world map would allow you to level up, and become stronger, and make the boss battles easier. So yes, that was exactly the point. 

And also to add-on we’re also hearing that the Junon area in the demo version has a high difficulty as well. This was also deliberately changed from the actual game. This is to allow the users playing the demo version to have more freedom in creating their strategies, and having more freedom in setting up their combat style.

So that was also something we did deliberately, and we hope that this sort gives inspiration to players on how they would proceed with their own combat style. 

Rappler: Games that are known for being difficult, like the Souls games, are very popular now. Were they an influence in you deciding, “Okay, we want to make this game more challenging too,” because some gamers like more challenging games nowadays? 

NH: So to answer your question, we didn’t really take those titles into consideration because Demon’s Souls, or Elden Ring, are a 100% action game. And between the few frames need to make the reaction, it’s solely about the player’s skill. But in Rebirth, we do have the action but we also have the command aspect, and you need to know what resources you have. You have to make your choices based on information about your opponent like their HP and what resources you have, the leveling and the parameters. So we have this excel sheet with all the numbers inside to sort of define the difficulty depending on your stances. 

So we didn’t take these 100% action games into account, in that sense.

Ungeek: How does it feel to have such a great effect on gamers especially during this day, and do you have a message for those waiting for this kind of game? 

NH: To answer your first question, I myself respect the original game very much. After almost 30 years, and remaking this game, having the responsibility of remaking this game is, the feeling that comes straight away is, I don’t want to let the title, let this game down, let the fans down. 

So this is a message to people that are aspiring to join the industry, having played this game. There are many [forms] of entertainment today, not only gaming but movies, streaming, Youtube. But the base is the same – it’s to give the people the will to live, today and tomorrow.

And if the title you created allows people to have this feeling, then that’s a great feeling. If you don’t forget this, then I’m sure you’ll also be able to create a game that has this effect on people. 

Rappler: Lastly, what’s your message to Filipino fans? 

NH: So this is my first time in the Philippines, and yesterday I got to walk around the city just a bit, look inside malls. But I saw that there are a lot of Japanese stores, and feel that many people in the Philippines, like Japan and being able to have, the people play the games that I created, have people in the Philippines play the game that I’ve created, I feel very happy about that.

And also because this game has evolved a lot from the Remake, I’m very satisfied with what I was able to create, so I hope a lot of fans in the Philippines are able to clear the game, and look at what happens in the very end of the game. – Rappler.com 

The deepfake video manipulated a November 2022 interview of Ressa by American talk show host Stephen Colbert in his show. 

It was circulated using a newly created Facebook page and an ad on Microsoft’s Bing platform. Microsoft and Facebook have since taken down the post and the ad that circulated the deepfake.

Using digital fingerprints left by the fakers, a follow-up investigation where Rappler collaborated with Swedish digital forensic group Qurium linked the deepfake to a Russian scam network. The investigation also indicated that the campaign specifically targeted Philippine audiences.

Spotting the deepfake

The deepfake video was initially spotted on January 25, 2024, on the Facebook page, “Method Business,” which was created just a few days before. 

Twenty-one hours after the video was posted, it had already garnered 22,000 views. (See screenshot below.)

Rappler was also later alerted to a webpage, hosted under URL ultimainv.website, which alternately cloned the story pages from the websites of Rappler and CNN Philippines. The impostor site was promoted through an ad served on Microsoft’s Bing platform. (Ad encircled by Rappler in the screenshot below)

Ultimainv.website is a newly registered domain. The first record on its domain history is dated January 10, 2024.

The creators of the deepfake video manipulated a November 2022 interview by Colbert where he asked Ressa questions about her book, How To Stand Up To A Dictator, and the cases filed against her and Rappler upon the instigation of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. 

The manipulated video used a fake voice, generated by AI, which mimicked Ressa’s voice. Most of the time, the fake video showed her speaking in sync with the audio. But there were a number of times that the syncing failed, which was the strongest indication that it was a deepfake video. Watch the video embedded below which compares the original interview with the manipulated video that had the AI-generated audio.

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The video may look convincing to a user who isn’t paying attention or isn’t aware of how AI technology can copy voices or how a deepfake video might look. Rappler reported the video to Meta, and it has since been removed, but the page, Method Business, remains active.

More than an effort to scam people into investing in bitcoin, the fake articles published on webpages mimicking Rappler and CNN Philippines also implied that Ressa was involved in the scam.

Both headlined, “Maria Ressa could be sued for her remarks on live TV,” the fake CNN Philippines and Rappler articles both claimed that Ressa’s career “hangs in balance” supposedly following remarks she made on live TV. The ad which promoted the impostor websites used the text: “The end for her?” as lead, implying that Ressa was embroiled in a scandal.

The fake articles also claimed that the live broadcast was supposedly interrupted following demands by leading banks to stop it and erase the recording. (See screenshots of fake articles below.)

Russian origin, targeting a Philippine audience

The pages where the video and the fake Rappler and CNN Philippines articles were posted were also engineered to be viewed only through Philippine internet service providers (ISPs). Investigators who looked into the deepfake had to employ various techniques to view the impostor sites from their location. This implies that those behind the deepfake were specifically targeting Filipinos.

CNN Philippines’ website had already shut down on February 1, 2024, days before the February 5, 2024 publication date of the fake article.

A follow-up investigation with Swedish digital forensic group Qurium Media discovered later that the clone sites were part of a fraudulent online network that tricks victims into paying for a product that usually ends up as an empty box or a random low quality object when delivered.

The network, according to Qurium, appears to be of Russian origin.

Links found in the network also showed the use of Cyrillic script, and a timezone time stamp of GMT+3 (Moscow, St. Petersburg), which, Qurium said, is “solid indication” but “not conclusive proof” that the network is of Russian origin.

The content on the platform used to set up the fake websites is in Russian language.

Qurium analyzed domain registration and hosting information data of the fake sites, metadata from images and the embedded video on the fake sites, and metadata from the original articles scraped from the original CNN and Rappler websites to create the fake pages.

The campaign was in operation from November 28, 2023 to February 25, 2024.

Qurium’s analysis of the network shows an elaborate scheme that skirts legal accountability by dividing the operation into separate entities, allowing for deniability and anonymity.

The scam network, as discovered by Qurium, uses a multi-role scheme that ensures no one will be held accountable for the scam. These are the roles:

• The affiliate advertiser or the publisher

This is the webpage, collecting the names and phone numbers of potential victims to an intermediary, which, in this case, is the “M1 Shop.” Qurium said that on their site, “they make clear that they just advertise goods and they are not responsible for anything related to the merchandise.”

The affiliate advertiser in this case was identified as “TD Globus Contract.” Aside from ultimainv.website, which hosted the fake CNN and Rappler pages, TD Globus Contract was found to have links to more than 40 other websites with ties to the scam network.

• The intermediary

The intermediary (M1 Shop) takes the victims’ info from the publisher, and forwards it to the advertiser for a fee. They are responsible for paying the publisher for the information they receive or the clicks the publisher’s webpage generates that send victims to the M1 Shop.

• Advertisers

Advertisers create the fraud offerings, which, in this case, have ranged from nutrition goods to cryptocurrency offers.

Qurium explained that the fraud works as the advertisers’ identities are protected by the intermediary, while publishers or webpages are changed “once their reputation has been compromised.”

“Ultimately none takes responsibility for the fraud,” Qurium said. “The websites that promote the products are registered under fake companies, and claim that they do not know the final product vendors, and the advertisement network claims that they do not monitor what is promoted in their platform. Something is guaranteed though, victims get scammed and everyone in their network gets paid for their ‘services.'”

Meanwhile, M1 is playing a “brokering role” in the scam network, hiding the malicious advertisers from scrutiny.

Rappler has already reached out to M1 shop via the Telegram accounts on its website. We will update this story when we receive a response from M1.

Potential harm 

Deepfake videos can be convincing and powerfully persuasive, which is why scammers would attempt to use it.

However, there are other potential motivations. In India, politicians have used deepfakes to malign opponents or confuse the electorate. In Taiwan, deepfakes and cheap fakes were spread online ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. In Indonesia, deepfakes had been in use, too, in the lead up to their own presidential elections.

The nature of disinformation is not in the outright lie at times. Oftentimes, it could be merely to plant a seed in the minds of audiences that could later be exploited, Qurium added in its report.  

Regardless of the motivation, potentially, deepfakes can be used to sway public opinion, like a very powerful lie, which is especially harmful in situations such as national elections and fast-moving scenarios like situations of violence, for example. 

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In this specific case, if the intent was to scam people, the scammers may have thought that using a Maria Ressa deepfake could convince some to invest in a product that ultimately doesn’t exist. The fake campaign may have attempted to leverage a journalist’s reputation as an authoritative voice, at her expense.

Other figures of authority can be victimized, too, putting their reputations on the line. While Rappler and Qurium were investigating this specific deepfake, a similar one which involves a Filipino businessman was also circulated through what appears to be the same process. Very recently, deepfakes which used GMA7 Network anchors were used to promote a necklace supposedly coming from the Vatican.

There are other possibilities. What is curious about the Maria Ressa deepfake is that the ads on Bing, which were promoting the impostor CNN Philippines and Rappler sites, did not appear to be promoting a product. They were implying a scandal involving Ressa.

“What’s particularly concerning (about the Ressa deepfake) are the layers of malicious intent behind a single act of digital manipulation and the consequent harms these inflict,” De La Salle University Communications professor Cheryll Soriano told Rappler.

Soriano, who has been doing research on disinformation on platforms like YouTube, was one of those who spotted and alerted Rappler about the deepfake video. She said: “First, it (the deepfake video) attempts to push a scam. Second, it makes the scam appear news-like, pretending as Rappler and CNN Philippines, undermining the credibility of news organizations. Third, it is clearly motivated to discredit Maria Ressa by maligning her reputation.”

Soriano added that the deepfake also “perpetuates a disturbing trend of misogynistic practices, utilizing deep fakes to humiliate women. Even if the scam itself fails, it still exposes and perpetuates the latter three, spreading them across networked publics.”

Addressing the deepfake threat

There is a general consensus about fact check groups and disinformation experts that the deepfake problem will only continue to grow in the future now that generative AI technologies are readily available to ordinary citizens.

This makes nuanced and immediate platform action critical to mitigate their impact.

In various public statements, the platforms used to circulate the Maria Ressa bitcoin deepfake – Facebook and Microsoft – have both been saying they have programs addressing deepfakes.

In a recently released statement, Meta, the owner of Facebook, said it is working with industry partners on common technical standards for identifying AI content, including video and audio. It said it will label images that users post when they detect these industry standard indicators. It also said it has been labeling photorealistic images created using Meta AI since the product was launched.

In an email interview with Rappler, a Microsoft spokesperson said they have closed 520,000 accounts engaging in fraudulent and misleading activity since April 2023, using both automated and manual methods. The company said that they build upon their knowledge base with each incident to help them detect similar ones in the future, and that they have instituted Information Integrity and Misleading Content policies.

The Microsoft spokesperson also said they are investing in technology to detect deepfakes. “AI is also being harnessed to identify deepfakes. Major players like Microsoft are investing heavily in developing technologies to detect these sophisticated forgeries.”

Microsoft is also part of a group of tech companies and news organizations that have been working with Adobe on the Content Integrity Initiative, an effort that promotes the adoption of an open industry standard for content authenticity and provenance.

Challenges to detecting AI-generated fakes

There are, however, challenges to automated detection of AI-generated fakes.

The Microsoft spokesperson said that bad actors employ sophisticated techniques to elude detection.

“AI technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, leading to the daily emergence of new platforms worldwide that enable the creation of deepfakes. Ideally, companies producing such content would implement watermarking or similar technologies to facilitate easy detection. However, there are challenges: technology capable of removing watermarks already exists,” the spokesperson said.

Most technologies for creating deepfakes are also open-source, referring to software that is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified by anybody. Microsoft says this allows for modification or deletion of the watermarking code, “complicating detection efforts.”

The practice of making the source code of large language models (LLMs) available for anyone to examine, copy, and modify has played a critical role in accelerating the development of generative AI technologies. In fact, even big tech companies released versions of their own LLMs to the public.

In July 2023, Meta released an open source version of Llama, its artificial intelligence model. More recently, Google also released Gemma, the open source version of Gemini, its proprietary AI model.

While open sourcing the language model may help make them more transparent and auditable, some experts note that the biggest threat in unsecured AI systems lies in ease of misuse, making these systems “particularly dangerous in the hands of sophisticated threat actors.”

Preventing AI misuse, holding fakers accountable

Since even the source code of AI models are now accessible to anybody for them to freely modify, having the capability to trace the source of a particular deepfake becomes very important.

As illustrated above, people behind fakes usually leave traces of who they are when they use digital systems. However, much of the data that could trace accountable actors still reside in platforms. “The greatest challenge of disinformation is not the lies, but in the lack of accountability of those that disseminate the fake information,” Qurium said.

The Swedish group also criticized platforms like Meta and others that profit from it, and allow the disinformation to thrive.

The Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged that the use of deepfakes is “a new and emerging threat,” and that platforms need to do more. “We need to do more at Microsoft, and there are roles for all of industry, government, and others.”

The company said that aside from working with law enforcement, and other legal and technical steps, they’ve also recently “helped move forward an industry initiative to combat the use of deepfakes to deceive voters around the world, and we’ve advocated for legislative frameworks to address AI’s misuse.”

Whether these measures are enough to address the avalanche of deepfakes, that those fighting disinformation are expecting to deal with more and more in the coming months, remains to be seen.

Days after Microsoft took down the ad promoting ultimainv.website, a new ad popped up again on the platform. The ad linked to a site with the same content as the previously mentioned Rappler impostor site, but on another newly-created domain.

The game of whack-a-mole continues. – Rappler.com

Help us spot suspected deepfakes by emailing dubious content you find on social media to factcheck@rappler.com

This special report was produced with support from Internews

Tech experts discussed this possibility in The AI Series, a special edition of media outlet Al Jazeera’s Studio B: Unscripted with Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa.

“Surveillance is the economic engine of the tech industry…. I think we have to read AI as almost a surveillance derivative,” said Meredith Whittaker, president of secure messaging app nonprofit Signal, as she cited a 2012 study that recognized how user data collected by social media platforms can also be used to train AI. 

“It pulls from this surveillance business model. It requires this surveillance data and the infrastructures that are constructed to process and store this data. And it produces more data as it heightens the surveillance ecosystem that we all live in.” 

At the Nobel Prize Summit in May 2023, Ressa similarly slammed the business model of social media platforms, in which users are tracked and targeted to maximize engagement online and influence behavior offline. This model, which she dubbed “surveillance for profit,” has caused the spread of disinformation, hate, and violence online. 

Camille Francois, co-leader of the Innovation Lab on AI and Democracy at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics, also flagged the speed of which AI technologies are being deployed without safety checks.

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“Back when it was very much still research projects or conversations among practitioners, we kind of had the luxury to ask ourselves: what does it mean – for instance, for disinformation – that now everybody can produce synthetic text? Or what does it mean when we know that there are biases and stereotypes that are embedded in these machines? How would we go about thinking about [their] impact on society?” she elaborated.

“And I think that changes scale in terms of the urgency of those questions when, suddenly, everybody has access to these technologies and they’re suddenly being deployed really quickly in society.” 

In an earlier episode of The AI Series, experts Mike Wooldridge and Urvashi Aneja, together with Ressa, underscored how AI tools like ChatGPT can spread disinformation and hate speech at scale because of how they’re trained on internet data, which is also filled with disinformation and hate speech.

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“Those decisions were not made because they were reviewing the scholarship…or recognizing other social consequences,” Whittaker asserted.

“Those decisions were made because every quarter, they need to report to their board positive predictions or results around profit and growth. So we have these powerful technologies being ultimately controlled by a handful of companies that will always put [profit and growth] first.”

On government regulation

Should the use of AI be regulated by the government? Not quite, said Whittaker.

“The solution space, in my view, seems to not go far enough,” she commented, adding that recently-passed laws on tech regulation have not attacked the surveillance business model that runs digital platforms.

“The solutions often look a lot like extending surveillance and control to government, expanding the surveillance apparatus of large tech companies to…government actors who will then have a hand in determining what is acceptable speech, what is acceptable content.”

Whittaker pointed out the rise of authoritarian rule all over the world. In the United States, she cited, issues of reproductive health care being criminalized or books being banned prevail. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, advocates are attacked online and offline for criticizing the government.

Francois suggested a diversity of platforms that are not tied to surveillance capitalism business models and instead operate based on public interest, security, and safety – like Whittaker’s Signal, for instance.

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A November 2023 article on the Signal website explained that, by 2025, the platform will need at least $50 million (around P2.8 billion) for it to run, adding that the amount “is very lean compared to other popular messaging apps that don’t respect your privacy.”

In 2023, Meta earned $134.90 billion in revenue while incurring $88.15 billion in costs and expenses.

Whittaker also suggested the “classic answer” of “workers banding together to use their collective leverage to push their employers.”

As an example, she cited the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in 2023, during which film and television show writers stopped working for several months as they sought, among others, for AI use to be regulated in scriptwriting. 

“[W]e should and we are able to invent alternative futures, alternative models, and then to say, indeed, this is not how we want to live with technology,” said Francois.

“It’s not being a Luddite to say these are not models that should continue. Let’s invent alternative futures that are more rights-preserving, that are better for society.”

The AI Series takes a deep dive into the promises and the dangers of AI, and what the public can do about them. Watch it on Al Jazeera’s Studio B: Unscripted here. – Rappler.com

The week-long event has hosted the reveals from the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Tecno, to name a few, who all appear to be pushing the envelope with what’s possible in the mobile space.

Without further ado, here are some of the most exciting gadgets shown off at the annual trade show:

Lenovo’s transparent laptop

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That is indeed a transparent laptop.

Lenovo’s Project Crystal is a laptop concept with a 16-inch, see-through microLED display. The first-of-its-kind device was reportedly commissioned by the company’s ThinkPad division, who wanted to integrate the cutting-edge display technology with artificial intelligence (AI) software for various real world use cases.

One such use case would be to use the transparent display to share information to a person who might be sitting across from you at a table. Instead of needing to flip the whole laptop, you can simply hit a few buttons and reverse the display.

Lenovo says the laptop also has augmented reality (AR) use cases. The laptop includes a camera that can scan real world objects, and you can then, for example, use the display as an overlay of sorts on those objects.

Right now, the laptop remains a concept, and there are no plans of bringing it to market yet.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Xiaomi brought a lot of new gadgets with it to MWC 2024, including its SU7 electric car, and the robotic CyberDog.

What caught our eye, however, is the Chinese tech giant’s latest flagship, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, a highly capable camera phone with all the bells and whistles.

The new phone comes equipped with four 50MP lenses, which Xiaomi developed in tandem with Leica. The one-inch primary lens features variable aperture, letting you adjust the setting from f/1.63 to f/4.0. The telephoto lens has an f/1.8 aperture with a 3.2x optical zoom, while the periscope lens has an f/2.5 aperture with 5x optical zoom. The ultrawide lens, meanwhile, has an f/1.8 aperture and a 122-degree field of view, which allows you to fit more within the frame.

You can also purchase a separate camera grip add-on for the Ultra 14 that lets you use the phone like you would an actual camera. The grip, which includes a dedicated shutter release button, attaches via USB-C and features customizable controls for adjusting other camera settings like shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.

Samsung’s health-tracking Galaxy Ring

Samsung’s new health-tracking wearable made another appearance at MWC 2024 after first being unveiled at January’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event.

The all-new device is designed to be an alternative to smartwatches, featuring some of the same on-board sensors and trackers in a sleeker, more refined form factor. It can monitor pulse, body temperature, breathing, and sleep patterns, among other metrics, according to the South Korean electronics giant.

Tecno’s augmented-reality gaming handheld

Chinese phone manufacturer Tecno wants to take handheld gaming to the next level, bringing augmented reality (AR) tech to the portable PC market. Tecno’s Pocket Go is supposedly the industry’s first Windows AR gaming handheld, bringing AR capabilities on a portable gaming device.

It’s that support for AR that perhaps distinguishes the Pocket Go from others in the market. Instead of putting all the important components on a single device like the Steam Deck, Tecno’s latest innovation separates everything between two devices: a pair AR glasses and a controller.

The AR glasses primarily serve as the device’s display, featuring a 0.71-inch microOLED panel, which Tecno touts can emulate the experience of viewing a 215-inch television from six meters away. It also has an adjustable diopter setting of up to 600 degrees and a what the company calls VisionTrack function to track head movement and maximize eye comfort.

The controller, meanwhile, houses the components that power the experience, including the Ryzen 7 8840HS, an octa-core and 28W APU that includes a Radeon 780M integrated GPU. Inside, it also houses 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and a 50Wh replaceable battery.

Oppo’s AR glasses with voice assistant

Sticking to AR-ready devices, Oppo launched its own set of AR glasses at MWC 2024, called the Air Glass 3. At first glance, the prototype device resembles traditional glasses, but because it has AR functionalities, you can see digital content imposed over your view of the real world while wearing it.

What’s more, the glasses come with a voice assistant, powered by the Chinese phone manufacturer’s own large language model (LLM), AndesGPT. This allows you to talk to the assistant and ask it to perform certain tasks like search for information.

Oppo said you do need to connect the Air Glass 3 to an Oppo device for it to work. The company also didn’t say yet whether the device would eventually be released to the public.

Motorola’s rollable phone

Late last year, Motorola debuted a rollable phone that demonstrated advancements in flexible display technology. The company brought that same phone, dubbed the Adaptive Display, to MWC 2024, further showing off how it functions.

The phone essentially functions like a foldable, except it doesn’t have a hinge, and it can bend – or roll – in the shape of an arch. This design feature allows you to wrap the phone around your wrist like a smart bracelet of sorts.

As with other concept devices, it’s yet unclear whether this shape-shifting phone might ever make it to market. – Rappler.com

But for younger Indonesian voters, they know Prabowo as a “cuddly grandpa.”

For his 2024 campaign, Prabowo greatly benefited from a major rebrand, thanks to generative AI (genAI). A cute, chubby-cheeked cartoon version of Prabowo, generated using text-to-image genAI tool Midjourney, is often shown dancing in viral videos across social media. These videos often used the word “gemoy,” which is Indonesian slang for cute and cuddly.

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This isn’t Prabowo’s first presidential election – he ran in Indonesia’s 2014 and 2019 elections, losing to incumbent President Joko Widodo both times. In his first two presidential bids, he portrayed himself as a fierce nationalist. But he’s since ditched the nationalist branding, and it’s his “gemoy,” AI-fueled reputation that finally won him the presidential seat.

Third time’s the charm for Prabowo, who made the most out of newer technologies and social media platforms like TikTok. The election results also proved that Prabowo successfully catered to the country’s young voter base – majority of whom are millennial and Gen Z Indonesians.

What happened in Indonesia

Indonesian journalist Ika Ningtyas, fact-checking coordinator for Tempo Media and secretary-general of the The Alliance of Independent Journalists, said the country’s 2024 election is vastly different from previous elections.

In an interview with Rappler, Ningtyas said previous Indonesian elections were mainly marked by disinformation and hate speech – and while these were still present in the country’s 2024 polls, these were overshadowed by how candidates were more focused on portraying themselves as “tolerant leaders.”

“[I think] the use of [cartoons] with AI generative facilities is a form of information manipulation that [has not happened] before,” she said.

Apart from Prabowo’s viral AI-generated cartoon, there were also deepfake videos of the late dictator Suharto circulating on social media ahead of Indonesia’s election day.

Nadia Naffi, assistant professor at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, said academics like herself who research digital disinformation had anticipated how generative AI could harm democratic processes like elections. Naffi admitted, however, that the recent incident in Indonesia’s election was “surprising in its scale and immediacy.”

“This incident…underscores the growing concern among researchers about the potential misuse of deepfakes and AI-generated content…. Although the specific use of generative AI in the Indonesian election wasn’t predicted in exact terms, the trend towards its misuse in political contexts was anticipated,” Naffi said in an interview with Rappler.

Ningtyas also noted that apart from the abuse of technology and disinformation present in the 2024 elections, Prabowo also benefited from the ways incumbent President Jokowi “[abused] his power” to make his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, win the vice presidential seat. 

Gibran was Prabowo’s 2024 running mate, and has faced criticism from how nepotism propelled his political career. Gibran is currently 36, which would have made him ineligible to run for vice president, as candidates are required to be at least 40 years old. But Indonesia’s court lifted the ban to make an exception for Gibran, which led to accusations that Jokowi was building his own political dynasty.

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Ningtyas also attributed Prabowo’s election victory to the insufficient political and historical education on his past human rights abuses, allowing him to rebrand more easily.

“With the help of generative AI, the [Prabowo-Gibran campaign] produced animations or cartoons that transformed Prabowo’s figure to be much younger…and [to] look more [like a] funny grandpa. [It’s] a strategy to shift the public’s focus from Prabowo’s past human rights abuses and cover the issue of nepotism,” she said.

This year’s election is also not the first time social media saw sketchy campaigns supporting Prabowo. In 2019, Facebook announced that they took down a fake network of Indonesian pages, accounts, and groups that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior to promote pro-Prabowo propaganda.

Generative AI and other threats to elections and democracy

Naffi’s previous research on generative AI consistently focused on its “dual nature” – while she recognizes its “capacity for innovation and democratization,” she had always underscored “the risks [AI poses] to the integrity of information.”

When it comes to elections, Naffi said AI can be especially harmful not just because of its ability to create misleading content, but also its ability to “[hyper-personalize] messages that exploit individual vulnerabilities,” which can “[deepen] societal divisions.” (READ: Rapid AI proliferation is a threat to democracy, experts say)

“There’s also the danger of fabricating entirely false audiovisual content that can undermine trust in public figures and institutions,” she said.

Ningtyas also explained that Indonesia has “problematic laws” that are weaponized to crack down on criticism instead of addressing disinformation.

“Indonesia does not have a policy [that tackles] disinformation that is based on a human rights approach. Instead, they use a number of articles from problematic laws to silence criticism under the pretext of fighting disinformation,” she said.

For instance, media groups and legal experts sounded the alarm over the country’s Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, as it has the potential to “undermine freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

“Under the [ITE Law], there are articles on defamation and consumer false news, but they are misused to criminalize those who have an opinion… their criticism [is labeled] as hoaxes,” Ningtyas explained.

The same has been said of libel in the Philippines. Government officials and bodies, press freedom advocates, and activists in the Philippines have tackled the possibility of decriminalizing libel, as it stifles dissent and threatens the free press. (Criminalizing ‘fake news’: Why it won’t work)

Lessons for the Philippines and the world

When it comes to mitigating harms brought about by AI and other tech, Naffi strongly advocated for a comprehensive strategy that not only covers technological solutions, but focuses on education and digital literacy.

“From the incident in Indonesia, the Philippines and other nations can learn the importance of proactive digital literacy and the crafting of adaptable regulatory frameworks to counter the rapid evolution of AI technologies,” she said.

Naffi emphasized the importance of educating individuals, particularly the youth, on how to navigate emerging technologies and digital disinformation. She also stressed the need to include vulnerable groups in these initiatives, to ensure all segments of society are equipped to critically engage with tech and new forms of digital manipulation.

In an article published earlier in February, Naffi wrote and researched about how human intervention through education can empower the youth to engage critically with deepfakes. She explained that legal systems and governments are struggling to keep up in combating new forms of digital manipulation, and stressed the importance of integrating deepfake education into existing curricula.

“The human element, particularly the role of education, is indispensable in the fight against deepfakes. We cannot rely solely on technology and legal fixes,” she wrote.

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Deepfakes: How to empower youth to fight the threat of misinformation and disinformation

Beyond education, Naffi also highlighted the need for international cooperation in “establishing ethical standards for AI use in political campaigning.”

“Such preparedness is essential for safeguarding against digital disinformation, ensuring that technological advancements serve to support, rather than undermine, democratic values and processes,” Naffi said.

AI companies have made efforts to prevent their tools from being abused. Midjourney’s Terms of Service explicitly prohibit generating images for political campaigns, and OpenAI is working on preventing political abuse in the lead-up to elections across the globe.

Some social media companies, such as Meta, have also worked on banning political advertising using AI tools. However, journalists like Ningtyas and other watchdogs have criticized social media platforms for being too slow to take action.

“Social media platforms are also very late in [taking] action…. [They] fail to anticipate or take quick action when generative AI is used as a gimmick campaign,” Ningtyas said.

Ningtyas also explained how Indonesia’s recent election can serve as a reminder for citizens and watchdogs to keep an eye out for campaigns that may distract voters from critical issues.

“Indonesia can be an important lesson, that the current development of generative AI…is very powerful for gimmick campaign strategies that can cover important issues [surrounding] candidates that can endanger democracy,” she said.  – Rappler.com

But at a time when digital data is proliferated by disinformation, hate speech, and other negative content, what can people expect these AI tools to put out?

This is what AI experts pondered on in The AI Series with Maria Ressa, a special edition of media outlet Al Jazeera’s Studio B: Unscripted with the Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

“The way that this technology is configured is that you download the whole of the World Wide Web, but you don’t have to look very hard on the World Wide Web to find all sorts of unpleasantness,” said Mike Wooldridge, author of A Brief History of AI and director of Foundational AI Research at the Alan Turing Institute.

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“If you go on some social media platforms they have types of unpleasantness that we could scarcely imagine. And if all of that is absorbed by a large language model, then it’s a seething cauldron of unpleasantness.”

Social media platforms have become a breeding ground for disinformation and hate speech, leading to violence online and offline, the election of authoritarians, and the erosion of democracy. Websites have not been spared either – a Rappler investigative report found that spammy domains have hounded news websites with toxic backlinks, making them look untrustworthy for search engines.

A result of this muddled information ecosystem is AI systems that “[reproduce] the future based on the past,” as pointed out by Urvashi Aneja, founder and director of Digital Futures Lab. 

“What that means is even the data that does exist already reflects historical patterns of injustice, of discrimination against women, against certain religions, against castes.”

Studies have warned that AI may perpetuate existing human biases and exclusions, such as in healthcare. In the 2020 documentary Coded Bias, Black researcher Joy Boulamwini, who investigated why her face is unrecognizable by facial recognition systems, found out the systems worked when she wore a white mask. 

Aneja also cited the millions of people who lack access to the internet, which leads to further bias and exclusion in terms of data, and as a result, in terms of AI output. 

As of 2020, the majority of countries with the lowest rates of internet access are in Asia and Africa, with India at more than 685 million or half their population. Meanwhile, North Korea, South Sudan, Eritrea, Burundi, and Somalia have a disconnected population of 90 to 100%. 

How to sow and reap better

For Wooldridge, AI companies must be transparent about the data on which their tools are trained.

While he acknowledged the ways AI companies have mitigated risks from AI being trained on existing data, like prompt engineering and content moderation, he called these “the technological equivalent of gaffer tape.”

“If this technology is owned by a small group of actors who develop this technology behind closed doors, we don’t get to see the training data. So you have no idea what this [technology] has been trained on.”

For Aneja, the regulation of the data economy is crucial.

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“We made a really bad bargain a decade and a half ago when we said that we are okay with giving up our data to get personalized services. Now we are paying the price for it, where we have a whole global economy that is based on the collection and monetization of our personal data,” she emphasized.

“So unless we don’t address that, we don’t address the misinformation, the disinformation, the information warfare problem.”

Both Wooldridge and Aneja also questioned if some AI systems should exist at all, especially in processes that need human judgment.

“For example, facial recognition technology. Yes, we can make it more inclusive, but do we want facial recognition technology in the first place? Or do we want to be using AI for credit scoring? Do we want to be using AI for job applications? Do we want to be using AI to decide whether someone gets parole or not? No. We don’t want to be using AI in those kinds of very critical decision-making,” Aneja said.

“I do not think it is acceptable that a machine decides autonomously to take a human life,” Wooldridge said about the use of AI in war. “Somebody who takes that decision on a battlefield has to be capable of empathy and understand the consequences of what it means for a human being to be deprived of their life.”

The AI Series with Maria Ressa takes a deep dive into the promises and the dangers of AI, and what the public can do about them. Watch it on Al Jazeera’s Studio B: Unscripted here. – Rappler.com

I once encountered a two-way mirror and it was fascinating since you could see yourself on the other side of the mirror or the person on the other. After gazing at people walking past, through the sliding mirror in the window, I stepped outside the room and stood in front of my reflection. A reflection with an image of just myself without seeing the things behind the mirror. A two-way mirror — two different perspectives but facing the same frame; as a varied couple of feelings but playing in the same game — an unrequited love.   

Self-worth is the one that I have lost for almost a year after entering the door of an unrequited love. It may be exhilarating due to the bare minimum, delusions, and unexplained butterflies whenever we have a small interaction however, it also made me feel empty and insecure. Would it still be considered love even if it shatters you? 

Love is a gamble—a head or a tail.  

If a person took the risk of betting his last coin in a gamble with half a chance of winning and another half for the chance of returning home with nothing, would you be that person?  

Labyrinthine love seems hard to comprehend since it is the most complicated aspect every person experiences throughout their lives. It is a gamble; an uncertain and jeopardizing thing to have as well as to lose. A chance of victory or defeat from the bet — time, effort, emotions, money, and commitment people put in a needlelike thread for unexpected odds. There are two odds in love: curative love and venomous love.  

Is love curative? 

Curative love gives healing, relief, and ease to two different individuals kindred by love. It may be the winning head in a flipping coin as it cures the youthful or even a shattered heart, making it the most favored kind of love.  

Love comes in different forms, it may be agape (unconditional), eros (sensual or romantic love), philia (brotherly love), storge (familial love), ludus (playful love), pragma (mature), philautia (self-love), or mania (obsessive love). Love becomes curative when we feel comfort when we are with someone we love. A butterfly in the stomach might be the most familiar feeling when we are with them. It is a pinch of curative love as our body also feels the signal from our hearts. 

Or love is venomous? 

Nevertheless, not all kinds of admiration mend hearts. Venomous love poisons the sweet air, not only on the 14th of February but on every single day of suffocation due to the toxicity of love. It bashes the frailty of the one who admires and is admired, making them terrified to love again. 

The feeling when we are riding a roller coaster — a whirlpool in our stomach, may be the contrary of the butterflies we feel when love is curative. It is qualmish as if we want to throw everything up because it does not feel right. Venomous love does not feel right. 

An unrequited love: Catching a fish 

Fishing is a dignified work abundant in our society. Fishermen may sail to the sea because they want to or they need to. The fish’s perspective will never be clear as they cannot express themselves. But, let us put their roles into the shoes of the person who admires (fisherman) and the person who is being admired (fish) to discern the point of view of the people inside an unrequited love. 

Fisherman’s POV  

A fisherman will surely strive to catch the fish against the fear of the crashing of waves. People are described as acquisitive as they crave for more after another. People who are prisoners of unrequited love feel the same when they try to attain the person they like. They tend to run after someone they conceive they can get since they are holding on to the phantasm of “perfect love” in their minds. Mixed signals also build up the stacks of hope they carry through unrequited love. On top of that, they may also feel incomplete; hence, they are seeking the love they assume will fill the gaps.  

The fisherman’s desire to catch the fish could neither be ceased by a high current nor a strong wind if he believe that his boat is sturdy enough, just as a person could not be hindered by a rejection or two if he is anchored to his disquieted mind buzzing to attain the apex of his improbable love. Nonetheless, no matter how tough the fisherman’s boat is, if the fish escapes the net, it will still go back to the ocean. It will make the fisherman learn that he cannot control everything, especially the fish, like how people who are blinded by love must also realize. 

Fish’s POV 

In a vast ocean full of boats, a fish is waiting for the right fisherman. Luck may come rolling their way, but it’s not always “that” fisherman. Overwhelmedness, guilt, and confusion are the feelings that agitate these people. The overwhelming cargo of feelings they carry, drags them into a sandpit. They try to escape the guilt of not reciprocating the feelings of the one who loves them. The burden inside their hearts broke them and made them fragile to love and anxious to reject. Many factors hinder them from loving and abandoning their rights to like someone because of the mentality of other people that they should pick “the choice” unless they want to be wounded by the harsh words.  

The point of view of the fish may be as shallow as the water on the coast for other people, but it is as deep as a trench waiting to be seen by those who keep a blind eye. The fish’s viewpoint is often not considered, as people think they have the “privilege” of having an option, unlike other people who have none. Despite this, they also feel burdened by the excessive attention the fisherman always throws at them. There are too many fish in the ocean, yet the fisherman still thrives to get what he wants.   

In every situation, there is always a choice. The fisherman may leave the ocean and go home with nothing or he may thrive to fight the current just to go home with the one that he desires— the fish. The fish also do have a choice. Despite of the fact that they cannot express themselves, they still have a survival skill that they may use to make their own choices. It can escape out of the net or embrace its destiny — to be eaten. Are you the fish or the fisherman?  

The Escape: Facets of Self-Love 

An unfeigned sense of love and the pluck of one’s heartstrings are the feelings to be valued after breaking free from the manacle of venomous love. A formidable single step away from what you used to feel may be an enormous adjustment both for the fisherman and the fish. After a long time of giving too much love and expecting to be loved, you will soon realize your worth. The nightmare you felt at first will become euphoria after seeing the exit and a new door of opportunity to fix your heart again—self-love. 

First Phase: Realization  

Every knot could be untied; if you finally exit the strangling room of toxic love and delusions, you may find your self-worth that had been lost. You start to realize that it is okay to love, even if you are not loved back, or to reject a person without feeling the burden of guilt and confusion. Your feelings matter as they will be the foundation of love in a relationship in the future.  

The first phase will surely be the highest mountain you will climb among the other three phases. It requires honesty and self-trust to reach the peak of realization. Pondering thoughts through self-assessment could also work in the process of discerning the pipe dream to the actuality. 

Second Phase: Longing  

After you finally escape, longing will find its way to imprison your heart again. Our minds cannot forget by choice, but to forget is not always the right choice. The experience you had during the unrequited love may serve as an impetus to take more steps forward.   

 Nonetheless, you must not take a step back, as it will break you entirely, causing to be wrecked and hard to glue back. Relapsing to what made you feel the worst will repeat the cycle and let you down over and over again. Leave the past and let it be just a memory to remember.  

Third Phase: Acceptance  

Once you see the light in the dark maze of the journey to self-love, acceptance comes after. Soon after the light shines through your heart, a few steps to self-love will come next. In this phase, you will learn to accept yourself, no matter how hard people step down on you. The chimera and weight of far-fetched love will lighten, every tiptoe to the exit. 

Fourth Phase: Self-Love 

Knowing your value and loving yourself despite the scar of the nocuous words that wounded you is a significant sign of self-love. After escaping the unrequited love, whether you are the fisherman or the fish, you will at last feel the curative love. The curative love within yourself could be a new and more sturdy door to be opened for a fresh kind of love for tomorrow. 

Love is supposed to have a two-way perspective, not a distant catch of feelings. The unrequited love I entered before, bloomed into self-appreciation. I brought my self-worth back and expounded my self-respect to be equipped for the next relationships I will have. Strive to escape the venomous love; breathe with the salubrious air of curative love; and sail to the path of loving one’s self. Be neither the fisherman nor the fish. Instead, be the shore that does not run or is being run after, but who patiently waits for the waves to come. 

If you’re a gamer who enjoys narrative indie adventures like Indonesia’s A Space for the Unbound, then the Filipino-made Until Then should be right up your alley.

This slice-of-life game, developed by the Philippine-based Polychroma Games, features a coming-of-age tale that deals with the trauma of loss through the eyes of a high school student. Much of this bittersweet tale of tragedy and mystery is set against the backdrop of the Philippines, showcasing the unique culture and experiences that shaped the developers’ own lives.

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Until Then doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but it’s expected to arrive on PlayStation, PC, and Linux sometime this year.

You can already try the game out for yourself through a free demo on Steam, and we caught up with Mariel Tuble, writer at Polychroma Games, to talk to her about the narrative and gameplay, as well as the response so far to the game.

Q: How do the elements of mystery and tragedy play into the narrative of Until Then?

Mariel Tuble: Until Then follows the story of Mark Borja, a Filipino high school student in a world still recovering from catastrophe.

He navigates his daily life, hangs out with his friends, joins a school club… but there are strange things happening around him that he can’t seem to shake off. His story might just take you to the heart of the mystery, if it isn’t too late.

Q: How does the setting of the Philippines play into this narrative?

MT: The story is one that could take place anywhere, really. It just happens to take place in our home country, because we wanted a distinctly Filipino flavor that would be achingly familiar to Filipinos who want to play the game.

Q: What went into the creative decision to set the narrative in the Philippines?

MT: We write what we know! Of course, there’s a lot of fun in getting to showcase the environments and culture of our country, but we just wanted to draw from our own experiences: taking the LRT to school, hanging out at the local peryahan, Christmas caroling from house to house. The Philippines is teeming with stories to tell!

Q: Speaking of the narrative, what are some of its key themes? And why did you want to highlight these themes?

MT: At its heart, Until Then is a story about coming to terms with change, loss, and the passage of time. We wanted to tell a story that would emotionally resonate, and these are feelings and topics that most people are intimately familiar with, no matter where they come from.

Like I said, we draw from what we know! Every single person on the team knows loss and the discomfort of change in some way, shape, or form. Our own experiences definitely colored everything we put into Until Then.

Q: Without spoiling anything, what do you want players to take away from the narrative?

MT: We really just want the game to leave an impact. We want it to make our players feel and think, but what it is they think and feel is in their hands. It would also be cool to have more gamers interested in Filipino culture, and to see more games set outside of the usual places like Western cities and East Asia. There are so many stories to tell from all over the world!

Q: When it comes to gameplay, what can we expect from Until Then?

MT: To be honest, in creating Until Then, we didn’t really think of it as a game – we think of it more as an interactive, cinematic experience. If people are looking for a fast-paced fun game of skill, this isn’t it. There are a lot of scenes that really force you to slow down to take in the moment, choices big and small, even miniscule, and minigames based on the mundane things we do everyday.

Q: Can you share more about these minigames that you mentioned?

MT: We wanted the minigames to reflect the little games we play with ourselves in our day-to-day life: passing barya in the jeep, fighting a friend for fishball, and trying to stick a flash drive in the right way.

Q: Did the narrative influence the gameplay in any way?

MT: The narrative definitely influenced the gameplay. There’s a definite focus on creating an atmosphere, so the gameplay is designed with that in mind. You’ll have to play to find out more!

Q: Were there other games you drew inspiration from in developing Until Then?

MT: We definitely drew inspiration from a lot of our favorite media. Night in the Woods and Life is Strange are some of the games that really influenced both narrative and gameplay. Gorgeous pixel games like the upcoming The Last Night inspired our art style and direction. We also took some cues from Oxenfree for the presentation.

Q: Until Then is drawing some buzz, having been featured on Steam Next Fest and on the PlayStation Blog. How do you feel about the response to the game so far?

MT: Ecstatic, for sure! And maybe a little bit daunted, too. It’s so exciting to finally get to share what we’ve poured our hearts and souls into these last few years.

Q: Speaking of which, how long has the game been in development?

MT: The game has been in the making for several years now, but things really took off in early 2020. There are ten people on our core team, but there have been some other people who joined our production in the past.

Q: Does the buzz affect the development and release of the game?

MT: The buzz makes us excited and more determined to wrap this up and get to our end goal, but the release date is still TBA at the moment!

Q: Lastly, what advice can you give other developers who also want to tell their own stories through a game?

MT: Sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of faith – probably even several! Find people who really believe in your vision and the story you want to tell; it makes all the difference. Also, play lots of games, watch lots of shows and movies, go out and see the world. Until Then would have never been created if it weren’t for the many things, big and small, that inspired us.

– Rappler.com