The Risks Posed by a Final Fantasy VII Remake - Article
by Jonas De Jaeger , posted on 17 June 2015 / 7,510 Views
Final Fantasy VII is the best-selling Final Fantasy game of all-time, and the favorite entry in the series for many gamers. With almost ten million copies of the original sold, hundreds of thousands of digital copies downloaded, and thousands of fans clamouring for a remaster for years now, it makes sense for Square Enix to remake this masterpiece. Or does it?
Rumors of a Final Fantasy VII remake started surfacing when Square Enix announced The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a collection of four games and one movie that would expand on the Final Fantasy VII universe and which was released in 2002. When a tech-demo of Final Fantasy VII was shown at Sony's E3 2005 conference, demonstrating the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 3, the remake seemed pretty much confirmed. Every year since that appearance a remake announcement has been heavily rumored in the run-up to E3. And, each year, fans have been left disappointed.
PC and PlayStation 3 gamers got a chance to play the original game in 2009, when the title was re-released as a digital download, but a remake was still nowhere in sight. Square Enix regularly commented that there was no remake in development, and that there were no plans to make one. In February 2010, Yoshinori Kitase (the director of Final Fantasy VII and producer of the remake) stated in an interview that creating a Final Fantasy VII remake would be too difficult to be practical:
"But even Final Fantasy XIII has taken over three and a half years to create. If we were to recreate final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together! So it's looking pretty unrealistic to happen!"
Kitase went on to say that a Final Fantasy VII remake would take over 10 years to create on a previous-generation graphical level, but the company seems to have finally changed its mind since the release of the PlayStation 4. There are two possible scenarios I'd like to explore for the development process of such a remake.
The first possibility is that the remake will stay very true to the original, which would require an immense budget. In the aforementioned interview, which was with Tech Digest, Kitase said that concern over the budget spiralling was the key reason behind Final Fantasy XIII's linearity, and even then it was not a cheap game to make. Those who have played Final Fantasy VII know that is certainly not a linear game. If Square-Enix decides to go down this route, then the profitability of the project has to be a major concern, and its development time could be lengthy indeed.
In this scenario, there would also be no surprises or shocks. Everything that made the original great will remain the same, but remade to a new generational standard, with higher quality music and graphics. It would be good, but could it ever live up to the nostalgia surrounding the original?
In another, more likely scenario, the game will be and feel slightly different. Sacrifices will need to be made; the world map might not be as big or the Golden Saucer may be smaller or dumped altogether. Some scenes might actually be altered quite considerably, although on the upside this offers Square Enix an opportunity to alter the story so that is brought more into line with the series' sequels and spin-offs (Genesis appearing in the Nibelheim Mako Reactor, for example).
You can imagine the scale of outrage from some fans if the story is changed or elements of the original game are altered too drastically. Compare it to the outrage from some A Song of Ice and Fire book readers to the changes made in the Game of Thrones television show, but magnify things tenfold to account for a nostalgia element and the sheer number of people coming into a Final Fantasy VII remake who are pre-existing fans.
The battle system might also be updated. Turn-based battle systems have largely disappeared in favor of more action-orientated battles in the realm of JRPGs. Random encounters are also a blast from the past. It's also very likely that some of the more awkward moments and characters in the game might be completely scrapped (just think about how Cloud dressed as a woman, in a brothel or a tub filled with gay bodybuilders touching each other would look with current generation graphical capabilities).
Such changes might alienate fans of the original, and many Final Fantasy fans were already disappointed by Final Fantasy XII, and even more so by Final Fantasy XIII and its spin-offs. Square Enix will undoubtedly need to tread carefully with this remake, which has been raised to an almost mythical status over the years.
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It's a risk anyhow. You have the HD version of the original if the remake won't turn out your way.
I think they shouldnt mess with something that worked and should stick to most of what the original offered. If they start changing too much people will be upset and rightfully so.
Make this remake for the fans that asked for it for many years, not for the new people who dont even know what it was. You will end up not appealing to either one.
This right here. They will alienate too many fans by trying to appeal to the masses, the masses being so split up and for other series anyways. I say stick with the side that actually cares most about the game, and who's to say that other turn based JRPG fans from other series won't be interested? They will come too.
i never played the original and i know i missed out, the problem was that i realized that to late when the game was already old and outdated and unable to impress me in the same way it did when people played it in the PS1 era, so this coming true is a dream for me because i will finally be able to play this and experience it in a similar way as the people who played it decades ago, i also know that changes will be made and it wont be exactly like the original but i will gladly take those risks, its this or nothing.
I still disagree with that viewpoint. I think modern gamers can easily enough experience the game. Yes the graphics aren't impressive but honestly the visuals were not the thing that made that game stand out. It's ability to tell a story and play through its world was its highlight. Just play it and you might be surprised.
The battle system might also be updated. Turn-based battle systems have largely disappeared in favor of more action-orientated battles '' Well if this happen Final Fantasy will be dead to me...................
If the changes go beyond Graphically and musical fidelity, I also feel there will be a backlash. And unfortunately I don't think it's in Squre-Enix's nature not to start to mess with things to be bring it in line with current standards and the spin-offs.
I just hope Cloud seems like a confident, highly trained soldier for most of it. Angst and emo don't suit a protagonist saving the world. Plus that makes the fall into confusion and depression carry more weight later on in the game, which then serves for a good course to climb out of it for the heroic showdown.
Can I just say; you know the risks, we know the risks, and SE knows the risks.
Believe it or not I actually think people will be pleasantly surprised with the remake even if it's different from the original. People don't know what they want.
I just want SE to do want RE1 Remake did. It's basically the same. Sans a few alter dialog scenes.
They have to realize they can't make everyone happy. No matter what happens, a lot of people will be pissed off. That's the nature of things.
Ten years later, they finally give us what we ask for, and people still find imaginary things to bitch about. Gamers these days. Makes me sad.
I finally got around to playing the PC version of this game on Steam about a year ago. The battle system worked quite well. The battle system does appeal to a lot of people (Bravely Default is proof of that), but is not overly friendly to casuals. If the battle systems in drastically changed then it is not Final Fantasy VII, even if it has its name.
I disagree. The Battle System feels excessively dated, with absolutely nothing outstanding about it outside of the Limit system.
I hope the remake has am active battle system like Kingdom Hearts or XV. If the nostalgia junkies want the same thing in HD next-gen graphics, they can just release a graphical DLC for the PC port that just gives it a new skin.
Not really, games like FF 15 will be more open than FF7 ever was. If you want to explore the entire town in ff7 then maybe yes it will be too big but cutting out places from a pre rendered background game from 1996? i dont think so.
they should also just make action orientated gameplay and just put a turn based gameplay mode as a bonus if you beat the game.
It may not sells as well as the original, but I believe it will be very successful and deservedly so. It doesn't need to sell more than the original to be a hit and pleasure the fans at the same time.
Non-linear? FF has always been fairly linear before you get to an airship, and FFVII spends like the first 7 hours on Midgard going from here to there in a fashion not extremely different from FFX and FFXIII. I don't know where this myth of non-linear FF comes from. Maybe from comparing the open world of FFXII to the corridors of FFXIII...
Say what you want, but I want this to be with a different gameplay... still RPG of course, but more action based than turn-based.
I'm saying that not because I'm not a fan of turn-based combat RPGs (actually, I am) but because we already have the classic FFVII pretty much everywhere (modern consoles, PC... even cellphones now) and I'd like to play again this in a different point of view (and also, I want Square to be successful, and I think this kind of game fits better on this generation)... so, if this turns to be just a graphics enhancement, I'll be disappointed.
See, I want the turn based kept. And I imagine random encounters and turn based would ultimately be a cheaper route to go. What I'd like tosee, though, is full motion capture for the animations in combat where you can watch Tifa break out a full Bruce Lee attack or, if you've seen it enough times, you can start selecting your next party member's attack while the animation is going.
Essentially utilizing turn based combat with impressive animations would actually set it apart from the trend of essentially controlling one character while AI handles your party. And really, the action RPG combat is borderline hack n' slash which is extremely boring to me.
