Justin’s Words of Wisdom: Would A Final Fantasy VII Remake Even Work?
- February 2nd, 2011
- Posted in Justin's Words of Wisdom . Video Games
- By Justin
- Write comment
Image from gamersireland.ie.
By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom
As if enough people across the interwebs didn’t discuss this subject enough, I decided that I should throw my hat into the ring. In all honestly I am writing this because I recently played through Final Fantasy VII again, followed it up by watching Advent Children Complete and I am currently playing Crisis Core to top things off.
I said in my FFIV article that I didn’t really care if FFVII would get a remake or not, but I admitted that Square-Enix might as well do it at this point. Now, the official reason why they say the project never got off the ground is the desire to reunite the original team together. Any hardcore FF fan knows how hard that task is to accomplish. Many team members have scattered, and key staff are usually tied to other projects constantly. The notion certainly isn’t impossible, but it is still unlikely in my opinion.
While I certainly believe that’s a reason why Square-Enix hasn’t tried to pull off a remake, I think there are multiple unsaid reasons why it’s not really happening. Even if I am incorrect in that assumption, I believe these reasons would be tough to tackle.
Image from lockergnome.com.
With the Compilation of FFVII, many new characters have increased the universe’s roster tenfold, and some important events have been altered. My concern is having the newer material drag down the original material. Should they include scenes where Genesis from Crisis Core talked to Sephiroth in Nibelheim’s Mako reactor? For that matter, should they include scenes from that incident at one point where the Turks get involved? And I’m only naming a couple of examples from one part of FFVII’s overall story.
Square-Enix is stuck either way. If they include the scenes from other FFVII related games, people who haven’t played them will be understandably confused. If they don’t include the scenes, many hardcore fans will be disappointed that the newer content was ignored. A good compromise would include nods to other FFVII projects, but even then the remake would seem like a convoluted mess, which is one of many complaints from critics of the original title.
Which leads me to the next problem: the story. I’m not one of those people who thinks FFVII’s story is terrible, but I think some ideas should have been fleshed out more. Okay, sounds good, right? However, there would be so many scenes that need to be extended and/or completely rewritten that the game will seem like a completely different title if it is approached that way. Again, some people would have no problem with this, but there would be an equal amount of people who would not like to see many changes.
Image from movie-shop.us.
FFVII was made in the same vein of the original Star Wars. There were so many problems and experimentation during production that no one expected it to be as big as it was. That’s why the full motion videos are very inconsistent and there’s a pointless CPR minigame, among other oddities. Was I the only one that thought that a snowboarding minigame so soon after the death of Aeris was just weird? Can you imagine how silly the cross-dressing scene would be with Advent Children visuals? Or how about that scene where Cloud gets duped into sharing a bath with a bunch of burly muscle men? I bet you forgot about that.
Okay, I heard some of you. Why does a FFVII remake have to look like Advent Children? When I discussed this with staff writer Steve McCarthy, he pointed out that they could go for an anime look. After all, the original game had an anime style to it. However, I don’t think Square-Enix would want to go down any other path. It seems that Advent Children set the standard for how the FFVII universe should look. Plus, how many fanboys would whine and cry if Square-Enix actually had the balls to do that? If you thought the backlash for making Windwaker into a cell shaded game was bad, I guarantee the outcry would be worse in that scenario. If they are going to make a remake, it’s likely that they will go for a more realistic approach.
It all comes down to this: a FFVII remake would do a poor job pleasing fans. Sure, you can’t please everyone, but I fear no matter how Square-Enix would tackle it, the majority of fans unhappy would outweigh the satisfied customers. Thanks to the Compilation and FFVII being a product of its time, the remake may not work like some fans would hope.
Front page image from spawnkill.com.
They will piss some people off for sure but that doesn’t mean they can’t go back and dip into the cash pile. It never stopped George Lucas from cluttering the screen in Mos Eisley or putting young Anakin in at the end after all the complaints with the special edition trilogy.
I am not a big fan of what Lucas did with A New Hope so I only bought the version that had the original on it. I will not buy the Blu-ray either unless it has, as close as can be, an unaltered version of the original Star Wars on it.
Granted that Lucas never changed the story in super important ways like Square did with the FFVII universe but it isn’t like many of these things would impact the larger story all that much.
I don’t need a HD PS3 remake. Update the graphics to PS2 level, fix up some dialog, leave some classic bad dialog(Noles Pole) and don’t do voice or anything. The game was not designed with much if that in mind but just a graphical overhaul would be nice. Seeing as how they used prerendered backgrounds for the most part anyway, those might not be that hard to make HD anyway depending on their initial quality.
well, now that i think about it , this guy with the 10001 article about the FFVII remake is right. lets just keep it in our memories as a cool game , dont ruin it .
quite simple and interesting, thanks Justin. time will tell.
@ Milton
Too late, they already ruined it with all those compilation. Let’s not forget that FFVII IS the original…They messed up with the story with CC too much…AC made FFVII look like stupid, when you see that only putting cells of jenova on a Seph’ clone makes you became Sephiroth!..
I had hoped that a remake would be made. But now, Seeing whatr they did with the compîlation, I just feel like: “plz, don’t ruin it again…let it be…”
Ideally, they should only update the graphics, some retranslation (keep “This guy are sick.” “Tifa, I’ll give you information Shinra” and other memorable lines), and if they can get Nobuo Uematsu involved, use a live orchestra/rock and techno band for the soundtrack (depending on the song.) Nobuo was the composer for FFXIV, so this may not be as hard as it seems. I second no voice acting. Keep the combat system completely the same. I would like the anime-style remake idea better than HD, and I also can’t stand the Complication of FF7. The original ecological message is gone, character development from the game is null and void (eg Cloud going from a good leader starting in the Lifestream event to at total emo in AC.) I think the remake should be for the fans of the original game. I have run into many people who only watch AC, play CC, but not the original game, so why would they play it now? Still, I would have mixed emotions If they did announce a remake, out of fear they would mess it up with Complication references. I have no problem with a better graphics version for cross dressing cloud: I’ve seen that costume at a convention, and it was funny. Minigames were fun, they were a nice diversion from battle, though I agree about snowboarding was weird after Aeris died. I don’t think the plot need sot be fleshed out, the Compilation tried to do that; it didn’t work. I think the plot is great as it is.
Why can’t they just update the game’s graphics, and include the information from the new games but as side quests, things that are explained if you go searching for them? I agree some things like a random snowboarding minigame in an rpg that’s lighthearted would screw up the pace in this day’s gaming world pacing. But personally, I keep going back to play ffvii because it’s not today’s games. It has heart, and the characters have personality. I can’t remember a game that I actually cared about any of the characters recently.
But I agree that as much as I want it, Square-Enix sucks nowadays. Crisis Core’s combat system was so ridiculously simple, all you had to do was hit the attack button. Hardly ever was anything else needed. I enjoyed the old combat system… limit breaks, materia syncing, all of the command materia, it had variety. I’ve been waiting for so long for a real remake, but a lot of people are right, I highly doubt they could pull it off. Square-Enix is nowhere near the company it once was.
@donavan
And that’s the problem. I’m not as jaded as most other fans of the company, but given the wide variety of responses on how people envision a remake, it really makes me believe that very few people would be happy with a remake. Granted, Square-Enix never said it is going to happen, but I personally think they will revisit the game.
All other commenters: Thanks for the read, and thank you for contributing your ideas in general! Real cool ideas out there!
So, I stumbled upon your article while I was checking into the news of new ff games. I have to say I don’t entirely agree with you on the story issue. I’ve replayed FF VII several times and if your take the story for as it is in the game, and understand it as it is in the game. And take the story for as it is in the game of Crisis core and the movie advent children and ect. I say it this way because so many people have altered the actual story of the game with the “real story”. When I play all the FF VII spin offs and the actual game, the story actually flows and makes perfect sense. if you add in all the bull crap that other people tend to throw into the story, it makes no sense what so ever. so story wise to just add in all the new content from the spin offs and ect wouldn’t harm the story at all. now if square was to update the story to so it tells the “real story” of FF VII, to which I completely ignore cause it makes no sense whats so ever, then yes the game wouldn’t make any sense at all.
For me i have never really played the game before, only watched the movies and played the sequals. But I have been hoping that Square Enix would really go forward and make the reamke. It was this game that got me to love Square Enix after all. I don’t care if the storyline sucks but this is a remake why should you compare it to the orginal? Many people whom I know have played the sequals and watched the movie but not the orginal game due to the fact that it came out before we did, and most of them had voiced that they would really like to play the game as well. Why leave us hanging after Crisis Core? The game didn’t make much sense in the first place, no game does. I can tell for sure that many people will buy the game if it comes out, especially those who have only played Crisis Core. Square Enix can make it any way they see fit, just get it out for us to play and enjoy.
I 100% agree a remake would bring about a mass conflict of opinion due to the erratic changes in the games story the changes crisis core brought would of course require extra explanation but in truth these were all zacks experiences and whos to say that cloud wasnt missing key peices of the story such as genesis and sephiroths encounter in the reactor
so in reality its not way to out there to believe in a chance of this happening and to bee perfectly honest and im not dissing on it or anything cause im a huge 7 fan from day 1 of its inception but i think any gameplay that would be made would probably bee for the best and yeah i think some weird scenes such as the cross dressing scene or the tub of bull queers could deffinetly be cut out or at least made a lil more sensible i mean really is it so bad to replace that jail house shit for a tub of hot chicks!!!
but on the gameplay situation if i could choose the type of battle system to be used i would go for a versus 13 type deal i mean really wouldnt you like to get in a full on high impact knockdown drag out with sephiroth or just the cool reality of finally seeing the world of 7 in its vast splender in state of the art graphics not to mention using clouds hellish fighting style in real time rather than a stand still attack selecter booooring like i said though dont get me wrong huuuuge fan of rpg style but after kingdom hearts hit the scene my rpg loving ass saw a new light the first thing i thought to myself was wouldnt it be awesome to play ff7 like this……….no bullshit i really said that almost a decade ago when kingdom hearts droped almost a decade ago
I guess I understand how people would have this paranoia of S-E mucking up the remake of 7, especially after all the recent outings by Square. However, I also kind of feel like, “Hey, why not?” I’d rather see a remake be done and be terrible then see no remake at all. I never understood how people could make the point of “This will ruin the game for me.” Really? How? You can still go back and play the original! I’m playing it right now and it’s wicked. Granted if you’re shallow and a graphics snob then yeah, you won’t, but that’s a personal problem.
The biggest issues are obviously ones of modernization. Nearly everything about that game would have to be changed to be some form of barable in HD. The camera angles, the cities/towns, damn near every thing. But the prospect of watching 7′s story unfold with HD/lifelike characters now fulfilling the roles makes it seem so appealing. Not to mention the epic scenes with Weapons and what not. Oh and flying the Highwind around in an HD well thought out world would be without comparison.
All said, I would prefer they shoot for it. Even if it’s a massive failure on every level, I’d still rather have that than nothing at all. But honestly, with the current state of S-E, if they’re not already in the process of making it then we might not get anything for awhile. And what’s worse is if S-E doesn’t remake it themselves and they go under, the rights to 7 will be sold off to another company, probably a company with a deep wallet. After that happens expect an epic fail remake with Yuffie and Vincent as DLC and a big EA logo at the beginning.
There are ways they could screw up the game, but there is so much money to be made from doing it, I don’t see how they couldn’t. Remake the game with PS3 graphics, fix original text errors, make the combat systems work the same, use AC voice acting, You don’t have to include any new stuff in the main gameplay. Just add bonus dungeons to the end somewhere that you can throw additional easter eggs in. We aren’t wanting a whole new game. We just want the old one looking new.
@Steve
Cool story bro
@Argoras
They already showed that in the original game. The Sephiroth that you’re chasing during the entire first disc is a Sephiroth Clone. That clone is what you’re fighting when you fight JENOVA Death at the North Crater on Disc 2.
Lets not forget that Jenova shrouds everything in illusion. Giving anyone Jenova cells gives Jenova the ability to both manipulate that person and how everyone around that person views them.
An awful lot of what happened in AC jives pretty well with the game, though I’ll agree, CC screwed the pooch.
The ff7 remake is a “last ditch effort” thing for squenix. When the company is seriously hurting, they can release it and make a mint.
The fans arnt too old, and people WILL buy it. Including tons of people (like me) who havnt played a ff since X.
A remake would more then work. Have you gone back and played ff7 lately? The graphics make it almost unplayable, and im no graphics snob. It needs an update more then most games that get one. (Really? Does prince of persia: sot, REALLY need an hd update?)
I would, honestly, expect it for 3ds.
I also think that its squenix’s game to fuck up, and they probably would mess up some part of it, claiming it as EXTRA NEW CONTENT.
If they did come out with a remake, some of you might consider the people that buy the remake ‘fools.’ But I’m a fool for FF7! I just want a damn remake!!
I loved ff7 and still do, but it ablsoultly needs to be remade. I agree that I hated the gameplay of CC but i liked the story to it.
I alert for SPOILERS.
The whole deal with Advent Children screws up half of the plot of the original, truth to be said.
It sets the “power” bar too high and makes the original situations seem out of place. Why is this guy dressing as a female to not cause a confusion when SOLDIER people are basically walking gods thanks to the Mako treatment? Well, in the original, they weren’t. Aeris only asks Cloud if he was from SOLDIER thanks to an…eye-glow. That’s after being wit hhim for a while and watching him fight.
Half of the plot of the Original Final Fantasy 7, which set a bar for how good a JRPG plot should be, would make absolutly no sense if the characters were the Dragon Ball Z characters we see in Advent Children.
I’m in the process of replaying the original and writing down every moment that would not fit with a super powerful, flying, slash-Bahamut-in-half Cloud from the original, or other characters.
I’m afraid that they made so many silly, overpowered spin offs that the source material is not fitting with em anymore. The original was a silly, entertaining, believable game, for all it;s convoluted story (about people infused with the cells of an alien-parasite that fell on the planet, plus the deals with Lifestream and all); the spin offs take itself way too seriously and over the top.
Remaking the game would make it obvious, and they don’t want it to.
If they didn’t want to disappoint us with bad games then they never would have made Dirge of Cerberus, Kingdom Hearts Recoded, or any other FF7 related items.