FFVII Remake... It's Official! (Discussion)

Oh, hey, one of the few things I liked about FFVII is being deliberately and hugely changed. Square-Enix is apparently cribbing from Hollywood's sheet: reboot, remake, take away all the good bits, just because. Nomura is going to wreck this like Michael Bay did Transformers.

It does really baffle me, though. They've been making quite a lot of money porting SNES Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games largely unchanged in terms of mechanics and gameplay. Dragon Quest VIII and IX were both old-school turn-based JRPGs with fancy graphics and did spectacularly well.

Are you kidding? I enjoy the Gambit system of FFXII, but I enjoy it because it means that I can be leveling or farming or whatever while watching a movie. FFXIII is even worse, just choose a stable paradigm and hit X until your thumb goes numb. I'm all for innovative ideas, but things have been rather too set-it-and-forget-it of late. The Gambit system, for instance, should've been disabled for your controlled character (and, for that matter, ported over to Fellowship NPCs and Trusts in FFXI).

FFX with its wholly turn-based, take-as-long-as-you-want-to-think, ordering system was clever (as was its party management to deal with enemy threats), particularly when your actions alter the order. But if I had to point at a combat system done right, I'd reluctantly point at FFVII. I have no real criticisms to level against the ATB system used in all the old school Final Fantasy games and, more to the point, if we're remaking an old school game, why replace a core part of gameplay? It'd be like remaking Super Mario Bros. 3 without Leafs -- there's surely a way to do it, but isn't not SMB3 anymore.

amen!

True. But of all the bugs i can remember, the w-item glitch was by far the most useful/practical.

i dont recall anything saying holy required a sacrifice. Only that she realized holy was the only way and she was the only person who could call upon holy.

I do how ever find the jenova theory interesting. The idea that sepheroth never actually came back it was all jenova from his appearance in shinra hq to the summoning of meteor. Since jenova could take the form of others, why sepheroth could fly around at times and why a piece of jenova was always left behind when he got away. And that the real sephoroth didnt appear until the northern crater in the huge mako/meteria to summon meteor. Having been there since his fall into mako in the nelbilheim reactor.... or something like that. - was something i didnt think of. Of course i was still in elementary school when i first played 7 and didnt have much of a clue.

Being able to get unlimited amounts of powerful items that were limited on purpose... You're really only cheating yourself.

I hope we get a solid scene with Cloud in drag.

i disagree. Because you only got it at the near end of the game. My main use was on elixers for the magic pots to level materia. Yea, i could get each elixer an honest way, but leveling all the materia took so long on its own that i dont feel bad about using the w-item on elixers. Same for sources.

"there is a bug that made the grind easier. working as intended right?"


honestly no matter how SE deals with the game people will still QQ because it will not met their nostalgia level.

some adjustments are necessary on the combat system, cause quite frankly, on today's era, it just doesn't cut it, it is boring as hell.

if the nostalgia is strong on the game, just play one of the many VII re-releases.

after as many times as i played through that game in my life... i dont feel bad about doing it. More files of that game then i can count.
Three tho i do specifically remember tho. One because it was my first 'working towards master' file. But what i didnt realize in my youth was that some summons are good to have around aside from Master Summon; like Phoenix. But not realizeing that, after getting my master summons, i got rid of the regular summons for space. (/facepalm).
Second file i remember was about ~3 years ago on psp. Was working on everything. All the master magic/cmd/smn. Capped stats, all of it. I got almost everything done perfectly. I had 2 stats left to max out and that was it. Then my save file on the psp became corrupted and could no longer be read.. -_-... >< ... /ragequit - it was well over a year befor i ever touched that game again.
And third is my current file on vita. I think its somewhere around the storyline ending. But i honestly lost interest and havnt picked it up in months.

And when i say getting master magic/smn/cmd, i mean one for every character including areith. So 9 master magics, 9 master smns, 9 master cmds, 9 Final atk+ Phoenix. Etc...

So after doing all that stuff... no. I dont feel bad about using the w-item glitch.
Tho i will add that i didnt use it on my first play through of the game as a kid.

Yeah, I don't feel like I'm "cheating myself" when I use the W-Item glitch. I feel like I'm saving hours of time that could be better utilized not farming niche items. To each his own, I guess.

Compared to what, exactly? What do you think ought to be changed?

Do you want it to be an action RPG like Kingdom Hearts or Amalur where you're mostly just running around spamming your attack button? How do you integrate the huge magic system? What about half the Command Materia?

Even Kingdom Hearts is boring. It's slightly less mind-rotting than FFXIII's "Hit X repeatedly" model, but only just. Ironically, for all people complain about the nested menus of ATB, it actually makes battle strategic. I kind of object to how twitchy it makes me when I'm not playing a massively over-leveled party, though, because digging through to find the right magic spell can be a problem. It's actually why I really liked FFX's turn-based system. It involved a lot of strategy if you wanted it and, if you were just grinding, you could mash Attack and get the job done, too.

Seriously, what's boring about the old system and what's engaging in newer games? About the only thing that comes to mind is how slowly actions get queued on screen. Once Cloud has started his Limit Break or someone uses a Summon, you're stuck watching that. The only tweak I'd consider making to ATB is letting the action continue, even if that means that Aerith is casting Cure while Vincent transforms and Cloud is swinging his sword. That is certainly one of the huge flaws of ATB: animations that take so long and ATB that continues to count during them that things like Haste and Slow are irrelevant. I abuse the hell out of Auto-Regen in FFIX because it continues to tick despite long animations and attack delays and such.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the combat system. I think they're aware that it's Final Fantasy VII, not The Cloud Strife Show. I can't see the main 9 not all being playable. As much as I love the original, there were also serious balance issues with the spells and abilities that would need reworking whether they kept it mostly the same or not.

SE can't please everyone, and that's just the way it is. In a perfect world they would co-release two versions of the game: The remake and a remaster that borrows graphics from the remake. That way the purists would stop foaming at the mouth and SE could have more freedom to make big changes with the remaster. I doubt they have the resources for such an endeavor, though.

I feel like your description of FFXIII's system "press X repeatedly" really does it a disservice by only pointing to a feature made for casuals or anyone who just wanted to finish the story and not actually play the game. There's plenty of strategy involving proper team spacing, timing and ability use and the only problem was that most fights that required it was sectioned away from the main story. Especially for myself, the game became infinitely more fun after I stopped used "Auto-Battle" except when grinding.

As for the battle changes, I don't see anywhere in the article mentioning not using the ATB, just making more dramatic changes. If they're going to keep the ATB system in FFVII, they will have to make the battles much harder than they were in the original. Otherwise, what's the point in having a strategic battle system when one isn't needed? Making new and fanciful ways to take down push-over bosses isn't strategy, its showboating to yourself and friends. Even in 1997, none of the fights were much of a challenge and I got through the game way too easily. FFVII was imo the easiest out of all the FF games ever made.

And if they happen to go with a more action-based battle system, I see no problem with that as long as the combat is deep enough to force actual changes in tactics when needed. Maybe being able to make preset battlefield formations and choosing between them could be nice. Also, I wouldn't want everyone to have a giant list of materia commands and to have that actually be limited by number of slots. Of course, if "Classic" commands and easy-mode features could be added for casuals, I'd be all for it. But if I want to play FFVII again with the same system with minor tweaks, I'd just load up my black label or Steam with graphic mods.

basically yea. And im not a supporter of using glitches or bugs to ones advantage. I would usually do it the way it was meant to be done. Except this case. w-item is the only one i can think of off the top of my head that iv ever really used.

I said it years ago and I'll say it again:

The only way to make most everyone happy is for them to enable options, yes it costs more to develop, but you'll please way more people.


At this rate they'll be par for their course and just pissing off their loyal fans again.

I hope the remake of ff7 will actually be good this time...

This time? Did I miss a fan remake or did SE make a bad remake somewhere?

No, I meant the original.

I'd love if they included the original game as well, or if they change very much, the option to play in a classic mode. I've bought that game half a dozen times between my original purchase, greatest hits, pc, and dlc versions.

If they butcher the 7 remake, they will feel the hate of their fans for years to come. SE you better play your cards right as this could potentially drive a decent chunk of your fans away if you duck it up.

They already know that and have been citing that for years as one of their reason not to do the remake.

There is almost absolutely no way for them not to "screw this up". The nostalgia level for this game is very high and it meant many things to many people in a different era of gaming. If this game plays too much like the original just with a facelift, it will fail for being lazy. If they make too many changes within the story and gameplay, it will be flamed by those that worship the original.

If they want to play their cards right, they will build this new game to pay homage to the spirit of the original while throwing in new features and tweaks that show their experience since and reflection of that original game.

I'll probably enjoy this new game because even as a fan of the original, my expectations are the same as if I were playing a new game. Does the game pull in somehow (story, characters, etc)? Does it have fun battle and/or gameplay mechanics? Of course because its a remake I'll make some comparisons in an academic sense but I find it stupid to not like a game purely on those comparisons. So its extremely rare for me to hate a game or movie purely over nostalgia googles.

Nonsense. They can butcher it to hell and back and it'll still sell so many units that it'll be obscene. I'd place small money down saying they'll have turned a profit on this game on pre-sales alone, even if no one ever buys the game after its first week.

About the only way they could shoot themselves in the foot is by announcing that all the main cast has been replaced with indistinguishable snot monsters and the whole thing has been re-imagined as a Kinect-controlled version of Dance Dance Revolution. And they'll still collect money hand over fist from the fanboys because the words "Final Fantasy" are on the cover, much less the number VII.

Oh please, people aren't that gullible. You'd need to at least throw in a pre-order bonus art book to get Final Fantasy VII Snot Monsters™ to fly off the shelves.

I'm hoping the Cloud snot monster is extra green and still has the hairdo. And I'd go for a wig/mask combo instead of the artbook.

While I'll certainly concede you're right, it does all point at why games in general have been getting progressively worse. When studios (and, by the by, most of this applies to Hollywood, too) see that slapping a franchise name on something will get it tons of press and huge amounts of interest, regardless of the final product having all the appeal of a porcupine enema, it makes perfect sense that they'll just make dross that serves the hype machine rather than player experience.

Think I'm exaggerating? Look at the sales records for Aliens: Colonial Marines, a game that is universally accepted to be both a shitty game and a cheap cash-grab franchise-tie-in. Square-Enix liked to pretend that FFVII couldn't be remade, but my cynicism alert gets louder every day wondering that they were just holding off for when maximum fan rabies would peak. And can you name much of anything that's being released in the next year that sounds interesting? Fallout 4 is the only thing I can think of and I look at it with nearly the same level of dread. It's still not new IP, after all.

Wouldn't it be better to just have a new FF instead of the same old tired crap again? It's not like you can't play ff7 anymore...

Or how about Final Fantasy 7-2?

What? FF7 already has plenty of spinoffs.
Before Crisis
Crisis Core
Dirge of Cerberus
Advent Children

there's really nothing else to explore about the world since both past and future have been covered.

How should I know lol use your imagination :P

Actually, with console companies stubbornly refusing to build backwards compatibility into their machines, it is growing harder and harder to play old games. PC gamers have it even worse if you happen to have any love of MS-DOS games from the early 90s or, worse yet, Windows 3.1 games.

The habit of doing remasters doesn't actually bother me. It's often a chance to clean up bugs from the original (seriously, check out the bug lists from the original 6 Final Fantasies -- I always wondered as a kid why my Ice Sword never did any extra damage in Gurgu Volcano, it's because of one of the many, many bugs in the NES cartridge) and improve graphics and interface. Given a choice between playing Dragon Quest games on the NES or on the DS, I'm always going to reach for the latter. The extra bonus content at the end, which is particularly apparent in the DS remaster of FFIV, is also a welcome addition.

I'm not a fan of FFVII, but if all it got was shiny new graphics, better localization, a few bugs and annoyances ironed out, and an ending that actually provides some resolution, I'd support this project. The fact that they're planning to do "more" than that is just irritating. It's not nearly as amazing a game as people make it out to be, but for what it is, there's not a lot that can be improved without wrecking things. I'm even ok with voice acting, though part of that is because I want to see what they're going to try to do about Barret in that regard.