Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Discussion and Speculation)

Yes well, I don't think for a second it's going to happen, nor is it an actually good idea. If they are going to remake it, they'll remake it for PSP because.. well everything is being ported or remade for the PSP. But PS3 remake, no.

First of all, people will want voice acting, which is an awful idea right there. One of the reasons FFVII's atmosphere worked so well was because despite the heavily cinematic cut-scenes, it felt like following an engaging book instead of a badly acted movie. Adding voice acting will immediately make it a badly acted movie.

"Oh, but how do you know the voice acting will be bad??!" I don't, and neither do you. I'm just looking at Square's trackrecord, and despite what zealous Kingdom Hearts fans might warble, they've not done too well.

It's probable the original voices might work well, FFXII and Advent Children had a good Japanese cast, but this is Square and they will naturally dub their titles in english for the foreign market, meaning gone is that atmosphere.

Secondly, no one supporting a remake seems to acknowledge how old FFVII is. Old meaning old designs, conventions and compromises. Clumsy dialogue, clumsy story exposition, clumsy gameplay (in parts). This was entirely forgivable on the PS1 because the game was simply so enjoyable, but that won't work on PS3.

This would mean Square would basically need to rebuild the game from the ground up (battle systems, graphics, music, sound, story flow, narration, dialogue, map design, backgrounds, cutscenes, controls, gameplay), which is not only a whole lot of work, but also a recipe for disaster. Why? Because Square no longer has any idea what made FFVII so appealing. No, they honestly don't. I thought they did, but they really don't. Advent Children was hugely entertaining, but it was really nothing to do with FFVII. You need only look at the new characters in AC and Dirge of Cerberus to see how far off the road SE's gone.

It's not so much that it's unlikely, it's that it's a bad idea. Just because it will obviously sell a lot, doesn't mean it should happen. It'll be the Rollerball of J-RPGs.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by a lurker

You're absolutely right, and a lot of remake guys do seem to forget that. Look, the reason FF4 + Minor Graphical Update sells is because it's cheap, it's on a portable system and it's sprites. People have a certain expectation for spritey games, and that hasn't changed very much in the last eight years or so because not many new ones are coming out.

But a remake on a next-gen system for a game many think is overhyped to begin with? Nigger, you better expect that people will demand modern gameplay and narration.

Also, you guys forget that they tried a lot of new and radical things in FF7. There were a lot of goofy mini-games that were essentially pressing a couple of buttons in rhythm - don't you remember giving Pricilla (dolphin girl) CPR? Those things aren't so new anymore. Some of them worked, some of them didn't. Would you keep those in there, even if some of them detracted from gameplay?

The people who think all Square needs to do is updated graphics and voiceover work are hilariously mistaken.

I also like how it apparently took 6 months to dub a two hour movie in english, not including any work done prior to is's release in Japan, but no one seems to think this could happen again for FF7. Christ, you guys.

Originally Posted by Stealth

Also, whoever said they can reuse stuff from FFVII is out of their mind. Like Qwarky said, everything has to be remade from scratch for a remake. (The Twin Snakes anyone?) I'm also assuming that amazing graphics goes without saying.

Thank you, finally someone who gets it. People seem to think old designs and cg can be reused without any alteration needed and what little alteration is needed would be minimal because we're reusing old designs. It's the god damn PS3, of course they'd need to rebuild everything from the ground up. At best, they could use old character designs for reference, but you can bet Nomura would insist on redesigning them.

The amount of work that would need to go into it is one of the things that make a remake unlikely. What makes it a bad idea is how (again), Square no longer has any idea what people loved about the original. It certainly wasn't the pepsodent grins or the useless accessory covered characters.

A remake that requires a lot of effort can work. Twin Snakes was more or less a succesful remix (mostly thanks to Kitamura) and while I was sceptic about the Resident Evil remake, it turned out to be completely excellent. But the team behind it has to have an intricate understanding of the original title, what made it great and what didn't. I simply don't think any of Square's staff has any idea now at this point, least of all Nomura, who reminds me off those music video/commercial directors who then get a chance to make big budget movies.

There's nowhere I can't reach.