Final Fantasy VII Remake Will Include "Dramatic" Changes

[Rozalia1]

Good they should change things. Materia should stay but characters should have something beyond limits and minor stat differences to differentiate between them for one. Like many remakes we need more party members. Avalanche temporary party members would be a good start that'd allow the early game to have stronger enemies and bosses. Reno & Rude during Wutai. Perhaps if they introduce some new boss characters one of them can be a secret party member. Party count should go from 3 to 4 as three is too limiting. Half experience for those not participating in battle should be scrapped to full experience. More endings like having Cloud die when he is a vegetable (or instead of die have him remain a vegetable) and thus continue the game completely different, Shinra ending where they successfully defeat Sephiroth and continue to rule the world, the damn Genesis inclusion ending you know they are putting in, the Sephiroth wins ending, the goddess from Crisis Core smites Sephiroth ending, the Gilgamesh pops out defeats Sephiroth and challenges you to a fight for the Buster Blade ending... more endings is a good thing.

Changes aren't necessarily bad people.

 

[Risingblade]

Oh good. DLC to keep Aeris alive.
I've always said the cliche characters, predictable plot, repetitive combat, and exceptionally corny JRPG dialogue would have been SO much better if that one chick had survived.

Not gonna lie, I'd buy that dlc day 1.

 

[Silenttalker22]

uh, why? There was nothing wrong about FFVII's system and quite frankly all the systems they've done since then (save for FFX) have been either clumsy or just plain bad.

Squeenix. Over designing since forever.

Seriously. Squeenix. You don't have to Fix FF7.... for go'ds sakes it's one of the few FF8 games that you don't have to try fixing. Even the ATB battle system leant a pleasant strategic... wait a minute.... are you just slapping the ff& paint job over a FF you were already working on just to get people to accept it?... Bravo Squeenix, bravo.

You're on to them!

 

[RJ Dalton]

I look forward to seeing the open world of FFVII reduced to a long hallway.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Good. Honestly, if they're going to rebuild the game from the ground up, then they had might as well make some changes along the way.

Don't get me wrong, I do like ATB. I even think FFXIII got it right on some levels. But I wouldn't mind seeing it go; for the record, I do like Advent Children's style. My only gripe is that we be able to control all of the fucking party members. Maybe that would be harder to pull off if battles are in real time instead of active time, but I would rather Cloud's iconic party members not just be AI-controlled window dressing.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

Personally I'd love to see FF7 with FF10's battle system...that swap-in-swap-out in the middle of combat as great.

As for the character models, I want my "good god are those watermelons beneath your tank top?!" Tifa.

They're probably going to give us that. What we can we say? We're guys, and some of us like a woman that'snot only pretty, but can easily kick our butts. It kind of reminds us (or me, at least) of family. I didn't even like FF10 that much, but I'd say that's a fair compromise. I'd also like to see how a modern Barret, Red XII(Which I thought said 7 for years), and Cid. (Mr T., and a talking lion. What's not to like? Although, now that I think about it, I'm rather curious about a modern Bugenhagen would look as well?)

 

[ArcaneGamer]

I'd be okay with a more action based battle system.
It's the story (and Cloud's personality in particular) I'd rather they not mess too much with, I probably won't get my wish.

The first thing to go will be clouds complex personality. Instead he'll be replaced by a brooding emo. Yuffie will be annoying instead of perkie. Tifa will be a moron and aerith will be a princess (instead of a flirty woman that threatens to crush a dudes nards).

The battle system will probably just be FF15.

Well, fuck us, I guess. Is anyone surprised?

Edit: in other news, Persona 5 = )

(Which I REALLY want to learn more about.)

And all the hype instantly turned to worry. Sure there is some room for improvement and stream-lining of the ATB system. It needs re-balancing (it got way too easy and tempting to spam powerful summons and such). But the fundamentals of the turn-based system are solid. It's not broken. Don't "fix" it. I second your concern about characterization. I like Cloud being a kind of psychotic, kind of eccentric, kind of quirky badass. I really, REALLY hope they don't change any of the essential characterization for anyone. Advent Children was a cool movie when I first saw it; but it signaled a terrible change in direction for Square Enix. Bravely Default is still the lone shining star in the last decade, as far as anything I've played from them. I'm excited for XV though.

I also second your edit. Damn if Atlus doesn't know how it's done!

Amen, man. They've almost taken their place.

 

[wetfart]

The only thing I really would want to see changed is the amount of grinding for AP to master your materia. I replayed recently and was thinking of getting the huge materia after mastering mine but after doing some number crunching I quickly became discouraged even with triple materia growth and the northern crater.

With Square pushing this "extended universe" for FF7, I imagine them going back in the remake to make Zach's role more prominent. Maybe also building up Yuffie/Wutai and Vincent's relationship with the Turks.

I don't see Aeris staying alive. They would have to add in weapons and all sorts of stuff for her after disc 1. And besides, way back in the day on the original PC release I cheated to keep her alive after disc 1. Great Gospel made the rest of the bosses faceroll easy.

 

[major_chaos]

Evidently. FF7 had the most nuanced characters in the series.

Yeaaaaa, we are just going to agree to disagree on that one. I'll take IX's Zidane over the angstlords from VII & VIII any day. Actually I vastly prefer the cast of IX in general, I'll even take it's obligatory sawed-off brat (Eiko) over Yuffi.

 

[Naldan]

Fine. Less grinding, less random battle encounters, no second battle screen. Fine. But what does this implicate?

The materia system probably gets butchered. You will level spells with the tiniest amount of afford, if at all, and the levels will feel even more tube-like than they already are.

Come on, is anybody really that naive to believe that they will switch the tedious kind of depth with an appealing kind of depth? No, they will probably simply remove any depth whatsoever.

Edit: Say what you want about FF7. But when was a remaster of a major title any good in the recent years? If they'd pull a Wolfenstein 3D or an RTCW for all I care with the FF7 remaster/remake - whatever, then all would be fine. But nowadays, maybe except for graphical appeal, a remaster means: "XXX Game - The Remaster - The Shittening"

 

[Fox12]

Evidently. FF7 had the most nuanced characters in the series.

Yeaaaaa, we are just going to agree to disagree on that one. I'll take IX's Zidane over the angstlords from VII & VIII any day. Actually I vastly prefer the cast of IX in general, I'll even take it's obligatory sawed-off brat (Eiko) over Yuffi.

I couldn't tolerate the other titles at all. 12 was okay, if you ignore the protagonist. Honesty, the series as a whole has had some pretty spotty characters. I can understand liking 9, but I just couldn't get through it. 8 was even worse.

No, I'll stick with Barrett, Tifa, cloud, and the rest. At least the game doesn't feel the need to beat you over the head about their character development. Barrett lied about caring about the planet so he could get revenge, and got his team killed. Avalanche killed hundreds of innocent people, and tried to wave it off until Reeve called them out on it. There's a lot going on, and I prefer my games with a little substance.

 

[gonenow3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SF-oQmqaj0

This is going to be FF15 with an FF7 skin isn't it?

... -_-

Square-Enix: get your goddamn action RPGs out of Final Fantasy you bunch of blithering idiots. Holy hell can you seriously not actually make a good game anymore? You haven't made a proper, good Final Fantasy game in FOURTEEN YEARS. Twelve if you include X-2 (although that had some glaring weaknesses).

I could be wrong. They could be bringing back X's conditional battle system (by far the best system they've ever had...dropped after one installment) but I've got a horrible feeling they're going to lift FF15's system for this...

If its action RPG I'm just outright not buying it. Final Fantasy XV is the first main-series non-MMO Final Fantasy I have no intention of buying because its battle system is basically sticking two fingers up at the series. If the 7 remake is going the same then what's the damn point?

And for the OP "old FF is better than modern" fanboy argument, FF1-3, FF5, FF8 and FF11, FF12 and FF14 (1.0) were far weaker than FF13. FF13 was far more superior to most of those games.

Sorry, no, FF1-3, 5 and 8 are all better games than 13 was. And I'm a person that makes excuses for 13. 13's combat system was incredibly dull, poor and limiting with several mindblowingly terrible design choices (first and foremost control of ONE character...and if they die you instantly lose the game and can't revive...). Its saving grace was a semi-competent story. Nothing wild but considering the absolute travesty that was 12's combat system at least this one was playable. But in comparison to other games in the series it one of the weakest entries by far.

Issue is the traditional ATB system is a real pain to balance.

...see this is where you're missing a somewhat fundamental point. It doesn't NEED to be balanced. It isn't a multiplayer online thing where everyone has to have equal chances. Part of the appeal of this kind of RPG game has always been figuring out how to "break" the system.

Except it does need to be balanced because if it isn't you are only ever using 1 thing in all circumstances and that is boring and repetitive and removes any strategy and depth from the game. FF8 is boring because you only ever use limits. KH Dream Drop Distance is considered the worst KH game because the only thing you ever do is use the balloon spell (And if you didn't the fights were stupidly long and even worse). If a single player game isn't balanced then you don't have a combat system worth using which means you are better off just watching the cutscenes on youtube.

Fine. Less grinding, less random battle encounters, no second battle screen. Fine. But what does this implicate?

The materia system probably gets butchered. You will level spells with the tiniest amount of afford, if at all, and the levels will feel even more tube-like than they already are.

Come on, is anybody really that naive to believe that they will switch the tedious kind of depth with an appealing kind of depth? No, they will probably simply remove any depth whatsoever.

Edit: Say what you want about FF7. But when was a remaster of a major title any good in the recent years? If they'd pull a Wolfenstein 3D or an RTCW for all I care with the FF7 remaster/remake - whatever, then all would be fine. But nowadays, maybe except for graphical appeal, a remaster means: "XXX Game - The Remaster - The Shittening"

FF7 never had random encounters. It ran on a step counter which was fixed (Except for the very final descent to septhiroth which was actually random).

As far as grinding goes the only grinding actually required in FF7 is killing 40 enemies with Cait Sith for her limit at which point you can 1 shot any enemy in the game including super bosses. So it wasn't even as if FF7 was grinding intensive if you actually knew what you were doing.

Personally I don't believe the FF7 combat system had any depth what so ever given there was only ever 2 combat options and then everything else was really bad in comparison meaning you had to put limitations on yourself to have combat options but I trust SE a lot given their recent games have actually had decent combat systems in comparison to the very basic early titles.

 

[Naldan]

Personally I don't believe the FF7 combat system had any depth what so ever given there was only ever 2 combat options and then everything else was really bad in comparison meaning you had to put limitations on yourself to have combat options but I trust SE a lot given their recent games have actually had decent combat systems in comparison to the very basic early titles.

If you wanted to have a certain final boss fight and if you wanted to level your materia, which you really really wanted, you had to grind. If you wanted to experiment with your materia, you had to grind. If you wanted to farm anything, materia, items, steals, you had to grind.

But my memory is a bit iffy on FF7, so maybe you're very right. But I doubt that. Yes, maybe you could go through the game's plot without grinding. Then, from that perspective, I think you might be right. But then you really had to know what you were doing beforehand, without looking up any FAQs or whatnot.

Also, I don't think that the combat system had any depth. The game had barely any depth, but well, in comparison to Skyrim, it had. :O)
Seriously, I don't mean that it was that complex of a game. But it had some depth with its materia system. I enjoyed it. And now I fear that it gets basically scratched. If that happens, I also can watch a long play on YouTube, you know?

Disclosure: I haven't played any FF after 8. I don't know how much they have improved. But after a quintingillion of other games I've played since, I miss the materia system. It was varied, simple to understand, and still complex enough to experiment and have fun with. I don't mean that it was superior to any other style. Taste differs. And I really don't think so. But it was what made FF7 enjoyable for me.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I can't believe people are upset about this. The combat system is quite dated, and I welcome some changes, so long as it's a good game, that's all I care about.

I think we should reserve judgement at least until we see it in action, what happened to innocent until proven guilty.

 

[gonenow3]

Personally I don't believe the FF7 combat system had any depth what so ever given there was only ever 2 combat options and then everything else was really bad in comparison meaning you had to put limitations on yourself to have combat options but I trust SE a lot given their recent games have actually had decent combat systems in comparison to the very basic early titles.

If you wanted to have a certain final boss fight and if you wanted to level your materia, which you really really wanted, you had to grind. If you wanted to experiment with your materia, you had to grind. If you wanted to farm anything, materia, items, steals, you had to grind.

But my memory is a bit iffy on FF7, so maybe you're very right. But I doubt that. Yes, maybe you could go through the game's plot without grinding. Then, from that perspective, I think you might be right. But then you really had to know what you were doing beforehand, without looking up any FAQs or whatnot.

Also, I don't think that the combat system had any depth. The game had barely any depth, but well, in comparison to Skyrim, it had. :O)
Seriously, I don't mean that it was that complex of a game. But it had some depth with its materia system. I enjoyed it. And now I fear that it gets basically scratched. If that happens, I also can watch a long play on YouTube, you know?

Disclosure: I haven't played any FF after 8. I don't know how much they have improved. But after a quintingillion of other games I've played since, I miss the materia system. It was varied, simple to understand, and still complex enough to experiment and have fun with. I don't mean that it was superior to any other style. Taste differs. And I really don't think so. But it was what made FF7 enjoyable for me.

Really if you were abusing power soul (Which I disagree on needing a FAQ to understand and use) you really didn't need that much grinding as you can just get all the exp / gil you need from forced encounters throughout the game and the average player is going to fight more enemies than are needed so they'll likely have too much exp and have more money compared to what is actually needed. It certainly got much easier.

As cool as the Materia system was like 90% of them were pure garbage that wasn't needed or used (Basically any summon materia) so a lot of experimentation only ended in disappointment

 

[Naldan]

Really if you were abusing power soul (Which I disagree on needing a FAQ to understand and use) you really didn't need that much grinding as you can just get all the exp / gil you need from forced encounters throughout the game and the average player is going to fight more enemies than are needed so they'll likely have too much exp and have more money compared to what is actually needed. It certainly got much easier.

As cool as the Materia system was like 90% of them were pure garbage that wasn't needed or used (Basically any summon materia) so a lot of experimentation only ended in disappointment

Honestly, that's interesting to read. I of course know that there are obscene materia combinations what speedrunners or speed killers for Ultima Weapons use, but I can't recall any super-uber-duber materia. But, I was maybe 10 or so, played it on the PC in German. And that was the last time I played it, without the internet.

So, maybe you're right. But I can't recall anyone ever saying that there were -1- materia that makes the game a playground and that's not involving other materias in combination. Don't know, maybe you're right. But, as I said, that's one experience. Maybe, and that certainly is a possibility, I was living under a rock all the time. This is not meant to sound sarcastic, I mean it. I have a goofy way of playing RPGs.

 

[Willinium]

. . . I wouldn't mind a new game + mode where Zack Fair lived. See how the events would've been different if he had lived.

 

[Lunar Templar]

oh good ... they're 'fixing' what isn't broken ...

Now I'm worried about what they'll do to 'fix' the story, cause they fuck that up I'm just gonna play the PS1 FF7 again.

 

[gonenow3]

oh good ... they're 'fixing' what isn't broken ...

Now I'm worried about what they'll do to 'fix' the story, cause they fuck that up I'm just gonna play the PS1 FF7 again.

FF7's combat is a broken mess if you knew what you were doing with it. Its objectively outdated and needs refining and if they didn't do that then what is the point of making the remake as you said yourself there is the PS1 version.

 

[CaitSeith]

I can't believe people are upset about this. The combat system is quite dated, and I welcome some changes, so long as it's a good game, that's all I care about.

I think we should reserve judgement at least until we see it in action, what happened to innocent until proven guilty.

Sorry, but neither Square-Enix and gameplay changing remakes have good precedents. The game was already good with the "dated" combat system (otherwise it wouldn't had been so popular back then).