No change to FFVII

[Arsen]

No wonder Western RPG's are doing better, they've evolved. Square-Enix still thinks it's the 1990's and everything that has their brand name on it is immediately going to sell. Sorry guys, but ever since FF10 the main fanbase has been turned off by the graphics, changes, and lack of originality and value in the newer games.

My own pesonal suggestions:

- Bring back the world map. Exploration was a fun part of the series.
- Get rid of the manueverability and allow us to go back to "move" and "action". Tactics prevailed well with this.
- Add to the mythos without generating the same game over and over again.
- Stop copying franchises for a modern day generation...FF13 - Matrix, Transformers, etc.
- Go back to the roots. That was the beauty of the game. Ancient cultures and mythologies converged into a fantasy world.
- Make me care about the characters and their stories for a change. Add depth and soul to them.

 

[Kendell Cambridge]

Because they're busy with other projects, so assembling the old team would be incredibly hard. And then making the graphics in a world so heavily based around exploration in a big epic world where you can see to the end of the horizon would take extreme amounts of work and time. And it wouldn't sell as well as some might think, as we've already experienced the story and gameplay. Do you think people would pay for nothing but improved actors and voice acting when they could just play their good old PS1 version?

I dont think that's the thing though. Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes went over decently and it was on the damn Gamecube. And while it would be expensive and risky to their fanbase, Square Enix is currently releasing fuck ups anyway so the way I see it releasing it would be at least a 50-50 shot of coming back as a dev team to be taken seriously. They definitely wouldnt be worried about cash because no matter what it would sell well. Look at FFXIII, it sold well just because of the Final Fantasy title combined with good marketing and that game was a piece of shit.

 

[Atticus89]

Have you played the game recently? A good bit of the language spoken by Barret and Cid will be censored or re-written for voice overs and if they want to keep that T for Teen rating.

 

[Who Dares Wins]

Because they're busy with other projects, so assembling the old team would be incredibly hard. And then making the graphics in a world so heavily based around exploration in a big epic world where you can see to the end of the horizon would take extreme amounts of work and time. And it wouldn't sell as well as some might think, as we've already experienced the story and gameplay. Do you think people would pay for nothing but improved actors and voice acting when they could just play their good old PS1 version?

Maybe they should get 3 million people to preorder before even starting to re-make it.
/sarcasm

But sarcasm aside I agree with you, even they said that it would take WAAAY too much time to make it and that time could be spent on numerous other things.

(I wonder would 3 million people actually preorder it)

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I would almost say as soon as I get remakes of far superior FF titles (FF 4 and 6), but I prefer my nostalgia to be untouched by the sully hands of the SE guys who have been producing the FF drivel they have been making lately.

They remade FFIV a long while back. It's on the DS.

FFVI I would go for, especially since VII is essentially a copy of it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

They said in a press release that to remake it would take too long and would be too expensive to be profitable. There was an article about it here on the Escapist several months back, but I'm too lazy and too sick and tired of this whose FFVII remake nonsense to go dig it up. Go search for it yourself if you really care.
Point is, I'm pretty sure Square-Enix is well aware of how much people loooooove FFVII and would probably remake the damn thing in a heart beat if they thought for 1 second that it would be even remotely profitable, but they don't so obviously there must be some truth to their claims about it being too expensive and whatever. After all, they've already milked that title for all it's fucking worth, what with all the sequels, spin-offs, prequels, etc...

 

[Archemetis]

OR! I might be crazy with this idea....

They DON'T make it again in HD, instead they instead remake with DS style Final Fantasy Graphics? Or hell, make a PSP remake with Kingdom Hearts/Crisis Core Grpahics...


The main problem here is everyone is whining about the remake taking too long to make because it HAS TO BE HD!!!

But it really doesn't...

I'd more than happily settle for a cartoony, un-voiced acted remake of FF7 on a handheld...

But maybe that really is just me.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I remember an article on here, Squeenix said something along the lines of, "it'll take 50 bajillion dollars and 40 years to make" (slightly exaggerated, but you get the point).

They have the characters, the storyline, the music, I'm sure the Advent Children voice actors wouldn't mind reprising their role. It's probably mainly about the money and time. I don't want a remake anyway, and this is coming from someone who only played the game 3 years ago.

 

[old account]

The reason they wont remake FFVII is because the fan-base is just so damn demanding. Okay, I got the symbolism of the game. How Mako are the games equivalent to fossil fuels, and James Lovelock's 'Gaia hypothesis', but in all seriousness, I didn't enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed Final Fantasy VI. Even the symbolism of Kefka being compared to theories of Nietzsche, Foucault, and Dostoyevsky and the whole nihilist aspect at the end that there is no meaning to life took the breath out of me while playing a game. To me, for that reason, Final Fantasy VI should by far be Squares top pick for a remastering edition. They should just throw all their money to make it have the best game play, graphics, voice acting, cinematics, and musical score.

 

[Mister Benoit]

Most FFVII fans haven't played FFVII.. that's a pretty big fanbase.

Anyways I don't really see a need for a remake, they'd end up changing too much of the game because a lot of it is dated. No matter what they would do with the re-make people would be unhappy.

 

[newwiseman]

They've never said but my guess is because they sill are making too much money porting older games to other platforms. IE Final Fantasy I&II on iOS and Chrono Trigger for everything but the iOS.

If anything FFVII is just to new for them to invest in upgrading when they know they'll make mad amounts of money just re-releasing it for the PSP2.

 

[Korolev]

Here's just a list of possible reasons:

1) They don't want to do it. Realize that the people in charge of projects might actually want to leave FFVII behind.
2) The amount of "nostalgic" fans who love FFVII to death is dwindling. I didn't play it when it first came out. And many of those who are fans of the original now have things like jobs and families and in general, play games a whole lot less. It happens.
3) It would be expensive - if they did only a reasonable job, fans would decry the "half-assed" effort. If they want to make the game attractive to people who aren't misty-eyed with nostalgia, then they will have to pull out all the stops and commit a huge amount of resources to the project. Making FFXIII wasn't cheap - and if they remake FFVII, people are going to demand that they make the graphics to AT LEAST that level.
4) FFVII, as it stands, isn't all that hot anymore. Again, I was too young to play the original when it first came out. I played FFVII in 2005, when I found it in a bargain bin. Let's just say that while the game is.... okay.... it just doesn't hold up to today's games. If they remake it, they WILL have to include more stuff if they want to win over a wider audience.
5) They're working on other projects, they have other projects planned, and they don't have the leeway or the resources to fully commit to a remake, which would be expensive.

Look, I get it - if you were a FF fan who played FFVII when it first came out, it's status as a "Titanic game" that "changed everything" is cemented into your brain. You can't imagine why anyone else wouldn't want to play it! "It's perfect!", you declare, "they only have to touch up the graphics and add voice work".

That isn't the case - and even if it was, "touching up" the graphics would be very, VERY expensive.

Oh and reason 6) They are holding onto a remake as a last ditch money grab in case the rest of their projects flop.

EDIT: And it just might feel too risky. There are a lot of unknowns. The principle audience for an FF remake would be.... well, fans of the original! That's a very diverse bunch of people, and it would be hard to please all of them. They can't just aim at that group alone, they have to make the game appeal to a mass audience. The thing is, if they change the game or the dialogue too much, fans will go crazy and boycott the game.

In all likelihood, an FFVII remake would make SE a lot of money. But it's not a sure thing, it would require an investment, they have OTHER projects they'd like to work on, and the original is still playable. I heard a long time ago that Square Enix wouldn't do a remake so long as the original FFVII is playable from a large audience. Considering the fact that it was on the PC, it can be played on PS2's and PS3's, it's on the PSN and PSP, they have little incentive to remake it.

But I will bet that if ALL their other projects flop like FFXIV, then they'll probably remake it.

 

[Lucane]

Maybe I'm just stupid for not knowing this, but is there a specific reason as to why square enix refuses to remake FFVII? I cant see why not because if they do I'd personally sell my house to buy it. Is there another reason? Because money is clearly not the issue.

Last I heard one of the main reasons they don't remake FFVII is becuase it'd be to difficult/extensive to render the whole planet in full 3D detail with updated grahpics FF-9 was the last in the #ed series to have a full access(not persay the entire world(s))world map that let you manualy go anywhere instead of just select from a list and/or having to figure out coordinates for special locations and graphics didn't realing change much from 7 to 9.

Now if they Remodeled everything into new 3D (Maybe Advent Children style but not so much detail or like 13's cast) and left the areas in the same 2D layered from different angles might not look to good otherwise it'd be rendering a whole planet and cities in 3D which has only ever been done for MMOs but I've never seen a 3D city let you run around it that even comes close to half of the time it'd take to get out of Midgar in digital square feet.(not including the trains/get away chase)

 

[Zenn3k]

Personally, I think the best thing to do on an FF7 remake(besides a new translation) would be to KEEP pre-rendered backgrounds. On the PS3, not only would the probably be freakin' beautiful, they'd be way cheaper than full 3D.

They might as well, FF13's backgrounds could have just as easily been pre-rendered for all the lack of exploration that game had.

I think the issue is the overworld map

 

[Karilas]

I think the reason Square is so adamantly against it is because people seem to be insisting on a full-on PS3 overhaul. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Square knows that this isn't how they handle remakes. While I don't doubt that it would sell very well, it probably would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the fact that it would pull attention away from Square's flagship title of the moment.

Now, handhelds, on the other hand... That's a whole different ball game, isn't it? Look at the DS; both FFIII and IV got remakes, and not just "shinier graphics!" touchups, either. They got completely made over, with sprites swapped out for polygons and text for voice acting and everything... And that was on a console with power roughly equivalent to that of the Nintendo 64.

Given the alleged power of the 3DS and Square's mounting financial and critical hardships, I have very little doubt that we'll be seeing FFVII: 3DS or something very soon, and frankly, I'm okay with that. Jumping from PS1 visuals to what is essentially a portable Wii is enough of an upgrade for me. Those hyper-realistic visuals wouldn't have suited FFVII, anyway.

Hmmmm, I'd comment but somebody already seems to have snatched my thoughts and poured them out above.

 

[Seriin]

I think they are simply too busy. Programmers are working on a bunch of different titles atm, like Agito and that FF13-2 along with all those other announced games. You also need to look at the 3 key people that made FF7 and where they are now. Tetsura Nomura is busy elsewhere, hopefully planning KH3 to come out this decade. Nobou Uematsu is freelance now, likely working on something else. And Hironobu Sakaguchi, the director/producer behind the classics isn't with the company any more. I don't think they could go ahead and deliver the game people are waiting for with replacements.

I'd more than happily settle for a cartoony, un-voiced acted remake of FF7 on a handheld...

The PSP already has a portable version of FF7, as well as 8 and 9. Sure they are just the PSOne classics from the shop, but that doesn't make them any less able to be played while on the can. That pretty much why I got a psp lol.

 

[Lucane]

Have you played the game recently? A good bit of the language spoken by Barret and Cid will be censored or re-written for voice overs and if they want to keep that T for Teen rating.

Not to mention what would happen when the rate the part of the game when Cloud need to get a disguise and needs to Dress like a woman, the Bee Club and the Gym(Not to mention where you might get a "Wig" from.)

 

[Cheesepower5]

Personally, I think the best thing to do on an FF7 remake(besides a new translation) would be to KEEP pre-rendered backgrounds. On the PS3, not only would the probably be freakin' beautiful, they'd be way cheaper than full 3D.

They might as well, FF13's backgrounds could have just as easily been pre-rendered for all the lack of exploration that game had.

I think the issue is the overworld map

Quite true, it wouldn't fix all(or even most) of the problems, but it would help. I think if they just kept the tiny charcter, huge world most 2D jRPGs took it would work. It's just not pretty enough for Square.

Hell, they could just take the Dragon Quest VIII approach, it worked just fine.

 

[Kroxile]

The question is, why do people want a remake? If it's because of the graphics, remember that good graphics do not make a good game, and while FF7 is OK, it's not that great either. Its popularity is mostly due to nostalgia, IMO.

I attribute it to the fact that its most likely the first FF game most people have played. Its not a great game. Its fairly mediocre compared to IV, VI, and IX anyway. (Well, IX is more of an opinion, but the other two are fact )