astfgl said:
twcblaze said:
Nimbus said:
I get that it would be expensive, but I still don't see why it would be more expensive than, say, making a new final fantasy game (E.G. FFXIII) from scratch, and considering it would probably sell crazy good... I'm still not seeing why not.
look at the differences between the two games, 7 had the entire overworld you could explore at just about any time, it had hundreds of characters you *could* interact with at (again) almost any point in the story, and most of them had changing dialogue.
there's a reason they've taken out the airships and running around the world map in the later games, the same reason they've bogged everyone down into the "run through this straight corridor to get to your next objective" linearity that everyone hates... exploration's expensive and time consuming.
By that argument, every future rpg (at least from square) will be as empty as FF13, because populated cities and world maps are too hard to do. It also calls into question how something like Fallout 3 is managed, what with the huge map, many interactive characters and changing dialogue.
1) Fallout 3, while being a great game, had pretty poor graphics. And lousy animation. And a lot of bugs. That was the sacrifice they had to make in order to make the gameworld that large and free-roaming. And that was fine, I enjoyed Fallout 3. But fallout 3's graphics are not as good as FFXIII's. Not by a long shot. Neither was the animation for that matter. Fallout 3 also had a hell of a lot of re-used environments, character models, and objects.
2) Your argument that if FFXIII cost that much to make, then all other RPG's in the future would be like that, is an argument from consequences, which is a logical fallacy. Just because you don't like the idea that future RPG's will resemble FFXIII, doesn't mean that it will not happen. FFXIII is the only JRPG that has graphics to that high a level - so your argument about hypothetical future games cannot be used here.
And it doesn't have to go down that route. As I've said, Fallout 3 did not. It put open world and quests and speech above graphics, and in my opinion it made the right call. But FF games are always known for their graphics. SquareEnix thought that putting out a more open world with less impressive graphics, would do more damage to FF's image than releasing a much, much, MUCH more restrictive and sterile world with fantastic graphics.
As tech moves forward, and computers advance, perhaps it will be possible to reduce the cost of creating CGI worlds, so that developers can focus more on crafting the soul of a world, rather than its look. But that's a way away into the future.
Haakong said:
Shamus Young said:
the problem is that everyone is under the assumption the FFVII fans wants "cutting edge" graphics, superior voice acting and epic CGI... why do they think that? what most of us want is just to see the game without "squares-twice-the-head-size" as hands and cooler combat animations. give us graphics thats just good enough so we will understand which areas are accessible and which arent.
we dont even need the CGI, most of the cutscenes in FFVII were pretty lame, and could easily just be done with the regular game's graphics.
voice acting isnt needed either, and frankly, i dont want it. like its been stated before on escapist, all thats needed is voice in...lets say... combat. a few quotes. so we get the idea what they sound like. then we just keep the text. we will just read it in the voice we heard. there, 10-20% of the budget saved.
we want a game that we can show off to our family and friends, making them actually want to sit down and watch you play it/play it themselves. a prime example of this is FFX vs old FF. my gf was a semi-gamer when we met, and ive introduced her to all my favourite games over the time weve been together. the hardest part was getting her into old FF. i knew she would love it (her being a major fantasy book fan), but she only wanted to play FFX, because "the characters looked so cool". i spent so many hours convincing her to start with FFVII or FFIX, and once she managed to look past the crappy graphics, she was hooked.
had FFVII had "ok" graphics, she wouldve chosen that without even looking at FFX. we dont need a game in full CGI, we just need a game where the characters arent some monocolours mashed together to look like a human. use ps2 graphics for instance! is this so hard to understand?
its annoying to see that so many game developers dont get what their customers really want.
But not all fans want what you want. If SquareEnix did just release a straight, no-frills port with only minor upgrades in graphics, it would probably be a commercial flop. Time has not been kind to FFVII, and they can't just rely on nostalgic fans anymore. Think about it, the video game industry has grown very large in recent years. You have many, many, many video-game players out there who have NEVER played FFVII. I myself only got around to playing it in 2005 when I found a used copy selling for 10 dollars. FFVII came out in 1997. It's 2010 already. Someone who is 20 now, was only 7 years old then, and most likely would NEVER have played FFVII.
So that's another reason why Square won't remake FFVII: If they just do a rush job to please the nostalgic fans, they'll find themselves with a limited audience. And no company will do that - if they make a new product they've got to find a way to make it appeal to more than a core audience that is rapidly dwindling (as you get older, you do find yourself caring about games less and less). If they sink in enormous costs to make the graphics all shiny shiny, then they also have to remake the mechanics and the environments to appeal to the new audience, again because time has moved on and the original FFVII just doesn't cut it anymore. You might be able to leave out voice actors, sure, but again, I played FFVII in 2005 and I found the script pretty appalling, not to mention most of the over-world horrendously samey and underpopulated. If they're going to make a game that can appeal to the newer generation of gamers, then they'll have to put a lot of artistic effort into making additions to the game world.
Fans, understand this - you don't exist in a vacuum where the games are only for you. Even those who played FFVII when it came out don't necessarily care for a remake. Newer gamers don't care at ALL. YOU might be happy with a graphical upgrade, but SquareEnix is a company and a company exists to make money (like it or not, that's how they work). If they thought they could make money off this as easily as you think they could, they'd have done it by now. No company hates money after all.
Take a few business courses, and then you'll understand that a FFVII remake is not as economically sound a venture as it might first appear to be.
