Is Square Enix Endangering The Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Square Enix has had a couple remakes of some classic games over the past few weeks but they have been met with subpar results. One must ask - is the Final Fantasy VII Remake in danger based on what we've seen recently?

[Omnislashver36]

Eh, Square-Enix Business Division 1 has been working on this since it's inception, they've also been working with Dissidia PSP devs and the KH Osaka team who've been making magnificent games. Lastly unlike S-E Business Division 2 being run by Tabata and using Luminous Engine, this is produced by Nomura's team with Unreal Engine. And it's not like those low-budget games that are completely outsourced. Furthermore they even kicked CyberConnect 2 off the roster to improve the quality even further.

Not even comparable in the slightest. FFVIIR has the pedigree, engine, team, and support for an epic game.

[nommers]

In terms of smoothness I’m certain the ff7 remake with run really well. It’s on UE4 for crying out loud. If SE can’t utilize the most supported and one of the easiest game engines to develop for then all is lost with them. That’s not what I’m worried about though. In terms of story, Nomura has yet to single handedly be responsible for a great game. He made Advent Children as the director and his KH games inspire very little confidence for both the narrative and characters in a story. His direction of character interactions are either not interesting or just too hammy. It’s hard to take the way he does characters seriously.

[nommers]

At the very least I think this will turn out to be a great game but based mostly on each developers pride. Kitase is obsessed with FF7 and Cloud is his favorite vg character iirc. They aren’t gonna be lazy with this game.

[Harkins1721]

Its to bad about SoM remake (I still like it) and CT's quick port but I also think FF7 is in a league of its own.

[Godmars290]

Have they endangered something first shown as an early PS3 title then backed away from saying it would take lifetime careers to make and now intend to serialize when overall similar large and high profile productions from FF13, FF14 and what use to be Vs15 have literally had to be fully remade and compromised in the process?

Really, the "endangered" boat sailed a looooong time ago, chum.

[Goldby]

Never was a ps3 title or even hinted at it, it was a tech demo showing off what the ps3 could do

[Godmars290]

A tech demo that had be walked back from with the bizarre excuse 40 years would be needed to make it into a full game.

None of which addresses FF14 needing to reworked, the money and resources wasted on the first version, or that similar things happened in regards to FF13 and what became 15.

If the same kind of mindset exist where development is overestimated walked back and compromised then FF7 as a multiple part remake is going to be an ongoing mess. Likely another Kingdom Hearts.

[rainslacker]

A tech demo to show off their new graphics engine and what it could do on the PS3 is nowhere close to being a full game. A tech demo is an animated series of scenes created as such, whereas a game is developed to have more interaction with all that stuff.

Nowhere was it hinted at that the PS3 demo was going to be a game one day, and SE explicitly stated that it wasn't going to be from the start.

Even looking at the stuff shown for the remake so far, it was an animated trailer, likely not even from the production of the game, and some short game play segments with a few screen shots that look nothing like that PS3 demo.

Square has obviously thought through how they want to handle the remake. They spent a lot of time denying they were going to make it because of the lofty expectations....which when translated to business terms meant an expensive and long production to match up to the originals glory....and then a couple years ago just said they were going to do it. Since then, there hasn't been anywhere near enough information to determine if the game is in danger, or if SE is screwing up royally. I'm sure when they start to show off more, better judgments can be made, but people around here act like SE screws up everything they touch, when the reality is is that they've had some great games this gen. They've had some sub-par one's, or ones that don't live up to expectations too, but to me, they are performing better than the other big 3rd party publishers.

[Godmars290]

Its that they showed the demo with the immediate result of fans wanting it to the point that Square had to walk back something they had no intention of making.

But then its that they made the original FF14, that 13 and 15 became as over bloated and underwhelming - to some - as they did only says to me that Square has no plan or thought things through.

Just as FF13 became a trilogy, Kingdom Hearts any number of prequels and side stories before it's third entry, not to mention the FF14-lit that FF15 is becoming, only says to me that this FF7 remake - or is it "ReMade" which is the biggest red flag - is likely to be it's own vapid, ever divergent from main source, franchise within the franchise.

[rainslacker]

They said at the start of the demo that it was a demo and not an actual game. What more can they do? Of course people wanted it. People wanted it in the PS2 days as well. It wasn't that suddenly people wanted it because of the demo. The demo just fanned the fires of people wanting it, and some people assuming it meant that one was coming. But after that started, SE went further to say that wasn't the case, and said that they wouldn't do it until they felt they could remake it to the standards that people wanted. That may have been just PR talk, but it's obvious they aren't taking the remake lightly based on what we've heard so far.

FF13-15 aren't the FFVII remake. Sure FF in recent years hasn't been all that stellar, although FFXIV shaped up nicely. None of those are indicative of what we'll get from FFVIIR, because all three of those products are entirely different games. None of them extremely bad, just not up to people's expectations...with the exception of the FFXIV initial launch. FFVII will be different also, so gauging what they do with it based on those things seems premature in the face of what little they've shown so far.

FFXIII became a trilogy to recoup development costs of the first. KH has been around almost 12 years to release all those games. FFXIV was always an online title and held to a different standard. FFXV I can agree with, but at the same time, that's one game. Hardly indicative of a trend.

SE can indeed screw up with FFVII, but nothing so far indicates that they're doing that yet. It's easy to ignore the other games that SE releases that don't follow the trends you're implying exist. But if you look at their line up, outside their overfocus on mobile games with their staples, most do not follow these trends. SE has tried almost everything under the sun. Does that mean that every game they release in the future will also follow those same things? So far, we haven't seen a lot of that in their greater library.

[Godmars290]

"although FFXIV shaped up nicely."
The original FF14 was a trainwreck that had to be remade from square-one. Square has created a track record of massively messing up with high profile titles. That was my point before, now I'm repeating myself.

The tech demo for FF8 on the PS2 only proves how far back Square has made the mistake of raising expectations only to under deliver.

[Fullmetalevolust]

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but this is their flagship title and they're putting all of their resources into it. It will without a doubt break sales record if it's well implemented and they are fully aware of that. The nostalgia riding this title is major.
I guess most of us are wondering if it will stay true to its core gameplay (turn based) or will be it action based like FFXV is?
I, like many others, wanted a revamped version of a cult classic. So we will just have to wait and see what direction they took with this remaster reworked from the ground up.

[Harkins1721]

Its going to be action but not like XV. If I remember correctly an interview said a cross between KH and Dissidia.

[InKnight7s]

I hope its more of old DissidIa, KH BBS and KH 2.8.

[Goldby]

I ready on a scale of turn based (ff7) semi action. Based (kh) and pure live action (ff15l) its closer to ff7 than kh.

In one of the screenshots it shows a command to guard which h wouldn't be feasible if its a live action.

[rainslacker]

SE put off the remake for a long time despite huge demand because they felt they couldn't live up to the expectations that people had for the game itself. So they claimed anyways. I always felt it was more that to remake the game by more modern standards, and include everything to not piss off someone, would be an extremely expensive venture. FFVII had more content than the first two FFXIII games combined, and has more content than any FF game post-PS1 era....including the FFXV which only has a superficial layer of content.

Its probably best to come to the realization among the community that no matter what they do, someone is going to be unhappy about it. They simply won't be able to please everyone. People wanted a remake, but everyone has their own idea on what the remake should be. Personally, I'd rather the professional developers and directors make something in their own vision than trying to placate everyone, because then it stands a good chance of being a good game, because realistically, most people wouldn't really be that good at designing video games, and just want what they want.

Personally, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see how they handle the game. I'll play it if it looks good, then decide if they did a good job or not. It would have to look to be a complete travesty for me to criticize anything they make up before hand. We'll see how it goes, but I'm certainly not going to ponder on if they're screwing it up now based on remakes from other teams within the company, for games which are on a completely different scope than what they're talking about with FFVII.

[Lon3wolf]

Isn't Chrono Trigger a port and not a remake? Lets also not forget about FF12 which was a good port/remake. Obviously there is always a chance they will miss the mark with the FF7 remake but seeing as it is being made from the ground up I am hoping it will fare better than CT/SoM.

[Fist4achin]

I'm not crazy about the episodic release, but I think SE will do it right since it was the most successful FF as far as sales and popularity goes.

[Kratos_Kart2007]

no....

[PhoenixUp]

Not comparable

Just look at the Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, Final Fantasy III DS, Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection, Final Fantasy V Advance, Final Fantasy VI Advance, Final Fantasy VII HD, Final Fantasy IX HD, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD, Final Fantasy XII HD, Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.8, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration, Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, Dragon Quest IV DS, Dragon Quest V DS, Dragon Quest VI DS, Dragon Quest VII 3D, Dragon Quest VIII 3D, & The World Ends With You: Solo Remix and tell me they always do rereleases in a mediocre way

[jznrpg]

Why so much worry? It hasn’t even been very long and those other games aren’t comparable to FF7. FF7 brought them worldwide success and a ton of money like no other title. This means a lot , Secret of Mana looked like shit from the beginning of the “remaster” , nobody was expecting much from it. Ff7 is on another plane of existence compared to those games and I am not worried at all

[rainslacker]

What have we seen recently to make one speculate on this? Other remakes....remasters rather...somehow are on the same level as a AAA title with some of Square's stalwart directors and designers on the team?

[r3f1cul]

i feel sorry for them if this bombs ... the game that arguably put square on the map could be their downfall as well ... would be kinda poetic tho in a way O.o

[Zanarkand]

Not quite but this is Square's last chance to do it right. The backlash could be so great nothing will redeem Square.

[TheOttomatic91]

Wut?

[DimensionalSound]

Yes. And soon they will come for your wives and children. Monsters!

[Jalapeno]

I think those fears are unfounded. Square Enix can't afford to botch this remake and they will do anything to make it a good release.

[chaos-emeralds]

Should have been a straight up port with uber graphics.

[Artemidorus]

Should of been honest and made it clear it's a long term project.