Final Fantasy 7 Remake unrealistic!

[Mako]

Yup that's from kitase himself!

http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/final_fantasy_x_1.html

Now before anyone gets upset keep in mind square hasn't had the best of track records as of late...ALSO from the interview it sounds like he envisions a final fantasy 7 remake so epic it would take all of square's resources and manpower over the course of many many years! So at the very minimum he knows just a simple HD port wont do.

So that's good news for us modders I can learn to code and texture then I'll steal the Qgears source code and finish it myself MUHAHA

[titeguy3]

I suppose we could always use a Haste spell to speed up the process!

hahaha, classic dork-dom. I love it.

But yeah, in a way them not doing a means we have a good reason for doing all this, but we'd all be happy if they did (well, most of us anyways, I speak for myself). Win-win situation, if you ask me.

[BlitzNCS]

If we were to recreate final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together! So it's looking pretty unrealistic! But if any such situation came about by any remote chance, then yes, we'd do it!

...lol wait. So, if a chance ever randomly came about that they'd have an almost limitless amount of power right in front of them, a remake would take approximately 12 and a quarter years to do!? And here i thought we'd se a remake on the 20th anniversary  :'(

This timeframe seems a little bit unnecessary though. I mean, they don't have to do any designing whatsoever. In fact, they already have characters, a storyline, voice actors, FMV models, music composed, and they even did a cloud model for use on the PS3. Not to mention they actually already remade some of the cutscenes for advent children, plus they have the original FMV scenes that they can pretty much trace. By my calculations, it should really be taking three or four times shorter to do this. Ok, maybe to perfect it, I'd grant them three and a half years.

But it does seem that it's definately going to happen in my lifetime, which I guess I can live with. *starts waiting again*

[sithlord48]

perhaps this can be a good thing if they have no plans to make a remake. should give us less problems..

[Covarr]

I'm rather suspicious that they've mentioned this so many times in the last few months... They go years without talking about it, and all of a sudden we've got things from all over the company saying "We want to make it", "We can't make it", "We're not making it but we might", etc. Why the sudden attention they've been giving this subject?

[BlitzNCS]

Well, Maybe nobody actually thought to interview them about it until now.

although I do find it a little suspicious. If i was a conspiracy theorist, I would probably say that they're trying to kill everyone's expectations with the massive wait time and the dissapointing comments just so their announcement will spark that extra excitement. And also, if they knew that it was gonna be completely unrealistic, why would they bother hinting at it with the CC ending?

[Mako]

I'm rather suspicious that they've mentioned this so many times in the last few months... They go years without talking about it, and all of a sudden we've got things from all over the company saying "We want to make it", "We can't make it", "We're not making it but we might", etc. Why the sudden attention they've been giving this subject?

I think what it was is that they finished FF13 and seriously looked into remaking FF7 but realized how much man power it took to make FF13 and realized that the game could not be done...I also remember a quote from earlier saying "it would be to hard to do traditional RPG towns" or somthin along those lines. Like I said I think they gave it a great deal consideration recently and decided it would be to hard...

[obesebear]

A remake will happen before 2017.  Whether or not they have already begun work on it is debatable.  Square's fanbase has dropped significantly over the past few years and I'm sure they are well aware that a FF7 remake will easily sell to the millions of FF7 fans and newcomers to RPG's who have undoubtedly heard that's it's a great game.

Keep in mind, SE is a company looking to make as much money as possible (not necessarily to put out a good game)  The best way to make money is to milk their largest Final Fantasy for all it's worth, then release a remake towards the end.  So expect maybe one or two more spinoffs, followed by the remake.
It's going to be a couple more years

[Bosola]

This timeframe seems a little bit unnecessary though. I mean, they don't have to do any designing whatsoever. In fact, they already have characters, a storyline, voice actors, FMV models, music composed, and they even did a cloud model for use on the PS3

I guess that's why Q-gears was finished off, years ago, with so little time and effort. After all, with FF7's story and battle system already created, what was left to make?

The design of concept does not take up a large portion of production time. What does is -

• Modelling every entity in the game
• Debugging
• Animating, putting levels and walkmeshes together, implementing in-game logic
• Debugging
• Texturing anything that the player can, will, or may ever see
• Debugging
• Recording sound effects, sampling, mixing, cleaning, applying
• Yup, debugging
• Recording voices, faceposing
• More debugging
• Preparing game for production, arranging publication of game, marketing, brokering media spots
• Did I mention debugging? Because that's involved too. A lot of it.
• Creating visual effects, tweaking engines, writing code for new functionality
• It begins with a 'd'...

You're the not the first person to say that. But think about it: do you really think the $40-odd million and four years spent on FFXIII were spent thinking up Snow's character design?

This sort of thing crops up all the time on GameFAQs. Not having a go at you, but we get a lot of the above, invariably from some random teenager acting as though they understand RPG development, and Square's own production cycle, better than the company themselves. Kitase is not just 'some guy'. He's an experienced professional. When he says it isn't all that easy, it's a good idea to trust him.

[BlitzNCS]

Actually, you have a very good point there, lol.
But it can't be denied- they do already have a lot of reference materal to aid the creation of new elements such as these, as opposed to starting from scratch with FF13 (although actually, now I think about it, maybe sticking to something already designed is harder than just sort of making things from scratch, you have a lot less freedom and you have to do things more precisely)

SE is a company looking to make as much money as possible (not necessarily to put out a good game)  The best way to make money is to milk their largest Final Fantasy for all it's worth, then release a remake towards the end.  So expect maybe one or two more spinoffs, followed by the remake.

Another good point, but why do the spin-offs have to come before the remake? I'm sure they'd do just as well afterwards. Maybe not, I dunno.

[Bosola]

You do have a lot of ideas already on paper, and the benefit of twelve years' feedback. That said, you've then got to spend just as much time deciding what sort of 'remake' you want to produce. Will it be a carbon copy? Will it have new content? Will it have voices (some fans object to this, after all)? Should the mechanics be altered? You've now the added burden of fan expectations. This is far more problematic than a lack of creative freedom - FFVII-2 would be an expensive project, and be marketed at a smaller number of gamers than an entirely new FF game. Their acceptance is vital - alienate the fans by changing too mcy, and you could lose a lot of money. Stick too close to the original, and few people will be motivated to buy something they already have - which could be just as expensive. Not a great position for SE to be in.

[Kudistos Megistos]

You do have a lot of ideas already on paper, and the benefit of twelve years' feedback. That said, you've then got to spend just as much time deciding what sort of 'remake' you want to produce. Will it be a carbon copy? Will it have new content? Will it have voices (some fans object to this, after all)? Should the mechanics be altered? You've now the added burden of fan expectations. This is far more problematic than a lack of creative freedom - FFVII-2 would be an expensive project, and be marketed at a smaller number of gamers than an entirely new FF game. Their acceptance is vital - alienate the fans by changing too mcy, and you could lose a lot of money. Stick too close to the original, and few people will be motivated to buy something they already have - which could be just as expensive. Not a great position for SE to be in.

This is what I've been saying for a long time

Square is really stuck between Scylla and Charybdis with a remake. Fans are sharply divided over what they want, so there's no way to please everyone. There's no way that they can please all the old fans and bring in lots of new ones. In fact, there's no way to please all of the old ones either.

Square would have to choose between keeping one set of fans happy by either going for the "carbon copy" remake or an overhaul for the 2010s, thus losing the support of the other set, or going for a compromise that is more likely to please no-one than to please everyone.

Personally, I'd like them to make a carbon copy with no voices (or at least an option to turn voices off), the same battle mechanics, chibi characters, general graphical improvements that are more akin to tweaking the original than completely redoing it, and absolutely no changes to the storyline of characters. A better translation and a few extra minigames and sidequests might be acceptable, but nothing else. Of course, if they did this, they'd be shouted down by the (unfortunately large) proportion of fans who got into the franchise with CC or AC and might expect something quite different, as well as the critics who would bitch about them not innovating.

Square must also be aware that the Compilation has had a very mixed reception, and a very poor reception from many of the older fans who have objected to all the emo crap, Matrix-style fighting and lack of colour*. The idea of remaking the game must be terrifying for the people at Square who haven't completely sold out, and a little nerve-wracking even for those who have.

*Srsly, if you watched Advent Children on two TVs at the same time, one colour, the other black and white, you wouldn't be able to tell which was which until Reno came on screen for the first time with his (washed-out looking) red hair.

[titeguy3]

I'm one of the ones who would like to see something innovated added to the game. An exact replica of the plot and feel of the game, but I'd like a better perspective on the world of FFVII. Something like what we got with FFX. I'd be sorely pissed if they decided to do a remake, and it was nothing better than what we're doing here. New graphics, new game engine (3D ftw!), new spells, additional limits, revamped enemies, MAYBE some new bosses (Tseng, anyone?), and extra challenge is what I'd like to see, but without sacrificing the materia system, or the game's light-hearted charm (which I admit would be hard to preserve with voice acting), but what would please me 100% might wholly displease someone else.

[obesebear]

What would be the point of a remake if it is something the fans can do themselves?

If nothing else, with the capacity of a Blu-Ray Disc, they could easily add all kinds of options to make everyone happy.  Want no voices? turn it off.  Want curse words to be symbols? turn it on.  Want the whole cast to be emo? too bad.   

The materia system is great and works very well, but it's obviously clearly broken when you can beat Ruby Weapon by simply pressing one button.  It needs a definite reworking.

New Game + is a definite must.  It is far FAR too easy. 

New boss battles should be added as well, but require going out of your way too find and/or activate.

The story..  Oh, the story.  I know I'm not the only one who loved the shit out of Disc 1.  But once Disc 2 came around, it seemed like the action and plot really tapered off.  That would need to be reworked drastically, and it shouldn't be too hard to add in little extra bits of dialogue or quests to the main story.
TL;DR The original is great, but the remake should completely overhaul everything about the game.

By the way, how badass would it be if we finished modding the hell out of the PC version, and SE released it as a bonus included with the remake.

[Bosola]

The story..  Oh, the story.  I know I'm not the only one who loved the sh*t out of Disc 1.  But once Disc 2 came around, it seemed like the action and plot really tapered off.

TIFA: ok wat do we do now lol
CAIT: teh shinra are doin stuff
BARRET: nooo! evil shinra! They might be the only ones with a half decent, well thought out plan to save the planet, but I'm going to put all that aside, simply for the sake of opposing them. Never mind that we have no good reason to disrupt the huge materia plan (except Red's vague intimation that *maybe* the Huge Materia *might* be useful - which, of course, they never really are), I feel a fight coming on!
CID: ok lol lets getem

----

Also, not really quite on-topic, but thought I'd share anyway: The following appeared in my comment inbox for the FF7 rebalance I'm producing:

srry my comment got partially cutoff i was also gonna include other stuff and i am just gonna reiterate some of the ideas, why dont you bring the game to PS2 so we could new stuff like new summons and new characters like bring in Dyne and Red XIII's dad, for weapon clashes Dyne could use crossbows and Red XIII's dad could use claws, also you could enhance certain qualities for certain characters like Cloud could have an attribute like loner which is allows him to be harder to kill if his allies are killed, or for Barret could have Rage to enhance his strength, or Red XIII, could have Beast Speed which inreases his likely hood to attack before the enemy, also for the new summons it could be other combonations like Kjato which would combine Earth, Holy and Wind, and Kjate which combines Darkness, Water, and Poison, and combo summon called triplets which could combine all three and/or a Zeus summon which does the opposite of Hades and gives the party bonuses instead of giving the enemy ailments also i though of something else maybe the weapons could give certain benefits (like butterfly sword in cosmo canyon could give enhanced speed and ragnarok could give enhanced vitality) and a jump materia maybe??

I then get the following:

it probbaly wouldnt take that long

I think I want to cry.

[Tekkie.X]

At this point Square are just handing out excuses, a realistic time frame would be around 2 to 3 years for them to do it, they already have the plot, character designs, base level design concepts, the music is written and they have an engine to use as well.

That's a good chunk of work already done.

[titeguy3]

Also, not really quite on-topic, but thought I'd share anyway: The following appeared in my comment inbox for the FF7 rebalance I'm producing:

srry my comment got partially cutoff i was also gonna include other stuff and i am just gonna reiterate some of the ideas, why dont you bring the game to PS2 so we could new stuff like new summons and new characters like bring in Dyne and Red XIII's dad, for weapon clashes Dyne could use crossbows and Red XIII's dad could use claws, also you could enhance certain qualities for certain characters like Cloud could have an attribute like loner which is allows him to be harder to kill if his allies are killed, or for Barret could have Rage to enhance his strength, or Red XIII, could have Beast Speed which inreases his likely hood to attack before the enemy, also for the new summons it could be other combonations like Kjato which would combine Earth, Holy and Wind, and Kjate which combines Darkness, Water, and Poison, and combo summon called triplets which could combine all three and/or a Zeus summon which does the opposite of Hades and gives the party bonuses instead of giving the enemy ailments also i though of something else maybe the weapons could give certain benefits (like butterfly sword in cosmo canyon could give enhanced speed and ragnarok could give enhanced vitality) and a jump materia maybe??

I then get the following:

it probbaly wouldnt take that long

I think I want to cry.

Lo siento, Bosola.

[Jaitsu]

one boss battle i think needs to be added is a definit second battle with rufus, i think a bigger battle then the first, in which he takes clouds attacks like they don't do anything at all, then cheats by flying away, is just a bit of leaving to be desired, i'd like at least one or two extra boss battles with him added, tseng too, and if they remake, make sure that cloud has his original ff7 personality, not the one from advent children where he sounds like he's gonna cry for most the movie.

[gjoerulv]

Another one of these huh. Isn't this topic beaten to death? I guess not...
Personally I could live without a remake, but must admit I would be somewhat thrilled if SE decides to make one. Though the only thing that is really, really good with the whole ff7 universe is... well... ff7 (Yeah AC was awesomely made, but it felt like an average cyber-punk anime with an emo feel. The action was great though). I guess that's the reason I'm not all hyped up with the idea of a remake.

one boss battle i think needs to be added is a definit second battle with rufus, i think a bigger battle then the first, in which he takes clouds attacks like they don't do anything at all, then cheats by flying away, is just a bit of leaving to be desired, i'd like at least one or two extra boss battles with him added, tseng too, and if they remake, make sure that cloud has his original ff7 personality, not the one from advent children where he sounds like he's gonna cry for most the movie.

lol they've got all the new bosses they need in my hardcore mod.

[Jaitsu]

Another one of these huh. Isn't this topic beaten to death? I guess not...
Personally I could live without a remake, but must admit I would be somewhat thrilled if SE decides to make one. Though the only thing that is really, really good with the whole ff7 universe is... well... ff7 (Yeah AC was awesomely made, but it felt like an average cyber-punk anime with an emo feel. The action was great though). I guess that's the reason I'm not all hyped up with the idea of a remake.

one boss battle i think needs to be added is a definit second battle with rufus, i think a bigger battle then the first, in which he takes clouds attacks like they don't do anything at all, then cheats by flying away, is just a bit of leaving to be desired, i'd like at least one or two extra boss battles with him added, tseng too, and if they remake, make sure that cloud has his original ff7 personality, not the one from advent children where he sounds like he's gonna cry for most the movie.

lol they've got all the new bosses they need in my hardcore mod.

lol i mean if square wants fans to play, cause i know theres many out there who'd love to take rufus on alot, and don't use mods or the PC version