http://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-7-remake-s-story-could-deviate-from-/1100-6428247/
Pretty much what I expected. I mean, just based on the trailer you can see that they have already taken liberties with the design of Midgard, and the soldiers(or whatever they are) look more like something out of Modern Combat or Killzone, than FF.
It could work - as I said in my first post, as a sort of "reboot" to the series rather than just a remake.
However, even if I welcome such change for the chance to experience something new, I am going to expect something that is as good, if not better than the original in its own right.
If they start cutting content (like removing the world-map, or not replacing it with an expansive over-world), scrapping the original materia system in favor of something that allows for much less customization, or remove iconic story portions without replacing them with something to fill the gap, then the game isn't going to be very good even on its own - especially with FF15 around the corner.
FF15, love it or hate it, has a lot of promise on the content side of things, with what seems to be a pretty huge world to explore, and in that sense (the grand epic adventure sense) it does have the FF feel to my mind, despite the action combat and the lack of an Uematsu soundtrack. If the remake comes out, and it's this rush through a linear Midgard, with this abstraction for a world map a la FFX, without mini-games, or chocobo breeding/racing etc. then it's just going to be a bad game period.
Actually when I think about it - if they plan on doing major changes, then I would rather they stop calling it a remake, and call it a reboot instead. At least that way, there won't be any ambiguousness on SE's part, and it won't feel like they're just trying to cash
in on the franchise by slapping the FF7 name on something that will be essentially different.
In either case - I hope they aren't just going to leave us hanging with that teaser for several months and proceed to give us some info of substance on the nature of the project. As it is now, it could be anything - it could literally just be a rail-shooter loosely following the plot of FF7 =P
Also, what is wrong with it being Matrix-like? Especially as it's a Japanese game, heavily influenced by Japanese animation of the time, and The Matrix is heavily borrowing from the same sources! It just seems like you're unhappy that your Japanese game is TOO JAPANESE, you know? :p
We will probably get to do most of the fighting ourselves, rather than getting fmvs, anyway. And I will be upset if Vincent doesn't do at least SOME tactical slo-mo back-flips!
Matrix IMO had some of the worst fight choreography I've ever seen. Might sound like hyperbola, but I'm a purist on the matter, and a martial arts enthusiast, so I'm a stickler for this stuff.
Matrix has sub-par kung-fu mixed together with what can only be described as Dragon Ball choreography, and those two genres just don't mix very well.
Also, that's not typical of all Japanese action. Japanese fight scenes exist in many different forms. Typically, Japanese martial arts are minimalistic, focusing on economy of movement, not flashy spectacle, and by extension a lot of Japanese fight choreographers in Japanese cinema go for minimalism as well, with the exception perhaps of the chanbara genre.
The phenomenon you think of here is a relatively modern phenomenon born from the Japanese animation industry and a feed-back-loop it has had with western action choreography since the rise and popularity of the Matrix. Go back and look at 90's anime, and the action is, while over-the-top light shows etc. nothing like the Matrix with it's drawn-out annoying exchanges of blows in zero gravity (with some exceptions like Dragon Ball Z)
FF7 was flashy in it's own rights (just look at the limit-breaks), but it wasn't Matrix-esque before AC. The FF7 action was, again, this typical 90's neon-colored spectacle with light-waves, laser-beams and elemental stuff flying all over the place.
In AC, it was suddenly a bunch of back-flips and wall-running, and long sword exchanges almost devoid of magic.
EDIT - I also think that the subdued action in FF7 had a much stronger impact on the narrative than the over-the-top action in AC.
Sephiroth was awesome because he just chilled, and took two swipes at a dragon and killed it - not because he flew around like a fairy on coke and cut scenery into ribbons.
Even with games like FF8, when they had the capability to animate more sophisticated battle sequences, the sword-fight between Squall and Seifer in the beginning was subdued (almost tame compared to AC) suggesting that the battle-choreography of the PS1 games were consciously made stylistic choices of the times (by Japanese people no less).
I am not pissed off that the game might be "too Japanese" - rather I am worried that it's going to end up looking like what Japanese animation is like today, rather than what it was back when the original game was made - because by any account, today's Japanese anime is a constant spectacle of trying to create more and more ridiculous fight scenes by relying primarily on how much it resembles
the bastard child of Devil May Cry 3 and every animation movie made by Monty Oum ever.
And personally, I am sick and tired of that, because it's everywhere else as well ATM.
It's literally every action scene ever nowadays. Time to do something new, by doing something retro.
