FFVII. And that's it.

[MagiMaster]

You know, though FFVII is one of my favorite games of all time, I must marvel at those who somehow seem to think that it's more than that - just a game.  For example, I'm not criticizing the creators, but Advent Children?  It's a movie about FFVII.  Why?  For those (and I have seen them) who can't stand the game ending and need more.  Not more games, more FFVII.  The game had a story that I thought tied nicely together, but some people crave more like those who crave more Star Wars, and have to buy all the books of stuff that happened "in between the movies".  Yes, I wish there was more FFVII.  But I don't want people expanding on it and creating intricate stoylines that we all could do without (Crisis Core).  For me, a remake would be the best thing that could happen to it.

[Wuz]

i'm ok with advent children because now we know what happened. Though maybe it was better left to the imagination?
Any other FF7 titles i don't care for... they are cash ins!
and if a remake is made and totally sucks at least we've still got the great work here

[MagiMaster]

if a remake is made and totally sucks at least we've still got the great work here

True, true... I hope Q-gears works!

[Wuz]

NPC reconstruction project and a few other tweaks is enough, though i'd like to see q-gears resample the backgrounds and filter them nicely

[ChaosControl]

The way I see it: the more extra material, the more questions O_o;

[MagiMaster]

The way I see it: the more extra material, the more questions O_o;

Exactly!  I just think that most FFVII questions are pushing too hard into the story.  Perhaps this will answer half of them:

AERIS IS DEAD.

But those asking don't want such an answer.

[James]

Actually:

FFVII is a masterpiece.

The game is, storywise and pretty much gameplay wise, one of the best video games I've ever played (and likely many here have ever played). The graphics for the time were amazing, and even today, they're "acceptable".

Why try to improve upon greatness?

Seeing Sephiroth "in flames" was probably one of the most powerful cinematic moments I've ever seen, both in video games and in movies.

Watching the selfless Cait Sith get crushed only to see another Cait Sith walk up to the party was comical, kind of light hearted. Relieving.

Looking on in horror as Sephiroth brutally kills Aeris was heartwrenching. Emotional. Terribly sad.


FF7 is a masterpiece. Advent Children was good, and I like Dirge of Cerebrus (mostly for the story), but we don't need more (more would be nice, but, well, the new Star Wars trilogy sucked and makes it hard to watch the OT - I wouldn't want that to happen to FF7). We don't need a remake, we don't need fancy graphics. Let the gaming community (us) improve it as we see fit.


Just my thoughts.

I don't see a Square-Enix sponsored remake going as well as we'd like UNLESS they stuck entirely to the storyline and already established gameplay elements.

[zaphod77]

Here's what I would and would not liek to see.

1) Active Time Battle must stay, completeylyl unchanged.
2) the battle swirl (and battle maps" feature need ot stay as well. However, more battle maps, such as ones with stairs, for example, coudl be made.)
3) the gourad shaded look should be kept for many monsterrs. Maybe add bump mappig for texturing, but the graphical style of the enemy monsters shoudl be retained. The FPS, however, could easily got up to 60 now. And of course the battle and field models of the characers wold get an improvement.
4) extra content, such a s optional side quests, more Weapons, etc.  Maybe a new materia or two.
5) better translation. (examples. PCS instead of PHS in the us version. you see PHS was a play on "personal handifone system" in japan, and to carry the joke properly, here, it wuld be (SPrint) PCS (maybe even with sprit logo!).)
6) a bit of rebalancing, and perhaps aslight difficulty increase. the game really is a bit too easy, thugh in the beginning that's not a bad thing, but when youget onto the world map it really shoudl kick up a notch or two.
7) Musics soudl get a quality upgrade, but many of the tunes are great as is and hod up today. Wisely chosen sample improvements will make thme better, but overdoing the sprucing up will ruin them.  Take Makou REactor XG fora good example on how to improve a tune.
New Game Plus.  EIther use the Chrono trigger styele, wher it's jsut gravy, andlets you get waht you missed the first time, or the Parasite Eve style, where you get to go for the TRUE ending, with difficulty kicked up a HUGE amount.

ANd what i DON'T want to see.

1) Aerith ressurection (she will ALWAYS be Aerith to me).  no no no! this  is a scene breaker.  But maybe it would be okay as a part of a difficulty enhanced new game plus, liek parasite eves, where the true objective is to bring back Aeris, and recover th Holy materia (which oddly enough is stolen when Aerith is killedthis time thru, and yo have ot go through LOTS of trouble to get it back)

[James]

Well done.

If the English language were a person, you just slapped him, spat on him, stabbed him, killed him, defaced his corpse, buried him, dug him back up, and raped him.

...

Seriously, just call her Aeris. Aerith just sounds like a guy with a lisp trying to say "Aerith".

"Pleathe don't rethurrect Aerith, Thquare!"

[Khaos1987]

Agreed James, I got down to number three before my eyeballs melted.

Anyway, to get on topic, I'd like a remake. Everything about the game was pretty damn good. Plot, backgrounds, characters, storyline, conflicts, dialogue, music, FMVs, they all came together nicely to achieve what few games come close to. I'd only want four things to change:

1) We're up to the PS3, upgrade those lego blocks to AC-like graphics!

2) Correct the spelling.

3) Put that booster materia in the game.

4) Let us finally enter that cave by the city of the ancients. Don't care if it's empty, put the booster in there of something.

That's it. Leave Aeris dead, it's an important plot point and provides player motivation.

[Kashmir]

3) Put that booster materia in the game.

whats the booster materia?

[Khaos1987]

Oh, I thought everyone knew about that, sorry.   

Here's a link that explains about the cave and the materia.

http://www.ff7citadel.com/secrets/s_cave.shtml

EDIT: And here's a short list of a few extra materia that can't be found in the american version of the game, but show up in the programming:

Booster : A Support materia with no use, may boost AP gained.
Law     : A Command materia with the Throw and Coin abilities.
Rifuabu : A Magic materia with the Wall spell (3 levels).

[Kashmir]

Booster : A Support materia with no use, may boost AP gained.

That would make sense seeing as there is exp+ and gp+

[Khaos1987]

If that's what it does, I'd like them to put it in the game. I'm tired of spending all that time in the north crater fighting magic pots and movers trying to master KotR.

I also heard that they put in a "Prevent Floor Damage" materia, which leads me to believe that they originally intended for cloud to be hurt by walking on the wrong places outside battle. (Lava, floor spikes, etc.) But they must have scrapped that, since I've played through the american version plenty of times and never seen it. I dont want this in the game, there's already enough of that in the whirlwind maze. 

[Fergus McMillan]

I liked Advent Children (dilly dally shilly shally aside) but I think the other games are just kind of.. warping the universe of FFVII too much. I loved the feel and the atmosphere of FFVII and I don't think the other games rightly convey the same sort of feeling.

*Erm... Possible spoiler warning for BC, DOC?*

Plus, all this added stuff... why are there like a gazillion more weapons that apparently nobody knew about before? How come AVALANCHE apparently used to be a huge army that everyone conveniently forgot about? What's up with this 'G' stuff? I think G and whatnot takes away from the impact and the uniqueness of Sephiroth and the extra WEAPONs just seem kind of.. you know, tacked on.

I wish instead of adding all this new stuff that they would have just expended on little things mentioned in FFVII that we didn't hear about. For example, the Wutai war and all Sephiroth's accomplishments that made him so famous in the first place. What about Shin-Ra's initial rise to power? What about the original discovery of Mako energy? What about the first impact of Jenova and the decimation of the Ancients?

So far I think that Crisis Core looks promising, maybe, as far as keeping the FFVII 'feel'. I don't really have any desire to play Before Crisis and I might check out DoC after a while, but I'm not too hyped about it.

I really, truly, honestly beg for a FFVII remake on the PS3. It's guaranteed money. ANYTHING with FFVII tacked on to it is guaranteed money.

[stevenw9]

I noticed that Aeris being dead has been mentioned a few times here. The only problem with that is in the true japanese version there -is- an alternate ending where Aeris is not dead, the question was for awhile which ending would Square-Soft/Square-Enix follow? The movie was a godsend in that question, it showed everyone that Aeris was infact dead. No matter how many more questions it may throw I think everyone who cried when Aeris died just got the best thing in the world delivered to them.

[Synergy Blades]

The only problem with that is in the true japanese version there -is- an alternate ending where Aeris is not dead

Any proof of this miraculous new revelation when everyone else knows there's only one ending, even in the Japanese version? Anyway, please don't revive topics over a couple of weeks old, as per the rules.

[stevenw9]

Sorry, I was under the impression it was allowed as long as you had a reason to do so. -.- As for the alternate ending, I don't have a confirmation on it. It was an old rumor I hear which I thought was true but i'm not so sure now. My internet is running slugish and disconnecting on and off so as soon as it stops i'll get to researching it

 - Edit: I must have been under a rock or something! Considering I haven't looked this up since '99... it appears to be the #1 most annoying rumor of all time. sorry!

[zaphod77]

That old ben lansing rumor?  LOL

At one time it was planned that Aerith woud survive, and that Cloud woud end up with Aerith. But durig development, it was decidd instead "let's kill off Aerith and put Cloud with Tifa". Hence, the fact that she still has dialogue in scenes after her death, but noneof the dialoge is plot related.

It is suspected that at one time the plan was to kill her much later in the game. after all, why go through the trouble of putting in a level 4 limit break that you'd have to be trying damn hard to ever get to see?
o
But the truth is Aerith is supoposed to die, and there is no way to stop it, and there is no way to bring her back.

That said, apparently it is canon in the ff7-verse that Aerith does in fact love Cloud (The Maiden who travels the planet in the Ultimania Om,ega book), and the movie does seem to hint that when Clouds life finaly does end, he will end up with Aerith in the Lifestram.  Or maybe with TIfa *and* Aerith (i remember one ahem.. INTERESTING fanfic that has them all three as lovers to each other (laugh).

[stevenw9]

Now, we've seen that Sephiroth was able to come back through Kadaj. This was because of sephiroth's genes/jenovas life force or whatever. The question is, if that is possible what's to say Aeris would never come back? Ah, the plot thickens .

[CaptainNoobtastic]

Aeris didnt come from jenova though, she was a cetra ("ancient"), she's dead, deal with it

[RW_66]

I feel a need to point out a few things here that are rather mis-informed:

The only problem with that is in the true japanese version there -is- an alternate ending where Aeris is not dead, the question was for awhile which ending would Square-Soft/Square-Enix follow?

That old ben lansing rumor? LOL

At one time it was planned that Aerith woud survive, and that Cloud woud end up with Aerith. But during development, it was decided instead "let's kill off Aerith and put Cloud with Tifa". Hence, the fact that she still has dialog in scenes after her death, but none of the dialog is plot related.

Aerith/Aeris was fated from the start to die. The only change was that in the early game-planning stage she was originally going to die in the Northern Crater before/during Sephiroth's summoning 'Meteor' with the black materia. This also explained how Sephiroth wound up with both the black and white materia. However, Hironobu Sakaguchi decided that her death would have a deeper meaning if she died in a quieter place, so he rearranged a few details (all very minor), and viola! now she's dead a few hours earlier in the game.

Personally, I think Sakaguchi picked it right. It wouldn't have had the same impact if this had happened in the Nothern Crater with everything else that goes on.

That said, apparently it is canon in the ff7-verse that Aerith does in fact love Cloud (The Maiden who travels the planet in the Ultimania Om,ega book), and the movie does seem to hint that when Clouds life finaly does end, he will end up with Aerith in the Lifestram. Or maybe with TIfa *and* Aerith ..

Anybody who has watched much japanese dramas/serials can see the (fairly common) theme of the love triangle that is prevalent in many japanese shows, including the popular 'Tenchi Muyo' series,'Sakura Diaries','Gatachamon', 'Macross', etc. Aerith loved Zack (Cloud's friend), Cloud loves Aerith, and Tifa loves Cloud. It probably be sickingly sweet (or deeply depressing) if it was explored too deeply, which thankfully it wasn't.

Now, we've seen that Sephiroth was able to come back through Kadaj. This was because of sephiroth's genes/jenovas life force or whatever. The question is, if that is possible what's to say Aeris would never come back? Ah, the plot thickens .

One of the things that should have come across while playing the game is that Jenova is not "part of the planet", it is an alien being that invaded the planet long ago. Because of this Jenova can not "return to the planet", and therefore, can not truly die. Jenova has the ability to control other beings that are 'infused' with pieces of itself(probably some genetic material). Sephiroth was 'designed' to be a Jenova/human hybrid that had never existed before, that could "share' the knowledge that existed in the (then dormant) Jenova.This would have given Shinra an almost unprecedented resource to further exploit and control the world. However, during the trip through Nibelheim, Sephiroth came to realize the true nature of what he 'was'.

How much of Sephiroth's behavior is Jenova, and how much is his own, may never be fully understood. But he has many 'powers' that come from his unique parentage. Among these, is the ability to control other sephiroth/jenova "clones", the ability to change his appearance (remember Ifalna mentioned to Prof. Gast that Jenova first appeared to them "wearing the appearance of our dear departed"), superhuman strength and reflexes, and an innate understanding of materia and 'magic'. Apparently, Sephiroth (or rather, his consciousness) also can not "return to the planet" either, but instead is 'trapped' in the lifestream, and can only 'escape' when enough jenova 'material' is joined with a human.

[stevenw9]

That makes no sense though. In the movie people had the geo-stigma which is what happened when your life force was 'tainted' with jenova's cells. I just said life force for lack of better term. Anyway, Kadaj had the jenova cells in him which is why he 'became' sephiroth in the end by takeing in a bigger piece of Jenova. The question is, if Jenova can have this effect on so many people by just tainting them and Aeris can apparently somehow slip out of the life stream and help Cloud in the fight with that big ugly monster, what else can she do?