Final Fantasy VII Spinning Off and Spinning Out

[Mike Hoffman]

Final Fantasy VII Spinning Off and Spinning Out

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Final Fantasy VII G-Bike is an "action racer". Relive the Gold Saucer, now with micro-transactions!

Square Enix still isn't ready to commit to remaking [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/final%20fantasy%20vii"]Final Fantasy VII[/a], but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of games to spin off of it. [a href="http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff7_gbike/en/"]Final Fantasy VII G-Bike[/a] is an "action chaser" that revisits the admittedly awesome motorcycle sequences from the revered 1997 JRPG.

The game is headed to Android and iPhone ([a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137568-Wave-Hoax-Tells-iPhone-Users-to-Microwave-Their-Phones"]assuming you haven't blown yours up[/a]), but since it was just announced at the Tokyo Game Show this week, there is no release date. Sure, this is just more milking of a 17 year old game with a huge reputation, but at least it's free-to-play. Well, until you get to the In-App purchases.

The director of Final Fantasy VII, Yoshinori Kitase, stated earlier this year he would [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132284-Final-Fantasy-VII-Director-Would-Love-To-Do-a-Remake"]love to do a remake[/a], but given the huge titles Square Enix is working on already, it still seems very unlikely.

With the [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/final%20fantasy%20xv"]Final Fantasy XV[/a] [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137524-Final-Fantasy-XV-Demo-in-2015"]demo due in 2015[/a] (and presumably the full game some years later) and [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/kingdom%20hearts%20iii"]Kingdom Hearts III[/a] coming out someday, the development side of the company has its hands full. Oh, and there is still the task of maintaining the MMO, [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/final%20fantasy%20xiv"]Final Fantasy XIV[/a].

Final Fantasy VII G-Bike may not exactly be chocobo racing, but the trailer still calls out the Gold Saucer from the original game. The trailer also pulls off some nostalgia grabs with classic enemies from the original game, and a cameo from Tifa Lockhart.

If Final Fantasy VII and its [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/512-Dirge-of-Cerberus"]various[/a] [a href="http://youtu.be/k70IWHiXl18"]multimedia[/a] [a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Crisis_Core_-Final_Fantasy_VII-"]spinoffs[/a] aren't your cup of tea, check out [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/galleryoftheday/11933-8-JRPGs-Better-Than-Final-Fantasy-7"]our list of 8 JRPGs that are better[/a] than it.

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[ThunderCavalier]

Are we absolutely certain that Square isn't just screwing with us now?

Square: Maybe if we tease FF7 enough, when we officially announce a HD rerelease it'll sell three times the population on the planet.

 

[Scars Unseen]

As long as it isn't crippled by microtransactions, it could be a decent game to poop to. But it will probably be crippled by microtransactions.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

If I were Sony or MS I'd straight up pay Square Enix to remake the game and make it a console exclusive.

 

[drkchmst]

Lol ffxv in a few years. Nah I'm rofling. Not sure we'll see that before the next next gen.

 

[VincentX3]

With the Final Fantasy XV demo due in 2015 (and presumably the full game some years later) and Kingdom Hearts III coming out someday, the development side of the company has its hands full. Oh, and there is still the task of maintaining the MMO, Final Fantasy XIV.

There also busy porting games no body likes to steam :v

http://store.steampowered.com/app/292120/


BUT ACTUALLY REMAKING A GAME EVERYONE REMEMBERS AND LIKES (Mostly everyone)
HA...no

Seriously why would they do that? They obviously see that remaking good games is not profitable.
/sarcasam

Yea.. I'm done ranting

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Let's change Free to Play to something more truthful, like; Limited Playtime.

Because once you run out of lives/credits you can either buy more, or wait an hour for it to recharge.

 

[DragonWright]

I played the heck out f G-Bike waybackwhen.

I'd play the heck out of this on PS4.

...so why is it a phone game? Put it on PSN!

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Oh come on, first they say they're too busy with their big projects to remake 7 properly. Then, they start porting every major FF to PC (not a bad thing, mind you). Then they rev up the ol' "free-to-play horseshit minigame chainsaw" again to cut gullible people's money out of their wallets. Quit wasting time on this, Sqenix, and either get back to porting a good FF (not 13's trite) to PC or just stick to that game that's been in development for 10 years.

Honestly, with 13 and its sequels being crap, Square trying to branch into the mobile market with crap like All the Bravest, and the recent FFXV looking like either a fancy car commercial with bishonens and dinos or a Japanese remake of the movie Road Trip, I'm beginning to wonder why Square Enix isn't in as bad of shape as Capcom is. It would be nice if FFXV returned to the good old open world, less bishified days of FFI-IX, but every new thing out of Square in the past 8 years makes me think they've just lost it, both creativity and mental stability.

 

[Grospoliner]

Are we absolutely certain that Square isn't just screwing with us now?

Square: Maybe if we tease FF7 enough, when we officially announce a HD rerelease it'll sell three times the population on the planet.

After FF All the Bravest. I'm convinced Square's going straight to crap.

 

[Fox12]

It looks like it's time for Cloud to put on his dress, because Square isn't done whoring him out just yet.

"Final Fantasy VII G-Bike is an "action chaser" that revisits the admittedly awesome motorcycle sequences from the revered 1997 JRPG."

...or I could just replay the original game. In fact, I think I'll do that right now.

 

[Saltyk]

Damn. I'm torn. It looks like a pretty good version of one of my favorite moments in pretty much my all time favorite game. But it's F2P and a phone game.

Tell ya what, Square. Make it available on PSN for like $10 and I would play the hell out of it. Bashing Guard Scorpion is always fun. It was one of my favorite enemies to kill in Crisis Core.
Admittedly, I feel like this weakens my long held position that remaking FFVII would not work.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Eh, I think XIII only sucked in the way that VII and X did, in that it has overstayed its welcome.

At any rate, I've always thought that it would be really cool if Square managed to make gameplay emulating the motorcycle fight sequences from Advent Children. Heck, seeing as emulating the other fight scenes was basically the goal of XV, why not?

Still, it'd be nice to see VII remade at some point. It has aged terribly, even compared to some of its predecessors, which have at least received a few facelifts. And as it stands in its own Compilation, VII is an ugly duckling. I also wonder whether the plot would get rewritten at all (i.e. Vincent and Yuffie are canon). And because, well, I'm not sure I want to see Cloud in a dress in glorious High Def (I know a few people who might, though).

 

[ElMinotoro]

This has to be a risk vs reward situation for Squeenix. Sure they could remake FF7 (FF6 also has a pretty big fanbase wanting a remake. And Chrono Trigger.) but will they see enough money from the investment? Remember, they're not out just to make money but to make ALL the money. What probably makes more sense (at least in a short term scenario, such as the timeline for a single game project) is to pump out awful games on mobile with as little effort as possible.

They should probably think about trying to not poison the well if they want longer term success. Or at least reinvest the money made from shovelware into bigger and better projects.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

So long as they don't throttle playtime with pay to play crap, Asphalt 8 used to be a pretty alright example of a Free to Play game... till they went stark raving mad. $100 bucks for a digital car? Get all kinds of fucked!

At least with shitty F2P Games you can always delete the game without spending a dime if it looks like a load of shit.

 

[VincentX3]

With the Final Fantasy XV demo due in 2015 (and presumably the full game some years later) and Kingdom Hearts III coming out someday, the development side of the company has its hands full. Oh, and there is still the task of maintaining the MMO, Final Fantasy XIV.

There also busy porting games no body likes to steam :v

http://store.steampowered.com/app/292120/


BUT ACTUALLY REMAKING A GAME EVERYONE REMEMBERS AND LIKES (Mostly everyone)
HA...no

Seriously why would they do that? They obviously see that remaking good games is not profitable.
/sarcasam

Yea.. I'm done ranting

They're remaking FF13?! WHY?! First they say remaking FF7 would take a decade or two to do, then they announce THIS! You're avatar is a good summation of my thoughts on this. Only imagine a desk or a wall at the bottom. UGH.

There actually not remaking FFXIII, just porting it as it is to PC (steam)

Still Square must have an amazingly stupid boss or Japan has low standards considering FFXIII won a "GAME DESIGNERS AWARD"

Let me rephrase that
FFXIII won a GAME DESIGNERS AWARD in a "game" where every level is a single hallway of doing nothing.

How they managed to win anything is beyond me.
And yes, I'm being serious with everything I say.

It's no wonder Square in general has been going in downward spiral for years now. If they just remade FFVII or released KHIII they wouldn't be (or at least not as badly) in such a bad situation.

Instead it was some guys bright idea to focus on a mobile market and micro-transactions.
*facepalms*

Just to end this wall of text. Before anyone says "but they want to make a better game than FFVII before remaking it" In my opinion that's old fashioned thinking. It's obviously hurting the company and they still refuse to change for the better.

/end second rant

 

[Kajin]

What happened to the good old days when you could make a game like this and sell it for two or three dollars? Why does everyone and their undead grandma have to jump aboard the micro transaction train?