Well, there seems to be a reasonable amount of interest just on this thread!SinisterGehe said:Seriously. Who would demand it?
Disclaimer: I've got no horse in this race. The only Final Fantasy game I've ever played was VII, which I didn't finish.
As a software developer, I'll admit that sentences like "All you need is code" make me twitch just a little bit. That's only the most time-consuming part of the process. The "creative" bit is comparatively cheap!2HF said:It's easier and cheaper than making a sequel to any game.TizzytheTormentor said:The problem with that is, they would have to remake the entire game from the ground up, they can't use resources from the PS1.
With a sequel you need writers, musicians, character design from the ground up, you need to create an entirely new world. You need everything creative done from scratch and once that's all done you need code.
With a FF7 remake all you need to do is put in the final work. The characters are already created, their stories are already written, the world already exists, the music is already in place (just use the higher quality versions). All the heavy creative lifting is done. All you need is code.
I would also argue against the idea that they wouldn't have to do any writing. FFVII is a very long game compared with current gen titles, and would probably be infeasible to reproduce beat-for-beat using up-to-date technology. So a bit of rewriting would still be required to cut it down.
Brand new character models and environments would also be needed, as none of the originals could be re-used. (Just because I've seen it suggested elsewhere in this thread: No, I'm pretty the models from Advent Children could not be used.) And if they wanted to have it fully voiced this time around, they'd also need to book in a lot of recording hours. While they're at it, they might as well rerecord all of the music with a full orchestra (which, as far as I know, has only been done for a few key tracks in the game).
I'm not trying to make light of the creative, concept-art and script-writing work that goes into video games. But they're only the start of a long and expensive process.