FFVIIR Will be multi-part series.

[RJ 17]

I think it's less "We dont have the disc space for this game" issue and more of a "We dont have the money to finish all of this game at once" issue.

And that'd be perfectly fine and understandable...were it not for the fact the Squeenix is one of the biggest game companies in the industry with more than enough funds to tackle such an ambitious project as this.

Regardless: we can only go by what Squeenix has actually said about the issue. And as I've mentioned: they've chosen to go with the SCII defense of having too much content in mind to be able to get it all into a single game.

 

[Saltyk]

I think it's less "We dont have the disc space for this game" issue and more of a "We dont have the money to finish all of this game at once" issue.

And that'd be perfectly fine and understandable...were it not for the fact the Squeenix is one of the biggest game companies in the industry with more than enough funds to tackle such an ambitious project as this.

Regardless: we can only go by what Squeenix has actually said about the issue. And as I've mentioned: they've chosen to go with the SCII defense of having too much content in mind to be able to get it all into a single game.

I read something about being able to explore areas we have never seen. Areas of Midgar that FFVII never allowed the players to visit. If that is true, Midgar alone could be huge. Gotta be honest, I really hope there is truth to that. I'd love to explore Sectors we have never seen in FFVII.

Also, some new content. So maybe additional side quests. Which could be very interesting.

Not gonna lie, I'd much rather have the game all together. However, I won't complain too much if it is reasonably priced. Not priced like Ground Zeroes.
(Seriously, how short the game was pissed me off and I got it for free from PS+)

 

[Sonicron]

Kind of annoying, but absolutely understandable. And as long as they don't take 10 years to wrap it all up, and they don't re-tool gameplay between 'episodes', I'm along for the ride. StarCraft II basically did the same thing, and I really liked how that turned out, despite being sceptical about the new structure initially. In the end I can forgive a lot of things, as long as the end result actually turns out to be good.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

This confirms my suspicion that Final Fantasy VII-R will be completed and released around or after 2020. By the time all of the episodes have launched and consumers can (hopefully) get a Complete Experience package in stores, it will be 2020 at the absolute earliest. Since this is Square Enix we're talking about though I'm probably low-balling the final release date. Let's see...this is a completely unreleated studio but Blizzard released Star Craft 2 over the course of 5 years...SC2 Humans coming out in 2010, SC2 Zerg Rush in 2013 and SC2 More Pylons coming out in 2015...Maybe Squeenix will take a similar amount of time to release these episodes or maybe they're going to try aiming for one every year or two until FF7-R is complete. Since we don't know how much is being added (or how much is being taken away) or how much content each episode will contain...so this game could take a very, very, very long time and a very, very, very, large number of episodes.

...I wonder what ever happened with Cissnei...?

 

[Something Amyss]

I knew this was too much of a good thing.

...what.

No, seriously, what?

I'm still not sure this hasn't been Squeenix trolling us in some Kaufman-esque fashion. So...where was the good part?

 

[rcs619]

My big concern is that this will be less of a remake and more of a "best of." Instead of actually delivering a full, complete game, they're just going to shuffle us around from location to location, set-piece to set-piece. Pretty much just one long, pretty corridor like all the recent Final Fantasies.

My other concern is how they'll handle the DLC. If they're really going to chop this up into episodes, what's to stop them from chopping off old side-quests into DLC? You wanna go have an adventure in Wutai? 20 bucks. Full Access to all of the Golden Saucer, 20 bucks. Weapon DLC where you can fight Ultimate, Emerald and Ruby weapons, 15 bucks, etc etc.

I hope they don't, but if they decide to streamline down the original story, then handing out old side-quests as DLC seems like it'd be really easy to do.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Only one image seems appropriate here

 

[RJ 17]

this is a completely unreleated studio but Blizzard released Star Craft 2 over the course of 5 years...

Actually it's not a completely unrelated studio. You know all those beautiful, epic animated cutscenes in Blizzard games? Yeah, check the credits: Squeenix does the CG animation for most Blizzard games these days.

Oh, and just throwing this out there as some food for thought to anyone reading this: according to an IGN article, Squeenix is outsourcing development - though I know not how much - to several different studios.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/07/this-is-why-the-final-fantasy-7-remake-is-in-multiple-parts

The Famitsu interview also confirmed that various companies, including CyberConnect2, were involved in development and all were working closely together to ensure the game is consistent, particularly as Nomura had been "annoyed" by the direction of the latest trailer as it departed too much from Square Enix's own style.

Wouldn't it just be great if they finally give fans the legendary remake they've been waiting nearly two decades for and Squeenix just ends up dropping a big steaming pile of Duke Nukem Forever all over their fans' faces? :3

 

[Draconalis]

Man... they are REALLY trying to milk that dead cow.

First, FF7 is released onto PS4 with "updated graphics" (I don't know what's updated about them... but the game went from a 1.3 gig download to a 4 gig download... and the screen shots look all the same) and now they are going to make lots of FF7Rs in order to squeeze that rock until it bleeds.

Seriously... I love ff7 the way it is... I don't need Advent Children or all the shitty spin offs... and I certainly don't need this greedy cash grab bullshit remake.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

this is a completely unreleated studio but Blizzard released Star Craft 2 over the course of 5 years...

Actually it's not a completely unrelated studio. You know all those beautiful, epic animated cutscenes in Blizzard games? Yeah, check the credits: Squeenix does the CG animation for most Blizzard games these days.

Oh, and just throwing this out there as some food for thought to anyone reading this: according to an IGN article, Squeenix is outsourcing development - though I know not how much - to several different studios.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/07/this-is-why-the-final-fantasy-7-remake-is-in-multiple-parts

The Famitsu interview also confirmed that various companies, including CyberConnect2, were involved in development and all were working closely together to ensure the game is consistent, particularly as Nomura had been "annoyed" by the direction of the latest trailer as it departed too much from Square Enix's own style.

Wouldn't it just be great if they finally give fans the legendary remake they've been waiting nearly two decades for and Squeenix just ends up dropping a big steaming pile of Duke Nukem Forever all over their fans' faces? :3

I dunno. Have you seen what CyberConnect2 can do with cut scenes? Look up some Naruto Ninja Storm or Asura's Wrath cut scenes. Those guys are staffed by animation wizards. Oh god. Summons animated by CC2 would be like a dream come true.

OT: I don't mind episodic releases. The amount of content in FF7 is insane. Even getting from the start of Midgar and into the Overworld takes longer than a lot of games full length these days and it has more story and depth than them as well. And thats only a tiny part of the game.

 

[RJ 17]

I dunno. Have you seen what CyberConnect2 can do with cut scenes? Look up some Naruto Ninja Storm or Asura's Wrath cut scenes. Those guys are staffed by animation wizards. Oh god. Summons animated by CC2 would be like a dream come true.

Oh I'm not putting down any particular studio's skills. Simply pointing out that if Squeenix is outsourcing some of the development to "various companies" the game might suffer.

 

[ShakerSilver]

After reading the neofag interview... I'm still not convinced.

In terms of size, FFVII was big, but note the "was". It was big for a game on the PS1 and needed 3 discs back then - although that may have simply been due to all the cutscenes. Nowadays though it's not like the game wouldn't fit on a 40GB single-sided or even a 80GB double-sided Blu-Ray, even with the fancy graphics. Just look at MGSV and Witcher 3: two huge-ass games that managed to fit and have some of the best graphics of this gen.

Now, as for development time, I don't completely disagree here. It makes sense that if they simply develop the game in chunks then they'd be able to release it steadily rather than waiting until it was all done. However, I'm not sure why this is really an issue. I mean would people be too impatient or distracted that they couldn't wait a year or two after its announcement for its release? They could have always pushed its announcement further to keep the hype strong when it released (and hope Kotaku doesn't catch wind of it and leaks it).

The biggest issue I think that comes with the remake, and the reason why I believe they have to make it episodically is due to what SE is currently producing. Sure, if they chose to make this one big release, development would drag on for a long time and they would be spending lots of money without seeing any return from it - that's what happens when you make big games. This is why, as a big publisher, you make other smaller games more frequently to give you the money you need to develop your larger projects. However, SE is already has a big game in development hell - FFXV. Making two big games at the same time would be ridiculous, even for a big company like SE.

Which brings us to why its really episodic - they're using the FFVII Remake to fund FFXV's development. Since XV is proving to such an investment for SE, they need an easy way to get money. So why not make episodic installments to remake a beloved classic that fans will no doubt eat up? Making it episodic means they'll get money more frequently, giving them a steadier flow of funds. Now, this isn't really a bad idea - in fact it's a very smart business decision, and may provide us with FFXV faster. The real issue though is that this FFVII Remake may not turn out to be quite big remake that a lot of fans wanted - instead, it's a chopped up Remake with some features like the overworld probably cut out to make sure they can get it out in a "timely manner". This isn't even getting to things like pricing, which could go horribly wrong in a lot of ways.

Of course, this is mostly conjecture, but it would make a lot of sense for them to do this. I never really thought that SE would make really give us complete a FFVII remake (remember, this isn't Square anymore, it's Square Enix) and this just confirmed my thoughts.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

And now I'm not that interested in this game anymore.

 

[mad825]

Regardless: we can only go by what Squeenix has actually said about the issue. And as I've mentioned: they've chosen to go with the SCII defense of having too much content in mind to be able to get it all into a single game.

I know right, SC2 had the most content I have ever....Hahahahah, maybe the most pre-rendered cutscenes in any other "game" so far but at least Blizzard has to contend with a multimillion (billion?) industry - Esports.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Please be like Revelations 2 Please be like Revelations 2 PLEASE BE LIKE REVELATIONS 2.

So yeah, cautious optimism mode = Now Active

 

[Gyrick]

I've learned a long time ago to not get my hopes up over things I want. This is one of those cases.


The issue that I am having with the Final Fantasy 7 remake is that it appears to no longer be a remake, at least, not really. Remakes would be akin to Final Fantasy 3 and Final Fantasy 4 for the DS, where some things have been updated, but the story and system are MOSTLY the same. I would classify things like the phone ports to Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI as "remasters," or the same game with updated graphics. From what I've seen, FF7 seems like the characters and story are mostly the same, but the game feel will be different. Yes, the story may be the same, but the game feel will be significantly different (if this trailer turns out to be true). If Square-Enix keeps insisting that it's a remake, then they are being misleading, either purposefully or accidentally (by not understanding the term). In essence, what we are getting is a "re-imagining" of FF7.

This goes not only for the action RPG system, but for the experience of not being able to play the game all at once (which I find the excuse highly suspect, to put it politely). Episodic games have a completely different experience than a game put together as a full one. Think about the smaller contained chapters of a Telltale game or the stories of Final Fantasy 13 being told over three games. Instead of one contained story, it will now be several shorter stories that make the narrative, much like how the experience of watching a movie is different from watching a TV show.

*puts two pennies on the table*

 

[Raggedstar]

Pretty much my opinion relies on a few details yet to be covered:

1. Price: At the end of the day, will we spend more than a full-retail price on the final product? Will this be like a season pass sort of deal? Episodic games are also harder to put on physical discs, so this may also be a digital exclusive (even temporary).

2. Schedule: What is the release schedule? Square, we're quite familiar you have a knack at showing things off before things are even remotely ready. I know there's no real cliffhangers for a game like this, but it's more because it's a huge game (Telltale's chapters can come out in monthly intervals. FF7 can't)

3. Length: How much will we get with each installment? This is a 40+ hour game for the story alone.

And that's assuming they're doing it for the reasons they say they are, and content (overworld, sidequests, minigames, etc) is left more or less intact. Episodic adventures work well in Telltale style games because they're small and well contained, but not so much a massive JRPG with overworlds, secrets, and a huge narrative scope (not to mention completely different pacing).

I can tolerate the new combat (would've preferred the old ATB for the sake of history), but these points could make or break this project and it's value.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Maybe they'll just break it up in a way that mimics the original?

Disc 1-Escaping Midgar
Disc 2-Getting the airship
Disc 3-Saving the world

Follow that same layout with episodes, and expand on the content within, charge $20 an episode, *boom* as close as you get to making everyone happy.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Yeah I can see why they're doing this, I mean FF7 was HUGE(filesize and length) back in the day, I mean seriously three disks on PS1 without voice acting or large amounts of FMV? I mean sure it probably could be smaller on a more powerful system with more overhead for compression and whatnot. But just imagine back to the first part of the game in Midgar that's a long ass part of the game with most of the filesize and work cut down because everything was using pre-rendered backgrounds that just needed to be rendered and not bug-tested to any serious degree.
(because there was no way in hell that the player could rotate the view around and see parts of the background that aren't rendered, the backgrounds just had to look good from a fixed perspective and on their in house rendering system)