What if the FF7 Remake is trolling us?

[CritialGaming]

So I had an interesting thought while watching the trailer for FF7 for the 1000th time.

What if the remake isn't going to be in parts? What if the extra long dev cycle actually ended up finishing the game? They surely shown only bits of Midgar, but that isn't really that odd. The original game's trailer was mostly Midgar stuff as well.

There are a few things that they've said and shown that lead me to believe that the game might be more complete than we thought.

1. Two blu-ray discs over 100GB of data for the game. Surely that much data can be more than enough for Midgar and the entire open world portion of the game. Look at the size of other giant games, Red Dead 2, FF15 on PC with all the content and expansions clocks in at about 120GB, The Witcher 3 is a huge game at only 55GB. The FF7 world is split up between several chunks of land that could be easily and understandably parsed with loading if needed (especially loading into towns and such).

2. There is a scene in the Trailer that shows Sephiroth taunting Cloud in an alley. Which we assume is Midgar somewhere, but we all know that Sephiroth never shows up in Midgar and his story isn't even developed until Kalm. But what if that scene is DURING the Kalm Flashback? Surely it would make sense based on the "You bastard line" that cloud says. Sephiroth telling him to run away might be a warning for Cloud to not chase him up the reactor, but when he taunts Cloud to "hold onto that anger" suggests a that he is just toying with Cloud knowing full well that Cloud will chase him.

Things just don't quite add up to being just a Midgar game. It doesn't make sense, even if you fleshed everything out. Where would they put the optional annoyingly hard challenges that that ALWAYS put in FF games? How would they deal with leveling up characters? What about extra weapons? Each character only gets like 2 weapons during the Midgar sequence, so what would players hunt down? What would be the completionist reward for the game that just plans to reset or hold back progression for years until the next "part" comes out.

3. Summons are confirmed from the pre-ordering material. Which begs the question, how the fuck are those going to work? How would the context of a summon work in the middle of a major city? You could say it's because "video game" but that would feel really out of place wouldn't it.

I know I'm probably just wishful thinking. But if this isn't the whole game, then Midgar better be MASSIVE.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Lol, i was thinking the opposite. I think FF7RE is an elaborate scam.

So at this point everyone and their grand mother knows the story to FF7. That means that the game will AT LEAST need 3 parts to tell the full story.

It took 5 years to make part 1 so we are looking at roughly a total of 15 years to make the whole thing.

This is nonsense. I believe, that Square SAID they were going to make it episodic to boost sales. Because if they said " we are just making a Midgar spinoff" a lot of people wouldn't purchase the game.

Now historically, episodic games never sold very well barring a few games ( Life is strange and TWD). Squares own " Hitman" was an utter failure,so much so that Square sold off the IP to warner bros. Resident evil revelations 1 and 2 sales pale compared to the main series sales.

Also, as with any episodic game, there is player fall off. Not everyone who buys part 1 will buy part 2. Either because they didn"t like it, never finished it, lost interest , don't own the console etc...Therefore with each subsequent game, Square will sell LESS copies making less money.

And the fact that this is ONE STORY cut into multiple peices, playing previous parts is a NECESSITY and a huge time investment . These aren't 2 hour TWD episodes, they are 50 fucking hour long rpgs.

The whole model makes absolutely 0 fucking sense from jump. I * puts on tin foil hat* think the whole think is a elaborate con and Square has no intention of making any games after the Midgar part.

They are going to sell part midgar, make a BUTTLOAD of money and then just make up a reason why the series won't be continuing.

But that's just a theory. A GAME THEO *headshot*

Edit: i few other things.

This game, if it does ever come to be, would span over 2 if not 3 console generations. The ps4, ps5 and MAYBE the ps6. 15 years minimun. March 2020 will be year 5. So we should be seeing part 3 in 2030 on the ps6 lol.

Also, people will Inevitably wait for Final fantasy Remake "the complete set" or "the story thus far" ( Thanks Kingdom hearts). Which makes sense because why the hell would i buy 1/3 of a story? Especially a story I ALREADY KNOW?

The whole thing is lunacy.

 

[stroopwafel]

Sounds like wishful thinking to me. They already said the episodic nature of FF7 Remake is part of their creative vision and that the individual length will be somewhat similar to FF13. You could never explore Midgar in the original game and that you can now do so with these incredible graphics and animations is already enough for me to get really excited. Sure, there is always the risk the project eventually falls through and we won't get the entire remake but that is the consequence of having remake re-imagined instead of remade in it's old form with higher resolution assets(something Tokyo RPG Factory might have been able to pull off). To be honest, I would have been fine with that as well but remake in it's current form looks beyond amazing. Here's hoping the game does well and the company keeps supporting it.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Square (except maybe Yoshida) is nowhere near that clever.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Nah, Square is much more in the business of announcing games more than making games these days (and then rushing them out when they take too long).

1. Two blu-ray discs over 100GB of data for the game. Surely that much data can be more than enough for Midgar and the entire open world portion of the game. Look at the size of other giant games, Red Dead 2, FF15 on PC with all the content and expansions clocks in at about 120GB, The Witcher 3 is a huge game at only 55GB. The FF7 world is split up between several chunks of land that could be easily and understandably parsed with loading if needed (especially loading into towns and such).

Uncompressed audio eats up lots of space and they're probably doing that in at least 2 language tracks too. I assume they are using uncompressed audio because nothing else will be eating up space like that in a game or possibly pre-rendered cutscenes but is square still using them instead of game-engine cutscenes? Just look at how big Vanquish is on PS3 or Steam because it uses uncompressed audio and that's a 5 hour linear game.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Look, they just announced at E3 the FF8 remake, which they're claiming will be released by end of year. And, the whole Gackt contract issues preclude any kind of speculation the remake is some super-secret, super-ambitious, omnibus "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" project that included Crisis Core. No, they're just milking this cow for everything it's worth while they can.

The initial retail release probably just includes the game engine and all its assets unrelated to cutscenes and dialogue, and later episodes will probably just be DLC/expansion/story-only content releases. The frankly baffling decision to remain committed to a PS4 release at the end of its life cycle, then release so close to PS5's projected release date, puts an effective deadline on the project's completion, and the only way to meet that deadline is to release basically everything at once then paywall the game's story.

 

[stroopwafel]

The frankly baffling decision to remain committed to a PS4 release at the end of its life cycle, then release so close to PS5's projected release date, puts an effective deadline on the project's completion, and the only way to meet that deadline is to release basically everything at once then paywall the game's story.

You're talking Squeenix here, they have the most inefficient way of making games. Projects are either cancelled, repurposed, put on indefinite hold, revised and then over 10 years go by till they resurface(ie FF15). FF7 Remake was announced and hyped during E3 2015 by the time the first episode comes out it will be close to 5(!) years. That is just ridiculous. The entire remake will probably be PS4, PS5 and whatever comes next. Before the merger when Squaresoft was still in it's prime they were putting out quality releases every few months. Espescially their PS1 output was legendary. Sometimes I think they are putting the bar too high in terms of graphics and technology and lost focus of what made their games so beloved in the first place. It's probably also telling that their most wanted game is a remake from their PS1 era. All their modern titles are quickly forgotten.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Never assume that a game will have more content than it's showing. Actually, I'm pretty sure some of the trailers to Final Fantasy XV had a lot of stuff that wasn't actually in the game.

 

[Dalisclock]

Sometimes I think they are putting the bar too high in terms of graphics and technology and lost focus of what made their games so beloved in the first place. It's probably also telling that their most wanted game is a remake from their PS1 era. All their modern titles are quickly forgotten.

Yahtzee once talked about Square Enix saying "We just want to make movies! Stop making us produce video games!". When I see stuff like Advent Children, Kingsglaive and even The Spirits Within, it's hard not to think he's got a point.

And then there was things like FF13 which was basically cutscenes with some gameplay in there to break it up....in a 20 hour tunnel.

Seriously, SE, if you just want to make movies, just make movies. I'm sorry Spirits Within didn't do so hot and almost bankrupted the studio but Advent Children and Kingsglaive seem to have made up for that.

 

[09philj]

1. Two blu-ray discs over 100GB of data for the game. Surely that much data can be more than enough for Midgar and the entire open world portion of the game. Look at the size of other giant games, Red Dead 2, FF15 on PC with all the content and expansions clocks in at about 120GB, The Witcher 3 is a huge game at only 55GB. The FF7 world is split up between several chunks of land that could be easily and understandably parsed with loading if needed (especially loading into towns and such).

Uncompressed audio eats up lots of space and they're probably doing that in at least 2 language tracks too. I assume they are using uncompressed audio because nothing else will be eating up space like that in a game or possibly pre-rendered cutscenes but is square still using them instead of game-engine cutscenes? Just look at how big Vanquish is on PS3 or Steam because it uses uncompressed audio and that's a 5 hour linear game.

And Square fucking love unnecessary amounts of high quality textures and particle effects. Also they're almost certainly going to bloat out the story with more stuff, possibly from Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, because this is Square Enix and they don't know what restraint is.

 

[CritialGaming]

Look, they just announced at E3 the FF8 remake, which they're claiming will be released by end of year. And, the whole Gackt contract issues preclude any kind of speculation the remake is some super-secret, super-ambitious, omnibus "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" project that included Crisis Core. No, they're just milking this cow for everything it's worth while they can.

The initial retail release probably just includes the game engine and all its assets unrelated to cutscenes and dialogue, and later episodes will probably just be DLC/expansion/story-only content releases. The frankly baffling decision to remain committed to a PS4 release at the end of its life cycle, then release so close to PS5's projected release date, puts an effective deadline on the project's completion, and the only way to meet that deadline is to release basically everything at once then paywall the game's story.

Could be the episodes would be remakes of Crisis Core? Naw that would be too far.

I know I'm crazy and I'm clearly hoping the game will be more than it is because I frankly don't wanna wait 15 years to get every part of this game. The only thing I can hope is that the development of the next episodes wont take as long.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Could be the episodes would be remakes of Crisis Core? Naw that would be too far.

I know I'm crazy and I'm clearly hoping the game will be more than it is because I frankly don't wanna wait 15 years to get every part of this game. The only thing I can hope is that the development of the next episodes wont take as long.

The last 15+ years of mainline entries in the FF series says otherwise. 12-15 all had rocky development cycles due to Square's lack of efficiency and this will be no different.

 

[CritialGaming]

The last 15+ years of mainline entries in the FF series says otherwise. 12-15 all had rocky development cycles due to Square's lack of efficiency and this will be no different.

You are right. I don't know why the Final Fantasy series has been such a shit show of development, because Square does pump out other games without the same trouble. At least the same trouble we know about.

I think it stems from SE tending to announce games far to early. They seem to announce games the moment they get the greenlight from corporate. I mean they announced like four or five Final Fantasy 13 games all at once, so it was no surprise that the later games didn't come out for a long while. FF15 was supposed to be a FF13 game, but I think it faced both developmental issues as well as SE trying to pull away from Lightning as a character since people weren't liking the FF13 saga in the way they expected.

But look at Avengers. They announced that behind the FF7R and it is also a 4-5 dev cycle and nobody gives a shit. These days it seems like games that aren't just reused ideas and mechanics, take 5+ years to develop.

Let's look at a few games that have come out that took years to release from when they were announced.

Horizon Zero Dawn - started development in 2011 and released in 2017
God of War - Started in 2014 and released in 2018.
The Witcher 3 - Started in 2011 and release in 2015
Cyberpunk 2077 - Started in 2015 and will release in 2015

So you can see that the modern big game is a 4-5 developemental project. So is Square really that far behind the normal curve with the FF7:Remake.

Compare that to the dev cycle for Far Cry 5 which appears to have started development in 2016 and released in 2018. Showing the difference in dev cycle when creating original big worlds, versus just using reused assets and game mechanics like most Ubisoft stuff.

Which Kitase comfirmed in interviews after E3, stating that the next parts of the FF:remake would not take as long to develop much in the same way that 13-2 and 13-3 didn't. This is because a lot of the animation, character models, and engine work is done and can simply be moved over. Even new animations are much easier to create once the character model frame is in place and working.

Fingers Crossed.