FFVII Remake Green-Lit by SE?

[Exoduso]

I'd be all for a remake of 5 if it weren't such a god-awful game.

6, on the other hand, should be remade over and over again, for as long as possible.

Agreed, but after seeing Square releasing FF4/5/6 on the gameboy advance a few years ago, I expect them to do the same now that they have already remade FF4 on the DS..

I would be okay if they just went ahead and skipped to 6 though heh..

[Shenrien]

if it is anything as Crisis core which I thought was total shit, and the only fun was burning the missions at low levels where you get 1shot'd on hard mode then I wouldn't even think about picking up the title.

[Lucavi]

I'd be all for a remake of 5 if it weren't such a god-awful game.

6, on the other hand, should be remade over and over again, for as long as possible.

Remake it just for more added lore on Gilgamesh and Exdeath, like they did with Golbez. Exdeath, while looking awesome, was one of the worst villians of any game I've ever played. He was unoriginal, uninspired, really had no driving motivations other than "those guys are against what I'm against so I'll antagonize them to no end along the way", and really seemed like the developers just loved Golbez when he was a bad guy and decided to bring his archetype back for a second round.

[Narol]

They didn't really "expand" on FF4. The backstory existed way back in the day, but they couldn't convey it all with SNES limitations. FF5's story is pretty bare by comparison, as the game was more a vehicle to show off the job system (which, admittedly, it did pretty well). Note that when I say "bare," I mean it feels less immersive than FF1. The NES version.

Although there is apparently some FF6 backstory they didn't put into the game, which was described in the Ultimania-type book for that game. I've never read a full translation of that one like I have for FF4's though so I'm not sure what this backstory entails.

[Lucavi]

They expanded enough to inform you that the villagers killed Klu'ya out of fear of his ability and overall greed. I've played FF4 off-and-on for years, and no game outside of the DS ever explained Klu'ya's death. I can also say the same with Zemus all but killing off Golbez and Cecil's mom as a tool for manipulation.

Even if that information was intended to be put it, it wasn't, and since no perfect works-esque material was ever compiled and thrown out there, its safe to say that yes, Golbez's past -was- expanded on.

Technology had nothing to do with it - they put flashbacks and plot points similar to that in FFV, which ran off the same engine as FFIV. They could have if they wanted to for FFIV as well.

[Mayareira]

But if you set a first person game in the Revolutionary, Civil, or Vietnam Wars

There were waaaaay too many Vietnam War games made back in between late 80s and early 00s. Not as much as WWII obviously, but still...too many.

[arus2001]

I'm puzzled as to how a remake would take 3x longer to make than a game from scratch, honestly.

If anything, they have a good skeleton down with plot, a combat system (the numbers behind it), and character designs already handled. Certainly the hardest part would be graphics, but a soundtrack upgrade and finally fine tuning older stuff for what little bugs or exploits that were present in the original.

[Hyan]

I'm puzzled as to how a remake would take 3x longer to make than a game from scratch, honestly.

If anything, they have a good skeleton down with plot, a combat system (the numbers behind it), and character designs already handled. Certainly the hardest part would be graphics, but a soundtrack upgrade and finally fine tuning older stuff for what little bugs or exploits that were present in the original.

Graphics indeed. If they wanted to make a real remake on current gen consoles, the graphic upgrade alone would make the dev process 3 times longer.. It wasn't a problem in 1997, but the technology has advanced slightly since then.. It takes longer to create all those environments.

[Elcura]

The hardest part IS the longest part. There are probably other things there, but I bet graphics takes the most time.

[arus2001]

Maybe it was just misinterpretation on my part, but they made it sound like it would take 3x longer to make than XIII, of which the latter was starting from scratch.

[Hyan]

XIII was made with the fact in mind that graphics would take the biggest chunk of the dev time... so some sacrifices were made to not make the game take 10 years to develop.

However, VII was not made with that in mind, since graphics weren't a big issue during the PS1 era. To remake the game would take ages, if they didn't sacrifice some things like they did with XIII.. but that would make the remake "inferior" for many.

[Elcura]

Well, they'd need to animate/voice all the important scenes, and probably even some of the less important ones. They'd need to make all the towns in full 3D, along with all the NPCs to make it feel alive (Midgar would be hell), they also need to make a world map in a similar style and the list goes on. I haven't played XIII, but I assume that the scope of the world is a lot more limited than VII's was. Seriously, the things they can reuse aren't as time consuming. Along with the world and npcs, you got monsters, attack spells/animations and minigaems as well. There's also that whole underwater part too.

Shit would take aaaaages.

[Kaylia]

I'm puzzled as to how a remake would take 3x longer to make than a game from scratch, honestly.

If anything, they have a good skeleton down with plot, a combat system (the numbers behind it), and character designs already handled. Certainly the hardest part would be graphics, but a soundtrack upgrade and finally fine tuning older stuff for what little bugs or exploits that were present in the original.

The numbers behind a rpg are really not that hard to make. You pick one parameter (ie: character stats) and build the monsters accordingly (or do it the other way around). Beside it's not like they are remotely balanced in the first place. I'm sure many people on this forum could design a solid gameplay on paper given 2-3 weeks.

Anyway, most of the things you mentioned aren't an issue. Graphics (including physics engine where it applies) is where most of your ressource will go. That's why game like FFXIV end up being a long "tunnel". It's not because they wanted the game to be like this, it's because it's the easiest way to reduce the development cost/time.

FFVII (same with 8-9) was huge, and updating everything into next-gen 3d would take a lot more time than your "average" next gen rpg, who already take that into consideration when they are designed.

Of course, it would be doable, but a lot would need to be removed out of the game to bring the development to a reasonable cost.

[dejet]

The numbers behind a rpg are really not that hard to make. You pick one parameter (ie: character stats) and build the monsters accordingly (or do it the other way around). Beside it's not like they are remotely balanced in the first place. I'm sure many people on this forum could design a solid gameplay on paper given 2-3 weeks.

Anyway, most of the things you mentioned aren't an issue. Graphics (including physics engine where it applies) is where most of your ressource will go. That's why game like FFXIV end up being a long "tunnel". It's not because they wanted the game to be like this, it's because it's the easiest way to reduce the development cost/time.

FFVII (same with 8-9) was huge, and updating everything into next-gen 3d would take a lot more time than your "average" next gen rpg, who already take that into consideration when they are designed.

Of course, it would be doable, but a lot would need to be removed out of the game to bring the development to a reasonable cost.

nothing you can say will ever make me think SE has not made the money off FF7 to remake it and still have made a boat load of money. Hell even if it was a 100mil cost (USD) to make it be worth it to them. Time is something I can give them tho. FF7 was big and to remake it would take a lot of time. Still it might be worth it even if it was a 5 year thing.

the story is done and the music is done as is the layout for everything. They need very little "creative thinking" to remake the game is my point. Upgrade to maybe

[Kurokikaze]

The fact that they claim that it would take much longer to remake 7 than it did to create 13 leads me to believe that we may not see worlds similar to FF1-9 anymore. The worlds created in most of those games are a lot bigger in scope than stuff we've seen in games this generation. Individual building screens > Town screen > Various zones > World Map > Battle screen. Call me crazy, but the Midgard portion of the beginning of the game would probably be close to an entire DVD-9 if remade with true HD-visuals.

The way I picture this game in my head looks very similar to Tales of Vesperia... just not cell shaded and far more detailed.

[Mayareira]

Actually, rebuilding the world on an already developed current-gen engine(XIII, or from some other company) wouldn't take years. You might not be able to copy every zone exactly(can't really say anything until I play XIII), but it'll do the job.

It'd take time, but not as much as people exaggerate.

But is there a point? I don't think so.

VII was a good game, but why waste all the time and resources simply to re-tell the story? Remakes were easier back in the era of pre-rendered backdrops but today a decent one would simply cost too much both in terms of time and resources.

So...yeah, the only reason they may consider this would be to milk more money off the FF7 craze. I mean, hell I'd probably buy a copy too.

Upgrading the music from MIDI(yeah, original ff7 music was midi boosted by the hardware synthesizer of psx) wouldn't be a big deal at all. Could also add a couple of extra tracks I suppose...didn't Uematsu say something about how it took only 4 minutes for him to compose some tracks?(was on X EU DVD iirc)

[Corrderio]

I think a remake of 5 or 6 for the ds would be terrible, for some reason i hated ff4's graphics and i would have rather replayed the original then with some stupid looking ds lvl graphics. Honestly though, i dont care for remakes i like the originals as they are, well i could say the 1 and 2 remakes were pretty good.

DS graphics aren't THAT bad. I don't know why but it gives me a retro feeling for some odd reason.

However if they do remake 6 I'd want it on the PSP, not because of the graphics, but mostly because I'd love to see some cut scenes made for some of the major events that take place in the game. Like Kefka destorying the world, Celes' opera, a brainwashed Terra encountering the frozen esper, etc.

[Elcura]

Actually, rebuilding the world on an already developed current-gen engine(XIII, or from some other company) wouldn't take years. You might not be able to copy every zone exactly(can't really say anything until I play XIII), but it'll do the job.

It'd take time, but not as much as people exaggerate.

But is there a point? I don't think so.

No... it would take years. Thinking it wouldn't take a long time is silly, especially at the standard that SE works at. The world alone would take fucking forever, especially since they need to do more work on the stuff you couldn't see before because of the pre-rendered backgrounds and very limited camera work. Characters would probably take ages, the only thing they could use the AC models for is reference, since essentially they need to build real-time versions of all those characters again. Then there are NPCs, monsters and bosses. All of those need to be recreated from scratch.

Even if they don't copy the zones completely, and just use the zone as a concept, it would still take a long time. Then there's mechanics that may or may not be added, personally, I was in favour of an updated battle system but some weren't. Regardless, that's more time testing that and balancing the game.

Then there are animations and cut scenes. Animating simple things like walk and run cycles would take some time. A good animator can block that shit out in 4-5 hours, but needs time to refine it, so a few days is required to make it perfect. If the lead is OK with it, then onto the next one, otherwise stuff gets tweaked and more time is taken. A combo can take a full day to block out, so add the necessary time there to the pile. Do that with the dozens of battle animations a character could have (FUCK LIMIT BREAKS) and times it with the hundreds of characters in a battle, and you have a huge chunk of time devoted to that. Let's not forget things like animating cut scenes, more fun for sure, but they take a lot of time - especially since they need to be further scripted and need more concepts/storyboards because the characters aren't just standing around idly while talking for 30 minutes anymore. Do that throughout the whole game and there's even more time taken up. Even if they managed to condense it, the story then suffers because you're cutting out components to make deadlines.

Voice acting is loooong, I bet they would re-write the script so that it makes sense and isn't a whole lot of pointless chatter. That, and the FFVII translation was poor. Finally, there's human error and the chaotic nature that is starting up. A lot of things are in flux, people unsure of what to do next, etc.

So yeah, it would take a long ass time.

TD;LR 3D is long.

[The Stig]

There's a subtle sex scene between Cloud and Tifa near the end of Disk 2, VA that! hah

Also the one reason I don't think a remake would work without changing the story is because Cloud has way too many lines, and seems infact, bordeline cheerful/asshole in some. I can't imagine the VAer saying all that, seems a bit off character. One might argue he's rather normal/Zack-ish still, and in AC he was sick so was more quieter than usual; and/or that the game didn't have much to work with at that time. But he's borderline asshole too at the beginning, despite only being there on Tifa's request.

Tseng slapping Aerith too was kinda random, but in Crisis Core he seemed like "protecting" her.

But /shrug, it gets too complexed overall the more indescrepancies/holes I find.

[Corrderio]

Honestly at this point would anyone going apeshit over a FF7 remake care if it took full advantage of the PS3 or not? As for VA I hope they keep it out, mostly due to the gamble involved with it. Since a bad VA can ruin the emotion of any scene.