How I would have handled the remake.

I thought it would be fun to write what I would have done, if I had been chosen to design the remake of my favorite Final Fantasy.

An update in graphics and sound: Now, don't get me wrong - I love how the original FFVII looks and sounds, but I think it would need to have an updated look and by a lesser extent, sound in order to match the new system. Playing FFVII on my PlayStation 3, I can admittedly see that the field graphics are... I don't want to say "dated" because that sounds like they no longer hold relevance or something, but I can see that they don't look as polished as they used to, though I still think the ultimate design looks good, barring the fact that the characters' hands never looked like hands when shown in field graphics. The characters would be given a more "up-to-date" look to reflect the new system, while still clearly looking like who they are supposed to be, while the sound and music would also be enhanced, but still recognisable for the same reason.

A more accurate translation, at least at times: I will admit, that looking at badly translated things when you know what it was supposed to be can be kind of fun, but since the creation of a remake does not equal complete extinction of the original (which few people seem to understand, it seems) we can use the original FFVII for that, and have the remake contain more accurate translations, with items, monsters, and the like having the names they were supposed to, and actually being consistent this time (e.g. the spellings of chocobo greens would change depending on when the name was shown, not to mention the fact that in Mideel, Mimett Greens were referred to as "Samolen Greens" from out of nowhere). It will be very likely, that certain mistranslations will be kept the same, due to becoming more established names among the FFVII fans.

Additional locations added: I'm not really sure what they'd be, but it would be cool to see new locations in the remake, be they completely new locations, or extensions of the ones that already exist. One thing I would definitely do, is allow the player to see more of Midgar at some point, possibly when you are able to go back there after acquiring the Key to Sector 5 in Bone Village. I'd have it be possible to explore Sectors 2, 3, and 4, as well as Sector 1 if anything is left and possibly Sector 8 if the Return to Midgar part of the game makes it safe enough (Sectors 1, 4, and 8 are visited in the original, but it's basically just a rush through them, because you're focused on the task at hand, and don't explore anything). Exactly what purpose these Sectors, and other new locations would have remains to be decided, but some suggestions can be found below.

New sidequests: Exactly what they'd be would have to be decided, but maybe this is what some of the new locations could be for? Some new sidequests however, would be in more familiar locations from the original game. Some of the "new" sidequests could even be ones that were cut from the original game, such as the "Letter to a Wife" and the "Letter to a Daughter" sidequest.

New Materia: You probably saw this one coming, but I would definitely add new Materia to the game. My first ideas for additional Materia would be a "Water" Materia and a "Wind" Materia (there may not be many enemies who are weak against these elements, but this can be easily fixed in the next paragraph), with the "Wind" Materia containing all forms of the "Aero" spell (and I still haven't seen Aero or Aero2 anywhere in the game, ever). The other Materias would have to be decided and thought out, but I would definitely add more to give the players things they haven't experienced before.

New enemies: These would mostly be normal enemies, but I would add some that weren't in the game before. Sometimes, possibly even changing the ones that appeared in the original at certain locations; for example, I was always kind of disappointed with the enemies in the Ancient Forest - they seemed kind of "ordinary" to me, like they didn't really belong in a location that requires a fair amount of work to get to (either by breeding chocobos or killing Ultimate WEAPON) - I would have put some more unusual enemies there. Also, while I never really minded the fact that there were palate swaps of various enemies as with the animals/monsters it looked like they could be different breeds of the same species, or closely related species (and I like viewing it like that), and with the Shinra soldier palate swaps, they were clearly just different kinds of soldiers with similar uniforms, of different colors (which makes sense, and probably feels like less of a palate swap), I would create more new enemies (or have them created) that don't necessarily match existing ones, and be something that players of the original haven't seen in FFVII before. At least one (most likely optional) boss being added to my remake, would also be very possible.

New animation for Super Nova: There's bound to be people who think that Super Nova is perfect as is, but as I said before, the original will still exist, so they can still experience Super Nova the way they wish to experience it, but in my opinion, I have come to think that if I had any control over the attack's animation, I would have hopefully done it differently; in the Japanese version, the animation is too short, while in the American version it was too long in my opinion (also the fact that the latter includes planets from our solar system, when FFVII is not set on Earth makes no sense at all). If I made the remake, I would try to find a happy medium, in which Super Nova's animation is long enough to show that it's supposed to be a big deal (even though it can't actually kill you), but not so long that some people would find it annoying if they had to keep sitting through it every time Safer Sephiroth used it, as well as take out any references to our own solar system.

A button command similar to FFVIII's "Trigger" command: In order to give the battles some more interaction, while keeping them Final Fantasy like, I will give players the option of using one of the buttons (most likely a top button) to make the character attack with more force when timed correctly. In Final Fantasy VIII this was the "Trigger" which coincided with Squall's gunblade, while here, it could simply be that you're making the character attack with more force. I'm not sure if it would be just Cloud, all characters, or just the non-gun characters. I would personally replace the "Target" button with this.

Interactive Limit Breaks: Like FFVIII and FFX, I would have the Limit Breaks in FFVII be interactive in someway. I don't have an idea for all the characters yet, but I would have Cloud's Limit Breaks focus on the above command, hitting the button just before the enemy is hit (CHECK CLIMMHAZZARD) (and yes, this means that you can use this command for each individual attack during Omnislash, if you time it right), Tifa's would be changed from a slot machine style command (which admittedly is already interactive) to entering button commands, one character (I'm thinking Red XIII for some reason) could have a command similar to Tidus's Overdrive in FFX, where you have to hit to confirm button when the cursor passes over a particular part of the gauge, Yuffie's could be based on having button commands appear while she is performing the Limit Break, and requiring the player press those buttons in time (alternatively, this could be done for Vincent, or I could just leave his Limit Breaks as completely uncontrollable?), Cait Sith would of course still have "Slots" (more on this below), though I'm undecided on whether I'd make this his final Limit Break, and give him some more Limit Breaks before hand (I feel that those who complain that he only has two Limit Breaks, have missed the point with how Slots has several attacks, so it's like he has several Limit Breaks), one character could have something similar to Lulu's Overdrive in FFX, assuming the console has analogue controllers, while others could have something new. It is worth noting, that the FFVII Limit Breaks, don't normally have a set theme to them, so certain special commands would only be appropriate for some of them for that character (e.g. I could see an Irvine-esque "ammo-shooting" command working for some of Barrett's Limit Breaks, but not all of them), so it's possible that some characters will have to have more than one type of command, depending on the Limit Break itself, and I have no idea how the curative and protective Limit Breaks would be done.

An update for Cait Sith's Slots: Slots is actually my favorite Limit Break in FFVII; I love seeing what I end up getting each time I use it, so Cait Sith fast became a regular member of my party for this reason. I would add some more possible outcomes to Slots so players could have even more fun seeing what they get (especially if they are players of the original, who would probably have seen everything). I would also be tempted to remove Joker's Doom, as while I'm not sure myself if I've ever seen it, I know a lot of FFVII players have, and it seems to have ruined Slots for them, which to me is a shame, because as I said, I find it really enjoyable to do. However, the fact that one of them can cause game over for you was probably put there because, like with actual gambling, sometimes you can loose, so I could either make it a little less annoying (e.g. only Cait Sith dies, so it's only a game over if the other characters have been knocked out, or have lost in another way) or think of another way one of the outcomes can be "bad": maybe it could simply damage your party (or just damage Cait Sith, but this time damaging the whole party might not be as bad)? Maybe it could give poor damage to the enemy? Maybe it could do an attack similar to "Coin", but you have no control of how much Gil is being thrown (gambling leads to loosing money, remember?) Maybe it could cause a negative Status Affect to be used on the party/Cait Sith? Or maybe it could just cause a silly animation to take place, which ultimately does nothing?

Different items in various locations: This may end up being simple items like potions, and the like, but certain items you can collect in some areas will be different to the ones in the original, in order to create a new experience for players of the original, and give them something they weren't prepared for. It is possible that a select few more important items may also be moved to different locations for this reason. In this paragraph, "item" is an umbrella term for whatever can be collected in the game, such as weapons and even Materia.

Update for "Sense" Materia: I'd personally like Sense, to be more like "Scan" in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X, meaning it gives a description of who you're using it on. There is a chance it will have to be renamed "Scan" for this to work, but it could also be left as Sense if it can still make sense (no pun intended) that the target is now being scanned, complete with an actual description.

Hidden "Meteor" Events: Once Meteor is summoned by Sephiroth, there will be two events when it can actually destroy the planet. The first is while Cloud is in Mideel, meaning your party will be led by either Tifa or Cid (once Cloud returns, this will no longer happen), where if you spend longer than a certain amount of time on the World Map, the game will abruptly end, and a voice over will (somewhat calmly) state that "Meteor has struck.", ending the game, until you restart from the previous Save Point (this is based on a dream I had once). The second is once Red XIII states that Meteor will fall in seven days, you can go to an inn, and if you sleep in that inn seven consecutive times (it won't work if you leave a gap between sleeps), you will see a full FMV footage of Meteor destroying the planet which, needless to say, will lead to the game over screen.

The "Old Elixir" Actually Having an Affect: In the original version, you can take an Elixir from someone's house in Mideel, and will then be asked by the homeowner if you took something. If you were to deny it, he would then as what happened to the old Elixir, that he was going to throw out, because it wasn't safe for consumption anymore, which ultimately leads to nothing, and is just put there to scare you, I guess. However, my remake would make it so that, once you get that Elixir (regardless of whether you lie about taking it, and thus receive the information that it had gone bad, or not) an event will be activated, where any one of the next Elixirs you use in battle, could be the old Elixir, which will cause the character it is used on to suffer various status affects (like how using "Tent" during battle in Final Fantasy IX would sometimes lead to you being bitten by a Silence/Darkness/Poison snake), which is exactly what you don't need when you are already at low HP (i.e. when you would normally choose to use an Elixir). Of course, you could always use an Elixir on your opponent, and hope that they get the old Elixir, so you could place them at a disadvantage, but how would you know for sure that it's going to be the old Elixir you use on them? This means, you will from then on be faced with a conundrum; do you use your next Elixir on one of your characters, and risk them being struck with several status elements, which would be difficult to deal with in time, if they are already at low HP, or do you use it on your opponent, and risk healing them, and wasting one of your good Elixirs?

Vincent and Yuffie now affect the ending: The game would be programmed to notice whether Vincent and/or Yuffie are in the party when the game is completed, and play scenes in the ending featuring Vincent, Yuffie, or both of them.

Possible option for voice acting: I personally don't like the idea of voice acting in Final Fantasy games, but some people do, so I would probably give players the option of having voice acting, or having controllable text boxes for those who, like me, prefer their Final Fantasies this way.

Possible new side games: One of the things that makes Final Fantasy VII so awesome, is it's use of side games, like the motorbike and the snowboard. If there is a way to add new games like this in the remake, then they would be added, however, if they can't, then there is a chance that some extra games will still be added to the Gold Saucer.

Extra scenes: While some of them may be optional, there should be extra scenes in the remake, as well to give players a new experience. The overall storyline will be the same, but there will be scenes that weren't in the original.

That's all I've got so far, but I may add some in the future.