To Remake or not to Remake

Isn't that the question. Regardless of how you may feel about SE's ability to do a good job, what are your general feelings about Remakes with the franchise. Whether it's the 16-bit upscale of FFI and II, The 3D Chibi remakes of III and IV, the up-scaled sprites of V and VI's iOS versions, or the future uber remake of VII on the horizon; where do you stand on remakes and how much should SE be allowed to change things before it bypasses your nostalgia level and just gets sacrilegious to you? Should remakes stay as faithful to the original as possible and simply be cosmetic in nature, or should the developers have the freedom to make sweeping changes and give an old and tired property a new spin on things?

You know, I'm as hyper nostalgic as they come, but I . . . can't actually think of an entry in the series I wouldn't want to see remade, provided we are talking the more sweeping style Square is attempting with 7 -- or even was done with 4; I just love the idea of replaying something I am familiar with in a completely new way. That said, the more 'enhanced port' kind of route doesn't especially work for me -- I still prefer the original versions of FF1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 to their 'enhanced' versions, either because what was added amounted to little or did nothing to especially improve the original.

I'm more than happy to see remakes, although the godawful graphics of FFV/VI iOS are not something for me. I'd like to see III/IV style remakes of V and VI instead but I get the feeling they've stopped that little experiment now. Naturally I'd smurfing love for all the SNES games and also VIII to get the full FFVII treatment although for cost and time reasons that's never going to happen. I'd also like to see something done with IX, though I don't think doing it VIIR style would work very well for FFIX's art style.

I'm nostalgic, but I would love to see all the old games I love being remade, particularly FFVI because it's still in little sprites, and deserves a beautiful remake like FFVII is getting. FFIV also had a remake, but I'd love to see it in high quality too. And I love FFIX a lot, but I wouldn't see it in realistic graphics. I like what they did for the PC/PS4 version, and it could just be a better version of this, particularly for the scenery which is still very similar to the original version.

There's a lot of thoughts.

First of all, I think we're at a time in gaming where most games where you shouldn't be expected to dig out an old console to play old games. If it isn't on current gen, there's a problem; thankfully, though, steam and mobile by their nature are in current gen with perpetuity and are the ideal place to release games so people can play them anytime, no matter how old they are.

And for that reason, I'm mostly okay with what Square Enix is doing. Yes, V/VI remake look like ass and they should redo it (I'd like them to use an art direction in the vein of I/II anniversary); VII remake is far more flashier and sexier than I ever asked for--and I'd rather the project was more modest (that said, VII really needed a full-on remake). VIII and IX could do wtih more touch-up, but SE seems to have managed that. And Dragon Quest, for what it's worth, has managed this beautifully with the entire series sans 7 and 9 having made its way to mobile.

I should mention I'm slightly bias since I only got into Final Fantasy since my interest in RPGs came about the same time SE was doing their GBA ports of FF, and I was only able to affordably play so many entries because of it.

Overall, I'm okay with what they're doing for the most part (although, the execution could be better); but this is a project should have an end date in mind so Square Enix can move on to new games.

Nostalgia doesn't prevent my desire for seeing a remake, in fact it sometimes fuels it (most of the things I'd remake or do my own version of are things I have a nostalgic attachment to), so I wouldn't mind a remake, if only to see what they do with it.

Hell, Final Fantasy VII is my favorite of them all, and I even posted what I'd have done if I had been remaking it.

I actually hope they'll go the way of XV and include a film tie-in. Yes, there was Advent Children, but I think the idea behind the story was a little... uninteresting. I think they would have been better off to make Advent Children a playable adventure (giving us more to do than to watch a bunch of kids get napped) and used the plot of Dirge as the film... Or either of the Crisis titles for that matter.

I repeated this ad nauseum but I'm rooting for an appearance from Genesis. Trust that if they reworked his personality a little, fans would love him just as much as they love Sephiroth.