Final Fantasy VI Remake

[Spooniest]

Hi there I've collected some comments from this thread and here's my perspectives:

Flying Mullet said:

"I'm happy with FFVI the way it is, and a remake isn't necessary for me. I think one of the reasons that people are so hopeful for a FFVII remake is the graphics have a large potential for improving. Part of FFVI's charm for me is the colorful, detailed 2D environments and remaking the game with a new graphical style might not look as good as the original."

I agree with you, and I'll raise you. What I think we'd all love is for the graphical engine to reproduce the quality and detail of Amano's original artwork. They managed 2-D cell animation pretty dang well with War Of The Lions for PSP. The next step is getting a playable game engine to look like that, and still retain the look of hand-drawn animation.

Comet
"FF VI is quite comical, and I think making it realistic would destroy the game's feel."

That's a vaild concern. They can't suck out the sense of humor in the process of upgrading the visuals. Part of what makes this game stand out is that it's got a sense of humor. Again, maintaining the look of hand-drawn characters in the graphic engine should be focused on preserving the sense of humor in the game's presentation.

Justy
"With a remake there'd be voice acting and 3D rendering."

I agree with your first premise and not your second. I don't think 3D rendering is going to produce the kind of effect that a hand-drawn look is. Of course, that kind of industry-bucking attitude would be very hard to maintain for the suits who want to know how you're going to pay for it, dangit, but this is all wild mass guessing anyhoo.

And on the subject of voice, they would need to hire an English-speaking director to supervise the English script recordings...this worked for Metal Gear Solid. Kris Zimmerman turned in a well-acted final product, even if what was on the page was a bit narmy (IMHO).

Dr. Acula
"But if they do make a remake, I want them to change the part where you get Celes, so that the soldiers beat her like in the SNES version. It made the scene much better, IMO."

This is another good point. The mood of Final Fantasy 6, if carried into a realistic depiction like the one we're waxing on about here, would be

T E R R I F Y I N G.

We're talking about some seriously darker and edgier stuff here. People getting beaten. Biological warfare. Starvation. Suicide. Monster Clowns. This would be a surreal pairing of comedy and tragedy, something that requires subtlety in a director.

Wolf Kanno
"Granted I feel not playing a game due to graphics is kinda silly but I also understand the fact that part of the charm is the nostalgia. Seriously, try to finish the game. 2D holds up way better than 3D"

I don't think it's silly, I think it's what drives innovation in this industry. The trick is, everyone right now is going for a smoother look. Final Fantasy Tactics War Of The Lions' 2-D animated cutscenes were not smooth. They were like animated rough pencil-drawings. If they can craft a graphics engine that can do that with playable characters, that'd be some trick indeed, woudln't it? I'd play that. Would you?

Tevious
"The problem with jumping to a current gen console is the production costs. Let's face it, as cool as it would be to have SE go full out and remake the classic FFs on the PS3, they're highly unlikely to do it. They'll want a quick buck, so they'll put the remakes on a handheld because it won't cost them much to do it, it'll still sell, and they can even contract it out to another developer so they can continue with the series instead of revisiting old ones. Although, its plausible that they could do it on the Wii."

And someone comes up with a perfectly good question: where's the money gonna come from? One has to wonder how well Square Enix is doing these days...they don't really have much in the way of innovation anymore. They'd have to figure out how to push the current hardware or perhaps this could be a way for them to break into the PC market. I understand the previous statement might be considered ridiculous by lots of people, but if we're wild mass guessing, we're wild mass guessing.

The scope of this game is epic. They'd have real bragging rights if they managed to modernize the story. I don't think the gameplay needs much changing, though the GBA remake's extras certainly couldn't hurt to include. The key factors here are graphical presentation and another little thing I'd like to bring up called SPEED.

SNES Final Fantasy 6 is a jittery little caffeinated SOB. It's FAST. The character's attack animations take one second, and the monsters don't have attack animations other than a half-second flash. Even the summons are relatively quick, seeming to have a cap of about four seconds (rough guess). The temptation that Squaresoft, back in the days of their first PSX game development phase, gave in to was to sacrifice that speed for graphical detail. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Trying to make something that looks like an animated, controllable pencil drawing animate fast and responsive to player input has got to be high on the list of programmer nightmares. But then again, all it takes is money and time.

If they could pull it off, though...they'd have super bragging rights for being THE enthusiast's game developer.