The concept of the XV Universe versus the VII Compilation

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I think we can all agree that we don't like story content being cut from the main game so that it can be put in DLC or elsewhere, but I do like the premise of the FFXV Universe.

I like that by watching a movie, or a short anime series, or a novelization, you can enrich and expand what you know about the game's world and the characters within it. It's great that a lot of the XV Universe was released around the same time, barring the future DLC, so that you can have a multi platform experience.

Final Fantasy VII was released as a full game, and later on due to its popularity it spawned sequels and prequels in the form of a movie and other games. These didn't take away from the original game, and even expanded on things like the Turks and Zack's backstory. Whether or not you thought they were good, they did expand the story of the characters and world.

In the age of many properties getting multiverse style concepts attached to them, assuming the original game is intact, would you rather have a game Universe all at once within a few year period like XV? Or would you prefer the VII route of creating an expanded world years down the line?

Third option: Do you hate those and just want a game that's one and done? No expansion, just tell a good story and move on.

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[Wolf Kanno]

Third option: Do you hate those and just want a game that's one and done? No expansion, just tell a good story and move on.

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When it comes to the mainline FFs, this is the option I wish SE would take.

Now if I'm going to be stuck with having to choose between the first two options, I'd rather the story be expanded after the fact because it means the design team won't hold anything back from the original. With that said, I'd rather the sequel be made relatively soon after the original work, cause I just feel its incredibly rare for any sequel made ten years after the fact to be any good. You lose something in that time frame and even if the original creators are working on them, they are just in a very different place ten years down the road from the original so the sequel always feels off. Course you can fix this issue if you do a stealth sequel and not bother to really play any lip service to the main cast of the original like Chrono Cross for example.

The interesting thing for me about these two expanded universes is that while I feel VII had the more rich and interesting setting to work with, I feel XV did a better job because its expansions really did help expand the world and concepts, course that because it was all made at around the same time and then was cut out and sold piecemeal style to the fans, but at least the DLC and side content made the overall experience better. Whereas I feel the Compilation really did a disappointing job with VII's mythos and the retcons and character assassinations often made me question if Kitase, Nomura, and Nojima had even played the original game before starting work on the projects of if they were still basing the story on their vague memories destroyed by years of sleep deprivation from making deadlines and all the celebratory booze afterwords.

I feel the biggest problem for me concerning SE's treatment of Expanded FF universes is that in all of the examples we've seen, I feel the reasoning behind making them really stemmed more from the company wanting to take advantage of the fans for monetary gain rather than because they were building something artistically interesting. While I know Kitase and Nomura have a hard on for VII and wanting to go back to it, you also have to remember that the Compilation was released during a tumultuous time in SE's early history where they were still reeling from the financial disaster that was Spirits Within and the merger. Likewise, X-2 was developed around the same time of the merger itself and largely served as a proof of concept about how successful an "expanded universe" approach would work. It's no surprise that SE has largely retained this model ever since with World of Mana, Ivalice Alliance, Fabula Nova Crystallis, Lightning Trilogy, FFXV Universe, and now possibly the FFVII Remake. Not helping things here is how SE's most successful titles are MMOs and mobile games that practically thrive on expansions.

[Jessweeee♪]

Story-wise, their compilations have just kind of sucked. If they brought the same level of quality to these expanded universes as they have with Shadowbringers I'd be more on board with the idea. FFX-2 was really fun, but I think it set a bad precedent.