FFVII Episode 1

[Skyblade]

VII isn't even in my top 5 FFs, but I will still enjoy it. Yes, yes I really will. I think you're placing your opinion onto others. I personally just think it looks fun so far.

I enjoy all of them because I'm not an overly critical person on really any media . Heck, i'm still excited about XV and it's been a decade lol

I personally thought FFXII looked fun from the trailers. It wasn't. I thought FFXIII looked fun from the trailers. It wasn't either. Dirge of Cerberus. Crisis Core. FFXIII-2. Lightning Returns.

Square excels at making gorgeous trailers for crappy games these days. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be any good at making good games anymore. In fact, the prettier the game is, the worse it tends to be upon release.

Maybe you'll enjoy it. In which case, I'm glad you have a game you'll enjoy.

Maybe I'll enjoy it.

I just really, really doubt it.

But what if it was spread across three releases and the -Episode 3- Final Fantasy VII: Meteorfall was based on something similar to Lightning Returns countdown.

That...is an -amazing- idea. Not in the aspect that we'd have limited time once a point of no return happens, but it'd add a sense of urgency that wasn't in the original. You'd have to add like a week or two of gameplay time once the Shinra Rocket hits, maybe? But this helps warm me over to the Digital Disks idea a bit more.

And yes, Lightning Returns reset your progress a day or so if you got to the finals days without enough souls saved.

So, 90% of the game's optional content is going to be missing, because it took place during that countdown time?

Of course, that system even being implemented was why I never played more than an hour or two of Lightning Returns. So, as soon as THAT "feature" is announced, it's going to guarantee that I don't buy it.

There has to be, surely. If they don't it will be like starting at Level 1 on disc 2 :/

So, no more backtracking. No exploration outside of where you're supposed to go next. No optional content...

If this is the case then I wonder how they would enable the carrying over of items, levels, Materia etc.

What makes you think they will? Lightning started back with no abilities during Lightning Returns, after all.

A different game with a different goal, from a different director leading a different team, making a game that carries a different battle system than its series through. We're not expecting FFVII to change the very basics of the combat form one part to another... We know they're going to be carrying over levels, stats, materia, weapons, accessories, everything. Save data is going to be the same through episodes, surely.

You're not expecting FFVII to change the very basics of the combat from one part to another. I'm expecting everything to be built from the ground up with no cohesion or unity to vision with each episode, because I've lost almost all of my faith in Square is a developer.

The only things we have confirmed that are returning from the original game are:
Characters, locations, and cross-dressing.

We know they're changing the mechanics. We know they're changing the story. We know they're changing the format. I don't expect this game to bear more than passing resemblance to the original.

Oh, that's an overreaction if I ever saw one. They said they are adding MORE content to areas and that can't be contained on one disc. So to be able to add in MORE content they have to split it up. They are making the graphics very realistic and using the Unreal Engine 4 to do so. They're aiming to make this huge world. They will have trouble with the current data storage systems so they're releasing it in parts.

I'm perfectly okay with this myself and find no issue. If we're getting more content with amazing graphics, I don't really care how many games it takes to get it out. As long as it comes out!

EDIT: The bioware games can manage to port over choices from their different games currently so i'm sure it's possible for these games too.

This. I am -not- perfectly ok with this. I find issue, myself. I was, like you, ready to go and buy a single disk sometime within the next few years. But I know jack-all about game development and if a team that has consistently delivered the greatest games I've played in my life, has settled, after years and years of contemplation, into spending millions in this kind of release, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Square hasn't "consistently" delivered the greatest games of my life IN HALF OF MY LIFETIME.

The trailers look great, so I can't believe we're complaining while, say, the KoF fanbase is complaining about graphics, the Dark Cloud fanbase is crying for a new installment, the Last Guardian fanbase is crying tears of happiness and would likely be grateful for an episodic release, and the XenoSaga fanbase is never even going to see a remake of their series.

Again: The trailers for XII looked great. The trailers for XIII looked great. The trailers for XIII-2 looked great. The trailers for...

Good trailers do not make a good game.

People can complain about graphics all they want. I'll take a hit on the graphics to get a better game any time. Which is why I was enjoying Bravely Default while everyone else was waiting for XV.

"I've been telling you for years, it's impossible. But wait! I think I've found a way! I'm doing it! and I'm adding -more- content! And check this out, I'm going to deliver the a huge game that I want to live up to the original's impact, and in a timely fashion too! but I'll be doing it piece by piece, hope you don't mind."

"SCREW YOU!!"

How much can you change of a game before it ceases to be a remake and just becomes a lousy piece of overcomplicated trout? Which is a good description of 90% of what Square has made in the past decade and a half.

Will you, though? Will you really?

Or will you get it, expecting to like it, only to find out it's a huge mess? And then either defend it out of fanboyism for the original and the dream of what the remake could have been, or put it away, forget about it, and never buy the remaining episodes?

If it's anything like what I expect from a Final Fantasy VII Remake, then yes, I'll buy the whole thing. Square is not (anymore) stupid enough to screw itself over for no reason. Obviously they're still working on this as an RPG, they obviously have to work the sidequests and backtracking (what little of it there was in FFVII) into the game. I'm too wondering how I'm gonna go back to Fort Condor after visiting the Gold Saucer, and how I'm going to get the mythril chunk when I want it, but they're probably going to plan the releases around giving the player as much of a choice as possibly.

My problem is that this is EXACTLY what I "expected" in a Final Fantasy VII remake from the current Square Enix.

It's just nothing at all like what I "wanted" in a Final Fantasy VII remake.

That's why I'm finding it very difficult to maintain the hype. Everything they have announced or explained about this remake is EXACTLY what I would have predicted the current Square to do:

Ruin the original plot? Check.
Ruin the original game mechanics? Check.
Release the game in a way to milk the most money from it? Check.
Focus on graphics to the exclusion of all else, including fundamental game design elements? Check.
Remove all sense of agency and exploration from the game? Check.

It sounds precisely like what I'd expect from a remake. Which is why I DID NOT WANT them to remake it.

I could be wrong. I could be massively misinterpreting this. But nothing they have said so far has given me any reason to trust that they have any idea what actually makes a good game any more. They don't appear to have learned from any of their (numerous) failings.

If the whole thing is disappointing in content, releases, or carrying over from one episode to another, or fails to provide the options the original did once I actually play it, I promise I'll be right there complaining with you. The only two things I want to see, is how many episodes this is going to take, and how much they expect us to pay for each.

I'm more interested in how much they're going to butcher the plot, gameplay, characterization, exploration, minigames, tone, themes, and world design beyond what we've already seen.

What I'm saying is, this isn't the first time Square does something insane. If it fails, it won't be their first major screw-up, but if it works and creates the JRPG of our times(again), it won't be the first time they've pulled off something incredible.

It will, however, be the first time they've pulled off something incredible with their flagship franchise in longer than I care to remember. If we discount Type-0 and Bravely Default, both of which were developed by relatively tiny sub-sections of the company, and neither of which was due to be released in the West, it would be the first time they've pulled off something incredible AT ALL since, what, 2001?