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[MaximumSpider]

EDIT: Confirmation and details from WSJ reporter:

I can actually see this turning out well. Hoping it doesn't completely make the entire series flop[/QUOTE]
This doesn't sound too bad, I think I'm back in

 

[Turin]

 

[PBalfredo]

Isn't the list of successful episodic games almost exclusively games that are nearly complete when they first come out and with episodes within months of each other?

 

[diamond_is_not_crash]

I think there's a conception that it's going be a full game, split into episodic bites, while I think it's going to be story that is told over the course of multiple games.

If anything, this makes me more excited, I feel like the whole scope of what a modern remake of that world and story would be.

 

[Zukuu]

And the worst thing of all, we have no way to let SE know anything, since they CBA about twitter and are immune to western voices.

 

[kevm3]

If they split this into 3 parts and retain the structure of the original, then that's fine. If they are meaning episodic in meaning that they are going to 'streamline' the game and remove the exploration elements in order to make it cater to an episodic release like take out the world map or free exploration in towns, then that's a huge problem.

 

[matrix-cat]

"We were going to just put it on multiple discs but we knew you shitheels would pay $60 apiece"

 

[texasairhead101]

The options are open now. Could be a princess bride style flash back set up.

 

[Jigorath]

I fear for REmake 2. Don't fuck it up Capcom.

 

[Qvoth]

haha
makes sense for s-e though, ff7 is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge game

 

[maniac-kun]

The question is will ff 7-1 be the complete story and 7 -2 is a new story? Or is the original game split in multiple parts? Or a mix of both?

 

[New002]

:reads thread title:

:reads op:

 

[MagiusNecros]

I think it's safe to say we are gonna have the New Compilation of FFVII in this new project of theirs.

 

[SDCowboy]

I really hope Square clarifies soon and thoroughly.

 

[big_erk]

Hopefully I'm wrong, but

 

[E-Cat]

I'm out until they release an all-in-one for a reasonable price.

Not paying $60 to play one disc of FF7, only to wait for 3 years to pay another $60 to play the second disc, etc.

It's worse than that. There won't be a whole, cohesive FF7 even after all the episodes will have come out. Just a bunch of insulated set pieces and corridors.

 

[EekumBokum]

I think some people are taking the word "episodic" a bit too literally. I'm still unhappy about this, but it's really not that bad imo.

 

[Gnilres]

Wasn't the original Final Fantasy VII on several discs too? This is some grade A remake shit right here

 

[DMiz]

I'd actually be fine with this if the remake was done in such a way that we basically:

1. can pay for the 'whole' game as a single season pass, for approximately $60 (but realistically, will be charged at around $80)
2. can pay for each episode as a $30 'game', and the game is split into 3 episodes
3. are told well in advance how many episodes there will be.

Otherwise, this is a blatant attempt to get as much money as possible from the fans and should be reacted to in kind.

 

[timetokill]

Finally. This whole FF7 thing wasn't making any sense to me.

I said for years that FF7 could never be remade unless it was something like a 3DS remake where it used basically the same structure (largely static backgrounds, fixed camera angles, etc) with maybe updated character models. The scope of the game is too big for a full 3D remake.

Then came the trailers, and the footage yesterday. Looked awesome, but something was nagging at me.

Now it's all coming together. I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

Episodic releases means they can cut the story into bits and actually have something come out before PS5.

It means they can cut everything down into narrative segments and remove all the open world traversal all over the place.

It means they can cut "inconvenient" parts of the game for the sake of the episode.

This isn't (entirely) about milking fans out of money. This is about making the project even somewhat feasible to accomplish, especially at a dysfunctional developer like Square-Enix.


Ultimately, there is gonna be so much stuff cut from the original that it is gonna make fans' heads spin.

 

[JazzmanZ]

Final fantasy fans right now

 

[JetBlackPanda]

I think there's a conception that it's going be a full game, split into episodic bites, while I think it's going to be story that is told over the course of multiple games.

If anything, this makes me more excited, I feel like the whole scope of what a modern remake of that world and story would be.

I think it going to be a hacked up greatest hits of for the story they will cut massive content is my guess

 

[Landford]

I need a Hyper. Legit Sadness right now.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

haha people in ign comment section going ham on square enix too. I hope this fails really bad. And they lose tons of money off this. Bunch of talentless hacks. Hopefully maybe one day they can make a game run over 30 fps.

WTF? Is episodic this big of a deal? Some of you have completely lost your minds.

 

[RPGam3r]

...because SE has any shown so many times how "wrong" we are about them, so we should give them the benefit of the doubt? It sounds like SE fuckery alright.

You know what I'm out, I can't shout over the negativity in here I don't know why I'm even trying. Everyone here knows what will happen and is already mad as usual.

 

[BumRush]

Thank you Mods for changing the thread title.

 

[Petrae]

"We were going to just put it on multiple discs but we knew you shitheels would pay $60 apiece"

This is the correct answer. Final Fantasy fans will pay any price-- even across multiple episodes. It's Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" all over again.

 

[~Kinggi~]

Truth be told after the initial reaction of NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the overwhelming power of FF7 remake i would be fine paying whatever for the whole thing so i really dont care.


But still yeah its not the best of news.

 

[entremet]

"We were going to just put it on multiple discs but we knew you shitheels would pay $60 apiece"

That's exactly what it is

It's still episodic, because the releases are staggered.

 

[thebisonxrc]

Disappointing news. I'll be keen to hold off until the entire thing is done and it can be purchased as a complete package.

It'll be a few years, but so be it.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

Is this how games are going to go? Seasons and episodes like Netflix? More consumable bite-sized chunks? Would be an interesting business model if it somehow ensured more content/value and less buggy software.

Based on Tell Tale games, the software will be just as buggy, if not worse because of the potential to lose save files between episodes.

 

[laser]

Isn't the list of successful episodic games almost exclusively games that are nearly complete when they first come out and with episodes within months of each other?

Yes on within months, no on nearly complete. The content for each episode is small so they can release it within months. That wouldn't work here.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

If the data is that large in what appears to be a relatively early starting development cycle, then you have to wonder if Square Enix is going to release all the episodes at once in one package. I can't see them allowing people to wait for the next game, that can hurt sales.

 

[Blood Diamonds]

EDIT: Confirmation and details from WSJ reporter:

I can actually see this turning out well. Hoping it doesn't completely make the entire series flop

glad someone could confirm that Genesis is indeed being written into the main story. I'm ready for FF7R, Square.

 

[DrD]

I really hope they give details on this soon.

 

[blankempathy]

Or they could have used multiple disks.

Thats asinine. The dats is too big. You can't just stick some data on one disk and then other data on another. Thats just crazy talk!

 

[B.K.]

If they split this into 3 parts and retain the structure of the original, then that's fine. If they are meaning episodic in meaning that they are going to 'streamline' the game and remove the exploration elements in order to make it cater to an episodic release like take out the world map or free exploration in towns, then that's a huge problem.

You shouldn't expect a world map. Console JRPGs don't do world maps anymore. You have to go to handheld games for that. I can't remember the last console JRPG I played that did have a real world map.

 

[the_sun_king]

Wasn't the original Final Fantasy VII on several discs too? This is some grade A remake shit right here

Three discs, yes.

But, y'know, it was all available in a complete box package at once.

 

[Spinluck]

Lmao, what a joke. Glad I've never cared for FF7.

 

[Dangansona]

Man, fuck this thread. There is no point in trying to talk sense to some of you. People are just finding excuses to be disappointed without seeing how the final game will be, let alone what episodic content actually refers to.



Good thing this game is a remake and not the same as your original playthrough of FFVII. It can be made to work.

It's not that simple. I was so pumped for this game yesterday. This news absolutely breaks my heart if it pans out the way it appears it will.

But yes, we don't know enough. I am going to exit the thread and try my hardest to stop thinking about it until we get further statements from Square.

Spoiler

But fuck you SW

 

[Skellig Gra]

I'm actually okay with this. I don't see what the fuss is about

It's going to cost at minimum over $100 for the whole experience.

 

[Arkeband]

Also, I doubt it's going to be $60 for a small 10 hour segment with each episode folks.

A big large-scale remake of a PS1 RPG classic was already a very tall order to begin with, so to me this seems like a bit of a compromise to really make it work, the more I think about it.

You'll have the defense force coming out and saying "6 episodes at 10 hours an episode that's 60 hours of content BE GRATEFUL"

And do you understand why people were excited, initially? It's because of the simple fact that it WAS a tall order. It would be unprecedented, a modernization of one of the largest and genre-defining RPG's in a pivotal time in video game development.

We wouldn't have been as excited if it had a disclaimer of "Oh, but as you can imagine, this is very hard work, so we'll have to give it to you in tiny pieces!"

 

[wilflare]

I guess they are really going for that authentic 4 CDs feel by having 4 episodes (I don't know how many episodes there are gonna be)

man that Hashimoto laughing.gif is haunting

 

[LeonSPBR]

I'm actually okay with this, as long as they don't charge $60 for each "episode". I hope they made 3 episodes just like the 3 CD from PS1 era.

 

[depths20XX]

I blame all of you who bought XIII-2. This is your fault.

 

[cyber_ninja]

This is me right now, hype is deflating.

 

[NYR]

Capitalist profit-making company chases profits. News at 11.

 

[RDreamer]

I'm more sad about the changes to action based combat than this.

If this means we get a bigger game, because it financially makes more sense, then so be it. I'm not going to get too angry until we have more info about how big each episode will possibly be.

 

[DangerMouse]

Hey guys, maybe light at the end of the tunnel here. I have a theory/hope.

What if they made each part WAY more fleshed out now that they can focus on sections of the game. So lets say all of Midgar section is part 1, but it is way more expansive, more to do, etc etc.

I would kind of be ok with that.

So instead of cutting content to fit it on budget, they can break it piece meal but fit way more than they would have originally.

Bingo. I think this is possible. To not lose anything it's certainly possible the game is just too big when you consider all the stuff they built on little pre-rendered maps that now are going to be full sized set pieces and places at the fidelity they are clearly going for for each location.

Stuff like this is why some PS1 games are harder than PS2 games to bring over in many instances, pretty much what everyone has talked about in the past with how huge old PS1 JRPGs would be brought into modern huge full 3D environments.
Also, I could see each section being fleshed out more since it would maximize the value of each set piece. Just look at those models for Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, they might get extra screen time for example.

Previous FF's being multi-disc shows that splitting it up doesn't mean that an overworld for an airship is impossible.

 

[Darkangel]

First Half-life, now Final Fantasy VII.