xenosys
Member
Square Enix have the biggest cojones in the entire gaming industry, bar none.
They had the easiest lay-up of all-time.
All they had to do was take their time and faithfully re-create one of the most beloved games in history, package it into a single, coherent 40-60 hour game, and the Final Fantasy 7 Remake would have been a money-printing machine for them. Creatively bankrupt like EVERY other remake and remaster in the industry right now, but a money-making machine nonetheless.
Instead, upper management decide this is an 'ideal' opportunity to take a very serious reputational and financial risk on their biggest single-player property, by getting shifty with the core narrative of the original game, turning a single 40-80+ hour title into a likely 100-200+ hour trilogy, and making it a re-quel/se-quel/pre-quel/whatever you want to call it in the process. When they advertised it as a Remake, 99% of people likely didn't expect what they got.
Many will categorize the decision to split the game up into a trilogy as a cynical cash-grab, but the slam dunk cash-grab would have been a faithful remake as I'm sure that would have generated more revenue right?
Many people will and still do call it an incredibly stupid business and gaming decision, incredibly disrespectful to the original game etc, but you can't deny that Square Enix have taken the decision to do something completely different from every other remake in the industry, and actually offer something more creative than a visual/graphical upgrade with an extra 5% bolted on.
Personally, I think it's crazy and they've potentially lost out on hundreds of million in revenue after spending hundreds of millions to develop and market the games, but I at least applaud them for trying something different. Even if most don't agree with it.
They had the easiest lay-up of all-time.
All they had to do was take their time and faithfully re-create one of the most beloved games in history, package it into a single, coherent 40-60 hour game, and the Final Fantasy 7 Remake would have been a money-printing machine for them. Creatively bankrupt like EVERY other remake and remaster in the industry right now, but a money-making machine nonetheless.
Instead, upper management decide this is an 'ideal' opportunity to take a very serious reputational and financial risk on their biggest single-player property, by getting shifty with the core narrative of the original game, turning a single 40-80+ hour title into a likely 100-200+ hour trilogy, and making it a re-quel/se-quel/pre-quel/whatever you want to call it in the process. When they advertised it as a Remake, 99% of people likely didn't expect what they got.
Many will categorize the decision to split the game up into a trilogy as a cynical cash-grab, but the slam dunk cash-grab would have been a faithful remake as I'm sure that would have generated more revenue right?
Many people will and still do call it an incredibly stupid business and gaming decision, incredibly disrespectful to the original game etc, but you can't deny that Square Enix have taken the decision to do something completely different from every other remake in the industry, and actually offer something more creative than a visual/graphical upgrade with an extra 5% bolted on.
Personally, I think it's crazy and they've potentially lost out on hundreds of million in revenue after spending hundreds of millions to develop and market the games, but I at least applaud them for trying something different. Even if most don't agree with it.