Final Fantasy VII Remake is a multi-part series
- Thread starter PhillipCostigan
- Start date
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Comparing story sequences isn't quite the right comparison. Story sequences in recent jRPGs are generally longer and more involved than in the old school era.
But there has been a clear and necessary decrease in "scope" from jRPGs of the old era to that of the new.
Old games had you criss-crossing the entire globe with a metric ton of story beats... because the "globe" was actually a rather tiny environment with a squat character poking his head out through forests, and the story beats were a couple of text boxes popping up in front of primitive polygons.
Newer RPGs often involve you walking across an area roughly the size of a small American state, with cutscenes that are more like scenes in film, but with much less story beats overall.
And yet... modern jRPGs are often longer than their old school counterparts, due to this increase in detail.
Translating FFVII into a modern scope would make for a gargantuan game.
BassForever
Member
A lot of over reactions and panic in this thread. I'd rather play even a small portion of this game next year and not wait till 2020 for the game to come out.
Bananajama
Banned
Sorry
I'm buying it regardless
-> Part of the problem*
*disclaimer - so long as each "episode" is 20+ hours
I'm buying it regardless
-> Part of the problem*
*disclaimer - so long as each "episode" is 20+ hours
The Freeman
Member
Let's see if you say the same when it gets to 2018 and you're still waiting for part 3
The anger still burns bright in me for Half Life 2: Episode 3
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Haha.. Honestly? In 2018 we'll be waiting for part 2...
Holundrian
Unconfirmed Member
Will be hilarious if each new part advertises like a MMO addon.
- Raises the level cap by 20
- Adds new exciting environments
- New skills and summons
- New enemies and bosses
etc etc.
- Raises the level cap by 20
- Adds new exciting environments
- New skills and summons
- New enemies and bosses
etc etc.
HellofaMouse
Member
Actually it wouldnt be too bad if they split it into 3 parts and released them annually, like lotr movies.
Never played the original game tho, assuming the amount of content in it is comparable to the lotr instead of the hobbit.
Never played the original game tho, assuming the amount of content in it is comparable to the lotr instead of the hobbit.
xChildOfHatex
Member
Yeah, I'm gonna wait for the "Complete Edition" that'll release once all the episodes are out. Watch it be a single disc and solve their "data size so huge" problem because "We've had a lot more time to work on the PS 4 now" or some such vague nonsense.
I can't fault them for this though, coz FF7 was a huge game and maybe they don't want to fully commit to remaking it unless they know for sure that it will sell like gangbusters and quickly break even.
I can't fault them for this though, coz FF7 was a huge game and maybe they don't want to fully commit to remaking it unless they know for sure that it will sell like gangbusters and quickly break even.
The 'amount' of content in the Hobbit wasn't the problem
Bitch Pudding
Member
Well, I just want to remind you on a certain interview with Kitase from 2010:
http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/final_fantasy_x_1.html
Kitase literally said developing FF VII-R would take 10 years or more. Maybe this explains why they chose the episodic approach.
http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/final_fantasy_x_1.html
Kitase literally said developing FF VII-R would take 10 years or more. Maybe this explains why they chose the episodic approach.
Let's just hope that we won't have to pay for each disc this time around tho
Can't say I didn't expect this, seeing how the trailer only had scenes from the very beginning of the game. I'm sure they'll release the full game later on in some form, but I suppose it makes more sense (and money) to do this now: FFVII doesn't lend itself much to in-game purchases, so this is another way to price the game higher overall (asking more than, say, 100$ for the full game wouldn't have worked).
Don't get me wrong, I hate this trend too.
Don't get me wrong, I hate this trend too.
doniewhalberg
Member
Well, I hadn't really considered the possibility of episodes, but it's not shocking to hear either, and I'm not too disheartened, it makes sense a few ways.
Obviously they can split up the game, which lets them focus deeply on each part. This could could well be hundreds of hours of gameplay, by the sounds they're making. They seem committed to keep the original stuff, and adding new ideas. If they can just work on Midgar, then the first continent, the second and so on, they can set realistic goals for content/asset creation in manageable chunks. They can release on realistic dates. They have good review milestones to make sure the team isn't loosing their shit. They have milestones to hear fan feedback and add tweaks both in the next installments and retroactively. They have milestones of sales and return profit to show investors on what will, regardless of release strategy, be a huge multiyear massive budget investment.
As mentioned, I hadn't really considered episodic, but realistically, I'm not sure how you could release the original PS1 games as one game in one go without taking so load, the project dates itself into oblivion by the time it releases. Big worry would be whether they can keep schedule, and that is a big if, but at least FFXV will have helped them get the tech in a mature place before even starting, and since it's a general adaptation, they have a framework to start with in all design aspects before they dive in and start debating what to do with X feature and so on.
Fingers crossed!
Obviously they can split up the game, which lets them focus deeply on each part. This could could well be hundreds of hours of gameplay, by the sounds they're making. They seem committed to keep the original stuff, and adding new ideas. If they can just work on Midgar, then the first continent, the second and so on, they can set realistic goals for content/asset creation in manageable chunks. They can release on realistic dates. They have good review milestones to make sure the team isn't loosing their shit. They have milestones to hear fan feedback and add tweaks both in the next installments and retroactively. They have milestones of sales and return profit to show investors on what will, regardless of release strategy, be a huge multiyear massive budget investment.
As mentioned, I hadn't really considered episodic, but realistically, I'm not sure how you could release the original PS1 games as one game in one go without taking so load, the project dates itself into oblivion by the time it releases. Big worry would be whether they can keep schedule, and that is a big if, but at least FFXV will have helped them get the tech in a mature place before even starting, and since it's a general adaptation, they have a framework to start with in all design aspects before they dive in and start debating what to do with X feature and so on.
Fingers crossed!
archangelmorph
Member
Isn't that the whole point of doing it multi-part?
To offset the astronomical costs of this project considering the size of the game FFVII is...
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I believe the "data size" comment has zero to do with disc space.
The data means amount of content: story, world, gameplay, battle systems.
well fuck me.
how to rip off fans in the most beastiality way.
congratz square.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Of course we will, it'll be like FFVIIR1-1, FFVIIR1-2, and they will probably be full retail disc releases, and full price.
BUT as a trade off we may get 60+ hour content on each disc, with everything the original game offered and more, content wise.
FTFY
perfection
Dr Funfrock
Member
Yeah, it was a huge game. I'm fine with this being released on 3 games and it makes sense from a storage and business perspective. Hopefully it won't take too long for the next parts to come out because Disc 1 ended on such a high note.
Saiyan-Rox
Member
*Innocent Whistle*
Yabberwocky
Member
I'm assuming Square will definitely earn more money by releasing the remake in installments, but it'll be interesting to see if the sales numbers drop off with each successive game. If FFVII-R comes out in one go, you can catch everyone with the nostalgia hype, and pick up all the new consumers that want to get in on the excitement. When release becomes more staggered (and consumers kinda know there will be an ultimate edition one day), people won't rush out to buy it quite as urgently. (ie. consumers holding on Rise of the Tomb Raider's later releases, or waiting for sales days for Assassin's Creed.) We've seen remaster sales numbers drop, too, ie. KH 1.5 HD to KH 2.5 HD, though a remake of FFVII is a whole different beast than a remaster. I guess even if the numbers do drop of between games, multiple games making an average amount of money is still more than one game making a lot.
They'll have to do great job with FFVIIR-1, too, or people might not rushing out to buy the next one. I'm just worried the first game would do well, the second one might only do average, and then when it comes time for the big climatic final game, the budget has been cut because it didn't do as well as Square hoped. I'm not sure what would be worse - a gutted FFVII remake, or a multi-game series that ends on a whimper.
They'll have to do great job with FFVIIR-1, too, or people might not rushing out to buy the next one. I'm just worried the first game would do well, the second one might only do average, and then when it comes time for the big climatic final game, the budget has been cut because it didn't do as well as Square hoped. I'm not sure what would be worse - a gutted FFVII remake, or a multi-game series that ends on a whimper.
It's disappointing.
But this should be a great example of the cost and overall state of game development these days. You have a game that would be an assumed, instant money-printer being broken up into pieces because of development time and costs. The "go big or go home" attitude of the market these days is killing the industry. This is the same industry and company that famously deemed the last Tomb Raider game a sales failure after it sold 3.4 million copies in the first month. There's just no room for error or shortcomings of any kind in today's market and that is probably causing some weariness among investors. Simply put, this game's development would have been smoother in the industry 10 years ago.
Square Enix published 7 titles in 2015 that weren't remakes/remasters. 2005 had 17. I'm not trying to play armchair economist here but the lack of a stronger "middle market" in video games today is making these larger productions like a FFVII remake more of a financial gamble for Square Enix and is probably a driving factor for splitting the game up more than any appeal of a "cash grab."
I think it's lazy thinking to believe that this is just Square Enix being greedy.
But this should be a great example of the cost and overall state of game development these days. You have a game that would be an assumed, instant money-printer being broken up into pieces because of development time and costs. The "go big or go home" attitude of the market these days is killing the industry. This is the same industry and company that famously deemed the last Tomb Raider game a sales failure after it sold 3.4 million copies in the first month. There's just no room for error or shortcomings of any kind in today's market and that is probably causing some weariness among investors. Simply put, this game's development would have been smoother in the industry 10 years ago.
Square Enix published 7 titles in 2015 that weren't remakes/remasters. 2005 had 17. I'm not trying to play armchair economist here but the lack of a stronger "middle market" in video games today is making these larger productions like a FFVII remake more of a financial gamble for Square Enix and is probably a driving factor for splitting the game up more than any appeal of a "cash grab."
I think it's lazy thinking to believe that this is just Square Enix being greedy.
Hostile_18
Banned
Honestly they should just not go for as realistic graphics. It's all relative I mean Final Fantasy 7 PS1 was made in one go and yes although there's more work for a modern title the processes for making them has become easier (third party software etc).
To be fair it will be a new experience of sorts even for the fans of the original game.
Holundrian
Unconfirmed Member
Agreed, more a case of them not being very smart about it.
You don't need state of the art graphic fidelity to make something look awesome.
They could have stayed way closer to the original by aiming for an insanely awesome graphical style instead of chasing poly count.
It's not like 7 looks great right now, the room of improvement is gigantic without going next(current) gen graphics.
But then maybe I'm wrong I just want to believe that style will always beat pure graphical fidelity. Maybe you need cutting edge graphics to get that big money....
Ghost Slayer
Member
AgentLampshade
Member
When I think on it, of course Square would do this. Of course they'll get you to buy 4 full price games for this. And you'll do it, because it's Final Fantasy VII dammit!
Neff
Member
For the longest time I've supposed that if a FFVII remake were ever to happen, it'd be episodic, with dramatic changes and possible omissions. People forget just how gargantuan the game is, and assume the developers will just somehow make it all in beautiful HD graphics in an equivalent AAA timeframe. It can't be done.
Hostile_18
Banned
Was the Lightning trilogy not equally big games with decent graphics made in a sensible time frame? (I never played them, genuine question).
I think they're wanting to go all out graphically because the FF series was a contemporary graphical powerhouse from VII to XII on their respective consoles.
With this and news about multiple studios involved I'm pretty sure the game's gonna be massive. Charging 60 bucks for that amount of content is unfair to developers, so find it okay if square releases 3 separate games with 30+ hours of gameplay and shitload of development videos both from 1996 and 2016. Also lets not forget that Nomura wanted to make a remake fans will like, meaning that each episode will likely be tweaked to match all the neogaf perverted ideas
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I would say that no FF since the PS1 days has been as "big".
They've gotten bigger in terms of game length... but the scope has been greatly reduced from the world-spanning PS1 games. You're just exploring an island chain (FFX). Or a small country (FFXII). Or a straight line (that's an FFXIII joke). Or a series of disconnected levels disguised as time travel (XIII-2). Or again.. a small country (Lightning Returns).
FTFY
bahahahaha
Ugh... I embraced the new battle system. I thought it looked kinda cool, actually!
But this decision is so obviously made so they can cut corners in the content. The only thing I want is a faithful remake with a world map, lots of shit to do and just a traditional FF game with the necessary updates to make it more with the current times.
Why is it so hard to do something like that? Ni No Kuni managed to have a great world map, it brought the feeling of classic JRPG exploration back in a really good way. Though it lacked stuff in other departments.
I just have a bad feeling that this will effect a "complete" edition greatly in a way as well. Items might be missable, areas might be locked into story specific events, many areas will probably be cut, probably no world map (And if they had one, how would they even handle it? Invisible walls locking off content until the next episode?).
But this is my fault, right? I actually got excited over a major console Square-Enix release. Shouldn't have done that.
But this decision is so obviously made so they can cut corners in the content. The only thing I want is a faithful remake with a world map, lots of shit to do and just a traditional FF game with the necessary updates to make it more with the current times.
Why is it so hard to do something like that? Ni No Kuni managed to have a great world map, it brought the feeling of classic JRPG exploration back in a really good way. Though it lacked stuff in other departments.
I just have a bad feeling that this will effect a "complete" edition greatly in a way as well. Items might be missable, areas might be locked into story specific events, many areas will probably be cut, probably no world map (And if they had one, how would they even handle it? Invisible walls locking off content until the next episode?).
But this is my fault, right? I actually got excited over a major console Square-Enix release. Shouldn't have done that.
They weren't exactly made within a sensible timeframe. Development started in 2004. The first game wasn't released in Japan until 2009 and the west in 2010.
Hostile_18
Banned
Despite Final Fantasy 7 and 8 having world maps from memory there wasn't that much you could do away from the main missions and the side places you could visit were quite small? The world maps themselves were very basic as well, wouldn't take much to update them if they kept it like for like.
The Jason
Member
The only reason there was 3 disks was because of the limitations of CD. And we didn't have to wait for part 2 or 3, nor did we have to pay an additional cost.
I really hope the remake is in 3 parts or less. I'm now hoping for 2, FFVIIR-1 and FFVIIR-2, of course they really should just delay it and make it all one game.
My Guess, two parts, $60 each.
Stiflers Mom
Banned
Why is this a bad thing?
RipperGrim
Member
Is it episodic? Separate games? It would be incredibly shit if we have to buy each part separately as a full game.