What does that even mean? Do you think any open-world RPG will be 'barren' by default? Because the concept of open-world RPG's isn't anything new. In 1997, the same year that Final Fantasy 7 was released, the first Fallout also came out.
I have been reading the thread since yesterday, stop for a while, and I really can't believe some of the reactions here.
I know it is disappointin, but I saw something like this coming from a mile away. Some of you really have unrealistic expectations of what you want and act all entitled because Square Enix made this compromise to get the game out.
First let me start by saying Square Enix has never ever made a game of this scale/quality ever. Square Enix have not made a traditional FF game since IX on the PS1. That means SE have not made a game like this since the PS1 and they are not capable of doing it this way in 2015.
I really don't know what to think about the episode thing, but the most likely reason is they want to have some sort of game out by 2016 maybe 2017, not have a long development process for a huge game they may not be able to make until 2020 if at all. So by releasing it in chapters they would be able to give us something.
It could also be they are streamlining the game because they cannot possibly make a game of FFVII scale in today's hardware. If that is the case it is not only them because see how the Elder Scroll games have been 'dumbed' down since Oblivion. I think it has to do with scale. They cannot possibly do an overworld of the size of VII the way the do things now. There is no scaled character in the overworld like Ni No Kuni and VII did, they may want to actually do that big overworld and as open world/maps/regions etc and that would take them too much time or may be impssible.
I really just want to wait and see what they give us. This will in no way be a 1 for 1 remake of VII. The may cut stuff and streamline the story/gameplay because realistically SE is not capable of doing a game of FFVII scale right now. Hell SE has not been able to make a game of classic FF scale since IX came out. It's disappointing but it's the truth. This is why I think this compromise will help them get as close to that as possible.
I just hate some of you complaining about it as if it was some trivial thing the screwed up for no reason at all. I feel many of you didn't have realistic expectations or had too much hype or something like that. It look like entitlement and I get the complaints, but that doesn't make it any less true.
TL;DR : Many of you have unrealistic expectations about what type of FFVII Remake is possible in 2015 from SE. Hell possible from most developers. FFVII was a huge game of a scale that is not really possible in the scope they want to do it in unless they spend 10 years which is something no one wants.
Are we arguing the objective quality of the games or the hype they generated? Because FFVII wasn't revolutionary in any way when it was released, it was just good marketing and good timing.
Uh, vhat? It was the first huge-scale cinematic JRPG to hit the playstation with FMV graphics. It basically set the precedent for presentation in video games for years. It was the pinnacle of RPG's for its time, and by nature of the the jump from SNES/Genesis to PS1 3d graphics, the change was giant. So yes, it was revolutionary. It was such a huge game it inspired an entire console generation's worth of RPG's.
I don't see how you can reasonably expect only three parts. It's probably going to be five or six or more.
Midgar alone should be one part, especially if we visit sectors that were not visited in the original game. End the episode with a cliffhanger just as the gang
exits the city to hunt Sephiroth.
Episode 2: from end of episode 1 to fighting
Jenova aboard the military ship
. You might think "but there's not a lot of content there". In the original game, yes, but in this remake, if what they are saying about adding content is true, I fully expect lots and lots of new stuff on the world map. Junon will also need to feel massive. And what about that guard tower where you play the defending minigame? This needs to be completely overhauled.
Episode 3: you begin at Costa Del Sol, which is now a full-sized massive town, possibly with side quests and stuff. You go through a very overhauled Golden Saucer as well as its prison. Then comes the dungeon leading to
Red XIII's petrified father.
The episode ends at Nibelheim, where the player starts to n
otice seams in Cloud's story.
Episode 4: Rocket Town, all the way to the release of the
WEAPONs in the northern crater.
Episode 5: from end of ep4, all the way to
Cloud's memories being restored
.
Episode 6: Final episode. You start by infiltrating a
Midgar under martial law
(a really fucking cool scene there) all the way to the end of the game.
I think people might be being a little too optimistic with thinking that this will be three parts, given that the amount of work on world development and story content varies tremendously from hour to hour in the original.
Episode I -- I don't see how this can be anything other than Midgar; it just makes sense, and gives you a natural ending point.
Episode II -- This is where things get tricky, because the Kalm flashback is pretty extensive, and there's a ton of incident before you get to the end of Disk 1. In addition to the Kalm flashback, you have to include Junon, the Cargo Ship, Corel, and most likely Gold Saucer (which would probably require a lot of additional/reworked minigames). I think this episode should end either at Gold Saucer or at Cosmo Canyon, with the team sitting around the fire, lost in thought about the future. The temptation to go all the way to the end of Disk 1 has got to be pretty strong, but I think there's just too much here.
Episode III - Now we get the rest of Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, Rocket Town, the Temple of the Ancients, and the end of Disk 1.
Episode IV - The journey north to the Crater, complete with snowboarding. I expect the episodic structure and a desire to cut out as few things as possible means we'll get the snowboarding.
Episode V - The escape from Junon and the Huge Materia quests, including the revelations in/about the Lifestream. Ze-no-gias!
Episode VI - The final thrilling conclusion: return to Midgar and then the final preparations before the Northern Cave and the end of the game.
It's fun to speculate! I think realistically we might be talking six episodes instead of one per disk, though, and I'm really fine with that -- I want this to be a really detailed remake, and if they have to cover the entire game (or even a third of the game) in a single release, I think the detail would necessarily be reduced.
Sounds like Episode Duscae might be the model/inspiration for this. It's its own self contained-ish experience in a large, open slice of the game world, complete with side quests, secrets. optional bosses, etc.. The main quest took about 3 hours and all in all I probably put about a dozen into it total. I could easily see it being comparable in size/scope to a 7r episode, though they'd no doubt beef up the main story by a few hours and add more side stuff at the very least.
5 ~Duscae sized episodes - 8-10 hours of story each - released over 30 months. That's my extremely uneducated guess.
Late reply but because game development costs money. A game of this magnitude costs a lot more money. It's not financially viable to spend 6+ years in full production and sell it for $60. Sorry, but that's just not realistic.
They could shorten that development time but like Nomura stated in the interview, it'd mean cutting a lot of content which would be a disservice to the Remake project and expectations surrounding it.
It's fun to speculate! I think realistically we might be talking six episodes instead of one per disk, though, and I'm really fine with that -- I want this to be a really detailed remake, and if they have to cover the entire game (or even a third of the game) in a single release, I think the detail would necessarily be reduced.
-all of Midgar needs to be the first episode. As you said, there's a natural ending point that totally feels like a season finale for a TV show.
-the release of
WEAPONs at the northern crater
also feels strongly (to me) like a big season finale. Not only that, but ending the episode there would also bring about the next episode being entirely
sans Cloud
, of which I very much like the idea. You
bring back Cloud
for the last episode, which starts with the gang infiltrating Midgar under martial law.
The above lays down three solid episodes:
1. Midgar
2. Post-northern crater all the way to
Cloud regaining his memories
3. Revisiting of Midgar all the way to the end of the game
It's what's between leaving Midgar and the release of
WEAPONs
that seems to be flexible in how structuring the episodes.
Because asset creation is much more time-consuming and expensive today than it was twenty years ago. FFVII is just too big of a game. Let's remember this is from the director that had Versus XIII in limbo for years. Add the lengthy development to the rise of Games as a Service models all around the industry and it's easy to see why Square Enix would have liked to make this episodic.
Do you have sources for it being more time consuming nowadays? Just curious. Seems silly that asset creation would be more time consuming with the hardware/software/more talented 3d artists available today than it was in the mid 90s. The thing is, no other game companies seem to struggle getting games out the door with lots and lots of high end assets, wheras Squenix have had a hard time making things in the last decade.
Don't we all. I'm trying to picture Junon in 2015 technology and it's difficult to comprehend how it can be achieved. And what about the Shinra building climb? What about highwind flight in a fully open world area? What about Temple of the Ancients? How about the Golden Saucer tramline? How about the Coral train scene? The bike chase? The snowboarding sequence? The marching scene? I doubt Square Enix, if anyone, is capable by itself to deliver this.
Kinda sad in late 90s we had all the experience in a single package for 60$, and now you're ok with multiple 60$ over few years for same setting and story.
Kinda sad in late 90s we had all the experience in a single package for 60$, and now you're ok with multiple 60$ over few years for same setting and story.
Don't we all. I'm trying to picture Junon in 2015 technology and it's difficult to comprehend how it can be achieved. And what about the Shinra building climb? What about highwind flight in a fully open world area? What about Temple of the Ancients? How about Golden Saucer tramline? I doubt Square Enix, if anyone, is capable by itself to deliver this.
Star Ocean 5 and Dragon Quest XI are just as "internally developed" as Setsuna (Tokyo RPG Factory) and Final Fantasy VII remake (CC2). Square owns both IPs and (at least one) studio working on them so in my eyes they count.
Yeah man I agree with you. How great REmake lookeed. Or how great pillars of eternity looks? Come on this is square enix they haven't made anything semi decent since ffX. That was 14 years ago.
Well, even without the obvious graphics update, the interactivity of a full 3D game is a lot more complex than a "2D" one like the original FFVII was. Look at the trailers, there is a lot of new moves, a real Level Design, a simple character going into the scene which was simple to do in the original FFVII now need a proper camera and setting with voices. No, it's not "just" the graphical update, the interactivity cost a lot more to do with what they want to do
For me, it's just the proof that we can do less variety in game now than before. It's sad but i wouldn't take it on FFVII itself, it's not its fault if it's what the public want.
Personally, if FFVII was just an update on environment with STILL the same concept of 2D picture and 3D character going on it. I would have find it totally awesome but hey, full 3D, you know the price now.
Pretty much exactly as it was in FF7, except the world map has both visible (and thus avoidable) encounters in addition to random ones. It is everything people are saying cannot be done today, and it came out on PS4 in March.
It's going to be a massive, multigenerational franchise at this point. It will probably go on for as long as Squeenix exists LOL. Anyone expecting to get yearly FF7 "episodes" is insane. Speaking of, they should probably change the name from just Final Fantasy VII to something else. It's gonna get super silly with numbering and subtitles. Final Fantasy VII: Episode V: My Date With Barrett Couldn't Possibly Be This Cute
Yeah man I agree with you. How great REmake lookeed. Or how great pillars of eternity looks? Come on this is square enix they haven't made anything semi decent since ffX. That was 14 years ago.
The worst decision ever made by Square is buying Enix, everything turned to shit after this, It's hilarious when people defending episode content when it's obviously more about the fact that Square is a mediocre studio now and wants to milked FF7 as much as they can.
Can't wait for KH3 part 1,2, 3 etc... if this FF7 part 1 works.
As someone who hates episodic content, I will likely wait until its all released and get it at a much cheaper price.
Tell Tale Games, Square Enix, and Double Fine has all made good cases on why I should just wait. What usually ends up happening is I play the first few episodes and get interested, but ultimately lose interest in whatever game it is by the time all the episodes releases thanks to their lengthy waits.
Shows can do it, afterall you only have to wait a week. However, games making you wait months (or a year in Double fine's case) does not. And SE has already shown me they do the exact same thing with releasing 5 episodes of Life is Strange in I believe about 10 months?
Yeah, so how long will each episode of FF7 take? Im taking a guess a lot longer considering its a little more ambitious.
Im sure it will be a great game in the end, but i may just wait until it all gets released.
Just package the game with multiple discs if the "data size" is so large that it requires it [just like the original FFVII with it's 3 discs].
Don't make us wait to play a whole game because you have spaced out the game in sellable chunks - that's inane and not savvy business. Sell the whole game all together and include some ridiculous Limited Edition version that collectors can get behind and you will have a winner.
Not this piece-meal bullshit that will make us wait to complete the game. That's irritating and lazy development. Square really makes some dumb choices these days.
What's next, will we have to buy the box art, case and physical release game disc all separately and in episodic fashion?!?
Just package the game with multiple discs if the "data size" is so large that it requires it [just like the original FFVII with it's 3 discs].
Don't make us wait to play a whole game because you have spaced out the game in sellable chunks - that's inane and not savvy business. Sell the whole game all together and include some ridiculous Limited Edition version that collectors can get behind and you will have a winner.
Not this piece-meal bullshit that will make us wait to complete the game. That's irritating and lazy development. Square really makes some dumb choices these days.
What's next, will we have to buy the box art, case and physical release game disc all separately and in episodic fashion?!?
Don't we all. I'm trying to picture Junon in 2015 technology and it's difficult to comprehend how it can be achieved. And what about the Shinra building climb? What about highwind flight in a fully open world area? What about Temple of the Ancients? How about the Golden Saucer tramline? How about the Coral train scene? The bike chase? The snowboarding sequence? The marching scene? I doubt Square Enix, if anyone, is capable by itself to deliver this.
You're still thinking of this project as a proper remake of Final Fantasy VII. It's not. They're gonna be cinematic-oriented games that last 15~20 hours at best, probably. You're never going to get an open world.
Agreed. That's pretty much all I wanted or expected out of this. Given the choice, I would prefer this route with an intact game over a fully 3D, but episodic release.
Pretty much exactly as it was in FF7, except the world map has both visible (and thus avoidable) encounters in addition to random ones. It is everything people are saying cannot be done today, and it came out on PS4 in March.
The worst decision ever made by Square is buying Enix, everything turned to shit after this, It's hilarious when people defending episode content when it's obviously more about the fact that Square is a mediocre studio now and wants to milked FF7 as much as they can.
Can't wait for KH3 part 1,2, 3 etc... if this FF7 part 1 works.
Pretty much exactly as it was in FF7, except the world map has both visible (and thus avoidable) encounters in addition to random ones. It is everything people are saying cannot be done today, and it came out on PS4 in March.
The worst decision ever made by Square is buying Enix, everything turned to shit after this, It's hilarious when people defending episode content when it's obviously more about the fact that Square is a mediocre studio now and wants to milked FF7 as much as they can.
Can't wait for KH3 part 1,2, 3 etc... if this FF7 part 1 works.
So just to gauge interest then, how many of you would digitally download each episode however much it may total to, and then buy a complete physical edition in 201X?
Guess I'll wait for the FF7 Remake GOTY or Collection version where they'll have them all together. Not a fan of episodic content where I have to wait to continue the story.
For sure, everyone wants better fidelity than that, and it is easily achievable on the hardware. My point is that people seem to think this method cannot be done, when it clearly can and has been on the same system. Make is shinier, job done.
