Square Enix gives conditions for FFVII remake, re-releases on PC

[Oryx]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/26/square-enix-reveals-conditions-for-final-fantasy-vii-remake

According to Andrisang, CEO Yoichi Wada explained during the company's annual shareholder meeting that it would not remake the legendary RPG until it makes a brand new Final Fantasy game that "exceeds the quality" of Final Fantasy VII.

In a candid statement, Wada clarified that he feels the current slew of titles in the franchise have not surpassed their popular predecessor in terms of quality. He stressed that while they hopefully would manage this in future, if the team were to remake Final Fantasy VII before this was achieved, then the Final Fantasy franchise "would be done with".

The question on a lot of peoples' minds is 'what defines quality?' Some are speculating that it has to do with sales numbers, which have never been surpassed as far as FFVII goes. But if it's actual quality, who determines the quality of the game? The reviews?

Or is this just a ploy to get old Final Fantasy fans to pick up the new ones in hopes that the sales will get them a remake of their old favorite?

 

[Mana1]

I have never played FF7, and probably won't unless it is remade, but this just sounds like an excuse to me.

Many of later FFs have been received just as well, is you look in the 'top 10' games thread on this website I'm pretty sure FF9 comes up more often than 7, game reviews have also given very high scores to X and XII. It's thoroughly overrated. If it really is as good as the fanatics say it is then I'm not sure it even needs a remake - people will just complain.

This statement might also have something to do with people always comparing FF7, the company wants to move forward and set a new standard, but nostalgic players can't get past FF7. For example, lots of people complained that FF12 was too open - but FF 1-3 were pretty open too. People tend to forget that FF7 is not the defining game.

SE needs to do two things, ideally:

1. Give up on MMOs.
2. Focus on a complex story. Complex does not mean introducing 101 expressions and terms which have no meaning, it needs some twists and turns and characters which can show some emotion and likeability.

FF7 would no doubt bring in a lot of money for SE, so it might actually be a better idea to do that - then build a better one off the profits.

 

[Esper]

I haven't played a lot of the Final Fantasy games so I can't say if 7 is any better than any other, but when you start to remake things instead of pushing forward with new things you're admitting that you're running out of ideas, that you just want to rest on your laurels.

It sounds like this guy does think their company isn't living up to its potential so it sounds like an honest reason, even if he's not giving more recent games as much credit as they might possibly deserve.

 

[Algo Fonix]

Well, they do need to bump the quality of the series back to its pre-FF13 standards. I love XIII, but the quality was a bit lacking in a lot of areas. I don't know if they can bring the quality of past games back, though. Not in the eyes of a lot of people. They're lacking a lot of staff that was with them before the merger with Enix, and anything new will be different... and us FF fans sometimes don't take too kindly to the new stuff.

As far as a VII remake goes... I don't really see how one is needed, but it would be an easy way to make a bunch of guaranteed money.

 

[Ivysaur]

According to Andrisang, CEO Yoichi Wada explained during the company's annual shareholder meeting that it would not remake the legendary RPG until it makes a brand new Final Fantasy game that "exceeds the quality" of Final Fantasy VII.

Well, it's a shame that we won't see that remake ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI

Now, being serious, I'm sure many people will argue that FFIX or FFX were better. Of course, if they aren't just expecting a "universal acclaim" reception, but a FFVII-like "contender for best game ever" title, then they can find a very comfty couch to sit down and wait. Similarly to OoT, the change to 3D, the fact that it was the first game many people played, the "darker" edge the improved graphics allowed for, and just the nostalgia googles will make it VERY difficult for any other FF to surpass it in most people's hearts.

And well, if they game was that good, why not remake it? I'm sure it would sell like pancakes, if only for the people who have been hyped about it and want to check it.

 

[CarefulWetPaint]

I think they have basically just told us that they haven't been able to make a decent final fantasy game since VII in their brains.

I think this is a ridiculous move, I am positive a remake would sell like crazy and all they would see would be the number behind the dollar sign increasing exponentially. They are basically stopping themselves from making money.

I think this could also be a ploy like Toujours said to get people to buy their newer games in hope of getting a remake. This is misleading advertisement!

 

[mew_nani]

I'm not really sure it's necessary to remake FF7 at this point. In my view the graphics are amazing, the story is incredible and there's not really a lot that they could do to it besides improving graphics and possibly adding voice-overs.

But yeah if that's their excuse maybe it's a good thing they're not remaking it. After all if they're failing so bad they're AFRAID to remake a classic for fear of ruining it, that says a whole lot about the company.

 

[NatureKeeper]

until it makes a brand new Final Fantasy game that "exceeds the quality" of Final Fantasy VII.

Exceeds the quality? Come on. Final Fantasy post FFX is a completely different era- it cannot compare to Final Fantasy VII because only the title and a few item names are commonplace. At least they confessed FFXI - FFXIV were worse than FFVII. They should just remake the game! It shouldn't be too hard- they already have everything planned- just need to build the game and copy what they did around 15 years ago, except for hiring the voice actors from the Advent Children movie to record the lines for the FMVs and cutscenes. Wouldn't be much more work than creating a whole new FF from scratch, ja?

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

I think they should remake ffvii, not because its "ther beastest game evur!!!!11!!!" but because its due for a remake.

They remade 1-6, so a remake of seven would make sense.

Although, I do see trouble in Red XIII, because from what I hear he is balls hard to render. Anyway, I really want a FF8 remake and a FF9 remake.

Oh, one last thing. The reason in the opening post is pretty lame. FF7 isn't the best in everyones eyes. A lot of people like 4 better (me included) As far as sales, we probably wont see that many in a single game anyway. Maybe in sales across Fabula Novellum Doohicky Crystal thing all together.

 

[Oryx]

RELATED!

https://blog.wirebot.com/2012/07/04/square-enix-is-bringing-final-fantasy-vii-to-the-pc-again/

It was originally released on the PC back in 1998, but Square Enix is adding new features and new achievements to release Final Fantasy VII a second time on the PC.
The company has taken advantage of the new cloud systems by adding cloud saves, added some new online features, and increased the HP, MP, and gil levels of the players for certain sections as a "Character Booster" for the new version.
The game will be supported in English, French, German, and Spanish, but currently does not have a release date or price. However, you will be able to download it from the Square Enix store when it becomes available.
System requirements are:
-Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64-bit)
-2 GHz Processor or faster
-1 GB RAM
-DirectX 9-compatible graphic card

I wonder if this happened due to a lot of backlash regarding the original comment about remakes, or possibly this is why they made the comment to begin with; they were already thinking about it since they were doing this. Thoughts?

 

[NatureKeeper]

RELATED!

https://blog.wirebot.com/2012/07/04/square-enix-is-bringing-final-fantasy-vii-to-the-pc-again/



I wonder if this happened due to a lot of backlash regarding the original comment about remakes, or possibly this is why they made the comment to begin with; they were already thinking about it since they were doing this. Thoughts?

I was looking for a re-release, actually (better than nothing), so this is good news. :D

 

[Mana1]

RELATED!

https://blog.wirebot.com/2012/07/04/square-enix-is-bringing-final-fantasy-vii-to-the-pc-again/



I wonder if this happened due to a lot of backlash regarding the original comment about remakes, or possibly this is why they made the comment to begin with; they were already thinking about it since they were doing this. Thoughts?

I saw this rumoured on Digital Spy earlier in the year, before the comment in the opening post.

Maybe it's a smokescreen, or they anticipated that people would take the news badly and wanted something to tide them over :3.

Anyway, I've never played FF7 so I may have to give it a go once it's rereleased.

 

[SBaby]

So in other words, SE is never going to remake FFVII.

 

[ColdSilence]

Personally I never really liked FF7 as much as 8 and 9, which were my favorites and I've played through every FF game on console. I loved every single one but unless they make a remake of FF7, the group of people following Square Enix will slowly die down. I liked the story of FFXIII but the gameplay enraged me, I choose to remain loyal to the turn-based Final Fantasy gamestyle. If and when they do make a FF7 remake, I hope it will be turnbased or i probably won't buy it anyways.

 

[Cherrim]

I feel like the only person who doesn't care if they remake FF7 or not anymore. I don't find the original that hard to play and the story/characters, to me, still hold up pretty well. I'd really only want an update to make the controls a little better but even then, it plays fairly well on my PSP which is probably the best medium for me now anyway.

I wonder what the achievements will be for FF7 PC?

Personally I never really liked FF7 as much as 8 and 9, which were my favorites and I've played through every FF game on console. I loved every single one but unless they make a remake of FF7, the group of people following Square Enix will slowly die down. I liked the story of FFXIII but the gameplay enraged me, I choose to remain loyal to the turn-based Final Fantasy gamestyle. If and when they do make a FF7 remake, I hope it will be turnbased or i probably won't buy it anyways.

I imagine they'd just stick with the battle system of FF7. It's not that outdated and if they change that, they'd have to completely change the materia system and so on.

I'd be more worried about them taking out all the silly parts (think: crossdressing) in order to make the game more emo/mature/serious/edgy like they seem to have tried to do with recent titles. :/

 

[ColdSilence]

Yeah I agree, the only part that aggrivated me was that circle was the accept button and x was cancel. I'm entirely waiting for FF8 remake, that IMO will be their best decision as a game company ever. If they make it for say both xbox and playstation i'd have to buy it for both systems haha

 

[Cherrim]

I'm used to controls that way since I play too many imports. I was mostly referring to movement controls since it's pretty awkward in the original game.

I'm pretty sure you could change that in the menu though? Unless that was just later PS1 FF games. Usually now they don't even give you the option and it defaults to X for confirm and O for cancel since that's the North American standard. If anything, that would be the default if they remade it.

 

[ColdSilence]

I'd honestly have to buy the game, because of the nostalgia. And if the graphics would be improved it would be an even better game than it was before.

 

[Dying Light]

Great, Square Enix doesn't seem to hold any previous titles in high regard.

"According to Andrisang, CEO Yoichi Wada explained during the company's annual shareholder meeting that it would not remake the legendary RPG until it makes a brand new Final Fantasy game that 'exceeds the quality' of Final Fantasy VII."

Really? Like none of the other older ones "exceed quality"? What about IV, V, and VI? The games that were released on the GBA? I love those games, and probably so do millions of other people.

This has to be a ploy.

 

[Cherrim]

Great, Square Enix doesn't seem to hold any previous titles in high regard.

"According to Andrisang, CEO Yoichi Wada explained during the company's annual shareholder meeting that it would not remake the legendary RPG until it makes a brand new Final Fantasy game that 'exceeds the quality' of Final Fantasy VII."

Really? Like none of the other older ones "exceed quality"? What about IV, V, and VI? The games that were released on the GBA? I love those games, and probably so do millions of other people.

This has to be a ploy.

I assume when they said that, they meant games in the generations after VII came out, so PS2 onwards. Some would argue that X was on par with or superior to VII but I don't see that opinion very often.

With anything before VII, why would they count? The excuse they gave was directly regarding a remake, which would be on a later console. It would be kind of silly to make a game and then years later go "oh, well [game that came out three years before] was better so I guess we should remake [later game]." They'd just remake the original game that was better then... which I believe is the treatment most of them got since they only had to be remade to better fit on handheld rather than full-fledged console games. :P And to be fair, FF7-9 already sort of got this treatment by being released on PSN which makes them playable on PSP.

As far as remakes go, I think FF7 is the next one on the "list" in that it's never had a remake unlike pretty much everything from 1-6. That's why people are expecting one so vehemently because it opens the door for remakes of everything after it, too. But Square-Enix has said in the past that it's a lot more difficult to remake FF7 with today's technology because the scale of the game would require a much bigger team/budget than they are used to putting into simple remakes. And that makes sense, but they toss huge teams on things like XIII-2 which wasn't really required by any means so their new "we will remake when something else is better" makes about as much sense to me now.