Now I’ve already expressed my thoughts on game remakes and I still feel a sinking feeling in my stomach even as I typed that previous sentence out. BUT! (and this is a big but) I’m not willing to condemn remakes altogether – because I would like to see someone remake a game purely because they felt they could do better a better job the second time around.
In the thirties Alfred Hitchcock made the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much – only to be so unhappy with the finished product that he made the movie again twenty years later when he relocated to Hollywood. Similarly, Hideaki Anno is currently working on a new Evangelion anime only this time without the restrictions of budget and time – thus granting him the freedom to tell the story he wanted to tell all along.
Has anyone in the gaming industry ever used such a motivation?
So far, Final Fantasy 1-4 have all had significant revamps on various systems: More often than not with a new graphical coat of paint and some new goodies added. Not a bad idea and I suppose it’s worth giving people a chance to find out what they might have missed out the first time around (not to mention to prove Final Fantasy isn’t all Cloud and Sephiroth).
But with the progression of each Final Fantasy it does arise the inevitable question of VI and VII. VI I would like to see revamped to, if anything, reclaim the title of BEST FF EVA from it’s upstart younger brother. But I couldn’t care less about VII – Sure people may clamor for a graphical upgrade but what else can you do? True a more coherent narrative would be nice but there is little I can think of where VII could be improved – which, I have to admit, may attest to the game’s staying power fourteen years on.
But no – SqueeEnix aren’t really caring for VI and VII – instead they’re straight for X.
Now if SqueeEnix are intent on revamping their previous Final Fantasy titles, then eventually they’ll arrive to the post-VII era. Namely, VIII, IX, and XII – indeed the revamp of X may suggest they’re already there. Now these titles are important because whilst VII was a big hit that may never be replicated, everything Final Fantasy that’s followed has split opinion like never before. I have never seen people react to the post-VII Final Fantasy games with both such ruthless condemnation and such passionate defending. Whilst everyone has good words to say about many Final Fantasy 1-7 (well maybe not II), the same people have such strong opinions about 8-onward.
But here’s the point I’m trying so laboriously to get to: What if SqueeEnix remade the post-VII Final fantasy games and actually made them better? If people are willing to defend them with passionate fervour, then there must at least be a good game in there despite the walls of criticisms. So why not take the opportunity to get rid of the elements that didn’t work? Can anyone imagine an VIII with a coherent narrative, likeable characters and a less tedious management system? How about a IX with the mood from the first disc (and maybe the second) carried all the way through and better thought put into Kuja and Garland?
A remake I’ll buy is one where the makers realised what didn’t work and ditching such elements altogether. So with regards to the new X why stop at HD graphics?
Thus, in the vain hope that someone from SqueeEnix is reading this, I present some suggestions on how this Final Fantasy X can be improved:
- Get better English voice actors!
- Ditch Blitzball!
- In fact ditch the minigames altogether (or at least make them less tedious and more, oh I don’t know, FUN?)
- Bring back the open world! And maybe open up some of the towns so we can explore some more!
- Get better English voice actors!
- And how about getting rid of the laughing scene while we’re at it?
- And how about scrapping that post credits epilogue with Tidus? Kinda undermines the emotional kick to the guts that was the ending (and the less I’m reminded about X2 the better).
- Did I mention the English voice actors?
(seriously, get these guys: They seem pretty good!)
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