My crusade against a Final Fantasy 7 remake continues. It may not make a difference nor will it be heeded (or read) by the pro-camp but I will not be swayed otherwise. If the pro-camp won't shut up than neither will I. Hell, I'd sooner give SqueeEnix my money so they don't make make one.
But I'm not saying this just to be troll or anything: I genuinely don't want a remake of Final Fantasy 7. Yes I've played it. Yes I've enjoyed it. But the near tunnel-vision insistence that there should be a Final Fantasy 7 remake comes across, at least to me, like a mass of weak reasons and an insistence that it should be done thus it must be don.
So here is my attempt to refute a lot of the reasons why there should be a FF7 remake:
There was a tech demo...
And we'll stop right there.That infamous tech demo was made to show off the capabilities of the PS3 by running off some familiar footage in seventh generation graphics - and a now obsolete console at that! Just because there was a tech demo doesn't automatically mean there will be a new game ready in the wings.
In addition, if we go by the logic that a tech demo = new game, then where the hell is the Final Fantasy 6 Interactive CG game eh?
We have the tech!
If only it were that simple: Gaming tech has come a long way in seventeen years, even to a point where motion capture and fully voiced scripts are required. New gaming engines are bewing built and rebuilt on a regular basis. Obsolescence happens quickly in gaming. Simply put: The technology of 1997 simply can't be used to build a game of today. You'd need to start over from scratch.
True the release of FF7 on Steam now means access to a modern graphical revamp courtesy of the modders but such a prospect isn't really that simple: It can be done yes but, with the mod I saw, the files required totals to a colossal 20+ gig. And it will disable the Steam achievements and Cloud saves. This in turn proves that just because it can be done doesn't mean there won't be sacrifices - and suddenly SqueeEnix's use of the 'we don't have the technology' card seems to carry more weight than anyone is willing to give them credit for.
And while we're on the topic of modding, I recently saw a mod that could resurrect Aerith but the effect there means her standing around, little to no dialogue and her limit breaks reducing much of the game's challenge. Again: Is such a sacrifice worth the trouble?
Advent Children
Some say that this movie is indeed well-removed from the source material and I proudly consider myself part of this camp. Yes it was nice to see these familiar faces and seeing them with proper rendering, but that doesn't excuse the disconnect: The film lacks the much of the humour found within the game itself and seems intent on being nothing more than caving into fan demand. Even Cloud is an emo whinger & comes across as if the character arc/resurrection he went through in the game were all for nothing. It begs the question: Do you want a remake of FF7 or a game based on Advent Children? Because I'm seeing a lot of distance between the two.
SquareEnix are in trouble and they could do with the help...
Okay I will concede that this argument actually has some weight behind it but here's the thing: FFXIII was conceived as an attempt to recapture the magic that was FF7 and what happened? The game was disaster and split opinion like no other. In fact pretty much every FF game that has followed FF7 has split opinion inspiring both denounces and defenders in equal amounts.
So somehow using the 'SquareEnix is in trouble' card doesn't really work: They try to redo FF7 under a different name and the punters call foul. And when they try to make something different, the demand for the FF7 remake continues to persist!
Gamers certainly are a hard mob to please.....
It still holds up!
Funny, I recall FF7 had instances of humor and nonsense (Cloud breaking the fourth wall, the Cloud and Barrett date) that many people, and Advent Children, seem eager to forget. I recall the Honeybee mansion sequence that people seem REALLY eager to overlook. I recall minigames that seem both pointless and puzzling in their inclusion. And I recall Avalanche begin a terrorist group - something that would come across very awkward in these modern, post-9/11 times.
And of course, remove such instances will, of course, inspire outage by purists and arguments from revisionists. Indeed, it ultimately comes back to that question: is this the game you want?
It's the greatest RPG ever made.
That is, of course, a matter of opinion but, out of interest, have you played Planescape Torment? Baldur's Gate 2? Final Fantasy 6? Skyrim?.....
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