Square Enix Struggles To Calm Fans As “Final Fantasy VII Remake” Goes Episodic

I will compare games within the same franchise. It's particularly relevant to compare and contrast a remake to its original.



Not particularly, no. Nowhere do you outline a foundational basis for why development will take approximately X amount of time and why Y should happen in response. You just speculate based on an arbitrary time frame of how you would approach the release of the episodes and what you are willing to pay and play at this particular moment. It's worthless.



False.



This is not a problem at all. The "previously in this story" video feature has been a thing in video gaming for over a decade, and in TV for multiple decades. People are accustomed to a quick reminder of what they experienced in the previous episode. Game of Thrones will show clips from 5 seasons ago when the content is relevant to that particular episode.

This is not nearly the problem, issue, or obstacle you imagine it to be. Stop.

Was not aware of that cell phone game, still not the same scale as a pc / console release. So my statement holds true, this is the first time they have done something like this.

Only example I can think of for a RPG released as episodic

Kings Quest - 5 part series. Chapter 1 - release date July 2015, Chapter 2 - release date Dec 2015. That is 5 months between releases for the first two. Game is supposed to be fully released by end of 2016. Which means they need to shorten the next 3 releases to less time.

More simplistic games

TellTale walking dead season 1, 5 parts.
1 - April 2012
2 - June 2012
3 - Aug 2012
4 - Oct 2012
5 - Nov 2012
average 2 months between releases

Life is Strange, 5 parts
1 - Jan
2 - March
3 - May
4 - July
5 - Oct
again 2 months between releases


All that said, I have no idea what a release window would look like. Nobody does. At best we can use previous time lines that is normal to the industry to speculate what something would look like here. Just as we have no idea how they are / would break up the story.
 
by episodic they mean more like FF13 Trilogy...so each installment will be full game @ full pricing
It was mentioned during the interview that they want to greatly expand on stories and what not..so there will be tons of complete new stuffs + changes to original
this is FULL REMAKE and not remaster
 
So does this mean Sephiroth's Supernova is going to be broken down into several parts, too?
 
I need 40 hours of game play, respectable sized tifa with physics and plot and the luz of cloud cos play. Gamepl;ay can be like parasite eve
 
i have no qualm with it becoming episodic. but this is only IF the quality per episode justify them doing so. cause if not, rather they just focus on making 1 game if not serious about making an extremely polished game, but rather just to milk the series like crazy.....

PS: how would such an episodic game work seamlessly? Would it be something like Dragon Age Inquisition, where you resume where you left of? Meaning you can load from your previous save file and continue from there, or will you start from scratch based on sort of time shift e.g. 10 years in future or something ( so you'd have to farm all over again )
 
We are still lucky that the game is being made in Japan where Tifa's physics are just fine and there aren't a bunch of winy people "oh no! I'll never play this game or let my kid play because of how she looks, lets protest! "
 
We are still lucky that the game is being made in Japan where Tifa's physics are just fine and there aren't a bunch of winy people "oh no! I'll never play this game or let my kid play because of how she looks, lets protest! "

Truth
 
i have no qualm with it becoming episodic. but this is only IF the quality per episode justify them doing so. cause if not, rather they just focus on making 1 game if not serious about making an extremely polished game, but rather just to milk the series like crazy.....

PS: how would such an episodic game work seamlessly? Would it be something like Dragon Age Inquisition, where you resume where you left of? Meaning you can load from your previous save file and continue from there, or will you start from scratch based on sort of time shift e.g. 10 years in future or something ( so you'd have to farm all over again )

What do you mean by Dragon age being episodic?
 
I got no problems with episodic releases as long as they don't pull a Valve and stop 2/3s of the way through.
 
In terms of Japanese RPGs, it tended to be on the larger side. As other people have said, art assets, but also just gameplay length was quite long. A casual player tended to take around 60 hours to complete it, a more experienced player could take 40 hours.

Doing the bonus end-game content (especially the NA content) could also take a very long time, however it is the kind that doesn't require a whole lot of development (getting Master Materia, defeating the four weapons). A completionist run-through would take a ridiculous amount of time.

never beaten the four weapons without use of game shark. the first time i beat it was around 80 hours and i leveled most guys to 60. never got the gold chocobo until i used the shark.
 
Back in 1997, A standard game was developed by AT MOST 30 people, not including the publishing/distribution and it took about 3 years of full-time work to get a game like FF7 released. You purchased it for $60 in 1997, which would equate to about $89 now, inflation considered.

Are people REALLY going to bitch about Squenix trying to release this game in an episodic format?

Games now take teams of OVER 150 people JUST on the development side. Not including the publishing and distribution. These games take a minimum of 3 years full-time work to release, a game of this scale probably more. And it will hit shelves in 2016/2017 for $60. Essentially a lower price than what the the original was released at. I'm happy for an episodic format, it means the game will get made AT ALL. without this format, chances are it would not be financially feasible.
 
Back in 1997, A standard game was developed by AT MOST 30 people, not including the publishing/distribution and it took about 3 years of full-time work to get a game like FF7 released. You purchased it for $60 in 1997, which would equate to about $89 now, inflation considered.

Are people REALLY going to bitch about Squenix trying to release this game in an episodic format?

Games now take teams of OVER 150 people JUST on the development side. Not including the publishing and distribution. These games take a minimum of 3 years full-time work to release, a game of this scale probably more. And it will hit shelves in 2016/2017 for $60. Essentially a lower price than what the the original was released at. I'm happy for an episodic format, it means the game will get made AT ALL. without this format, chances are it would not be financially feasible.

I don't fully understand why you guys keep going back to the cost of the game and saying it should cost X amount now because it was $60 back then. By that logic every game should cost $90 or $150 if you want to go back further to when games cost more years before that. When the N64 came out Kmart sold all the games for $75 - $100. I bought a few games at those fucked up prices. Does that mean if they released a remake of Turok it should cost $200 now? Not only that but shouldn't all games be about $120 - $150 standard now?

The cost of making games goes up and takes longer every year. FFXV is a large game, it will cost $60 when it comes out. Just like whatever the last none online game did. Now IF it is being done as full games like say FFXIII that is different than say you get a few hours of the game broken up, then you play another few hours then wait a few months.. That is less of episodic and more multipart. Yes it is one large story but it is broken into multiple pieces. Say like .hack where you had 4 games all telling one large story but broken into 4 pieces. Or something like Assassin's Creed 2 where the story was split between 3 games. That is a slight difference between that and say A TellTale game or what they did with King's Quest. Redoing the entire game so that instead of one game you get 2 or 3 separate games with actual starts and ending that is different and worth the full price per piece. But a half dozen 10 - 20 hour pieces where they just cut off the story, not worth $60 per piece. I am fine with them Assassin's Creed 2ing the game.
 
Still gives me the shivers remembering one of my top three toons dyeing in the story after I finally got her her umbrella! :(
 
Somehow I doubt they will sell each episode for the $20 they would be worth. The reason people take offense is the blatant greed over the project. The people who played FF VII are not children, we are smarter than the fools they think we are. Then again, people will probably still buy this game anyways. I just won't be one of them.
 
Somehow I doubt they will sell each episode for the $20 they would be worth. The reason people take offense is the blatant greed over the project. The people who played FF VII are not children, we are smarter than the fools they think we are. Then again, people will probably still buy this game anyways. I just won't be one of them.

Quite premature to discuss purchasing when we really don't have a single detailed clue on how this is going work, yes?
 
In terms of Japanese RPGs, it tended to be on the larger side. As other people have said, art assets, but also just gameplay length was quite long. A casual player tended to take around 60 hours to complete it, a more experienced player could take 40 hours.

Doing the bonus end-game content (especially the NA content) could also take a very long time, however it is the kind that doesn't require a whole lot of development (getting Master Materia, defeating the four weapons). A completionist run-through would take a ridiculous amount of time.
Yep, first time took me around 60 hours just getting to the end and trying to experience everything in the game when I was 14 years old. I played through it again in much the same manner a couple of years ago and it took me about 34 hours.
 
Somehow I doubt they will sell each episode for the $20 they would be worth. The reason people take offense is the blatant greed over the project. The people who played FF VII are not children, we are smarter than the fools they think we are. Then again, people will probably still buy this game anyways. I just won't be one of them.

I think they're betting on that, we have enough money to pay $60 a pop for each episode. I'm not paying that. Final Fantasy VII can take about 100 hours if you do EVERYTHING you can possibly do, including breeding the golden chocobo (I checked my FFVIII save where I did this), but a more typical first play-though takes about 60 hours. That's not significantly more than it took me to beat Final Fantasy XIII and I pretty much skipped the huge open section near the end.
 
Yes, it's about the money. Welcome to business. Why are people surprised? Would they do this just for the fans? No, they are doing it because they can see a profit in it.

It's a huge undertaking. The story is already done. Everything else needs re-done. Doing episodes is fine. For some people, they can wait until all of them are released and play the whole game. If you don't like episodes, the original is still out there if you want to buy it. Hell, the HD edition is $10 for the PS4 right now.

I think people are just complaining. Fans can't just make demands and make the studios abide by them. Vote with your wallet. This will still make a ton of cash for SE.

FF7 was a great game. An amazing game on the PS. It wasn't the best FF, but it was that generations first killer RPG. Kind of like FF3 on the SNES. Amazing for it's time.
 
and I do agree also that FF7 wasn't really that great. It was good, especially for its time. I think it holds a place only because it was the first 3d FF.

I'd rather play 8 or 9, least those had character development.
9 I felt was the best PS1 FF, strong story and gameplay.
 
Felt the story in 9 was fine. In terms of battle mechanics etc, probably the best one I've played. Also had the best mini-games.

But what still sticks with me is the super underrated OST. The Gizamaluke Grotto theme still sends shivers down my spine.

It's been 13 years since I finished my second play through of it. Where has the time gone...
 
it is near impossible to please a group that is so struck by nostalgia. Remaking something would involve changing it, if all they did was reskin it then there would be outrage for them just trying to make it into a quick cash grab. The games original story could actually easily be made into episodes as it would shift from character or location after a big event. I enjoyed the story of the game, i feel like i would also enjoy this remake. I still have my original discs in the case.
 
This is a huge cash grab. They are going to change too many things about it. Yeah, it will probably look great, but is that really worth tarnishing your memories? IMO no.
 
This is a huge cash grab. They are going to change too many things about it. Yeah, it will probably look great, but is that really worth tarnishing your memories? IMO no.

If so many changes are going to be done that it will minimally resemble the old game, who gives a crap about memories? I'll happily treat it like a new game, provided its good enough.
 
If so many changes are going to be done that it will minimally resemble the old game, who gives a crap about memories? I'll happily treat it like a new game, provided its good enough.

Lets just hope it won't end up like Advent Children (Yuck!).
 
“One thing that we wanted to be clear about during this weekend to accompany the new trailer was the scale of this project. We wanted to tell you this now and not in the future so that you’d share our vision for what we want to deliver. The biggest reason why we haven’t done a remake until now is because it’s a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy VII from the ground up with the current technology. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy VII that maintains the same feeling of density of the original would result in a volume of content that couldn’t possibly fit into one installment.”

So they're saying they can't put the game into a 3 disc 4 layer 128GB blu ray edition or download?

This is BS & they are obviously lying.
 
I'd be ok with everything except the redone battle system. That really fing bugs me. I HATE FF12 and FF13 battle systems. In fact I have never liked any of the battle systems beyond 10. I stopped buying SE games because they tried too much to copy Western RPGS and forgot what made the fans love them in the first place. Absolutely wouldnt mind paying $70 for it, just dont know if I can like the new battle system unless they have an option for the old turn based one.
 
So they're saying they can't put the game into a 3 disc 4 layer 128GB blu ray edition or download?

This is BS & they are obviously lying.

I don't think you are understanding what they are saying. They aren't saying the size of the disk is too limiting, they are saying that the scope of the project is too damn huge to possibly be completed as one single release in both amount of money it would cost to make it and the amount of work-hours it would take to actually create it. Final Fantasy games are typically HUGE, and the old ones (9 and lower) are bigger and more varied than modern incarnations. Final Fantasy is a LINEAR JRPG that player can clock more than 100 hours into with a huge variety of landscapes, creatures, architecture and mechanics. Midgar alone (in terms of asset variety) would take up the design budget of an entire game.

This has nothing to do with the size of a bluray, this has to do with how feasible and financially sound the project is.
 
This has nothing to do with the size of a bluray, this has to do with how feasible and financially sound the project is.

QFT.

However, don't forget that in FF7 most of your playtime is spent in-battle in a generic arena screen for your current location. The length of the game is mostly irrelevant. Count the number of cities/towns. Count the number of enemies with unique models. Count the outdoor environments (dessert, forest, etc). Then compare that to a modern game. My suspicion is that the number is very close to current AAA games. Which is to say, they have a ton of work to do.
 
..... the story in 9 was awful....I think that's the only main ff title I've never played again after the first time.

I dunno, I found Vivi's personal story some of the best writing in a FF game. I guess, the main story was a bit clichéd, but the world itself and all of the side stories were great.
 
..... the story in 9 was awful....I think that's the only main ff title I've never played again after the first time.

It was much better than the convoluted stories 7 & 8 had. IX is my favorite one followed by VI (3 on SNES).

The fact I don't like emo characters Cloud and especially Squall didn't help my opinion of things.
 
The fact I don't like emo characters Cloud and especially Squall didn't help my opinion of things.

Yeah, Squall was the worst. He lived up to his name (big crybaby). FF VIII was probably one of the weaker entries for me, thanks mostly to the Junction system and the lead guy's crying. The space station segment was really cool, though, I'll give it that.

Cloud had his emo-moments too, but at the time, especially for a JRPG, it was nice to have a character that wasn't such a cheerleader. And really, looking at Cloud's backstory, you can understand why he was such a sour puss.
 
It was story driven, both the characters themselves and the world in which they exist.
To me, it was like "playing" a book. I felt involved in the story and the characters. Ive never felt attachment to characters before like in ffvii.
Who the hell didnt get watery eyes and rage when Aeris was killed by Sephiroth? ! Nobody that I have ever met just shrugged at that. Even to this day, it is still one of the most emotional moments in video game history.

That was a pretty intense moment for sure, but I found myself remembering a more intense moment of watery eyes and heart palpitations from witnessing the apparent suicide of Celes shortly after watching the world be utterly destroyed by Kefka and most people killed and cities ruined beyond recognition in FF6. FF7’s attempt to tug at heat strings felt old-hat as Square had already brilliantly executed that emotional shock on audiences of the previous FF’s. And let’s not forget badass Tellah from FF4 who gave his own dammed life to cast one Spell (Meteo) to avenge his daughter. Then Galuf in FF5 who refused to die and fought the seemingly invincible Exdeath to a dammed standstill by himself to protect his granddaughter, going back to that scene makes me grin thinking about it. It was a jaw dropping moment of heroism and determination.

FF7 has the jump to 3D as its biggest trick under the hood, but if FF6 or FF5’s world, story, and characters had been used instead, FF7’s assets would look like a joke compared to the last two installments. My biggest irritation with FF7 is how many people praise it without knowing or experiencing the others to see 7’s pathetic rehashing of 6’s far better steam punk and technology/magic intermixing. And to say nothing of Sephiroth being treated like he was so cool, when he was a silly weakling of a villan, compared to Kefka or Exdeath, who both committed far more atrocities then one useless flower girl being killed.
 
If we're going to get into it:

FFX was the best one released. The world and characters were fantastic. Tidas was this pampered prettyboy thrust into a feudal, brutal world and he was forced to grow the f*** up. A lot of people complained about his character, but that was the point: You were supposed to see him go from spoiled man-child to determined hero. It took a while, but you had some pretty amazing art to look at while the whole thing unfolded.
 
If we're going to get into it:

FFX was the best one released. The world and characters were fantastic. Tidas was this pampered prettyboy thrust into a feudal, brutal world and he was forced to grow the f*** up. A lot of people complained about his character, but that was the point: You were supposed to see him go from spoiled man-child to determined hero. It took a while, but you had some pretty amazing art to look at while the whole thing unfolded.

I mostly remember FFX for that black mage's impressive cleavage.
 
The reason why FFVII is so memorable to me is just sitting with my father for hours, watching him play. I got grounded for 1 day for using his save and doing shit. He was livid lol. I'm 26 now and plan on doing the same with my kids on the old version when my kids are a bit older.
 
The reason why FFVII is so memorable to me is just sitting with my father for hours, watching him play. I got grounded for 1 day for using his save and doing shit. He was livid lol. I'm 26 now and plan on doing the same with my kids on the old version when my kids are a bit older.


That's awesome! FF7 was the first game I played in the series, for me it was middle school and a friend got a PlayStation and FF7 for his birthday. We would all just sit around and watch him play. Just to make him jealous, when I got a PlayStation for Christmas, I saved up my allowance and bought FF8 when it first came out. Then I was the guy everyone was watching. I have a soft-spot for the PSX games, and FF10 is a part of that crowd, as far as I'm concerned. I enjoyed FF5 and 6, but I never really finished them.
 
I enjoyed FF5 and 6, but I never really finished them.

Me neither, and while I do claim that FF6 is one of my favourites, I've yet to beat it. Watched my friend defeat Kefka at the end, but never made it there myself. I really want to try the GBA version, but, afaik, it's not on the VC or anything. Really wish they had this game for the 3DS, perfect fit for a handheld.
 
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