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[A-V-B]

If anyone here doubts SE can do episodic right, I question if you ever believed they could make this remake right, episodic or not.

It's been my opinion for a while that Square Enix's place and time in history has become sub-optimal for recapturing past glory. That the machine is probably just not healthy enough.

The latest trailer had me cautiously optimistic.

Now I know why I was cautious.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

You finally step out of Midgar and stare at the beautiful distance. A huge overworld stretches as far as the eye can see, rendered in perfect HD graphics. Your characters look stoic and prepared. Ready for a new adventure.

"To be continued in Final Fantasy VII Remake, Part 2".

FUUUUUUUCK.

Then you have to wait 6 months for the next episode. You finally download it, start it and...

Your characters immediately start at Kalm. You cannot leave the town. Cloud comments on how amazing it was to get there, to fight the monsters, to see the creatures, to see the hills and plains.

So scary it will probably end up being true.

Or worse something like xenogears disc 2.. Cloud in a chair edition.

 

[Narroo]

True. Still looking forward to it though

Wait, what happened to the gif you posted?! I wanted to quote that.

 

[DieH@rd]

[wishful thinking]

If this mean I can start playing FF7R two years earlier than I could the "full version", I'm all for it. This is a big game, and cutting a game into several parts honestly did not surprise me.

edit- hoooly fuck this thread got big

 

[DangerMouse]

There are large sprawling jrpgs available to play right now that are longer than 40 hours and have much larger worlds (some of which are hand made, not procedural). They didn't take a decade to develop either.

LOL no there aren't. And not with the variety of large locations/setpieces this game had.

There are some great, big games out there though.

 

[GHG]

Thinking more about this, I'm glad they went episodic.

I hope because of the format, it's a more faithful representation of everything in the original game.

You mean like on a per disk basis?

It actually makes sense but the execution is key here.

If we are left waiting years to be drip fed the next disk then it will be stupid.

 

[anaron]

also the Xenosaga comparison is insane. That series was designed from the get go to span multiple games with the first one's story and cast being stretched out due to budget and creative meddling.

 

[Primethius]

This cant be real. Oh God...

Why not? I want a faithful representation of FF7 in terms of content.

 

[botty]

Final Fantasy games have a self-contained story which doesn't self-retcon itself and tries to make sense.

So, no.

As if the self contained Final Fantasy stories make any sense. At least Kingdom Hearts' story became difficult after several games and console jumps.

 

[yepyepyep]

Looking forward to Final Fantasy VII- Part VII Lightning Returns!

Please be excited.

 

[Darkangel]

I guess many people here didn't played RE Revelations 2 to see that the episodic format can work in traditional games.

For everyone that was going to buy the full game, this changes nothing. For everyone else, they can start and see if they like before committing to a full purchase.

It's also uncertain how long we will wait between each part. Could be a week, a month or several months. I doubt SE will keep the episodes apart for too long to avoid people finishing one and not returning later.

If anyone here doubts SE can do episodic right, I question if you ever believed they could make this remake right, episodic or not.

Revelations 2 was written and designed as an episodic game. Final Fantasy VII is supposed to take place in a massive connected world without any cliffhangers. If the reason they're doing this is because of cost/time, then expect to wait at least a year between "episodes."

Imagine if REmake had been split up into 3 episodes:

EPISODE 1: The Mansion
EPISODE 2: The Residence
EPISODE 3: The Mansion Again + Lab

 

[Narroo]

So scary it will probably end up being true.

Or worse something like xenogears disc 2.. Cloud in a chair edition.

...It's a wheel chair!

Then, after Tifa fixes him, you go straight to Northern Crater.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Have you paid attention to Square Enix in the last decade? I am serious.

Yes, and? It's not like that would give me an avenue to shit on them without any sort of backing beyond "well, 13 was bad".

You can be negative about it, or you can be positive. I don't really care what you do. But some of you are going off the deep end when you venture into waters where you tell others what they should think and feel.

It's kind of depressing. Like, an actual discussion could take place here, but instead it's 40 plus pages of shitflinging at people within the same hobby just because they feel different.

 

[Suzushiiro]

Can we please, for the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS NOMURA, WADA OR WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU PRAISE ON THIS PLANET, STOP SAYING SHIT LIKE "This worked with Xenosaga, Telltale Games, Mass Effect, Portal, IDGAF.

FINAL FANTASY VII, is a COMPLETE package. The fans of this game KNOWS what to expect of it. VIDEO GAME SERIES like Xenosaga are games that have been 'episodic' from the get-go. You've got directors, writers, all that shit KNOWING that the game will be a trilogy or whatever. FFVII is NOT supposed to be divided like that. At least the FFVII we know and have played. At this point I don't even fucking know what game they'll actually provide.

I bet this piece of shit will have Genesis and that other shithead I don't care about.

Yeah, that's true- this is more comparable to a situation like a lot of the recent one book->two movie adaptations than something like Xenosaga, SC2, or Mass Effect. These sorts of adaptations tend to wind up having wonky pacing. The only way they could have decent pacing is if they kept the overall high level outline of the story the same but changed a lot of the details to have suitable climaxes happen at the end of each episode, like maybe Midgar is episode one of four but parts of the story that originally happened in other areas happen there. Which is probably exactly what they'll do- most if not all of the important moments and set pieces from the original will be there, but the order and context in which most of them happen will probably be different.

The game is clearly going to be "FFVII as it would have been in the first place had it been made in the modern era," not "FFVII exactly as it was in 1997 but with modern AAA graphics and voice acted cutscenes." That may have not been what a lot of people wanted, but it's probably the only way the remake could have happened at all.

 

[Hatchtag]

It means that if I was still a child I'd probably be acting like some of the people on here

nah, if you were a child you'd be lording your age over others as a reason to think yourself superior.

 

[somecrazymember]

I don't buy it at all. I mean, I GET that FFVII is massive for todays standard (and even back then) - but you've got a shit trilogy like FFXIII covering up for what could be replaced (content-wise) with the entirety of FFVII.

Forgot FF7 was just corridors

 

[Yoshichan]

also the Xenosaga comparison is insane. That series was designed from the get go to span multiple games with the first one's story and cast being stretched out due to budget and creative meddling.

Thank fuck there's at least one person who can back me up with this statement.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

I nap for a couple of hours and wake up to this shitstorm

 

[crazyrabbits]

Episode 1: Midgar (you can't go back to Midgar until the end of Disc 2 anyway).

Uh... yes, you can. Did you not dig up the Gate key?

 

[Zukuu]

I fucking bet they find a way to include a fucking Lightning cameo.

 

[TetraGenesis]

predictions:

-the complete package will still be on a far smaller scope than the original ff7
-each episode will vary in quality and will be farmed out to various teams
-optional side quests and exploration will be close to non-existent
-no overworld or transition between the locations of each episode
-there will be no finite number of episodes, with various side stories or EU filler being brought in if sales are good
-if sales are bad, the story will be massively abridged with production values significantly dropping
-character progression will only exist on a micro scale, with each episode effectively being mechanically standalone
-the first episode will leave an optimism that the rest will sorely fail to live up to

It's uncanny just how right I believe you to be.

 

[GavinGT]

This makes no sense besides wanting to make more money. Unless they're making it episodically and they'll release it over time like a telltale game? Maybe it's the full compilation (doubt it) Or maybe they're charging for each disc as one separate game? I honestly don't want to know anymore.

They're clearly releasing episodes over time. They need regular income coming in, and they need the ability to change course if development becomes unsustainable.

 

[Desi]

I just hope the first chapter is the escape from Midgar/Kalm town and not some cut short garbage "second reactor/exit wall market" scenario. But knowing Square and my luck.

 

[Premium Quality]

I'm ok with this.

 

[Tcab96]

43 pages in almost 2 hours.

Jesus fuck.

Maybe this means we'll get the first part soon. It looked as though they're further along than most anticipated.

Quick, someone crush my hope before my hype builds.

 

[shungokusatsu]

So basically Starcraft II treatment.

 

[TheKastorian]

If we only think a little bit logically about the Remake (just a little...) then people would not be surprised that remaking the whole thing into one disc is simply not possible.

 

[Sandfox]

Final Fantasy games have a self-contained story which doesn't self-retcon itself and tries to make sense.

So, no.

Maybe if you ignore quite a few of the newer games.

 

[Fardeen]

replaying ff vii on my vita! episodic content leaves me with a lot of doubts i think the episodes will be from the start till the sector 7 explosion, and episode 2 will start from saving aeris from shira headquarters till leaving midgar sniff

 

[kswiston]

There are large sprawling jrpgs available to play right now that are longer than 40 hours and have much larger worlds (some of which are hand made, not procedural). They didn't take a decade to develop either.

What games are we talking about? Most JRPGs these days (including the Tales series) have pretty noticeable budget constraints in their assets, animation, etc.

 

[Boke1879]

Thinking more about this, I'm glad they went episodic.

I hope because of the format, it's a more faithful representation of everything in the original game.

based on the little PR I'm assuming this is what they want while adding more elements. Some maybe story related or side quest related.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

Stop it with your reasonable logic. We just have to accept this because thats just how things are according to some people.

Lol yeah people just immediately assume they have to accept shit. But look how the #PS4NoDRM campaign turned out. Hell even MS was forced to do a 180 because of the fallout. Social media campaigns CAN be effective. Whether we have the full story or not is irrelevant. If they're even CONSIDERING butchering FFVII with these episodes, a preemptive campaign COULD avert that. But instead you get 50 troll posts and a thread closure in two minutes. And these are the people name-calling others as 'childish'.

SMFH

 

[Christhor]

Revelations 2 was written and designed as an episodic game. Final Fantasy VII is supposed to take place in a massive connected world without any cliffhangers. If the reason they're doing this is because of cost/time, then expect to wait at least a year between "episodes."

Imagine if REmake had been split up into 3 episodes:

EPISODE 1: The Mansion
EPISODE 2: The Residence
EPISODE 3: The Mansion Again + Lab

The difference here is that Resident Evil is a short shitty game. Can't really compare that to FFVII.

 

[LordOcidax]

Why not? I want a faithful representation of FF7 in terms of content.

I Want that too.. In one fucking game...

 

[Fdkn]

I don't buy it at all. I mean, I GET that FFVII is massive for todays standard (and even back then) - but you've got a shit trilogy like FFXIII covering up for what could be replaced (content-wise) with the entirety of FFVII.

...so they'd need 3 games at $60 to cover the costs?

You're starting to reach their logic

 

[WickedLaharl]

It means that if I was still a child I'd probably be acting like some of the people on here

I'm glad you have your big boy pants on

 

[UltimaPooh]

If it ends up being 4 parts.

And its like Mass Effect where your actions continue into the next game.

And it keeps major elements of the over worlds, broken up into their own areas.


I would be okay with that. But that pretty much means everything has to be back in it.

 

[Yoshichan]

Forgot FF7 was just corridors

You're good at reading, it seems. Good fucking job.

XIII <-> XIII-2 <-> Lightning Returns FFXIII

Three titles, all in which have a total of exploration, content (side-quests, as well as main story) and much more than FFVII itself.

 

[fengshuifever]

The 40 pages of reactions are a bit much, but I will say to the complainers' credit, Square should rightfully get flak for being so vague. You can't just drop a one-line statement about this and run off.

This is the real problem.

The problem with VII - R up to this point is not showing a lot, or communicating really anything.
The original trailer? Great
Gameplay trailer? Great

But the problem is they do nothing to address the real fears of VII being remade, what will the gameplay ACTUALLY be? What is their approach to take a modern sensibility on an almost 20 year game.

The problem is you can't be as coy as you can with a new Final Fantasy (it. XV), it's something that needs to be handled totally differently.
Shenmue 3 suffered something really similar is that in the first few weeks, details on everything were incredibly vague and people were freaking the fuck out.
Then they released more and more details and clarifications WITHOUT spoiling anything to settle any fears as to a) how will they bring something as huge as Shenmue 3 to current day while keeping within a budget b) the publishing agreement with Sony.

SE have announced one of the biggest deals in gaming for a long time.
Now they need to explain how it's going to be possible.

 

[Celcius]

Wait, what happened to the gif you posted?! I wanted to quote that.

Here you go:

lol

 

[R00bot]

Wow this sounds like the worst possible way to do this XD

 

[Zombie James]

The dream is dead, and so's the thought of buying it.

Edit: Episode-by-episode, I mean. I hate that. I'll pick it up when all episodes are done at a discount in 2018.

 

[aceface]

It's going to be episodic self contained set pieces with CG intros and outros isn't it.

 

[quesalupa]

Thinking more about this, I'm glad they went episodic.

I hope because of the format, it's a more faithful representation of everything in the original game.

See that's what I'm starting to lean towards. I see people complaining about how stuff like the cross dressing will be cut because of episodes but shouldn't it be the exact opposite?

 

[ULTROS!]

It was announced as an action RPG.

But the end result wasn't even an action RPG. :/

 

[theofficefan99]

Why don't they just make the game multiple discs

 

[Vincent Alexander]

If we only think a little bit logically about the Remake (just a little...) then people would not be surprised that remaking the whole thing into one disc is simply not possible.

Agreed. So why not -bum bum bummmmm- TWO DISCS?! But seriously, splitting it up isn't that big of a deal. My fear is the "unique experiences" part. I'll wait until they're all out and buy, but if they don't even fit together as a whole experience and are each standalone....I'll be pissed.

 

[laser]

Yes because in the end, I know that the product will be complete in a way that I know Square's developed it from start to finish as a complete package. There won't be any 'cuts' in-between acts like a fucking HBO TV-series.

I get that, but I think it can be structured in a way that replicates the original. Like if you have the previous episode, the game can access the previous episode data to allow you to go back to previous dungeons, etc.

 

[Justice_Bolt]

Huh? I don't know if it's a good or bad news...

 

[InsaneTiger]

Sweet