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FF7 Remake looking at FFXIII saga as model for release, possible plot changes

Opening the floodgates for inserting Crisis Core story bullshit and more! ALL the plot/character writing/world building for FFVII Compilation was the worst.

While we're at it lets invite Rivers Cuomo to improve Pinkerton and have George Lucas make SW Extra Special Editions.
 
I can't wait for Final Fantasy Versus VII in 2025!

I'm ok with this, as long as each game has a decent amount of content and feels like a complete experience in its own right.
 
I like the three act idea.

Act 1 is the Opening until the team leaves Midgar.
Act 2 is exploring the world until Cloud
hands over the Black Materia and Aeris/Aerith is killed.
Act 3 is Cloud's
awakening
and the end of the game.

Simple, really.

They can cram so much into that. The Turks show up across all three games, Cid, Red XIII, Yuffie and Vincent don't arrive until game 2, the WEAPONS don't arrive until the end of game 2, the Golden Saucer and Costa Del Sol are relaxation points, etc., etc.

Hmmm. I was already excited before, but now I'm getting kinda hyped beyond what I should be.

I like that template, gives them more time to develop that planet navigation system and develop relationships with avalanche, with the climax of Act I being
the death of Avalanche members like Wedge
 
Even though I adore FFVII (completed it like 5-6 times), I'm not big on that remake idea. And then I see this:

"Possible plot changes"

This might sound like blasphemy, but imagine they allow us save Aeris...
I don't like this release model, but would so buy it. Day1.
 

Widge

Member
Final Fantasy VII as a whole is a 30-40 hour RPG. Stretching this to three 30+ hour RPGs is....worrying.

FF7 was padded out with A LOT of shit grinding. I spent forever walking around in circles in the underwater plane getting AP and Turbo Ethers. The entire game is wonkily balanced like that... dumping a load of high grind items on you at the end of the game. Which, funnily, you have nothing left to use them on really as you've nailed the game by that point.

Also the cutscenes and voicing would add more to the remake I would imagine.
 

Widge

Member
I like that template, gives them more time to develop that planet navigation system and develop relationships with avalanche, with the climax of Act I being
the death of Avalanche members like Wedge

I'm almost down with that. Although I'd see Act 2 finish with the climax of the North Crater, just after Aeris death. Losing Cloud, the black materia, everything... feels like the natural end of a chapter.
 

liquidtmd

Banned
I'm more interested in how the hell they are going to carry over stats, progression, team / party stats, gil... from game to game (which are years apart) in a balanced fashion
 

liquidtmd

Banned
I am guessing each game will be a standalone thing where you start from 0?

Potentially and logically, you'd think so. But being set in the same world, same towns against the backdrop of the same story I can see how going from everything to 0 between 1-2 and 2-3 may be annoying unless handled superbly
 
Potentially and logically, you'd think so. But being set in the same world, same towns against the backdrop of the same story I can see how going from everything to 0 between 1-2 and 2-3 may be annoying unless handled superbly

JRPGs that could transfer level, equipment and everything wholesale to the next game have been done before. I don't think there's any technical reason why they couldn't do that.
 

liquidtmd

Banned
JRPGs that could transfer level, equipment and everything wholesale to the next game have been done before. I don't think there should be any technical reason why they couldn't do that.

I don't doubt you but any examples?

I don't see any technical reasons either, more design. I know for things like Shenmue - Shenmue 2, collectibles transferred across but they were purely cosmetic and weren't things like level stats money etc
 

Aters

Member
I don't doubt you but any examples?

I don't see any technical reasons either, more design. I know for things like Shenmue - Shenmue 2, collectibles transferred across but they were purely cosmetic and weren't things like level stats money etc

Trails in the sky allows you to tranafer level.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
If you look at a game like XIII-2, its battle system basically continued from where XIII left off.

It wouldn't be too crazy to make a game like that, which also allowed you to transfer your old character in. Maybe stats transfer or maybe they reset you to a new high baseline.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Just seeing this news...

I say go for it like i always have said. We all knew these games were going to be full games, people were freaking themselves out with the word "episodic" over nothing. They will probably have a system were your skills carry over though.

As for story changes, as long as Aerith still dies, i dont see any issue with switching plot events around or making things flow better, especially if they are going to make 3 full modern day JRPG games out of this thing, and we already know they are incorporating the compilation into it
 
Awww sweet, looks like Aeris won't be dying this time. Now Cloud can finally make it to the end with his first-class waifu and not have to settle with Tifa 'Silver Trophy' Lockhart instead!
 
The more I think about it, the less it would bother me if they resurrect Aeris. I've already experienced FF7. Would be nice to have her skill set to mess with end game.
 

Kuraudo

Banned
Awww sweet, looks like Aeris won't be dying this time. Now Cloud can finally make it to the end with his first-class waifu and not have to settle with Tifa 'Silver Trophy' Lockhart instead!

Except Cloud will realise he actually is a fabrication and the real Cloud died years ago. He falls deeper into a coma. Aeris eventually convinces Tifa to leave his sorry ass for dead and they both go off to save the world together.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
So you can't go back and explore the locastions in the first episode if you're playing the third one or how are they going to handle that?
 
If each title is truly the size of a game on it's own this could be great, FF 7 would be a behemoth of a game if it was completely redone in one go without anything being cut. I'm glad they went this route as long as each one is truly deserving of being a standalone game.
 

Sapientas

Member
It's a pretty good model actually and this finally clears a lot of the doubts people had when they announced the "episodic nature" of the remake.
Stating that they don't want this game to have the development cycle of FFXV goes without saying though and doesn't really inspire much confidence considering the scope of the project.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
I'm not against changes to the story/gameplay.

Just make it good. Whatever they make, original will still be there.
 
'And The Next Adventure Begins' has been used as an ending for countless stories and it would work fine here. There's nowhere fitting you could really 'evoke the end of an adventure' because it's not the end of the adventure, and everyone will know and understand that. Really, nothing from the original game would be perfect because it was written as a single story, but since splitting the story up is required you have to make do. The main reason why it's the best option, though, is because it means the first part of the series is cleanly set on the entire first continent with no walling off, simplifying the world design. The fact that the final boss is already the first battle against a very plot-important character is a bonus. Jenova would serve better as a final boss for the first part than pretty much anything else. Hell of a lot better than Motor Ball, at least.

I suppose that's a fair point. But there's currently no real build up, hardship, and climax from Kalm to Junon that would make that work. There's a reason for that. The sole purpose of the first continent is to let the player know "there's a whole big world out there for you to explore" and set the stage for the progression of the rest of the story, as the party follows Sephiroth.

Which is why it's so short.

You go through a flashback, catch a chocobo, go through a very brief dungeon, and then grab a ship in Junon. If the problem with stopping at Midgar is that it's not very far into the game, the problem remains for ending with the ship. It would be the shortest entry in the multi part series. Though I suppose that's where expanding Midgar and adding new events (including a required Yuffie event) to Continent 1 take place. And it's a point in the story where such additions could probably work.
 
FF7 was padded out with A LOT of shit grinding. I spent forever walking around in circles in the underwater plane getting AP and Turbo Ethers. The entire game is wonkily balanced like that... dumping a load of high grind items on you at the end of the game. Which, funnily, you have nothing left to use them on really as you've nailed the game by that point.

Also the cutscenes and voicing would add more to the remake I would imagine.

I wouldn't call that padding, when it's entirely optional.

You definitely don't need to spend time grinding in FF7, save perhaps to do optional endgame content.

But yeah, take a 30-40 hour game from a time before voice acting, and when a dungeon could just be a couple static screens, and turn it into a modern game with fully-voiced conversations and much more robust dungeons, and I can see how they hit 30-ish hours for each part.
 
Wow, they want FF7R to take less than a decade to make? How ambitious of them

image.php
 

woopWOOP

Member
Plot changes? They're gonna cram in the prequel & expanded universe characters aren't they? :(

Splitting the game up into several huge, nicely paced games is something I'm all for tho. After watching someone replay the first FF7 I really noticed the game kind of speeds through all those side-stories. It's kind of awkward.
 

Steroyd

Member
Interesting, this could either be the game they fully envisioned in 1997 like Resident Evil remake... Or George Lucas.
 
So instead of finishing Disc 1 and inserting disc 2/3 we have to wait say maybe 1-2 years for each "disc"? From a business standpoint this is brilliant but from a consumer perspective I'm not sure how I feel about it.
 

Kraq

Member
Midgar is about 5 hours give or take in the original. I'm interested to see how they stretch it out to 30+. Perhaps a fully open world Midgar with all sectors and plates explorable?

Looking forward to this. 2017 hype.
 

Seik

Banned
Cool at least they want to finish the game within ten years. :lol

Seriously though, I can deal with three separate retail releases. I feared that they meant 5 hours chunks with the term 'episodic'.
 

quesalupa

Member
To the people suggesting it: Why would they
save Aerith
? It's kind of important to the major story beats of this game and Advent Children.
 

BreakAtmo

Member
I suppose that's a fair point. But there's currently no real build up, hardship, and climax from Kalm to Junon that would make that work. There's a reason for that. The sole purpose of the first continent is to let the player know "there's a whole big world out there for you to explore" and set the stage for the progression of the rest of the story, as the party follows Sephiroth.

Which is why it's so short.

You go through a flashback, catch a chocobo, go through a very brief dungeon, and then grab a ship in Junon. If the problem with stopping at Midgar is that it's not very far into the game, the problem remains for ending with the ship. It would be the shortest entry in the multi part series. Though I suppose that's where expanding Midgar and adding new events (including a required Yuffie event) to Continent 1 take place. And it's a point in the story where such additions could probably work.

This is the sort of stuff they may well change. Besides the expansion they'll give to Midgar, they'll almost certainly expand the rest of what happens up to Junon as well. There'll probably be a bunch of villages, side-quests, etc. added to the first continent, and they can potentially add to what happens in Junon as well. It's not perfect, but if they're going to split the story into 3 parts in a proper logistical fashion (including things like leaving the second continent until Part 2 so they can focus on the first with no invisible walls), then I can't really think of a better ending point.

Also I honestly wouldn't mind Part 1 being the shortest of the games. Makes sense to me since it's where they're building the technical foundation for the trilogy. The later parts being longer seems OK to me.
 

Omaer

Banned
Taken from Gameinformer thread

"Each game will be the size of a FFXIII game is specifically stated. In other words full scale 30+ hour RPG, and they also say plot wise nothing is off the table in terms of changes."

I didn't see a thread for this news specifically.

Well let's just hope they don't cut off 30 hours of gameplay/cutscenes like they did for the first FF13. Boy oh boy would that make the FF7 remake trilogy quite interesting to post the least.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
This is exactly what I thought they were going to do back when they mentioned "episodic" content. I said as much and still had the FF know it alls here jump down my throat. The more they show of this or explain the less interested I am. Went from dream remake to nightmare for me personally. I will just play the original game since it still exists as I have been succinctly told numerous times.
 
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