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[thepotatoman]

Why is Sephiroth great?

They build him up extremely well. There are sections throughout the game where you're left to observe the amazing, gorey destruction Sephiroth leaves in his wake.

Unfortunately, this aspect seems to be most likely to be screwed up by the remake. They need to be brave enough to make it fairly gorey, and reserved enough to keep sephiroth off screen. I'm worried they won't be able to resist turning those moments into Advent Children style moments of awesome to show off Sephiroth's cool skills, and losing the horror style tone to those scenes.

 

[HeelPower]

I think the pre-rendered back grounds look far more enticing than anything on the SNES.

I think "FF6 aged better cuz sprites" is completely false.Nothing in the sprite back grounds as sophisticated as the FF7's backgrounds.

 

[Krabboss]

For me it's that I still really enjoy the idea of the game and its mechanics, but the visuals and world navigation have just aged horribly. I hate the pre rendered backgrounds and the character models.

Moving away from the prerendered backgrounds/stationary cameras will change the feel of the game considerably. Just imagine any key moment of FF7 or Resident Evil but instead it's a behind the back camera + 3D graphics a la FF13. It would be different - it would feel different. We'll have to see how it works out, but the game will have to be redesigned to the point that I wonder if it's even worth it.

 

[Neff]

I think the main reason is it's most people's first RPG.

That's definitely a big part of FFVII's appeal. But FFVII is unique in that it had an unprecedented amount of effort put into it. The budget and manpower involved for the time was insane, and it's reflected not only in the amount of content, but also the care and skill put into the game's themes and execution. And it's just really damn good.

I played my first console RPG in the '80s. Shit, I didn't even get to play FFVII until 4 years after it released, but it blows any RPG before and after away imo.

 

[Daviii]

I think the pre-rendered back grounds look far more enticing than anything on the SNES.

I think "FF6 aged better cuz sprites" is completely false.Nothing in the sprite back grounds as sophisticated as the FF7's backgrounds.

This!

Battles and world map look like shit.

Pre rendered scenes were jaw dropping back then, and are still absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Dr. Kaos]

The PS3 tech demo

yep

As a massive FF7 fanboy, 6 is a better game

true

there are many games from that generation that are deeply beloved, just as much if not more than FFVII depending on who you're talking to. Metal Gear Solid. Super Mario 64. The fucking Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time. Just to name a few. Two of these three games actually HAVE been remade, and neither of them were met with as nearly as overwhelming of a response as FFVII.

FF7 was a perfect storm of pretty graphics, INCREDIBLY good music, great battle mechanic, great story, very cool Villain, memorable characters and a sick ending battle tops it all off, leaving you with a profound sense of satisfaction.

The game used the 2-year old next-gen console better than anything had, at the time.

As I said, perfect storm.


Also, no subsequent FF has matched it whereas the other games you mention have had worthy sequels.

And, I guess, everybody subconsciously senses more potential in this remake:

I think it's because the game is so huge and ambitious, and so obviously constrained by limited tech. It's a whole world, with outsized personalities outsized plot outsized set pieces, but it's just straining against its format. VI was huge too, but it's fully designed and fully realized in sprite work. 7 was supposed to look real. You could feel the ambition when you played it, and it was like nothing else at the time, but it never QUITE delivers like you feel it could. Take Bahamut Zero. A giant robot dragon from space! And he's awesome! But... he's also a low-poly mess. It wasn't my first rpg, it's not my favorite FF (VI is), but I'm excited because we'll finally see what the game can be, unchained from the limited media of the late 90s.

We think alike you and I. *claps shoulder"

 

[Baroquemantic]

Aside from the fact that the original game has aged terribly, for me it's because of seeing all the other games, the film, and whatnot that came years later and take place in the same world. Basically all the compilation stuff. Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children, etc. all look so damn good and I want to play the game looking like that stuff. It doesn't even have to have visuals as amazing as FFXV either. I'd take the graphics of the old PS3 tech demo in the remake.

 

[HeeHo]

Really? Sales data supports it literally was the first "blockbuster" selling JRPG internationally.

Sorry for late reply, I meant, I don't think it's for that reason solely. It wasn't my first RPG and yet I wanted it remade as bad as the rest.

 

[Verger]

Count me in the crowd that thinks its overrated as sin. Characters, story, etc. aren't that great. Only the environments and creatures really stand out.

And yeah, FF6 was the better game. Hell, FF9 was the more charming and stylish PS1 FF.

I don't know why this game got such a fan following other than because of its CG cutscenes, because the rest of the game was meh.

That said, I am interested to see what SE will do with the remake, though I'm reticent about how they'll no doubt want to introduce tie-ins to all the other FF7 fanfic crap that's been released since then.

 

[Sanjay]

It's aged awfully.

Everything except the music.

 

[Krabboss]

The only thing worse than people overrating FF7 is people overrating FF6.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Also there was only about a 6 year gap between MGS & the remake. If the FF7 remake comes out in 2017, it will have been 20 years since the original release. Much more time for hype to build up.

 

[Fbh]

I guess it's a combination of both being a game a lot of people loved, and the fact that it has aged poorly with the ugly 3D graphics and lego-like 3D models

 

[Trigonometrize.]

I hate the "it was everyone's first RPG" reaso so much. How DARE you sell Final Fantasy VII short. People have wanted a remake because FFVII is fucking awesome... oh yeah and maybe the tech demo sorta helped I guess...

 

[Magnus]

Jesus. Was the PS3 tech demo really TEN YEARS ago? It still looks great.

 

[4Tran]

They build him up extremely well. There are sections throughout the game where you're left to observe the amazing, gorey destruction Sephiroth leaves in his wake.

Unfortunately, this aspect seems to be most likely to be screwed up by the remake. They need to be brave enough to make it fairly gorey, and reserved enough to keep sephiroth off screen. I'm worried they won't be able to resist turning those moments into Advent Children style moments of awesome to show off Sephiroth's cool skills, and losing the horror style tone to those scenes.

The funny thing is that, outside of flash backs, Sephiroth

Spoiler

doesn't actually show up until North Crater. He never leaves the crater, and all the appearances are bits of JENOVA.

 

[Chibot]

Though some of it may be nostalgia, I also feel like it is still one of the finest JRPGs overall. It's my second favorite Final Fantasy, behind 6. I loved the materia system, the characters, environments and, maybe most of all, the music. FFVII has an amazing soundtrack, probably my favorite in all of gaming.

 

[antitrop]

I think its because it was a game designed between two different eras and even as groundbreaking as it was, it still seems held back by the technology of the time.

The most logical explanation.

Along with this:

Isn't it the best selling Final Fantasy?

And that answers the OP.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

I think the main reason is it's most people's first RPG.

Got to disagree with that. I played both 4 and 6 before 7. Still find 7 to be the best in the series and also my favorite game overall.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Isn't it the best selling Final Fantasy?

 

[Nozem]

The game has tons and tons of charm, lots of memorable scenes, a great villain, perfect soundtrack and the characters and story are by far the most memorable of any Final Fantasy. It's my favorite game ever.

I'm currently replaying FF7 again, and while the graphics have aged terribly, it's still a great and wonderful game.

10/10 best FF ever.

 

[YankeeDonB]

I think it's because the game is so huge and ambitious, and so obviously constrained by limited tech. It's a whole world, with outsized personalities outsized plot outsized set pieces, but it's just straining against its format. VI was huge too, but it's fully designed and fully realized in sprite work. 7 was supposed to look real. You could feel the ambition when you played it, and it was like nothing else at the time, but it never QUITE delivers like you feel it could. Take Bahamut Zero. A giant robot dragon from space! And he's awesome! But... he's also a low-poly mess. It wasn't my first rpg, it's not my favorite FF (VI is), but I'm excited because we'll finally see what the game can be, unchained from the limited media of the late 90s.

 

[Lights and Waves]

I think it has a lot to do with the way it made you feel as a kid when you first played it. It's the same thing that drives people to want OoT remakes. The jump to 3D is a feeling that can't be replicated.

 

[Trojita]

People mentioning the PS3 Tech Demo: Where you around during PS2 days? The calls for a remake were just as high then. The PS3 tech demo did nothing but piss people off.

 

[Doosi]

I like 9 more than 7 but 7 would benefit most from a remake

 

[charsace]

I wanted a FF6 remake way more than 7. 6 is the better game and 7 is kind of a redo of 6 in the plot and game play.

 

[waypoetic]

I think the main reason is it's most people's first RPG.

Some people want FF7 and some want a remake/reboot of Chrono Trigger.

 

[antitrop]

People mentioning the PS3 Tech Demo: Where you around during PS2 days? The calls for a remake were just as high then. The PS3 tech demo did nothing but piss people off.

Exactly. There was a small backlash to the tech demo, like a miniature version of what happened at Gamescom 6 months ago.

Fans have always wanted a remake of FF7, and Square fucked with us about it for OVER 10 years. For someone who has had FF7 as their favorite game ever for 17 years now, it's been a hell of an emotional rollercoaster finally bringing us to this actual Remake announcement.

 

[Kariodude]

FF7 was baby's first RPG.

Not that it was easy, but it was the first game of it's kind that many people played. If it wasn't the first RPG you played, it was the first 3D RPG you played. So people formed a connection with it's existence before even getting very far into it.

 

[antitrop]

FF7 was baby's first RPG.

Not that it was easy, but it was the first game of it's kind that many people played. If it wasn't the first RPG you played, it was the first 3D RPG you played. So people formed a connection with it's existence before even getting very far into it.

VII is really easy, though. I'm not sure which one was easier, VI or VII, so I just consider them both equally the two easiest games in the entire main series.

They also happen to be the two best.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Simply this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7EVCuK7ZqM

 

[DuffDry]

I never got all the graphics complaints. The models emote just fine and the pre-rendered backgrounds STILL look good. Not to mention how much the tone is going to be warped when you update the models and possibly remove the backgrounds.

VII got the remake that IX (or VI) truly deserved. Can't say I'm not excited to see how it turns out, though.

 

[Domcorleone]

I think the main reason is it's most people's first RPG.

That's exactly why I love the game so much. It introduced me into the wonderful world of RPGs.

Your first is always memorable

 

[Sakura]

As it has already been said, for a lot of people, its was their first real JRPG.
Not that I think it is a bad game, there are certainly worse Final Fantasies.
But it's just something you see a lot. People generally hold stronger feelings for their early entries into a genre or medium or whatever than they would other wise. You see it in titles like 999 for visual novels, or certain titles for anime.

Personally, I think FFVII is really really ugly. So while there are other Final Fantasy titles I like more and would be more excited if they got remade, they really don't need it as much as FFVII does.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

Amazing game that looks like it was pooped out of someones ass.

Ok, thats harsh. But seriously, it uses like 2 different art styles, the the FMV's sometimes use chibi characters, but then sometimes normal characters. It doesn't make any fucking sense.

Back then it looked great. But now? It is bad. Every single other FF game still holds up, even FF8 which came pretty soon after.

 

[Durden77]

So it seems like the general consensus is...

-The game, it's story, it's characters, and it's general impact are timeless, and are unique to FFVII alone.
-The graphics are not, and even at release could not live up to the world that was created/imagined by the player with it switching between it's strange chibi style and such.
-People got a taste of the world with more fleshed out visuals with the movies and the tech demo and said "FUCK I WANT THAT THAT'S WHAT I WANT THAT'S WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE TO ME" if they hadn't already, and continued to be teased.
-It's been a long fucking time.
-It was many people's first JRPG.
-Loads and loads of nostalgia, which is perfectly fine.

I guess the only thing that I still wonder about is, like I said, why this is such a special case and not nearly as much fanfare is made for other games from the same era being remade. However, it seems like this quote sums it up pretty well, if it is a bit harsh...

FF7 is a perfect storm of jank-nostalgia.

It's like this perfectly mixed release to where the people that adore it really do, but also most of them really haven't played it since around it's release because of it truly feeling dated, almost as if the people that love it so much don't even want to look back at it in it's original form because their imagination saw it as something so much more. Like it's trapped in some mythical time capsule. Where as with stuff like Metal Gear Solid and OoT, they look rough these days and certainly have some jank, (more so MGS) but they still hold up and are pretty clear visions of what the creators fully wanted to make. And because of that, I still play them pretty regularly.

It sounds like FFVII was so special, so memorable, and so burned into people's minds that replaying the original almost doesn't even do it justice anymore, maybe even just a few years after release let alone now. And that the legacy of FFVII has actually surpassed the actual game in many people's minds. Which makes sense. Hm. Pretty crazy. Really cool getting some insight into this stuff. This really is a special game that seems like it was possibly far more ahead of it's time than nearly any other on release. And because of that, it just couldn't keep up with itself, even though it tried it's absolute best it seems, and lead to people desperately craving for "what it really looks like."

 

[Nozem]

Amazing game that looks like it was pooped out of someones ass.

Ok, thats harsh. But seriously, it uses like 2 different art styles, the the FMV's sometimes use chibi characters, but then sometimes normal characters. It doesn't make any fucking sense.

Back then it looked great. But now? It is bad. Every single other FF game still holds up, even FF8 which came pretty soon after.

Yeah, it looks bad. But it is still a great game.

 

[Kurtofan]

Not being familiar enough with FFVI

 

[antitrop]

That's exactly why I love the game so much. It introduced me into the wonderful world of RPGs.

Your first is always memorable

As it has already been said, for a lot of people, its was their first real JRPG.
Not that I think it is a bad game, there are certainly worse Final Fantasies.
But it's just something you see a lot. People generally hold stronger feelings for their early entries into a genre or medium or whatever than they would other wise. You see it in titles like 999 for visual novels, or certain titles for anime.

Final Fantasy 1 was my first RPG and I'm completely indifferent to it. I recognize its importance, but I didn't think it was very fun to play when I was a kid and I don't think it's fun to play now. All I remember is trying to fit my childhood best friend's names into the 4 character limit and not making a lot of progress because of the difficulty.

So, I can't relate.

 

[PSqueak]

Baby's first RPG from an era where it was graphicly a beast, nothing like it had been seen before on consoles, it had several hours worth of story and the series had an amazing pedigree, coming after the amazing FF6.

By todays standards it's not as good as other FF (hell, FF6 outclasses it) but it was a technical wonder on it's time and due to that it left a powerful impression into the young minds to which it was their first taste of the series and genre.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Nostalgia for what was many people's first Final Fantasy if not first RPG and graphic whoredom.

 

[Chuck Norris]

They build him up extremely well. There are sections throughout the game where you're left to observe the amazing, gorey destruction Sephiroth leaves in his wake.

Unfortunately, this aspect seems to be most likely to be screwed up by the remake. They need to be brave enough to make it fairly gorey, and reserved enough to keep sephiroth off screen. I'm worried they won't be able to resist turning those moments into Advent Children style moments of awesome to show off Sephiroth's cool skills, and losing the horror style tone to those scenes.

Agreed the mystery of Sephiroth was the best part about him in FFVII

 

[Polioliolio]

It was really the only E3 moment that had me mouth agape smiling like an idiot.

I mean, I think all those FF7 spinoffs and sequels and movies were garbage... But If this is really a proper remake, I'm psyched.

I will riot, though, if Cloud is emo, instead of his wisecracking, jovial, on again off again jerk self from FF7 proper.

 

[Nikkuthulu]

Mr.Dolphin. The need to see the greatest character of any Final Fantasy game ever. Praise Mr.Dolphin.

 

[ajjow]

I dont think this will end well.

One of the greatest things about ff7 its the fact that you have a super serious and sad story told by this chibi characters, which make the game has the special place in gaming.

When the whole game gets this japanese crazy manga feels, people will not like it.

They should make a vita/3ds game with improved graphics more like Ocarina 3ds.

The game is great. They shouldn't change it much....

 

[cartman414]

Every aspect of the game was great, especially the story. 99% of game stories are awful, but FF7, for me, has yet to be topped, nearly 20 years later. Also, we got some movies showing the cast in a CG fashion that lends itself well to the universe, so seeing a remake with a similar approach is incredibly desirable.

It also was the game that convinced me I wanted to make video games. Seeing a remake come to life is just awesome.

Eh. 6 was better. The Suikoden series quite possibly as well.

7 suffered for execution.

 

[HoodWinked]

i think the first couple hours of the game are simply incredible the atmosphere they build in midgar's undercity has a strange familiarity, dream-like, depressing, yet beautiful feel to it. Something thats very hard for me to put into words. the sincerity of the people you meet like your first encounter with Aerith and those small moments you have with jesse from avalanche. then you have the soundtrack which pairs perfectly for the look and feel of the city.

people who cant appreciate it are dead on the inside.

 

[privitsan02]

A lot of biggest games from that generation have been remade. The only one that still seems MIA is Crash Bandicoot but seeing what Sony did at E3, I don't know what to believe anymore. it's entirely possible for Crash to come back.

With that being said, FFVII was also probably the first JRPG for many people. The PlayStation was the first console to go mainstream and attract not just kids and teenagers, but adults and people who always thought video game consoles were toys.

Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 64 and Resident Evil have all been remade. Final Fantasy and Crash Bandicoot appear to be the last ones left. This is also when the loudest group of gamers and were likely exposed to gaming around that generation it seems, as they are the ones who triggering these remakes and kickstarters for Yooka Laylee, Shenmue 3 and Bloodstained to become realities. These games roots all came around that time.

It also doesn't help that we got a mega tease for FFVII 10 years ago in the form of a tech demo for PS3.

We're are almost there gamers. All of the fan favorite titles from the PSone and N64 generation are almost back. Just one more left.

Best wishes.

 

[Lanrutcon]

The people who say the game has aged badly, doesn't hold up or that we're clinging to nostalgia are full of horseshit. I've replayed the game twice in the last few years and it still shines.

 

[Zophar]

It's a fantastic game that was marred even at release by uneven graphics, glitches, and a translation that would not pass QA by any modern standard. It's the closest of any of the Final Fantasies (not already rereleased) to being unplayable by today's standards for quality. More than just a graphics update, it's been in sore need of an overhaul at even more basic levels for over 15 years.

It's still very enjoyable in its original form, but a clean up has been long overdue. No other game in the series has needed it as much.