Of course my mind comes around to thinking about FF7 since I'm playing the remastered 12 on the PS4.
While playing FF7 about three years ago, I felt that it would benefit from a remaster, in the sense of having everything exactly the same, but improved graphics so the game wouldn't be so blocky. I mean, I didn't even know that the yellow dot/square on the floor was an item. The same goes with Chrono Trigger where the entrance to the mountain was a barely noticeable dot that I had to look up if I were in the right place, as I didn't see the entrance. This remarkable fan recreated Chrono Trigger in the Unreal 4 Engine is what I think they should do for 7. In other words, just push the game to 1080p.
Although the reveal trailer in Sony's E3 2016 showing a complete remake brought chills down my spine, I think it was more due to bringing up the feelings I had of the game, even though Cloud and Barret looked incredible (in particular Barret). I'm sure all fans of FF7 are worried if this total and complete revamp would ruin the memory of FF7. I sure hope not, but the problem is that, despite the outdated graphics, the presentation of the game is such that it's hard to replicate the same emotional feel that the original FF7 brought.
There are too many things about FF7 that made it one of a handful of my favorite games, so I'll just point out a couple. I can't think of a game with a better antagonist then Sephiroth, and I really was astounded at his psychological depth and extremely complex character portrayal. Do not click the Show/Hide button if you want to avoid spoilers!
At any rate, despite the outdated graphics, few games have such incredible character portrayal, and in fact, no game that I could think of had a villain as fleshed out as Sephiroth. The game also has complex and intriguing story lines, and the music is such that it complements the scenes perfectly, to the point that I got the soundtrack through iTunes. Usually I don't care about video game music since I tend to listen to my own favorite music while gaming, but in this case, the music is crucial and essential to the experience.
Also, very briefly, there's so much to do in FFVII such as mini-games, leveling up your Chocobo, as well as varied gameplay elements including the traditional turn-based element, a srategic battle scene, and so forth.
In other words, putting all this together synergistically in such a perfect and well-crafted manner will be hard to pull off if you remake the game completely. If the music is changed, or they change the scenes and timing/pacing, or the dialogue, it might not lead to the same emotional resonance.
For instance, in films, we notice that there are few remakes that improve on the original. Indeed, I feel that the only time this can be achieved is if the original is quite bad (yet commercially successful so a remake will make sense from a nostalgia and business perspective), and the movie was completely revamped. Off the top of my head, the film 300 comes to mind. Now that to me was an awful movie but commercially successful, so if a remake is in order, anyone with a pea brain can improve 300. On the other hand, a film like Bergman's Persona, any change to that movie will damage it, since it's such a masterpiece. Persona in color with new actors would destroy this cinematic tour de force.
Indeed, it's hard to go from masterpiece to something equivalent or better. That's why I feel that if they want to remake FFVII just make the characters and environmental details less blocky/splotchy and add quality of life gameplay elements (i.e. less clunky menu options).
However, if they want the game to be 3D as per the trailer, (and I admit, it looks spectacular!) and make the gameplay more action-oriented (which won't be a bad thing as I found 12's gameplay better than 7), just follow the exact scenes of the original with same music and sound effects. For instance, start the game out with the same spine-tingling sound effects accompanying the stars in the sky, cue to Aerith's face, and so on and so forth.
What do you think? Are you cringing about the thought of the original creator and developers possibly ruining VII in a remake? Or are you looking forward to the remake and feel this game needs a complete overhaul?
While playing FF7 about three years ago, I felt that it would benefit from a remaster, in the sense of having everything exactly the same, but improved graphics so the game wouldn't be so blocky. I mean, I didn't even know that the yellow dot/square on the floor was an item. The same goes with Chrono Trigger where the entrance to the mountain was a barely noticeable dot that I had to look up if I were in the right place, as I didn't see the entrance. This remarkable fan recreated Chrono Trigger in the Unreal 4 Engine is what I think they should do for 7. In other words, just push the game to 1080p.
Although the reveal trailer in Sony's E3 2016 showing a complete remake brought chills down my spine, I think it was more due to bringing up the feelings I had of the game, even though Cloud and Barret looked incredible (in particular Barret). I'm sure all fans of FF7 are worried if this total and complete revamp would ruin the memory of FF7. I sure hope not, but the problem is that, despite the outdated graphics, the presentation of the game is such that it's hard to replicate the same emotional feel that the original FF7 brought.
There are too many things about FF7 that made it one of a handful of my favorite games, so I'll just point out a couple. I can't think of a game with a better antagonist then Sephiroth, and I really was astounded at his psychological depth and extremely complex character portrayal. Do not click the Show/Hide button if you want to avoid spoilers!
At any rate, despite the outdated graphics, few games have such incredible character portrayal, and in fact, no game that I could think of had a villain as fleshed out as Sephiroth. The game also has complex and intriguing story lines, and the music is such that it complements the scenes perfectly, to the point that I got the soundtrack through iTunes. Usually I don't care about video game music since I tend to listen to my own favorite music while gaming, but in this case, the music is crucial and essential to the experience.
Also, very briefly, there's so much to do in FFVII such as mini-games, leveling up your Chocobo, as well as varied gameplay elements including the traditional turn-based element, a srategic battle scene, and so forth.
In other words, putting all this together synergistically in such a perfect and well-crafted manner will be hard to pull off if you remake the game completely. If the music is changed, or they change the scenes and timing/pacing, or the dialogue, it might not lead to the same emotional resonance.
For instance, in films, we notice that there are few remakes that improve on the original. Indeed, I feel that the only time this can be achieved is if the original is quite bad (yet commercially successful so a remake will make sense from a nostalgia and business perspective), and the movie was completely revamped. Off the top of my head, the film 300 comes to mind. Now that to me was an awful movie but commercially successful, so if a remake is in order, anyone with a pea brain can improve 300. On the other hand, a film like Bergman's Persona, any change to that movie will damage it, since it's such a masterpiece. Persona in color with new actors would destroy this cinematic tour de force.
Indeed, it's hard to go from masterpiece to something equivalent or better. That's why I feel that if they want to remake FFVII just make the characters and environmental details less blocky/splotchy and add quality of life gameplay elements (i.e. less clunky menu options).
However, if they want the game to be 3D as per the trailer, (and I admit, it looks spectacular!) and make the gameplay more action-oriented (which won't be a bad thing as I found 12's gameplay better than 7), just follow the exact scenes of the original with same music and sound effects. For instance, start the game out with the same spine-tingling sound effects accompanying the stars in the sky, cue to Aerith's face, and so on and so forth.
What do you think? Are you cringing about the thought of the original creator and developers possibly ruining VII in a remake? Or are you looking forward to the remake and feel this game needs a complete overhaul?
The How of Happiness Review
It surprises many people to hear 7 wasn't my favorite Final Fantasy, of the ones I've played 4 was actually my favorite. I feel the games jumping straight into 3D before the technology had been fully developed, hurt a lot of games from that era, Final Fantasy 7 included. Because of that, I'm all the more looking forward to the FF7 remaster.
ReplyDeleteI think when talking about remaster's, I think it's important to discuss what games really deserve it, and why we remaster games in the first place. To me, Remasters are a way for the pinacles of the games industry to shine once again, to people who might not have been around for them. People like yourself who are new to gaming, people like little timmy in school who wants to learn about what games were like 20 years ago. The best remasters, would be for games like Final Fantasy 7, which still holds a lot of value today, just because the story is so great, and holds up to modern standards, even so much as being potentially industry defining. Games like Ratchet and Clank, or Legend of Zelda. Games that don't fit this model, would be games like Elder Scroll's Skyrim, or The Last of Us. Whilst great games on their own, they are still very much accessible to this target audience, you could've just made the PS4 backwards compatible, and it would've solved the problem then and there.
I also think it's important to focus on where the game really succeeded in, why it was so good 10-15 years ago, and keep that consistent with the previous release of the game. For most games, this will be graphics, control's, maybe better audio. But I would argue it also extends to gameplay as well. I would argue you don't play Final Fantasy for the compelling gameplay, it's good, don't get me wrong, I like JRPG's as much as the next guy, but it's not nessecarily the selling point for a lot of Final Fantasy games, and it's the reason that Final Fantasy have been happy taking this more western style of RPG under their arsenal.
I hope they eventually remaster the rest of the FF series, especially now I'm interested in playing 4, given it's your favorite!
ReplyDeleteThat's a really great point since anyone can get ahold of skyrim and TLOU these days, but not the more rare, older games. I agree with the upcoming remaster of Secret of Mana for the PS4. I got it for the iOS, but the screen is so tiny, that I ended up not playing it, so I'll definitely get it for the PS4.
Even though Okami was free for PS+ members, I still have yet to play it, but now that they're coming out with yet another HD remaster for the PS4, I might get that version, and finally play Okami! That seems like a game that deserves the highest resolution.
I think other games that really need a remaster on PC/PS4/XBox One to take advantage of better hardware are Chrono Trigger, Dragonquest 8 (3DS just doesn't cut it for both games), Dark Souls (PS4, XBox One), Demon's souls, off the top of my head. Also, all the other classic JRPGs really deserve to be remastered. I found Wild Arms 3 a complete gem.
I do like turn-based b/c you have to think about the strategy if they make the battles challenging, instead of really easy like South Park, but I agree, the combination of turn-based and real-time elements are quite addictive, such as in Eternal Sonata, The Lost Odyssey, FFXII. So I think FF should move to something like FFXII, or pure action-based such as Dark Souls. Can you imagine a FF whose gameplay is as precise and viscerally real as a Souls game?
I find that JRPGs tend to be my favorites precisely for what you mention: character development, story and the world, where you're so immersed, you care about the characters so much, that you don't want to leave. Western RPGs have reached that level with the Witcher series (From what I heard, haven't played), and definitely Horizon: Zero Dawn.
I must say the author has great choice of selecting Final Fantasy VII for playing the game. The game is an upcoming action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the Play-Station 4. According to me making remakes of the game would make it wonderful, so taking the chance of remaking Final fantasy would be a great idea. Even I have been a great fan of playing the game ever since I bought the playstation subscription prepaid card from the official site of Press-Start ( https://www.press-start.com/fr/ )
ReplyDeleteHello Amy, welcome to the blog! I agree, I just hope they remake VII to have the exact same cutscenes but in higher resolution, b/c it's hard to change the cutscenes and have the same emotional impact as the original. the pacing and timing, the music and so forth were just perfectly done to maximize the most heart-wrenching experiences.
DeleteAgree with you, I hope eventually all the FF games starting from 1 will be remade (i.e. at 1080p) for the PS4!