Final Fantasy is one of the best selling franchises in video game history and its fans are loyal to a fault. You may have noticed how big of a fan I am from LRM Ranks It, especially of Final Fantasy VII. So it should be no surprise that I am really excited about the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake. Square Enix has a lot riding on FF7 Remake though. There are millions of fans eagerly awaiting an updated version of a game they have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing and replaying. There’s a lot of money going into making the game too, which is said to be so big that it must be released in multiple chapters. That means the company has to get it right, all of it. Square Enix has been very tight-lipped when it comes to information about this highly anticipated title but we do know a few things. What we do know is both exciting and worrying to this writer.
Battle System
One of the biggest questions about this game, when it was first announced, was what type of battle system would it have. The original game used the classic Final Fantasy Active Time Battle (ATB) System that blended together turn-based combat but with how fast turns came about being determined by character stats and status effects. A little timer gauge would fill up and when it did that character could take action. That system seems to be less appealing to younger gamers that are more used to Action Role Playing Games in the style of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Dark Souls than they are classic Japanese RPGs. This is part of why Square Enix went with a real-time battle system in Final Fantasy XV, which in this writer’s opinion worked well for that world. However, this is FF7 we’re talking about and at its core was a strategic battle plan that required using all members of your party and taking time to plan moves well in advance of making them. A real-time battle system doesn’t allow for that as much.
We know that FF7 Remake will utilize an Action RPG style battle system and we recently got to see some of it in action in the recent teaser trailer below. Screenshots from that trailer do not give a lot away but you can see there is a command menu available under the preset attack buttons. I believe this will be used in a similar fashion as Kingdom Hearts III which has one of the best Action RPG battle systems I’ve ever played. The ability to map magic, summons, and items to different buttons and to switch between pages of presets could really make up for the lack of the ATB. We also know that you will be able to switch control between the characters in your party, unlike FF15 where you only set fighting styles for your partners. One big question is how customizable the other party member’s actions will be. I personally hope for a detailed gambit style setup similar to Final Fantasy XII which allowed you to control everything from item and magic usage to the order of targets a character would go after. By combining elements of KH3, FF12, and FF15 the combat could be really fun and keep the spirit of the original game intact while attracting younger gamers.
Environments and Music
FF7 was huge on the original PlayStation and it took up three CD-Roms. It saved room by having pre-rendered backgrounds and MIDI music even though CDs were capable of real recorded instruments and high-quality audio. Those corners can’t be cut in this remake. The worlds of FF15, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Horizon: Zero Dawn are amazingly detailed and beautiful. Games with worlds like that have spoiled us and we have high expectations for exploring town, cities, dungeons, and the world of Gaia as a whole in FF7 Remake. Part of this size, and the depth of the story scenarios, of course, are why the game is expected to be split into at least three episodes that will each be sold separately. The game designers have told us that we can expect to travel to all of the familiar places as well as areas we couldn’t in the original. There’s no real information on how the transition between the world map and towns and cities will happen. The PS4 is a powerful machine, but the city of Midgar, the Gold Saucer, and the harbor of Juno are huge. They will have to be rendered by the machine separately from the rest of Gaia. I believe that a transition similar to the dungeons in FF15 would suffice and feel mostly seamless.
One of the coolest things about Final Fantasy games are modes of transportation. From Chocobos to airships the developers give you some nice rides. There have been no shots of any of the known vehicles from the original game but they HAVE to be there. Having vehicles plays with the scale of the world and the look of the environments. Part of the original game had areas blocked off by environmental obstacles, those don’t seem to do well with modern gamers that are used to a truly open world. FF15 got around this by having enemies blocking areas and straight up invisible walls. I personally hope for something more organic and realistic. Change the environment to be unpassable on foot instead of just a different texture. A certain amount of suspension of belief has to come with this game, you’ll eventually (hopefully) spend hours breeding giant birds to get a golden one that can walk over mountains and on water.
The music we know will be fully orchestrated. Say what you want about classic MIDI background music, certain games benefit from an orchestra and Final Fantasy games are in that category. Famed FF composer Nobuo Uematsu who had actually left Square Enix a while ago. We can expect and deserve, a great soundtrack full of the classic pieces we know and love. The only real question is will we get the Rock infused version of “One Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children?
Story
If there’s one thing that can go wrong, it’s the story. We’ve been told that the game will contain all of the scenarios we are familiar with as well as some new additions. We also know that some so-called problematic scenes, such as Cloud cross-dressing, will be modified or removed completely. It’s 2019 and the world is sometimes run by the outrage of a few versus the understanding of historical or cultural context. Besides that, we will see the bombing mission at the start of the game (which seems to be the only footage we’ve seen), Aerith’s background (hopefully they correct her name for the U.S. release to match Japan), Sephiroth’s meltdown, and the big cannon firing at Weapon.
The story of FF7 was nothing amazing in and of itself. It was a common save the world and the girl scenario, but it was the depth of the characters involved that has created such loyal fans. Almost every FF game has an epic story, but only a few can make you care about the characters so much. The original game had some mistranslations but got the story from Japan mostly right, and people will be expecting that to be told in its entirety. The idea of adding new stuff to this game is scary because the good idea fairy rarely has really good ideas. As long as the main story remains intact I could forgive some lame addition, but if they replace story elements with something new… It had better be damned good!
What We Want
We want Final Fantasy VII just updated for modern consoles. We want that epic story with great character development. We want beautiful music to add to our tears during that one scene, you know which one. We want the ATB, but we’re not getting it, so we demand a lot of attention to detail that’ll give us the expected level of control of our party. This game has been in demand, and teased, ever since the PS2 hit shelves. Each system announcement has had rumors of a remake of this title, and now that it’s finally coming, all eyes are on Square Enix to not f*** it up. We want the whole game out as soon as possible, but I figure there’ll be close to a year between episodes being released. No information on that, just a feeling. This is one of the most important titles in many gamer’s histories and its success is probably more important to us than it is Square Enix themselves.
We can expect more information about this game in June according to Sony and Square Enix. Hopefully an idea about how much of the story will be in Episode 1 and a projected release date. A release date we know will be pushed back at least six times…
What do you think about what we know so far? Are any changes deal breakers for you? What’s the most important thing to keep? Let us know in the comments below!
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