By now I’m going to guess that you’ve heard about the monkeyshines and shenanigans that occurred at the recent PlayStation Experience event. But if not allow me to set the scene for you:
Our boy Shinji Hashimoto from Square-Enix comes out on stage
to tell the audience something that many Final Fantasy fans
have been clamoring for for almost 20 years –Final Fantasy VII, hailed
by many RPG fans as one of the greatest games of all time, would be coming to
the PlayStation 4.
If this is new to you then I know what you’re thinking kids
– because I’m sure I was one of the many that did the same thing. you’re
replaying a next-gen version of the Bahamut ZERO summon in your head, trying to
picture what the Gold Saucer would even look like, creating
mental images of Midgar and that awkward Wall Market scene with Beautiful Bro.
But then reality sets back in. Yes, Final
Fantasy VII will be available for the PS4. No, it is not going
to be awesome. It will be the same as the one released in 1997 – a port
of the PC version of the game to be available in the spring of 2015.
We all got trolled. Again. And this time they
did it to our faces in front of a huge hall full of people, getting them super
excited then taking out their knees. Here’s some video from
Kotaku’s Fahey showing the presentation.
Now those of you that know me know how I feel about remakes
in general – a lot of times to me they’re a cheap cash-grab with no discernible
advantage to the older version outside of convenience to pick up some
additional revenue to a market they haven’t sold to yet. And
in the process, while throwing away creativity and the opportunity to do
something new for the fans, they repackage our childhoods and try to sell it
back to us. It happens all the time.
So you may be curious then – why this article
about this recent event is getting my attention given this
opinion of mine I’ve just shared.
Here’s the thing. I’m not mad the
remake isn’t happening.
I’m mad at how things have played out over the last decade
or so in general, especially with this game company on remakes. It was
easy to remake the titles from the NES and SNES era – there’s something like 5
versions of Final Fantasy IV running wild over a number of
consoles among a few others. They’re decades old games remade with
PSX graphics. VIII’s on Steam and I’m not sure who really
cares about a IX remake – and these are two additional Final
Fantasy titles also originally released on the first PlayStation.
(S-E remakes for Android devices also have an always-on
requirement, which already irk my ire, so this on top of that really sticks in
my craw. But that’s another story for another day.)
But for VII, they give fans hope. In addition
to the original game, Square-Enix developed an entire universe around Midgar,
with spinoff games and video titles like Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis
Core, Last Order, and topping them all off with the feature length Advent
Children in 2005. But it didn’t stop there. In 2006 to
show off graphical capabilities they released a technical demo for the PS3
engine (watch it here,
it’s wonderful). This demo featured the intro to Final
Fantasy VII redone using the PS3 engine. It was glorious.
Midgar looked great, the train details down to the sparks on the tracks were
sharp, what we saw of Aeris was lovely, and Cloud’s eventual entrance on the
train platform was done with style.
AND THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE.
Square Enix showed us what one of the most revered games in
modern history could look like, while having no intention of
ever delivering. We saw what could be, and the fact that they used that
property for the demo sparked many rumors that a remake was in the works.
Since then, the game has been released in its original form on PSX, a 4-disc PC
edition, a download on Steam, and playable on the PS3 through the PlayStation
store. Someone could have paid for 4 copies of the same game, with
not much more than the addition of trophies and achievements added to their
total gameplay experience.
Well I guess there is some sort of charm about huge pixels
on TV’s sized like they are these days.
Still though. Colossal who cares.
But we’ll never get delivery on the vision of the future
Square-Enix had shown us with that demo. They’ll continue to make money
on every copy of this that was sold on multiple platforms from 1997 to
today. The game has still been wildly supported by its fanbase, some of
who will buy every version of it out of loyalty and let’s be honest, to some
extent mania. Fans will keep assuming it’ll happen because Square-Enix
keeps supporting the product and dropping hints unofficially while officially
denying it. For the same reason, Square-Enix will keep selling it.
And this dance will go on for a good long time. And to think, this all
would have never happened if only the PS3 was back-compatible.
Bottom line – if you’re waiting for a next-gen Final
Fantasy VII remake, I wouldn’t hold my breath longer than a Knights of
the Round summon.
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