Ok, after the news of the FF7 remake was heard around the world, people lost their marbles (including me). It was very exciting and can easily be argued as the biggest surprise in E3 history.
Thoughts of nostalgia and wonder came seeping through with a side order of complete disarray claiming anyone who ever loved FF7.
But it's important to tell everyone who does hold FF7 in high regard that now, even this early on is crunch time for the development of FF7. Why?
SE are going to decide if the game should be action or turn based, and then they will run with it (both are doubtful), do or die. From the sounds of it and considering the director, there's a good chance that it will be action based, which I believe to be a fatal decision.
I am of the camp that says it should stay turn based and as close to the original, even to a fault. "Oh no!", one half of you on the internet forums say. "The younger generation won't like that and action games are in right now!" Must I remind you of Pokemon? The most successful RPG series that has some of the simplest turn based gameplay ever conceived? If you're so concerned about FF7 getting enough sales I'd also recommend looking at FF8 and FFX. Both turn based.
But that was a different era you might argue for FF, and you could say that since Pokemon has remained so consistent it hasn't lost any of its fans.
The thing is though, who do you think are the ones that will buy FF7R? And who's to say that FF7's original fans are so minimal in numbers? They're still there, they just don't show up on the internet forums quite as much because most of them are older than the newest generation. As for the presence of FF1-FF6 fans being heard loudly, FF7 was designed as a more appealing game mechanic-wise, bringing in people that wouldn't dare touch games with a random encounter rate. More casual and not as vocal on the internet.
The reactions from FF7 fans seeing the FF7R trailer on youtube are maniacal. Those are the reactions of people that will buy a 60$ game day one. Then look at the number of views and like vs dislike ratio of the FF7R announcement on youtube. It doesn't get much better than that. It's obvious there are droves of fans for FF7.
*If FF7R turns into an action game, it will alienate too many of those fans and we still don't know how well FFXV will sell. KH3 preorders are double FFXV preorders right now, both are action games but we still know almost nothing about KH3 (even post 2015 E3), a series established as an action RPG, while FFXV has had a lot of exposure.* The division of fans is strong with FFXV, or maybe they're just holding out to see if the game will be as good as they're hoping. Probably some guarantee that they know what they're getting into.
This won't be an issue for FF7R if it stays completely true to the original, because it's already established with a winning formula. One that many are expecting. FF7 fans both new and old don't need surprises with something this big. *They just need to know if the integrity of this project is intact to know if they want to buy this game.*
Right now I think the developers are already making a big mistake based on how to do the remake from the latest details they have given.
They want it to exceed the original and I'm getting the feeling they want to mess with it extensively, but let's be honest here..
They can't do it. Not with action gameplay and not without Sakaguchi. Not a chance in hell unless they keep to the original's entire vision. They would need to keep all the subtleties in the soundtrack and story, pacing of the battle system, length of dialogue in the story and more to what the original had envisioned to do it right.
That being said, let's talk about the vision of FF7, the original. It's already established and many love the game and replay it to this day. Why change the winning forumula of your most successful game?
Can we really trust Nomura with recreating the whole of FF7? Comon now, we can't. We know how he writes his stories and we know the writing quality of Advent Children. He had complete control over the direction of that movie. He's known to make drastic and weird decisions, such as adding in that slot machine mechanic in Crisis Core. Both he and Kitase signed off on that. -_-'
The only way this game will ever be univerally praised is if it stays completely true to the original.There are too many parts of the original that gave it such a specific vision to screw with and also assume it will live up to both new and old fans.
The older fans are there, but even if FF7R goes action who's to say the older generation would like it? Maybe they would, but who's to say some of the younger generation wouldn't like it turn based either? The other way around is far less likely.
*If it's not turn based, there's a strong possibility we wont' get control over our entire party!*
Those of the camp that would like this as an action game should consider this as well.
Basic turn based gameplay akin to the original guarantees this.
There's so much to discuss about this immediate developmental fork in the road regarding the FF7 remake.
What say you VGchartz?
Lube Me Up
