Flash back to earlier in 2015, you're Sony and E3 is fast approaching. You've most likely heard rumblings from the Xbox camp that things like 'Backwards Compatibility' and 'fancy new controller' are coming, and you really, really need something headline-baity to claw back an otherwise potentially lacklustre showing. Shenmue 3? Well, that'd just be a Kickstarter, but sure we can roll that out. The Last Guardian? Hmm, it looks like it did where we left off in 2008, but yeah go on, people will lov- Ive got it! Final Fantasy VII. "That's genius", the rest of the marketing team surely thought, and it would be - if at any point in the past or now the subsequent fallout afterwards, Square indicated they actually wanted to make the thing. Repeatedly Square Enix's execs have mentioned how if they ever have to remake something from their past, it would be a damning indictment on how much faith they have in their current or future products, but all the same we got that trailer (and what a glorious one it was) at E3, but now that the hype's died down and reality has set back in, it looks like they're up to their old tricks again. The most recent tidbit of information to file under 'Stuff That Makes Us Incredibly Worried' - following director Tetsuya Nomura saying he didn't know the project was in full swing until he saw the trailer like the rest of us - is the comment that the game's legendary combat will receive "dramatic changes". I quote from an interview at E3 that's picked up steam now that Nomura also mentioned using Final Fantasy: Advent Children's character models as a baseline:
"We can't have these upgraded, beautiful 3D models of Cloud and Barrett, still lining up in a row, jumping forward to attack an enemy, then jumping back to wait for their next turn. That would be bizarre."
Yes, yes you can and no, it totally wouldn't - it would be exactly what fans want. The core gameplay of FF VII hasn't aged a day, quite the opposite. The materia system present ranks right up there with FF X's Sphere Grid, the turn-based approach to battles allows for the perfect amount of strategy and visual flair - and all round, it's what generations of fans associate with the franchise, not the 'real-time' hack n' slash approach Square have been taking for years now. This essentially confirms everyone's worst fears. We're not getting a 'proper' remake, instead the allusions in the trailer of the story being a sequel or prequel are almost completely true, and the gameplay itself sounds like it'll play like everything post-Final Fantasy X, which is exactly what anyone excited for this in the first place didn't want. What do you make of the remaster/remake/re-release or whatever they're going to call it? Let us know in the comments how you'd handle its direction, what you'd change and what should stay the same.
