Kotaku have spotted that the press release that accompanied the new Final Fantasy VII remake trailer has some small print that indicates the game may be episodic in nature.
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 6, 2015) – During this past weekend’s PlayStation Experience in San Francisco, SQUARE ENIX® debuted a new trailer for FINAL FANTASY® VII REMAKE, the full remake of the award-winning role-playing game, FINAL FANTASY VII. The new trailer features the first CG scenes as well as gameplay footage. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience.
Due to the huge costs involved in remaking the game an episodic structure may be the only way Square Enix can afford to produce the title, but given how huge the game is it maybe a lot of episodes.
UPDATE: In an interview with Dengeki Online, helpfully translated by Gematsu, director Tetsuya Nomura said: “If we dedicated our time to a single release, parts of it would become summarized.”
“We’d have to cut some parts, and additional parts would come in few, so rather than remake the game as a full volume, we decided to do multiple parts.”
“If we took everything that’s in the original game and remade it at that quality, we couldn’t get it all on a single release,” added game director Kitase.
Source: Press release via Kotaku
MrYd
Yes. That’s exactly what we wanted. That and turning it into an action RPG instead of a turn based one. (Although it looks like it might be somewhere between the two)
I’m going to spend the next however many years until it’s released sarcastically taking the piss out of Squeenix. And then wait until all the episodes are released. And buy it in a sale. And probably regret it.
What were they thinking?? Announce FF7 for the PS4, then it’s “No, just kidding, it’s a port of the PC version” (which seems to run far too fast, so it looks stupid), then announce the remake to huge and shortlived excitement.
How long before microtransactions and DLC are announced? Yuffie and Vincent can join your party for just £3.99 each. Chocobo racing takes twice as long to get anywhere as it did in the original, but you can buy a pack of 50 gyshal greens for just £28.99. Or unlock all the summons for just £12.99.
cam_manutd
Come on. Its not made by EA :’)
Pixel_nme
The FF7 PC version that’s just been released runs at the same speed the original did,you can press L3 to speed it up though should you so wish.
MrYd
And that update? Does that mean if they tried to do it all in one go, they’d have to cut out big chunks of the original, and wouldn’t be able to squeeze Lightning in as an extra bit somehow?
It’s almost as if they don’t want the money. Which is weird, given how they happily took the MS money for Tomb Raider. Maybe they just prefer big piles of cash without any of that troublesome “selling some games” crap?
Tuffcub
Squenix cant afford to do it one game. It would kill them.
Do it this way the money is a steady flow.
Shareholders much prefer a nice trickle of cash rather than three years of debt and then one bonus at the end.
If they didn’t do it this way it probably wouldn’t ever get made, or if it did, as they have said, huge chunks would be cut out.
MrYd
Or when the first episode doesn’t sell many copies, they can quietly delay the next part until everyone forgets it was even a thing in the first place.
Unless they do the season pass thing, in which case they might have a problem. What happens if the first episode doesn’t make enough money to do the rest of the game, but they’ve got people who paid for the rest anyway?
Tuffcub
Do you SERIOUSLY think a remake of FFVII, one of the most beloved games of all time, ISNT going to sell a bajillion copies?
MrYd
Ask me that last week (presumably some sort of time machine is required) and I’ll say yes, it’s obviously going to sell a stupid number of copies.
But obviously they’ve realised that, decided they don’t want all that money and they’re trying their best to put everyone off.
The only explanation is that they looked in a cupboard where all the code and resources for the original game were safely stored, but the cupboard fell on them and caused massive brain damage and turned them all into idiots. I’ll assume it’s a big cupboard capable of damaging many brains.
Tuffcub
It’s a business decision. Same as splitting Hitman in to bits as well. Expect more of this.
MrYd
And it’s a business decision that hopefully a lot of people won’t agree with.
I’ve a horrible feeling that enough people will go “Yay! FF7!!!” to make it work for them though.
And isn’t Hitman the full game, but the Playstation exclusive content is being released over a longer time? Full game, with some bonus DLC at launch and more DLC later?
Tuffcub
Considering around 80% of people who bought Final Fantasy Type Zero JUST to get the demo of FFXV (Square Enix revealed this as part of a survey), im sure there will be plenty of takers for episodic FFVII Remake.
Me for one.
Avenger
Wow, a remake split into episodes, that’s a new one.
With this level of production I’d be hugely surprised if it came in at 3.99 an episode. Anything over 5 x 9.99 and they’d be taking the biscuit.
The wait in-between episodes would sure be substantial too, with this level of work in the game.
Done right though, it could be quite nice.
wonkey-willy
1st rant of the week!
MrYd
It’s only Monday too. And they started it! ;)
JustTaylorNow
At last a final fantasy game I can play. I don’t see the hype, one of the worst games I have ever made a mistake of encountering but if it’s episodic then that’s better way to get the grips of it.
MrYd
Any reply to that post is just going to end up with me on the naughty step again ;)
cam_manutd
Must not take the bait. Must not take the bait. Must not take the bait.
TSBonyman
I never played the original but .. an rpg in episodic form?
Maybe it could work if it’s designed so that players can continue to grind and level up within an episode whilst waiting for the next one to arrive, but it still just sounds less than ideal.
MrYd
How would that work?
Carry on grinding the same few enemies, with the rewards getting smaller as you level up more and more? Which would probably get boring (although it should be pointed out that people allegedly put 200+ hours into the _demo_ of Disgaea 5 the other month)
Or you get to episode 2 and you’re massively overpowered and kill everything instantly?
Or the enemies level up along with the player? Which I guess would work, but never seems right to me. And leads to the sort of numbers you find in the Disgaea games.
cam_manutd
Quests. Lock certain side quests until you have finished the story arc. That or make the Gold Saucer available and get rewards for the rest of the game hammering mini games.
Don’t be cynical yet! ;)
MrYd
I can’t help it. I’ve been cynical for the past, erm, hang on. I’m 44 now, so that means I’ve been cynical for, er…
44 years.
Fairly sure I mastered sarcasm about 9 months before that started too.
cam_manutd
It could be a really good thing. Its not made by EA so that is a start.
9 months before eh? Your parents cynical too? :P
cam_manutd
This could work but its dependent on some things. If it goes on the telltale structure it will fail. If it goes in structure in the same way as the original by the discs, it will work depending on how much added content there is once the player reaches the end of that story arc.
They say they want as much detail, depth and new stuff as possible-and I am all up for that. As long as they don’t take cues from telltlae or EA. And for god sake don’t cop anything from the XIII series. If the gameplay is similar to Dissidia or Crisis Core I am happy.
Still excited.
Lyts1985
And that’s the last bit of interest I had in this, dead. An episodic RPG just doesn’t sound plausible to me, for all the reasons previously mentioned.
I appreciate it’s a remake so there’ll be big changes but why couldn’t they just remaster it or even rebuild it with new textures and character models?!
The Lone Steven
It’ll be interesting to see how a giant open world RPG(after the first few hours depending on how you play it) will be done as episodes? I do hope this is not an excuse for them to strip features that was in the original game. E.g. Airship travel, over the world map etc.. I do hope it means that every episode is at least 20 hours long filled to the brim with content and not just the story with “ooo, shiny shiny, shiny stuff” as that would suck. I do hope they won’t bastardise Cloud as they seem to have forgot all of the character development post FF7. Also, i do wonder if Tifa will return with her massive melons? If not, i can see a major outrage happening. What? Tifa was known for being big booby lady in FF7. :P
Joking aside, I do hope they won’t change the character designs too much. Shame Cloud isn’t spiky hair dude anymore. :( Ok, he is but not to the point where he could use it as a spear.
Oh no, i just had a terrible thought, Aeris’s death could be 10 tens worse if they end that episode just after it. It’s bad enough in the original! We don’t need to wait and drown in our sorrows whilst waiting for the story to continue in the remake! :O
Square, don’t eff this up otherwise, ye may doom the entire franchise.
Jim Hargreaves
I personally have no problems with this approach as long as the price/value ratio matches up. Final Fantasy VII is a colossal game and one that could easily produce three hefty portions.
I’m all for a new combat system, too. Turn-based battles don’t have the same appeal they used to back in the PS1/GameBoy era.
MrYd
Don’t they? Look at the FF games since 7. Everyone loves 7, and it was turn based. As was 8 (which I like more than some). The less said about 9 the better, although lots of people love it.
FFX is generally liked, and turn based. 12 was moving away from it, but still a great game.
Then it went odd with 13. I like the first 2 of those, but thought Lightning Returns was a big steaming pile of something unidentifiable and nasty. And it was the least turn based one yet. Mash X repeatedly to win, mostly.
I think it’s pretty much agreed the quality has slowly been going down (with individual preferences adding bumps to that decline, and still mostly of a high quality anyway) while they’ve been becoming less turn based all the time.
So your theory is rubbish. Or possibly a personal opinion I don’t agree with. Yeah, probably that second one. ;)
Lyts1985
Have to agree with Yd, I much prefer the turn-based combat of old. More tactical in my opinion, rather than just quick reaction, arcadey combat…