Gaming FF7 Remake - Development Setback

[osaka35]

On April 26th in a Reddit thread about the status of the FF7 remake, Dan Tsukasa, a game developer and 3D artist working in Japan, reported Square took development of the Final Fantasy VII Remake (FF7:Remake) from CyberConnect2 sometime early 2017 or late 2016 and began developing the game in-house. CyberConnect 2 had been developing the game for around 4 years up until that point, and Square reportedly had to start over, as the work done by CyerConnect 2 was not in a usable state. Dan Tsukasa claimed to have inside sources and personal experience with both Square and CyberConnect2.

"They [CyberConnect2] don't have four years of work, they have two. The announcement that Square was taking the game away from CyberConnect2, they didn't take it away and continue it, they started it again because CyberConnect2's work was just so useless and not far enough along, but still far enough along that remaking it was faster than refactoring it... (it wasn't in a good state at all)...That said, It could be far along, it depends how much they're outsourcing and how optimised their workflow is. As the FFXV workflow was super inefficient for a hell of a long time, if thats improved and if they're doing things modularly like I imagine then its certainly possible they're far along with the first release.,” -Dan Tsukasa

Those trailers for FF7 Remake you saw were likely outsourced and aren't necessarily representative of what the final product or game-play will look like. The final version may look and feel quite a bit different than what we've seen so far. It'll also be interesting to see how much of the Kingdom Hearts elements seen in the trailer will remain, since:

"Nomura is barely ever there, he's director largely in name alone. He spends the vast majority if his time in Osaka on KH3, as thats where he lives, during the week at least." -Dan Tsukasa

For those who don't know, FF7 Remake and Kingdom Hearts share the same director, Tetsuya Nomura. Nomura also worked on the original FF7 as a character designer and largely contributed to various character's stories.

Don't fear the worst, though, since Square's workflow has (hopefully) been improved by the likes of FFXV and they shouldn't take the 10 years to finish like FFXV did. Personally, I'm choosing to see this as good news. It may push the release date back, but the quality should be remarkably better than what it would have been otherwise.

Source (Dan Tsukasa has deleted his Reddit comments, but Dan's post have been archived)
Original reddit thread

 

[DarthDub]

Turn based combat is not outdated, prove me wrong.

 

[Nisem0n0]

I'd rather have a FFVIII remake over VII but I guess that's just me. Also as much as I didn't like turn based ATB games when i first started playing them, ironically I prefer them over Action RPGs. Anywho I chose the last option, not optimistic it'll be coming out anytime soon

 

[sarkwalvein]

Not surprising.
Being it SquareLatenix, it would actually be surprising if they stuck to a deadline.

 

[osaka35]

I didn't put this in submitted news, but eh.

I'm not overly surprised either over the switch-up, I'm just glad they haven't canned the project.

I have little hope it won't be a kingdom hearts+FFXV clone, which is disappointing...but i'm hoping I'm proven wrong.

 

[BORTZ]

This project is too big, means too much to the company, and will probably be delivered lukewarm, if at all. SE is going to sink too much time into things that the fans don't care about and ultimetly miss the point of a remake. I think this game is now in the realms of "re-imagining" which isnt a bad thing, but when you get pushed there by idealistic developers who feel they can do no wrong, it becomes a real problem.

What do we really want?
-repaint the backgrounds or model them all in 3D like games have been doing since the PS2
-build character models who reflect who they are in FFVII
-re-orchestrate the music
-Tweak the battle system to fit 2018
-spend extra budget on a grubby microtransation engine with loot boxes I mean animating the cutscenes in all the glory they deserve

But what do i know, I have only been playing video games since 1993

 

[Deleted User]

Why is the a Vll remake over a Vl remake?

 

[sarkwalvein]

Why is the a Vll remake over a Vl remake?

They are humble enough to recognize they lack the skills to give Lord Kefka an adequate rendition.

 

[osaka35]

This project is too big, means too much to the company, and will probably be delivered lukewarm, if at all. SE is going to sink too much time into things that the fans don't care about and ultimetly miss the point of a remake. I think this game is now in the realms of "re-imagining" which isnt a bad thing, but when you get pushed there by idealistic developers who feel they can do no wrong, it becomes a real problem.

What do we really want?
-repaint the backgrounds or model them all in 3D like games have been doing since the PS2
-build character models who reflect who they are in FFVII
-re-orchestrate the music
-Tweak the battle system to fit 2018
-spend extra budget on a grubby microtransation engine with loot boxes I mean animating the cutscenes in all the glory they deserve

But what do i know, I have only been playing video games since 1993

One of my bigger fears is they'll go straight to "emo cloud" from the beginning. In the original, he's cocky and full of himself at the beginning, and is humbled into emo cloud near the end. It'll be interesting to see how much they're going to let fan perception influence the game.

 

[Lazyboss]

Why is the a Vll remake over a Vl remake?

They will remake it on PS5, hopefully.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

This project is too big, means too much to the company, and will probably be delivered lukewarm, if at all. SE is going to sink too much time into things that the fans don't care about and ultimetly miss the point of a remake. I think this game is now in the realms of "re-imagining" which isnt a bad thing, but when you get pushed there by idealistic developers who feel they can do no wrong, it becomes a real problem.

What do we really want?
-repaint the backgrounds or model them all in 3D like games have been doing since the PS2
-build character models who reflect who they are in FFVII
-re-orchestrate the music
-Tweak the battle system to fit 2018
-spend extra budget on a grubby microtransation engine with loot boxes I mean animating the cutscenes in all the glory they deserve

But what do i know, I have only been playing video games since 1993

I'm actually really pleased with the direction Square is taking this remake. The game is over two decades old, they know that there's no way a remake will ever live up to the original, especially not with fans' expectations and all the tinted rose in everyone's eye. So rather, they're re-creating FF7 from the ground up to create something brand new faithful to the original game's vision. Fans get something new, but more importantly, the game gets a chance to be even better than the original because its not in its shadow. Would you not agree that this is a much better fate for a modern reincarnation of one of the most pivotal games in gaming history?

 

[Deleted User]

Im not much of a final fantasy head but the story based ones are lV, Vl, Vll, Vlll, lX, X.Everything else is just combat focus and customization from what i heard.Vll is pretty much the most overrated so it's pretty obvious why its getting a remake over some of the others.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Im not much of a final fantasy head but the story based ones are lV, Vl, Vll, Vlll, lX, X.Everything else is just combat focus and customization from what i heard.Vll is pretty much the most overrated so it's pretty obvious why its getting a remake over some of the others.

Oh, but the two worlds, the old fart Galuf, the cool pirate -spoiler- Faris, the courageous Bartz, the forgettable granddaughter of Galuf whose name I don't even remember... that beautiful lighthearted story, and yes that nice battle system with jobs also, the fool Gilgamesh... Final Fantasy V also had a nice story, lighthearted but nice.

 

[osaka35]

Im not much of a final fantasy head but the story based ones are lV, Vl, Vll, Vlll, lX, X.Everything else is just combat focus and customization from what i heard.Vll is pretty much the most overrated so it's pretty obvious why its getting a remake over some of the others.

VII had a lot of first. And it feels overrated because so many games that followed duplicated the successful aspects of its story and gameplay. So much so the original feels a bit like you've seen it in a hundred different places. It's difficult, but you've got to see it more as a classic that spawned what came after, rather than comparing it to everything that came after. Though, granted, it hasn't aged well in a lot of categories...which I guess is why they're updating it.

I'm still going to miss the turn-based gameplay though.