What’s Up With the Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Between the Game Awards, PlayStation Experience, and the past few days in general, there has been a lot of exciting video game news lately. Psychonauts 2, a game I considered so unlikely to exist I didn’t even list it as a pipe dream, will become a reality if it gets enough funding on Fig. Holiday Star and Aviary Attorney both received release dates (December 15 and December 18 respectively). Ni No Kuni 2 was announced (I still need to play the first one). Live streams were announced for the Tales anniversary and the Dragon Quest anniversary.

And Square Enix released new details about the Final Fantasy VII remake.

First, they showed a new trailer during PlayStation Experience.

Before I get into my criticisms, let’s focus on the positives.

In theory, I love the concept of this remake. It’s so cool to see Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie with modern graphics. Seeing the opening with Avalanche made it really hit me that they’re going to remake the entire epic Final Fantasy VII story.

But of course, most people were concerned with the combat system.

When I watched that trailer, I honestly couldn’t tell if it was action or turn-based combat. On the surface, it looks like an action RPG, but what’s up with the menu? If it’s a Kingdom Hearts-style command menu, why is “defend” an option? What sort of action RPG makes you pick “defend” from a menu?

Since then, the producer has said it is not completely action based, but has more action than the original. Later statements placed it somewhere lower than Kingdom Hearts on the action scale and hints that it will be some sort of hybrid to appeal to fans of both systems.

If Square Enix can pull that off, that’s amazing. Personally, I’d be happy with the option to switch, too! Then everyone could be happy! Let us have our turn-based combat if we want it!

This has caused so many fights, I don’t even want to discuss the game with the fanbase. People on both sides are being ridiculous. Fans of turn-based combat accuse the other side of being mindless Call of Duty fans who hate thinking and aren’t true Final Fantasy fans. Fans of action combat, meanwhile, accuse them of being blind Luddites who can’t let go of an outdated system and probably wouldn’t buy the game anyway.

Stop.

Turn-based combat isn’t outdated. Action combat isn’t stupid. Both are viable RPG genres, and there’s no reason to insult fans of one just because you prefer the other.

Tales is not Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy is not Tales.

Personally, I wanted the Final Fantasy VII remake to be turn-based. I have nothing against ARPGs (if I did, why would I shower Tales of Symphonia with so much praise?), but I particularly love turn-based.

It depresses me when people refer to the genre as something old and outdated we need to move beyond. I wanted Final Fantasy VII to be a huge, epic turn-based RPG to prove it’s still viable in today’s market.

Plus, it’s Final Fantasy VII! Would you remake Uncharted as a first-person shooter? Advance Wars as real-time strategy? Tales of Symphonia as a turn-based RPG? No! A remake shouldn’t involve a genre shift, one of the reasons I point to REmake as the ideal remake model.

So the news that the Final Fantasy VII remake would probably have action combat disappointed me. But I could live with it. If it was a good ARPG, I’d give it a chance.

Then Square Enix announced the game will be released in multiple parts, each of which will be a complete, unique experience, because it is too big to release as a single game without cutting content.

What?

According to How Long to Beat, Final Fantasy VII takes approximately 40 hours for the main story and 91 hours for completion. These are just averages, so let’s jump up and say it’s a 100-hour game.

There are games with hundreds of hours worth of content and modern graphics. What makes Final Fantasy VII so huge it won’t work as a single release? If it is massive, why not release it on multiple disks? How will a multi-part or episodic Final Fantasy VII even work?

It might not be a bad thing. If the Final Fantasy VII Remake includes remakes of Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, for example, I’d be on board with that. But if it splits the story into pieces (some people have suggested expanding Midgar into a full game), I think this is a devastating move.

Above all, Square Enix needs to come out and clarify exactly what they’re doing here. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts, now that you’ve heard mine. How do you feel about the Final Fantasy VII Remake?

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