blog

April is quickly becoming official Final Fantasy VII Appreciation Month, what with Crisis Core coming out and filling us all to the brim with nostalgia. Hell, I'm going through the original right now. So, naturally, everyone's thinking of the often rumored and occasionally teased remake of the original, probably for the PS3. Which got me to thinking, just how would Square go about remaking what's possibly one of the most famous games in their company's history? Very, very carefully, I imagine.

But besides the obvious stuff (updated graphics, voice acting, and remixed/rerecorded music), would they change the gameplay? The storyline? The magic system?

The storyline would probably get the least amount of tweaking, since Square-Enix was wise enough that the prequels don't contradict anything we were told in the original. As for the main story, I imagine very little would change, except the portions with Zack in flashback might include mentions of Angeal or Genesis.

Some other tweaks, not necessarily to the story, but to the characterization, might have to go in to bring things in line with the rest of the compilation. For example, both Crisis Core and Advent Children show us that the heroes and antagonists are capable of patently absurd feats that give the laws of physics the finger and kick them to the curb, and this would probably come into play in the cutscenes, if not the battles (I'll get to that in a second). One scene that comes to mind is a slap-fight between Tifa and Scarlett. Given what we've seen Tifa do in Advent Children, I imagine either this will be changed to a full on battle, or Tifa will lay her out with one punch.

Another thing that comes to mind is the Turks. In the original, their portrayal is a harsher than the rest of the trilogy. In particular, early in the game Tseng smacks Aerith, which is way out of character compared to how he acts in Crisis Core toward her and Zack. They'd probably also play up the comic relief of Reno and Rude.

I kind of also wonder if they'll do anything with the old conspiracy theories about reviving Aerith. I highly doubt they'd actually let you bring her back to life (the rest of the series more or less depends on her being dead), but I wouldn't put it past them to tease players with the possibility.

Now, as for the gameplay...The question is, do you leave it like it is, so the hardcore fans will be able to play it just as they remember it, or do you make some big changes to bring it up to speed with more recent titles? There are valid arguments for either view. On the one hand, you don't mess with a classic; changing the battle system too much will alienate at least some of the fans who don't like when anything's changed. On the other hand, a new way of playing could both draw in new players, and give the veterans something new to sink their teeth into. Personally, I hope they keep the battle system more or less as-is, though I wouldn't mind if they added in a few tweaks, like FFX's ability to switch in party members during battle.

In either case, I imagine the materia usage would remain the same, but I kinda hope they add in some of Crisis Core's system here, with the customizable fusions. Speaking of materia, I wonder if they might just do away with the slots in armor and weapons, since in Advent Children you can apparently just jam the materia into your arms.

So what do you think is going to be in it? What should be in it but probably won't be? What will be changed that shouldn't be?

Share this article: