Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[Bobfoc]

I can't say the idea of an episodic release strikes me as a good thing, but I'm still more intrigued by this game than I expected I would be. I think it's because I like Final Fantasy VII, but it isn't as special to me as it is to so many other people, that I'm quite liking the look of the new combat system and the new graphical style.

[Draevyn]

15 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

I can't say the idea of an episodic release strikes me as a good thing, but I'm still more intrigued by this game than I expected I would be. I think it's because I like Final Fantasy VII, but it isn't as special to me as it is to so many other people, that I'm quite liking the look of the new combat system and the new graphical style.

The new graphical style I like a lot. The combat system is another can of worms altogether. I'm also quite intrigued by the voice acting as well. I wonder if it will be the same as the ones in the trailers.

[Benji]

There's always a chance there's some positive explanation for it, but considering Square's history over the last decade, I feel pretty safe calling it a stupid move. I can't comprehend what's happened at these meetings "You want to finally remake FF7 but with voices, updated graphics, maybe a bit of level re-design so we can iron out some stuff, perhaps even add more content as DLC?" "lol, no, let's make a game with the same characters, the same story like people want only apparently condensed (because that's about the only thing we have to keep, really), fuck about with arguably the most celebrated gameplay in RPG history, chop it into tiny episodic pieces, and then laugh as they inevitably buy it because they're desperate to remember when we weren't terrible at making games."

[Lint]

“From the beginning, we thought a Final Fantasy VII remake would be bigger than a single release,” the game’s original director Yoshinori Kitase told Dengeki Online.

“If you did get it into a single release, there would be things we’d have to put into a shortened compilation,” Tetsuya Nomura, FFVII’s character designer, added. “Since we thought there would be stuff we would probably have to pare down and supplemental things we probably couldn’t add, we decided to divide it up, concluding that we have to do a remake that’s fully packed with content.”

 

Kitase added that with the Sector 1 and Sector 8 areas shown in the most recent trailer are quite dense. “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,” said Kitase.

The Final Fantasy VII director explained that since they won’t be dividing up the game, the substance of the original won’t be cut, and Square Enix can then take that substance and do a full-on remake.

[Benji]

Cost and amount of episodes, Square. Stop with the shitty damage control you have to keep doing and be up front about it.

[stokeriño]

If I were optimistic, I would not be put off by the 'episodic' news. Moving from Episode 1 to Episode 2 needn't change the experience from how it used to with "Insert Disc 2", for example.

But then, this is Square-Enix, so my optimism hangs by a thread.

[Benji]

Which would be fine, but I'm very wary of them selling it in pieces. This is, after all, a company who didn't even include the proper ending in the main game of FFXIII-2, and instead sold it as DLC that even then didn't actually finish the story. My trust for Square Enix has long since been scrubbed to the bone, I'd rather be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised than optimistic and let down for the billionth time.

[gunnar hendershow]

Square Enix stock was up nearly 2% today so the most important people feel it's a sound decision.

[Benji]

It'll always be a sound financial decision, we fans are stupid masochists, doesn't mean we can't dislike the move.

[gunnar hendershow]

Keep in mind when the Remakes come out there will be 19 year olds who weren't alive at the time the game out and people in their early 20's with absolutely no recollection of gaming prior to the PS3/360 generation. To us who grew up with games that looked and played like this we don't notice it, but millions of consumers do and think it looks and feels dated. They're not making it for the 30 and 40 year olds who treasured the game growing up, they're making it for a new audience who won't go back and play the original. Tomb Raider's sales being what they were, while a different "genre", have to have been a pretty big indication of what people will pay for.

I'll probably still play the Remake, but it was always going to be slotted behind Persona 5 and whatever new Pokemon comes out on my priority list.

[Benji]

It looks dated because it is. Nobody's complaining about how different it looks, that's the point of people clamoring a decade for a remake

[gunnar hendershow]

Yeah but put yourself in the mindset of someone who is 18, it looks dated in the "I'm never playing this" sense and not the "I remember when games looked like that" sense. That's the target audience. Those are the people this Remake is made for, because they're the ones who Square is guaranteed won't be disappointed by it and will buy into it solely on the hype of the name,

[Bobfoc]

5 minutes ago, damshow said:

Keep in mind when the Remakes come out there will be 19 year olds who weren't alive at the time the game out and people in their early 20's with absolutely no recollection of gaming prior to the PS3/360 generation. To us who grew up with games that looked and played like this we don't notice it, but millions of consumers do and think it looks and feels dated. They're not making it for the 30 and 40 year olds who treasured the game growing up, they're making it for a new audience who won't go back and play the original. Tomb Raider's sales being what they were, while a different "genre", have to have been a pretty big indication of what people will pay for.

I'll probably still play the Remake, but it was always going to be slotted behind Persona 5 and whatever new Pokemon comes out on my priority list.

I see your point, but I'd argue that it's the people who treasured the game growing up who are the ones who were head-over-heels in excitement at E3, and who were clamouring for the extra information that came out during the last couple of days. I've spoken several times before about how catering to an audience that holds a game in such high regard is always going to be a slippery slope, and, in that regard, I can see why they'd want to open it up to a new audience too, but it probably isn't a good idea to upset your long-time fans either.

For the first time in years, Square Enix had the old Final Fantasy fans absolutely captivated, and not just in the regular old "we'll buy it because we always do" manner. With that in mind, I think it's perfectly possible to make a game that takes what the old fans loved about the original and still appeals to a more modern audience, although there's no chance whatsoever of pleasing everyone, especially with a property that is held in such esteem.

Once again, I'm sitting on the fence because I don't personally feel passionately either way. I do, however, see two sides to the argument, and I think the ones that have been brought up in this thread are perfectly reasonable.

[Benji]

25 minutes ago, damshow said:

Yeah but put yourself in the mindset of someone who is 18, it looks dated in the "I'm never playing this" sense and not the "I remember when games looked like that" sense. That's the target audience. Those are the people this Remake is made for, because they're the ones who Square is guaranteed won't be disappointed by it and will buy into it solely on the hype of the name,

FFS dude, I know why they're doing it, I know who the audience is, doesn't mean I have to be happy with it nor does it mean I have to think episodic release of a previously "full" game isn't shitty. I'm fine with them not using turn based, I literally stated two days ago (before the actual gameplay footage was released, IIRC) that I'd given up hope on that, and even noted I hoped it was similar to the Crisis Core battle system. Heck I even noted I'll buy it because I'm a masochist. People can be upset at a game that has literally been voted the greatest of all time across magazines and websites too numerous to count being messed with, and you can disconnect yourself from their business and your personal pleasure, it's allowed

[Benji]

Also, the biggest problem with describing it as "episodic" is just how episodic it is. If it's released as three separate pieces at £15 each (£45) and has massive content, then that's more than fine, the issue comes from how vague they are about it. It's something that they could literally resolve and assuage fears of in one quick press release.

[Pizza]

44 minutes ago, damshow said:

Yeah but put yourself in the mindset of someone who is 18, it looks dated in the "I'm never playing this" sense and not the "I remember when games looked like that" sense. That's the target audience. Those are the people this Remake is made for, because they're the ones who Square is guaranteed won't be disappointed by it and will buy into it solely on the hype of the name,

Why are 18 year olds going to be hyped by Final Fantasy? Why would they care? Unless a bunch of people who grew up with it are pumped up about it rather than bummed out by it, I don't see what's going to bring non-Final Fantasy fans in. There are no teenagers who really fucking loved Lightning Returns and want more of that but with a story they heard was cool from the 90s. At least not outside Japan, did the FF13 sequels do well there?

[Benji]

Original FF7 has sold 11m, the entire FFXIII trilogy sold 11m across all consoles and PC (though I suspect that is a low figure).

Still good sales, but not FF7 numbers. FF7 is a video game phenomenon, FFXIII trilogy were just good games.

[Ruki]

Because I'm dumb, I'll still be getting FF XV and (if I don't completely hate XV's combat system) the VII remake (as for the episodic content? If it's not broken into three pieces where you change the disk, I'mma be pissed). But I don't have to be happy about it! :@

[gunnar hendershow]

26 minutes ago, Pizza said:

Why are 18 year olds going to be hyped by Final Fantasy? Why would they care? Unless a bunch of people who grew up with it are pumped up about it rather than bummed out by it, I don't see what's going to bring non-Final Fantasy fans in. There are no teenagers who really fucking loved Lightning Returns and want more of that but with a story they heard was cool from the 90s. At least not outside Japan, did the FF13 sequels do well there?

They'll be hyped about it because of a skilled marketing team. Just like people that age got hyped about Tomb Raider. Or people that age fell in love with Doctor Who, or many other franchises from before they were born.

FF13 sold about as well in Japan as it did in the whole of North America. Still a drop-off from FFVII but RPGs don't sell as well as they used to anyway there with the exception of Dragon Quest (which then deals with the problem of not selling well outside of Japan).

[Benji]

Very little to do with the marketing team, more to do with the fact a once great series that had faded in enjoyability over numerous mediocre incarnations had once more become great.

Why does that sound so familiar..?

Word of mouth is trust, and the most important aspect of marketing games. If the people who loved it the first time hate it now, why should newbies bother checking it out?