Community Intelligence
Posted on : 23-01-2010 | By : Tony Atkins | In : Articles, Podcasts
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The idea of the segment will be to give you the community a chance to have a voice on our show, but in a far more interesting way than just listener mail. The plan is to dedicate the last few minutes of certain shows covering a topic that we set out for you. This will normally have some correlation with what we will be discussing on the following week’s show.
There is one simple rule: -
Keep your answers short as long essays are hard to do justice to.
Now how is this going to work? Well, we give you four options: -
• The first is you can leave a voicemail via Skype, name Digitalcowboys
• Leave a comment on our website at www.thedigitalcowboys.com
• Send us an email on mailbag@digitalcowboys.com
• Or lastly, leave a post under the dedicated forum thread
So it’s time to set out the topic for you for next week’s show. We will be covering RPGs and the question that I pose to you thus: -
Why has there not been a Final Fantasy 7 remake yet? And if there was, what changes would have to be made to its formula, to fit within the modern day standards?
So there we go you’ve got your assignment for the week and we look forward to hearing your comments and this is open to any followers of the Digital Cowboys, so podcasters, PR Persons but most importantly, the general community.
1) The simple answer is cost – to modernise FF7 in today’s technology would require a significant investment and they wouldn’t be guaranteed success. 2) As with all FF RPGs the thing that ages it most is the archaic save system. Some kind of quick-save (like in the FFIV port on the DS) would at least allow people to pause/resume the game without having to spend 30 minutes looking for a save point.
I was REALLY into FF7 on the PS1, right up to the point where I was wandering around a desert and couldn’t figure out where to go next (this was before I could go online and check a gamefaq, etc.). Wouldn’t have been too much of an issue, except while trying to explore the environment to find an exit the game kept throwing unscripted, randomly-generated fights at me all the time (1 minute exploring, 10 minute fight, rinse, repeat), and it got BORING. Completely killed all interest I had in progressing, and I just stopped playing. =(
I played through most of FF7 in the last year or so, and it occurred to me even then what a great game it was – and still is, in certain respects.
However, a remake would involve changing several key elements in the game, so much so that it would end up being completely at odds with the original.
For instance, you’d definately have to do away with random battles and contrive a whole new real-time battle system. All the backgrounds would be fully 3D rather than pre-rendered. You’d probably have voice acting and a different script. The music would have to be changed. The world map would require an overhaul.
These are all things off the top of my head, but, as a fan of FF7, would I be interested in such a remake? No, because a lot of the quirks, flaws and idiosyncracies of the original game are exactly what makes FF7 special for me. Remaking it in that fashion is like George Lucas’ CGI remastering of the original Star Wars films – in other words, a risky, probably bad, idea.
(Apologies in advance for any typos or mistakes.)
As Bowlby states above, there is no good reason to remake FF7 for a more modern audience.
The game stands as an important milestone in bringing JRPGs to a wider western audience, and for all of its flaws that are so apparent in 2010, it was perfect in its time.
I would hate to see Final Fantasy 7 be anything aside from exactly what it was when it was released; the result would be far less than the original.
Well they did make ‘Crisis Core’ on the psp, which is probably all we are going to get. That was a really good prequel to FF7, and is superior in many aspects (e.g Aeris being a mature adult). There isn’t really any point remaking FF7 as the storyline is already known and any changes will unleash the ‘Fanboys Wrath’ summon!