Square Enix And Final Fantasy: Remaking!? Rebooting?!
July 19th, 2010 | 
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There are very few companies that have the power to enthrall the people that follow them as Square Enix. Throughout the years this company which started out as two distinct companies became a huge powerhouse in 
Japan. Enix know for it’s Dragon Quest series and Square for the Final Fantasy franchise.Today with the two companies merged as Square Enix they have published some truly great games. The latest of these hits have been Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest IX. Gamers from all over love these titles and continue to show their undying support.
Well if that is really the truth, then why is Final Fantasy seeing so many changes within the franchise. Square Enix has kept Dragon Quest quite intact concerning the all around structure of the game. Even retaining it’s famous theme sound throughout the series. My only complaint is “Where is the PS3 Dragon Quest?” Which is probably many gamers question. The creators of D.Q are infatuated with
Nintendo. Guess we’ll have to wait for that indefinitely.
Anyway, Square Enix is set on making Final Fantasy into a modern western RPG. Continuing to adopt western game mechanics and story telling techniques, instead of sticking to formula. They believe the fast paced gameplay over a more controlled game mechanic will help more gamers to like and buy Final Fantasy. Games such as Bioware’s Mass has been an influence in Square Enixs’ thinking. I beg to differ. Going back to the original F.F. and the first Nintendo. Final Fantasy has always been a world exploring, dungeon crawler. Final Fantasy which was /is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) has always been a niche franchise, just like Dragon Quest. It catered to, in America to the Dungeon and Dragon players. And the Anime geeks. It always has. These titles are known for certain things that made the fans go wild. The worlds created for exploring. The strategic and even pacing of the battles. And Limit Breaks.. It always had a bigger, stronger and more epic feel to it than most games. That’s what made it stand out. That is what made it seem FINAL!!!!!!!! Not this new ultra fast paced gunslinger feel gameplay. It’s a RPG not a shooter or and action.
Final Fantasy has always been about scale. Huge exploring worlds. Taking time to perfect your characters and weapons before the final battle. Characters that are so huge they stay with you for years after. Memories that made it joyous just waiting for the next one. JRPG’s are just what the initials mean,. “Japanese” RPG. Games such as these have forever been in a class by themselves. They were made that way. And the D&D guys and the anime fans are the ones that supported the titles from the beginning. It was made for the Japanese culture. We have embraced that. And that is why we love it. Don’t transform it into some fast paced condensed quasi western game for the masses. Truly, after the big hurrah only the real fan of F.F. will be there anticipating the next installment.
The creators that have made F.F the monster that it is. Are the ones that we hold in such esteem. They are the ones who help craft the masterpieces we have played.
Hironobu Sakaguchi whom is the father of Final Fantasy. He has been a continuing influence of the series until 2006, when he departed to create Mistwalker. I for one miss what he contributed to the F.F franchise. His Mistwalker game Lost Odyssey should have been on the Ps3. He was heard to have said that development for Sony was too difficult. But that title was meant for the PS3. Most Xbox 360 owners don’t play JRP’s. But PlayStation owners do. He is set to retire after the release of what is to be his last game. Entitled The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii. How delightful.
Yoshitaka Amano one of Japan’s most famous artist. And one of the most renown modern artist n the world. He has done conceptual art and design for the entire F.F series. He is still doing work for Square Enix. I look forward to his work in some of the upcoming titles to be released.
Nobuo Uematsu who is just the majesty of the Final Fantasy franchise. Creating the music for nearly all the games. his work is what help give life to the unique worlds we explored. He even named his band The Black Mages.
Tetsuya Nomora who has really worked his way up the ranks to become a real influential role at Square Enix. Starting as a debugger. Then getting to design characters for various F.F games. Even directing Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. He is currently working on several projects including a Kingdom Hearts title and the remaining titles for the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII.
There has been much anticipated talk of a remake of the world famous Final Fantasy VII. It was first started with the tech demo of the intro of F.F VII at the 2005 E3. This has since caused a buzz within the video game world like non other. His Emperial Hotness, Yoichi Wada says the the game is not in development . And that it would take nearly 30 years to finish. That just seems stupid. The company needs money. You know you have the man power. They also have all the characters rendered from 
the Advent Children film. Also they have the voice actors. The White Engine used to create F.F XIII is more than powerful enough for the remake. Why keep leading fans on when you know the remake will never be made!?!? Let it go. All Square Enix s doing is pissing the game world off. Instead the company should look into a full reboot. 14 is high enough. The Final Fantasy name is powerful.And people will continue to purchase the game just for the name alone. 
But why not make a product that is worth the legacy behind it. You want to sell a game for $100!??! Make a game worth that. Without all the extra incentive crap. It’s a special edition because the game is just that great. Start from the beginning. Not a remake. But using just the title FINAL FANTASY. Not Even the number 1. Go back to the basics. Epic story. Reluctant hero or not. Every character has a job class. Side quests before the last boss. Awesome music score. And over 100 hours of gameplay. One more thing would be the icing on the cake. No cut backs if the title is going to be on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. If the Xbox owners really want the title they’ll switch out 10 disc’s and download the world map onto the hard drive, right!?!? Well maybe they won’t. But it could always be and exclusive.
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Amen to that. P.S. A mole I know that has worked with EIDOS , has a strong feeling that indeed there will be a next gen redo of FF VII of sorts. Except he believes it will be on the next generation of platforms. Dont expect to see this game until at least 2013 or later. Heres to hoping FF fans.
Agree 100% with everything u have write gz man +1 especially for the last paragraph, now if the retards from SE start listen what fans want and start making again the FF we learn and love from the PS1 era how great this will be? until then we get disappointment after disappointment, last good FF was FFX after that series go downhill..
Square Enix is such a liar, they seriously sit there telling all their fans (which used to include me) that Final Fantasy VII remake would take 30 years, yet they can pop out something like AC in 3. Even better lets talk about another game, Fallout 3/New Vegas which only took 4 to 5 years? Fallout is at least 10,000 times bigger than all the Final Fantasies put together! Not to mention that Fallout is a first person game which is even harder to make great graphics for than 3rd person. Square Enix is a bunch of lying a**holes.
I disagree on a few things, please see this as a friendly discussion and not a silly fanboy rant.
You make a fuss about it westernising. It’s never been very japanese in my experience. If anything FFXIII was the most japanese game in the series in terms of art style and story. FF1-9 were all very western. Wutai is the only japanese influence of FFVII I can think of. FFX was quite asian designed, and FFXII was very European. Look up a battle from VII then XIII, do you not see it’s now far more japanese in XIII? The music particularly (uematsu’s poprock melodies are incomparable) and the silly anime jumping animations and the way spells are cast with magical nonsensical 2d overlay shapes, it’s definitely more japanese influenced. Fast pace is not a western trait, they’re just trying something more actiony because people were outraged at the genius gambit methodical system of XII. Ironically XIII’s system is even less engaging than gambits were, at times turning into click x: the game.
They have not been influenced by mass effect – a game which is all about dialogue choices and sci-fi setting and exploring a deep universe. There’s really nothing similar. Call of duty has been a much bigger influence, and the developers have said so.
The games are not primarily dungeon crawlers and if anything, FFXIII is the most dungeon crawling in the series, with the whole game being a gauntlet with cutscenes sprinkled around. The games imo are primarily adventure games. The things that stick out in my memory will always be objective quests and not repetitive soporific battles. Think of the golden saucer, rabanastre, collecting chops in archades, the variety and excitement at a new interesting town to explore, finding out about Red XIII’s father or Cid going into space or playing Triple Triad. Silly anime fights are what the series has become about and it’s really sad.
Sakaguchi said of the last story, “Emotionally it feels like this is my last work, while pouring everything I have gotten into this project. ” – It is not necessarily his last work, just fyi
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I think they simply need to stop treating it like a cash cow, and releasing sequels and prequels and $9 for an iphone slide show. Just relearn the magic of game design, they’ve forgotten they’re supposed to make an adventure and not a movie with semi-interactive battles added in. The magic of the series needs a phoenix down, or pinion even.
I’ll leave you with 2 important quotes in relation to the series history, please publish this comment as it’s well researched and considered.
“The stories and characters change each time. This is because stories tend to limit a world and I think by changing these aspects and creating new material for each title, we try to show our full potential.”
“We did extensive research during Final Fantasy 5 and 6 on how to make the players feel interactively involved in the game while upgrading the visual and sound effects. The results of this research are reflected in Final Fantasy 7.”
- Sakaguchi (from FFVII bonus disc interviews)
FFVII has over 30 interactive set pieces (snowboarding, motorbike, chocobo racing, tower defense), seamlessly integrated into the plot. I’ll take that over flashy anime cutscenes any day.
Thanks,
Val
Damn Straight!!! Stick with whats good, too much change=Pissed off fans of a franchise that relies on its following. Remind me why I love this series again. 13 was good… but generic and cookie-cutter feeling.
Well that was a mouthful. I say we are both right. You for your research info and me ,…..well let’s chalk it up to being passionate about something and leave it at that. When I say the series is westernizing, it is to say that they are too governed by how games are played and created stateside. Nearly all the best RPG’s of the old school come from Japan. And let’s face it. All the main characters are Caucasian, and not Asian. Regardless of music and design the game has been more Japanese. Compare cartoons of the different countries and it’s the same. Just because we look alike doesn’t make them the same. Here in the U.S there are tons of cartoon being made with “anime” art style. But it’s not anime.
What I was trying to let people know, is that sometimes it is not necessary to change. Sometimes we must remember who and what we are at our core. What we represent. What lies within our hearts. When somebody says they love something it’s because somewhere it has touched them deeply. When a change happens and takes away what made you love the game in the first place, how do you feel? It becomes hard to hold on to the intensity for it. You feel that the “fire ” has gone out. Some one said, “You’re not who you used to be”. And we all know that it was better before.
As for Sakaguchi he’s just not good at playing with others. Why the love affair with Nintendo!??! Because it’s easier??? For a lot of us The Last Story may really be the last story. Give us some real Next Gen love. No games on PS3. No Lost Odyssey sequel. Yea the guys a genius but I wouldn’t mind a game from him on my PlayStation. But hey, none of this probably matters. You know why!?!? They won’t listen to us anyway. But it’s cool to hear what everybody else has to say about it. And you destroyed me Val….LOL