Posts Tagged ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’

E3 2011 is at hand. And for more than 20 years I have been playing games created by Square Enix. Throughout the years I have witnessed some of the most epic stories ever. And it seem that as time rolls on, the luster that has made Square Enix  shine has steadily dulled. I trust that most fans of any of the franchises from S.E, feel the same way. The past few years of what can only be described as a train wreak.

Now with the acquisition of Eidos it seems that the games that are coming from these studios are going to be high performance titles. But what about the games that are the staple of Square Enix. Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest. Parasite Eve. This is what you think of when you hear Square Enix. Yes they have all these titles in development to some capacity. But the thing is this. Quality. Square has put out all these games for the Nintendo DS, the iPhone, and all these other platforms. And also they have wasted time and resources remaking Final Fantasy IV over a million times.  What a waste. Final Fantasy XIV is a joke. Barely making any head way. And no PS3 release in sight. Thank God for that. Now they claim to working on another MMO  for 2012. Do I see a pattern here!?!?

All gamers want are games that are fun, enjoyable and most of all authentic. Although many believe that  RPG’s are a thing of the past. That is a lie. As modernized as the genre has become with so much  over the top action, the truth of RPG’s  has always been story and strategy. The majority of American games  are hardcore, fast paced. And very much go, go, go. Japanese games on the other hand are totally different. Hardcore yes. Slow, methodical. Even paced and turn based. Square Enix has lost the essence of what made them great. Creating new ways to play are amazing. We live for it. But why does it seem that Final Fantasy X was the last true FF.

Recently Square Enix has been talking about the financial woes. But we all know they only have themselves to blame. Time, money and resources wasted on games that either suck or people just won’t play. Or both. The refusal to remake Final Fantasy VII has been the companies greatest mistake ever. After showing the tech demo and then not delivering the goods, caused Square Enix to lose the faith of the fans. The Last Remnant. Infinite Undiscovery. Two titles that tanked. Resources that could have went into remaking FF VII. And don’t tell me it will take 20 years. We all know the game can be done it two to three years. But His Imperial Hotness just has to give the green light. Also, there has yet to be a next gen HD Dragon Quest made. How many Dragon Quest Nintendo DS games can anyone endure.

Another thing that I would like to say is this. Square Enix needs a new, strong RPG. It’s funny how one of the biggest RPG companies has never tried to make a Zelda killer. One character that is the power, truth and beauty of all the S.E is. A massive world. Travel over land, air and sea. Ride chochobos instead of horses. Boats and airships. Villagers with people who need help. A range of weapons and accessories (just like Link). And side quests for every extra super idea. That includes ultimate weapons, armor, special boots and gauntlets. Think of your ultimate amalgam of games for Square Enixs’ ultimate Zelda killer. A world as big as any RPG. I’m talking old school huge. Beyond the Beyond. Final Fantasy VI. Introduce platforming into this RPG world. Prince of Persia. Uncharted. Epic story and music. You can even make the hero a woman. Dark hair. Give him/her some resemblance to a favorite Final Fantasy character. Like Snow from FFXIII resembled Seifer from FF VIII. And most of all. Make the character fun. Give them a voice. Make them laugh, and cry. The Quest can start out as fun. Then turns dark, cold and serious. Finally kill the hero and in the epilogue have him alive with a streak of gray in his hair. Immortality!?!?!? who knows. That’s what the sequel is for.

Square Enix, love them of hate them. But the truth is that if things don’t change soon, it may be the death of Japanese RPG’s and Square Enix. This is what we’ve been waiting for. This is what we and the industry need. Remake FFVII and save yourselves.

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.

They say time flies when you’re having fun. I can attest to that. Out of everyone that knew or helped with my blog, I was the most pessimistic. From day one I had no idea what this would become. Or even if I’d be around for another year. Day after day I tried to make sense of what I’d write or post. You can say that I was pretty lost when it came to internet journalism. but after awhile I became a bit more comfortable. Things to seem to just fall into place. With every little victory came more questions as to how to keep this place cool to the people that visit it. Because lets face it…without you guys I’d be writing and posting to the digital air. My first E3. And I wasn’t even in California to cover it. And man, oh man did I mess up so much. Through all that you the people of the web showed support. For every video, picture and sentence. You were there. All my little mistakes and blunders. You guys came to see what I’d do next. That is what kept me going. knowing that someone was actually looking to hear and see what I posted.  Thank you guys so much for just taking a chance. Spending just a few precious minutes to poke around. It makes it all worth while.

My wife was the best support. Although she didn’t get it at first. She began to see exactly what was going on. And showed alot of interest in what I put up as well as what you guys wrote back. Time really does move too fast. I can still remember blogging so many nights while rocking my baby to sleep. What a struggle that was. But always worth it.

And really who can forget the guy who is responsible for the birth of From Heroes To Icons. Johnathan Paul. My close and dear friend. He said that this is what I should to. He alone designed the logo. And the site itself. All the stuff you see on the side bars. The build of the site and maintenance of the site I owe all to him. Thanks JP. Your the best.

I’ll review some of the cool things we covered this year. But I want you to look forward to much more. As Jim Lee said when he worked on X-Men with Chris Clarmont. “The Best Is Yet To Come”.

My first video post: It’s crazy. You have no idea how long it took me to actually have thing running correctly. I didn’t have a clue. Thankfully John Paul was there to pull my but out of the fire. Frustrating, but well worth it. Sherlock Holmes was on of the best films in 2009.

Most Anticipated Games of E3 2009: This post was the first to give me more than just the hits from my friends. Here was my first real chance to see how viewers saw me and my sight. I great moment for me and my followers. I got to dig in and they could finally feel me out.

E3 2009: It was the best and worst week of my life. The amount of information coming out of that place is out of control. After the initial shock I was able to stream line the info into post that made sense. I got my feet wet. And it wasn’t a bad experience at all.

My Big Final Fantasy Post: I am one of the BIG fans of Final Fantasy. I wrote the article to just to see how people would react.So many people love the franchise that questioning if it is the greatest RPG is bound to ruffle some feathers. But it is good point. Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII?!?!?

Dead Fantasy: What can anyone say when a fan takes two of the biggest franchises and makes his own miniseries with them? When it comes to Dead Fantasy’s creator Monty Oum….OMG!!!!!!!!! is all you’ll get to say. The guy is a genius.

PlayStation Slim: Sporting a sleeker look no backward compatibility, a bigger HDD and a cheaper price. It’s just what the doctor ordered for Sony. Buy it Play it. Love it.

GamesCom 2K9: More video games. More of the best stuff shown at E3. Gotta love those game trailers.

PSP Go!!!:Smaller, bigger hard drive and just plain cool.

ExSleepyInk Coming aboard: This guy is a beast. You have love him. He puts forth such zeal into his articles. And most of all he has fun with it.

Sick Pavarotti Coming aboard: My long time friend Nolan. You haven’t heard to much from him. He’s working on the Masters Degree. We won’t penalize him for that. Someone has to be the Master. lol

PlayStation Move: More than just Wii HD.

Welcome Our New Blogger Vicious: Me and this guy go way back. I’m so glad to have another one of the guys that love all this stuff come aboard.

There is just so much to talk about that has transpired. I would love to go into it all but that would be overkill. Truly I have been blessed with some cool people to work with this past year. I got a new computer to work on. And things over here at FHTI is perfect as independent blogging goes. For me this time of the year is great as an anniversary time in blogging. E3 is just around the corner and I can’t wait to see how this new computer is going to treat me. Once again Thank you so much for giving From Heroes To Icons a chance. We will continue to do our best to keep thing interesting around here. Maybe even as interesting as this video.

My Thoughts On A FF VII Remake: The greatest trick the Devil ever did. Was making the world believe he didn’t exist. Is Square Enix doing the same thing. To say that it will never be made. And yet it is in development right now. Well that may be a bit too much. Guess that was the fan boy in me talking. See ya in the funny papers.