Final Fantasy VII Remake, a game many people, myself included have been wanting for years. When it was finally announced back at E3 2015, hard to believe its been 4 years now since then. When it was announced I know I was hyped as hell. FFVII was my first real introduction to the franchise, and is still my favorite one in the series to this day. So to finally be seeing the remake come to fruition, I couldn't tell you how happy it actually made me. Now here we are, only 77 days until the launch of part 1. Yes part 1, and that segues into the reason I am creating this blog entry. Square Enix, as it's known today, formerly Squaresoft, back in the day was a titan of JRPG's. The earlier entries of the FF franchise, my all time favorite game that will never be replaced in that spot Chrono Trigger, a collab project between them and Nintendo for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars just to name a few. If you wanted good JRPG's, Square was a name you could trust. Over the years though, that all sadly changed. It felt like they started losing their way and a lot of what they released or ported, wasn't that good, which is a shame. Now there is a point to why I am giving a general overview of my thoughts on Square over the years, cause it all ties together. Fast forward to E3 2015 and we finally get the announcement, our wish was finally coming true. The very game so many of us have wanted and cried out for for so many years was finally coming. As hyped as I was at the initial announcement, once that faded, I started to get a bit more worried.
Final Fantasy VII got a slew of additional entries into its particular universe. The not well received Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children primarily, which while I liked it personally, not many people it seemed were as onboard with it as I was. In particular, how different Cloud, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII was. In the original game, he was a bit broody but also had a happy go lucky side to him as well. After the original though, they seemed to take away the more happy go lucky side of him and turned up the broodiness. Now, there is possibly a logical explanation for that handled in the story of the original game, but to me, even with that, it felt too drastic of a change even for that. Nevertheless, I started approaching my hype for the game with more cautious hype and optimism. Mainly because of how far Square Enix had fallen since its glory days and the fact they're remaking one of the more beloved entries in the Final Fantasy franchise. Add in what they had changed and added going forward into the Expanded Universe, and oh boy. Going back to my earlier point now, where I mentioned the release we're getting is only part 1. They announced that the Final Fantasy VII remake would be split into separate games that would each be their own full length game. That further adds to the more cautious side of my hype for it. From what we know, it seems part 1, for those that have played Final Fantasy VII, will takes us from the start of the game up to the escape from Midgar, with all of part 1 being basically a massively expanded on Midgar.
Remaking Final Fantasy VII in general is already a massive undertaking, especially for a company I have lost a lot of faith and trust in over the years. Though to be fair, Square has done some things over the past few years that has restored a bit of my good will and faith toward them, which is a good thing. But to be massively expanding it to the point where they want to break into several full length parts, I just can't comfortable with it right now. Now granted, these are all my pre-release thoughts on all of this, and that opinion is likely to drastically change after the game actually launches hopefully for the better, or for the worse when I get the chance to play it and see what they deliver with the first part. Also, my more cautious hype has slowly built up to being a bit more on the hype side again with recent trailers and info we've gotten. The voice acting has been more spot on it has felt like, and the scenes we've gotten from the trailers have looked really good. Over all, here's hoping Square delivers on a scale I know old Square would have been able to deliver, and that in 77 days, I will be able to dive into a game that will blow my mind and also hit me in my nostalgia and childhood. Anyway, I will end this ramble here, been wanting to get some thoughts out for this game out for awhile, considering the original FFVII as mentioned earlier is one of my top favorite games and is my favorite entry in the Final Fantasy franchise.
Till next time my peeps!
