Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s largest problem isn’t scope – it’s tone.
We’re now virtually 4 years from the announcement of Final Fantasy 7 Remake – and little doubt its growth staff has confronted numerous challenges. The largest is arguably one not practically as typically mentioned, nevertheless – and it’s all about tone.
I’ll always remember the primary time I noticed Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. The film sequel to FF7 is a bizarre little factor on many ranges, full of fan service and stunning-looking combat scenes, although the factor that caught with me most all through the movie’s run time was the way in which the forged of FF7 was represented.
The curiosity of Advent Children is probably finest proven within the first phrases stated by Barret, hardcore eco-warrior to the purpose that he’s keen to sacrifice harmless lives to guard the planet. With ShinRa defeated, within the opening segments of Advent Children he calls Cloud to rejoice – they’ve discovered oil. Barret, the eco warrior, so livid about ShinRa harvesting the planet’s Mako power, is now completely happy to go drilling for oil. It at all times felt off.
Barret is a simple instance, low-hanging fruit. The concept is that in Advent Children Barret helps to get the world again on monitor, discovering methods to offer energy in a Mako Reactor free world. It doesn’t uninteresting the contradiction, nevertheless: in the true world, we all know oil to be a very soiled type of energy that may be devastating for the setting when extraction goes fallacious. It looks like one thing that Barret can be inherently in opposition to – “The planet’s dyin’, Cloud!” – however in Advent Children he’s all for it.
The identical is actually true of a lot of the later extracurricular Final Fantasy 7 content material, the ‘compilation’ merchandise. In some ways the unique themes of the game and the nuances of character are both misplaced or pretty considerably adjusted in these spin-offs, prequels and continuations.
In different characters the variations are extra delicate, and a few characters do come out unscathed, however between this and the informal revival of useless characters, in flip undermining strong plot beats and loss of life scenes within the authentic game (Hello Rufus and Tseng), the compilation has at all times had what’s felt like a flippant strategy to the unique supply materials – and in a remake that strategy will come beneath far more scrutiny from followers if repeated.
Every time I see individuals speaking in regards to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the main focus is firmly on the scale of the game and the way unimaginable it’ll be to construct within the trendy age. Even if the game is cut up into a number of elements, as was the plan a couple of years in the past, it’s an impossibly giant activity. With that stated, I’ve at all times felt the tonal activity earlier than the game is way extra important.
Take AVALANCHE, for example. FF7’s opening casts the participant as a part of this eco terrorist group. They’re classically doing dangerous issues for good causes, however each the unique Japanese and the marginally hokey English translation of FF7 don’t shrink back from making word of how AVALANCHE is considered by the world and the way their actions are having a better, not at all times optimistic influence past what we see. TV broadcasts gamers can hear don’t simply present the evil President ShinRa promising to take them down, but additionally talks of casualties and the loss of life of innocents – and that is earlier than AVALANCHE prompts ShinRa to commit mass-murder by dropping the plate.
“On the surface they say they’re an anti-Shinra group, but in reality… they say they’re just out to kill as many people as they can,” one NPC says of AVALANCHE.
This is an attention-grabbing proposition for a 2019 Square Enix game. Since the unique game launched, the heroes of FF7 have been boiled all the way down to their most recognizable traits, shipped off to the likes of Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts, World of Final Fantasy and numerous cellular games in simplified varieties. In the compilation they’re likewise depicted as extra clear-cut heroes – and one wonders how that now settled picture will work together with the fact of what Cloud, Barret, Tifa and others are like within the earlier levels of FF7. They finally grow to be these heroes, parachuting into Midgar to avoid wasting civilians two discs and 20-some hours later – however it takes them a very long time to get there.
Will they be proven as they had been within the nineties, will they merely be totally different, or will the narrative dance across the matter? I might definitely see the latter – simply as Batman vs Superman coyly had Batman declare that an space is empty of civilians earlier than the film engaged in Man of Steel ranges of wanton destruction but once more.
The actual query is that if Square will need to embrace that aspect of those characters in any respect. By all accounts, lots of the story adjustments Final Fantasy Versus 13 underwent to grow to be Final Fantasy 15 softened protagonist Noctis and his nation, Insomnia. The suggestion is that Versus was set to be a extra morally gray story a few nation that believed in loss of life worship with Noctis harder to narrate to – however FF15 as an alternative options some of the charismatic, grounded leads within the collection who’s clearly nothing however man. It’s far simpler to have a pleasant, relatable hero.
This isn’t nearly AVALANCHE both, however moments scattered proper all through FF7. People at all times carry up Cloud cross-dressing – and sure, in 2019 the attitudes proven in that scene definitely want to alter – however I can also’t assist however consider scenes like when Cloud is thoughts managed and bodily assaults Aerith. This is a simple scene to get away with with deformed cartoonish character fashions, however in a photo-realistic setting that is the kind of scene that might shortly grow to be one thing harrowing or unacceptable in a T or 16-rated game.
The shift to a extra real looking artwork type combines with cultural shifts basically to current some difficult predicaments. Cid’s verbally abusive relationship along with his assistant Shera has at all times been uncomfortable, and it’s one thing that might simply tackle a grimly totally different standing in a extra real looking, voice acted depiction. Cid being a swear-happy grumpy outdated geezer is performed largely as endearing and is softened by censored textual content bins, but when he begins cursing out his devoted live-in assistant in a totally movement captured, voice acted efficiency it might flip nasty in a manner that dangers turning individuals off the character. This is a tough one to repair because it’s key to Cid’s character arc, which does finish in an apology and the pair finally marrying in one of many compilation titles.
It even applies to FF7’s most well-known scene; individuals accepted a brutal loss of life being a however cold one in a CGI story scene again in 1997 – however with heightened realism, that might be a harder promote.
This is the place Final Fantasy 7 Remake actually has its work lower out for it, and the place the duty earlier than Square Enix is a really totally different beast in comparison with that Capcom had when approaching Resident Evil 2 Remake. The politics and themes of Resident Evil 2 are fairly easy. It’s about survival, scares and evil scientists who went too far. RE2 remake makes use of the extra real looking tech for heightened scares and some additional scenes that higher tug on the coronary heart strings, however at its core it’s the identical. Ultimately, these themes are simpler to duplicate in 2019. They’ve probably not aged.
Final Fantasy 7 is a posh game in some ways. It’s sprawling in scope, however it’s additionally a game with surprisingly actual, delicate themes regardless of really being about an evil lifeform from outer house. It’s typically surprisingly tender and actual – however that actuality can also be continuously accompanied by a kind of gleeful, camp absurdity that in 1997 didn’t really feel all that jarring. It was the correct amount of sincerity and loopy in the fitting package deal on the proper time. It was lightning in a bottle. In 2019, with games extra filmic than ever, such outcomes usually are not assured.
I’m extraordinarily excited to see what Square Enix does with FF7 remake, and I’m hopeful we’ll study extra about what course the staff has selected very quickly. It virtually absolutely can’t be as trustworthy as RE2 by design – and that in itself is thrilling. In the meantime, if you wish to see simply why it’ll be so unimaginable to duplicate, the unique Final Fantasy 7 is now obtainable on Switch and Xbox One, in addition to the earlier PS4, cellular and PC releases.
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