GameXplain Analyzes the Final Fantasy VII Remake PlayStation Experience Trailer

At the PlayStation Experience event earlier this month, Square Enix had a new trailer for the Final Fantasy VII remake they announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this year. In case you missed it, here it is again:

Few if any expected anything like this so soon, given the sheer enormity of the game. As it turns out, there is a reason for this which has stirred much debate among fans: the game is going to be released episodically. Producer Yoshinori Kitase explains, via Forbes:

The biggest reason why we haven’t done a remake until now is because it’s a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy VII from the ground up with the current technology. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy VII that maintains the same feeling of density of the original would result in a volume of content that couldn’t possibly fit into one installment.

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If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of Final Fantasy VII. We knew none of you would have wanted that.

Armed with this information and the trailer itself, the folks at GameXplain have scrutinized the trailer to provide the following analysis:

As for my thoughts? One would probably expect me not to really care, and rightfully so, but honestly?

I’m intrigued by this. Dare I say, I’m even looking forward to it.

Part of this is due to how the game is effectively a true video game legend; the fans of it and knowing several was why I opted to make the initial reveal my number-one moment from this year’s E3. And now, here it is, looking better than ever and probably better than it ever will.

But what’s interesting is that the very thing that is driving a wedge between fans is one of the things that is the greatest draw to me. I don’t mean the episodic part; as long as I’m under the same roof as Nadia, I know that game is coming into our home one way or the other, so I’m just along for the ride in that regard.

What has me intrigued, though, is the seemingly more action-oriented combat. I’ve always noted I’m not much for role playing games, usually noting things like Mario as the exception, and part of that is how the battles tend to be more involved than going through menus and pressing a button. The opportunity to play one of the biggest video games in history on terms closer to my own? I’d be crazy not to give that a look.

“I don’t want the remake to end as something nostalgic,” Kitase told Famitsu (via IGN. “I want to get the fans of the original version excited. We’ll be making adjustments to the story with this feeling in mind.”

In that way, I think Square Enix is also out to capture a new audience as much — if not more — than appealing to those who are fans of the original game just as it is. From my perspective, it’s working so far. I — the one whose closest experience to ever playing Final Fantasy is fighting Culex in Super Mario RPG, reading 8-Bit Theater, and playing Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu’s pre-Final Fantasy game for the NES, Rad Racer — am actually look forward to seeing more in the future.

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.