TLDR...Seems some people won't.

For every person who is genuinely angry that it's not a 1-to-1 remake of the game they loved, hopefully there's at least a person like me who loved Remake because it was so different. I've always thought the original FFVII is good but treated with too much reverence ("overrated" is too strong a word, I think).

I didn't much care to revisit the exact same game again, and I went into Remake thinking it would be fine but nothing special. I ended up really loving it in large part because of the ways it subverted my expectations. I want to see where they take the story next.

I hope that people would've already moved past that.

I can see how some people may have initially been upset given how little we knew about FF7R prior to release, but once it became clear that it was essentially a new game (and a great one at that), I think that argument about it not having every little thing from the original FF7 became irrelevant.

I never thought it would be a one-to-one remake and frankly think it’s weird anyone expected that. And the ways it deviated were great. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have the nostalgia others had for FF7 (be still liked it a lot) maybe I was in a better place to enjoy the remake, and I do like the Kojima-esque switcharoo the title “remake” represents now that the cats out of the bag that it was never a remake in that sense, but rather remaking their destiny or whatever

Remake completely blew my expectations out of the water and I'm incredibly excited for what's next. On a certain level I get that folks are disappointed that it's not a 1:1 remake, but it was never going to be that. I genuinely believe that that would be significantly worse than the product we got.

Also, I'm definitely not the first person to say this, but part 3 will definitely be called Reunion.

Maybe if the producer had stopped saying that the sequels wouldn't change the story.

Don't try to reapply the bait to your bait and switch.

The original Final Fantasy VII will always be there if you need it.

Remake was such a fantastic game that could've been like 5 hours shorter, but I absolutely loved its direction (from gameplay to presentation to storytelling). Cannot wait to see what they do next, and since my memories after Midgar are fuzzy anyway I'll gladly dive into whatever happens.

It's the internet, so naturally there are always angry people to be found if you look at the right places, but i think the reception to this remake undertaking was way more positive across the board than i expected beforehand. I figured every change would be put under the microscope and cause controversy, but generally it seems like people are okay with this thing being different from the game they already know by heart and is still playable.

Neat combat updates without throwing the menu-based nature completely out the door, depth added to the Avalanche characters, decent graphics and Square actually deciding to change things up based on the original.

I feel like a big part of it is that there's a decent part of the fanbase that really does not like the FF7 "extended universe" stuff, and the Remake leaning into that sort of approach doesn't sit right with them. It's the same sort of situation with Kingdom Hearts now, where you've got people angry because it's getting further and further away from the original concept and instead giving Nomura greater freedom to do Nomura things.

My feeling is that those people will still play the games out of a sense of loyalty or even love, but there's nothing you can really do to stop them from being grumpy about the form the Remake is taking. You could specifically appeal to those people with shot for shot remasters, but I do agree it would result in far less interesting games.

Though to be clear, I don't really have nostalgia for FF7 and didn't really play FF7R, so I'm basing this entirely off hearsay and cultural osmosis.

The FF7 fanbase is part of the problem, to be honest. They wanted a remake for so many years. A remake Square Enix really did not want to make. I don't blame them for still thinking, "Fine, we'll give you a 'remake'."

I'm already angry it's yet another "we'll maybe finish it when we get to it someday, please buy every single spin-off and wheel-spinning entry" JRPG franchise.

Frankly if it was a 1-to-1 remake, it'd be a giant waste of time. But people are losing their minds over a 13 year old game currently getting an updated localization, people on the internet throw weird tantrums.

Let's be real: The collective level of maturity of people on the internet is that of a 15-year-old, so there's a point where I couldn't possibly care less about people's bitching about the remake not being 1:1 with the original or whatever. For my intents and purposes, it's bad enough that each entry will have an exclusivity period after the PlayStation releases, so I'm more concerned about how long it'll take for each game to show up on Steam and how good the porting jobs are.

@facelessvixen: Fair, I also think the whole anger that they're taking too long and just doing it for money seems hyperbole given I think they took the harder route in trying to make a different story on a beloved easy cash grab nostalgia fest. They could have done a last of us remastered and just popped the old game into a filter (not saying LOU did that just using examples).

I think the company is doing the Miyamoto thing...a delayed game is ok rushed is bad forever. (besides no man sky XD).

Anyway, it will arrive and people can play it all one day. Add to that I do agree them being coy was great for the story twist but telling people it's not what they think earlier would have helped ease tension, since you learn that like 10 hours in and by then you're angry if you're a rabbid fan, that the game isn't going your headcanon. Subverting nostalgic people's headcanon (last Jedi) doesn't work well at least for diehard angry fans who dislike changes you make.

Remake is one of my favourite things to happen in games. I'm all in on what they do next.

This. At the pace they're going, we'll get the final chapter of the remaster of the remake of the redo as a PS12 exclusive in about 2120.

Also, I don't mind them rejiggering the story or even writing an entirely different ending. I am upset that they did it badly. It's entirely possible to remake that story without resorting to stupid shit like alternate realities. Having Sephiroth kill Barret was honestly a great, unexpected plot twist. Having him be almost immediately resurrected by fucking time ghosts was stupid as hell and wasted the moment. It also convinced me that all their supposed "changes" are just smoke and mirrors. There will be minor rewrites to head-fake people, but the overall plot is 1000% going to end up exactly where it originally did.

I think it's interesting that the game addresses and uses its characters not as they were back in 1997, but as they've become in the years since then. When we see Sephiroth now we see the history and the impact he's made as a figure since then; a bit like seeing Darth Vader in Rogue One vs seeing him in 1977. I appreciate that it is trying to be different and also really embracing the eldritch cross dimensional weirdness that Sephiroth/Jenova are.

The nostalgic Millennials don't know what they want and they're getting it good and hard.

@dochaus: ...Really?

You literally know that's EXACTLY what people want when, after 20+ years asking for a remake, they release a game called FF7: Remake

@therealturk: The characters are harder to kill off because the remake is an action game not turn based, a lot more work is required giving them unique animations and moves etc.

And that's not counting the extra time that's needed just to make games now, it's partly why we're seeing the story beats changed around.

If they do kill off someone it's more likely to happen towards the end after we have the full party.

I think most people accepted a while ago that we aren't getting a remake of FFVII, for my part it was real nice to see the characters again in high fidelity and I liked a lot of the stuff they added but the story just didn't do it for me.

I thought I'd see where they took it after I first finished FFVIIR but I've lost interest in the project altogether since, not sure I want to invest in the story they're selling in 50 hour increments 2 or 3 times a decade. I'm holding out hope FFXVI will be the kinda shit I can get into.

@someoneproud: As far as FFXVI goes, I'm hopeful for the story, but much less for the gameplay.

Story-wise, the trailers seem to imply a much larger focus on politics and nations at war. Final Fantasy has always been far superior narratively when they choose to do that.

I'm much less optimistic on the gameplay front. What they've shown looks like a generic-as-fuck action game, which tracks pretty strongly with the direction the series has been headed for awhile now. Unfortunately, Square kind of seems to suck at that. It almost always ends up with them making spectacle at the cost of compelling gameplay concepts. People are losing their shit over the scenes of the summons fighting each other like kaiju, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that underneath all of that the gameplay will boil down to "mash square to punch."

@therealturk: Yeah it's mostly the story that interests me but I do think they're getting better at doing real-time combat. FFVIIR has much better combat than FFXV and the combat was never what turned me off those games anyway. Then again, gameplay is rarely a main priority personally, if it's functional I can overlook a whole lotta jank to get to what interests me.

I'm with you on the summons not likely to be anything but spectacle but I can live with that. If they can deliver an expansive world (with towns and some variety) and an interesting story that makes sense, I'm sold. For my money they delivered on this with FFXIV so I'm hopeful XVI takes it's cues from that, especially given their ties.

I have the utmost faith in my boy Yoshi-P to make something out FFXVI.

I honestly don't see what the issue is. I think the remake was very well done and I'm glad it turned out to be a stealth sequel and not the same story as the original FFVII. Though I have an idea where they are going with this story, I'm not completely sure and that's the exciting part for me. And the combat isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun, and an improvement over FFXV's combat. I'm looking forward to what characters I'll be able to control and what their move sets will be. If I can play as Zack Fair during parts of Rebirth, how differently will his moves be compared to Cloud for example.

@someoneproud: As far as FFXVI goes, I'm hopeful for the story, but much less for the gameplay.

Story-wise, the trailers seem to imply a much larger focus on politics and nations at war. Final Fantasy has always been far superior narratively when they choose to do that.

I'm much less optimistic on the gameplay front. What they've shown looks like a generic-as-fuck action game, which tracks pretty strongly with the direction the series has been headed for awhile now. Unfortunately, Square kind of seems to suck at that. It almost always ends up with them making spectacle at the cost of compelling gameplay concepts. People are losing their shit over the scenes of the summons fighting each other like kanji, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that underneath all of that the gameplay will boil down to "mash square to punch."

I think yall are in the wrong thread or derailing lol, this isn't about ff16 or whatever. That game is that game but most are just skeptical like any new game and we don't have enough to go off whether it's bad or good. Were talking about Cloud's final fantasy 7 remake/rebirth. Maybe yall misclicked or I didn't make it clear in this question, my bad XD.

Wait so do I need to play, or be familiar with OG FFVII before I play Remake?

People will never "stop getting angry" at anything sadly.

Personally I loved FF7 remake and am on board for whatever comes next. Which is weird because I kind of hate time-travel and alternate realities since it robs things of any consequence and feels lazy but I think messing with a game as revered as FF7 is kind of great and I love that they've gone as far as they have and I hope they deviate further.

I feel the same way about RE4. Which is a game that doesnt need to be remade but if you're going to do it go crazy.

Ultimately, no. Because the direction the remake is going seems to be different than the original story. With that said, I still recommend you play the original FFVII. It's still a good game with a good story... all the way up until the ending, hence the reason all these other FFVII stories exist, including the remake story as it seems.

@topcyclist: Sorry boss, won't happen again. To stick strictly to the topic: I reckon most people that were disappointed with FFVIIR have moved their attention to other things by now and people stopped getting angry at least 2 years before anyone stopped whining about them doing so, as per.

I hate to be that guy, but I really don’t care what people think on the internet. Everyone has an opinion about how things should or shouldn’t be, and 9 times out of 10 it’s just not warranted or useful. I really have to question the mentality and perspective of people who treat FF7 Remake like some kind of injustice.

@slax: It would help in the same way knowing a show is a remake helps in that you know the references and what they changed. But since the game for the most part hits the beats of the original game, you can think of it as an entirely different story, and you wont be lost if you dont play the original. You will be lost if you jump right into FF7 remake 2 or rebirth IMO since everything is so crazy now.

I got way more interested on the combat once I found out Ryota Suzuki is the combat designer. Dude has Dragons Dogma and DMC 5 under his belt (list also includes some of the best fighting games ever made).

If they didn't want people to be angry that FF7 Remake wasn't a remake they should have changed the name. It's a bit of a bait and switch. Most people don't follow enthusiast media and have no reason to believe it was anything else. They certainly didn't mention it in the marketing.

Edit:

They also should have put the words "Part One" on the box.

@therealturk: Hey, at least there's no "Xenogears Rebirth" to cannibalize and ruin TWO games' endings in the process.

I'd say: emphatically no.

Unless you get a lot out of terrible '90s localization dialog and graphics that jumped to 3D an entire generation too early (which IS some people's jam, I'm not being facetious), it's VERY missable. You can get just about everything you need from it by reading a well-written summary.

Well they would have to actually finish making Xenogears first.

@topcyclist: @av_gamer: Good insight thanks!

@undeadpool: This was a good point, I may just do that. I doubt I'd fully get an appreciation for the story just playing through it once. I've learned some through cultural osmosis, so I don't know if it would be a game I could go back and get to. Thanks!

It was a twist, they didn't want people to know. I think they thought it would be a nice surprise. (it was for me!)

I agree about the "Part One" bit though. I would be quite pissed if the RE4 remake was only the first third of the game without being advertised as such.

Man, the voice acting in that trailer is pretty bad. JRPG scripts tend to sound a lot better in my head than aloud.