[25/08] FFVII Remake's combat still in trial-and-error phase; team starting to see visual direction

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Doing God's work for all of us, Famitsu magazine has decided to jump into the fray and ask Yoshinori Kitase, currently the producer of the upcoming remake for Final Fantasy VII, how things are coming along. Kitase has elected to say a few words about the development of the combat system, which may rub a good number of fans the wrong way...

“We’re starting to see the visual direction,” said Kitase. “On the other hand, we’re currently working out the battle system and such through trial-and-error.”

“Since there’s a possibility that the command battle system of the old days might not work today, we’re thinking hard about what kind of direction we can take it.

“Normally, when you do a remake, it becomes somewhere along the lines of a familiar action RPG, so we’re looking at how we can put out something like Final Fantasy VII while still surprising players."

Kitase continues (with good hearty laughter) and tells us not to bother asking him about the game's current progress. This can only mean one thing. Shock and horror, it seems it will be a looooooong time before the game sees the light of day. But hey, we should all be used to it by now, because it's routine with Square Enix. If it's not the FFVII remake, it's FFXV. If it's not FFXV, it's Kingdom Hearts III. If it's not Kingdom Hearts III, it's the bloody PC port of Lightning Returns and so on and so forth...

Gematsu
 
Just ask the fans what direction to take it and they'll tell you to leave it as it is, because it's not dated to us. It's nostalgic, as is the point of the game.
 
So he's probably gonna turn it into a FFXIII system since that's his most recent baby and he think's it was the greatest thing ever. Can't keep it the same oh dear heavens no since it worked out fine the first time, let's change what was not broken.
 
Translation: we want to bring in new fans as well as satisfy old fans with this remake if we want it to be a stellar sales success and profitable endeavour. However, the vast majority of these new players will likely be versed with action games and not with anything remotely resembling turn-based menu combat systems. So now it's a delicate game to try and balance these two demands, without alienating one and pissing off the other too much. How exactly we're going to do this, I still probably don't know. Also, some shithead executive authorised for the game to be announced this early (yet again), so the hot seat I am already sitting on has now had extra gasoline poured on it. And I thought Tabata and the FFXV team have the worst job in this company.
 
Because the FFX remaster didn't sell? Or any of the Android/iOS ports? Or Bravely Default? I get that this is a bigger production than those, but is a turn-based system really that out of touch with modern gamers?

Trial-and-error sounds encouraging to my ears, though. They aren't just deciding on one route or another, they're likely working out some sort of hybrid that will, fingers crossed, be something kind of new and unique.
 
I personally think nobody will be happy with the remake.

We will all hate it no matter what, because there's zero chance of it being exactly the same, and new people will hate it because it's Final Fantasy. It's not cool anymore to be turn based. Yes, some guys are still successful that way, but not many. Add on to that the fact that most of the successful turn based games are portable nowadays, and played by people like us, and it seems unlikely that they'll make the remake that way.

Also of course it's gonna take a long time, but they're the ones who put it out in our faces like they had a plan. I think they're just randomly throwing ideas at the wall until something sticks and that's not the way you make a good game, especially not a remake. They should already have the groundwork, it shouldn't be about trial and error.

They should just accept that Final Fantasy is not Call of Duty, it won't sell like it used to.
 
:rofl: I love every news we get about FFVII people automatically assume the worst it seems... or what they think is the worse... after all these years of demanding a remake (basically since the PS2 generation) we finally get a remake and all it seems like are those fans demanding a remake now want to kill Square-Enix for having to change things in order to make it compatible with the newer generation. I mean we haven't even heard anything real legit about the battle system, at least let us wait to see what the battle system will actually be before you burn them for being a witch.
 
:rofl: I love every news we get about FFVII people automatically assume the worst it seems... or what they think is the worse... after all these years of demanding a remake (basically since the PS2 generation) we finally get a remake and all it seems like are those fans demanding a remake now want to kill Square-Enix for having to change things in order to make it compatible with the newer generation. I mean we haven't even heard anything real legit about the battle system, at least let us wait to see what the battle system will actually be before you burn them for being a witch.

Can you blame anyone? SE can't make a solid battle system to save their lives, unless it's extremely close to classic turn based (Bravely Default), so there's a 99% chance that they'll ruin the gameplay of the remake. I've seen no proof of anything positive coming out of this.
 
Can you blame anyone? SE can't make a solid battle system to save their lives, unless it's extremely close to classic turn based (Bravely Default), so there's a 99% chance that they'll ruin the gameplay of the remake. I've seen no proof of anything positive coming out of this.

that is a debate, I think they did very well in Kingdom Hearts games, Star Ocean games, Tactical games (FFT, Front Mission series) They seem to of done very well with FFXIV battle system according to you guys. So you can't actually say that they only do good with Classic Turn based games when they have a record of doing other games that have turned out very very well.

Just a penny for my thoughts and so this doesn't get too far off topic, all I am saying is at least wait for some REAL information, like some actual footage of the battle system before you FFVII demanding remake fans go and shoot their buildings up for not keeping it 100% like the original....since well... they finally listen to the cries for the remake...
 
that is a debate, I think they did very well in Kingdom Hearts games, Star Ocean games, Tactical games (FFT, Front Mission series) They seem to of done very well with FFXIV battle system according to you guys. So you can't actually say that they only do good with Classic Turn based games when they have a record of doing other games that have turned out very very well.

Just a penny for my thoughts and so this doesn't get too far off topic, all I am saying is at least wait for some REAL information, like some actual footage of the battle system before you FFVII demanding remake fans go and shoot their buildings up for not keeping it 100% like the original....since well... they finally listen to the cries for the remake...

I mean SE as opposed to Squaresoft. Squaresoft made a couple of great alternative battle systems, like you've mentioned. Nothing since though, that I've seen. I wouldn't say FF14 has a great battle system myself, considering it's the most repetitive in the entire series unless you switch up your classes a lot.

I'll wait for real info for sure, but I just see no proof of greatness coming out of this. Hell, look at Crisis Core and how bad that was? Or Dirge of Cerberus?
 
Star Ocean games

Developed by Tri-Ace, not Square.

They seem to of done very well with FFXIV battle system according to you guys.

Which is basically World of Warcraft's tab-and-click combat, so standard fare for the MMO genre.

/pedantic

Actually, I'll be all too happy to see them ape gameplay elements from a Tri-Ace game once again (Lightning Returns apes a lot of ideas from Valkyrie Profile, so I hear). If you're going to nick something, nick it from some of the best talents in the Japanese RPG business. There are a multitude of ways to blend Tri-Ace with something more familiar, so you have something semi-recognisable and dynamic, so I'm not just hammering the attack command while my party members line up politely to take jabs at the enemy.

People just get too weirdly black and white in regards to this whole gameplay discussion, creating this false dichotomy between a turn-based battle system and full-blown FFXV action.
 
I won't be surprised if everyone hates the FFVII remake, but if they do it won't be because of how the FFVII remake remade FFVII. The original FFVII is not what Square Enix has to remake, it has to remake people's memories of FFVII. Memories that are far too rosy and nostalgic for SE to recreate. Let's face it, every one of us that played FFVII when we were younger...isn't younger anymore. That doesn't mean we can't still enjoy it today, but it's different. It will never be the same experience it once was, because it will never be 1997 again. We've been experiencing diminishing returns with game consoles for years now. Each new generation is less of a forward step than the one before it. We aren't as impressed with technological advances because to the average consumer they're more invisible than ever. And so the FFVII remake will come, it'll be 'just another game', and because it won't give people a duplicate of their first experience 20 years ago...they'll be disappointed. Ain't nothing SE can do about that.
 
I definitely believe for ff7 the biggest issue is far more than turn base or action. Ff7 was particularly unique by able to gain an immense amount of material and being nearly accessible for the entire party.


Turn-base is the only method that allows the player to control the entire team at once all while being able to use and access all of the available commands that ff7 introduced.

Action would require more AI and less full party control. (Ff13). There's plenty of room for it though. Its not like ATB is outdated, just not recognized by modern gamers and I don't blame the gamers, game companies have shy'd away from it.


SE should really focus on working on a game play system that allowed the same freedom the original. I imagined that each character would get certain time right before switching to the next one to use commands. Its more action paced, you get full command of all characters in turns and it is still time-oriented.
 
Ultimately the battle system really is about 50% of the game - the other half being exploring the environments. For them to change this significant a chunk of the game would really be a shock to the system - It could be a dealbreaker or a gamechanger. Hard to tell if it's going to be positive or negative until it's release but I think people are sensible to think it's going to turn out a big mess and horribly executed. I mean; when a game is so critically acclaimed such as FFVII - why change such a pivotal part of the game? Tweak it; sure. Maybe add some new materias, weapons, equipments etc but changing the fundamental battle system itself is a mistake in my view.

It's like changing it to first person rather than a more top down style third person game when roaming each screen or the world. It's just un-necessary. The cliche 'if it aint broke dont fix it' really can't be expressed enough here. People who havent experienced the turn based battle system might enjoy it and this remake might be their introduction to it. I honestly really struggle with Square-Enix these days. They are ridiculously deluded it seems. The criticism for XIII and it's battle system was pretty huge and so I don't see why they would go with that approach in the remake.

Theres plenty of stuff they could add or improve on to make the game a bigger all-round experience. The golden saucer for example, Chocobo racing and breeding, Battle Arena; so on and so forth. The potential is really massive now they are less limited by the technological limitations of the console and it's CDs.
 
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