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Square Enix To Concentrate On Remaking Their Back Catalog
An anonymous reader writes: You may remember that at E3, the major announcement from Square Enix and Sony wasn't a new game, but rather that Square Enix would be remaking Final Fantasy VII in HD and releasing it for PS4 first. Square Enix's recent annual report indicates that they intend to make more HD remakes of old titles. Like many Japanese developers, they indicate in the report that they also intend to focus more on mobile platforms, including porting more of their back catalog to mobile devices. With the impending release of Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix knows a thing or two about rehashing old content, but Square Enix also owns the Dragon Quest, Deus Ex, and Tomb Raider series, giving them a fairly large library to give the HD treatment to.
And wish them well in confusing lots of teen boys and girls.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Maybe they can give us the alternate ending 7 should have had, with Aeris coming back and a non-anti-climatic battle with Sephiroth.
They've been milking their old hits for DECADES. They were pulling this stuff on the original PSX.
Essentially they've run out of ideas and need to get on with rehashing everything?
And here I though this might be limited to Hollywood, with their endless reboots because they lack anyone who can up with something new.
Because, really, we don't need to see the Spider Man origin story again.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
fuck these out-of-ideas morons. fire the execs and start fresh FFS
Dragon Warrior IV was tied for best NES RPG ever with Final Fantasy III. I would love to see both remade in HD.
This doesn't seem like a bad idea. The writing from Square really started to go downhill towards the end of the PlayStation era any the majority of roles in their role playing games were those of whinny teens with an absurd sense of fashion. Perhaps in remaking the older games they'll learn something about storytelling and make new games where I'm not cheering for the villain because of my disdain for the protagonists.
As I recall, Square Enix released a complete collection of Final Fantasy, but only with Japanese language. I'd love to see the same thing translated into English.
I really hope they remake FF8, it had in my opinion the most fantastic magic spells and summons despite being on a horribly weak system. I doubt they'll do it though because it's not as popular as other installments.
Chrono Trigger deserves a remake too.
I loved the old Dragon Warrior games on NES. However, when they remade Dragon Quest III they changed all the old english dialog to modern english. Everything also got all cutesy and I sort of remember a new integrated collectible item deal. All that crap they added on just annoyed me and took away from the core experience of the game. I'd love to play more remakes but stay true to the originals!
Only innovative companies like Square Enix know how to innovate by taking their old games and remaking them in HD! Kiddy games like Nintendo just keep milking their old shit without any innovations.
Square famously swore they would never remake Final Fantasy 7 unless they were certain they could not make a game better than it.
Make a real sequel to Chrono Trigger. I didn't get enough time travel yesterday.
Or better, a list of problems:
1. the population that they are targeting with nostalgic remakes is almost entirely through "the point of no more gaming" - that moment you no longer buy 1/5 the games you did because adulthood catches up
2. they don't really have that many games that can be salvaged in an economically efficient way. FF7 remake should be proof of that when the production costs come out - you can't reuse the most expensive stuff, which is basically source code, graphical assets and marketing initiatives
3. remakes might be easier to digest for critics (it's hard to see a game remake getting bad rep), but at the same time, the moment they get one instance of generalized REALLY BAD criticism on a remake (especially the first ones), every project you have on the pipeline with bucks spent is gonna suffer the consequences. This doesn't happen with a single very bad game.
4. I understand this being a financial decision by a gaming company , but this encumbers human development indirectly - newcomers purchasing these games are gonna face cultural clash with them, since they weren't made for this point of time, especially their stories, while their genres, even despite a rework, will be out of place (time*)
In any case, I hope for the best. I'm a big fan of anything Squeenix. But I would rather they pay the big bucks, purchase Mistwalker, and bring back old timer Sakaguchi, Uematsu et al, and just play on with the sure win match plan
Remake the Final Fantasy movie using today's animation technology. While the version looked stunning back in 2001, it looks dated and overdue for a remake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within
You shall be as gods
Still better than yet another MMO.
Square Enix also owns... Tomb Raider
Anyone here ever enable hardware acceleration on Tomb Raider for DOS? (I had a patch for the Matrox Mystique). When you stepped from software-rendered 320x240 to 640x480 (or 800x600 if you were able to run 3Dfx Glide), the way Lara Croft's ass twitched as she walked... *sigh*
It's not ideas video game companies have run out of. It's consumer trust.
Gamers are increasingly reluctant to shell out full price for even "AAA" software these days. We're now into, by my personal reckoning at least, at least 7 years of declining standards and/or patchy product quality from even the most trusted studios. 15 years ago Square released FFX which, despite its flaws, was leagues above anything they've done recently, in terms of value, design, and innovation. So, when faced with a choice of the newer dus, or the proven older titles, I think a lot of gamers are simply choosing to go with the classics they know are good, verses the new titles which are increasingly becoming a crap shoot.
It's the same for practically every major studio, declining game quality across the board. Konami with the MGS series, Ubisoft with Assassin's creed, EA with Battlefront, Bethesda with ES, ID with Doom 3 and Rage, EA with Mass Effect 3, the list goes on. Valve have basically stopped making games. Recent years have seen an increasing rate of high profile, high priced duds being released by top studios and gamers as consumers have become increasingly skeptical and wary of new and even existing IPs.
We're now seeing AAA games release with zero-day patches on consoles -- consoles. In 2006 on 6th gen you couldn't patch the game, but now consumers are routinely expected to not only pay for but in fact pre-order what may well be a public late beta. There are only so many times people can get burned before they become permanently skeptical and consequently over-cautious with their money, and I think the game industry past that point several years ago. Square is simply reaping the consequences of it's failure to maintain its brand reputation for quality and value over the last 10 years. So is the entire industry.
Granted, converting a PS2 game to a PS3 game was a significantly easier task since they were able to re-render all the environments and models for 1080P and recycle those, but they went above and beyond and recreated all the menus too. X was a beautiful game and it showed in the remake.
I also enjoyed the release of FFIII and FFIV on the DS. If they give the same care and attention to the other games they wish to remake, they'll do really well.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Poor old Final Fantasy XI, the red headed stepchild of the MMO world, brought them a solid 120 million profit over all its years of operation. So, need to remake VII to let it reclaim the title of most profitable game ever.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
there's an entire generation of gamers who haven't played these games. They've got a ton of design work already done and there's a hardcore fan base that'll generate buzz (good or bad, it's still buzz). This is what happens when modern games get too expensive to make. Pixel Shaders are a bitch to program and that's how you do HD and not have it look awful.
I did get a chuckle out of EA's boss calling out Ubisoft for all their HD remakes though. EA, the company that cranked out the same damn Madden/Fifa/NBA Live game every year since 2009. Companies live and die on either their back catalog or strong licenses that keeps 'em going (remember THQ?). Capcom and Sega have managed to get by, but Konami? Their weak back catalog has sadly doomed them to a live time of Pachinko machines & mobile...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
What we really need is Einhänder 2 on modern consoles.
It was called Xenosaga.
I'd like to say that the Xeno folks got fucked over by annoying Squaresoft fanboys* a second time, but XS II was pretty much complete shit and pretty much forced ending on game three instead of game five (or was it six?). Pity, because XS III was as near perfect as a game can get.
(* Wanna know why the second disc of XG is shit? Because hurrdurr Final Fantasy monies.)
Honestly - I've played a lot of good games "back in the day", and skipped over just as many that were good back then but I just never got around to playing (and whose interfaces I just can't play nowadays). I'm happy with remakes of those games, as long as they're true remakes like what Square is doing (I'm less interested and the "HD Remix" concept - I want completely new graphics not just uprezed stuff).
I personally have zero interest in "mobile gaming". I can understand that as a company they have to "follow the money", but I personally have little interest in games on a ~5 inch screen whose controls usually are just variations on "Turn device or touch the screen". I've embraced a whole bunch of "new media" with open arms. I love podcasts, most social media, and I've gotten to where I find myself viewing Youtube far more often than watching traditional television shows, but I'd completely give up gaming way before I'd play most of what passes for games on a phone.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
. . . to seeing Laura Croft's boobs jiggle in HD.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
it was texture deformation :P. Seriously though, there are glide emulators out that that'll run Tomb Raider 1 in hardware accel mode. Sadly the Gog doesn't use the best of the bunch (nGlide) so if you want that you'll have to hack it in yourself.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
If their Final Fantasy 7 "remake" is anything to go by, they'll be making liberal changes to the entire thing anyway. Final Fantasy 7 is getting action-focused combat instead of its excellent active time turn based system. It will be less of a strategic affair as a result. Very different from what veterans of the franchise are expecting, buy perhaps we're not the target audience. Maybe these changes are being made to appeal to a new generation of gamers. Be warned and temper expectations.
Twinstiq, game news
it was nice knowing you square
I'm pretty sure your post contains a microagression of some kind, but I'll need to consult my local university first.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
They have been redoing their back catalog since forever! How many remake of FFIV are out there already?
keeps Phoenix Down in her purse this time.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I'm surprised SE see so much value in regurgitating old, but already great, content. The required investment is still high, and there's no guarantee they will sell as well as a new entry. But I guess SE knows something I don't. The ones who've been clamoring for a FF7 remake are the most naive dolts. We're not "just" getting FF7 with "updated" graphics. We're getting full 3d motion, a new action-rpg battle system, and likely INCESSANT voice over and cut-scenes in keeping with the latest trends. Pacing completely, utterly destroyed. That already sounds awful. Frankly if the original was so damn great in their minds I don't see why a remake would make a difference - you've already played it how many times??? - nor why the new generation should care. But there you are. As punishment I hope they shell out the $60+ at launch, I look forward to the whining.
I'd rather have a modern remake of the Soul Blazer series. (Yeah, I know it was actually developed by Quintet.)
Circumcision is child abuse.
There was a time, back in the SNES and PSX era, that Squaresoft could do no wrong. That time has passed. Their new games are a mess, and they've realized that the only way they're going to stay in business is to remake their old ones. That being said, they're fixing to fuck up FF7 the same way they've fucked up their more recent offerings.
I think part of the problem may be that Squeenix doesn't have the slightest fucking clue about the American market. As far as I can tell, they're trying to go for the action gamer market and sell a gazillion copies the way the big third person action franchises do, but by and large, those people aren't really the ones who are interested in JRPGs. And in the process of *trying* to appeal to that market, they alienate their core audience (most of which has walked away by this point).
Now, it's entirely possible that the JRPG core audience just isn't big enough to support the development of AAA titles, but I judging by their surprise at how well Bravely Default did in the states, I have a feeling they're vastly underestimating how many people would be interested in a more classic JRPG feel.
WILL THEY QUIT WORKING ON FINAL FANTASY AND GET BACK TO KINGDOM HEARTS? and their sleeper cult hit The World Ends With You, (And the high desire sequel The World Begins With You)
They're going to run bankrupt before they get the really good games we all want out.
I'm just going to go ahead and say it: The entire Final Fantasy saga just blows.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It took a decade for Deus Ex to get right. DE:HR was game of the year for a reason. It is in HD, a golden-hued, blade-runner-invoking, ridley-scott homaging, glorious meld of FPS and RPG. Don't try to gild this lily, guys. Fuck with FF if you must, but not this franchise, please.
this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrgeiz
Good fighting game and entertainign dungeon crawler rolled into one.
That's fine for CD games. But how would you go about dumping an authentic NES or Super NES Game Pak with a Square, Enix, or Taito game on it so you can play it on your emulator? For Super NES, Genesis, and Game Boy, you can buy a Retrode adapter from DragonBox. But what for NES games such as Final Fantasy and Rad Racer?
(Before you suggest "download", please read about UMG v. MP3.com.)
Because look how successful Hollywood has been rehashing old crap, right?
They too avoid new projects out of an abject fear of failure, it's not like theater revenues are plummeting or anything.
-Styopa
Make something where you actually get to go about life in your home town for a long time if you never bother to set out on the adventure. Run an orchard, catch fish and sell them at market, buy clothes, decorate your home, and more. Not only could a Harvest Moon-type simulation side quest provide extra content for the early game and set up relationships that will become important later on, but the investment by players in a village that gets destroyed could rival the <spoiler>murder of Aeris Gainsborough</spoiler>. They could call it Chrono Crossing.
I think Disney and Pixar have to put out a few more movies to act as source material before there can be another Kingdom Hearts. Besides, it'll be complicated to integrate Disney's recent acquisitions (Marvel Super Heroes and Star Wars) in a way more story-driven than the "toy box" style juxtaposition of Disney Infinity.
But could it get any worse than a Deus Ex-themed eroge subtitled Pronounced Day of Sex?
I love SE and all, but I think the purpose of the remakes is to make the old catalog playable on new hardware/mobile. Simply dumping the NES/SNES games on mobile is pretty easy, but the 3D games, not one bit. As they said before, they weren't going to remake FF7 until there was a point to remaking everything (remember that all final fantasy games except 11/12/13/14 use pre-rendered backgrounds.)
While they are at it, they should remake Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. They could trade IP with Nintendo/Monolith to have the Xeno* games remade while they remake some of the NES/SNES era games for modern (Nintendo) consoles.
As long as there's an option for Japanese voices, since American VAs suck, I'm all for it.
Final Fantasy IX would be a plus. ;)
CEO: So, guys. We've like totally run out of new ideas, right?
[they mumble and fidget nervously]
VP of Marketing: Hey, why don't we just do the same old shit ...
[they mumble and fidget nervously again] ... only BIGGER!
[they start to smile]
VP of product development: Yeah, and with newer hardware how about MORE EFFECTS!
All: Brilliant!
CEO: Make it so. Bonuses all round, and the chocamochmochachoccas are on me!
[Massive group hug]
I just hope Hollywood don't get the same idea or we'll have to go back to making our own entertainment like we did in the war when there were no bananas.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The iOS remake was a joke. We need a true HD remake. Get the original artists in there and make this thing glorious.
So they can sell their old stuff over and over again. Maybe after making it look a bit more up to date.
It's less effort than coming up with something new.
See also: movie remakes
See that username? (Yeah. San D'Oria Tarutaru.) I played XI for a decade. Ran a successful Dynamis linkshell for four years. Finished 99 Gjallarhorn. Last December, my friends quit and moved to XIV.
XI's graphical limitations were really beginning to show, and short of a massive engine overhaul, there was little they could do to improve it any more. It held on strongly for so long for a PS2 era game, but it just wasn't as fun any more.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.