Yesterday’s PlayStation Experience started off with the biggest bang you could imagine; we got to see the first gameplay footage from the feverishly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake. That reveal however, was prefixed by a decent amount of admittedly fair paranoia because, after all, Final Fantasy VII is a title that holds substantial sway in the hearts of a great many PlayStation owners across the globe.
The PlayStation Experience showed Final Fantasy VII Remake to be in strong, if overly familiar form
As is so often the case with newly announced titles, the reveal of Final Fantasy VII Remake at E3 2015 earlier on in the year astounded many with the blunt force trauma of its mere existence but the CG-focused trailer did little to meaningly inform us what type of form it would take. That all changed last night.
After a quick montage of previously revealed footage mixed in with brand new cutscene sequences, we were treated to the first snippet of gameplay from Final Fantasy VII Remake and well, it was all a little bit more familiar looking than we were expecting. The ATB system of old was gone (though the developer had already confirmed this previously) and in its place was a roaming, real-time third person combat system which didn’t look unlike Final Fantasy XV. In fact, it looked so similar to Final Fantasy XV that the more cynically minded might merely say that Final Fantasy VII Remake is a reskinned version of that title, rather than a game that can be judged on its own merits.
On one hand, the fact that the remake appears to embrace Final Fantasy XV’s combat and exploration systems practically wholesale makes sense, since that framework has already been established (to an extent) and cuts down on development time – meaning that we’ll get to see the game sometime before the year 2020.
On the other hand it’s impossible to not even feel slightly disappointed that Square-Enix have taken such a safe, if sensible route with the development of this highly anticipated remake. That said, with there being countless forum threads on how Square-Enix could screw up the Final Fantasy VII Remake before it was even announced, this practiced approach to development speaks volumes as to the publisher’s own fears about gambling with such a classic property.
Speaking of playing it safe, Square-Enix ensured that the trailer would go over well with the Final Fantasy faithful by exploiting that most common of weaknesses; nostalgia. In tapping into the fond memories that just about every Final Fantasy fan has from the series seventh instalment, Square-Enix shrewdly showcased the new gameplay footage against the backdrop of Final Fantasy VII’s memorable opening portion – the Midgar cityscape and the Shinra Mako plant, complete with Guard Scorpion boss thrown in for good measure.
It proved to be an effective tactic too, since witnessing the opening areas of the original 1997 title – reimagined with all the contemporary visual bells and whistles that one would expect from a full-blown remake – was quite the breathtaking treat indeed and succeeded in getting folks excited for how the game might eventually reimagine other classic scenarios from the nearly twenty-year old game.
Perhaps most significant of all though is that beyond all the spectacle and swoop of the reveal, Final Fantasy VII Remake actually seemed to be much farther along in development than many had previously assumed. This was encouraging because it actually seems like that the game might actually have a shot at arriving sometime during the game’s twentieth anniversary in 2017 and not be subjected to the usual overly-protracted development cycles that Final Fantasy games typically endure.
Of course, these are early days, *extremely* early days in fact, but on the scant evidence we’ve seen thus far, Final Fantasy VII Remake looks to be on track to deliver an evocative if not entirely unexpected Final Fantasy XV style revamp of one of PlayStation’s most treasured titles.
What did you folks think – were you impressed or disappointed by the reveal? Let us know in the comments below!