FFVII Remake isn’t Sony’s “Mic Drop”!
On the first day of E3 Sony gave to me, Final Fan-ta-syyyy! Yea I know it isn’t the right time of year and it was on day zero but…look, the song works. Anyway, that’s how I felt when Final Fantasy VII Remake (name pending) was announced. This is something I and a lot of FF fans have been waiting years for. Ever since we say that tech demo back in ancient 2005, when Square Enix trolled…er, got our hopes up for nothing.
Last year we experienced another let down after FFVII flashed across the screen during Sony’s presser; fans everywhere were crushed again when they found out that it would just be an upscaled version of the PS1 game and not a full remake. Now that isn’t to say that it was a terrible move (it was) but there’s already multiple ways to play the original including PS Classics on PS3. Last night, Day Zero of E3 2015, Sony gave us a third FFVII announcement. My heart just couldn’t take another disappointment…
We were treated to an amazing video with stunning visuals with a familiar, yet dark tone. An updated version of Midgard is shown. Due to past heartbreak I withhold my excitement. At the end we see spiky blonde hair and the iconic Buster Sword. Just to make sure everyone was on the right page, at the end of the video we are greeted to six small beautiful letters on a darkened screen saying “remake”. It almost brought me to tears. Yes, I said it – take my manly man card if you like. This was an awesome announcement. FFVII was the biggest thing shown though. Kim K tried to break the internet earlier this year. Sony and Square Enix succeeded.
Although I was excited, I had to fight the urge to succumb to pure fanboyism. You see there are some caveats to this “Sony mic dropping” moment that need to be shared. The first thing to note is FFVII has to be light years away from being released. With FFXIV: Heavensward on the way, and FFXV and Kingdom Hearts 3 still in development, Square Enix doesn’t have time do a remake. Sure, we got some gameplay footage during Square’s solo event but we all know they’re notorious for delaying games; FFXV was supposed to be released years ago, under a different name. Not only that, but Tetsuya Nomura is directing Kingdom Hearts III after being moved from FFXV. He and the original director Yoshinori Kitase (acting as a producer) are tasked with making FFVII Remake, I assume when they have time.
Kingdom Hearts III has to come first, especially with Disney having a stake in it. It has been in development for some time and we still don’t have a release date. So it’s hard to stay excited for FFVII. Though I sure we’ll see the remake on the PS4, I don’t want it to be three years from now. The second thing to note was the fact that it’s coming to Sony first. As in, not an exclusive title. I can’t help but feel that Sony missed a huge opportunity by letting it slip through their fingers. Then again they are busy “producing” the new Shenmue game.
While it may have not been enough to outright win E3 I have to say I personally enjoyed what Sony showed. The Last Guardian, Street Fighter V, Uncharted 4 – they had a pretty good press event. Here’s hoping that that we all will be able to enjoy these games sooner than later. Much…much sooner!
