The Future of Final Fantasy VII
However, time moves on. Years after the initial release of Final Fantasy VII, fans clamored for more. Squaresoft, now known as Square Enix, released the CGI film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children at the end of 2005. Advent Children picked up two years after the end of the original game and with it, brought a fresh paint job to an aging classic. This new interpretation of classic characters further fueled fan fervor for more Final Fantasy VII.
The release of Advent Children sparked the beginning of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a collection of games that took place around the original game. At the same time of Advent Children’s launch, Square Enix released Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, a mobile game prequel.Then came Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII which took place a year after the events of Advent Children and followed the popular character Vincent Valentine. While the game was met with lukewarm reception, Square Enix kept the hype train full-speed with the PSP release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
This call to action from fans was forced upon Square Enix when they released a Final Fantasy VII PlayStation 3 tech demo that showcased the classic game running on modern hardware sporting a fancy new coat of paint. But alas, the remake never came. Once again, years passed, Square Enix built fans up with teases of an HD version of Final Fantasy VII only to tease fans with a high-resolution of the original game. Circumstances were grim for fans of Final Fantasy VII.
Then, like a calamity from the sky, Square Enix partnered up with Sony to drop a huge bomb at their E3 press conference.
Fans all over the world leapt with joy and tears in their eyes. The Final Fantasy VII Remake was real, and in development. Once again, speculation surrounded the game. Would it simply be the original game with better graphics? Yoshinori Kinase and Tetsuya Nomura, character artist on original game and director of the remake, gave a surprising response. The game was to be a complete reimagining of the original game, for they felt there was no merit in rereleasing the same exact game.
Fast forward to Sony PlayStation Experience in 2015, and Sony dropped another bomb. Actual footage of the Remake in action.
The game shifted from the Active Time Battle system to a more action-orientatined role-playing game battle system, something newer Square Enix games feature, like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV. Fan apprehension towards this fundamental change split the fandom. Square Enix continued to build apprehension with fans when they announced the game would be a multi-part series and worked on in conjunction with third party studios, like CyberConnect2, a studio responsible for the popular Naruto games.
Regardless, as the original announcement trailer states: “The reunion at hand may bring joy. It may bring fear. But let us embrace whatever it brings. For they, are coming back. At last, the promise has been made.”
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