GRcade

Eurogamer wrote:Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Remake will not release in one piece. Instead, it will be episodic.

A stunning new trailer debuting the title's first gameplay was revealed on stage at the PlayStation Experience keynote on Saturday.

However, word of the game's new episodic release was not shared at the event. A follow-up press release from Square Enix revealed the news:

"Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be told across a multi-part series, with each entry providing its own unique experience," the publisher stated.

Square Enix expanded on the decision to make the game episodic in an interview with Dengeki Online, translated by Gematsu.

In it, the publisher said it needed to make the game episodic to avoid anything being cut, and to allow the company time to create entirely new sections.

"The idea that a remake of Final Fantasy 7 would not fit into a single release was there from the very beginning," producer Yoshinori Kitase said. "We still can't share more information about its multiple parts, but please look forward to future announcements."

"If we dedicated our time to a single release, parts of it would become summarised," director Tetsuya Nomura added. "We'd have to cut some parts, and additional parts would come in few, so rather than remake the game as a full volume, we decided to do multiple parts."

"As you can see in the trailer, we showed Sector 1 and Sector 8," Kitase concluded, "but in those areas alone, I think you can see a lot of density. When you're remaking the entirety of the original version in that quality, it's not possible to fit it all in one release."

Lotus wrote:other than charging more, I don't see any logical reason for doing this.

DML wrote:Urgh. What an own goal.

I hate this whole attitude that a game nearly 20 years on is some kind of 'impossible mission' to recreate with todays technology.

jiggles wrote:I caught this before bed last night and my kneejerk reaction was "well, strawberry float this, it's going to be another Nomura arenafest"

But, now that I've had time to digest it, I have a little more hope that it could work. The short gameplay footage from PSX makes it look like it's based on FFXV, so I think getting from Midgar to Kalm in this remake is going to be a lot more involved than just "run 100 miles in 30 seconds, maybe fight a random battle". They could absolutely break this game up into:
Episode 1: Midgar and East continent
Episode 2: West continent and Northern continent
Episode 3: Full world map

It staggers development in a way that's easier for Square as they don't have to build 80% of the world in the first go, and you get two games that have a variety of huge open areas loaded with hunts and side quests (could easily stretch that to 40+ hours). With the work in place from Episode 1 and 2, development of the final chapter is just the outlier islands and a bunch of story quests in the environments from the first two games.

DML wrote:

jiggles wrote:I caught this before bed last night and my kneejerk reaction was "well, strawberry float this, it's going to be another Nomura arenafest"

But, now that I've had time to digest it, I have a little more hope that it could work. The short gameplay footage from PSX makes it look like it's based on FFXV, so I think getting from Midgar to Kalm in this remake is going to be a lot more involved than just "run 100 miles in 30 seconds, maybe fight a random battle". They could absolutely break this game up into:
Episode 1: Midgar and East continent
Episode 2: West continent and Northern continent
Episode 3: Full world map

It staggers development in a way that's easier for Square as they don't have to build 80% of the world in the first go, and you get two games that have a variety of huge open areas loaded with hunts and side quests (could easily stretch that to 40+ hours). With the work in place from Episode 1 and 2, development of the final chapter is just the outlier islands and a bunch of story quests in the environments from the first two games.

Aren't people just gonna get bored and grind constantly in Episode 1, walking through Episodes 2 and 3 like a breeze?

jiggles wrote:

DML wrote:

jiggles wrote:I caught this before bed last night and my kneejerk reaction was "well, strawberry float this, it's going to be another Nomura arenafest"

But, now that I've had time to digest it, I have a little more hope that it could work. The short gameplay footage from PSX makes it look like it's based on FFXV, so I think getting from Midgar to Kalm in this remake is going to be a lot more involved than just "run 100 miles in 30 seconds, maybe fight a random battle". They could absolutely break this game up into:
Episode 1: Midgar and East continent
Episode 2: West continent and Northern continent
Episode 3: Full world map

It staggers development in a way that's easier for Square as they don't have to build 80% of the world in the first go, and you get two games that have a variety of huge open areas loaded with hunts and side quests (could easily stretch that to 40+ hours). With the work in place from Episode 1 and 2, development of the final chapter is just the outlier islands and a bunch of story quests in the environments from the first two games.

Aren't people just gonna get bored and grind constantly in Episode 1, walking through Episodes 2 and 3 like a breeze?

There's no reason there can't be a level cap.

DML wrote:

jiggles wrote:

DML wrote:

jiggles wrote:I caught this before bed last night and my kneejerk reaction was "well, strawberry float this, it's going to be another Nomura arenafest"

But, now that I've had time to digest it, I have a little more hope that it could work. The short gameplay footage from PSX makes it look like it's based on FFXV, so I think getting from Midgar to Kalm in this remake is going to be a lot more involved than just "run 100 miles in 30 seconds, maybe fight a random battle". They could absolutely break this game up into:
Episode 1: Midgar and East continent
Episode 2: West continent and Northern continent
Episode 3: Full world map

It staggers development in a way that's easier for Square as they don't have to build 80% of the world in the first go, and you get two games that have a variety of huge open areas loaded with hunts and side quests (could easily stretch that to 40+ hours). With the work in place from Episode 1 and 2, development of the final chapter is just the outlier islands and a bunch of story quests in the environments from the first two games.

Aren't people just gonna get bored and grind constantly in Episode 1, walking through Episodes 2 and 3 like a breeze?

There's no reason there can't be a level cap.

That sounds pretty gooseberry fool in fairness.

twitter.com/apricotsushi/status/673743064171614208

jiggles wrote:Or simply (and much more likely): Your progress doesn't carry over between the games.

jiggles wrote:Or simply (and much more likely): Your progress doesn't carry over between the games.