Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be episodic

Slightly more information about Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been revealed, with Square Enix revealing that the game will be a multi-part series.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake is looking to take an old story and modernize it for a new generation. But modernization is looking to be more than just remastering the game's graphics and offering an updated presentation. It looks like the distribution model will be updated for the new times... for better or worse.

According to a press release issued by Square Enix (via Kotaku), Final Fantasy VII Remake will actually be an episodic series. While the statement doesn't go into any further detail, it does appear that Remake will be told in multiple parts rather than the massive package that once contained multiple discs.

On its face, it's an unexpected and somewhat shocking announcement. However, upon further thought, it's consistent with the narrative that Square Enix has been pushing for years. Nearly two years ago, FF13 trilogy producer Yoshinori Kitase stated that a FF7 remake would take 'longer than ten years' to complete. If that's still the case today, then it makes sense that Square would want to help quell the demand by releasing the FF7 story, piece-by-piece.

Of course, that now leads to the question: Exactly how long will this project take to complete?

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Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 6, 2015 7:50 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be episodic

    • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      December 6, 2015 7:53 PM

      D:

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      December 6, 2015 7:54 PM

      Goodnight sweet prince

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      December 6, 2015 7:56 PM

      I honestly expect people to be bored by the first episode and not buy the subsequent ones.

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        December 6, 2015 11:24 PM

        this is what i fear... then it never gets finished and all our dreams are crushed.

        and can you imagine getting to the end of disc one (the nasty finish by sephorith) and not be able to continue the story right away?!?!!?!?! oh my.

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        December 7, 2015 1:33 AM

        Obviously they haven't made the art assets for the later areas or characters yet and they will only be making those if the first episode sells enough.

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      December 6, 2015 7:58 PM

      Welp, I'm out.

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      December 6, 2015 8:02 PM

      way to kill everyone's boner

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      December 6, 2015 8:20 PM

      Gonna wait for the collected edition

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      December 6, 2015 8:29 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 6, 2015 8:35 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 6, 2015 8:44 PM

      Well shit, if I can complete 1/4th the game and have to wait a year or more to get the next chunk this will suck. Which if they plan on releasing stuff quicker than that, why do this anyway? I get that it is a huge game but this seems like a really strange decision to me.

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      December 6, 2015 9:03 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 6, 2015 9:10 PM

      "Each one a unique experience" quote in another article kind of freaks me out, too. Really makes it sound like they plan on cherry picking key events. Why even call it a remake?

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      December 6, 2015 9:18 PM

      Ugh. This hurts my heart. I'm so okay with waiting a few extra years for a complete game rather than an episodic release.

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      December 6, 2015 9:19 PM

      I am so done with episodes. Will wait for the full collection.

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      December 6, 2015 9:19 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 6, 2015 9:23 PM

        They were very vague about this, so we are aiming to find out ASAP.

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        December 7, 2015 6:33 AM

        Probably more like chapters like they did with FF Dimensions.

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      December 6, 2015 9:36 PM

      [deleted]

    • P90 legacy 10 years
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      December 6, 2015 9:39 PM

      We didn't ask for this...

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      December 6, 2015 10:23 PM

      Episode 1: Mako reactor

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      December 6, 2015 10:37 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 6, 2015 10:44 PM

      It's worth noting that "episodic" is Kotaku's term, and not SE's.

      A multi-part series, to me, sounds more like what they did with FFXIII, albeit planned in advance.

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      December 6, 2015 10:58 PM

      some more info from an interview here

      http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1152062

      not sure how to interpret it, could be genuine, could be fluff. episodic does mitigate a ton of risk for square enix though, and they might even make more money in the end this way. blizzard knows how to make money and it worked damn well for them :/

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      December 6, 2015 11:08 PM

      Bahamut Zero is DLC.

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        December 6, 2015 11:23 PM

        you joke, but this could seriously happen.

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      December 6, 2015 11:23 PM

      the question is not how long, but will they actually finish it then if sales are not up to projected amounts?

      plus if it really takes 10 years... will the whole thing be released on a single generation of a console?

      this makes sense on a business level maybe, but i definitely don't agree with it in the slightest... *sigh

      fingers crossed.

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      December 6, 2015 11:47 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 7, 2015 5:49 AM

        That's the view I'm taking, as well. As much as people wanted a full remake of the game in 4k with a Hollywood-caliber cast of voice actors and 200 hours of new, original content it's completely unrealistic to expect SE to do that. They've said themselves that a straight remake would take nearly a decade and be cost-prohibitive. If this model let's them take one of my favorite games of all time and present it in a way that is entertaining and fun, I'm fine with it.

        Plus, I'm too old and busy to drop another 100+ hours playing an RPG.

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      December 6, 2015 11:59 PM

      way to fuck up a game that was damn near perfect. Iwata had it right all along.

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      December 7, 2015 12:19 AM

      Guessed it from the video. If we're lucky, the first episode will contain the entire (linear) portion in Midgard. If we're unlucky, it's just the first combat mission (before we meet Tifa), or the first and second (just before we meet Aeris).

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        December 7, 2015 12:38 AM

        Neither of those options make me feel lucky:(. If the lucky option was the case, the game would have to be like 20 episodes long.

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        December 7, 2015 5:58 AM

        [deleted]

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      December 7, 2015 12:21 AM

      http://imgur.com/mwYRrhZ

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      December 7, 2015 5:13 AM

      What's the best way to play FF7 now? The ports seem decent but they're clearly ports. What's the best one? PC, Vita, iOS, PS3?

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      December 7, 2015 5:27 AM

      Telltale aside, who has been able to properly pull off episodic content?

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      December 7, 2015 6:13 AM

      I feel like this confirms worries that they may not have been putting the necessary serious resources behind this remake to do it justice.

      They're doing episodic to either cash grab or to make the game pay for its own development, which will just make it that much less likely for people to jump in early, and that much less likely that the thing ever gets finished.

      One of my friends was beyond hyped for this game and it's now convinced it's ruined and not worth thinking about any more. I find it hard to argue, other than "maybe they'll surprise us." :(

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      December 7, 2015 6:31 AM

      Welp, guess I can stop looking forward to this now.

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      December 7, 2015 9:07 AM

      This is fine by me. I have no time to put in to a full playthrough of that huge ass game. Give it to me in chunks for $40.

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      December 7, 2015 11:07 AM

      I wish they'd come out with more detail than this. This could be anything from a minor annoyance to basically ruining it for me.

      I honestly don't see how they could even come close to representing the original game if ti's all cut down into small chunks though. You can hop back and forth through the entire world by the end, so are the last few episodes going to contain all of the content from the previous ones? If they include chocobo breeding for example, how does that carry from one episode to the next? I'm worried they're just going to cut all of it out.

      Maybe they should have called this Final Fantasy VII Retold rather than Remake

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      December 7, 2015 11:19 AM

      My rage will not be episodic, it will all be released at once.

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      December 7, 2015 11:31 AM

      Will be shipped with Episode 3 of Half-Life 2.

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        December 7, 2015 11:32 AM

        You joke, but do you realize I've been waiting almost 10 years for Kingdom Hearts 3? How long do you think Square will keep people waiting for this?

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      December 7, 2015 12:10 PM

      [deleted]

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      December 9, 2015 2:24 PM

      Congratz Square, you fucked up. Why dont you Make FF7 online while youre at it.

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