Do you think they will ever finish the Compilation?

[Arth]

I have to disagree with the opinion that Advent Children was the worst.I´d rather say Crisis Core because it ruined at least two great scenes of the original (Zack´s death and Nibelheim) and made them to scenes overloaded with cliches and badly written characters*Genesis*.Plus new characteriziations like Sephiroth who was once a good guy who had fun with friends and smiled *ugh* and just turned to a silent badass because his friends passed away.I don´t like that aspect and since Sephiroth says in the original that since his childhood days,he thought that he was different,I would never think that he ever got closer friends like Angeal or Genesis with this attitude.

Advent Children is just a shitty -what-happened-after-Meteor-fan fiction with no real impact on the main story.Everything that happened in the movie could´ve been implemented as a longer sidequest in the next Compilation game or as a part of the centric Jenova War storyline in a game. But Crisis Core changes important scenes of the original and nowadays every new FF VII Compilation would reproduce the scene like they had been implemented in Crisis Core with all Genesis fangirl screaming crap and Zack´s speech before his death even if everyone could see CLEARLY that he´s been shot in the head a second ago.It´s just plain annoying and destroys the epicness of the scenes more than any fan fiction with no too big impact like AC could´ve done...

 

[AvecAloes]

Really? I liked Crisis Core, and I have to disagree that it ruined the original impact of VII. In regards to Sephiroth having friends - why couldn't he have had some friends (or at the very least, close acquaintances), despite having felt that he was different? I don't think that that necessarily keeps someone from getting to know the people you work and train closely with. And I don't think that anything in Crisis Core made it seem that Sephiroth was just plain normal, you could still tell that he held himself somewhat apart from (and perhaps, above) Genesis and Angeal.

As far as altering the Zack death scene, well...I think I'll just let that be called artistic license. We spent the whole game getting to know Zack and seeing a new and in depth side of his relationship with Cloud, I don't think that adding to that scene was necessarily a bad choice. It might come across as cheesy or cliche in ways, but some people must have appreciated the added element of closure between Zack and Cloud. Also, his

Spoiler: speech

Cloud Strife: [Zack lies at the edge of a cliff, dying; various pieces of 'enemies' armor & weapons scattered across the ground; Cloud, still weak from "Mako addiction", crawls toward Zack; when he finally reaches Zack's side] Z-Zack.
Zack Fair: [grunts in pain; face relaxes, he looks at Cloud; with a smile] For the... both of us.
Cloud Strife: [confused] Both... of us?
Zack Fair: That's right... you're gonna...
Cloud Strife: [as if to prompt him] You're gonna...
Zack Fair: [Zack reaches out, grabs Cloud behind the head; as he pulls Cloud's head down to rest on his chest] Live.
[holds his head in comradery/friendship]
Zack Fair: You'll be... my living legacy.
[hand drops to his side; Cloud sits up again, the side of his face now covered with Zack's blood; Cloud just looks at Zack silently; Zack looks over at Buster; drags it towards Cloud]
Zack Fair: My honor... my dreams...
[holds Buster out towards Cloud]
Zack Fair: they're yours now.
Cloud Strife: [reaches for the sword with one hand; eventually grabs with the other also; Zack briefly touches Cloud's hand before he pulls the sword towards himself; silent a few moments] I'm... your living... legacy.

...well, that kind of explains what happened to Cloud. He took the words a little too literally, and in his confused state, well, you know. Kinda lost himself. I like that that ties in so well with playing VII right afterwards.

 

[Captain Jack Harkness]

the only real piece of shit in CC is, imo, the scene in the Nibelheim's reactor. the wasn't need to put Genensis inside but they put him. not only because he broke the ....,how to say it..... 'special moment' but it make everithing so stupid. i mean, he had jenova just behind him but didn't nothing and he says espressly "Jenova is a monster." and i don't think he doesn't know the difference between a monster and a cetra.
there are some think that i dislike about CC but mostly regarding the gameplay and the lack of freedom.
imo,the worst was Before Crisis. That's is a walking mass of plotholes, specially regardind the compilation.

 

[ForceStealer]

..well, that kind of explains what happened to Cloud. He took the words a little too literally, and in his confused state, well, you know. Kinda lost himself. I like that that ties in so well with playing VII right afterwards.

This. I really liked the touch of dramatic irony there. In trying to help Cloud come to, Zack caused his Jenova-spun brains to create that whole false persona which wasn't fully formed until he encountered Tifa in Sector 7. Yes, the scene didn't need the jpop, but that actual scene itself, I liked.
I know the opponents of it always talk about the power of Zack already being dead as opposed to having a pre-death pep talk. But the fact that, to those who know FF7, what Zack says is actively causing Cloud problems is a cool angle. It wasn't uplifting or inspiring, it was "Oh crap, Zack has no idea what he's doing to him."

As to Sephiroth having friends, are you serious? I guess he was supposed to be be sitting in the corner listening to Linkin Park all the time? I wouldn't have described Sephiroth as "friendly." He was still pretty aloof and distant, he just happened to have some shreds of humanity in him. Him having once been a good guy is not a "new characterization," that was always the case. And how could Sephiroth have felt he was different if he had never interacted with anyone else?

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Everything Force said, especially...

But the fact that, to those who know FF7, what Zack says is actively causing Cloud problems is a cool angle. It wasn't uplifting or inspiring, it was "Oh crap, Zack has no idea what he's doing to him."

 

[Arth]

Really? I liked Crisis Core, and I have to disagree that it ruined the original impact of VII. In regards to Sephiroth having friends - why couldn't he have had some friends (or at the very least, close acquaintances), despite having felt that he was different? I don't think that that necessarily keeps someone from getting to know the people you work and train closely with. And I don't think that anything in Crisis Core made it seem that Sephiroth was just plain normal, you could still tell that he held himself somewhat apart from (and perhaps, above) Genesis and Angeal.

As far as altering the Zack death scene, well...I think I'll just let that be called artistic license. We spent the whole game getting to know Zack and seeing a new and in depth side of his relationship with Cloud, I don't think that adding to that scene was necessarily a bad choice. It might come across as cheesy or cliche in ways, but some people must have appreciated the added element of closure between Zack and Cloud. ...well, that kind of explains what happened to Cloud. He took the words a little too literally, and in his confused state, well, you know. Kinda lost himself. I like that that ties in so well with playing VII right afterwards.

I´m building my opinion on how I see Sephiroth in OG.And to me,it´s not like he could´ve any friends in the past because of his behaviour towards anyone in OG.I think he´s arrogant and rather isolates himself from anyone else.And as far as I would interpret him in OG,the only partner in his training is no one but himself.I just can´t imagine that this man could´ve had some buddies to talk to,I also think about his cold behaviour when one of the guards got lost at Mt.Nibel,why shouldn´t there be some time left to search after him?Ok,in the late game it does make sense that only Cloud in his uniform survives but still...all in all,many things in VII have to be interpreted because they are only vaguely explained or shown and to me,Sephiroth´s past as a child living with lies about his paranets had a huge influence on how he became afterwards.Even in his childhood days,he was a lone wolf and couldn´t have real comrades or friends because of him,isolating himself from the other kids and being quite boring in contrast to other lively kids,that´s MY interpretation of his sentence about being ´´different´´ than the other kids I assume and I don´t see any interesting or important aspect why Angeal and Genesis should be his closer comrades/friends (besides that both suck,potatoes gonna potate ) at the time of CC.It let´s him look less colder and slightly friendlier and that´s my point,I don´t see why this development should´ve happened when I think about the lonely but cool badass who slays giant dragons in 2 turns.I´d rather think that not giving him any comrades adds more to the mystery about his person and that the player couldn´t really tell if he is a good or a bad person,when I look at his picture in the menu in the Kalm flashback I´m not sure if he cares about anything,he was just raised by Shinra (?) and therefore he doesn´t have anyone he could hang on to and follows his orders because he never learned something else than fighting for Shinra or knows anyone he could talk to since Gast ´´passed away´´ one day (Damn,I want to have an actual game about Sephiroth´s and possibly Shinra´s past SO MUCH.)

And now to Zack´s death scene: I don´t appreciate the new aspects that CC brings.I´d rather watch the scene from OG with Cloud being totally broken and at the bottom of his strength only climbing up to Zack with the last amount of his power and picking up the Buster Sword,screaming towards the sky (need Sakurai´s scream in a remake not that pussy version by Steve Burton -.-) and getting traumatised by seeing his friend in a pool of a blood and DEAD without a speech.The ultimate catalyst for Cloud being the ´´false´´ hero wasn´t Zack´s heroic speech but Tifa´s appearance at the train station where Jenova builds Cloud up to somebody who Tifa would admire based on his memories about her and that he said to her that he wanted to become a hero just like Sephiroth.And I think that Cloud viewed Zack as a hero on par with Sephiroth because both of them were Soldier First Class but Zack was way more kind-hearted so he became friends with Cloud instead of Sephiroth who still doesn´t have friends That´s also the reason why Jenova choose Zack´s character as Cloud´s new role model as he had a closer contact with Zack even knowing Cloud´s name and not the stronger but colder Sephiroth who kicked Zack´s ass in a few seconds in OG.BTW,this would highlight Cloud´s appearance even more that HE is the one who successfully attacked Sephiroth as the first human in probably a very long time and wasn´t kicked out of the room like Zack..

Oh and sry for any mistakes or misunderstandings,my English isn´t the best ^^

 

[Lex]

Well I didn't really see Angeal and Genesis's relationship with Sephiroth like that. They were just 3 of the most advanced SOLDIER's who trained together and something like that usually develops into a kind of mutual understanding. By their interactions in CC you can kind of see that Sephiroth doesn't really care about the people, it's more that he just wants to know what's going on and solve it.

And I kind of liked that they gave him that bit of character development anyway. He doesn't really have his total breakdown until he discovers he was a science experiment. I just never really saw it like he was this brooding loner his whole life. A lone wolf yes, but he still had to interact with people even if he was super-powerful.

 

[Roger]

Really? I liked Crisis Core, and I have to disagree that it ruined the original impact of VII. In regards to Sephiroth having friends - why couldn't he have had some friends (or at the very least, close acquaintances), despite having felt that he was different? I don't think that that necessarily keeps someone from getting to know the people you work and train closely with. And I don't think that anything in Crisis Core made it seem that Sephiroth was just plain normal, you could still tell that he held himself somewhat apart from (and perhaps, above) Genesis and Angeal.

I don't really mind that he has friends, Cloud himself said he and Sephiroth used to be friends in the original game. While that wasn't true, we were never really led to believe Sephiroth having friends in his youth is impossible. But Genesis and Angeal were friends of his, that he respected that went through the exact things he did. Nothing in Hollanders research led him to go "OMG Genesis is the Chosen One", even though his and Hojo's research were only slightly different, and more importantly, only different in execution, not the goal of the experiment. That all of the sudden Sephiroth would take the research of propehtic truths proving he is the chosen one, when just he spent the entire game leading up to it being pretty whatever about, even though he at the same time cared about Angeal and Genesis, it makes a big difference for me.

 

[ForceStealer]

Even before all of that all that Chosen One crap seemed to be a direct product of Sephiroth's brain snapping. He never talks about any of that stuff after Nibelheim. He took all that stuff about recreating a Cetra to heart and decided he was meant to be the one to bring them back. Genesis and Angeal were clearly not the ones at that point. But after his Lifestream dip, he knows he's not Cetra, nor is Jenova, and he's superior than all of them anyway and goes back to being cold and calculating with an even bigger dose of arrogance.

 

[Arth]

Well,that´s the story CC delivered.But I´d rather stick to the original because I didn´t think that the FF VII universe did need such brilliant and unforgettable characters like Hollander or Genesis...I like the mysterious and unclear circumstances about the Sephiroth before the Nibelheim incident in OG more than what CC has done throwing the spotlight on Sephiroth and giving him some guys he could hang around with.Interpreting everything FFVII didn´t state clearly makes more fun to me than thinking about CC or any Compilation title and realise how awful some background stories or themes have been covered up based on my imagination how great everything COULD´ve been -.-

 

[ForceStealer]

What's the story that CC delivered? Of course we didn't need Hollander or Genesis. But everything I said was pretty much there in the first game. CC should have focused on the Wutai War instead of adding more Jenova Project rejects, but the concepts of Sephiroth being a human - if cold - person before CC was not some new characterization FF7 forced on him. He was shown to be a halfway decent guy in the Kalm flashback.

 

[Arth]

That wasn´t actually a response to what you said.But yeah,showing more of the Wutai War would´ve been one option and I could think of at least 10 other ideas that would´ve been better than what they started with BC or AC,makes me angry and sad at the same time :/

 

[ForceStealer]

Well BC's a different level of stupid but is conveniently the easiest to pretend doesn't exist becaus it doesn't outside a fairly small island in the pacific

 

[Arth]

I still could think of the idea that Square Enix might release a Compilation of FFVII Anniversary Collection for PS3/4/PS Vita one day if they just would stop to hate money ^^ Dreaming is allowed

 

[Roger]

Even before all of that all that Chosen One crap seemed to be a direct product of Sephiroth's brain snapping. He never talks about any of that stuff after Nibelheim. He took all that stuff about recreating a Cetra to heart and decided he was meant to be the one to bring them back. Genesis and Angeal were clearly not the ones at that point. But after his Lifestream dip, he knows he's not Cetra, nor is Jenova, and he's superior than all of them anyway and goes back to being cold and calculating with an even bigger dose of arrogance.

I know he was fooling himself to a certain degree, but the level of self-delusion or just how unbelievably stupid in made him look in is way bigger in CC, where we know he just completed researching a project with the same aims and info avialable but didn't read any of this into it merely because it didn't apply him.

 

[Lex]

Bumping this discussion because of comments on my most recent article on the front page:

I’m looking forward to G-Bike more than anything else, to be honest. If Square Enix gets their butt into gear, maybe we can finally start expecting another new title to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, one that answers the question about Geneis and Weiss since the secret ending of Dirge of Cerberus 8 years ago. Plus, the game looks really fun, and I hope there’s more stages like Wutai and the Fort Condor for G-Bike. Wouldn’t that be cool?

To which I replied:

That would be excellent. Or what I should say is: yes I’m looking forward to G-Bike, and yes I want them to conclude what they started with the compilation, even if some of it was mediocre at best.

The real question is, why have they seemingly forgotten that it’s unfinished? I had assumed it was simmering at the back of (perhaps Nojima or Nomura’s) mind – that this thing they created, this detailed sometimes retconned backstory and future to beloved VII – is actually still unfinished.

The realist in me now thinks that it isn’t that they’ve forgotten at all. The most alarming thing about Final Fantasy X’s audio drama is that Square-Enix as a company are content to leave it on that note – back where it started; unfinished. And maybe there’s some sort of poetic justice there in the back of their minds, because the end of Final Fantasy VII itself was a cliffhanger. There was a time when I thought that the financial difficulties Square faced may have forced them to pull an in-development title that may have concluded the Compilation. Now I see developer post-it notes on desks saying “much speculation for everyone” when they were deciding what the “secret” ending of Dirge would be. I’m now not convinced they ever intended to continue it. We actually have no evidence to that effect. The only thing we have is a quote saying “the Compilation could last for 20 years”. They’ve got three left.

It wasn't until I sat to write this that I realised that my whole opinion on this has changed recently, and it's probably to do with the HD re-release of FFX and its audio drama/ book.

Thoughts?

 

[Tetsujin]

Looking at the first page, my thoughts are the same as two years ago.

 

[jazzflower92]

All I know if they put Genesis in the next game it will be panned by all players who can't stand the guy.

 

[Shademp]

It's not helping matters that Square rarely gets asked about another FFVII sequel in interviews.

My memory told me that an FFVII sequel was addressed in 2012, back when Nomura said that such a title won't happen until they create a new game that becomes equal to or surpasses FFVII (whatever that actually means). But now when looking for that interview all I find are remake-references, where Nomura says that a remake won't happen before reaching the end of that rainbow. Maybe I just didn't find the proper translations to that interview. (Yoichi Wada supposedly said the same thing shortly after Nomura)

The closest thing I found to an interview question about an FFVII sequel was this one from 2011 and I'm not even sure if the article is a huge mistranslation.

If G-Bike and subsequent minigames are successful, I think Square is way more concerned with gathering the resources for the creation of an FFVII remake than to officially finish the Compilation story. They pretty much never get asked about the latter. Why make a title that so few are requesting?

 

[ForceStealer]

Why make a title that so few are requesting?

I dunno, that kinda sounds like Square to me.

 

[Shademp]

And I would hold my thumbs for Square suddenly blurting out a big FFVII title (that so few are asking for) if not for their previous statement that they must somehow surpass FFVII. FFXIII-2, a game nobody asked for, was created as a response to the feedback they got from FFXIII. So internally, to the company, it makes sense to use a new numbered FF for the purpose of growing and experimenting. I think the leading figures of Square are ashamed that they are always riding on the hype and success of the 90's and early 00's.

If only FFVII had been less of a success, maybe we'd have seen the Post-DoC FFVII game by now. Heh...

 

[ultima espio]

I'm sure there was an interview back in 2011/2012, where someone said that they'd do FFVII-2 if they had the right opportunity, and Sephiroth "Isn't done yet".

 

[Shademp]

I'm sure there was an interview back in 2011/2012, where someone said that they'd do FFVII-2 if they had the right opportunity, and Sephiroth "Isn't done yet".

I have no recollection of an interview where it was said that Sephiroth is not done yet. =/


Some articles that come to mind are from the time of ACC's release...

Famitsu PS3 (see also this one)

They’re pretty much done with FF7, saying that it’s hard to think of any other important events that might occur in the universe. They still have ideas, but there won’t be any compilation news for a while.

Dengeki PS3

When asked if he wants to write a sequel to ACC, Nojima says that he’s interested in Cloud’s future, and in AC he’s still in his early 20′s so he can still take the lead role.

 

[ultima espio]

Yeah I looked back through a thread on another forum all the way to March 2011 to find the person who said that, and there was no source.

So I was wrong

But this is what I was talking about with FFVII-2:

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...n-final-fantasy-vii-2-needs-to-be-big-budget/

"It would have to be really big budget title. It would take a long time and a lot of money to make that. We would be interested given the opportunity, but obviously we'd have to see, round up the best staff, and we'd have to look at the situation in the market to see if it's good timing for us... At the moment we've got no plans... We might do it."