As for Midgar being a limited environment in terms of style, on the contrary I believe that Midgar can show much variety...
could offer a wide range of urban landscapes.
That's my point. Yes, Midgar has a diverse landscape as a city. It's still just
a city though. What I am comparing Midgar to here, after all, is
the rest of the world of FFVII.
In the context of that, I think Midgar's internal diversity does very little to remedy it's larger lack of scenic diversity.
When you limit the player to Midgar, you limited them to the urban landscape of Midgar - you trap then within those streets for what, 40+ hours?
At that point, I really don't care how well they do it - I would not look forward to that.
I would agree that the main hurdle about making the first part only about Midgar would be about marketing, but I don't think that making the first part only about Midgar would be a bad choice.
Suppose that SE announces up front, prior to the release of part 1:
- Part 1 is going to be about Midgar
- The whole remake is going to be [insert scheduled number of parts]
- We made the decision to cut at Midgar so that our fans would get to play the game earlier (whereas having to develop more content would make the release be at least a year later)
- We didn't want to shoehorn gameplay or character elements at the expense of the narrative structure (as a said, the Nibelheim flashback would be awesome as a beginning, much less so as an ending).
I don't think that announcement would make any sense, because non of those points are justifiable at this point.
1. This begs the question of how many parts exactly the total game will end up being as and it will be logical to conclude an extremely lengthy development window - which I just don't see happening with what happened to FFXV.
2. Unless they've needlessly expanded Midgar way beyond what it needs to be, then there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to include more on release of part 1, after what will have been around a 3 year development cycle between several companies.
3. See point 2.
4. That's a moot point, because there's nothing to say that part 1 has to end with the Nibelheim flashback.
As many people here have pointed out - one logical place to end part 1, if you have to end it before obtaining the entire party, is with the boat-ride from Junon and the first encounter with Jenova.
That could be turned into something quite spectacular.
This way we also get a very logical transition from one continent to another, which makes sense from a world-building perspective.
Opportunities are endless.
The central point I was trying to make is simply that it, while execution is important, they have a lot of room to be flexible with that.
What they won't have so much flexibility on is creating and maintaining hype/interest, and I think they know that's best done by flexing some muscles with the title, and I would argue that's best done after Midgar, not in it.
Now, I am not saying that cutting at Midgar is the only valid option. I'm merely saying that's the only valid option I see that would be compatible with a 2017 release.
Why?
The game is being developed by multiple studios at the same time, on an extremely accessible engine they now have experience working on, possibly using a lot of assets from the FFXV development process, and by 2017 will have been working on the game for 3 years.
I see no reason what so ever, again unless they've bloated Midgar to a ridiculous degree, that could possibly keep the first part limited to Midgar.
I have many concerns if part 1 does not end at Midgar:
- You can't cut "too early" after the Nibelheim flashback. IMO it would be terrible to show a slice of a massive world, introduce a new conflict with a new villain, and cut right there.
Except that seeing as Sephiroth is first introduced in Shinra building, and the massive world is introduced at the end of the bike escape, you're looking at almost the exact same problem if you end it there.
Again though, cutting it at the boat-ride, or even later, like at the destruction of the temple of the ancients etc. could work fine.
IMO, shoehorning some bits in an attempt to "please the fans" would be a worse decision than showing less and have a coherent structure (it may work marketing-wise, but would be very detrimental to the quality of the game).
My biggest concern isn't fans though - it's all the new people who'll have to buy the game to cover the production costs.
It's also important to build the confidence of long-time fans though, because if they all go "wtf is this shit?" when playing the game, there's bound to be splash damage where new possible consumers look at the word "remake", look at the old fan's reactions and go "hey, like with Hollywood remakes huh? I think I'll give this a pass thank you.".
- If you don't cut right at Midgar, then at the very least you need another story arc to be completed in order to make the cut. As the OG narrative structure stands, I don't think that cutting at Jenova-Birth would be really satisfying - Jenova-birth does not close an arc.
I don't think the game needs to close a major story arc to end on a satisfying note. This isn't a book or a movie - it's a game.
The end of Jenova, seeing "Sephiroth" for the first time, and putting the first continent behind you with a new world of unknowns lying before you is a very appropriate place to end a part of a game as far as I am concerned.
In many ways, I prefer segmented products to end on a medium note, because I don't want to get hyped only to have to wait months/years for the next part, but I also don't require the part to close of major story-points because I am approaching it like a series to begin with.
So either they'll need to shuffle the narrative structure quite a lot, or they need to cut the story much later.
A.) I don't see why they would need to,
B.) and I don't see why it would be an issue even if they needed to since they've already expressed themselves clearly on their attitudes to changing the game
however if that's the case then I don't see how we could get a 2017 release, and I'd think it would be even a tight schedule for a 2018 release. Would the fans be patient enough to wait that much? Or are they going to fret about how the release of the PS5 is going to mess that up? In the end, this other option also presents some marketing challenges.
In the end it's better to let people wait and release a stellar product, than to rush out something that then destroys people's confidence in your product.
With that being said though -
Again, this game, by 2017, has been developed by at least 3 (at least) larger companies working together, for a period of around 3 years (or slightly more) using one of the most accessible engines of the industry being worked on by people who're familiar with its use, possibly whilst importing a lot of resources from FFXV.
Comparatively - Witcher 3 was developed over a period of 3 years by a 200 man team.
The Witcher 3 guys.
If FFVIIR part 1 does not have the same size and amount of content of Witcher 3 at around the 2017 mark, that's a failure in an of itself when you consider the reach and output of SE as a company.
To think for a moment though, that the remake, even with an expanded Midgar couldn't fit in most of disk 1 of the original if they wanted to when you consider the size of Witcher 3, and the amount of content in it, is... to put it mildly - giving SE a pretty big handicap =P
), or at the Temple of the Ancients. Ending part 1 at least that much later wouldn't be a bad thing in itself, however if that's the case then I don't see how we could get a 2017 release, and I'd think it would be even a tight schedule for a 2018 release. Would the fans be patient enough to wait that much? Or are they going to fret about how the release of the PS5 is going to mess that up? In the end, this other option also presents some marketing challenges.
