Yoichi Derpa says no Final Fantasy VII remake until they top the original

[Max Payne]

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada gave today a specific condition on when we'll get a remake of Final Fantasy VII.

During the Q&A session of the company's annual shareholder's briefing (transcribed here), Wada was asked the expected question about the much wanted remake. His response was something to the effect of, we'll make a Final Fantasy VII remake once we've made a Final Fantasy game that exceeds the quality of FFVII.

If you get the feeling that this statement belittles Square Enix's current development prowess, you're pretty much spot on. Wada admitted that at present, the company is not making Final Fantasy games that exceed the quality of FFVII. If they were to release a 7 remake right now, the FF franchise would be done with, he said.

While the staff would happily make an FFVII remake, this is something that if they decided to do, they'd have to give it their full effort.

In other shareholder meeting news, UnBirth Wings provided a pic of the swag attendees walked home with this year:

http://andriasang.com/con1ny/wada_on_ffvii_remake/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Well hang it up folks.

You're never getting that remake.

 

[Tifabelle]

siiiighs loudly

 

[Tetsujin]

 

[BloodyCloud]

Perhaps I'm being too optimistic, but I look at things almost too literally. He uses the word "until"...meaning that maybe, just maybe some day...

But then again with the games SE has been putting out---they're in a real mess.

 

[Max Payne]

Perhaps I'm being too optimistic, but I look at things almost too literally. He uses the word "until"...meaning that maybe, just maybe some day...

But then again with the games SE has been putting out---they're in a real mess.

Dude they just keep looking for excuses as to why they can't do it. Look at this shit:

If they were to release a 7 remake right now, the FF franchise would be done with, he said.

How am I supposed to take shit like this seriously?

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

You're never getting that remake.

Anyone else wish SE would just say this and get it over with?

 

[Vendel]

Well I guess we can still be hopeful they will finish the compilation.



Right after Vs I would think.

 

[Lord Noctis]

Well I guess we can still be hopeful they will finish the compilation.



Right after Vs I would think.

You're assuming that they will ever finish Versus.

 

[Tetsujin]

I don't think he is.


I don't think anyone is.

 

[Edley]

Fucker gets paid $3mil a year to say his company can't make better games than a fifteen year old relic of the cd-rom era.... holy shit I need that job.

 

[Octo]

Well, at least they're admitting that they've never done anything better than FFVII. Quick lets get over to gamefaqs! The fanboys will be tearing each others throats out!

 

[Geostigma]

Games that were better then FF7 already got there remake/ports (FF6).
And post FF7 they managed to make FF12 which is a damn good game too.

So basically Derpa (lol great nickname) couldnt come up with a good enough excuse while not belittling his staff. Good job bro.

FF7 isnt on some unattainable level of perfection that they cant reach again and I dare say they already surpassed its level of quality several times. They need to take off FF7 from that silly pedestal and remake it or just stop talking about it.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Spoiler: Unpopular opinion here. tl;dr

I can understand where they're coming from. They are - or at least, some of them are - creative people. They want to make new games; I presume they want to prove that they've still 'got it' - and the more they fail, the more they have to prove. I don't know much about how games are made but I presume that re-making a game is a largely technical business that doesn't allow a lot of scope for the imagination to dream up new scenarios, plots, narratives, characters, and designs, or explore new themes.

Also, maybe they think that if we stopped hankering for our FFVII remake, we'd like their new games more.

I mean it's like going to Leonardo Da Vinci and saying, "Hey, that Mona Lisa is the best painting you ever made, but you know what would be really cool? If you turned it into a sculpture. Everybody's doing sculpture these days. And you could fix her smile while you're on that." Leo would say, "I'm glad you like it, dude, but I've moved on. I'm into frescoes these days."

Only he wouldn't say that, because Leonardo was a jobbing artist who would do anything for anybody who paid him. And so will SE remake FFVII when they need the money badly enough - or when they run out of other ideas. I think that's what he meant when he said the remake of FFVII would mean the end of the franchise.

 

[Shademp]

My interpretation of

Wada admitted that at present, the company is not making Final Fantasy games that exceed the quality of FFVII. If they were to release a 7 remake right now, the FF franchise would be done with, he said.

was that while an FFVII remake would sell hard cash no matter what, a failed product would spell financial doom in the longer run. The disappointed fans would stop buying Square's games in a faster rate than ever before and the company would lose more shareholders (or whatever the company-lingo is for these things).
Square may be little more than a corpse at this point but a failed FFVII remake would be the fire that burns the corpse to ashes. The remake holds so much more weight on the company's popularity and financial status than say underwhelming new titles do.

At least, I can see how things would turn out that way for Square. But who knows. I'm no expert on the subject.

 

[Max Payne]

Also, maybe they think that if we stopped hankering for our FFVII remake, we'd like their new games more.

People's love of FF7 and their desire for a remake didn't stop them from loving XIII or XIII-2. This is a silly thing for anyone to think, especially someone in this guy's position.

I mean it's like going to Leonardo Da Vinci and saying, "Hey, that Mona Lisa is the best painting you ever made, but you know what would be really cool? If you turned it into a sculpture. Everybody's doing sculpture these days. And you could fix her smile while you're on that." Leo would say, "I'm glad you like it, dude, but I've moved on. I'm into frescoes these days."

......No.

A painting and a sculpture are two fundamentally different works of art. They're not talking about turning FF7 into a movie or a book. It's still a video game. It'd just be a more advanced and better looking version. Like taking a pencil drawing and adding vibrant colors to it.

Square may be little more than a corpse at this point but a failed FFVII remake would be the fire that burns the corpse to ashes. The remake holds so much more weight on the company's popularity and financial status than say underwhelming new titles do.

Well you can choose to see it how you want, but he mentions nothing about a failed remake, he outright says that a remake would be the end fullstop. If that was what he meant to say he did a poor job of doing so.

 

[Alex Strife]

I think he meant that a remake, with their current "way ot making games", would fail.

That is not to say they can't do it. It's just that they feel they're not getting what they want from games, so until they don't create a GOOD, NEW game, they won't try to re-create something that's been done before.

So I understand he meant something like: "Seeing the way our latest games are not succeeding, I fear if we remade FFVII, we wouldn't do a good job with it, right now".

 

[Max Payne]

So I understand he meant something like: "Seeing the way our latest games are not succeeding, I fear if we remade FFVII, we wouldn't do a good job with it, right now".

If that were what actually what he said then I would agree.

edit:

How did XIII and XIII-2 not succeed anyway? People love those games and they sold pretty damn well.

 

[Geostigma]

Honestly the only FF game I can think of that has absolutely failed in the last several years was FF14.

Like I said they need to take FF7 off that pedestal it isnt exactly the greatest game ever to begin with.

 

[Max Payne]

I really love FF7, but I felt like FF12 while not as well characterized in a lot of ways was just as good if not better in many ways.

 

[Alex Strife]

To be honest, I still generally enjoy the games they create. Thing is, and that is something that can't be denied, they have a lot of criticism that they didn't have back in the PSX era. Of course, maybe that's because Internet was less widespread back then and they simply got less feedback from the fans.

And I did enjoy XIII, but wasn't there a lot of criticism, saying it was so linear, and whatnot?

And finally, yes, while FFVII may be my favourite, they need to remove it from the pedestal it's on. They can't simply put the game as a benchmark. I have a motto that comes down to something like: "Aim for 10, and you'll get 9; aim for 20, and you'll get 19". They shouldn't try to replicate FFVII's success, and have it as their benchmark, because there's a high chance they'll fail at it. They should aim higher, and if they do that, eventually they may get a better game.

 

[Tifabelle]

They are - or at least, some of them are - creative people.

That's true. They are creative people. They are also business people.



Their games get a lot of criticism for failing to live up to expectations. Plus this is a different world than 1997. Information is spread across the world in a matter of minutes. Everything they say and do is up for public scrutiny.

I can already foresee Versus getting a lot of criticism. You know why? Because people have waited for it for so long, that it better damn well be perfect. And it probably won't be. And people are gonna be annoyed that they had to wait 6+ years for a mediocre game because they had to go and announce before they were ready.

If they wait until they make a game that exceeds it (and I'd love to know how they measure that exactly), they're going to be making it for a generation that doesn't care. It makes more sense for them to do it now while people still want it and care about it.

 

[Max Payne]

I still think Versus has the potential to be truly great.

As long as it doesn't indulge its own drama too much.

*cough* Kingdom Hearts *cough*

 

[Octo]

And lets not forget, for a lot of people part of what made FFVII so great is tied up in nostalgia. Like myself, I was 14 and it was the first non-action RPG I had ever played, me and my brothers used to stay up until all hours playing etc etc.

Of course it was a great game in its own right, but there is stuff that can't just be planned out in SE HQ y'know? It can't just be bottled.

So what they need to do is concentrate on making new games, and responding to the criticisms they've had eg: stuff being overly linear, storytelling not being up to scratch etc

 

[Tifabelle]

I still think Versus has the potential to be truly great.

As long as it doesn't indulge its own drama too much.

*cough* Kingdom Hearts *cough*

oh so do I. I don't doubt it. I anticipate it being a game that I will enjoy (I liked FFXIII & XIII-2). But there's so much hype and nonsense sort of clouding around it already. You know there's going to be tons of people that are going to nitpick it even if it's a good game.

 

[Elisa Maza]

I wish they would just say "We can't" and let it die. :/