Final Fantasy remakes (warning rant inside)

[RogueYoshi]

Okay Its not very often that I decide to rant, but after hearing that there going to be remaking Final Fantasy 4 on the Nintendo DS I was kinda happy to hear about it, but when I heard they REMADE FF1 once again on the PSP! thats when I decided that Square Enix was really really REALLY going too far!

This makes me believe that Square Enix is finally starting to go very very stale. They no longer have any ideas for any other Final Fantasy game and they know it will be very very long before Final Fantasy 13 comes out.

Another thing I heard is.....THERE MAKING 2 VERSIONS OF FF13!!!!

I was very shocked to hear this and couldn't even believe it myself.

For the love of god I know FF is popular, but I am starting to lose a little respect for Final Fantasy. It seems Square Enix is really starting to milk the series way too much

Its going to very very soon turn out to be just like Sonic.

I mean very soon will see a horrible remake of FF6 for the DS with lots of new storylines and a lot of characters changed. I mean it would be nice to see what happens to Banon in Veldt after Gestahl tricks the rebels into doing his dirty work, but other then that I think its a very bad idea to keep doing this to every Final Fantasy game. I mean very soon will see Final Fantasy 1's Black Mage, Fighter, Thief and White mage changed into crappy main characters and that Garland was their friend and that their trying to rescue him from darkness.

I think Square Enix should give Final Fantasy a break for once and focus on other games that are definitly in need of a sequal. I know FF saved them, but if they remake FF5, FF6 there going to change the personality of the characters themselves because I think most of the people who did the original Final Fantasy games may probably no longer be working there and therefore might mess up the characters.

I apoligize for this long rant.

[red.yoshi]

I haven't played too many final fantasy games, but they did already remake Final Fantasy I for the Game Boy Advance system. I do agree that they shouldn't be remaking titles. I'd like a fresh new story line, square, instead of this old one I've played twice which was tweaked. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a great remake (not to mention the only thing that was "remade" was game play, as everything else was different and races were introduced.) <,<

[Max "Snow" Andershi]

Now, before I say anything else, I want to say that your opinion's perfectly valid, since they have been making a ton of re-releases lately. XD

But I don't think that all of it's as big a problem as you make it out to be. For one, did you see the various Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary logos on the new remakes? The original Final Fantasy came out on the Famicom in Japan in 1987, so the series is technically 20 years old now. It only makes sense that they'd do some remakes of older games to cash in and celebrate and whatnot. I admit that having so many versions of the original feels a little odd, but really, do you have to buy all of them?

Also, some of the titles that they've been making -are- new. Have you seen news on Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP? It's not just a remake of one of the older games. They also released the Chocobo Tales game recently, which people seemed to like decently enough despite that it wasn't trying to be any sort of main series title.

Now, what's wrong with the multiple FFXIII titles? Once again, yeah, they haven't done it before, but FFXIII and FF Versus XIII aren't the same game. The only thing that they even share between each other is the fact that they're in the same universe. Apart from that, the characters, locations and even game genre are different (Versus XIII is being made by the Kingdom Hearts team anyhow, I believe), which just means that the player has a chance at more content. There was even supposed to be a cell phone game in the works under the name FF Agito XIII, I believe, but I haven't been keeping track of it quite as much. Sure, there are shades of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII in the idea of having multiple games, but even there, Crisis Core is showing some nice promise, based on what the company has shown.

Getting back to remakes, as far as I can tell Square-Enix have been pretty committed to putting real effort into their remakes. When they made Final Fantasy III for the DS, they put one of the head designers from the original game at the helm to direct and produce the new version so that it would be true to the original. Perhaps this is the one game where they changed personalities on characters, but that's because the characters from FFIII didn't originally -have- personalities, stories, or anything. They were as generic as the characters from the original Final Fantasy. But, so far they've been adding content to each of the games with every new release, such as extra story elements, dungeons, or both, to expand and enhance the experience for the player.

Even the PSP remakes of FF and FFII have had their graphics redone again to take better advantage of the hardware, with the entire game running at 16:9 with an obviously higher resolution than in Dawn of Souls, larger, more detailed sprites, weather effects, enhanced spells, and even more content on top of what was in Dawn of Souls.

It also seems pertinent right now to respond to red's post, since my next point is related. Tactics Advance wasn't a remake of the original game, it was simply another game using similar gaming conventions, considering that as you said, the battle mechanic was about the only thing remotely the same, as well as that they both take place in a place called Ivalice, despite that it didn't seem like they were the same Ivalice at all. But right now there -is- a true remake of the original Final Fantasy Tactics being developed for the PSP, and it's only a matter of a couple months before it's released in the US. Once again, it's been given widescreen display, and not only have they added a couple new job classes, two new cameos (One from the new Tactics A2 for the DS) and new cutscenes, they're completely re-doing the translation for this release in the US. That doesn't seem too shabby.

They're also not only remaking Final Fantasy games, as PSP remakes of Star Ocean and Star Ocean: The Second Story are being developed under the titles Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution, so those of you who enjoyed those titles might have something to look forward to in the future as well. Now, I'm not quite sure why they're making so many of these for the PSP considering the astounding success of the DS compared to Sony's portable system, but if nothing else, Tactics A2, FFXII Revenant Wings, It's a Wonderful World and the DS Crystal Chronicles game should be enough for DS fans. In addition, they're going to be bringing out Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker over in the US, they're making DQIX for the DS and DQ Swords for the Wii, so fans with Nintendo systems aren't getting left out.

There are even new IPs (Intellectual Property--basically a new series) coming out, such as the Last Revenant for the PS3, but I won't get into that because this response is already becoming far too long.

Really, yes, Square-Enix have been releasing a lot of remakes of Final Fantasy, and it would be nice to see new games in series left behind, such as a new game in the Chrono series, like Chrono Brake/Break that was trademarked and never brought to fruition, but they really are putting effort into what they do, and are also bringing us a mix of old series and new ideas to bring more entertainment to everyone. And besides, Final Fantasy has been the most popular RPG series in the world for decades, and is Square-Enix's largest series for a reason. There's no way that any company would just give up on that strong of a brand (Yes, the Sonic games have been weak lately, but Sonic Team has no bearing on Square-Enix considering that they are entirely different companies).

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No, I don't expect everyone to read all of this, and I apologise for it being so long, but please, Rogue, at least skim over it to find my main points, at the least.

[Twi]

If ya got a bit fanbase, why not release remakes? People'll buy them, you get money, everyone wins.

It's just good business, Square-enix is just a company who wants the moneys and what better way that to remake and revamp the games people loved from ages past?

[RogueYoshi]

Quoted from Max
"they're going to be bringing out Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker over in the US, they're making DQIX for the DS and DQ Swords for the Wii, so fans with Nintendo systems aren't getting left out"

Awesome!!! so Dragon Quest Mosnters Joker and DQIX are really coming over here! I consider that great news because they have not released a Dragon Quest monsters game over here for a while. To be honest this is what caused me to kinda start the rant a little, but I left it out because I forgot all about it.

Now to be honest a remake on Final Fantasy 4 DS sounds like it will spawn even more Final Fantasy game remakes which doesn't even sound bad at all! However theres one thing I want to say...they better not screw up Final Fantasy 6 at all! That was a huge childhood favorite of mine and if it were to be done I would love to hear Kefka's new laugh and a remix to his theme.