Jason Schreier: "Final Fantasy VII Remake's Box Art Sure Is Misleading"

[TropicalSalad]

I take issue with people wanting to call it 'Chapter Midgar' , for the same reasons stated in the article. Direct quote:

'Wow, a remake of that game I loved in the 90s' only to find that they've actually just gotten 1/10 of the story of that game they loved in the 90s?

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That same person would think "Wow, a remake of the 6 hours I loved in the 90s' for 60$ ? Not buying that at that price".
I don't think it's a problem to name it simply FF7R, there will probably be a quote at the back stating this is the 'first part' of the story. I think that people who haven't played it in the 90s' won't mind not having the full ff7 story for this game, and those that did play it (and realized long ago this isn't the midgar they played back then) won't expect the game to open up when they fight Rufus as the final boss 30 hours in.

 

[APZonerunner]

No?

Again, we have no idea what the road map is. So they could effectively wrap up the game in the next installment, and cut a LOT of the filler stuff from the original release (i.e. spending all that time playing the mountain defense game, changing the gold saucer, reworking wutai, etc). There are a lot of variables we don't know, so say the game is "reflective of 1/10th of the story" is an assumption and nothing more. There is a LOT to cut / trim / rework in FFVII, especially with changes in game design and narrative delivery. So much can be condensed or delivered in a way that it couldn't be before due to technology limitations.

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The main problem with this sentiment is that FF7 is so beloved that any one section that you might think is shit filler is the favourite bit of the game to somebody else. Kitase even said this in justification for splitting the story up: he said they wouldn't want to cut anything from the original because it would upset somebody, so the natural way is to make it as multiple games. If they were going to strip the game back and streamline it, they probably could've done it in one game more easily. I fully expect the remake in general to be additive in this sense. Like, I bet Fort Condor is some fully-fledged nuts RTS thing in game 2 that you can pump 15 hours into if you want, Blitzball style. I don't think they'll cut it. This is an assumption, obviously, but it's one based on Kitase and Nomura's own comments about the scope of the games they wanted to make.

You're wasting your time. They have already made up their mind and they feel like voicing their displeasure in every FF7R thread. And that is despite all of the good counter points brought up to their issues and the fact that we still do not know the scope of the game.

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Their concerns are founded, though, I'm just saying we shouldn't write off the new content. The new content could be good and the game could be a narrative disaster; the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. This could easily be a Hobbit-style fuck-up. So I think debate and discussion about what we know is only natural and smart, I just don't think it's good to assume it'll be shit. Concern is smart tho, imo.

 

[Papercuts]

I like how FF7: Midgar or Part 1 is somehow going to make consumers think "damn this is gonna be short" and skip the game but the same thing being titled Final Fantasy 7 Remake is actually filled with informed consumers that know what they're buying.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Nice deflection when you literally just called someone out for not doing that.

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Someone angrily demanding that Square "figure it out" while also rejecting what they came up with...

 

[Deleted member 15428]

This article is pure speculation. No facts. This is bad journalism.

 

[Plum]

They solved the issue by not creating it to begin with by adding that Part 1 subtitle.

Do people really think a subtitle was never discussed with their marketing department to begin with? Amazingly, seems o.

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Someone angrily demanding that Square "figure it out" while also rejecting what they came up with...

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So nobody can complain about any marketing decisions because "the marketing team probably thought about it already"?

 

[hydrophilic attack]

you know they might put that information on the back of the box..

which hasn't been released yet

i think one should have all the facts before making this accusation, but hey what do i know

 

[Nugnip]

The game could be 100 hours long, that's not the point, it's still not a remake of Final Fantasy VII. It's a remake of the Midgar part, which is a very small portion of the game I know as Final Fantasy VII. The problem isn't about the value of this remake, I'm sure I'll get my money's worth. People playing this won't get the full story.

 

[Papacheeks]

Like I said. It may be A full game. But it's not THE full game. 30 hours of dicking around in one location while most of the original game's best moments are another 60 or 120 dollars away is disingenuous unless they add a subtitle to the damn box.

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Or they added a shit ton of content including fully fleshing out other characters from AVALANCHE?

Which they have been very open about.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The people saying it's as simple as adding "Part 1" to the title seem to disagree with you about that.



They clearly think they figured it out. I don't disagree with their approach considering the ambition of the project. There's really no objective truth here. Just comes to matter of opinions and what you personally expect when you hear "remake."

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The ambition of the project doesn't make the framing of the marketing not misleading. Like there is a plain truth that when you look at the namez and you look at the box arts side by side there is 0 indication the remake isn't a full on content remake.

Bury your head in the sand all you want for SE to get that money though.

 

[decoyplatypus]

And you really think laying out the details for those people is going to change purchasing decisions?

If you think calling it a remake is disingenuous, then it's just as disingenuous to call it "just Midgar," since that makes anyone who played the original think they are getting a 3-hour game. So, basically, you would have to say "First part of an ambitious remake project to flesh out and expand on the story and world of Final Fantasy VII, beginning with a massively evolved Midgar chapter."

Saying "it ends at Midgar" almost certainly means something completely different in this game than it does in the original game. If it is a cheap 3 ~ 5-hour experience that doesn't turn Midgar into a whole game, then I'll be right there with you all calling bullshit, but I'm willing to give the vision they are selling a chance.

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I think it would properly inform purchasing decisions for less plugged-in consumers. I don't know that a "Midgar" subtitle is as misleading as no subtitle at all, but in any case you can just subtitle it "Part One" or "Episode One."

Filler? The original writters are expanding upon the story, this isn't filler.

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This is separate from the subtitling issue, but I think we're all going to have to play the game (and possibly its sequels) before we can determine whether the story expansions are "filler." Maybe the writers succeed in reworking the original material into something richer and more detailed. Maybe what they add never feels interesting or essential and we all say it's the videogame equivalent of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films. We'll just have to see.

 

[Deleted member 11421]

Probably like The Hobbit.

But my fear is, if they transformed Midgar in a 40 hours game, when the last part will be released? 2034?

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2024, I think they can pull it off...places like Cosmo Canyon will look spectacular but outside of having maybe an hour of cutscenes it's really just one small dungeon attached. That's the case with most towns.

Part 2=Journey across the world, FFX linear style all the way up north
Part 3=Deal with the impending threat, turn the WEAPON fights into mandatory incredible setpieces fleshed out through the previously iffy huge materia plot and of course deal with Sephiroth

 

[Deleted member 1635]

So nobody can complain about any marketing decisions because "the marketing team probably thought about it already"?

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You can complain all you want. Everyone doesn't have to agree with your sentiment, though.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

This isn't a question about whether Remake Part 1 is a full game or not, people can stop being insecure about that. It's about the consumer expecting the full FFVII story and getting like 1/3.

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Let's just assume that there's a substantial amount of people that didn't know anything about this game, bought this game because of the box art (but didn't read the description on the back of the box art or on the PSN page), now this is an enormous assumption because i don't think this group of people exists in any type of relevant numbers, but again, just for the sake of argument i'll play along.

Don't you think that after a few hours of the games story progressing dramatically slower than the OG game that they'd probably figure out something is off and finally break out the google search? And if they don't like what they read, what's to stop them from taking it back and returning it?

This isn't nearly as big of a deal as people are making it out to be, there's no good name for this project because it's unprecedented. They just had to pick something and FF7 Remake was what they came up with. If they put a subtitle in it people will think it's a 5 hour game (and look no further than this very thread to know it's true).

But the thing is, everyone in this thread knows this isn't a 1:1 remake, because SE has been very open about that. FF7 remake isn't the best name for this game, but calling it anything else would just lead to more confusion.

 

[zashga]

So where are people getting that the Midgard portion of the game will now be 40+ hours? That sounds like an absurd inflation of the original story.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

I knew it was going to be broken up into parts, but I've never played FF7 so I didn't know the Midgar section was only 4 hours long lmaoooo. What the hell, are they gonna be working on this for over a decade?

 

[The Unsent]

Remake Chapter 2?

Worked out just fine for IT.

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It will probably work out fine for this remake and it makes a lot of money, but criticism is still fine.

I haven't seen IT but FF VII remake literally recreates the cover of the original, someone is meant to think it's the whole deal.

Movies are also a lot cheaper than games and there was only two years between the IT chapters.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

I think Jason is jumping the gun a little here.

 

[Deleted member 426]

I'll be honest, when I first saw the box art I thought, "Oh, I guess they aren't doing the episodic thing anymore. Maybe I missed the news about that? Cool!"

It's misleading, and we know why. Did they announce a price yet for the first episode? If it's a full $60, then it's super duper extra misleading.

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This is exactly why they can't call it Episode 1. Because people will assume it's not a full fledged game. It's a $60 game and a full fledged FF the same size as any other (and at two blu rays big it's likely to be pretty hefty). The model they are going after is the XIII Trilogy.

That said I'm not 100% okay with Final Fantasy VII Remake as a name. I just feel like SE were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and chose the option that wouldn't lose them a load of sales. Which a lot of people in here would probably rather given how many people don't love SE on Era.

 

[Altera]

So nobody can complain about any marketing decisions because "the marketing team probably thought about it already"?

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Complain all you want. Doesn't make you right and them wrong.

If anything, I bet the success of the game proves you wrong, in the end. And it won't be because a ton of people bought the game unintentionally thinking it goes through the whole story.

 

[Deleted member 32018]

the "totally uniformed Final Fantasy 7 fan" should be happy with his purchase anyway because it will be a 40-60hour experience.

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Where are you getting that it's a 60 hour experience? Also the uniformed fan would most likely want the story to be resolved as it was in the original and not just the first 20-30% of it.

 

[Brat-Sampson]

There will be more than enough story in this remake, with fully voiced cutscenes that the og didn't have, as a remake they don't have the obligation to keep it as a single game.

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They don't, and they aren't. They do have an obligation to make it clear to consumers that this is not the original game remade, which the box indicates it is.

 

[Altera]

I think Jason is jumping the gun a little here.

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Creating internet outrage is the best way to get those retweets and likes.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

The ambition of the project doesn't make the framing of the marketing not misleading. Like there is a plain truth that when you look at the namez and you look at the box arts side by side there is 0 indication the remake isn't a full on content remake.

Bury your head in the sand all you want for SE to get that money though.

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I've articulated my thoughts about this already, but you can dismiss that as burying my head in the sand if you want.

This is not 1997 FFVII. It's not a "remaster," either. Demanding that everything play out just like 1997 FFVII is crazy to me.

 

[Plum]

Or they added a shit ton of content including fully fleshing out other characters from AVALANCHE?

Which they have been very open about.

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That's added content; most of the content that people might buy the game for very likely won't be there in this game

Complain all you want. Doesn't make you right and them wrong.

If anything, I bet the success of the game proves you wrong, in the end. And it won't be because a ton of people bought the game unintentionally thinking it goes through the whole story.

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I was literally just saying that people can complain about marketing without having to solve the issue themselves. I don't know where all this other stuff has come from...

Though I must say that if we're talking about sales then Part 2 is the game we need to look at. I don't think anyone is going to suggest that this game won't sell like hot-cakes.

 

[Altair]

There will be more than enough story in this remake, with fully voiced cutscenes that the og didn't have, as a remake they don't have the obligation to keep it as a single game.

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More than enough doesn't equate to the full story that the title implies. No, they don't have an obligation to keep it as a single game, but if they're going to spread the story out over multiple games then they do have an obligation to let people know that rather than mislead them with a title that implies it is.

 

[Xeontech]

People need to calm the fck down till we actually know how much of the game is actually in part one. Right now we know shit TBH.

Has Jason played the game in its entirety?

That said, there should be some indicator that this is just the first part. Maybe there will be. We haven't seen the final box yet either. Jump the gun much?

 

[Papacheeks]

So where are people getting that the Midgard portion of the game will now be 40+ hours? That sounds like an absurd inflation of the original story.

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Ton's of side missions. Midgar is very open to explore and there will be side missions for characters of Avalanche including sub-stories. It's a way to add more emotional payoff when Midgar is literally destroyed later in the game.

I think having more context and backstory on wedge, jessie adds more to Barret when that shit happens. Guess we will have to see how it pans out.

 

[jeefington]

I mean not that this needs more opinions but the description on PSN clearly indicates it's part 1 so I can't imagine this won't be called out on the actual box

A spectacular reimagining of one of the most visionary games ever, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE rebuilds and expands the legendary RPG for today.

The first entry in a multi-part saga, delivering a level of depth inconceivable for the original. Mind-blowing story, unforgettable characters, epic battles and technical excellence collide.

The world has fallen under the control of the Shinra Electric Power Company, a shadowy corporation controlling the planet's very life force as mako energy.

In the sprawling city of Midgar, an anti-Shinra organization calling themselves Avalanche have stepped up their resistance. Cloud Strife, a former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary, lends his aid to the group, unaware of the epic consequences that await him.

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[cyrribrae]

*Do do do do Ignoring 18 pages of comments*

This is misleading, but it might not really matter. The real question is how will FF7 Remake: PART TWO be marketed and sold? If people just want the nostalgia for FF7, starting at the beginning is AOK with me. It's where everyone jumped in and if the game holds up (in its entirely new format) then the game will hold up. If people get it for $60 and then feel cheated or unfulfilled.. THEN we will have a problem. Either way, the challenge will be when the next part comes out, how do you communicate that Part 2 is a separate purchase, that it builds on the first Remake part, etc? Will people care? I think depends largely on the reception to the first part of FF7.

Anyway, yes, it's misleading because many people don't even know the nature of this remake. It's smart because they need people to jump in. We'll see if it pays off.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Or they added a shit ton of content including fully fleshing out other characters from AVALANCHE?

Which they have been very open about.

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"A bunch of dead people get more lines" is not really what I'm looking for in a remake of VII, especially if that means I have to pay them $120 or $180 just to see the parts of the game I do want to see.

 

[8byte]

The main problem with this sentiment is that FF7 is so beloved that any one section that you might think is shit filler is the favourite bit of the game to somebody else. Kitase even said this in justification for splitting the story up: he said they wouldn't want to cut anything from the original because it would upset somebody, so the natural way is to make it as multiple games. If they were going to strip the game back and streamline it, they probably could've done it in one game more easily. I fully expect the remake in general to be additive in this sense. Like, I bet Fort Condor is some fully-fledged nuts RTS thing in game 2 that you can pump 15 hours into if you want, Blitzball style. I don't think they'll cut it. This is an assumption, obviously, but it's one based on Kitase and Nomura's own comments about the scope of the games they wanted to make.

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And we all know that what developers say and do are two different things.

Again, my main issue with what Jason wrote is that he said this is only "1/10th" of the game, which is objectively a guess and a crap shoot. I don't think anyone from SE has told Jason in any interview that the first chapter of the remake is only 1/10th of the total product, so it is indisputable that he is making shit up in this instance, and likely it's for clicks. That's a controversial sentence to write, and he knows it. Jason knows exactly what he's doing, because he's been doing it a long time.

Which means he can do better.

 

[Lumination]

Let's just assume that there's a substantial amount of people that didn't know anything about this game, bought this game because of the box art (but didn't read the description on the back of the box art or on the PSN page), now this is an enormous assumption because i don't think this group of people exists in any type of relevant numbers, but again, just for the sake of argument i'll play along.

Don't you think that after a few hours of the games story progressing dramatically slower than the OG game that they'd probably figure out something is off and finally break out the google search? And if they don't like what they read, what's to stop them from taking it back and returning it?

This isn't nearly as big of a deal as people are making it out to be, there's no good name for this project because it's unprecedented. They just had to pick something and FF7 Remake was what they came up with. If they put a subtitle in it people will think it's a 5 hour game (and look no further than this very thread to know it's true).

But the thing is, everyone in this thread knows this isn't a 1:1 remake, because SE has been very open about that. FF7 remake isn't the best name for this game, but calling it anything else would just lead to more confusion.

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Let me get this straight. You believe of the millions of people that will buy this game, almost every one of them will know it's part 1? And that you expect the consumer to "feel out the pacing of the game", google about it, and then return it?

Yet this same hyper-informed population could also confuse this with a 5hr game if they slapped "Part 1" on the box? Have you actually thought this through?

 

[sweetmini]

I would just call it FF7-R Disk 1.
I would love at the end of the remake to be asked:
Please insert Disk 2

anyway, not having a part/chapter/subtitle can create disappointment if buyers don't really like that part of the game in the original.
If those players think it drags way more than the original and begin skipping and skipping and skipping whenever they can the dialogs, missing on all the new story elements they will end up having butchered their playthrough.

It's very possible it will be prominently shown in the back of the box (which is conveniently not displayed in digital stored).

 

[Lumibolt]

This article would be better if JS had a full copy of the game to claim that SE is misleading us.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

I've articulated my thoughts about this already, but you can dismiss that as burying my head in the sand if you want.

This is not 1997 FFVII. It's not a "remaster," either. Demanding that everything play out just like 1997 FFVII is crazy to me.

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You are burying your head in the sand.

No one asked the game to be made differently. People are saying that the marketing is very clearly misleading. Those are different issues. You can't sit here and really claim that the remake box art and name does not imply the game is something its not.

Its bullshit and its lying to say otherwise.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

So where are people getting that the Midgard portion of the game will now be 40+ hours? That sounds like an absurd inflation of the original story.

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[kurahador]

Movies are also a lot cheaper than games and there was only two years between the IT chapters.

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I think it'll be the same case here. I think it'll be something like this:
2019: FF14 Shadowbringers
2020: FF7 Remake
2021: FF14 expansion (14 get new exp every 2 years)
2022: FF7 Remake Part 2
2023: FF16 (FF14 director openly said there will be 1 more exp under him before Shadowbringers was released, so I think 14 will take a break this year)
2024: FF7 Remake Part 3

 

[Deleted member 1635]

You are burying your head in the sand.

No one asked the game to be made differently. People are saying that the marketing is very clearly misleading. Those are different issues. You can't sit here and really claim that the remake box art and name does not imply the game is something its not.

Its bullshit and its lying to say otherwise.

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Great, now you're calling me a liar for disagreeing with your opinion. That's right: it's just an opinion, no more valid than mine. Another one for the ignore list, I guess. Enjoy your rigid outrage.

 

[Richietto]

Really the biggest issue is if it's not called part 1, or doesn't have a subtitle, what the fuck are they gonna call the other games without making it look stupid? At least give it a subtitle.

"Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Midgar"

 

[Dogui]

I like how FF7: Midgar or Part 1 is somehow going to make consumers think "damn this is gonna be short" and skip the game but the same thing being titled Final Fantasy 7 Remake is actually filled with informed consumers that know what they're buying.

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How many people thinks FFVIIR ends at final battle against Sephiroth on the North Crater vs how many people thinks it will be a episodic Life is Strange 5 hours long game at most?

People can say stuff like "era is informed, but the average joe wouldn't know", but at the same time a lot of people in this very thread still thinks the game will be 5 hours long lol

 

[Seesaw15]

The majority of people who play games lol? People on era or other gaming community sites are the minority...

Most people buy games based on adverts and word of mouth...

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But that's at least something. The word of mouth/adverts would be pretty clear that this is a beefed up Midgard game. Besides your grandparents who's doing a 100% blind buy in 2019.

 

[night814]

If Square actually tried to drag out the first reactor mission for 30 hours I would die laughing.

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I feel like this is exactly what they are going to do. I expect tons of wity banter between your party and drawn out cinematics.

 

[Merc_]

"A bunch of dead people get more lines" is not really what I'm looking for in a remake of VII, especially if that means I have to pay them $120 or $180 just to see the parts of the game I do want to see.

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lol you weren't looking for a FFVII remake at all so why even play this?

 

[Lumination]

ITT we have people bending over backwards to justify swapping out 2/3 of the plot with 40hrs of sidequests or whatever. Not labeling this game correctly is one of the most misleading things a publisher could do. It's outright lying by omission. No one in their right mind would just assume there would be plot missing from a remake.

 

[Maedhros]

Final Fantasy VII: Partial Remake.

People really wanted them to put this on the box?

 

[Crossing Eden]

his is separate from the subtitling issue, but I think we're all going to have to play the game (and possibly its sequels) before we can determine whether the story expansions are "filler." Maybe the writers succeed in reworking the original material into something richer and more detailed. Maybe what they add never feels interesting or essential and we all say it's the videogame equivalent of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films. We'll just have to see.

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Frankyl theres' a lot to work with in Midgar considering that despite it having a lot of characters, they all have incredibly thin characterization. Considering how the segment ends fleshing them out in theory would make the climax more impactful.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

lol you weren't looking for a FFVII remake at all so why even play this?

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No other console RPGs of note any time soon. Especially not out of Japan.

 

[Goodacre0081]

Where are you getting that it's a 60 hour experience? Also the uniformed fan would most likely want the story to be resolved as it was in the original and not just the first 20-30% of it.

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the game will be fleshed out and 40-60 hrs is my own guess at it's length. 40 hrs to beat, maybe 60 to Platinum?

the expectation of this concluding simply it's feasible at this scale, uninformed fan will be disappointed because he was.. uninformed ;)

 

[AtomicShroom]

I completely agree with him. It's dishonest to not make it clear from the box that this isn't a remake of the entire original game.