I somehow managed to mistake Red XIII's name for Red VIII and didn't notice when revising the script, recording voice over and editing. Sorry for that. Like and subscribe. EDIT: I assumed I wrote Red XIII's name wrong in the script as VIII, and that's why I got it wrong in voice over. Turns out it's actually a bit worse than that. I actually wrote the roman numeral correctly. My brain somehow still read it as VIII out loud and I didn't notice. Fucking ADHD, man...
AI voice overs will read a typo like that. a human reading a script would just call the character by their name even if the script is typed wrong. the 100% lack of breathing in the audio made me suspicious, but this comment confirmed it. i like your ideas but i’d prefer to hear you actually speak them
@@toddbarriage I actually just cut most of the breathing, though not all, especially in the beginning you can still hear it if you pay attention. Humans just make mistakes sometimes. But if you want to believe this theory of yours, be my guest.
You guys talking about the dude from Kingdom Hearts? I can't believe they made an entire spinoff franchise for a side character from the Olympian Arena.
I've never come across anyone claiming the original FF7 was perfect. It's just a work of art that resonated with a lot of people. I can only speak for myself but I was never one of the people begging for a remake of FF7. I still love the original. I go back and play it and enjoy it for what it is when I'm in the mood to do so. I enjoy the crunchy low poly aesthetic and find the chibi models charming. I love the music, background art and gameplay systems. It is still after all this time a fun game to just hang out in. As someone who played it when it was new, it never looked "real" to me. It always looked exactly as it has. Newer games coming out never changed how FF7 was presented. I will never understand why people behave this way. There's this very frustrating tendency to pin any and all enjoyment of an older work on nostalgia and child imagination of something that isn't really there. This, I think is very lazy when discussing media. Sure some people only see value in a video game if it is current and do not value the work itself past the hype cycle and then their nostalgic memories of it. I think that is unfortunate but saying everyone who claims the original game is great is engaging with the work only in this way is dishonest. MY Final Fantasy VII absolutely exists. It's the game Squaresoft released in 1997.
This video is really well put together, and it's clear a lot went into it- I mostly enjoyed it. That being said, there's some things I respectfully disagree with. I wasn't born when the original game came out, and only got into FF7 a few years ago as a young adult. Without any nostalgia for it, I personally agree whole-heartedly with it being considered a masterpiece and it is one of those pieces of media I consider almost perfect. So, the concept of 'your FF7 does not exist because it's being viewed through rose-tinted glasses' didn't speak to me, since I hadn't been wearing such glasses when I played it the first time. I think it genuinely was (and in many ways, still is) ahead of its time, seeing that I got such enjoyment from it despite not being part of the generation that played it when it first came out. I need to also note that the compilation was almost certainly done as a money-making endeavour more than it was out of real passion, since FF games never got any sequels until right after Sakaguchi left the company- beforehand, he'd explicitly forbidden sequels to the FF games. Many aspects of the compilation actively go against some of the themes and messages present in the original, and the very existence of sequels contradicts the poignant ambiguity of the OG's ending. I think a lot of the devs who worked on the OG don't fully understand their own masterpiece, considering how weak the compilation turned out (and even the remake project- it's an unpopular opinion, I know, but I have a lot of issues with it). I would've preferred it if they'd left the original game alone, or got a whole new team to lead the remake while ignoring the compilation completely.
While we obviously disagree on some respects, this is an interesting comment and perspective and I thank you for it. Only thing I want to clarify is that I don't disagree the compilation itself exists primarily because of money making through milking the OG's legacy, Square Enix is not a charity, after all. But I do believe the creatives involved, meaning the employees put in charge of coming up with the actual stories and gameplay systems of these projects, did come from a place of genuine passion and sincere attempts to do something good and worthy of the name. If they succeeded or not is up to the audience (I personally think the compilation as a whole is a mixed bag with some genuine great moments but just as many lows), but I think assuming the creatives were being as cynical as the execs is too uncharitable.
Tifa didn’t point out the wrong stuff Cloud was saying because she was worried Cloud would go away again or that something would happen to him an Rufus escaped the weapon blast because there was a trap door that his dad had made
Since in the third game, we will get comatose Cloud in the story who we found in Mideel... I found out Banora is somewhere in the Mideel region... but y'know, Banora is in ruins right now and God.. I don't want to see that Loveless twink ever again lmao (a mention of him is enough lol, and Angeal too maybe...)
Blame the FF7 OG GateKeepers who think anything deviating from a 1:1 remake of the original is sacrilegious. I had a chat with HappyCatTH-cam who is well studied on the FF7 lore and told her that it's better that the game makers don't try to recreate the original game exactly the way it was. They need to add new elements and plot details to make it fresh and new to bring in a new audience and she agreed with that idea.
@@renegade637 New elements and fresh stuff is fine. But when you also throw in so many important details that only make sense to fans of the original, how is that supposed to draw in new audiences and not make them feel alienated or confused about a lot of what's going on?
Advent children isn't just hated for being poorly written, reintroducing problems that were supposed to be resolved in the original game (such as clouds constant guilt tripping of himself), in doing little if anything to advance the plot. It's also hated for how it handled cloud and Tifa's relationship. Many people, myself included, actually thought they had broken up before the movie started. There's also the issue of sephiroth coming back, only to supposedly be defeated for good, but with no justification as to how that works. Another complication is that Rufus shinra being redeemed made no sense at the time, it makes sense given how he's being painted in the remake trilogy, put in the original game he was a purely evil and ruthless piece of crap.
Most of the party members got shafted in Advent Children it left me really cold. Seeing Rufus and the Turks get more dialogue than Barret, Yuffie and Red was really disappointing.
When I saw it I had similar complaints. Especially about the orphans. 2 brand new characters dropped in a sequel and the only way they can tie them into the plot and garner interest is make them orphans and have Cloud work at an orphanage. That he's never around at to actually take care of the orphans. Then just having the party pretty much reduced to cameos and then helping lift Cloud in the end was the worst type of fan service. My brother simply told me I didn't get it. I was stunned.
@@gamervet4760 personally I think they have a chance to retcon that, in remake part 1 there was an evacuation and rescue effort that didn't happen in the original. Easy out for square enix if they want to undo that crap. Especially with Denzel, he's a character who only exists for the sake of denying Cloud and tifa their own kids.
6:40 and then they completely butchered the once best game scene of all time by refusing to pick a side and stick to it. They wanted both worlds alive . And dead. So it jump back and forth between the and we never actually got to see sephiroth + Aerith on screen when it happens
My absolute favorite added plot line to the remake project is the Gi tribe connection to the black materia and the cetra I audibly shouted when that was revealed, like OMG it just makes such perfect sense
I don’t think fan expectations were too crazy. if anything doing things that would make people satisfied would’ve actually been less work. They would just have to do what they did for the majority of the game aka expand on different areas and re-create them. I’ve never seen anyone complain about the way the nibelhiem flashback was done because it was re-created accurately. That’s all they had to do. It’s really not that complicated and I don’t know why people pretend it is.
Such an incredible video... Nostalgia is such a powerful emotion. I recently platinumed Rebirth on PS5 while simultaneously replaying the original FF7 on my Nintendo Switch. They're both masterpieces in their own ways, but there's so much excitement in knowing that we could still have alternate outcomes for different characters fates depending on the narrative direction they take in the third game of the Remake series. Regardless of how they chose to end things, I'll definitely be along for the unknown journey. I love that orchestral version of Aerith's theme that you closed out the video with. Beautiful job.
This video has a faulty presupposition.. Which is that FF7 only lives in ppl memories.. FF7 is one of the most replayed games out there..i replay it every year..it has an average of 2k ppl playing all the time on steam.. So its not how ppl remember the game ppl are experiencing it right now.. You havent discovered a long forgotten game.. I play it now and see all its flaws..and overall its still an amazing game.. The fact a remake of it is having to be broken up into multiply games is a testiment to how content rich the game is.. Its writing,plot,characters,charm are all above most of what we see today in gaming.even its combat system that has almost unlimited combinations of materia is still one of the best magic systems in gaming today.
sorry to break it to ya, but yes no doubt ff7 is content rich, but the fact that ff7 remake is being broken into 3-4 parts only screams and tells me GREED. They are milking that cash cow for all it's worth. And it's a smart move, sure.. but the remake of FF7, has so many new and updated things that was not in the original game. If they made a true 1:1 remaster of the original, It would be maximum of 2 discs... thats maybe? it's a sad world we live in now where everyone is just after money.
@@鹿野修哉-u2k I'm playing ff7 new threat lol but if I had a choice, it would be OG + a few mods to make it 60fps, clean up the backgrounds and maybe something else.. but OG models yes, OG sounds, yes, OG music, yes.
Rufus survived, because his father installed a "Loser" escape hatch to mock him. Well, who's laughing now. But, you made a really great video! And I think your main thesis is absolutely correct.
While I agree that OG FFVII is not perfect (the huge materia sub-plot in particular is absolute trash, in my opinion), one thing I really hate about this video is that it actively dismisses/reduces all tasteful creative choices that demonstrate open to interpretation nuance, artistic restraint, and subtlety as "head-canoning" and as story flaws rather than the strengths that they are. Tifa not interjecting after hearing Cloud's story is without exaggeration the entire point of her character. Just because the game does not explicitly spell it out for you, doesn't mean it isn't heavily implied. Several points of her dialogue in the story suggests that she is actively hiding it out of concern for Cloud, and that the pressure of keeping this a secret is eating her up inside. She is repeatedly characterized as hesitant, paralyzed with indecision, too empathetic for her own good, and a well-intentioned enabler. It's this same intentional character flaws that gets her to go along with Avalanche's actions despite disagreeing with it. Her character arc involves confronting this tendency and fatal flaw that she has alongside Cloud in the lifestream (every bit as much as it's about him confronting his insecurities). Hell, her last name is quite literally "Lockhart" as in she locks her feelings deep inside in her heart. It's straight up what makes her an interesting and complex character, not an example of why the old game isn't as good as you remember it or whatever.
For those of us that was 15 and 16 when the game came out what we want is an identical recreation of the original game but with high-tech graphix and improved game mechanics
I don’t know. I feel like FF7 had a really amazing story and a perfect outline to flesh out. I like hearing well written stories in well written narratives. I feel like the original FF7 had a great narrative and plenty of room for improvement for the character interaction. The Remake does a pretty good job of fleshing out the characters while making them true to the original, but the pacing, focus, and added convolutions of the narrative have compromised from what I kind of wanted from the game. I think it’s possible for a faithful remake to be intensely interesting. You just have to flesh out the themes and characters and five time and weight to the important moments where they might have skimmed over in the original. There always more nuance and more reinforcing of ideas you can put into a narrative. I know it’s wide and expansive so the narrative can’t be too narrow and focused, but there are a lot of characters and they each have a story to tell and themes to explore as part of that story. I don’t like the idea that a faithful adaptation that expands on the original cant hold value or at least couldn’t be as interesting as a subversive take that ads convoluted pieces into the narrative and fights with the original themes and messages for dominance in the narrative.
A faithful adaptation certainly could have value, but my point is that FF VII's legacy is so strong and romanticized by so many people that a faithful one would still be uncharitably compared to the original anyway. No matter what they did, it would be criticized as not being worthy of the mantle, of adapting too much or too little, expanding more than necessary or not expanded enough, etc. I've seen people argue simply adding voice-acting would immediatelly take away from the original experience. So you might as well talk about it involving the fans expectations directly instead of trying to recapture something that IMHO can't be recaptured. Like I say in the video, the original is widely available, and it's a great game. You don't need a remake to relive it, and the remakes do not erase the original. They don't want to. They want to celebrate the original instead of recreating it.
@@GeekOuter well that sort of opens up discussion on why a remake instead of a sequel or spinoff. If your not trying to recapture or expand on the original ideas, than why go through the motions of the original? I get your point and I’m not necessarily saying your wrong, even, but trying to tell a new story by going through the motions of an old story and interjecting here and there just feels weird, unless the new story has cohesive themes with the original. I guess that’s kind of what a remake was going to be anyways, trying to add onto and flesh things out requires a clear expanse on the theming or your just adding fluff. Im not 100% sure what I’m getting at. I just feel like almost everyone was happy with the direction the remake went until the meta-narrative kicked in and that split a lot of people. Im fine with most of what you say, but I genuinely believe that there is a direction that they could have went that most people would have been happy with. I think that what we got showcases a lot of what most people wanted from a remake. From all of the videos I’ve seen from every point of view almost everyone was happy with certain aspects of this game and those are the parts that retread, but flesh out the original. Now, i’m not a hate bandwagon type of person. I think there is value in the remake we got and an interesting narrative that’s unfolding, it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m genuinely happy to see some people unabashedly love this game though. I’m not trying to say that the direction they went is the objectively wrong one. I’m just trying to defend the position that there could be a faithful adaptation of the original that had value because of what it did instead of what it emulated. Some people wanted to see updated cinematic of the big moments. Some people wanted to explore the world hinted at in the backgrounds of the original. Some people just want to experiment with the materia system again. I’m not trying to attack the direction of the games right now, just defend the value and appeal a less subversive remake could potentially have.
*sigh* How do you reconcile an imperfect game with everybody's unique expetations? You create more story, add a multiverse and just let your creativity loose while enriching the players most cherished moments and staying loyal to the OG as much as possible. I love how they are handling it...its doing reboots "the right way" if you will. Unlike star wars franchise, which has been a pure fire extinguishing endeavor since 1999. I think, since the lifestream holds the memories of the deceased..its not out of place to give more depth and understanding to the characters struggles throughout the game by having that sentient super technology communicate with the living to try and give them (and us as players) the off ramp that we've all been looking for since OG regarding such heavy topics as the finality of death and the set course of fate. The most innevitable thing fate gives us is 'change' and if we can influence its course even a little bit it gives us hope for a better tomorrow. The most important key to that locked heart is responsibility though...Cloud taking responsibility for his actions despite having failed to conquer his demons in time literally gives him another chance to do right by those he feels he let down. Hopefully even understand his most hated enemy...the man he admired. I see no limit to Cloud's growth with the remakes. This is a crazy theory, but I believe that the Chocobo Sage is Cloud from the future
I dunno man, if they made the remakes like we have them now just without the whisper stuff and the unnecessary Sephiroth cameos then they would be perfect for me at least xD
A lot of this feels more of explaining events more so than expounding upon how "your final fantasy 7 doesnt exist" when it feels like im waiting for you to say we all have our own image of the game with our own expectations that cannot be realized
I’m personally not a fan of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it’s Sequel (Rebirth), nor do I care about the added backstory of the other remake to Final Fantasy VII, Ever Crisis. I don’t think the word anyone who played the original FF7 who wanted a remake to it for years was faithful… I think for some, they wanted a 1 to 1 remake of Final Fantasy VII. A game that plays like the original, but with HD graphics as well as in a new engine. And I think that’s what’s the issue here. The remake games has a lot of issues, most of it sucks, but it’s not because I hated it out of its unfaithfulness. It’s more so how the story’s just convoluted as well as how the games don’t know what they’re made for. It doesn’t know if it’s a sequel, a reboot, a soft reboot, or in those games’ case, a remake. To me, a remake should fix the problems the original game had, while also staying close to the original game’s story, and in some cases, could add in references & some lore that were established in other games, and show what happened in those events in the original game and/or laying out the groundwork that would be an important plot point in the sequels following the original game, before the remake’s release. The Resident Evil Remakes are a perfect example of this. It fixes the issues the old games had, while still keeping it close to the original story, while adding hints & lore that would be explored in the games following the events of the first Resident Evil. And I think the FF7 Remakes should’ve done a similar thing to what the RE Games had. Sharing the same plot & characters as the original game, while also changing the gameplay, change some minor story bits, add some new cutscenes, expand some plot lines & characters, and integrate some characters & lore from the Compilation Pre-VII, the original FFVII could be in line with the other Compilation titles. It shouldn’t be a sequel, a reboot, and a soft reboot, at the same time… otherwise, it would get confusing, and make people like me uninterested in the series. That was an issue the 2011 Mortal Kombat game had. For how good the gameplay was, the story was just not good, and the fact it tried to retell the first 3 games as well as adding in Quan Chi from MK4 in there, not to mention it had a hard time figuring out if it’s a reboot, or a sequel, really made some of the MK Fans I know, mad. While the idea that a reimagined type of sequel that subverts everyone’s expectations works well in anime’s like the Scott Pilgrim anime or Evangelion, it worked in anime simply because “animation”. For animation & books, you’re easily able to watch the reimagines that subverts your expectations when you thought you were watching an adaptation of your favorite book, since your favorite book or animation are easily accessible. But for video games, its hard to play an old game from the 90s when they’re not accessible to a wide audience. And even when there’s an old game that’s available on modern consoles, it can be difficult for someone who could have a different experience playing games in the 2010s or 2020s, compared to someone who had an experience of playing games in the 90s. If you’re reading this, then I want to say thank you for reading.
That's fair, we are all entitled to our own opinions! But I genuinely believe what they are doing here is inherently more interesting than something more faithful.
The Problems started long before the "remakes" ... FF7 never needed the compilation in the first place. It ruins the whole experience, the open end and many charakters. Like reviveing hojo, reviving rufus, adding even more dumb Charakters. It's best to just see the original game standing with It's vision for itself.
As someone that has argued constantly that ff7 isn't a perfect game, that doesn't mean the compilation stuff was good. It really wasn't. It didn't serve to enhance the story or world of the original game or themes. Much that was added through the compilation needed massive retcons to key events, and even then much of that stuff was dropped in later titles in the compilation. Hell, you brought that up multiple times when bringing up Genesis. There's a reason he was a character in crisis core, then shown in the ending to dirge, but then never brought up in any other compilation medium. Because yea, he wasn't important, and to shoehorn him in further would cause even more rewrites. They could do that now with the "remake" trilogy if they want to since they're so willing to rewrite huge parts of the narrative with multiverse bs, and who knows they probably will in part 3. Or maybe they won't. i'm half convinced at this point with the direction they're going that its gonna turn out that sephiroth is actually a good guy trying to save the multiverse from some cosmic god or something. idk if i'm joking about that or not anymore with how so many ff games and other square franchises has gone. Much of the extra stuff they added into the compilation, the new characters, haven't really been mentioned in the "remake" trilogy for a reason. because they serve no purpose. They have brought up some things, like deepground or that one dude that defected to wutai, but so far it hasn't really been important to the overall plot because, in the grand scheme of things, all of that was never meant to enrich the original game. If they wanted to do a real "remake" of ff7 or expand the content, they should have just done a straight remake while expanding on some things, but not to such an extent that entire events are rewritten. If they wanted to add in new characters and events to fill in gaps, they could have done so in ways that wouldn't require so much retconning and shoehorning and mental gymnastics. There are ways they could have done it that could have made old fans still appreciate it and pull in new fans. Example, they could have done the story of crisis core as just a story of zack working his way up the soldier ladder, meeting sephiroth, going on a few missions with him against wutai, having him meet aerith and spending time with her, telling her his dreams, talking to sephiroth about it to further expand his character out a bit (maybe have sephiroth talk about how he doesn't really have dreams, explain his upbringing, drop hints at jenova being his "mother", etc) leading up to nibelheim where everything happens as is, but expanding it a bit to show the aftermath, escape, trip back to midgar, etc. They could have kept some elements of the original crisis core if they really want to, like the whole soldier honor mantra thing, the final battle being against an army instead of just like 3 shinra troops (there are actually multiple ways to do both the army battle AND still have him just be gunned down by a few troopers), etc. There are ways they could have done some of the compilation stuff without the shoehorning and massive retcons, elevating ff7 to BE the masterpiece everyone says it is. Instead they kinda just ruined it. It already wasn't perfect, but instead of doing some expansions to better flesh things out they decided they wanted to rewrite huge portions. Something i'd like to point out, back before advent children was announced, i don't know a single person who actually played ff7. I was in middle school back when the first screenshots were leaked, and i remember people not knowing much about it beyond it being a ps1 game that was popular. I'd talk about it with my friends, since i played it in elementary school, but honestly none of them really knew about it or cared much about it, as they were kinda in their "ff10 is the best game ever" phase. It wasn't until after AC was announced and then released that those very same people started claiming that ff7 was a masterpiece. People jumped on the bandwagon hard, partially because of marketing for AC and partially because people wanted to be in the "in" group. i'm not saying thats exactly what happened, but that's my anecdotal experience. I feel like a lot of the praise the game gets today and much of its modern defenders are those people, people that jumped on the bandwagon despite never actually playing the game back in the day, and i'm not saying they haven't played the game since but I do feel like their view has been colored by that hype of jumping on the bandwagon and that colored their opinion of the game as they played it.
Fantastic video! 💯 I absolutely love the FF7 Remake Saga. I love the original game too but I feel like people put the original on far too much of a pedestal because of nostalgia and they don't give the Remakes credit where it is due. The Remakes are absolutely phenomenal in my opinion and they greatly expand the original, adding far more depth to the story, characters, lore, gameplay, soundtrack, and world building.
I never played the game when it came out. I tried for the first time a few months ago but couldn't get into it. Getting to know now the lore inside and outside the game was really interesting! Great video!
Horribly clunky by today's standards. Forget what you know and expect. Focus on the story and suffering through the growing pains. It's art. Unlike 99% of other great games. It's just different. Another level of nuance and dedication went into this game.
@GeekOuter No worries at all, I was wondering if my mind was supposed to be blown for an instant haha. Thanks for clarifying that out and bravo, that's a fantastic video you made there!
A remake of any franchise can be great or horrible. This is obviously dependent upon the original storyline, the decision of adding to the story or to leave it, and making sure to give the audiences/players what they want. Granted it's impossible to please everyone but if a good amount of people are sold on the franchise for both the original/s and remake/s then a very very well done and congratulations are in order. I personally have no expectations for the next or final title for the Final Fantasy 7 remake series but I for one would like to see Aerith come back in some way during the final battle against Sephiroth or at the finale where Cloud goes to an isolated area or whatever and he either muses to himself or to Zack then Aerith appears to him one last time or rather at the end of the title as because in Advent Children Aerith and Zack appear at the very end of the movie
Final Fantasy VII does exist and due to all the times its been ported to different consoles - it will continue to exist. The argument of the Final Fantasy VII in our minds not existing has some merit but does not completely work. Because we have the original and all they had to do was copy that and perhaps give it some tweaks. Thats how you please most people. Not everyone but most people. The fundamental misunderstanding here that you and others have of fans of the og Final Fantasy VII is that Final Fantasy VII (og) told a better story and executed it better as well. No one thought the original was perfect but much like Star Wars or other classic stories - it was a work of art that managed to be more than the sum of its parts and left an impact on those who played it. The remake in comparison is at best a mess of a story with maybe fun gameplay in it. The original was accused of being a mess by some people. So a mess of a mess is an even bigger mess. Its the storytelling that made the original great and great storytelling stands the test of time. This remake however...won't. It will be looked at like the compilation of FFVII. Unfortunately, by trying to bring everyones vision together and trying to please everyone they will instead please very few people imo. The people that wanted to play the original with better graphics are screwed and the people who wanted to experience the originals story but can't get past the graphics are also screwed. History matters and needs to be preserved. Everything new eventually becomes history and becomes old. There is no bright future without a past that builds the foundation for what can become a bright future. We all stand on the shoulders of giants forgetting that many of the things we enjoy and take for granted wouldn't exist if it weren't for those past events. We in turn only exist because of the actions of our parents in the past. Many of these repeated justifications from the developers and fans do not address or justify their decisions. The shadow of the original will loom larger as time goes on because it built a legacy while the remake only tried to use its parent as a way to make something that was flashy but less good. This remake is only for those who like the metanarrative more than the original narrative. It is not for those who like the original narrative more than the remakes metanarrative.
Ever Crisis First Soldier finale expands a lot on Sephiroth and what he's trying to achieve in Remake trilogy. His backstory there too. It's pretty good I'd dare to say! Most fans actually like it.
Naw dude, none of us back then thought FF7 was perfect, there was constant debate, especially after 8 and 9 released about which was the best. But, we all respected the game, and we all just wanted a 1:1 remake with better graphics and some tweaks just like the 1:1 remakes with some tweaks of FF1, 2, 3, and 4. That’s the model people respected. You’re just adding in modern internet discourse to the mix, which is just ridiculous people making ridiculous purity spirals and Square Enix apologists going on and on in endless arguments. The sequel era of FF is a cash grab, the games were always better as contained, stand alone stories, not everything needs a multiverse or a franchise based off it. You don’t have to agree with my interpretation, I’m just giving you a perspective of someone that’s been around since the beginning.
@@skidmcI know I did. And I know I’m far from alone. And FF VII Remake was/is a blatant slap in the face to me and anyone else in that camp, all of which being Square’s oldest and most passionate fans. That doesn’t mean the Remake is bad. I will still play it and I will still probably love it. But I’m also angry about the shitty passive-aggressive meta narrative and I’m still disappointed that it’s not what I wanted and that I will probably never get to play the game I dreamed of unless a miracle happens. And I have a right to feel the way I do.
This was so well done man. I can't wait to try the remake, haven't had the funds to get it yet but you made me that much more jazzed to play it. I've played almost ever single final fantasy game, it all started with 7 for me (older brother played the first couple as I watched and played around with them but 7 was the first one to grab my ADHD brain and give it a huge hug. I think the gfx in the remake as well as the in-depth explanations of things that we all speculated on is super exciting, and the cliff hanger options as to what could happen next is EXACTLY what I want from that game. Thanks for the content, I thoroughly enjoyed this.
The original is a great game but not a “masterpiece,” it’s flawed in many ways. The remakes have flaws yes, but are not “bastardized” by anyone without an inherent nostalgia bias and inability to give credit where credit is due, and when all 3 remakes are out, I’m sure time will be much more charitable to what they’ve done with them
slight detail, Sephiroth himself did not slay Aerith. I never really understood this playing the game, but if Sephy's body was frozen in the Northern Crater that must mean it was Jenova, in the form of Sephy, who did the deed, prior to changing back into itself.
Technically he still did, since Jenova was being controlled by Sephiroth. Confirmed in the ultimanias. I honestly understand why there might be confusion on that since I don't remember it ever being directly stated in the game that this was the case, apart from Hojo and Cloud realizing at the Northern Crater that Sephiroth was calling to creatures with Jenova cells in them, Jenova herself included. It was just heavily implied before the ultimania was published
Hey, this is PurpleMaster from the gfaqs Ever17 board! Wonderful video, I'm a huge fan of FFVII and I loved your piint of view on the Compilation and Remakes. Keep going, I love this channel!
The music in the remakes is just so fitting for each area and the enviroments are beautifully done. Some of the mini games are horribley hard due to different reasons such as horrible controls or something else entirely. Im currently trying to playinum it playing hard mode and it is certainly hard thats for sure just insane.
I am convinced Advent children is one of the best, if not best post main franchise additions ever, I will happily field any criticism but I genuinely think it's not perfect but very very very good. It does so much with the small time it's allotted I am just amazed, also it's looks stunning.
Amazing video, it's clear how much effort you put into your analysis and how important FF7 is to you. I entirely agree with your takes here on how Advent Children is a good movie and how worthwhile the remake is thanks to its approach. Thank you for another great piece of work!
Great video! Especially the last segment was well said and put together. Thank you for voicing out how I felt about the series. The 7RE series is definitely more interesting and exciting, such a great time to be a fan. The devs are not given enough credit for the amount of love and effort put into the series.
The argument at 17:16-23:37 may not hold much water. Yes, some fan may behold the OG FFVII on a pedestal due to nostalgia, but I genuinely doubt it. Why? 'Cause I myself finally got into the OG (and the franchise, really) back in 2020 -- my only experience with the series were the three films, but I never played any of the games until 2020. I tried to play the OG FFVII back in 2011 but just couldn't get into the turn-based style of gameplay, so I abandoned it... until 2020. I was in my late 20s, now early 30s -- yet, I found it to be perfect after bing-playing it. Speaking as a newbie still -- it's only been 4 years, after all -- the OG FVII is a masterpiece not just because of nostalgia or some type of Mandela Effect, but because it's a great game on its own merits. And any great game (or film, book, show, etc) becomes timeless because it's so good. A great product will garner praise from non-fans or adults if it's that good, and clearly, the OG FFVII is and has always been that good -- despite its flaws, but its positive outweigh its negatives...at least to me it does.
I absolutely agree with you. Like I say in the video, it is a great game, no question, that deserves its place in the cultural zeitgeist. But my point is not about it being good or not, it's about how many, many people hold it so highly due to personal reasons that nothing else relating to it can ever be met with full open mindedness and judged by its own merits. Many comments right here illustrate my point perfectly: there's people mad at me because I dared to say I liked Advent Children and I think the compilation has many overlooked merits. There's multiple comments saying all they needed to do was a faithful recreation, even though they use the term differently (some say they'd be fine with a faithful story, others want the exact same systems, others say they should expand it, just not veer from bullet points, etc). The very fact I list what I consider to be some minor flaws with the original makes people type angry comments. I think I made it pretty clear I love FF7, but to some people their takeway is that I'm saying it was bad just because I'm saying it wasn't absolutely perfect. And that's just about a video I made on the Remakes. Imagine being in charge of developing it.
I also think that it’s not just the same game, it’s personalized. My interpretation for the longest time is that you don’t actually play final fantasy vii the first time around. What you played is Aerith’s vision. It makes me insane that no one else thinks of it this way, ever since I played it so long ago and peers around me just assumed the game had no ending. It also ties in with what FF has done since part 1: create storylines that have a stable time loop.
if anyone ever lost a member of their family, they would know that Square made Aerith's death perfectly. It is exactly how reality shifts in Clouds mind and how he can't comprehend that she died.
I suppose you're looking at the bright side... But for me the point of the remake was to fix all the issues introduced by the compilation, as well as the rushed and inconsistencies of 7. 7 had a good story, but lacked the technological finesse to make it better. So with a trilogy, instead of a one-off game, they should have improved on what was already there, instead of turning it into a mess, just so people could speculate an theory-craft if characters were dead or alive. After part 3 is out, there'll be no more theories, as they need to provide final answers, and usually in most cases the simplest solution will be the right one, and everything will play out the same as 7, and all this multiple realities, and time weirdness will be pointless, an only there to confuse people. So in the long run, the game will lose most o it appeal, as opposed as a better version of the original, with just expanded and improved material on the most rushes areas would have moved on to live as a classic. Being 3 games i'd have also expected a lot more quality in terms of side content, and a lot less filler, cause there was a lot of story to tell, but we instead have chicken questlines...yay- ------ At the end of the day both remake and rebirth shine the most when being faithful to the source material, and start to get messy to downright bad, when they do deviate from it. Like for example Leslie and his questline in remake, were possibily one of the worst bits, and what des he give you? grappling hooks...and that scene of people shooting the hook in barret's hand, him catching it, and being pulled up by Tifa, who was herself barely hanging onto cloud, is ridiculous to say the least. I had no knowledge of OG ff7 prir to remake, i have experienced it after, and i can say without a doubt it was much better and ore coherent. it just needed a coupleof fixes and expansions, but not the theatrical BS RE trilogy pulled.
Many people including myself forgot the OG has been cut into pieces twice in order to release to the public because of the limits of the n64 (the first system it was going to launch on) and ps one systems so if the devs want to tell the whole assed story.... I'm on board 😂😂 go big. Great introspection on the OG. 👍
I think the part of Tifa not calling out Cloud on the discrepancies was actually genius. It just wasn’t implemented well enough. Nibelheim was a traumatic incident for both Cloud and Tifa and both of them misremembering the events in such a situation would’ve been understandable. It’s possible that Tifa was questioning her own memories since Cloud had true knowledge of what happened even though to her knowledge and memories he wasn’t present at all during those events. Even his feelings of the events were the kind of feelings of someone who saw the events first hand. So how could he remember clearly something that he didn’t experience or was it that she was remembering wrong all along? That’s what would’ve been going through her head when she heard Cloud’s recall of the events. With Tifa’s reactions in the original game I think that was the way they intended to go but somehow it got on the chopping block. Maybe it didn’t fit Tifa’s character or maybe they didn’t want 2 characters with an identity crisis or they simply forgot or had to cut extra fat.
oh, it was such a magical time. FF7 is still a huge game, even by today's standards. I've played it countless times and it still takes me a matter of days to finish.
In the original game, you can skip the part where Aeris dies by going up through the mountain next to Midgard and walking across the ocean to the the snow lands town, save, and then switch over to disk 2, then go back later on in the game at disk 3 to get everything you missed, minus the stuff in The Temple of the Ancients. That is the sacrifice and it is well worth it. You only really need yellow mastered materia, a bunch of Phoenix, Knights of Round, and Final Attack materia when fighting all 4 Weapons, Ultima, Ruby, Sapphire, and one in the sunken plane, that they cut out of the revised games for some dumb reason.
Loved this video, but I disagree with part of the premise (I think). I played FF7 for the first time in 2018, with zero context, no nostalgia, and no expectations. Similar to say intentionally listening to Mozart for the first time, knowing that it is a cultural icon. I knew in the first 20 minutes that the game was an absolute masterpiece just from my own impressions, and it was real and definitely did exist in that moment. What makes FF7 special is that it lets you feel new emotions for the first time, like seeing a color that you didn't know existed. I think Remake forfeit this a little in the name of Spectacle, but I am very happy that Rebirth has the same emotional brilliance as the original, and possibly even more.
I am happy that you liked the games but for us old and tired fans this will always be a false advertised game that wanted to capitalize on our nostalgia and no amount of double speach and uematso music will ever change that. Remake is remaking the original game not making a meta sequel with the name remake my guy 😅
Your words about meta narrative made me think that Rebirth's ending could also be referring to all these well-known "how can you revive Aerith" hacks and theories! You know, like on the PC version you could warp from one "dimension" to another (from one save file to another) and bring Aerith back to your team. And then she is there but not there at the same time, playable but silent or invisible in the cutscenes. That reference would be quite genial 😮
To the comment about Tifa basically enabling him. My argument in a nutshell is she feels bad she has to lie to this guy through the main story plot who's clearly unhinged. But he's her childhood friend, so she's just kinda seinfelding herself through the game until she reached the lifestream who made her realize what she was doing effectively showing her how weird she made it. Eventually, it comes to a head, but yeah, you can say this much about Tifa. It was stupid, but that's dedication. She may have helped him cause she enabled it, and she felt bad about it. But, she stuck it out with him and even told him the truth in the end once he finally reached his character impasse on his foundational psychie because he's her friend and she cares about the guy. To me, she kinda symbolizes character growth that doesn't have to be in the main focus.
It took me way too long to realize that this video essay was applying Barthes' "The Death of the Author" at length. I think a lot of the reason that people disliked _Advent Children_ was the change to Cloud. I want to say that the director actually confirmed that Cloud had been deliberately changed to more closely align with certain fan depictions of him, but I could be misremembering that. In any case, Cloud did change in such a way, and there were certainly many other fans who not only thought that this was a deviation from his character but also did not like the "dark and angsty" archetype stereotypically favored by adolescents and wanted a character who was true to the original rather than pandering to a certain segment of the fan base. (This does tie into what you talk about later regarding differing memories and perspectives and how you have to choose between segments of the fanbase to pander to; simply apply that to AC and you'll understand why it's unpopular in certain circles.) That being said, you have given a perfectly good explanation as to why Cloud would have changed in AC. I think it makes the movie make a bit more sense to me. But choosing to go that route with his character would still rub people the wrong way-even though you could come up with a justification for it-because of its broader cultural context.
I prefer the remakes And I love FF7 original I don't care what others say 😅 I love it for some reasons. First: VOICE ACTING, this is a big deal for me as it helps me immerse the story. Secondly, the amazing enviroment and things to do. Really, people complain about everyhting these days, while we are having the best time to have a remake of this masterpiece, adding tons of story to this amazing world which had only 1 true canon game and others as spin offs, now we have plenty of story and three games! With amazing graphics. That's a love letter to the original imo. Thirdly, times change. Like Peter Parker finding out his uncle has died, we must change for newer audiences, to convey the idea. 1997 is long gone and everything was kept, but portrayed in a more appealing way to the newer audiences. I don't know why the hate. Thirdly, queen's blood.
I think they did way too much with VII fr. All the time they spent with all the offshoots, movies, etc could've just been put into making a faithful remake. I feel that everything sort of just bastardized the original to a point where the remake doesn't hold the same charm of the original but rather inspires to be everything after it. I do like the remake but I still would have preferred if they had just made it the way one would expect it to be made, I don't like that it is essentially hijacked by the new developer's take.
I might be wrong, but I actually don't believe in the multiverse in retrilogy. these strange and unreal scenes with Zack almost always appear when Cloud sleeps, or falls unconscious, or tries to avoid his motion sickness. it looks like the player sees this story through the Cloud's eyes, and Cloud has some kind of dreams and delusions, which he doesn't able to distinguish from the reality, so is the player. that explosion-like thing in the sky, for example, was in the OG Lifestream sequence as a part of Cloud's subconscious. Sefiroth in the OG tries to make Cloud believe in the wrong things, even the fact he isn't a real one, why should we believe in everything that Sefiroth says?.. and we know Cloud has a problem with his memories, he can't gather them in one piece yet, so it could be the explanation of why we didn't see the whole things
Phil Fish, creator of Fez, former indie game developer that was very outspoken and rude on several occasions. Though to be fair, he did apologize to the Japanese developer and quit the industry for good after being severely harassed by gamergate.
@@GeekOuter Who is “gamergate”? Is he in the room with us now? Imagine excusing Fish’s pathetic anti-Japanese xenophobia. He only apologized for the optics.
@@cipher0329 do you genuinely not know what gamergate was or do you believe it never happened? Anywho, I'm not excusing Fish, just adding further context, his apology and the gamergate debacle are unrelated.
Great video, people don’t want to experience video games from a new perspective they just want to experience their childhood again and that is not possible.
You explain it well. I never thought about what they are putting together for the remake. I think I'm more willing to forgive the new devices they implemented in the new FF7 games, however, I'm still unhappy with how they used those devices. But what choice did they have, huh?
Honestly? I whole heartedly agree with you, I do genuinely believe that some people are so blinded by childhood nostalgia of a game, movie or show that it seems they cant handle their childhood nostalgia getting any kind of criticism, Tobey Maguire Spiderman after we got Andrew and then Tom especially with hitop films and heck Tobey didnt even have web shooters which was scrapped I believe in development but Andrew and Tom have web shooters which is one of the most popular things about Peter Parker, getting Boruto after Naruto, getting FF7 reunion, remake and rebirth after the FF7 original, Resident Evil 4 original, Spiderman 2 PS2 or even getting KH3 after we got KH2 Final Mix even though the original KH2 was so much worse to where you couldn't even *DODGE* but yet final mix really spoiled people and I think that's largely why people trash on KH3 especially since KH3 was hyped up to infinity and beyond before it finally released, All properties did alot of good for the world but ultimately they all have at least 1 flaw but definitely more than 1, Spiderman 2 PS5 despite being flawed it'self has things in it's web swinging that you cant do in Spiderman 2 ps2 and even the gameplay and story wasn't as good even though this is the game thats movie tied into the rami spiderman 2 movie which everyone praises plus the web swinging is the only thing I see get talked about and im like aside from the swinging what else is there? In Spiderman 2 PS5 you can change your costume, two spidermen, better graphics, bigger open world, inproved smoother gameplay and combat etc, Boruto becoming a way more worthy protagonist and successor to Naruto with his character arc in the manga, anime and even storm connections which that game made me fall in love with boruto as a person but yet anytime someone dares to say boruto is better than naruto then you get told your wrong because I guess people cant have opinions now and im not saying that boruto is better than Naruto but what I AM saying is people are allowed to have their own OPINION because just because everybody thinks so and so is a "masterpiece" doesn't mean you have to think the same way as them because were allowed to be our own people with our own beliefs and preferences, Resident Evil 4 original having not the best story and character development (especially ashley for example and Luis and even Leon to an extent as much as people will go at you for even daring to say that) where the remake gave the characters more meaning plus I find it strange how people bash RE6 for being more action combat when the original RE4 is what started that trend but they praise OG RE4 but put down RE6 even though now some people are starting to see RE6 as not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, myself included, and FF7 having not so good character development when it comes to characters like Tifa, yuffie and Vincent because Vincent in rebirth now has a score to settle with sephiroth which gives him more of a purpose to be there instead of being optional and borderline unnoticeable if you didn't realize he was there and same with yuffie with wutai getting more fleshed out in the remakes and as much as I love tifa like everyone else I too find it weird that her of all people wouldn't ever confront cloud on his lie about nebilhim but in rebirth as much as people trash on that tifa actually does confront cloud on it this time at the very beginning of the game and it made more sense because now sephiroth manipulates cloud against tifa because he knows tifa is the only person that truly keeps cloud on the right path, its like you can't ever criticize something people consider nostalgic without getting bashed for it, As great as the OGs where, they weren't perfect, even getting miles morales after peter parker where miles gets way too much hate that he doesn't even deserve and gets pushed down to just a black Peter Parker which completely undermines everything he went through in all of his stories and why he means so much to people in the first place and is also racist because Miles is clearly way more then just his skin color but yet that's what some people label him as and even Gotham Knights where it's not perfect but to be fair it was never trying to be an Arkham game but yet everybody constantly compared it to Arkham anyway which I completely understand but it's also one big reason if not the biggest reason why it gets a lot of hate but lesser hate now because of suicide squad, its as you said, the originals come out at the right time and then any adaptation that comes after is immediately met with a lot of hostility and very high expectations that at least sometimes almost seem impossible for them to live up to, its blind nostalgia, in a way it kinda reminds me of when some women get the ick whenever men do ANYTHING at all just so they can find some dumb excuse to not date that guy, I do agree as well that the originals will always have a place but I do believe the remakes can have a place to stay as well
I played all the games in this series, og ff7 still remains the best title, in my opinion. The "multi-verse of ff7" was meh for me, and i really wanted to love the the remake project, just couldn't get into it. But it doesn't mean i hate the game, just not for me, and i hope everyone playing it loves it. 😊
Great video as someone who played remake first then OG. Some people really have a strong nostalgic bias that Clouds their judgement especially on characters and plot expansion. OG while great definitely feels rushed at points and the characters in Remake trilogy are leagues better in terms of development and personality. Barret being the biggest improvement
Hey, check out Sleepezi, his videos explain how the remake is actually just expanding on what was already there. You also need to check out the ultimanium,s tons of info in them
1st thing is Cloud's head is not right, everything that Cloud sees might not be true.. we might have played his own mind games. Who knows what narrative is true if our protagonist is literally has brain damage? Thus don't take what cloud see as objective truth.
JebTube made a video on the Remake of Final Fantasy VII a few years back. There were tons of points that are now outdated cuz of FF7 Rebirth, but some of his points do seem valid. I suggest you should see that video. Your video’s interesting by the way.
As the years pass, the amount of ridiculous comments that I read with respect to Cloud being "out of character" in Advent Children based on the ending events of the original game really blows my mind. Cloud has always been depicted as being quiet whilst sensitive; he cares about his friends and comrades as much as any major hero/protagonist does. Him having some form of PTSD from a crazy series of events that nearly ended the world is NOT unheard of. I adore this movie and have it in my top 50 of all-time favorite movies. :) The place it has in my heart is immense as the original game and even the remake series are my favorite games of all time. You are entitled to your own opinion, but I have to make note of your comment on why Tifa says nothing about events she knows are inconsistent with what she knows. It is fairly obvious she is trying to protect her closest friend/romantic interest even if the choice is selfish/wrong. That is one of the things I love about her flawed character so much... for all her physical strength, she is driven entirely by her heart with Cloud. Also worth mentioning... there are times it can be inferred that Tifa herself is questioning what actually happened back then as it was equally as traumatic for her with her father and entire village being destroyed.
Yeah, while I don't think Advent Children is some sort of incredible masterpiece or anything, it's a good and fun movie that naturally extends Cloud's character and has something to say regarding the original's core themes. Regarding your opinion about Tifa, I respectfully disagree. I think there's just not enough apparent text or subtext to properly support such readings, and we as fans just fill the gaps ourselves. If you ask people, they'll have a lot of different explanations and analysis for this plot point alone, which to me indicates it's basically people looking to explain something that was likely an oversight. It just doesn't feel, to me at least, like something intentionally placed there to encourage the audience's interpretation, because I don't really think the game spends enough time on it or leaves enough breadcrumbs to suggest intentionality. A close friend of mine, for example, is sure Tifa doesn't say anything because she's also being influenced by Jenova somehow. The Reddit post I quickly flash on the screen on this section has a bunch of rather different ideas on why she wouldn't say anything, one of them even says Tifa is insecure, ranging from "she's trying to protect Cloud" to "Cloud tells it with such confidence that she's doubting her own memories too". It's a detail that I really don't see the point of being so open ended intentionally. But hey, who am I to say you're wrong? That's one of the perks about art.
With regards to the Advent Children hate, I don't necessarily hate the movie as a whole. I just hate the Geostigma plot. It felt like a plot excuse to keep Cloud aloof and to keep him and Tifa separated. According to some Ultimanias, Cloud, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel are supposed to be a family. However, you would never get that from the movie. Also, from what I can tell, after Tifa helps Cloud put himself back together in the Lifestream at the end of the OG FF7, he was supposed to be a goofball before and be that way again now that he became the "Real Cloud". But, you would never get that Cloud is back to his normal self with him in constant self-pitty not only from trying to find a cure to Geostigma but also survivors guilt from not saving Aerith. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve time to mourn over Aerith. But, it's been two years and he has Tifa to mourn with.
Crazy thing is I never played ff7 when I was young I recently played it a couple years before the remake an honestly it's better in its own way I definitely like them both tho
See...I suppose I was lucky to be an adult when FF7 came out; the US release was September 1997, I had just turned 20 that June. So I definitely noticed the game's flaws. Is it a great game? Yeah. No denying that. Is it my favorite? Nah. Definitely top five alongside 1, X2, 9, & Tactics Advance 1, but not my favorite (that's a tie between 1 & X2). Huh. That "No Promises Await at Journey's End" with the music playing reminds me of the ending to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where in that last minute or so, there's a nice glamour shot of the Enterprise...it then goes to warp...a lil' more music...and then a popup that says "The Human Adventure is Just Beginning."
I agree if the new FFVII's were mostly like the original they would be boring, and very predictable, I actually commend Squarenix for taking the risk in trying somthing different with these games.
![[UNCUT] บอสพอล แผลงฤทธิ์ บอสพระ-นักร้อง ก. โดนแฉยับ! I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 21 ต.ค. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XKf6HeftoPI/mqdefault.jpg)
I somehow managed to mistake Red XIII's name for Red VIII and didn't notice when revising the script, recording voice over and editing.
Sorry for that.
Like and subscribe.
EDIT: I assumed I wrote Red XIII's name wrong in the script as VIII, and that's why I got it wrong in voice over. Turns out it's actually a bit worse than that. I actually wrote the roman numeral correctly. My brain somehow still read it as VIII out loud and I didn't notice. Fucking ADHD, man...
Uh...I was really about to say, this mf...red8. Now I really doubt you ever played this game lmao. Jk....kinda
Also, perfect timing on that last song. 🥲
AI voice overs will read a typo like that. a human reading a script would just call the character by their name even if the script is typed wrong.
the 100% lack of breathing in the audio made me suspicious, but this comment confirmed it. i like your ideas but i’d prefer to hear you actually speak them
@@toddbarriage I actually just cut most of the breathing, though not all, especially in the beginning you can still hear it if you pay attention. Humans just make mistakes sometimes.
But if you want to believe this theory of yours, be my guest.
@@GeekOuter no problem but Nanaki please 🤧
Huh, I never knew that blonde optional character from Final Fantasy Tactics had so much lore
Cheeky bastard! 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah I know he was also in Ehrgeiz but I never heard of this game. Weird.
You guys talking about the dude from Kingdom Hearts? I can't believe they made an entire spinoff franchise for a side character from the Olympian Arena.
@@captainawf2341 yeah he became very popular so they made an actual game for it. Pretty cool
Why are you guys talking about that one side character from Dissidia?
I've never come across anyone claiming the original FF7 was perfect. It's just a work of art that resonated with a lot of people. I can only speak for myself but I was never one of the people begging for a remake of FF7. I still love the original. I go back and play it and enjoy it for what it is when I'm in the mood to do so. I enjoy the crunchy low poly aesthetic and find the chibi models charming. I love the music, background art and gameplay systems. It is still after all this time a fun game to just hang out in. As someone who played it when it was new, it never looked "real" to me. It always looked exactly as it has. Newer games coming out never changed how FF7 was presented. I will never understand why people behave this way.
There's this very frustrating tendency to pin any and all enjoyment of an older work on nostalgia and child imagination of something that isn't really there. This, I think is very lazy when discussing media. Sure some people only see value in a video game if it is current and do not value the work itself past the hype cycle and then their nostalgic memories of it. I think that is unfortunate but saying everyone who claims the original game is great is engaging with the work only in this way is dishonest. MY Final Fantasy VII absolutely exists. It's the game Squaresoft released in 1997.
This video is really well put together, and it's clear a lot went into it- I mostly enjoyed it. That being said, there's some things I respectfully disagree with.
I wasn't born when the original game came out, and only got into FF7 a few years ago as a young adult. Without any nostalgia for it, I personally agree whole-heartedly with it being considered a masterpiece and it is one of those pieces of media I consider almost perfect. So, the concept of 'your FF7 does not exist because it's being viewed through rose-tinted glasses' didn't speak to me, since I hadn't been wearing such glasses when I played it the first time. I think it genuinely was (and in many ways, still is) ahead of its time, seeing that I got such enjoyment from it despite not being part of the generation that played it when it first came out.
I need to also note that the compilation was almost certainly done as a money-making endeavour more than it was out of real passion, since FF games never got any sequels until right after Sakaguchi left the company- beforehand, he'd explicitly forbidden sequels to the FF games. Many aspects of the compilation actively go against some of the themes and messages present in the original, and the very existence of sequels contradicts the poignant ambiguity of the OG's ending.
I think a lot of the devs who worked on the OG don't fully understand their own masterpiece, considering how weak the compilation turned out (and even the remake project- it's an unpopular opinion, I know, but I have a lot of issues with it). I would've preferred it if they'd left the original game alone, or got a whole new team to lead the remake while ignoring the compilation completely.
While we obviously disagree on some respects, this is an interesting comment and perspective and I thank you for it.
Only thing I want to clarify is that I don't disagree the compilation itself exists primarily because of money making through milking the OG's legacy, Square Enix is not a charity, after all. But I do believe the creatives involved, meaning the employees put in charge of coming up with the actual stories and gameplay systems of these projects, did come from a place of genuine passion and sincere attempts to do something good and worthy of the name. If they succeeded or not is up to the audience (I personally think the compilation as a whole is a mixed bag with some genuine great moments but just as many lows), but I think assuming the creatives were being as cynical as the execs is too uncharitable.
Tifa didn’t point out the wrong stuff Cloud was saying because she was worried Cloud would go away again or that something would happen to him an Rufus escaped the weapon blast because there was a trap door that his dad had made
Rufus surviving is just retcon bs. His survival was just for shock but doesn't really add to the story.
@silverjeyjey4054 he's in advent children. ... his survival was canon without remake.
Absolutely love the Genesis hate.
You make Gakt sad
I got a giggle out of it....though I do understand sephiroth needed a foil in crisis core 😅
Since in the third game, we will get comatose Cloud in the story who we found in Mideel... I found out Banora is somewhere in the Mideel region... but y'know, Banora is in ruins right now and God.. I don't want to see that Loveless twink ever again lmao (a mention of him is enough lol, and Angeal too maybe...)
I never thought that a Schrödinger's Aerith would be a thing
I did, but when I said "this is where remake is going" I was downvoted to hell
@@marco19878 unpopular opinions are shamed quickly
Blame the FF7 OG GateKeepers who think anything deviating from a 1:1 remake of the original is sacrilegious. I had a chat with HappyCatTH-cam who is well studied on the FF7 lore and told her that it's better that the game makers don't try to recreate the original game exactly the way it was. They need to add new elements and plot details to make it fresh and new to bring in a new audience and she agreed with that idea.
@@renegade637 New elements and fresh stuff is fine. But when you also throw in so many important details that only make sense to fans of the original, how is that supposed to draw in new audiences and not make them feel alienated or confused about a lot of what's going on?
Advent children isn't just hated for being poorly written, reintroducing problems that were supposed to be resolved in the original game (such as clouds constant guilt tripping of himself), in doing little if anything to advance the plot.
It's also hated for how it handled cloud and Tifa's relationship. Many people, myself included, actually thought they had broken up before the movie started. There's also the issue of sephiroth coming back, only to supposedly be defeated for good, but with no justification as to how that works. Another complication is that Rufus shinra being redeemed made no sense at the time, it makes sense given how he's being painted in the remake trilogy, put in the original game he was a purely evil and ruthless piece of crap.
Most of the party members got shafted in Advent Children it left me really cold. Seeing Rufus and the Turks get more dialogue than Barret, Yuffie and Red was really disappointing.
When I saw it I had similar complaints. Especially about the orphans. 2 brand new characters dropped in a sequel and the only way they can tie them into the plot and garner interest is make them orphans and have Cloud work at an orphanage. That he's never around at to actually take care of the orphans. Then just having the party pretty much reduced to cameos and then helping lift Cloud in the end was the worst type of fan service. My brother simply told me I didn't get it. I was stunned.
@@gamervet4760 personally I think they have a chance to retcon that, in remake part 1 there was an evacuation and rescue effort that didn't happen in the original.
Easy out for square enix if they want to undo that crap. Especially with Denzel, he's a character who only exists for the sake of denying Cloud and tifa their own kids.
@@nickmurkel2469 I don't care. I don't play the remake garbage.
Yeah and introducing three lousy clones
6:40 and then they completely butchered the once best game scene of all time by refusing to pick a side and stick to it. They wanted both worlds alive . And dead. So it jump back and forth between the and we never actually got to see sephiroth + Aerith on screen when it happens
My absolute favorite added plot line to the remake project is the Gi tribe connection to the black materia and the cetra I audibly shouted when that was revealed, like OMG it just makes such perfect sense
man, i still have not played rebirth cuz i am on PC, but fuck, that has been my head canon since i was a kid!!
I don’t think fan expectations were too crazy. if anything doing things that would make people satisfied would’ve actually been less work. They would just have to do what they did for the majority of the game aka expand on different areas and re-create them. I’ve never seen anyone complain about the way the nibelhiem flashback was done because it was re-created accurately. That’s all they had to do. It’s really not that complicated and I don’t know why people pretend it is.
Such an incredible video... Nostalgia is such a powerful emotion. I recently platinumed Rebirth on PS5 while simultaneously replaying the original FF7 on my Nintendo Switch. They're both masterpieces in their own ways, but there's so much excitement in knowing that we could still have alternate outcomes for different characters fates depending on the narrative direction they take in the third game of the Remake series. Regardless of how they chose to end things, I'll definitely be along for the unknown journey. I love that orchestral version of Aerith's theme that you closed out the video with. Beautiful job.
Nice. I’m also working on Platinuming FFVII: Rebirth. GAME OF THE YEAR!!!
As someone who played FF7 og after the remake, I fear this isn't nostalgia, Im just more into darker stories ig
The re-do trilogy is still leading up to AC. It’s been said by devs that all roads meet up with Advent children.
This video has a faulty presupposition..
Which is that FF7 only lives in ppl memories..
FF7 is one of the most replayed games out there..i replay it every year..it has an average of 2k ppl playing all the time on steam..
So its not how ppl remember the game ppl are experiencing it right now..
You havent discovered a long forgotten game..
I play it now and see all its flaws..and overall its still an amazing game..
The fact a remake of it is having to be broken up into multiply games is a testiment to how content rich the game is..
Its writing,plot,characters,charm are all above most of what we see today in gaming.even its combat system that has almost unlimited combinations of materia is still one of the best magic systems in gaming today.
how many are actually playing OG unmodded? How can one replay OG without mods
Can't mod the console versions unfortunately 😅
sorry to break it to ya, but yes no doubt ff7 is content rich, but the fact that ff7 remake is being broken into 3-4 parts only screams and tells me GREED. They are milking that cash cow for all it's worth. And it's a smart move, sure.. but the remake of FF7, has so many new and updated things that was not in the original game. If they made a true 1:1 remaster of the original, It would be maximum of 2 discs... thats maybe? it's a sad world we live in now where everyone is just after money.
@@鹿野修哉-u2k I'm playing ff7 new threat lol but if I had a choice, it would be OG + a few mods to make it 60fps, clean up the backgrounds and maybe something else.. but OG models yes, OG sounds, yes, OG music, yes.
Yep played it this year, the game is absolutely fantastic.
"Red 8" ❌️
"Red 13" ✔️
You play final fantasy games, you should know Roman numerals
If I die before Part 3 Imma be really pissed.
lol,I was thinking the same...😁
But how can one be mad if you return to the lifestream? I'm sure you'll be around tho! Both of you
You’ll be able to play it in the lifestream and has the PS7 with 16K! You’re welcome 😉
@@Dis2good That'll look amazing!
Rufus survived, because his father installed a "Loser" escape hatch to mock him. Well, who's laughing now.
But, you made a really great video! And I think your main thesis is absolutely correct.
While I agree that OG FFVII is not perfect (the huge materia sub-plot in particular is absolute trash, in my opinion), one thing I really hate about this video is that it actively dismisses/reduces all tasteful creative choices that demonstrate open to interpretation nuance, artistic restraint, and subtlety as "head-canoning" and as story flaws rather than the strengths that they are.
Tifa not interjecting after hearing Cloud's story is without exaggeration the entire point of her character. Just because the game does not explicitly spell it out for you, doesn't mean it isn't heavily implied. Several points of her dialogue in the story suggests that she is actively hiding it out of concern for Cloud, and that the pressure of keeping this a secret is eating her up inside. She is repeatedly characterized as hesitant, paralyzed with indecision, too empathetic for her own good, and a well-intentioned enabler. It's this same intentional character flaws that gets her to go along with Avalanche's actions despite disagreeing with it. Her character arc involves confronting this tendency and fatal flaw that she has alongside Cloud in the lifestream (every bit as much as it's about him confronting his insecurities).
Hell, her last name is quite literally "Lockhart" as in she locks her feelings deep inside in her heart. It's straight up what makes her an interesting and complex character, not an example of why the old game isn't as good as you remember it or whatever.
For those of us that was 15 and 16 when the game came out what we want is an identical recreation of the original game but with high-tech graphix and improved game mechanics
Agreed, I was 18 in 97.
I don’t know. I feel like FF7 had a really amazing story and a perfect outline to flesh out. I like hearing well written stories in well written narratives. I feel like the original FF7 had a great narrative and plenty of room for improvement for the character interaction. The Remake does a pretty good job of fleshing out the characters while making them true to the original, but the pacing, focus, and added convolutions of the narrative have compromised from what I kind of wanted from the game. I think it’s possible for a faithful remake to be intensely interesting. You just have to flesh out the themes and characters and five time and weight to the important moments where they might have skimmed over in the original. There always more nuance and more reinforcing of ideas you can put into a narrative. I know it’s wide and expansive so the narrative can’t be too narrow and focused, but there are a lot of characters and they each have a story to tell and themes to explore as part of that story. I don’t like the idea that a faithful adaptation that expands on the original cant hold value or at least couldn’t be as interesting as a subversive take that ads convoluted pieces into the narrative and fights with the original themes and messages for dominance in the narrative.
A faithful adaptation certainly could have value, but my point is that FF VII's legacy is so strong and romanticized by so many people that a faithful one would still be uncharitably compared to the original anyway. No matter what they did, it would be criticized as not being worthy of the mantle, of adapting too much or too little, expanding more than necessary or not expanded enough, etc. I've seen people argue simply adding voice-acting would immediatelly take away from the original experience.
So you might as well talk about it involving the fans expectations directly instead of trying to recapture something that IMHO can't be recaptured. Like I say in the video, the original is widely available, and it's a great game. You don't need a remake to relive it, and the remakes do not erase the original. They don't want to. They want to celebrate the original instead of recreating it.
@@GeekOuter well that sort of opens up discussion on why a remake instead of a sequel or spinoff. If your not trying to recapture or expand on the original ideas, than why go through the motions of the original? I get your point and I’m not necessarily saying your wrong, even, but trying to tell a new story by going through the motions of an old story and interjecting here and there just feels weird, unless the new story has cohesive themes with the original. I guess that’s kind of what a remake was going to be anyways, trying to add onto and flesh things out requires a clear expanse on the theming or your just adding fluff. Im not 100% sure what I’m getting at.
I just feel like almost everyone was happy with the direction the remake went until the meta-narrative kicked in and that split a lot of people. Im fine with most of what you say, but I genuinely believe that there is a direction that they could have went that most people would have been happy with. I think that what we got showcases a lot of what most people wanted from a remake. From all of the videos I’ve seen from every point of view almost everyone was happy with certain aspects of this game and those are the parts that retread, but flesh out the original.
Now, i’m not a hate bandwagon type of person. I think there is value in the remake we got and an interesting narrative that’s unfolding, it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m genuinely happy to see some people unabashedly love this game though. I’m not trying to say that the direction they went is the objectively wrong one. I’m just trying to defend the position that there could be a faithful adaptation of the original that had value because of what it did instead of what it emulated. Some people wanted to see updated cinematic of the big moments. Some people wanted to explore the world hinted at in the backgrounds of the original. Some people just want to experiment with the materia system again. I’m not trying to attack the direction of the games right now, just defend the value and appeal a less subversive remake could potentially have.
i wish there was something remotely close that has the atmosphere of the og. Unfortunately, there isnt.
Atmosphere....this is a word developers do not believe anymore.
I don't usually go for these long ass videos, but you hooked me and did a great job laying everything out. You hit on every point I could think of.
*sigh* How do you reconcile an imperfect game with everybody's unique expetations? You create more story, add a multiverse and just let your creativity loose while enriching the players most cherished moments and staying loyal to the OG as much as possible.
I love how they are handling it...its doing reboots "the right way" if you will. Unlike star wars franchise, which has been a pure fire extinguishing endeavor since 1999.
I think, since the lifestream holds the memories of the deceased..its not out of place to give more depth and understanding to the characters struggles throughout the game by having that sentient super technology communicate with the living to try and give them (and us as players) the off ramp that we've all been looking for since OG regarding such heavy topics as the finality of death and the set course of fate. The most innevitable thing fate gives us is 'change' and if we can influence its course even a little bit it gives us hope for a better tomorrow. The most important key to that locked heart is responsibility though...Cloud taking responsibility for his actions despite having failed to conquer his demons in time literally gives him another chance to do right by those he feels he let down. Hopefully even understand his most hated enemy...the man he admired. I see no limit to Cloud's growth with the remakes.
This is a crazy theory, but I believe that the Chocobo Sage is Cloud from the future
If your theory turns out to be true it would be one hell of a ballsy move I couldn't help but respect.
Absolutely agree.
I dunno man, if they made the remakes like we have them now just without the whisper stuff and the unnecessary Sephiroth cameos then they would be perfect for me at least xD
A lot of this feels more of explaining events more so than expounding upon how "your final fantasy 7 doesnt exist" when it feels like im waiting for you to say we all have our own image of the game with our own expectations that cannot be realized
I’m personally not a fan of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it’s Sequel (Rebirth), nor do I care about the added backstory of the other remake to Final Fantasy VII, Ever Crisis.
I don’t think the word anyone who played the original FF7 who wanted a remake to it for years was faithful… I think for some, they wanted a 1 to 1 remake of Final Fantasy VII. A game that plays like the original, but with HD graphics as well as in a new engine. And I think that’s what’s the issue here. The remake games has a lot of issues, most of it sucks, but it’s not because I hated it out of its unfaithfulness. It’s more so how the story’s just convoluted as well as how the games don’t know what they’re made for. It doesn’t know if it’s a sequel, a reboot, a soft reboot, or in those games’ case, a remake.
To me, a remake should fix the problems the original game had, while also staying close to the original game’s story, and in some cases, could add in references & some lore that were established in other games, and show what happened in those events in the original game and/or laying out the groundwork that would be an important plot point in the sequels following the original game, before the remake’s release. The Resident Evil Remakes are a perfect example of this. It fixes the issues the old games had, while still keeping it close to the original story, while adding hints & lore that would be explored in the games following the events of the first Resident Evil.
And I think the FF7 Remakes should’ve done a similar thing to what the RE Games had. Sharing the same plot & characters as the original game, while also changing the gameplay, change some minor story bits, add some new cutscenes, expand some plot lines & characters, and integrate some characters & lore from the Compilation Pre-VII, the original FFVII could be in line with the other Compilation titles.
It shouldn’t be a sequel, a reboot, and a soft reboot, at the same time… otherwise, it would get confusing, and make people like me uninterested in the series. That was an issue the 2011 Mortal Kombat game had. For how good the gameplay was, the story was just not good, and the fact it tried to retell the first 3 games as well as adding in Quan Chi from MK4 in there, not to mention it had a hard time figuring out if it’s a reboot, or a sequel, really made some of the MK Fans I know, mad.
While the idea that a reimagined type of sequel that subverts everyone’s expectations works well in anime’s like the Scott Pilgrim anime or Evangelion, it worked in anime simply because “animation”. For animation & books, you’re easily able to watch the reimagines that subverts your expectations when you thought you were watching an adaptation of your favorite book, since your favorite book or animation are easily accessible. But for video games, its hard to play an old game from the 90s when they’re not accessible to a wide audience. And even when there’s an old game that’s available on modern consoles, it can be difficult for someone who could have a different experience playing games in the 2010s or 2020s, compared to someone who had an experience of playing games in the 90s.
If you’re reading this, then I want to say thank you for reading.
That's fair, we are all entitled to our own opinions! But I genuinely believe what they are doing here is inherently more interesting than something more faithful.
The Problems started long before the "remakes" ...
FF7 never needed the compilation in the first place. It ruins the whole experience, the open end and many charakters. Like reviveing hojo, reviving rufus, adding even more dumb Charakters.
It's best to just see the original game standing with It's vision for itself.
Laat time I checked, Final Fantasy VII still existed.
It does but unfortunately some of the fans are trying desperately to replace it with the new weebtard reimagining.
Even remade it, changed the story quite a bit but yeah
Laat time I checked, it was spelled "Last"
Really well put together video. Top quality content.
As someone that has argued constantly that ff7 isn't a perfect game, that doesn't mean the compilation stuff was good. It really wasn't. It didn't serve to enhance the story or world of the original game or themes. Much that was added through the compilation needed massive retcons to key events, and even then much of that stuff was dropped in later titles in the compilation. Hell, you brought that up multiple times when bringing up Genesis. There's a reason he was a character in crisis core, then shown in the ending to dirge, but then never brought up in any other compilation medium. Because yea, he wasn't important, and to shoehorn him in further would cause even more rewrites. They could do that now with the "remake" trilogy if they want to since they're so willing to rewrite huge parts of the narrative with multiverse bs, and who knows they probably will in part 3. Or maybe they won't. i'm half convinced at this point with the direction they're going that its gonna turn out that sephiroth is actually a good guy trying to save the multiverse from some cosmic god or something. idk if i'm joking about that or not anymore with how so many ff games and other square franchises has gone.
Much of the extra stuff they added into the compilation, the new characters, haven't really been mentioned in the "remake" trilogy for a reason. because they serve no purpose. They have brought up some things, like deepground or that one dude that defected to wutai, but so far it hasn't really been important to the overall plot because, in the grand scheme of things, all of that was never meant to enrich the original game.
If they wanted to do a real "remake" of ff7 or expand the content, they should have just done a straight remake while expanding on some things, but not to such an extent that entire events are rewritten. If they wanted to add in new characters and events to fill in gaps, they could have done so in ways that wouldn't require so much retconning and shoehorning and mental gymnastics. There are ways they could have done it that could have made old fans still appreciate it and pull in new fans. Example, they could have done the story of crisis core as just a story of zack working his way up the soldier ladder, meeting sephiroth, going on a few missions with him against wutai, having him meet aerith and spending time with her, telling her his dreams, talking to sephiroth about it to further expand his character out a bit (maybe have sephiroth talk about how he doesn't really have dreams, explain his upbringing, drop hints at jenova being his "mother", etc) leading up to nibelheim where everything happens as is, but expanding it a bit to show the aftermath, escape, trip back to midgar, etc. They could have kept some elements of the original crisis core if they really want to, like the whole soldier honor mantra thing, the final battle being against an army instead of just like 3 shinra troops (there are actually multiple ways to do both the army battle AND still have him just be gunned down by a few troopers), etc.
There are ways they could have done some of the compilation stuff without the shoehorning and massive retcons, elevating ff7 to BE the masterpiece everyone says it is. Instead they kinda just ruined it. It already wasn't perfect, but instead of doing some expansions to better flesh things out they decided they wanted to rewrite huge portions.
Something i'd like to point out, back before advent children was announced, i don't know a single person who actually played ff7. I was in middle school back when the first screenshots were leaked, and i remember people not knowing much about it beyond it being a ps1 game that was popular. I'd talk about it with my friends, since i played it in elementary school, but honestly none of them really knew about it or cared much about it, as they were kinda in their "ff10 is the best game ever" phase. It wasn't until after AC was announced and then released that those very same people started claiming that ff7 was a masterpiece. People jumped on the bandwagon hard, partially because of marketing for AC and partially because people wanted to be in the "in" group. i'm not saying thats exactly what happened, but that's my anecdotal experience. I feel like a lot of the praise the game gets today and much of its modern defenders are those people, people that jumped on the bandwagon despite never actually playing the game back in the day, and i'm not saying they haven't played the game since but I do feel like their view has been colored by that hype of jumping on the bandwagon and that colored their opinion of the game as they played it.
Square Enix: What do we do?! So much pressure... might as well rewrite the story...
Resident Evil 2 & 4 Remake: Why???
Dude!!! Great Job with this doc... Wow
Fantastic video! 💯 I absolutely love the FF7 Remake Saga. I love the original game too but I feel like people put the original on far too much of a pedestal because of nostalgia and they don't give the Remakes credit where it is due. The Remakes are absolutely phenomenal in my opinion and they greatly expand the original, adding far more depth to the story, characters, lore, gameplay, soundtrack, and world building.
Yes it does! It's got like 12 mods installed and it's on my SSD right now! Aerith, come on show him! Aerith?
Could have said it better myself 🎉 congrats this is the realest thing anyone has ever said about an all too familiar issue thxx for the realness
I never played the game when it came out. I tried for the first time a few months ago but couldn't get into it. Getting to know now the lore inside and outside the game was really interesting! Great video!
If you push through the heavily hand held opening portion (Midgar) it really becomes something special mechanically.
Horribly clunky by today's standards. Forget what you know and expect. Focus on the story and suffering through the growing pains. It's art. Unlike 99% of other great games. It's just different. Another level of nuance and dedication went into this game.
Ugh is what I call it, played 2 hours of rebirth and haven't played it again. 😐
6:36 Wait, did you just say that Aeris turns into Jenova after her death to fight the party? Like... what?
@@ragfarok I actually meant Sephiroth, but now that you mentioned it, the way I phrased it does lend itself to this interpretation. My bad.
@GeekOuter No worries at all, I was wondering if my mind was supposed to be blown for an instant haha. Thanks for clarifying that out and bravo, that's a fantastic video you made there!
A remake of any franchise can be great or horrible. This is obviously dependent upon the original storyline, the decision of adding to the story or to leave it, and making sure to give the audiences/players what they want. Granted it's impossible to please everyone but if a good amount of people are sold on the franchise for both the original/s and remake/s then a very very well done and congratulations are in order.
I personally have no expectations for the next or final title for the Final Fantasy 7 remake series but I for one would like to see Aerith come back in some way during the final battle against Sephiroth or at the finale where Cloud goes to an isolated area or whatever and he either muses to himself or to Zack then Aerith appears to him one last time or rather at the end of the title as because in Advent Children Aerith and Zack appear at the very end of the movie
Final Fantasy VII does exist and due to all the times its been ported to different consoles - it will continue to exist. The argument of the Final Fantasy VII in our minds not existing has some merit but does not completely work. Because we have the original and all they had to do was copy that and perhaps give it some tweaks. Thats how you please most people. Not everyone but most people.
The fundamental misunderstanding here that you and others have of fans of the og Final Fantasy VII is that Final Fantasy VII (og) told a better story and executed it better as well. No one thought the original was perfect but much like Star Wars or other classic stories - it was a work of art that managed to be more than the sum of its parts and left an impact on those who played it. The remake in comparison is at best a mess of a story with maybe fun gameplay in it. The original was accused of being a mess by some people. So a mess of a mess is an even bigger mess. Its the storytelling that made the original great and great storytelling stands the test of time. This remake however...won't. It will be looked at like the compilation of FFVII. Unfortunately, by trying to bring everyones vision together and trying to please everyone they will instead please very few people imo.
The people that wanted to play the original with better graphics are screwed and the people who wanted to experience the originals story but can't get past the graphics are also screwed.
History matters and needs to be preserved. Everything new eventually becomes history and becomes old. There is no bright future without a past that builds the foundation for what can become a bright future. We all stand on the shoulders of giants forgetting that many of the things we enjoy and take for granted wouldn't exist if it weren't for those past events. We in turn only exist because of the actions of our parents in the past. Many of these repeated justifications from the developers and fans do not address or justify their decisions. The shadow of the original will loom larger as time goes on because it built a legacy while the remake only tried to use its parent as a way to make something that was flashy but less good. This remake is only for those who like the metanarrative more than the original narrative. It is not for those who like the original narrative more than the remakes metanarrative.
Ever Crisis First Soldier finale expands a lot on Sephiroth and what he's trying to achieve in Remake trilogy. His backstory there too. It's pretty good I'd dare to say! Most fans actually like it.
Naw dude, none of us back then thought FF7 was perfect, there was constant debate, especially after 8 and 9 released about which was the best. But, we all respected the game, and we all just wanted a 1:1 remake with better graphics and some tweaks just like the 1:1 remakes with some tweaks of FF1, 2, 3, and 4. That’s the model people respected. You’re just adding in modern internet discourse to the mix, which is just ridiculous people making ridiculous purity spirals and Square Enix apologists going on and on in endless arguments. The sequel era of FF is a cash grab, the games were always better as contained, stand alone stories, not everything needs a multiverse or a franchise based off it. You don’t have to agree with my interpretation, I’m just giving you a perspective of someone that’s been around since the beginning.
"we all just wanted" oh sure..
Preach
@@skidmcI know I did. And I know I’m far from alone. And FF VII Remake was/is a blatant slap in the face to me and anyone else in that camp, all of which being Square’s oldest and most passionate fans. That doesn’t mean the Remake is bad. I will still play it and I will still probably love it. But I’m also angry about the shitty passive-aggressive meta narrative and I’m still disappointed that it’s not what I wanted and that I will probably never get to play the game I dreamed of unless a miracle happens. And I have a right to feel the way I do.
Hey my 7/8 year old brain thought the game was perfect 😂. That it.. we agree on everything else.
@@HoodyBlkAh, smooth brain critiquing. Good times.
This was so well done man. I can't wait to try the remake, haven't had the funds to get it yet but you made me that much more jazzed to play it. I've played almost ever single final fantasy game, it all started with 7 for me (older brother played the first couple as I watched and played around with them but 7 was the first one to grab my ADHD brain and give it a huge hug. I think the gfx in the remake as well as the in-depth explanations of things that we all speculated on is super exciting, and the cliff hanger options as to what could happen next is EXACTLY what I want from that game. Thanks for the content, I thoroughly enjoyed this.
God people really do hate that the original is a masterpiece and the reimagining is a complete bastardised mess.
😂😂😂
Or people just have other opinions different from yours
The original is a great game but not a “masterpiece,” it’s flawed in many ways. The remakes have flaws yes, but are not “bastardized” by anyone without an inherent nostalgia bias and inability to give credit where credit is due, and when all 3 remakes are out, I’m sure time will be much more charitable to what they’ve done with them
slight detail, Sephiroth himself did not slay Aerith. I never really understood this playing the game, but if Sephy's body was frozen in the Northern Crater that must mean it was Jenova, in the form of Sephy, who did the deed, prior to changing back into itself.
Technically he still did, since Jenova was being controlled by Sephiroth. Confirmed in the ultimanias. I honestly understand why there might be confusion on that since I don't remember it ever being directly stated in the game that this was the case, apart from Hojo and Cloud realizing at the Northern Crater that Sephiroth was calling to creatures with Jenova cells in them, Jenova herself included. It was just heavily implied before the ultimania was published
Im not ready to say goodbye to FF VII universe i love this game and love the Remake saga
Hey, this is PurpleMaster from the gfaqs Ever17 board! Wonderful video, I'm a huge fan of FFVII and I loved your piint of view on the Compilation and Remakes. Keep going, I love this channel!
Heya, happy to have you around!
Incredible video. I was ready to disagree at the start, but fully embraced what you said by the end.
The music in the remakes is just so fitting for each area and the enviroments are beautifully done. Some of the mini games are horribley hard due to different reasons such as horrible controls or something else entirely. Im currently trying to playinum it playing hard mode and it is certainly hard thats for sure just insane.
I am convinced Advent children is one of the best, if not best post main franchise additions ever, I will happily field any criticism but I genuinely think it's not perfect but very very very good. It does so much with the small time it's allotted I am just amazed, also it's looks stunning.
Yeah, it's not a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but it's genuinely fun and does what it needs to do IMO.
Amazing video, it's clear how much effort you put into your analysis and how important FF7 is to you. I entirely agree with your takes here on how Advent Children is a good movie and how worthwhile the remake is thanks to its approach. Thank you for another great piece of work!
Great video! Especially the last segment was well said and put together. Thank you for voicing out how I felt about the series. The 7RE series is definitely more interesting and exciting, such a great time to be a fan. The devs are not given enough credit for the amount of love and effort put into the series.
The argument at 17:16-23:37 may not hold much water. Yes, some fan may behold the OG FFVII on a pedestal due to nostalgia, but I genuinely doubt it. Why? 'Cause I myself finally got into the OG (and the franchise, really) back in 2020 -- my only experience with the series were the three films, but I never played any of the games until 2020. I tried to play the OG FFVII back in 2011 but just couldn't get into the turn-based style of gameplay, so I abandoned it... until 2020.
I was in my late 20s, now early 30s -- yet, I found it to be perfect after bing-playing it. Speaking as a newbie still -- it's only been 4 years, after all -- the OG FVII is a masterpiece not just because of nostalgia or some type of Mandela Effect, but because it's a great game on its own merits. And any great game (or film, book, show, etc) becomes timeless because it's so good. A great product will garner praise from non-fans or adults if it's that good, and clearly, the OG FFVII is and has always been that good -- despite its flaws, but its positive outweigh its negatives...at least to me it does.
I absolutely agree with you. Like I say in the video, it is a great game, no question, that deserves its place in the cultural zeitgeist. But my point is not about it being good or not, it's about how many, many people hold it so highly due to personal reasons that nothing else relating to it can ever be met with full open mindedness and judged by its own merits.
Many comments right here illustrate my point perfectly: there's people mad at me because I dared to say I liked Advent Children and I think the compilation has many overlooked merits. There's multiple comments saying all they needed to do was a faithful recreation, even though they use the term differently (some say they'd be fine with a faithful story, others want the exact same systems, others say they should expand it, just not veer from bullet points, etc).
The very fact I list what I consider to be some minor flaws with the original makes people type angry comments. I think I made it pretty clear I love FF7, but to some people their takeway is that I'm saying it was bad just because I'm saying it wasn't absolutely perfect. And that's just about a video I made on the Remakes. Imagine being in charge of developing it.
did you call Nanaki "Red VIII" ?
I was just thinking that. Not sure in purpose or Roman numbers issues :D
Red 13 btw
Red VIII and left no crumbs
1:40 not just a work of gaming, a work of ART :)
20:24 the girl had to nurse a catatonic mako junkie before the start of the game and might not have wanted to see him relapse.
I also think that it’s not just the same game, it’s personalized. My interpretation for the longest time is that you don’t actually play final fantasy vii the first time around. What you played is Aerith’s vision. It makes me insane that no one else thinks of it this way, ever since I played it so long ago and peers around me just assumed the game had no ending. It also ties in with what FF has done since part 1: create storylines that have a stable time loop.
2:13 Wow, Phil Fish sticking his foot in his mouth. A rare sight, I'm sure.
if anyone ever lost a member of their family, they would know that Square made Aerith's death perfectly. It is exactly how reality shifts in Clouds mind and how he can't comprehend that she died.
I suppose you're looking at the bright side...
But for me the point of the remake was to fix all the issues introduced by the compilation, as well as the rushed and inconsistencies of 7.
7 had a good story, but lacked the technological finesse to make it better. So with a trilogy, instead of a one-off game, they should have improved on what was already there, instead of turning it into a mess, just so people could speculate an theory-craft if characters were dead or alive.
After part 3 is out, there'll be no more theories, as they need to provide final answers, and usually in most cases the simplest solution will be the right one, and everything will play out the same as 7, and all this multiple realities, and time weirdness will be pointless, an only there to confuse people.
So in the long run, the game will lose most o it appeal, as opposed as a better version of the original, with just expanded and improved material on the most rushes areas would have moved on to live as a classic.
Being 3 games i'd have also expected a lot more quality in terms of side content, and a lot less filler, cause there was a lot of story to tell, but we instead have chicken questlines...yay-
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At the end of the day both remake and rebirth shine the most when being faithful to the source material, and start to get messy to downright bad, when they do deviate from it.
Like for example Leslie and his questline in remake, were possibily one of the worst bits, and what des he give you? grappling hooks...and that scene of people shooting the hook in barret's hand, him catching it, and being pulled up by Tifa, who was herself barely hanging onto cloud, is ridiculous to say the least.
I had no knowledge of OG ff7 prir to remake, i have experienced it after, and i can say without a doubt it was much better and ore coherent. it just needed a coupleof fixes and expansions, but not the theatrical BS RE trilogy pulled.
All the " wait that caim out wrong " reminded me that me and my friends used to call the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth " Length vs Girth "
Many people including myself forgot the OG has been cut into pieces twice in order to release to the public because of the limits of the n64 (the first system it was going to launch on) and ps one systems so if the devs want to tell the whole assed story.... I'm on board 😂😂 go big. Great introspection on the OG. 👍
Great video. I enjoyed the perspective.
I think the part of Tifa not calling out Cloud on the discrepancies was actually genius. It just wasn’t implemented well enough. Nibelheim was a traumatic incident for both Cloud and Tifa and both of them misremembering the events in such a situation would’ve been understandable. It’s possible that Tifa was questioning her own memories since Cloud had true knowledge of what happened even though to her knowledge and memories he wasn’t present at all during those events. Even his feelings of the events were the kind of feelings of someone who saw the events first hand. So how could he remember clearly something that he didn’t experience or was it that she was remembering wrong all along? That’s what would’ve been going through her head when she heard Cloud’s recall of the events. With Tifa’s reactions in the original game I think that was the way they intended to go but somehow it got on the chopping block. Maybe it didn’t fit Tifa’s character or maybe they didn’t want 2 characters with an identity crisis or they simply forgot or had to cut extra fat.
my friend,
amazing video. thanks for putting everything easy and clear. you are based.
oh, it was such a magical time. FF7 is still a huge game, even by today's standards. I've played it countless times and it still takes me a matter of days to finish.
In the original game, you can skip the part where Aeris dies by going up through the mountain next to Midgard and walking across the ocean to the the snow lands town, save, and then switch over to disk 2, then go back later on in the game at disk 3 to get everything you missed, minus the stuff in The Temple of the Ancients. That is the sacrifice and it is well worth it. You only really need yellow mastered materia, a bunch of Phoenix, Knights of Round, and Final Attack materia when fighting all 4 Weapons, Ultima, Ruby, Sapphire, and one in the sunken plane, that they cut out of the revised games for some dumb reason.
Loved this video, but I disagree with part of the premise (I think). I played FF7 for the first time in 2018, with zero context, no nostalgia, and no expectations. Similar to say intentionally listening to Mozart for the first time, knowing that it is a cultural icon. I knew in the first 20 minutes that the game was an absolute masterpiece just from my own impressions, and it was real and definitely did exist in that moment. What makes FF7 special is that it lets you feel new emotions for the first time, like seeing a color that you didn't know existed. I think Remake forfeit this a little in the name of Spectacle, but I am very happy that Rebirth has the same emotional brilliance as the original, and possibly even more.
I am happy that you liked the games but for us old and tired fans this will always be a false advertised game that wanted to capitalize on our nostalgia and no amount of double speach and uematso music will ever change that. Remake is remaking the original game not making a meta sequel with the name remake my guy 😅
It’s not a remake. No need to lie to justify liking a shit bastardisation of masterpiece
Your words about meta narrative made me think that Rebirth's ending could also be referring to all these well-known "how can you revive Aerith" hacks and theories! You know, like on the PC version you could warp from one "dimension" to another (from one save file to another) and bring Aerith back to your team. And then she is there but not there at the same time, playable but silent or invisible in the cutscenes. That reference would be quite genial 😮
To the comment about Tifa basically enabling him. My argument in a nutshell is she feels bad she has to lie to this guy through the main story plot who's clearly unhinged. But he's her childhood friend, so she's just kinda seinfelding herself through the game until she reached the lifestream who made her realize what she was doing effectively showing her how weird she made it. Eventually, it comes to a head, but yeah, you can say this much about Tifa. It was stupid, but that's dedication. She may have helped him cause she enabled it, and she felt bad about it. But, she stuck it out with him and even told him the truth in the end once he finally reached his character impasse on his foundational psychie because he's her friend and she cares about the guy. To me, she kinda symbolizes character growth that doesn't have to be in the main focus.
It took me way too long to realize that this video essay was applying Barthes' "The Death of the Author" at length.
I think a lot of the reason that people disliked _Advent Children_ was the change to Cloud. I want to say that the director actually confirmed that Cloud had been deliberately changed to more closely align with certain fan depictions of him, but I could be misremembering that. In any case, Cloud did change in such a way, and there were certainly many other fans who not only thought that this was a deviation from his character but also did not like the "dark and angsty" archetype stereotypically favored by adolescents and wanted a character who was true to the original rather than pandering to a certain segment of the fan base. (This does tie into what you talk about later regarding differing memories and perspectives and how you have to choose between segments of the fanbase to pander to; simply apply that to AC and you'll understand why it's unpopular in certain circles.)
That being said, you have given a perfectly good explanation as to why Cloud would have changed in AC. I think it makes the movie make a bit more sense to me. But choosing to go that route with his character would still rub people the wrong way-even though you could come up with a justification for it-because of its broader cultural context.
Would be cool if with this Multiversal idea, that they merge with the original Timeline, and Run into the original Voice Cast.
I prefer the remakes
And I love FF7 original
I don't care what others say 😅
I love it for some reasons. First: VOICE ACTING, this is a big deal for me as it helps me immerse the story.
Secondly, the amazing enviroment and things to do. Really, people complain about everyhting these days, while we are having the best time to have a remake of this masterpiece, adding tons of story to this amazing world which had only 1 true canon game and others as spin offs, now we have plenty of story and three games! With amazing graphics. That's a love letter to the original imo.
Thirdly, times change. Like Peter Parker finding out his uncle has died, we must change for newer audiences, to convey the idea. 1997 is long gone and everything was kept, but portrayed in a more appealing way to the newer audiences. I don't know why the hate.
Thirdly, queen's blood.
Great vid! Thank you.
I think they did way too much with VII fr. All the time they spent with all the offshoots, movies, etc could've just been put into making a faithful remake. I feel that everything sort of just bastardized the original to a point where the remake doesn't hold the same charm of the original but rather inspires to be everything after it. I do like the remake but I still would have preferred if they had just made it the way one would expect it to be made, I don't like that it is essentially hijacked by the new developer's take.
21:09 my immaturity hold no bounds "Tifa always being with a three-some." Will forever be pointed out and funny..
*jumps out time portal in shiny suit with last known original copy of FF7 and evaporates you with Hadron Collider* 💀⚡😬
I might be wrong, but I actually don't believe in the multiverse in retrilogy. these strange and unreal scenes with Zack almost always appear when Cloud sleeps, or falls unconscious, or tries to avoid his motion sickness. it looks like the player sees this story through the Cloud's eyes, and Cloud has some kind of dreams and delusions, which he doesn't able to distinguish from the reality, so is the player. that explosion-like thing in the sky, for example, was in the OG Lifestream sequence as a part of Cloud's subconscious. Sefiroth in the OG tries to make Cloud believe in the wrong things, even the fact he isn't a real one, why should we believe in everything that Sefiroth says?.. and we know Cloud has a problem with his memories, he can't gather them in one piece yet, so it could be the explanation of why we didn't see the whole things
Can someone tell me who this guy is? 2:09? That comment was so bizzare and rude
Phil Fish, creator of Fez, former indie game developer that was very outspoken and rude on several occasions. Though to be fair, he did apologize to the Japanese developer and quit the industry for good after being severely harassed by gamergate.
@@GeekOuter Who is “gamergate”? Is he in the room with us now? Imagine excusing Fish’s pathetic anti-Japanese xenophobia. He only apologized for the optics.
@@cipher0329 do you genuinely not know what gamergate was or do you believe it never happened?
Anywho, I'm not excusing Fish, just adding further context, his apology and the gamergate debacle are unrelated.
What a great video 😙👌 Thank you!
I think my ff7 did exist. But the current efforts from Square to recapture it strays too far from what it was.
Great video, people don’t want to experience video games from a new perspective they just want to experience their childhood again and that is not possible.
You explain it well. I never thought about what they are putting together for the remake. I think I'm more willing to forgive the new devices they implemented in the new FF7 games, however, I'm still unhappy with how they used those devices. But what choice did they have, huh?
Honestly? I whole heartedly agree with you, I do genuinely believe that some people are so blinded by childhood nostalgia of a game, movie or show that it seems they cant handle their childhood nostalgia getting any kind of criticism, Tobey Maguire Spiderman after we got Andrew and then Tom especially with hitop films and heck Tobey didnt even have web shooters which was scrapped I believe in development but Andrew and Tom have web shooters which is one of the most popular things about Peter Parker, getting Boruto after Naruto, getting FF7 reunion, remake and rebirth after the FF7 original, Resident Evil 4 original, Spiderman 2 PS2 or even getting KH3 after we got KH2 Final Mix even though the original KH2 was so much worse to where you couldn't even *DODGE* but yet final mix really spoiled people and I think that's largely why people trash on KH3 especially since KH3 was hyped up to infinity and beyond before it finally released,
All properties did alot of good for the world but ultimately they all have at least 1 flaw but definitely more than 1, Spiderman 2 PS5 despite being flawed it'self has things in it's web swinging that you cant do in Spiderman 2 ps2 and even the gameplay and story wasn't as good even though this is the game thats movie tied into the rami spiderman 2 movie which everyone praises plus the web swinging is the only thing I see get talked about and im like aside from the swinging what else is there? In Spiderman 2 PS5 you can change your costume, two spidermen, better graphics, bigger open world, inproved smoother gameplay and combat etc, Boruto becoming a way more worthy protagonist and successor to Naruto with his character arc in the manga, anime and even storm connections which that game made me fall in love with boruto as a person but yet anytime someone dares to say boruto is better than naruto then you get told your wrong because I guess people cant have opinions now and im not saying that boruto is better than Naruto but what I AM saying is people are allowed to have their own OPINION because just because everybody thinks so and so is a "masterpiece" doesn't mean you have to think the same way as them because were allowed to be our own people with our own beliefs and preferences, Resident Evil 4 original having not the best story and character development (especially ashley for example and Luis and even Leon to an extent as much as people will go at you for even daring to say that) where the remake gave the characters more meaning plus I find it strange how people bash RE6 for being more action combat when the original RE4 is what started that trend but they praise OG RE4 but put down RE6 even though now some people are starting to see RE6 as not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, myself included, and FF7 having not so good character development when it comes to characters like Tifa, yuffie and Vincent because Vincent in rebirth now has a score to settle with sephiroth which gives him more of a purpose to be there instead of being optional and borderline unnoticeable if you didn't realize he was there and same with yuffie with wutai getting more fleshed out in the remakes and as much as I love tifa like everyone else I too find it weird that her of all people wouldn't ever confront cloud on his lie about nebilhim but in rebirth as much as people trash on that tifa actually does confront cloud on it this time at the very beginning of the game and it made more sense because now sephiroth manipulates cloud against tifa because he knows tifa is the only person that truly keeps cloud on the right path, its like you can't ever criticize something people consider nostalgic without getting bashed for it,
As great as the OGs where, they weren't perfect, even getting miles morales after peter parker where miles gets way too much hate that he doesn't even deserve and gets pushed down to just a black Peter Parker which completely undermines everything he went through in all of his stories and why he means so much to people in the first place and is also racist because Miles is clearly way more then just his skin color but yet that's what some people label him as and even Gotham Knights where it's not perfect but to be fair it was never trying to be an Arkham game but yet everybody constantly compared it to Arkham anyway which I completely understand but it's also one big reason if not the biggest reason why it gets a lot of hate but lesser hate now because of suicide squad, its as you said, the originals come out at the right time and then any adaptation that comes after is immediately met with a lot of hostility and very high expectations that at least sometimes almost seem impossible for them to live up to, its blind nostalgia, in a way it kinda reminds me of when some women get the ick whenever men do ANYTHING at all just so they can find some dumb excuse to not date that guy, I do agree as well that the originals will always have a place but I do believe the remakes can have a place to stay as well
I played all the games in this series, og ff7 still remains the best title, in my opinion. The "multi-verse of ff7" was meh for me, and i really wanted to love the the remake project, just couldn't get into it. But it doesn't mean i hate the game, just not for me, and i hope everyone playing it loves it. 😊
marvel did permanent damage to the concept of multiverse ever.
Great video as someone who played remake first then OG. Some people really have a strong nostalgic bias that Clouds their judgement especially on characters and plot expansion. OG while great definitely feels rushed at points and the characters in Remake trilogy are leagues better in terms of development and personality. Barret being the biggest improvement
watched advent children boot leg too absolutely loved it im subscribing just on that alone and i’ll die on the hill with you😂
Hey, check out Sleepezi, his videos explain how the remake is actually just expanding on what was already there. You also need to check out the ultimanium,s tons of info in them
1st thing is Cloud's head is not right, everything that Cloud sees might not be true.. we might have played his own mind games. Who knows what narrative is true if our protagonist is literally has brain damage? Thus don't take what cloud see as objective truth.
I consider FF7 a great game that is a work of genius because it’s imperfect 🤷♂️
JebTube made a video on the Remake of Final Fantasy VII a few years back. There were tons of points that are now outdated cuz of FF7 Rebirth, but some of his points do seem valid.
I suggest you should see that video. Your video’s interesting by the way.
As the years pass, the amount of ridiculous comments that I read with respect to Cloud being "out of character" in Advent Children based on the ending events of the original game really blows my mind. Cloud has always been depicted as being quiet whilst sensitive; he cares about his friends and comrades as much as any major hero/protagonist does. Him having some form of PTSD from a crazy series of events that nearly ended the world is NOT unheard of.
I adore this movie and have it in my top 50 of all-time favorite movies. :) The place it has in my heart is immense as the original game and even the remake series are my favorite games of all time.
You are entitled to your own opinion, but I have to make note of your comment on why Tifa says nothing about events she knows are inconsistent with what she knows. It is fairly obvious she is trying to protect her closest friend/romantic interest even if the choice is selfish/wrong. That is one of the things I love about her flawed character so much... for all her physical strength, she is driven entirely by her heart with Cloud. Also worth mentioning... there are times it can be inferred that Tifa herself is questioning what actually happened back then as it was equally as traumatic for her with her father and entire village being destroyed.
Yeah, while I don't think Advent Children is some sort of incredible masterpiece or anything, it's a good and fun movie that naturally extends Cloud's character and has something to say regarding the original's core themes.
Regarding your opinion about Tifa, I respectfully disagree. I think there's just not enough apparent text or subtext to properly support such readings, and we as fans just fill the gaps ourselves. If you ask people, they'll have a lot of different explanations and analysis for this plot point alone, which to me indicates it's basically people looking to explain something that was likely an oversight. It just doesn't feel, to me at least, like something intentionally placed there to encourage the audience's interpretation, because I don't really think the game spends enough time on it or leaves enough breadcrumbs to suggest intentionality.
A close friend of mine, for example, is sure Tifa doesn't say anything because she's also being influenced by Jenova somehow. The Reddit post I quickly flash on the screen on this section has a bunch of rather different ideas on why she wouldn't say anything, one of them even says Tifa is insecure, ranging from "she's trying to protect Cloud" to "Cloud tells it with such confidence that she's doubting her own memories too". It's a detail that I really don't see the point of being so open ended intentionally.
But hey, who am I to say you're wrong? That's one of the perks about art.
Its a time capsule when videogames where made with passion and art.
With regards to the Advent Children hate, I don't necessarily hate the movie as a whole. I just hate the Geostigma plot. It felt like a plot excuse to keep Cloud aloof and to keep him and Tifa separated. According to some Ultimanias, Cloud, Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel are supposed to be a family. However, you would never get that from the movie. Also, from what I can tell, after Tifa helps Cloud put himself back together in the Lifestream at the end of the OG FF7, he was supposed to be a goofball before and be that way again now that he became the "Real Cloud". But, you would never get that Cloud is back to his normal self with him in constant self-pitty not only from trying to find a cure to Geostigma but also survivors guilt from not saving Aerith. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve time to mourn over Aerith. But, it's been two years and he has Tifa to mourn with.
Crazy thing is I never played ff7 when I was young I recently played it a couple years before the remake an honestly it's better in its own way I definitely like them both tho
So the next one is the final one?
See...I suppose I was lucky to be an adult when FF7 came out; the US release was September 1997, I had just turned 20 that June. So I definitely noticed the game's flaws. Is it a great game? Yeah. No denying that. Is it my favorite? Nah. Definitely top five alongside 1, X2, 9, & Tactics Advance 1, but not my favorite (that's a tie between 1 & X2).
Huh. That "No Promises Await at Journey's End" with the music playing reminds me of the ending to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where in that last minute or so, there's a nice glamour shot of the Enterprise...it then goes to warp...a lil' more music...and then a popup that says "The Human Adventure is Just Beginning."
God, I loved this video. This should be required watching for any FFVII fan, before playing FFVII Reunion/Return/Revengeance
I really want the third instalment to be called Revengeance now.
I agree Advent Children has its faults (just like any film), but I really enjoyed it.
I think it would make a good FFVII-2 game story wise
The problem is every game play differently, from turnbased to action. Even crisis core reunion are not the same.
Im hoping all final fantasy games will be remade and remastered.
I agree if the new FFVII's were mostly like the original they would be boring, and very predictable, I actually commend Squarenix for taking the risk in trying somthing different with these games.