Final Fantasy VII was one of the top selling games for the original Sony PlayStation, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest games ever made. With a movie and several video game sequels and prequels, it is by far the most prominent and expansive story in the Final Fantasy universe.
In the early days of the PlayStation 3 era, a re-creation of the original opening scene from the Playstation 1 game was used as a tech demo to show the power of the then new console, and it started hype over a possible remake of this beloved game. Square-Enix, the group behind the Final Fantasy series, denied that such was in the works, and it continued to be just a dream.
At E3 2015, it was announced that there was not only a remaster of the original game planned, but also, a full fledged re-creation. That’s right, fans were being treated to not just a remastered version of the same game they love, but a completely new re-telling of the original story.
Today, at the Playstation Experience 2015 event, the gameplay trailer for the remake was shown. The biggest elements I noticed were a focus on the side characters from the early part of the original game. amazing detail to the environments and character designs, and that the game looks to feature an active battle system, reportedly based on that of Final Fantasy XV – the original game used a turn-based battle system which, while good for the 90’s, doesn’t work so well on modern games of this type.
All in all, I like what I see. I don’t have much to say on this as a side effect – this just looks like what we all wanted. While not slated as an exclusive game, I do believe this will, for a time, be PlayStation exclusive. I’m hoping it doesn’t take too long to reach the Xbox One, if it does at all, so I can experience it on the console I already own.
A remake of Final Fantasy VII, however, as good as this one looks, would be a good reason to buy a PlayStation 4.
Enjoy the trailer here: