A Remake Is A Remake

****Just a friendly spoiler warning to start off. This is of course concerning the final fantasy 7 remake series. As part of that I will be discussing big things about FF7 remake, the OG FF7, Crisis Core: Reunion as well as PART of FF7: Rebirth (however, I'm only on Chapter 2 as of writing this so it won't be any further into the game than essentially the opening area; those side quests have me hooked)****

Now that that has been handled... proceed appropriately! :)

This is of course regarding the FF7 series which has recently released the second entry in what has been planned as a trilogy remaking the original game. I've seen a number of takes here and there which seem to take issue with the idea that the remake is in fact a remake of the game and not just a graphical update, which one might even refer to as a remaster or "HD upgrade". I in turn take issue with this because it leads to the usual Gamer®️ thing of treating the recognition of objective qualities as criticism in and of itself. eg "You see, this banana is yellow, you have to agree with me on that, which means I'm right that bananas taste like shit" etc.

While FF7 is a beloved classic, I'll admit that the game has never been put on the same pedestal by me. Personally I've always considered FF9 to be the best entry in the series, and even then I feel like FF14 has overtaken that. I understand its significance though, and in my childhood I remember seeing tons of ads and demo stations with cloud and that foggy image of the shinra building all over the place; it usually got me excited because that meant that there was a demo station I could fool around on, that never actually included FF7, while I was in a store; this was like winning the lottery as a child in the 90s/00s... (I don't think that's much of a thing anymore?). But all of that is to say, that I am not one to treat the game like its a perfect being that must be defended at all costs; hell FF7 was the target of my contrarianism for a long time; I'd regularly list it at the bottom of all FF games I've played (which even included the problematic entries of the 13 trilogy and 15). So there's something significant in me sitting around for a long time and saying "hey you know what, I'm going to defend that game that I always love taking shots at in the form of an HTML blog post on my neocities page"

Long story short, about FF7, my initial thoughts were that the plot twist about cloud was pretty damn cool and the longer it sits with me and the more I get to explore the implications of that via the extended universe, it really sets in to me how damn cool that plot device is. I feel like the focus on Aerith dying (one of the biggest 'spoilers' known in the medium) is a red herring, because while it always sucks to lose a party member, I don't feel like that was as defining and lasting as the whole deal with cloud. That could be a write up in and of itself but that's not really the point here, the point is to give FF7 its flowers and lay the seeds for how these ideas are lasting and really carry a lot of weight.

As I stated earlier, the implications of that plot line really sat with me and as I explored the FF7 metaverse expanded universe it really made me appreciate it more. Crisis Core in particular, getting to spend that time with Zach and see the full story, see more details filled in, see more color added to the scenes, see those ideas really get fleshed out, was what really made me get the ideas being presented. I don't think that was a mistake either, given the development of the game and how the property has been revisited so frequently, I can't help but believe that FF7 is a prime case of a creator having had to release something in a state that is a bit less than ideal, just needing more time.

Lets take a detour

"TaxRetRn just said that FF7 sucks ass????" No, that's not what I'm saying and I think its a common cliche for creators that art is never finished it's just good enough or something along those lines (google it for me I'm busy writing my hot takes!). My most prime example, from music, is Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak. An album that was divisive when it first released but has gone on to become a beloved inspiring classic that led to direct inspiration for many loved artists today yaddayadda you know the deal; basically it's a work that is held up in high regard by many people, even Kanye himself who has listed it as his personal favorite and best album. With all that being said, the album was made in the span of like... a month. That being pretty impressive, it's been shown again and again any time Kanye gets to revisit the work for music videos, live performances, etc. he will always take the time to "remix" the tracks; he adds to the ideas laid in them and fills them out. He gets to fully explore and expand on the elements of each track, making it more "complete". Probably the biggest example of this is his Hollywood Bowl performance from 2015 for the 7th anniversary. He literally remade the entire album. And being that he remade the album.... (walk with me here) would you expect it to sound the exact same, or would you expect it to sound different?

We will get back to video games in a second, but keep following me for a second. 808s was an album that was very close to the creator in its original form, he has said its his favorite work of his own, and yet he has also gone on to make it "more complete" in the version of a live performance later on. It should be said that this "more complete" version does not erase the existence of the original work. But you have to assume that in the years that the original work has existed, as Kanye has listened back to it over and over, he probably hears more complete versions of ideas he had. Again, he wrote it in 1 month which is pretty quick. To summarize by pulling from another medium and work which everyone has probably seen, think of George Costanza driving home from work and coming up with a great comeback in the car. It's like that.

Ok, now back to FF7

All of that is to say that, the game was made in about 3 years? Which is pretty quick even for that time, especially being the first game to jump to 3D in the series. With the release of advent children and many other spin-off works in the FF7 multiverse expanded universe, it goes without saying that these show that the FF7 team had more ideas that made them say "hmm I wish we could expand a bit more on that" and when they got the chance they did.

It's much easier to expand on and fix a finished product than it is in the throes of creation. So once you get to step back and say "it's complete :D" and experience it over the years especially as you get older, get more projects and life experience under your belt that make you rethink things or learn how to do things better (which is what tends to happen as you spend more time doing something), you start to say "hey... I'd love to apply a lot of these brilliant things I've learned back to my old favorite!" I will probably do the same thing with this post one day.

The FF7 remake trilogy is essentially the culmination of all of that. This is their chance to say "Ok, we've been sitting thinking about things for 20 years, How would we do it differently today?". This is their Hollywood Bowl concert, this is George turning the clock back and going back into that meeting.

I think with this context and with this approach towards these games a lot of people who have dismissed it as just being a "drawn out scam" or other stupid shit like that would probably understand where it's coming from. That would require looking at games as creations or works of art rather than just as toys and "content" to be consumed though.

So why do it?

Personally, I think that the game has had nothing but a massive benefit from being able to add more detail and fully explore characters and locations. I find myself being much more drawn to and caring more about the characters from the prolonged banter, as well as the excellent voice work which has brought these characters to life. Shoot me for it, but I find the expressions and models of the characters in FF7:re a bit more emotionally connecting than the blocky models from the original game. It's one thing to read Cloud's disconnected cool guy demeanor in text, it's another thing to see him try to keep it up in front of his lifelong crush and being entirely betrayed by his body language, it goes even further to see her seeing right through it, though not saying it. It's the little things that really carry that. This isn't me saying "GRAPHICS!!!!", I regularly game on the switch and I grew up in that era, MGS is one of my most favorite games ever and I think I prefer the OG MGS to twin snakes. But I think in a final fantasy game, which for me is about the world, the characters, the music, the overall experience, those extra details go really far.

That's not even to say I can't appreciate "older" graphics because again, I had FF4 above FF7 for the longest time (and FF9 is/was my favorite!) and it was because of the characters, the story, the music, etc. The scene where Sir Edward plays his harp (I didn't spoiler warning for FF4 so I'll be vague) literally made me cry and it's one of the most iconic scenes in the whole series for me. I'm a huge Dragon Quest fan too and the early entries have all left their mark with me as well (played as an older adult so no nostalgia goggles! Also true for FF4), even with a protagonist named "HERO" who doesn't speak!

I just feel that this particular story, really benefits from being fleshed out more. Unlike FF9's story focusing on more abstract character arcs, I feel like FF7's character arcs are much more personal. I feel that there's a big benefit to seeing Zach as more than just a throwaway guy albeit an important throwaway guy, and in exploring him, it makes sense that they say "actually... lets redo this". I'm still very early on in Rebirth so who knows what ends up actually happening, but I do think it's a waste to just have him end off and die like he does in the OG, crisis core was a bit better on its take, but it still sucks to see him die. I think that the approach of having him "dead" as determined by Shinra (which has been shown to report that for anyone who more or less causes issues for them, and it totally fits with the org and how much it relies on propaganda) is more interesting; how has he been laying low, what's his plan like, what are his goals, etc. and that is something that can now be explored in the remaking of FF7.

Does this "take away" anything from the main game? No not at all, especially because the main game still exists. And I think it still carries the same major themes, that plot point is now just a bit more fleshed out externally from Cloud himself. And more importantly, it's still the same plot point for cloud even if Zach is still alive; Zach still literally saved Cloud's life which if Zach ended up dying or not is enough for Cloud to hold him in high regard. Especially as much as its shown he looked up to SOLDIER and wanted to be one of them.

A remake is fine

Basically, to sum everything up. A remake is not the same as a remaster is not the same as an HD upgrade (ok maybe the last two have a lot more overlap). Nier replicant ver 1.2(stringofnumbers) is an HD upgrade to the original Japan-only release. It's not a "remake" because it is literally the same game* but with an upgraded combat system and pretty graphics among other QoL features. It has a few bonus story features tacked on but the actual story itself is more or less the same. I think people expected this with FF7 remake not understanding what a remake is.

If you want to take issue with what the game does, that's fine, I'm not saying the game is absolutely perfect and nothing is wrong with it and people who disagree with me are idiots or anything like that, I'm just saying that the idea of saying "hey this remake is different" is nothing other than stating an objective fact and it's not a critique or a criticism to point out that something is different. Media literacy, and especially critical analysis of video games is fucking awful in general, but I wouldn't mind at all to see someone in good faith dissect the changes and explain what's wrong with them in their view rather than just point out that they exist. Likewise, my support for the remakes isn't just because they're different... I like them because it gives more context and details to the characters and world that didn't exist before, which for me is one of the best parts of final fantasy (The large cast in FF14, their tremendous arcs and an extremely detailed world are part of why its my favorite). That added context and detail makes me appreciate the game and the world of FF7 far more than I did before. I feel like the only real issue is if those added details conflict with headcanon details you filled in yourself, which idk tough shit or something.

Of course, it's hard to really compare the changes until we have the full picture painted by the remake in part 3 when that releases in a couple years, however in the meantime pointing out that a remake, created in completely different conditions, is not the same as the original, is not meaningful or insightful commentary!

and don't forget to file your tax retrn ;)

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