FFVII spin-off goes online

Online? Meh.

What's the actual game like, then? Anyone?

So is DoC a prequel or what?

"What's the actual game like, then? Anyone?"

There's a quite comprehensive hands-on preview at ign.com. It sounds a bit like Resident Evil 4 to me, third-person movement with pseudo-first-person shooting. Apparently there are some RPG influences, too, and a Materia system of sorts.

"So is DoC a prequel or what?"

It's set three years after the fall of Midgar, so it's a sequel more likely.

A sequel? Pffft.

A prequel would have been far more interesting, following on Vincents role in the turks and Gasts experiments.

Has Squenix ever managed to create a really good non-RPG title?

/thinks
/thinks
/...
/worries

Parasite Eve 2 was very good.
Final Fantasy Adventure was pretty good.
Brave Fencer Musashi was okay.
Kingdom Hearts was not that good.

Their non-RPGs are a mixed bag really.

Dirge of Cerberus is set 1-2 years after the end of Advent Children, so it's a sequel-sequel.

If you want a prequel, wait for Crisis Core or the (unlikely) European release of Before Crisis.

FF. Meh.

Blimey....the first FF game I'm actually anticipating!

Why are Square-Enix making everything based around FFVII these days? I know it is the most popular, best selling (quote me if I'm wrong) and the greatest Final Fantasy to date (opinionated). Plus the huge fan-base and followers of the series would like FFVII to be remade in a 'better graphics' form - not all the spin offs, although I appreciate Advent Children.

Like Blerk said: Online? Nah.

Several years ago, Enix and Square merged ("for the kill!" sorry for the TF quote), as we all know. However, the difference in business practice only recently became obvious. One of the most important points is that Enix was all about maximising profit from existing franchises, whereas Square apparently preferred to leave them for what they were. Since Enix bought out Square, Enix now has the upperhand. Therefore, their "way of doing things" is shining through more clearly in the new company (which explains a lot more than the point I'm about to make).

Final Fantasy VII represents all of Square Enix' new strategy with franchise management that they've learned in the past few years. The word they like to use is "polymorphism", whereas the common translation of that you'll hear more often is probably "milking".

The laws of polymorphism dictate some of the following points:
1. Concepts should be seperated from implementation, which follows after design
2. The Enix part of Square Enix has a big presence in Japanese magazine publishing (manga), so leverage that
3. Franchises already present in the back catalogue of developed titles should be re-evaluated to see if they can be used more effectively.

The first point is the most important. With polymorphism, Square Enix is moving on from "just" creating a single game around an idea. Instead, the idea is now central, and the way it's used depends on the options available and the scalability of the idea. To test all this out, Final Fantasy VII's generic universe design (that of the Planet, Lifestream, etc with Cloud and co.) gets a makeover and rethinking. What could be leveraged to make more money?

- FFVII features the most popular characters in the entire series
- The ending was left open to interpretation, allowing for a lot more creative space in sequels
- The back story was deep, but not particularly well-covered in the original game, so it can be fleshed out

I think this pretty clearly answers why FFVII is being reworked so much. Fan demand is high, and there's plenty to do with the universe. So that covers FFVIIAC (what happens after the ending), DoC (a chance to detail Vincent's story, plus continue where AC leaves off), BC (the history of the Turks and SOLDIER), and CC (Zack's story). But why no FFVIIPS3 (yet) or FFVII-2?

Because developing an entirely new FFVII game for PS3 costs a hell of a lot of money and is currently untested in terms of success ratio, return on investment, etc. So what they're currently doing is building hype to massive proportions with cheap, cross-platform games, and a high-budget movie. Cross-platform and cross-genre appeals to a wider audience, so you get new people in who wouldn't have been here if FFVII had only been a PS RPG. And the movie will certainly get most of the previous FFVII fans that may have faded away from FF since to come back and see what the fuss is about. So you rebuild your audience that way.

Now, if the current Compilation angle proves successful, then the return on investment plan for a FFVII-2 or PS3 remake (which would be pretty cheap to produce in comparison to a full-fledged new game anyway) becomes a lot more feasible. If the company can realistically gauge the audience for a FFVII sequel and draw conclusions from it about what direction they should take for a PS3 RPG, then it will happen. However, the Compilation will need to be successul to do so.

Judging by the hype train currently leaving Square Enix HQ in Japan, I'd say it's pretty much sorted. Another year or so, and we can expect announcements in this department.

Superb post Rahul. I'll not ask where you get this information

I never thought I'd say it, but I'd prefer a remake of FFVII to a FFVII-2 side story - mainly because of the dog's dinner that was FFX-2. I don't want some wanky offshot spoiling what is for me one of my best JRPG memories. Better to play safe and just make the original game look nicer.

I never thought I'd say it, but I'd prefer a remake of FFVII to a FFVII-2 side story - mainly because of the dog's dinner that was FFX-2. I don't want some wanky offshot spoiling what is for me one of my best JRPG memories. Better to play safe and just make the original game look nicer.

Well, just because FFX-2 took a certain ...lopsided and somewhat satirical approach to the concept of a remake doesn't necessarily mean that a FFVII sequel will come out that way. And even if they do create a FFVII remake, they're hardly going to just take the cut and dry scenario design of the original and port it over -- all the events will need new directing to suit the 3d engine, the battle system will get an overhaul because the FFVII one will be archaic in comparison to FFXII, they'd probably rework the way Yuffie and Vincent were put into the game (since they weren't supposed to be secret characters originally), the dialogue would be voiced and hence altered to fit being voiced, the overworld would be redesigned to suit the new platform and scale, and I'm sure they'd probably add a way to revive Aeris just to suit everyone's nagging expectations

I'd prefer a sequel. It's more creative energy from the developers, and hence more hard work which always pays off. Regardless of whether they decide to turn it into one big Cloud-in-drag prostitution party, at least it'd be more enjoyable than seeing 9 year old ideas rehashed by people who want to do something more interesting with their lives.

one big Cloud-in-drag prostitution party

Heh heh - don't give them ideas, man!

Hey, if they can have lesbian backrubs in FFX-2, they can have revisitations of the FFVII homosexual hot tub scene.

lol i'd forgotten about that scene :-D

Rahul,

Your comments are well written and a pleasure to read, especially on the other news with the delay for both Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy XII.

Keep it up!

Thanks.

If you want more of a complete view into the polymorphism concept, keep up with the news on Code Age and World of Mana, which are both new IPs designed from the ground up to work across multiple platforms. These will be the first aside of Fullmetal Alchemist to take Square Enix forward from the end of this generation into the next, and Code Age is already looking promising with an action RPG, fighting game, and manga planned. World of Mana will no doubt follow suit.

One of the more ironic things about Square Enix' use of the "polymorphism" term as their new marketing catchphrase is that companies like Nintendo have been doing it for years without mentioning it as anything different. I suppose Square Enix both loses and scores points for that -- loses for not doing it sooner, and scores for actually selling it to an audience in this fashion. All the Mario "spin-offs" and indeed the latest reintroduction of the Metroid franchise as a cross-genre, multi-platform identity show that Nintendo is also plenty willing to introduce new ideas to its strongest portfolio brands while also giving smaller developers (Retro Studios) a chance to have at it like Square Enix is doing (Level 5).

Then again, Nintendo is doing the same thing and trying to sell "paradigm shift" and other such 90's techspeak as innovation. Which nets them the same ups and downs as mentioned above. Gaming zen, here we come!

I don't even know what you do in the game. I'm guessing something like DMC.

If Square Enix remake FFVII I will explode. But not before buying it and a PS3.

It's a 3rd person action shooter. You control Vincent and can move around with an over-the-shoulder camera to use for targeting. Vincent has a couple of different weapons of which the primary one is his three-barreled gun (the Cerberus, to which the title lends its name). Vincent can also change into monsters as he could during his Limit Breaks in FFVII, which will probably be some kind of special move as a result of charging a bar or executing combos or something. The game starts off in the base of this new group called Deep Ground, which are apparently some kind of evil organisation that was hidden beneath Midgar during and after the events of the original game.