Friday, June 29, 2012

The Never Ending 7th Fantasy

If I see another goddamn "VII" behind these final fantasies..


I loved Final Fantasy 7 (note: past tense)


When it first came out for the PSX - I was wow-ed with the graphics, the combat system, the characters, the cutscenes and the story. It pulled me in and kept me playing until I finished the game. Newcomers would come and ask me what games to get for the PSX. "Get FF7, man! Its awesome!", was my reply.

Square-Enix.. or back when they were known as Squaresoft (before they had sex with Enix), realised FF7's potential and popularity. Even after successful releases such as FF8, 9 and 10 (oh and it's god forsaken dress-up sequel) years later, they would still return to FF7 because of it's huge fanbase.

This is when they decided to milk the cow.

In 2005, SE released a 3D animated film called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children as a sequel to the original game. Familiar in-game songs have been remastered to headbanging metal tracks, characters are given an updated look, new characters are introduced, Sephiroth got his ass handed over again and Cloud is still a emo fag.

I had mixed feelings when FF7: AC was released. It kinda felt unnecessary. It was more of a forced extension of the original plot. Cloud still regrets for not being able to save Aerith (after all these years? thats kinda pathetic), Tifa's love is still unrequited, dumbass plot device to bring back Sephiroth and finally, round 2 of Cloud VS Sephy. Simply put, it was nothing more than just fan service.

Just when you thought SE would place their focus on other things, they still held on to FF7's udders for more milk.

Dirge of Cerberus was then released. The story -- based after the events of Advent Children -- now revolves around Vincent, our was-then cool vampire buddy. I swear, SE loves to degenerate their characters into emotionally depressed individuals. Imagine Vincent going into a pub and talk about his boring and sad past. Yeap, that pretty much summarized the story. Oh and don't get me started with the gameplay.. Ironically, Vincent was supposed to be a hidden character. What if some players never did find him?

By this time, FF11 and 12 were released. FF12 had a spinoff of it's own for the GBA. BUT WAIT! The cow is still producing milk for FF7! Thus, Before Crisis and Crisis Core was born~

Long story short -- never played Before Crisis because it was for mobile phones. Crisis Core was awesome because of Zack and Cloud will forever be an emo fag.

With all these damn spin-offs for FF7 just got too old for me. Slowly but surely I began to hate FF7 because of the ridiculous amount of times SE decides to return to it.

During the hype building for the PS3, SE decided to show off their brand new tech demo. How did they do that? Surprise! The remade the FF7 intro with current gen graphics. The demo made some ejaculate and some ovaries explode. Everyone started to beg for a FF7 remake.

As a fan of the original - HELL! I came to like JRPGs because of FF7 - I say, stop. Quit it. Thats enough. Let that goddamn franchise die. Focus on the newer games. And to my relief, SE said that they're not interested in remaking FF7. Or are they?

As most of you know, SE has trademarked a website and leaked information on a remastered version of FF7 for the PC. FOR PC! I sure as hell don't know what the fuck they've been smoking but it sure as hell created a shitstorm.

If this is all true, then I really have lost my respect for SE. They're milking the cow and they're milking her dry. If all of these talks about a FF7 remake is fake, I doubt they'll stop there either. We'll probably be seeing more FF7 spin-offs until Midgar is all covered in nature with Red XIII's kids running about (refer below for those who forgot or never bothered to wait after FF7's ending credits).

1 comment:

  1. As long as the series can produce money from those defenseless fans, they'll keep on doing it.

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