That's true but at the same time they seem to be serious about modernizing elements like the Golden Saucer and Honeybee inn. It's the rest that's important yes, but I think the tower conversation between cloud and Tifa showed some real promise about capturing that tone as well. That being said, not a fan of what they're doing with sephiroth and the sidequests thing seem like a serious question mark, but the field conversations, the way they seem to be trying to flesh out more of avalanche seem great to me. While I think they'll fall short in capturing the whole tone of FF7, I do think they will make some good marks in making a solid work that'll reaffirm more people's confidence in mainline FF in general.
Well we can't speak to the Golden Saucer at this point for one thing but I imagine they're going to go overboard with it like FFXIV did.
There's a few things about the Honeybee Inn that work I suppose, even though I don't think to keep in line with the tone of the original it was needed it's fine for them to have some "Fun" with it.
The tone capture is something that's interesting because we have our own memories of those scenes so when we see the scenes that are capturing the same actions it looks legit, but then any "new" content seems misplaced. That's one of two things, our nostalgia or the lack of structure to rely upon. Like with Game of Thrones the writing took a sharp nosedive when they ran out of really solid book framework to work off of, and you can see that with the dialogue of Hojo, Sephiroth, Scarlett, and other things in the games writing if you read any of the leaked dialogue. The minute the original script isn't there we get things like "Arbiters of Fate" and OCs inserted where they weren't needed.
The issue I have with Avalanche is that even if it's not in the NEXT part they're going to bait the player/Cloud and Co with big deaths two times. They're giving Avalanche more importance which means if they drag out the final moments it not only changes the sudden-ness and blunt deaths of the original story and dragging them out, and with things like Jessie that means they might be doing the same trick twice by making a waifu and then killing them off. These changes seem minor when it's only in one part but fleshing out these characters wasn't really necessary and actually detracts from some of the interactions in the original game. The concept has some merit, but I'm wary of them dragging it all out.
The tone of FF7 will be not captured by this remake, if the current script and story is anything to go by. Sephiroth being there alone (even if he's a projection of Jenova as it seems to hint at in the trailer) is going to be cheese up the wazoo and completely recontextualize the journey ahead.
I think this will be a very VERY elaborately done and pretty fanfiction. People will say it won't hurt the original but I think calling it a remake and so many people calling it "faithful" does because it seems like majority of the elements being hammered in (Seph, Midgar, Shinra) are all surface level things that were small parts in a bigger story. I think exaggerating or focusing on those parts will take down the pacing and the tight narrative of the original, and that's not even speaking to the gameplay repercussions of the weapons being dragged from later gameplay parts into Midgar, materia growth over multiple parts and power creep, and how we're even transferring progress to begin with.
I'll end this post like I always feel I have to do because everyone thinks I'm a downer. I'm happy to be proven wrong, and unlike most people have no issues admitting when I am and I have been wrong before. I just have to mentally prep myself for people going "It's so amazing because it's just like the original but better" and people just really enjoying the spectacle of it. Here's hoping I and any of the dissenting opinions in this thread are wrong. I won't be posting about it again until I play the game I think.
The thing is, while VII will always have people "nitpicking" little things like the position of Cloud's sword in a cutscene or Tifa wearing a sports bra and not a short skirt, there really hasn't been much criticism levied at the remake thus far, ESPECIALLY NOT by the press. Square has been curating the hell out of the experience thus far to make sure the previews are as glowing as possible (this is standard operating procedure for all publishers, not just S-E), and nostalgia is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that regard too.
People like me who are like "well we really don't know how much content there's going to be and Square refuses to show any majorly new content in any previews thus far, so are we supposed to trust that this is going to really be a full-length RPG worth making us wait 3+ more years to see Junon or the Gold Saucer" are the minority here. By comparison FFXV was being ripped apart constantly by just about everyone because no one could agree on what the damn thing was even supposed to be.
Well and each trailer and new piece of content seemed to change what it was. Remember piloting mechs? Remember using your party members that was taken out and then added back in an update or DLC? Remember the Behemoth hunt? Remember when it was announced on the PS3? XV has plenty of reasons to be down on it, especially with the product we got.
