Wada: Final Fantasy VII remake after original is topped
"To make a remake of FF VII now would mean the end for FF."
June 26, 2012 / 01:39 AM EDT / (@sqexgal)

Where’s that Final Fantasy VII remake everyone’s been asking Square Enix for? Nowhere anytime soon. Echoing character designer Tetsuya Nomura’s sentiments from back in May, Square Enix president and CEO Yoichi Wada said during a recent shareholders meeting that though there’s interest, a Final Fantasy VII remake will not be created until it’s topped by a new, original Final Fantasy. 

Here are some choice quotes, courtesy of I-Mezzo:

  • “Although Final Fantasy VII is extremely popular within the company and there were talks of a remake multiple times, I think the compilation has reached an ending point.”
  • “Final Fantasy VII is revered as a “divine game,” even by overseas studios.”
  • “The development staff would be overjoyed to do a Final Fantasy VII remake, but if we were to do it now, we’d have to deal with it very seriously.”
  • “Brand control for Final Fantasy VII is difficult. At the moment, we aren’t making Final Fantasy titles that exceed Final Fantasy VII. Given that circumstance, to make a remake of Final Fantasy VII now would mean the end for Final Fantasy. I think Final Fantasy VII’s remake will have to wait until we make a Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII.”

Japanese readers, find a full transcript of the meeting here. (No, Final Fantasy Versus XIII is not mentioned.)

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  • KingKelloggTheWaffleHaggler

    I agree 100 % and I give them some serious props for coming out and admiting it

  • whiteferrero

    “ I think Final Fantasy VII’s remake will have to wait until we make a Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII.”

    Will that ever happen? :p I’m glad they’re being level-headed about it though.
    Personally, I think FFX topped FFVII for me. Though it didn’t top VI which was my all time fave.

    Hoping more for a FFVI remake. (and news on the FFX HD)

  • Zero

    I’m going to stick with the comment I made last time.

    If they remake FF7, I think it would fail.

    Final Fantasy VII is revered as a “divine game,” even by overseas studios.

    Bam! This is the problem in a nutshell.

    It’s not just revered as a “divine game” by studios, but also by fans worldwide.

    And I think that thought process might be a bit distorted.

    Does Square-Enix really think they can please this audience?

    They can put the best team together, and create an amazing remake of Final Fantasy 7. They work hard and release the first big reveal trailer.

    The first group of fans, the ones who consider the game “Divine.” They watch the trailer and hate it.

    (They didn’t keep this part in! It doesn’t have the magic that the original did! Cloud doesn’t look right! Tifa should have bigger boobs! They changed the music! The logo doesn’t look right! They put in something new? Why the hell would they do that!)

    Some fans would nitpick the holy crap out of it. It doesn’t matter that this is a trailer. As much as it disgusts me, gamers often judge a game before they play it now days. Many of them judge it from the very first footage.

    Then you have the fans that never cared for FF7 to begin with, they would just point out how it was not a good game back then, and it still isn’t now. Or something like that. (Where is my FF# remake at Square-Enix?)

    It might turn out to be fantastic. It could be the best possible remake any studio could make. The thing is, the higher ups (like President Wada) would likely be expecting Call of Duty/Avatar type numbers from a FF7 remake.

    I’m not sure they would get that, or even close to that. It could be one of the best reviewed games ever, but if it doesn’t bring in the cash, it would be considered a failure.

    Games have changed like that. Success is equivalent to how much money a game makes, not how great a score it gets.

    It puts quite a deal of stress on the developers. And I think this is very much the reason why it has not been done already. I’m sure they would get an insane budget, and have everyone working on the project.

    If that team were to fail in anyway, can you imagine? If the game didn’t at least make decent profit, it could kill the company. If they put in like 10 mill+ into making/selling the game, it would have to make a huge splash upon release.

    I kinda see a FF7 remake as a Hail Mary. Why take a big risk unless you have nothing to lose? Just like the original Final Fantasy. They had one last shot at saving Square, and went with the Hail Mary. The pass was completed for a touch down, and they saved the company.

    If the game had failed, they would have lost nothing. The result would have been the same. If an FF7 remake failed, it could cripple the company and put them into Hail Mary mode.

    They would find themselves in a desperate situation, without a safety net.

    • zerolegacy0

      @Zero:I agree with you point about gamers complaining, but not your point about S.E. going broke.
      S.E. is a much bigger company than people realize. They own multiple gaming subsidiaries like Taito Corporation, and have their own manga publishing division.

      To put all of this into perspective this is a list of production costs for FF’s 7, 10 and 12:

      Final Fantasy VII 26 million USD
      Final Fantasy X 40 million USD
      Final Fantasy XII 52.3 million USD

      I can’t even imagine the budget for XIII, and Versus might be nearing 100 million! Squaresoft also spent 137 mill. to produce FF Spirits Within which lost about 55 mill.

      My point is that a FF VII remake is perfectly feasible financially for S.E.
      Even if they spent 100 million (which is the world record for a game budget.) they still wouldn’t go bankrupt even if they lost all 100 million.

      • Zero

        @zerolegacy0:

        I can’t argue with that. You took the time research actual production cost numbers, where I was just using a random number to focus in on my point.

        Thanks for the info. I wasn’t aware of budget numbers off the top of my head. I’ll do more research next time! :)

        (I will try to dive into what I meant about the game failing.)

        Sure, they could afford to spend the max on a remake. A growing problem in games today is software sales over time.

        Developers, are starting to mention this more and more. How the market has changed for AAA development.

        For example, most feel like the biggest part of the profit comes in the early launch window of a game. Did it sell well out of the gate? Sales after that are skewed in the eyes of publishers. They complain about piracy and used games taking the legs out of a title down the road.

        Are they correct? I don’t know. Many companies share this opinion though. If they spend even 60 million on the game, it isn’t going to make that back in 4 months.

        What would they do to try and change that? They might go digital only, which would suck. Or they could do what so many developers are doing and announce a Multiplayer mode.

        MP for FF7? God no! Get that crap out of here! That’s what people would say, and I would agree 100%.

        Just that thought alone makes me think they should never start working on a huge budget remake.

    • RedWolfe

      @Zero: Monetarily, I don’t think the game would fail. In fact, I believe quite the contrary.

      However, I fully agree with you in terms of quality and living up to fan expectations.

      FFVII is so highly regarded by its fanbase that even the slightest changes would ruffle some feathers and I just don’t think its possible for a remake to live up to the memories and nostalgia people had from the first game.

      I mean if you break everything down, FFXIII was quite successful in terms of sales but in terms of reception, while I personally loved it, it didn’t fair so well (at least to the “fans”).

      SE needs to leave FFVII the fuck alone and continue making new games with the goal of, like they, surpassing it.

      People who clamor for the remake, to me, are like old fogeys who dismiss everything new and want old stuff because they can’t let go of the past.

      • Zero

        @RedWolfe:

        I sorta touched on this in my other posts. I’m not so sure the game would succeed in today’s world, with the current standards.

        Nostalgia is part of Final Fantasy, heck, it’s part of JRPGs period. You can’t escape that.

        Players want the familiarity, they want to try and recreate great moments with new games.

        I touched on how they should use this when making the next Final Fantasy. What do you think?

        (Thanks for the reply!)

        • RedWolfe

          @Zero: Your welcome and yeah definitely read your post.

          I sorta just posted as a way of agreeing and sharing my perspective on things.

          As far as making the next FF, I’m not really sure where they should go…that’s a damn good question that I don’t have an answer for.

          I guess I’m not too hard to please when it comes to storytelling because I heck I enjoyed XIII and XIII-3 is sitting in my backlog.

          FF isn’t really a staple of my gaming experience. I just enjoy the games, if that makes sense. I can’t say much besides a generic response like creating characters (both protagonists and villains) with more interesting back stories and like you said make more memorable moments.

          I, personally, wasn’t moved by Aerith’s death like others I know but learning about her character definitely allowed me to see the impact that would have on someone playing the game for the first time.

  • FinalFantasy_fangirl

    Interesting to see Wada being realistic. I’ve been wondering when FFXV will be revealed and will it be traditional? I enjoyed FF 8&10 more than 7. Too bad there was no Versus XIII status update.

  • Nasuno

    “Brand control for Final Fantasy VII is difficult. At the moment, we aren’t making Final Fantasy titles that exceed Final Fantasy VII. Given that circumstance, to make a remake of Final Fantasy VII now would mean the end for Final Fantasy. I think Final Fantasy VII’s remake will have to wait until we make a Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII.”
    What standard are we using for judging success. Because if its the current standard of making money FFVII has already been surpassed.

    • whiteferrero

      @Nasuno: the *rabid fanbase? XD

      anyway, i think the only measure they’re using for success is simple, FFVII, arguably, changed the landscape of RPG gaming during the PS one era, and well to exaggerate (?), probably changed many lives in the process.

      As long as they are not able to make an age-defining game, I doubt they would consider it anywhere near the success of the VII.

      On that point, what do you think was the most recent “age-defining game”?

      • Zero

        @whiteferrero:

        On that point, what do you think was the most recent “age-defining game”?

        Fantastic question. It might be a bit easier to pick one that changed a genre, like FF7 did in the PS1 era.

        For example, I think I’d pick Bayonetta for the action game genre.

        An age defining game? Gosh this is tough… Obviously CoD has kinda dominated this age, but I don’t think anything but CoD 4 would apply. And that is not really a choice I want to represent this era of gaming. (No thanks!) Demon’s/Dark Souls introduced some very cool gameplay elements, Bioware games started the player choice wheel. Bioshock made the Shooter/RPG mix popular this era. Uncharted brought cinematic/movie moments to life in video games.

        I think this era will be remembered as the shooting game era, I don’t think we can get away with it not being.

        If you reply, perhaps we can put our thoughts together and pick one game? Tall task haha.

        • whiteferrero

          @Zero: Been thinking about this for awhile. But maybe as games become more diverse and expansive, there will never be another age-defining game.

          Like you pinpointed, it may just be limited to each genres now.

  • http://chaosraiden.blogspot.com/ Chaos Raiden

    I don’t see the point of remaking FFVII anymore until they have released FF Versus XIII, which in fact should have been released ages ago.

  • FFNzer

    Not wanting to mention a certain game and its release date but scenario
    It sells the best ever/best ff ever , will Square enix go crap after that statement we kind of have to or use another excuse? Because I for one would love to relive FFVII on there new engine imagine it now *drools* anywho I don’t think the game should ever be remade because then who would play the original and get lost in the game or cry when aries gets murdered, It’d be to real and I believe that why FF with better graphics arn’t doing so well because they bring to much realism to the table and not enough fantasy. SO Final Fantasy VII rest in peace stay on those beautiful 3 discs and do not come alive again please and thank you

  • go-go-boy

    SIGH i rarely come on here to speak but this shit is getting on my nerves i am tired of all this FFVII remake shit just worry about the future or how about that huge fucking cliffhanger at the end of dirge of cerberus that nobody fucking cares about or mentions i have been wanting to see how that plays out that game can easily star cloud and the gang again. http://youtu.be/KGA-7ogMn6I

    • anime10121

      @go-go-boy: been saying the same for years. Who the F**k cares about a remake, when a sequel is needed much more after DOC. Besides I always found Genesis to be a better antagonist than the mama’s boy (Sephiroth) anyways.

  • FaithlessMr

    “think Final Fantasy VII’s remake will have to wait until we make a Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII.”

    Awesome. Now leave FF VII alone and start working on making new, awesome games like you used to back when you were Squaresoft and Enix.

    Final Fantasy VII is awesome the way it is, please leave it the fuck alone, it doesn’t need remakes.

  • Aldridge517

    I think Versus XIII could top VII if they’d just finish it. I’ve never spent money on a FF game in my life, but Versus XIII has been one of the most hyped games in development for 6 years straight. I’d pay full price for that game, day one.

  • Hinano

    Good. The remake has been one of the most stupidest demands. It would be a waste of time.

  • FearMonkey

    It’s never gonna happen then. FFVII will always be the best to me. <3

  • VincentValentine

    I personally think the series took a dive with all the changes square-enix had made which IMO feel was unnecessary. I enjoyed every single game up until FF X-2(FFX-2 was doable but was a little annoying to play mostly because of the characters) FF12 is where i really started losing hope in the series (Hated the battle system so much in this game it killed it for me and story and characters werent all that interesting). A lot of rpgs are turning to this stupid system like action/rpg combined like Elder scrolls (dont get me wrong elder scrolls is great but should be in a different category). Where are the turn base battle systems where I choose my own commands for each character instead of button mashing or having the ai control other party members, Casting tons of different types of spells to help you in battle etc. Nowadays it just feels like if a game looks really awesome it will sell even if the gameplay is just medocre. FFVII had it all for me, the story is what I liked the most, especially involving the main villain through out the game, some games you dont know the end boss until you reach the end but with FFVII not only do you see sephiroth you get to know more about him, loved the battle system, materia and giant boss battles like with the weapons. Just compare the games that were out when FF series was great compared to now. There Fans that loosing hope in the genre from all the drastic changes. I know im not the only one cause I hear this type of argument alot and especially with great JRPG series like Breath Of fire,Dragon Quest etc. FFVII is my favorite RPG ever (FFVI right behind) and prolly will stay that way unless Square-Enix can bring the series back on its feet.

    • rockman29

      @VincentValentine: There are JRPGers out there after all…

    • Zero

      @VincentValentine: Well said!

      This is what I have been getting at when discussing where Final Fantasy should go next.

      Remember how FF9 was a throwback to the older games in the series? I want FF15 to do the same thing.

      I want a huge world to explore via over world map.
      Put in the job system, or an old school version of ATB.
      I want a truly evil bad guy. One that is just as interesting as the heroes of the game.
      I want limit breaks back.
      I want Triple Triad back.
      I want summons to be useful again.

      But I really want them to get back to one thing. The story should be the main focus of the game. It should tie into the second most important part, which is character development.

      I don’t want character back-stories and development to be in some novel only released in Japan, I want that in the game!

  • rockman29

    I’m sorry. I am really happy reading this thread. I’m glad to see all the members of this site analyze this. Great reads guys.

    Also this is the first time I’ve heard sanity come out of the mouthpieces of SE.

    This is paradoxical somehow… just unreal. Good job JRPGers.

  • NCloud

    We just gotta wait till Vs comes out then :P

  • InternatlGamer3

    Unless “Final Fantasy Versus XIII” is the grand REVOLUTIONARY Masterpiece that Tetsuya Nomura is talking about. then yeah we’ll have to wait or something like that. Fuck were still waiting for Versus XIII i’ve been since 2006. Heck I bought a PS3 cause of MGS4, FFXIII, and FFVersusXIII.

  • InternatlGamer3

    COD shouldn’t be a Age defining game cause it’s been REHASHED one too MANY times. it was once great but by Black Ops became utter shit. I swear fans of COD are a bunch of idiots.

  • kiri25

    There is no doubt IMO that a FFVII remake would be extremely successful and the thought that it wouldnt is rather odd to me, so i’ll go over why it would be successful

    1. FFVII is the most requested FF remake in the entire series, hence the reason its been brought up so much.

    2. When people 1st saw the FFVII tech demo mouths hit the floor and the internet exploded with comeents like “OMG FFVII remake!!”

    3. Die hard fans will be the 1st to buy because well they are die hard fans. Its true yes they will point out ever flaw but in order to that they need the game.

    4. Due to its popularity the hype would be insane thus bringing in new players and posible new fans.

    5. If it turn out to be great word of mouth is the strongest tool any game can have, I avoided KH for the longest time b/c of disney characters but once a friend informed me i should try it i fell in love with series.

    In conclusion b/c a FFVII remake already has such a strong following it would be a huge success as long SE does not mess things up, and the fact Wada is saying they dont currently have a skilled team to take on such a project tells me they are headed in the right direction if they decide to remake.

    • RedWolfe

      @kiri25: In terms of monetary success, there is no doubt that a FFVII remake would be successful.

      In terms of quality, or rather, quality expectations, a FFVII remake could never live up to the expectations of the game’s fanbase.

      I think Zero’s comment above said it best but people’s memories and nostalgia often factor in when they judge a game and even if SE put their most talented people on the project, they would find things, no matter how small, to complain about.

      There is just no way for this game to live up to the way people remembered it the first time around.

  • InternatlGamer3

    I’d personally rather have a remake of FFVI for PS3/PS Vita over FFVII first and most. They still haven’t remade FFV & FFVI they need to do those before we can talk about the uber popular FFVII Remake. Why not just REMAKE FFVIII & FFIX as well.

  • InternatlGamer3

    @zerolegacy0
    actually Final Fantasy X’s budget was 32.3 million and the game sold about 7 million copies worldwide.

  • kiri25

    @zero: you underestimate word off mouth. U said it could be the best remake ever made and it fail, but considering how popular FFVII is if it was the greatest remake ever made word of mouth would cause it to continue to sell months after its release. Also even if it was only ok it would sell decent b/c its its FFVII. Look at FFXIIi a lot of people hated it but it managed to sell well and even produce a sequel. My point is for FFVII remake to fail SE would really need royally screw it up.

    • Zero

      @kiri25: I meant it would fail in some peoples eyes.

      I don’t underestimate word of mouth. I get what you are saying. I just see that it can have the opposite effect, you know?

      Do you remember how much hate was on the web in regards to Final Fantasy 13, before it was released in the west?

      I do! I remember tons of people getting on the hate bandwagon before they even played the game. They watched the trailers, and criticized everything about them.

      The word on the web was the game sucked, and a bunch of people bought into it.

      I hate how people judge games like that today, but so many do. That’s what I meant in my previous post. I also touched on how success is judged differently in video games today.

      I said I think it would fail, only because I feel like the standards everyone would set for it would be too high. Not just Square-Enix, but the fans have “divine” level standards for the current game.

      I can just see groups of longtime fans not like a few things and refusing to buy the game because of it. Or by the game used to hurt Square-Enix or something. I see people post stuff like that on the web all the time. I’ll buy the game used because I hate you company! etc.

      I’ll be honest, I hope you are right. I hope that if it does happen, the game is a great success. I would hope the sales numbers would be “divine” level.

      I suppose I just have a hard time believing in a large group of today’s gamers. I read things they say online, and I just don’t get it. Who are these people? I honestly feel ashamed sometimes, to think someone places a gamer like me in the same category as them.

      Thankfully, not all gamers are like what I’m describing. I enjoy this site because of that. :)

      (Thanks for the reply, feel free to continue the discussion.)

  • Amaterasu

    Honestly, I love FFVII. It’s my favorite RPG. It was the game that pretty much got me into RPGs.

    Would I love a remake? Hell yeah I would. But I’m not begging for it. I still love playing the original game to this day. I personally don’t think that they have surpassed it yet either. I mean I’ve loved the newer FFs too(FFXIII and FFXIII-2 were great to me) but they just didn’t DO what FFVII did for me.

    So I’m fine with them waiting to do it. Plus I am eager to see what the game that surpasses FFVII would look like lol.

  • Miranda Lawson

    A new original Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII, that sounds a lot like Final Fantasy XIII if you ask me. Since FF XIII is already made, along with it’s sequel, why not start making a remake of FF VII on the PS3? I know that I would buy it! I thought that FF VII was a good game on the PS1, It would be a WAY better game on the PS3 (because of voice actors and improved graphics.)

    • rockman29

      @Miranda Lawson: “A new original Final Fantasy that exceeds Final Fantasy VII, that sounds a lot like Final Fantasy XIII if you ask me.”

      No.

      Just no.

      • Miranda Lawson

        @rockman29: Why not? I didn’t notice any flaws when I played through XIII 5 times, I didn’t really see how they could have improved on the first FF XIII. If you ask me it could have ended in XIII, but I am glad that it continued in XIII-2. Unfortunatly there are flaws in XIII-2′s story, it is not perfect. Fortunatly FF XIII IS perfect, so that means that they can and SHOULD move on and make a remake of Final Fantasy VII. Just my opnion.

  • mannyack

    A remake is a great idea but an expensive one. Sorry but i truly am one of those that revere ff7 as a “divine game” and do believe it will do well even if it doesnt meet our standards but why not shoot for them. if i was to develope the remake that would mean making the ff7 world more like 12 but keeping the fighting systems of 7 while having the grapics like 13 for materia and such. that alone must be a huge undertaking not to mention voice actor to act out all of the script and then on top of all this make it “new” with hidden bosses and extras maybe more storyline… so what im hearing for square right now is sorry we dont have the money to pull this off. ff7 for its time gave us everything we wanted.

  • zakou

    Thank you Square enix for having the balls to admit that no FF was better than FFVII, I in my personal opinion love FFVII and FFX both as much.

    Alot of people even consider FFXIII-2 as one of the best FFs ever made, i hope that they learn from what Square enix just said because this is the truth.