E3 2019: Final Fantasy VII Remake's 'First Game' Will Have As Much Content as Any Mainline Final Fantasy Title

@AdamNovice absolutely. This is the correct and only way to approach this to be honest. Glad they're embracing it.

Honestly was expecting this. If they didn't do this I would rather wait for them to finish the whole game and them release it.

I think if Square Enix does the best job it can, and fleshes every part of Midgar out, along with all the big boss fights and story events, then this could still be absolutely fantastic. Based on the scorpion boss fight we saw, if every big moment is remade like that, then we're probably in good hands.

Yeah probably gonna play it on ps5 when bug free and finished if the game is available ps5.

"as much content as any mainline FF game"

Were 1 to 15, minus the online games, the same though?

I can't remember them all, but I recall 7 being about a 100 hour main story, 8 was much shorter, maybe 30, though you could spend countless hours using "Draw" to get your spells maxed out at 99. 9 was longer. X was really long. 12 had a 40 hour main story but over 100 hours of monster hunting which was really the best part.

So when he says "content", does he mean 10 hours of story and 20 hours of side missions for you to do around Midgar?

tldr; not all "Content" is created equal.

I really would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but Squenix lately. There should be enough to do though. And it looks good. My kid finished Spiderman in about 4 days rental from Redbox. So I guess that could work.

So yeah, benefit of the doubt, PART 1 will have $60 worth of content. But when a company doesn't even know how many parts there will be for a story for that finished over 20 years ago, much less when they'll release, well that's pause for concern.

I know, maybe someone can finish it in Dreams before Squenix does. Quality won't be as good, but it'll be free if we already own Dreams.

@rjejr FFVII, if you did absolutely everything, was a bit over 80. Normal playthroughs of the earlier games were like 10 to 20 hours. VI went up to more like 30. The average playthrough of X was about 48 hours, according to howlongtobeat.com. But then completionIst playthroughs are well over 100 hours, even with recent SE games like DQXI.

I also expect when they say this, they're talking about a "main quest" playthrough. Platinuming it, for example, will add a lot of time on. Then you'll be doing stuff like maxing levels, mastering materia, and presumably - like some of the stuff in KH3 - trying to get high scores in minigames, like the bike thing. Not sure where Sammy got 30 hours from unless he's only basing it on pre-VII games. Even then, doing everything in VI took over 60 hours.

I'm fine with this, as long as it has it's own Platinum trophy. I wonder how many plat FF7 will have when it's all out in 2025 🤔

@rjejr FF7 had roughly 30-40 hour main story. All the side stuff to do though was what made it longer since most of it was available to do during the main story instead of after.

I don't get it, I thought they were remaking FF7. Sounds like an entirely new game with FF characters they're calling FF7. Weird that it's taking so long. It's not like they had to write a story; it was already there. Less interested more and more.

@Cycologist Yeah this is a remake, not a remaster. They are completely reimagining it and have made it pretty clear that it's going to have its own identity.

Also from the looks of it they're using FF7's story as a base and building on it much more. The next games shouldn't take as long though as all the systems involved will have already been created. At least I hope that's the case - you never know with SE.

Looking forward to that Mass Effect style romance scene between Don Corneo and Cloud.

Whatever they do, there will be angry nostalgic fans to criticize it.

@ApostateMage Aps is in it, they must have the sewers, and they have said before that the Corneo cross dressing stuff will be in it. So yeah, cross dressing in glorious hd. This is looking incredible to be fair.

@ShogunRok remember years ago when they said there was tens of hours cut from the original FFVII my guess is they are adding a lot of that back in, Midgar for example was original meant to be a lot longer and bigger

we already know they are restoring some of the cut content because they already said they are adding the Cobolt XIV and Indigo XV (clones of Red that Hojo made) boss battle to the game

then there is that bike segment in the trailer, i see everyone saying that's the bit where they leave Midgar BUT Jessie is on the bike with Cloud so i think that's a brand new segment too

plus the stuff with Sephiroth, that never happened in the original

i think it's safe to say they are really expanding this segment and i can't wait

@FullbringIchigo "we already know they are restoring some of the cut content because they already said they are adding the Cobolt XIV and Indigo XV (clones of Red that Hojo made) boss battle to the game"

• We get to fight RED XIII clones?! SOLD.

Loving the look of the new game at the moment - really happy with the direction they're taking and love that everything is being expanded so much. Can't wait to explore Midgar in all this wonderful detail - it really does look amazing. My only slight disappointment is that it's clear we're not going to get the entire experience on one console. And I wonder just how long it's going to take to complete this story. Three years? Five? Ten?

Hopefully the quality doesn’t drop or feel rushed in the subsequent episodes. That’s my fear, that they create this epic first game and subsequent installments aren’t up to par.

@FullbringIchigo Yep, very true.

@Matroska That's what I'm saying, "a full games worth of content" could pretty much mean anything.

I have come to grips that the content will likely be there for $60, it will be fun while it lasts, but it will never feel good to anyone when they get to the end. Maybe newcomers used to years worth of DLC I suppose, the way of the world. A date for part 2 wouldnt hurt though.

@Cloud7794 If anybody "played" FFVII in 30 hours they didn't "play" FFVII.

@rjejr I'm talking strictly main story content. A lot that you do along the main story is actually side stuff - it's just a testament to the game design that it all fits nicely together and doesn't feel like you're completing side objectives. It's often nearly seemless. 40 hours is a normal time for it though, not that I wasn't always clocking 90+ hours anyways.

@rjejr People are regularly getting story content in segments, like with TV series, movies that form a larger story (e.g. Infinity War and Endgame) and series of novels. I think as long as each new part eases you into the gameplay again, it'll be no problem.

The .hack games on PS2 were like that. The first one released in 4 parts, then they made .hack//GU and that was released in 3 parts. But as they recapped the story, introduced new gameplay elements, and eased you back in with the difficulty, it wasn't jarring. Not like stopping, say, Dark Souls halfway through then going back a year later and having no idea what you're doing.

@SegaBlueSky They'll still release it all on PS4. They're still releasing FIFA on PS3 (though not the next one). Games like Dragon Age Inquisition were released on PS3 too.

Of course, the real issue is will you even want the PS4 version when the PS5 is out? (Though I wonder if different versions matter since PS5 can play PS4 games and the game already looks amazing graphically anyway.)

@Matroska Possibly, but again it depends on timescale. Square Enix aren't EA and as big as FF is, it's not on the same scale as Fifa. I certainly hope they will, but like you say if it goes to PS5 as well then chances are that's where I'll want to be playing it. And personally, I'd rather play the whole lot on one console, so it begs the question of whether to wait for the next playStation. We'll see.

@Matroska But nobody is taking Infinity War or Endgame and putting them on TV in small parts, but not telling you when each part will be on or how long it will be.

"Tune it tonight at 9:00 to watch the first hour of Infinity War. We are going to show the rest, we promise, we just don't know how long each part is going to be or when it will air. Oh and we'll charge you $15 per part. Just keep paying."

FF7 already exists. Hack and those other games didn't. Even if this is a "Remaster" it's still the same story. If they change it too much then it's FF16, it isn't FF7 anything. Xenosaga was supposed to be 6 games long. They made it 3 instead. But nobody missed anything because those 6 games hadn't been released previously.

If they can't fit it all in 1 game at 1 price fine, it's a lot of game, but they are showing gross incompetence to me if they don't even have a roadmap yet. TV shows and movies have roadmaps. The Hobbit did NOT need to be 3 movies, but when they switched from 2 to 3, before 1 released, they told me how many movies it would be and when it would release. I'm ok with them making a buck, that's capitalism, but they really should show some signs of intelligent life and not behave like chickens running around with their heads cut off. How many games, when are they releasing.

@Cloud7794 I still don't see how anyone could complete it even in 40 hours. I suppose a 2nd time through when you know it all and seen it all and you just want to get through it, but the first time though, all of those side character stories. I don't know, maybe I should go back and replay it. I'm thinking 70 hours to really play the game. Maybe I should go back and replay it? hmm

@rjejr There's no bad excuse to replay FF7. Honestly I do agree that to really feel the magic of the game the side arcs are essential, but I was just speaking from a utilitarian standpoint. I've never had a playthrough of FF7 be under 99:59:59, but I know that's because I always take my time on it. I'm sure Square is integrating much of that into the main story.

Funny enough, when I look for the game length online, I commonly see something like "Main story: about 40hrs, Chocobo Breeding about 70hrs."

@Cloud7794 "Main story: about 40hrs, Chocobo Breeding about 70hrs."

Yeah, I never did that chocobo breeding stuff. Gather 10 black eggs, hatch them into 10 blue chocobo, take their 10 eggs across the sea and throw them into a volcano, now take those hatched chocobo and breed them and finally you'll get a chocobo that can walk on water. 😂

I did like the chocobo racing, best music ever, but not the breeding.

I have a PS3 in the bedroom I only use for streaming, might be time to slide that cheap horrid cover back and put in disc 1 of 3.

@rjejr Don't you mean disc 1 of 8? Or are you planning on skipping Last order, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and Advent Children Complete? For shame.

Lol really though if you do start back on it, have fun!

@Cloud7794 I do have Advent Children (the original movie) on DVD, I'll just watch that movie when I'm done with the other games.

Yeah I think I'm gonna start it this summer, still working it out in my head.