We all remember where we were when Square Enix announced Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 4, don't we? No, that's not Final Fantasy VII Remake, that's the PC port of 1997's Final Fantasy VII. When speculation and hype were at their highest for the supposed remake project, Shinji Hashimoto took to the stage at PlayStation Experience 2014 and trolled the PlayStation community by revealing that the PC version of the original game would be coming to PS4. Six months later, Final Fantasy VII Remake would become a reality, but at the time it felt like the biggest insult imaginable.
Why isn't Square Enix listening to its fanbase? Why is it trolling with a PS4 port nobody wants? As it turns out, this was the plan all along, but even some of Sony's own employees were trolled by this reveal. Adam Boyes, former Vice-President of Third-Party Relations at PlayStation, told Push Square that he had no idea about the project. That is despite being the one who helped bring Final Fantasy VII Remake to PS4 just a few months later.
"I did not know about the remake project at the time. The number one rule in going on stage at E3 is to never read the comments and, of course, I am a horrible example of that because I read all the comments. I think the biggest feeling everyone had was it felt like, you know, Lucy putting the football out for Charlie Brown and pulling it away. Because everyone thought it was going to be one thing and then it was something completely different."
"So then when I did find out that they were interested in announcing the FFVII Remake, I was like, 'oh here's the payoff.' It sort of helped lessen the blow when people are complaining when you know what's going to happen in the end and it's going to be this amazing moment on stage." Oh Square Enix, you jokers. Looking back through the Push Square history books for this one is rather funny, however. When Final Fantasy VII was announced for PS4, deputy editor Robert Ramsey called Final Fantasy VII Remake "unrealistic". How the tables have turned in the time since!
Comments 17
But the real troll was the ending of the remake. 😝
I was never a fan of FF7 back in the day because my all-time favorite was FF6, but that trolling in 2014, even I thought that was pretty mean.
Glad that the remake ended up being worth the wait, but it sucks that some hardcore fans I know died before this first remake episode was released.
@rjejr still a great ending though!
The biggest troll was thinking it wasn't going to be episodic.
@rjejr And I thought it was calling it remake, having people expect exactly that, and giving no indication of it being only one part of who knows how many 😉
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part 1: Midgar Edition. Featuring bonus gap squeezing techniques.
At least it paid off in the end, FFVIIR was excellent and I'm really hyped for the next part.
@rjejr to everyone who thinks the ending of Ff7 was trolling you, I draw your attention to this Sephiroth quote from the original.
"You are just a puppet... You have no heart... and cannot feel any pain... How can there be any meaning in the memory of such a being? What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion"
If you still don't understand what the ending was doing, then you're lost.
I don’t have any particular affinity towards FF7, as I’m a Crisis Core guy, but I remember watching this & the chat go absolutely crazy.
Top troll move.
I hate Square Enix's trolling, but enduring it in this case was worth it in the end.
Nobody would've been ticked off if PS4 actually had exclusives and next-gen games worth a damn at that point. 2014 was one of the worst years in the history of gaming. Thankfully 2015 was a marked improvement. Also not a spectacular year but much better than 2014 and you could see light at the end of the tunnel with some of the announcements that were made that E3 and I'm not even talking about the ones that had most of this community creaming their pants.
Well what a relief its here, and its WONDERFUL. I for one am excited to see where it goes next. I trust Square implicitly to pull off the rest of the series.
And i really dont think we will have to wait as long as people think for future installments. Many of the assets are in place and they have nailed the battle system. I wouldnt be surprised if something came late next year / early 2022 - but then i am an optimist.
Id love Square to release final fantasy 16 at some point soon too. They MUST be working on it, surely?
@Rob_230 They have multiple teams and there's heavy speculation that FF16 is being worked on by Yoshida (FF14's guy, but it won't be another MMO).
@Severian "They've return to the planet." Atleast the promised day finally arrived. Better question is will they ever tie up the loose ends of Dirge of Cerberus involving Genesis?
@Reishin8amara @ArmyofOne I hope not. I hate not finishing a story (even though many of us beat the original back in the day).
But then as the universe expands, the story gets more convoluted with the compilation of FF7 and now more so with Remake.
it still took them FIVE years to make the remake. lets hope the second part wont take 5 more i will literally be FORTY years old.
@Severian 7 is great but, my favorite would be Final Fantasy Tactics.
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