The upcoming remake of Final Fantasy VII seems like it might be a guaranteed success at first glance. The iconic game and its characters have an audience already invested in its release, and the release will offer a chance for an entirely new group of younger gamers to experience the title, assuming they haven’t already tracked down a ROM or PS1 disc to do so. The thing is, though, that the game is one of the first notable remakes to get more than just the HD treatment. It has to be re-built from the ground up, and considering the scope of the original project, Final Fantasy VII HD is going to be a massively expensive game. As such, certain business decisions may bastardize the original game in an attempt to modernize its systems for today’s gamers. Hopefully the original turn based mechanics remain mostly untouched, because they were a key part of the experience. In fact, I’d like to see turn-based gameplay make a comeback in the series as a whole.
Now, turn-based isn’t a strictly defined concept and can take many forms. What I am specifically referring to is a menu system, the ability to select moves for each of your characters, and for stats like speed and the buffs and enfeebles that affect them to feature prominently in the battle design; you know, how it was in Final Fantasy VII . Tetsuya Nomura, frequent Final Fantasy game director, has stated that the remake will have a dramatically altered battle system. This worries me, as he may be overlooking part of what makes the original game great.
Turn-based combat is not some archaic relic of the past. It is a defining aspect of the JRPG genre that Final Fantasy VII resides within, and is responsible for a major part of the game’s aesthetic.
When you get down to it, the pacing of a turn-based battle facilitates a totally different style of gameplay. Sure, a lot of the staples of a JRPG remain; stoic heroes, big swords and bigger hair. But by allowing players time to select their moves, developers can create more interesting boss battles that rely less on reaction time and feel like gigantic puzzles that can be solved in a plethora of ways with the team of characters you’ve selectively leveled and customized. In Final Fantasy VII , I never felt pressured, but the action still managed to feel intense.
Turn-based gameplay also renders the games accessible to a larger audience. The games are immediately easy to grasp and ramp up in complexity as the player moves through the story. This allows gamers who are either unfamiliar or unskilled at more frantic, twitch-based gameplay to explore the game at their own pace; there isn’t an oppressive, stressful requirement that they must react to in real-time. What’s more, gamers can enjoy the game and, in fact, participate in it without even needing to have the controller in their hands. Many a couple has enjoyed a Final Fantasy game together by swapping the controller between them, and the turn-based system gives them time to discuss tactics and combine their problem solving capabilities.
Final Fantasy VII also had a diverse cast of characters, and veteran fans of the series have favorites beyond the stoic (and kinda boring) Cloud. A turn-based game allows players to customize and control each of these characters in a way that has felt lacking in more recent Final Fantasy games. My nightmare scenario is an action RPG akin to Kingdom Hearts , where I receive just a modicum of control over my party.
I can accept that the world of the remake is going to be different. It would be unfathomable for Square Enix to perfectly reproduce such a large game. We’ve all been warned that the story is likely going to change slightly, too. But to change the combat too much in the interest of appealing to new gamers seems like a mistake. You don’t have to sacrifice action for turn-based gameplay. Hell, allowing time between actions gives room for the developers to include all kinds of bombastic attacks. The materia system, the combat, the summons…these were all part of what made Final Fantasy VII great to us back in the day, and they’re what keep us coming back to buy port after port. For fans, those elements are sacred. Please don’t alienate us.