PS2 Final Fantasy 7 Spinoff

Bagels writes "Square Enix is finally answering the prayers of thousands of FF7 fans with a side-story PS2 game called "Dirge of Cereberus: Final Fantasy VII." Not much is known yet - the game focuses on the character Vincent, it's set one year after the upcoming movie, Advent Children, and it's early in development as of now - but this is sure to be a hot topic amongst fans and critics of the series alike."

A true sequel...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, we have a buggy cell phone game with shoddy scrolling, a CG movie, and now Vincent May Cry... when are we gonna get a TRUE sequel to FF7?

On a second thought, after playing FFX2, maybe it would be best NOT to have a sequel...

goddamnit

[DeusExMalex]

since when are there actual sequels to the final fantasy games? call me a purist but it feels like a bastardization of my favorite stories when there's a continuation made after the story has ended. it's as if there was a braveheart 2 being made.

Re:Hrm interesting

[scotta451]

It would seem that Square is very savvy to cater to its fans, and when potential buyers go nuts over one of their properties, they produce the goods. FFX sold like crazy, so they produced a sequel, and guess what - it sold like crazy too. Why wouldn't the same be true for FFVII, which seems to have been better appreciated.

As for which is the driver - they get positive response to the film, so they queue up another game for development, or whether they planned it that way all along? Doesn't matter much to me. I would buy the movie with or without the game and vice versa, and that's the behaviour Square has cultivated from anyone who plays and enjoys their crack... I mean games.

Re:Times Have Changed

[Maul]

He was smart by not letting things go hog wild.

Maybe it's just me ...

[evslin]

... but I didn't think Vincent was all that compelling of a character in the first place.

Definately the best one.

[Sirwar]

The thing about FF games, is that everyone remembers their first as the best. Proof enough is that I've met people who played FF8 first, and they think its the best one...when I think only X-2 could surpass it in lameness. Is FF7 really the best? Who knows. Maybe I'm biased, but best magic system, and best minigames, bar none.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[gamgee5273]

No, I don't think that's it. I think FFX-2 was put out there to help calm the folks who didn't want to wait till FFXII but really didn't want to play FFXI Online. I really enjoyed the battle system in FFX-2, but was disappointed that so many of the backgrounds were recycled.

As for the sequels to VII: People have wanted one for a while. Then, added to that, was the response to the appearance of Cloud and Aeris in Kingdom Hearts. At that point, I think SE realized that they had to explore FFVII a bit more or risk alienating a ton of fans.

As for risk-taking: FFXI was a huge risk that has really paid off for them (the European service was just rolled out) and FFXII is supposedly going to feature quite a few changes that will continue to evolve the series.

I think SE are doing what any self-respecting company should do: find the popular product, continue to give the fans what they want, and continue evolving the product. If, at any point, SE releases an FF that just royally sucks (and I'm not talking mediocre, like some think of FFVIII and FFIX as being) then I'll be worried that they aren't pushing the envelope any longer...

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

I probably should give up lurking and actually create an account here, but I figured I'd take a stab as AC. I have to agree that FF7 isn't the best of the series, but it's pretty close. FF6 is probably one of the better final fantasies for the simple fact that it actually chose to destroy the world halfway through the game instead of trying to avert the destruction and succeeding ultimately like in any of the other games, 7 included. It also dealt with some stuff you haven't seen since such as Celes' attempted suicide, Terra dealing with teen pregancy and becoming a surrogate mother, and the bad guy's destroying the world without much of a reason--he's just crazy. This is just some of what the game has to offer with just a little bit of hope that life does go on despite adversity. I liked FF7 too, and I think its battle system was better, but despite the weak translation we got, I think the premise of FF6 was bolder in comparison.

Re:If it's going to have the girls from the FF ser

[Dehumanizer]

Who plays ANY game wearing pants? :)

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Cecil]

A lot of people, including myself, lump FFX - to some extent - and FFX-2 definitely, into the category of "royally sucks".

I think FF has been going downhill since FF7. I'm used to the wacky changes in battle systems and completely disconnected stories and settings and I think that's great, I love seeing a company that isn't afraid to experiment. But one thing that has always tied the FF stories together is a rich and engrossing, and especially an epic story.

Anyway, I've found solace in Tales of Symphonia for GameCube. It's what the last bunch of FF games should've been, perhaps even better. It's an absolutely fantastic game, and I highly recommend it to any FF fan.

Re:Should be good...

[SFBwian]

Generally speaking, it's been my experience that FF fans have always been divided into two groups:

Those that like the old school FF's (FF1, 4, 5, 6, and to some extent 9), and those that like the newer ones (FF7, 8, 10). There's some overlap, but the general feeling exists for me. Staff listings have some interesting trends in the series too.

Myself, I'm more old schoolish. I liked 7, but never saw it as the "Oh my $DIETY!" opinion that everyone else in the world seems to have about it. 8 was an interesting story but boring game. I'm still undecided about 10. I've never been able to decide which of FF4,5,6 is my favorite among the whole series.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Pluvius]

unlike Final Fantasy X, where the story continued after Sin was destroyed (As it always has for 10 years, but this time possibly longer?, but i'm sure there is more too it than FFX2), the ending of FF7 was the END OF the 'Human' existance!

Only for some interpretations. This is the reason why making a sequel to FF7 is a bad idea, though; it completely ruins the ambiguity of the ending.

Rob

Re:Prayers

[Pluvius]

And make the plot nonsensical in the process?

Face it, there was never a storyline involving Aeris' resurrection.

Rob

Re:Should be good...

[Rosyna]

No. Every single FF game has a different game play situation than the previous one. Some will introduce classes (FFV, FFX-2, FFT), some introduce summons (FFIV and up pretty much), some have no summons or classes (FFVI). Some require equipment to learn spells (FFVI, FFVII), others have you learn them by purchasing items (FFI) or gaining levels (FFIV). Some have special attacks when you get a full meter of some kind (FFVI, Saban; FFVII, FFVIII). They just change radically from each one to the next. Some will even change up the method of battling (Wait vs active) or allow you to change it yourself. If a feature is popular enough (Chocobos, Summons) it will appear in nearly all the games after the next one.

So FFVII: DoC might have a class system, no levels, and require you to purchase spells.

sigh..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Nice to see Square care about the original fanbase.

I been playing FF games for about 15 years now and TBH I can't stand the latest ones. They just don't feel the same and now they are being whored. When do we see the following.

FF7 : Cloud golf
FF7 : Getting in Tifa's panties
FF7 : Sephiroth's molestung yaoi fangirls
FF7 : Tifa's big adventure
FF7 : Red XIII's spelling games

hint hint. FF7 is hugely over rated and is only loved so much because it was the first FF game alot of people played. The fanbase is so rabid no one even wants to deal with them any more. It's like Dragon ball in the anime community or counter strike for gamers.

I thought with FF:CC and the mana series remakes we'd start to see Enix fixing the problems with square. I guess this went right out the window and we've back to whoring the series.

Guess I'll be sticking to FF6 and below from now on. Thanks for ruining my childhood Square, remind me to thank you for supporting a rabid fanbase plagueing everything gaming wise (AKA go look at ANY FF7 involved Gfaqs poll).

Re:Should be good...

[default luser]

I didn't particularly like the job system because it was REQUIRED that you micromanage your characters. I'm much more fond of more optional micromanagement available in newer games:

FFX: grid-style stats let you micromanage your character's path to your heart's content, or sit back on your lazy ass and take the default path.

Tales of Symphonia: depending on the title you choose, and how your EX skills are leaning (T vs S), you can end up with many different combinations of stats and skills. Or, you can be lazy and just get a few more levels to make up the stats difference, and live without the extra goodies.

Games that deliver the level of involvement that EACH PLAYER wants are by-far the best implementation of growth options. The job system in FF5 felt just like...a job, because you basically had to use it. If you didn't constantly measure your growth and set long-term goals, your characters floundered.

Other problems I had with FF5:

FF4 PLOT: I tried to stop the evil guy from getting to the crystals, but hey, I get to go to the moon.

FF5 PLOT: I tried to stop the evil guy from getting to the crystals, but hey, I get to go to another planet.

Character development was also pretty thin. And talk about bad storyline...the biggest plot "twist" in the game is a severe letdown:

So, the only living original Dawn Warrior dies at the hand of your great enemy...and is instantly replaced by his daughter, who magically inherits all of his abilities and stats. How cheesy can you get? Note that, shortly after hitting this amazingly pitiful plot twist, I decided to stop playing.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[drinkypoo]

Can you imagine what the programmers at Square were thinking when they sat down to work on FFVIII?

"Let's make this game as boring as possible, and make the combat so annoying that it serves as little more than an interruption to your wandering around environments that look completely disconnected from one another."

That's what I imagined, anyway.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

All right, can someone explain the "FF5 had no story" meme to me?

The way a lot of fanboys talk about 5's place in the series, if you hadn't played the game you couldn't be blamed for imagining it was something like, I dunno, a Wizardry-style dungeon crawl or a roguelike game incongruously inserted into the middle of a series of typical cinematic Japanese RPGs.

FF5 isn't like that at all. It has all the same elements that get praised ad nauseam in its peers (i.e. FF4 and FF6)--a main character with unusual parentage, supporting characters with the obligatory "tragic pasts", a villain with a prediliction for gloating speeches, a third-act plot twist that turns the game's world upside down.

I guess I could accept the argument that FF5 had a pretty stupid (or at least childish) story and one-dimensional characters compared to many of the other FF games (especially the more recent ones). But it seems that most of the ZOMG FF5 SUX IT HAS NO STOREE comes from devotees of Final Fantasy 4, a game which soundly beats FF5 in the departments of contrived, nonsensical plot and one-dimensional characters.