Half Gamer Half Crab

First, I finally got to 70 in WoW (Wrath is due sometime this week). Huzzah! Only a year late. The thing is that I am a chronic altoholic; if a game offers multiple ways of making characters, I am all over every possible permutation forever, always thinking of something new to try. Morrowind, Oblivion, all three Fallouts, and World of Warcraft. Only in WoW there's not so much variability, so I'm not sure what's up with that. Maybe I just love those little flashes of yellow light too much?

At any rate, I then went and bought myself a flying mount, which is nice. Now I can fly about the place freely, if somewhat slowly! Hooray! So that's a little update on the WoW front.

And now to something I've been thinking about for awhile: Final Fantasy VII. Now I know some consider the game overrated, but for me it's tremendous and I absolutely love it. I've probably played more FFVII than anything else barring X-Com, Civs II and III, and maybe WoW. So I'm all about that, even if none of the spinoffs and whatever have appealed to me.

What does interest me is the possibility of a remake. I know that's been bandied around for years now - somewhat senselessly before the 8th gen arrived, in my opinion - but I've a particular theory on it. See, Yoichi Wada claims the franchise could last up to twenty years. Now we've had a few other things set in the FFVIIverse so far, and I'd expect the enduring popularity could mean more to come. But I think the last game, the one which closes the circle on FFVII, could be the much-desired remake. It makes a lot of sense to me.

You'd have the 'complete' universe of FFVII to work with at that point; all movies, games, books, etc. would be done and known, and the framework would exist to set FFVIIr in it. They'd obviously cherry-pick and retcon, but that would merely mean FFVIIr could be claimed as the final, definitive production in the series and the ultimate canon.

By that point - 2017 - we're likely to be two gens ahead of where we are now, or four gens ahead of the PS1. That'd be enough time for a remake to really be worth it. It offers the potential for real changes and improvements, more than just better graphics and voice acting (If one considers voice acting an improvement, that is!)

And of course, it would be the best ending possible. How better to end the compilation than with a remake, and bring the thing to a close. If they release FFVIIr in four years, and a couple before and after, maybe another movie, that wouldn't settle things. We'd probably just hear talk of another remake, endless speculation about it, and so forth. By finishing with the remake they could say "Right, that's it, you're done!" and that's all. Probably a little message at the ending screen like "Thank you for being with the FFVII Compilation for twenty years! We hope you have enjoyed it yadda yadda." Some way to put a full stop on the end. Because if they end with anything else they're never going to hear the end of it - like right now, when the slightest hint of a rumor sets the fanbase and blogs ablaze.

Of course, the trick would be to balance what's best about FFVII with what can be improved. Like with everyone else, there's only one person who should be in charge, and it's me. But what I would actually do is a post for another day~