Spoilers For Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s Trailer And Resident Evil 2/3 Ahead
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “How can you spoil a 23-Year-Old Game? You already know the plot of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake from the moment you start it.”
It seems silly to say out loud, but this trend of “Old Games getting Modern-Day Remakes” is the hot new thing in the gaming world. When you see a good handful of titles flooding towards those practices of putting monetization over quality, it is nice to remember a simpler time; one that ensured you got a full package game and tons to do within it.
Not to say it’s all bad nowadays since you can point towards a couple of titles which have shown you can do so much even if it has additional content off to the side. But for the most part, it’s all about the remakes. Even now, both the Resident Evil 2 Remake and the recent Resident Evil 3 Remake got high praise for taking what was old and making it brand new. Not by rehashing the exact same thing from years ago (or in this case, decades) but showing that you can indeed bring some new to the table.
Source: Resident Evil 3– There’s no kill like the overkill!
Where was this in the original?!
When you go forth to remake a classic, you can take one of two routes: Either “Make the exact same game and update the visuals” or “Go all out in capturing the original’s magic while taking some ‘creative liberties’ along the way.” Between the two recent Resident Evil titles, you can probably guess which one they took, and really, who can blame them? It can be a touch weird to see Jill drop F-Bombs as if she was an edgy 90s comic book character, but one could say that given her situation, it makes sense. Hell, everyone in Raccoon City tends to have a wide range of ways to use the f-word.
The idea of these remake games is to do more than just rehashing the same story but to expand on them. You can argue that the short time we did spend with Chief Irons in the original was fine, but you can show just how much of a monster he is when you have him chasing Sherry, with little means of escape. Not to mention when you compare how the man dies in both versions, you could say that having something shoot out of your belly almost seems like mercy in comparison for getting ripped and torn in half.
Source: Resident Evil 2
Retelling the Story
This brings us to a new challenge that can usually leave people split (no pun intended for the visual above). When you effectively tell the same narrative, is the original story still the original one? It can be a coin flip depending on how you look at it.
If you are someone who enjoys Dragon Ball, you are probably familiar with the dime a dozen titles that always retells the same arcs in the exact same way. The difference between them is what usually could be tossed in between point A and point B. Whether if it is doing a side quest, watching how time travels screw around with the original plot or watching Cell absorb Krillin, it can range from world-building to… Interesting What-ifs.
Source: Dragon Ball Z Budokai
Still, it isn’t like the original’s story suddenly gets overwritten just because there’s a new take on it. It is just as important to have the original story in place so that the remake has something to build off of. Otherwise, why call it a remake when you can really make a sequel? Whether if it is expanding on a story with a “What happens after the end” like with the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered, or adding in new elements like with the recent Resident Evil titles, there is a nice balance of old and new for all to enjoy. The trick is to not make the remake seem too crazy with your original ideas like-
Did Sephiroth just stab someone else?!
So with recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailers, you can argue the things that happen in the trailers aren’t really showcasing anything new (at least, at first). You can have small things like showing how Cloud and Avalanche destroying Reactor 1, but some fans did get legitimately upset to find out the remake’s approach. The demo itself shows one big change in how the bomb did “disable” the reactor, but not it’s full out destruction. That was apparently a plan by Shinra themselves by not only blowing up their own reactor but putting the full blame on the terrorists. How much does that change the story?
But it doesn’t end there as we also got to see Sephiroth himself appear at a much earlier time than in the original game. It does take time before you finally confront the man, but he doesn’t wait around since we do see him standing before Cloud. Chalk that up with the random smoke creatures that seem to harass Aerith and you can’t help but question the how far the remake is deviating from the story. Next, you’re going to tell me that Sephiroth is going to stab someone else who isn’t-
Source: Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Can’t wait for the sad “Barret’s Death” OST… Probably will be just as emotional, right?
Sarcasm aside, how shocking would it have been had we saw this in-game and not in a trailer? This isn’t anything new to have big story plot points shown within a trailer, but we are getting to a point where the trailers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake is running out of “original content” to show and we are getting to see other things, like Red XIII calling Barret a, “300-pound sake of it.”
Thank God we are less than a week out…
So if you got through this whole article and found something new, congratulations, you discovered a way to spoil a “20+ year” game!
If you following people on Youtube who are gigantic Final Fantasy VII fans, you will probably find out how a few of them are skipping this most recent trailer, and for good reason. It’s one thing to see a classic scene in 4K, but another when you show something completely new that changes so much from the original. And while we can probably chalk up Barret’s “Stabby Stab” as hallucinations, because it wouldn’t make sense to see him on the highway later if he apparently died in the tower.
Yes, you will believe that you can have a “No Reaction” reaction to a recent trailer! But we are in the final lap! At this point, to see anything more would probably take away any more shocking twists the story can take. Yeah, Cloud will be picking flowers and cross-dressing as he did in the original, but at some point, you have to take a step back and realize we are getting new story elements. And whether they are indeed going to be canon or not, some of us don’t want to know until we get the game in our hands.
So What Do You Think?
Can you truly spoil a 20+ year old game getting a remake? When does a remake become something else entirely? And will you shed tears during the “Barret Dies” scene at the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake?
