Cognition Dissemination: On Remaking Final Fantasy V and VI

I figured remakes of Final Fantasy V and VI were a certainty at one point.

This started when Final Fantasy III’s remake originally released for DS, itself coming a while after Final Fantasy I and II were remade in the form of Final Fantasy Origins for PSOne. Unlike the first two titles, which received significant changes while maintaining the 2D view, FFIII received the 3D polygonal treatment. It served as an early showpiece for the DS, and one of the first to show how Japanese third-parties fully intended to support it.

FFIII DS’ sales were superlative, the company continued on with a remake of Final Fantasy IV for DS, further solidifying my aforementioned belief. But this came to a screeching halt when FFIV for DS didn’t sell anywhere near as well, though it happened for a somewhat understandable reason.

FFIII DS marked the title’s first official release outside of Japan, but Squaresoft/Square Enix had already released FFIV a multitude of times. Despite packing nice new features like great voice acting, another new translation, new story sequences, and a new augment system to increase its challenge, it wasn’t a high seller in any territory it released in. But its sales were still good enough that I figured Square Enix would shoulder on with remaking its progeny for 3DS.

As more time passed with Nintendo’s current handheld on the market, the more it became clear it wasn’t happening. Square Enix opted for green lighting brand new spiritual successors for their classic titles, including Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light and the Bravely Default titles. While it’s preferable to have new games instead of remakes, I still wanted to see — and want to see — what Square Enix could do with remakes of some fan-favorite titles, despite my skepticism for the company’s current iteration.

That’s why it’s a pity they’re skipping V and VI on the remake schedule, jumping right to remaking Final Fantasy VII. I can’t blame Square Enix too hard, since that will be a new interpretation of the highest selling FF title in history worldwide, and nowhere near as many fans are dying for a remake of the two pre-PlayStation era titles. They’re simply giving in to the highest demand, but I still think they’re capable of making these remakes, and they could be profitable. Heck, they recently green lit a mid-budget FF title with lower sales potential than them, so why not?

A remake of FFV wouldn’t benefit the core game too much, as it’s a gameplay focused one whose story seemed almost tertiary to mastering the innards of its job system. Coming along with potentially seeing the job-specific outfits with 3D polygonal characters is the chance for Square Enix to add more backstory, especially for a certain group of heroes. There’s also the question of whether they’ll bring in Ex-Death’s gloriously hammy Dissidia: Final Fantasy iteration, instead of the fun-but-mostly unremarkable iteration from the original. Those could come along with some new characters and enemies, some of which were in the definitive Game Boy Advance version.

It’s Final Fantasy VI which would benefit the most from a remake, as it started the franchise’s trend towards having a more cinematic flair. It would also offer them the chance to re-add the stories left out of the SNES version due to the hardware’s technological limitations. Hopefully they also realize that no one wants to see the annoyingly weak-willed version of Terra from Dissidia inserted in this — or any other game, really, including the upcoming arcade game.

It’s not just a vocal segment of the fanbase asking for these; there’s also a big proponent on the inside. Shortly after the FFVII remake was announced at E3, Tetsuya Nomura mentioned he would like both to happen. Nomura was also involved with the original versions of the titles as a monster designer for both games, and also contributed the design concepts for Shadow and Setzer for FFVI. He would want to be involved in both projects, but he may not want to have too much on his plate at a time.

In fact, he also provided early sketches for both titles, posted online by an ex-Squaresoft employee a few years ago. You’ll note that Terra was still male when these sketches were done, with that design being reused for Squall in Final Fantasy VIII.

On the surface, they should be easy for Square Enix to green light. They could be developed externally but coordinated by internal staff, similar to previous remakes. Tose, for instance, developed the versions of FFI and II with Origins (and its subsequent ports), while Matrix Software was responsible for III and IV. Heck, there’s even a rumor saying CyberConnect2 is handling the FFVII remake, meaning that realistic title being made on Unreal Engine 4 teased earlier this year could have been for that. FFV and VI would be similarly outsourced, perhaps to either Matrix (who they still use for mobile projects) or Silicon Studio of the Bravely Default games. It doesn’t matter which, as long as they do the games justice.

That is, assuming they happen at all, and they damn well should. The Final Fantasy brand has taken some damage recently, thanks to too many divisive installments, but it’s still possible for individual titles to profit. Since we’re seeing a new Square Enix under CEO Yosuke Matsuda, which has thus far involved the unveiling of many new projects, these could be part of them.

P.S. They should also create these to make up for the awful monstrosities that were the iOS ports, so they owe us.