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Upon the announcement ofRemake, every detail was endlessly scrutinized.
So would it be like aStar Warsprequel, or aStar Warssequel?
Be perceived as celebrating fans, or spurning them?The Force Awakens, orThe Last Jedi?
In the end, its bothits not a story, but a struggle against fandom.
But it stops shy of radical re-imagination.
In 1997, the best way to sellFinal Fantasy VIIwas also with a lie of omission.
Actual gameplay footage was more abstract: the characters, shaped like mini LEGO-people, were not fully proportioned.
The player is not putting themselves in the shoes of a hero, but a coward.
An old literary gadget reinvented for a new medium.
Moments that elicited an emotional response were rarer still.
But there is one change that is persistent and puzzling, one that does neither of those things.
The game waits until its penultimate chapter to identify its most significant shift by name.
The Whispers check that everything stays the same.
Twenty-plus years of people wanting more of their favorite game, but did they want it like this?
ButRemakestill seems to want to kindly fans with the familiar, even as it nudges them toward something different.
The events of the original game are the blueprint for the entire experience.
They want to know whats next, and step forward into the unknown.
The curtain falls before we see just how far the changes ripple outward.
In doing this,Final Fantasy VIIRemakerenders its own story inert, suspended in limbo.
Its not about saving the world anymore.
Its about saving the fans.
