Yes, and then they fail at this. Why? Because black and white movies work in a fundamentally different way than modern movies. They achieve their effect in different ways. Many of the things that make a black and white movie effective are non-existent in colour films. If you make a colour film with the same story, you won’t “enhance” the strengths of the original, you will lose them.
In the <i>very, very few cases</i> where someone actually did a good job of remaking a silent film, they spent a very long time studying the original, and approaching it from its own point of view, rather than applying techniques from other films. An example is Werner Herzog’s remake of Murnau’s “Nosferatu.” This example is famous, because it almost never happens. In fact, the idea of “remaking” silent films is an excellent argument for <i>not</i> remaking FF6.
There is nothing wrong with making colour films. Go wild! Explore the form, make brilliant new films that achieve unparalleled greatness. I have nothing against that - I am only arguing against the idea that black and white films should be “remade” just because the black-and-white aesthetic is outdated.
Hades (concerning 360 and up): I agree and I specified that FF6 on 360 would be fucking insane. On the same note, an FF7 remake on PS3/360 would cause the internet to implode.
I agree with SK that an FFVI facelift would probably work out badly, unless perhaps the facelift involved incorporating Amano’s art more thoroughly.
When Square made FFVI, the state of technology forced RPG makers to use simple sprites. Most developers were content to piece together vaguely humanoid pixel conglomerations. However, Square used the technology to its advantage. Because it needed (relatively) little time to devise sprites, it spent its extra time ensuring that every one of them was powerfully expressive. Every character had dozens of poses that conveyed identifiable emotional states. And at the time, we didn’t care that they were simple.
What is simpler than reality, can still resonate powerfully with real people. Artists in the earlier 20th century were awed by cave paintings that had been sniffed at for centuries. Gamers now, who have been spoonfed generic overacting in recent RPGs, may find something appreciably <i>different</i> in a game like FF6: less complexity in artistic representation, but arguably more resonance with the human interior that art seeks to reach.
Moreover, FF6 frequently <i>does</i> offer more complex art. Character portraits are elegant and sophisticated counterparts to sprites. Enemies in battle are often direct copies of Amano’s artwork. No FF since FF6 has used art as stunningly as in FF6’s final series of battles, first against the Goddesses, then the various forms of Kefka.
My point is that, even if Square was constrained by technology in making FF6, it tried so sensitively and at such length to compensate for those limitations with deep expressiveness, that it would a terrible shame to transform FF6 into just another 3d anime. I oppose any generic facelift.
That said, an FF6 that incorporated Amano’s art more thoroughly would be a different matter. Obviously, there would be no problem with lack of expressiveness. I always wished that Square had included more of his character sketches. It <i>can</i> be done: consider the introduction to FF4 DS. When Square is willing to give FF6 a facelift of that caliber, I will certainly be more interested.
It would have to be even better. The into to FFIV DS is still too cartoony and anime-esque. Think Gears of War. Any less than that, and there’d be no point. It has to either be 100% perfect, or just not done. It has to be an experience, not just a game.
To remake FF VI on the PS360 would be like flirting with disaster. If they aimed for faithful adaptation with SFII HD level reworking people may end up with the feeling of a missed opportunity. If they give it a full work-over though you may end up with either StarOcean 3 type problems (i.e. cities on the main overworld employing Gallifreyian Physics) or FF XII type (like taking forever to get from one point of interest to another) among other problems like battle speed, would you maintain random encounters or provide scripted encounters, would you aim for closer to original artwork appearances or chibli style, full cutscenes over interactive cutscenes (and speaking of cutscenes would you have the dialog remain the same, which would make for really short cutscenes, or inflate them with added dialog that could both drag out scenes while providing more detail of the characters.
Basically I wouldn’t mind seeing a full remake of the game, but for every Dragon Quest VIII there’s a Sword of Mana.
Besides I would like to see them address the Esper problem (i.e. everyone learns every non-Lore/Rage spell).
FFVI is definitely my favorite FF, and I’m sure they’ll remake it sooner or later, if only for the DS. Things I’d like to see in such a remake:
-Better graphics. (Duh. Almost anything would be an improvement. But keep all the original designs.)
-Full animation on the story’s big moments (The Opera House, the Fall of the Floating Continent, etc.)
-Keep the same music!!
-Same story. Though less meandering around, especially in the Second World. Oh, and a bit more details on some characters’ backgrounds (such as: making it 100% clear that Relm is Shadow’s daughter- to the players, not necessarily the characters.)
-Combat can remain the same, but PLEASE get rid of the “Characters walk up to the enemy, hit them, then go back to their place” effect. That looked cute in old 2d sprites, but on more realistic graphics it just looks dumb. (See: Wild Arms series.)
-I was never too happy with the Esper spell system… I wouldn’t mind a reinvention. It’s not like it would make a big difference anyway.
FFVI was pretty fun to play, and it had a diverse cast of characters and its own sort of tone. As much as I’d like them to remake it, I’m almost sure they’ll ruin it in some way or another.
I didn’t mind the Esper system, but hated the fact you had to watch out at level ups since the characters’ stats wouldn’t go up on their own (except HP/MP). Didn’t care also for the whole “everyone can learn every spell” business. Of course, FF7 suffered the same kind of problem, with every character being essentially the same outside of appearance and Limits. At least, FF6 gave them custom commands…
That’s what I hated most too. To level up your characters “the right way,” you had to avoid random battles until you had the very best Espers – near the end of the game. So you had to stay low-level till halfway through the WoR.
I guess by the time you’re concerned about optimizing stats, you know enough ridiculous relic combos (Genji Glove + Offering, Gem Box + Economizer) that being low level isn’t a big deal.
I forget where I read it from, but most stats only really needed to be maxed out at a certain point (not 255). I do remember if you had too much speed, it messed with it if you had Haste on your character (Haste ends up making them slower or something).
That, and Stamina (or whatever it’s called in the SNES version) was worthless since it made you take more damage from poison and HP drain. (I believe that’s right. If not, sorry.) I don’t believe there was any real point in raising it.
Originally Posted by Xwing1056 That’s what I hated most too. To level up your characters “the right way,” you had to avoid random battles until you had the very best Espers – near the end of the game. So you had to stay low-level till halfway through the WoR.
Zoneseek and Golem could be gotten after returning from Vector at the auction house in Jidor for a nominal fee. And between the two of them along with Bismark they were the first to offer the best level bonuses (good HP and MP bonuses don’t matter until much later in the game since HP and MP growth are otherwise fixed and don’t grow rapidly until level 60+).
That said, Magic was the only stat (well that and HPs) that really mattered anyway. Point for point Magic did more damage than Vigor (plus there weren’t that many uses for Vigor to begin with, hell, most of Sabin’s Bliztes used Magic based damage) while Speed and Stamina were useless and MP is almost never a problem by WoR.
That’s true to a point, but in the long run the “good stats” change. When all your spells and attacks are doing 9999, suddenly the big issue is, how long till your next turn? The FF6 ATB gauge is remarkably slow compared to those of FF4-5 & 7-8. But if you level somebody for a long time with Odin’s Speed +2, it gets much faster. You basically get a permanent Haste. So I felt guilty leveling before I got Odin (and never transformed him to Raiden till Level 99).
Originally Posted by Xwing1056 That’s true to a point, but in the long run the “good stats” change. When all your spells and attacks are doing 9999, suddenly the big issue is, how long till your next turn? The FF6 ATB gauge is remarkably slow compared to those of FF4-5 & 7-8. But if you level somebody for a long time with Odin’s Speed +2, it gets much faster. You basically get a permanent Haste. So I felt guilty leveling before I got Odin (and never transformed him to Raiden till Level 99).
Which brings us back to the utter brokenness of the GBA port. Cactuar’s Level Bonus made Odin look like a joke (though it does take longer to get Cactuar what with the need for either Life 3 or a party with a combined total of at least 10001 HPs).
I think a remake of FF6 has the potential of being awesome. I think S-E is cognizant of the far greater following FF6 has than any of the previous games, and I’m sure they’re well aware of the art direction that went into it to begin with.
I don’t agree with the comparison between SNES-era graphics and black-and-white movies. The difference is that FF6 could make an astounding modern 2D game if voices and details were added. It would be much more challenging to make it into a good 3D game; though it would make for better gameplay, it’d make for worse direction.
While upgrading VI would be swell VII’s the one that NEEDS an overhaul imo. If you go back and look at the game without those rose-tinted glasses on you’ll be able to see that most of the game really didn’t consist of anything more than a couple of low-polygon models dancing around on top of a bunch of .jpeg wallpapers. Sure the cutscenes in the first disk (and the final credits) still kinda hold up today, but even the battle engine looks to be in need of a serious makeover (and outside of the FMV cutscenes they were the best looking part). Plus the game has been retconned so many times already that they might as well get it over with, and while they’re at it they could also clean up some of those plot holes as well.
Yeah, I think the graphics of FF6 and Chrono Trigger stand the test of time better than those of FF7-8. FF6 and CT opted for a simple and expressive form of art that didn’t try to look particularly realistic. In FF7-8, you couldn’t make out characters’ expressions. FF7 characters were a few polygons stuck together. FF8’s were shaped more or less like humans, but their faces were flat and blurry, in that hybrid 3d polygon-2d image way of PSX games. So the result is that FF6 and CT can feasibly claim that they <i>succeeded</i> at a simple form of anime-like art, while FF7-8 <i>failed</i> (in light of modern games) at looking realistic.
I think S-E is cognizant of the far greater following FF6 has than any of the previous games, and I’m sure they’re well aware of the art direction that went into it to begin with.
Being cognizant and aware won’t make them care less about money than quality. FFVI remake = bad.