When I say that the footage shown of Final Fantasy VII in Sony’s recent State of Play broadcast “isn’t my Final Fantasy VII”, I want you to understand that I do not say so with outrage or condemnation. It is simply the most succinct way I can understand my own feelings towards the new trailer. After all, there’s simply not enough information to determine what the end product will truly look like. I’m not even entirely certain how the combat is supposed to work. It’s too early to judge this product based on what little we’ve truly seen of it.

But then I see my Twitter timeline explode in hype and excitement and I can only wonder… why am I so apathetic? I had one mildly snarky comment regarding one perceived plot detail and nothing more. Yet everyone else is discussing not just how pretty the game is visually, but how well they’ve managed to recreate classic beasts while maintaining the atmosphere of each environment. From a visual perspective I should be at least somewhat impressed or excited.

To put it another way, even though I think the movie looks like it will have an average plot and even some painful gags, Detective Pikachu has me fired up because I simply can’t believe how good they made these creatures look in live-action. It’s not just nostalgia, it’s an opportunity to see this fantastic world I’ve only seen in video game and anime form brought to life in a way I never imagined possible.

Theoretically, the Final Fantasy VII trailer does the same thing. It takes childhood elements and breathes fresh new life into them with vibrant imagery… only, I’ve seen that sort of thing before.

When I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in College, my response was “that was an awfully high-budget fan-fiction”. I was never impressed by the film. I thought the survival of Rufus — completely unscarred, at that — was nothing short of cheap and idiotic. The idea of multiple super-powered Sephiroth clones caused me to roll my eyes. I laughed as these still and stoic characters from a turn-based combat system were suddenly flying hundreds of feet into the air. I rolled my eyes as Sephiroth just had to come back. It wasn’t a good story, it was vapid fan-service that added nothing to the setting. It only retread old ground with a fancy new look.

It wasn’t my Final Fantasy VII.

It is perhaps because of Advent Children that these lavish new graphics and designs do nothing for me. I’ve already seen these characters redesigned and reinterpreted for fancy new visuals.

Aesthetic and appearance are only “skin-deep”, however. Anyone can imitate a style visually and still fail to capture substance. Every Frame a Painting has an excellent video regarding Michael Bay that delves into just such a topic. Not only in Bay’s imitation of classic cinema without understanding it, but those imitating Michael Bay without understanding him.

Now, I did say it was too early to evaluate the game based on two trailers, so we can’t really determine substance right now. All we can gather is that they’re trying to modernize the game. Resident Evil 2 did just that earlier this year with a similarly 20 year-old game, and yet I was excited to give that a whirl. Once again a different situation, seeing as I had no personal attachment to the 1998 original. I did not get into the series until the 2002 remake of the progenitor title, and playing Hideki Kamiya’s Resident Evil 2 shortly after on the GameCube left me wondering what the big deal was. I had some memory of the game by time I booted up its modern recreation, but I certainly had no nostalgia.

Nevertheless, I cannot help but wonder if my attitude towards this Final Fantasy VII remake should be on par with my welcoming reception to this year’s Resident Evil 2. Accept the spirit of the combat changes maintaining the original’s horror, be open-minded towards narrative adjustments, and evaluate the game on its own merits.

Only I cannot see the two remakes as being as comparable as they are on paper. Yes, they’re both late-90’s remakes of games from the original PlayStation, but they were also two very different types of products. Resident Evil 2 was survival-horror, but it was survival-horror filled with the shooting of zombies and solving of puzzles. The remake’s core mechanics still relied on shooting zombies and solving puzzles, with user-interface adjustments that enhanced the player’s exploration. The gameplay is still closely in line with the original game’s vision, just not hampered by 1998’s limitations.

Final Fantasy VII, on the other hand, has almost entirely swapped genres. It’s no longer a (sort of) turn-based combat system emphasizing a slower pace of selecting strategic commands. It’s an action-based combat system that moves Limit Breaks and similar moves to face button shortcuts. The player can freely roam the environment and can swap characters at will, rather than deciding each character’s every action. The manner in which the player engages with the game has changed.

Does that automatically mean the game will be bad? No. If anything, this is probably the least of my worries. I’m still curious to see if Square Enix could pull off a turn-based combat system in a modern AAA product and have it sell better-than-niche numbers, but it is hardly the most important aspect of Final Fantasy VII.

As with all Final Fantasy games, it’s primarily about the story and characters. This is where I feel concerned. In 1998, Resident Evil 2 had campy writing, hammy voice-acting, and an over-the-top plot that felt like it belonged in the VHS bargain bin at the rental store. The Resident Evil 2 remake has far better production values while still maintaining the core spirit of those original characters. Leon is a young and earnest boy scout of a rookie cop and Claire is a courageous, spunky biker chick with a big yet fierce heart. I have some minor gripes with the execution of Ada Wong at one point, but they overall kept the spirit of the original story. While certain scenes were moved around, the Roundtable Discussion reveals that it was often done to try and deliver that same experience in a manner that matches the new graphical fidelity and production values.

But even that is all beside the point. I am trying to reflect upon Resident Evil 2 to understand why Final Fantasy VII doesn’t sit well with me, even though they seem similar. That both even exist purely due to fan demand even indicates it has little to do with creative spirit.

Having watched those Roundtable videos, however, I can at least understand why I look to Resident Evil 2 as such a success. This was a franchise that had developed an identity crisis following the upheaval that was Resident Evil 4, but was slowly in the process of finding itself again. Resident Evil 2 is a culmination of all the lessons learned since then while also circling back around to those original horror aspirations. They took what they’d learned from the more action-oriented titles and adjusted the mechanics to match a more tense atmosphere. The player is empowered through an informative UI and modern conventions such as moving while aiming, but the targeting reticule becomes wider and more imprecise during such motion and enemies shuffle and stumble in unpredictable ways. The same anxiety and nervousness that coursed through player veins in 1998 is still going to be present over twenty years later.

The Final Fantasy franchise, on the other hand, has been a jumbled mess of ideas for over a decade now. It has failed to figure out just what a modern Final Fantasy ought to look like, and now they’re trying to recreate one of their largest classics before even understanding what their franchise ought to be. That alone is a bit of a frightening prospect.

I think what truly captures my concern, however, is Yoshinori Kitase’s statement on the PlayStation Blog regarding this trailer.

And oh my god! Did you notice he was there too…?

I suppose this brings me full circle to Advent Children. While I no longer trust my evaluation was correct, my first response to Sephiroth in the trailer was that he was appearing somewhere he shouldn’t have been. Or, at the very least, somewhere he hadn’t previously. My impression from the trailer is that Cloud is going to be seeing visions of Sephiroth as he progresses through the Midgar section of the narrative.

I feel like it says something that the original game’s promotional art was Cloud looking up at the vast form of Shinra, versus this remake art emphasizing Cloud and Sephiroth.

Honestly, it is too early to gripe about something that I can only speculate upon. I would argue that Sephiroth’s slow build-up in the original game – occasionally mentioned here and there as some revered legendary, borderline mythological figure – is absolutely perfect. The game presents President Shinra as its great villain for the opening hours of the game. The discovery of his dead body is a transformative moment, the first step into realizing the adventure is far greater and far more dangerous than any of the characters first realized. It precedes the player’s arrival to Nibelheim, and their first look at Sephiroth, his power, and his madness. The game swaps villains on the player like Final Fantasy VI, but far earlier and to very, very different emotional effect.

What made Sephiroth work was that he was first built up to. What made Final Fantasy VII work as a whole was the fact that he wasn’t the only villain in play. Shinra, Jenova, and Sephiroth himself were all the antagonists of this story, and each of them tied together in a fashion that made for a compelling narrative about saving the world.

But as we got to see in Advent Children, it’s all about Sephiroth. Much like Darth Vader was originally just some henchman in A New Hope whose “ancient religion” was not taken seriously by Imperial Admirals, the fan response has changed the very nature and importance of the character into something greater.

All I wanted out of Final Fantasy VII was a new translation. Based on the narrative additions made via Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core, I was adamant that I never wanted Square to go back and rewrite the whole narrative.

That, perhaps, is the difference between Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy VII. Capcom took all of the best parts of their entire franchise and infused them into their remake to craft a contender for best entry in the series. Square Enix has a history of bad fan-service and unnecessary changes to the setting and characters that indicate they are no longer aware of what made Final Fantasy VII work so well in the first place.

Does that mean the remake won’t be good? No. Does it mean all of my fears will come to pass? Not at all. As I said, it’s simply too early to tell. I wish I could say that all this rambling helped me figure out why the trailer fails to excite me. While I think I found some answers, I instead only seemed to better understand why I think the Resident Evil 2 remake works so well.

Perhaps the real answer is something simple. Producer Jun Takeuchi insisted during Resident Evil 2’s development that they aren’t replacing the old game. The old game exists. They were still creating a new game. I don’t know if Square Enix is so certain that they’re making something new or are trying to reimagine the old. They’re trying to convince fans that they’re being faithful while simultaneously being forced to change so much.

Or maybe the real problem is that I never understood why you’d even bother remaking the game at all.