The Potential Future of AAA Episodic Games

Square Enix's upcoming remake of the PlayStation classic Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII was one of my favorite games as a child, and remains as such to this day, just as it does for a great deal of other gamers who played it from the day it came out until now (I personally was 10 years late, but enjoyed it no less because of that). The game is, and forever will be, revered as a huge lunge forward not just for the Final Fantasy franchise, but for the video game industry as a whole. A huge, engaging world and a revamp to some familiar RPG mechanics gave this 1997 PlayStation game the equipment it needed to become an instant classic to most everyone who played it, and it succeeded. 

Last year, during Sony's annual E3 press conference, something was announced that fans have been clamoring for since about 2005, a full Remake of Final Fantasy VII. The response was remarkable; nearly universal hype. The original reveal trailer was merely a cinematic, but that didn't slow things at all. People discussed the possibilities madly, as small bits of news came around and new questions arose. It was in December of the same year as the announcement that the first bit of gameplay was shown off at Sony's other annual event, PlayStation Experience. The response was more mixed than that of the initial announcement, but there was still positivity all around. 

Shortly after this trailer, but not during the event, it was announced that Remake would, in fact, be a staggered multi-part release. The fan backlash was immense. Almost all of the positivity brought up by the new trailer was destroyed, fans were horribly unhappy with this decision. I was among these people. I tried desperately to look for positives, but all that I could feel was dread regarding how this would ruin one of my favorite games of all time.

The flashy new combat system in Remake

While I can't deny that I hated the idea of an episodic approach to the remake of Final Fantasy VII for a couple months after its announcement, I'd like to believe that I am now at a point where I can see it as it is and develop hopes for the potential positives of it. I believe that these hopes for the development of an endeared IP apply not only to Remake, but also to other future AAA episodic games.

"Episodic game" is now a phrase that has a strong stigma that it's carrying, due largely to Square Enix alone, giving two of its most established franchises this treatment, being Final Fantasy VII and Hitman. It doesn't have to be this way. While I would definitely say that the stigma is deserved in the current state, I think that we are also close to a point where it can be changed. Most games that were made for episodic thus far have not been quite to the mainstream standard that Final Fantasy VII is, but considering that more AAA games and IP's may take the approach in the future, its important to see what can make these series' great in this form of development. For the sake of relevance, I will be using Remake as the main example for what can be done, but all of what is being said can and should be applied to any retail game being released in an episodic format. 

To start, the most important thing for developers to do is to ensure economic integrity. These AAA games that are being made in episodic format are almost certainly going to carry the typical retail price tags, meaning the discounted $20-30 prices of many multi-part games of today is not applying to them. That is okay, as long as they are supplying no less content than they would in a single package. As for each individual part, they need to cater to the fact that people want these parts to last a long time. I understand that the amount of original content that they can create per part is more limited than a full release, so it is the developer's duty to assure that the replayability is great. Some focus needs to be placed on making a sizable world that the players are eager to explore, full of fun side quests and challenges.

The greatest thing that the developer and publisher are responsible for is proper advertisement of the way the game is being sold. Like I discussed last week, not making the cheapest option to get the whole package clear to the consumer is an unethical practice. Publishers can have the split up approach available, that way certain customers can purchase parts as a way to test out a fair amount of the game before dropping money for the full game, but for other consumers, the multi-part approach needs to be clearly laid out. Consider the casual gamers who don't keep up on news of the industry, just playing and buying things as they release, or the parents who are generous enough to purchase for their children, this base of buyers needs to know what they are getting into with their initial purchase of Final Fantasy VII Remake or whatever other major games may release in episodic format.

Final Fantasy VII Remake being episodic is not an inherently bad thing, in my opinion, it could actually be a good thing. This approach could very well create a game more faithful to the fun value and scope of the original (integrity to a large size in a game is one of the few legitimate reasonings for making a game episodic that I accept), and future episodic games could benefit in development from this staggered release as well. The pool that is 'Episodic' is full of opportunity to improve a number of games and create a new approach to developing great and huge games. We as consumers must put our money behind the games that do things well, it wouldn't take much for greedy publishers to fill this metaphorical pool with toxic sludge and ruin it for a long time for everyone. We have the power to prevent this, so long as we let the publishers and developers know what we want.

What are your thoughts on Final Fantasy VII and its upcoming remake? How do you feel about the rise of the episodic approach in gaming? Let me know in the comments or wherever you see fit.

Have a tremendous day.