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[GregLombardi]

I'm not even half way through and this is hands down the best written article on this game I have ever seen.

Fantastic.

 

[JaseMath]

When FF games still meant something. Great article.

 

[jimmypython]

Good old Square... WTF happened???

let's chop up the games and sell pieces as DLC.

 

[LordKasual]

Holy crap this article is amazing! I would love to see more stuff like this as others had noted.

I'm currently finishing up the book Console Wars and this goes so great with that read. So much insight into some great videogame memories from years past.

I would love to see an in depth behind the scenes look at Square from beginning to present, to go beyond FF7 here and into their current state.

Man, these guys changed the course of gaming as a whole with their decisions.

It's pretty crazy to think about, looking back.

 

[ethomaz]

let's chop up the games and sell pieces as DLC.

Or the new way $40-60 episodies like FFVIIRemake.

 

[LordKasual]

Or the new way $40-60 episodies like FFVIIRemake.

let's chop up the games and sell pieces as DLC.

To be fair, they're also providing content updates that include entire cutscenes and possibly gameplay changes for free. (in a single-player RPG no less)

Most development studios wouldn't have even bothered, and to be honest Square doesn't have to either, at all.

XV already released and got pretty positive reception and FF is a pretty front-loaded franchise when it comes to sales.

 

[xeroborn55]

thanks for posting this, i wouldn't have otherwise seen it..

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Great article.

 

[RedlineRonin]

This is a great article so far. Lots of excellent insight. I love this bit I just read from Amano, referencing FF7's bigger budget

I felt the budget getting bigger and the scale getting bigger. It didn’t feel like a domestic thing anymore; it felt like something that was going worldwide and becoming more global and more important. But I didn’t really get paid more.

Funny

 

[ethomaz]

To be fair, they're also providing content updates that include entire cutscenes and possibly gameplay changes for free. (in a single-player RPG no less)

Most development studios wouldn't have even bothered, and to be honest Square doesn't have to either, at all.

XV already released and got pretty positive reception and FF is a pretty front-loaded franchise when it comes to sales.

That is what happens when you launch a unfinished game... you need to fix for free... every dev does that.

But that is going OT.

 

[LordOfLore]

This is a great article so far. Lots of excellent insight. I love this bit I just read from Amano, referencing FF7's bigger budget



Funny

It reminds me of an old interview where someone was asked how it felt to have to move closer to the company to handle things directly and the response was pretty much "Turns out there was a pub next door so now me and the co-workers just go there every friday instead of having to go shopping. The shorter travel time means I can be home longer with my daughter as well. Only thing bad is I didn't get paid more for the trouble."

 

[V_Ben]

Just finished reading it. That was absolutely phenomenal work, great to read such a full account of that game's development. All the stories, the little things here and there. Grand stuff.

 

[Undead Fantasy]

What I heard was Nintendo said, “If you’re leaving us, never come back.”

Oh boy.

 

[Breakage]

Bookmarked

 

[Mockerre]

This is such a great read, thanks!

 

[firelogic]

To be fair, they're also providing content updates that include entire cutscenes and possibly gameplay changes for free. (in a single-player RPG no less)

Most development studios wouldn't have even bothered, and to be honest Square doesn't have to either, at all.

XV already released and got pretty positive reception and FF is a pretty front-loaded franchise when it comes to sales.

I stand on the side that says SE doesn't deserve any credit/praise for finishing the game months after launching it. They should only be criticized. It doesn't matter that they don't have to do it. The end result is that they released an unfinished game and to the people that bought the game in the first year of release got screwed.

 

[RadarScope1]

I don't think Nintendo policy changed at all even after 20 years.

It hasn't changed in 35 years actually. This has always been the stance.

 

[Sephiroth_VII]

Or the new way $40-60 episodies like FFVIIRemake.

It's almost as if creating games has become more expensive since the 90's.

 

[Lynx_7]

Iwasaki says his main regret upon leaving was that he wasn’t able to see through a marketing campaign for Dragon Quest 7 in the West; he had developed a plan to pit Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest fans against each other, since the games took different approaches to the role-playing genre and were under the same roof after Square merged with Enix.

Does he mean 8? 7 was out in america a few years before the merger.
I don't think any amount of marketing could've saved 7 tbh and I'm not sure if creating a rivalry between both fanbases would be very effective in driving sales for DQ either. lol

Or the new way $40-60 episodies like FFVIIRemake.

I don't know if Sakaguchi or "old Square" could've done much better in regards to this issue. The article states that he (Sakaguchi) was more worried about quality than costs and spared no money, sure, but it also says that they had very tight development schedules. Considering the reality of modern game development I'm not sure a full blown FF VII remake in a single package can be done in a timely manner with the kind of scale they're going for. Maybe if they adopted a world map and reached a compromise in terms of scale?

 

[ubercheez]

Great read with a lot of interesting tidbits. Some very honest commentary about things that didn't go as planned.

Beyond just the insight into Final Fantasy 7, I feel like I got a very deep view into the game industry in general with this article. Absolutely worth your time to read the whole thing.

 

[Byvar]

Fantastic read.

I just finished reading all of it. Here are a few funny quotes I collected.

There was a time when I really drank a lot of champagne, so I got the nickname “Champagne King.” That’s where it came from. It didn’t have anything to do with my work. And I don’t drink like that anymore.

Come now Gooch, don't be modest. We know you still do.

I don’t remember the specific title I was jealous of, but it was from the Suikoden series — whichever title that was out at that time. It loads a lot, and I was thinking that it stopped the game too often, but the quality was really high. That was kind of the trigger to make me think in a different way.

Uematsu was jealous of Suikoden's glorious CD audio. There's something special about seeing the creator of your favorite game music refer to some of your other favorite game music, and reading that it pushed him to improve.

He’s very, very detail oriented. And he really pushes right up to that final deadline — or past it.

Oh god. That does not bode well for FFVIIr.

Regarding Sakaguchi leaving the company, it's really interesting to read the rest of the company's thoughts. With the way they describe it, it seems he really held the status of some kind of god or "king" in the company. Like a gifted king who knew exactly how to lead his country to greatness and whom the people had been charmed by so much that they never learned to live without him. So I think Nomura's comparison to a small civil war erupting when that king left is fitting. It really looks like everyone had a tremendous respect for the guy, but also that Square became less of a dictatorship.

Other thoughts:

• Ugh, Wada seems so proud of having created sequels and spin-offs of the numbered FF games.
• Wow, Epic Games really didn't sound very supportive back when Lost Odyssey was getting started. But Japanese devs nowadays love the support they get from Epic for UE4. I wonder when this changed?
• Sakaguchi is excited about FFVIIr? He might change his mind about remakes after all.
• A lot of this really reads like an article about Sakaguchi disguised as a FF7 article, especially considering they go on to talk about Lost Odyssey.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Love the stuff about Andrew House and 'the race to a million units in the US'. The Square US staff celebrating with all the champagne is great.

Sometimes I forget important SIE figures like House and Shu Yoshida played roles in FF7 being so aggressively pursued and marketed for the Playstation brand over 20 years ago.
Amazing time all around. The aftermath - especially the whole TSW mess - is always hard to read about, however. :/

 

[Nyoro SF]

Probably the most informative (and well-sourced) article regarding FF7 in existence.

And it supports people's arguments about Nintendo's handling of 3rd parties starting with the N64 after Sony outmuscled them during that era.

 

[Lonestar]

Still reading it, but it's the best thing Polygon's done, from my POV.

 

[LordKasual]

I stand on the side that says SE doesn't deserve any credit/praise for finishing the game months after launching it. They should only be criticized. It doesn't matter that they don't have to do it. The end result is that they released an unfinished game and to the people that bought the game in the first year of release got screwed.

Well it matters when you're speaking on behalf of the company's intentions, which is the reason why they're bothering with it in the first place. XV wasn't anywhere close to "unfinished" enough for them to feel the need to bother with a content patch outside of the Day-1 you get when you boot the game up. It's playable from start to finish with more than enough gameplay content to justify the price I paid for it.

It's fair to criticize them for it though, certainly.

 

[TLS Lex]

This article is insane! I'm having so much fun reading it <3

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

This is pretty good. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm getting there.

This is bringing me some joy on a terrible day.

 

[timetokill]

I always felt that Final Fantasy lost its soul when the Gooch left

 

[Diagol]

Wow, this is one of the best articles I've ever read. There's so much interesting information in there!

 

[RedlineRonin]

Wow, another good one. Keith Boesky (president of Eidos at the time) regarding a potential Eidos/Square merger after the FF7 PC Port

It's funny because the deal actually led to us becoming very close to merging Square and Eidos. The way that we saw it was, our philosophy of game building was very similar. Neither one of us did licensed [intellectual property]. Both of us were focused on very, very high-quality games &#8212; high-quality, character-driven games. And we had Europe and the U.S. and they had Japan. And we actually had the first meeting at that E3 in Atlanta, and then the second E3 in Atlanta, we had a meeting [with] the CEO of the holding group, Charles Cornwall, Ian Livingstone, the chairman of the company, and then Miyamoto &#8212; the owner of Square, not Miyamoto the Nintendo dude &#8212; and then the owner of Digicube, which was a division of Square. We had a big, private dinner and came really close to a merger in &#8216;98 [but Square decided to go another way]. ...

This article is some of the best stuff I've read in a really long time. Very, very good. Lots of great details.

It's fun to imagine a world where Square and Eidos merged.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I always felt that Final Fantasy lost its soul when the Gooch left

I don't think it lost the soul (there have been some great FF sans Sakaguchi's full involvement), but it certainly lost a guy with a ton of clout & the ability to motivate and organize his productions in a manner that inspired greatness from top to bottom.

This article didn't just highlight 7's production, but also the industry itself at that time. Amazing how Squaresoft worked to get the right people in at the right time, combined with taking sizable risks, and the big bosses had the belief everything would work. Just a joy to read.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Really interesting stuff.

 

[LordOfLore]

Fantastic read.

I just finished reading all of it. Here are a few funny quotes I collected.

Come now Gooch, don't be modest. We know you still do.

Uematsu was jealous of Suikoden's glorious CD audio. There's something special about seeing the creator of your favorite game music refer to some of your other favorite game music, and reading that it pushed him to improve.

Oh god. That does not bode well for FFVIIr.

Regarding Sakaguchi leaving the company, it's really interesting to read the rest of the company's thoughts. With the way they describe it, it seems he really held the status of some kind of god or "king" in the company. Like a gifted king who knew exactly how to lead his country to greatness and whom the people had been charmed by so much that they never learned to live without him. So I think Nomura's comparison to a small civil war erupting when that king left is fitting. It really looks like everyone had a tremendous respect for the guy, but also that Square became less of a dictatorship.

Other thoughts:

• Ugh, Wada seems so proud of having created sequels and spin-offs of the numbered FF games.
• Wow, Epic Games really didn't sound very supportive back when Lost Odyssey was getting started. But Japanese devs nowadays love the support they get from Epic for UE4. I wonder when this changed?
• Sakaguchi is excited about FFVIIr? He might change his mind about remakes after all.
• A lot of this really reads like an article about Sakaguchi disguised as a FF7 article, especially considering they go on to talk about Lost Odyssey.

Sakaguchi and Yoko Taro should go out drinking together.

Wow, another good one. Keith Boesky (president of Eidos at the time) regarding a potential Eidos/Square merger after the FF7 PC Port



This article is some of the best stuff I've read in a really long time. Very, very good. Lots of great details.

It's fun to imagine a world where Square and Eidos merged.

Now I want this AU. "How Square Eidos Changed The Gaming World In '98".

 

[AzureFlame]

This article is a treasure.

 

[LordOfLore]

For people who just want videos, here's Nomura drawing Cloud and the VI tech demo.

 

[FF Seraphim]

Oh man everyone on GAF should read this. So much insight on one of the biggest influences and shifts in gaming.

 

[Koozek]

Cheddahz, maybe add these videos to the OP:

Looking Back at Square's Final Fantasy VI Tech Demo with Kazuyuki Hashimoto


How Nobuo Uematsu Composed FF7's "One-Winged Angel"


The Art of Final Fantasy VII: An Interview with Yoshitaka Amano


Tetsuya Nomura Draws Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII

 

[Twookie]

holy shit this article is HUUUUUGE

gonna read it in bed I think 8)

 

[LordOfLore]

Oh man everyone on GAF should read this. So much insight on one of the biggest influences and shifts in gaming.

Yeah, this is a thread we need archived later so we can always point to it.

 

[Byvar]

Ta-ra-ran tan tan tan tan taan, ta-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra ta ta ta taa ta.

Uematsu is a treasure.

 

[Rentahamster]

That's weird, I always had some vague impression that the N64 was supposed to be more powerful than the PS1, but that cartridge storage space limitations crippled its potential.


I guess that's not actually the case?

 

[CielTynave]

You know, they were using GameSharks to hack FF8 so they could get to text because nobody would give them files. Because, “Oh, you need files to do translation?” That was news to the dev team at that point. So that sort of complete lack of communication was emblematic of those days.

LOL that's amazing.

 

[HonMirin]

Can you imagine if this happened.

My word, that would have been amazing.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Just finished. Really, really fantastic read overall. All kinds of detail and transparency about the process of making games, most of which still applies today. It really reiterates the importance of creative and business working in concert to make a sustainable company.

Good job Polygon. I've never really read your stuff before, but I'll be paying more attention after having read this.

 

[The Last One]

Wow, that's a really well done article, perfect for the game's 20th anniversary.

 

[jb1234]

How Nobuo Uematsu Composed FF7's "One-Winged Angel"

Whoa. I never caught the Stravinsky influences. I'm a terrible, terrible musician.

 

[plake]

Just saw this now before heading to bed and a long day of work tomorrow. I honestly can't wait to get home tomorrow evening and read this in its entirety. Haven't been this excited to read a piece like this in ages!

 

[whalleywhat]

Yet more clickbait from Poorlygon.

Spoiler

Ooh, nice article.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Amazing read. Smh at nintendo.

 

[Spiritwalker]

See, this is the kind of high quality content I always wanted from Polygone. Great read.