For me, it’s one of two choices:
Final Fantasy VIII - It’s one of my favourite entries in the series and think they’ve ignored it far too much over the years. There’s a lot they could do with it, not just visually, but with the story and mechanics too.
Final Fantasy Tactics - This game is just fantastic all round, and I can’t say any more than that.
What would you choose?
Don’t apologise for that, your reply is a great one and honestly one of the few that addresses some of these issues without descending into “game bad.” So I appreciate that.
I understand a lot of this is subjective and opinion but I’m not sure I agree with that. FFVII OG was 23 year old by the time FFVIIR was released, but I still feel like the mystery and awe of the OG still exists and that the ExpU doesn’t detract from what was built. I’m still able to play that game and love all the aspects that I did in 1997.
I also liked that Remake turned some aspects on their head and gave us this alternate universe where Cloud is much more of a threat to Sephiroth and Shinra from the start of the game. I think where I’ve always came from with Remake is that I treat it as a remake in name only and supplementary to ExpU rather than as a replacement to OG.
I don’t think anyone is wrong for disliking it or finding faults, but I’ve never understood this need for it to replace the OG.
I don’t think it needs to replace the OG at all, I think it should bring the OG into modern day and rather than pad the story with explanation, just expand on what was already in the original. The expanded dynamics between Jessie and Cloud, or Tifa and Cloud, or Aerith and Cloud… (is this a harem anime?) actually felt a bit more inline with what I was hoping from the remake. The extra stuff that adds elements that were never in the original felt a bit like retcons, even though the remake might as well be a sequel if the prevailing theories prove to be correct.
Just to clarify, I was speaking generally and not directly at you with that statement. Sorry if it came across that way.
I completely understand where you’re coming from with the rest. I do like all the extras mind, as it further reinforces that this is different to OG and I fully expect Rebirth to further take those steps laid out by Remake and diverge even further. I guess we’ve still got a while to see how it pans out as we only have a small part of what made up the OG game right now.