This year's E3 was filled with many happy announcements, many surprises and lots of innovations. People were left filled with anticipation over the coming months or years, when they would finally be able to play their favorite new titles on their consoles. Lots of long forgotten games made their grand re-entrance. The Last Guardian, Doom, Fallout 4, Kingdom Hearts 3, Shenmue 3, Nier 2, Doom, Metal Gear Solid 5, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst are only but a few of what people can expect on their high-tech consoles. However there was one announcement that blew even those ones out of the water, especially for those of us who are past the 25+ year old barrier. But in order to explain the significance of that, one must first look to the past...
It was late 1997 and yours truly was just a toddler (in the last class of elementary school in fact) playing Super Mario games on his SNES, when one of my classmates suggested I go over to his house so he could show me this "cool new game" that he had. Eventually I caved because he kept talking about it so much. And when I did, I wanted to go back and see him playing some more, because I was intrigued by what would happen next in that game. Thanks to that particular title, I was able to move on from the "kiddie-like" Mario games and move on to more sophisticated stuff. I also forged a friendship with that kid, thanks to our common strong feelings of the game called Final Fantasy VII.
And even though the game ended back in 1997, it has always been here in one way or another. 2006 saw the release of a continuation movie called Advent Children in which we see how the group deals with the emotional and physical scars left on the planet after their battles. In 2007, Dirge Of Cerberus was released to show how one character of the group especially deals with his own issues and sins. And in 2008, Crisis Core, a prequel to FF VII and the story of one key character was released. There have been other releases along the way as well, such as novels, anime, and a director's cut of the movie Advent Children featuring almost half an hour of extra footage, but nothing has been the same.
Those who experienced the original cried out for something better. Something that they felt while playing the original and thinking "I wonder what all these places and people would look like in real life?". And with the tech demo shown off back at 2005's E3, the fans have been craving it even more.
But developers just kept denying it, saying that "the workload would be too much" or that "it would leave some faithful fans unsatisfied". Time after time were they told that a remake of FF VII was impossible, yet that just made them want it even more and ask for it even harder.
Fast-forward to December 2014 and the first ever Playstation Experience held in Las Vegas. Final Fantasy Brand Director Shinji Hashimoto goes on stage to report that FF VII would be coming to the PS4... the original FF VII! The one that was released on the PSOne. The outrage in the comment sections of all social media was undeniable. Not only were they refusing to do the remake, they were rubbing it in the faces of the fans as well! But Mr. Hashimoto knew what was going on behind the scenes... It was something that would be revealed a few nights a go at Sony's E3 2015 press conference.
The significance of this for all of us that played the original game and could only imagine what it would look like in "real life" (or better graphics) is incredible. A lot of people held their heads in disbelief, others screamed at the top of their lungs and some even cried at the fact that after almost 20 years we will finally get to see that which we dreamed about. We will get to revisit the areas at which we spent our childhood as if they're our front yard. Let's just hope that our adult cynicism doesn't ruin it for us...
