551
submitted 2 days ago by popcar2@piefed.ca to c/games@lemmy.world

It's honestly kinda crazy how long some games spend in development. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is a perfect example of something that should've been quick but ended up being so bloated and took forever to make.

FF7Remake was announced in 2015, got stuck in development hell for a bit, released 2020. The sequel released 2024. The third one still hasn't been teased yet. How many people are attached to a franchise if it takes 10 years to get the full story? I loved the first remake but dropped the second one, I just didn't care about the story as much as I did ~5 years ago.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] KeenFlame@feddit.nu 0 points 14 hours ago

Yep because they drove up expectations while gaslighting and pretending they had tech they didn't over and over and over and over to make "theoretical" money and used short sighted abuse of developers to milk all trust from all up because heretical insane hyper capitalist profiteering models are actively destructive and the owners are heartless fools lacking ethical compass because we bred and selected them to only be slaves to the megacorps and do its will without dying from the incurred emotional impact that is supposed to come to those morally corrupt traitors of human kind that rape their own species to serve idols of hyper capitalist delusional demonic entities that are a raw blight spawn from the greed of dying or dead sociopaths ego

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The entire GTA series exists between 1997 and 2013.

They have the next one apparently coming out this year but who cares at this point?

Games from old series should be viewed the same way Hollywood reboots are. It's just hoping a name will help with advertising.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I think I buy this worldwide, honestly. Case in point: one of the most popular video game series for young people recently has been Five Nights at Freddy's, and that series dropped its first four games in eleven months, and its next four games in four years. Minecraft remains one of the most popular games in the world, and it's releasing full free content drops every few months. Pokemon is still insanely popular among kids, and there hasn't been a year without a new Pokemon game release since 2015.

So, yeah. Hey, kids like novelty. Who knew?

[-] orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah, that makes sense. Do they need to be forming attachments to the same series that we did though? Certainly stories told by contemporary writers are more likely to resonate with someone growing up in today's world, rehashing and up the stuff that resonated with us isn't necessarily the best move for getting the youths on board. Let the ones with interest in the history of gaming play dragon quest and final fantasy.

[-] Rhotisserie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I mean, when games take a long time to come out and then still have serious flaws (looking at you starfield) can you blame anyone for not feeling too attached to a franchise? God I remember when veilguard was first announced after Inquisition... Announced, cancelled to be reworked into live service, cancelled again only to completely change everything that really made it a DA game.

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

That's because Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest aren't making kids games anymore.

They're remaking old games for nostalgia value for old gamers like me who played those games as a kid.

NGL I'm still waiting on the dragon warrior monsters remakes because I'd always been a bigger fan of those than any Pokémon game. I doubt it's coming any time soon, but a guy can hope.

That's the whole issue though. None of these studios are putting out games for modern kids. There just rehashing their old IPs and pretending they're new games. Kids dont want spruce up 1990's games. They want games for them.

[-] Tattorack@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I prefer quality over quantity. Problem is we don't have quality, even for games that take a long time.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

Kids will abandon most pre-existing shit to find something they can call their own.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 points 1 day ago

Not sure why they'd think kids are the target audience for a remake of a 29 year old game.

Surely all the kids are playing the latest mobile slop pocket money sink?

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

Being Japan, I suspect all the kids are sinking money into Gacha Impact or Honkai Gacha Rail or whatever else

[-] TheSeveralJourneysOfReemus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not only that, many gaming memories, including console ones, and even for ancient people like me, are tied to modern online experiences. Just one example, that you all share and know and i believe this, is minecraft. But how much of that is multiplayer servers over single player worlds? Some of my finest memories are chrono trigger, popolocrois monogatari, final fantasy, earthbound. And i still like them. But playing for the fun of it, i can probably tell that some simple multiplayer is still fine. But many young (and adult) people are probably playing gacha, and these are highly manipulative games. Dopamine and serotonine driven. I find my enjoyment of a game dropping down to zero when I have a mandatory gacha system in the way.

I will probably attempt to finish earthbound, I never got past the giant animated pile of puke. Sometimes later i found out that I needed to bring some fly honey for that*, or that i need to wait three real life minutes for a waterfall to open the path.

This last example is comical in lisa: the paniful, where you are required to wait 30 real life minutes in a test of patience. 30. Minutes. And it's still the most normal thing in the game.

I need to finish lisa the painful too, come to think of it.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 120 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Also, and I'm just throwing this out there, maybe the circlejerk of nostalgia bait for Gen X/Millennials means fuck-all to younger people in general because it's the nostalgia of their parents, not their own thing?

Like, aren't we seeing this in so many different properties? As time marches on, interest wanes? Nobody cares about Marvel movies anymore. Nobody cares about Star Wars anymore. The most hardcore fanatics tend to be older and had the originals, which were literally original content, as things they grew up with. Part of the mystery and excitement of them was how much was left unexplained. Seriously, the Clone Wars was this mysterious fucking thing when it was just an offhand comment by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope. Now we have entire TV series dedicated to the background of the Clone Wars. Mystery gone. The first season of The Mandalorian brought back a sense of mystery to the series and then promptly dropped it to mix it in with every other piece of Star Wars memorabilia.

Young people want their own stuff that they're growing up with, they don't want rehashes of the shit their parents obsessed over.

Look at the continued interest in Adventure Time spinoffs, for example. Adventure Time first came out when I was just shy of 29. It would be fodder for the children of people just slightly older than me. It was also enjoyable for older folks who enjoyed silly fantasy, which gave it wider appeal. It persists more because it was an actual original thing that some people grew up with.

We live in an era where copyright that lasts 100 years after authorial death has broken corporations brains and they are scared to death of anything original in case it might not be a clear moneymaker. Letting interest in a new property grow over time is almost unheard of in the Netflix era of two seasons and then fuck you, it's over. So even when new properties are explored, most aren't given enough time to mature into something that becomes truly nostagliac for a younger generation.

If corporations want people to be as invested in long-lived series, they have to allow the option for new, interesting series to take the stage. Is it really a shocker that people are over games that started in the NES era? That young people want stories and ideas that reflect the world they live in, not the one their parents grew up in? Young people absolutely lose their shit over Undertale and Deltarune, both games made by a single auteur developer. Pokemon, referenced in the article, were sleeper hits that took time before they became an absolute craze.

I'm in my forties, and I constantly talk about how the world our parents brought us up to live in was dead before we were born. It's the same but at an accelerated pace for kids these days. The world we know and are trying to prepare them for no longer exists. Our stories and nostalgia become meaningless for our kids because it doesn't speak to their experiences.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

load more comments (21 replies)
[-] missingno@fedia.io 98 points 2 days ago

I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding.

Honestly, what I miss most are the low budget straight-to-handheld spinoffs that used to flourish in that space. Handhelds especially felt like a space where developers weren't afraid to go wild with experiments, because development cycles were cheap and quick. But that attribute started to show cracks in the 3DS era, it was inevitable that this would no longer be sustainable when all of the budget had to go into bigger and bigger and bigger console games, while next generation handhelds also got more expensive to develop for too. There wasn't room for these quick and dirty side projects anymore.

load more comments (25 replies)
[-] Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 days ago

I cant even tell you the last original FF that came out.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Remember the FFVII tech demo they showcased during the PS3 reveal. Good chance FF7 remake has been in development since then, but got shelved because FF15 development became a train wreck

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

Don't forget that FF13's development was a big hell, too, not to mention that the post launch reception was below what squeenix expected

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

I do remember it. And honestly, I was annoyed that it was only Part 1 of a trilogy.

During that time, I was already pretty sick of movies that push to be a trilogy. So I wonder how many gamers are like me who are waiting for the entire FF7 remake to be released before they play it.

[-] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

Isn't it true for the developers as well? If the game development lasts 5 years, you have quite a different team and ideas by the end compared to when you started.

[-] Horsey@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

In the age of no-new-IP, why does it take so long for new games to come out…

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

AAA expectations are astronomical, AAs take some extra time to keep up, and indies that actually make it take the time to do their own thing, otherwise they’re almost certainly part of the vas, unseen sea of failed indies.

Also, oldschool game dev was toxic. It had some serious crunch culture, just to start. But I think it also attracted talented devs into “sweet spot” dev team sizes; not too big or too small.

And now, if you do software and want to make any money or provide for a family… well, you don’t do game dev. And that phenomenon has gotten worse and worse.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I remember reading a story from an old Sega or Capcom dev and he basically said that the boss would lock the door of their office when they had to meet a deadline. Not only toxic but the boss doing straight up illegal shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

I wonder if Japanese companies are paying attention to FromSoft. I absolutely love that FromSoft reuses assets and improves their base engine. You can see the evolution from DS1 to Elden Ring (and Sekiro), releasing a game every year or two.

Growing up - Dragon Quest 1-4 were built on the same engine with minor improvements. FF 4-6 wasn't a massive leap, but a gradual jump in graphics.

Yakuza games seem to release yearly. They have built a workflow where people work on the same mini games and "slot" it in for whatever the newest release it is.

As much as I shit on Ubisoft, they really dialed in on their engine and tools to crunch out cookie cutter checklist open world games.

Thinking about it, all my examples could also have been plagued with toxic crunch culture.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

1st party engine devs have been stuck in dev hell, mostly. There are some exceptions, like you said; I’d cite Decima as another success.

But think of EA's Frostbite, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite, Clausewitz, BGS, many more. Especially indies that try.

It’s not just that old games crunched, but making a new engine that supports modern platforms and modern hardware is just an immensely complex task. There’s just too much to worry about.

The best success seems to either come from:

  • Hyperfocusinf one's engine’s scope to one game niche. Larian's divinity engine, for example, makes BG3-likes; that’s it, that all it does. It cannot make an FPS or even a different RPG.

  • Engine shop very, very carefully. For instance, KCD2 leaned into CryEngine’s strengths hard, especially that dense, well-lit European foilage.

And either case needs a lucky roll of the dice anyway. See: Cyberpunk 2077 in utter dev hell (even if they eventually pulled out) from wrangling their engine. Or the latest Borderlands being a technical wreck even though they basically invented Unreal Engine alongside Epic.

[-] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The graphics and "the biggest game ever" races have led to this.

No, you do not need physically accurate bubbles flowing in the shaded beer bottle that you will at best appreciate for 3 seconds while looking to get on with the game.

Or realistic horse balls. Or 4K skin textures. Or ray tracing in every game. Or 40000 side quests on a map as big as Mars.

[-] MBech@feddit.dk 2 points 1 day ago

I used to care quite a lot about graphics, but as the years have passed, I find graphically beautiful games less pleasing than a lot of the older games. It all seems too rounded and smooth now. I've been playing a lot of Project Diablo 2 lately, but when the new character dropped for Diablo 2 Resurrected, I figured I should give that a shot. While the graphics are definately nice, and the gameplay is smooth, I prefer the older graphics, because the griddy, slightly pixelated world adds so much to the dark and gloomy theme.

I've also just absolutely had it with every single Unreal Engine game looking exactly the same. Did the devs just lose all individual artistry?

Sometimes less is just more.

[-] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But also, what's wrong with having any of those things? I'd argue it's better to have those things with less developer crunch. We don't need children to form "attachments" to video game franchises. That just breeds loyalty to corporations. We need games that are developed with love and care by developers who treat their employees and customers humanely. Whatever that looks like, we want that.

[-] luciferofastora@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

But also, what's wrong with having any of those things?

Nothing. I'd take more good games instead of fewer hyperrealistic ones, if I had to choose, but those features themselves aren't anything bad.

The compulsion that every game has to have them, that's what's annoying, particularly when it comes at the price of putting developers under pressure.

I'd argue it's better to have those things with less developer crunch.

If we are to have them at all, yes, less crunch is better.

We don't need children to form "attachments" to video game franchises. That just breeds loyalty to corporations.

The loyalty to corporations is a bad thing, absolutely, but I can also see how forming attachments can be nice. I very much enjoy my attachments to various movie or game franchises.

The shitty part is that these franchises are linked to corporations. I like Star Wars, but fuck Disney.

We need games that are developed with love and care by developers who treat their employees and customers humanely. Whatever that looks like, we want that.

Absolutely. Grand games should get the time and care they warrant. Commercial pressure is poisoning game development and has been for way too long already.

[-] sdcSpade@lemmy.zip 39 points 2 days ago

A few years ago I was hit with the sack of bricks that is all Donkey Kong Country games being released one year apart. I have vivid memories of playing the second game for a very long time and then multiple times after while imagining what a third game would be like and you're telling me that was only one year? There's no way those games would mean so much to me if we had only had one per console generation.

[-] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 18 points 2 days ago

I'd be fine with Square Enix going away. In my opinion, they got greedy and way too full of themselves. Nintendo as well, for that matter.

load more comments (14 replies)
[-] eletes@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 days ago

I think back to early 2000's, I was playing the Jak and daxter games all throughout elementary to highschool with a decent amount of replayability. Same with metal gear solid. And these were pretty fleshed out games worth the money back then.

Kingdom hearts was the first time I got fed up with development hell.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago

Ratchet & Clank had it's first three games released in three years. Same graphics and no one cared.

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Also DQ remake characters creep me out.

[-] rafoix@lemmy.zip 32 points 2 days ago

SE’s obsession with making every mainline FF game a 100+ million dollar project with hours of cutscenes and a combat system ill suited to fight the skyscraper sized enemies is killing the series.

They’re obsessed with spectacle. Nobody really cares about spectacle anymore.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 36 points 2 days ago

Ill preface by saying I didnt read the article. But I also think that the state of gaming today is much worse than it was in the early 2000s for millennials.

When I was growing up, games had to come out complete so they were generally much more polished. However, when the Xbox360 came out, console makers gave the ability to devs to release patched versions via updates. Initially it was a great idea - devs could fix bugs they might have missed while testing. But then this quickly spiralled into studios forcing devs to release 1/2 baked games in a horribly broken state.

I also think how much you generally have to pay for games has gone way up with respect to the cost of living. Video gaming is much more of a luxury now, than a simple past time. Plus there are so many F2P mobile games out there, that there is even less of an incentive to get into a console / PC gaming.

  • Diablo Immortal? F2P (i know theres probably micro transactions and bullshit)
  • Diablo 4? PS5 ($500 - assuming you dont have the console already) + Diablo 4 ($67) + PS Plus ($14/month) = $581 + tax
load more comments (12 replies)
[-] karashta@piefed.social 33 points 2 days ago

When I was young, these were also basically the only two JRPGs that existed that I could get.

Now, there are countless thousands, and these are just two names amongst many. And FF really feels like they are just phoning it in recently for me personally.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
551 points (97.9% liked)

Games

46362 readers
1311 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS