Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Everything We Know

It's hard to believe that a Final Fantasy 7 Remake is finally happening. Given the current age of HD-Remaster-Reboot-Collection-Definitive-GOTY-ReRelease-2.8, it was only a matter of time before Square Enix bellied up to the bar so we could give them all of our goddamned money.

News of the remake has come in the form of a steady, slow trickle (likely so Square Enix may herd everyone aboard the hype train) but it's becoming exhausting wading through the reposted news stories from various big-wig game journalism sites. As of today, here is a comprehensive list of changes/features announced for the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake:

Episodic Format:
Likely the most controversial announcement, the FF7 Remake will be released over a series of episodic updates with the first episode ending shortly after leaving Midgar. In theory, these updates will allow Square-Enix to properly polish the project, while satiating our appetite for instant gratification.

However, it seems more of a way to milk Squeenix's biggest cash cow. Surely each episode will cost a pretty penny, which we all will buy, and there will likely be a collection of the episodes with added extra content, which we will all buy, throw in some extra DLC (revive Aerith anyone?) and a few microtransactions --both of which we all will buy-- and oh man, this is going to be ugly.

Modernized Battle System:
Detably the biggest departure from the original, graphical overhaul aside, the Final Fantasy 7 trailer alluded to the departure of the old turn-based Action Time Battle (ATB) system. According to FF7 producer, Yoshinori Kitase, the new battle system will resemble the battle system in Kingdom Hearts but with ATB elements. Players will control one character, with your other party members controlled by AI.

Expanded Content:
New content or bridging gaps to the Final Fantasy 7's counterparts (Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus) seem inevitable but I wasn't expecting Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie to get expanded roles and/or backstories. In addition, it was announced that Cloud's hallucinations will be more meaningful in the game. I'm more excited to see what the team does with the Lifestream portion of the game.

Fully Voiced:
The remake will be fully voiced, recycling the voice actors used in Advent Children. However, the team is still ironing out voices for those who didn't speak. Hopefully Red XIII will just growl like he did in Advent Children, with onscreen subtitles, yet everyone will miraculously understand him.

Minigames:
Minigames will all make a return, in addition to the "dating event". Chocobo Racing, and hopefully Tifa/Scarlet's absurd slap fight. Returning minigames will mostly likely get a modernized facelift, and rightfully so because the controls of the versus game at the Gold Saucer were awful.

I'll continue to collect updates as I see them. I'm excited to see what news tomorrow may bring! Unless it's news of cancellation, which I don't think the internet can handle after the whole Silent Hills/PT fiasco. Make it work, Squeenix, and don't fuck it up.