I like Final Fantasy 7. I’m replaying it now, in fact– I’ve renamed all the characters after fellow game critics, because what you’ll find when you hang around critics long enough is that we’re incredibly narcissistic in our own way. So I’m not going to begrudge any fan’s choice to pour months of energy into adapting the game into whatever medium… but this is just sort of awkward.
LBP2 player Jamie Colliver has spent six months painstakingly reenvisioning Final Fantasy 7 in LittleBigPlanet2’s engine, replete with left-to-right corridors and jumping puzzles. Which, yes, only goes to show that FF7 was not meant for narrow side-scrolling and jumping puzzles.
Undoubtedly, recreating an entire 30-50 hour game (give or take the time spent raising a gold chocobo) is no tiny venture, and Colliver should be praised for his efforts. In addition to recreating the game’s many towns and dungeons he’s also reproduced the soundtrack, given voice to its many cutscenes and adapted the battle system. It is, in fact, so faithful in most respects we should be worried about Colliver getting a cease-and-desist from Square Enix over it, as the litigious developer is wont to do. (Or, what is more likely, MediaMolecule will simply take the levels down.) But to watch Colliver attempt (and often enough fail) to navigate his own levels is frankly a little embarrassing.
Maybe it’s LBP2’s already slippery controls. Maybe it’s that FF7’s script was already bad enough without throwing voice acting into the mix. Maybe it’s the running around as a tiny Cloud Strife as a giant version of yourself looms, vacant-eyed and immobile, overhead. For my money, I’d say it’s just the awkward platforming, which is brought rather uncomfortably to a head in the Temple of the Ancients level featured above. It’s one of the few dungeons in the game to really confuse players and
Kudos for your efforts, Jamie, but next time might I suggest a project that’s a little less, erm, overly linear?
You can watch all of Colliver’s FF7 LittleBigPlanet2 videos on his Youtube channel.
Via Eurogamer.
