What if?

[Dome]

Let's suppose, squaresoft/enix/whatever they are, tells you that they are going to make another FFT remake, and they ask you to direct it, so YOU and only YOU decides how the game is going to be made
How would you make it?
Personally, I think that the game should have 2 difficults settings: Normal and Hard (Normal is the same as Vanilla, Hard is 1.3)
They should put in a map/campaign/story/sprite/statistic editor, so you can make your own game/battle/map/character
They should put a "Internet connection" feature that allows you to download the best stuff submitted by players all around the world

[Kaijyuu]

I'd basically make it the same as I'm making my personal patch: smoothed out difficulty (velius nerfed, pretty much everything after him buffed), and various balance changes.

I wouldn't mind a new translation though. The current ones suck.


Even if they did want to remake the game from scratch, I'd ask to keep the sprite graphics/menu graphics intact. The terrain getting an overhaul wouldn't be a big deal provided it looked similar in style.

[Asmo X]

I'd make it a FPS

[Samuraiblackbelt]

I'd make it a FPS

epic

[Kaijyuu]

I'd make it a FPS

Throw item would be quite fun.

[formerdeathcorps]

On top of Dome's reasonable suggestions, I'd add:
1) Mime => Cavalier
2) Fell Knight => Marine (with correspondingly more water maps and 2+ depth water--I'd favor a coastline battle in Warjilis in Chapter 2)
3) Onion Knight => Blue Mage
4) Calculator => Red Mage
5) Consolidate bard and dancer into one unit class (performer), no gender requirement.
6) Bard => Sniper, no gender requirement.
7) All crossover weapons, monsters, status effects (like addle and astra), jobs, and spells (rasp, sidewinder) from the other Ivalice games, rebalanced and retrofitted (since Judge Points don't and shouldn't exist--might make a special judge class though with odd law card like effects) will be added unless redundant or impossible to retrofit.
8 ) Rebalance (for hard-mode only)
a) Hamedo reacts against all monster basic attacks, but it, Blade Grasp, and HP Restore have activation chance cut in half.
b) Meatbone slash should only trigger for melee weapons.  Boncrusher is now its FFTA variant (1.5x normal damage, reacts only against the same things hamedo does), but also triggers only for melee weapons.
c) Fix Golem
d) Teleport can't go beyond 6 spaces.  Fly is capped at 7.
e) Jump +2 = Move/Jump +1; Jump +3 = Move/Jump +2
f) Blade Grasp shouldn't block ranged attacks.  That role will be given a renamed arrow guard.
g) No one can use skills or reaction abilities to boost SP by more than 5, or PA/MA by more than 8 of what they started with.  No one can lower PA/SP/MA lower than 50% of the what a unit started with.  (Of course, this calculation ignores haste and slow.)
h) Reflex (FFTA) should proc only if you are faster than the enemy (at full brave chance, but slow should be considered)
i) Attack UP should boost Jump.  Haste, slow, and short charge should affect spells, lancers, archers, and bard/dancer.
j) HP/MP costs/CTs will be assigned for any attack on a physical unit class that instantly deals at least normal damage + some beneficial effect (unless it has accuracy or range penalties), or any skill that a mage either would have to charge or pay MP for.
k) Blind cuts base accuracy to 50% (global C-EV will be introduced for monsters only--some unit classes and weapons will also have CM-EV and WM-EV).
l) Berserk units should be able to use physical counterattacks like counter.
m) Most everything the latest version of 1.3 did that isn't contradictory to the above (I have a few personal exceptions).  All the abilities mentioned above will now be player obtainable.  Similar style nerfs will likely be made to crossover weapons (which I'm not going to list here).
n) AI targeting of DS/charm/invite/confuse.  Invited units will now act like permanently charmed units without the removal by damage.
o) Chickens regain 4 brave per turn.
p) No more crystal farming or unit recruitment.  All random and storyline battles should conclude in a maximum of X CTR (so you can't just trap an enemy in a corner and get free EXP/JP from healing + throw stone).  Item use probably needs a limit per battle too.  (Where's Razele when you need him to fix his patch?)
q) Your favorite imbalanced trick not mentioned above...
9) 5 Chapters, all 13 Lucavi (though not all of them need to be relevant to the main story), an extension into Ordallia and Romanda
10) Increased sprite limit per map
11) More special mages (I'm thinking necromancer).  More historical flashbacks.  Unused units with complete sprites (like Balmufula) should appear in battle.
12) A plot at least as good as the original without the silly typos of FFT and the mistranslated WoTL.  Part of this would mean making subplots more meaningful and less of getting OP units from other FF worlds just because you can.
13) Delete as many game-play affecting glitches as possible
a) Scroll Glitch
b) Duplication Glitch
c) Jump on dead invisible glitch = Free JP/EXP
d) Free Poach in water glitch
e) Jump + Bow is blocked by arrow guard.
f) Your favorite unnamed glitch here...

In short, a definitive version of FFT.

[boomkick]

Real-Time Strategy (not FF13, by god, but I'd rather have a button masher then that).

[PX_Timefordeath]

Ivalice: Total War

[Aquilae]

I'd make it a FPS

thirded

[RavenOfRazgriz]

If it's a direct "remake", I'd probably end up using a lot of ideas floating around in the ASM'D thread (skill consolidation, oh god) combined with some 1.3 changes and whatever further potential I can grind out of the platform said remake is on, meaning plenty of new abilities and rebalances to make the game "fresh" immediately.

Expand party count beyond even War of the Lions.  30 count party, straight up.  More early game Side Quests that result in some new Guests and items to expand the earlier stages of the game.  Use what's likely a larger available memory to further increase the size of the Job Wheel, possibly reorganizing it entirely.  Obviously Vormav 1 v 1 will be included as well.  Give Rofel / Balk / Kletian the ability to turn into Zodiac monsters with some of the unused Zodiac Stones to make those fights more complicated (have others that went unused appear during side quests).

Add more equipment to help the expanded story mode continue to scale (or at least to have as solid look for the side quests), level / ability / equipment scaling on some level for enemies, etc.  Probably some other stuff.


...Alternatively, make it into a bastardized FPS with some form of netplay for each story mode and a vs mode where you can play as 1 generic character off your save file or something.  Throw Item would be awesome.