2019-05-21 14:28:33

As some of you know, Square-Enix is finally moving forward with the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which apparently has been in the works for a little bit.  However, I am sure that they probably don't even realize that  the demand for accessibility is becoming more and more great as time goes by.   I would, personally, love to see this remake  be loaded with features for the players, that are blind, and visually impaired.   I'm sure I speak for many of us, when I say "We want Final Fantasy games in the blind community".  I had a discussion with a friend who claims it would not be beneficially worth it to make the game accessible because financial reasons, however, I disagree.   He doesn't think it would benefit due to cost offset  vs demand, but he also doesn't realize just how big the audio gaming community even is.     

FF7 is one of my favorites of all time, and when I could see, I was able to play this game on the PS1, however, that was years ago, and now having no vision, I miss this game, aong with many other titles in the FF Franchise.    I actually still own my Japanese Famicom carts of FF 4, 5, and 6. 

I read the games as novelizations right now, but let's be honest, I know it's not the same.  When will we ever see an accessible version of any FF game? Hopefully this will be a first.    I don't know how to go about trying to reach out to any other communities, but this is all I can think of. 

So please, Aquare-Enix, if you ever read this, or some affiliation does, please make FF7's remake accessible for the blind.   I'd gladly pay extra!

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2019-05-21 14:50:57

I’m not sure if it’s the financial reason, however I think it is the  way they treat customers. One thing I would do is read their privacy policy and terms of service, to see what they’re all about. Now I think this could be done, for example maybe adding turn based combat and also accessibility for a screenreader.  However there are developers that would choose to move it out-of-the-way, for example give certain people canned responses such as “oh, we will be working on this”. So, yes I do think it would be beneficial and complete, however I think that it’s not the financial problem, it’s more of the way they treat customers.

A good tip, contact by sending a direct email to them, and hopefully they will respond. If it’s a general response, that I’m not sure what to do..  I do hope they will make this inclusive and accessible, however I just don’t know.

One other thing, good luck trying to actually do that, because sometimes developers will also assume that you are not blind, for example sided. Not only that, Nintendo doesn’t even respond to customer support.  No need to worry though, because there is an RPG developer tool coming in the works, and it allows you to create an RPG audio game that is accessible without any coding script whatsoever..  it is on the Audio games forum as well. If you would like to check it out.

2019-05-21 15:56:04

Just curious, but could navigation be helped by that Microsoft Garage audio cue project thing that was compatible with Unity? Actually, they probaly are using Nreal Engin
4, at least I think they might.

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2019-05-21 16:28:38

Financial reasons are definitely a part of it, not to mention the simple lack of know how and lack of desire to, because it would indeed be extra work. And the audiogaming community is already small, the audiogamers who play mainstream games on consoles is even smaller. So I'm afraid your friend is right.. the amount of people it would benefit and the profits they would make would be a mere drop in the bucket compared to the dozens, possibly hndreds, of other projects they have going on. Accessibility is moving forward, yes, but in small steps and none of it has reached the Japanese developing scene yet. Sony is living proof of that.

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2019-05-21 16:46:19

Have to agree with 4 here. And, there is at least 1 playable ff game, 2 if you got a phone.

2019-05-21 17:24:26

what games are those?

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2019-05-21 19:57:13

Dissidia final fantasy for PSP, and final fantasy record keeper on iOS. Haven't tried dissidia on ps4 yet, but I knew someone who played ff 11 on PC. Plus there is also uossmud if you like mudding.

2019-05-21 21:30:34

It would be wonderful to have an accessible FF game, however as others have said I don't think it will ever happen because of various reasons.
@G-Rad, you could try reaching out to SquareInix, however they have a notorious history of lack of communication with there customers. You mentioned you played the final fantasy games when you were sighted, would you mind telling me what that was like? Or at least what you can remember about the gameplay?

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2019-05-21 21:45:10

Your friend is correct. The financial aspect is a killer. It's one of the biggest reasons as to why we do not see more accessibility in mainstream titles.
The audio gaming community is nothing compared to the overall gaming community.
They might sell 1000 copies to blind people if it had accessibility, and I'm being very generous with that number.
That being said, that is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sales from the mainstream community.
I've been fortunate enough to talk to people in the industry and have an understanding of the thought process.
The only reason why we are getting accessibility in any form is because of government mandates. That's just how it is for now.

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2019-05-22 03:13:32

it's hard to really explain honestly because I've tried over and over and keep resetting and deleting my thought out post because it seemed like I was being overelaborate or not enough.

The novelizations I read do very well at adescribing  the overall game and a couple of them are 100% playthroughs (including sidequests) and they definitely fill in an empty gap.   Now that I say this, I want to re-read Final Fantasy VI just ecause it's a good read.  There's a youtube playlist with this particular novelization in audiobook form.  the author is Celes Chere, who I actuyally know personally, and the YouTube channel who made the audiobook is a guy named A Random Audiobook Appeared.   He's got some good stuff on there.   If you'd like you should check it out,  I love it.

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2019-05-22 06:08:21

At 8


I played them when I was sighted as well. They were usually pretty cinematic with very elaborate cutscenes  and in game detail slightly less in quality--depending on the game. They were designed to flow very movie-like and usually had varying, mostly static, camera angles.


I have very little experience with any Final Fantasy games past 10.


Prior to Final Fantasy 7, they were top down games with few cutscenes--like Zelda. And when there was a cutscene, it used the in-game engine. Again, though, it was very much written like an epic movie or fantasy with lots of emotional content.


at OP


I loved all those JRPG games and wish I could play them again.


Unfortunately, I'm afraid all the naysayers are correct. Accessibility is best planned for and implemented at the beginning of any project, and I'm sure the Final Fantasy remake has been in the works for a long time now. They are well into the project. Doing anything at this point would be prohibitively expensive for very little financial incentive.


The sad thing about all of it is, if it it's a turn based game like most of the others, it really wouldn't take much to make it accessible (assuming it's not too hard to connect to the screen reader). Out side of all the text in the game which can be read by a screen reader, much of what else you'd need is a simple audible radar type system to help with navigating. I'm sure the audio in the game is being tooled to bring the game up to modern standards which would have the side effect of giving us lots of audio cues.


I'm afraid for all those old JRPG experiences, we are on our own for the time being. It's up to us to make good use of things like Ebon Skies' RPG tool or create our own.

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2019-05-22 08:01:12

Hi.
I'm sure we all want an accessible Final Fantasy game. Maybe there is hope, if you reach out to the company, telling about the ways they can make the game accessible.

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2019-05-22 10:32:04

I hear that ff 7 remake will have active combat.