How would you make a videogame based on Final Fantasy: The spirits within

I don't understand, though. You're gonna have to explain to a person who has almost no idea about FF outside of a few minutes of gameplay between 7 and 13. Does FF have general themes or ideas or something of substance that are normally consistent through its' entries? Because I'd completely understand and would absolutely call it "not final fantasy" if it lacked more than Chocobos and whatnot. My idea of what makes FF what it is, is it's way of merging fantasy and some sci-fi elements, as well as incorporating some supernatural shit into it. Is there some deeper meaning to some of it's icons or is that it?

brand recognition, if you don't drop names or ideas that are tied to the franchise, how the hell are fans going to accept it as part of it?
just look at the new resident evil, when you look at it, does it give you the same feeling as the previous games?

Aki Ross being seen again never ever

But my whole argument is that it's a weak franchise if it's only tied to mere names. There's no point in being a fan of it if all it is is just namedropping. Only an idiot would be tied to shit like that. A good franchise has recurring themes, ideas, and some gameplay elements, although spin offs can be neat too as long as they're tied to some story.
The new RE isn't shit because i assume shit like Umbrella isn't mentioned. It's shit because it's a blatant copy of games before it with no real substance. The older games managed to maintain a sense of urgency through survival horror elements no matter how casualized. An RE game is still defined by core gameplay, despite how poorly said gameplay is implemented. A shitty RE game would indeed be the new one, since there is nothing that makes it look anything close to an RE game, whereas even shit like RE5 managed to keep a hollywood cheese style and various survival gameplay elements, among other things.

Remaster Final Fantasy 7. Slap Spirits Within name on it.

Pretty much this.

I thought Xenosaga was considered good

Herein lies the issue; that film was set on earth in the future 20XX. Not in a parallel universe, not millions of years in the past/future or a galaxy far far away.

No FF game that I know of does this. Most JRPGs wisely take a clean slate to start their world building with. If they do have the real world involved there's a distinct difference between the two where one is known as pure shared fantasy as in Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance.

I think I see where you're coming from, fair enough. Spirits Within is more of a "post-cyberpunk" kind of thing grounded in some sort of actual reality whereas FF is a full blown fantasy world.

They just didn't have enough guts to do their own thing and not follow the confines of typical Hollywood scifi. It probably wouldn't have made any real difference box-office wise but at least make a gamble and possibly luck out as George Lucas did. I would love to see Viera or Mithra in skin tight bodysuits on the big screen.

What I think ties at least the majority of FF games together is the medieval fantasy world with touches of sci-fi. They usually revolve around D&D settings due to the kind of monsters in them, have a goal of saving a dying world, and have some kind of versatile job system. They're usually upbeat, or at the very least balanced between being somber or light-hearted. Sure, VII and VIII (fuck XIII) have more sci-fi elements than the rest, but they still keep it proportionate. The tech in VII is deeply related to the world dying plot and is contrasted by the many towns without that tech, so it still fits.

The Spirits Within is fucking bleak compared to every single game in the series. It's got the world saving plot (presented in a really depressing way compared to other games), but is completely lacking in the other areas. The genre is different, the characters are just 50 shades of boring monotone, it has weird ghosts instead of classic fantasy monsters, and Aki doesn't have a nude scene. You wouldn't brand Blade Runner as part of Tolkein's Middle Earth, you wouldn't brand TSW with FF. It's as simple as that.

Gonna just copypaste what I wrote on another thread and add on to it, cos I'm lazy:

>The movie that killed Square was the Spirits Within not the VII sequel. It was a standalone story, like all older FFs were, set on gritty post-apocalypse Earth. The only thing tying it to the franchise was one character's named Cid. Pretty much the only "fantasy" bit is the ayyliens are ghosts and Earth has a retarded version of the lifestream. It lacked any sort of fun elements like, I don't know, magic or unique characters which was Nomura's strong (only?) point at least before he went full emo-core.

Also,
They have fucking spaceships from the get-go, but they barely go anywhere, most of the spirits they need have already been collected before the movie begins. The places they do go:
- wasteland (night)
- super sci-fi city (clean)
- wasteland (alien)
- wasteland (day)
- super sci-fi city (damaged)
- wasteland (Limited Red Lifestream Edition)

Actually, no fighting period in a movie where most of the main cast are soldiers. Because the gnossis aliens are literal ghosts and can't be hurt without Momo or KOS-MOS. So all you, can do is shoot ineffectually at them or just run like the second hour of Xenosaga Ep 1, except without the fun. Besides, they good boys who dindu nuffin, anyways.

Because, it's set on Earth. Well, sure there are the spirits but they don't do anything besides casting Holy at the end

Because, FUCK YOU

But, hey Aki's hair has revolutionary physics rendering, because that's what's important, right?

Make Aki a playable character in Dissidia?

There isn't even any good Aki porn out there. Think about that for a second, a final fantasy was so garbage not even the perverts really bothered with it. Even with all the bullshit jewtendo has given us, at least the porn from the female characters are good even if you are not a nintendo fan.