Modders file a Square Enix job application after it ballses up yet another FF7 release: 'Let us help you'

The new version of Final Fantasy 7 that Square Enix announced in a boldly detail-free post last January hit Steam yesterday and, well, people aren't happy about it.

In an event scientists are (probably) calling "more predictable than the sunrise," it seems fans rather think Square Enix mucked it all up, so much so that one cadre of modders has decided to use the release as a shoe-in-the-door to angle for a gig at the studio. After all, they reckon they could do better than this.

The new version of FF7—now on Steam and GOG—adds a 3x speed mode, the option to disable random encounters, autosaves, and a "Battle enhancement mode" that lets you "recover HP/MP during battles and max out the Limit gauge." It's worth noting, before we get to the complaints, that if you had the older version of FF7 on Steam, you still have access to it. So at least there's that.

At the time of writing, Final Fantasy 7's user reviews sit at an ugly red Mostly Negative on Steam, with fans taking issue with framerate bugs (though in fairness, some report that Square Enix has at least patched a gamebreaking combat speed glitch), texture filtering, and in general the fact it feels like a worse version of the game than a modded copy of the old version.

"OG 2013 release had modders that did all of this already from controller support and button prompts to frames and cheats, but with better visuals and skins," wrote a player named Jamesie Ghost. "I just don't understand how they tested this and said 'Yes, this is the definitive edition of Final Fantasy VII,'" wrote ehs03y3ol.

You know who else reckons modders did it better? Modders. The Tsunamods team—responsible for various FF-related projects, including the Cosmo Memory and Echo S-7—has been tweeting its impressions about the new FF7 version since it dropped. They're unimpressed. "Why did they need to make the backgrounds look worse!" the team posted on its X account, alongside a side-by-side comparison of some FF7 backgrounds. "It's one thing to release a new version that's worse. But to fully delist the better version is just… ehh. We must fix this!"

So confident is the Tsunamods team that it could do better that it's… turned its dismay at nu-FF7 into a job application. "You know what, I'm taking our shot in the dark here. @SquareEnix, hire us. I'm not joking. Our contact info is in our bio," wrote the team.

"We have Programmers, Musicians, 3D artists, 2D artists, Upscale engineers, and we help keep your older games alive. People trust us. Let us help you."

I… somehow doubt this will work, but you know what? There are much worse ideas. I'm a long-time advocate for studios essentially canonising the mod projects that keep their old games alive. I can't fault Tsunamods for giving it a go.