On Saturday, December 5th, at this year’s PlayStation Experience event, Square-Enix gave us a first look at the Final Fantasy VII Remake in action. Unfortunately, you’ll only get it one piece at a time.
For years, devoted fans of Square’s Final Fantasy franchise have been clamoring for a remake of the iconic Final Fantasy VII with modern technology. At this year’s E3, Square-Enix answered. It wasn’t until Saturday, however, that their press release revealed plans to resurrect the famous installment as a multi-part series.
While the original game was sold as a single sprawling RPG epic, Square-Enix maintains that the experience could not be replicated on the proposed scale without splitting the game into multiple chapters. In an interview with Dengeki Online — via translation by Gematsu — producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura explained:
Kitase: “The idea that a remake of Final Fantasy VII would not fit into a single release was there from the very beginning. We still can’t share more information about its multiple parts, but please look forward to future announcements.”
Nomura: “If we dedicated our time to a single release, parts of it would become summarized. We’d have to cut some parts, and additional parts would come in few, so rather than remake the game as a full volume, we decided to do multiple parts.”
Kitase: “As you can see in the trailer, we showed Sector 1 and Sector 8, but in those areas alone, I think you can see a lot of density. When you’re remaking the entirety of the original version in that quality, it’s not possible to fit it all in one release.”
Aside from their assertions about the overall size of the game, Kitase and Nomura spoke about numerous changes and additions to the game. They hope that fans of the original will be “surprised once again,” and want them to “be excited” about the changes and adjustments to both the story and the game play itself.
Alongside the story changes and the episodic division of the game, Final Fantasy VII Remake will be taking a new approach to the Active Time Battle system to bring it closer to the modern real-time systems used by more recent installments in the series. The infamous cross-dressing scenario will return as well, though the team has yet to produce it.
While the developers behind the remade title feel that the changes are justified, thus far fans seem to be less convinced. As development continues and more information becomes available, it will be a challenge for Square-Enix to convince its fans to purchase a modern update to a title known for its rabid following, especially when they’ll have to make that purchase multiple times.
Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.