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| Jesse Woo |
By which I mean the internet.
12.20.15 - 12:25 AM
Final Fantasy VII Remake has stirred up a fair bit of controversy with the announcement of episodic releases, but the folks at Square Enix are hoping that will pass as we learn more about the game. Kicking off the media blitz is producer Yoshinori Kitase, who recently relayed the following to the PlayStation Blog:
With FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, we have the opportunity to go beyond the story, world and experience of FINAL FANTASY VII in ways we’ve always dreamed of – from the depths of Midgar to the skies above the Planet. The multi-part format enables us to expand the original story and turn it into an epic experience for fans and new gamers alike.
This past weekend at PlayStation Experience we were thrilled to present more of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE. It was great to see so much excitement when we surprised everyone with the first gameplay footage and it was a treat for us to show that development is going well, and further along than perhaps many had realised. Just like when we revealed the announcement trailer at E3 earlier this year, we like surprising you.
One thing that we wanted to be clear about during this weekend to accompany the new trailer was the scale of this project. We wanted to tell you this now and not in the future so that you’d share our vision for what we want to deliver.
The biggest reason why we haven’t done a remake until now is because it’s a massive undertaking to reconstruct FINAL FANTASY VII from the ground up with the current technology. Producing a proper HD remake of FINAL FANTASY VII that maintains the same feeling of density of the original would result in a volume of content that couldn’t possibly fit into one instalment.
We’ve seen everyone’s comments and reactions to the news that FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE will be a multi-part series and many have speculated correctly as to the reason why we have made this decision. If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake instalment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of FINAL FANTASY VII. We knew none of you would have wanted that.
I hope that by explaining a little more about our design decisions that you can appreciate the size of this project and what we have planned for this remake. Going beyond the scale and depth of the world, narrative and gameplay from the original to deliver something that feels familiar yet new. As I said before, we like delivering surprises.
Apparently the first scenario is already complete, and although there is no word on the release date we do have more details from Famitsu:
- They want add delver further into Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie.
- They have an idea about the number of installments that will be released, but they’re not at the stage where they can say anything.
- They’re not talking about online right now.
- The scenario of the first part up until its ending is already complete.
- They’re getting technological assistance from the Kingdom Hearts team with Unreal Engine 4, since they’ve been using it with Kingdom Hearts III.
- Cloud’s hallucination scenes will be more meaningful.
- As for the cast, they’re continuing plans with the voice actors from Advent Children, but there are some that still haven’t been offered yet. Red XIII only made a cameo appearance, so his voice is likely to be changed.
- Separate from Limit Breaks, there is another unique system. They can’t show it yet, but the it will be different depending on the player’s fighting style.
- Nothing has been decided about guarding yet.
Finally, Square Enix has set up a cross-over event with Mobius Final Fantasy to give players a sneak peak at what to expect from Final Fantasy VII Remake. It features some settings, character designs, enemies, and music from the new game. Here's some footage from a youtuber in Japan.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is in development first for PlayStation 4. A release date has not been announced.
