In an interview by Duncan Heaney via Square-Enix’s home page, Final Fantasy VII Remake Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Co-Director Naoki Hamaguchi reveal the inspirations and challenges faced in the reimaging of a classic masterpiece.
For Yoshinori Kitase, the driving factor behind the project was the 23 years that had passed since the original release. “Modern players may have seen the characters Cloud and Sephiroth over the years as they have appeared in other games, but they may not have played the game where the characters originated from,” he said
A chance to relive the FFVII story has been a guilty craving of fans for quite some time. Although, for Co-Director Naoki Hamaguchi reforming the original experience was something he had to “think very, very hard about.”
One intriguing topic called into question was why the remake was planned to release over multiple games. To which Kitase explained, “having more than one game in the project allowed us to focus on keeping everything people loved from the original but go into greater detail and more story depth than before.”
The Final Fantasy VII Remake is designed to appeal to both new and returning players. It is offering those returning the nostalgic feeling of a remodeled city along with some confirmed new additions. While for new players, it’s a chance to experience the magic behind the story of Sephiroth and Cloud.
The full interview is available here; be warned, however, as it does contain some minor spoilers into the scope and characters of the game. For more information, you could also look at the recently revealed Final Fantasy Video Series. Which provides feature interviews with key developers, along with behind the scenes footage of the game’s design.
If all that is not enough to sate your Final Fantasy cravings, the FFVII demo is available now via the PSN Store.
