Final Fantasy VII Remake Was Underway Before HD Port! More Revealed This Winter

After the astonishing announcement that Square Enix was remaking RPG classic Final Fantasy VII, project director Tetsuya Nomura spoke in greater detail about the development of the project during a roundtable at E3, revealing that the game has been in the works for a while, even before the port of the PC HD remastered version of the original game was announced for PlayStation 4.

“When we announced the HD port, the PC port on the PS4, we weren’t sure when we wanted to announce the remake,” Nomura told EuroGamer. “The production was underway then, so there’s no real connection between the timing of the two FFVIIs coming to PS4. We’ve announced several different titles coming to the PlayStation 4 like World of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 3.”

Nomura also mentioned that there was a sudden urgency to develop the remake after the original staff on the game became more conscious of their own mortality. “The talks about making this remake, internally it’s been mentioned on and off,” he said. “Sometimes we think we can do it, and then sometimes we think maybe we can’t. Considering some of the original staff, like Kitase, he’s acting as producer, and [Kazushige] Nojima, he’s doing the script – we’re all getting older! If we keep going like this, the thought occurred to us that we might have to pass this on to a younger generation, without the original developers taking part. It doesn’t seem like such a grand intention, but we wanted to do it with the original members.”

In a later interview with Dengeki Online, Nomura said that the remake will extend beyond fancy new graphics. “We can’t talk about any further details, but it won’t be a simple remake,” Nomura said. “Even if we were only making the graphics prettier for a next-generation machine, I don’t think it would exceed the original version. If that were the case, the original International version will be available on PlayStation 4, so you could just play that and be done.”

“We haven’t put out any screenshots yet, but we’re making considerable progress, so please look forward to it. This time we are formally introducing Nojima as the scenario writer. That being the case, he will be influencing the setup as far as the story, so you’ll have that to look forward to as well.”

“Sometime during the winter, we’re planning to have a follow-up report. I believe we’re going to announce the official title, at least, but as for other details, we’re in the process of determining what we’re going to put out.”

Thank you EuroGamer and Gematsu for providing us with this information.