There are still jaws being picked up off the floor at E3 days after the massive announcement of the fully-fledged remake of one of gaming’s most beloved titles in Final Fantasy VII, but after many teases and rumours of this holiest of grails for nearly a decade, what finally brought this pipe-dream to life? Apparently it’s down to timing.
Tetsuya Nomura -who worked on the original version- was interviewed by 4Gamer during E3 and they asked him why now was the time to announce it?
”We’ve had plans for a remake on several occasions. Up until now it’s been a cycle of having plans come and go, but this time we’ve finally decided ‘let’s do it’.”
”To put it simply, one of the reasons is timing for the staff members that are developing the game, and how it worked out in our favour,’‘ he then went on to add ”There’s one more thing – we’re hitting that age.”
That is in reference to the advancing years of the team who worked on Final Fantasy VII around twenty years ago. Nomura himself is younger than most at 45 so time is clearly a factor.
4Gamer go on to ask Nomura if he feels any pressure in trying to deliver the remake to which he says he doesn’t but others probably do. Then the questions turn to what a ‘full remake’ entails. Turns out it isn’t just a bit of spit and polish, but a proper overhaul.
”I often hear from fans that giving it better graphics alone would be fine,” he says ”I think if it came down to that there would be no reason in doing the remake, and while it will be difficult, we are already prepared to do this right if we’re going to do it at all.”
Nomura then says he looks forward to what fans think of the team’s work when they finally get to play it themselves.
Final Fantasy VII Remake comes to PlayStation 4 first at an as yet unannounced date.