Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase has spilled a few new details on the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy 7 Remake, including confirmation that the game will not remove the Materia system present in the original version.
Speaking in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine in light of Final Fantasy 7’s 20th anniversary, Kitase-san reiterated that the remake is still some way off, although said the development team is working steadily towards its target quality.
“We’re currently brushing up the scene from the announcement trailer,” he said. “We can now see the line of quality that we’re aiming for more clearly, but there’s still a ways to go.”
Given that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be released in episodic form, it was put to Kitase-san how the team plans on maintaining interest among fans between each release. In response, he said that Square Enix would like to supplement the game’s core episodes in some form, but wouldn’t go into any more details on the subject.
“A live stream or a program to keep in touch with the users is something I’d like to do, butFinal Fantasy VII Remake will be episodic, and if we want to have it go all the way to the end of the original version, then I believe we’ll need to devote everything we got for it, so I have no idea what will happen for things such as filler development [between episodes] and other works.”
Elsewhere, he confirmed that both Tetsuya Nomura and Mitsunori Takahashi, who worked on the Kingdom Hearts series, are working hard on the battle system for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. He also revealed that the team won’t be removing any of the popular elements from the original version, which includes the Materia system. In case you aren’t up on your Final Fantasy lore, here’s a few facts about Materia:
- Materia is the system employed in FF7 that allows players to cast a variety of spells
- It comes in five flavors: Green, Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Red
- In terms of lore, Materia is explained as crystallised Mako energy
Final Fantasy 7 Remake release date TBA
As for when we’re going to see more of the game, Kitase-san said he hopes to show more progress on the title this year, stating it would be nice to see the game playable or at least in trailer form at a future event. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was announced during Sony’s E3 2015 press conference, although a release date for the project has yet to be solidified.
Source: NeoGAF