The director behind Final Fantasy 15 has said he would have turned down the chance to helm the Final Fantasy 7 Remake if given the chance.
Speaking to GameRevolution, Hajime Tabata explained that he would have passed on the opportunity to direct the much-anticipated project, primarily out of fear of disappointing gamers.
Despite this, Tabata-san did say that he would welcome the chance to develop a potential Final Fantasy 7-2 if such a project would materialise.
“It’s such a special numbered game that I don’t think I can remake that one. There’s so many fans out there, if I were asked to satisfy all those fans, I don’t think that’s something I could do, 100%,” he said.
“If [Square Enix] asked me to make a new Final Fantasy and take it in a new direction, I’d be happy to accept that one, but if they asked me to remake Final Fantasy VII — to release as if it were a modern game, just released today — no, I don’t think that’s something I can do. I think the only people who could do that are Mr. (Yoshinori) Kitase and Mr. (Tetsuya) Nomura.”
When the interviewer then touched base on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy, which Tabata had worked on, he added:
“Yeah, it wasn’t the main game. Now, if they asked me to do Final Fantasy VII-2, that might be different.”
Final Fantasy 7 Remake release date is still TBA
Sony unveiled the Final Fantasy 7 Remake during the format holder’s E3 2015 press conference. Despite this, we’re still no closer to finding out a concrete release date for the project, which is in development for PlayStation 4.
One of Square Enix’s other major titles, Kingdom Hearts 3, is finally slated to appear in 2018. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, however, could launch any time between next year and 2020.
Unlike the original 1997 release, the remake will be released in multiple parts in order to tell the complete story.