Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomrua has revealed that Final Fantasy VII remake won’t eschew some of the more light-hearted moments of the original 1997 RPG.
Speaking with Eurogamer at E3 2015 this week, Nomura-san shed a little bit of light behind the remake’s development, and confirmed the title was in the works before Square Enix unveiled the PlayStation 4 version of the Final Fantasy VII PC HD port.
"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."
"When we announced the HD port, the PC port on the PS4, we weren’t sure when we wanted to announce the remake," Nomura-san said. "The production was underway then, so there’s no real connection between the timing of the two FF7s coming to PS4. We’ve announced several different titles coming to the PlayStation 4 like World of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 3."
Elsewhere, he also hoped that Final Fantasy VII will help boost sales of Sony’s current-generation console in Japan, where they have been pretty sluggish since launch.
"There’s more and more titles being introduced for the platform, and we’re hoping that announcing the remake of Final Fantasy 7, it’ll give a boost to people wanting to buy this current generation of console. If we announced the remake after all those titles have been sold, it wouldn’t have created such an impact, so that’s why we decided on this timing. We wanted to reassure players that PlayStation 4 is coming out with great titles including Final Fantasy 7. That’s why we decided to announce the remake."
Now for the all-important question, though. Will we still get to see Cloud Strife dress up as a woman in the upcoming remake? "Please look forward to it," was Nomura-san’s response.
Final Fantasy VII remake has yet to attract a release date. Check out our E3 coverage hub for all the latest news.