Though only announced back in June at E3, Final Fantasy VII Remake has apparently made fantastic progress as Square Enix dropped the first gameplay footage on stage at PlayStation Experience. Soon after however, they dropped an equally hefty bit of information. Final Fantasy VII Remake will be a multi-part series. In the press release, Square Enix simply said, “each entry [will be] providing its own unique experience.”
Jumping to head off the inevitable fan reaction to the game being segmented into multiple releases, producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura recently spoke with Famitsu and Dengeki Online (via Gematsu), explaining the decision.
“The idea that a remake of Final Fantasy VII would not fit into a single release was there from the very beginning,” Kitase said. “As you can see in the trailer, we showed Sector 1 and Sector 8, but in those areas alone, I think you can see a lot of density. When you’re remaking the entirety of the original version in that quality, it’s not possible to fit it all in one release.”
“If we dedicated our time to a single release, parts of it would become summarized,” Nomura added. “We’d have to cut some parts, and additional parts would come in few, so rather than remake the game as a full volume, we decided to do multiple parts.”
As for what he means by ‘additional parts’ Nomura explained, “To those who played the original version will know the important parts and understand the story from the beginning to the end. Also for these people, I hope that they can be surprised once again.” For instance, the player will be able to explore more portions of Midgar, the location shown off throughout the recent trailer, than were in the original game.
“I don’t want the remake to end as something nostalgic,” Kitase said. “I want to get the fans of the original version excited. We’ll be making adjustments to the story with this feeling in mind.”
While hesitant to give any more information about changes to the story, the pair did reassure fans Cloud’s cross dressing scene will be in the game, though it hasn’t been designed yet.
What do you think of the changes being made? Are you a die-hard fan of Final Fantasy VII? Or have you never taken the plunge into the JRPG? Let us know in the comments.