The Final Fantasy VII remake announcement was a big deal, being announced at E3 alongside a highly anticipated re-announcement of The Last Guardian, an announcement of Shenmue III, among other franchises finally finding closure. This was a year that’ll be hard to beat in 2016.
For many fans, Final Fantasy VII is considered to be one of the best Final Fantasy’s ever created. Some of the most recognizable characters ever created, Cloud and Sepiroth, both take home in the universe of Final Fantasy VII.
Unfortunately, the remake will be released in a multi-part series. Gone are the days of a multi-disc release, instead Square Enix is opting to release it in parts. In a blog post made by Yoshinori Kitase(who worked on the original Final Fantasy VII), he explained that the remake will help certain dreams by realized. “With Final Fantasy VII Remake, we have the opportunity to go beyond the story, world and experience of Final Fantasy VII in ways we’ve always dreamed of – from the depths of Midgar to the skies above the Planet. The multi-part format enables us to expand the original story and turn it into an epic experience for fans and new gamers alike.”
Kitase detailed his time at PlayStation Experience, which took place last weekend. The first glimpse of gameplay was shown off of Final Fantasy VII during that time. “It was great to see so much excitement when we surprised everyone with the first gameplay footage and it was a treat for us to show that development is going well, and further along than perhaps many had realised.”
In the same blog post, Kitase did confirm that speculation was right. “The biggest reason why we haven’t done a remake until now is because it’s a massive undertaking to reconstruct FINAL FANTASY VII from the ground up with the current technology. Producing a proper HD remake of FINAL FANTASY VII that maintains the same feeling of density of the original would result in a volume of content that couldn’t possibly fit into one instalment.”
In other words, a remake in one installment would result in a condensed version of Final Fantasy VII. “If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake instalment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of FINAL FANTASY VII.”