The Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of 2020’s most anticipated titles. It releases for PS4 on April 10 and recently I had the chance to go hands-on and chat to Producer and Director of the 1997 original Kitase Yoshinori. Remaking a game like Final Fantasy 7 is no mean feat and the additional pressure of fan expectations must be overwhelming.
During our chat, I mentioned the mob euphoria I experienced at PlayStation’s 2015 E3 Press Conference when the Remake was officially announced. Fans’ dreams were coming true and the remake everybody wanted was now a reality.
For Kitase, announcing Final Fantasy 7 Remake was a relief. He told me that in the years before the announcement, it has almost become a greeting. Instead of saying hello, people would ask him about the remake and they never stopped.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
It’s funny. For a long time before we announced Remake, we were going around doing promotions for other games. Whenever I was meeting with fans or anyone in the media it became almost a kind of greeting.
People would ask me, “What about Final Fantasy 7? Do you want to work on a remake? Are you doing a Final Fantasy 7 Remake?” At those times I always had to say no or that maybe one day we’d do it.
In that moment, when I finally could tell people that we are working on the remake, it was quite a relief.
I joked that now that Final Fantasy 7 Remake was announced, people would be harassing Kitase for Final Fantasy 8 Remake. He laughed and told me that people have already started asking him.
After announcing the remake first for PS2, then abandoning it before creating the PS3 tech demo and now, finally, developing the Remake on PS4, I asked Kitase if this game is what he saw in his head in 1997 and always intended players to experience.
“Yes, you could say that,” he said, adding, “it was actually Advent Children that made us want to see Final Fantasy 7 with new visuals and polish.”
It’s something we’ve had as a dream within the company fight back from when Advent Children was released. We want to show the Final Fantasy 7 story but with Advent Children level of graphics.
Just as Kitase experienced a sense of relief when he finally announced Final Fantasy 7 Remake, fans almost certainly felt the same way. It’s been a long time in the making and its now, just around the corner.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be available for PS4 on April 10, 2020.
Leo Stevenson travelled to Sydney as a guest of Square Enix to attend a Final Fantasy 7 Remake preview.
Special thanks to Kitase Yoshinori for his time.
