FINAL FANTASY VII: REMAKE Maker Elaborates On Square Enix's Approach To Redesigning The Classic

Final Fantasy VII Remake Director Tetsuya Nomura revealed in December that various presentations of the long-delayed jRPG will be released throughout 2019. Considering that Sony won't be helming an E3 press conference in 2019, fans of the brand might have to wait until this year's PlayStation Experience to learn more about Final Fantasy VII: Remake, that may very well be a next-gen project at this point.

The fact that another major Enix project (also helmed by Nomura), Kingdom Hearts III, has already gone gold, gives hope that the studio can now focus on the remake that was announced in 2015. In a recent interview with Wantedly (translated by Radigar, hian, ChipNoir from TheLifestream and NeithOF from GameFAQs), Shinichiro Biwa, Planner of the Business Division 1 (the internal Square development team that is working on FFVII 2.0.), elaborated on the company’s approach to redesigning the classic.

According to Biwa, Square is splitting the process of remaking a location in three equally important parts: interpretation, planning modifications, and actually implementing the basic ideas and polishing up the location. "When a great idea doesn't get realized as intended due to technical difficulties which then forces modifications on the initial plan, or when someone else comes up with a brilliant new idea which makes me feel bad for myself for not coming up with it," the developer said.

"Because when you're feeling like you have given all the great ideas you could come up with and then someone else comes with a new overwhelmingly good idea you feel the frustration," Biwa concluded. He also confirmed that the planning phase for all locations is already settled and the team recently entered the "building/making" phase, as the locations are already taking the desired shape.

Rumor has it that development on the remake had to be pretty much restarted, or at least a lot was scrapped, after Square Enix's decision to take back the project from CC2 (the company that gave us the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series) two years ago, as the studio's work to that point was apparently useless.

In Midgar, a city controlled by the mega-conglomerate Shinra Inc., the No. 1 Mako Reactor has been blown up by a rebel group, AVALANCHE. AVALANCHE was secretly formed to wage a rebellion against Shinra Inc., an organisation which is absorbing Mako energy, destroying the natural resources of the planet. Cloud, a former member of Shinra's elite combat force, SOLDIER, was involved with the bombing of the Mako Reactor. Can Cloud and AVALANCHE protect the planet from the huge, formidable enemy, Shinra Inc.?