Final Fantasy VII Remake Developers Explain the Episodic Approach

During the keynote at PlayStation Experience, we got a first look at the remake of Final Fantasy VII, in stunning high-definition glory. We were initially told that the game would be episodic, and released in separate parts, though we weren't given any other information. However, Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura just sat down with Famitsu to explain the reasoning behind the episodic approach. The interview has been translated by Gematsu. These two team leads for the game mentioned that the huge amount of content needed to make a true remake of Final Fantasy VII simply couldn't fit in a single installment. Here's what Yoshinori Kitase said about it:

"One of the main reasons why we haven't done a remake until now is because it's a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy 7 from the ground up with the current technology. To a great extent, we just couldn't take the plunge. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 that maintains the same feeling of density of the original results in a volume of content that couldn't possibly fit into one installment."

Director Tetusya Nomura, who has credits on dozens of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles, said that parts of the original game would need to be cut if Final Fantasy VII Remake was just one game. "If we were to try to fit everything into one installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version," Nomura said. "But there would be no point in doing that. For instance, players will be able to explore many different areas of Midgar in this game that they couldn't access in the original – if we're remaking this world, we want to add in areas like this and depict them with real detail."

I think the episodic approach to this highly-anticipated RPG follows the trend of many movie series these days, hoping to cash in on franchise popularity and fan loyalty by stretching one movie into two or three. Still, more Final Fantasy VII games for PS4 means more depth and immersion into the beloved world of Midgar, so I'm certainly not complaining.

We'll keep you posted as more details for Final Fantasy VII Remake emerge.

Source: Gematsu