There are many questions in the world of video games that we may or may not ever get answered. The “mysterious ways” of developers and publishers don’t always get revealed to the extent that we fans desire. However, sometimes the answers that we get are more hilarious or more insightful than you could have ever imagined. For example, the Final Fantasy VII Remake was something fans had wondered about for years but weren’t sure if it would happen. Then, when it was announced, it took many years to release. Thankfully, the remake was awesome, and it set up a sequel that comes out next month.
But the question remains: why did Square Enix even make the remake at all? Well, Game Informer sat down with Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase, the game’s director and producer, to talk about what went into it and why the decision was made to go through with it. According to Kitsane, part of it was just that people kept asking about it:
“We were on the U.S. media tour for Final Fantasy XIII, and we took on a bunch of interviews, and we got a ton of questions from reporters asking, ‘When are we going to make a Final Fantasy VII remake?’ Just hearing that so many times, I did think that we would do it one day, that’s for certain.”
As for Nomura, he had a different feeling about why they should do it:
“Within Square Enix, gradually, remakes were being made, and these ideas for remakes were coming up in other departments. If we weren’t going to do Final Fantasy VII, others were going to do it, so we had to rise up and do it! We had the sense that we had to guard Final Fantasy VII and have to be the ones taking this on, or someone else is going to do it. I thought it may be a bit troublesome is other teams without us took on the project.”
If you didn’t know, Nomura and Kitase were on the original game for PS1, and that meant they had the experience and knowledge to ensure that the remake was everything fans wanted and then some. Thankfully, everything turned out how it was supposed to, and the title wasn’t just a best-seller but a Game of the Year nominee! With its sequel on the way and the promise of game-changing moments coming with it, things are set for this journey to be even grander than before.