When it comes to video game remakes, you have two options on its development. You can either choose to flat-out overhaul the graphics in one form or another and then do “quality-of-life” improvements to certain gameplay elements to give a “modern upgrade” to the experience for players. Or, you can use the benefit of hindsight and experience to “improve the game” in certain ways that will “build upon” what came before while also making something fresh and new. For Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the game that preceded it, the team clearly wanted to do that second option, and its director has admitted as much.
In a chat with Eurogamer, director Naoki Hamaguchi noted that when making the game, he wanted to do some things that would keep players guessing while also eliminating fan service:
“With the original game, I was just a fan. I played the game when I was younger, and I’ve got my perspective on that scene as just a single fan. I felt if I made a decision – it has to go in this direction, we have to do it this way – that would very much make it a fan-driven thing. Maybe make it more like fan service. I kind of want to avoid doing that.”
This is an interesting statement, which only gets a little confusing given the very REAL fan service moment where Cloud and Tifa kissed on a certain amusement park ride, but we digress.
Going back to the main story, players of both titles know that the game’s original story was changed heavily in certain elements, and that was in part to ensure that gamers didn’t know what was coming, even when they “knew” what was coming:
“The important thing is that the player will wonder whether it’s going to change or not. So if it was all exactly as it was in the original storyline, you’d know exactly what was coming: there’d be no anticipation, there’d be no excitement. For people who played the game, they’d know exactly what’s coming next. It wouldn’t really be a fun experience. It might be nostalgic, but it wouldn’t be a fun experience.”
To be clear, both fans and critics felt that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was a “fun experience.” That being said, there were many who felt that some of the story changes, including the “ending scene,” was a bit much, and many are still confused about certain elements of the “modified storyline.”
That will make it all the more important that the third and final part sticks the landing.
