Indeed at least some sneak peak lol.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
- Thread starter cm2
- Start date
Indeed at least some sneak peak lol.
Recorded Crab Warden Boss, hardmode, fight. Cloud's 2nd mode counterstance strike works well, countering the boss' emp field attacks and other attacks except the flamethrower attack, not working against that. I had to switch to controlling Tifa for a bit lest she'd be KO , had to makesure Queen Tifa was not KO and safe and sound lol
Last edited:
Read another interview:
This game has a few major departures from the original. How did you decide what areas and characters should be expanded upon and what moments should stay the same?
Naoki Hamaguchi: There are many aspects that are somewhat departures from the original, but we aimed to deliver a game experience that players would find “familiar yet new” rather than "completely new." We wanted to not have to cut away from the characters as much as in the original game, where you would really be traversing across fixed screens, rather than areas. By filling in these gaps, and making the traversal more realistic, we really wanted to create a deeper level of immersion, and of course that gives us more time and moments with the characters.
“Paying homage to the source material” served as a basis, but the original game is over 20 years old and the way in which many aspects were depicted back then could seem either outdated or unsuitable for this day and age. As such, there are many locations in which we challenged ourselves to largely “remake” the presentation while maintaining the essence of the original. This includes Wall Market, the Train Graveyard, and the Sector 7 Pillar; we took areas that could not be fully expressed back then and focused on reimagining those locations.
Are there any sections of the original that were deemed “sacred” and not subject to change?
Yoshinori Kitase: We didn’t lay out any rules in particular, but maintaining “elements that remain in the memories of our fans” is an understanding shared among the entire team that worked on the game.
The Honeybee Inn section of the game has been lauded for how it was handled. Was this a particularly challenging subject to approach given cultural differences between the late 1990s and today? How did you approach updating this section of the game?
Hamaguchi: From an ethical perspective, it’s true that we need to be more mindful in our portrayal compared to the time of the original release. Therefore, we decided to largely reimagine the events that unfold throughout Wall Market, including Honeybee Inn. We felt, let’s make it highly entertaining and increase the showbiz aspect of the setting. The French Moulin Rouge and Japanese burlesques served as reference material as we worked to enhance the Honeybee Inn through the dance battle. In essence, we’re paying homage to the enchantment of Wall Market, so I believe we were able to make the area feel familiar yet new, rather than a departure from the source material.
Sephiroth has a significantly expanded role in the Midgar section of the narrative. Why did you decide to give him more screen time earlier on than in the original?
Kitase: It goes without saying that nobody knew how the FFVII story would unfold at the time of the original release. In order to heighten the threat of Sephiroth, the antagonist, we made a conscious decision to not show Sephiroth toward the first half of the game. This approach is similar to the storytelling found in mystery novels seeking out the culprit, and it’s also a production approach taken by the movie Jaws to heighten the looming threat. However, with FFVII Remake, we knew that many fans were already familiar with Sephiroth and we determined the same approach to production wouldn’t be as meaningful. Instead, we wanted to make it clear that his presence as a source of threat is one that dominates throughout the Remake project, and landed on the direction of having him appear from the beginning in a manner that would leave a lasting impression.
Red XIII isn’t a playable character in this game. Why was that decision made?
Hamaguchi: Red XIII appears toward the latter half of the story, so we felt there was insufficient time to really develop his character in a way that players would fully enjoy playing as him in this game. That said, I do feel it was extremely important to build and establish the relationship between Cloud, the crew and Red XIII when considering future developments [in the story]. So, from the early stages, we had determined to use him as a starting point in the level design to complete the area around Hojo’s research lab. That location appears toward the end of this game. For those who felt disappointed about Red XIII not being playable in this installment, it would make me happy if you look forward to the next game.
There are lots of nods to the original game in this remake, but also to other classic Final Fantasy titles. What's your favorite Easter egg? Are there ones that fans haven't caught yet?
Hamaguchi: I think my favorite nod to the original is where Cloud and Aerith make their way through the rooftops of abandoned slum houses after escaping the church. The same scene exists in the original, and I felt that the sense of Aerith and Cloud getting to know each other was expressed well through that sequence. Portraying this more realistically with the modern technology available to us over the original allowed us to really take in the scenery of the slums and Midgar. Even as a person creating the game, I remember how it felt both familiar and new during development and how it got me thinking, “So this is what the surrounding scenery looked like when Aerith and Cloud were making their way through this area in the original game.” Perhaps a harder to recognize homage to the original would be, again, at the church … between the time Cloud falls into the church and Reno appears, the player can freely roam around inside. During that time, if the player moves to the area around the church exit, they will hear Reno considerately say the following: “Hang back. We’re not in any hurry.” This is actually a line that was implemented in the original, and the team working on this location proposed to include it in the remake as it was found in the source material.
Where did the idea to include new characters like Roche, Chadley, etc., into the narrative come from?
Hamaguchi: There are many characters depicted in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII projects (Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children) and titles that made an appearance in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but Roche and Chadley were originally proposed by the game design team, and we had requested our writer Mr. Nojima to incorporate them into the scenario. Regarding Roche, we originally considered making him a boss that concludes the motorcycle minigame as you head toward Sector 7. That said, we thought his originality as a character could pan into something interesting and decided to use his appearance in the motorcycle minigame as foreshadowing. We expanded on this by making him the boss for the Sector 7-6 Annex. In the cutscene, a strange bond of sorts can be seen forming between Cloud and Roche, and I’m also personally interested in seeing how things are going to unfold between them in the future. Regarding Chadley, we wanted to include content in which materia could be obtained through mission rewards in parallel with the main story progression; considering lore, we came up with a role that would make him a researcher working for Shinra.
Jessie has become a fan favorite. Did you know that players would connect so strongly with a character who was such a minor presence in the original game?
Kitase: I did imagine this would happen to a certain extent. After the original game released, she was also a favorite character of ours, so it was director Nomura’s desire from the early stages to want to depict [the three Avalanche members: Jessie, Biggs and Wedge] in depth. As a result of Mr. Nojima’s distinctive dialogue, the voice cast's performance, and the cutscene team’s wonderful direction, we were able to successfully depict her as a captivating character.
The music in FFVII Remake is a great mix of the original soundtrack, remixes and new tracks. How did that come together? What was Nobuo Uematsu's involvement?
Kitase: Mr. Uematsu expressed a strong desire to compose a main theme song [a vocal track] for this game that did not exist in the original. As we wanted to include a dynamic soundtrack that matches the action and narrative onscreen, it required a very large volume of new arrangements and new music for the new sections. Therefore, the arrangements for many of the in-game music had been entrusted to composers that have a connection with Final Fantasy and are also trusted by Mr. Uematsu and me. In turn, we asked Mr. Uematsu to focus on the production of the main theme song which we believe resulted in a wonderful track imbued with soul.
This game has a few major departures from the original. How did you decide what areas and characters should be expanded upon and what moments should stay the same?
Naoki Hamaguchi: There are many aspects that are somewhat departures from the original, but we aimed to deliver a game experience that players would find “familiar yet new” rather than "completely new." We wanted to not have to cut away from the characters as much as in the original game, where you would really be traversing across fixed screens, rather than areas. By filling in these gaps, and making the traversal more realistic, we really wanted to create a deeper level of immersion, and of course that gives us more time and moments with the characters.
“Paying homage to the source material” served as a basis, but the original game is over 20 years old and the way in which many aspects were depicted back then could seem either outdated or unsuitable for this day and age. As such, there are many locations in which we challenged ourselves to largely “remake” the presentation while maintaining the essence of the original. This includes Wall Market, the Train Graveyard, and the Sector 7 Pillar; we took areas that could not be fully expressed back then and focused on reimagining those locations.
Are there any sections of the original that were deemed “sacred” and not subject to change?
Yoshinori Kitase: We didn’t lay out any rules in particular, but maintaining “elements that remain in the memories of our fans” is an understanding shared among the entire team that worked on the game.
The Honeybee Inn section of the game has been lauded for how it was handled. Was this a particularly challenging subject to approach given cultural differences between the late 1990s and today? How did you approach updating this section of the game?
Hamaguchi: From an ethical perspective, it’s true that we need to be more mindful in our portrayal compared to the time of the original release. Therefore, we decided to largely reimagine the events that unfold throughout Wall Market, including Honeybee Inn. We felt, let’s make it highly entertaining and increase the showbiz aspect of the setting. The French Moulin Rouge and Japanese burlesques served as reference material as we worked to enhance the Honeybee Inn through the dance battle. In essence, we’re paying homage to the enchantment of Wall Market, so I believe we were able to make the area feel familiar yet new, rather than a departure from the source material.
Sephiroth has a significantly expanded role in the Midgar section of the narrative. Why did you decide to give him more screen time earlier on than in the original?
Kitase: It goes without saying that nobody knew how the FFVII story would unfold at the time of the original release. In order to heighten the threat of Sephiroth, the antagonist, we made a conscious decision to not show Sephiroth toward the first half of the game. This approach is similar to the storytelling found in mystery novels seeking out the culprit, and it’s also a production approach taken by the movie Jaws to heighten the looming threat. However, with FFVII Remake, we knew that many fans were already familiar with Sephiroth and we determined the same approach to production wouldn’t be as meaningful. Instead, we wanted to make it clear that his presence as a source of threat is one that dominates throughout the Remake project, and landed on the direction of having him appear from the beginning in a manner that would leave a lasting impression.
Red XIII isn’t a playable character in this game. Why was that decision made?
Hamaguchi: Red XIII appears toward the latter half of the story, so we felt there was insufficient time to really develop his character in a way that players would fully enjoy playing as him in this game. That said, I do feel it was extremely important to build and establish the relationship between Cloud, the crew and Red XIII when considering future developments [in the story]. So, from the early stages, we had determined to use him as a starting point in the level design to complete the area around Hojo’s research lab. That location appears toward the end of this game. For those who felt disappointed about Red XIII not being playable in this installment, it would make me happy if you look forward to the next game.
There are lots of nods to the original game in this remake, but also to other classic Final Fantasy titles. What's your favorite Easter egg? Are there ones that fans haven't caught yet?
Hamaguchi: I think my favorite nod to the original is where Cloud and Aerith make their way through the rooftops of abandoned slum houses after escaping the church. The same scene exists in the original, and I felt that the sense of Aerith and Cloud getting to know each other was expressed well through that sequence. Portraying this more realistically with the modern technology available to us over the original allowed us to really take in the scenery of the slums and Midgar. Even as a person creating the game, I remember how it felt both familiar and new during development and how it got me thinking, “So this is what the surrounding scenery looked like when Aerith and Cloud were making their way through this area in the original game.” Perhaps a harder to recognize homage to the original would be, again, at the church … between the time Cloud falls into the church and Reno appears, the player can freely roam around inside. During that time, if the player moves to the area around the church exit, they will hear Reno considerately say the following: “Hang back. We’re not in any hurry.” This is actually a line that was implemented in the original, and the team working on this location proposed to include it in the remake as it was found in the source material.
Where did the idea to include new characters like Roche, Chadley, etc., into the narrative come from?
Hamaguchi: There are many characters depicted in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII projects (Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Advent Children) and titles that made an appearance in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but Roche and Chadley were originally proposed by the game design team, and we had requested our writer Mr. Nojima to incorporate them into the scenario. Regarding Roche, we originally considered making him a boss that concludes the motorcycle minigame as you head toward Sector 7. That said, we thought his originality as a character could pan into something interesting and decided to use his appearance in the motorcycle minigame as foreshadowing. We expanded on this by making him the boss for the Sector 7-6 Annex. In the cutscene, a strange bond of sorts can be seen forming between Cloud and Roche, and I’m also personally interested in seeing how things are going to unfold between them in the future. Regarding Chadley, we wanted to include content in which materia could be obtained through mission rewards in parallel with the main story progression; considering lore, we came up with a role that would make him a researcher working for Shinra.
Jessie has become a fan favorite. Did you know that players would connect so strongly with a character who was such a minor presence in the original game?
Kitase: I did imagine this would happen to a certain extent. After the original game released, she was also a favorite character of ours, so it was director Nomura’s desire from the early stages to want to depict [the three Avalanche members: Jessie, Biggs and Wedge] in depth. As a result of Mr. Nojima’s distinctive dialogue, the voice cast's performance, and the cutscene team’s wonderful direction, we were able to successfully depict her as a captivating character.
The music in FFVII Remake is a great mix of the original soundtrack, remixes and new tracks. How did that come together? What was Nobuo Uematsu's involvement?
Kitase: Mr. Uematsu expressed a strong desire to compose a main theme song [a vocal track] for this game that did not exist in the original. As we wanted to include a dynamic soundtrack that matches the action and narrative onscreen, it required a very large volume of new arrangements and new music for the new sections. Therefore, the arrangements for many of the in-game music had been entrusted to composers that have a connection with Final Fantasy and are also trusted by Mr. Uematsu and me. In turn, we asked Mr. Uematsu to focus on the production of the main theme song which we believe resulted in a wonderful track imbued with soul.
Figures why a lot of the music strayed from its original, Uematsu wasn't doing it.
Is that Zack?
Yes, complete with Aerith's flower.
Read new IGN Interview:
IGN: How was the approach to Final Fantasy VII Remake different than how you looked at earlier entries in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? How much did those games influence the remake?
Yoshinori Kitase, Producer, Final Fantasy VII Remake:
Our approach with the Remake project was to reintroduce these characters and the world to both newcomers and existing fans. Essentially, we wanted to utilize the best of modern technology and storytelling to bring this world and the characters into the modern era of games. We’ve updated the original in a far more realistic and immersive way, so that the excitement of the original game could be experienced by all audiences and be seen as something new, surprising and innovative, rather than just a beloved game from the past.
The compilation works were really designed with the audience to have a knowledge of these characters and world already. For Remake, it’s a chance for newcomers to enter this world, and everything they need to know is in this game.
However, we didn’t want to abandon the expanded storytelling from the compilation series, so there are many references to these titles throughout Remake.
IGN: What would you say to fans who were hoping for a more straightforward remake of the original game, when this actually seems to be more of a re-imagining of sorts instead?
Kitase:
We, the development team, our fans, and the state of the world have continued to change over the past 23 years. While the world is undergoing dramatic changes, we thought that remaking the game based only on the same merits as 23 years ago may evoke “nostalgia,” but would not deliver on the element of “surprise” that is innate to Final Fantasy.
I believe people will be able to welcome this project with the same rush of excitement felt back in the days of the original game
IGN: Was there ever a point where Red XIII was playable? Why or why not?
Naoki Hamaguchi, Co-Director, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE:
No. We felt that many players familiar with the original would want to control the character, but as he appears towards the end of this game we were careful about disruptions to the overall tempo that may occur by treating him in the same manner as other main characters, who appear earlier. We also felt for new players, it may seem odd to have control over a new character so late into this game and we couldn’t introduce him earlier.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a multi-game project; as such, I believe there will be opportunities to control Red XIII in the future, so it’d be great if Red XIII fans can look forward to this.
IGN: The world fell in love with Jessie, were you expecting her to be such a breakout character with fans?
Hamaguchi:
This isn’t specific to Jessie, but by shining a spotlight on the Avalanche members that have been beloved by fans since the original game, we were conscious about adding depth to the story by depicting aspects that were not illustrated in the source material. Particularly, the fight that unfolds in the Sector 7 Slums from Chapter 12 is one of the peaks in the Avalanche story; it showcases the Avalanche members’ determination and adds more tension to the story.
Actually, many development staff had a good impression of Jessie from the time we were developing the game, and we are extremely happy to see her popularity skyrocket far more than we had expected.
IGN: Why was the decision made to replace the English voice cast?
Kitase:
The original game obviously never had a voice cast. We began using actors for the characters starting with the second work in the compilation, the sequel movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. For the film, the characters were already older than in the original game and 15 years have passed since then, we’ve continued to work with the same voice actors over numerous projects. However, since this title is set in an era that precedes Advent Children, with a younger cast, we wanted to discover a new generation of voice actors that would be suitable for expressing younger versions of the characters. While expressing our utmost respect to the Advent Children cast, I look forward to the future success of the new cast.
IGN: The Honeybee Inn has been greatly praised for how it adapted that original segment, what were the goals behind how you changed it?
Hamaguchi:
Though I’m feeling good about the player responses we’ve been seeing, it’s also a fact that we faced many decisions in how to update and portray the Honeybee Inn.
We decided to largely reimagine the events that unfold throughout Wall Market, including Honeybee Inn, based on the following direction: “If we’re going to change it, we might as well make it highly entertaining.” We referenced things like the French Moulin Rouge and Japanese burlesques, so that the Honeybee Inn would have this dance off element. Furthermore, we tried to be creative in carrying over the seductive approach taken with the Honeybee Inn in the original to Madam M’s massage parlor [in the remake]. In essence, we are paying homage to the enchantment of Wall Market, so I believe we were able to make the area feel familiar yet new, rather than a departure from the source material.
IGN: Upon seeing Hell House, Aerith and Cloud seem shocked. “How do we fight a house?” - how early into development did someone on the team ask that question?
Hamaguchi:
Let’s see… It’s a fact that we were challenged quite a bit with Hell House. Many of the enemies featured in the original FFVII are iconic, but with the graphics becoming more realistic, it was a challenge to think of convincing reasons why these enemies would have come to exist within this world. In the original game, Hell House was an enemy that could be randomly encountered near Wall Market, but we determined that no matter how we approached it, we simply could not think of a setting in which it would be natural to find it wandering the slums in REMAKE. So, it was decided from the early stages of development that we would give Hell House a special portrayal as a boss in Wall Market.
And in reimagining Wall Market itself, we were searching for a way to portray the city as an avenue of entertainment that would be accepted across a wide variety of cultures and ages, while capturing the feeling of it being an “adults-only” city. This led to our decision to move in the direction of creating an underground arena called Corneo Colosseum, where adults could let their excitement loose. In this case, we thought we could portray Hell House with the setting that it was made as Corneo’s weapon. As a weapon, in the shape of a house, we felt it would be persuasive as a Corneo Colosseum boss.
Following the release, I saw many comments from players who felt surprised by the depiction of Hell House as it appeared in this game, and as a creator, it made me happy to see that we were able to offer it in a way that got just the response we were aiming for from the fans.
IGN: Cloud in the remake seems like a much deeper character and his arc is more motivated and interesting here than in the original. How did the team decide where and how to add new dimensions and layers to these characters? Were there characters that were harder to re-write than others?
Kazushige Nojima, Scenario Writer, Final Fantasy VII Remake:
As the physical depiction of characters have gotten far more realistic, there was a need to make their inner depiction with a similar sense of realism. First and foremost, there were personalities that I had imagined these characters having back, when creating the original, so I wrote the scenario this time by recollecting those memories.
It wasn’t so much depicting a new side, but rather, just now bringing out a side to them that existed back then but wasn’t fully portrayed at the time.
Of course, I don’t remember everything, so there are parts that I newly created this time around as well. By adding new expressive elements such as voiceovers, action movements, and facial expressions, each with their own additional layers of passion and interpretation of the members who handled them, we were able to ultimately create these Remake characters.
I also heavily referenced the expanded Compilation titles, which portrayed these characters with more realistic CG (for the time) and with VO.
Aerith was a challenging character. I get the impression that she’s highly revered based on her story in the original, so I wanted to convey a more down-to-earth side of her in this game that I don’t feel was shown before.
IGN: Avalanche, as a team, is a much bigger part of REMAKE. How did the team balance the character building of individual team members, and how do those characters inform Avalanche’s overall “mission statement”?
Nojima:
By depicting the affinity between the individual Avalanche members, I wanted to portray their bond, as well as the alienation Cloud must have initially felt. At the same time, I wanted to portray how Cloud was gradually accepted into the group.
I felt that through this approach, players would be able to further immerse themselves into the world within the game.
Additionally, the movement by Avalanche ends up causing a great amount of damage to Midgar. Even if the Shinra Company had a part in it, what they did wasn’t permissible. As such, they end up being heavily condemned for their actions; but I wanted to portray what was going through the minds of these youths that caused these incidents, as well as what they felt as they took part in the movement. “Saving the planet” is upheld as a theme for their movement, but as you can see in Tifa’s inner struggles, I feel as if they’ve come to a point of no return because they had pushed forward with such a strong sense of duty and zeal. In terms of their interpersonal relationships (and their balance), I referenced the relationships and bonds in Japanese animation that can be seen since the olden days.
IGN: How was the approach to Final Fantasy VII Remake different than how you looked at earlier entries in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? How much did those games influence the remake?
Yoshinori Kitase, Producer, Final Fantasy VII Remake:
Our approach with the Remake project was to reintroduce these characters and the world to both newcomers and existing fans. Essentially, we wanted to utilize the best of modern technology and storytelling to bring this world and the characters into the modern era of games. We’ve updated the original in a far more realistic and immersive way, so that the excitement of the original game could be experienced by all audiences and be seen as something new, surprising and innovative, rather than just a beloved game from the past.
The compilation works were really designed with the audience to have a knowledge of these characters and world already. For Remake, it’s a chance for newcomers to enter this world, and everything they need to know is in this game.
However, we didn’t want to abandon the expanded storytelling from the compilation series, so there are many references to these titles throughout Remake.
IGN: What would you say to fans who were hoping for a more straightforward remake of the original game, when this actually seems to be more of a re-imagining of sorts instead?
Kitase:
We, the development team, our fans, and the state of the world have continued to change over the past 23 years. While the world is undergoing dramatic changes, we thought that remaking the game based only on the same merits as 23 years ago may evoke “nostalgia,” but would not deliver on the element of “surprise” that is innate to Final Fantasy.
I believe people will be able to welcome this project with the same rush of excitement felt back in the days of the original game
IGN: Was there ever a point where Red XIII was playable? Why or why not?
Naoki Hamaguchi, Co-Director, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE:
No. We felt that many players familiar with the original would want to control the character, but as he appears towards the end of this game we were careful about disruptions to the overall tempo that may occur by treating him in the same manner as other main characters, who appear earlier. We also felt for new players, it may seem odd to have control over a new character so late into this game and we couldn’t introduce him earlier.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a multi-game project; as such, I believe there will be opportunities to control Red XIII in the future, so it’d be great if Red XIII fans can look forward to this.
IGN: The world fell in love with Jessie, were you expecting her to be such a breakout character with fans?
Hamaguchi:
This isn’t specific to Jessie, but by shining a spotlight on the Avalanche members that have been beloved by fans since the original game, we were conscious about adding depth to the story by depicting aspects that were not illustrated in the source material. Particularly, the fight that unfolds in the Sector 7 Slums from Chapter 12 is one of the peaks in the Avalanche story; it showcases the Avalanche members’ determination and adds more tension to the story.
Actually, many development staff had a good impression of Jessie from the time we were developing the game, and we are extremely happy to see her popularity skyrocket far more than we had expected.
IGN: Why was the decision made to replace the English voice cast?
Kitase:
The original game obviously never had a voice cast. We began using actors for the characters starting with the second work in the compilation, the sequel movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. For the film, the characters were already older than in the original game and 15 years have passed since then, we’ve continued to work with the same voice actors over numerous projects. However, since this title is set in an era that precedes Advent Children, with a younger cast, we wanted to discover a new generation of voice actors that would be suitable for expressing younger versions of the characters. While expressing our utmost respect to the Advent Children cast, I look forward to the future success of the new cast.
IGN: The Honeybee Inn has been greatly praised for how it adapted that original segment, what were the goals behind how you changed it?
Hamaguchi:
Though I’m feeling good about the player responses we’ve been seeing, it’s also a fact that we faced many decisions in how to update and portray the Honeybee Inn.
We decided to largely reimagine the events that unfold throughout Wall Market, including Honeybee Inn, based on the following direction: “If we’re going to change it, we might as well make it highly entertaining.” We referenced things like the French Moulin Rouge and Japanese burlesques, so that the Honeybee Inn would have this dance off element. Furthermore, we tried to be creative in carrying over the seductive approach taken with the Honeybee Inn in the original to Madam M’s massage parlor [in the remake]. In essence, we are paying homage to the enchantment of Wall Market, so I believe we were able to make the area feel familiar yet new, rather than a departure from the source material.
IGN: Upon seeing Hell House, Aerith and Cloud seem shocked. “How do we fight a house?” - how early into development did someone on the team ask that question?
Hamaguchi:
Let’s see… It’s a fact that we were challenged quite a bit with Hell House. Many of the enemies featured in the original FFVII are iconic, but with the graphics becoming more realistic, it was a challenge to think of convincing reasons why these enemies would have come to exist within this world. In the original game, Hell House was an enemy that could be randomly encountered near Wall Market, but we determined that no matter how we approached it, we simply could not think of a setting in which it would be natural to find it wandering the slums in REMAKE. So, it was decided from the early stages of development that we would give Hell House a special portrayal as a boss in Wall Market.
And in reimagining Wall Market itself, we were searching for a way to portray the city as an avenue of entertainment that would be accepted across a wide variety of cultures and ages, while capturing the feeling of it being an “adults-only” city. This led to our decision to move in the direction of creating an underground arena called Corneo Colosseum, where adults could let their excitement loose. In this case, we thought we could portray Hell House with the setting that it was made as Corneo’s weapon. As a weapon, in the shape of a house, we felt it would be persuasive as a Corneo Colosseum boss.
Following the release, I saw many comments from players who felt surprised by the depiction of Hell House as it appeared in this game, and as a creator, it made me happy to see that we were able to offer it in a way that got just the response we were aiming for from the fans.
IGN: Cloud in the remake seems like a much deeper character and his arc is more motivated and interesting here than in the original. How did the team decide where and how to add new dimensions and layers to these characters? Were there characters that were harder to re-write than others?
Kazushige Nojima, Scenario Writer, Final Fantasy VII Remake:
As the physical depiction of characters have gotten far more realistic, there was a need to make their inner depiction with a similar sense of realism. First and foremost, there were personalities that I had imagined these characters having back, when creating the original, so I wrote the scenario this time by recollecting those memories.
It wasn’t so much depicting a new side, but rather, just now bringing out a side to them that existed back then but wasn’t fully portrayed at the time.
Of course, I don’t remember everything, so there are parts that I newly created this time around as well. By adding new expressive elements such as voiceovers, action movements, and facial expressions, each with their own additional layers of passion and interpretation of the members who handled them, we were able to ultimately create these Remake characters.
I also heavily referenced the expanded Compilation titles, which portrayed these characters with more realistic CG (for the time) and with VO.
Aerith was a challenging character. I get the impression that she’s highly revered based on her story in the original, so I wanted to convey a more down-to-earth side of her in this game that I don’t feel was shown before.
IGN: Avalanche, as a team, is a much bigger part of REMAKE. How did the team balance the character building of individual team members, and how do those characters inform Avalanche’s overall “mission statement”?
Nojima:
By depicting the affinity between the individual Avalanche members, I wanted to portray their bond, as well as the alienation Cloud must have initially felt. At the same time, I wanted to portray how Cloud was gradually accepted into the group.
I felt that through this approach, players would be able to further immerse themselves into the world within the game.
Additionally, the movement by Avalanche ends up causing a great amount of damage to Midgar. Even if the Shinra Company had a part in it, what they did wasn’t permissible. As such, they end up being heavily condemned for their actions; but I wanted to portray what was going through the minds of these youths that caused these incidents, as well as what they felt as they took part in the movement. “Saving the planet” is upheld as a theme for their movement, but as you can see in Tifa’s inner struggles, I feel as if they’ve come to a point of no return because they had pushed forward with such a strong sense of duty and zeal. In terms of their interpersonal relationships (and their balance), I referenced the relationships and bonds in Japanese animation that can be seen since the olden days.