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T
he series might be
called Final
Fantasy, but its
seventh story has
almost become
more myth than
fantasy, a legend
passed on from generation to
generation since its PS1 release. The
cultural osmosis has been so strong
that many who’ve never played it
already know quite a bit about it.
And fans were dreaming of a
remake long before this new version
was announced. This game is the
first part of that project, retelling
the Midgar portion of the story as
a full game, and passing the torch of
the legend forward once again.“The original Final Fantasy VII came
out in 1997, 23 years ago, and caused
a massive impact on the games
industry. This is a full reimagining
of that legendary game for a new
audience of gamers,” producer
Yoshinori Kitase says as he
welcomes us to our early hands-on
with four of the game’s chapters.
“This isn’t just a port or a simple
remaster of the game, we want to goBEHIND
THE
SCENES
How the magic is created
above and beyond and deliver even
more than people would expect even
from a standard remake of a game.”
Whether you’re a fan or old or
new, Kitase wants there to be
something for you in Remake. “Our
objective here is to deliver the
definitive RPG experience for a new
generation of fans. And then for
people that played the original game,
we want to deliver them those same
thrills and same surprises as they
got the first time around, but even
bigger and even better this time.”
What’s key is that while Remake
retells the opening of the PS1 game,
every detail has been expanded. “In
order to realise the world in that
level of detail, we’ve had an
absolutely massive amount of
development work which has
resulted in a huge volume of data,
and that’s why this game is on a two
Blu-ray disc set,” says Kitase. “This
means that we’re looking at an
equivalent of gameplay volume to
any of the other numbered Final
Fantasy games, which means we
haven’t had to cut down or cut back
on any of the things that people
loved about the original game.”