The producer of Final Fantasy 7 Remake has said in a new interview that the updated JRPG has been informed by Insomniac's Spider-Man and other modern games. The remake has been in development at Square Enix since 2015, and is finally approaching its long-awaited release date in March of this year.
As one of the most frequently requested remakes of all time, the modern rendition of Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most anticipated games of 2020. Fans and first-timers alike have been hyping it up across the internet, in spite of the not-so-popular fact that the full story of FF7 will be split into different remade releases. This upcoming first part in the saga has already made a number of significant changes to Final Fantasy 7, including a totally revamped combat system and newer character designs. On the other hand, the remake will still contain things like the memorable cross-dressing scene, and Square Enix is giving older fans options like the "Classic" battle mode. The game has gone through a long development period to get to this point, and the series' general producer has now shared some of the project's influences.
In a new interview with Game Informer, Final Fantasy 7 Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase gave some insight into the creative process behind the game. When asked how much he and his team consider other titles and competitors while making their own game, Kitase responded by saying that they use other contemporary games like the super-popular Spider-Man as something of a benchmark. These games can provide "hints" to overcoming some of their own issues during development:
"Whenever new games come out while we’re in the process of developing something – for example, Spider-Man – we buy a copy of the game and we all play it in an open space to see what sort of technology, elements, and graphics they are using. There are many times when these games are trying to achieve something similar to what we are trying to achieve, so by playing them, sometimes we can find hints as to how to further something we’ve gotten to a roadblock on."
However, Kitase also emphasized how important it was to have a "core idea" for Final Fantasy 7 Remake when studying other games. Without that central focus, he said, it would be easy to lose their own vision by comparing it to others. "If we constantly look at these games and say, 'We want our graphics to be better than that,' or 'We want this function to be better than that,' if you keep doing that, things just spiral further and further, and so does the release date. It’s just never-ending," Kitase said. "For that reason, it’s very important to have a core idea of what story you want to tell and what sort of thing you want your audience to experience."
There seems to be a ton of creative energy that goes into remaking a game, contrary to the idea that it's just a matter of using the original's blueprint to rebuild in a new engine. Indeed, this version of Final Fantasy 7 taught Square Enix that remakes are harder to develop than original titles. Nonetheless, remakes of classic titles are becoming ever more popular with major publishers and developers, as evidenced by the recently announced remake of Resident Evil 3. Bringing these beloved games back to the fore is something that both older fans and younger players love, so the more the merrier.
FF7 Remake releases on March 3, 2020 on PlayStation 4.
Source: Game Informer