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Everything is in flux; everything is fragile.
You must adapt or risk becoming obsolete.
Undeniably, the team developing the remake benefitted from the original game’s pacy, memorable introductory sections.
“There’s no real clear beginning or end.”
There was much debate about the shape of the trilogy and indeed whether it even would be one.
This feature originally appeared inEdge magazine.
“There was definitely a debate,” Kitase says.
“At one point we thought maybe we could put everything in just two games.
Then, later, we thought it needed to be four.”
“The reason is very simple,” Hamaguchi says.
“And fans of the original who know everything that’s coming will soon get bored.”
“It belongs to them as well as us, specifically in terms of their attachment to the characters.
This balancing act is best exemplified by the mysterious ‘whispers’ dark-cloaked figures that appear throughout the remake.
Eventually the team settled on a conservative but nuanced approach.
Major story beats were designed in such a way to allow for a broad set of player interpretations.
While the event itself remained unchanged, its presentation was designed to offer more layers of ambiguity.
“Obviously, a scenario writer is working in text, as per a screenplay,” he says.
“It was our task to consider how those directions would play out in an interactive context.
We don’t change the core concepts, but we tweak the execution.”
The original game featured the turn-based Active Time Battle system, developed during the Super Nintendo era.
“The Materia system and the ATB battle system were core elements of the original,” he notes.
“But we couldn’t just copy them exactly.
That would feel old-fashioned.”
“So many of the original game’s fans now work in the industry,” he says.
“So, yes, I am reassured.
And it’s certainly a weight off my shoulders to know we didn’t mess it up.”
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