The face behind the Final Fantasy franchise, Tetsuya Nomura recently gave an interview with Famitsu (via Gematsu) and dropped a couple of details on the now hotly anticipated remake of Final Fantasy VII. There have been some concerns regarding the potential changes that will inevitably have to happen to make the game more modern, but here are the most important details on what Square Enix is revealing so far.
The game will come to Playstation 4 consoles first.
Nomura did not discount the notion that the game will arrive on other platforms, and in this day and age it almost certainly means that the remake will be a timed exclusive. However all he offered up was that the company is "not thinking beyond that (PS4) yet".
The game won't simply be a prettier version of what came before.
If you want to play a prettier version of the PS1 classic, go buy the game on PC. This is going to be full top-to-bottom re-imagining of Final Fantasy VII. Nomura acknowledges that his team can't surpass the original "simply by making the graphics nicer". There are certain standards that have to be acknowledged with modern gaming, and Nomura understands that.
No new characters will appear.
This one is sure to breathe a collective sigh of relief amongst the fan base. In terms of the current cast, Nomura said, "as for visual taste, we're doing them to match today's visuals and appear closer to reality." Looks like Cloud will actually have elbows this time around.
Game mechanics will be different.
Here's where the details get a little murky, that will surely cause some fans to give pause. Nomura himself even says, "I can't share details", but does go on to say that they will be "changing it to a more realistic system". While this certainly isn't the clearest of details, this sounds like the Turn-Based Battle system (which certainly isn't the most realistic way to fight), might be in jeopardy.
Part of what was shown at E3, will be used in the game.
The unveiling at Sony's Press Conference may have been all CG, but Nomura came right out saying that "we're using part of that video in the game" and that they hope to "raise the quality even more". Final Fantasy has a very long tradition of achieving high levels of graphical fidelity throughout all of their releases. If the E3 trailer, which was beautiful in its own right, can be improved upon, the final product may very well be a feast for the eyes.
