Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's producer, Yoshinori Kitase, has revealed that one of the main intents behind the Remake trilogy is to act as a "restart" for the Final Fantasy 7 universe.

When Final Fantasy 7 Remake was first announced all the way back in 2015, many fans assumed that it'd be a faithful recreation of the PS1 classic with a fresh coat of paint and some new bells and whistles. As we all now know, that didn't end up being the case as, in a very meta way, Remake strayed far from the original story and ended with Cloud and the gang's fate being unknown and up to them.

Giving Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, and the rest of the party a new chance to decide their own fate wasn't the only reason why Remake and Rebirth have changed things up so much, however. While speaking to TheGamer at a recent preview event for Rebirth, producer Yoshinori Kitase pointed out that there are lots of characters from across the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 that will appear throughout the game, including some that weren't present in the PS1 release.

While speaking about the wider world of Final Fantasy 7 that has been introduced since the original release, Kitase pointed out there aren't that many people who were involved in the making Final Fantasy 7 that are working on Remake and Rebirth.

As such, Kitase noted that Nomura and Nojima really wanted to use the Remake trilogy as a chance to "restart" Final Fantasy and make it the "best experience for fans out there", which includes featuring all of the characters from the wider universe and lore.

"Specifically, creative director Tetsuya Nomura and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima really want to make use of this opportunity as a restart for Final Fantasy with the remake project and make it the best experience possible for all fans out there. That obviously includes the desire to feature all of the wider universe, wider lore, and characters from the compilation titles. So I’d say that was their real intent, and their real drive for putting those things in, was to use the whole of the Final Fantasy 7 universe.”

Although restarting the Final Fantasy 7 universe would have been a very hard sell before Remake came out and proved the potential of not just retelling the same story we all know, it's safe to say that the team has accomplished its goal - Final Fantasy 7 has never been more exciting.

Posted: Feb 12, 2024 9:49 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-producer-says-it-is-a-restart-for-the-ff7-universe/