Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 remake stole the hearts and minds of many a gamer when it was finally unveiled at E3 2015. Eurogamer spoke to director Tetsuya Nomura about the remake’s current development state and Nomura revealed that the remake was already in development when the first HD port was announced back in December 2014.
“When we announced the HD port, the PC port on the PS4, we weren’t sure when we wanted to announce the remake. The production was underway then, so there’s no real connection between the timing of the two FF7s coming to PS4. We’ve announced several different titles coming to the PlayStation 4 like World of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 3.”
It also seems that some of the more light-hearted elements of the game won’t be lost. Will Cloud be wearing a dress this time around? Nomura says, “Please look forward to it.”
Of course, there’s the hope that the remake will also encourage more Japanese players to buy a PS4. “There’s more and more titles being introduced for the platform, and we’re hoping that announcing the remake of Final Fantasy 7, it’ll give a boost to people wanting to buy this current generation of console.
“If we announced the remake after all those titles have been sold, it wouldn’t have created such an impact, so that’s why we decided on this timing. We wanted to reassure players that PlayStation 4 is coming out with great titles including Final Fantasy 7. That’s why we decided to announce the remake.”
The Final Fantasy 7 remake will be heading to PS4 first. A release date is yet to be announced.