Square Enix finally decided to pull the trigger on remaking the beloved Final Fantasy 7, and they’re doing so in a grand way, with a multiple part project that will recreate and expand on various aspects of the original game. It isn’t the first time Square has revisited the entry, however. Several years ago there was a project called the Final Fantasy 7 Compilation that saw several prequel and sequel games and an animated film sequel. Those, of course, introduced their own set of new characters, and we know the remake has at least some inspiration from the Compilation– but it will stop short of having any of the Compilation characters in the remake.
As director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed in his interview with Famitsu, there are no plans for any of the original characters from any of the Compilation material to be in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. While he said there will be certain elements touched on in some ways, no direct involvement will come from them. It seems the only characters not in the original game that will make its way into the remake in some form is from a side novel that served as a bridge between the original game and Advent Children that focused on the Turks.
“No characters from it appear in this game, but certain elements from it are touched upon in a certain way,” Nomura said. “Moreover, it’s not part of Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, but there are characters from Nojima’s side-story novel Final Fantasy 7: The Kids Are Alright who appear in the game.”
The Final Fantasy 7 Compilation titles ranged from solid efforts to some… not very solid efforts. By and large, the characters from those entries have not exactly been remembered fondly, especially compared to the original cast. While the game will have multiple parts, and those characters could show up in some capacity in later episodes, it sounds like, for now, we’ll be sticking to the OGs.
