A necessity to split the original game into several games
For a full-fledged remake, all the features of the original game have to be revised and deepened. However, this causes an issue in terms of production time and resources, as pointed out by Yoshinori Kitase when he discussed the case of a Final Fantasy VII remake:
“(I)f we were to take one of the past Final Fantasy titles and make a sequel to it, I think that would be a lot more challenging because when they were on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 their actual game volume was a lot bigger, kind of. Graphically they weren't as advanced as they are now, but there were lots of towns and worlds and cities and whatever. So if we were to recreate the same kind of game - sequel or not - with the same volume, but give it a much higher level of graphical quality, it would us take three times, four times, even ten times longer to make such a game. (...) (W)e know that the hundreds of fans would like to see a hi-def version of Final Fantasy VII. But if we were to achieve the modern graphical quality at the same time putting in exactly the same world and everything, I think it would take ten times longer as compared to the time we took to produce XIII, for example. So if we were to pursue the same graphical quality, somehow we would have to make adjustments about game volume in the world, we'd have to cut down certain areas, but if we did that our fans would probably be not very happy, so we have to achieve both goals so that if we ever decide to either remake VII or make a sequel for hi-def consoles, we're going to have to be very, very careful. (…
If I may speak as a game creator, if we were to produce a remake of VII, for example, I would be really tempted to delete things and add new elements, new systems or whatever because if we were to make exactly the same thing now, it'd be like a repeat. It'd be an issue of repetition and not as much fun to make such a game. So I'd be really interested in rearranging games or reshaping games into something slightly different even though it's supposed to be the same game. But if we did that, the fans might be disappointed or "this is not what I was expecting" so in that sense maybe some might say that it's better to let memory be memory. When we play the games we made years ago, sometimes we think "oh, that is not really cool" or "that probably should have been a bit better than that" and that sort of thing. But on the other hand, those slightly negative features and bits, some of the fans - really enthusiastic fans of these titles - that gives them an extra flavour or personality or whatever, so maybe they would rather we didn't do anything about it and we just leave it in as it is, so it's very difficult to decide what we should we keep in and what we should take out.”
Kitase-san words lead one to realize that if Final Fantasy VII has to be remade properly, it would take too much time and resources. One alternate option would be to cut down parts of the original game, but diminishing the contents to fit production schedules would be very dissatisfying. Therefore, the best option would be to split the original game into a series of games. Each game would provide enough content to satisfy the players. Planning the production could be set along the model of the Assassin’s Creed series. From a production standpoint, selling several games would provide financial means to maintain a very long development time, which is a necessity for remaking the entire game.
Fortunately, the original game can be split into several parts, each with a very interesting narrative arc. To begin with, a “Prologue” part revolving around Midgar would be a very good way to start the series. It would begin where the original game does, ending when the characters leave Midgar for the first time. The main conflict to resolve would be centered around Shin-Ra, presenting the President as the main antagonist. The Shin-Ra building would constitute the final dungeon with the most climatic scenes of the game.
The second game, “Act I”, would set the characters into the much larger world, and present the crisis caused by the appearance of Sephiroth. The characters would journey around the world, and gather an entire party. The game would end shortly after the Temple of the Ancients, after Cloud hands the Black Materia to Sephiroth. The Temple of the Ancients would be an ideal final dungeon, while the story would be left in a very interesting cliffhanger (with Cloud’s dreams of Aerith and Sephiroth).
The third game, “Act II”, would be revolving around the Reunion of Jenova. It concerns all the adventures taking place on the Icicle Area, with the main dramatic events at the Forgotten City and at the Northern Crater. It would finish with the confrontation of Sephiroth, and the summon of Meteor. Once again, the story would be left in a very interesting cliffhanger (with Tifa left with her shattered memories).
The fourth game, “Act III”, would be about reconstituting the party, resolve all the conflicts and finish the entire series.
