Remake Interviews: Catch-all Thread

[Odysseus]

Also, once again

Despite all these changes, the pair of directors say they are not losing sight of respecting the original game. They both say they are heartened by the love showered upon “Remake,” and were very satisfied with player response to the many changes in the gameplay and the story.
“It goes without saying that we strived for this with ‘Intergrade,’ but I am reminded that for the next installment, it’s of utmost importance not to damage the memories from the source material, but to reimagine it so it surpasses people’s expectations,” Hamaguchi said.

 

[Wol]

—“If this were Vincent, another optional character, he would have been sleeping in a coffin in the Shinra mansion, so we wouldn’t be able to move him around,” Toriyama said.

Darnish they could simply have introduced time-travelling ghosts that failed to protect the timeline, making Vincent wake up before the appointed time.

 

[Shademp]

Rule #1 of Square Enix: You never know when they will practice restraint and when they will ignore all limitations.

 

[Theozilla]

Also, once again

See! See!

 

[Roundhouse]

'We do want to make it a culmination of all the ‘Final Fantasy VII’-related works created up to this point.'

Remake being Final Fantasy VII: Infinity War confirmed.

Also....nothing shall forestall his return.

 

[KindOfBlue]

 

[Highwind]

New interview with Motomu Toriyama and Naoki Hamaguchi:
Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Square Enix On Making the Yuffie DLC And Tantalizing Hints About Part 2

Hamaguchi, meanwhile, says that he's happy with how the first part made players feel like they're "experiencing a movie through the gameplay," but that the second part will have unique challenges. "As for improvement, or should I say "change," moving forward — because the next installment will involve Cloud and company to leave Midgar and explore the world map, our next challenge will be to create gameplay that leverages the vastness of the world, unlike what we did in this current title."

 

[Theozilla]

I wonder if the comment about it being a while until Wutai is showcased in earnest is indicative of the next part not reaching Wutai story-wise, i.e. more evidence that Part 2 will end around Nibelheim and/or Rocket Town?

 

[Odysseus]

Maybe part 2 ends with them escaping with the plane after a much more overblown throwdown with Shinra, and they have to lay low in Wutai for a while, which is why they go there this time.

 

[Eerie]

I wonder if the comment about it being a while until Wutai is showcased in earnest is indicative of the next part not reaching Wutai story-wise, i.e. more evidence that Part 2 will end around Nibelheim and/or Rocket Town?

That’s what I thought but since it matched my observation that they could not reach even Aerith’s death with how they were doing the Remake, it didn’t surprise me lol and barely made a beep on my radar ?

 

[Kain424]

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-interview/

 

[Makoeyes987]

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-interview/

Oh, that's a good one. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kain424]

Indeed.

Toriyama-san stresses that they aren’t making a “completely different game,” and when it comes to major characters and plot revelations the team will “draw the line” to ensure core elements and iconic moments are accurately recreated.

It seems pretty much on track with what most people are expecting.

 

[Odysseus]

EDIT: Ninja'd lol

Based on these interviews, I'm starting to feel that the whispers as a plot device really were just there to justify the new content that may come, rather than to make it seem as though the whole thing would be changed outright. Like, this is a very unambiguous statement:

Toriyama-san stresses that they aren’t making a “completely different game,” and when it comes to major characters and plot revelations the team will “draw the line” to ensure core elements and iconic moments are accurately recreated. That being said, you can probably expect a healthy amount of surprises given how the first chapter goes down.

Presentation may be different, but the essential elements that make FF7 what it is will be there. Hmm.

Also, nice to see talk about that Tifa and Aerith novel in an English interview. Gives me hope we'll be getting it sooner than later lol.

 

[Theozilla]

There was also a bit of bitter comedy reading this interview. As one can tell that the interviewer, being the same person who wrote the op-Ed that Aerith should live in the Remake and should hook up with Tifa, is one of those fans who are/were hoping for big and major changes in Remake. Reading between the lines, one can sorta get the feel of the interviewer being nonplussed by the developers’ reassurances that the core and iconic elements and moments of the OG are going to be recreated for the Remake (and that Advent Children and Dirge of Cerebus are canon to the Remake).

 

[Eerie]

Yeah this reinforces my idea that Remake is just a parallel to the OG. You can pick up either and both will leave you with the same beats and at the end of it, it won't change anything. I know a lot of people are hoping a lot of things will change, but the devs keep saying lately that nothing will truly change, and I wonder if it's because they have heard too many theories of Aerith living, and are afraid that fans are going to be deceived.

I was also thinking that the next DLCs should be around Zack - it's the most logical way to push his story without bothering the Remake story. I guess we'll see?

 

[Wol]

Yeah this just reinforces my idea that Remake is a collective fanfiction.

Yay

 

[Shademp]

I enjoy it when the development team acknowledge modern gaming titles. It shows that these people are not disconnected from the industry. Did not expect Toriyama to talk about The Last of Us Part 2.

 

[Tetsujin]

I mean, I expect some drastic changes. Zack is back after all and that's not gonna be minor in the grand scheme of things. We're gonna follow the story of the original but I do believe all the changes that they have introduced so far and will introduce are gonna add up amounting to something pretty different at the very end.

Aerith might live even and enter a wholesome polyamorous relationship with Cloud and Tifa

 

[Makoeyes987]

Zack can live well beyond his intended fate, exist, and eventually leave an unexpected mark on the story and then go right back to the Lifestream.

A "drastic" and unexpected change that still manages to follow the general course of the original. Already Zack has gone from an unknown dead man in reference to the plot to something akin to an interdimensional phantom hanging over the story. The Remake is differentiated by it's telling but can be familiar in it's end result.

 

[Theozilla]

Zack can live well beyond his intended fate, exist, and eventually leave an unexpected mark on the story and then go right back to the Lifestream.

A "drastic" and unexpected change that still manages to follow the general course of the original. Already Zack has gone from an unknown dead man in reference to the plot to something akin to an interdimensional phantom hanging over the story. The Remake is differentiated by it's telling but can be familiar in it's end result.

Yeah I figure Zack’s plot gonna end up like one of those Booster Gold stories, where the method/point of resolving his plot line will end up resulting in him being sent back to his original fate for the sake of the plot and likely no one will know that he had to do so.

 

[cold_spirit]

I feel the developers will always think they've delivered a remake of the original game. Whether that's true depends on the individual holding the controller. Just look at the reaction to part 1.

 

[KindOfBlue]

Zack can live well beyond his intended fate, exist, and eventually leave an unexpected mark on the story and then go right back to the Lifestream.

A "drastic" and unexpected change that still manages to follow the general course of the original. Already Zack has gone from an unknown dead man in reference to the plot to something akin to an interdimensional phantom hanging over the story. The Remake is differentiated by it's telling but can be familiar in it's end result.

This, for as crazy as a change the Whispers are, it really is just a device to expand the scope of new stories that can be told…I’m still betting on plot points from AC and DoC potentially not happening as they did previously and instead being retooled to fit into the remake, but the main points of the OG story itself? Yeah…I don’t think Aerith’s surviving this one lol

I feel the developers will always think they've delivered a remake of the original game. Whether that's true depends on the individual holding the controller. Just look at the reaction to part 1.

Well, by definition, they did remake the game

 

[ForceStealer]

The thing is they could have made whatever changes they wanted while following the main story WITHOUT the Destiny Incarnate fight. Tons of things happened differently in Part 1 that didn't involve the Whispers and they were by and large great. So I don't know why they would need all that to "justify" any deviations down the road.

 

[Eerie]

IMHO the Whispers and the big fight at the end are the justification for the Zack AU. If they are not here, they cannot justify the creation of this separate world where Zack survives. They are also needed to keep Aerith down, because they’re the ones who prevent her from understanding everything. Now that they have defeated destiny, Aerith can become closer to her Cetra ancestry, and maybe even hear what flowers have to tell her.