Final Fantasy VII Remake

Shortly after the bombing of Mako Reactor 5, Yuffie Kisaragi (Suzie Yeung[15]/Yumi Kakazu), a ninja working for Wutai, arrives at Midgar and meets up with her partner Sonon Kusakabe (Aleks Le/Yoshimasa Hosoya) in order to steal Shinra's "Ultimate Materia". With the help of a local Avalanche cell, Yuffie and Sonon infiltrate the lab under Shinra headquarters and fight through Shinra's forces before discovering that the Ultimate Materia is not yet complete. As they try to escape, they are confronted by a Shinra supersoldier named Nero (Sean Chiplock/Ryōtarō Okiayu). Outmatched, Sonon sacrifices himself to ensure Yuffie can escape. She leaves Shinra headquarters just in time to see the Sector 7 plate fall. Some time later, Yuffie has left Midgar and muses that in order to achieve her desire to see Shinra's downfall, she will need a team to help her.

Yoshinori Kitase, director of the original game, returned as lead producer for Remake

Final Fantasy VII was developed by Square for the PlayStation console and released in 1997.[16] Its staff included producer, co-writer and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, director and co-writer Yoshinori Kitase, artist Yusuke Naora, character designer and co-writer Tetsuya Nomura, and writer Kazushige Nojima.[17] The game was a critical and commercial success, and established the Final Fantasy series as a major franchise.[16] It was expanded through the multimedia project Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, comprising additional games, films, and other media.[18]

In the early 2000s, Square announced a remake for PlayStation 2 alongside Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX, but nothing further was heard of the project.[19][20] It was abandoned because of the increased challenge of developing on new hardware and would have necessitated cutting content.[21] The staff were preoccupied with developing Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels, and Remake would have been an equally large or larger project hard to undertake at the same time. Once the XIII series ended, the team was free to pursue other projects.[22] Kitase claims that since the XIII, he had been asked multiple times about developing this game. Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi was originally just a fan of the game so he was glad about his inclusion into the core development team.[23]

Demand for a remake grew following a PlayStation 3 tech demo at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, showcasing the opening of Final Fantasy VII with Square's new Crystal Tools engine. Further demand came during the game's impending tenth anniversary in 2007. On both occasions, Square denied that any remake was in development,[24][25][26] for reasons including their focus on new games, the necessity to cut elements to make a remake manageable, the difficulty of developing for modern hardware, and the amount of development time it would require.[27][28][29][30][31]

The Remake project began when Final Fantasy producer Shinji Hashimoto broached the subject to Kitase, Nojima, and Nomura. All three were reaching a stage of life that they defined as "that age": all felt that if they waited much longer, they might not be alive to or would be too old to develop a remake, and passing the project on to a new generation did not feel right.[32][33][34] Another reason for developing the remake was that Square Enix was creating a growing library of PlayStation 4 titles, and the team hoped to increase the console's popularity.[34] Nomura was appointed as director much to his own surprise when it was decided to create the remake but he was busy with the making of the video game Kingdom Hearts III at that time.[35]

The cast of the game was redesigned in a more realistic style. Left to right: Red XIII, Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, and Tifa Lockhart.

The game entered full production by late 2015, led by Business Division 1, an internal production team within Square Enix.[36][37][38] While Nomura was involved with the project from the start, he only discovered he was the director after seeing himself credited in an internal company presentation video, as he had expected Kitase to fill the role.[32] Nomura filled the role director for both Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III concurrently.[39] Another project leader was Naoki Hamaguchi, who had previously served as a programmer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project lead for Mobius Final Fantasy.[37] Square Enix approached developing Remake at the same level as a main numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series.[40]

While the team had the option of simply remastering Final Fantasy VII with better graphics as many fans had requested, they noted that its graphics and many of its mechanics had become dated by modern standards. With this in mind, they decided to do a full remake, rebuilding the game systems to suit contemporary tastes and using current gaming technology to recreate the world.[32][34] An overarching goal of the project was to make the game feel both "new and nostalgic" for players of the original game while exemplifying the idea of Final Fantasy VII for new players.[40] This decision led to the creation of Remake's action-based battle system, which draws from that action-based style of Dissidia Final Fantasy.[22] Teruki Endo, who had previously worked on Monster Hunter World, served as battle director.[41] The team aimed to retain all of the gameplay mechanics popular in the original game, including Active Time Battle, while merging them with the action-based system.[42][40]

Rather than using the character models and graphical style of Advent Children, which by that point had been developed using ten-year-old technology, the team decided to create new designs and models for characters: Nomura wished to balance the realism of Advent Children with cartoon stylization. Nomura was in charge of the revamped main character designs, while designer Roberto Ferrari was in charge of designs for secondary characters. Character modeling was supervised by Visual Works, Square Enix's CGI development branch.[21][36] Cloud Strife's initial redesign for Final Fantasy VII Remake departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's original concept.[43] Tifa Lockhart's original appearance was changed to make her look more realistic as members from the staff realized her design would not fit fight scenes.[44]

Instead of creating a new engine, Square Enix licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 to develop the game, with Square Enix and Epic Games Japan working together to optimize the engine for Remake.[45][46] The team received technical assistance from the developers of Kingdom Hearts III, as the latter game was developed using the same engine.[47] The game's lighting is augmented with the lighting engine Enlighten.[48] To help with the action gameplay and video quality, Square Enix originally partnered with video game developer CyberConnect2, with the two companies keeping in close contact due to different development styles.[21]

In 2017, the game's development focus shifted from being developed with external partners to being a primarily internal project.[37] When the company first started the Remake project, the team had to decide the entire scope of the project. There were two directions possible: expand upon the original with multiple releases or include the entire scope of the original game in a single release. The team starts by investigating what were the essential parts of the original and what parts are what the fans absolutely had to see; they quickly decided that there were so many parts that are essential and the fans would be upset if the team had to cut out anything. A single release with more depth would not be possible without cutting out parts of the original story. In the end, the team decided the best option for the project was to go for the highest level possible (such as within the city of Midgar, which was mostly inaccessible in the original) with an expanded story in multiple releases.[21][22][49] Each game is planned to be on a similar scale to Final Fantasy XIII.[22] The first part focuses on the city of Midgar due to its iconic status among the Final Fantasy community.[50]

Regarding the scope for the first part of the Remake, Nomura mentioned that many were worried about how the company would be able to make a whole game based solely on Midgar, but he didn't think it would be a problem. Nomura said it takes about 7 hours to go through the Midgar section in the original game. Going through the same gameplay in the Remake with 3D map in Midgar and new scenario, plus the time it takes to go from one point to another adds up. So the overall gameplay of the Remake would be well enough to cover a whole game. The story and scenario writer, Nojima, also added that stopping the game at the end of Midgar would also allow for an adequate amount of story scenarios to be put in as well. Nomura further added that level designs would have to change again after the party leaves Midgar. If the developers were to do that, they would also have to split up other scenarios and even if they add new gameplay, it would have to end in an abrupt point of the story. That’s why they felt that if they had everything focused in Midgar, they wouldn’t have to split up any of the story elements that happen there.[51]

While developing the scenario, the team needed to work carefully, so the game did not appear too nostalgic. They needed to make decisions about what could be carried over from the original and what needed adjustment due to changes in social norms since the original's release.[21][22][36] Despite there already being a story in place, which greatly simplified production on some fronts, Nojima was brought back in to create new story material.[22][32] The scenario for the first part was completed in December 2015, covering the beginning of the game to the escape from Midgar.[47][40] Kitase observed that despite 23 years passing since the original game was released, the themes of economic inequality, corporate monopoly, and environmentalism were still relevant to the current day.[40] Nomura expressed regret that other areas of Midgar, such as the upper plate, were inaccessible in the original game and wanted to address that in Remake in order to give players a better sense of the city and its culture. The roles of previously minor characters were also expanded for this purpose.[40]

Despite being marketed as a remake, the narrative has multiple changes from the original game, such as Barret being attacked by the antagonist Sephiroth and saved by a Whisper. Sephiroth appears during the Midgar scenario despite not being properly introduced until a flashback Cloud experiences. Vice noted that Cloud sees the future of Aerith in the original 1997 game, leaving her fate unknown to returning fans.[52] Yoshinori Kitase refrained from explaining the reason for the changes from the narrative: "I want to let you know is that all of the lore from the works created after the original game, the [Compilation of Final Fantasy VII], that's all very much in the base of the canon for the remake, and going forward it will be too."[53]

The main characters were adjusted in various ways for Remake. Rather than the "cool and collected" Cloud as seen in other games, Remake depicts his apathetic attitude as a façade to mask his insecurities. Nojima wanted to convey that his standoffishness could be seen as lame.[54] Cloud's initial redesign for Remake departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's design.[43] Tifa's desire for revenge against Shinra is complicated by her reluctance to enact violence. Barret's passion and charisma rallies other characters to follow his lead.[54] Nojima worked hard to make the interactions between these three natural.[55] It was important to Hamaguchi to include a scene wherein Cloud has an intimate conversation with one of his teammates based on the player's choices in homage to the "date" scene from the original game.[56] The development team avoided playing favorites between Tifa and Aerith, treating them both as main heroes.[57] In addition to returning characters, the team decided to expand the role of minor characters and write new characters.[58] Cloud's interactions with AVALANCHE members Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie further his character development and deepen the world of the story.[54] Sephiroth was initially intended to be a looming presence, inspired by the shark in Jaws, to mirror his role in this section of the original game.[59] However, Kitase reasoned that the original's Jaws-like approach would be ineffective because even new players were too familiar with the character.[60] Hamaguchi pitched an alternate ending in which Cloud faces off with Sephiroth, which led to him appearing more and more in the remake.[51]

The game is fully voiced, with the original plan being for the voice actors from the CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children to reprise their roles.[36][47] Ultimately, the English characters were recast for Remake.[61] According to Kitase, choosing a new generation of voices for the characters was part of the game's rebirth as Remake.[50] The Japanese voice actors remained the same with Takahiro Sakurai being surprised by this younger take on Cloud, having not played Cloud in the original unvoiced PlayStation video game.[62] For the English dub, Cody Christian commented on replacing Steve Burton voicing Cloud, stating, "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy" and thus wanted to not let Burton down with his take on the character.[63] John Eric Bentley voiced Barret, a character he admired when he played the 1997 game. He felt his familiarity with the original work improved his performance, aided by the translators who explained the context for his scenes. He wanted his portrayal of Barret to be multifaceted and serve as a positive example of Black representation in games.[64] Briana White (Aerith) studied Maaya Sakamoto's acting in order to appeal to fans. Meanwhile, Britt Baron had little knowledge of Tifa when being cast but grew to like her character. Other prominent actors include Erica Lindbeck (Jessie), Gideon Emery (Biggs), and Matt Jones (Wedge).[65] The game employs an algorithm to adjust characters' facial motions while speaking in order to automatically match lip syncing and emotion in every language.[66]

Composers Nobuo Uematsu (left) and Masashi Hamauzu (right) worked on the game's soundtrack, alongside several others

The game's soundtrack consists primarily of arrangements of pieces Nobuo Uematsu wrote for the original Final Fantasy VII, with original tracks by several other series veterans, such as Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki.[67] Uematsu contributed one new track: the theme song for the game, "Hollow". It was the first time Uematsu and Kitase had worked together since Final Fantasy X (2001), with Kitase initially believing Uematsu would refuse as he had long since left Square Enix and found success as an independent composer.[68] Nomura intended "Hollow" to reflect Cloud's state of mind; he wanted it to be a rock song with male vocals and an image of "rain".[69] It was performed by Yosh, the vocalist for Survive Said the Prophet.[70] Hamauzu also expressed honor in doing the music alongside Uematsu, as the original game was his first exposure to the series.[67] Suzuki stated that the themes for Wall Market, Honeybee Inn, and Midgar Highway were among his favorite contributions.[67][71]

Remake employs adaptive music in its gameplay wherein multiple arrangements of a particular track are played simultaneously, which fade in and out with the player's actions, such as entering or exiting a battle.[40] Arrangements also shift within a battle depending on the emotions the developers wanted players to experience from moment to moment. Because cutscenes in Remake have voiced dialogue, the sound team needed to rearrange some tracks to accommodate this change but they were careful to preserve the original melodies.[72]

Final Fantasy VII Remake sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide within three days.[141] This made it one of the biggest launches for a PlayStation 4 game and the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive, surpassing the launch sales of Marvel's Spider-Man (3.3 million; 2018) and God of War (3.1 million; 2018).[142][143] By August 2020, that figure had increased to over 5 million on PS4.[144]

In Japan, Final Fantasy VII Remake sold over a million copies during its first week,[145][146] with the game sold out in many stores.[147]

In North America, Remake was the top-selling game of April 2020 and the third best-selling game of 2020, behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020). It became the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title in the franchise's history, surpassing the launch record previously set by Final Fantasy XV (2016),[148] and was the most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in the United States.[149]

In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at the top of the weekly sales chart,[150] selling an estimated 60,000 physical copies in its first weekend.[151] German trade association GAME announced that it took Final Fantasy VII Remake only a few days to sell more than 100,000 units within Germany, for which it won a Gold Sales Award.[152] It was the fourth most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in Europe.[149]

Final Fantasy VII Remake won the overall "Game of Show award" from E3 2019.[153] After its release, the game also won the Editors’ Choice awards from PlayStation.[154] In the CEDEC Awards, the game won in the "Excellency Award for Sound" category.[155] It was later nominated for six awards at The Game Awards, including Game of the Year.[156] It won in the two categories "Best RPG" and "Best Score/Music".[157] It also won IGN Japan's Game of the Year in 2020.[158] Both Anime News Network and Siliconera and RPG Site also listed it as one of the best games from its year.[159][160][161] Final Fantasy VII Remake also won the "Soundtrack Album of the Year" award at the 35th Japan Gold Disc Award, and the "Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.[162][163]