Final Fantasy is a "toy box", says series producer Yoshinori Kitase
On remakes, side quests, and Tekken.
"My take on Final Fantasy, and this is quite deliberate, is I don't restrict it to being any one thing," says series producer Yoshinori Kitase. I'd asked him what he felt was the essence of Final Fantasy, especially as so many fans have their own ideas of what the series should be.
"We talk about Final Fantasy as being a toy box," he continues. "The idea that you take the lid off the toy box and you've got all kinds of different things in there. There's a dinosaur here, you've got your football here and your baseball here. And there are so many different things to play with and have fun. And that to me, that's what Final Fantasy is."
I'm chatting with Kitase at a preview event for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the next game in the series and second in the planned trilogy of remakes. The Final Fantasy series is beloved, but the seventh is, perhaps, the most beloved of all - at least in its legacy of 3D graphics and cinematic storytelling.
Remaking the game for a modern audience, then, is a mammoth undertaking. Kitase directed the original game, but now - as series producer - is overseeing Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi reimagining the game for fans and newcomers alike.
But why remake this game in the first place? "If a player from the modern generation plays [the original], are they going to get the same emotional reaction and response the original generation of players had 27 years ago when it was current and cutting edge? I don't think they would," says Kitase.
"The old school fans have really great memories and so it left a massive impression on them," he continues, adding that for new fans the original is "probably going to be always that game my dad played, and I don't want it to be that".
"We need to remake the game as a modern game so it can continue to be seen in that light rather than just as an artefact from history."
This is a key reason for splitting Final Fantasy 7 into a trilogy for this remake project, allowing the team to keep all the content fans want to see and maintain the high quality they expect. Further, it allows the team to "level up" and increase their skills, as well as listen to fan feedback. For instance, the open world design of Rebirth is a result of developer experience, fan feedback, and going through the iterative stages of the first game.
"We need to remake the game as a modern game so it can continue to be seen in that light rather than just as an artefact from history."
The toy box analogy relates back to Rebirth specifically, too. The team has added so much to the open world, filling it with side quests, a card game, minigames and more. Perhaps, I suggest, this could take away from the urgency of the main quest.
"That is a very important point about the balancing of the game," says Kitase. "And we very much had to strive to make sure that none of the side content becomes a restriction on the player, or limits them if they want to go ahead and just proceed with the main story."
As a result, it will be made clear to players the amount of side quests available at any time, to allow players to plan out their time accordingly. Further, players often worry that side quests will disappear if not immediately completed. "I think that gives a kind of fear of missing out to a lot of players," says Kitase. As such, side quests won't disappear and will be waiting for players no matter how far they progress in the main story.
The game is also a lot funnier than I'd expected - something I noticed when playing the card game Queen's Blood. "We did try and bring out the humour in the game," says Kitase, once more relating to that toy box. "Although it's not a defining point of the series, something which has marked Final Fantasy in the past is that humorous element - it's not just serious, dark stories, there are funny bits too. With such a wide world map with so much content we needed to put into that, obviously we wanted to have a big variety of different themes and feels there."
It's a huge project, then, but Kitase isn't deterred from future projects of this size, though he'll certainly consider it carefully in future.
"It hasn't really put me off as such, but certainly we have realised that the amount of work involved - certainly for games from the Super Nintendo era and the PlayStation One era - and the actual amount of content that were in those games is a lot more than we remembered," says Kitase.
"It did blow us away: the amount of time and effort and resources that we need to realise something like [a modern remake] was much more than we originally imagined it would be, so it has made us think quite carefully about starting up another project of that scale again, certainly."
He continues: "Having said that, I think there's no iron rule that says we have to make everything in a super realistic photo real art style. There are certainly possibilities there for future creators who want to come back to older games to do them in all kinds of different visual styles and approaches."
"I think there's no iron rule that says we have to make everything in a super realistic photo real art style."
The obvious question to this, then, is the possibility of a Final Fantasy 6 remake. In a previous interview with French YouTuber Julien Chièze, Kitase stated a modern remake of the game could take around 20 years to complete. But what about a smaller scale remake, perhaps in the 2D-HD visual style popularised by Octopath Traveller?
"I don't have any particular plans," says Kitase, "but I think certainly if there is a developer within the company who wants to use that style - or even another style they feel that's really the best approach for the game that they're remaking and that's the style the fans will want to see it in - I definitely think that's a possibility and they could very much work with it. I'd be very happy to see that."
Kitase also explains the Final Fantasy 7 remake series is completely separate from the main series. And even considering the success of this remake trilogy, that doesn't mean Square Enix will have full remakes of all games in the series running parallel to new titles.
Beyond simple remasters or re-releases of older games, new games in the series must advance the series in some way. But it's not about what's next for Final Fantasy and seeking a direction, it's the other way around. "So we have a creator who has - completely regardless of whether it's going to be Final Fantasy or something else - an idea," says Kitase. "Then I will take that and say 'ok, I want to use that guy's vision to expand what Final Fantasy can be'."
He cites both Final Fantasy 16 and the Final Fantasy 7 remake project as examples of this - for Rebirth, it's about director Hamaguchi's concept of "a really dramatic, deep story experience" paired with player freedom and a massive world. "I think they both added something to the series as new concepts and new directions," says Kitase.
These two games in particular have pushed the Final Fantasy series further into action-RPG territory with their real time combat, something some longtime fans have lamented. Yet Kitase explains the Rebirth combat system still has the original ATB system at its core with action elements on top. "I think in that sense the Rebirth/Remake combat systems are very much designed to appeal to both groups here," says Kitase. "You've got the people who look for an action game experience - I think it does deliver that to the people who want that - and it's also able to deliver the same kind of strategic more cerebral gameplay experience that the older turn-based fans want as well."
Really, it all comes back to that toy box.
"I always really look forward to what's going to turn up in my toy box," says Kitase. "[Directors] give their ideas and put their new toys in my box. When I open it up, lift up the lid, I think 'oh great, there's something really cool and different there'. I really look forward to seeing how those ideas come out."
And perhaps one other toy to add to that box is Tekken 8. Fans are desperate to see Rebirth's Tifa appear in the game as a playable character - after all, the martial arts expert is a perfect fit.
"We have seen on social media that the fans are getting excited about the idea and it's nice to see them getting excited about the character," says Kitase. "That's probably all I can say about it." Keep hoping, folks!