OG FF7 director says thanks to the remake 'half of Final Fantasy 7 [...] is now owned by the fans'

Yoshinori Kitase discusses balancing innovation with fan expectations in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, highlighting the importance of respecting fans' deep connection to the characters and the game's lore while still creating an exciting experience for both old and new players.

Remakes need to appeal to original fans just as much as they need to capture new ones, especially in the case of a titan like Final Fantasy 7, and according to the original game's director, the remakes have given the fans as much ownership over the game as the developers themselves.

In an interview in Edge issue 405, FF7 director and producer of the remakes Yoshinori Kitase spoke about the need to balance making changes to the original with respecting their long-time fans. "I thought: if we just reproduce the original game with no changes, it will feel nostalgic but not exciting." he explains. "Fans of the original who know everything that's coming will soon get bored."

He notes that plenty of fans are just as, if not more attached to the characters than the developers. "Essentially half of Final Fantasy 7, or maybe even more, is now owned by the fans. It belongs to them as well as us, specifically in terms of their attachment to the characters. I realised we needed to be cautious in not caning those characters by turning them into different kinds of people."

This was one reason for the inclusion of the Whispers in the game, with Kitase describing them as "a kind of unspoken message to the fans." He notes that they represent that while some things change, others stay the same, and declares that this kind of relationship between a creator and their audience is "only possible in a remake like this."

Take a look at how the remakes stack up in our list of the best Final Fantasy games.