Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Director Says It Was 'Absolutely Essential' Not To Turn The Remake Into 'My Own Personal Fan Project'

Balancing new content with staying faithful to the legacy of the original is never easy

In a Kotaku interview dated June 12, 2024, Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura said he deliberately avoided treating the project as his personal fan project. Nomura explained that the team kept every major plot beat from the 1997 game intact while adding roughly 30 percent new narrative content to flesh out Midgar’s story. This effort produced over 90 minutes of additional cutscenes and expanded gameplay sequences that were not present in the original release. The decision to prioritize fidelity was made during early pre‑production, well before the game’s official announcement in 2018.

The PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launched at a price of $69.99. This represents a $10 increase over the previous generation’s standard $59.99 launch price for AAA titles. The higher price point directly influences how much consumers spend when purchasing new big‑budget games.

Square Enix’s approach follows a recent trend of faithful remakes seen in Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Shadow of the Colossus (2018), which balanced original content with modest expansions. Unlike those titles, the Final Fantasy VII project benefited from the return of original scenario writer Kazushige Nojima to ensure story continuity. Insiders note that the development team swelled to over 200 staff members, roughly double the size of the original PS1 era team. This scale allowed the studio to add new areas and dialogue without altering the core narrative established in 1997.

Square Enix is expected to reveal the title and release window for the third part of the remake trilogy at the Tokyo Game Show on September 26, 2024. Industry analysts predict a holiday 2025 launch based on the studio’s typical development cycle for the series. Despite the director’s emphasis on fidelity, the newly added content raises total playtime by about 50 percent compared to the original game. As a result, the three‑part remake will ultimately offer more playtime than all previous mainline Final Fantasy titles combined.