When Tetsuya Nomura, who worked on Final Fantasy VII as principal character designer, learned that he would be the director of the Final Fantasy VII HD remake, he was as surprised as anyone else.
Why? Because Nomura learned that he’d be director only when he saw the final version of the internal Final Fantasy VII HD remake trailer. The trailer also confirmed Yoshinori Kitase, the original director of Final Fantasy VII, as the remake’s producer. Kazushige Nojima, the writer of the original Final Fantasy VII, returns for the remake as well.
“As pre-production went along and I offered my opinions on what I thought should be done,” Nomura said, “Mr. Kitase would asked me how the individual elements should be adjusted in fine detail. “It was very perplexing. Then one day, as I was checking the internal company presentation video it said ‘Director Tetsuya Nomura’ at the end. I called up Mr. Kitase and said, ‘It says that I’m the director for some reason.’ To which he replied, ‘Of course it does.’”
Of course, Nomura’s now quite well aware of his role as director. He has been considering how he can update the plot while holding fast to the spirit of those iconic sequences fans hold as sacred: the date with Barrett, Cloud’s cross-dressing adventures with Don Corneo… and, okay fine, the death of Aeris.
“Since we now formally revealed Kazushige Nojima’s name for the scenario, there will be more plot devices in the story, so I think you can also look forward to that,” Nomura said.
While Nomura previously tried to get a Final Fantasy VII remake project off the ground at Square, it never quite panned out. According to Nomura, this time around it was Square Enix corporate executive Shinji Hashimoto who approached Nomura and Kitase about the new project.
“Mr. Hashimoto was involved with the advertising and marketing of the original, so like [Mr. Kitase and myself], VII has a strong place in his heart,” Nomura explained. Talk about an OG reunion. But how will Nomura take his role as director and run with it?
"In terms of taking such an iconic game and giving it a fresh feel, we can't go into too much detail but we're not intending for this to become a one-to-one remake, or just the original Final Fantasy VII with better graphics," Nomura said. "There are certain plot points we don't want to interfere with or disturb, nor will we want to change elements that fans have very big attachments to."
Nomura did add, “There won’t be new characters. As for the visual taste, we’re doing them to match today’s visuals and appear closer to reality.”
Thanks be to God, we are spared an assault of Loveless quotes from Genesis. Whatever the plot tweaks ahead, it appears that the original team has every intention of sticking to the original’s spirit.
