14 DAY TRIAL // The evidence is mounting that Square Enix, the Japanese publisher in charge of the Final Fantasy franchise, is not at all interested in offering gamers a remake of the seventh main game in the series, which many consider to still offer the most developed Japanese role playing experience. The latest piece of evidence comes from an interview with one of the men who would be central to any remake effort.
Yoshinori Kitase, who is the producer of Final Fantasy XIII, told TechDigest in no uncertain terms that “If it were possible that we had all the right facilities and the right environment to be able to make and prepare a Final Fantasy VII remake within a year, we'd very much like a go at it. But even Final Fantasy XIII has taken over three and a half years to create. If we were to recreate final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together! So it's looking pretty unrealistic to happen.”
So, it seems that a simple remake of Final Fantasy VII is set to take between 10.5 and 14 years for Square Enix and quite a bit of resources, which could better be used to deliver a few new videogaming experiences in the Final Fantasy universe.
The most direct retort to the arguments offered by Yoshinori Kitase is that long time fans of Final Fantasy VII are not asking for the remake to offer the exact same graphical experience seen in the thirteenth main game in the series. They could probably be satisfied with a chance to play the classic title on the current gen PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a limited update to the graphics and with the same narrative thread.