Many were surprised to hear that the much-anticipated remake would be episodic, but earlier this month producer Yoshinori Kitase went on record to explain why. According to Kitase, there’s simply too much going on in the game to remake everything to current graphical standards within the restrictions of budget and time.

The episodic format will allow for much of the game’s content to be preserved, as multiple releases will mean that Square-Enix can recoup development costs over a period of several years. However, there’s now confirmation that not everything from the 1997 release will be present.

Director Tetsuya Nomura has stated in a new interview that the team is currently deciding ‘whether it’s necessary’ to remake all the minigames fans enjoyed in the original, according to reporting by Games Radar. It remains to be seen exactly what will be included, and what will be left on the cutting room floor.

It will certainly be interesting to see whether modern graphics have an impact on what makes the grade. For instance, the snowboarding minigame is something that many fans fondly remember — but it might look rather jarring rendered in the highly realistic graphics that the project is aiming for.

Nomura and his team are definitely in an unenviable position as they attempt to do justice to an experience that many fans have been looking forward to for years. Even before it was officially announced, a remake of Final Fantasy 7 was a top priority for many of the franchise’s most devoted followers.

However, it has to be reiterated just how big the original game was. Back then, much was said about the fact that it could only be realized thanks to the nascent CD format — today, the issue doesn’t rest with storage space, but instead the ever-increasing costs of video game development.

Many fans will be looking to see every detail of Final Fantasy 7 given a fresh coat of paint in the remake, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point. The team at Square-Enix will be looking to squeeze as much content in as possible, but it seems obvious that not everything will make the grade.

Final Fantasy 7 is in development for the PlayStation 4. No release date for the first instalment has been made available.

Source: Games Radar