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This month marks the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy 8. Arguably the awkward middle child of the PS1 era, its tale of teenage mercenaries and trippy sorcery would likely benefit from a remake more than the ever-popular Final Fantasy 7 has. And, while there’s absolutely no plans for Square to do so, the RPG’s original director has thoughts on what would need to be changed in a hypothetical remake.
Talking to IGN, Final Fantasy 8’s director Yoshinori Kitase said he’d “really rework the battle system on [Final Fantasy 8]”, noting that players struggled with the stat-heavy Junction system that powered the RPGs characters and fights.
“I think you may remember we had the Junction system in Final Fantasy 8,” he said. “And the thing about that system was the enemies levelled up in line with what the player’s level was. And obviously you had to then use the Junction system and how you customise that to overcome the challenge there. And I think it was a very difficult system for some people to get into. Depending on player skills, sometimes they just didn't work out the best way of doing it.
“So I think I'd want to return to that and really rework the battle system on [Final Fantasy 8] and make it something where that level of difficulty and approachability for some fans was a lot better balanced. So I think that's the thing I'd look at most if I was going to look at remaking it.”
Of course, a remake of Final Fantasy 8 seems unlikely. “I've worked out that trying to recreate that kind of volume of content you had in the RPGs back then in the modern day really is not something you can take up lightly,” said Kitase. “It's such a massive investment of time and effort that we really have to think very hard about taking on any kind of project like that.”
Kitase’s words reinforce his recent comments about Final Fantasy 6, which he estimates would take around 20 years to remake.
Emphasising the sheer undertaking of a remake, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi said, while laughing, “If after we’ve finished the three games in the [Final Fantasy 7] remake trilogy, Mr. Kitase then comes to me and says, ‘Right, we're going to be remaking another numbered Final Fantasy game and you are on the project,’ I'll just turn around and go, ‘No!’”
While Hamaguchi was talking about the situation lightheartedly, the conversation made it clear that remaking a SNES or PS1-era Final Fantasy is a colossal undertaking that requires a significant budget, a long development period, and potentially multiple instalments. Right now, it seems that we shouldn’t consider Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s success as a clear signal that Square Enix will definitely remake other games.
As for that remake project, our latest hands-on with Rebirth sheds new light on how the original’s overworld has been transformed into a modern open world. We also learned more about how the original game’s romance system has been enhanced and made less stressful, and how Cid and Vincent are being held back for the third game – at least as far as their role in battle goes.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.
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