Final Fantasy 7 director explains why it's episodic

Square Enix has explained why its Final Fantasy 7 remake is being released as an episodic multipart series instead of a single narrative delivered in one instalment.

Speaking in an interview with Famitsu, the translation of which has been provided by Square Enix, producer Yoshinori Kitase said the episodic strategy made the undertaking more manageable and allowed for an experience as rich as the original PlayStation classic.

"One of the main reasons why we haven't done a remake until now is because it's a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy 7 from the ground up with the current technology," he said.

"To a great extent, we just couldn't take the plunge. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy 7 that maintains the same feeling of density of the original results in a volume of content that couldn't possibly fit into one installment."

Tetsuya Nomura, who has served as designer on various Final Fantasy projects and is directing the remake, added that it would need to make concessions were it to use the traditional single-installment model. The episodic approach, however, allows the developer to dig deeper in to the world and let players explore previously unseen areas.

"If we were to try to fit everything into one installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version," he said. "But there would be no point in doing that.

"For instance, players will be able to explore many different areas of Midgar in this game that they couldn't access in the original -- if we're remaking this world, we want to add in areas like this and depict them with real detail."

Nomura admitted that aspects of the original game may be cut from the remake for "various reasons," but "the overall amount of content is only going to increase."

He continued: "I'm sure everyone is anxious about the schedule, and we want everyone to get to play the game as soon as possible, too. Drawing the line on that front is another reason why we're taking this approach."

On December 6, Square Enix announced "Final Fantasy VII Remake will play across a multipart series, with each entry providing its own unique experience." It did not provide any further details on the game.

It has been revealed that the development of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is being assisted by CyberConnect2, the studio known for its work on the Naruto fighting games, the .Hack series of role-playing games and Asura's Wrath.