At a recent event for the Nintendo Switch title The World Ends With You: Final Remix, legendary character designer and game director Tetsuya Nomura took part in a Q&A with fans and was inevitably asked about something concerning the numerous spin-off titles associated with Final Fantasy VII. His response proved quite interesting.
A fan asked, “When can we play Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII again?” Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII was a mobile game released only in Japan in 2004 as a part of the “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII,” which was a series of games meant to expand on the story of Final Fantasy VII. It takes place six years before the events of the original game and focuses on a squad of agents known as the Turks who did important dirty work for the evil Shinra company.
In response, Nomura-san stated that he was focused on Kingdom Hearts 3 at the moment, but that he has been thinking about ideas for Final Fantasy VII Remake’s release, and has discussed them with producer Yoshinori Kitase. “We have a lot of the old guys thinking about all kinds of developments that can accompany the remake in some form,” Nomura said. “If we could maybe do some kind of compilation title.” Square recently released Kingdom Hearts – The Story So Far, which features six playable games, two sets of remastered cinematics, and a feature-length animated film. If this is how they’re treating one of their wildly popular series tied to Nomura, one could assume that a similar compilation for Final Fantasy VII related games and movies would be what they have in mind.
However, there is information that would discount the theory of an HD collection of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles. Siliconera reported that, when asked at MAGIC 2017 if it would make sense to remaster and release CoFF7 titles, Nomura stated, “If we make a compilation, these games will hardly have an overall coherence. It will be difficult because there is no more continuity between the Compilation and the remake for the moment.” Though he says, “for the moment,” this seems pretty concrete. All of the Kingdom Hearts games and videos featured in the aforementioned collection are considered canon, and are all parts of one big story. This collection allows one to brush up on all of Kingdom Hearts‘ lore in anticipation of Kingdom Hearts 3, which is set at the end of the collective games’ timeline. The titles in the CoFF7 take place before and after the events Final Fantasy VII. They also contradict parts of the original game, which many fans were unhappy with. It would make much less sense to release a collection of games that take place before and after Final Fantasy VII Remake, considering that Square likely wants the remake to appeal not only to longtime fans, but newcomers as well. There will be people playing the Final Fantasy VII Remake who are experiencing the story for the first time, and playing titles set before and after the main game would spoil important plot points and twists.
Could Square really make a quality HD collection out of a good PSP game, a panned PS2 third-person shooter, a flip-phone era mobile game, an anime short film, and a movie?
If not a remastered collection of current CoFF7 titles, what “compilation” could Nomura have in mind? Would there be new titles to compliment Final Fantasy VII Remake? Would they do small scale remakes, perhaps with Crisis Core, or a FFXV Pocket Edition-style makeover for the original FF7? I’d prefer if all my free time that I’m spending speculating here could be spent playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, so I only hope that whatever form a possible compilation takes, that no Remake resources or staff is shifted over to any other project.
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Written by ChronoSloth
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Video game reviewer who particularly loves the fourth and fifth generation of consoles. In an exclusive polygamist relationship with Nintendo and PlayStation. Fluent in Al Bhed and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 combo notation. Follow him on Instagram to see lots of pictures of video games.
