Tetsuya Nomura remade Final Fantasy 7 so no one else would

In a new interview, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura admitted he agreed to remake Final Fantasy 7 not just because he felt he had to, but because if he didn’t then someone else would.

Speaking with Game Informer on Jan. 8, Nomura explained there was a mounting demand for a Final Fantasy 7 remake during the run-up to the launch of Final Fantasy 13 in 2009. Combined with Square Enix’s own growing interest in remaking classic titles, Nomura and Final Fantasy series producer Yoshinori Kitase knew a Final Fantasy 7 remake would happen with or without them.

“If we weren’t going to do Final Fantasy 7, others were going to do it, so we had to rise up and do it! We had the sense that we had to guard Final Fantasy 7 and have to be the ones taking this on, or someone else is going to do it. I thought it may be a bit troublesome if other teams without us took on the project,” Nomura said.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake, itself only one entry in a multipart saga, was eventually announced in 2015 at Sony’s E3 event. Although it was a short teaser, the mere confirmation of its existence was enough to be met with raucous applause and excitement. Nomura was present at the E3 reveal and was “overwhelmed by the intensity of the crowd. I thought, ‘This has become such a big deal,’ and I wanted to cry.'”

It’s difficult to imagine any Final Fantasy 7 remake without Nomura or Kitase’s involvement. The latter directed the original PlayStation One game and worked on the story with series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, while the former was the main character designer. For the remake, Nomura took the reins as director while Kitase served as producer.

As for its upcoming sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Nomura has stepped back into more of a supervisory role (he’s officially credited as the creative director), with Naoki Hamaguchi (co-director on the previous game) stepping up as the sole director. Rebirth promises to be a much bigger game, so much so that all its data needs to be stored on two discs, and will feature new party members such as Vincent Valentine.