Christian Martin

Square Enix recently denied that they are working on a PS3 remake of the fan favorite Final Fantasy VII (alliteration FTW!) but didn’t say it would never happen. Now Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase, the director and the producer of Final Fantasy XIII, try to explain one reason why it would be so hard to remake the original Playstation game. Cue the violins.

In an interview with Ultimania magazine, Toriyama relates a discussion about the lack of towns in FFXIII with the problems of remaking FFVII.

“…it is a result of considering HD graphics will be the mainstream. Considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve HD, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style.”

Kitase added by saying, “It is very hard to make games on PlayStation 3 in the same style as the games in that era had. Making graphics will take enormous time.”

I’m not saying they’re wrong, the hours of hard work required to create games in an HD environment are epic, but everyone else is doing it. Mass Effect 2 has possibly the best graphics I’ve ever seen in an RPG, but the game is still huge and contains plenty of “towns” to walk around in.

JRPGs are quickly becoming a punch line in the world of gaming. Japanese developers have a lot of catching up to do but they still seem to be stuck in the classic conventions they are used to.

Do you hear that Square Enix? It’s time to suck it up and adapt, or get left in the dust.

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