Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 devs want to keep subverting player expectations
Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi and producer Yoshinori Kitase took part in an interview at CEDEC and spoke about their approach to creating Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2.
The developers behind the as-yet-unnamed Final Fantasy 7 Remake sequel gave an interview at The Computer Entertainment Developers Conference where they acknowledged the sequel's narrative structure and hinted that – going forward – there will likely be more deviations from the original game.
During the interview (as translated Twitter user aitaikimochi), Kitase highlighted the significance of subverting player expectations satisfyingly – and that his goal was to deceive players in a positive way (thanks, Siliconera).
As our very own Alex Donaldson noted back when the game launched last year, Final Fantasy 7 Remake takes some significant twists and turns in the late game, and there are some pretty huge implications about what that means for the rest of the story. As a result, Donaldson believes Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 should be as bold as it possibly can be.
It stands to reason, then, that Kitase will continue 'satisfyingly' subverting player expectations with the second part of the Remake saga – whatever it ends up being called.
In terms of carrying the story on into another installment, Kitase comments how the development team is aiming to continue supplying the same level of detail that we saw in Midgar to the rest of the Final Fantasy 7 world to a degree that “not only surprises, but also goes beyond [players'] expectations.”
Additionally, the team is working on making the battle system even deeper, by adding new mechanics and elements. When discussing new staff coming to work on the sequel, Hamaguchi said:
"A word that pops into mind is 'action battle.' They experienced a new type of action battle system, and they want to contribute to the system too. [...] They definitely contribute different ideas that will hopefully allow us to create new surprises to the battle system as well!"
If you haven’t played part one of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake yet, have a read of our spoiler-free review. We’ve also got an interview with the devs, where we discuss fan reaction, balance, and hard mode.