When Last Fantasy VII launched on PlayStation in 1997, it revolutionized the RPG style and gaming as a complete. The transition from pixel artwork to totally animated laptop graphics was a large sufficient leap forward, however the great thing about this basic title was way more than pores and skin deep. Last Fantasy VII options an unimaginable forged of characters, an excellent battle system, and a narrative that evokes pleasure, awe, anger, and grief. Last Fantasy VII is well-established as one of the crucial iconic and beloved video video games of all time, however for Sq. Enix, the legacy is considerably extra essential.
For the workforce behind the Last Fantasy franchise, Last Fantasy VII was the entry that made the builders understand they wanted to adapt to the instances. “Even inside the mainline Last Fantasy titles as a sequence, we will contemplate Last Fantasy VII to be this form of midpoint title that is in the midst of all of it,” Tetsuya Nomura, who was a personality designer and visible director on Last Fantasy VII, says. “As much as Last Fantasy VI, it was created in a sure approach, after which from VIII, there was a model new approach of approaching improvement, whereas VII form of sits between these two titles as a form of mixed-element title.”
The best way Nomura and the workforce describe it, the event of Last Fantasy VII sounds chaotic, typically in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach. “[Final Fantasy] VI included quite a lot of parts that every division on their very own, simply on a whim, needed to incorporate, so they simply included it, whereas VIII is way more calculated and strategized,” Nomura says. “VII is a mixture of that, the place it is each calculated and type of an at-a-whim sort of improvement. If we made video games like this the way in which we did once we had been creating the unique VII, we’d be in quite a lot of bother proper now. Occasions have actually modified. Past VII is the purpose the place I might say instances have modified. It is the final of the titles the place we had been in a position to do issues that approach.”
Nomura recollects coming into the workplace, typically not figuring out what to anticipate. “There have been scripts after which all of the sudden issues that aren’t even within the script that the character is now saying within the recreation that we have by no means even heard of,” he says. “Some departments simply needed to incorporate the character saying this stuff. It was that type of world then.”
Fortunately, director Yoshinori Kitase labored intently with author Kazushige Nojima to make sure the whole lot made sense within the story, even with the myriad modifications applied by the sometimes-disparate departments. “There have been groups engaged on every character and the issues that they are saying within the storyline, however then general, Nojima-san was the ultimate reviewer,” Kitase says. “That is bringing the entire storyline collectively. That follow was carried on for future titles to have that cohesion. However apart from that, it was form of an ‘something goes’ sort of world then.”
After an extended improvement cycle of typically being stunned by their very own recreation, the members of Sq. Enix knew it needed to make a change. “After we had completed engaged on VII, we thought to ourselves, ‘We won’t go on making video games on this approach,'” Nomura recollects.
Starting with Last Fantasy VIII, the workforce moved towards that extra calculated improvement Nomura and the workforce determined it wanted. Now not might separate departments sneak in content material they needed to see with out first getting approval from the broader group. The workforce continued utilizing the approach Kitase and Nojima applied in Last Fantasy VII’s improvement to make sure narrative and thematic cohesiveness. Sq. Enix even carried ahead the method it used to create Last Fantasy VII’s minigames, the place particular person improvement workforce members are assigned to particular minigames as “representatives” to work with an engineer to implement the minigame.
Even Naoki Hamaguchi, who joined Sq. Enix in 2003, notices the distinction between how Last Fantasy improvement has labored throughout his time on the firm in distinction to what Kitase and Nomura describe. “These days, we have now localized voice verify and stuff like that,” Hamaguchi says. “You possibly can’t simply get away with doing these issues as we speak.”
However even past the way in which the sport affected improvement, Last Fantasy VII has rather a lot to say. Its story’s themes regarding company greed, environmentalism, and psychological well being are all maybe extra related as we speak than in 1997. Although the builders did not deliberately reference particular real-world social points, they acknowledge how related these themes are as we speak.
“In Last Fantasy VII, we had been in a position to depict a majority of these points, just like the cycle of life, by the idea of Lifestream,” Last Fantasy VII director Yoshinori Kitase says. “If we had been to depict it precisely as we expertise it in the true world, it could not be very fascinating. With Nojima-san’s concepts, we had been in a position to have this centered on Lifestream and the planet inside the worldview of Last Fantasy VII. On this approach, I consider the sport and its themes stay related and face up to the take a look at of time.”
Although he feels the themes of Last Fantasy VII are nonetheless essential as we speak, he does have some regrets concerning the workforce’s strategy to these points in 1997. “Contemplating the way in which to depict social issues, social points, and cultural depictions, in some methods, I’m a bit embarrassed by the unique title,” Kitase says. “In its expression, in some methods, it was very younger and naive in itself. That could be a studying for us, however on the identical time, I do consider that maybe that is among the explanation why it was so broadly accepted. It is not excellent, and it is type of uneven and jagged in its younger and naive nature of its depiction. In fact, after [more than] 25 years, there may be quite a lot of private studying, modifications, and progress. However wanting again on it, some elements of it, I’m a bit embarrassed.”
However from the attitude of Motomu Toriyama, who was an occasion planner on Last Fantasy VII, the workforce did the whole lot it might in its strategy to the unique recreation, and subsequently, he would not have any regrets. “At any given period or time, we all the time try to place our greatest foot ahead, and we had utilized the very best recreation specs at any given time, whether or not it needed to be the unique or as we speak,” he says. “So, even with the unique Last Fantasy VII title, there have been no regrets or emotions that there was extra that we needed to do or one thing I had regretted not doing; we really put in our greatest efforts.”
Introduced in 2015, Last Fantasy VII is now the topic of a trilogy of remakes. The primary entry, Last Fantasy VII Remake, launched in 2020 to essential acclaim. The subsequent entry, Last Fantasy VII Rebirth, the duvet star of Sport Informer’s most up-to-date concern, arrives on PlayStation 5 on February 29. Head to our unique protection hub by the banner beneath for extra on Rebirth.
