Even as the world braces for the arrival of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth one month from today, series Brand Manager Yoshinori Kitase is theorizing on what it would take to revive the series’ other most popular game, Final Fantasy VI.
Kitase conducted an exclusive interview with French journalist Julien Chièze which was posted Sunday afternoon, where he and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi answered questions about the second installment of the remake trilogy. However, Chièze also presented a copy of original Super Famicom version of Final Fantasy VI and inquired about the chances of seeing the older game remade someday.
“If we were to remake Final Fantasy VI in the same vein, as [FFVII Remake], it might take twice the amount of time it has taken to make the [FF7 Remake] series,” Kitase said, as translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi. “The volume we will need to work with is much more than Final Fantasy VII and [there are] more party characters too. We would probably need to prepare a lot of things, so I can’t imagine that to be a task we have the resources to take on at the moment.”
Final Fantasy VI was Kitase’s directorial debut, after working on the scenario for Final Fantasy V alongside series godfather Hironobu Sakaguchi. Since its release in 1994 on Super Famicom, it has been regarded as one of the best in the series, if not the entire genre. While its 3D little brother has taken most of the spotlight, it remains near and dear to many longtime fans—Hamaguchi included.
“To put it another way, this is the title that inspired me more than [Final Fantasy VII],” he chimed in. “This title really struck me and made me want to become a game creator.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake was originally announced back at E3 2015 as a collaboration with external studio CyberConnect24, but production soon restarted as an internal project, and the first installment of what will be a trilogy was released in April 2020. Rebirth, the second installment, will arrive a month from today, with a sizable chunk of the original game left to be covered in the third chapter.
Depending on when that third game arrives, development of the “Remake project” could end up taking 10-12 years from start to finish—which means a hypothetical Final Fantasy VI remake on the same scale could take over 20 years, by Kitase’s estimate.
“If we were to remake Final Fantasy VI in the same vein, as [FFVII Remake], it might take twice the amount of time.”
Despite being from an older hardware generation, Final Fantasy VI is every bit as dense as its more popular younger brother. While FFVII has a considerable cast of 9 total playable characters (and a guest or two), FFVI has up to 14, the largest in the series. Giving each of these distinct characters the same treatment as the cast of FFVII would be a herculean endeavour indeed—and that’s to say nothing of the vast world and everything else.
That being said, a remake doesn’t necessarily need to be on the same scale. Final Fantasy VI recently got a facelift in the Pixel Remaster series, with updated 2D sprites and even a dash of HD-2D for its iconic opera scene. Fans have been outspoken about wanting to see the entire game get this stylistic treatment, which has been praised highly in other Square Enix remakes like Live a Live and Star Ocean The Second Story R, or the original series Octopath Traveler.
Nonetheless, Kitase does appreciate the ongoing interest in reviving the SNES classic, from both fans and colleagues. “Many people even within the company have often asked whether we would consider a Final Fantasy VI remake, and although I don’t have the answer, I am very happy to hear that!”
