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The biggest hurdle Square Enix has had when making Final Fantasy VII Remake has always been the original game - and fan expectations

Fans are pretty passionate about the Final Fantasy series, so Square Enix had to walk a fine line of making changes but not making too many changes.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Cloud Posing — Image credit: Square Enix

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Mon Nov 10 2025

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When Square Enix first announced that they were remaking Final Fantasy VII, arguably the most iconic and popular in the long-running JRPG series, it is fair to say that fan expectations were high. In translating the classic game into the modern era, there were two big hurdles that the development team had to overcome – and neither of them had to do with the hardware they were using to develop Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth.

“So, I think the biggest restriction, the biggest hurdle we have when working on the [Final Fantasy VII] Remake series is the fact that there is an original version we have to work from,” explained series director Naoki Hamaguchi during the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth panel at MCM London 2025.

“From working on this whole project, the first two games, and it’s exactly the same for the third game as well, is the fact that we have to make sure that we don’t lose that perspective as a fan of the original game. That is very important, and we can’t lose that or lose sight of that. But at the same time, we have to work out how much we can change, how much we should change, and how much we should keep it as exactly the same as the original.”

It creates a delicate balancing act for the developers.

“Drawing that line and making those distinctions and cutting that is obviously a very difficult challenge. We really have to think very hard about that each time.”

Just like Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII still has plenty of fans today, both people who played it when it first came out and those who are just discovering it for the first time. With Final Fantasy VII Remake, they knew that they had to make some changes to keep the game fresh, but they couldn’t deviate too far from the original or it would anger those who revere the version they grew up with.

“As a series, as a game with so many fans out there, and obviously fans are different," Hamaguchi continued. "So there’s some people who, if we change it too much, they won’t like it, that they’ll get angry at that. And then the other side, there are people, if we don’t change it enough, they may not like that either. So it really is a fine balance we have to tread there. But, again, we’re trying to be positive and proactive about it and try to make the version of the game we think which will appeal to and please as many people as possible. It’s always a difficult line to draw, though.”

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