Cognition Dissemination: There’s No Easy Way to Remake Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, which has inevitably led to discussions about the potential of a remake resurfacing. This isn’t surprising considering how it remains one of the most popular and well-received installments in the Final Fantasy franchise.
Square Enix appeared to embark on a quest to remake all the FF titles at one point, starting with the first two games from Tose under Squaresoft. This continued years afterward with Final Fantasy III and eventually Final Fantasy IV on Nintendo DS from Matrix Software. And then… nothing. There’s been plenty of demand for Final Fantasy V and VI remakes, but Square Enix has either ignored those or figured no production teams were up to the task. This also cleared their schedules enough for them to remake the considerably more popular Final Fantasy VII Remake, one that turned into a whole goddamned trilogy — one also planned to be externally developed at one point by CyberConnect2, only for the massive project to be moved to an internal development team.
Character designer and director Tetsuya Nomura has previously acknowledged the demand for FFV and FFVI remakes, though Square Enix has still yet to pursue them despite how they wouldn’t need to be developed internally. Now, we’re back here again. Of course we are.
Series producer Yoshinori Kitase recently sat down for an interview with YouTuber Julien Chièze, one helpfully translated by Twitter user Genki. When asked about the topic, he said that remaking the game would take “20 years.” This follows up his comments from last summer, where he said that several Square Enix staffers would like to take it on, but that it would be “difficult.” Those “difficulties,” as Kitase explained, make it uncertain as to whether a remake will ever happen. Following this logic, the original FFVI’s depth means it would take twice the amount of time for it to remake.
Kitase previously said that he wouldn’t think about it until the final game in the FFVII Remake trilogy released, which appears to still be the case. Considering that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to arrive next week, nearly four years after FFVII Remake, it won’t be until 2028 or 2029 until he thinks about it again. That’s a long time, though FFVI will likely still be on the minds of many FF fans given its previously-proven staying power.
The logical assumption here is that Kitase is considering remaking the game similar to how they’ve treated FFVIIR, which would indeed be a massive undertaking. The game has several branching paths, and a large overworld that experiences a severe disruption midway through the game. (Don’t ask me why I’m being so vague about spoilers for a 30-year-old game, but maybe some of you reading haven’t played it yet? Assuming anyone’s reading at all?) Considering that factor and the larger number of playable characters compared to Final Fantasy VII, a remake would indeed take a lot of work.
But… this doesn’t have to be done in the style of the FFVII remakes, as nice as that would be. Indeed, FFVI was actually the first FF game with a very cinematic story, albeit told on a 2D plane with sprites. It was a mark of subtle elitism to say that you played FFVI before the FF franchise got cool and popular with FFVII on PSOne, at least until the Final Fantasy Anthology arrived. A remake would look splendid from a presentation perspective. But this isn’t the only way to remake it.
There’s also the HD-2D route, as many have suggested after reading Kitase’s comments. The assumption is that it would be a far easier undertaking compared to a full 3D polygonal remake. That might be the case, but don’t assume that it would be the equivalent of the snap of the fingers compared to a project that would take a figurative 20 years. HD-2D titles require significant development time too, as shown through the current pace at which Square Enix is announcing and releasing them. The biggest evidence here is the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, missing in action since it was announced nearly three years ago in May 2021. Maybe we’ll see that soon. But it’s alone proof that an FFVI remake in this style wouldn’t be easy, even though I’d also prefer them going that route.
There’s a better chance of the company simply never tackling a Final Fantasy VI remake at all, or a Final Fantasy V one before that. Doing so would create pressure within the company to make a game on par with, if not better than, the original. The development teams and external production partners that will step up to the plate could feel they may not live up to the high expectations the projects would have. In the meantime, let’s dispense with the assumption that 2D is easier. It often leads right into the assumption that developers and companies shouldn’t charge full price for 2D titles, which has doomed several non-Nintendo titles in recent years.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
