The Making Of Final Fantasy VII Remake
The ground beneath Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura's feet trembled. In his time since serving as character designer and visual director on Final Fantasy VII, his legend has grown substantially. In addition to working on nearly every acclaimed Final Fantasy game since Nomura also helped create the Kingdom Hearts series and has become a figurehead and luminary within the stacked ranks of Square Enix's stable of developers. But this 2015 trip to Los Angeles, California, was different.
PlayStation's E3 2015 livestream had just revealed a teaser trailer featuring the iconic Final Fantasy VII protagonist, Cloud Strife, walking through Midgar in glorious, modern, HD graphics. The dream of so many – a remake of the classic RPG – was finally realized. The fans weren't the only ones feeling the weight of the moment, though, and it was no longer just the ground that was shaking; it was Nomura's entire body.
«There were no staff members around, so I was kind of just off to the side, standing there alone,» Nomura says. «When I heard the cheers from the crowd and the passion, I became overwhelmed and I started shivering. I was walking like a fawn, just overwhelmed by the intensity of the crowd. I thought, 'This has become such a big deal,' and I wanted to cry.»
Meanwhile, series producer Yoshinori Kitase was at his home in Tokyo watching it on YouTube. «It still comes up on my 'Videos You Should Watch,» he says with a laugh. «Someone should have taken a video of you, like a reaction video and uploaded it to YouTube!»
«I don't think we had that culture of reaction vids back then,» Nomura says. «If I knew, I would have taken it, but I might have been shaking mid-way through!»
The road to this moment was long and arduous but something
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