The Final Fantasy VII Remake is going to be a massive undertaking, as the soon to be released first part will only cover the events up to Midgar. Director Yoshinori Kitase is committed not only to the project but to the saga as a whole, as he is ready to work on it for the rest of his career if necessary.

　　Speaking with GameSpot, Yoshinori Kitase revealed that they want to keep the original Final Fantasy VII updated so that it continues to be loved by future generations. And he's willing to continue working on the game for as long as possible.

　　Final Fantasy VII is a game which, if it just stayed as the original, would just be remembered as something from the past and people wouldn't be as engaged with it. I think in order to be something that continues to be loved and followed by future generations we have to keep updating it as we're doing now. And in 10 years time, 20 years time, it may need to be done again! So even if this is the only thing that I do in the rest of my career, I won't be disappointed.

　　Yoshinori Kitase also commented on updated the original game with the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Splitting it into multiple parts was a necessity, as keeping things 100% faithful to the original would not have been enough. The team researched online which scenes were the most memorable for fans, but they did want to go beyond nostalgia, offering a game that could go beyond expectations.

　　But if we were just to make it a 100%, one-for-one remake of the original game, just follow the story exactly as it was, and not change anything... I think people would like it but it would just be 'Oh yeah, I remember this. This was great, how nostalgic,' and that's all you get.

　　We have to meet people's expectations, give them what they want to see... But we have to go beyond that and really exceed their expectations and give them new surprises as well. So it was something we had to pay a lot of attention to and we were very careful... it didn't just stop at 'Yeah, that was a great game, I remember this.' We had to go further and provide a new experience.

　　Among the biggest changes of the Final Fantasy VII Remake over the original is the action-based combat system. The change was made so to appease the changing tastes of the fanbase as well as to attract an even broader audience. A turn-based combat system, despite the team being aware that many fans still like the classic JRPG experience, was never on the cards.

　　Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on April 10th on PlayStation 4.