Final Fantasy 6 director Yoshinori Kitase has said a remake akin to that of Final Fantasy 7's could take around 20 years to complete.
X/Twitter user Genki translated an interview with Julien Chièze in which Kitase, who's now a vice president, member of the board, and executive officer at Square Enix, said he's aware of how popular a remake of Final Fantasy 6 would be, but couldn't say for sure if it would ever happen.
He then noted that, because of the depth of Final Fantasy 6, with so much content and so many characters, it would take twice the length of Final Fantasy 7 Remake to develop and release. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth arrives February 29 as the middle entry in the Remake Trilogy, four years after the previous game and nine years after it was announced. A third game will wrap up the Remake Trilogy, and while no release window has been shared, it's already in development.
Kitase says a Final Fantasy VI Remake like FF7R would take around 20 years to make! #FF6
— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) January 29, 2024
He says he gets a lot of requests for it from fans, media & from people in the company so he is sad that he can’t confirm it. He said there would be too much content and characters. pic.twitter.com/ivTbXoILiE
Kitase has previously commented on the popularity of the idea, saying many developers within Square Enix are eager to work on a remake of Final Fantasy 6. The project would be very difficult, however, and Kitase said he couldn't think about it until the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trilogy has wrapped.
The difficulty behind remaking Final Fantasy 6 was elaborated on by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who said the original game's pixel art and 2D format would make it much more complicated to redo, demanding a complete overhaul of the story and graphics.
Despite his grievances, it appears even Sakaguchi is eager for the remake, asking Kitase: "Won't you release it a little sooner?"
The same factors affecting a remake of Final Fantasy 6 could seemingly be applied to Final Fantasy 7 Remake though. The game's story, world, quests, and practically everything else in the remake were changed to create a modern take, so Square Enix certainly wasn't concerned with having to completely revamp the original in this case.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth follows Cloud and friends as they leave Midgar and enter the wider Final Fantasy 7 world, encountering locations like Kalm, the Mythril Mine, Junon and Costa del Sol plus brand new ones created for the remake.
Square Enix has added new playable characters, too, plus a card game akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Gwent, and impressive fast travel. An ESRB rating has otherwise teased deep cleavage, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith's fate.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
