- Ascended Fanon: Back in the day, a popular theory was that the holes in Cloud's Buster Sword were actually Materia Slots. In this game, that's exactly what they are.
- Celebrity Voice Actor: Once again, the majority of the English voice actors involved are live-action actors, such as Cody Christian and Britt Baron (of Teen Wolf and GLOW, respectively).
- Character Outlives Actor: Keiji Fujiwara died the same week Remake released, meaning that Reno will need to be recast for any sequels.
- Children Voicing Children: Many of the child and teenage characters (including young Cloud, Aerith and Tifa) are actually voiced by people their age.
- Content Leak:
- In late December 2019, word got out on social media that an encrypted build of the demo could be accessed on a Sony server, though those who were able to find the file weren't able to do much besides view some promotional images. On December 31, 2019, gameplay of the aforementioned demo leaked
, comprising the entire opening and Bombing Mission in a manner similar to the demos for the original game.
- The following day, on January 1, 2020, numerous images found by dataminers searching through the demo leaked online
, including unrevealed images of characters, locations, encounters and more. Files from the main game (that were stored in the demo) also leaked, including tutorial videos, the entire soundtrack and dialogue text files.
- In late March 2020, several copies were leaked to the public. According to the official Facebook page for the franchise, copies of the game had been shipped ahead of schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in Australia, the game was officially released on April 1.
- In late December 2019, word got out on social media that an encrypted build of the demo could be accessed on a Sony server, though those who were able to find the file weren't able to do much besides view some promotional images. On December 31, 2019, gameplay of the aforementioned demo leaked
- Creative Differences: Between CyberConnect2 and Square Enix. Originally, CyberConnect2 was supposed to be helping Square Enix with the development. Due to unknown reasons, though, Square Enix took development completely in-house after just over a year of development.
- Creator Backlash: Tetsuya Nomura has voiced his dislike of the decision to announce it in 2015, years before it was released, so this is more backlash against Square Enix instead of the game. He also wasn't informed of his role as director before the announcement.
- Creator Couple: Kenichi Suzumura and Maaya Sakamoto, the respective Japanese voices of Zack and Aerith, have been married since 2011.
- Dueling Works:
- It was released about a week and a half after the English version of Persona 5 Royal, a new expanded version of a fellow critically praised JRPG.
- With Resident Evil 3 (Remake), which came out exactly a week before. Both are heavily overhauled and modernized remakes of games from the original PlayStation.
- God Never Said That:
- Early translations of an interview conducted with Yoshinori Kitase
wherein he more-or-less states that future entries will adhere to the story of the original Final Fantasy VII have led many fans to accuse him of being a Trolling Creator or even a Lying Creator, given the ways in which Part 1's narrative deviates from the plot of the original. Ultimately, Kitase's statement was found to have been mistranslated—the original Japanese
reads:「リメイク版でも『FFVII』は『FFVII』のままだと思っていてください。」 ("Even with the Remake version note , please think/assume that FFVII will remain FFVII"), with no mention of the story specifically (he could even be implying that the original game will remain as is, and that Part 3 and Rebirth may still deviate considerably from the plot of the original).
- The ending spawned numerous fan theories postulating that Remake (along with the forthcoming entries) is set in a separate universe from the original game, and that Zack's survival, as seen at the end, is set in a third universe which would in turn be distinct from Remake's universe. This led many to believe that the series will be doing a "multiple timelines" plot wherein multiple versions of Sephiroth and/or Cloud and co. will potentially cross paths with each other. Such theories were amplified by a mistranslated quote
from the Material Ultimania Plus in which co-director Toriyama states (in regards to whether Jessie is alive or not) that a future wherein the protagonists all survive would be a different world. In the original Japanese however, the word which Toriyama uses for "different" (「違う」) more commonly means "wrong" or 'different from desired/intended.' In other words: a version of FFVII wherein every character survives would be at odds with what the developers intend (since a major theme of the story—according to Toriyama—is "loss"). Beyond that, the existence of "multiple worlds" has not been suggested by the developers note . The in-game proof alone seems more likely to be implying a single, altered universe/timeline instead.
- Early translations of an interview conducted with Yoshinori Kitase
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The game has five editions: a physical and digital base edition, a physical and digital Deluxe Edition, and a physical 1st Class Edition that's solely available on the Square Enix Store. Pre-ordering any edition nets you a special Chocobo Chick Summon Materia DLC. The Deluxe Edition has a steelbook game case (physical version only), an artbook (hardcover for physical, download for digital), a mini soundtrack (CD for physical, download for digital), and a Cactuar Summon Materia DLC. The 1st Class Edition has all of the content from the physical Deluxe Edition, plus a Carbuncle Summon Materia DLC and Play Arts Kai action figures of both Cloud and the Hardy Daytona motorcycle from the game.
- The Other Darrin:
- Surprisingly, all of the main English voice actors from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (and most over crossovers including the Kingdom Hearts franchise) have been replaced — according to Yoshinori Kitase, as "part of the game's rebirth as Remake". To name a few:
- Cody Christian replaces Steve Burton as Cloud.
- John Eric Bentley replaces Beau Billingslea as Barret.
- Briana White is the fourth in a long line of actors voicing Aerithnote .
- Britt Baron replaces Rachael Leigh Cook as Tifa.
- Max Mittelman replaces Liam O'Brien as Red XIII.note
- Tyler Hoechlin replaces Lance Bassnote and George Newbernnote as Sephiroth.
- By the time Remake was released, Marlene's voice actress from Advent Children Complete, Ariel Winter, had aged out of the role. As a result, in this game, Marlene is voiced by Brielle Milla.
- Arnie Pantojanote replaces Quinton Flynn as Reno.
- Vic Chao replaces Ryun Yu as Tseng.
- James Sie replaces Paul Eiding as Hojo.
- Josh Bowman replaces Wally Wingert as Rufus.
- Jon Root replaces Jamieson Price as Reeve.
- William Christopher Stephens replaces Crispin Freeman as Rude.
- Caleb Pierce replaces Rick Gomez as Zack.
- Suzie Yeung replaces Christy Carlson Romanonote and Mae Whitmannote as Yuffie.
- As for the Japanese release:
- For his brief appearance in Advent Children, Red XIII was voiced by veteran film and television actor Masachika Ichimura. In this game, he is instead voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.
- Professor Hojo's voice actor Nachi Nozawa succumbed to lung cancer in 2010. He is now voiced by Shigeru Chiba, reprising that role from Kingdom Hearts III.
- By the time Remake was released, Marlene's voice actress from Advent Children Complete, Sumire Morohoshi, had aged out of the role. As a result, in this game, Marlene is voiced by Otoha Umezaki.
- Surprisingly, all of the main English voice actors from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (and most over crossovers including the Kingdom Hearts franchise) have been replaced — according to Yoshinori Kitase, as "part of the game's rebirth as Remake". To name a few:
- The Other Marty: Steve Burton and Beau Billingslea originally reprised their respective roles as Cloud and Barret before being recast with Cody Christian and John Eric Bentley.
- Production Posse:
- Cody Christian, Tyler Hoechlin and Gideon Emery are all Teen Wolf alumni.
- John DiMaggio, James Sie and Fred Tatasciore previously worked together on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.
- Max Mittelman, Erika Harlacher, and Erica Lindbeck previously starred in Persona 5.
- Many prominent voice actors from Final Fantasy XV such as Ray Chase, Darin De Paul, Robbie Daymond, and Chris Parson return here, voicing various NPC's.
- Promoted Fanboy: John Eric Bentley has admitted to being a longtime fan
of the 1997 original.
- Refitted for Sequel:
- Barret was considered as a potential victim of Sephiroth before the decision was made to kill off Aerith in the 1997 original. In Remake, Sephiroth does indeed kill Barret, only for the Arbiters of Fate to revive him, making it a Development Gag.
- A cutscene that was cut for time was Tifa boarding the Chocobo Wagon to lead into her sudden appearance in Wall Market. This may have inspired the scene in the INTE Rmission DLC where the player can see her reunite with Avalance after the Mako Reactor 5 mission, which ends with her deciding to investigate Don Corleone.
- Release Date Change:
- In Australia, the game was released on April 1 instead of April 10 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Earlier, the PS4 version of the game was delayed from March 3, 2020 to April 10, 2020 everywhere else.
- Role Reprise: With the exception of Nachi Nozawa (Professor Hojo) who died in 2010, Sumire Morohoshi (Marlene) who aged out of the role, and Masachika Ichimura (Red XIII) who appeared as a Celebrity Voice Actor in Advent Children, all of the original Japanese voice actors returned to reprise their roles for the game including Takahiro Sakurai as Cloud Strife, Ayumi Ito as Tifa Lockhart, Masahiro Kobayashi as Barret Wallace, Maaya Sakamoto as Aerith Gainsborough and Toshiyuki Morikawa as Sephiroth.
- Saved from Development Hell:
- The game was under development by an external creator, CyberConnect2, from late 2015 to 2017 before Square Enix decided to bring it back in-house, with Naoki Hamaguchi from Mobius Final Fantasy brought in as an additional project lead.
- Comments from Tetsuya Nomura reveal that he had been planning this remake
since at least the mid-late 2000s, around the time the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII was still going strong:
Nomura: "I started up the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE project around the time of Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII. We’d gone through Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus, and I was planning this by myself for about a year as the fifth and final entry in the compilation. Since that initial plan and my first ideas, other projects took shape and I became very busy as they moved forward, but I never stopped thinking about VII. As such, I feel like I’m looking forward to the release as much as anyone, as I’ve been carrying around these ideas for a long time."
- Teasing Creator: When producer Yoshinori Kitase came on stage at Square Enix's press conference to talk about Remake at E3 2019, he was asked when the audience would finally get to see the much-anticipated Tifa in action. His response? "Soon." Some ten minutes later, after footage of the Scorpion Sentinel boss fight, an extended version of the trailer dropped the previous day plays, and it's not long before Tifa's shown in all of her high-definition glory.
- Trolling Creator: Square Enix comes on stage during the 2014 PlayStation Expo and announces a remastered release of Final Fantasy VII, with 1080p original PlayStation graphics, to universal derision. Around six months later, at E3, after an even more derisory Cute 'em Up version of the Final Fantasy formula, they reveal that the 2014 announcement was, more than likely, to completely obfuscate leaks of this game.
- What Could Have Been:
- Steve Burton and Beau Billingslea had initially reprised their respective roles as Cloud and Barret for the first trailer. However, in 2019, it was revealed that none of the original voice actors would return. It had even been initially planned for the Advent Children cast to reprise their roles (with the possible exceptions of characters who played minor roles in the film like Red XIII), but somewhere down the line, it was decided to replace them. The reason cited was that Square Enix wanted Remake to stand apart as a separate entity from the Compilation and be its own thing.
- Interviews with the big three (Tetsuya Nomura, Kazushige Nojima, and Yoshinori Kitase) in the Ultimania revealed they wanted to add additional scenes into Remake to further expand on the original game but had to abandon them for time constraints. The only example that was elaborated on was a plan to add a cutscene in Chapter 9 showing Tifa boarding the Chocobo wagon from Sector 7 to Wall Market, which did not come to pass.
- A Famitsu article released in July 2020 revealed that Roche was supposed to appear during the game's last fight, as well as having an additional boss fight in the slums during chapter 14. His appearance in the finale was cut to avoid a Mood Whiplash of having a comical character like him in the serious moments, while the second fight was cut because there wasn't a way to naturally fit him and his bike into any part of that chapter.
- Kitase and Hamaguchi mentioned in a 2020 interview that, originally, the former wanted to go even further with many of the changes to the story, but the latter along with Nomura wanted the game to be more like the original as much as possible.
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things:
- When the game was released nine days early in Europe and Australia, Square Enix issued a statement asking people who received an early copy to avoid spoiling the game — and even locked the downloadable version to be unplayable until April 10. European and Australian Let's Players who started streaming the game on Twitch or uploading gameplay videos to YouTube prior to April 10 have gotten their videos — and even their channels — taken down by Square Enix for breaking the moratorium. In the end, it was all for nought, as the entire game was spoiled by the weekend, revealing some changes to the game that are controversial, to say the least.
- Kazushige Nojima stopped
talking about Remake specifically, apparently due to toxic fans.
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