Final Fantasy VII: Remake given shape by younger devs

The Final Fantasy VII: Remake is on its way at some point, and now Art & VFX Director Shintaro Takai has spoken in an interview with CGWorld (brought to us by Nova Crystallis) about the game, and the team working on it, which he says is a mixture between old and young developers.

When asked about how many people are working on the game that worked on the original, he said: ""There are only a very few. Starting with producer Yoshinori Kitase-san, director Tetsuya Nomura-san, and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima-san, there's only very few of us. Most of Final Fantasy VII Remake's developers are those with experience on the Final Fantasy series after Final Fantasy VII along with new people who joined. We have a lot of people apply saying 'I played Final Fantasy VII when I was a child and I really liked it so I want to be a part of it.' It seems like Final Fantasy VII is a bit of a special title even among game developers."

Part of his goal, then, is to help the younger developers thrive, as he explains below:

"Personally speaking, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a title that has a sense of generational change to it. Those who grew up playing Final Fantasy VII are now developers of Final Fantasy VII Remake, and they're gradually taking on more important roles. They are the ones I want to see give Final Fantasy VII a new shape. This time around my role is looking over the art direction as a whole as well as deciding on bigger specifications, and my focus is to create a work environment that makes it easier for everyone, so I want to make it a field that allows the younger guys to be more active. I say younger but they're mostly in their early-30s, and while they're more aged than they were in the past, I believe they're people with plenty of activity to offer."

Takai goes on to talk about what he's changing and keeping the same from the original game, but that it's not quite as simple as that:

"That's a difficult question. I don't really think about 'This is how Final Fantasy VII did it, so let's do it like this for Final Fantasy VII Remake.' Back when Final Fantasy VII was being developed, I didn't think as deeply about effects as I do today. For example, let's say when a certain enemy in Final Fantasy VII attacked they would shoot out red fire, but maybe there wasn't much meaning behind that red color. If it were today, I would think more along the lines of 'This enemy was born here or there, they use these kinds of weapons, because of the energy source it shoots out red fire, and explodes with smoke.' Even if that's not part of the official setting, I would take it upon myself to come up with a reason and story. So the representation from back then and today are not necessarily directly connected."

Do you think the remake will shape up nicely if there's a mixture between young and older minds working on it?