The director of the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 remake, Tetsuya Nomura, spoke in an interview with Official Playstation Magazine that was published this week. Yes, there is still an Official Playstation Magazine, but only in England.
Nomura revealed his team was looking at making "dramatic changes" to the game's fighting style, then dialed back those words by adding, "That being said we want to clarify: We’re not going to be changing it into a shooter or something like that. We are going to be bringing dramatic changes, but we want to make sure it’s still recognizable."
This isn't that surprising when you think about it. Square hasn't done a Final Fantasy with traditional turn-based battles since X-2 eleven years ago. Clearly somebody high up feels fighting through menus alone is archaic and can't be sold to consumers unless it's spiced up -- hence all the different directions Final Fantasy combat has gone over the last ten years.
Nomura also said that the remake crew was looking to Square's 2005 film Advent Children for inspiration as to how to translate the archaic 1997 visuals into something modern. This is also not surprising since the preview trailer alone told us this. However, don't think they can swipe anything outright. "We don’t intend on utilising the 3D models of Advent Children as is because, well, it’s a different technology, and it’s actually been almost ten years since Advent Children was first released."
The Final Fantasy 7 remake was announced during E3. It is still very early in development.
