Would you wait over 20 years for a Final Fantasy 6 remake? Because that's how long it might take
Remaking FF6 would take twice as long as the FF7 Remake project, says series producer
Final Fantasy 6 is one of the most beloved Final Fantasy games in the series, so much so that even staff at Square Enix keep hassling series producer Yoshinori Kitase about when they're going to remake it and give it the full Final Fantasy 7 treatment. Alas, the prospect of such a project has had fresh water poured over it this weekend, with Kitase explaining that, given it's already taken them ten years to make Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (with a third entry to complete the trilogy yet to come), a Final Fantasy 6 remake would likely take twice as long as that to actually make. And you know what? I'm good, actually. The Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster is good enough for me in this lifetime.
The news came out an interview with French YouTuber Julien Chièze over the weekend, as translated by Xwitter account Shinra Archaeology Department. According to them, the main reason why Kitase thinks a potential FF6 remake would take so long is due to the sheer number of characters it has, which in turn would likely make it an even bigger game than the entire FF7 Remake project put together.
Kitase also says this realisation brings him great pain, as he knows how loved it is within the company, and of course, how much fans would like to see it as well. But the sheer logistics of such a project also make it difficult to answer those calls with any kind of affirmation or positive statement, he says, which, yeah, I get it, man. That time would be much better spent remaking Final Fantasy 8, amirite?
In all seriousness, though, I think I'm actually all right with the idea of not having another FF7-style Remake project in my life, you know? Like, I'd rather Square Enix spend their time and money on making completely new and fresh Final Fantasy games instead of simply doing the same old thing again - unless, of course, they're bringing those older games to new/fresh platforms, as they did with the recent Pixel Remaster releases, or they're pulling a Nomura and going off on weird alt-timeline tangeants, a la actual Final Fantasy 7 Remake, to switch things up a bit. I'd be sufficiently less jazzed about FF7 Remake and the upcoming Rebirth if it was simply rehashing old FF7 ground again, for example, because, look, I can just go and play the original FF7 and have a perfectly good time with it still, and I don't need every pore on Cloud and Sephiroth's faces to be in 4K to do that.
Also, man alive, given what the industry's been through as a whole this last year, where even big budget games like Spider-Man 2 can't break even due to spiralling and unsustainable development costs, just imagine what making a single game over the span of 20+ years would actually mean and look like. Just say no, is what I'm getting at, we are honestly fine without it.
Go and play the Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster on Steam for a mere £13/$15 instead and revel in the sheer inane possibility of being able to suplex an actual goddamn train with your own little pixel fists. A realistic remake wouldn't let you do that now, would it?