Go read this: Polygons oral history of Final Fantasy VII

This week, Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy VII Remake — a complete retelling of the series’ most iconic game. The first episode, set in Midgar, blows out the world introduced in 1997; its huge, thrilling take makes the original game feel like an outline for what the developers originally envisioned.

In 2017, our sister site, Polygon, published the definitive story of Final Fantasy VII’s creation: an oral history featuring interviews with more than 30 of the game’s original developers, including Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Tetsuya Nomura, Nobuo Uematsu, and Yoshitaka Amano.

Sandwiched between the discussion of Square’s inner workings at the time are stories about the game’s original plot — set in New York, where the...

Continue reading…