Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s producer and co-director have discussed Red XIII’s appearance and what he’ll bring to the game.
Final
Fantasy 7 Remake is getting closer and closer to finally being released (well,
the first part of it anyway) and fans couldn’t be any more excited, with the most
recent trailer showing off a lot of beloved moments, like Cloud cross-dressing
and the party’s meeting with Red XIII.
In fact, Red XIII’s appearance caused some fans to be left with questions about how he would be handled. The first part of the remake covers the events of Midgar and, in the original game, Red XIII didn’t appear until near the end of that segment, prompting some to wonder if he would be pushed back to the second part in the remake.
It was later confirmed that while Red XIII’s appearance would be unchanged, he won’t be a playable party member, leading to a lot of disappointment from fans of the character.
In a new interview on Square Enix’s website, though, producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi further explained Red XIII’s role in the remake.
‘To
explain more about why we did not make Red XIII a playable character in this
game, we felt that because he only joins the team during the latter stages,
having him as a playable ally with full character growth potential would not be
a satisfying experience for the player,’ explained Hamaguchi, ‘So we decided to
have him join for now, as a guest character instead.’
However, the team seem to love the character as much as the fans do and, to make up for it, his gameplay has been designed in a ‘special way,’ which Hamaguchi didn’t want to elaborate on any further, so that it’d be a surprise.
He did mention that the game will feature an entirely new area in the Shinra Building though, with Red XIII playing a significant role in navigating it.
‘The
key to navigating this floor lies in using Red XIII’s unique physical abilities
to overcome environmental obstacles. Letting the player experience his heroics
in this way is something that I’m confident will please the fans.’
It
will also feature a new climax, which we may have already seen bits of in the
aforementioned trailer. Towards the end, we see the party battling Jenova, an
important enemy that they didn’t encounter until much later in the original game.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake will release for the PlayStation 4 on 10 April.
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