Final Fantasy 7 definitely has more spin-offs and peripheral vignettes than any other game in the storied series, by far, and grappling with the decades of additional lore was a major consideration for the developers of the ongoing Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.
The remade trilogy's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, spoke about balancing the jenga tower of new and old stories in an interview with GamerBraves. "Even from members such as creative director [Tetsuya] Nomura and producer [Yoshinori] Kitase, they didn't just want to make a remake," he said. "They wanted to make a story that could include the compilation of the spin-offs and the soul that they have birthed across the years into this new project, and bring a fresh feel to Final Fantasy 7."
"As a compilation of all these new stories that came post the original Final Fantasy 7, one of the things we sort of grappled with is how much do we show, how much do we include [for] players who wouldn't know these new characters from the spin-offs," Hamaguchi went on. "When discussing the limits of what we could express within a single game, we had to take timelines into account. At the same time, with many Final Fantasy spin-offs and additions including popular characters not in the original, we considered how much we could include to give players of the remake a fresh sense of life and excitement."
1997's Final Fantasy 7 is itself a spawling adventure, but things become a bit unwieldly when you consider the Vincent Valentine-focused Dirge of Cerberus, the Zack-oriented prequel Crisis Core, and the most messy spin-off of them all, the animated sequel movie Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.
Advent Children hasn't been directly referenced in either remake so far - it does take place after the original events, in fairness - but Kitase previously told GamesRadar+ that the plan is to connect the games to the film: "We are finally going to link up with Advent Children, that is going to be part of canon. The overall storyline, the developments, will not go wildly out in a way that will not add up to Advent Children in the end."
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