Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase Interested In Remaking Final Fantasy V

Next month is an important (and lucrative) period for Square Enix, with not one but two big remakes coming out, namely Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Trials of Mana.

This has got many fans of the company wondering what other titles could be remade by Square Enix in the future. And during a recent interview with Game Reactor, veteran producer Yoshinori Kitase – who has just wrapped up work on the Final Fantasy VII: Remake – was asked what game he would like remake next. To which he responded:

Ok, so first of all, you have to promise you’re not going to write an article saying Square Enix is remaking Final Fantasy something, something… It’s just a purely personal opinion, just so you understand that. With that caveat in place, the first Final Fantasy that I worked on myself was Final Fantasy V, that hasn’t been remade with the more realistic kind of approach yet, so I think it might be quite interesting to do a FF5 remake someday.

Again, just to reiterate Yoshinori-san’s point, this is an entirely personal opinion of his, and it does not reflect any plans Square Enix has for the foreseeable future.

Personally, I think the idea of modernizing and re-imagining the pixel-era Final Fantasy titles has huge potential. The upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Remake, as an example of a modern remake, has so much content that is merely a single full-length entry in a planned multi-title series that spans across the entire FF7 saga, with many story elements changed up to provide a unique experience for series newcomers and veterans alike. Hopefully, Yoshinori Kitase gets the opportunity in the future to provide the same treatment for the older games in the series as well.

Final Fantasy V was first released by SquareSoft on the Super Famicom in 1992. Kitase was credited as a writer. Later in 2006, it got ported across to the Game Boy Advance as Final Fantasy V Advance. Perhaps Final Fantasy V: Remake could find itself on Nintendo’s consoles once more? Only time will tell.