Final Fantasy 7 Remake greatly expands on the starting areas from the original game, adding a ton of new content, offering more character development, and expanding on certain scenes. But even though Final Fantasy 7 Remake adds a ton of new content to the Midgar sections of the game, it actually left some stuff on the cutting room floor as well. In fact, there was one risque scene that was removed from Final Fantasy 7 Remake due to concerns over the game's ESRB rating.
This was confirmed by co-director Motomu Toriyama, who explained that there was originally a pole dancing scene during the Honeybee Inn section of the game. The development team went as far as to hire professional dancers to help create the choreography, who also choreographed the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Honeybee Inn dancing scenes that actually made it into the final game. An "elaborate set" was made for the proposed pole dancing scene, but it was ultimately scrapped "due to the impact on the rating!"
Prior to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's release, there was some concern that parts of the story would be censored, particularly when it came to the Cloud crossdressing scene and the perverted actions of the villainous Don Corneo. However, the developers kept those scenes intact and even expanded on them.
While Final Fantasy 7 Remake didn't censor the Cloud crossdressing scenes, it did censor one scene that takes place later in the game. As some may recall, the original Final Fantasy 7 featured a scene where it was heavily implied that Shinra scientist Hojo was trying to crossbreed Aerith and Red XIII. Red XIII even plays along and acts like he's going to pounce on Aerith. In Final Fantasy 7 Remake, this scene is changed so Aerith and Red XIII are actually in separate containment cells and no mention of the crossbreeding is made.
Moving forward, it's possible that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will make more drastic changes to the game's story. One character that seems like they may get toned down in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is Cid Highwind, who was constantly swearing and smoking in the original game. Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will have voice acting, Square Enix can't simply censor Cid's speech like it did in the original game when dialogue was text-only. The stigma surrounding smoking is even more intense nowadays than it was when the original Final Fantasy 7 released as well, so it will be interesting to see if Cid is even still a smoker at all in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is out now for PS4 and PS5.
Source: Square Enix