Square Enix is hard at work on the much anticipated remake of Final Fantasy 7 that was announced at E3 2015, but it seems that there's a need for more staff to complete the project. The company has begun a recruitment drive, featuring messages of encouragement from key members of the team.

"Twenty years have gone by and the number of generations that aren’t familiar with Final Fantasy 7 is increasing, so we must remake the game using today’s technology and systems in order to make it into a title that can last several more decades," wrote the project's director, Tetsuya Nomura. "Reproducing the world of Final Fantasy 7 in high-definition requires an extraordinary amount of time and resources, so we’ll need all the help we can get to shorten that."

"The emotions I felt from playing Final Fantasy 7 twenty years ago, that’s what I want to revive, as new emotions for the present generation," added development leader Naoki Hamaguchi. "I’m very much looking forward to receiving applications from those of you who feel the same way."

"For this project, we aim to surpass the original work in terms of quality by increasing the number of staff to strengthen the core company development as we head into the development progress phase," wrote the original game's director Yoshinori Kitase. His reference to 'development progress' might cause concern among some fans looking forward to the game.

Final Fantasy 7 Play Arts Kai Figures

Development on the remake apparently got underway in late 2015, not too long after the project was officially announced. After some early cutscenes were showcased at PlayStation Experience later that year, it was confirmed that the game would be an episodic release, which many assumed was an effort to hurry its release.

Given that 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy 7, some predicted that we might see the release of the first episode to mark the occasion. However, that doesn't seem likely at this point, even if the project is making good progress in certain areas like voice acting.

In the early 2000s, a remake of Final Fantasy 7 intended to release for the PlayStation 2 stalled because of the amount of work required. It's unlikely that the same situation will unfold again, but given the delays to Final Fantasy 15 and the protracted development of Kingdom Hearts 3, questions are being asked about how long it will take for this project to be finished.

Fans have wanted a remake of Final Fantasy 7 for years, and it's good to see Square Enix doing everything in its power to make sure the project meets its high expectations. However, it's clear that there's plenty of work left to be done.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is in development for the PlayStation 4.

Source: Siliconera