Red XIII won’t be a playable character in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Naoki Hamaguchi, co-director of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, has stated in an interview that Red XIII won't be a playable character in the upcoming game. Although Red XIII will of course feature in the remake, he will instead be a guest character controlled by the game's AI.

The remake of Final Fantasy VII will be divided into multiple parts, with the first part ending when the party leaves the city of Midgar. Unfortunately, this means that Red XIII joins the party close to the end of the first game.

According to Hamaguchi (via VG247), given Red XIII's late introduction, there isn't enough time for players “to enjoy his character development arc and growth”. Therefore, the team concluded that Red XIII should be added as a guest character ‘that fights alongside you' instead of being user-controllable.

Throughout most of the game, the party will consist of three playable members. Red XIII will then join the three-man party “during the last part of the story”, as a fourth AI-controlled member.

Some people might be surprised with this news, given that Red XIII is a playable character in the original Final Fantasy VII, and a lot of marketing material of the remake showed Red XIII like any other in-game character. Maybe in the second part of the game, Red XIII will be available as a playable character, but we will have to wait to see.

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be available on April 10, 2020. If you want to try the game, the demo of the PS4 version is now available to download.

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KitGuru says: Are you a fan of Red XIII in the original Final Fantasy VII? Did the news that Red XIII won't be a playable character put you off?

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