There were many differences from the original Final Fantasy VII that were either added or changed for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Considering the differences in both technology and concept when moving from the original to now, it’s no surprise that a lot of work was put into the new remake.
A new blog post by Square Enix finally, officially confirms that most of the prep time was dedicated to the famous Honeybee Inn section of the game.
It’s no surprise, nor is it new information, that the Honeybee Inn was changed in Final Fantasy VII Remake. An interview with co-director Motomu Toriyama previously described them making changes with “modern sensibilities” in mind.
A new interview has staff go farther into the decisions they did make that lead to the final product, and how they went about rebuilding this scene from scratch.
“We had decided to change the original FFVII’s Honeybee Inn episode from a gender free perspective right from the start of development,” Toriyama said.
He added, “We remade the whole scene as a song and dance show, in order to make it the big stage for Cloud’s cross-dressing event and to give it a ‘maximum showbusiness’ vibe as part of the Remake story.”
For those unaware, in the original the Honeybee Inn was a seedy brothel where girls would be “recommended” to a man named Don Corneo to be his “bride” for a day. This would get changed to a members-only nightclub run by Andrea Rhodea in the remake.
While Cloud’s intentions, in both original and remake, were to cross-dress in order to rescue Tifa (whom he believes to be kidnapped), the song and dance in the remake from Andrea’s perspective seems to act as if this is an expression of who Cloud is.
Andrea says “True beauty is an expression of the heart. A thing without shame, to which notions of gender don’t apply” at the end of their dance number.
Coming from this, it would seem the part in the quote of being “gender free” may serve true in regards to their attempts at it.
The latest version of its remake, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, has been available since June 2021 on PlayStation 5 and the original Final Fantasy VII Remake is available on PlayStation 4. In case you missed it, you can find our review for the remake here and Intergrade here, and our port report on the PC version here.