My thoughts on this:
I guess this will mean the game will be cut short quite heavily in regard to trivial dialogs. There is NO way they will have every single line voiced that was in the original game. This makes me wonder, why the hell do they present themselves with such a challenge? This is something NOBODY has asked for. I'd rather have all the dialog from the original, with voice acting added for cutscenes. Nobody will argue, even today that the way they did it for FF-X was already perfect.
I don't think we should assume that what he means by "fully voiced" is that every single NPC in the game will be voiced - rather that everything of importance will be voiced.
Even if that weren't the case, I'm pretty dialogue heavy games like the Witcher already do this, so it's far from impossible.
We shouldn't forget it was because of constraints like this, that FF XIII has become the sh1tty linear game it was.
This is on a new platform though, with less restriction, using a much more developer friendly engine, being partly outsourced to multiple outside companies, being released in parts presumably to avoid this being an issue.
Whether it's necessary? NECESSARY??!
Are they short on budget already making statements like this, or what? We want nothing less than all the mini games. ALL of them.
You really gonna miss Sumo Arm Wrestling that much?
Especially if the trade off is, for example, a better, and more fleshed out Chocobo breeding/racing mini-game with online multi-player?
Are they seriously prioritising development of some MMO-spinoff and a Kingdom Hearts game over FF VII?? I don't know about you people, but I never cared about KH not in the slightest. I just can't take it seriously and it doesn't grip me at all, which probably has to do with the fact that it's based on the completely RIDICULOUS premise of mixing Disney characters with Final Fantasy. And I couldn't care less about yet another Final Fantasy MMO either. Now that FF XV is near completion, all their focus should logically be on the newest game in their main franchise, which is the FF VII Remake.
That's not what Nomura was talking about in the Dengeki interview though. He referred to being swamped in other work preventing him from giving out more news in the near future, not about the pace of the development.
SE is a developing and publishing company - their focus should, logically, be on whatever projects they've already pooled time and resources into, that have promising near-future economical pay-offs, in the order that they were initiated.
FFXV isn't finished yet, and has yet to generate any revenue. They have multiple other projects closer to completion that have yet to generate any revenue either.
You're saying it would make sense for them to pool loads of money, time and resources into a project that is nowhere near finished at the expense of other projects despite having dumped loads of money, time and resources into them already?
Where exactly are the funds for salaries and continued development of FFVIIR going to come from then?
It should have been obvious to them from the beginning, that FF VII Remake will be literally their biggest project ever and should get all the development resources it needs, which basically are all of them.
It is getting all the development resources it needs - that's why its being developed by multiple outside companies on a 3rd party engine, while also stealing resources from in-house teams like the KH3 team.
This is literally 100 times better than it being developed on their in-house engine for instance, which would limit their development potential to a much smaller pool of developers who're all currently tied up in FFXV.
Timing was a thing in even getting this project of its feet. They've been candid about this several times - they'd only do this once the original members could get back together.
This was their time-window - however, they can't just have SE, a giant company responsible for several major IPs, drop everything to the floor for this one game.
Because regardless how bloated the confidence of the original fan-base is - this game is not an instant cash-grab when developed on a new system, with this generation's graphics and level of content. Certainly not to the extent that they can sacrifice all their other IPs and still make up the difference with FFVII alone.
Now, I'm under no illusion that this game is going to be the next best thing after sliced bread, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if what it ends up we're looking at is essentially "Final Uncharted of the Old Republic 7" rather than a what a good remake or good re-imagining would be -
but non of what Nomura and Kitase have said so far is really all that controversial knowing at least in part, based on the trailer, what this game seems to be aiming for.
It's a reboot plain and simple. It isn't going to retrace the footsteps of the original.
That however, does not mean that we can safely assume that what it ends up being won't be a good game.
It can be a
strawberriesty remake, and still be an excellent game in its own right. Is that unfair towards fans of the original? Yes. But, if that's what we're getting, let's at least rate it for what it is - not for failing at being something it never tried nor pretended to be.