Final Fantasy VIII director would want to rework the Junction system in a remake

Square Enix previously launched a remaster for Final Fantasy VIII, but not a remake. Director Yoshinori Kitase has now weighed on what he’d do if a remake were to ever happen.

Speaking with IGN, Kitase said he’d “really rework the battle system”. The Junction system was introduced here but “it was a very difficult system for some people to get into.”

Kitase explaind:

“I think you may remember we had the Junction system in Final Fantasy VIII. And the thing about that system was the enemies leveled up in line with what the player’s level was. And obviously you had to then use the Junction system and how you customize that to overcome the challenge there. And I think it was a very difficult system for some people to get into. Depending on player skills, sometimes they just didn’t work out the best way of doing it. So I think I’d want to return to that and really rework the battle system on [Final Fantasy VIII] and make it something where that level of difficulty and approachability for some fans was a lot better balanced. So I think that’s the thing I’d look at most if I was going to look at remaking it.”

Don’t expect to see a remake of Final Fantasy VIII anytime soon. Kitase indicated that such a project would require “a massive investment of time and effort”.

He said:

“I’ve worked out that trying to recreate that kind of volume of content you had in the RPGs back then in the modern day really is not something you can take up lightly. It’s such a massive investment of time and effort that we really have to think very hard about taking on any kind of project like that.”

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is available on Switch. It includes battle assist options, a game speed boost, and the ability to turn off random encounters.