Yoshinori Kitase, director of Final Fantasy 8, has expressed his intentions to make changes to the battle system if Square Enix were to undertake a remake of the game. In an interview with IGN, Kitase highlighted the need to “rework” the Junction battle system, acknowledging that it posed challenges for some players upon the game’s original release in 1999.

Kitase specifically pointed out the complex mechanics of the Junction system, where enemies would scale in difficulty according to the player’s level. He recognized that this system created barriers for certain players, leading to difficulty in understanding and utilizing it effectively.

Kitase emphasized his focus on improving the system’s accessibility and overall balance of difficulty, expressing a desire to address this aspect if a remake were to be developed. He explained, “So I think that’s the thing I’d look at most if I was going to look at remaking it.”

While there is no official confirmation of a Final Fantasy 8 remake, Square Enix’s current focus lies on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. Kitase emphasized the significant investment of time and effort required to recreate the level of content from an RPG like Final Fantasy 8 in today’s gaming landscape.

He concluded, “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.”

For more, here’s our list of the best JRPGs to play right now, alongside our list of the best single-player games.