The Final Fantasy VII Remake director, Tetsuya Nomura, has confirmed several details about the upcoming RPG, including some of the more controversial content.

The news comes via an interview with Weekly Famitsu. While the physical magazine has not reproduced online, summaries of the major points have been provided by Ryokutya2089, and Games Talk.

You can find those points translated (via Gematsu) below:

• The watchmen of fate (the black mist) are strange beings that show up wherever the party goes. I hope that even fans who have played the original game will like the new elements.
• There are quite a lot of dialogue options. We are building it so the dialogue changes pending your responses, so the sheer amount of dialogue has increased greatly.
• The Honey Bee Inn cross-dressing event is still in the game. We’ve made it more modern. If we made the place like we did in the original game, the physical uneasiness would be overwhelming, so that was no good…
• There are lots of additions to the story. While the main story hasn’t changed, there lots of new events. If we did otherwise, we wouldn’t have two Blu-ray discs. (Laughs.)
• Aerith and Tifa are two kinds of heroines. One has a western-style look and the other an eastern-style look.
• We wanted Tifa to have abs, so she now has more of an athletic body type. The ethics department at Square Enix also said we had to tighten her chest so it doesn’t look unnatural during all the intense fighting. Because of that we added black underwear and tank top.
• With an emphasis on immersion and excitement, you can fight without added frustration with shortcuts. When you launch the command menu, time slows down and you can fight like a traditional command battle.
• Each playable character now has different enemy affinities.
• There’s an item that is required for MP recovery.
• For the level design, we’re prepping up a few new enemies where appropriate.

Out of the above list, two points regarding content stand out.

• The Honey Bee Inn cross-dressing event is still in the game. We’ve made it more modern. If we made the place like we did in the original game, the physical uneasiness would be overwhelming, so that was no good…

For those unfamiliar, the Honey Bee Inn was a bee-themed brothel run by crime boss Don Corneo. After learning he is a Shinra informant, Tifa attempts to infiltrate the facility (knowing Corneo calls girls to his mansion to be his “bride” for a day).

Cloud does not realize this is part of a plan, and believes Tifa is being kidnapped. This results in him having to gather clothing items to cross-dress and pose as a woman to enter the facility. One of these events can involve Cloud ending-up in a hot-tub with several muscular and stereotypical-looking gay men.

Based on Nomura’s words, it may indicate that the Honey Bee Inn may have had some changes, but “more modern” does not exactly explain how. In real life prostitution is illegal in Japan, though “love hotels” where couples can stay for a short time are permitted. In addition, there are hostess bars and soaplands that also attempt to work-around the laws.

Even in the original Final Fantasy VII, many changes were made to the Honey Bee Inn during development. An excerpt from scenario writers Kazushige Nojima and Yoshinori Kitase from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega explains:

“Kazushige Nojima: What I remember is the Honey Bee Inn, Toriyama [Motomu Toriyama, event planner] was in charge of the Honey Bee Inn’s events, but at first what took place there was more extreme, and everyone was saying “That’s going too far”.

Yoshinori Kitase: Was it really that bad?

Nojima: Yeah… for example, Palmer would emerge from the inn saying “Well, that was refreshing!” *laughing*”

The second piece of note is the one discussing Tifa Lockhart’s design:

• We wanted Tifa to have abs, so she now has more of an athletic body type. The ethics department at Square Enix also said we had to tighten her chest so it doesn’t look unnatural during all the intense fighting. Because of that we added black thigh highs and tank top.

While there have been differences in official art-work and the final model in-game and FMVs in the original Final Fantasy VII, fans seem to have latched onto Tifa’s larger breasted appearance within the latter; despite her chest size being more modest in later media such as Advent Children.

The mention of an ethics committee may allude to Sony’s recent policy on censoring content the believe is explicit to meet so-called “global standards“. This may indicate that the spats, sports bra, thigh-high socks, the size of her chest, and the changes to the Honey Bee Inn may have been made cover as much skin as possible while minimizing outcry from fans and those with delicate sensibilities.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!

Final Fantasy VII Remake is launching for PlayStation 4 on March 3rd, 2020.

In case you missed it, we did a thorough hands-on preview for the game at this year’s E3 – you can read that preview here.

Editor’s Note: We’ve updated the translation for Tifa’s new design, we originally said she had “black thigh highs” when the literal translation is “black underwear.”