As you’ve already heard by now,Famitsupublished a newinterviewonFF7 Remakewith Tetsuya Nomura, revealing a few more details on theIntergrade PS5version and its DLC,and the mobile gamesThe First SoldierandEver Crisis- and here we are with some additional details after having read the interview, most notably how the design of Sonon Kusakabe has changed in-development to reflect the changes and designs of Yuffie and several otherFF7characters.
FF7 RemakeDLC - How Yuffie and Sonon were designed to balance each other
First, Tetsuya Nomura shared some comments on the appearance of Sonon Kusakabe, and how protagonist Cloud, but also past character Vincent, not in theRemakeyet, influenced the development team’s decisions:
Tetsuya Nomura:“As explained in theprofileswe previously revealed, Sonon is from Wutai and a member of Avalanche. Sonon’s features mixes Asian influences and military motifs, like with his shoulder guard armor. He uses a stick to fight and wears easy to move in, light clothes, to create a balance with Yuffie’s design.”
Tetsuya Nomura also explained Sonon was initially a younger character and a “bishonen” type of character similar to Cloud or Vincent. However, you could already see Yuffie interact with Cloud, Vincent, and that type of characters in previousFF7games and works, so they instead went with an older, manly guy type of character.
Tetsuya Nomura:“Moreover, at first Sonon’s design was that of a younger, beautiful teenager. But we wanted to show a new side of Yuffie and how she’d interact with a different type of character, different from Cloud or Vincent. That’s why Sonon became such a manly character.”
Sonon is definitely not the type of character we’ve been used to so far, be it in the original game or in the works ofCompilation of Final Fantasy VII. Personally speaking, I’m pretty eager to see what Episode Yuffie has in store. If only it wasn’t exclusive to PS5 though.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergradewill be launching worldwide on PS5, June 28, 2025. Those who own the PS4 version ofFF7 Remakewill be able to upgrade for free, but will need to buy Episode Yuffie separately.
